novelraw Chapter 136: The Tragic News
Chapter 136: The Tragic News
The sudden news broadcast interrupted the draw for The Jade State League. The spectators still in the stands wore expressions of sheer disbelief.
Genevieve shot up from the sofa, her beautiful eyes flickering with shock.
Dean Sterling froze for a moment before his gaze deepened with a profound, knowing look.
"A 9.1 magnitude earthquake..." Fly murmured slowly, his eyes glued to the screen.
Although this world was different from the one he was born into, a world where everyone revered martial arts, its culture, historical progression, units of measurement, and natural sciences were largely identical.
From what he remembered, anything above an 8.0 was classified as a mega-earthquake. Let alone a 9.1?
Using his past life as a reference, an 8.0 magnitude earthquake packed the destructive power of 1,007 Hiroshima atomic bombs. And for every single point increase in magnitude, the energy released multiplied by thirty!
In other words, the destructive power of the earthquake reported on the news was enough to lay waste to hundreds, even thousands of square kilometers of land!
Within the quake zone, not only would towering skyscrapers completely collapse, but all transportation infrastructure such as roads and bridges would also be utterly obliterated.
Even the lay of the mountains and the flow of the rivers would be permanently altered by the sheer force of the tremor.
The joy of advancing to the top eight had been completely washed away by the shock of such horrifying news.
"Still, technology is so advanced now, and there are so many Beast Warriors. With their help, a lot of civilians should be rescued, right?"
Fly couldn't help but turn and ask Mr. Carter.
Even though he didn't know a single soul living in Montena State, Fly genuinely didn't want them to suffer from this natural disaster.
So, his first instinct was to look on the bright side.
"Y-yeah, exactly!" Jett chimed in.
With modern technology so advanced and so many Civilian Warriors among the populace, plus the fact that the earthquake didn't strike in the dead of night, people wouldn't be caught sleeping and unable to evacuate.
So, the casualties shouldn't be that severe, right?
Thinking of this, both Fly and Jett let out a long sigh of relief. At least not that many innocent people would lose their lives.
However, the deep frown on Victor Sterling's face didn't relax in the slightest.
"What's wrong, Vic?" Fly quickly noticed his reaction.
Did he have family or friends living in eastern Montena State?
Faced with Fly's question, Victor Sterling hesitated for a moment before speaking. "This is no ordinary earthquake."
If just facing the average students of Star City High, he might not have spilled anything.
But Fly, Genevieve, Valerius, and Jett were the cream of the crop at Star City High, all incredibly talented Beast Warriors.
Barring any accidents, they were practically guaranteed to study at the eight elite universities of The Tulip League in the future, ultimately entering The Martial Sanctum.
"Even though Montena State has a few minor fault lines, it's virtually impossible for them to produce an earthquake of this magnitude."
As a top student from the elite universities, Vic naturally wasn't ignorant of The United Federation's geography.
"Which means this is highly likely... the emergence of a new portal to The Martial Sanctum." Vic's tone was dead serious.
"A portal to The Martial Sanctum?" Only then did it click for Fly.
Grandmaster Muse had told him before that whenever a new entrance to The Martial Sanctum appeared, it was always accompanied by a major catastrophe.
Like earthquakes, tsunamis, or volcanic eruptions.
He just never expected that what Grandmaster Muse mentioned would happen right before his eyes so quickly.
The eastern part of Montena State bordered the Jade State, so the tremors had likely rippled into the western regions of the Jade State as well.
Because of this proximity, Fly suddenly felt a wave of surreal dizziness.
This disaster felt a world away, yet right at their doorstep.
"But there's no need to panic too much," Vic gritted his teeth and continued. "Our United Federation has always been a superpower in Martial Arts. Every single city has a sizable garrison of high-level Beast Warriors."
"Furthermore, every state has established a specialized military division of Beast Warriors."
"Even though there's no mandatory draft, there's never a shortage of talented youths who willingly choose this path and enlist every year."
At the end of the day, a region's educational resources were finite.
If one couldn't get accepted into a top-tier Martial Arts university, a Beast Warrior's potential ceiling would become severely limited.
So, those Beast Warriors who possessed decent talent but lacked the resources to propel themselves upward would choose the military route.
They served the military, and in turn, the military spent resources to cultivate them—a mutually beneficial exchange.
"On top of that, the high-level Beast Warriors near the disaster zone will rush to the rescue immediately to help handle the crisis," Vic explained slowly.
Fly and Jett exchanged a glance, their worries finally dissipating quite a bit.
"But there's still going to be a heavy price to pay, isn't there?" Fly turned to look back at the screen broadcasting the news.
How massive was the portal to The Martial Sanctum? What was the situation inside? Just how many of those creatures were there?
No one knew.
The only thing the warriors could do was fight. Wave after wave, they would fight to intercept those terrifying creatures at the portal to The Martial Sanctum.
