Chapter 142: The Country On Fire

By sunrise, Azuverda wasn’t waking up — it was detonating.

Phones buzzed on nightstands. Tablets lit up breakfast tables. Commuters on packed trains scrolled with widening eyes, coffee forgotten mid-sip.

By 7:00 a.m., one headline had clawed its way to the top of every feed, every platform, every group chat.

ISLA: THE CONSPIRACY THEORY — by The Executioner

The name alone guaranteed attention.

No one knew who The Executioner was. There was no profile photo, just a black background. No verified identity. Just a history of exposés that ruined reputations and toppled mid-tier officials like dominoes.

When that signature appeared, people read first and panicked later.

The article spread like wildfire.

It opened with surgical precision, laying out the timeline: Themis’s wildly popular novel Rise of an Empire… then, almost on cue, the discovery of a supposed royal burial site on Isla.

Screenshots, dates, shipping manifests, satellite images — presented in a way that made coincidences feel mathematically impossible.

The implication was clear before the author even stated it.

This wasn’t history unraveling. It was marketing.

According to the piece, the Zuvel conglomerate — already a titan in technology, energy, and security — was preparing to launch the IPO of a powerful new subsidiary. What better way to electrify the public than by attaching their name to a “lost royal legacy”?

History sells. Mythology sells faster.

The Executioner dismantled the tomb narrative piece by piece, tone calm, almost bored, as if exposing billion-dollar fraud before breakfast was routine.

Those aren’t ancient structures, the article claimed. They’re modern constructions — artificially aged, deliberately staged, engineered to withstand scrutiny just long enough to go viral.

Then came the photos.

The same images that had flooded the internet the day before — weathered stone walls, carved insignias, shadowed chambers lit by dramatic shafts of light.

AI-generated, The Executioner asserted. High-end, custom models trained on archaeological databases. Fabrications polished to perfection.

Side-by-side comparisons followed. Pixel anomalies circled in red. Lighting inconsistencies. Repeating texture patterns invisible to the naked eye but glaring under forensic analysis.

It looked convincing. Too convincing.

By the time readers reached the final section, outrage had already ignited.

The Executioner didn’t just accuse a corporation.

He named accomplices.

Laguna’s local government, the article claimed, had collaborated with the economic tycoon behind the Zuvel empire to manufacture what he called “the lie of the century.”

Permits rushed through closed sessions. Restricted zones established overnight. Media access tightly controlled.

Not to protect history but to control a narrative.

Comment sections exploded. Influencers began live streams dissecting every paragraph. Amateur sleuths dug up old contracts, campaign donations, family ties. Stock watchers tracked Zuvel-related tickers in real time as pre-market volatility spiked like a fever.

By mid-morning, the country was split clean down the middle.

Some called it the biggest hoax in modern history.

Others called it a desperate smear against a man changing the nation.

Everyone else just watched, unable to look away, waiting for who would win the argument.

…

Somewhere in a high-rise office, crisis teams were already scrambling.

Somewhere else, someone was smiling.

Because in Azuverda, truth mattered far less than momentum — and momentum had just turned into a runaway train.

Hashtags calling for a boycott of the Zuvel conglomerate multiplied by the minute, crawling across every platform like a digital riot.

Influencers filmed themselves throwing away products from Zuvel subsidiaries. Anonymous accounts posted threads dissecting decades-old deals. Keyboard warriors and analysts predicted a collapse with the gleeful certainty of people who had never signed a payroll check.

Memes sharpened into weapons. Rumors hardened into “facts.” Outrage became entertainment.

In glass towers across Azuverda, traders watched red arrows plunge as if gravity had doubled overnight.

Inside Obsidian Headquarters — the nerve center of Zuvel’s media and communications empire — the PR department was already in crisis mode. Phones rang nonstop. Screens displayed sentiment analysis graphs that dipped like a cardiac monitor in distress.

At 10:00 a.m., the director called an emergency meeting.

Executives poured into the conference room, fully panicked. At the head of the table, a wall-sized screen flickered to life, revealing Ares Zuvel on a secure video link.

He looked immaculate, composed, as if chaos were merely background noise he had chosen not to hear.

“Sir, we need direction,” the director said, voice tight. “This is escalating faster than anticipated.”

Ares didn’t respond immediately. He watched them — not the way a leader watches his team, but the way a chess player studies pieces already in motion.

When he finally spoke, his voice was calm enough to be unsettling.

“Don’t do anything.”

Silence slammed into the room.

The director blinked. “Sir?”

“The National History Commission will issue a statement soon,” Ares continued. “Once they do, the issue will resolve itself.”

It wasn’t reassurance. It was a conclusion.

“But, boss…” The director leaned forward, composure cracking. “Our stock prices are dropping rapidly. Negative coverage is compounding by the hour. Reputational damage is already—”

“—Temporary.”

Ares cut him off without raising his voice.

On screen, he went still, eyes unfocused for a moment as if running calculations no one else could see. Not worried. Not rushed. Just… deciding.

Then his gaze sharpened.

“Post the photos,” he said.

“Which photos, sir?”

“The ones from Laguna.” A beat. “Local officials welcoming the foreign archaeological delegation.”

Understanding dawned slowly — then all at once.

Not denial. Not defense. Validation by implication.

“And… the caption?” someone asked carefully.

Ares’s expression didn’t change.

“None.”

A ripple of unease moved through the room.

“No clarification,” he added. “No arguments. No engagement with the conspiracy.”

Because engaging meant acknowledging doubt. And Ares Zuvel did not negotiate with doubt.

“Just release the images.”

Proof without explanation. Authority without pleading. The kind of move that shifted perception without ever stepping onto the battlefield.

“Yes, sir,” the director said, already signaling his team.

The call ended.

For a moment, no one spoke.

Then the room exploded into motion — keyboards clattering, instructions flying, social media teams coordinating release timing down to the second.

Within minutes, high-resolution photos began appearing across official channels: government banners, handshakes, convoy arrivals, stern-faced foreign experts stepping onto island soil beneath a wall of cameras.

No captions. No statements. No defense.

Just power, documented.

Online, the reaction was instantaneous.

Suddenly, there was clarity amid the confusion and truth amid the speculations.

Because if it were all a lie… why would international archaeologists be there in plain sight?

And somewhere far from the chaos, Ares Zuvel leaned back, the faintest hint of satisfaction touching his eyes.

He hadn’t stopped the fire.

He had simply changed what it was burning.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep