Chapter 1085: NO. 208: Not the Only One

NO. 208: Not the Only One

Ten minutes ago, the top-floor conference room of the Rhodes Island Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. building.

A trans‑world barrier‑crossing international summit has just ended.

Having stood for not a short time, Dr. Luo Xia, who had supported the entire meeting, finally sat down in a chair to relax, wearily responding to the farewells of speakers leaving the venue one after another.

The act of contacting across world barriers itself requires extremely expensive equipment and consumes considerable energy.

In other words—it is enormously costly.

Whether it's energy provision or equipment maintenance, both are major expenses, and precisely because of such costs, this urgently convened short‑term meeting appears especially special.

Agenda: Stage‑by‑stage breakthrough in responding to the second of the Terra three disasters—demons.

This is indeed major news worth foregoing manpower transport information (having company staff send messages from the Star Gate back to the Terra continent), and the discussion and doubts brought by the news itself must also be dealt with on the spot.

So in the latter half of the agenda, Luo Xia not only kept talking nonstop, but also maintained a high level of mental focus.

And when all that was, for the moment, over, he could finally take a break; as he twisted open the water bottle handed to him by Amiya, two black‑blue coattails slipped into his lowered gaze.

"What's up, you two?" he asked, lifting his head to look at the two Deep Sea Hunter representatives.

Galaretiya and Urbiyan, one male and one female, were respectively the captains of the past Deep Sea Hunters' Second Brigade and Third Brigade.

Now that the Deep Sea Hunters present are severely lacking in numbers and need to be reorganized and streamlined, the two have long since been merged into a single brigade.

Even though they are in a single brigade, elite‑level grouping is still carried out; the two usually interact little, and whenever they appear together, it must be for a major matter like the one at hand.

"We want to ask the doctor, regarding Rhodes Island's attitude toward dealing with the second of the Terra three disasters,"

Demons, Origin Stone, and the Faction—these are the so‑called three disaster terms that have appeared in the meeting, intended to describe catastrophes that threaten civilization and inflict wounds that are hard to heal.

This meeting's focus was indeed placed on demons, but it also likewise mentioned the Faction—especially the recent unstable state of Ishamara, whose influence on Scotti has begun to show in her character.

This is clearly also the main concern of the two Deep Sea Hunter representatives, but in this content, whether it's Dr. Luo Xia, Kairse, or Amiya, they all describe it rather briefly.

It was as brief as introducing the unfamiliar Aomo Lindun to the high‑ranking officials of the various Terra nations—just a simple note that he is a certain helper of this world, his power resembling that of a giant beast, on good terms with Zhong Yue, and even able, in that current‑state recreation, to persuade Wang and Xixie to join forces.

Brief as it was, if not explained thoroughly, the representatives from the Yan and Wu sides would feel uneasy, and there would be no shortage of questions and comments during the meeting.

But regarding the deep‑sea hunters' most‑concerned topic, the Faction, Rhodes Island merely mentioned Ishamara's current state and brushed it aside—indeed, the focus of this meeting was on demons.

Compared to Ishamara's staged recovery condition, everyone places greater weight on the void‑like biological image of entities such as Gritz mentioned in the intelligence.

But the two brigade chiefs also know that Aomo Lindun will meet Ishamara today, who is accompanied by Laurentina, and not long ago they received a message from Laurentina: he wants to communicate with Ishamara.

Communication, what an ironic plan.

The hunters who have fought the Faction for too long have hardly ever considered such a possibility.

Even if they could acknowledge that perhaps the ancients of their homeland were indeed at fault, they would still not be willing to apologize to the present‑day Faction.

If one were to say that Agor and the Faction have a long‑standing muddled account, then the Deep Sea Hunters and the Faction must be a one‑sided blood‑deep grudge.

As for why it is said to be one‑sided…

Actually, the Faction side does not hold grudges.

The individuals of the collective do not possess individual will, and as the primordial top‑level will, they ought also to lack the complex human seven emotions and six desires.

What they consider is solely survival, solely evolution; to better persist and to strengthen the collective, the Faction have etched the threat of humanity into their genes, instructing later generations to learn to take the offensive.

They truly do not bear grudges.

