Chapter 499 - 490 Aftermath Statistics_1

Edo.

Nakayama Juji, Emperor Hao Gong, the Ministry of Defense, and a long line of political figures stood shoulder to shoulder, bowing to the media at over 90 degrees.

Order within the city took an entire day to calm down, and the statistics that followed were shocking.

At Edo Haneda Airport alone, there were 1,108 deaths and 2,340 serious injuries; additionally, more than 7,000 people suffered varying degrees of minor injuries due to trampling and overcrowding, resulting in a tragic total of over 10,000 casualties.

The main cause was the collision incident involving an A350 that attempted to take off again, killing over 700 people in one fell swoop and causing the entire airport’s order to completely collapse, thereby worsening the situation.

More than 5,000 car accidents, 200 arson cases, and over 1,000 robberies occurred in the city on that single day, leading to 174 deaths and a direct economic loss of 6 billion yen, as well as an indirect loss of 200 billion yen.

Of course, the most serious and impactful was the arson carried out by the Soul Summoning Society; the police bureau has already discovered multiple deliberate arson points.

The fire that erupted amid the chaos thoroughly affected the entire Soul Summoning Society and the surrounding area, turning it completely to ashes, and the perpetrator has yet to be identified, with the ongoing pursuit still underway.

No matter how you look at it, the trauma caused by the "8·12" incident is appalling, comparable only to some of the most severe natural disasters.

The authorities immediately issued condemnation and demanded 30 billion yen in economic compensation for the over 50,000 victims, hoping the parties responsible would come forward and publicly apologize.

But the domestic response was merely to send a relief team of no more than 200 people and the Red Cross Society for humanitarian aid. As for compensation?

"...We express deep sympathy for the adversity faced by your people, and our rescue personnel will carry out their activities with the highest principle of humanity, providing over 1 million yen in donations to the people of the disaster area," said a spokesperson.

After expressing concern and sympathy, the spokesperson’s smile vanished, and he continued sternly:

"We need to reiterate that the aircraft that accidentally entered the airspace of the three parties was a civilian plane used for high-altitude meteorological observation. The pilot, when facing a major emergency, handled the situation appropriately and bravely saved the plane from crashing, causing a secondary disaster and making significant contributions to the protection of the world’s environment and safety.

During this process, our meteorological aircraft merely passed harmlessly and did not cause any direct damage; therefore, the so-called compensation is completely unfounded and nonexistent.

On the contrary, the riots in certain areas are entirely due to long-standing grievances, the public’s deep mistrust and disapproval of the societal environment. We urge the relevant parties to face up to their own issues, not to act against the will of most regions and their people, to be irresponsible for the safety of their own and the world’s people, and to think of future generations..."

Having finished, the spokesperson closed the document, turned, and walked away. The press conference was scheduled for the afternoon; the morning was merely for announcements, and no questions were to be answered.

His mood was actually quite pleasant now—he was content with both the incident next door and the speech he had read today.

Domestically, it was impossible to provide the so-called compensation, as that would concede responsibility for the casualties:

We merely passed by harmlessly—how did that hurt you? It was your own chaos.

Another reason is that the compensation could never be enough. The damage to Haneda Airport was too great, with a large number of international tourists, including our own nationals, among the casualties. Any compensation had to be purely humanitarian aid.

The tourists who burned down the Soul Summoning Society bought plane tickets to other regions at the fastest speed and returned to their country, the Security Bureau immediately controlled them, but mainly to prevent them from causing trouble by talking about it everywhere—it’s something that should be kept to oneself.

In fact, while celebrating, the domestic people could also guess the inside story— who else could burn the Soul Summoning Society?

The spokesperson took another look at the afternoon’s schedule, which included a very important item: protesting against oceanic nuclear wastewater disposal.

Although it was not the first time, the timing now was quite delicate.

...

Capital.

In the Capital, Russian Embassy military attaché Medvedev and French Ambassador Khachaturian were sitting together at a street-side snack bar, exchanging information while they ate.

The day before yesterday, Xuehu had also skimmed over Vladivostok, but there was no chaos there, just curiosity for a while.

Based on the relations within the Huayin Treaty Organization, Russia only lodged a symbolic protest, and then the focus was on the "weather aircraft."

Institutions from various countries in China were now frantically active, looking for clues to this secret project, hoping to get some insider information.

The military’s simulation results on the "weather aircraft" showed that the defense success rate was less than 20%. Just look at the 18 "Patriot 3" missiles launched in quick succession at Edo, and even though Russia has always believed their S500 air defense system is the strongest in the modern world, they weren’t very confident after that incident.

After some research with the data provided by the MiG Design Bureau and RKA, which had been conducting advanced studies on Plasma Stealth Technology, they concluded that the radiation characteristics of the "weather aircraft" were not normal, definitely utilizing some aspects of Plasma Stealth Technology, albeit apparently with significant flaws.

This result brought them both joy and worry. The SU-57, which had already strayed from its course, was constantly considering how to improve its stealth capabilities. But with the existing airframe design not allowing for major changes, only the Plasma Stealth concept previously envisioned by MiG held some value.

Although it seems the Chinese have not yet fully developed this path, the fact that they were actively pursuing it certainly showed promise.

Of course, the worry was about the mysterious aircraft’s stunning performance; it could virtually ignore all air defense systems in the world and break through forcefully, giving any party an overwhelming advantage.

When had they secretly created this thing? It was too terrifying!

The Chinese Air Force, which had been constrained to operate close to home and could not even reach halfway to the Island Country, would undoubtedly reverse the situation. With a projected combat radius of over 5000 kilometers, they could take off from the north, fly over the Arctic to America’s backyard, and return without any escort, all in one go.

Even doing nothing could cause America great annoyance, not to mention neighboring Russia.

Khachaturian was simply driven by technical interest. Although Paris was only 5000 kilometers from the northwest hinterland, he did not believe there was a need to do so.

Both men were gathering publicly available information, and the intelligence they acquired was very limited. Their biggest breakthrough was finding out that the mysterious aircraft seemed to have a significant connection with Xinyuan Company. But on further thought, this wasn’t very useful.

When Medvedev and Khachaturian finished their lunch, they had more or less completed their exchange. As they were about to leave, Medvedev received a call from the ambassador.

"Roy, hurry back to the embassy; there’s a big situation, and you must be there."

Medvedev quickly scanned a small yellow ofo bike and paid the deposit; driving or taking a taxi would be absolutely wrong choices at this time.

Khachaturian looked puzzled for a moment when he saw this, but he still chose to take a car. He was afraid of heatstroke from riding a bike in Beijing’s weather, plus there was air conditioning in the cars.

However, a few minutes later, his phone also rang. After answering the call, Khachaturian greeted the caller and had no choice but to find a small yellow bike and scan the code to register.

When he saw the deposit was 199 yuan, he frowned but still chose to pay, and then, despite the sun, he rode the small yellow bike towards the embassy.