"Gaia, do you have a grudge against us? We could've kept this a secret and develop it ourselves to earn a lot of money! Is that too much to ask?" Herman pleaded in a low voice.
He wanted to test if Gaia had really called the government.
"What a fool to be only blinded by greed! Do you really think you can take every slice of the pie?" Gaia shrugged. "Don't even think about it. I called the government two hours ago. The military is almost here."
"Who are you trying to scare? Who the hell do you think you are? How can you someone like you have a hotline straight to the government?" Herman jeered loudly.
Gaia could not be bothered to continue talking to such people.
Just as Herman was about to continue questioning Gaia, everyone's expression changed.
They had heard the sound of the helicopters.
Herman's heart sank. No one knew what he was thinking, but he suddenly charged towards the stone door.
In the blink of an eye, Herman barged through the stone door.
"Let's hope the goblins will show him mercy!" Gaia thought.
The others were deliberating about whether to follow Herman, but before they could make a decision, the helicopters had already arrived above the three of them.
Two ropes ladders were thrown down as eight fully armed soldiers descended from the sky.
The first thing they did was to cordon off the stone door to prevent others from getting in.
Ka-chak!
The eight soldiers quickly loaded their rifles and took aim.
Hearing the sound of the real guns being loaded, the rest of them turned pale. This was obviously the real deal.
Gaia had been telling the truth!
He had really called the army over!
The leading officer walked up to Gaia and looked him up and down.
He then took out a top-secret file with a gold wax seal and compared Gaia with the picture on it.
"Mr. Gaia, can I verify your fingerprints?" The leading officer took out an identification device and handed it to Gaia.
Gaia tapped his thumb on the device and the indicator quickly turned green!
"Identity confirmed!"
The mechanical notification alert of the identification device rang out, causing the leading officer's expression to soften.
He saluted Gaia respectfully and said.
"Good day to you, Mr. Gaia!"
Gaia nodded with a calm face.
"Let's deal with these people first." Gaia pointed at Millie and the others.
"Gaia!" Chris and the others' hearts sank.
"The discovery here is too important to be leaked, so I'll have to ask you guys for some of your time."
Then, he smiled at Chris and said, "Professor, don't worry, they won't hurt you."
Gaia noticed that Millie was walking towards him, almost as if trying to hint to the soldiers that they were in a relationship.
The leading officer stopped her.
"Gaia! Hurry up and explain to this officer about us!" Millie shouted at Gaia, not willing to give up.
From the salute that the officer gave to Gaia, Millie knew that Gaia's identity might not have been as unimpressive as she thought.
Then, she thought of the fact that their expedition team, which had no prior accolades, suddenly receiving a grant that allowed them to start the research. Adding on to the fact that professor Chris had taken oddly good care of Gaia during this expedition, to the point where he was even willing to give up on the expedition just for Gaia, something was fishy.
All of those things combined could only mean one thing. Once Millie realized that fact, she immediately wanted to rebuild her relationship with Gaia.
With a golden goose like this, why did she even waste her time on this expedition? If she knew about this earlier, she could have been enjoying her life in luxury right now!
However, Gaia did not change his decision because of this.
"Millie, you head over there first too. Don't worry, they won't harm you."
Millie looked at Gaia in disbelief, as if she expecting to receive special treatment from Gaia.
With that, Millie was then taken away by the soldiers.
Gaia did not continue to talk to the leading officer, but that was fine in the officer's books. After all, Gaia's identity was written right there on the file.
The temple fell silent once more as time slowly passed.
About ten minutes later, there was a "whirring" sound coming from above the temple.
Gaia looked up and saw a few more attack helicopters flying rapidly towards the temple.
"As expected, profit is the best motivator. This speed and level of movement is not something you'd see from the Federation every day!"
Gaia had long understood the nature of the Federation. After all, his family was also part of this huge network of profiteers.
Strategy is decided by first looking at the position one was in. Gaia's current position meant that he could not let the Federation make off with the longer end of the stick.
The Federation could only participate in the development of this new world. The main leadership and decision-making power had to be handed over to his family.
Soon, the attack helicopters found a place to land.
"Thud thud thud thud thud thud!"
Following that, along with the sound of orderly footsteps, a middle-aged soldier with thick eyebrows and big eyes clad in a general's uniform, brought a large group of fully armed soldiers into the temple.
The moment these soldiers appeared, the entire atmosphere in the temple instantly became tense.
However, the two people in the center of it all seemed to be getting along just swell.
Gaia, who was looking at the stone door a moment ago, turned around when he heard the commotion. "Uncle Bill, you're here!" He said as he saw a face that was all too familiar to him.
Bill was a member of Gaia's family. Being a Major-General of the US Army, and he was someone who was quite highly ranked within the family.
"Bahahaha, I haven't seen you for a long time, kiddo. I didn't expect you to grow so big! Looks like you've been training your body, huh?"
Bill laughed as he hugged Gaia, lightly hitting Gaia's chest with the back of his fist.
Then, he looked at the tall stone door and asked in shock, "So, this is the stone door you mentioned on the phone. What exactly is this thing?"
"Uncle Bill, that is confidential information right now. I can't tell you yet. However, what I can say is that if nothing unexpected happens, you will definitely find out in a couple more days."
"Okay, I got it." Bill was a smart man. He immediately knew that this was a matter of great importance. It was very likely that it would become the priority of the family for the foreseeable future.
Participating in something like this would very beneficial for him to raise his prestige within the family.
Suddenly, Bill's eyes lit up with flames of passion as he gazed at the stone door. This was his future!
"Oh, by the way, Uncle Bill, you'd better be careful! Especially if the monsters inside start to come out," Gaia reminded him.
"Monsters?" Bill frowned and asked. When he had received Gaia's call, he had simply used an excuse to get some of his men here.
However, it seemed that this would not be as easy as he had imagined.
"Yep, and a whole bunch of them by the looks of it." Gaia nodded. "If the monsters come out, the secrets of these ruins will be discovered very quickly. That won't be good for the family."
Bill carefully assessed the situation, then gritted his teeth and said, "Alright, I'll drag the entire division down here for a 'military exercise'."
"That's for the best!" Gaia did not hold back.
"As for those people, let's keep them with us for now, mainly to prevent anything from getting leaked. This is a serious matter after all. I'll head back first." Gaia said.