Complaint after complaint piled up in my mind. I wanted so badly to ignore it, and live my life without getting involved with anything that required me to exert effort.
But in the end, my body moved, getting out of bed by itself silently. not forgetting to tidy up the blanket again, and wrap the warmth of my two precious people who were fast asleep due to fatigue.
It occurred to me to contact one of the people in the Autarky Sphere, but I remembered that I hadn't had time to ask for their contact number.
With heavy steps, I walked out of the main room door and straight out of the private room without saying goodbye to Susan and Novia. I only left a message on Susan's Social chat not to worry about me leaving when she woke up.
As I walked closer to the gate of the Bunker, I saw two figures chatting. One looked unfamiliar, the other was familiar.
"What the hell is going on here! Why have we all lost contact with the rest of the team?" The figure I didn't recognize asked in a low voice to the man in front of him, but his face looked very annoyed when he whispered.
"Please calm down Mr. Freddy, I and some other people who live here are trying to investigate." The man, who was none other than Howard, whispered back to the man named Freddy with a sycophantic manner.
"So, have there been any results?!"
"Not yet Mr. Fred-" "Slow! Too slow! It's been almost 4 hours since the Black Star Warrior's entire connection was severed! Hurry up and gather the information now!" Freddy snapped angrily and slammed the beret on his head into Howard's face.
'Hmm? Black star soldier? Is that related to those I just took down?' I wondered when I heard the words of the man in military uniform and threw off his beret.
"Good sir. Go!" Howard immediately took out his cell phone, and scrolled through the contact list with the cracked lines on his glasses blocking his view. Once he got it, he dialed and immediately, the call was connected.
"Hello, Daniel! Get everyone's investigation results together and give them to me right now!" Howard's voice sounded firm and high.
On the other end of the line, the person named Daniel replied.
"Right on time Mr. Howard! I've sent the results to your Social Chat and please check."
Howard quickly opened SC and saw the message sent by Daniel. suddenly his facial expression became grim and slowly reddened. he then said by holding back his anger.
"What the hell? Is there not a single clue as to who the perpetrators of the attack on our crew are?!!!"
"I'm sorry Mr. Howard, but that's just the way it is. There are no records in the control room and it looks like the opposing side has manipulated any CCTV cameras or other means of preventing them from being caught on camera."
My keen sense of hearing was even able to hear the sound coming out of the speaker in the cell phone, making me recall what Luna had done in support of me.
That's right, at that moment.. Luna hacked into all the CCTV footage that captured the movements of the four of us. Luna deleted the part of the video that had Lucia, Susan, Novia and me in it. Luna replaced it with a video recording, a few seconds before our arrival and kept repeating it with increasing duration. thus, the four of us never seemed to be recorded.
"What?! You don't move-" "Hmm? What's wrong Howard? Were the results disappointing?" just as he was about to cuss, Howard was interrupted by Freddy with one eyebrow raised and it seemed he could read the situation.
"uh.. it's..." 'How am I supposed to explain it? How am I supposed to confront this MAN AD Marshal with a lie?' Howard thought to himself and was pensive for a moment with his face pale.
In the end, he then ventured to tell the truth.
"You scum! What a bunch of elite scum!" Freddy spat and this time his loud voice startled everyone around him.
Freddy and Howard instantly became a public spectacle in the bunker. As the two looked around, they finally looked at each other and started with Freddy saying.
"Let's get out of here, and talk about this in the secret hall!" Freddy hurried away to avoid the public spotlight.
"Yes Mr. Freddy!" Howard picked up the beret that was lying below as he said that, and walked after Freddy.
The two of them walked away towards the inside of the bunker and were about to cross paths with me. Howard was seen changing out of his pink pajamas and this time he was wearing a suit that looked very neat. As Howard walked past me, he briefly glanced at me, making me frown and grumble inwardly.
'What makes you look like you're looking at your enemy.. huh?' I returned his glance with a cold stare and a flat expression.
My head turned on its own and saw the two of their backs slowly moving away. and at that moment, I began to recall the contents of their conversation. Although the conversation between the two of them just now was inaudible to others, but I fully heard what the two of them were talking about.
'Is it that besides the Autarky Sphere, the two of them are also related to the bunker conspiracy?' I thought as I guessed the situation.
'Ah never mind! Let everything flow as it should! If it's fate, even troublesome things will always be bound.'
My two feet began to step back towards the Bunker gate after a moment of silence. Then I was again confronted with the gate guards and began to look for troublesome reasons again.
After being allowed out of the Bunker, I immediately headed to the Basement Boulevard of Building A to retrieve Susan's Ferrari 448 Pista. After being next to that luxury vehicle I seemed to forget something...
"Keys...where are the keys?" I reached into all my pants pockets and there was only my cell phone and priority debit card.
"Did I put them on the dining table in Susan's apartment or the living room table? Ah... I can't remember!" I mumbled and clearly looked like a confused person if anyone saw me.
"Should I go back to the bunker, or just try to take the elevator to look for it in Susan's apartment?"
