Chapter 1106 (1/2)

After they were all seated, Mrs. Hamilton glanced around at the other people sitting at the table. In total, there were fifteen, all neatly spaced around the perfect circle of a table so there was a clear view of every individual. Seeing so many of New Earth’s elite in one place, Mrs. Hamilton could only sadly lament that those individuals at the top were swiftly returning to the trappings of status.

Almost everyone, with the notable exceptions of Donnyton’s group, Zone 11’s group, and Phirun himself wore ornate suits sewn from bright cloth. Rather than world leaders, the people here looked like peacocks. Tutting to herself, Mrs. Hamilton reviewed the identity of everyone present.

The two from Donnyton and two from Zone Eleven Mrs. Hamilton knew quite personally. There was also Phirun, who had come alone from his Zone for the meeting. Han Yazhu gave Mrs. Hamilton a perfunctory smile as she sat down only two seats from him, then continued to speak in a low tone toward the two aides that he had brought with him from Zone Seven.

Some part of Mrs. Hamilton wanted to antagonize him purposefully after Zone Seven had so deliberately set about undercutting East End’s elemental exports, but Mrs. Hamilton restrained herself. Before she had come, she had spoken at length with most of the leaders of Zone 32’s Villages, including Sydney. If anything, Sydney had seemed almost pleased that Zone Seven had challenged them, even as profits from their business were drying up.

Which likely meant that the chill-inducing leader of East End had another card to play and that Donnyton shouldn’t try and interfere.

It’s a little reductive, but Sydney certainly fits the bill of someone who grew up knowing Randidly Ghosthound. Her determination is… abnormal. Then Mrs. Hamilton severed her own animosity toward Han Yazhu and turned to some of the other figures at the table.

One of the more sizable contingents at the table were representatives at the Orders. In total, four Orders were present: Order Ferocitas, the Order Sapientia, the Order Sanus, and someone from an Order with an insignia that Mrs. Hamilton didn’t recognize on sight. All bore their brightly colored Order livery very proudly.

But it was strange that someone from and Order Mrs. Hamilton didn’t recognize was present because although the announcement of the Orders and the growing popularity of them meant that they had blossomed at the beginning, the last few months the Orders had begun to consolidate into a few hegemons of power. And Mrs. Hamilton made it a point to keep track of these things.

Ferocity, Wisdom, and Health, the three Orders that Mrs. Hamilton recognized, were the primary beneficiaries of these reshufflings of power. The Orders Fide, Caelim, Ferrus, and Umbra were slowly diminishing down to smaller entities. The Order Veritas continued to serve as judges and adjudicators across the Zones, but their recruitment was relatively strenuous and they didn’t seek to gather secular power.

And the Order Ducis’ possessed the almost comically difficult recruitment standard of tracking down an entire moving city… well, suffice to say that while the Order Ducis was the overlords of the Order, they were effectively absent for the time being and had been for a couple of months.

There were also two individuals from the newly connected Zone to Earth, Zone 19. The man and the woman representatives both had their hair tied behind their head in a bun and shared tanned and wrinkled skin. The resemblance was so uncanny that Mrs. Hamilton couldn’t help but conclude that these people were related.

From what she understood, Zone 19 possessed a much smaller population than the other connected Zones. In addition, the team that had passed the Raid Dungeon had suffered rather grievous casualties in the process. So much so that there was no longer much centralized authority in the Zone. If anything, it was a miracle that this Zone had managed to join onto New Earth.

However, the reason that they were able to brute force their way through the Raid Dungeon was clear; in a way that perhaps only Phirun’s Zone could rival, Zone 19 was a treasure trove of natural resources. Even though only a few independent traders had made it from Zone 19 to Zone 1 so far, the metals and gems they had brought were so wondrous that apparently Erickson Steel’s City had moved through the populated regions and collected all the raw materials it could.

Apparently, it was precisely these resources that enabled the Zone to succeed at the Raid Dungeon. In spite of the fact there was no one who had taken on a role like Sam to lead a forging revolution, the clumsy methods of Zone 19 worked. All they had to do was sharpen one end of the metals they mined and swing it at monsters. That was how powerful these materials were.

In fact, everyone wanted to establish an agreement with the new Zone. But there was one factor that explained why these two figures hadn’t agreed to anything and their frowns were so severe.

The bloodless murders.

Someone had recently snuck into the newly connected Zone and was freely killing Zone 19’s inhabitants. It was also clear from the tracks that Zone 19 had discovered that this individual came from New Earth with no intention of hiding his or her movements. Yet even as they pursued the trail day and night, no one could catch the ghost-like killer. And until the culprit could be determined, there was very little chance of these two entering into an agreement with any other Zone regarding their significant natural resources.

Honestly, Mrs. Hamilton was surprised that these two had agreed to attend. It was no small thing to bring these two very bitter individuals to the table. It took quite the force of personality to move them. Mrs. Hamilton’s gaze shifted to the smiling woman who sat at the head of the table.

Theodora Greyman, the recently elected president of Zone 1, wore a relatively demure sky-blue sleeveless dress and looked on to the quietly talking attendees with obvious relish.

The first thing that was obvious about Theodora Greyman was how young and pretty she was. Her hair was dark and she had the sort of natural charisma that made it difficult not to return one of her wide and honest smiles.

Perhaps more obviously impressive to Mrs. Hamilton was the story of the woman’s rise to power. Theodora Greyman was a relatively recently liberated individual from the borderlands who had adapted remarkably quickly to System life. In addition, she had taken the political world of Zone 1 by storm. Whereas most powerful individuals were satisfied with setting up bases of power and becoming incumbent Senators, Theodora had risen in popularity due to her leadership as a member of Zone 1’s Internal Security Administration and used that to seize the presidency.

Although she had only been able to raise her Level to the early 30s around the time she rose to prominence, her leadership as the first waves of monsters rampaging from Zone Eleven had protected Zone 1 from a disastrous flood of Raid Bosses into its heartlands. With that victory as a launching point, she had begun campaigning on the platform of dismantling many of the pre-System government administrations and reshuffling the Zone 1 government to engage more directly with the problems the world now faced.

They needed to adapt, Theodora Greyman claimed. And despite the relatively tepid response from Congress, the people agreed.

She had fought on the front lines, she supported science funding and expanded System-focused schools, and, as Mrs. Hamilton had earlier noted, she was charming. She won the seat of President of Zone 1 by a landslide despite having no real allies among the Senators. Following that, she had cashed in her first political fistful of political clout not to accomplish her stated platform goals, but by organizing the first World Summit of New Earth.

Mrs. Hamilton watched Theodora Greyman carefully, wondering what sort of individual she would turn out to be. She also didn’t overlook the fact that Theodora had continued to fight, to the point that she now was Level 48. Which meant that she didn’t currently have a Fate, but getting to Level 50 in a little less than nine months was not possible for someone who avoided hard work.

In contrast… Mrs. Hamilton glanced sideways at Phirun, who was only Level 29. It had clearly been quite a long time since he was required to actively fight his opponents. A shirtless, towering pillar of a man standing with his arms folded behind Phirun noticed Mrs. Hamilton’s look and gave her a glower that warned her of being too free with even her glances. Mrs. Hamilton kept her face mild as she turned her face away.