Chapter 320: That's An Anomaly
This was not a hidden secret, but not many in the public were aware of the fact until now.
The mogul spread his arms wide, his smirk stretching until it became grotesquely triumphant.
"Exactly. F-tiers. F-tiers clearing D-rank dungeons. Not as deadweight, not as pack mules, but as important members of the crew. Tell me, ladies and gentlemen of the press, has anything like that ever happened before? Their contribution to the clear has triumphed over that of the B-tier Sasha or the B-tier Jack. Some even argue they were more useful than the A-tier Arcane Puppeteer, Vaelira."
Gasps and murmurs rippled across the room. Even the reporter looked momentarily taken aback, though she quickly recovered, scoffing as she folded her arms. "Then either the evaluation was wrong, or they've re-awakened."
Maximilian's smugness only deepened. He reached beneath the podium and produced a sheet of paper, holding it high before dramatically lowering his gaze to read from it.
"Explanations, you say? Very well, let us examine them. According to the official records…" He tapped the page with relish. "… the three Valkyries of Valhalla's Sinners all had the exact same reading. Identical. An unprecedented event in all of recorded history. Surely, the Awakened Association also knew this. And let me assure you, there is no chance they didn't conduct the most rigorous tests possible to verify the validity of such impossible results."
The female reporter stiffened, her pen frozen above her notebook.
Maximilian's voice dripped with poison.
"And as for re-awakening… yes, it exists. But it is rare. Exceptionally rare. A gift granted to only a select few. And yet…" he raised the sheet in the air like a damning piece of evidence, "we are supposed to believe that not one, not two, not three, but all four of them re-awakened in the same, extremely short time window, together, and somehow reached seemingly similar power levels?"
He let the question hang, heavy as a guillotine blade. The audience's murmur swelled into chaos.
Many of the most influential organizations were aware of the information Maximilian had brought to the public eye today. This was why numerous guilds and orgs were scheming to get hold of Kaiden one way or another. But the aim of Maximilian was not the guilds and other organizations.
It was the general public, the masses, full of ignorant, easily influenced people. His ChronosX's target audience, just like the audience that supported the rapid rise of Valhalla's Sinners.
Maximilian smiled, basking in the frenzy he knew he had unleashed.
But he wasn't done. Not at all.
The crowd was a sea of shifting bodies, pens scratching in fevered strokes, the clacking of keys punctuating the air. Not a soul interrupted. The only sound that held dominion was Maximilian's voice, carving Kaiden Grey's name into infamy.
He raised a single finger.
"Kaiden Grey. Officially documented as F-tier. And yet he defeated David Bennett, an A-tier awakened, in single combat."
"That's an anomaly."
A second finger lifted.
"Three women. Three strangers. No prior correlation. No shared history. And yet, after participating in a pornographic video with the man known as Kaiden Grey… all three awakened. Not just awakened, but to Valkyrie-themed classes. A class theme that has never—never—before existed in history."
"That's an anomaly."
A third finger.
"Their method of content production. No visible artifacts. No cameras. No recording devices. No mana-tech. Their encounters, both intimate and combat-related, broadcast in perfect clarity to millions, as if captured directly from their very eyes."
"That's an anomaly."
The tension thickened. The scratching of pens was outright frantic now, as though the reporters feared missing even a single poisoned syllable.
A fourth finger came.
"The Felinid monster Bastet. Kaiden Grey subjugated her. The first and only human in all of history to subjugate a monster. Tell me, are we to believe his technique of… persuasion, surpassed the extensive research conducted by the brightest of minds in the entire world? Was his method better than any other man's who ventured to try the impossible before him? Or is there something else at play? Well, either way, ladies and gentlemen…"
"That's an anomaly."
By now, any murmur had completely died. Reporters sat in perfect silence, heads bowed, hands moving feverishly. The catchphrase hung in the air like a curse: That's an anomaly.
Maximilian let his hand linger before the numerous cameras, four fingers extended, holding invisible proof.
"But that's not all."
The room collectively froze. His voice dropped.
"Up until now, all I've shown you could be spun as the story of a man blessed with one-of-a-kind luck. Of a miracle-worker. An… anomalous existence. But if that were the truth, then I would be celebrating him. Not condemning him."
He lowered his head, letting the silence settle. The wait was measured, suffocating torture to the audience. Then he sighed and raised his fifth finger.
"… But we seem to be forgetting something."
A pause. A tremor ran through the audience.
"When Valhalla's Sinners announced they would no longer create content catering to men, something extraordinary occurred. Their old videos, previously uploaded to the internet and downloaded onto countless devices, vanished. Deleted. Erased from the hard drives worldwide."
His voice hardened, each word landing like a hammer. "This was by far the most elaborate cyber-attack in human history. An act of technological terrorism on a scale never before seen. And yet…" His eyes scanned the crowd. "… no one seemed to care. No governments called for an explanation. No mobs demanded accountability. It was as if the entire world simply… looked the other way."
"Or perhaps… they were made to look the other way."
A chilling silence swept the hall.
"What better evidence of foul play exists than the three women themselves?"
Maximilian's voice rose, gathering heat, fury, conviction. "Tell me, what kind of awakened warriors, powerful enough to be courted by any guild on the planet, would willingly star in porn shoots? Yes, maybe one sports exhibitionist fetishes, but all three…? Three out of three at that? A statistical improbability. Luna Aster, the Storm Valkyrie, wielder of lightning strong enough to level a battlefield. Aria Levander, the Moon Valkyrie, summoning the fury of the moon itself. And... Nyx Cosmos, the Space Valkyrie, bending space to her will."
He slammed his hand on the podium, looking as if he was visibly infuriated at the injustice. His speech was very convincing.
"All three could live in wealth. Glory. Power. And yet they choose to debase themselves, to film pornography for the masses? What awakened with such a bright future would do this? None."
Maximilian straightened. His smile was cold and final.
"ChronosX has formulated a theory. Entirely hypothetical, we admit. But after wracking our brains long and hard, it is the only conclusion we can draw."
The audience leaned forward, wide-eyed, breathless.
He raised his hand, his final card. His killing blow.
"What if they are not acting of their own free will? What if the man known as Kaiden Grey is not a miracle worker but a parasite? A man who enslaves, corrupts, and breaks the minds of innocent women and forces them to film such content? He would do this because, somehow, he can use the result—whether that's lust, adoration, donations, or something else of the masses—to power his vile miracles, each one more anomalous than the last?"
He shuddered, looking as if he was feeling existential dread. But then, Maximilian forced himself to look into the cameras.
"Ladies and gentlemen, that is the theory we at ChronosX believe in, and we made this conference to shed light on a rapidly building threat whose danger potential might be higher than nuclear warfare itself."
"…"
The silence afterward was absolute.