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Chapter 315 - City Of Refuge

Another week passed since the series of attacks occurred all over the world. And while no battles have happened ever since that time, the world had changed significantly. Currency had already changed.

As the world fell into a near-war state, trade was the first thing to be greatly affected. If the previous band of the WGP had created complications, it had not affected trade as a whole. But now, governments were preventing the corporations in their country from conducting trade with certain countries.

Credits became the standard value used as many countries were following Pangea's move of switching to Credits as a form of currency. The WGP also accepted credits for trade.

But in a strange twist of events, various corporations lost billions of credits from various hackers. Before these corporations could even begin to exchange or purchase objects of value that were used in war, they already lost most of their funds.

The hacking was practically untraceable. No one could understand how these huge corporations were hacked as they have intensive measures in place to prevent hacking. Most of these nations already use a blockchain format in their networks. Yet, it was as if the full details of their accounts were acquired, and the hackers were able to present valid documents to pretend to be the primary account holders of these accounts.

The amount hacked was so severe that some corporations valued over a trillion credits shut down immediately and became bankrupt overnight.

The chaos was so staggering that the WGP had to step up and find a way how these hackers managed to penetrate through the network that the WGP designed.

Many corporations even blamed that it was the WGP itself that did the hacking.

Revolts and insurgencies occurred on many government levels. Some states, cities, or provinces had their leaders replaced. The Underworld became the official means to trade for most countries in the wake of economic collapse.

All of a sudden, those who made a living as entertainers, influencers, streamers, and another form of occupations that were deemed as non-essential lost their jobs. Mass migrations, both legal and illegal, happened across all borders.

Suddenly, huge underwater vessels as huge as cities surfaced in many parts of the world. A few appeared East of Japan. And just when everyone thought the war would occur in the EAA region, it was soon revealed that the large craft belonged to a rather unimportant family in Japan.

It docked, and videos emerged of how various rich and powerful families began to enter this large vessel. It was then that it was revealed that this unimportant family had actually controlled more than a quarter of the Japanese army and various mega-corporation in the EAA.

Another large vessel emerged in the Indian region. India then declared that the new leader of their nation was the Mann family. The Mann family was legendary in India for being one of the few military forces that could stop the Dragon and his Fangs. 

Soon, several other large underwater vessels emerged. Two cities near New Great Britain emerged, and a few more surfaced in the ocean west of America and a few more in the Atlantic ocean.

An underwater city in the South American region was slowly ascending. As this structure was once unknown, the many Pioneers were still preparing for their arrival and informing the government of this city.

Presider Tiana was seated on her chambers, and no one dared to enter it. Her appearance seemed younger, and her skin was glowing. Surrounding the room was several portraits of Meryl, and she was glancing at it as various computers tried to analyze how it was that her skin held such whiteness.

"Stop the experiment." She frowned, and the glowing appearance disappeared. While she had white skin that would have been considered flawless, it was nothing compared to one of Meryl's photograph pics.

"What is missing? How can this girl have such fair and beautiful skin?" She sighed.

"The whole world in chaos, and your Pioneers are losing money, and here you want to look as cute as Meryl Mikado." All of a sudden, a hologram of a person appeared before him. Garenjazz was dressed in a strange outfit, and his hair was now blonde and had spiky designs.

"Tiana."

"Garenjazz. I see that you are not busy. What outlandish outfit is that?"

"Never mind the outfit. 

It's a great day for us, Aragarians. We have discovered that the one captured in One China, the one who my team was able to recover, has direct contact with the elusive owners of Pokemon. Amanda Mershalle can make us talk to the actual owners who hold the original codes of all games!"

"The original codes?!" Tiana stood up in shock. 

After the Third World War, most of the games that they have are remake attempts. No one has the authentic first five generation versions of the game anymore. All were remade attempts. The world was content with these remakes that copied the game. The remakes were according to the memories of those who had the privilege of playing the old games. But the Aragarians had sought the original games as they wanted to see what it was.

There were theories among the Aragarian circle of what the first games had. It was said that the current Pokedex was vastly inferior to what they had now. More than a hundred Pokemons were lost as no surviving data was found. The WGP had also created laws as some Pokemons were banned due to the world's sensitive state.

Known banned Pokemons that the WGP removed from the remakes were Koffing, Grimer, Forretress, Houndoom, and Metagross. But it was said that there were so many more removed and had been erased from history by the WGP for political issues and other concerns as some of these fictional characters resembled things that were considered offensive at that time.

"Yes! Several Presiders will be joining as well! Talks of the deal to release the original versions with the original list of pokemons are underway. And the current decided location to meet is in South America!"

"Here?"

"It was the makers who wanted this meeting to be made there. Rumor has it that an outstanding scientist has managed to create living metals there. It seems this information is still fresh in the Underworld."

"You plan to host the meeting here?" Tiana asked directly.

"Yes. Several Presiders will be making the visit. If that living metal is true and isn't from any of our team, it is most likely a heritage from the Lost Primordial. That organization will make its appearance as well!"

