A strange pressure filled the air.
Ryan Li stood at the center of the plaza, his figure casting a long shadow under the blood-red sunset. All around him, over eight thousand Japanese soldiers had dropped to their knees. Not one dared to raise their head.
From a distance, a cluster of stunned police officers and government delegates huddled behind city barricades. Even from there, they could barely see Ryan's expression—only the faint shimmer of something glassy in his hand.
He held up a sealed vial. Inside: a single, crystal-clear drop of liquid.
SEA BUCKTHORN VIRUS.
The moment the drop hit the air—SSSSSSHT!—it didn't fall. It evaporated mid-drop, breaking apart into countless black microbeads, smaller than dust motes, spinning like ash in the wind.
The beads floated silently toward the kneeling crowd, guided by breath, by skin, by the inevitability of infection.
Ryan smiled faintly. "In ten seconds, every one of them will carry it."
He re-sealed the vial. The rest of the virus was already secured in storage space. He wouldn't need another drop—this one was enough to break a nation.
Suddenly, a furious scream split the silence.
"BAKA! YOU DARE SHAME THE GREAT DAIHA PEOPLE? DIE!"
A lone officer—his uniform scorched, his face twisted in rage—charged Ryan with a dagger. A badge on his chest read: Tanaka Mitsuru.
He lunged.
Ryan didn't even turn.
THWACK!
One backward kick, and Tanaka flew like a ragdoll, blood trailing from his lips as he crashed back into the crowd, unconscious before he hit the ground.
Ryan walked on, calm as ever.
Behind him, the entire plaza—eight thousand kneeling soldiers—stayed frozen. Not one dared resist. Not a single hand rose.
High above, cameras zoomed in. Every broadcast drone from Eagle Nation, every livestream in the Dragon Alliance, every satellite uplink around the world... was focused on one man.
The net went wild.
"He's a god… walking in the shell of a man!"
"No wonder he's LAPD. That's not a cop, that's a f**king superhero!"
"Someone send this man a cape. Or better—build him a temple!"
The footage spread like wildfire.
Influencers, politicians, generals—hell, even old-school gangsters—were posting clips of Ryan Li walking through the sea of kneeling enemies.
From a skyscraper overlooking the city, the mayor of Tokyo knelt before the window, praying in hushed tones.
"Praise be to the great one… He is our Zeus, our Odin… our god of Olympus and thunder!"
Even within the command center, stunned SWAT captains sat speechless. They'd seen shootouts, hostage rescues, wars. But this? This was something else.
"What if he's from the stars?"
"If he's from a goddamn planet called Daidai, I'm still naming my kid after him."
Back in Eagle Nation, influencer Rachel D. Atlantic nearly dropped her camera mid-shoot. She was supposed to be doing a street-style segment in LA—but now?
"We're live, people! This is history! I'm not even editing—just pure raw upload. Internal systems are crashing because the traffic's off the charts!"
The video broke records in ten minutes.
Hashtag: #KneelBeforeRyanViews: 100M+Comments: 3.5MServers: Crashed. Twice.
Even the national military broadcast network reran the footage on loop. Meanwhile, forums and chatrooms exploded:
"Bro… this guy made a whole army kneel. Just by walking."
"I thought it was CGI—until I saw the bodycam footage. This ain't Marvel. This is real."
"My grandpa cried watching this. Said it reminded him of ancient war gods."
Across the Dragon Alliance, pride surged like a tidal wave.
But within Daidai's circles?
Panic.
"This Ryan Li must be eliminated. He's a genetic threat."
"We must harvest his DNA, purify it, and produce superior offspring."
"Or assassinate him. No single man should hold this kind of power."
They argued in hushed tones, even as their leaders... secretly watched the video on loop.
—
Meanwhile, Ryan Li walked alone down an alley behind the plaza. Calm. Unbothered.
The heat shimmered on his back.
Another day of work done.
And the world would never be the same again.