Chapter 1273: The Fourth Thesis (6)
Jenny’s pub, located in the District 49 commercial area.
Inside the spacious hall, the Tower’s mercenaries held their drinks, watching the TV screen.
At this very moment, scenes from various parts of the Victory Ceremony were being broadcast across all channels in Vulcan.
“Wow~ Look at all those people.”
Dylan, who was slumped on the floor, chugging a beer, said with a look of wonder.
“I’ve never seen so many people near the Central Council before. Was it always like this?”
“Decades ago, only the district where the Central Council was located belonged to the truce zone.”
Felix, standing with his arms crossed, replied.
“Most important treaties and agreements used to take place there. Dylan, you wouldn’t know much about it, given your short mercenary career.”
“Felix. You’ve gotten much better at provoking ever since you started hanging around Van. If my career is short, then everyone else here is a bunch of greenhorns.”
“Stop spouting nonsense, both of you, and move aside.”
Mila, who was sitting at the bar with Priscilla, sipping her drink, said in an indifferent tone.
“I can’t see the screen at all with you two giants standing there. I didn’t bring my sister here just to stare at your backs.”
“Ahem… My apologies, Priscilla.”
“Oh, I-I’m fine. My sister has been quite rude in many ways…”
As Felix cleared his throat and hunched down, Priscilla’s expression became very uncomfortable.
The young wizard nervously fidgeted in an awkward posture, not even halfway through the cocktail Jordan had made for her.
Mila chuckled and poured the beer she was drinking into Priscilla’s glass.
“Shilla, don’t be shy. All the professors you know are probably there. Even if you don’t care about others, you should at least watch the presentation at the Victory Ceremony.”
“Do people usually give important advice like that while pouring their half-drunk beer into someone else’s glass…?”
“Weian. Shut your mouth?”
Just as Mila snapped at Weian, who was grumbling about it being disgusting, the door burst open and the Thorben Magic Tower Lord strode in.
“Khahahaha!!! Bonnoh has had an awakening while you wretches were crawling on the ground!!!”
Flash!!!
He immediately yelled, unleashing blue lightning and strutting around the pub’s lobby hall.
Naturally, none of the Tower’s mercenaries responded to Thorben.
“What’s wrong with that lunatic now?”
“I don’t know. He went to some research institute with Van and suddenly came back like that.”
“Lightninggggg!!!”
The Tower Lord’s madness, ignoring the cold stares of the people and joyfully roaring like thunder.
“He seriously looks like he needs an examination. Did he hit his head somewhere?”
“What are you talking about? He was like that when he was first dragged to the Magic Tower.”
“No, but he was a bit more coherent than that.”
“There are so many simultaneous events at the Victory Ceremony that I don’t know which broadcast to watch.”
Jutiya, who paid no attention to Thorben, tilted her head.
Holding a mango smoothie in one hand and an apple smoothie in the other, her thick spectacles gleamed.
“I want to watch the broadcast where Adamant Thunder appears, but it seems there’s no coverage once he entered the main building… Should I watch the Council spokesperson’s policy announcement?”
“Jenny has already received and organized the City Council’s policy-related information via official documents.”
Priscilla answered.
“You don’t need to watch all the broadcasts; just check the new information being revealed at the Victory Ceremony. That’s why I’m still here…”
“Did you hear that, Felix? Aren’t you going to move that unnecessarily gigantic body of yours?”
“No, sister!! It’s not like that…!!!”
Bang!!!
At that moment, the pub door opened and Jenny walked in.
Wiping her hair back with a tired expression, she placed her laptop on the bar.
Jenny turned her head and grimaced at the chaotic state of the pub.
“What are these idiots doing now?”
“Oh, Jenny. You’re late.”
Mila, who was throwing crackers at a crouching Felix’s head, turned around.
“That last hearing was such an interesting event, wasn’t it? So we all gathered to watch this Victory Ceremony together.”
“Mila, don’t throw ginger snaps over here. Are you really a child?”
“There’s a vampire here. If he gets exorcised by ginger, will you take responsibility?”
“The weakness known for vampires isn’t ginger, it’s garlic. And even that is just a baseless human superstition.”
“…You’re right. This person is drinking ginger tea, not even eating ginger snaps.”
“I knew I smelled strong ginger; so it wasn’t the crackers Mila was eating?”
