“Don’t let your guard down. It may not be dead yet. Deploy unmanned vessels to lay proximity mines in its path! We must block its last escape route.”
In the command room furthest away, the people, despite their excitement from the continuous barrage, maintained their basic judgment.
They hadn’t gone crazy to the point of thinking that the giant monster was dead just because they carried out a saturation attack.
Godzilla can now be said to be temporarily stunned, unable to react quickly and unable to control its body. Once it regains its senses, it will definitely choose to dive into deep water to avoid attacks on the surface.
Therefore, to block its possibility of diving, they need to approach Godzilla with unmanned submarines within the range of its underwater breath and, at the risk of losing the submarines, deploy a sufficient number of naval mines to prevent Godzilla from diving. This way, it can only endure the attacks in shallow waters.
If they cannot deploy naval mines, they would have to resort to suicide attacks to deter Godzilla and keep it in shallow waters.
The unmanned submarines quickly dive to the deepest depths, reaching the vicinity of Godzilla. Then they release all the naval mines they are carrying, creating a large minefield beneath Godzilla.
With nearly a thousand powerful mines, more destructive than missiles, blocking Godzilla’s path to dive, victory is assured. Godzilla has now become a captive of humankind.
“It’s over…”
In the command center, people observe every move of Godzilla. After confirming that Godzilla showed no signs of further movement after being subjected to saturation attacks for 14 seconds, most of the people here finally breathe a sigh of relief.
They start chatting.
“Phew, we finally won… I wonder what happened to Wangcai.”
“Let’s go for a drink, Commander. We should celebrate this victory in style!”
“We’re getting the budget!”
…
Godzilla remains silent and stops advancing.
This immediately lightens the atmosphere on the ship, and everyone starts chatting and joking. Even some young generals, who are here to gain experience, are pulling the commander Huang’s leg.
“Huang, when we go back, my daughter will turn one year old. Can you come over? I want you to draw lots for her and I hope she’ll draw yours.”
“Let’s not rush, let’s talk about it after we get back.”
“Thank you so much. With you drawing the lots, my daughter will definitely be blessed in the future!”
“Commander, after this mission, would you be interested in attending my brother’s wedding? He has admired you for a long time!”
“I’ll see which day it is when we go back. The battle isn’t over yet…”
“Huang, my father wants to talk to you about something after we return…”
…
As the planner of the Godzilla extermination plan, Commander Huang’s position will undoubtedly rise after this mission.
Most of the young generals come from influential families, where their relatives are either senators or urban district leaders. They also attended yesterday’s meeting and know the importance of Commander Huang’s role in the plan and his contributions.
It is expected that after Commander Huang returns, he will further advance his career and may even become the commander-in-chief of the future fleet. At that time, Commander Huang will not just hold a symbolic position equivalent to a senator but will truly be comparable to a district councilor.
Many people will try to win over Commander Huang when he returns. It will be too late to make such requests at that time, so it’s best to schedule meetings while still at sea.
Everyone wants to get close to the commander who led the operation against Godzilla, to seek his support and assistance.
To these people, Commander Huang responds with, “Now is not the time for discussions. We’ll talk in detail once we’re on land.” It’s not that he dislikes these young generals, but he genuinely feels that the matter is not yet over.
There is still a faint sense of disharmony lingering in his mind. He can’t help but feel that something is not right. This battle shouldn’t have ended so easily.
What… What did we miss? What did we do wrong?
As he ponders, Commander Huang’s brow furrows. He goes over everything the fleet has done in his mind, and he can’t recall any mistakes they made.
So is this feeling of unease just an illusion?
After looking at the data a few more times, the observers’ faces suddenly change.
“What’s happening?”
Commander Huang walks up to the observers, his expression tense. He still feels like he missed something, but no matter how hard he tries, he can’t remember what it might be.
After taking another look at the data, the observers say, “Something unexpected… Godzilla’s body temperature is rising. It’s highly likely that our artillery fire breached its outer shell, causing its fusion reactor to go haywire. It… It’s probably going to die…”
“Just temperature rise? What else?”
“Besides the temperature rise… it’s probably going to explode. But even if it does, it won’t affect our fleet. We are at least 20 nautical miles away from its fleet, so the explosion won’t reach our ships.”
The observers aren’t as nervous as before. They have seen similar events in the literature on the Titan creatures, where a rapid increase in body temperature indicated a reactor meltdown and the death of the Titans.
Some of them even caused violent explosions when they went out of control. The current Godzilla is most likely in a similar state.
From the rapid temperature rise on its surface, they can infer that its internal structure has been melted beyond recognition.
For those who understand physics, the sudden increase in Godzilla’s body temperature is further evidence of its impending demise.
“However, the debris from the explosion might affect the ships. Commander, should we temporarily cease fire and create some distance?”
“Alright.”
Without hesitation, Commander Huang agrees to the proposal. The feeling of unease within him grows stronger. He orders the entire fleet to temporarily cease fire, change direction, and create some distance.
The destroyers, frigates, and submarines start to withdraw. Everyone assumes that Godzilla is already dead. After all, there has been no response for more than ten minutes. If it were still alive, it wouldn’t be behaving like this.
As the fleet retreats, the underwater area where Godzilla’s body is located is no longer disturbed by the sonar from the shockwaves. The sonar of the unmanned submarines can now detect detailed information about Godzilla.
“The extent of the damage to Godzilla’s body underwater… the damage…”
The observers receive detailed information about Godzilla’s body after the shockwaves from the unmanned submarines no longer interfere. They want to see the extent of damage that humanity’s most powerful conventional firepower has inflicted on the monster. However, the moment they see the data, everyone freezes in shock.
“How is this possible…”
“Surface deformation, 1.3%… How is it possible… it only suffered minor damage from such intense bombardment?”
“If it only suffered minor damage, why is its temperature like this?”
According to the new model, after enduring a full 10 minutes of saturation attacks, Godzilla’s surface only suffered a minor 1.3% damage.
It’s almost as if it’s completely unharmed!
People are left dumbfounded by this result and fall into a state of despair.
If it remains unharmed like this, what methods do we have to harm it? We can’t defeat it at all.
That’s what most people think, but some individuals, like the data observers, consider something else.
Since it’s unharmed and its reactor is unlikely to be fundamentally affected or out of control, why is Godzilla’s body temperature rising?
“The waters around Godzilla are evaporating… How is this possible… its temperature is still increasing! Didn’t its reactor suffer no damage?”
“In the end, why did this creature stop moving? Didn’t it receive any injuries?”
“The surface temperature exceeds 600, no! 700 degrees… it’s still rising. How is this possible… how is it possible… What is Godzilla doing? What’s happening inside its body? Any material should have melted at this temperature, so why is its reactor still functioning?”
“Godzilla, what are you doing?!”
The observers shout in disbelief, their faces filled with incredulity.
And at this moment, Commander Huang finally realizes the source of that dissonance.
No wonder he couldn’t find the source of it in their fleet’s operations. After all, it wasn’t about them at all. They hadn’t done anything wrong…
It was Godzilla who had done something “wrong.”
“Notify the entire army to evacuate from Godzilla as quickly as possible!”
“Its attack is coming!”