69novels Chapter 51 What does it mean for Coca-Cola and Peace to unite?
Chapter 51 What does it mean for Coca-Cola and Peace to unite?
Hirokawa Tsuyoshi leaned against the moss-covered wall, his left hand pressing tightly against the severed wound on his right shoulder.
Although he had been given emergency hemostatic agents, the chill from the blood loss still made him tremble uncontrollably.
But he is, after all, a politician who can stand before millions of voters and speak eloquently.
After the initial shock, Hirokawa took a deep breath and forced himself to calm down.
He raised his head, staring intently through his blood-blurred vision at the white-haired man before him who possessed godlike power.
"Arima...Kishio."
Hirokawa's voice was hoarse, but his tone was surprisingly firm.
"I never expected that you, the so-called 'masterpiece' of the GOC Japan branch, known as the 'White Reaper,' would still be alive."
Arima Kishou did not answer, but just looked at him quietly, as if he were looking at a talking stone.
Guangchuan gave a bitter laugh and continued:
"Your name is a taboo in this circle. Twenty years ago, the GOC had absolute power to 'act first and ask questions later,' and you were the sword of Damocles hanging over their heads."
"But that's all in the past."
A hint of mockery flashed in Guangchuan's eyes:
"With the end of the Cold War, those bureaucrats sitting in Kasumigaseki (the administrative center of the Japanese government) began to fear your power."
"Financial cuts, media suppression, and the revocation of authority... GOC's Japanese branch has long since become a 'weather station' for relocating retired senior officials."
"I thought someone like you would have long since left with the end of that era, becoming a mercenary or living in anonymity. I never expected..."
Hirokawa's pupils contracted slightly as he looked at the Quinque IXA in Arima's hand, which was still sharp and even more deadly:
"You're still working your ass off for this rotten shell? Or... has that shell actually come back to life?"
At this point, Hirokawa Takeshi's mind seemed to be struck by lightning.
Many previously ignored and seemingly unrelated fragments of international news were now rapidly piecing together a chilling jigsaw puzzle in his mind.
He recalled a news story from two weeks ago that caused a huge uproar on the dark web and in the international intelligence community, but was deliberately downplayed by mainstream media.
The reorganization of the UN GOC Supreme Council is complete.
This proposal, which had been shelved for more than a decade, was passed in a flash within just three days.
Most shockingly, the newly appointed GOC Global Secretary-General and Supreme Commander is not a general or politician from any of the three permanent members of the Security Council: the United States, Russia, and China.
Intelligence indicates that he was a mysterious yellow-skinned male from the Anatolian Plateau region of Asia Minor in Türkiye.
No one knows his real name; there is only a strange code name in the file.
"How is this possible?"
When Hirokawa saw this intelligence, he thought it was absurd.
In the United Nations, a place where great power rivalry is emphasized, how could someone from an obscure small country be elected unanimously to become the Secretary-General, a position that holds the ultimate power to interpret supernatural forces for all humanity?
This is as absurd as a random passerby suddenly becoming the President of the United States.
Unless... he possesses some kind of absolute "power" or "wisdom" that transcends all great powers.
What made Hirokawa even more absurd was the list of members of the so-called "108 Council".
Besides those traditionally mysterious and secretive organizations such as the "Knights Templar," the "Bavarian Illuminati," and the "Silicon Valley United Tech Cult," Hirokawa even saw... on the list of sponsors.
Coca-Cola and Pepsi.
These two mortal enemies, who have fought for a hundred years, are actually sitting side by side at the GOC's round table?
If that's not outrageous, then what on earth is this "Shaxian Snacks Global Catering Federation" at the end of the list?!
When Guangchuan looked at the list, he thought it was just a prank by some hacker or some kind of money laundering scheme by GOC to swindle funding.
"Shaxian Snacks? What's that? Are they responsible for providing steamed dumplings and noodles for secret agents?" Guangchuan mocked at the time.
But now, facing Arima Kishou, Hirokawa suddenly realized something.
He was completely wrong.
That's not a joke, it's a disguise, it's fraud!
"Coca-Cola and Pepsi... represent a globally ubiquitous logistics network and sugar control! And Shaxian Snacks..." Guangchuan swallowed.
"That's the world's largest intelligence network, reaching deep into the grassroots communities!"
