Chapter 299 : The Beginning of Catastrophe
Chapter 299: The Beginning of Catastrophe
“......”
I remained silent for a moment.
Only now did I understand why Chairman Stingray had been so wary of the Sky Dragon.
Just as he had said, no matter how thoroughly he explained it, I would have doubted him.
A Dragon that ruled the city.
A Dragon that had become the city itself.
It was difficult to clearly determine whether such an existence was good or evil. Without question, humanity had been able to prosper in this city for the past two hundred years thanks to the existence of the Dragon known as the Sky Dragon.
However, whether it was truly worth continuing to live beneath a being that could strip humans of their free will and turn them into puppets whenever it wished was another matter entirely.
Chairman Stingray had likely wrestled with that question for the past two hundred years, and eventually leaned toward the latter conclusion.
Of course, there was no way his true intentions contained only the noble ideal of pursuing “freedom”...
Even so, it was equally true that he possessed a cause of his own.
And now that I had encountered this situation, my thoughts were gradually beginning to align with Chairman Stingray's.
The problem, however...
“So, there is a way, isn't there?”
The real question was how to deal with the Sky Dragon that had become this city itself.
“You believe that?”
“If there wasn't a way, you wouldn't have brought this up in the first place.”
After all, it wasn't as though we could simply rain down orbital bombardments or use the power of a Level 6 Mystic Module to wipe out the entire city.
That would be like burning down the whole house just to kill a flea.
If we lost humanity's last sanctuary while trying to slay a Dragon, the consequences would be even worse.
No matter how insane Chairman Stingray was—even if he was the madman who had erased Honeycomb City without leaving a trace—he surely had no intention of resorting to such an extreme method against this entire city.
At the very least, the fact that he had shared this “secret” with me meant he had no intention of choosing that option.
“And if the Sky Dragon truly were an absolute god, we wouldn't even be having this conversation here.”
If its puppets openly defied it, there was no way the Sky Dragon would simply remain idle.
It was probably because of the “limitations” Chairman Stingray had briefly mentioned earlier.
Hearing my deduction, Chairman Stingray smiled as though he found it amusing.
“Correct.”
Then he reached his hand into empty space.
At the same moment, a gust of wind strong enough to lightly ruffle my hair swept through the room, and at the point where his hand extended, the fox-masked ninja appeared, kneeling on one knee.
'That guy again.'
It was the same man with teleportation abilities I'd seen before.
Like a loyal knight, he knelt on one knee and presented something to Chairman Stingray.
It was a cylindrical mechanical device about thirty centimeters long.
Inside it was a translucent blue liquid.
“What is that?”
“A device containing refined Dragon blood.”
The cylinder was thicker than Chairman Stingray's frail arm.
Even lifting it looked difficult for him, yet as he held it in his hands, he wore the happiest expression I had ever seen on his face.
“That lizard became a thought-form, allowing it to spread its consciousness throughout not only this city but the entire continent. It controls a territory several times larger than that of an ordinary Dragon. But because of that, there are many occasions when it cannot pay attention to every insignificant creature like us. Even if it notices something, it may not have the means to respond immediately.”
“I see...?”
I couldn't be certain, but it reminded me of an RTS game.
A player could observe the entire battlefield through the map whenever they wished, but there were limits to how many actions they could take.
Even if several units started doing something strange while the player's attention was elsewhere, it would still take time to notice and respond.
“That is the weakness we must exploit.”
The Chairman handed me the device.
“The heavier the Anti-Rain falls, the more concentrated its consciousness becomes within the city. In other words, that is when it is easiest for it to gather together. If you activate this device then, it will be forced to manifest physically.”
“And then I'm supposed to kill it?”
“Yes.”
The Chairman nodded.
“I plan to destroy 612 Colonies soon. That will trigger a Monster Wave, forcing an invasion of the city and bringing about Level 5 Anti-Rain.”
“W-Wait. What did you just say?”
“What? Are you frightened?”
The Chairman smirked.
“Production Colonies are not merely the Group's manufacturing facilities. They are also forward operating bases that keep the [Mystics] at bay. If they are destroyed all at once, the shock will naturally provoke the nearby [Mystics]. I have already calculated the optimal targets while taking the surrounding Otherworld Transformation Zones into consideration.”
“That's not the problem!”
My voice rose.
“What happens to the market after they're destroyed?”
“It will suffer temporarily.”
“That's not all. Even a Small Colony houses roughly five hundred residents. Even if all 612 selected targets are Small Colonies, that's still over three hundred thousand people. How are you planning to evacuate that many—”
Halfway through speaking, I realized it.
No...
Rather than realizing it, I had already known from the moment he mentioned the plan.
A dreadful premonition had struck me immediately.
“......You're just planning to let them die.”
“A small sacrifice.”
“......”
The Chairman answered as though it were nothing.
Only then did I finally understand the true cause of the “unexplained” Monster Wave in the Original Story.
Everything had happened as part of Chairman Stingray's plan to overthrow the Sky Dragon.
In the Original Story, Aaron Stingray died.
Instead, Benedict survived and successfully completed the Honeycomb City experiment.
Omega, the perfect human, became Chairman Stingray's greatest human weapon, fully prepared to kill the Sky Dragon.
Furthermore, the 612 Colonies he mentioned could not all have belonged to Stingray.
The number undoubtedly included Colonies owned by Militech as well as other corporations.
