area51novel Chapter 81 He said he wanted
Chapter 81 He said he wanted
The first to speak was a member of parliament on the right. His voice, processed by the projection layer, was so steady that even his tone seemed to have been specially tuned to appear impartial.
"The recent events in Caron have caused considerable social upheaval."
"Including but not limited to the collapse of order in the arena, casualties, loss of assets, and extreme violence against senior management in public."
"The three of you, as the most direct participants and instigators of this incident, should provide an explanation."
The vector stood below, listening to these words, his face mask expressionless, but he was already starting to get annoyed.
They don't really want to hear what you have to say. They'll just throw a bunch of platitudes at you, flatter you, and then pretend to ask if you agree.
Another member of parliament followed up, speaking in a more moderate tone: "The Supreme Council does not refuse to listen to different voices."
"But different voices do not mean that they can overstep the order or supersede the existing rules, nor do they mean that anyone can use their personal judgment to replace the stability and operation of the entire Cybertron system."
The vector almost made him roll his eyes.
One played the good cop, the other the bad cop; they got together in just a few words.
The recorder checked the attendees and procedures before finally bringing the conversation back to them.
"Then, let's start with the core of the Calon Arena incident."
"Attraction vector".
She looked up.
"Is the death of the arena manager directly related to you?"
Okay, let's choose her first.
Without hesitation, the vector replied, "Yes."
There was a pause on the other end, clearly not expecting her to answer so quickly.
The recorder continued, "So, you admit that you personally threw the other person from the height, directly causing their death?"
"Yes," she answered quickly, "I threw the plane."
As soon as these words were spoken, there was a very slight commotion in the outer seats, as if someone had lost their footing, or as if someone had whispered something to each other.
Others in the group also chimed in.
97: "...So direct?"
Red Spider: "Otherwise, do you think she'd write a confession first?"
The vector didn't look down; it gently pressed the edge of the terminal to indicate that it was still online.
Someone on the platform spoke again, this time in a more left-leaning voice: "What about the unusual transfer of that huge sum of money?"
"Based on the records currently available, you are suspected of illegally transferring a large amount of Shanks before and after the incident."
"Do you also acknowledge this part?"
The vector stood there frowning.
Instead of asking the key questions: what exactly did the managers do? What were the rotten things in the arena? Why were the lower levels forced into this state?
First ask her if she killed him, took the money, and admits to it.
She looked at the blurry figures projected onto the high platform, her tone remaining calm.
"I took the money. But he transferred it 'voluntarily'."
The platform fell silent for a moment.
I never expected her to answer so directly and so shamelessly.
The congressman paused for half a second, but his voice remained unchanged.
"But you are suspected of misappropriating public assets belonging to the management."
The vector is almost laughable.
Public assets. These people have the nerve to say that.
She looked up and replied bluntly:
"If you insist on calling the dirty money embezzled by a corrupt scoundrel public assets, then there's nothing I can do about it."
The commotion was more pronounced in the outer seating area; some people seemed to be gasping for breath.
The group almost exploded with laughter.
97: "How dare she?"
Knockout: "She's always been daring."
Ambulance: "Shut up and listen."
There was a brief silence on the platform for about two seconds.
Finally, the same voice spoke again, its tone still polite.
"You don't seem to fully realize the seriousness of the problem."
"No matter what dereliction of duty or violation of regulations the other party has committed, it does not mean that you have the right to bypass the judicial process and execute the ruling privately."
The vector was standing there, getting more and more annoyed by what he heard, and started to drift off.
These guys talk like a bunch of old fogies who're used to meetings. Every sentence seems to go through three layers of convoluted explanations before barely getting to the point, and most of what they say is just nonsense.
She thought to herself, if this were on Earth, these people would talk for an entire afternoon and still not get to the point.
On the other side, Megatron had already spoken.
"Legal proceedings?"
"Now you've decided to talk about the procedure."
A councilor on the platform said calmly, "Megatron, we will give you a chance to speak."
Megatron scoffed, "I'm truly grateful."
The presiding recorder seemed oblivious to the sarcasm in the remark and continued to smoothly advance the questions.
"Then, Megatron."
"Do you acknowledge that the recent gatherings, inflammatory rhetoric, and disturbances in and around Karon are highly related to your activities and advocacy?"
"I admit it," Megatron answered faster than the Graviton, "It's not just related; much of it was originally my doing."
