Chapter 5 Yukawa Town
A middle-aged man in pajamas was washing his face while yawning. Then, with the toothpaste still in his mouth, he went out into the garden. It was a house with a garden in a peaceful suburb, and the bright morning sun was already shining brightly into the small garden. His name is Sato, he has a square face and glasses, is 40 years old, unemployed, fired from his job three months ago, and is currently living on unemployment insurance. Today was another fun Sunday. Weeds were growing everywhere in the garden. Because it is troublesome to take care of. For now, he decided to give water and nutrients to the plants. He took his cock out of his pants and poured urine onto the grass. A crunching sound came from behind. Then, something cold was sprinkled to Sato's butt. When he turned his head, he saw a small boy on a tricycle shooting a water gun at Sato's butt.
"Hey!"
A boy ran away at full speed on a tricycle.
"Oh my gosh" Sato continued to urinate.
"Huh?"
Small black grass was growing from the ground. He immediately urinated on the grass. When he finally finished taking it all out, he shook his hips. Then he brought his face closer to the pitch-black grass and looked at it intently. It was about 20 centimeters tall and had thick oval leaves like roses.
"Is this what they said on TV last night? They said 'If you find it, call the police.' Well, what should I do."
Sato thought as he walked towards the entrance of the house. Then he stopped and looked back. He felt like it had grown a little taller. Sato returned to the grass and took another closer look. It was obvious that it had grown about 10 centimeters taller.
"Hmph." Sato tilted his head.
Then he turned his face away and remained like that for about five seconds. Then he turned his face back to the grass. The pitch-black grass was already about 50 centimeters tall.
"hey hey"
Sato suddenly looked around. Before he knew it, black plants were growing from everywhere on the ground. There are about 10 of them. They all grew taller as he watched.
"Wow!" Sato jumped back.
The growth rate of plants has been further accelerated. In an instant, it surpassed Sato's height and grew even louder, making loud noises. The leaves, which were already the size of a fan, were swaying in front of Sato.
"Whoaaaa!" Sato ran out into the street.
There were cracks all over the asphalt of the road. It cracked open and a black plant leaf appeared from inside. A boy on a tricycle ran past Sato screaming. When he looked around, He saw black plants all around him, swaying and stretching towards the sky.
"Aaah! What should I do!"
Sato felt something strange between his legs. When he looked down, the asphalt beneath Sato cracked and he saw black leaves.
"Aaaaah!"
Sato's body was pushed up by the leaves. And then he was lifted up into the air. He was lifted several meters in an instant. Sato desperately clung to the pitch-black stalk. Sato clings like a cicada to the trunk of a plant that has already grown into a large tree. When he looked down, he saw buildings that had been overrun by plants, crumbling in places. People were running around in the ground that had quickly become a forest of giant trees. The giant plant stretched out countless thick branches, and soon the entire sky was covered with branches and leaves.
"Help Meeeee!"
Sato's screams disappeared into the air.
When Yoshida woke up, Lee's naked chest was in front of him. Lee's breasts were voluptuous, and there was a small red nipple in the middle. Yoshida stuck out his tongue, licked it, and took it into his mouth. Then he sucked the hard nipple in his mouth.
'I wish this would grow again like it happened before.'
Suddenly there was a strong knock on the door. Lee woke up and jumped up. The door was unlocked, so without waiting for a reply, the door swung open and Crane's face appeared.
"It's an emergency. That plant has appeared."
Yoshida looked at the clock, it was already past 9 o'clock. They stayed up late last night, so both of them accidentally overslept. Yoshida and Lee jumped off the bed.
"Where?"
"It's a small town about 15km away from the research institute. That's the only place for now."
At work room, Newton was staring at a giant monitor with his arms folded. A forest of giant trees was on the screen. It was a huge forest with a height of 30 meters. Newton turned around.
"It's late, have you been sleeping all this time?"
"We were late last night. So, what's going on?" Yoshida asked.
