Chapter 564 The Beginning of the Storm (2/2)
The worst-case scenario had happened.
No matter how shocked the upper echelons were, they could not believe that in the short span of a few months, Godora had actually found a way to eradicate this Mutation Disaster.
”Now… what do we do?” Someone broke the deathly silence.
Everyone turned to stare at Degulish at once.
The person in question opened his mouth, his expression gloomy. However, he paused before finally speaking with much difficulty.
”Let's inform the leader.”
He was the commander-in-charge of this plan, but now that it was falling apart, the severity of the situation ought to be raised with the leader.
The communication channel was quickly connected, and DarkStar's leader appeared in the vacant main seat, surveying the crowd.
”I'm not in the Hyde Star System. If it's nothing important, don't disturb me… eh? All your expressions look nasty. What happened?”
Degulish gritted his teeth before explaining the entire situation. His face was extremely ugly to behold as he felt that he had completely betrayed the trust bestowed upon him by the leader.
”This is… unexpected.” The leader's expression twitched a little, and he fell silent for a while before continuing. ”There's something fishy about this. I'm quite certain of the scientific research ability of Godora. While their magic arts are quite advanced, their technological ability falls quite short. They must have obtained some sort of external help.”
”Are you saying…” Degulish seemed to have obtained some clues.
”Yes, your deductions are correct. The thing that disappeared contained the sample of the Mutation Source. Our intelligence network has shown that the Secret Message Bead fell into Godora's hands, but the goods inside had already disappeared. The greatest possibility is that it had been taken away by the Holy Stone Civilization, but… there's another possibility.”
At this point, Ember, who had been completely silent, suddenly spoke with his eyes gleaming. ”Floating Dragon.”
He was the member who had been tasked with searching for the lost goods, so he understood this part the clearest.
”A mysterious man was mentioned in the report of Ember. When he was looking for the Secret Message Bead, there was once a person who used the name of DarkStar to inquire about the whereabouts of the Secret Message Bead. However, in the end, Floating Dragon was the one who found the Secret Message Bead. It was handed over to Holy Stone… then here comes the question, did the mysterious man not manage to find the Secret Message Bead, or did he take the contents, leaving only the shell?”
All the upper echelons in the room quietly listened. This was originally an unsolved case, but the leader seemed to have managed to obtain some clues, and this attracted the attention of everyone present, including Ember.
”The research results of Godora must be related to the missing sample of the Mutation Source.” The tone of the DarkStar leader remained calm. ”For Godora to solve the problem faced by Planet Aquamarine first, where a member of the Floating Dragon was also situated… there's no need for more evidence; the situation is clear.”
Degulish burst into anger. ”To think it was Floating Dragon! So, the whole process of passing it over to Holy Stone was a huge sham! Why did Floating Dragon want to target us? Wait, could it have been Black Star‽”
Everyone present received a huge shock, turning to Ember with an expression of shock and surprise.
They still remembered how, after the incident on Noriosse, Ember had insisted on paying whatever price possible to eliminate Black Star. However, not only did they ignore him, they had even scorned at him. To think that… Ember's intuition had been right!
”To think that all of you still remember the suggestion that I raised.” A hint of schadenfreude passed through Ember's eyes as he coldly spoke. ”To only awaken and realize it now, isn't it too late‽”
The expressions of everyone in the room changed, with no one daring to look Ember in the eye.
”At that time, we had no clues, and even if I was given another chance, I would still have made the same decision.” The leader sighed. ”What's done is done; now, the most crucial point is not Black Star but rather how to salvage our plan.”
Everyone sat up straight. While they regretted not taking Black Star seriously from the start, their issues were now pressing, and no one had the time to waste on hindsight.
The leader solemnly looked at all the upper echelons, suddenly relaxing his tone. ”There's no need to pull a long face. The situation is not as bad as expected.”
”Ah?” Degulish and the rest were stunned.
The entire plan is about to collapse—how is that not bad‽
”While there were some hiccups, stopping the plan from being successfully carried forward, the main objective has still been achieved, has it not? Godora has been thrown into turmoil and up in a disadvantageous position. Even if we stop our plan now and hastily retreat, the cracks between the purebloods and hybrids will never vanish.”
The eyes of everyone present gleamed. That was right; they were caught in a misunderstanding. Even if Godora managed to solve this Mutation Disaster and regained some control, the damage caused by this storm would take years to eliminate. Stopping the plan now was nothing more than reducing the damage that Godora had to clear up. What loss did they have?
”Then, do we still stop all our operations and go on standby?” Degulish asked.
”Why should we?” The leader shook his head. ”Since it has already reached this point, let's just allow the mistakes to continue. Before stopping the operation, we shall hit Godora hard one last time. Since it is no longer possible to drag the time out for the Mutation Disaster, have the infiltration teams actively feed the Mutation Source. Push all of them to the maturity phase and deceive them into attempting to destroy the planet. This way, it will make the low-level civilizations attached to Godora to suffer greatly, causing Godora to waste more energy helping them.
”The moment that the Mutation Disaster is resolved, do you still think that the Godoran troops will still stay on the calamity planets? No! They will leave sooner or later, and that's when we send out our soldiers, destroying those low-level civilizations.
”We shall see if Godora plans to save them or not. If they do not, it would defeat the purpose of them trying to resolve the Mutation Disaster. However, if they choose to offer aid, Godora will be leashed to those low-level civilizations. How is that different from having the Mutation Disasters?
”They will be stuck between a rock and a hard place!
''Planet Aquamarine was the first to be saved from the Mutation Disaster. Before long, the Godoran troops will leave, and we can take the chance to attack the planet. Since we now know Black Star's crimes and the Dragon Emperor is not on Planet Aquamarine, we can take the chance to eliminate him. I said before that we'd make him pay for this sooner or later. This time, I don't want there to be any accidents.”
Ember viciously stood up, hatred visible on his face as he exclaimed, ”My pleasure!”
Degulish narrowed his eyes and added in a sinister tone, ”Humph. He must be killed. I'll go and let Floating Dragon know that we're not to be trifled with.”
”Then I'll tag along for the fun of it. The last time, Ember and Anur failed. If we add me, there will be three people, which is safer,” a petite upper echelon added. This person was a senior combatant of DarkStar and also a Calamity Grade Super.
For a long time, their total members had been falling. Some members had been arrested and sent to the Rainbow Prison, causing DarkStar to be left with just five Calamity Grade Supers. Sending three of them already made it more than half, almost pulling out all of their resources.
The crowd seemed to have found their backbone once again and calmed down. The thought process of the leader was clear and precise. It was originally meant to be a protracted war, but since it was no longer feasible, they just had to change it to ensure the maximum losses for Godora in the short term.
Want to compete with us? Black Star, you're too young for that!
At this point, the leader suddenly interrupted them.
”This matter is not that important though; our next immediate objective should be to attack Planet Golden Gate.”
Degulish lurched in shock. ”That operation is to be continued as well?”
”Yeah, why not? We've already made the preparations and can attack in the next two days. Godora only managed to solve the Mutation Disaster for one planet—do you think it will have any impact on our attack?
”This is instead a good chance as they will definitely take the chance to spread the news of having resolved the disaster for the planets. In order to eliminate the contradictions within the country, won't it be good to take this chance to simply destroy Planet Golden Gate?”
Degulish's eyes lit up at this proposal.