But they will remember factors harmful to the group, and through genetic synchrony and the execution of orders, they actively sweep away threats.

And humanity, precisely, is the most common and most numerous threat.

And this naturally drags in even those humans from regions unrelated to the Faction.

Tragically, too many humans who have fought the Faction assume they are mutually hostile, but in fact the opposite side carries no hatred.

It is merely a clearing‑out, merely a predation.

Just as humans delineate territories, drive out and kill threatening animals, and feed on them.

The Faction's assaults have always centered on 'Destroy you, what's it to you?', devoid of any emotion, purely an industrial‑scale operation.

And even more tragic, the Faction ought not to be humanity's enemy.

Not only should they not be the enemy, they ought even to be humanity's good partner, indeed indispensable to human survival.

—as the pre‑civilization planetary terraforming tool, they could use their adaptability and evolution to turn originally uninhabitable planets into habitable ones as a perfect artificial biosphere, which is their original form; and this has already been conveyed to Rhodes Island through certain unearthed documents and the so‑called spoilers of some transmigrants.

Such original intent versus the present situation—at first glance it looks like the pre‑civilization work has gone out of control, but could the cause of that 'loss of control' really be time?

Impossible.

Just as their current motive for activity is not out of personal grudge, still like an inorganic lifeform that feels strange to people, the Faction has not changed.

Indeed, they are still faithfully carrying out the expectation placed upon them at their birth—transforming the environment.

Those who speculate in such an unoptimistic way are not only Aomo, but also include the doctor among the high officials of the various Terra nations, regions, and organizations.

Everyone's understanding of this also leans toward the idea that the people of that era brought the calamity upon themselves.

But nowadays, who could apologize on behalf of those people back then?

And who could make those who have lost many to the Faction's ravages go apologize to the Faction?

The chain of hatred has long been unfolded; nobody wishes to step back, nor can anyone make another step back, so humanity seems destined to fight the Faction to the death until one side disappears.

That is said to be the case, but is it really so?

Even stepping back a step, can we truly prevail?

With humanity's strength.

The giant beasts care nothing for the Faction; those ancient existences can be traced back to the pre‑civilization era, their bodies composed of matter that does not follow known natural laws, and each of their great beings has even, by means of surreal power, written the fate of the entire planet.

In their eyes, the Faction remains a little toy fabricated by humanity of that age.

Precisely for this reason, they are more able to accept the claim 'humanity's self‑inflicted calamity'; were it not for personal attachments, they would generally not intervene.

Under such premises, in fact there are still many humans who have had no contact with the Faction.

They have not yet been bound to that war chariot, nor do they yet have an obligation to definitely face the Faction—this is also the original intention of the many warriors who fight against the Faction, and moreover the reason the deep-sea hunters fight bravely.

But now, they instead have to drag all of humanity into eradicating the Faction?

——Since realizing the nature of the Faction, these existing deep-sea hunters have had to face such thoughts more than once.

This group includes people like Lorentina who are carefree and straightforward, as well as people like Galeteia and Urbain who must think about the future due to the weight they bear.

But they still couldn't come up with a solution.

Just as Skadi eventually also sought help from Aomo Lindun together with Lorentina, they also chose to go find Doctor Luo Xia for an answer.

Deep-sea hunters cannot represent all humanity, nor can they represent Argol.

Even Rhodes Island cannot represent.

Instead, it is the Rhodes Island Pharmaceuticals Limited Company situated in this bordergate area that represents the opinions of countless leaders on the Terra side.

They represent many people, and Doctor Luo Xia is an existence acknowledged by countless leaders.

Not Doctor Kal'tsi, not Miss Amiya, but Doctor Luo Xia.

The words that he, who truly unites the existence of all nations, high and low, noble and common, thereby bearing many expectations, can speak, are the answer that the two deep-sea hunter representatives long to hear.

Regarding the Faction, what is Rhodes Island's attitude?

This attitude is not merely the literal attitude of Rhodes Island; it is also the Doctor's attitude, and also the attitude of countless land-dwelling inhabitants of Terra.

They await an answer.

Come for the deep-sea hunters, come for the Argol people, and also for themselves, to find a peaceful way out.