While soaking wet, Quenser and Heivia were recovered by a Legitimacy Kingdom motorboat.

When they exchanged information on the incident, Heivia frowned.

“So the Capitalist Corporations unit controlling the Deep Optical was trying to intervene in Oceania’s food supply problems?”

“Due to the unstable balance between vegetation and desert in Oceania, grazing land was banned. Almost all of their meat was imported by the Capitalist Corporations. The Capitalist Corporations didn’t want the Information Alliance’s artificial livestock facilities to rob them of that source of money.”

But in reality, a serious risk of widespread hunger existed if natural disasters like cyclones did large-scale damage to the farms and cut off the air and sea routes. Simulations showed as many as half a million people starving to death.

“Was that ever resolved?” That seemed to be Heivia’s primary question. “We may have blown the Deep Optical to pieces, but that does not solve everything. As long as that unit and the backbone they set up remains, they can still interfere with the food supply, right?”

“That would certainly be a problem,” admitted Quenser. “But if this was a Capitalist Corporations-wide project, don’t you think a few more Objects would have been sent in as reinforcements? The battlefield was right next to Oceania where plenty of Objects are stationed as part of the coalition. And that of course includes Capitalist Corporations Objects. And yet only the Deep Optical was deployed for this.”

“Meaning?”

“Meaning the interference in Oceania’s food supply will all come to an end with the Deep Optical and its unit out of the picture.”

“But how do we pull that off? Don’t tell me you think the two of us should head off on our own to attack the Capitalist Corporations’ maintenance base zone.”

“…Do you think we could do it?”

“No for two reasons,” said Heivia simply. “First, they are still an entire battalion even if they have lost their Object. Super heroes though we may be, it’s reckless to think just the two of us can take on 1000 soldiers. And second, think of our position here. We are the winners with the Object while the Capitalist Corporations unit is the loser that had their Object destroyed. If we go in for a further attack now, international society will see it is an unrelentless and merciless slaughter. We would be making enemies of the majority that want to maintain the concept of the clean war.”

“But there is always an exception.”

“?”

“If someone becomes enough of a problem, there are special forces to a.s.sa.s.sinate that target. This is a case for a police-type force, not a military one. Luckily, we met some of those and we know how to contact them. That Capitalist Corporations unit joined forces with Roybelz Oldnick for their own profit. That should be enough to make them a target, don’t you think?”

“You mean Valkyrie? Do you really think they would help? Are you sure they aren’t going to attack us because we didn’t hold up our end of the bargain?”

“We made a deal with the local fishermen, remember? If we’re lucky Oldnick’s DNA will show up in a fish’s stomach.”

“…The fishermen really didn’t seem to like that.”

“Please respond,” said Quenser once he set the frequency on his small radio.

His attempts to contact them earlier had failed, but they had to at least recognize the frequency.

“Hey, Quenser. Do you really think the Faith Organization will act on this?”

“The unit’s interference with the food supply was expected to leave to over half a million dying in the case of an irregular cyclone. …That would include people from the tribal religions native to Oceania, so they can’t exactly refuse.”

Quenser and Heivia had ended the battle in a decidedly cool fas.h.i.+on, but a slight problem arose when they went back over the information.

They had been unable to bring back the body of their target Roybelz Oldnick, they had damaged the Legitimacy Kingdom-funded precious metal ocean mining plant, and serious damage had been done to the Baby Magnum as it acted as a s.h.i.+eld for them.

Also, there was no guarantee that any of Oldnick’s flesh would turn up in a fish’s stomach.

“Th-this is bad. We have no good to cancel out the bad!! I don’t see a single oasis in the middle of our huge-breasted commander’s lecture!!”

“Well, it can’t always conveniently even out to nothing. But that also means the plus side might come out on top someday. We can’t give up.”

Quenser and Heivia spoke as they headed down the path to the execution room (aka Froleytia’s officer room).

“But y’know, this had to do with platinum, tungsten, the Treasure of Electron Mathematics, beef, and artificial livestock facilities…It was all resources, resources, resources. It makes me sick.”

“And you could say we’re human resources,” said Heivia with a grin. “In a certain island nation with an aging population and a low birthrate, children are a valuable growing resource. Just like wine and art, their value goes up if you let them age. A company will create prestigious schools under its direct control and search out the most gifted children to raise the most valuable people to contribute to the company in the future. Meanwhile, rival companies will try to either abduct or kill anyone they think will become a top cla.s.s contributor in order to do damage to the first company’s future.”

“What’s so great about dividing everyone up by their grades?”

“That is what the companies need for now,” said Heivia. “The days of heating up a pot with charcoal are over. But once activated charcoal began being used in water purification systems, what counted as ‘cutting-edge technology’ took a step back. There are no absolutes when it comes to dividing up resources. And that is why we have yet to run out of oil despite everyone always saying we are about to run out. How we use it is changing almost daily, so the relative value we use against the absolute amount of remaining deposits is constantly changing.”

“And does that also go for the food supply and the people who eat that food?”

“If someone wants to use it, anything can become a resource. That’s what it means to live in a world of greed. …In a world like that, even the value of the life of a soldier could change. It all depends on how we use soldiers and if that changes.”

They arrived before Froleytia’s officer room.

Quenser and Heivia gave a hesitant knock, opened the door, and prepared themselves for a h.e.l.lish lecture time.

The first thing their commander said to them was, “Whatever you do, don’t drive down your value as a resource any further. If it drops any more, I won’t be able to cover for you.”