After the autopsy ended, Quinn and her father had left. They were there to warn Mercer and see if they could learn anything about the alien. But Unity started to get heated slowly. Some influential news stations started a smear campaign against Cross Family. They claimed that aliens could be captured alive but killed because it asked for a glorious death, and its AI had been destroyed because of one of the Cross.
They couldn’t outright slander with mutiny, but they could still influence public opinion.
At the same time, the president of Unity, Mikhael Orril held a press conference and verified the existence of aliens attacking humans in the competition. The footage published all over Unity lacked authentication code because they were recorded in Portal World, but with the president himself vouching, no one could refute the fact anymore.
As it happened, the news about the newly mutated walking dead started to spread everywhere, and families started to pressure the Cross family to take action. As one of the generals, and one of the biggest factions, the Cross family needed to defend the walls and execute the walking dead.
In Parliament, Capital
The political system of Unity was a lot different than before the invasion. Although there was a basic democratic system where humans could elect the president, only capable people could become generals of the army, and still had a say in the parliament. So although Mikhael Orril was elected, he was sitting with three generals and the council of ministers. And in the middle, a floating giant hologram ball was present to oversee the meeting and give her insights if needed. After all, she had seen a civilization from its middle eras to its end and knew a thing or two about politics.
“As all of you know by now, the alien had been taken away by the Cross Family without getting approval of the council nor three generals. Merlin Cross, Miles Cross, and Helez Alwan schemed masterfully to take the body to Cross Mansion without even checking if it was carrying a dangerous virus that could endanger Unity!” One of the ministers said. He was older than most in the room and talked slowly with a lot of breath breaks.
“Are you saying Adam Aurora, Evelyn Cross, and Roger Hulin had failed to see the virus and endangered people?” Mercer looked at the old minister without any emotion on his face.
The old minister looked flustered. The three names mentioned by Mercer were best of the best in their fields and were in Cross-Faction.
“Still, the Cross family should have shared it with us!” Another minister shouted as he pointed at Mercer.
“Share what exactly?” Mercer looked at the man with slight anger. “Cross family delivered the body in a sealed facility so if there was any virus on the body, it wouldn’t threaten the rest of the world. The best three scientists of their fields had been summoned to examine the body and everything we found out had been uploaded to the system. Do you want the calf or the thigh of the alien?
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Even if it was one of you who had the body, you still call for one of the three I mentioned before to conduct the autopsy, so why are you bitching?”
“Mr. General is correct. I looked into the reports and everything had been explained thoroughly, I already approved so that everyone in the room has access to it, and can check anytime.” Floating ball confirmed what Mercer said, to his surprise. “Still, the AI necklace would be much appreciated.”
“It had self-exploded, and couldn’t be recovered. Sadly nothing we can do.” Mercer shook his head.
“There is one thing baffling me.” Mother AI started, Mercer looked at her with a frown, “From what I learned, the alien had killed humans and took their wristwatches to gain information from my children. It is safe to say the AI in the necklace and hardware it uses is stronger than Evil-Rank monster core wristwatches. So, how could a Grace-Rank hunter with his wristwatch be able to hack into the AI necklace?”
“He wasn’t!” Mercer looked at the ball and said with confidence. “My grandson is a genius. When AI decided to self-explode, it started to charge itself with electricity to overload. My grandson mixed electric currents with signals and penetrated deep inside its system to forcefully withdraw information. Thanks to him we learned a thing or two about how the race will attack us in the near future. Instead of thanking him here, you are accusing him.”
“Are you saying he increased the electricity of the necklace and quickened the explosion procedure just so he could learn a thing or two?” Presidents asked. Mercer looked at the old fox with his eyes sharp. He knew there was a trap behind that praise.
“It would self-explode no matter what. Even you couldn’t stop it from happening. Only my son and I could. So my grandson made the best decision and learned critical information from the enemy.”
“Let’s put this matter aside for now.” General Tian looked at the bickering duo and said, “How did aliens find us in the Portal World and how close are they to us?”
“My grandson has a theory for this.” Mercer started.
“Oh, what is it? I would like to hear your grandson’s theory.” Mother AI looked at Mercer and said.
“The AI that race possesses is the one Hill had mentioned before. The same AI used to live where we are occupying in Portal World right now and Oracle was running the Graders Arenas we were using for the last couple of decades. Is it correct?” Mercer looked at the Mother AI.
“Yes. Oracle and Athena Race were the masters of the Graders Arenas.” Mother AI approved.
“So what if the alien's initial goal wasn’t coming there to declare war but the arena. My grandson thinks that aliens were there to remove the weapons from the armory to strengthen its race after they learned more about the Portal World.” Mercer looked at the floating ball.
“That is a highly feasible notion. There is only one problem though, even Oracle couldn’t control the arena and open the armory. None of the 6 races in Portal World created the arena. Athena Race and Oracle just took over it and could only use them a little.” Mother AI said.
Everyone in the room looked at Mother AI weirdly. “You mean there were other races before the 6 races you mentioned?”
“That is something I already shared with you, so why are you surprised?” She answered.
“Exactly. Oracle must have thought after all this time the security in the arena must have been torn down and weapons were there to be picked. But as the alien approached, he noticed humans and changed his plans. He joined the Graders Competition and declared war while trying to hack into the system controlling the arena. Seeing it had failed and its race was still away, it blocked the arena instead. So it is safe to say that the alien race is far from humans in Portal World and that is why the battlefield will be Earth.”