Then, they would establish a quarantine zone, evacuate all the surrounding populace, and hand over control to the military and relevant warrior corporations.
After that came the massive influx of resources, sparking a protracted, grinding war.
But...
This process would undoubtedly result in massive casualties.
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Even among the Beast Warriors who survived, many would likely suffer from lingering aftereffects, perhaps even severe PTSD.
Every single time a portal to The Martial Sanctum emerged, it was a tragic, bloody ordeal for humanity.
And The United Federation was merely one of the few countries on Earth capable of minimizing that risk.
According to Grandmaster Muse, some countries with lower overall Martial Arts prowess would often face utter annihilation and broken families once a portal appeared.
As a result, despite slogans like "a community of shared human destiny," many smaller nations still perished because reinforcements didn't arrive in time.
And even if a major power managed to send aid in time, it didn't mean the smaller nation's nightmare was over.
The appearance of a Martial Sanctum portal meant disaster, but it also meant opportunity.
Inside The Martial Sanctum lay vast amounts of resources unavailable on Earth. Furthermore, a Beast Warrior's cultivation speed would multiply exponentially while inside.
Because of this, a major power's assistance to a smaller nation never came without a price.
Sure, the governments of major powers would dispatch legions of Beast Warriors to aid the smaller nation's citizens. But afterward, they would use this exact aid as a pretext to ruthlessly exploit and bleed the smaller nation's economy dry for years to come.
Sometimes, several major powers would turn a small nation into an active warzone just to fight over control of a portal. In the end, it was always the local populace who suffered!
"So, we don't actually live in a peaceful world. We just live in a relatively stable country." Watching the news on the screen, Fly couldn't help but voice his realization.
"That's... actually a very accurate way to put it." A flicker of surprise crossed Mr. Carter's eyes. He thought to himself, Fly is just a teenager, isn't he?
To think he had actually considered things so deeply!
"Over the past few years, the portals to The Martial Sanctum have been appearing with increasing frequency," Vic sighed.
"Ten years ago, a new portal would appear once every three years on average."
"Five years ago, the average gap was two years."
"But now? It's only been seven months since the last portal emerged!"
...
Star City.
Inside a certain villa in the suburbs.
Grandmaster Muse, hailed as a Grandmaster-level Beast Warrior, was in his third-floor study with his daughter, Cynthia, watching the broadcast of The Jade State League group stages via a projector.
Seeing Fly sweep twelve opponents entirely on his own, securing three consecutive victories and leading Star City High into the top eight, Cynthia couldn't help but smile with gratification.
In Cynthia's eyes, as long as Star City High didn't have abysmally bad luck and draw Sovereign High right out of the gate, achieving a high rank would be a walk in the park with Fly's level of Martial Arts.
However, just as Cynthia was anxiously watching for the draw results, an emergency news broadcast caused her expression to grow complicated.
She instinctively reached to turn off the projector, but Muse's voice stopped her.
"It's fine," Muse gently shook his head.
A 9.1 magnitude mega-earthquake that didn't occur on a major fault line? Chances were, another portal to The Martial Sanctum had appeared.
"Father..." Cynthia hesitated as she spoke.
According to government investigation reports, the interior of The Martial Sanctum was becoming increasingly active compared to the past.
The frequency of new portals opening was also steadily climbing.
If things kept progressing at this rate, within a century, portals to The Martial Sanctum would be everywhere in the world.
When that time came, would humanity's Beast Warriors even be able to keep up?
Even though every current portal was under strict lockdown, the creatures inside seemed practically endless.
Humans, on the other hand, could only begin practicing Martial Arts when they reached high school age and their bodies had basically matured.
Four years of high school, another four years of university...
It took an ordinary person at least twenty years to grow into a Beast Warrior capable of holding their own.
Meanwhile, the average human lifespan was less than a century.
Even with the backing of modern technology extending the lifespans of some Martial Arts masters to a hundred and twenty or thirty years, it still felt like a drop in the bucket against the ever-increasing number of portals...
It just felt like humanity was running out of time.
She feared that in just a few short years, human warriors and the creatures from The Martial Sanctum would plunge into an all-out war...
"It's been a hundred years since the first portal to The Martial Sanctum appeared."
"Yet aren't we humans still living perfectly fine on this earth?"
"Humanity will never lose hope."
Muse glanced at the worry-stricken Cynthia and offered comfort.
"Besides..."
But halfway through his sentence, Muse suddenly hesitated.
Cynthia instinctively turned to look at him, only to catch his eyes seemingly darting away in avoidance.
This inevitably reminded her of the past.
"Father, what exactly did you see back then?"
She remembered that Muse's legs were injured during his very last expedition into The Martial Sanctum.
Not long after his return, he clashed fiercely with the upper management of Helios Warrior Corp.
