CHAPTER 420: AFTER ME, THE FLOOD

Did the video make a big impression on Lane?

No, not particularly. At least not at first. Those intelligent, alien beings claiming that the Manaforming was unavoidable, and that there was no point in trying to resist it... It aligned well with the goals of his secret organization, so it wasn’t shocking at all. Although they may not have known whether the resistance was ’futile’ or not, they believed that the changes should be accepted. It was progress for humanity, an evolution. They were aiming to create a society where everyone was Awakened, and in order to achieve that, the Manaforming was a necessary step...

As for the so-called ’gods’ design’? Naturally, Lane couldn’t care less. Those were just some beliefs of an alien civilization, it didn’t necessarily mean that they were in any way correct. Humans also had a lot of religions, some believed in them, others didn’t, and Lane personally was one of the latter. He just skipped over this part, as it wasn’t of much interest to him.

If there was something that made him pause and reflect a bit, that would be the history of the teddy bear monsters’ world... Based on what was said in the video, those monsters had also once lived in a world without Mana. Then, the Gates had started popping up, flooding their world with alien monsters and Manaforming their environment... And all of that had eventually led to their world becoming one of the ’dungeons’.

Did that mean that once the Earth was fully Manaformed, the Wall would also appear in their world, splitting it apart and turning it into a dungeon, so that humans - or perhaps mutated animals? - could be the ’monsters’ plaguing another world?

It would appear so. At the very least, it was a possibility.

...Then again, from what the teddy bear monsters had said, it was their ’ancient history’. Which would suggest that the time period between the Gates appearing, and the world becoming a dungeon was rather vast. Even if it were to happen to the Earth, it would only be in a few hundred years or so... And by then, Lane would long be dead, his body rotten and his bones turned to dust.

So, after worrying about it for maybe five seconds, Lane shrugged his shoulders.

After me, the flood.

Why should he care so much about what was going to happen in the distant future? Real life was here and now.

He could tell why his subordinate was so insistent that he should watch the videos, though. It was all bound to cause a lot of stir if it went viral. Perhaps it could be used to strengthen and support the secret organization’s cause, recruiting more people and justifying their goals... After all, if it were unavoidable anyway, then rather than waste time trying to resist it, it would be better to just adjust and move along, no?

It was surprising that Blanc himself hadn’t taken an interest in it yet... Then again, perhaps he had, only without notifying Lane. Lane had been suppressing a lot of his efforts recently, so he had valid reasons to suspect that this case would be the same... And looking at the comments...

Lane scrolled down. Although he wasn’t a social media expert, the number of comments underneath the video, when compared to the number of views, seemed oddly high. As far as he was aware, people didn’t always actively engage with the content, no matter how controversial or interesting it was... They didn’t always bother to even click the like button, let alone write a few words... He would know, since he rarely bothered to do it as well, even though he watched videos online sometimes when he was bored.

And yet, there were plenty of people commenting under this specific video. And not just a few random words, but whole paragraphs expressing their opinion, or theorizing about what the teddy bear monsters had said. Engaging in long discussion threads. Things like that often happened on the internet, of course... But perhaps not when the video hadn’t gained much traction yet. The commentators weren’t that active under the rest of the videos either, so they weren’t people who had been invested in this research for a long time...

It smelled like an artificially manufactured situation to Lane. Perhaps Blanc had gotten some people to start the discussion in the comments? This way, once the video eventually blew up - which would most likely happen soon, if not naturally, then by the efforts of the organization - the watchers’ thoughts could be stirred in a particular direction.

So, what did Lane do after realizing it all?

He ignored it, that’s what. He could probably suppress the video for a while, if he really wanted to...

But what for? It would eventually spread whether he liked it or not, so it would just be a waste of his efforts. And it wasn’t like he disagreed with the message either. He might have been rethinking some things recently and questioning the secret organization’s approach to how they wanted to achieve their goals (mainly regarding the ’collateral damage’ in the form of all the lives lost...), but he still believed that they should allow the Manaforming to spread, maybe just in a bit more... controlled manner.

And he most certainly still wanted to lift the heavy restrictions on the ability usage that the government dictated. The abilities were meant to be used, damn it all! It was stupid that even things like summoning his phone with his telekinetic ability were illegal.

The only thing that truly annoyed him about the situation was that Blanc seemed to be working behind his back... Thus, after giving it some thought, he switched back to his inbox and quickly scribbled out a short mail, linking the ViTube channel, and asking him to take control of the situation, appropriately controlling the narrative and spreading the video. Blanc was probably already doing it all...

But if he believed that he and Lane were on the same page, he would keep Lane updated. At the end of the day, Lane was still the Boss. Unless he felt it was necessary, it was unlikely that Blanc would go out of his way to hide things from him...

Blanc valued his life and didn’t want to suddenly drop dead for no good reason, after all.