Kill Him

After watching Marshal Stacker leave the treatment room, Dr. Ciri stared at He-El through the glass wall and swallowed hard.

She tightened her white coat around herself, accentuating her exquisite curves. Even deep breaths could not calm the pounding in her chest. She opened the door, entered the temperature-controlled treatment room, and walked up to He-El.

"Be brave, Ciri. Don't do anything perverted in other people's eyes, or you'll have less time with the subject!"

Dr. Ciri secretly encouraged herself, warning herself to maintain the image of a professional, serious, cold medical doctor. Only then could she spend more time with the subject.

"Don't let the corners of your mouth curl up. That makes you look like a crazed pervert."

"Keep your eyes cold, like you're looking at an ordinary person. They're all just chunks of flesh walking around."

"Ah~~~~~ I can't do this! How can he be so perfect?!"

Dr. Ciri struggled desperately against herself. Yet the moment she saw He-El's body, her face became intoxicated, her legs pressed together, and she shakily reached toward his chest.

She could no longer restrain her perverse urges.

How was she supposed to endure this?!

Inside her mind.

An angel of brilliant light stood on the left, wearing a gentle expression as she said, "Be brave, Ciri. Just touch him. One touch is fine."

A black, evil demon suddenly rushed out from the right, wielding a spiked club. With one blow, it smashed the angel's head bloody and sent it vanishing, then wailed painfully, "Ciri, you have to hold back."

In the end, Dr. Ciri still could not resist. The tips of her slender fingers touched He-El's shoulder.

"Ah~~"

She covered the fingers that had touched He-El's body with her other hand, disbelief filling her bright eyes.

Just now, when she had touched that perfect body—the body she regarded as godlike—a thunderous voice had echoed through her mind.

"Get lost."

It was like when her mother had said it to her as a child.

That forbidden temptation, rejected by the world, was unbearable to Ciri.

She knew that this was very likely a message from that godlike being, telling her to get lost.

But the instant Dr. Ciri heard him reject her, she found herself unable to leave.

Marshal Stacker arrived at the brightly lit conference room, and his brows twitched.

Ever since the Pacific Rim Joint Defense Force had been established in Hong Kong, he had never seen such a complete gathering of representatives from all twenty-one nations.

Usually, only representatives from several major powers would meet with him.

But now, all twenty-one nations were present. Several countries had even sent their presidents personally. The images on twenty-one screens covered an entire wall.

After greeting the Secretary-General, Marshal Stacker expressed his confusion over the sudden meeting. The representatives of the various nations began explaining their purpose.

"Marshal Stacker, the Jaeger program has effectively prevented the kaiju from invading human homes and destroying Earth's environment. After discussion, the twenty-one nations have decided to increase funding for the Pacific Rim Joint Defense Force by fifty percent. We hope you will step up your efforts and completely curb the kaiju landings." The Secretary-General spoke first, affirming the Pacific Rim Joint Defense Force's achievements.

The other nations also voiced their recognition of the Pacific Rim Joint Defense Force under Marshal Stacker's leadership.

"Thank you for the recognition and support of all nations."

Stacker's gaze swept across the expressions of the many national representatives, and suspicion arose in his heart. Fifty percent was an enormous increase. For them to approve it so readily, something he did not know about must have happened.

"At the same time, General Jericho of Alaska will lead Army forces, while General Augustine of Texas will lead Air Force forces to garrison Anchorage Base," said one national representative.

Stacker's brows jumped. Well, damn. Both Army and Air Force units were heading for Anchorage Base. Why not send over the Navy too, along with Ford-class aircraft carriers?

But after a moment's thought, aircraft carriers really were not suitable for the Pacific Ocean. The kaiju's main nest lay in Challenger Deep near Guam. Bringing carriers over would make their safety difficult to guarantee.

Still, Stacker believed that if there were no kaiju, Ford-class aircraft carriers would definitely be sent over.

So what had happened?

"Twenty-one top biomedical teams from various nations have already rushed to Anchorage Base."

"Stacker, you need to transfer to Hong Kong and lead the Jaegers against the kaiju. We require you to suppress their appearances and seal off Challenger Deep, where they emerge."

"Stop, stop, stop!"

Stacker cut off the representatives' endless chatter.

The moment he heard that every nation had sent top biomedical teams, Stacker thought of the person in the treatment room—the one who had fallen from the sky and snapped off one leg of Gipsy Danger.

Other than that, nothing else could warrant the simultaneous appearance of twenty-one nations.

"I need to know what's going on. What exactly happened?"

"You're increasing the funding, sending me to Hong Kong, and demanding that I completely suppress Challenger Deep and the kaiju. At the same time, you're sending Army and Air Force troops to garrison Anchorage Base."

"I assume you want to send aircraft carriers too, right? It's just inconvenient because of the kaiju."

"And there are the twenty-one top biomedical teams from every nation."

"With all these actions, you can't possibly be sending them to give everyone in Anchorage a physical examination."

"Stacker..."

