sinovels Chapter 012 A Miracle in the Ruins
Chapter 012 A Miracle in the Ruins
The sky over Akihabara
It was stained grayish-brown by the pervasive dust.
The sounds of sirens, helicopters, and excavators mingled together, creating a cacophony of busy yet anxious noise.
The once bustling AKB48 theater and its surroundings have been turned into a giant concrete tomb.
This is the epicenter.
It was also the epicenter of this sudden disaster.
Everywhere you look, you see search and rescue teams.
At this very moment, deep within the ruins, in a small triangular space.
"Cough cough..."
Lin Fan sat in the ruins, exhaling a breath of stale air that smelled of earth, and waved his hand in front of him.
The surroundings not only smelled terrible, but were also very dark.
Only a few rays of light occasionally pierced through the gaps above.
"I'm alive, but... how am I supposed to get out?"
However, he soon stopped thinking about how to get out and was instead distracted by another sensation in his body.
hungry.
thirsty.
I was both hungry and thirsty.
Is this a side effect of resurrection?
That doesn't feel good at all!
In the darkness, Lin Fan couldn't help but grope around.
Suddenly, my fingertips touched something soft.
It's not a corpse.
It is made of nylon.
He was overjoyed and pulled hard.
"Sizzle."
He pulled over a dusty backpack.
This must have been left behind by some unlucky guy when he ran away.
Without any hesitation, he unzipped the zipper and rummaged through it.
There is no water.
I did find a box of cookies.
"..."
Lin Fan's lips twitched.
In this extremely water-scarce situation, eating biscuits?
How is this any different from suicide?
Oh, no, what difference does it make whether he's dead or alive?
That's all!
"Click."
Lin Fan picked up a piece and took a big bite.
dry.
That's fucking awesome.
And they're sugar-free soda crackers.
It tastes absolutely awful!
What on earth is this thing that can eat such disgusting food?
But there's no way around it; the feeling of emptiness in my stomach is even more unbearable if I don't eat.
After taking that bite of the cookie, the flour absorbed the last bit of saliva in his mouth, causing him to choke and roll his eyes back.
But he forced himself to swallow it.
With the energy entering my stomach, the maddening hunger finally subsided a little.
……
Meanwhile, on the ground ruins.
The special rescue team from the Sakura Kingdom, dressed in orange uniforms, is making a difficult advance through the ruins.
Tanaka Iji's face was covered in dust, and the bloodshot in his eyes looked like they were about to burst.
He glanced at the life detector in his hand.
The screen was completely silent.
No waveform.
There are no red dots.
Only cold grid lines.
"Captain, the search and rescue operation in Zone C has been completed. Twelve bodies have been recovered, all without signs of life."
"Search and rescue operation in Zone D completed. Several severed limbs were found, but there are no signs of life."
The reports coming through the walkie-talkie were increasingly heavy.
Tanaka Iji gritted his teeth and punched the cement block next to him.
"Baka!"
This is Akihabara!
Thousands of fans, along with a large number of staff, were buried within minutes.
Even in Japan, a country prone to disasters, such casualties are a tragedy worthy of being recorded in history.
"Captain, should we continue digging towards the center?"
A young team member walked over, his voice trembling slightly.
"The central area was the most severely collapsed; with that level of compression, there's no way anyone could have survived. And we don't even know if there will be aftershocks, brothers..."
He didn't finish his sentence, but the meaning was clear.
With such a massive disaster, even the edges are so devastated, how could there be any survivors in the center?
There might even be aftershocks, which could cost the lives of rescue teams.
Looking at the mountain of ruins, Tanaka Iiji felt a wave of despair wash over him.
Reason told him that giving up was the best option.
There's only minced meat down there, no living people.
"Woof! Woof woof!!"
Just then, a burst of urgent barking broke the somber atmosphere.
Everyone's attention was instantly drawn to it.
A search and rescue dog named "Jiro" was barking wildly at a collapse in the center of the ruins.
Its front paws were digging frantically at the soil, and its tail was held straight up, clearly indicating that it had discovered something.
"Something's up?!"
Tanaka Iji's pupils contracted sharply, and his already dead heart suddenly skipped a beat.