"The silicon plant appeared in Yukawa Town. It is a commuter town with a population of 1,000 people. Fortunately, it is isolated from other towns. It appeared at 8:30 a.m., and most of the residents had escaped. More than a dozen people are still missing."
The forest of giant trees on the screen was changing its appearance every moment. The trunks were constantly growing, branches were sprouting, and the large, fully grown trees were falling to the ground and breaking into pieces.
"Where is the town?" Yoshida asked.
"That forest was the town. All the buildings have collapsed. There's no trace left."
"They've set up the barrier?" Lee asked.
"Of course. As soon as the first notification was received, the military surrounded the town and set up a barrier that reached an altitude of 1 km. There will be no room for ants to crawl out. There have been no reports from anyone else, so it can be said that containment has been successful for now."
"Good," Lee said relieved.
"It's really big," Yoshida said, impressed.
"Life form tends to grow larger over time, and this is the same," Lee said.
"I wish it were just bigger," Newton muttered.
They could see heavily armed soldiers wandering around in the screen. However, since it was a distant view, they had no idea what was going on inside the town.
"Why don't you use a drone to look inside?" Yoshida asked Newton.
"I've been urging them since some time ago, but no reply yet."
Nelson's face appeared on the screen. He seemed to be in a quite bad mood.
"That's bad," Nelson said.
"Did something happen?" asked Crane.
"The drones we sent for reconnaissance, insect-type unmanned reconnaissance aircraft, but all of the dozens we sent went missing."
"What!"
"Look at this."
A dragonfly-shaped drone appeared on the screen. It was a dragonfly, its two wings trembling as it went out to scout the sky above the town. The drone's flight suddenly became disrupted. It trembled and wandered all over the place, then disintegrated in the air and disappeared.
"What's that?" asked Crane.
"I'll show you with high-speed photography, so take a good look."
This time, they saw a dragonfly slowly flapping its wings. Suddenly, several jet-black dragonflies appeared. It was a dragonfly that was about twice the size of the drone. Several dragonflies attacked the drone and quickly tore it to shreds with their sharp jaws. The drone broke into pieces and flew away. Yoshida and the others were stunned.
"Those were enemy dragonflies. I have no idea where they came from. All I know is that our drones were wiped out."
"Could it be that silicon bees have evolved and changed their appearance?" Crane asked.
"No, that's not true." Dyson's face suddenly appeared on the screen.
"Silicon bees don't evolve. That's how they were created. They are the evolved silicon plants."
"What!" Crane exclaimed.
"I thought something like this would probably happen. When the silicon plants degenerate, something like that will eventually appear," Dyson said, looking down.
"What does that mean?" Yoshida asked Lee.
"Plants are self-sufficient, getting their energy from sunlight. In other words, they are autotrophic plants. They don't need to rely on other organisms, except for pollination. As a result, there will always be organisms that cheat and live by stealing the energy synthesized from other organisms, plants, without synthesizing energy themselves. In other words, it is a heterotrophic plant. It's about fungi and animals. It is only a matter of time before so-called parasitic organisms appear on plants. All they need is the ability to move around and a nervous system to control it. It's not such a big problem in terms of evolution. He did show up after all. It is also a dragonfly-like flying creature. That's amazing."
"It's just a dragonfly, though." Yoshida said.
"Dragonflies do exist, but their appearance has hardly changed since 300 million years ago. It's the ultimate shape for a flying creature of that size. Two tandem wings, strong jaws that can eat anything, and huge compound eyes. Silicon insects that evolved from silicon plants... It looks like they've quickly arrived at the best flying model of its size."
"This is not the time to be impressed..." Yoshida stopped speaking and was glued to the screen. Next to Nelson was Fujimori's face.
"What's the situation?" Fujimori asked Nelson.
"An insect-like flying creature has appeared. It flies at high speed. It is impossible to discern it with the naked eye."
"Where did that come from?"
"The conclusion is that it evolved from silicophytes."
"Okay, I understand. We'll delete it immediately."
"In what way?" Nelson asked fearfully.
"A 10 megaton super vaporization bomb would be enough."
Yoshida and the others looked at each other.
