Chapter 595 - 583: Thousand-Headed Chrysanthemum

"I saw fire filling the sky, igniting the entire world."

As Yuji Ohno, a reporter for Jianghu TV Station, stood on the mountaintop of Tanzawa Forest Park in Pan City, he described the scene to his audience of tens of millions.

Pan City is located on the edge of the controlled area and also close to the coastline. Because of the cleanup work, it had become much busier than before.

Many of the residents who had moved out of the controlled area chose to stop here, the IAEA also needed to procure supplies from this place, and a large number of people who could not buy boat tickets but wanted to see the nuclear explosion flocked to Pan City.

This place was still under the jurisdiction of Futo Prefecture and had a bullet train that connected to Edo, which could be reached in two hours.

Pan City was also a well-known tourist destination, these characteristics combined made its population explode with outsiders within a matter of days. When Yuji Ohno arrived, he saw tents everywhere, as the local area simply couldn’t provide enough accommodations.

Even for him, a reporter for Jianghu TV Station, it was the same, they drove their vehicle up to the highest point of Tanzawa Forest Park nearby to camp and set up cameras, waiting for the nuclear explosion.

The entire mountain was likewise crowded with people. Although everyone strongly opposed the IAEA’s action on the internet, it did not mean they did not want to witness a real nuclear explosion.

Yuji Ohno was just a rookie reporter, the old section chief at the station directly rented a tourist plane, leading the best team and preparing to take off two hours after the nuclear explosion to secure exclusive footage.

A considerable number of media held the same goal. The IAEA did not refuse such actions but only asked to shoot along a set path after they gave permission; otherwise, any vessel would be shot down as an unidentified target by the military ships.

But Yuji Ohno knew not all media were doing this, he had seen reporters from Hua Xin Agency flying to Fudao Airport a few days earlier; they would definitely get firsthand information with the military, and others from TASS, Agence France-Presse, BBC, and CNN were more or less doing the same.

Initially, Yuji Ohno was very worried he wouldn’t see much from Pan City because the IAEA’s preliminary notification had made it clear that the underground nuclear explosion would greatly weaken its impact, and the coverage area of the core explosion zone would not exceed 30 square kilometers with a radius of less than 3 kilometers.

Pan City was 38.5 kilometers away from the nuclear power station in a straight line, and he was very skeptical that he might not capture anything at all.

But reality completely overturned his expectations. Just past 11:50, he and the videographer kept confirming whether the lens was aimed correctly, rubbing their hands to resist the cold.

There weren’t many clouds in the sky, and it was very clear at the moment. The hustle and bustle of countless voices surrounded him, and he could smell both rice balls and feces at the same time—it was terribly bad.

Remembering there were two noise-canceling headphones in the car, Yuji Ohno, who was moving his limbs to stay warm, immediately opened the car door to search for them. The moment he leaned his head inside, he heard several women screaming.

He immediately raised his head and then saw two suns in the world: one above and one below.

The brightness of the two suns was almost identical. Most of the rays from the lower sun were blocked by the terrain, casting extremely long shadows of hills and trees. Everything in the distance was swallowed by the white light.

At this distance and partially blocked by the terrain, the intense light from the explosion did not hurt his eyes like it did at sea; Yuji Ohno witnessed the first five seconds of the explosion in their entirety.

After five seconds, the bright light on the ground began to fade, and at the same time, a mushroom cloud started rising. Simultaneously, the ground beneath his feet began to shake.

For Islanders, this sensation was not unfamiliar at all. Yuji Ohno even had a rough idea of the magnitude of the tremor as he steadied the camera tripod—it was less than 6, just a minor quake, no big deal.

It was precisely this action that allowed him not to fall to the ground like the videographer from a lack of reaction, witnessing what would become an unforgettable scene:

The rising mushroom cloud’s stem showed a dark red hue, while the cap was a whitish orange. As it ascended, it lit up the northern sky, artificially cleaving the world in two.

The northern sky was completely dyed a rich golden yellow like a late autumn evening—if one ignored the rolling mushroom cloud—that is, while above their heads and behind them was still the clear sky of winter, two starkly different celestial phenomena met, giving a feeling as if one was caught between worlds in a daze.

Yuji Ohno recalled his childhood, an evening in the countryside when a fire was kindled with wood in front of his house to warm themselves. In his memory, the flames were taller than he was, likewise tinting the sky in his eyes red.

Now, a nuclear bomb had truly ignited the earth and the sky, scorching the land under his feet with flames more fierce than the sun.

"Yuji, Yuji!"

The cameraman finally got up, hurried to the camera, and then became engrossed in the live footage.

...

Fudao Airport, 12:21 p.m.

The two H-6 bombers, designated 2210 and 2220, took off one after the other from the runway. Nearly 30 minutes had passed since the explosion, and it was time to take samples from the blast zone.

Other aircraft, including several Tu-142s, P-8s, and U2s, also took off to carry out the same mission.

Sampling the mushroom cloud following a nuclear blast is the most direct and fastest way to determine the effects of the explosion, and must be done before the cloud fully disperses, which also means that the planes and their crews will inevitably be exposed to radiation.

However, this was nothing new for the crews of these planes from the three parties, and their protective measures now were far stronger than in the past, so there was no need to worry excessively about radiation.

As for Haiguo and the UK, they chose to hitch a ride on America’s planes. France had such aircraft in the past but had retired them after nuclear testing ceased, and the UK, even worse off, was no better off.

Onboard the observation-modified H-6, designated 2220, were primarily reporters from Hua Xin Agency as well as several observers from New Yuan.

The 2210 carried the working group, while the 2220 was mainly there to collect visual data.

The photographer from Hua Xin Agency not only pressed against the porthole to take pictures but even squeezed into the cockpit to shoot from a first-person perspective, and all these images would eventually be presented to the public.

The issue of secrecy was not a big problem at this time, since the next two bombs would follow the same process.

However, the most special passengers on this bomber were two special observers from New Yuan: Xiao Okada and Guo Shen.

The two were there to fulfill Lin Ju’s long-standing wish to fly through a mushroom cloud, and knowing how unrealistic it was, they had volunteered to take on these two tasks.

Xiao Okada, having just seen the explosion scene from the bunker, now observed from a different perspective. Since they were flying at a very high altitude, they were now level with the top of the mushroom cloud and could see a bird’s eye view of the entire formation.

"This is a blood-red chrysanthemum with a thousand blooms."

"Old Xiao, are you okay?"

Guo Shen noticed Xiao Okada’s eyes were filled with confusion and was concerned about his state.

"I’m fine, very fine. I have never seen such a shocking scene, only the universe can compare to it.

I have to go up again tonight; I can’t miss it."