World Occult Usage Guide

Chapter 119 Headquarters Meeting
President Jericho sat at the very end of the touchscreen table, with a simplified Tree of Life banner hanging behind him.

As he announced this, the room went dark, and rows of green data appeared on the desktop, displaying the progress of the meeting and related data in real time.

The foundation members looked at Jericho with a hint of doubt on their faces; while the inspection team members, as if they were prepared, clasped their hands with ease, waiting for the show to begin.

Jericho calmly delivered a few brief opening remarks before stating the topic of the meeting.

"The reason for this urgent summons is not anything else. An hour ago, headquarters received an urgent red contact from the head of the inspection team regarding the fate of MI-Alpha-001 [Thunderbird]. He has obtained new information, and I would like to ask you all to listen before making your third vote."

The higher-ups remained silent, while only a few mysterious figures, acting as mediums for the "God of Agriculture," silently communicated with each other.

"Another meeting about Thunderbirds?"

"According to the original plan, it should have arrived at the San Francisco headquarters four days ago, but it was detained in Las Meadows due to the interception by the inspection team. I heard that the people sent by the cabinet are negotiating with the inspection team, and it seems to be related to the votes in Washington."

"Everything becomes complicated when politics is involved."

"By the way, does anyone know why the inspection team is so resistant to Thunderbirds arriving at headquarters? They weren't this vehemently opposed to the 'research faction's' proposal during the first vote."

"Nobody here knows this, right? Our God of Agriculture can't get into the inner circle."

“Now, let’s have Team Leader Joshua explain to everyone.” Jericho coughed lightly and looked at his secretary. “Connect the communications.”

The waiter with goat horns nodded and operated the touchscreen. X's 3D image appeared in the center of the conference table. The artificial intelligence had white hair and an androgynous face.

"I apologize for interrupting your meeting. I will now play an urgent message from Domondo, Canada."

It stands in the center of the table, and every time a similar emergency is played, X's voice rises to attract everyone's attention.

The projector's colors changed, and a highly detailed half-body portrait of a man appeared. He looked around, met Jericho's gaze across the space, and the latter revealed a loving smile.

"Hello, Team Leader Joshua."

"President Jericho and colleagues, good evening. I have some news to share." The head of the inspection team avoided his gaze. "I have just finished a meeting with the Wood Group, the largest sponsor of St. Anilov."

As soon as he finished speaking, sixteen pages of double-sided information floated beside him and quickly synchronized to the tablets in front of each member.

The members scanned the document, their eyes widening in disbelief.

Most of this information is official embellishment and nonsense, but there is one extremely important piece of information that is repeated over and over again.

"If St. Anilof refuses to eliminate Thunderbird, Wood Group will gradually withdraw its investment in it, terminate the following 32 cooperative projects between the two parties, and reclaim the right to use the following 85 intellectual property rights provided to it."

So the inspection team had been preventing the Wood Group from divesting its investment?
Why didn't you inform headquarters sooner?

Upon closer inspection, it became clear that the team leader had not provided a contract or an officially stamped document, but merely a few pages of compiled meeting minutes.

"Please don't panic," the team leader continued. "I'm still negotiating with the chairman of the Wood Group to discuss an acceptable solution, but the situation is not optimistic. In short, I believe headquarters should terminate the research project on [Thunderbird]."

The crowd exchanged bewildered glances, and finally couldn't hold back any longer; a low buzzing sound rose and fell.

After a brief discussion, under Jericho's guidance, each member took turns standing up to speak and express their views and positions.

“Thank you, Team Leader Joshua, for your hard work. However, I must state a different opinion. The Wood Group has indeed played a crucial role in the Foundation’s rapid expansion and its becoming the official agency controlling superpowers in the Eagle Nation. However, St. Aniloff’s relationship with them is one of cooperation and transaction.”

"In any case, the Wood Group is currently the largest shareholder of the foundation and has provided a lot of technical and talent support. If they terminate the cooperation, the foundation will probably experience an unprecedented upheaval and may even go bankrupt."

"Isn't it too arrogant to overturn all the foundation's hard work over the past few months without any reason?"

"Moreover, in this incident, the negotiations with the Wood Group were entirely handled by the inspection team, while the foundation was never involved in the discussions."

