"You pity me because you think I'm not a bad person, right?"
Facing Tina's questioning, Rentaro nodded without hesitation.
"Yes. In the moment you aimed the gun at me at close range, you hesitated, which made the bullet half a second late."
"If you were a true assassin, you wouldn't make that kind of low-level mistake."
Rentaro said with a hint of humor. Tina drooped slightly, not expecting the person in front of her to have exposed her weakness so neatly.
Rentaro didn't continue to press the girl. He walked upstairs and then brought down a miscellaneous bag of things.
"You must be very hungry, right?"
He gently placed the bag behind the bars.
"I didn't know what you liked to eat, so I bought everything."
In Tina's surprised eyes, Rentaro pulled out bento boxes, various drinks, snacks, and even a child's portion of a hamburger.
"These are..."
"Food. After all, you haven't eaten anything all day, have you?"
Tina was moved, accepting the bento box from Rentaro without knowing what to say. Seeing this, he looked very pleased.
"Alright, go ahead and eat."
Rentaro felt things were stable and said goodbye to Tina, heading upstairs.
But just as he stepped onto the stairs, he heard Tina's voice ring out in his ear.
"You're a Promoter, aren't you?"
This time it was Rentaro's turn to be surprised, as he had been the one to speak first the entire time.
"Yes."
"Then where is your Initiator?"
"The girl... is in a very good place."
"..."
A silence fell between the two. Seeing Tina's somewhat melancholic face, Rentaro realized he had misspoken. He hastily corrected himself.
"Ah, no, she's not gone, she's just attending school."
"I see..."
Tina returned to her silent state, lost in thought.
...
North America.
The Silver King flew across the vast ocean, finally descending upon this continent.
Having prior experience, he didn't bother seeking out the current U.S. government. He immediately displayed divine power by clearing out a massive number of Gastrea, then established territories, absorbed people and resources, and established a true order.
Because he didn't employ gentle measures, but directly used brute force, the progress was extremely fast. In addition, the lives of the refugees outside Japan were much more miserable, so for an entity with immense power who was also willing to protect them, it was enough to push their worship and awe to the highest level.
If he wanted to, the Silver King could have already established a cult spanning the globe.
Despite this, countless people still worship the Silver King as a deity. Not just in the newly established territories or colonies, but also in the safe zones. Monoliths or varanium were not enough to provide security for the people, but a god was—not just physically, but spiritually.
However, the Silver King paid no attention.
He established the territories and then left, but he did not take his gaze away from them. Instead, he connected all the territories, forming a giant network spanning from one continent to another. This allowed the "Silver King's territory" to truly grow into a colossal power, capable of standing alongside the remaining powers.
Of course, that was only in terms of scale; in terms of depth, it was still far behind. It was not even stable yet, and activities had not yet entered the right track, still requiring the Silver King's guidance for a while.
Once the establishment of the territory in North America was complete, the chessboard could be said to be fully laid out.
Following that would be the actual politics.
In his mind, countless pieces of information related to various locations flashed. Over the past ten years, the remaining powers had not been idle. IISO is consistently a great threat that must be eliminated, but no faction dared to speak up because they were dependent on inhibitors for the Gastrea virus corrosion rate.
Therefore, the Silver King offered a bargain.
He could give them the formula for manufacturing the virus inhibitors, in exchange for them finding the location of the IISO operator, or at least the location of the IISO headquarters for him.
The Silver King was not in a hurry to crush them. The stick and the carrot still needed to be available. This would not only lead to the search for his target but also succeed in diverting the goals of these individuals elsewhere, buying time for the development of his territories.
He did not know that, at this very moment, the leaders of the remaining nations or territories were holding a secret meeting.
This was absolutely a world-level conference, but everyone appeared in a dark room in the form of holographic projections. Suddenly, this included the leaders of the Japanese areas such as Saitake, Inou, and Kaihoku.
There was discussion, debate, expressions of anger, and expressions of fear, but all without exception spoke only about the Silver King.
"Wait, where is the Tokyo Area representative?"
Someone realized this and questioned it. Hearing this, Saitake smiled with mockery.
"That little girl has most likely been secretly collaborating with the Silver King for a long time, so it's best for her to remain isolated."
The rest also expressed their opinions, though the majority were indifferent.
Seitenshi, arguably a unique flower in this circle. In the midst of a bunch of rotten, scheming old men, a young maiden with a pure soul suddenly sprouted, which was incompatible no matter how one looked at it.
Before, Seitenshi was only seen by these people as a puppet pushed out by Tendou Kikunojou to stabilize the populace, with the true controller of the Tokyo Area remaining the Tendou family, specifically Tendou Kikunojou.
But now, Tendou Kikunojou had mysteriously disappeared and Seitenshi still held her position firmly, which inevitably made people think deeply.
Just as this chaotic group of leaders was in turmoil, a large screen appeared in the middle of the room. Witnessing this, all the holographic simulations quieted down, looking toward the large screen.
In recent years, although no one had ever truly seen the genuine IISO operator appear, some people had seen how the individual interacted with the outside world. It was an anonymous account, with security equivalent to information access privilege level 12. The server could not be traced, and the location could not be pinpointed.
The individual was like a ghost, monitoring the every move of all individuals and organizations that accessed the information within the network in the virtual world. In the real world, they extended their tentacles to every remaining territory of humanity.
Over the past ten years, every time this individual showed up, it was an occasion for the world to suffer a major impact. Even the deaths of the two Zodiac Gastrea (Taurus and Virgo) previously, and the collapse of India... were due to manipulation from the opponent's hand.
It seems that any power, regardless of whether it is human or Gastrea, once developed to a certain extent, will encounter a destructive catastrophe. IISO does not allow the existence of any organization or power stronger than them, which is the only way they can control this world permanently.
"Hello, everyone..."
A mechanical voice, gender-neutral, sounded from the screen in the middle of the room. A plan aimed directly at the Silver King had been silently deployed.