Chapter 312: Project South Heaven Gate Begins
"Miss, this is the footage obtained from the Blue House..."
Translator Miss Kim kept her head as low as possible, avoiding eye contact with the heiress of the Samwol Group. She knew perfectly well that meeting her gaze right now would likely anger her.
She frowned, unable to understand what was wrong with Miss Lee. Why would she allow this man to be so wantonly arrogant?
At this moment, she had come to the luxurious suite on the top floor to upload the top-secret video footage the conglomerate had obtained from the Blue House. But inadvertently, she saw the man holding Lee Chae-rin in his arms, his hands roaming inside Miss Lee's robe.
This image of debauchery was, in her impression, typically how those chaebol tycoons treated Korean female celebrities.
But this woman was one of the top chaebol heirs in Korea. How could she allow herself to be toyed with like this?
She couldn't understand, nor did she dare to ask. She simply uploaded the footage to the device connected to the monitor, then bowed her head and retreated.
Lee Chae-rin frowned. Because of her anger at Kaito Shirogane's behavior, she suffered the punishment of the Nexus contract. Her nerves burned with pain—a neural agony that was almost unbearable.
"Tell me, do you think she believes you have some perverted desire and are deliberately letting me do as I please?"
Kaito, feeling the slow rise in the Sin of Lust synchronization rate, spared no effort in teasing the woman's nerves.
His current state wasn't purely lust. It was mixed with a considerable amount of the superior's abuse of the inferior, and the predator's teasing of the prey.
He found pleasure in provoking her nerves and sensing the changes in Lee Chae-rin, this originally powerful Reincarnator.
That pleasure was the source of the rising Sin of Lust.
Perhaps Kaito Shirogane's fetishes were indeed problematic. He was aware of this himself, but he had absolutely no intention of changing.
Lee Chae-rin used the remote control to turn on the playback device. She could only try her best to focus her perception on the intelligence. Just like last night when she tried to distract Kaito with information, right now, she could only use this method to make herself feel less humiliated.
The footage was a recording of an internal meeting at the Blue House. Astonishingly, it included a conversation between the President of Korea and the President of the Free Federation of America.
The corners of Kaito's mouth curled up, his mockery for this neighboring country controlled by chaebols deepening.
This could roughly be considered a united front agreement, having Korea and Japan coordinate with the Free Federation of America to strike at the superpowered forces in the surrounding seas.
Simultaneously, they were to clear relevant base facilities to provide supplies for the Federation's carrier strike group.
This was likely the strongest response the nation possessing the most powerful military force on the Blue Star could make against the increasingly terrifying incidents involving superpowered individuals.
Furthermore, the content mentioned matters related to a nuclear strike.
"Nuclear strike..."
Upon hearing this term, the lust in both Lee Chae-rin and Kaito receded somewhat.
Just as all ordinary people fantasized about immortality and flight, Reincarnators like them, who had begun evolving toward becoming transcendent beings, harbored even greater ambitions.
The survival instinct of a creature didn't weaken as a Reincarnator's survivability increased. On the contrary, the more powerful and long-lived the species, the less willing they were to accept extinction.
For a Reincarnator like Kaito, who could now stand still and take shots from small-caliber firearms without harm, a direct hit from heavy weaponry was still an unbearable yield.
Although Kaito possessed Intermediate Immortality, ensuring he wouldn't truly die even if bombed directly by a missile...
Being killed once by such an attack meant he could be killed multiple times.
Facing powerful nations in the real world, once it was verified that superpowered individuals like Kaito could be bombed to death and targeted, corresponding solutions would inevitably be produced.
Rebirth from a drop of blood, high-speed regeneration—under sufficiently heavy and sustained firepower, completely killing Kaito by evaporating all his blood wouldn't be difficult.
Of course, this scenario assumed Kaito stood still and let missiles bombard him. In actual combat, with traits like [Yokai of the Wind] and [Setsuna], along with abilities like [Moon Walk], it would be very difficult to hit him directly if he was prepared.
However, for beings like them who had begun stepping onto the path of transcendence, a nuclear explosion—long recognized as the most destructive weapon in the human world—was a hurdle they always wanted to overcome.
Tanking a nuclear explosion with one's physical body would likely symbolize their transition from transcendent beings to truly non-human entities that surpassed all order.
And right now, both of them knew clearly that this 'achievement' might soon be accomplished by [The Final Day].
Neither believed that an intercontinental ballistic missile carrying a nuclear warhead could threaten a Supreme Being. Even if a nuclear weapon were genuinely detonated on the mainland of [The Final Empire], there was a high probability it wouldn't kill those top-tier Reincarnators.
They just wanted to see how the other party would deal with it.
Unfortunately, the footage only contained a perspective from a fighter jet far away. A gigantic mushroom cloud exploded into the sky from the sea. The back-rolling air currents instantly formed a terrifying cloud of smoke, blotting out the sky and connecting with the heavens.
But after the explosion vanished, nothing appeared on the sea.
It was as if that ICBM had just hit the open ocean.
In fact, the battle report sent back by the Free Federation also concluded that this strike had deviated from the intended coordinates and missed, hitting the sea.
There was a deviation of roughly dozens of kilometers between the coordinates obtained by their reconnaissance aircraft and the missile's final impact point.
Such an error could basically be counted as a missile launch failure. Currently, many missile experts in the Free Federation were troubleshooting the issue, suspecting a design flaw in this model of missile.
Kaito, however, stared at the shape of the mushroom cloud after the explosion in the footage, then revealed a hint of disappointment.
"Tsk. So it wasn't tanking a nuke with the physical body after all."
He saw that at the moment of the explosion, when the flames ignited, there was an irregular obstruction behind them. It was likely some powerful barrier or defensive magic that blocked the shockwave of the nuclear explosion.
This was far from the scenario of physically withstanding a nuclear explosion that he wanted to see.
Lee Chae-rin also noticed this.
"His Crown [The Final Day] is ultimately a [Spirit]-attribute Supreme Being. Tanking a nuclear explosion with the physical body is likely a choice only a [Constitution]-side Supreme Being would make."
While they spoke, the recording switched to another sea area. A giant humanoid mecha standing in the ocean, charging toward the carrier fleet, presented a magnificent sight.
"That's probably [Char], a technology-side Title-level Reincarnator. I didn't expect him to have obtained [Striker Eureka]. Such a thing will likely cause immense deterrence to various countries."
As they spoke, Kaito's phone rang. After answering, he heard Hayashi's voice, mixed with excitement and fear.
"Boss Shirogane, people from Dongxia contacted me. They hope I can cooperate with them on an operation!"
"They said the operation plan is temporarily confidential, but the code name for this operation is [Project South Heaven Gate]!"
~~~
Get early access to 30+ advanced chapters on Patreon!
https://www.pat-reon.co-m/c/Hollowborn
~~~
Every 5 new reviews = 2 extra chapters
Every 100 Power Stones = 1 extra chapter