The President of the United States, while influential, did not hold absolute power. The true foundation of authority lay with the ten major financial consortiums. Many of the President's past orders and decisions had been difficult to implement precisely because they had to consider the interests of these ten groups.
However, this particular matter concerned everyone. The ten financial consortiums and the President were united on this issue. Therefore, with a consensus reached at the highest levels, numerous military legions were dispatched.
This military operation began as a secret endeavor, as the United States clearly did not intend for other nations to interfere and claim a significant share of the spoils.
But later, when the United States military suffered a defeat, with one legion annihilated by a Lord-level monster, and the creatures broke out of Crystal Mountain, ravaging an entire state, the situation could no longer be contained. It was observed by satellites from various countries, prompting them to take measures to secure a portion of the benefits.
The monsters that emerged from Crystal Mountain wreaked havoc, causing immense casualties among the local civilian population. Even the citizens of the United States, armed with firearms, found themselves in dire straits when facing the sheer numbers of monsters.
For the American populace, this monster attack was perceived as a disaster, as the creatures destroyed their homes and, in many cases, took the lives of their relatives and loved ones.
However, the high-ranking officials of the United States and the world at large viewed this incident as an opportunity. The lives lost were not theirs, and the benefits, such as research breakthroughs from studying the monsters, would be enjoyed by them.
Of course, this was only in the initial stages. By the latter part of the war against the monsters, the high-ranking officials of the United States, particularly the President, were no longer so pleased. The power of the monsters was subtly exceeding his estimations.
During this period, the major events unfolding in Nevada, United States, naturally attracted global attention. Many reporters flocked to the scene to interview numerous individuals.
In a report from a later era, a journalist wrote:
Nevada was, at the time, a state with ordinary economic development. This continued until the day the local populace heard a deafening roar. They witnessed a colossal monster rising from the mountain, as if the entire mountain was merely a part of its body – its form coiled within the mountain's structure. Like a colossal serpent, it was protected by incredibly powerful scales, standing over two hundred meters tall. Its erect form alone rivaled a hundred-story building – one could only imagine its sheer height!
This monstrous serpent emerged from the mountain, its body so tall that anyone within the state, no matter where they were, could spot it by simply looking up. It was a terrifyingly immense serpent.
The United States military seemed to have anticipated this, establishing a tight blockade outside the mountain and deploying a vast array of weaponry. Numerous soldiers, tanks, various heavy weapons, fighter jets, and artillery were all prepared and ready to hunt the serpent.
In that instant, countless artillery shells thundered, and numerous fighter jets launched a barrage of missiles, unleashing a torrent of firepower that swept across the entire Crystal Mountain. Monsters within Crystal Mountain died in agony, one after another, their bodies appearing incredibly fragile under the onslaught of firepower. No matter where they tried to flee, they could not escape the bombardment under the encompassing fire that covered the sky above Crystal Mountain.
The roaring firepower seemed intent on tearing everything to shreds. When the United States military faced the monsters with warfare rather than hunting, many seemingly powerful creatures, capable of tearing humans apart with their bare hands and withstanding bullets, were almost instantly obliterated, losing all ability to resist and their lives. White skeletons were reduced to mere bone fragments. Flying and earth-crawling sorcerers in hemp robes were blown to pieces by artillery shells, their bodies utterly pulverized. As for slimes, they were even less of a threat. Whether they were lightning, grass, or other elemental types, even a black slime the size of a small house was no different from paper under the artillery fire.
This seemed to symbolize the victory of technological weapons over monsters – but only at the low to mid-tier level. The colossal serpent, a Lord-level monster, was not among them. The violent explosions, the all-encompassing concentrated firepower, and the terrifying heat only managed to tear off some of the serpent's scales, but they did not kill it. Instead, the bloody, gore-streaked scales only further enraged the serpent.
The populace had initially placed great confidence in the military. Even with the appearance of monsters, they believed them to be mere flesh and blood, incapable of surviving the barrage of missiles and artillery shells. This was their assessment.
But their assessment was flawed.
The serpent broke free from Crystal Mountain, letting out a roar that shook the heavens, the earth, and the very soul. Under this roar, both the pilots inside armored vehicles and those in fighter jets found their limbs immobilized, as if caught in a powerful wave of deterrent magic. The drivers in armored vehicles were relatively fortunate, as their vehicles remained stable on the ground even with their immobility. However, the pilots in the sky were in a dire situation. With their limbs unable to move, they could not pilot their aircraft. The expensive fighter jets, costing tens of millions, even hundreds of millions of Blue Star currency, instantly lost control from their pilots. Without pilot control, with a thunderous boom, the fighter jets streaked across the sky, then began to plummet to the ground, finally crashing with violent explosions.
The serpent's initial attempt, its first step, was to destroy the United States Air Force. Its second step was to lash its massive tail, a hundred-meter-long appendage, wildly sweeping across the ground forces, its immense power directly tearing apart numerous armored vehicles and tanks.
The serpent had escaped. With its escape, it roamed through Nevada, bringing disaster to the state. Even though it was eventually pierced by a United States thermobaric bomb, becoming a corpse, its emergence from Crystal Mountain, its breakthrough of the United States military blockade, and its arrival in the outside world, causing casualties, also drew the attention of the entire world.
The sudden appearance of the colossal serpent had a profound impact on the world. While this was not the first instance of mysterious events occurring, it was the first that the general public became widely aware of. The world was in turmoil.
On Crystal Mountain, although many monsters had died, a mysterious tower appeared in the depths of Crystal Lake.