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Chapter 26: IDR Emergency Meeting
Meanwhile, at the HQ of the International Dungeon Research Organization, the researchers were holding an emergency meeting.
Amongst the participants was James Bright, a physicist from America. Achmad Taher, an archaeologist from Egypt. Li Haoran, a biologist from China.
Ethan Noble and six other scholars for a total of eleven people.
They sat around a huge round table.
Since everyone in the meeting had their own independent research on the dungeon on their own, they rarely met each other aside from their regular once-in-a-month meeting.
Senior researcher of Palestina who led the meeting, Maya Belga broke the awkward silence.
「My deepest apologies for the sudden call for an emergency meeting. I think you’ve already known about the situation but let me elaborate on you once again, something unprecedented happened.」
Maya, an old lady of the age moved as she spoke with an elegant manner and speech. Everyone in the room already knew what she meant. The reason being it had already become hot news for the last few days.
Ethan read the material that was distributed to everyone.
Written in there was the information regarding the strange phenomenon that happened to 『Orpheus Slate』 over the last few days.
「Unbelievable, four lords have been slain in mere four days.」
Maya massaged her temple as she spoke with a bewildered look on her face.
「That matter side!」
The one who raised his voice was America’s scholar, James. He was a tall man with a burly body, a considerably rougher temperament compared to the other scholars, and a person who preferred to get to the point when talking to someone else.
「The problem is, we have yet to know who does that! Which country launched large-scale mobilization of Explorers?」
James glared at Li Haoran, the scholar from China.
Li Haoran who noticed that glare raised his glasses as he glared back at James with a displeased look on his face.
「Stop having such strange misunderstandings. Our country has already sent in all the information about that to IDRO. We want to cooperate with other countries in this matter too. We definitely not hiding any information!」
James harrumphed upon hearing that.
The air in the room became strained when the two of them were glaring at each other. The one who separated them was Achmad, the archaeologist from Egypt.
「Well, calm down, no need to get worked up. The red, blue, yellow, and green crystals broke one after another in the last four days should be equivalent to the capture of four dungeons, right? For what reason they did do that?」
James was smiling lightly as he looked at Achmad.
「I don’t know the reason but, America and China are the only countries with the Explorer that are strong enough to accomplish such a feat. Seeing that it isn’t America, by elimination, China is the only suspect left.」
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Li Haoran’s eyebrows twitched upon hearing such baseless accusations.
「How can you say that America isn’t the one who did that? You might’ve been simply hiding the information, right!?」
「How dare you!!」
The other scholars around James tried their best to prevent James from blowing his top.
During such uproar――
「May I say something?」
The scholars then focused their attention on Ethan Noble who raised his hand. Agewise, Ethan might be the youngest amongst the scholars who gathered in this place, but it shows that his abilities as a scholar weren’t just for show.
「Surely, mister James has a point in his claims, there’s some Explorer out there who can capture four dungeons up to the deepest level in mere days. The problem is, is that even possible?」
「What do you mean!?」
James frowned, and then asked Ethan again.
「Previously, the lord that was discovered in America is being subjugated by the combination of efforts of fifteen Explorers. Amongst them are the strongest Explorer in the world, 『Flame Emperor』 Albert. And yet, even with him in the team, seven of those Explorers died. Not to mention that the lord is found on the 200th floor. Even if America and China combined their strength and tried to subjugate four of such dungeons at the same time, I’ll say that it’s literally impossible.」
「Then why did those crystals break!? We want an explanation!!」
Seeing James ask irritatingly, Ethan smiled gently.
「Don’t you think that we might be thinking with the wrong assumption?」
「Assumption?」
Maya also responded to such remarks.
「The crystals are lining up systematically in Orpheus’s slate. We might end up thinking that each crystal represents a dungeon. In fact, the duke and lord that was defeated in the past were found in the dungeon which colour similar to the broken crystal.」
「Since that’s the case, it showed in which dungeon the subjugation happen, right!?」
「Nope.」
Ethan straight out denied James’ loud opinion.
「What if the lord that was subjugated this time isn’t in the same dungeon? A black crystal that broke two weeks ago represents a subjugated duke. Considering the timing, someone might be trying to capture the black dungeon. Needless to say, the reason being it is still pretty much an unknown dungeon.」
「Humph! We’ve already investigated the black dungeon. Especially the magic ore’s circulation, they’re strictly controlled. Let’s ban every country from entering the black dungeon, and make that only those with a special permit can enter the black dungeon.」
Ethan shook his head lightly.
「The registered dungeons, that’s it.」
「Eh!?」
The atmosphere in the room changed with that remark.