The Vortex's Heart
The Military Old Man clenched his fists. "It seems they're convinced the Super Artifact is in the Vanguard Squad's hands."
"But the truth is, we don't know where the Super Artifact is either." The white-haired old man turned toward the computer. "Are we still unable to contact them?"
"I've sent invitations to talk through every channel, but no one has contacted us so far," the Director of Special Affairs Bureau said. "However, we've discovered something else. The players who were killed were targeted according to the personnel List we compiled earlier."
"Wasn't the List already destroyed?" The white-haired old man's gaze sharpened at once.
"It was destroyed, and there isn't even a backup. But the game's technological level is far beyond anything we've achieved. They may have obtained the List by other means." The Director of Special Affairs Bureau had no reason to suspect anyone on their side. Given that bizarre method of killing, there was no need to get the List from an inside source.
"Two more people just died." The Director of Special Affairs Bureau paused, then said, "If this continues, we may have few of the promising Players we've recruited left. Even if we get through this crisis, I'm afraid no Players will join the Special Affairs Bureau in the future."
"The only option left is to create a Super Artifact and choose someone suitable to draw the attention of the foreign Players."
"But this mission is extremely risky. We don't have any items above B-level, so it'll be hard to convince the other Players."
Actually, the best option was to admit that District 014 had a Super Artifact, but the person holding it couldn't be a Player from District 014.
In other words, they needed to Divert Disaster Eastward. As long as they