Ryou suddenly started sprinting directly across the sea. The surface of the water seemed to flatten beneath his feet as if it were solid ground.
Whether it was the naval soldiers on the dock or the crew on the Yamato, they all watched in stunned disbelief as he dashed towards the Yamato as if walking on flat land.
"Great God of the Sea!"
"This is the reincarnation of the Great God of the Sea!"
Some of the more superstitious naval soldiers shouted out in alarm.
Captain Sawa was the first to react. He immediately issued a loud order.
"Idiots! Why aren't you shooting him? Use the 25mm cannons! Blow him to pieces immediately!"
Under Captain Sawa's command, nearly a hundred 25mm cannons on the Yamato began to rotate.
However, with Ryou's current speed, it only took a few seconds to cover the distance of a few hundred meters.
Before the 25mm cannons could even aim at him, he had already dashed into the ship's blind spot beneath the gunwale.
Hen then stomped hard on the deck, launching himself into the air. He swiftly kicked off the side of the Yamato's hull a few more times.
In an instant, Ryou leaped directly onto the deck of the Yamato.
"He's here!"
A soldier immediately shouted.
Ryou's expression turned cold, and without hesitation, he drew his sword and slashed.
A silver blade flashed in a perfect crescent arc.
A head flew into the sky.
The headless body of the soldier collapsed heavily onto the deck.
Nearby soldiers, witnessing this scene, were instantly filled with dread, their limbs turning stiff with fear.
"Damn it! Monster, die!"
An officer with the rank of major pulled out his sword and charged at him.
Ryou directly stabbed through the officer's shoulder with his sword, using him as a human shield, and charged towards the nearby soldiers.
"Bastard! Fire!"
"Don't! He's got the major!"
The nearby Yamato crew, afraid of hurting their comrade, did not use their steam guns and instead drew their swords, shouting as they charged at him.
A hint of amusement flashed in Ryou's eyes.
They couldn't stop him with steam guns, and they wanted to engage in close combat.
In just a few minutes, over a hundred crew members in this area were slain by him.
Yet Ryou didn't seem to suffer any injuries at all.
Covered in blood, he looked like a demon returning from hell.
He quickly scanned his surroundings and determined that he was near the No. 3 main turret.
However, Ryou found it odd that the iconic large smokestack was missing, replaced by a massive radar.
Could it be that the Yamato was also using the latest McRucky Engine mechanism at its core?
Ryou immediately pushed this question to the back of his mind and, after briefly identifying the direction, started making his way towards the bridge.
With the major as his shield, Ryou's killing spree was almost unstoppable.
The broad deck of the Yamato was littered with corpses, and the blood had turned the yellow deck a vivid crimson.
In less than five minutes, at least over two hundred crew members had died by his sword.
Ryou soon reached the area below the bridge.
As expected, the watertight door below was tightly locked.
Suddenly, a silver line appeared in the air.
With a "clank," the 100mm-thick watertight door was sliced diagonally in half amidst a shower of sparks.
Just as he was about to step through the door, he immediately sensed a large ambush waiting behind it.
Without a second thought, he threw the major, his human shield, through the door.
"Fire!"
Sure enough, a barrage of gunfire erupted from inside the room. The unfortunate major was instantly riddled with bullets.
Seeing that they had mistakenly shot their comrade, many of the crew members instinctively lowered their guns.
"Fools! Don't stop! Keep firing!"
The lieutenant commander in charge, holding a sword, angrily shouted.
However, just as the gunfire subsided, a dark figure leaped in from outside the door, shooting like lightning into the crowd.
It was like a wolf, no, more like a tiger had entered a flock of sheep.
Ryou's katana sliced through the air in arcs of sinister beauty.
The silver lines extended through the crowd, turning crimson as they passed through flesh.
In an instant, over twenty crew members around him were slaughtered.
"Fire! Keep firing!"
The lieutenant commander screamed in terror.
Terrified of the grim reaper who had gotten too close, the crew members, in their panic, ignored the risk of friendly fire and frantically pulled the triggers in his direction.
