Miracle Card Shop: All My Cards Can Be Actualize

Of course, Envy knew where Greed had gotten this name. She had purchased it from the Syndicate Union. That's why Envy hadn't thought much of it, the Syndicate Union would never typically allow such troublesome goods to enter their market.

But somehow, this name had slipped through, either due to some higher-up in the Syndicate Union playing tricks or because the power of the relic Albert mentioned was truly powerful to that extent.

Usually, legitimate names or surnames available for purchase in the Syndicate Union come from two main sources: names acquired through bribed government officials or the names of fallen noble houses sold for the prestige they carry.

Knowing Greed, Envy was certain she had obtained the Emberweave name from the latter source, wanting Daniel to stand out.

More importantly, while the Syndicate Union is an intricate network of underworld gangs, such as the mafia, triads, yakuza, and even terrorists, mostly composed of ordinary people. It doesn't mean they lack powerful mages to deter those from the Hightower.

[Shouldn't those mages have known how troublesome the name Emberweave is?] With this thought in mind, Envy decided to have a talk with Greed to get a clearer picture before proceeding with her business in South America.

— France —

In one of the high-rise buildings in Paris, marked by the prominent red 'Journal 24' sign on its rooftop, lies the headquarters of France's largest news channel, Journal 24.

This news channel is renowned for sensationalizing news, regardless of its accuracy. For them, the truth is secondary to viewership. This approach is why Journal 24 is the biggest, hottest, and most importantly, the most profitable news channel in France.

At the reception area of the headquarters, a package was delivered to the Chief Editor of Journal 24, Philippe Delacroix. The package was small, and after passing through a security scan, it appeared to contain only a USB drive.

"Is this for me?" asked a man in his early 50s as he checked the package. He wore a plain white shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows and a loosely knotted blue tie around his neck. This man was Philippe Delacroix, the Chief Editor of Journal 24.

"Yes, Mr. Delacroix. The sender seems to be from the Qing Empire, but we couldn't find out much else about them," said the receptionist.

Delacroix unpacked the package and found a USB drive along with a note. The note referenced a Swiss bank account under the name 'Mr. Z.' It simply read, "This is just a sample. If you want more of this, transfer 1 million US Dollars to this account." No further instructions were provided.

Philippe Delacroix excused himself and proceeded to his office to check the contents of the USB drive.

In his office, Delacroix inserted the USB drive into his computer. There was only one file on it, and it was a video.

On the screen, a scene from the battle at the border of New Atlantis played out—footage captured from the helmet camera of a Seraphine soldier. The content was brief but contained sensational information, as it showed the final moments of a soldier who fell victim to a swarm of blade drones.

"This... this is! This is a f*cking goldmine," Delacroix blurted out.

As a veteran journalist, he knew exactly what he had stumbled upon—a goldmine of sensational news. If they could follow up on this, whether it was true or not, it would shake the world. Who wouldn't be terrified by such an advanced weapon? These blade drones could very well make urban warfare obsolete!

He couldn't wait. He didn't know if this information was exclusive to his channel or not, but he knew one thing: they had to be the first to report on it!

With this in mind, Delacroix immediately contacted the CEO, eager to share what he had discovered and secure the necessary funding to get more of this juicy footage.

— Evening —

At the vast estate of the Montmorency family, in the study room. Henri Montmorency is overseeing the report of the experimentation from the magic lab in Artificial Chimera.

The experiment report could be considered satisfactory even though the progress isn't much. Still, stable progress was made without any accident. This is something worth celebrating as the rate of accidental in this kind of experiment is quite high up to 20% as the magic used in this experiment is new and kind of unstable.

At this time, the chief butler of the Montmorency family enters the room with a tablet.

"Pardon my intrusion, Lord Montmorency. I think you should see this." The butler said as he handed over the tablet to his master.

On the screen, appears the scene of the war, as a hail of missiles fall from the sky down to the battlefield and turn both tanks and men into crisp, turning the battlefield into a sea of superheated flame as the fire explodes from the missile is blue, this footage comes was from the tank commander, so the detail is much better.

Then came the scene of an aircraft squadron being completely annihilated by homing missiles and high-precision anti-air turrets.

The last scene was the scene of the large swarm of the blade drones appears as this comes from the infantry that is running away from the blade drones, in the end, this soldier has met his end, but the scene immediately gets cut as the drone closes into the soldier and transfer to the scene of the news studio.

"We're very sorry for the interruption but the scene after that is not advisable to watch. It's… pretty gruesome and not suited for broadcast." The host said with an apologetic look toward the camera.

Then he turns toward his left where a man in military officer clothes sitting near him as the camera pans out.

"Now, We're here with Colonel Michel Fournier, the military expert. Hello, Colonel." The host said as he shook hands with the colonel.

"Ah! Thank you for having me." The colonel politely replied as he shook hands with the host.

"Colonel, tell me... What do you think of the footage we've just shown to our viewer?" Asked the host.

The Colonel adjusting his tie seemed to be a little bit uncomfortable as he heard the question before he let out a sigh.

"Honestly... I think it's terrifying. The missile technology is something we can replicate, but the heat generated by those missiles, capable of melting modern tank armor like that? That's beyond our current capabilities. And the automated anti-air turrets, along with those swarming drones with blades... they're outright terrifying," said the Colonel.

"How so?" asked the host.

"First, the anti-air capabilities." The Colonel began as the screen replayed the footage of the aircraft squadron being shot down.

"As you can see, the weapon emplacement deployed by Astral Corp is incredibly precise. It only took one round to bring down a heavy bomber from a high altitude, where conventional anti-air guns would be ineffective due to lack of velocity.

Then, there's the homing missile from Astral Corp's SAM systems. The missile didn't even deviate from the target, even when faced with decoys. It went straight to the aircraft, no matter what evasive maneuvers the pilot tried. It always hits the target." The Colonel paused before continuing.

The screen shifted to show the swarm of blade drones slaughtering Seraphine Isles infantry.
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"As for these... they could render modern urban warfare tactics completely obsolete. I don't know what these things are, but let's call them 'buzzing drones' based on their sound.

These buzzing drones behave like a swarm of locusts. It's nearly impossible to imagine such small drones in such massive quantities executing this swarm tactic. Judging by the footage, their numbers must be in the billions, maybe even trillions, to effectively flush out infantry hiding within a city.

Their movements are incredibly precise and coordinated to a terrifying degree, as if a super AI is orchestrating the entire assault.

I can tell you, this is not something we'll be able to replicate anytime soon. From what we've seen, it's like Astral Corp's technology is at least 50 years ahead of the rest of the world," the Colonel explained.

The host fell silent, clearly wanting to ask something, but sensing the Colonel had more to say, he remained quiet and allowed him to continue.

"And, from history, we all know what happens when a more technologically advanced civilization meets a less advanced one. That's when the stronger side doesn't have to worry about consequences because they can deal with them easily." The Colonel paused. "I'm genuinely concerned for the world. Let's just hope that Astral Corp is as peaceful as they claim to be."

"And what if they don't?" the host asked.

The Colonel gave a wry smile. He knew this channel loved sensationalism, but this... this was playing with fire. Still, it wasn't his place to correct them, so he answered the question.

"Pray to God, and hope that our brightest minds can catch up soon, because the lack of a counterbalance could lead to the tip of the scales," said the Colonel.