Apocalypse Redux - Chapter 305: The World Keeps on Turning

“So, we just discovered one of the most heinous criminals of the decade, and it somehow took eight years,” Elenah commented, letting the statement hang in the middle of the room, “How on Earth did we miss this?”

“We weren’t looking for him,” Isaac responded, “He was hiding way too well, and we really weren’t looking into disappearances. We couldn’t, not with everything else that’s going on.”

“Still sticks in the craw, doesn’t it?” Arthur commented, summing up what they were all thinking. No one had looked into this stuff at all because it hadn’t affected their general mission in the slightest, and something massive had slipped completely past them.

“Yeah, but what could we have done?” Isaac asked, “People are going to be people, some are going to be good, most are going to be largely neutral, and some are going to be assholes. We can’t police everyone.”

“Feels like we should, sometimes,” Jason mumbled, drawing the eyes of everyone in the room.

“Hey, I’m not saying we’re actually going to do that, just …” he began but trailed off when there weren’t any scathing comments.

“Sometimes, it feels all people do is evil crap, but it’s just that we never hear from the people who are just, you know, normal,” Isaac sighed.

“Can you imagine if we did, though?” Amy asked, switching into a reporter’s voice, “Mr. Joe Schmoe had a sloppy joe for dinner tonight, three beers, and spent the rest of the evening watching TV without noticing the huge stain on his shirt.”

“I don’t know, might be nice to see some feel-normal stories on the news once in a while, instead of a constant flood of the worst stuff happening in the world,” Isaac suggested.

“People would blow their top after two stories like that,” Bailey sighed, “Humans are funny like that. Besides they complain about the world but when they no longer have anything specific to complain about, they’re just going to make general complaints.”

“There are no perfect solutions, and nothing we can do to make anything close to it happen either, so let’s get this back on topic, yeah?” Jones asked. He was still in space, but this time around, he’d managed to tie down his hair in a way that didn’t make him look like a helium balloon.

“And are you sure that releasing Menton’s research was a good idea?” Japinder asked, looking at Isaac and Arthur in particular. Likely an attempt at getting this back on track.

It was Bailey who answered, “Some of that information could only have ever been found through human experimentation. If we hadn’t released it, down the line, someone else would have had to suffer just to rediscover it. We just have to hope that the idea of being stricken from the history books is enough of a threat that no one tries this again.”

“I suppose that depends on their beliefs,” Japinder sighed, “Someone who truly believes their actions to be altruistic might be fine with that, but I doubt too many altruists are going to go to such extremes. Maybe to discover solutions to specific problems, but never for the sake of knowledge as a whole.”

The biggest question had been how to deal with the bodies of Menton’s victims. Did they want to share the full horrific truth, potentially making it appear as though Insight themselves had gone ahead and done that? Or keep it to themselves and escape all issues?

Yet they wanted to make sure the families of the victims would have some closure.

So they’d split the difference and disguised the whole matter. Isaac had sent Zambon on a serial killer hunt, and then, they’d begun to send out condolence letters as “the Ghost”, informing the loved ones of missing persons of their passing, providing some comforting truths where possible and the location of the bodies when applicable, but sometimes, the bodies were just gone, properly disposed of.

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Plenty of that information could then be verified, lending credence to even those letters that didn’t provide all that much information.

It was barely enough, but it was what they’d chosen to do.

“Speaking of specific problems for problems and solutions, how are the plans for a perfect world going?” Jason asked. He was looking a lot more chipper than he’d been even a week ago, which was nice. Seeing him so beaten down felt like it violated the fundamental rules of nature.

“It’s going,” Isaac sighed, non-commitally.

“Meaning?” Elena asked, the barest hint of an edge creeping into her voice. Normally, such a non-answer would have earned him a harsh rebuke, but she knew better than anyone how messy the situation was at the moment.

“Universal basic income is cheaper to implement than ever, the [System] provides an easy path out of poverty through accessible training.

“And through a combination of local regulations and international treaties, Tier 10 [Raid Bosses] and [World Bosses] may not be summoned on Earth, and nowhere else in the solar system unless the whole thing is sanctioned by a government with the capability to put down the monster on its own if shit got out of hand. So we’ve got the perfect carrot for S-Rankers to be ok with not being the gods of the new world.

“If people could just be reasonable even in the slightest …”

Isaac broke off with another sigh, “We’ve got a proper basis for everything, a thorough one, now we just have to make some adjustments because people can be fucking idiots.”

“Stupidity, selfishness, greed, jealousy, all things holding humanity back,” Japinder joined in, “And they’re not things we can fix, so we have to work around them.”

“Hm,” Isaac nodded along.

“Why don’t you just disguise it?” Amy asked, “If someone is against Universal Basic Income on general principle, at least in the current situation, they’re probably a bit stubborn and might even have blinders on. Just call it something else, like ‘summoning stipend’ or ‘basic combat support’. Or literally anything else that’s harder to twist into looking like free money for ‘lazy’ people.”

Isaac’s forehead hit the table. That was actually a great idea. They’d largely gone in the sustainability direction, barely focusing on rebranding. Branding, sure, but not proper rebranding like how Amy had suggested.

She was right, though. People could be weird about stuff, and branding could be effective to the point where one could call it brainwashing and not be too far off.

They’d been entirely focused on the practical side of things, writing a set of legal guidelines that could be adjusted as needed, not marketing the damn things.

But yeah, kicking the problem further down the road and fixing it via the branding was a viable option.

He quickly relayed those thoughts and from there, the conversation crossed across a dozen different topics until eventually, it reached the actual, official, joint ventures they were planning.

Between Camelot, Yoo-jin’s ability to direct the funds of the Hunter’s guild, Isaac’s company, and various government subsidies that Habicht and Han could send their way if things were framed in the right light, they could pull on huge amounts of cash and resources.

Between that and the fact that Isaac could start distributing Ankou Aspects now that they’d officially broken into the 10th Tier for standard monsters, a space-based arena for Tier 10 [Raid Bosses] was becoming viable.

They’d already “claimed” several spots in the solar system, from a “lab” on Ceres to a large area on Mars that was currently being prepared in anticipation of eventual terraforming.

And with some preparation, ok, a lot of preparation, they’d be able to fight some of the [System’s] strongest monsters with barely any risk to civilians and other uninvolved people.

Still, there were a ton of things to hammer out first, regulations that would likely be in place by then that needed to be accounted for, traps to be emplaced, pillboxes to be designed.

Of course, this sparked a huge argument about where exactly the arena should be.

Mars’ gravity was 38% of Earth’s, more than enough to drag people back down to the planet after long jumps or being flung around the place. Good for avoiding spinning off into space and having to struggle to get back to the fight, but it also ensured that it would be a fair sight harder to escape if it was needed.

Ceres, meanwhile, had a negligible amount of gravity, which would mean that any significant amount of velocity would send one flying off into the black, and add an entirely new problem that combatants would need to come to grips with.

Yet at the same time, staying at a distance and blasting apart the [Raid Boss] would be so much easier around the tiny celestial body.

The argument turned in circles for hours, and they didn’t manage to settle the argument beyond “agree to disagree”. One of the more productive sessions on this topic they’d had.

Still, it was a discussion that had to be had, especially now, since Isaac has some rather interesting plans to conduct.