Digitize: Rebirth of the Silver Death God
Chapter 172: The DU's Meeting, Granduz Token

A heavy tension filled the meeting room whereby many major players of the UEG and the various Digitizer Societies had gathered for a virtual meeting. Reil sat around his desk while staring at the silhouettes of varying individuals staring at him with sharp gazes as if blaming him for the recent event in Rambruck.

The most peculiar ones were a man and woman; the man didn't hide his features showing his handsome appearance with long neck hair and a trademark purple high color coat with the symbol of UEG and the character's Xu.

As for the slender-bodied female; she mostly revealed her features as she stared at Reil with indifference. She wore what seemed similar to a priest's robes with her bright gold hair bundled together. The symbol of a glowing cross was visible on her dress.

There was a refined-looking short-haired man with a gold top hat, one with a strange marking on its surface. He sat beside a bald monk-like man who sat in meditation in an ancient martial robe. Lastly, a short African woman was seated with her hair wrapped in colorful and luxurious cloth, her plump and fluffy hair no different from her firm body features.

Reil frowned as he stared at each of them while thinking to himself.

'That darn Chairman Xu Waren, and Pale Brightwood, I knew that the UEF would have sent officials of the High Command to attend, but I didn't he would have shown up at this meeting with that witch. Che! Not to mention that Kailua Meng of the Marital Heritage Group, Dale Vermeulen of the Hatman Society, and Maxim Alkaline from the Shadowblood Faction. So troublesome...'

Reil glanced at each of them with such thoughts in mind before speaking out loud to address their previous words.

"Ladies and gentlemen of the DU, I am sure that we're all knowledge persons here so that I will get straight to the point. I'm the one to blame for the previous matter; the culprits have already been isolated in a secure facility whereby they will receive systematic conditioning to enlighten them of the current affairs."

When the others heard this, their faces turned a bit better, but as for Chairman Xu Waren and Pale Brightwood, they had more different expressions.

Chairman Xu had a slightly mocking glance as he stared at Reil while Madame Pale frowned before speaking.

"Hmph! I think you're getting off too easy; it still primarily your fault for this mess; if you had more strict proposals enabled in Rambruck, which easily commoner would have been able to gather such footage. I think that your recent assertion to the head of the Levier Sector was all too soon; you're not ready for such a role."

Reil narrowed his eyes at this as he glared at Madame Pale; he noticed that no one said anything, as the silent Dale had a sly smirk as if he was watching some game.

'Hmph! Trying to remove me from my status, it looks like you still haven't learned from that time...' Reil cursed as he glanced at Pale prepared to lash out, but even before he could say anything. Chairman Xu, who sat with a smile, spoke out.

"I believe Miss Pale is right, but a few words are missing. Both you and those rogue Mendez and Balkras are equal to blame, neither conforming to our governance nor even a society; without such order, how can we expect to face the looming threat the hides within both our world and that Universe Ring?"

The others also nodded in agreement when they heard such words, Kailua Meng, Maxim Alkaline, and Dale's faces showing strange flickers as if they knew where he was headed.

Reil narrowed his eyes as stared at Xu Waren as he spoke, "Oh, then if what I'm doing is wrong, what do you suggest, Chairman Xu?"

Xu Waren smirked at this before he spoke, "It's simple, first of all, the Balkras family should have known better than to interfere in a DU selection. If they had kept more restraint, such a scene of civilians gathering footage of such a battle would have never transpired. Second, even if such a thing occurred, your Blood Steel Society should've had proper protocols in place to prevent it from showing up on the media outlets. Lastly, even though you have taken steps to contain the problem, you can't make certain decisions without collective government approval. You must allow for us to do a personal inspection of the parties involved to ensure that the information will be - thoroughly sanitized."

As if they were waiting for this change, the others promptly jumped into the conversation with words of agreement.

"Chairman Xu speaks correctly, even within our society, we operate with the confines of upper government stipulations. Such a thing wouldn't have occurred if Chief Levier had been more astute in his duties. You should hand over the parties directly involved; it is better if we take such matters into our own hands."

Hatman Chief Dale said with a faint smile as he stared at Reil.

"The Martial Union agrees with the statement," Kailua Meng said in a calm tone, his eyes still closed as if he was perpetually meditating as his hologram sat in a crossed-legged posture.

"As do our Shadowblood Faction," Alkaline said as she gave Reil a deep look.

Xu Waren smirked at this as his eyes glanced at Pale, who gave him a knowing look; he then stared at Reil and spoke again, "Chief Levier, as you can see, we have the majority opinion, I believe you know which choice to make."

After he listened to all that just transpired, especially as they controlled the conversation and twisted it towards their control, Reil was enraged; his body exploded with a dense aura, but as everyone here were no different from holograms, nothing happened to them.

'These darn bastards! They want nothing more than to use this act to lower my standing within the DU; what nonsense about the two that caused the mess? It is only a pretext. If it's like this, I will lose my justification authority within the Levier Sector, and they will be freer to act as they please in this domain. Such crafty little shits... hmph! They came prepared, but they've still underestimated me. No... they underestimated who I'm working with...'

Reil took on a calmer mood with those thoughts in mind, causing Xu Waren and some of the others to frown; they were expecting him to lash out in violence. As such, they could use that as an even more satisfying piece of evidence for their following actions. However, his current manner gave them an odd feeling.

'Hmm, what's he so confident about? Could it be...?' Xu Waren was about to think something, but right at this time, they heard a metallic clanking noise as Reil tossed a golden token with the symbol's UEG but the markings of a fist on the table.

Listening to the noises it made while rattling, the others who looked at it had wide eyes as they saw its details, even Xu Waren couldn't help but open his mouth in shock as he exclaimed inwardly.

'This is... a Highest Command token! The Granduz Fist Token! How in the hell did this bastard get it?' Xu Waren cursed as he saw the token on the table.

Pale also had similar thoughts as did Hatman Chief Dale and Alkaline, each having a frown as if they didn't like the current change.

On the other hand, Kailua Meng remained silent as if it had nothing to do with him, his eyes opening, showing a sharp look as it stared at the token before he closed them again and made a faint smile.

Reil stared at everyone with a calm look on his face as he spoke, "I trust that with this token, you should all be able to understand why I made such choices. The Granduz clan is personally handling the affairs of those two. With that said, I believe we should put this matter aside from the meeting and focus more on the next and most important objective, being the events of which recently transpired in the Novice Zone."

"Agreed." Kailua Meng said with an ounce of hesitation.

"A-agreed." Alkaline said after a slight amount of resistance.

"Hmph! Fine." Xu Waren said while clenching his fists tightly, not bothering to press the previous matter.

As they saw him like this, Hatman Chief Dale and Pale Brightwood could only suck up their discontent and continue with the conversation.

Reil seeing nodded as he picked up the token, placing it away before he spoke in a resonant but more serious voice.

"Let's begin."

His voice carried a heaviness within it as if foreshadowing a change in the future. One that many wouldn't know to any except for those within the very room.