Chapter 406: The Federation Knows
Lian sat down on the empty chair and looked at all three of them, both sides were examining each other until the silence was finally broken.
"This meeting is part of the final evaluation of the Special Area report, and this conversation will be recorded." The middle-aged man said calmly.
"No problem."
"Before we start, you should know that some of the topics discussed here are classified."
"Then you are not the base officials." Lian looked at all four of them for a moment.
A short silence appeared, and the woman slightly raised the corner of her lips.
"Why do you think that?" She then asked with curiosity.
"You are too strong, most base officials are between level 30 and 40, but your presence is much stronger, almost at the level of the strongest professors in our academy."
The presence and aura of these people were equal to Professor Aldric, and that man was someone who had gone through three Evolutions.
Of course, there was another reason, the classified information, base officials were not influential people, at best they were only low-ranking Federation field officers.
The reason he pointed out that he knew they were not base officials was because he wanted them to know that they could not treat him like a toy.
And he was not worried that these people would try to silence him or something like that, he was a Vorhelm and even the Federation did not dare to do anything against this family.
"That was a good observation, but our identities are not important." The woman said calmly.
No one explained anything more and Lian did not insist either, there was no need, in fact he could guess that they were probably from a special unit of the Federation and high-level inspectors.
Then they started asking questions and the first questions were about the route again.
Vhalaris, the Cindari, the Forgotten Tree, the Corrupted Titan.
From the questions they asked, it was clear that they had spoken with all the Awakened they had access to during these three days.
And some information that only Lian and his friends knew had also been shared by Rindo.
Very soon the topic reached something that really mattered to them and the woman changed the page in front of her.
"When did you first hear the word ’Calamity’?"
"The system." Lian leaned back slightly, he did not know why this was important but he answered.
"Did the natives not use this classification?" The woman raised her eyes.
"Not in the same way."
"Did the system directly register the creature as a Calamity?" The man beside her immediately asked.
"Yes."
The man wrote something down and Lian paid attention to their reactions.
The next question was even more interesting.
"What exactly was Black Silence, a creature? A corruption? Some kind of energy?"
"All three, it was an independent entity itself but it could spread like a corruption, it could affect living creatures, minds, and even the environment."
"Could it exist without a vessel?" The older man finally moved his eyes for the first time and asked calmly.
"Yes and no, it exists without a vessel but according to what we understood at least, it needs a vessel to gain freedom of action." Lian paused slightly.
All his answers were within the level of information that the other members of his group also knew.
He still did not know which of the five Calamities their world had faced and who the anchor of that Calamity in their world was, but whoever it was, they might have reached the same level as Cindar.
For that reason, he did not want to expose himself to that person for now by showing too much information.
Of course, if that person really was one of the strongest people in their world, their attention had probably already been drawn to them.
"According to what your friends said, a person named Cindar Vail played a major role in that Calamity appearing in that world, but they did not know exactly what his role was, do you possibly have more information about this?"
This time Lian thought for longer, his friends, just like him, did not know the difference between an anchor and a vessel, they probably did not know that a Calamity needed both to enter a world.
The system had given some clues and hints but for someone who had not seen the Calamity’s memories, putting them together and understanding the truth was difficult.
They probably only understood that Cindar was the main reason the Calamity was able to enter that world, but they did not know what the mechanism behind it was.
"I only know as much as my friends, I do not know why you think I might know more." He then answered with a smile.
"That is because the Calamity was inside your body, it seems likely that you would know more than the others." The female interrogator also answered with a smile.
"It is true that it was inside my body but during the whole time I had almost no control or awareness."
All three of them gave him a heavy look, as if they were trying to understand whether he was telling the truth or there was a lie in his words.
"And how did you survive?" The middle-aged man finally asked.
There was no need to lie about this one, at least not completely.
"I was lucky enough to receive an Extra Life as a Quest reward, after my body was destroyed by my friend, the Extra Life activated and I came back to life." Lian said calmly.
The three of them looked at each other again, and then continued asking questions.
The questions became more numerous, he gave some answers completely, some incompletely and for some he only said that he did not know, he tried to answer within the level of knowledge his other friends had.