The vector, who was nearby, overheard this and burst out laughing.
The congressman clearly didn't like the answer, and lowered his voice even further.
"So do you admit that you are actively inciting discontent among the lower classes against the existing system and attempting to rebuild the power structure through violence?"
"There are two problems with what you said," Megatron said, raising his head in a dangerous tone. "First, they should have been dissatisfied. Second, it wasn't me who instigated it; you forced them into it."
The outer seats were quiet.
The projection on that high platform didn't move, but one could easily imagine the expressions on the faces of those old men behind it.
Another member of parliament then took over, as if trying to steer the momentum back into their hands.
"No one can deny that Caron has problems."
"But the issue has never been about allowing anyone to use greater violence to replace the system itself."
Upon hearing this, Yin Zongxiang finally couldn't help but click his tongue softly.
The sound wasn't loud, but in the quiet hall, it was quite noticeable.
The person on the high platform immediately seized the opportunity to point at her.
"Vector, you seem to have reservations about the parliament's statement?"
She looked up at the blurry figures behind the projection, feeling that the show was making her sleepy.
"A little."
"Which point?"
"You've been beating around the bush for too long," she replied bluntly. "After all that, what you really want to know is why we took action, why we said those things, and why we didn't obediently kneel and wait according to your rules?"
There was another very soft noise from the outer seats.
There was a half-second silence in the group chat, and then Jiuqi asked a question very carefully.
97: "Isn't she even a little bit prepared to be polite?"
Jack: "I think she was being quite polite."
Ignoring the group chat, the vector continued to look up at the high platform.
"If you really have to ask, ask the important questions."
"Don't pretend to be willing to listen while treating other people's answers as problems to be solved."
This time, even the recording officer paused for a moment.
The tone of the councilor in Gaotai was slightly lower.
"Are you implying that the Supreme Council's procedures were unfair?"
Just as Vector was about to speak, Megatron, standing beside him, let out a cold laugh first.
"hint?"
He looked up, his voice even more forceful than before.
"She's already being very considerate of you."
There was a two-second silence in the hearing room.
The projector on the high platform was still off. Blurry figures sat in the back, their faces obscured, only their voices revealing their emotions.
The first to speak was the right-leaning senator, whose tone was slightly different, but he maintained his dignified manner.
"Megatron, you don't seem to understand the nature of this place."
"This is not the place for you to take the opportunity to amplify incitement, vent hostility, or even openly provoke the Supreme Council."
Megatron stood below, looking up at the projection, without moving an inch.
"You all don't seem to understand either."
His voice was not loud.
"I'm not standing here today to admit my mistakes."
The first person to appear in the group was 97.
97: "Holy crap."
Red Spider: "He's finally gotten to the point."
Ignoring the group chat, the vector reader stood aside and continued listening.
She's not sleepy anymore.
When Megatron spoke, the whole room came alive and no longer resembled a long and hypnotic accountability meeting.
Another voice rang out from the high platform.
"So what do you want to do?"
"Is the Calon incident an attempt to express discontent? To prove your ability to create even greater chaos? Or to pressure the Supreme Council into approving your dangerous rhetoric and practices?"
Megatron clicked his tongue and sneered.
"You guys really like to downplay everything."
"Caron isn't an 'incident,' it's that your system is so rotten it can't be contained anymore."
After this sentence was uttered, there was a slight commotion on the outer seats.
He didn't stop and continued speaking.
"Don't you know why the lower levels are in such a terrible state?"
"Why are resources piled up layer by layer at the top? Those down there have to fight for their basic survival, don't you know that?"
"Why do you dare to treat life-saving machines as performances, entertainment, and bargaining chips in the arena? Don't you know?"
"You know."
He raised his chin, his optical glasses fixed on the blurry projection on the platform from a distance.
"You just don't care."
After a while, AZ blurted out something.
AZ: "This is not an answer."
Jack: "He won't actually do anything, will he?"
The pause on the platform was a little longer this time, and then the councilor who started first continued.
"No one can deny that Cybertron currently faces various problems."
"But the existence of problems is never a reason to condone greater violence, much less an excuse to declare oneself a arbiter outside the order."
Megatron actually laughed after hearing this.
Short and cold.
"You guys love talking about rules so much now."
"Those machines below have been suppressed for thousands of years, and you haven't shown any order. In the arena, lives rot on the stage, and you haven't shown any order. Resources are held in your hands layer by layer, and who should starve to death and who should rot is entirely up to you, and you haven't shown any order either."