A cold smile appeared on Ryou's face. They were just ordinary people. Once he was close, they couldn't turn their guns fast enough to keep up with his movements.
Amidst the chaotic gunfire, the steam unique to the steam guns filled the cramped cabin.
But the only result they achieved was turning over a dozen of their comrades into swiss cheese, without even touching a hair on his head.
Soon, the gunfire became sporadic and finally stopped. All the crew members who had been lying in ambush had turned into corpses.
The lieutenant commander was somewhat interesting—he even attempted a standard kneeling bow to beg for his life at the end. Ryou's response was simple and brutal: he drove his katana straight through him.
With a splatter, he flicked the blood off his katana.
A half-moon-shaped bloodstain appeared on the floor.
It seemed this was the last of the resistance.
Ryou slowly searched upward along the steel ladder.
Any officers he encountered were swiftly executed.
It wasn't that he had lost his mind in a killing frenzy.
If he wanted to capture the Yamato and completely make this ship his, these officers were obstacles.
They could incite the lower-ranked crew to rebel, or worse, to escape.
If someone stole the Yamato, which he had fought so hard to take back, it would be a great loss.
As Ryous search continued, he nearly wiped out all the senior officers aboard the Yamato.
Only one person remained—the captain of the Yamato.
Seeing that his path was coming to an end, Ryou, with a hint of doubt, pushed open the door leading to the bridge.
The well-maintained door hinges didn't make a sound as the heavy watertight door silently opened.
As if expecting it, a middle-aged man with the insignia of a captain on his shoulder and dressed in a military uniform was calmly kneeling in the center of the Yamato's bridge.
Hearing Ryou's footsteps, he raised his head and spoke in a calm tone.
"You're here."
"Are you the captain of this warship?"
Ryou toyed with the katana in his hand, asking with great interest.
The man was just an ordinary person, without any heavy weapons that could pose a threat to him.
Feeling secure, and with the Yamato finally in his grasp, Ryou was in a good mood and didn't mind seeing what tricks the man had up his sleeve.
"I am Sawa Zosei, with the rank of captain, temporarily holding the position of captain of this Yamato."
Ryou nodded.
"If you hand over the core key, I'll spare your life."
He was completely deceiving him. As the person with the highest authority on a battleship, if this man remained alive, he could rally the entire crew to revolt with just a single command. Therefore, he had to die!
Unexpectedly, the man with the unique name, Captain Sawa, smiled.
"I have been entrusted by the Emperor to steer this battleship, which represents the glory and hope of Japan. While I have failed today, you will never obtain the key to the core mechanism!"
After saying this, Captain Sawa swallowed a finely crafted golden key right in front of him, showing a defiant expression.
Ryou's face immediately darkened.
"You!"
With a powerful stomp, Ryou instantly crossed the dozens of meters separating them and appeared in front of Captain Sawa, raising his sword to strike.
At that moment, Captain Sawa pulled out his other hand, which had been hidden in his pocket, revealing a hand grenade shaped like a melon. Smoke started to rise from the grenade, indicating that he had already pulled the pin.
Then, Captain Sawa ripped open his military uniform, revealing dozens of similar grenades strapped densely inside his coat.
"Glory to the Emperor!"
Captain Sawa shouted fanatically.
Almost instinctively, Ryou crossed his arms in front of his chest.
Boom!!!
As soon as he completed the motion, flames erupted from Captain Sawa's body, reducing him to ashes in an instant. The fire rapidly spread outwards, engulfing Ryou and extending another ten meters before beginning to subside.
Visible shockwaves tore through the bridge, shredding wooden furniture and charts into fragments. A series of cracking sounds echoed as the 30mm-thick bulletproof glass shattered into a snowflake pattern, and various instrument covers exploded.
When the thick smoke finally cleared, the bridge was in ruins, with white paper scraps drifting like snowflakes.
At the epicenter of the explosion, Ryou stood resolutely, like an unyielding pillar. The terrifying blast had merely turned his clothes to ash, leaving only slight scorch marks on his skin, with a few grenade fragments embedded shallowly in his arms.