“…”
Jenny, who had been watching the Fearsome Blood King nonchalantly sipping ginger tea, finally sat down on a bar stool.
Soo-ryun, standing with her spear, smiled and spoke.
“You’re always working hard. Did Van get in safely?”
“I dropped him off in front of the Central Council’s main building. I wanted to stay until the end, but there were too many people to remain.”
Jenny pressed her brow with a tired look.
“On the way back, I was on the phone with a partner company about the artifact business, so I couldn’t properly watch the broadcast. How was it?”
“It was amazing.”
The mercenaries took turns adding their comments to Jenny’s question.
“I’ve never seen so many people on one screen before.”
“It felt like an earthquake whenever Van moved because everyone moved with him.”
“The building actually shook, and it seemed like an earthquake alarm went off, didn’t it? It wasn’t just my imagination.”
[When so many people gathered, humans just looked like garbage.]
“Manson. That’s just how you want to see it.”
“…Enough. Change the channel.”
Ignoring the mercenaries who immediately started bickering, Jenny said, racking her brain.
“On the way here, I briefly spoke with Major General Raphael, and Professor Vylun’s thesis presentation was scheduled for around now.”
“Huh, really?”
The mercenaries, who had been chugging beer, suddenly widened their eyes.
“No, it’s starting much earlier than I thought.”
“Wasn’t that schedule not completely confirmed to begin with?”
“Jenny. You should tell us about interesting events like that quickly!!”
“Do you all want to leave?”
The mercenaries ignored Jenny’s cold response and hurriedly changed the channel.
Finding the broadcast was easy, as most stations were airing the same screen.
The Central Council Annex Grand Auditorium was packed with thousands of spectators.
At its center was a young man in a lab coat, his hands resting on a workbench.
“…Oh?”
“What’s wrong? It’s unusually quiet. Was the response always this low?”
“He’s currently the most famous researcher in Vulcan. That can’t be it.”
The mercenaries’ expressions subtly shifted as they quickly detected an anomaly on the broadcast screen.
“The microphone on the podium is broken. Did the presentation already end?”
“No, it can’t be, considering he’s just started the demonstration. It seems there was a commotion during the Q&A session.”
“That’s strange in itself. There was a commotion loud enough to break a microphone, but it’s so quiet now?”
The mercenaries’ conversation quickly deduced the situation by reading the traces and atmosphere on the screen.
“Despite the messy surroundings, there seems to be no problem with the presentation process. I wonder if the professor himself instigated that situation.”
“What do you mean, ‘instigated’? Like, he deliberately provoked heated topics or discussions during the Q&A?”
“That’s even stranger. Everyone gathered there is an expert, aren’t they? He wouldn’t need to do that…”
“It’s not strange if he’s that confident in the content of his thesis.”
Tatiana said, her arms crossed.
“Heating things up before a thesis presentation, deliberately setting up a competition… if that’s what it means.”
“He’s that confident?”
“Professor Vylun’s fourth thesis must undoubtedly be the result of Van’s direct collaboration.”
Jenny calmly added.
“Although we established a partnership with Rebatenon, Van barely touched the third thesis. I know this well because we provided the presentation venue here.”
“…”
“If the existing partnership was formed solely for the fourth thesis, then it’s not strange for Professor Vylun to be confident in its content—”
Crash!!!
Jenny’s words stopped at the sound of a shattering glass, and the other mercenaries simultaneously turned their heads.
The Fearsome Blood King, who had been sitting on a sofa, silently stared at the dropped teacup.
He had spilled the tea he was sipping with both hands just moments ago, yet he said nothing.
“…I told you not to drink ginger tea.”
“Your Grace. Are you alright? You’re not sick, are you?”
Racy did not answer the mercenaries’ worried questions.
He slowly raised his blank gaze from the floor, merely staring intently at the broadcast beyond the screen.
At his meaningful reaction, the others stiffened slightly, rising to their feet, when suddenly.
“Among the supreme True Bloodline, there are quite a few beings whose sensory perception is excessively developed.”
Jutiya said, without taking her eyes off the screen.
“He’s reading the will-thoughts overflowing in this city and understood the presentation content a little earlier, so don’t worry.”
“Understood it earlier…?”
“Heiberk. What do you mean by that…?”
Instead of answering, Jutiya placed the smoothies she was holding in both hands on the table.
Wiping her hands and adjusting her glasses to the correct magnification, she asked.
