Chapter 2439

2439 - The Syndicate's Mode of Operation - 1

Middle Sector 99 — Sacred Covenant Academy

"..." Blokan, the CEO of the Cosmic Academies and the person responsible for appointing academy heads, sat with his back and neck resting comfortably in his chair.

But his facial expression at this moment did not suggest comfort—rather, it was closer to resignation.

"No, no, no," in front of Blokan sat another person, Glacion, sitting with clear tension and agitation, "Don't leave that strange expression on your face. Wake up and think of something with me!!"

In Glacion's view, only Blokan possessed the wisdom, long life, and sufficient intelligence that allowed him to sit with him to exchange experiences, advice, and agree on a general roadmap that would save them from what was currently happening.

As for all the other Empire officials, they were either too young, or specialized in a particular field and lacking in general wisdom.

"Think about what exactly..." Blokan asked tiredly, "What is left that you haven't done, Glacion? Do you want to make another clip where you cry this time?"

Since Qarun's announcement, everyone who could do something began doing it.

Blokan continued jumping from one Behemoth Galaxy to another to attract new academy lords, but he met with failure in most of his missions. 1 out of every 100 agreed to the contract and returned with him. As for the academy lords who had previously agreed to join them, some simply left and said they had not agreed to this, and some who had signed long-term contracts entered isolation and stopped performing their work entirely.

The entire Cosmic Academies System was paralyzed, and the Plague spread in the Sectors where they were present due to lack of attention and lack of follow-up… and this increased the accusations against them further.

And Glacion, as the Advisor of Internal Affairs, did what he could… he contacted all parties to the conflict, direct and indirect.

He headed toward the Behemoth of Relativity, and it expelled him before he could meet it.

He went toward the rebel forces in Sectors 106, 107, 108, 114, 113, 116, and 117 to conclude contracts and calm the situation, but all attempts failed after Qarun's declaration, to the point that he was forced to fight with his own hands in several instances.

Glacion sent a promotional recording to the Soul Society speaking about the plots of the Major Powers to bring down Lord Robin due to his rapid rise, and that everything being said was a lie… but the recording had no noticeable effect on the surrounding situation.

"I'll cry in it if that would help!!" Glacion raised his voice.

"Tsk~" Blokan shook his head, "You could dance in the segment and it wouldn't matter at all." Then he looked away, "There are three points in Qarun's announcement and all of them must be covered with evidence in order to change public opinion."

Then he continued, "First, the matter of killing the Cosmic Elder. Unfortunately, Lord Robin himself promoted the Cosmic Elder's importance and spread his heroic deeds over decades, and now this has come back to us with terrifying losses and bad reputation. Only irrefutable proof that we didn't kill him will get us out of this accusation, such as him coming out himself to deny it."

"..Second, the relationship with the Crimson Plague. You didn't talk about it in your segments, and we can't do that now. What do we say when there are containers carrying demons arriving daily at Planet Donara? The Shadow Swords and the Imperial Guard are doing a good job protecting them from eyes, but not good enough… The Soul Society screwed us all with the innovative imaging equipment they started selling *by chance*, and evading this accusation has become hollow."

"Don't—?!" Glacion almost shouted something but suppressed it.

He wanted to say: couldn't they reveal the truth that the Crimson Plague only hunts Space Beasts on Donara? That would be enough to close this problem… but a bigger problem would appear: how do they hunt them? And what is the secret of The Gate?

To the viewer, The Gate appears as an ordinary Space Gate; even to those filming it, it looks as though someone on the other side is simply sending those corpses, so its secret is still somewhat safe… In fact, even if one of the cameramen made a mistake and published a clip from which Space Beast corpses emerge and are eaten by the demons, people would begin to ask why Lord Robin has this quantity of Space Beasts and why he is strengthening the demons to this degree if he does not want to control the universe using them!

But if they spoke about hunting Space Beasts from the other side, they would have to mention the origin of the Spacetime passage and where it leads; at that point the problem of Reputation would be the least of their problems… Then they would have to deal directly with Interas and others over ownership of The passage.

"The third accusation is the same as Lord Robin's affiliation with the All-Seeing God." Blokan ignored Glacion's difficult expression and continued, "And this will be the hardest of them in my view. Qarun did a good job collecting all that evidence, and the clips of Lord Robin's eyes radiating gold scattered everywhere are the best proof. We must somehow deny that Lord Robin and Sevar are brothers under the same Lord, otherwise everything we do will be in vain."

Then he looked back at Glacion with exhaustion, "Please, enlighten me… what do you have to eliminate all these accusations? Without sufficient logical answers, what do we have to say? Go and stab Qarun however you like, but then what? There will be two bad ones instead of one."

"….." Glacion looked down, "..Do we really have to defend anything? The Syndicate has been usurping the universe for tens of millions of years and this gathering against them has never happened. When was the last time an alliance like this moved to destroy a Syndicate Headquarters within a sector?"

"Hehe~" Blokan winked at him, "Don't you really understand the Syndicate's mode of operation?"

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