Cheadle, Gel, List, and Melody were all sharp enough to immediately grasp the situation.
They quickly played along.
After all, if it was Chairman Netero himself who had arranged for Germain's team to remain hidden, then it would be strange if core members like Cheadle and the others hadn't been informed at all.
After the explanation, Cheadle said, "We'd love to catch up with you all, but there are still many people waiting for Gel and me. We really can't spare the time right now."
"Pyon and Cluck are handling personnel management and defense operations at the fortress. They're at the command center—you can go find them there. List, I'll trouble you to lead the way once again."
"The Queen, Oito, seems very tired. Melody, could I trouble you to take her to a room to rest? Please take good care of her."
"Mr. Steiner, Kurapika, Izunavi, and Tokarine—you're all injured. Please stay here and let us take a look at your wounds."
Although Vice Chairman Cheadle's voice sounded like that of a young girl, her firm tone made people naturally trust her. Before they knew it, everyone just followed her instructions without question.
Melody took Queen Oito away, while Steiner, Kurapika, and the others stayed behind. List led Germain and the rest further ahead.
In truth, it was obvious to everyone that Cheadle had arranged things this way on purpose—so that only List's group would proceed toward the control center. But no one voiced any objections.
On their way, they encountered more heavily armed guards—an unusual mix of Hunters, soldiers, and mafia members.
For two months aboard the Black Whale No.1, these three forces had kept each other in check. Yet now, they stood together in surprising harmony.
Once they entered the control center, List and the others quickly saw two familiar faces standing before a row of massive electronic screens: "Chicken" Cluck and "Rabbit" Pyon.
The two young women were busy—one barking orders into a microphone while staring at the monitors, the other typing rapidly at a keyboard, sending command after command through the system.
"What do you mean 'you can't hit them from that distance'?" Cluck yelled angrily, her voice echoing through the room. "If you just shoot straight, of course you'll miss! Trajectory matters, you idiot!"
Pyon continued clacking away at the keyboard, her fingers flying like machine-gun fire. Her lips were slightly pursed, her face tense with focus.
Normally, Pyon was the more hot-tempered of the two, but today, their roles seemed to have reversed.
"You're here," Cluck said, noticing their arrival. She turned off the microphone, and her long feathered headpiece swayed gently.
"Perfect timing. The fortress is short-handed—we could really use your help."
"You're not even going to ask why we're here?" Bisky raised an eyebrow, curiosity in her voice.
Pyon paused, hands lifting from the keyboard. She spun around in her chair to face them.
"You've already met Cheadle and the others, right?" she asked calmly. "Did they ask you that question?"
"No," Bisky said, looking more and more puzzled.
"Then it's settled," Pyon looked up and shook her rabbit ears. "Anyway, it must be Germain's 'Teleport Lantern.' We can deal with the details later."
"Right," Cluck agreed. "Did you bring the 'Herb for All-illnesses'? We're almost out."
Bisky raised a hand and pointed to Shizuku. "Not only did we bring the 'Herb for All-illnesses,' but also the 'Longevity Food Nitro Rice.' Hopefully, it will work."
"But I guess, with over a thousand people here, our supply is definitely not enough."
"Wait, 'Nitro Rice'?" Cluck was quite surprised, and Pyon and List showed the same expression.
"You guys went to... Ah, forget it. Let's not talk about that now. Whether it's enough or not, you're a timely help."
Germain had been quietly watching since he first saw the fortress from afar. Now, after staring at the electronic screens for a while, he asked:
"Maybe you can answer some questions for us. First, why is there a fortress here?"
List took over Cluck's duties, continuing to command defenses all over the fortress to hold off the monsters that attacked from time to time.
Cluck let out a breath and began to explain from the start.
"After the great chaos broke out, Chairman Netero and the others went to seize control of BW1, while Cheadle and we went to take control of the ships in the internal dock."
"But we failed. The ships were destroyed ahead of time. And we found out it was done by Beyond, Pariston, Saiyu, and their group."
