CHAPTER 149: A CONFERENCE

-Click! Click! Click!

"When will the President make her appearance?"

"Is there a reason she is late?"

"Why did the president call for the conference out of the blue? Will she appear in holographic form like she did the last time?"

In a certain press conference hall in a certain part of the city, the reporters that were gathered from all around the city were jumping up and down, asking the A2P2 officials questions that the others had repeated a hundred times already.

It was funny how these reporters were still around when the main telecom industry had almost fallen apart. With the association being the main media operator in today’s time, the need for local reporters had almost gone extinct.

Yet, the association was trying its best to bring back the different industries that had fallen apart thanks to the tower.

Their different initiates aimed at the resurrection of the different industries was bringing the ’once common’ life to this new world.

The association was still using the new ways, the system and the things produced with the tower’s resources in the process, but it was proving to be pretty effective.

With a few initial floors taken down, the association and the players had gained a good understanding of how things should actually work around here.

Every single day, there was news from different channels, some shows that showed what was going on around the world, information that the researchers were finding inside the tower, as well as amazing videos from individual creators who challenged dungeons and other challenges now present around the world.

The people who did not have much to do aside from working and making a living to get by watched these shows or spent their time among the different communities.

They were still going to need a little longer to revert back to the state that they were in before the appearance of the tower. Thankfully, with the friendship with the tower’s first civilization, humans would learn many new things and would be able to apply them in their own worlds.

{ "Please maintain the order. The President will be here soon and she will answer whatever questions you may have." }

"Huh?"

"What?"

"Hmmm?"

The words from the association executive stunned the reporters who were already keenly listening to every single thing the association people were talking about.

"The president will answer our questions?"

"What do you mean, Sir! Please explain yourself!"

"Does that mean the president is coming here directly? Is that why she gathered all of us here? Could that be she will be projecting herself from here?!"

The screams of the reporters that were already uncontrollable became even more out of control.

If what the association person was saying was true and the president was making her first ever public appearance, then this was a much bigger matter than she had expected.

{ "We do not know the details either. We are as clueless as any of you. I must urge you to wait for her to appear. We will get the answers shortly." }

The association employees did not know what was going on either. They only received the information that they needed to gather these people and that the association president was going to answer any questions that they may have.

There was no other information so even the association employees were just as clueless as the rest of them.

"How does this make any sense?"

"The association employees should know about the presence of their president! Also!"

Before the shouting reporter could make their statement, a different individual beat them to it.

"Is it true that you have gathered reporters in other cities as well? Have you told them the same thing? That the president will make her appearance there as well?"

They had just received this information from some of the reporters who were also players and had access to the community Forums.

The strange information that the reporters gathered in not just this city but all cities that had good presence of the association, and that they were told that the president was going to answer their questions, did not make any sense.

She could not answer their questions through a holograph simultaneously and it did not make any sense that she would appear everywhere all at once.

It was an incredibly complicated situation.

Shouts from the reporters started from all sides. The association members did not like this but they could not do anything more than asking them to quiet down.

Since the association president had asked them to call these reporters specifically, they couldn’t just throw them out either. Things were getting difficult thanks to them and their president was still nowhere to be seen.

Truthfully, they did not need to look after these people or their complaints.

They did their work gathering them here, now, they simply needed to be a little patient.

The president was running late today. It was rare but considering she was managing the world’s biggest organisation right now, the delay was understandable.

"Is this really the truth or are we being deceived right now?" Some of them started questioning the authenticity of the whole conference.

Some even believed that the association was pulling a prank on them to show just how useless all of these reporters were in the current era.

Their camera equipment and drones that they saved up during the tower disaster were something they did not believe would ever be useful, but after receiving the message from the association, they were surprised and fired up at the same time.

They thought they would finally get to do the thing they were best at, but it did not seem like that was the case anymore.

Perhaps they were right. Perhaps the association really wanted them to be humiliated.

{ "Please calm down, everyone. The Association president–." }

Just as the employee was about to say something, a unique flash of light appeared on the stage behind the podium.

Inside this light, as unnatural as it may seem, materialised a humanoid figure.

The height was on the taller side for the feminine features that appeared soon, and followed by the appearance of the flowing blue hair, the entire conference room fell silent when they saw what seemed like the actual form of the A2P2 president.

Lucy, her name, most certainly went perfectly with her angelic presence.

The strange purity that her appearance possessed, the unique divine presence as well as sharp gaze that resembled the gaze of the gods, were only the physical features that had stunned the reporters.

This wasn’t the first time they were seeing the president, but she most certainly looked far more stunning than one might ever realise.

{ "Apologies for being late, everyone." }

Last time she was in a holographic form that seemed too advanced for this ruined world. But now that she was before them once again with the same ’voice’ that seemed to be a broadcast from somewhere else, the reporters could only shut their mouths and click pictures of the being before them.

{ "As you all may have been notified, I am here to answer some of your questions today. But that is not the main agenda." }

She did not beat around the bush and directly got to her work. She did not give any explanations as to why she was late or why she was being like this, and she didn’t really have any reason to do so either.

{ "The main reason all of you have been called here, is to ask for your suggestions and for an employee recruitment test." }

The main reason behind this meeting happening all around the world was simply to repurpose these reporters into something much more useful.

{ "I’ll be direct with this. I want to bring back the entertainment industry and it shall start with the common news reporters and journalists who travelled the world to find the actual secrets about this world." }

The association president was presenting her own thoughts right now, something she had come up with after the 3rd floor. This was also her first public appearance so the reporters who listened to her were graced with a ray of hope once again.

{ "The association also wants the ones who hold the status of a player among you to work inside the tower with some of our best people. You will be their personal streamer, or what they used to call it back in the days." }

The idea was simple: entertain people so more people get motivated to go inside the tower.

Going forward, there are going to be quests on the scale of a few cities or towns, or even bigger ones and all the players would have to work together to get past them.

These group missions would only become popular if the people that the others already know share it with the mass.

{ "The job comes with a very simple series of task..." }

She wasn’t here to grief or be sad. She had a purpose for gathering these people here.

Right now, she was simply working for what the world needed right now, a distraction from all the mourning and deaths of the ones who had passed away from the 3rd floor...