"Mr. President! Mr. President!" A young male secretary hurriedly knocked on the door of the President's office in Country F. This was Country F's highest decision-making body, where most important decrees came from. It was currently located in the presidential palace in New Paris, an old colony in North Africa.

"Come in!"

"Mr. President! Gentlemen!" He took a breath and then said seriously, "News: Our expeditionary force has been completely wiped out. It was the American people's nuclear weapons!"

The room fell silent. The president and several ministers exchanged glances. "Should we wait any longer?"

The Minister of Military Affairs swallowed hard. He was about to tell them to exercise some restraint when another knock came on the door. "New news, new news!" But this time, the person outside didn't open the door. All they heard was the thud of a knee hitting the ground, followed by an angry, tearful voice: "Gentlemen, my hometown, North Nice, has been bombed by a nuclear bomb from the Americans! Woohoo!"

North Nice is the relocated city of Nice, now located in the northern part of the Black Continent, only about 400 kilometers from New Paris. According to census data from two years ago, there should be between 500 and 600,000 people living there. Perhaps only one-tenth of them are still alive? Perhaps even less, as it's midnight and many people are asleep.

"Gentlemen, we can't wait any longer. Now even we ourselves are under nuclear threat!" A minister suddenly spoke up. His family had been talking to him in Northern Nice just half an hour ago.

"My Minister of Defense, what do you think?" The President of Country F turned his head again to look at the Minister of Military Affairs beside him, but this time he saw him sitting down on the chair.

"Mr. President, we can first use the Lurker unmanned submarine to launch a nuclear strike on the east coast of Country M. This will minimize the risk of a full-scale nuclear war!"

“Go ahead and do it!”

Lurkers were a helpless invention against the Hunters. Compared to the Hunters' wide-area threat, the Lurkers' dual-medium missiles are limited to attacking coastal cities. They are typically deployed via drone mothership airdrops. Once deployed, their intelligent systems manipulate them to quickly sink to the seabed, disguising them as rocks.

. . . . . .

"Ding-ling-ling! Ding-ling-ling!" The emergency line at Baigong had been ringing continuously for five minutes, but there was no one there. In fact, aside from a few cleaners doing their daily cleaning and security personnel, no one had been here in years.

Artificial intelligence brings convenience to the United States. This was a common slogan in their advertisements. It was indeed very convenient, so the top leaders of the United States have become accustomed to such remote control.

Of course, the alarm clock that had been ringing for several minutes wasn't completely useless. The moment it rang, the artificial intelligence network had already synchronized the information to Plant's office. However, no one had visited his office for a long time.

In the United States, controlled by a complex group of capitalists, the so-called president is merely a powerless spokesperson. This position, like a puppet king in some historical period, is neither free nor democratic. After several clashes, the only consensus remains: the safety of those in front of the stage.

So, Plant was effectively under house arrest in his estate. The only time he appeared in public after taking office was when he was surrounded by a large group of men in sunglasses and suits to deliver his inaugural speech, for which he was forced to rehearse several times.

His estate, located near the Athabasca River, was originally part of California, but now belongs to the United States. Hidden within it is a 300-year-old record player, from which the melodious sound of a violin drifts. It must be a Mozart serenade, perfectly matched to the starry sky outside.

Plant's vital signs had been functioning normally, and even within the last two hours, his condition had suddenly improved significantly. Regardless of the data, as long as he was alive, power would remain firmly within the Robert family's grasp and would never be taken away by the Vice President, a spokesperson for the military-industrial complex.

At that moment, Plant was kneeling in an animal training room, ignoring the flaking light bulbs overhead. In the alternately dark and bright "cell," this two-meter-tall, bald, muscular man was gnawing on a tanned woman's thigh. Around him, or rather, "it," were scattered the remains of various animals, with only the remains of a snake mutant still twitching and writhing.

Its body was now mutating further, and as it tore at the flesh of the mutants, some traits were transferred to its own body, such as scales growing on its surface, hair growing on its head, fangs growing in its mouth, or its body becoming stronger.

As it crashed through the manor wall and ran outside, it roared at the missile trails streaking across the sky. Plant, transformed into a Class III mutant, had regained some semblance of sanity. Perhaps in the near future, he would be able to figure out what the white bands in the sky meant.

. . . . . .

"Woooooooo~" Jiang Youwei was still testing her superpowers when she heard the shrill alarm ringing in the city.

Earlier, she had accidentally noticed a new red dot within the sensor range. She had assumed it would take Li Jiawen some time to figure out how to use the tube, but she hadn't expected him to secretly use up the converter within just a few days.

By connecting the vision of the three beastmen, she discovered that she could build a three-point coordinate targeting system based on their real-time optical signals. Using this system, she achieved the first beyond-visual-range beam strike.

After that, things got out of control. The beast soldier had very good eyesight. After finding them a few commanding heights, she could almost hit whatever she pointed at within a radius of more than ten kilometers.

"Stop playing! This is a nuclear war alarm!" Jiang Wenwu's voice echoed in her mind. With her as the center, she could now share signals with all the beastmen within her sensing range. It felt strange, like her computer had become a server, allowing other players to interact with each other, while she was the administrator.

"It's not a big problem. Our country's anti-missile capability is very strong!" Li Wenjia said in his mind. He is still adapting to this superhuman feeling. Isn't it much more comfortable than wearing an exoskeleton?

"Do you think my superpower can be used to shoot down missiles?" Jiang Youwei had a sudden idea.

"You have only practiced to the point where you can hit an egg-sized stone more than ten kilometers away. This is probably not enough. Although the energy of the light beam is very strong, a missile hundreds of kilometers away is only the size of a few pixels when seen with our naked eyes." As expected of "Li Jiawen", who has received professional military training, what he said makes a lot of sense.

"Let's come back first and go to the shelter!" Huang Xiaohong said fearfully.