"Oh? It looks like I'll be busy. But if you want me to host this place, then it will cost you. The Pioneer who owns this underwater city is suffering great financial losses and will find it difficult to maintain it. As you just said, the chaos of the world had bankrupted several of the corporation belonging to the Pioneers serving under me."

"How much did your Pioneers lose from that hacking incident?"

"Four trillion credits all in all. We don't know where it went. And with the current state today, most of the nations or corporations we were trading with are refusing any currency, even credits! Most of them are demanding trade of goods, techs, and other items that we offer."

"This should be the doing of those Lost Primordials. They know we are here, and they are forcing our hand to appear. They must have found out who are Pioneers are through various means. An X-Ray would be the easiest. They just have to look at any human being with reversed organs." Garenjazz stated.

"It's frustrating that we have to rely on the resources of this planet. I'm starting to think that the battle-crazed Gordon has the right idea to start the war now."

"And who would send out their forces? None of us wants to take the first step and wants to wait for the Principal to arrive first. Everyone has been acting less trusting after Crostfree's death. I have information about Crostfree's death. I can give it to you if you exclude me from paying your Pioneers all these earthly finances and items."

"I have another information regarding the Lost Primordial's legacy. Care to trade?" Tiana smiled.

Garenjazz's expression changed.

"Hm… We'll talk when I get there."

"That scientist you mentioned… Can it be from the former Panzer Corp? They rebranded their corporation to Unlocked Industries, I believe."

"The very same. To think that another would surface here. Aside from Pangea, which we already expected to find a way to survive and change their trade and economic policies, Unlocked Industries may be the key to build that here."

"Build what?"

"A City of Refuge."

"What's a City of Refuge?" Tiana asked.

"It's what they've been calling Pangea. A certain preacher's sermon has been making rounds all over the world. Pridgeon is angry and wants us to manipulate things so that this pastor's sermons would be banned on many parts of the world."

"Why? Are his sermons so formidable that it's affecting our plans with the Jews?"

"Not really. If anything, it's helping it. That pastor has convinced several surviving corporations to aid in the regathering of the Jews."

"Then why is it a problem?"

"Because these Jews will be housed in the areas that they call Cities of Refuge. Pridgeon's efforts are now being affected. Pridgeon wanted one place where all the Jews would be, but this plan will divide it."

"His obsession with the Jews is really annoying. I heard he took over whatever Crostfree had in Australia."

"Yes. Anyway, the city of refuge is a term that became popular due to the pastors preaching. It is a city or place where people can find refuge. Right now, a lot of people are trying to go to Pangea, which everyone is expecting to be a major superpower soon. But with Unlocked Industries, another will rise in South America."

Tiana was silent, but she was secretly complaining. Garenjazz showed no reaction when he asked about Pridgeon. She looked as if she was listening, but she was looking at Garenjazz's minute expressions.

"He either believes the same thing that I believe about Pridgeon killed Crostfree, or he finds Pridgeon's gains so minute that he doesn't care!" Tiana thought to herself.

"Are you listening?" Garenjazz frowned.

"Or is there something on my face?" Garenjazz then began to look at a mirror which manifested on his hands.

"I just became bored with your talks of the City of Refuge."

"Bored? You shouldn't be. I advise you to help build that up! We need officials and members inside that community! To save resources for the war, we need to create a military force that can threaten this world. Pangea obviously belongs to this mysterious group that killed Crostfree. And there is also the real Lost Primordial. We don't know if that is something a Presider decided to use to kill us secretly or if the Lost Primordial exists on Earth! You've seen the sunken cities on Earth. We cannot even find all of them. It's very possible for the Lost Primordial to be hidden underwater!"

Tiana was silent. But her thoughts were actually focused on how Garenjazz said Crostfree was 'killed by the mysterious group,' implying that Crostfree believed it was them that killed Garenjazz and not Pridgeon.

"We'll talk more later. Also, is it possible to get Meryl Mikado to be in this meeting?" Tiana asked.

"Hm? I think it's possible. Zeraphine had stated that she wanted to, and she's had to contact with the elusive Seeker Carlean."

"Oh? Has she had her fun yet? I found out that that Seeker Carlean was up for rent in the Underworld."

"Tell me about it. Zeraphine was so angry that he almost launched an attack at those who paid for Carlean. If these people weren't halfway around the world, they'd be dead by now. But no. I don't think she has had communication with him ever since Harker's defeat. I can ask her to invite Meryl but expect Seeker's whole gang to join in as well."

"If she manages to do that, I won't ask her to pay for staying here."

"I'll tell her." Garenjazz nodded as his transmission disappeared.

Tiana immediately waved her hands, and several Pioneers appeared as holograms.

"Increase the speed of our surfacing. Contact the government and state that we are willing to trade with Unlocked Industries and offer up several techs. Send them these data." Tiana retrieved the data concerning technologies and theories on how to create weapons for underwater warfare.

The Pioneers were amazed at the data and immediately nodded.

"It will be done, Presider!"

The underwater city, Day06, quickly surfaced to the world.