"Hey, listen. You seem kinda bored here.
In a few days, I'll be fighting in the group finals of the tournament…
Wanna come with me, Zack?"
"…"
"Zack?…"
⸻
Kevin wakes up.
"Ahhh… What are these…?" he wonders.
"So you're finally awake, sleepyhead," Krauser says and continues:
"Do you even realize how many days you've been sleeping?
People have started arriving. The summit begins tomorrow."
"Don't worry, the nation leaders will arrive during the night. What time is it?"
"Hey Denis! What time is it?"
"It's 10 minutes to 5 PM."
"So 4:50 PM, basically."
"Hmm… Alright then, let's get moving. Looks like time's tight…"
"If only you had woken up—"
"If only you'd actually WAKE UP for once, dammit! You turn into a corpse when you sleep, I swear!"
"You think I choose to be like this?"
"Technically, it is your fault!"
"Whoa whoa—what's going on?" Denis steps in.
"Nothing you need to worry about," Kevin replies, then turns to Krauser:
"This isn't the time to argue. We're racing against the clock right now."
Kevin leaves the room.
"What's going on, Krauser? Tell me. What were you two talking about?" Denis asks.
"Ugh…"
"You know I won't let this go."
"I don't know all the details myself. But apparently this idiot here was mortally wounded as a kid. He was dying. Bıfrat somehow made a deal with the state or something. They healed him…"
"…So Dragonomica…"
"Yeah, that's probably why we're being hunted. Tomorrow's summit is likely related to this."
"No way!"
"Shut it, brat."
"Sorry… But if I had to guess: maybe Bıfrat healed him thinking he'd win the finals or something, right? But then he lost—"
"Idiot. The prize from that tournament was being handed out by the state itself!"
"Ahh… right, you're not wrong."
"Whatever. Let's go."
⸻
They leave the city of Ream and continue on their journey.
"Hey Denis, I forgot to ask. What did the doctor say?" Kevin asks.
"I seem okay. I think…"
"So, still nothing new, huh?"
"Look ahead, guys," Krauser points out.
A convoy… coming from Aid.
"We could rough up a few of them and steal their uniforms…"
And guess what? That's exactly what they did.
The convoy had stopped for a break. Catching the ones who wandered off for side errands wasn't all that hard.
It wasn't too dangerous, and soon, they arrived at Dragonomica.
Once inside, they claimed to be on a personal errand.
How?
"Oh, uh… my wife sent me to pick up some stuff from Dragonomica's market," for example.
And just like that, they were in.
Well, reading it's easy… Doing it, not so much.
"What I don't get is… why are regular civilians here too? Aren't the nation leaders enough?" Denis asked.
They had now changed into their disguises and infiltrated the city.
"It's more of a symbolic gesture. A sense of unity. Some come for politics, some for shopping like us, and others just for tourism. The purposes vary. But honestly, even I don't fully get it. These types of meetings remind me of COP summits." Kevin responded.
Denis:
"COP??"
Krauser:
"What the hell is that?"
"COP was a kind of summit held in the Old World. I read about it in Old World History. Nations would gather, just like this, and even citizens could attend. The main goal was to protect nature."
"Hahaha! Protect nature? In a world like this?" Krauser laughed.
"They say Old World nature was beautiful and untouched…"
Suddenly, another voice cut in:
"Let me remind you—Macu energy didn't exist back then, Krauser."
Everyone turned around:
"Bıfrat!"
⸻
File #011
The Old World
Much of what exists today is artificial and rooted in Macu energy.
But legends tell of a time when nature was pure and beautiful.
People of the Old World tried to protect it with all they had—
Though not everyone had good intentions…