Chapter 163: No Divine Phenomena in the East?

Tokyo, Japan, Extraordinary Response Bureau.

In the conference room, Yoshimura Yoshimichi was presenting a report on divine phenomena occurring worldwide.

Director Takahashi, Minister Saito, Takeshi Morita, and other senior officials listened in silence; though their brows twitched and eyes shifted occasionally, their inner turmoil was unmistakable.

Only after the report ended did Takahashi and the others finally regain their composure.

"Now I understand why Master Abe told us not to travel abroad," Director Takahashi rubbed his temples and exhaled deeply: "Fucking hell, that's terrifying."

No one at the table flinched at Takahashi's curse—none showed disapproval, because they all wanted to curse too.

The report detailed the global divine phenomena, complete with videos and photographs.

Watching the global phenomena, Takahashi and the others nearly overturned the table in shock.

Just from the horror of these phenomena, one could grasp how terrifying the gods were—if they fought, us mere mortals wouldn't even get a chance to be reborn.

"Has the advisory team reached any conclusions? Why haven't the gods appeared? What does 'reckoning' mean?"

Director Takahashi turned to the team's chief advisor, Professor Zhongtian, and deputy advisor Professor Beishan.

Yesterday, divine phenomena appeared across Beimeizhou, Japan, and other regions worldwide, sending the globe into uproar as everyone realized the gods were returning.

Yet though the phenomena manifested, the gods did not return immediately—only signs of their return appeared.

The gods were too powerful.

Before their physical forms arrived, their divine presence had already reached out, stirring heaven and earth, manifesting these phenomena.

People speculated that the gods' delayed return might not only stem from their overwhelming power, but also from the original battlefield.

Perhaps something had bound them, preventing their immediate return.

But they believed the gods' return was merely a matter of time—they would all come back soon.

Sure enough.

The day after the phenomena appeared—today—the palaces, Shenshan, World Gates, World Trees, and other divine residences shown in the phenomena began descending in the exact locations where the phenomena had manifested.

These were not illusions—they were real divine residences descending!

Majestic, imposing, grand, magnificent, colossal, towering, boundless, sacred…

These words flooded people's minds as they beheld the divine residences.

In that moment, the heart was shaken.

And in that same moment, countless people, though thrilled, also felt dread—for the gods' return would bring reckoning.

Even if no one knew what "reckoning" meant, they were certain it would not be good.

While people anxiously awaited the gods stepping out of their residences to enact reckoning, they discovered: the gods did not emerge from their residences.

At first,

countless people assumed the gods refused to appear—plainly, they considered themselves above mortals.

But upon further thought, perhaps it wasn't so.

As time passed, the divine aura emanating from the residences grew thicker, more terrifying.

Coupled with Abe no Mika's words: "The gods return, reckoning approaches."

Clearly, the gods were not unwilling to appear—they were likely studying this world, learning what history had unfolded in their absence, why their followers had dwindled, why their nations' lands had shrunk or expanded…

Perhaps the gods were waiting—for the moment of reckoning.

Or perhaps they were settling accounts—settling the grudges they intended to settle.

The exact reason remained unknown.

"This… we haven't figured it out yet. There's too little information," Professor Zhongtian awkwardly scratched his head: "But we can judge that the gods' absence is tied to the reckoning."

The advisory team had worked nonstop for a full day and night, analyzing and researching, yet reached only one conclusion most people already knew.

As soon as he spoke, silence fell—no one was surprised, because everyone had already expected the advisory team might fail to produce results.

Just then,

Professor Beishan sighed softly:

"Ah, if only we could find the lost King."

The emergence of extraordinary events in Japan had long been known by nations worldwide, but all had suppressed the news to avoid panic and public unrest. Now, with divine phenomena appearing globally, no country could conceal it anymore—trying to hide it was impossible.

The gods were already at their doorstep—how could they possibly hide it? With their heads?

So people across the world now knew divine phenomena had appeared everywhere.

The world erupted. Young people, always full of passion, boasted about their own nations' mythological gods, praising their homeland's divine phenomena as the strongest, claiming their gods were the most powerful.

Such a scene had never been seen before.

Previously, people competed over money, status, position, exam scores, how well their children studied…

Now, they competed over their own gods, hyping up their gods to the heavens.

At this moment,

whether crude or refined, everyone was boasting about their own gods.

The crude ones cursed outright:

"My god's the fucking best, the ultimate, the coolest, the strongest, the only true god in the world!"

The refined ones spoke subtly:

"Our nation's gods possess a long and glorious cultural history, having accomplished many magnificent feats—let me tell you slowly…"

As for nations without divine mythologies, they simply said it didn't matter—checked historical records, picked a god they deemed most powerful, worshipped it on the spot, then began boasting about their newly adopted deity.

Competing over gods, competing over divine culture—overnight, it became the global internet's central theme.

Of course, these weren't the focus. The focus was: people now knew gods truly existed—not just in their own nations, but everywhere—and learned that Japan had already experienced multiple extraordinary events two months ago.

In today's networked world, international communication was effortless. Checking other nations' forums and videos was simple, and with some idle but diligent "information couriers," news of Japan's extraordinary events spread worldwide overnight.

People learned of Master Konghai, Abe no Mika, Tamamo-no-Mae, and other extraordinary figures—including the lost King.

Moreover, compared to extraordinary figures like Master Konghai, countries around the world paid more attention to the deceased king.

There was no other reason—the deceased king was the one they felt closest to, the one most likely to grant them access to the extraordinary, because when the deceased king posted videos, they could learn of extraordinary events the instant they happened.

As a result, the deceased king's attention count surged directly by one hundred million each time, rising from fifty million to one billion, making him the first video uploader in history to surpass one hundred million and then one billion views; at this rate, breaking two billion—or even more—was no problem.

It was on this day that Director Takahashi and his team revised their understanding of the deceased king.

The reason was simple: on this day, the deceased king released dozens of videos at once, each detailing every anomaly across the world, filmed with crystal clarity, leaving not a single divine anomaly unrecorded.

They had speculated that the deceased king might have been posting videos to hint at the manifestation of Japanese extraordinary beings, yokai, and gods—but now it seemed this was not the case; his identity appeared far greater.

Otherwise, how could he have captured the return of the gods?

As he pondered this, Director Takahashi reviewed Yoshimi Yoshimura's compiled records of global anomalies, searching for any clues related to the settlement.

Suddenly!

Director Takahashi leapt to his feet, his expression changing instantly.

"Where are the anomalies from Huaguo? No! Could it be that Huaguo had no anomalies??"

……