Escalation and Hearing

The enormous crater that had abruptly appeared in Smallville had always been an unsolved mystery. The reason was simply that the way it had formed was far too bizarre—and far too terrifying.

It was a semicircular crater nearly a kilometer in diameter, and the destruction inside was unnaturally flat and smooth. It looked as though some gigantic, city-sized monster had taken a bite out of it.

That was why the footage showing Dilos inside that crater caused such an enormous uproar.

What was going on?

Why was Dilos of the Superpowered Guard Team there?

Had Dilos created that terrifyingly enormous crater?

If he really had made it, then wasn't Dilos's power far too terrifying?

If he possessed such tremendous power, why had he seemed so weak? Why hadn't he gone to save people sooner?! Then so many people wouldn't have died!

A conspiracy! This was an outright conspiracy!! He and his Mutant team had deceived us all!!!

For a time, all sorts of conspiracy theories about Mutants surged forth. All kinds of nonsense began spreading wildly: that Mutants were inherently evil, that they planned to pretend they had reformed in order to harm humanity and rule the world.

Those ridiculous claims sounded absurd, but during such extraordinary times, an unexpected number of people believed them. Quite a few people had originally supported Mutants, yet after this incident, they promptly switched to the anti-Mutant camp.

The negative image of Mutants had ultimately become too deeply ingrained in people's minds. Whenever something like this happened, they were easily suspected and targeted.

Dilos was annoyed by this, but there was little he could do. With Dante, the ultra-advanced intelligent system, and the equipment on Isla Sorna supporting him, he could monitor every network in the United States, but not networks across the