During this interrogation, he also realized something, his first guess that the Federation knew nothing about the Calamities turned out to be wrong.
In fact, it was completely the opposite, it was very clear that the Federation had information about the Calamities.
But this information seemed scattered and incomplete, if he had to guess, it seemed that they had obtained this information from previous Ruined Realms.
The information they had obtained during these 250 years had made them familiar with the Calamities, but they still did not know what they were or what the mechanism behind them was.
Of course, it was possible that the highest officials of the Federation and the World Union had more hidden information that even these three people did not know about.
The main information was probably in the hands of level 100 Awakened who had gone through five Evolutions and had seen things in the Ruined Realm that others were not even allowed to hear about.
But this showed that at least they were aware of the Calamities.
Although this did not make Lian feel relieved at all, on the contrary, it made the situation even more complicated.
Because if his guess about the anchor of their own world was correct, then the person who was the anchor might have been working against the Federation and the World Union all this time, trying to stop them from fighting the Calamity.
Another question they asked was whether he had any idea how the Calamity wanted to enter their world and what its inter-world travel mechanism was.
"I am not sure but it seemed very important to it that its vessel was from our world, so it is possible that it needs a body from our world to enter our world? Of course, it seemed that it needed something else besides the vessel, but I do not know what it is." Lian took a thoughtful expression and answered.
Unlike his previous answers, this time he shared more information, now that he knew the Federation knew about the Calamities, he wanted to help them a little.
This way he could also cause some trouble for that anchor and make the Federation search for the vessel of the Calamity that had attacked their world.
But he made sure to answer in a way that was not too far beyond the knowledge of his other friends and spoke as if this was information he had gained from his own observations.
The woman immediately started writing and the man on the right opened several more lines on his screen.
Lian watched their reactions and gave a small smirk.
Little by little, they reached the final part of the meeting and then Aren became the main topic, in fact, it was Lian’s request that they talk about him.
And he made sure they understood that even though that man was a native of the Ruined Realm, he had helped them a lot in the Special Area and during the Quest.
And without him, many more Awakened might have been killed.
And the answer he received was both hopeful and worrying.
"Several of your other friends also asked us to release him, but he is a native of the Ruined Realm, you were not here for nine months and many things happened during this time."
"The conflicts with the seven regions have spread more than you think and they are still causing a lack of safety for Awakened outside the bases."
"Several of our bases were attacked and occupied by them, and freeing them cost us a lot."
"We can treat Aren better, but releasing him is not possible for now." It was the old man who finished explaining everything to him.
Lian immediately said nothing, he did not think their situation with the natives of this world had become so complicated and reached the point of pure hostility.
He only nodded in the end, at least for now, simply making sure Aren was treated better was enough.
The meeting lasted for almost an hour and a half.
When he finally left the command building, the sun was higher and the central area of the base had become its busiest.
He walked a few steps down the stairs when the face of a girl appeared in his mind.
"She might have awakened by now." He then walked toward the medical center.
A few minutes later, he stood in front of Seris’s room, the door was closed and there was no sound coming from inside.
He knocked softly twice but there was no answer, so he lowered the handle and the door opened.
Aurelia had left the room only a few moments ago and Seris was sitting alone on the bed.
Her body was bandaged in several places but other than that she did not seem to have any problems.
Lian entered and closed the door behind him, the girl turned her head.
And became completely still, the man standing in front of her really did not have any injuries, he was not pale and he did not even look weak.
Instead, he was wearing clean clothes and his body was completely healthy, he only seemed a little taller than before.
But it was the same man...the same man she was sure she had pierced through the heart with her sword!
For several seconds Seris only stared, Lian also said nothing.
One second.
Two seconds.
Three.
"Hello." He finally raised his hand slightly and said completely normally.
Seris’s eyes slowly narrowed, the shock on her face was slowly replaced by something else.
Anger.
Her lips pressed together, her jaw tightened and her hand slowly moved behind her head.
"What—" Lian raised an eyebrow.
The girl grabbed the pillow and threw it with all the strength her body allowed.
"You bastard!" She then shouted with real anger.