Chapter 617 - 611. An End and A Beginning
The world talked about the emergence of the Great Tree and the erasure of the Deathzone. For days, it became a headline not only in the Eastern Federation but also in other regions.
Even after that, news about the reclamation project kept churning out as if the reporters never lacked any materials to cover. Perhaps because there had been such a draught of news during the operation itself, the articles kept flooding the media as if the dam had been broken.
The recording of the live broadcast kept replaying all over the link. It had become a topic of talk, whether a serious panel discussion in academies and associations or an ice breaker during a hangout in a downtown cafe.
As promised, Radia held another press conference in a symposium hall and relayed the highlights of the operation in front of government officials and the Sentinel Association. It was his way of saying that no one could manipulate the result and claim their role in this operation, which was funded by Trinity and Mortix.
The content of the Reclamation Act was once again spread to the public, who might have forgotten about it after three years. As if by design, the official press release was out on the same date as the announcement of Trinity as the project winner three years ago.
Radia, as the man on the top of the operation, almost couldn’t see the sun; hopping from one meeting to another without rest from dawn to dusk. The PR teams in Trinity and Mortix were losing their sleep managing the flow of public opinion, and the legal teams were battling with mountains of paperwork to take care of the hundreds of contracts that were nearing their end.
While the outside world was chaotic, the newly reborn nameless district formerly known as the Deathzone, was comparatively peaceful. They treated the new region like a vacation site, sunbathing on the side of the lake or having a barbeque party while waiting for their discharge.
When the order of retreat was given, they folded their beach chair and packed their compact tent; washing their face clean and putting on their clean clothes--not the battle-tested equipment and weapons rusted by miasma and beasts’ blood.
"I’m going home! Adios!" Han Shin was among the first ones to bail out of there. He didn’t even bother waiting for scheduled discharge, but slipped through the portal that Nyx made for Radia and Han Joon while shouting a phrase from an Old Age.
No one could blame him though--most of them were eager to leave the place too. While it was no longer the stifling place filled with murky air and thick miasma, it was still a battlefield. Those who had families and significant others missed their homes, and the rest longed for a proper civilization.
Starting from the healer, the personnel left the liberated Deathzone in batches. Mortix and Trinity had prepared buses to bring them to the nearest city, where they could take a chartered flight to Althrea or take other vehicles to where they wanted to go.