“Jenny. Are you saying Adamant Thunder directly collaborated on the fourth thesis?”
“He hasn’t explicitly said so, but considering the timing…”
“It must be. Now that I see it, it’s clear.”
Jutiya’s eyes, looking up at the TV screen, gleamed opaquely behind her glasses.
“He’s presented a theme that humans couldn’t even attempt to research. It’s just barely on the edge of becoming forbidden magic, exactly as he would set the standard.”
“…Do you already know the contents of the thesis?”
“No. Rather than ‘knowing,’ it’s… on a level where one can’t help but come to know.”
Jutiya glanced sideways.
By now, Thorben’s shouts, mimicking strange thunder, had completely ceased.
“…”
Thorben’s heavy presence, having even stopped his eccentric behavior he’d been repeating alone in the pub, now stared blankly at the screen.
At the madman’s unprecedented reaction—he who cared for nothing but lightning—even the others fell silent for a moment.
Jutiya asked.
“Jenny. How different is creating something from destroying something?”
“Pardon…?”
“How different is saving the world from abandoning the world?”
“What do you mean by that…?”
“Walking a tightrope on that boundary line is precisely Adamant Thunder’s way. I might even have been suspicious if he hadn’t collaborated.”
Jutiya Heiberk was a supreme noble who existed as a Scribe in the Ars Nova Council of Fate.
She was a Transcendent with a talent for reading the flow of causality and recording it in language, excelling beyond anyone else.
There was no doubt that the words she spoke here and now were the most accurate summary of Vylun’s thesis.
Everyone stood in their places, silently listening to Jutiya’s low murmur.
“However, even if he provided the means to realize it, the original idea must still be that human’s.”
Jutiya said, gesturing with her eyes.
“See for yourselves. The delay should be lifting soon.”
“Delay, but the broadcast now is…”
Jenny stopped speaking as she saw Professor Vylun move on the screen.
All the mercenaries who turned their gaze with her forgot to even breathe, watching the broadcast.
Fwoosh!!!
Blue lightning flowed from the hollow darkness.
Light and darkness mingled, swirling together, pulled into reality to form a specific shape.
On the workbench where Vylun’s hands were pressed together, Microcosm particles gathered and materialized.
The moment they realized it had taken the exact form of the broken microphone discarded beneath the podium.
Everyone watching the broadcast in the pub, without exception, gaped in astonishment.
“…”
No words came out.
Yet, everyone understood what that researcher on the screen had done.
At this very moment, all the others watching the presentation across Vulcan must have felt the same.
Creating something from nothing, without using any spellcraft or unique ability—something that had never existed in the continent’s history.
Click.
As the microphone was switched on, faint static mingled with the broadcast screen.
The researcher tested the microphone he had created by tapping it on the podium, then slowly brought it to his mouth.
Everyone waited for his next words, and at that moment.
[I call this Particle Sculpting.]
Waaaaahhhhhhhh!!!!!!
Almost simultaneously, thunderous shouts erupted both inside and outside the screen.
Thousands of spectators in the grand auditorium rose, approaching to see the ‘phenomenon’ up close.
People were getting up and falling forward from the 1st and 2nd-floor seating, and even from the seats arranged above the 3rd floor.
Rumble, rumble, rumble!!!!
Spectators tapping on their phones or taking pictures everywhere. Some tried to make calls or hastily sent messages.
Alarmed City Council members stood, and the Transcendent beings of the Giants of the Sunlit World raised their mana.
The massive building of the annex shook violently, as if it would collapse at any moment,
And as the pale faces of the screaming officials flashed across the camera one after another.
Snap—
As the broadcast screen cut out, the screen went dark with static.
Waaaaahhhhhhhh!!!!
Yet, the shouts did not disappear, and even the pub and TV shook violently with a faint tremor.
Only then did the group realize that the shouts that erupted with the presentation were not from the Central Council, but a simultaneous reaction from District 49.
Outside the pub, the sound of countless crowds approaching from the street echoed.
Thump-thump-thump!!!
The superhumans, who had been dazed in shock, quickly regained their senses at the sudden approach of others.
“W-what is it?!”
“It’s not an enemy. Most of them are freelancers or mercenaries…!!”
“Why are they coming here as soon as the presentation ends? Do they want to fight?”
“No, that’s not it.”
