Some answers about the worldbuilding of Phantasm Report

Since I saw similar questions several times in later VIP chapters, I decided to devote a separate chapter to answering them before the paid chapters.

If you think the explanation makes sense, keep reading, and your subscription will be money well spent. (Of course, if the story turns out to be bad... there are no refunds.)

The main question is: why hasn't the government gotten involved in Hunter affairs? Or, in other words, why doesn't the government regulate them?

I'd like to explain this question from two angles: first, can it? Second, does it want to?

1. Can it?

Pathways are completely random, rare, and subject to exacting conditions.

Whether someone discovers that they have a Pathway comes down entirely to luck. Government power is of no use whatsoever in this respect.

Because the government can't call on citizens in major cities to try jumping off buildings or crashing into televisions one by one... The very nature of Pathways means the government cannot form a national team, because they are intensely personal and cannot be controlled by outside forces.

Without a national team, it cannot enter the Nest. Cut off at the source, with no knowledge of what is being brought into the human world, it cannot regulate the circulation of phantasms. (This doesn't rule out the occasional phantasm ending up in official hands.)

Then could it organize or regulate existing Hunters?

First, the political environment in Phantasm Report is modeled on the United States. Regulation would require a series of steps: introducing a bill in both houses, voting it into law, securing congressional funding, establishing a regulatory agency, submitting to public oversight...

But 99.9% of humanity doesn't know that the Nest, phantasms, or Hunters exist.

If you were a legislator, how would you explain to your constituents why you voted for a proposal that sounded like nonsense, or why you wanted to spend a large amount of tax money on "something that doesn't exist"?

How would you ensure that political opponents didn't seize the opportunity to attack you?

Of course, if you mean quietly having an intelligence agency or some similar department arrest or monitor Hunters, then technically speaking, that is indeed possible.

But it is only possible on the premise that "you know who the Hunters are."

The randomness of discovering a Pathway means that, as a regulator, you never know who will become a Hunter tomorrow, nor will there be any advance warning.

What's more, Hunters aren't stupid. Once such operations begin, they will certainly go further underground to protect themselves, and may even fight back using the power of phantasms-where's the benefit? (This brings us to whether the government wants to. More on that in part two.)

And as a Hunter, when you've risked your life to obtain a phantasm and can sell it for a high price, how likely are you to hand it over to the government, accept recruitment, and collect a civil servant's salary of a few thousand dollars a month?

What's more, the Nest is a lawless place. Once people enter it, only those who come out alive know what happened. What if a national team went in and never came back?

Government power is ultimately made up of people. When more than 99% of people are shut out from the Nest and phantasms, that means the government is shut out too.

2. Does it want to?

The short answer is no.

Let's assume the government has the ability to regulate Hunters and the Nest: Party A takes office this term and establishes a Department of Phantasms, virtually eliminating phantasms from private hands and placing them all in government hands.

Then Party A fails to win reelection, and Party B takes office.

Once Party A becomes the opposition and can't get anywhere near a phantasm, wouldn't it feel that it had shot itself in the foot? (This kind of competition for office exists within parties too.)

What if a phantasm suddenly appeared at that point that could keep the ruling party in power forever, or keep the opposition out of power forever? Would Party A be willing to leave the stage of history for good?

What's more, the political environment this story draws on is America's, where the ultimate goal of corrupt, money-driven politics is still money.

Would the financial backers behind legislators want them to pass regulatory laws? Once regulations were in place, those backers would have fewer ways to obtain phantasms, and doing so would be less convenient. Even if this candidate were willing to give you special access, would that candidate's political opponents agree?

As a financial backer, would you fund a candidate who would raise your taxes after being elected?

If not, then you certainly wouldn't fund a candidate who would leave you unable to buy phantasms after being elected.

Even for the sake of campaign contributions, would candidates still push for something so thankless?

Take a real-world example: American commercial health insurance doesn't merely profit from people's suffering; it profits by outright devouring them. Why won't either party take on commercial health insurance to win votes? Because those companies are major financial backers.

So,

1. The vast majority of people don't know about it;

2. Regulation would be fraught with difficulties;

3. Hunters only want money, and money can buy the phantasms they hold;

4. Letting Hunters enter and leave the Nest freely benefits even high-ranking government officials themselves;

5. The consequences of regulation might be losing campaign contributions while handing the gains to your opponents.

Something that offers essentially nothing but difficulties and disadvantages, with no benefits-if you took office, would you do it?

(End of chapter)