"I see... I see!"
A sickly flush appeared on Hirokawa Takeshi's pale face; he thought he had seen through everything.
"The so-called 'empty shell' is just a facade. GOC is playing a much bigger game!"
Hirokawa remembered the man who claimed to be an "international private defense contractor".
"What contractor! What investment! It's all a smokescreen!"
"An outsider acquired the GOC branch and even went on a large-scale recruitment drive, yet headquarters remained completely silent? Even the Metropolitan Police Department was effectively suppressed?"
"The only explanation is that he was simply the secretary-general's confidant! A high-ranking official sent to Japan with imperial authority to carry out a purge!"
Hirokawa felt a sense of suffocation.
He thought he was playing a cat-and-mouse game with the local police, but he never expected that his opponent was a vanguard force that had been parachuted in directly from the United Nations.
"Heh...hehehe..."
Having figured all this out (even though it was all completely off-track), Hirokawa Takeshi suddenly chuckled softly.
He leaned against the wall, barely managing to stand up straight, and straightened his blood-stained tie, trying to retain the last shred of dignity.
"This time, I did lose. I lost because of the intelligence asymmetry."
Hirokawa looked at Arima, his eyes no longer filled with fear, but with a fanatical, martyr-like light.
"But, Kishou Arima. As a 'Shinigami,' do you truly believe you are doing something righteous?"
Arima didn't speak, but simply tilted his head slightly, signaling him to continue.
"Look at this world!"
Hirokawa's voice suddenly rose in pitch, echoing through the secret passage:
"The human population has surpassed 70 billion! We're like a swarm of greedy locusts, frantically devouring the Earth's resources. Forests are burning, oceans are acidifying, and countless species are going extinct because of our greed!"
"Humans are the virus of Earth!"
Hirokawa's eyes were bloodshot as he pointed at the parasitic beast's corpse on the ground:
"And they... these parasitic creatures you call 'monsters,' they are the antibodies produced by Earth! They are the medicine! They eat people to reduce the number of viruses, to restore the ecological balance!"
"This is a sublime, natural law! It is the will of the earth!"
"And you GOC..." Hirokawa pointed at the Quinque in Arima's hand, spitting as he spoke.
"What are you doing? You're protecting the virus! You're hindering the Earth's self-healing! You are the biggest villains, the accomplices who aid and abet evil!"
"Is this all you wanted to say?"
Arima Kishou finally spoke.
His voice remained calm, unmoved by Guangchuan's impassioned speech.
"To protect the majority, we must sacrifice the minority. To protect the Earth, we must sacrifice humanity. It sounds reasonable."
Arima took a step forward, and the invisible pressure instantly interrupted Hirokawa's momentum.
"But, Hirokawa Tsuyoshi, you've got one thing wrong."
"GOC has never been an environmental organization or an ethics arbitration committee."
Arima Kishou pushed up his glasses, revealing a chillingly indifferent gaze behind the lenses:
"Our name is the Global Paranormal Alliance. Our core doctrine consists of only one sentence—"
"For the Survival of Humanity."
"Whether humanity is good or evil, like locusts or a virus, even if humanity is truly the cancer cell of this planet..."
Arima's voice was as piercing as ice:
"As long as we wear this human skin, we must stand on the side of humanity."
To ensure humanity's survival, we can bring down gods, slaughter other races, and even... shatter this world.
"That's our stance."
"In a war for the survival of a race, there is no right or wrong, only life or death."
Guangchuan was stunned.
Arima's blatant declaration appears so pale and powerless in comparison.
The scholar encountered soldiers, and soldiers equipped with power armor at that.
"Click."
A pair of specially made restraint handcuffs were coldly fastened to Guangchuan's only remaining left hand.
"Tsuyoshi Hirokawa, you have been arrested by the GOC on suspicion of 'crimes against humanity,' 'collusion with anomalous creatures,' and 'endangering public safety.'"
Arima Kishou dragged Hirokawa out of the secret passage like a dead dog, completely ignoring his devastated expression.
"You have the right to remain silent. Of course, even if you speak, no lawyer will come to your rescue. Because in a GOC military court..."
Arima glanced back at the mayoral candidate and said calmly:
"We don't judge ideas, we just clean up the garbage."