Chapter 256: The Paralyzing Strike Has Begun!

At 2:00 AM, the night sky over Tokyo was torn apart by a dense meteor shower.

Five hundred Sword Immortals took off simultaneously from the Penglai deck, from bases along the East Sea coast, and even from temporary outposts in lunar orbit.

They assembled at an altitude of ten thousand meters, forming a massive fleet covering half the sky.

Under the wings of each fighter hung a special silver bomb pod, officially named "Electromagnetic Pulse Suppression Unit."

The lead plane was piloted by Air Force Colonel Liu Fei.

He stared at the dense target points on the radar screen and issued instructions in the encrypted channel:

"Attention all planes, follow the coordinates assigned by Torch Dragon-3, complete the bombing within three seconds. Remember, we are paralyzing, not destroying; we still need these places later."

"Understood!" a uniform response.

Time jumped to 2:01 AM.

"Drop bombs!"

Vroom—

Five hundred bomb pods opened simultaneously, and the silver cylinders fell like dumplings, leaving faint white trails in the night sky.

They automatically disintegrated at a predetermined altitude in the air, releasing electromagnetic pulse waves invisible to the naked eye.

The first wave of strikes targeted the power systems of 127 military strongholds.

On the outskirts of Tokyo, the garrison of the Foot-Basin-Chicken Ground Self-Defense Force 3rd Division.

Duty soldier Yamada was yawning while staring at the monitoring screen when all the screens went black simultaneously.

"Power outage?"

He pressed the emergency power button, but there was still no response.

He ran to the window to look; the entire camp was pitch black, even the streetlights were out.

But strangely, the civilian power grid outside the camp was still lit, and the lights of residential buildings in the distance seemed to be mocking them.

"Communications are also cut!" the communications soldier in the next room shouted, "Radio, wired phones, internet... all cut!"

Yamada was stunned for two seconds before suddenly realizing.

This is... the war has begun.

At the same time, all military bases, air defense positions, missile silos, and command centers across the country fell into darkness and silence.

Some bases had backup generators, but the EMP burned the generator control systems as well.

Some officers tried to use the most primitive methods, sending people to run errands to deliver orders, but they found that the traffic lights on the streets were all out, and civilian communications were also cut.

The entire country was like it had been pressed on the mute button.

And this was just the beginning.

At 2:30 AM, Longyin Control Center.

Chen Guang stared at the Torch Dragon-3 monitoring interface, his fingers flying across the virtual keyboard.

The big screen was divided into three sections:

On the left was the national power grid topology map, where the red lines representing Foot-Basin-Chicken's power grid were turning gray section by section; these were the transmission lines cut off remotely.

In the middle was the communication traffic map, which had plummeted from a peak of several TB per second to almost zero.

The right side was the most interesting: social media keyword popularity monitoring, #PowerOutage#, #InternetCut#, #WhatHappened#

The three hashtags were flooding the local platforms in Foot-Basin-Chicken, but every post sent out was like a stone sinking into the sea, because... it couldn't be sent out at all.

"Power system paralysis rate: 89%," Chen Guang reported.

"Major cities are all dark, but key livelihood facilities such as hospitals and water plants retain minimum power supply, using the Xuanming emergency power supplies we deployed in advance."

Feng Yan stood by, nodding: "What about communications?"

"Civilian network is completely cut, military encrypted channels... are being cracked," Chen pulled up the progress bar.

"Torch Dragon-3 has taken over 17 major communication hubs and is reverse-implanting monitoring programs."

"How long will it take?"

"At most one hour, we will be able to hear every word they say."

Wang Hao leaned over, grinning: "Guangzi, you're even more ruthless than 007."

"It's just a technological generation gap," Chen Guang pushed up his glasses.

"Their communication encryption algorithm is still the standard from five years ago; Torch Dragon-3 cracking it is as simple as solving elementary school math problems."

As he was speaking, a new data point suddenly jumped out on the right screen.

"Oh?" Chen Guang raised an eyebrow, "Someone is trying to contact via old-fashioned radio."

He pulled up the spectrum map, and saw an old, rusty field radio being moved out of the underground bunker of a military base, with the antenna extended from the ventilation duct.

"Frequency... medium wave, analog signal," Chen Guang laughed, "This thing was used by my grandfather's generation."

He tapped the keyboard a few times.

"Add some background music for them."

Tokyo underground bunker.

Foot-Basin-Chicken Self-Defense Force Chief of Staff Onodera was roaring into the microphone: "All units! This is the General Command! Reply if you hear me! Repeat, reply if you hear me!"

The radio emitted a rustling current sound.

A few seconds later, music actually came out of the speaker?

And it was a singing segment from the Peking Opera "Farewell My Concubine":

"My strength could pull up mountains, my spirit covered the world—"

Onodera was stunned.

The staff officer's face was pale: "Sir... our frequency has been, been occupied?"

"Change frequency! Fast!"

Switched to another frequency band.

This time it was the Ping Opera "Liu Qiao'er":

"Qiao'er, I was betrothed to the Zhao family since I was young—"

Switched again.

Huangmei Opera "The Heavenly Match":

"The birds on the tree are a pair—"

Onodera was so angry he threw the microphone to the ground: "Baka! These Longguo people are actually teasing us!"

What he didn't know was that this audio of the "opera channel occupation" was being synchronized and broadcast to major social media platforms in Longguo.

The edited video title: "How to Elegantly Interfere with Enemy Communications."

The comments were laughing like crazy:

"Hahahaha, Peking Opera takes the lead, ask if you're scared!"

"Suggest playing 'Tan Te' next time, full mental attack."

"Foot-Basin-Chicken commander: Who exactly am I fighting?"

"New posture for Longguo traditional culture output."

At 3:00 AM, the maritime blockade began.

East Sea, Yokosuka Naval Port, the largest in Foot-Basin-Chicken.

Thirty warships of various types were trapped in the port, like fish stranded in a pond.

The port gate was locked remotely—the control system had also been taken over by Torch Dragon-3 long ago.

The captain of a destroyer refused to accept it and ordered a forced exit from the port.

"Convey my order, ram the gate! Full speed ahead!"

The destroyer's engine roared, its bow aimed at the steel gate.

Five hundred meters, three hundred meters, one hundred meters—

Just one second before the impending collision, the ship's hull vibrated violently, and then... it stalled.

"What's going on?!"

"Report Captain! The propulsion system has been remotely locked! It shows... 'Illegal operation, frozen'?"

The captain rushed to the console and saw a line of Chinese prompts jump out on the screen:

【Unauthorized exit request detected; according to Article 7 of the "Longguo Military Control Regulations," the ship's power system has been disabled. Please stay in place and wait for further instructions.】

There was a small note below:

【Warm reminder: Forced cracking will trigger the self-destruct program.】

The captain slumped in his chair.

He knew it was over.

This was no longer a technological generation gap.

This was... dimensionality reduction strike.

The same scene played out simultaneously in six major naval ports.

Even more ruthless were those small naval vessels, patrol boats, missile fast boats, and even modified fishing boats that tried to sneak away.

They hadn't even sailed one nautical mile out of the port when Xuan-Gui mechs emerged from under the sea.

With a gentle lift of their mechanical arms, the entire ship was lifted out of the water and then placed back into the port like a toy.

The whole process took no more than three minutes.

The crew of one fast boat was scared silly, squatting on the deck without daring to move. ===== CHAPTER 257 =====