"As a bridge between the Foundation and the Wood Group, I believe the Inspectorate is qualified to represent the Foundation in foreign negotiations and discussions. I am confident that the choice of Team Leader Joshua is beneficial to the Foundation, humanity, and the Eagle Nation."

"St. Anilof is not a place where the inspection team can dictate everything!"

"The Wood Group can't provide any reasons to prohibit research on the Thunderbird, so why are they preventing us from obtaining more research data? Wouldn't that benefit them as well?"

"Team Leader Joshua, thank you for your suggestion. For the sake of democracy, let's vote."

To the man on the other end of the video call's surprise, despite dropping a bombshell, the discussions in the conference room were not one-sided against the research; the various positions were quite evenly matched.

Perhaps the Wood Group and the inspection team's overly harsh methods over the past year have created a rebellious mentality within the foundation; perhaps there are also supporters of the Dawn Association taking advantage of the situation; perhaps some people believe that the foundation has the foundation to become independent from the conglomerate.

After the round of speeches, everyone lowered their heads in deep thought.

Aside from misleading information stemming from differing viewpoints, emotional biases, and unfairness, the main problem centers on one issue—

The Wood Group prohibited the foundation from researching the Thunderbird, but could not provide a legitimate reason.

The gods of agriculture whispered secrets to each other in their hearts.

"The fact that Thunderbirds can unconditionally reduce their own pollution alone is enough to warrant research!"

"Could it be that the Wood Corporation forbade us from researching the Thunderbird because they think it's too dangerous? What if it regains consciousness at headquarters, a source-level mystery with high radiation levels..."

“We know nothing about the Thunderbird. At present, it seems that it can only lose control at high altitudes. Moreover, according to the branch's report, the data for the last ten days has been extremely stable and has not changed at all. The previous anomaly may have been a death throes.”

"Is it possible that studying Thunderbird's data will reveal the real way to reduce pollution levels, which is why the Wood Group is so desperate to stop it?"

"After killing the Thunderbird, there will be very few opportunities to study the mysterious prototypes at the level of the creator god."

"However, the Wood Group is holding the foundation by the throat, which makes things very difficult..."

The unbearable silence was broken by X's synthesized electronic voice. The head of the inspection team's eyes lit up, and he exchanged knowing glances with the deacons.

"I apologize for interrupting your meeting. I will now play an urgent message from the Eagle Nation, Las Meadows."

All eyes in the conference room immediately turned to X.

Another one?
"Can we make this new connection, Joshua, team leader?" Jericho asked.

“No objections.” The next moment, the image appeared as a clear 360° stereoscopic view, with a high-definition screen showing a magnificent long table, and a drone flying over the dazzling night sky of Lasmedos.

Upon seeing this scene, the head of the inspection team and the executive officer were initially stunned, then their pupils contracted.

what is this?
The others in the conference room couldn't help but frown.

Immediately afterwards, the scene from the communication changed, showing a blonde woman sitting in the magnificent Caesars Palace, giving instructions to several familiar members of the foundation's branch offices.

San Francisco is not far from Las Medos, so the headquarters and the branch have close ties.

"This is the plan for tonight. Once the drone is blown up by the mysticism, you immediately activate the communication button and send that message back to headquarters. They will naturally understand what happened."

"Let's double-check the drones hovering over the mirage, as well as the surveillance cameras in all directions."

"It is precisely because the location of the Thunderbird's loss of control could not be predicted that a comprehensive net had to be laid across the entire Las Meadows to capture perfect evidence and send it to the cooperative newspaper."

It was just a very blurry video, but it was enough to make the foundation's senior management think and ponder for a moment.

Furthermore, just like the information distributed by the team leader, the new text materials were synchronized to everyone's tablets.

Although they were not originals, but rather blurry photographs, upon magnification, the group discovered what appeared to be anti-counterfeiting codes belonging to the inspection team.

From the pieced-together recordings, images, and evidence, everyone deciphered the information conveyed in this emergency communication.

In order to get headquarters to make the decision to "execute the Thunderbird," the inspector Hill Catherine used the information that the Thunderbird could briefly regain its power in the air and forcibly sent it into the sky, leaving a source-level mystic out of control in the city of Rasmedos.

Just reading this chilling information made some people's scalps tingle.