Faced with two troublesome choices, I decided against both.
"I should just fly away using my divine Clone, but..."
I hesitated for a moment, remembering how many magic point balances I had spent since I returned to earth? Too many! And I still didn't even know how to refill it. Except for the one that had just entered the balance...
'Hoh... it's right! Didn't I get a balance of 1 Quintillion while paying rent for a private room? Where did that come from?'
"Luna...can you tell me?" I blurted out without Mind Transmission.
Then, Luna did not reply through the voice in my head but instead, displayed the System Panel before me.
[Showing:]
[Saldo: 999.969.679.893.897.534.991.577]
"That's it?" I said feeling disappointed.
[...]
"Luna? are you there? why are you silent?! speak up!?"
I waited for a long time and hoped that some additional information would appear, but there was no response from the AI in my head.
"..."
[Yes, I'm here, Master]
"Huh, you finally answered! Are you busy planning something or other in my head?!"
[No, Master. I've been talking to you for a while now, but there seems to be some kind of disturbance in your head...]
"Distraction? Are you seriously saying that?" I felt as if Luna was toying with me.
[Yes, seriously, Master. There seems to be a problem caused by the fatigue of your physical body, and lowering the performance of your brain. thus making the connection between you and me disrupted.]
"Can something like that really happen to me?"
[Of course. It is because the core of your Subliminal Origin Energy is concentrated on the stamina and caloric intake of your body-]
"Explain briefly"
[In short, your hunger makes the access to the Subliminal Origin Core blocked.]
"Hungry? But I don't feel hungry at all..."
[That is because of the influence of the Void-Pure Subliminal Energy that stabilizes the hunger-inducing Hormone Ghrelin and the satiety-inducing Hormone Leptin.
The balance between the two hormones causes Neuronpeptide Y (NPY) receptors and Pro-Opiomelanocortin (POMC) Neurons not to be activated, so there is no trigger that makes adipose cells produce Leptin as an indicator of fat reserves to indicate satiety or gastric juices that spread Ghrelin to the Hypothalamus and indicate hunger].
"I see, yes..."
'I don't understand what Luna is saying at all!'
Luna's explanation made me remember how stupid I was in the past, for not taking my studies seriously and often forgetting what I had learned after the competency exam ended.
[Yes, Master. That's it~]
Although I'm not very familiar with the types of hormones and their functions in the human body, but I understand that my body will not feel hungry even if my body lacks calorie intake.
''Wait, then why is it that when I just woke up and got out of the hospital, I ate at a fast food restaurant with Susan. Isn't it because I was hungry?''
[That's because Origin's Subliminal Energy Core has not been activated thoroughly, Master.]
"Hmm, then that makes sense. thank you for the explanation, Luna!"
[Return the favor, Master~]
Amidst the conversation between me and Luna, I walked out of the basement and arrived at the surface. when I looked at the old building before, I was shocked by its state.
"That building is.. gone!"
To be more precise, the old building disappeared in the snow that was still falling with heavy thunderstorms and crystal precipitation. the snow piles on the streets also seemed to be very thick and almost covered half of the private vehicles parked on the shoulder of the road.
Dreamily looking at the falling snow, I was hit by an old memory when I was on vacation in Europe with my family. all five of my siblings loved the snow except me, because I didn't like things that made me feel cold. and it slightly ruined the atmosphere of harmony between my siblings and I while on vacation, because I couldn't enjoy playing in the snow with them.
Maybe for the current me, it's no longer a problem, because it seems like the immune system in my body now has a strong resistance in all temperatures and weather, thanks to the foreign energy that protects from inside and outside my body.
Thinking this, I desperately walked out away from the Apartment Boulevard Building, walking alone on the snow-covered asphalt streets. I looked around and there wasn't a single person walking like me. There were only a few cars passing by with some difficulty due to the slowly compacting snow.
'When is this going to end? why isn't the sun, which is usually hot or warm, coming out even though it's already the middle of the day? is it because of the rainy season? but there wasn't a single cloud passing by last night, why did the snowstorm happen? what caused it? Is it because the poles are melting?'
'If it continues like this for a long time, it is likely that farmers will fail to harvest and many animals in tropical habitats will die.'
Thinking of this, my instincts can't let it happen. As much as possible, I had to put an end to this right now, before the effects got worse and worse.
Deciding not to use divine Cloning, I turned on my cell phone amidst the sprinkling snow and occasionally swiped at my phone screen.
I tried to find the nearest car showroom to buy one.
Just as I was about to open the Archmap, a news notification appeared on the screen, and I reflexively pressed it as I read... "Snowstorm after Tienji City's fissure crack ends!".
Once I read the news, I now understood the situation.
'So that's it, a snowstorm should never and will never happen in a tropical country! And it turns out that this snowstorm only fell around Tienji. Is that because...' I recalled the events of the battle between Nahum and Piu-piu last time, and I seemed to know the cause of this snowstorm.
"This blizzard must be caused by Piu-piu's Castle of Glass Domain!"
*****