Humans Seeking Death

Night fell like ink, concealing every trace of the day's battle.

After a brief celebration and comforting one another, the GUTS members returned to their respective posts to handle the aftermath.

After parting ways with Daigo, Masaki Keigo wasted no time and headed straight for TPC's Far East Headquarters base.

In the command room, he found Iruma Megumi handling documents.

Seeing Masaki Keigo enter, Iruma Megumi took off her glasses and rubbed her weary brow.

"I need to know everything."

Masaki Keigo got straight to the point. Pulling out a chair, he sat across from Iruma Megumi and looked directly at her. "Daigo doesn't know what's going on at the upper levels, but you should.

What exactly happened inside TPC?"

Iruma Megumi fell silent for a moment. She picked up the coffee on the desk, long since gone cold, and took a sip. Its bitterness spread across her tongue.

"Not long after you disappeared, TPC's upper ranks—or rather, the hawks led by Yoshioka Tetsuji—tried to break into your company's database."

She spoke slowly, her voice carrying suppressed exhaustion. "But because of the defensive measures you left behind, they failed.

But they didn't give up. Instead, they used another, more direct method."

"What did they get?" Masaki Keigo pressed.

"Everything."

Iruma Megumi's answer made the air feel heavier. "They forcibly shut down your company's energy weapons and took away all the research materials and equipment.

After that came a series of monster attacks.

Looking back now, the timing and locations of those monsters' appearances were far too coincidental."

"They staged it all themselves?"

Masaki Keigo frowned deeply, immediately understanding the trick behind it.

Create a crisis, then appear as saviors and resolve it cleanly and decisively with overwhelming force.

Then use media propaganda to stir up public sentiment, making people believe