Hero Association Headquarters Building, High-Level Meeting Room.
This bright, spacious conference room was adorned with lavish furnishings, gleaming in golden splendor. In fact, due to the excessive meaningless decorations, it looked a bit nouveau riche.
Actually, this didn’t cost much money at all, because all of it was the creation of the Association President. Even the grand entrance hall on the ground floor was his masterpiece.
A massive round table sat in the center of the conference room.
It was so large that without speaking through a microphone, those sitting across from each other couldn’t hear what the other person was saying…
The Association President’s design philosophy was to imitate the famous Knights of the Round Table, but since there were more Top-tier Heroes than Knights of the Round Table, this round table had to be designed even bigger.
At this moment, the Top-tier Heroes who supported the Association behind the scenes had been summoned to sit around the massive round table, jointly discussing the “man-made disaster” that had occurred within the Association Building today.
That said, quite a few seats remained vacant.
Most Top-tier Heroes were people who found it troublesome and simply didn’t want to attend.
“I’ve inspected the shell and the relay servers.”
The Top-tier Hero who had been first dispatched to the Computer Room for support, the “Engineer” Ada, tapped her fingertips on the table and presented her inspection report on the hero network.
“None of the peripheral hardware of the ‘hero network’ has malfunctioned. Even after being infiltrated by darkness, it continues to operate normally… After all, darkness doesn’t react to inanimate objects—that conclusion was reached long ago.”
“In other words, without being externally coerced, interfered with, or controlled, the hero network remained ‘conscious.’ It tacitly approved of the enemy’s actions in stealing and concealing the relic.”
“This is clearly an act of betrayal.”
Ada adjusted her crooked hairband, tidied her orange hair, and continued:
“So~ I believe we should impose restrictions on the hero network. At the very least, suspend its usage until we figure out what it’s thinking… Ideally, we’d reformat it entirely—if that’s even possible.”
Her viewpoint garnered nods of agreement from some of the heroes.
Although the “hero network” was an Association project, the Association wasn’t unified in its thinking either.
Most Top-tier Heroes had strong personalities—expecting them to reach a consensus was like expecting heroes to shake hands and make peace with mutants.
In any case, some heroes did harbor skepticism toward the “hero network.” Their concerns weren’t limited to confidentiality, but also whether the “hero network” itself was reliable enough.
The core of the hero network was one of the “god’s relics.”
And every relic represented technology that surpassed its era.
In other words, it was also the origin prototype, the mother unit of A.I. black box technology. The core of the “hero network” was a strong AI with independent thinking and self-learning capabilities.
Putting a relic that hadn’t been fully mastered into active use was fraught with risk, no matter how you looked at it.
Therefore, rather than investigating the mysterious demon that stole the relic, the Hero Association was more concerned about the “hero network’s” passive behavior during this incident. They even organized an emergency meeting that very night to discuss the matter.
Ada’s statement concluded.
“Alice, can you explain the situation Ada just described?”
The young man seated in the Association President’s chair propped his chin on his hand, looking at the “Mechanical Angel” sitting to one side, a relaxed smile on his face that betrayed no tension whatsoever.
“As the only individual capable of communicating with the hero network, I believe you have an obligation to explain its actions. At the same time, we will decide whether to continue this project based on your answers.”
With those words, everyone present turned their gaze toward Alice.
She stood up from her seat without showing any sign of intimidation.
A glimmer flickered in her eyes, and a holographic projection lit up in the center of the round table.
“Regarding the period before and after the intrusion, it is true that the Control Center received no warnings about the mainframe being invaded through a wormhole. That is a fact. On this matter, I also consulted the ‘hero network,’ and the answer it gave was…”
“Harmless. No threat.”
“Harmless to what exactly?” the President asked in return.
The projection displayed images of the shadow soldiers and the Snake-Eye Witch.
Alice continued her explanation:
“In the hero network’s view, the Dark Domain Individuals and the witch who invaded the Computer Room are not enemies. These invaders from the Dark Domain… are also human.”
“Human? How could Dark Domain Individuals possibly be human?”
Alice’s explanation failed to convince the room, so she had no choice but to elaborate:
“The core of the hero network is a legacy from the ‘lost era.’ She understands history better than we do. Perhaps in the distant past, Dark Domain Individuals were also part of ‘humanity’—after all, darkness is an aggregation of negative emotions.”
As Alice explained, Ada interrupted:
“Stop, stop, stop! Don’t go off track, Alice!”
She chewed her bubblegum, pushed up her glasses, and stood up while leaning on the table to continue her accusation:
“Never mind whether the intruders are shadow people—even if ordinary people had just snuck in, the hero network should have issued a warning, right? That’s a classified area!! Does being human mean they can just come and go freely? What were you thinking?!”
“The hero network did not provide an explanation for this. However, she is an advanced system capable of predicting the future. Perhaps she has a deeper purpose that we are unaware of.”
Ada slammed the table and pointed at Alice, retorting:
“Huh? Then she should just say it!”
“I agree with Miss Ada.”
The burly man bearing the title “Dragon Sword” seconded the “Engineer’s” words with a booming voice.
“Precisely because it says nothing that the hero network seems suspicious. The original intention behind choosing it as the core was to prevent the leakage of heroes’ real information, yet now even we’re kept in the dark by it… Doing confidentiality too well isn’t a good thing either.”
Ada continued:
“And that underground Computer Room! It was supposed to be an insurance policy against it losing control or being stolen, but ordinary people can’t even get in or out. It’s turned into a dark little room for hiding enemies—that place is completely out of control!”
“Ada, what do you think we should do then?” the President asked.
“My stance hasn’t changed.”
Ada blew and popped her bubblegum once.
“I still believe we should suspend the ‘hero network’ project, send that riddle-talking core back to the Administration Bureau for continued research and AI technology development. Once we can develop an AI core with comparable performance ourselves, then we can restart this project.”
Waiting for the technology to mature was a reasonable judgment.
Especially at a time when the Association was under public pressure.
Alice felt the pressure.
The public’s skepticism toward the hero network had clearly influenced the Association’s decision-makers as well. Some heroes who had previously been indifferent were now beginning to waver.
As for the Association President, he didn’t voice his stance directly.
“Then everyone, let’s do this the usual way.”
He simply waved his hand, and two lamps appeared in front of each person—lamps marked “O” and “X.”
“Now, let’s begin the vote.”