"We confronted them for a while. Then BW1 crashed into the coastline..."
By the time we realized what was happening, the whole place was engulfed in flames. The enemy had already fled.
Then, a tide of monsters attacked. We were protecting a group of logistics personnel and couldn't fight back effectively. We had no choice but to abandon ship and escape.
Afterwards, we lost contact with Chairman Netero. That's when I suggested we chase after Beyond and his group.
Cheadle and the others agreed. My bird scout had already found their trail, so we followed them all the way here — right to the front of this fortress.
But we were still a step too late. At that moment, the fortress gates opened, and two ships sailed out one after the other, passing through the channel and heading into the open sea.
Beyond and his group were definitely on those ships. They had tricked us... but at least, we gained control of this fortress.
After that, we managed to secure the fortress and took in nearby survivors, setting up defenses to hold back the monsters.
Later, List found you using his mechanical flying orb and guided you step by step to this place. That's everything that's happened in the past few hours.
Germain wasn't surprised by this and asked, "What's inside this fortress?"
"There are many rooms and warehouses," Pyon took over the conversation, tapping lightly on the keyboard as he switched the surveillance feed on the screen.
"The warehouses are almost empty now, but it's clear that they once stored lots of mechanical armor, guns, shells, and medicine... But the most important things are these."
Pyon switched to a darker room, where many transparent cylindrical containers were filled with liquid. Inside floated strange and unusual remains.
"Recognize them?" Pyon asked.
Just a glance was enough — not only Germain, but Ging, Bisky, and Shizuku all recognized what they saw.
These remains—some twisted into rope-like shapes or pressed into cake-like forms—were the "disaster victims."
Some were the corpses of Chimera Ants and other sub-humans.
Many more were monsters seen only on the Dark Continent.
"We've checked," Pyon said, "there's a timestamp under each container."
"They started collecting these about thirty years ago."
"That means this fortress was built at least thirty years ago, and the 'Quietest Revolution of the Kakin Empire' happened more than thirty years ago as well."
"We can reasonably guess that since then, Beyond has been connected to at least two generations of Kakin kings."
"Though he can't leave the Six Continents because of the 'Blood Oath Shackles,' he could still use Kakin Empire's money and contacts to hire people to build a fortress here, quietly preparing."
"Later, Beyond found or trained people like Pariston and helped them enter the Hunter Association, gradually rising to the top."
"He knew his father well—Chairman Netero's favorite was exactly someone as disgusting as Pariston."
"For thirty years, they've been preparing everything in this fortress and planning one operation after another against Chairman Netero."
"Think about it—the Chimera Ant Queen, missing a leg, how did she travel across the sea from the Dark Continent to the Six Continents? It takes two months to sail even on the BW1 ship."
"The answer must be that this was the work of Beyond's forces and the Kakin Empire."
"They deliberately sent the Ant Queen into the seas near the Yorbian Continent of the Six Continents, letting her drift to the NGL Autonomous Region, eventually causing the Chimera Ant disaster."
"Although the Chimera Ant disaster was jointly stopped by Chairman Netero and Germain, the colonization voyage was finally pushed forward successfully."
"Now, while we are forced to deal with disasters on the BW1 ship and this supposed continent, they can calmly set sail and head to the 'Gatekeeper.'"
"And when we finally solve the disaster here, we will be exhausted. If the Kakin royal family still exists, they won't support our voyage."
"At that point, we'll have to wait for reinforcements from the Six Continents."
"With this back and forth, we'll be far behind Beyond's exploration team... at least, that's what they think."
The familiar "either-or" style — either stay behind to deal with the disaster, or recklessly try to catch up — was really disgusting.
But still, compared to Beyond, Pariston, and the others, they missed a lot.
For example, the issue of "progress." They should have been far behind the Germain Exploration Team.
The Germain Exploration Team could easily say, "Let you run for a year or more, we're still ahead of you. You can't even see our taillights."
That was exactly why Cheadle and the others were confident enough to occupy the fortress and didn't bother chasing after those two ships.