"We haven't confirmed any survivors yet," Nelson said.
"It's already too late. Do any of you think there are still survivors?" Fujimori looked around at Yoshida and the others. No one nodded.
"At least we'll have time to investigate the town. You can drop the bombs later," Newton suggested.
"I agree with him." Nelson said.
"And you?" Fujimori looked at Dyson.
"Could you please send a survey team inside and take at least some samples? I would be very grateful if you could do that."
"Then we'll send an unmanned rover. We'll give you one hour to investigate. Then we'll drop the bomb." Fujimori disappeared.
"Nelson, why don't you have Eos change the weather over there?" Newton suggested to Nelson.
"Why?"
"Reduce the sunlight over there to the bare minimum. About 0.1% should be enough. That will reduce the activity of silicon organisms over there."
"I'll arrange it right away." Nelson disappeared.
"If a 10-megaton bomb were dropped, everything there would melt into glass." Dyson on the screen said with regret.
"It's better than having a hydrogen bomb dropped on the town." Crane said as he stared at the screen.
The sky above the giant forest was getting darker as they watched. It became almost as bright as dusk. The forest, which had been moving rapidly, slowed down. Then it became almost stationary. Two self-propelled tracked vehicles appeared at the edge of the screen. They looked like small tanks. There was a small turret on the canopy. They were moving toward the forest, shaking and swaying. Suddenly, the face of a black man appeared on the screen.
"I'm Apone, the person in charge of operating the unmanned rover. I'll also send you information on the screen. If you notice anything, please let me know."
Two new screens appeared. It was a monitor screen sent by two rovers. A forest of giant trees swayed through the screen as it slowly approached.
"Are you operating two machines by yourself?" Dyson asked Apone.
"No, one rover is operated by three people using a virtual control unit. The person in charge of the other rover is Sergeant Bridges."
"What is the performance of these rovers?" Yoshida asked.
"It's 5 meters long, 4 meters wide, and 2.5 meters high, and the whole thing is covered with a special steel plate 5 centimeters thick. There is a rotating multi-purpose launcher in the canopy. It can fire regular bullets, flames, and missiles. Equipped with a heavy machine gun and a light machine gun in the front and rear. A pair of magic hands are attached to the front to collect samples. Speeds can reach up to 70kph on flat terrain and up to 50kph on undulating terrain."
"What temperature can steel plates withstand?"
"It can withstand temperatures up to 5,000 degrees for a short period of time."
A huge forest was approaching on the screen. There was a gap of several meters between the trees. A pitch black darkness was peeking out from there. The rover's headlights were turned on. A powerful light illuminated the darkness. The rovers entered the forest.
Snake was sitting in front of the TV in the teacher's room, leisurely drinking coffee. He took out a notebook from his pocket and looked into it.
'The next class is 3rd year class B... What did I do in the last class? Well...Keita skipped his homework the other day, so I gave him 10 lashes... Ryohei stuck out his tongue to me, so I punished him by hanging him upside down... Yuta farted in front of me, so I gave him a electric massage... What shall I do today?'
Snake raised his head as he heard the newscaster making a lot of noise.
"...That's why Yukawa Town is currently closed to traffic. You cannot enter the city."
The screen showed a town that was sealed off and barricaded along the streets. There were passersby milling about on the screen, and men in military uniforms walking around.
Paul came to the TV.
"It seems like something happened in Yukawa Town. Could it have been a suicide bomber?" Snake asked Paul.
"No, I just saw that there was an explosion at a warehouse in the center of town. There was a large daily carpentry center, and apparently there was an explosion in the warehouse."
"What, that's boring. But it's strange that they're shutting down the town because of it."
Paul looked at Snake. "Based on the reviews, that doesn't seem to be the case. I've heard from someone who ran away from that town that something strange has happened in the town."
"Something strange? What's that?"
"The town turned into a mess, and cracks appeared here and there, and pitch-black monsters jumped out of the holes, screamed like Godzilla, and devoured people one after another as they tried to escape."
"What!"
Paul and Snake stared at the TV screen intently.