Under his rapid healing, the burnt skin quickly peeled away, revealing fresh, smooth skin beneath. Charred grenade fragments were pushed out from his muscles.
Captain Sawa's kamikaze-style attack had achieved nothing beyond ruining a set of Ryou's clothes. Even with a C-level durability, ordinary grenades couldn't harm him. Perhaps only a 100mm or larger artillery shell could pose a threat to Ryou and the Yamato's 460mm Equalizer Cannon might have a chance of killing him outright.
The only reason he had previously dodged steam gun bullets was because they caused an irritating itch when they struck his skin, so he tried to avoid them as much as possible.
Glancing at his now bare body, Ryou immediately used the system to exchange for a new samurai's outfit, identical to the one that had been destroyed.
He then focused his senses, scanning the surroundings, and bent down to retrieve a golden key from the pile of pulverized remains. Despite being covered in filth, the key still shone with a golden brilliance.
Picking up the key, Ryou examined it closely. He couldn't tell what material the core mechanism's key was made of, but despite being so close to the explosion, it hadn't sustained any damage.
Looking at the mangled remains of Captain Sawa, Ryou shook his head indifferently.
"A meaningless sacrifice."
Leaving that remark, Ryou approached the control console. As expected, at the center of the console was a semicircular sphere divided into four parts, with a narrow slit perfectly shaped for inserting the key.
This was exactly the core mechanism for controlling the McRucky Engine, similar to what Ryou had seen in the original work.
Seeing that the Yamato showed no signs of slowing down or stopping, Ryou inserted the key and shut down the core.
With the McRucky Engine powered down, the entire battleship quickly lost power. After drifting for several minutes, it finally came to a complete stop, floating quietly on the sea.
Meanwhile, with the efforts of Ais, Jeanne, and the five hundred elite samurai they had brought, the resistance at the dock was gradually subdued.
When it came to handling large-scale prisoners, Jeanne had considerable expertise. She ordered the officers to be separated and detained while using her unique charm to calm the anxious ordinary soldiers.
Under Jeanne's command, everything proceeded in an orderly manner.
After seizing control of the Yamato, Ryou used telepathy to instruct Jeanne to remove the master keys from all the warships.
Upon hearing of their victory, over two thousand reinforcements, including a hundred samurai and many trained foot soldiers, were dispatched to the Yokosuka naval base. Although most were just foot soldier, their numbers were sufficient to guard the disarmed navy soldiers.
After a full day of work, Ryou temporarily brought the entire Yokosuka port under his control.
Fortunately, he was aware that the Kyushu landing operation had been a massive trap set by the shogun. He had sent only the old, weak, and sick, but had provided ample compensation afterward, minimizing the impact.
There were some rumors in the city that the lord had become even more ruthless, but that was necessary to preserve their strength. Fortunately, everything was still within manageable limits.
Today, the advantage of Ryou's meticulous planning finally became apparent. Nearly 600 samurai and 2,000 food soldiers from the Aragane Station had been preserved. Without this force, even if Ryou had captured Yokosuka through sheer strength, he wouldn't have been able to manage the massive naval base or the thousands of prisoners.
However, a new headache arose for him. Although he had managed to stop the Yamato, he couldn't return it to the dock by himself.
As for the Yamato's crew, the shogun had indeed assigned the best sailors in all of Japan to this legendary battleship. Faced with Ryou's blade, they displayed an unyielding resolve, refusing to cooperate even with a sword at their throats.
Even if a few surrendered to save their lives, there were too few of them to operate the entire battleship.
Just as he was growing frustrated and wandered back to the empty bridge of the Yamato, the system suddenly brought him an unexpected surprise!
[Ding!]
[——Detected that the host has gained control over a Special Entity.
Battleship Yamato is available.]
[Would you like to spend energy points to convert it into a Special Contract Servant?]
Ryou quickly questioned the system.
'What is a Special Entity? And what is a Special Contract Spirit?'