The Original Story had stated that “the Corporate War caused the Colonies to collapse, triggering the Monster Wave.”
In reality, it was the exact opposite.
“The Corporate War was started to create the Monster Wave.”
That was the truth.
However, on the day the operation was carried out, the protagonist, Shade Wells, began rampaging, causing Chairman Stingray's plan to collapse.
'I moved the timeline forward.'
Forcing Benedict into retirement had made him the director of Honeycomb City's laboratory.
As a result, Omega's completion had been accelerated.
Likewise, everything that happened in the underworld ultimately resulted in the experimental Dragon falling into Chairman Stingray's hands.
Using its blood, he created a serum that allowed him to escape the Sky Dragon's control far earlier than he originally should have.
Events that were supposed to happen two or three years later had been brought forward because I survived.
“......”
No.
Just because something that was destined to happen someday occurred now instead didn't actually change anything.
Wasn't it the same with the episodes I'd already cleared last year?
There was no point obsessing over the timeline.
The real issue was the Chairman's way of thinking.
The moment an opportunity presented itself, he would immediately put his plan to kill the Sky Dragon into motion.
He would slaughter the employees and their families living in those Colonies.
He would trigger a Monster Wave and massacre the people of the Fallen District.
Even if countless more died while stopping the invasion, he wouldn't care in the slightest.
'At least several million people will die...!'
Sacrificing millions of lives to free humanity from becoming puppets.
I simply couldn't understand that way of thinking.
“Why are you going this far? If all you need is Level 5 Anti-Rain, couldn't you simply request it from the Meteorological Administration? There has to be another way besides this...!”
“No. The important part isn't the rain itself. The true objective is gathering its ‘consciousness’ into one place through the rain.”
“Even so, there have to be other methods...!”
“There aren't.”
“Why? At the very least, you could evacuate everyone beforehand, couldn't you? With the Fox Mask's abilities, it would take time, but it should be entirely possi—”
“I told you it cannot be done.”
The Chairman answered firmly.
“For the past two hundred years, I have observed countless souls. Naturally, that includes the Sky Dragon's as well. I know exactly how to gather its soul into one place in the most efficient manner.”
“You...!”
“Needless to say, human power alone is insufficient. This requires a disaster. To confront a typhoon, we must raise our sails using the power of another typhoon.”
“Do you even realize what you're saying?”
I challenged him.
But the Chairman cut me off without the slightest hesitation.
“You will never understand.”
At that moment, he pressed his electronic voting panel.
Immediately, the results appeared on the central screen.
[Chairman Drake Stingray Reappointment]
[Voting Results]
Approve: 23%
Oppose: 33%
Abstain: 19%
The results revealed that Chairman Stingray himself had abstained from voting on his own reappointment.
As a result, Chairman Drake Stingray and the current Board of Directors would be replaced.
“What are you doing...!”
Murmur.
Murmur.
Just as I reached out to grab the Chairman by the collar, voices erupted throughout the conference hall.
Looking around, everyone who had been hypnotized appeared to have returned to normal and was staring around in confusion.
“M-Mr. Aaron Stingray?”
To people who had no memory of being hypnotized, it must have looked as though I had suddenly jumped up and tried to grab the Chairman by the collar.
The Fox Mask had disappeared without anyone noticing, making the situation look even worse.
The Chairman's security guards, having finally regained their senses, hurried over to restrain me.
They tried to lock my joints and force me to the ground.
“W-What...? Why isn't he going down...!?”
“Y-You can't do this here!”
Instead, the Chairman stopped them.
“Enough. He is not an opponent you can defeat.”
“Sir...?”
“I said stand down.”
“Y-Yes, sir.”
Then Chairman Stingray looked at me like a mischievous child who had just played a prank.
“Would you care to look outside?”
“...?”
What was he talking about all of a sudden?
For a brief moment, I wondered whether the old man had finally lost his mind.
Then a terrible premonition crossed my mind.
I immediately turned toward the sky.
Through the gaps in the dense black clouds, I saw something strange.
“What the hell...!”
Countless shooting stars.
But I knew they weren't shooting stars.
After zooming in with my ocular camera, I confirmed that they were actually long-range Missiles.
That madman had finally launched them.
The nightmare of Honeycomb City was about to repeat itself.
Only this time, on an even greater scale.
WEEEEEEEEE—
Some of the shareholders attending the meeting suddenly received urgent communications.
The disturbance that had begun as a ripple quickly grew into a tidal wave.
Those attending the Stingray Group's shareholders' meeting were people of extraordinary status.
They had undoubtedly received immediate reports of what was happening.
Some rushed to the windows in disbelief and stared at the sky.
Others abandoned the shareholders' meeting entirely and hurried out of the conference hall.
Some raised their voices and charged toward Chairman Stingray.
-What do you think you're doing, Chairman Stingray!?
-Are you trying to start a war!?
-You did this, didn't you!? Cancel it immediately!
The conference hall descended into complete chaos.
At this point, whether Chairman Stingray remained in office or not no longer mattered.
Moments later—
RUMBLEEEEEEEEEEEEE—!!
A violent tremor swept across the city.
Far beyond the city limits, several pillars of brilliant light and mushroom clouds rose into the sky.
And then...
“My son.”
Chairman Stingray smiled.
Once again, in the blink of an eye, the ninjas appeared beside him.
Each of them pointed a weapon at the people attending the meeting.
“Now...”
“You have no choice but to stand with me.”