Following that, he resigned in sheer fury and returned to Star City alone.
At the time, Cynthia thought it was just your run-of-the-mill corporate power struggle.
But later on, she realized things weren't nearly that simple.
With the current level of medical technology, curing his injured legs wouldn't actually be that difficult.
Yet every single time Cynthia brought it up, Muse flatly refused.
He would always say things like, "It's useless," or "Even if they try to treat it, it won't heal."
Furthermore, even if his legs were crippled, Muse's overall Martial Arts prowess was still intact. He still wielded massive influence within the corporation. As long as he didn't want to leave, it wouldn't have been easy for the executives of Helios Warrior Corp to force him out.
Yet he chose to resign of his own volition.
Even though some people claimed Muse just wanted to return to his hometown to retire, Cynthia always felt there was more to the story.
Even when it came to taking on an apprentice, she sensed something fishy.
Instead of choosing the sprawling metropolis of Sovereign City, he opted for Star City, where educational resources were relatively lagging.
With Grandmaster Muse's prestige, if he had just said the word, countless students from even Sovereign High would have flocked to study under him.
Yet in the end, he chose the remarkably average-born Fly from Star City.
This entire string of actions left Cynthia utterly baffled to this day.
But there was one thing she was absolutely certain of: her father had only started acting so strangely after returning from his final trip to The Martial Sanctum.
Muse looked at Cynthia's shifting expression. He opened his mouth to speak several times, but swallowed his words each time. Until finally, he forced out a single sentence. "It's nothing. You're overthinking it."
"Father!" Cynthia couldn't help but raise her voice.
"Are you worried that if I find out the truth, I'll go looking for the people at Helios for revenge? Or are you afraid I'll venture into The Martial Sanctum alone?"
Cynthia was no fragile woman. She was a Level Six Beast Warrior and a graduate of the elite Tulip League universities. She had the absolute clearance to enter and exit any Martial Sanctum within The United Federation.
Cynthia firmly believed she was more than capable of handling herself!
Yet Muse still treated her like a little girl. His every action bled with extreme caution, terrified she might encounter the slightest danger.
Sometimes, being treated like that truly suffocated her.
"Father, your grooming of Fly... it isn't just about getting back at the folks at Helios, is it? It must have something to do with whatever you saw during your last trip to The Martial Sanctum, right?"
"I just don't understand..."
"You refuse to trust the comrades who went through hell and high water with you back then, and you don't even trust your own flesh and blood. Yet, of all people, you choose to place your faith in an outsider like Fly!"
"What exactly is going through your head!?"
The more Cynthia spoke, the more agitated she became. Finally unable to hold it back any longer, all the pent-up frustration she had harbored for years burst out like a broken dam.
Ever since she was a child, she had been desperate to prove herself to him.
She deliberately avoided using his network and resources. Instead, she chose to return to Star City alone—the very place that had nurtured Muse, a small city with lackluster educational resources. Relying purely on her own blood, sweat, and tears, she earned her acceptance into the eight elite universities of The Tulip League.
All of this was just to prove her talent and strength to her father!
Yet even now, Muse still hadn't acknowledged her. Instead, he heavily favored Fly, a boy he had only just met.
Deep down, this was an incredibly bitter pill for Cynthia to swallow.
Even though she knew perfectly well that Fly's talent was indeed greater than her own.
"It's not that I chose to believe in Fly." Seeing Cynthia lose control of her emotions, Muse sighed, his tone softening significantly.
"What?" Cynthia was momentarily stunned.
"I didn't choose to believe in Fly," Muse repeated, looking straight at her.
"I simply saw a possibility in him."
"What possibility?" Cynthia pressed urgently.
"A possibility... to alter the future," Muse said, choosing his words with extreme care.
"Can't even tell me, your own daughter, clearly?" Cynthia instinctively took a step back, still unable to fathom his reasons for such secrecy.
"For certain things, the time isn't right. Even if I told you now, you would be utterly powerless to change it. It would only bring you needless despair. Just like it did for me back then," Muse said slowly.
"What right do you have to say that?" Cynthia practically screamed.
"Then what did you see when you faced The Scroll of Martial Heart-Tempering?" Muse asked, his voice deep and measured.
Chance, he had given to Cynthia.
In fact, she was the very first person he had given it to.
It was her own failure to see through The Scroll of Martial Heart-Tempering. She was the one who let the opportunity slip through her fingers.
The mere mention of The Scroll of Martial Heart-Tempering acted like a bucket of ice water, instantly extinguishing the raging fire within her heart.
Seeing Cynthia look so utterly defeated, Muse's heart inevitably softened.
"If Fly manages to successfully clinch the championship of The Jade State League this time, I will tell the two of you everything I saw during my last trip into The Martial Sanctum."
"Mm, yes, Absolutely everything."