Spell Return: The Wheel of Time

Chapter 358: Chess Game Context
"Emergency news, the Fukumitsu sank. Most of the hostages held by the robbers on board escaped and were safely rescued by the coast guard at sea. Next, let's take a look at the situation of the survivors at the scene."

During the news program, the host in the broadcasting room switched the camera to the perspective of reporters on the scene, including policemen, doctors and many survivors who were still in shock. In the reporter's camera, they hugged their loved ones and cried bitterly, while some excitedly said something to the police.

"It's terrible! Why would a country allow such dangerous people to exist? Those robbers must be that sorcerer, right? Do you know how many people they killed on the ship..."

The reporter seemed to have found her target. She came to the person who was out of control, handed him the microphone and started the interview.

"Sir, we are from Tokyo XX TV Station. Can we interview you about the details of this incident?"

When he saw a reporter coming to interview him, the man seemed to have found a channel to vent his emotions. He accepted the reporter's request without hesitation and began to express his opinions. There was nothing surprising about the content of his comments.

It was probably the feeling of being caught up in a disaster created by a curser and nearly dying in it, and the other emotions derived from this great terror that prompted him to blame all the faults on the curse, something that made him uneasy and uncontrollable.

"...In short, those guys with strange abilities are definitely a group of dangerous people. The country should keep a close eye on them to prevent them from doing such things again!"

"But sir, according to the experiences you and others have described, it was also three young men with such strange abilities who saved all the survivors now, right?"

The middle-aged man was speechless, and then angrily interrupted the reporter, but the latter had already moved the camera away to interview other survivors who were more emotionally stable.

The shift from someone with more aggressive words and thoughts to someone with a friendlier attitude is obvious, but it can also be considered subtle, and this trend is certainly not a coincidence.

In fact, this reporter and the planning of this live news broadcast have other meanings. A ship full of people, dozens of people were killed or injured, and they were hijacked by a group of criminals with such magical powers.

At this time when curses are being made public and promoted, this kind of event naturally needs a certain degree of positive guidance. Otherwise, if you don't do it, it will be tantamount to handing public opinion over to those enemies who have bad intentions and are stirring up trouble.

Even though publicizing spells has become a "consensus" in the current spell-casting world and among the upper echelons of the world, there are still people who oppose it, but they don't dare to openly go against the trend.

But they are still able to take advantage of others' misfortunes or watch the fire from the other side of the river, and they are very brave to do so, not to mention that there are also ordinary people who are not involved in this and have negative or pessimistic views of supernatural powers.

This kind of emotion can be particularly amplified and voiced on the Internet, and this interview was specially directed to address such a situation, first suppressing and then praising to show the negative views of the survivors towards the sorcerer.

The reporter then controls the pace of the conversation and gives a few hints, combined with the words of some survivors who hold positive views, which can arouse the emotions of the audience and allow some people who tend to follow the crowd or who are subconsciously wary and reject the story to change their views to some extent.

After all, this was a major accident caused by a curser and involved the most popular supernatural entity, spells, so it naturally attracted a lot of attention.

In comparison, people's attention has not been focused on another actually more important news, which is the sinking of a warship in the waters near Neon.

However, this cannot be entirely blamed on the public for not noticing it. When news of this level appears in the public eye, it must have been heavily revised, which makes it look unremarkable. Only people who are very sensitive to this aspect, or until the incident is really brewing and breaking out, will the public truly see it.

……

"A warship was sunk! All the soldiers on board were killed. How do you think they will hold us accountable? This is no small matter!"

"I say, old man, don't get used to being a dog. Don't tell me you don't know why they sent the warships here? The power of spells... Is it surprising that those who know nothing about it crave it and do some irrational things? According to the style of those white pigs, they will really use tough measures to get everything they want..."

The man who was called a running dog blushed, and then pointed at the younger politician who scolded him without flinching and said, "Tanaka, do you think you are noble just because you are a dog of the East Country? You are nothing more than a running dog!"

Tanaka, who was also called a lackey, sneered at this and said, "You idiot, judging others by your own standards, this is healthy cooperation and dependence. I'm looking for a partner, not a master who needs to wag his tail and beg for mercy like you!"

The meeting soon turned into a war of words that was dirtier and more chaotic than anything seen in the market, and such scenes were very common in such closed meetings. For a tiny country like Neon, seeking a camp to join has become an inevitable thing for it in today's international situation.

This is fortunate, but also sad.

As for Neon, at least they still have value that can be won over by both sides. Therefore, two factions have emerged internally in addition to the original faction, namely the pro-White Eagle Empire and the pro-Eastern Country camps.

