Chapter 106: The Flesh and Blood of Godzilla (Please Subscribe!)

Godzilla, having obliterated nearly half of Tokyo the previous night with its atomic breath and radioactive rays, stood eerily silent amidst the urban ruins, seemingly paralyzed by the sheer depletion of its energy.

By daylight, Katahara Metsudo, who had previously appeared as composed as a master fisherman, was already scrambling to fly abroad.

On the hillside where the shelter was located, a ten-meter-wide scorched scar stretched across the terrain—the earth itself had been instantly melted by extreme heat and then solidified, leaving a permanent mark like a festering wound. If the monster were merely a creature using its size to bully humanity, he would not have cared. But a monster capable of super-long-range attacks shifted the security paradigm entirely.

When he asked Hakudo Kyou if he wished to leave with him, the youth, as well as Saeko and Takemoto Hisayasu, all firmly refused.

"You martial arts fanatics... you truly are terrifying!"

The old man was surprised at first, then, seemingly realizing something, he shook his head with a faint smile and boarded the private vehicle bound for the airport. He did, however, generously leave the usage rights of the shelter to the three of them.

Shortly after Katahara Metsudo departed, the doorbell chimed. Through the CCTV, one could see a hulking, muscular man with sharp features and golden hair standing at the door. Beside him stood a heavy, hermetically sealed metal canister about half the height of a person.

It was Wakatsuki Takeshi.

The youth went out to greet him personally.

"Yo, Wakatsuki..."

"Cargo number 013, courtesy of Kureishi Pharmaceutical. Please sign for delivery."

Standing at the entrance of the shelter, before the youth could even finish his greeting, Wakatsuki Takeshi pulled out a tablet and formally registered the delivery as "Completed." Then, this man—cold in appearance but a warm-hearted soul at his core—looked Hakudo Kyou up and down. Seeing he was unharmed, he let out a long sigh of relief.

"Phew, it's good to see you’re okay amidst such a disaster, Hakudo. I heard Lord Takemoto and Miss Busujima are here as well. Are they alright?"

"Of course." Seeing his sincere concern, Hakudo Kyou’s tone lightened. "Haha, I’m super smart, you know. I latched onto Chairman Katahara’s coattails the moment I got off the boat!"

Hearing the youth’s self-deprecating humor, Wakatsuki laughed as well. "I can see that. It’s a very sturdy and luxurious shelter."

But after the laughter faded, Wakatsuki Takeshi’s expression turned solemn. He tilted his head toward the canister he had brought. "With the combined influence of Chairman Nogi, Lord Katahara, and your own status as Vice-Chairman, this lead-lined canister was finally delivered to you."

The metal canister, which looked remarkably solid, had already sunk more than five centimeters into the ground just from sitting there for a moment. It was clearly incredibly heavy. Yet, Wakatsuki Takeshi lifted it with one hand as easily as if it were a bottle of beer, holding it up before Hakudo Kyou.

"You know what you’re about to do, don't you, Hakudo?"

His serious eyes stared intently into the youth’s gaze.

"Right now, every pharmaceutical giant in the world—Kureishi Pharmaceutical, Johnson & Johnson, Roche, Pfizer... every available research resource is being funneled into this one project: the flesh and blood torn from Godzilla last night!"

"I can understand your craving, Hakudo!" Wakatsuki took a deep breath, as if trying to suppress the raging fire within. "That power! That god-like strength! The power to stand against an entire nation single-handedly and emerge victorious!"

Wakatsuki turned to look in the direction of Tokyo—the direction where Godzilla lay in temporary hibernation. His powerful body, possessing fifty-two times the muscle density of an ordinary human, was trembling uncontrollably.

It wasn't fear... it was excitement.

As mentioned before, fighters are monsters among men, driven by an extreme, insatiable fighting spirit. In times of peace, the best fate for such people is to become corporate enforcers. In the words of Katahara Metsudo, they are merely "pawns" to be discarded or destroyed. But after witnessing true, nation-breaking power, could this wild, beastly fighting spirit be quelled so easily? Would humans who had spent their lives slaughtering one another on the narrow path to becoming "the strongest" stop in fear after witnessing a greater force?

Of course not. On the contrary, they were ecstatic.

"To be honest, every major lab in the world is conducting analysis on Godzilla’s flesh and performing human interaction experiments." Wakatsuki glanced at his watch. "Hmm, Bando Yohei should be on the operating table by now."

"Oh? I bet he didn't volunteer for that," Hakudo Kyou said with an amused smile. "I recall Tokyo University participated in the Kengan Annihilation Tournament specifically to kill him legally. Are they just ignoring that now?"

"In the face of such interests, the law is fragile," Wakatsuki nodded, emphasizing again, "Extremely fragile. He is just the first. There will be many more death-row inmates... and even volunteers."

"Oh? Volunteers?"

"Like Kaneda Suekichi."

The youth recalled the frail man. Even with a body so weak he treated medicine like food, he still followed his desires to punch and climb toward the strong, heedless of his own limitations. That such a guy would become a volunteer for human experimentation didn't seem strange at all.

"He used President Ooya Ken’s connections to find Kureishi and knelt before him, begging to be added to the experimental list."

"He was the one begging for a favor, yet when he knelt, the expression on his face—a mixture of madness, obsession, and the joy of glimpsing hope..." Wakatsuki shook his head, as if trying to banish the image from his mind. "...It was truly insane."

That was the only way he could describe the scene. After a moment, he regained his composure.

"So, have you really thought about what you’re doing?" Wakatsuki advised. "Even if you are desperate to study this flesh, the right path is to join a pharmaceutical company’s team. Doing this alone is an impossible task."

But facing Wakatsuki Takeshi’s sincere advice, Hakudo Kyou’s tone was calm yet resolute.

"Of course." The youth’s eyes were fixed on the canister as he reached out to take it. "I know what I’m doing."

Wakatsuki Takeshi hesitated for a moment before letting go, allowing the canister to settle into Hakudo Kyou’s hands. "If it’s you... I’ll assume you know what you’re doing."

With that, he turned and left. He was busy, too; after all, he had signed up as a volunteer himself.

Clutching the half-person-tall metal canister, Hakudo Kyou walked toward the basement door inside the shelter. Saeko and Takemoto Hisayasu were waiting there, as if they had known all along.

"You two..." Hakudo Kyou looked at them in surprise.

He had not intended to tell them about his plan to use Godzilla’s flesh to practice his martial arts; he had planned to lock the door the moment he entered the basement. He had only left behind a video set to unlock at a certain time, along with a copy of "Fundamentals of Nen," with a harmless trace of "Nen" imbued on the final character.

The "Dragon Blood Secret Arts" was a martial discipline capable of reaching the level of immortals and demons; even in the world of its origin, it was the most esoteric secret of the highest sacred grounds. The profound wisdom contained within was something Hakudo Kyou could not fathom even one ten-thousandth of at this stage.

Whether Godzilla could be classified as "dragon blood" by the secret arts, and thus be utilized to fuel the circulation of his cultivation, remained uncertain. If it weren't for the fact that Hakudo Kyou recognized Godzilla's identity and felt the terrifying urgency of the coming monster battles, his confident but calculated nature would never have allowed him to take such a risk.

He would rather spend five or ten years in seclusion at a steel mill than risk suffering from qi deviation! In a world without predecessors to guide the cultivation of internal energy, what was the difference between qi deviation and death?