He rushed forward in one stride, not caring whether the steel bars beneath his feet were stable.
"Jiro! Be quiet!"
The handler grabbed the dog's leash, his face filled with disbelief.
"Captain, Jiro's reaction is very strong! There's something alive down there!"
Living thing?
At the epicenter of this earthquake?
How could there be any living creatures under the weight of thousands of tons of rubble?
Tanaka Iji couldn't believe it.
But this did not prevent him from issuing orders.
"Quick! Get the life detector! Everyone else, prepare to dig!"
The equipment was quickly set up.
However, the screen remained completely silent.
"Captain, the equipment isn't working..."
"Instruments are bullshit! I trust Jiro!"
Tanaka Iji roared,
"Dig! Dig with your hands! Don't use heavy machinery, or it will cause a secondary collapse! Even if it's a corpse, dig it out!"
"Hai!"
More than a dozen rescue team members immediately rushed over.
They threw away their shovels and started using their hands.
Fortunately, these people are all awakened.
Moving away rubble and breaking steel bars isn't that difficult.
one meter.
Two meters.
three meters.
As the excavation went deeper, the crevice that was originally just a small hole gradually widened.
All the rescue team members held their breath.
Even the police officers on guard around the area and the media reporters in the distance pointed their cameras at this spot.
The whole world is watching this scene.
Everyone is expecting, or rather, praying.
Someone has to survive!
"It's connected!"
The young player shouted excitedly.
"Captain! We've broken through! There's a triangular area below!"
Tanaka Iji immediately lay down at the entrance of the cave, turned on his powerful flashlight, and shone it inside.
The beam of light pierced the darkness.
Dust particles danced in the beam of light.
Everyone stared wide-eyed, intently at the end of the beam of light.
Then.
They witnessed the most mind-blowing moment of their lives.
There was no bloody or gruesome scene.
There was no faint groan.
There was a young man, dressed in rags, filthy, and with a face covered in ash, sitting cross-legged on a broken precast slab.
He was holding a box of cookies and munching on them.
His cheeks were bulging, clearly indicating that he was chewing diligently.
The bright light shone on his face, and he instinctively squinted before raising his hand to shield his eyes.
The air seemed to freeze at that moment.
Time seemed to stand still at that moment.
Tanaka Iji's mouth dropped open, and his jaw nearly dislocated.
The entrenching tool in the young team member's hand fell to the ground with a "clatter".
The search and rescue dog, Jiro, tilted its head and stopped barking.
What the hell is going on here?
A picnic in the center of the earth?
Just as everyone's brains collectively crashed and their CPUs were burning hot.
The young man finally swallowed the cookie in his mouth.
He stretched his neck and, in an extremely hoarse yet powerful voice, uttered the words that broke the silence of the entire audience:
"Hey... buddy, got any water? I'm choking."
Quiet.
A deathly silence.
About three seconds passed.
"What?!"
I don't know who shouted it first.
The entire rescue site erupted in chaos.
"Alive! Alive!"
"He's eating! He's talking!"
"My Amaterasu! This is a miracle! This is a divine intervention!"
Tanaka Iji's tears instantly fell.
He disregarded any semblance of captaincy, immediately sticking his head into the hole, so excited he was incoherent:
"Sir! Hold on! Don't move! Don't move! We're about to get you out! Water! Quick, get some water!"
Lin Fan under the ruins: ?
I didn't move.
I'm just eating cookies.
And could you please stop yelling so loudly? You've gotten all the dust on my cookies.
Soon, a bottle of mineral water was lowered down by a rope.
Lin Fan grabbed it, unscrewed the cap, and gulped it down.
"Gulp, gulp..."
After drinking a bottle of water, the burning sensation finally subsided.
"I'm finally alive!"
Lin Fan wiped his mouth and let out a long sigh of relief.
At this point, the opening above had been enlarged to allow one person to pass through.
Two burly rescue team members slid down the rope, one on each side, carefully lifting Lin Fan up as if he were a fragile piece of porcelain.
"Sir, where does it hurt? Is there a fracture? Do you have chest tightness?"
