At Fort Hood in Texas, where Reze was located, facing the heavy tanks surrounding her from all sides, Reze spread her hands in the live stream and said with a light laugh:
"Hey hey~ Isn't this a bit much? I'm just a helpless little girl. Is this kind of grand display really necessary?"
Her voice was sweet and cute with a hint of grievance. Anyone hearing it would involuntarily be charmed.
Her school skirt swayed gently in the wind. She looked like a lost high school girl.
The answer to Reze came in the form of tank barrels all aimed at her.
Dozens of M1 Abrams main battle tanks fanned out, their dark gun muzzles pointing at the slender figure from multiple angles.
"Clear to fire!"
The military commander in the command center shouted into his microphone.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Countless M1 tanks fired simultaneously. Firepower even more formidable than what Yu faced rained down on Reze.
Flames shot from the muzzles. Dozens of high-explosive shells, trailing white smoke trails, converged on the frail-looking girl from all directions.
A single salvo like this could erase a small town from the map.
But in the final instant before the shells struck—
Reze raised her right hand, 'click', pulled the ring on her collar, and murmured with her cherry lips, "Boom~"
"Rumble!!!"
A massive fireball erupted at Fort Hood!
A small mushroom cloud rose in the corner of the live stream.
Flames shot skyward, the scorching shockwave shaking the surrounding tanks violently.
Thick black smoke billowed upward, forming a giant mushroom-shaped cloud in the morning sky.
The explosion's shockwave radiated outward from Reze, visible ripples spreading across the ground like water.
In the base command center behind, the commander exclaimed with joy: "Did we get her?"
He stared at the fireball on the screen, his fists unconsciously clenching.
An explosion of that magnitude would melt even steel.
Two seconds later, his adjutant, drenched in cold sweat, said, "G-General, radar indicates there's still a life sign at the epicenter!"
The adjutant's voice trembled, his eyes fixed on the unmoving blip on the radar screen, as if seeing a ghost.
"What!?"
The general couldn't believe it, 'Someone could survive an explosion like that?'
But recalling Makoto's situation months ago, he realized it wasn't really surprising.
'No, that's not right.'
'Now wasn't the time to praise the enemy.'
Just then, the fire and smoke gradually dissipated.
The world saw what was at the center of the explosion… first emerging was a massive torpedo warhead.
No, not that!
That torpedo had a mouth, revealing sharp fangs.
Her slender arms, normally covered by her school uniform, were now tightly wrapped in dense, glowing, dark-red fuse wires, like a constantly writhing layer of fuse armor. Tiny sparks were visible at her fingertips.
Those fuses slowly squirmed like living things, each radiating intense heat.
Her upper body had shed the Shuchi'in uniform, replaced by a thick apron woven from detonators and explosive sticks around her waist.
The pungent smell of gunpowder instantly filled the air.
Even through the screen, viewers around the world seemed to smell the deathly mix of sulfur and smoke.
Her body retained a girl's slender silhouette, but for some reason, appeared more voluptuous.
Back in Japan, players like Sonoko and Hiratsuka gaped in astonishment, 'This was... Reze's ability?'
The next second, Bomb Girl Reze slowly raised her hand in a little wave.
"Boom~"
That soft call was still sweet, but it sent chills down the spines of all who heard it.
Rumble!!!
Instantly, the ground beneath the first row of tanks exploded violently, hurling the sixty-ton-plus tanks into the air.
The blast erupted from deep underground, as if the earth itself was roaring.
Decades-old steel beasts were tossed like toys into the sky… tracks snapped, barrels twisted, rolling and crashing back to earth under gravity.
The drivers inside were blasted out, blood and limbs raining down with tank fragments, staining the earth red.
Those soldiers' bodies shattered in mid-air, limbs and torsos separating under the shockwave, falling like rain alongside the tank debris.
Blood arced through the air, splattering onto still-burning tank wrecks with a sizzling evaporation sound.
The commander was stunned speechless.
In the seconds he stood frozen, Reze suddenly charged towards the second line of tanks.
With each tank she approached, she threw a punch.
At the moment of impact, 'boom', a violent explosion erupted.
The girl's seemingly delicate fist detonated with intense light, blasting the tank into the air.
The moment fist met armor, the explosion burst from the point of contact.
The tank's armor buckled inward and tore under the extreme heat and pressure. The entire vehicle, like a baseball struck by a giant, tumbled dozens of meters into the sky.
Turrets separated from hulls mid-air, parts scattering. What crashed back to earth were only twisted, deformed wrecks.
One punch per tank! One punch per tank!
In less than half a minute, nearly half the base's tanks were launched skyward like baseballs, raining back down like hail.
The crashes were deafening, the continuous roar of steel colliding with earth unending.
The ground was littered with a metal graveyard of tank wrecks, flames burning within, smoke shrouding half the sky.
At the center of the shattered earth, Reze stood atop a tank that had landed nose-first. She brought her fist down and pulled out the driver—
Oh no, what she pulled out was only the driver's head.
The head still wore a tank helmet, facial muscles twisted in terror.
The severed neck revealed vertebrae and trachea clearly visible, blood slowly flowing down the tank's armor.
Even in death, the face still held that look of disbelief.
This scene sent chills down the spines of viewers worldwide.
Some retched, some screamed, some desperately covered their children's eyes.
The stream's chat instantly cleared… not because no one was commenting, but because everyone had lost the ability to type at that moment.
"Deploy the attack helicopter units!"
The commander shouted, his voice completely breaking. "Keep your distance from her! Now! Now!"
Although he hadn't formally encountered superpowered individuals before, he had grasped the basics… that woman's ability was explosions, and she could use the fuses on her hands for long-range attacks, but that range should be limited.
If that was the case, they would use armed helicopters for carpet bombing.
After speaking, the commander couldn't help but glance at the top-left corner of the stream… the situation at Fort Bragg where Yu was.
What he saw was a pile of rubble.
What was once touted as America's most fortified army base had become a burning graveyard.
Buildings collapsed, equipment destroyed, soldiers' bodies scattered everywhere.
And that Gun Devil-man stood atop the highest ruins, like a crowned king surveying his domain.
Against the Gun Devil, whose range covered the continent, Fort Bragg had no options, whether on land or in the air. It could only watch helplessly as it became the Gun Devil's plaything.
Seeing this, the commander at Fort Hood inexplicably felt a surge of relief.
'At least bombs were easier to deal with than guns...'
He swallowed, his fingers unconsciously tightening around the microphone.