This time the warship was sent by the White Eagle Empire for the existence of curses, but they never expected that the soldiers on board were killed by an unknown curse master, resulting in the annihilation of the entire army. Fortunately, the warship has not yet completely entered the inland sea of ​​Neon, and the White Eagle side seems to have some fear about this.

Therefore, there were only severe inquiries, reprimands and even threats afterwards, but no actual action has been taken, at least for now.

In the eyes of the neutral party, this is the White Eagle's fear of the unknown power of magic, which can quietly destroy their very small "fleet" led by active warships, while in the eyes of the pro-White Eagle party, this is their "kindness". It is natural that the pro-Eastern country faction sees that this is the White Eagle's fear of the existence of the Eastern Country, so it failed to send a stronger military force to achieve their goals. Quarrels and insults between each other, this is what the meeting gradually became like. Seeing that the topic is getting more and more biased and the demands of this meeting may not be resolved, someone came forward to stop their meaningless quarrels that were just for venting emotions.

"Stop. What we need to discuss now is how to solve this problem. A warship has been destroyed. I'm afraid that they will be more interested in spells. The East Country will not allow them to send more military forces, but we can't afford the economic sanctions."

In fact, his unspoken implication was that the price they had to pay to prevent the spell from being obtained by White Eagle seemed a bit too high.

"If you ask me, these are all caused by those sorcerers. In the final analysis, it's still..."

"Be careful!"

Someone from the same camp as the person who spoke interrupted him. The face of the person being interrupted changed, and he probably thought of something and then shut up. The atmosphere of the meeting also became silent because of his unfinished remarks.

Everyone looked at him with strange eyes. Those who had some impression of him immediately remembered some information about him, and then found out that he had just been promoted not long ago, which meant that he had not been exposed to much knowledge about things related to spells.

"Ah--"

Thinking of this, people will no longer pay much attention to such idiots, and the silent atmosphere disappears in an instant, and the politicians start discussing business again.

----

"Teacher Genichi, this is roughly what happened. Yuji…"

Looking at Hui and Otsutsuki who were worried and nervous, Shen Yuanyi smiled and comforted them: "It's okay, Wu has gone, and he will bring Yuji back."

After getting the answer from Shingenichi, Hui and Otsutsuki were obviously more relaxed. They had absorbed a lot of the tiger stick from Sukuna's fingers that Jugo had kept. It also meant that Sukuna's strength had recovered to about half of his peak strength.

Considering that for sorcerers of this level, how to use power is the fundamental reason for them to become strong, the power that Sukuna can exert will probably not be too bad. The best example is that Sukuna easily killed those ancient sorcerers.

If Otsutsuki were to fight Sukuna, there would be no possibility that he would retreat. If Sukuna was in this state, even if he won, it would not be completely impossible for him to be sure of victory.

But if the goal is changed to repel Sukuna and bring back Itadori, Otsutsuki still decides to report to Kamigahara and follow his decision. Now that they know that Gojo Satoru will handle the matter, they feel much more at ease as they know the latter's strength well.

……

"You're finally here, Nose."

Yuji...or should I say Sukuna, was standing on the top of a tall building. He suddenly spoke, and then a man walked out from the rooftop behind him.

"Oh? Have you gained control of the body? Hmm... it turns out to be only temporary. Then why did you release your aura to lure me over?"

"Tell me what your plan is, sir."

Sukuna turned and looked at Noso. Even he had to admit that Noso was unique when it came to conspiracies and tricks. In the past, Sukuna looked down on such things as conspiracies and calculations, because in his opinion, as long as one could crush the enemy in terms of strength, any conspiracy would be nothing more than the useless struggle of an ant.

But who would have thought that one day, he, the former King of Curses, would also need to dance with conspiracies. It was obvious that Zuo Suo had some plan, otherwise he would not have come up with the idea of ​​resurrecting so many past sorcerers.

Sukuna came for this very reason. He wanted to know what was the purpose of Noso's doing all this and to what extent he could use him. That's why he took that opportunity to complete a deal with Yuji Itadori and gain control of his body for a period of time.

He knew that with Yuji's personality, the content of the transaction would definitely include some requirements such as not harming his friends and ordinary people. Sukuna could just play some word games to trick Yuji this time, but his purpose of coming out this time was just to figure out some things, so Sukuna readily agreed to Yuji's request.

He just 'accidentally' controlled the area while killing those ancient sorcerers and destroyed the structure of the cruise ship, which eventually led to its sinking.

After arriving at the city where Noso was most likely hiding, Sukuna released his own aura, which was extremely conspicuous to the sorcerers and cursed spirits, and naturally attracted Noso to appear.

"It's actually very simple. If you reveal your aura like this, I guess someone from the sorcerer's side will come soon. So I'll make it short..."

(End of this chapter)