[Japan — Dungeon Busters Headquarters — Ezoe Kazuhiko]
<Breaking news. Yesterday afternoon, local time, the Brezilian army entered a fight against the Venisuelan terrorist association commonly known as Legion. The Brezilian army suffered major casualties and had no choice but to retreat.>
<The government of the Federative Republic of Brezil has announced that Brezil will accept Joker’s terms. This is effectively an unconditional surrender. Joker’s demands include control of every dungeon on Brezilian soil as well as total cooperation with the Legion inside the country. Joker also wants to resume diplomatic relations between Venisuela and Brezil as well as strengthen export controls of agricultural and animal products for the G20 countries. Finally, his fifth and final condition is that Brezil must send one billion Gamerican dollars worth of food to Venisuela over the next ten years.>
<After this announcement was made public, violent riots erupted in Rio de Janeiro, but were immediately quelled. The Legion’s soldiers are currently staying at a hotel in Brasília, but we have received word that they have not occupied the hotel. Rather, they are paying for their stay. Many Brezilians spoke of their surprise upon hearing about this.>
<The Japanese government has issued a statement of condemnation at the highest level. The Japan-Gamerica-Europe-Sina Alliance is also planning to ask the UN to pass a resolution shortly.>
The news of Brezil’s surrender was broadcast not only on Japanese TV but also on every news channel around the world. The media’s handling of the incident was very different from that of the coup in Venisuela or the invasion of Colombian. The army of a large country with a population of two hundred million inhabitants had been single-handedly defeated by a small-scale organization led by a single man. This finally proved that the world’s military balance had collapsed due to the dungeons.
The news that the Crusaders, sent by the Vatican, had been defeated by Joker was especially devastating for Europeans. In Rome, thousands shed tears, and the Pope himself expressed his condolences. Franze was indignant over the death of the pious clergyman Léonard, and some French citizens even called for the president to launch a nuclear attack on Venisuela, the Legion’s stronghold.
The world was shocked. While many mourned Léonard, what Vice Minister Ishihara had feared started becoming reality. Voices started being heard, voices that questioned whether dungeon adventurers could really be left alone.
<This incident has proven how strong adventurers are and what they can do. One single person with superpowers can call upon hundreds of thousands of monsters and take down a country on their own. If we don’t do anything, there will be more and more people who can do this in the future. They’re too dangerous to ignore. Wouldn’t you agree?>
<In the Republic of Woori, adventurers are forced to sign a contract using a dungeon item to make sure they hand over every card. Their position is also known at all times through a GPS tracking system. They managed to get rid of adventurer-related crimes, just like that. We should implement these methods in Japan too.>
“Commentators on TV just blurt out whatever they want without thinking of the consequences. You’d better not pay them any mind,” General Manager Mukai told me as I watched TV in the cafeteria during lunch.
Today’s lunch was kamo nanban, a soba noodle dish made with duck. Everything was handmade, starting with the broth, so it tasted even better than the dishes you could eat at regular soba places.
“Our neighbor is ignoring the human rights of adventurers and putting surveillance bracelets on them, for instance. The TV hosts don’t know everything, but the Ministry of Dungeons was already well aware of their practices.”
“Right. But Japan is a democratic country. If public opinion strays this way and demands adventurers be regulated, the authorities won’t be able to ignore it. Some left-wing members of the opposition have already started asking for regulations to be tightened. I’m sorry, General Manager Mukai. Your job is about to become more difficult...” I apologized.
“It’s no problem. Besides, some people also support us. It wasn’t anything official, but the mayor of Edogawa City sent us his thanks. One way or another, our company has brought a lot of money to this city,” General Manager Mukai said, commenting on our relations with the local community as he slurped his noodles.
I got frequent reports from the general affairs department, but hearing things directly from the person in charge helped me gain new insight at times.
At the very least, it didn’t seem like we adventurers were going to be regarded as monsters in Edogawa City. I found some comfort in that fact.