After everyone had introduced themselves, there was a short awkward silence, and it was Jason's turn to fill it with his words.
The situation was still calm, and he couldn't pick any signs of hostility from those around him which was advantageous.
As such, he had no problems leading the conversation.
Turning towards Daphne, he tried to recall what she had asked him right before he had collapsed.
"If I remember correctly, you asked me how I'm alive, or if more halflings exist. To be honest, I'm not sure about that either. According to the foreign races I've encountered, this should be impossible, but evidently, that's wrong. Otherwise, I wouldn't be standing in front of you in the first place.
In the end, there are many things neither I nor other races know, and we can only grow more knowledgeable with time."
His eyes swept through the room, he noticed that the majority of them were still looking at him doubtfully. This caused him to ponder about a solution to negate the apprehension and gain their unwavering trust.
The guardian group was still unsure if they should trust Jason unconditionally, but they were unable to figure out a possible reason for him to sacrifice his life more than a dozen times, if not solely to save mankind, specifically the city from total annihilation.
Nevertheless, they couldn't overcome their hidden demons to give him a minimalistic amount of trust.
Everyone could decide for themselves whether they would trust him or not, but completely denying every single word of Jason was similar to disregarding the truth.
A few specific details written in the book Jason had publicized were certainly true and already proven to be right.
With that in mind, Jason thought about something he could show to everyone present.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64ce79d606107d003c23ea27", id: "pf-5140-1"})Taking out a Prismar stage Pryr stone consisting of primordial energy inside, he handed it over to the others.
Seeing the Pryr stone made Petri hiss in joy, which was audible enough to be noticed, while everyone who came in touch with the stone felt as if an electric current surged through their body.
They were able to circulate the energy through the stone, but it was extremely difficult.
Some even tried to transfer a minuscule amount of primordial energy inside their body, only to notice that their cultivation veins couldn't handle it.
Thus they expelled the primordial energy forcefully, and Petri released a suctioning force, attracting every single trace of the primordial energy that permeated the air towards himself.
Taking all of that as another evidence that Jason's words were true, goosebumps erupted on almost everyone's body.
"So...there are really multiple cultivation energies??" Daphne mumbled, slowly accepting the truth.
In her group, she was one of those who tried to figure out the truth rather than accepting or denying something others said.
As such, Jason's proof did wonders, and it made her and the others begin to digest everything and accept most of it as 'possibly correct'.
This was already a great beginning and Jason couldn't help but smile.
Petri's move to absorb the energy nobody else was able to cultivate with was perfectly utilised too, showing that the little Basilisk was different from every soulbond the others had seen before.
Now that the others were listening intently without the previous prejudice of labeling every word spoken by him as a possible lie, a fresh wave of energy surged through him as he started to explain.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64cc9e79c7059f003e4ad4b0", id: "pf-5109-1"})Unbeknownst to everyone, several hours had passed as the only voice echoing through the room was Jason's. Everybody listened to him intently, absorbing his words like a sponge and though he liked the undivided attention, Jason's throat was sore from speaking so much.
He hadn't expected the guardian group and others to be so interested in finding out more from him.
However, after thinking about it for a moment, he understood their concerns.
Being aware of the devastating truth was better than walking around in ignorance.
What would happen if they were to encounter a seemingly unsolvable situation that would've been easily solved, had they paid heed to Jason's words and the necessary knowledge he had already provided for free?
After several hours had passed, everyone came to the conclusion that the young man in front of them was a samaritan.
They couldn't understand his reasoning to help the human race that had wanted to see him dead.
Suddenly, the young woman, Inja, who was a reporter asked a question that had been lingering on everyone's mind.
"Why are you even helping us? From what you've explained, mankind was not nice to you. And that was even before anyone knew about your origin...It hurts to say this, but I doubt we deserve your help…"
Jason pondered for a moment whether he should tell his reason too, but in the end, he figured out that there was no reason to not share it.
There was no harm in stating his intentions so he smiled faintly as sadness flickered in his eyes.
"To be honest, I had never planned to save mankind. Before, I would have rather left through any world bridge, but I just couldn't bring myself to do it.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "663633fa8ebf7442f0652b33", id: "pf-8817-1"})But now, my motivation has changed. My late masters had a dream, and the last wish to escape their lips had been of me to help the weak, to protect them.
That's exactly what I'm doing right now...well, maybe it's more like I'm trying my best."
To think that Jason's reason behind risking his life had been to fulfill someone's last wish was difficult to comprehend for some, who were self-centered and didn't share a strong bond with their late masters.
Even if their relationship with the master that had once taught them a lot had been good enough, most wouldn't have resorted to suicidal plans to save people that might not even deserve this saving.
Somehow, Jason's words hit everyone deep, and their perception of him that had already changed substantially compared to a few hours before began to take on a new form.
Now, they were of the opinion that Jason was trustworthy, loyal, and someone to rely on.
Inja had secretly installed a camera in the room before anyone had entered it.
She had just wanted to record everything to help Jason a little bit, but once Inja had sensed his Celestia aura, her fingers had subconsciously started to stream everything live.
The channel on which she streamed everything was rather unknown, but a few viewers were able to tell that it was a livestream of Jason Stella!
As such, the Skynet forum was immediately filled with threads speaking about the livestream, and the corresponding link to the platform on which everything was broadcasted.
Within several hours, the streaming platform was filled with several million viewers that had heard everything!
The reporter's ingenious idea had spread Jason's word through every nook and corner and made him reach millions in an instant. It was a great way to save Jason's reputation, and to negate his image as a monster.
Unfortunately, it was not as easy as that, and there were still citizens and even members of big clans labeling the stream as fake.
Some said that the stream was recorded earlier, altered, and the completed video was streamed afterward.
Other than that, Inja was risking her own life and that of the others that were completely unaware of what was happening.
Once the big clans got to know that the guardian group and others had been in contact with Jason, they would also be hunted and pursued in order to figure out his current location.
It hadn't been difficult for Jason to detect the camera that was supplied with pebble-sized mana stones, but he didn't even think of doing anything against it.
On the contrary, he thought that it might as well come in handy and he was willing to accept all the help he could receive.
There was no need for him to be overly worried as nobody could say for sure that the people who were supporting him currently would be definitely hunted.
He would just let slip of him being at a fake location at which he would hide, and ask the guardian group to be careful.
The rest was on them.
Nevertheless, Jason had intentionally released certain information including that about the temporary world bridges that suddenly appear only to break out before once again.
There was not much he knew about it because he had only seen a few rifts in total, but there was one particular rune that made him ponder about everything.
'Are the world bridges intentionally established between Argos and the other world? But they're definitely not man-made…they're surely not created BY Argos and the other world….right??'
