The broadcast had gone out all over the internet. Thanks to Jun, now there were tons of people and governments that were now aware of both Laz and his power. And what’s more, they now knew that there were creatures on Earth that they weren’t aware of. More importantly, they also knew that the Chosen weren’t exactly the great protectors they had thought them to be. While this wasn’t exactly correct, it gave many people the impression that Chosen were weaker than infected.

This fact was not lost on people in governments that had been working with the chosen either.

"So all of the chosen were killed off while one infected stood alone?" One leader of a major nation said to the chosen from Global Sciences.

"Sir. While it might not seem this way, that infected come into the battle after the chosen were already exhausted. It stands to reason that he lived only because they enemy had been tired out and beaten down by our proud chosen solders," replied the representative as he tried to mend the damage that the broadcast had made on people’s perception.

"It didn’t seem that way. In fact, he was taking on far more of the battle than your elite chosen had ever done. They were being slaughtered like cattle before that man arrived and barely killed the ones that were in front of him while he reaped lives like wheat. Your explanation is lacking. We have given your company millions of your dollars just to help develop our own fighting force and now, one of the world’s elite forces barely measured up to the bootstraps of one infected. Their uselessness is making me question our cooperation. If my men come back as useless as that Oliver and their company, you can consider our contract null and void," the man raged as he had clearly never considered that the infected were the stronger of the two mutants. He had gotten just as many reports that the awakened infected were wild, bloodthirsty and uncontrollable. But even then, if their power was unmatched, then there were ways to control even those types of people. And besides which, it wasn’t like he hadn’t heard the stories of the mental problems of the chosen.

While the representative felt the pressure, he also didn’t think the man was overly serious. Afterall, the chosen were a proven resource while the infected were nothing more than an unproven method.

"I can guarantee that the results you see will be worth the investment," the representative said, his smile as calm as ever.

"What about those creatures from the video. They resemble the dragons of old?" The leader probed, but the representative just smile back.

"I’m sorry sir. For the moment, we have nothing we can say about the creatures on the video. But I will say that reinforcements have been sent and no matter what the conditions, they will be handling the problem shortly."

"I would hope so. If something were to disrupt the transit and freight lines, the money to keep paying you bastards would run out very quickly."

"Of course sir. It’s as you say. A quick resolution would be best for all parties involved."

Conversations similar to this were playing out all over the world as the countries and companies that had invested in Global Sciences wanted to know what the hell had happened. As for Global Sciences themselves, they were doing their best to patch the damage to their image that such a broadcast had inflicted. But more than that, they were sending out teams to get to the gate as soon as possible, mobilizing not only their own para-military units, but also some from countries that had heavily invested in them. The payoff for borrowing their troops and vehicles was a shared agreement to whatever loot and breakthroughs were made thanks to the gate and the units that came from it.

And besides which, more than one country wanted to have a dragon of their own if the opportunity presented itself.

As for the common man, the video had been shared online over a billion times already thanks to Jun’s efforts to promote the video. As such, everyone had seen it. Global Sciences made every effort with the companies under them to suppress the video and when that didn’t work, to claim it was nothing more than some CGI deepfake trickery. The problem with that was actually their own doing. After all, the original video was copied and shared so many times that everyone who knew anything about encoding could quickly deduce if the video was fake. And thanks to their convincing of putting Laz on the most wanted and dangerous infected list, his appearance was recognized by everyone who came across the video.

And their voices said one thing over and over again,

"How is this person a villain?"

He fought with the chosen to stop the invaders then went alone to confront the dragons at the gate. Was a dangerous infected someone who would fight for the world? Definitely not. Even more, as most people pointed out, his infamy was based on the blood thirsty and crazy nature, something that was completely missing in this video. Even once the world’s governments made the video illegal to watch or download, that just made it blow up even more. Jun’s channels and networks were shut down quickly, but it was far to late at that point. As the saying goes, ’the internet is forever.’

Laz had become an overnight hero to the world, but one who’s death was also suspected. In front of such a lineup, who could survive? Sure, some whispers were spoken about how a man like him would never willingly throw themselves into a hopeless situation. But there were others who said that perhaps he had over-estimated himself thanks to being drunk on his own power.

The one thing everyone agreed on was that until they saw a body, they would never actually know.

So for now the world waited as assault and survival teams were being sent to the Antarctic, waiting until someone told them something.

This first bit of news came from the rescued survivors of the base, picked up and brought home by some of the first teams that arrived, but only after they had been interrogated for hours about what they knew. Luckily, Captain James had been a loyal member of the UN and had been contracted by Global Sciences so he gave them everything they needed while the rest were dismissed for basically being unimportant.

Before being released, they were forced to sign NDA’s. The only thing they were able to talk about was the heroic nature of the merc crew that had shown up and the danger and intimidation they felt while have to house such a dangerous criminal.

As for how all of that came to be, again, they couldn’t say a word.

As such, when they returned to land, all of them were hounded by world media networks hoping for interviews. And while they spoke of the heroics, none of them wanted to say anything about Laz, leaving him with an aura of mystery.

When one reporter finally shot out a question as they were being lead away to board cars which would take them to the airport so they could head home, Saanvi couldn’t help but respond.

"Do you think Laz is still alive?"

Saanvi stopped and turned, making the entire group pause with her.

"Are the skies clear?" Was all she said back with a smile before continuing on her way. It stopped the man and the other reporters in their tracks as it took them a minute to figure out how that answer was related to the question.

Then they remembered about the dragons and couldn’t help but be shocked.

If what she was saying was real, didn’t that mean that Laz had fought the dragons and won? It had been almost two weeks since the broadcast and so far, nothing had been seen outside the Antarctic. If those dragons had survived, wouldn’t they had made themselves seen even if by accident? Even if it wasn’t announced, the landing groups warships had been destroyed and they weren’t something that could be hidden as they were tugged back to land.

As for the assaulting forces that had landed, they had been broadcasting ’approved’ livestreams so the world had been watching this as well, hoping to see even more dragons but so far they had seen nothing. They hadn’t made their way to the gate yet, but the land was as dark and cold as it was suppose to be, so so far, the rescuing heroes had nothing to show for their efforts.

It was only three days after Saanvi, Sven and all the others had arrived on land that the forward assault groups found the massive entrance that lead downward into the cave. With their camera’s broadcasting, they filmed the land that was torn apart, blown up and burnt in places where the remains of creatures were still on fire.

No one spoke once they reached the area, looking around in horror at the entrance.

It had been partially blocked by the massive, still burning corpse of a dragon, hundreds of feet in length.

What was even worse, it’s head was several yards away and based on the blood splatter, it was obvious it had been ripped off while the dragon was still alive.

It was the first time that the troops and gather chosen got the feeling that they didn’t belong here.