Chapter 176

**Net-Breaking Battle Plan** (包 (ほう) 囲 (い) 網 (もう) 突 (とっ) 破 (ば) 戦 (せん) , *Hoimo Utobasen*) is the one hundred seventy sixth chapter of the *Dr. Stone* manga.

## Summary

The chapter starts with the narrator commenting that Senku, Xeno and Stanley have yet to all be in the same place at the same time, and thanks to the motorcycles they've avoided a proper encounter by a few tenths of a second.

It then immediately goes to the group on the motorcycles, riding away from Stanley and his men. Kohaku and Tsukasa note that surrounding them was probably only phase one, and that phase two would be shooting at them from a distance. Stanley's men then open fire on them with machine guns.

Xeno mumbles to Hyoga that they should use the hostage, him, as a shield. Hyoga then hangs him off the back of the motorcycle across the tire, but wonders why Xeno would want to be in danger like that. Carlos and Ryusui then kick up a smoke screen by weaving their motorcycles back and forth and hitting their brakes in a slalom manoeuvre, blocking the guns' line of sight. Ryusui calls for everyone to get into single-file, with Xeno as a shield in the back. Tsukasa tells everyone to keep their heads down, as Stanley is likely to be going for headshots.

Stanley jumps onto a rock and starts firing at the convoy, bullets whizzing overhead. Tsukasa and Hyoga are shot, Tsukasa once in the left shoulder and Hyoga twice on the back and once on the left arm. We discover that Hyoga was wearing simple metal armour, which stopped the ones on his back penetrating. Rather than hit the bikes, Stanley chose to go after the main fighters.

Grabbing the binoculars from Charlotte, Stanley watches Xeno, expecting a signal from the other man. Xeno blinks something out in Morse code, which Stanley relays to Charlotte to write down. The sound of a plane engine is heard as one of Stanley's men uses the airplane Senku stole from Xeno previously, Stanley's third phase of attack.

As it turns out, before abandoning their stolen airplane, Senku and Ryusui poured sugar water into the engine, causing it to turn to carbon sludge and scorch the engine. The plane crashes soon after taking off, right next to the convoy. Stanley watches as Senku smugly rides off into the desert with his friends and Xeno.

## Characters in Order of Appearance

* Senku Ishigami
* Xeno Houston Wingfield
* Stanley Snyder
* Kaseki
* Taiju Oki
* Carlos Barrios
* Luna Wright
* Max Adams
* Tsukasa Shishio
* Chrome
* Francois
* Hyoga
* Ryusui Nanami
* Chelsea Childe
* Gen Asagiri
* Kohaku
* Suika
* Ukyo Saionji
* Charlotte Bony
* Maya Biggs

## Chapter Notes

* Hyoga and Tsukasa get shot by Stanley, however only their left arms are injured.
* Dr. Xeno sends a Morse code message to Stanley.
* It is revealed Stanley’s unit took back and repaired their stolen plane.
	+ Senku and Ryusui anticipated this and sabotaged the plane.
* The group evades Stanley, for now.
* The groups on the motorcycles are as follows:
	+ Gen (driver), Chelsea, Senku
	+ Ukyo (driver), Suika, Kohaku
	+ Taiju (driver), Kaseki
	+ Francois (driver), Chrome, Tsukasa
	+ Carlos (driver), Luna, Max
	+ On the largest motorcycle: Ryusui (driver), Xeno (gagged), Hyoga.

## Trivia

* Despite being shown in several chapters previously, this is the first time that Charlotte is named.
* Modern engines should be able to handle sugar water thanks to modern filters, however because the engines used here were primitive, the sugar was extremely effective.
* Sending a message by blinking in morse code is a method famously used in the real world by Jeremiah Denton to send a hidden distress message during a 1966 press conference he was forced to speak in while being held as a prisoner of war in Vietnam. During the televised press conference reaching all the way to the united states, Denton spelt ''TORTURE'' repeatedly in morse code by blinking,