Guesswork and Anomalies

The analysis room was deathly silent.

"...So?"

After a long while, Ranger's voice finally rang out, dry and hoarse.

Old Wei said nothing.

He stared at the crystal analysis report on the table, his fingers tapping the edge unconsciously, once, then again.

"I have a theory."

Old Wei slowly spoke.

Everyone in the analysis room turned their eyes toward him.

"That monster from seven years ago wasn't something they had 'planned to release.'"

"It was an industrial accident."

"They were producing Advanced Crystals in this city, which required an unimaginable amount of Negative Crystals and generated nine-tenths of a waste energy they couldn't use. That energy was stored and processed as usual—until one day, something went wrong."

"All the stored waste energy exploded at once."

"And that was how the monster came into being."

Old Wei paused.

"Then a lot of things make sense."

"First, why the casualties in that disaster were abnormally low—it wasn't a premeditated attack at all. The monster was the product of a loss of control, and even the Liberation Faction was caught off guard. The subsequent harvesting of panic and spread of their teachings never had a chance to happen."

"Second, why the Liberation Faction vanished from Our City after that night—the accident destroyed their production base, their equipment, their data, and everyone who knew how to create something like that. Of course, the mysterious light that appeared back then may also have played a part."

"Third, and most importantly—"

He swept his gaze over everyone, speaking one word at a time.

"Why have they returned after seven years?"

"Because what they lost in that accident wasn't just a factory."

"It was the entire manufacturing process."

The meeting room was so quiet that one could hear a pin drop.

"Wait, wait."

Celestial Star adjusted her