In Bidara City, Pena changed into a casual suit after completing a draft report.
He called a deputy chief editor to his office and handed the manuscript to him. “Arrange for this report to be published tomorrow morning.”
“Which page do you want it on?” the deputy chief editor asked.
There were a total of three deputy chief editors in Hope Media. Initially, Lodan was the one in charge of this role, but now that Lodan had gone to the front lines, someone else assisted Pena.
Pena said, “The front page.”
The deputy chief editor skimmed through the manuscript and was surprised to see words like “The Stelaria Consortium”, “Not sharing intel”, “Causing the Pyro Company to suffer heavy losses”, and so on appearing in it.
He took a closer look and realized his chief editor’s condemnation of the Stelaria Consortium had escalated.
The news they received was extremely infuriating.
Someone sent an anonymous tip that the Stelaria Consortium had discovered a day earlier that the expeditionary army had already left Mt. Daniu. It was obvious the missing troops would pose a threat to the Pyro Company. However, the Stelaria Consortium did not inform the Pyro Company of this matter.
In the end, news that the Pyro Company had been ambushed by the expeditionary army arrived the next day. They had lost two of their divisions, and the 3rd Division was reduced to playing a logistical role in the rear. This was extremely bad news.
Although the Pyro Company’s failure this time was down to their division commanders’ glory chasing, if the Stelaria Consortium had informed the Pyro Company of the expeditionary army’s disappearance from Mt. Daniu a day earlier, how would they possibly misjudge the situation?
It was not like the Stelaria Consortium was obliged to share their intel, but it was really disappointing that they were still thinking of letting foreign enemies exhaust their competition.
For nearly half a month now, Pena had been personally writing the reports in Hope Media’s newspaper. His daily tasks included publishing whatever information they had gathered and confirmed to be true to the public, and also calling out to the Stelaria Consortium in hopes that they could work in unison with the rest of the Central Plains for this war.
Gradually, the entire Alliance of Strongholds started having very strong opinions of the Stelaria Consortium. As one of the opinion leaders around, Pena had always been very influential on society.
The deputy chief editor said, “Chief Editor, a group of people from the Stelaria Consortium have arrived at Bidara City and would like to meet you?”
“Who are they?” Pena asked.
“I guess they’re here to negotiate? I’ve checked the details of their team leader. He’s one of the military officials in charge of the Stelaria Consortium’s foreign affairs,” the deputy chief editor explained.
“If they’re here on a diplomatic mission, forget it.” Pena said, “They just want Hope Media to stop reporting about the Stelaria Consortium. Don’t worry about them. Just tell them that I’m going to Vasophati University to teach my courses and that I don’t have time for them.”
“But…” The deputy chief editor hesitated.
Did they really not have to worry about what the consortiums were thinking these days?
Pena smiled and said to him, “Don’t worry, I can handle it. Alright, I still have lessons to give at Vasophati University, so let’s not talk about this for now.”
With that, Pena drove all the way to Vasophati University and ignored the Stelaria Consortium’s diplomatic team.
But when favonovel.com arrived at Vasophati University, that Stelaria Consortium team was already waiting at the school’s entrance. A middle-aged man in a suit smiled at Pena and said, “Hello, Chief Editor Kelana. I’m Prakash Chowdury from the Stelaria Consortium.”
Pena looked at them and said with a smile, “Hello, it looks like you all are hellbent on speaking with me?”
“Yes, we have to at least meet each other,” Prakash said politely.
More and more students started gathering at the school’s entrance. Pena was a well-known figure in the school to begin with. When everyone found out the Stelaria Consortium had stopped Pena at the entrance, some students even ran out of the school with metal rods in their hands saying they would protect Professor Kelana.
Pena waved to the students to calm down. He looked at Prakash. “What is the Stelaria Consortium’s team doing here in Bidara City?”
“Can we speak in private?” Prakash said, “We respect Mr. Kelana’s insightfulness and reputation, so we hope that you can give us a chance to explain.”
Pena shook his head. “There’s no need to speak in private. If you want to talk, let’s do it here.”
Prakash slowly swept his gaze across the faces of the students and felt a little helpless. After all, how could favonovel.com possibly say what favonovel.com wanted to discuss in front of so many people?
Pena walked into the school, tapping his cane. “Go back. The truth will not change because of anyone. It is what it is. If the Stelaria Consortium plays its role well as part of a united Central Plains, Hope Media will report it truthfully. I’ve been to Stronghold 61 before, and I was also very objective when I reported on the artificial intelligence. I explained both its pros and cons clearly.”
“But your report on the Stelaria Consortium this time is clearly subjective,” Prakash said.
Pena turned around and gave favonovel.com a look. “I’m just stating the facts.”
Prakash watched as Pena limped away. As the students dispersed, an assistant asked, “What do we do next?”
“Let’s go back.” Prakash sighed.
“Aren’t you going to try again?” the assistant asked.
“The chief editor deliberately had his deputy inform us of his itinerary so we would stop favonovel.com at the entrance of Vasophati University. But that was exactly what favonovel.com wanted.” Prakash pondered things for a moment and said, “Meeting our Stelaria Consortium’s people in public was an act to avoid arousing suspicion. His attitude was very firm, so favonovel.com will not change his mind.”
Pena was walking into the school when a student beside favonovel.com suddenly asked, “Professor Kelana, will you soften your stance because of the Stelaria Consortium? After all, they are a consortium…”
Pena stood still and repeated what favonovel.com said before. “The truth will not change because of anyone. If it does, it won’t be the truth anymore.”
***
Stronghold 61. The building that housed the artificial intelligence was not particularly eye-catching. If one were to look from afar, it would not look any different from the rest of the other office buildings.
But taking the elevator all the way down, one would reach a futuristic-looking technological research and development center. Seeing the busy staff in their cleanroom suits, one would get the sense of how important this place was.
At this moment, a staff member wearing a blue cleanroom suit was uploading data into the server one by one to facilitate “Zero” with its analysis and predictions.
It was said that before The Cataclysm, the entire world was connected through the Internet. If there was an artificial intelligence at that time, there wouldn’t be a need to go through so much trouble to manually input data into it. Zero could have freely accessed everything on its own.
From the staff’s point of view, there shouldn’t be any “walls” that could stop Zero’s invasion. It had already been proven that Zero performed extremely well when it came to breaking past those walls.
Colton sat in his wheelchair and personally oversaw the staff as they worked.
At this moment, Felicity took the elevator down to the level favonovel.com was at. She adjusted the blanket on his knees for him.
Colton handed a document to Felicity. “Zero has identified where the Panaqua Consortium has been hiding all this while.”
Felicity took the document and read it. “I’ll make a trip to the Southwest. After I eliminate this threat, the Panaqua Consortium will have nothing left to back them.”
“Mhm…” Colton nodded calmly. “Then they might even be willing to sit down and talk in peace.”