"Now that someone has torn off that layer of skin, you've remembered those two words."
The hearing room was eerily quiet; even those who had been whispering in the outer sections were now barely audible.
These words made it impossible for those behind the high platform to pretend they didn't understand.
Finally, a voice emerged that was a little colder than the one before it.
"So what exactly do you want?"
"If you mean that the existing system is completely ineffective and the Supreme Council has no legitimacy to continue existing, then are you standing here today to explain the problem, or to express your covetousness of the entire Cybertronian power structure?"
This statement carried a accusatory tone.
The vector remained silent, tilting its head slightly to look at Megatron.
It was as if he had been waiting for this sentence.
"Coveting it?"
Megatron looked at the high platform.
"If you insist on saying it that way, then so be it."
"An order that's already rotten to the core should have been replaced. A high-ranking official who sits on top watching Cybertron continue to decay is no longer worthy of sitting there."
"You're asking me what I want."
He took half a step forward this time, and the atmosphere in the entire central circle area immediately became heavy.
"I don't want the right to interpret your style."
"I want power that I can actually exercise."
97: '...'
Knocked down: "Finally."
Sound waves: "The reaction on the high platform changes."
The vector glanced at the high platform.
You can tell that the postures of the silhouettes behind the projection are different from those in front. They were poised before, but now they're tense.
A voice from the high platform asked in a deep voice, "What does this 'real power' you speak of include?"
Megatron didn't stop for even half a second this time.
"Including the Supreme Council no longer turning a blind eye to the fate of Cybertron."
"The military regions, resources, and systems are no longer controlled by a group of people sitting in high places who don't even show their faces."
"Including that location."
As the last sentence was uttered, a slight commotion arose in the outer seats.
Organic took a breath, its head tilted noticeably to the side, and it seemed to sit up straight subconsciously.
As the vector stood in the center of the field, a question mark suddenly popped into his brain module.
?
That location?
What location?
There was a deathly silence on the platform for two seconds.
Then, a cold voice came down from the right side of the middle.
"Do you think you're qualified to talk about leadership?"
The items were placed on the table.
The vector was staring at that side through the projection.
leader?
Oh, become a leader.
Megatron, however, raised his head, his mocking smile undisguised.
"At least it's better than most of the trash sitting on that platform."
The group chat almost exploded.
97: "Holy crap!!!"
Red Spider: "Very good."
Deadfire: '...'
Shockwave: "Sufficiently deterrent."
It's clearly not comfortable on that high platform.
This time, it was another member of parliament who spoke, his tone revealing suppressed displeasure.
"So, can we interpret this to mean that you're standing here today not to explain what happened in Charon, nor to express your dissatisfaction with the current state of Cybertron, but rather to use the Charon incident to express your direct covetousness and demands for the Supreme Council, the existing power structure, and even the leadership position?"
This question is disgusting.
The vector was so moved that the corners of its mouth almost twitched.
Wow, that's clever of them to rename the motive as "covetousness" and "ambition".
Megatron didn't dodge.
"Require?"
He stared at the projection above, his tone unusually slow.
"You can understand it that way."
"If Cybertron is to continue to be controlled by a bunch of people who only know how to maintain decay, then of course I want that position."
"I'm the one who has the ability to move this place forward, instead of just watching it rot underneath."
The atmosphere in the hearing room had completely changed.
Before, it was all about answering questions; now it's about blatant, piercing stares.
The vector could sense that Megatron didn't just want it; he had already put himself into it.
He was not asking to be considered, nor was he vying for a theoretical qualification.
He was saying: That position should have been mine.
That's why the parliament is afraid.
Orion finally spoke, breaking the silence.
"The issue is never just about who should take a particular position."
"The question is, why has Cybertron been pushed to this point?"
He didn't intend to undermine Megatron; he was simply reminding everyone that the main point wasn't about vying for power.
The council's approach to Megatron is completely different now. Before, it was about scrutiny; now it's about defense, assessing just how dangerous this machine truly is.
Then someone popped up in the group chat again.
Jazz: "Now they really don't like him anymore."
Arcee: "It's not just 'dislike'."
AZ: "They're scared."
Yin Vector stood in the center of the field, listening to the brief, heavy silence that came from the high platform.
These old fogies start to panic as soon as they hear the word "power".