Chapter 132 Retreat
Christie and Defoe lingered for a long time in front of the command post where Holmes was staying. Only after confirming that the large number of "no survivors" had mostly disappeared did they pass through the "drifting story" once again.
During this time, perhaps because the sheer number of "no survivors" was so intimidating, and because most of the usable unmanned armed personnel had been destroyed by Romain Rolland in the Nakajima Atsushi building, no one wanted to come up and stop Christie and Defoe.
Christie's "no one survived" illustrates this point: without a viable solution in one go, a hasty attack could result in devastating losses.
After maintaining a distance between himself and Christie, Defoe used "Drifting" to bring Christie back to the Nautilus while keeping a safe distance.
The Nautilus's main engine (which was also the resonance chamber of "Deepsea Wanderer") was removed by Verne and used in a fight, causing most of its functions to cease. However, the submarine's generators were still able to power some of the equipment.
Christie tapped the communicator in front of her and first connected to Romain Rolland's communicator: "Roland, how's it going on your end?"
"Well, did Holmes win here? Or was it expected?" Romain Rolland tossed aside a piece of metal debris, glancing around the empty room. "Sure enough, with the convenient tool of 'Fine Snow,' Holmes wouldn't have let 'Human Tiger' stay here safely."
Christie's tone sounded unequivocal: "As expected. 'Human Tiger' was always a hot potato; as long as the competition has a result, the prize doesn't matter."
After all, they had only designated the "human-tiger" as a target for UN activities. But now that Holmes has failed to solve the mystery and has been killed by Christie, the winner is obvious.
It didn't matter that the man-tiger escaped, but after some unknown suicidal maniac led the group to Yokohama, UN was no longer so keen on catching the "man-tiger".
If they were caught, given Fitzgerald's madness, the matter wouldn't be over until he received "Man-Tiger" and "The Book," even though U and N are no match for the combination in terms of combat strength. But if they were also banned in other ways, that would be a real problem.
In terms of the combined size of the alliance, cutting off the UN's economic sources wouldn't even be considered a serious blow. Furthermore, if Fitzgerald were to fund the ASA's pursuit of the UN, it would seem like a net loss.
UN doesn't have such a strong obsession with "books." The reason they come looking for "books" is simply that most of UN members want to see what books are, which is why they come here.
No matter how strange the composition of the group is, the essence of the UN is an "adventure group," just an adventure group composed of a bunch of reckless and lawless guys. Their goals are rarely clear-cut, and they rarely act out of necessity to achieve a specific objective.
This is why everyone agreed when Christy wanted to stay and fight Holmes. Besides their support for Christy, most people thought "this would be very interesting."
Originally, everyone had the same attitude towards "books." However, when the group entered the scene, the existence of books for UN changed from "interesting things" to "troublesome things." So, in some ways, not getting them was the best outcome.
Christie understood the nature of the UN, so she didn't show much attachment to the "human tigers." Instead, she directly told Romain Rolland, "I'll inform the others to evacuate. Rolland, you'll have to trouble yourself to go find Cervantes and Nabokov."
“No problem. Nabokov should still be lively and easy to find, but Cervantes is a different story.” Romain Rolland walked outside, his pupils turning back to their original color as his figure was gradually enveloped by swirling sand, transforming him into something else entirely. “Every time Cervantes uses [Knight's Age], he falls into a coma, only to wake up the next day full of energy, shouting things like, 'What an exhilarating battle!'”
Thinking of Cervantes, who would always jump up and cause trouble again after using up [Knight Age], Christie felt a slight headache: "Cervantes's depression is always so short-lived, which is one of his strengths."
"That is to say... oh, right."
Romain Rolland suddenly remembered something and said to Christie before diving to the ground, "I just went to look at that statue, and her heart has been pierced."
"Moreover, judging from her position, I think she did it herself."
Christie paused for a moment, then chuckled and said, "So my obsession runs this deep?"
Romain Rolland uttered the final words, "Quite obvious," before sinking to the ground, temporarily cutting off communications.
Christie put down the communicator but did not immediately notify the rest of the people. Instead, she silently looked at what was in front of her, her gaze not falling on the things in her hands.
After a long silence, Christie sighed softly, "It's a real shame that the sensory experience of the statue and the original cannot be connected."
In that case, perhaps we can understand what "death" really is.
Given Christie's abilities, there are very few questions she can't answer as long as there are traces left behind.
However, despite possessing the instant-death ability to directly grant death, and despite the fact that any living thing that comes into contact with him will die, Christie has been unable to solve the mystery called "Death".
It's like a black box; the prerequisites are known, and the final result is also known. But what exactly happened inside the black box is unknown.
If it were someone else, they probably wouldn't care about this "black box." After all, there are so many unsolved mysteries in the world; if we were to dwell on them all, there would be no end to it.
But Christie is different. Her supernatural abilities make her live every day with death, yet there isn't a single clue that can solve this mystery.
So Christie cared a lot; for her, solving this puzzle was the most important thing in her life.
The agonizing feeling of facing a problem head-on but being unable to arrive at a solution is incredibly frustrating.
With some unrelated thoughts on her mind, Christie picked up the communicator again and began to notify the UN members to evacuate.
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