Shadow Slave

Master Jet's nonchalant attitude was in stark contrast with the gravity of her statement. Sunny froze for a few moments, then slowly put his cup on the table. When he spoke, his voice sounded a little hoarse:

"What?"

She sighed, then looked around the cafeteria. It was slightly surreal, to be discussing something that concerned the lives of hundreds of millions of people in the safety of this tranquil place.

Several instructors were enjoying their meals, and there were members of the staff going about their business. None of them knew of the approaching disaster. This contradiction was chilling, too.

Soul Reaper did not seem to mind.

"I have told you about the Obel Scale once, right? It is a very complicated spelltech system that the government uses to predict the appearance of Gates across the globe. Well… I was not entirely honest when I said that a bit of maintenance and calibration would solve all the problems it had been experiencing recently. In truth, the problems we've been having with its readings are not as trivial as I implied. They are just a symptom of a much bigger problem."

Sunny's eyes widened slightly.

"Kurt… Shadow Blade Kurt. He mentioned something about the Obel Scale. It was the reason he had given up and gone mad… one of them, at least."

Master Jet nodded, an expression of mild contempt appearing on her face.

"Yes. However, Kurt was broken and weak. He really blew the issue out of proportion."

The corner of Sunny's mouth twitched.

"I wouldn't call losing an entire continent a small issue."

She shrugged.

"Neither would I. But is not the end of the world, either."

Soul Reaper calmly took a sip of coffee.

"Back when we lost North America, something similar happened. The Obel Scale went out of alignment, making its detection scope unreliable. In the end, a Category Five Gate appeared, and after that, everything went back to normal. However, a few years ago the government noticed growing irregularities in the readings again. After studying these irregularities for some time, we came to the conclusion that something massive was going to happen again."

She pursed her lips.

"This time, it is going to be different. Instead of one gargantuan Gate, there is going to be a… a chain reaction, of sorts. Hundreds of smaller Gates are going to open in relatively quick succession, allowing countless Nightmare Creatures to invade the real world. And all that is going to take place…"

A moment of tense silence passed before she finished the sentence:

"...In Antarctica."

Sunny felt his mouth turn dry.

"But you… you just said that Antarctica is the second most populated continent on Earth."

Master Jet nodded.

"Yes. There are around nine hundred million people living there."

He remained motionless for a while, then looked away.

"...You also said that a compartmentalized global infrastructure is vulnerable to cascade failure. And that Antarctica serves as a logistical hub between the four continents and South America, where most of our food is produced."

Soul Reaper smiled.

"Indeed. However, it is not as bad as you might think. Every megacity possesses robust hydroponic agriculture and is capable of sustaining itself, to a large degree. We've learned our lessons. Yes, losing the connection to South America will be a painful blow, but humanity will survive. There will be a big change, of course… I think you have already guessed its nature. More people will be pushed out into the outskirts. Maybe there will be thirty percent of the population living there instead of twenty. Maybe more."

Sunny still could not let go of his dismay.

"What about the millions of people living in Antarctica? What is the government doing? Can't you throw enough troops and Awakened there to contain the chain reaction?"

She hesitated for a few moments, then let out a wistful sigh.

"...Sure. If we mobilize all our forces — and I mean all of them — and get the Great Clans to fully support the operation, we might keep hold of Antarctica. However, it is not that simple. Everything has a cost, Sunny. There are three other continents we have to protect, and sending so much Awakened into the meat grinder will leave them defenseless. After all, the fact that hundreds of Gates will open in Antarctica does not mean that they will stop appearing everywhere else. Overextending our resources to protect one quadrant will doom all of them. Even if that doesn't happen immediately, in the long term, humanity will cease to exist on Earth."

Master Jet rubbed her face, then smiled.

"That does not mean that we are going to remain idle, however. In fact, the government has been preparing a massive operation for the past two years. It's just that… the situation changed much quicker than anyone could have expected. The timetable has been brought forward by several years, at least. Our current preparations are entirely insufficient."

She grew silent, then added in a neutral tone:

"We thought that there would be much more time to get everything ready. But there isn't, not anymore. So… it's going to be a damn mess of epic proportions."

Sunny scowled, not entirely sure what that was supposed to mean. He could barely accept the fact that losing one of the four continents was an acceptable price for keeping the other three intact. Humanity had already lost North America, after all, and persisted despite the loss. It had arguably grown more powerful as the result.

But if the government was willing to let Nightmare Creatures conquer Antarctica, what operation could it be possibly planning?

"...What exactly is the government going to do?"

Master Jet turned back to the map of the Earth, lingered for a few moments, and then pointed at the large archipelago in the south.

"Why, what else? We are going to evacuate nine hundred million people from the doomed continent while a neverending horde of Nightmare Creatures is pursuing us. Or… we will try, at least. To be honest, I think that most of those who try will probably die…"