"Listen. Twenty-one nations already know. That means the entire world will know soon enough. So don't expect to keep playing the secrecy game with me. The earlier I hear it from you, the better I can deal with it. Otherwise, I will not let this go, and I will not transfer to Hong Kong so easily."

Stacker guessed that the biomedical teams had been sent because of the man who had fallen from the sky, but there had to be other reasons behind the involvement of these twenty-one nations. Stacker wanted to know more.

Twenty-one nations already knew. And they still expected to keep it secret?

They might be able to delete plenty of things from the internet, but the other countries across the world would certainly learn about it too. Perhaps while they were speaking, every country on Earth had already found out.

Everyone fell silent across the twenty-one screens. Representatives on several screens began communicating with people offscreen, while several others were replaced.

In the end, they reached the conclusion that Marshal Stacker should know as well.

"He isn't human, Stacker!"

"Why do you think we suddenly increased the funding?"

"He appeared from a wormhole in the sky."

"He came from outer space."

"He is an alien."

Several national representatives voiced their anxious speculation.

"We suspect that extraterrestrial forces have their eyes on us."

"Like Axehead, which destroyed the Golden Gate Bridge and led to the destruction of three cities, this person may have come to scout us out."

"Stacker, the additional funding is meant to ensure that you strictly limit the damage Pacific Ocean kaiju can inflict upon human civilization."

"You handle the Pacific Ocean problem. As quickly as possible."

"We still need to face invaders from space. Human civilization is being invaded from both the ocean and space. We could be destroyed overnight."

"You are not permitted to refuse."

"Stacker, drive the kaiju back into the wormhole and destroy it. Or die fighting. Or let Earth be destroyed. There is no other way."

"We need to deal with the alien."

Only then did Stacker understand what the nations feared.

The person in the treatment room was an alien.

After all, no human weighed 1,700 kilograms, and no human could be measured to possess a base strength of 8,000 tons.

And he had appeared abruptly from a wormhole in the stratosphere.

What the nations were thankful for now was that the stratospheric wormhole had been temporary and had disappeared immediately. Otherwise, every country would be even more terrified.

"He looks human..."

Stacker instinctively objected. He had previously planned to build a new Jaeger for that superhuman to pilot, intending to drive the kaiju back into the wormhole and close it for good.

Even after learning from Dr. Ciri that this human was far stronger than a Jaeger, he had not given up on asking him to help eliminate the kaiju.

He had even hoped that the man would awaken, communicate with them, and help him.

"Stacker, you cannot judge him by his human appearance," a national representative rebuked sharply.

"He is an alien. He cannot be trusted."

"We need to execute him immediately!"

"He looks human. Perhaps he can communicate."

Stacker hesitated slightly.

If that man had three heads and six arms, huge eyes and a huge head, or looked like some octopus Cthulhu alien, Stacker would not have hesitated at all.

But he looked exactly like an Earthling. That very likely meant his planet's environment was not too different from theirs, that he possessed civilization and intelligence, and that he might be someone they could communicate with.

He was different from the kaiju beneath the Pacific Ocean.

If the other side could communicate, then what these nations did would make him thoroughly hate them, leading to disastrous consequences.

But if the other side had truly come to scout Earth, then merely by taking human form, walking through a city, and going online, he could already expose nearly all of humanity's secrets.

He was a person, unlike the kaiju in Challenger Deep.

Those things were not even humanoid.

After a brief consideration, Stacker decided to advocate communicating with the man who had fallen from the sky.

Naturally, it would be a closed-off form of communication.

"Stacker is right. Perhaps..."

"There is no perhaps. Is he human? Is he human?"

"No human weighs 1,700 kilograms, and no human has been measured to possess 8,000 tons of strength!"

"He is an alien monster! While he is unconscious, we should kill him directly."

"I support killing him. We cannot let him wake up."

"I support communicating after he wakes up. Since he is humanoid, obtaining Earth's information would be far too easy."

"If the aliens casually send another person into a city, humanity will have no secrets left."

"I oppose it. This would place humanity in mortal danger. What we should do is prevent all life from space from entering Earth."

"I oppose communication. Those not of our kind must harbor different intentions. The nations of Earth already compete against one another in economics and military armaments. Are we supposed to believe that an alien from another planet came here merely for tourism?"

"..."

"I strongly oppose communication. I highly suspect that once he wakes up, he will immediately send a message into space and launch an attack on Earth."

"We cannot let him wake up."

"Kill him."

"The best way to deal with this is to act as if he never came to Earth."

"I still support communication."

"We cannot place the choice in alien hands."

"He suddenly appeared in the stratosphere. He may very well be a refugee, so... killing him is the safest and most reliable option. We cannot allow him to bring an even greater crisis. We already have one crisis in the Pacific Ocean capable of opening wormholes for travel."

"Exactly. He might also be an outpost or reconnaissance vanguard. Executing him while he has no ability to act is the safest option."

"We do not know what methods he has for communicating with aliens."

"Everyone... let us act as though he never came to Earth."

The nations were arguing in complete chaos.

Stacker swept his gaze across the screens. Fifteen nations supported killing him.