"Don't talk, conserve your energy!"
"Stretcher! Put the stretcher down quickly!"
Lin Fan was a little confused by this scene.
He wanted to say that he was fine and could even eat two more cookies.
But seeing the two men's "I'll commit seppuku if you die at my hands" attitude, he wisely shut his mouth.
Fine.
Since you insist on carrying it, then carry it.
Anyway, he was too lazy to leave.
Thus, as the only survivor in the epicenter of this massive earthquake, Lin Fan was carried out of the rubble like a star surrounded by admirers.
The moment he saw the light of day again.
"Whoosh—!!!"
Thunderous applause and cheers erupted from the crowd.
Countless flashes went off, almost blinding Lin Fan.
"He's out! The hero has emerged!"
"A miracle of life! A true miracle of life!"
"He survived the epicenter! It's incredible!"
Countless reporters rushed forward, their microphones practically shoving into Lin Fan's nostrils.
"Sir! How did you manage to stay afloat under the rubble?"
"Sir! What would you like to say to everyone at this moment?"
"Sir! Did you feel the protection of Amaterasu?"
Lin Fan lay on the stretcher, staring blankly at the frenzied crowd.
His current appearance is truly appalling.
His face was covered in black ash, his hair was like a bird's nest, and his body was covered in strips of cloth with half-dried blood and dirt. Only his eyes, because he had just drunk water, looked exceptionally bright.
No one recognized him as the con artist who had hanged himself from a tree in the southeast corner.
At this moment, in everyone's eyes, he was just an ordinary passerby who bravely survived a major disaster.
A totem symbolizing hope!
"Make way! Make way! The patient needs emergency care!"
Medical staff rushed over, put an oxygen mask on him without saying a word, hung up an IV drip, and then jogged to push him into the ambulance.
"Tick-tock! Tick-tock!"
The ambulance sped away.
A group of Japanese citizens, their eyes filled with tears, were left behind, still praying as the ambulance drove away.
……
On the ambulance.
Lin Fan took off his oxygen mask, somewhat speechless.
"Actually, I'm really fine..."
"No! Something's wrong with you!"
The young nurse beside him held him down, her eyes resolute, even tinged with admiration.
"Sir, you may be in a state of stress and unable to feel pain. Please trust us, we will definitely cure you!"
Lin Fan: "..."
Fine, you're right.
He leaned against the pillows, staring listlessly at the roof of the car.
……
at the same time.
Jianghai City, Huaguo.
Lin Jianguo's eyes were red as he stared at the international news channel on the television.
Despite how ruthless he seemed before, he couldn't help but feel heartbroken when he saw his son hang himself on a sword.
Although I knew my son could be resurrected, it was an earthquake!
What if I'm buried underneath and can't get out?
What if the resurrection cooldown is too long?
In short, it's understandable that he, as an elderly father, would have worries.
Just as he was filled with anxiety, the news broadcast he had been watching suddenly switched to another screen.
The host broadcast the report in an excited voice:
Breaking news! Just now, the Japanese rescue team successfully rescued a survivor from under the rubble at the epicenter of the earthquake!
This is also the only survivor in the central area! They've been called a 'miracle in the ruins'!
The camera cut to the scene.
In the footage, a young man covered in dust is being lifted into an ambulance.
Although it was only a two-second close-up shot.
Although his face was as dirty as a coal miner's.
But no one knows a son better than his father.
Lin Jianguo only glanced at it before jumping up from the sofa.
"Hahaha, I told you this kid wouldn't die! You wouldn't believe me!"
Upon seeing Lin Fanzhen's resurrection, Lin Jianguo, who had been worried, regained his composure.
Lin's mother, who was still wiping away tears, also wept with joy:
"Waaah... My son, you worried your mother to death!"
"Heh, what's there to worry about? Your son can be resurrected. I reckon this time, quite a few people around the world will be fooled by this kid..."
Lin Jianguo suddenly had a bad feeling.
If we say,
If these Japanese people were to discover that the so-called "miracle boy" they rescued was actually the culprit who blew up their theater...
What would happen then?
tsk...
I'm kind of looking forward to it!