Chapter 28: Chapter Twenty-Six: There's Quite a Lot Going On, Let Me Sort It Out

Heaven Gate City, 11.40, light rain.

Now, more than twenty minutes have passed since the transmigration, Aomo has become part of the crowd, and is acting according to the official notice of the Heaven Gate City Two Worlds Safety Bureau.

Originally, he should have been waiting at the alley mouth not far from a square for the police to pick him up.

However, it proved that his decision, when feeling unwell, to endure the pain and stay away from noisy places was very correct.

While he was still honestly waiting in place, browsing through his otherworld memories and, incidentally, looking at a lot of erotic pictures, while patting and wiping the dirt off his coat, he suddenly saw the manifestation of hell.

It was a dark red revelation, like light, like a pillar.

From the radiance emerging in the distance, it slashed downward, bringing unstoppable destruction; whether buildings or living things, beneath that radiance they turned into deep crimson scars.

At that moment, many people were stunned.

Immediately after came panicked shouts, chaotic fleeing, and even a rise in fighting spirit.

The interstellar port city Heaven Gate City, as an important hub of interstellar routes, its citizens and visitors naturally include hidden dragons and crouching tigers, and there are always some who consider themselves strong; when attacked, their first reaction is not to avoid the edge but to immediately counterattack as warriors.

Even if the target is a colossal beast hundreds of feet tall, or over a hundred meters tall, their fighting spirit still burns.

Naturally, this does not include Aomo.

He even stared blankly.

This is not only because that beam directly sliced through several buildings and dozens of homes, but also because it nearly cut open the square, creating a red beam of molten pits stretching over a kilometer, and furthermore because the beast emitting this light from its mouth, which had a somewhat mechanical feel, seemed familiar to him.

Rather, many people would feel they recognized it.

Like a giant lizard standing upright or a huge monster directly related to dinosaurs, it was once one of the most classic monster images created jointly by several transmigrators.

Godzilla

No, even mechanical traces could be seen on the beast's flank—that is Mechagodzilla!

Aomo could almost be certain, for he could even name that highly concentrated bright red energy beam:

PhotonScream, Proton Shriek.

Unlike the azure breath of its prototype creature, its blood-colored breath, which is brighter than atomic breath and closer to a focused light beam than a flame, has greater effect and more concentrated destructive power—as can be seen from the buildings it directly sliced through.

The buildings of Heaven Gate City exceed ordinary standards in all specifications; although the city has a low crime rate, the frequency of 'otherworld invasions' is unmatched, so less than a minute after the appearance of the monstrous beast that causes noticeable tremors and distant roaring with each step,

Aomo's terminal promptly popped up an emergency notice with ultra‑efficiency.

From the Heaven Gate City Two Worlds Safety Bureau.

【Large numbers of otherworldly creatures have appeared in the Northern District 3 of Heaven Gate City; military and police are conducting a joint suppression

Please follow the drill procedures to evacuate.

If you are near Districts 3, 4, or 5 of Heaven Gate City, please stay away from the Star Gate Rift.

If you are inside it and in an open area, immediately seek shelter and keep distance from unusual sounds, temperatures, and smells.

Stay indoors, remain quiet, do not go out; the fluctuation of the Third Subspace Rift of Heaven Gate City will last an hour—beware of unregistered otherworldly creatures, souls, and even pathogens.

Let us stand together against the enemy and get through this crisis.

——Heaven Gate City Two Worlds Safety Bureau Notice】

That speaker's solemn announcement was broadcast in multiple languages, appearing not only on the terminal's projection screen but also on passersby's phones and in the displays of more advanced electronic crystals, even replacing the half‑air projected screens, with volume turned to max, echoing throughout the block and the separate plazas—then it was sliced by a proton shriek, this time triggering a chain reaction that ignited some flammable material, and huge flames rose from the deep grooves of the molten traces.

Perhaps not long from now, regulars of crises such as 'explosions' will arrive.

Meanwhile, after the pointy‑eared male speaker on the screen finished his broadcast, the AI pop‑up with restored permissions appeared.

【Police station: officers dispatched have been stalled for over two minutes; by default considered seriously obstructed; please seek shelter in nearby buildings】

Large numbers of otherworldly creatures? Aomo noticed the term and then associated it with his recent soul‑transmigration experience.

It kind of... feels like the vibe of some case.

Then I should go......

Watching those who charged at the beast launch attacks, their efforts were as useless as scraping, while the beast could silence them with a single lift of its foot.

Such a completely mismatched confrontation prompted Aomo to try moving his legs, which had already regained sensation.

Judging by the earlier proton shriek, a distance of over a thousand meters is certainly not the limit.

Aomo pondered, like a man in the process of taking off a clown's headpiece.

This place is very unsafe; even an alley with buildings on both sides could easily be engulfed by the breath, and not even ashes might remain in that intense heat.

The man began to apply makeup.

I should join the other orderly streams of people fleeing.

The man began to wipe off the pure white foundation.

This is a life‑or‑death moment; I should immediately rush out.

Life only happens once, unless you bought overly expensive rebirth insurance.

So——

"Are you a reporter?"

A girl riding an electric scooter, who had intended to swoosh past, upon noticing Aomo aiming his terminal at the beast from the alley mouth, kindly braked with a jio.

The eyes of the one who ran up to question were full of surprise, as if they couldn't believe there would be such a young war correspondent.

