Chapter 82 082 Madness
082 - That was merely a matter of quantity, yet it was synonymous with boundless madness.
"Let's vote on whether we still need to go find [Tiger]."
Sitting upright in her seat, Christie casually glanced around at everyone in the room.
"Feel free to express any opinions you may have."
That's what they said, but after Christie finished speaking, everyone's first reaction was to look at Romain Rolland.
Romain Rolland, who was being stared at, twitched at the corner of his mouth, and finally sighed resignedly, taking out his little notebook that he never parted with.
"Let me first summarize the current situation regarding this."
After all, he is the type who is better at collecting and summarizing than analyzing.
"Right now, with the ASA, the gatekeepers, and the people from the bookstore all here, plus the local government and non-governmental organizations watching, all our actions are restricted."
Romain Rolland sat in his seat with his notebook in his hand, idly twirling the pen he was holding in his other hand.
"As for [Tiger], someone sold this information, along with the information about 'The Book,' to Fitzgerald through intelligence brokers... Everyone knows about the efforts he made to bring his daughter back to life."
“Yeah, they even want to try Shelley and Exupéry’s abilities.” As always, Barry drifted aimlessly in mid-air, resting his chin on his hands, recalling Fitzgerald from his memories. “That old man looked like the type who would go crazy for this.”
"What you said isn't wrong."
Romain Rolland looked at the interrogation report in his hand (Romain in disguise), his face showing a complex mix of unspoken words and unspeakable emotions.
“Fitzgerald… this time, he directly offered 7 billion for the bounty on [Tiger].
When Romain Rolland read out the number, all the members of the UN had the same reaction: Romain Rolland seemed to have misread it.
Even the UN, with its common sense, doesn't consider "offering a bounty of 7 billion to one person" to be a possible occurrence.
Then, when everyone subconsciously turned to look at Romain Rolland and saw his conflicted expression, they were all stunned.
"Wow... Ah."
No one knew who uttered the meaningless syllable. But no one bothered to identify who made the sound.
“Ah… just to avoid any misunderstanding, the currency is US dollars.” The silence was broken by Romain Rolland’s dry voice, “This is… enough to drive everyone in this city crazy.”
Upon hearing that the unit was US dollars, everyone seemed to lose their ability to breathe.
This is truly... an outrageously high amount.
Although I always knew the group was very rich, and I knew Fitzgerald would stop at nothing to bring his daughter back to life, even so... seven billion US dollars, a bounty on one person?
This is too exaggerated and too crazy. Even in the UN, where people gather like madmen, it is a suffocating madness.
This suffocating effect wasn't due to some ingenious or terrifying design; it was created by sheer, massive quantities stacked together, directly and vividly displaying that madness to everyone.
That was so... terrifying.
Vladimir also let out a long sigh of relief, then felt somewhat speechless: "This amount is driving me crazy, let alone the people in this city."
Just hearing that number made Vladimir feel as if he could hear the sound of his reason being burned away.
No, that's not right. This is not a problem that can be solved simply by burning away one's reason.
If we're not careful, this whole city could be burned to the ground.
“So, I don’t recommend that we continue to get involved in this mess.” Romain Rolland scribbled a few lines in his notebook. “Thanks to Tofitzgerald, this place will soon be in complete chaos.”
A few murmurs of discussion broke out in the conference room, but no one spoke first.
Seeing this situation, Christie sighed helplessly.
"Raise your hand to vote. Those who agree to vote, raise your hand."
As she spoke, Christie was the first to raise one of her hands.
"I'll cast my vote first."
Romain Rolland shrugged and raised his hand; Verne didn't say anything, but simply raised his hand as well.
“Since all three of you have decided to give up, this vote is meaningless.” Defoe, somewhat speechless, watched the three of them act in unison, clearly having planned it beforehand. “I’ll cast my vote too.”
Since all three members voted for the creation of the UN, it's practically the same as passing it outright.
All that's left is to go through the motions.
On Pu Songling's face, which lacks facial features, there should have been a slight twitch in the area of his eyebrows—based on past experience, that would have been Pu Songling raising his eyebrows.
Then, Pu Songling raised his hand, which was still holding a pen.
"I agree to give up."
“I agree.” It was Cervantes who spoke, holding a Japanese manga in one hand and a half-open English-Japanese dictionary in the other. “Anyway, it would be foolish to rush in like this, compared to…”
Cervantes choked on his last sentence, swallowing the rest of it and leaving it unsaid.
Cervantes swallowed the second half of his sentence, "even dumber than Don Quixote," but if Cervantes had actually said it... then Don Quixote might have just popped up.
If Don Quixote were to cause trouble, it would be no ordinary problem.
So, in order to avert this trouble, Cervantes swallowed his words at the last minute and didn't say them.
Stevenson (Robert) raised both hands: "Louis said it doesn't matter, so let's both just give up."
—That's right, Robert and Louis have two votes. Although they should actually be counted as one of Stevenson's votes.
“It’s not a good situation, but we have no choice but to give up,” Shelley sighed, mimicking Christie’s mature demeanor. “I agree.”
Looking at the vote count that was already more than half, Vladimir, who was sitting cross-legged in his chair, tilted his head and thought for a moment.
"Although I'm very interested in the prize money... it seems too much trouble, so I'll give up on it."
After confirming the number of people, Christie turned her gaze to Barry and Exupé, who were lost in thought.
Noticing Christie's gaze, Exupéry blinked in response, "I'm fine with anything."
For Exupé, choosing to be in chaos or in peace is meaningless.
Even if he were standing at the very center of the chaos, at most he would be a moving statue existing in two worlds.
Barry performed a giant spiral in the air before grinning at Christie, "I actually wanted to choose both options, so I'm abstaining, abstaining."
"Then, this matter is considered closed."
Christie put a checkmark on the document.
On the line where Christie made the checkmark, there was only the lonely word "Stop" at the beginning, and at the end, "12/6" was written clearly, like a piece of writing.
Then, just as the clock, which signified the start of the discussion, was about to complete its sixth revolution, Christie casually placed her pen on the table with a click that perfectly matched the sound of the minute hand moving.
"Let's move on to the next question."
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