Woooooosh!!!!
At that moment, Jenny’s phone and laptop vibrated almost simultaneously, ringing frantically.
Thousands of messages poured in real-time from phone messages, inboxes, voice recordings, encrypted communication apps, and SNS notifications, all activating.
They weren’t just sending messages or making calls; they were even drafting new versions of existing contracts with the Magic Tower and faxing them.
The executives of the Magic Tower’s partner companies, with whom Jenny had just spoken, attempted to make contact immediately after the thesis presentation.
All the proposals and contracts transmitted throughout the pub were written to significantly concede or yield proportions in their collaboration with the Magic Tower.
Only then did the mercenaries realize this fact, turning to Jenny with grim expressions.
“…Jenny.”
“…”
But Jenny said nothing, despite the phones, laptops, and tablets ringing everywhere.
She merely frowned faintly, staring at the papers falling from the fax machine.
“Hmph, no choice, I guess.”
Dylan, watching her, adjusted his mask and stood up.
Approaching Jenny, he picked up the falling documents and shrugged, feigning innocence.
“Suddenly, my work has multiplied dozens of times over. Looks like I’ll have to pull an all-nighter tonight.”
“Well, as long as I get overtime pay, I don’t care.”
Mila also quietly got up and picked up a pile of papers next to Dylan.
“I didn’t bring my phone today because I planned to drink.”
Skillfully sorting them onto each pub table, she grinned.
“Someone call those who haven’t come to work yet. We can’t handle all this today on our own.”
“What does drinking have to do with your phone, idiot?”
“Damn it, I knew this would happen… I shouldn’t have come here today.”
Grumbling, Weian and Belber began picking up the documents and papers Mila had distributed one by one.
Tatiana summarized and organized the contracts and proposals that had arrived at the Tower, and Belita made calls on her phone somewhere.
Some called the Tower’s staff, while others arranged for vehicles to transport the people gathered in the pub to the office.
Everyone moved together naturally to handle the sudden surge in workload at the Magic Tower, without needing to speak.
The mercenaries cleaned and tidied the pub, then naturally called out to Jenny.
“Jenny. Machina and Kundara are simultaneously requesting contact. The Alliance and the Warband have also sent dispatches from the front.”
“It’s calls from Endorose and Automile. This is the first time I’ve seen them send investment proposals.”
“Buy me one more smoothie, Jenny. I can help you with simple secretarial work.”
“Jenny, stop being so mopey and come here. Things won’t run properly unless you approve them.”
“…It’s not that, you idiots.”
Watching her busy colleagues, Jenny finally sighed softly and turned around.
“I just had something to think about for a moment. I’ve mostly sorted it out, so come over here.”
“Why? Wasn’t it because of the fourth thesis presentation?”
“Listen, because it’s about that.”
Saying so, Jenny picked up a piece of paper that had printed out from the fax machine and turned around.
The distant roar of shouts. The footsteps of people approaching the pub from all directions.
In the suffocating silence, at this moment when time seemed to stop as the mercenaries’ gazes fell upon her.
“After getting information about the war, I’ve been consistently keeping an eye on the movements of notable factions and Transcendent beings.”
Jenny said, standing still with the paper.
“I asked the Lighthouse to immediately inform me if there were any unusual movements observed near the Eastern Continent.”
“…Lighthouse?”
Hearing those words, Soo-ryun abruptly turned her gaze.
“Jenny. Surely you haven’t been in contact with Lapis…”
“City-states across the continent and forces on the Central Front are mobilizing. Some are sending diplomats, and faction leaders are making calls.”
“…”
“The Order Alliance. The Ability Awakening Warband. Torquepaz, Machina, Endorose, and even individual Transcendent beings seem interested. But…”
Jenny said, then couldn’t continue, closing her mouth again.
Just as the mercenaries were about to ask her why she was acting uncharacteristically, Jenny put down the paper and quietly said.
“It seems the achievements of the fourth thesis are truly extraordinary.”
“Why… is that?”
“Indeed, I must contact Van immediately and inform him of this.”
Jenny turned her gaze.
A blurry photo printed on the paper she had just been holding.
An enlarged, degraded version, as if looking down from a distant atmosphere through a lighthouse.
The shadow of an alligator giant walking beyond the epicenter of a shattered mountain was captured in the image.
“Croken Asylus… seems to be returning to Vulcan.”