"No."

Aomo, whose view was blocked, furrowed his brows, but seeing the two photos just taken in a row below, he nevertheless satisfiedly lowered his hand.

Thanks to the other's interruption, the desire to survive and caution joined forces again to suppress the beast's inclination.

"Then why aren't you running fast? Want me to give you a lift... what are you spacing out on?"

"..."

"Has anyone ever told you you look familiar..." Aomo swallowed that line, keeping it brief in the emergency:

"Troublesome."

"Miss Star Bear......"

Shocking fact...

Although he didn't use exclamation marks, didn't use many of them, for Aomo it was still a fact as shocking as a huge impact.

When Aomo unexpectedly discovered that the ghost‑clan woman who had taken an interest in him and offered to give her a ride could trigger the retrieval of that transmigrant's memory, he was inevitably stunned.

Thanks to his consistent approach, he could tell what was urgent; otherwise he'd have wasted even more time just standing there.

So as to avoid causing any further misunderstanding.

Arknights?

'Dragon Gate'?

A character from a work walking into reality? Is that what a transmigrant's vision is like?

Even... Aomo also caught a glimpse of some familiar others in that memory.

For example, the silent Miss Grey, and even the man who met her.

Moon... Fate/Grand Order?

Having his thoughts come to this point, Aomo truly understood Bi Ze's earlier reaction and the motive behind those words—does this count as himself also beginning to approach aliens?

A third‑kind contact, he fell into contemplation.

What he cared about was just this; as for the shock of characters from a work walking into reality..., it stemmed from the initial impact, and when the physical shock transmitted through the vehicle to him, he didn't even have time to think about irrelevant things.

At that time he was still fleeing for his life!

Miss Xiong rebuilt her little electric scooter, even actively telling him to hold on tight, and she pushed this obviously modified electric scooter to its full power—this thing is clearly gasoline‑powered, so it hardly deserves to be called an electric scooter.

But even at that full speed, she couldn't outrun the cracks spreading from the collapsing ground, nor the occasional beams that sliced the sky and caused distant buildings to crumble.

At such a time, Aomo naturally found it hard to keep thinking.

To stay alive he still had to look back, gazing at the battlefield made of giant beasts and their opponents, where the distance had clearly been stretched far enough yet still offered no sense of safety.

Staring behind, whenever another attack might come his way, he'd shout at the driver—though it's of little use, since the opponent's actions could cause disaster‑level consequences, even a scooter that can hit 80 km/h can hardly cope.

Moreover, the road conditions were pretty bad, after all everyone was fleeing for their lives, and in such a panic nobody yields; not knocking others down already counts as high quality.

And Aomo was forced to witness the ghost‑clan lady's driving skill, which made his stomach churn a little.

Fortunately, they finally made a narrow escape into the safe zone; Aomo wanted to thank her and maybe buy her a meal, but she simply waved him off, saying, 'You can go the rest of the way yourself—I have things to do,' and rode off on her scooter, looping around the nearby traffic police.

She was indeed carefree, not even feeling like she'd just escaped death.

Aomo thought that perhaps the people of Heaven Gate City were indeed used to this sort of thing, since he'd already seen many evacuees chatting and laughing as he looked around.

Speaking through the shield already sounds tough, but is the shield really that strong?

Although swept up by the crowd, Aomo still had some spare attention to shift his gaze and examine that semi‑transparent shield.

The travel guide mentions this shield‑device array, a specialty of Heaven Gate City; it's heavily promoted for its history, while the principle is glossed over.

It looks like a pure tech product, lacking any fancy source‑energy occult patterns, but what if it's a rice‑carved source‑energy transmission pattern?

Aomo watched the shield generator guarded by machinery and armored mechs, then silently turned his gaze back to the shield itself.

The pale green color is only noticeable up close; he had once passed through it easily with the bear‑driven vehicle, encountering no resistance, like air, giving him no sensation and making Aomo doubt its sturdiness.

Of course, better not to test it; thinking about it now is like wishing for a mechanical Godzilla to come swing its tail—rather ungrateful.

Moreover, according to the local government staff and volunteers guiding the several evacuation options, Aomo felt he should first return to his hotel and wait there.

The hotel where he'd booked a room had once listed on its main page a bunch of guarantees—from building‑material displays to soundproofing, anti‑seismic magic patterns, to beam‑reflective coatings—everything; back then he'd thought it was just a unique boast, but now it might not be mere bragging.

This is Heaven Gate City...?

Not some Gotham?

The number of wanted criminals is excessive, buildings are being built to endure endless wear, residents treat constant suffering of life and death as trivial, with the ground littered with fire sparks; Aomo even saw the squad of disinfecting spray trucks heading out to deal with it, a truly professional team.

Looking back now, he suddenly feels a bit duped by travel magazines and promotional shows.

Is that the reason?

Does the source of his unease from overlooking the city lie here?

Thinking of this, Aomo suddenly stopped, recalling that his original plan had been to find someone to chat over the phone—wondering if Morrison's phone might still be unreachable.

Having thought of that, Aomo pulled out his terminal from his pocket, about to place a call, when he suddenly received a text message.

The sender's name was none other than the Two Worlds Safety Bureau of Heaven Gate City, which he had seen not long ago.

And the content... was a notice telling him to go to the police station to claim a person and a corpse.

「？」

Person and corpse?