Let alone being a member of the St. Anilov Foundation, no human being living in a civilized society with a normal mind would have thought of such a vicious plan.

Others, though they had heard of, seen, or even used similar methods openly or secretly, knew this was a good opportunity to smear the inspection team, and were brewing their emotions, preparing to launch a group attack.

As for the last group, they don't care about large-scale, inhumane attacks, but they will never choose to target the United States, because the St. Anilov Foundation is now in charge of managing the so-called "superpowered individuals," and such an event would undoubtedly be a slap in their own face.

No, to be precise, it was the inspection team that slapped the foundation in the face!

The meeting room fell silent instantly!
Regardless of their previous stance, the foundation's top management was now united in their fierce verbal attack on the inspection team.

"Team Leader Joshua, it seems the inspection team is deliberately trying to make the Thunderbird run out of control, create dangerous public opinion, and manipulate the results of this vote. The price will be the lives of all the residents and tourists in Las Meadows, as well as incalculable financial losses for major businesses."

"That city also has a lot of foreign corporate and conglomerate investments, which could easily escalate into a diplomatic issue."

“If something like this really happens, the St. Anilov Foundation will be held accountable. Not only will it have to spend a lot of energy to handle the aftermath, but it will also have to deal with the ensuing public opinion and questions. The amount of money it will have to pay is unimaginable... making it even more difficult to end the cooperation with the Wood Group.”

"They're willing to carry out attacks just to prove the validity of the proposal... they're no different from terrorists."

"A bunch of hypocrites! You're not even willing to protect the safety of the cities near headquarters! I have family living in that place!"

"Why not let headquarters receive Thunderbird? Could it be that the Wood Group anticipates the Foundation will obtain data on pollution reduction from it, thereby diminishing their authority and importance?"

Faced with the emotionally charged foundation members, the inspection team was practically unable to get a word in edgewise. If President Jericho hadn't pressed the emergency button on the round table, sounding a loud alarm, the denunciation would have continued for another ten minutes or so.

“Team Leader Joshua, I just sent someone to contact the local police station and branch office to confirm the authenticity of these documents.” As he spoke, he distributed a brief investigation report to everyone. “Do you have anything else to add?”

"This...this is clearly the personal behavior of Butler Hill Catherine, and has nothing to do with the inspection team!"

"Just like with Efron Ruben last time?" a mocking voice rang out. "It seems the inspection team lacks unified rules."

This sentence completely ignited the team leader's anger.

"Don't blame that idiot's failure on the entire Inspectorate! Don't forget who established the Foundation system in the first place! Who wrote the slogan 'Humanity First'! Who tirelessly worked to protect the old order!"

The head of the inspection team stared with bloodshot eyes, but unfortunately, he only had a remotely projected image, which did not instill any chill in the hearts of the people.

"It's me! It's me, Joshua Illager! The Inspectorate is the last line of defense for the Eagle Nation, the guardian of world peace, and the savior of all mankind! And you, misled by other countries and regions, dare to betray me!"

His outbursts would only backfire and fail to stop the overwhelming vote in the meeting room.

Ultimately, the proposal from the research faction was passed by almost unanimous vote.

"Based on the voting results, the plan remains unchanged, and Thunderbird will arrive at headquarters tomorrow."

President Jericho made the final decision, and the secretary with ram's horns operated the lights, causing the bright spots on the touchscreen table to go out one by one. The smiling X and the gloomy-faced head of the inspection team disappeared together.

The conference room fell silent.

With a rustling sound, everyone quickly packed their belongings and left the "Queen's" floor one after another.

Everyone had a vague premonition that this was just the calm before the storm, and that real conflict would soon be ignited.

The inspectors, who still have resources, and the Wood Group behind them, will not give up so easily.

The headquarters of the St. Anilov Foundation, on the "Clergy" floor.

This was a space exclusively for the inspection team at headquarters. As soon as the elevator doors closed, the remaining three deacons heard a loud warning sound.

"Drip drip."

The white dove will turn on automatically.

"This communication comes from code name D-001."

The team leader's voice, filled with gritted teeth, sent a chill down the spines of the group, almost like a physiological reaction.

"Listen carefully, once Xi Yong abandons the Eagle Kingdom, the old order will be completely destroyed in that catastrophe. Buy me time at all costs! This is the new plan..."

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(End of this chapter)