Chapter 67 - 66: A Telltale Email
Chapter 67: Chapter 66: A Telltale Email
On one hand, although their group had found the Secret Place, they hadn’t discovered any clues about gaining power. They were still just a bunch of weaklings.
They had neither the ability to protect themselves nor the confidence to call the shots.
But on the other hand, a sense of mission had already taken root in their hearts.
From what they could gather, the higher-ups were currently in a state of complete inefficiency and cluelessness.
Incredibly, even though the higher-ups had recognized the seriousness of these matters, it was clear that apart from the main department responsible, the other divisions were not giving it enough attention.
To describe the coordination between departments nicely, one might say it was methodical. To put it bluntly, it was a complete mess.
Of course, it was also possible that the Oliers Brothers hadn’t seen the bigger picture. After all, despite their confidence, the two didn’t dare go too far. They only ventured to hack the files on Lyon’s superiors and didn’t dare delve into the truly core levels.
But you can see the whole leopard from just one spot, and it was unlikely the big picture was much better.
In reality, this was a misunderstanding on the part of the young group.
The current situation was not one that the people in charge could resolve simply by willing it so.
For one, these strange phenomena were not yet widely acknowledged. Proposals concerning them were met with skepticism from a significant number of politicians, preventing any effective action.
Although some inexplicable and bizarre incidents had occurred in France, to be honest, things like spontaneous human combustion had also been reported over the past few decades. One couldn’t generalize from isolated cases.
The situation was thus: until things became truly clear, France could neither centralize decision-making for rapid implementation like Hua Country, nor could it throw money and resources at the problem like the wealthy United States.
Furthermore, they were not one of the five nations that participated in the scientific expedition to the Ice and Snow Desolation, so the intelligence they possessed was inferior to that of other countries.
All these factors combined to create what the twin brothers, after hacking a bit of data, perceived as "inaction."
At this moment, the group sat together in silence.
They decided to send an anonymous, encrypted email to the higher-ups, passing on the limited information they had pieced together.
They knew enough to protect themselves, and their confidence in this plan stemmed from the twin brothers’ technical skills.
...
The "Supernatural Research and Response Department" was under the Ministry of Defense and answered to the General Planning Administration and the ministry itself.
As one could tell from its name.
At this point, the French authorities were still in the "research and response" phase regarding the recent incidents.
However, the members within this department had already begun to develop a sense of crisis.
When they were first transferred from their original departments, they thought they were being sidelined. After all, a department with a name like that didn’t sound very promising career-wise.
But soon, as more and more strange cases that the police couldn’t solve were passed on to them, they began to realize things weren’t so simple.
The situation not only exceeded their expectations, but also those of their superiors.
But because they were unable to produce complete incident reports (often only managing to describe the events and their outcomes), the people in charge of budget assessment doubted their abilities and didn’t think it was worth investing significant funds into such an "inefficient" department.
This infuriated everyone in the department to no end.
Bureaucrats. It was pure bureaucracy.
Everyone in the department knew full well that the matters they were responsible for deserved far more attention, so they placed great importance on their bi-weekly briefing.
Every time, it was a headache trying to figure out how to persuade their superiors. They could sense that the higher-ups were conflicted; if they could just push a little harder, or produce some tangible results, they might be able to reverse their department’s awkward position.
Early one morning, the department head, Kodell, was agonizing over the next day’s report.
The magnetic board on his office wall was covered with pictures and files from various bizarre incidents. Every time he looked at it, his heart grew a little heavier.
"BANG!"
A subordinate burst in without knocking. Kodell was about to fly into a rage, but the man’s first words forced him to swallow his anger.
"Chief, I received an anonymous email. It details the current world situation and potential future developments."
"Your email?"
Kodell asked, confused.
’Our department doesn’t have a public email address. Does that mean he received it in his personal inbox?’
"Yes, my personal email... but that’s not the important part. The crucial thing is the content!"
Without wasting any more words, the subordinate used his superior’s computer to open his own email and clicked on the message he had just received.
"To all personnel of your esteemed department:
You are facing an evil far beyond your imagination. On the eve of this darkness, you must be prepared, or else....."
The entire email was written in a cautionary tone.
It described a crisis that spanned a thousand years of history.
This crisis had once threatened humanity’s very existence, but it was eliminated through the combined efforts of heroes from that era.
Now, it was clear that this crisis was about to return.
Some of the sentences were not entirely coherent, as if the sender hadn’t fully organized their thoughts, or perhaps didn’t fully trust the recipients. As a result, some of the information seemed chaotic.
But the general gist was still easy enough to understand.
It was signed, "Guardians in the Night."
The sender was a random string of letters, and the IP address was traced back to the recipient’s own computer—clearly spoofed and not something that could be easily traced.
Kodell immediately held a brief meeting with his subordinates.
’For someone to send this message directly to a team member’s personal email, bypassing all the security for our supposedly secret department... leaving aside the veracity of the content for a moment, the sender at least has some formidable technical skills.’
Even without confirmation, Kodell already planned to include this in his report the next day.
The most crucial thing now was to convince his superiors to allocate them sufficient resources.
...
「The next day, in the department conference room.」
This time, the General Planning Administration only sent a regular representative, but the Minister of Defense himself was present.
Although Kodell was slightly nervous, he still presented the information and materials he had stayed up all night preparing.
"Are you kidding me, Kodell? You’re daring to feed us this nonsense based on a single email?"
The Minister of Defense remained silent, simply letting Kodell and the representative from the General Planning Administration argue back and forth.
Kodell couldn’t take it anymore.
SLAM! He slammed his hand on the conference table.
"Mr. Henry, I must warn you! I’m not doing this for personal gain. By submitting this report, I have already prepared myself to bear the corresponding responsibility."
After a brief pause, Kodell shed his usual mild-mannered demeanor and narrowed his eyes at the detestable politician.
"So what about you, Mr. Henry? Since you disagree with this report’s requests, will you take responsibility for what happens later? Can you bear that responsibility!?"
These words were, in fact, half-directed at the Minister, who had yet to state his position.
Henry was rendered speechless, fuming but unsure how to refute such a "thuggish" argument.
"Actually... what Kodell said might be true."
The Minister of Defense’s first words stunned everyone in the conference room.
"Our allies... sent us some information yesterday as part of a ’friendly exchange’..."