The man’s words were true.
Even with the false information removed, there wasn’t much difference in the areas where sightings were concentrated, meaning the areas where the black droplets were densely packed. And all of those areas had already been investigated by the pros in teams.
“Does this mean that our investigation is lacking? That there are teams that haven’t investigated properly?”
At the man’s words, Frondier shook his head again.
“I don’t think so. Everyone here is a veteran with outstanding skills. I don’t think you’ve gone on an investigation carelessly.”
The expressions of the pros became subtle at Frondier’s words. Until just now, most of them here had been looking at Frondier with suspicious eyes, but now he was praising them. This kid was no ordinary person.
“The important thing is not the areas where sightings are concentrated. It’s the opposite.”
“The opposite?”
“This time, I’ll mark only the ‘false information’ on the map, not the real information.”
The Obsidian on the map all retreated outside the map, and then a significantly smaller number of droplets gathered again and were marked on the map.
The pros watched the scene with admiration. If this method were possible, the level of information gathering and meetings for all combat operations would take a tremendous leap forward.
“This is a map with only false information marked.”
“Hmm…?”
The pros all tilted their heads at Frondier’s words.
Something was strange. Everyone felt it, but it was a strange situation where they couldn’t explain what was strange.
“…No way. That’s impossible.”
The first to notice was, of course, Philly.
“Your Majesty, have you realized something?”
Eden, who was nearby, asked.
Philly shouted as if it were obvious.
“They’re the same! The locations pointed to by the false information and the real sighting information!”
“Hm?”
“Huh?”
At those words, the pros looked at the map again.
The first impression the pros had was that the marked shapes were similar.
That meant that the locations pointed to by the false information and the real information were not much different.
But then, what did that…
…What did that mean?
“As I said earlier, most of the false information here is data that someone here has deliberately manipulated. In other words, it’s intentional. The false information that the enemy we need to catch is telling us is the same as the actual sighting information. In other words,”
“…The enemies also want the pros to go to the locations where ordinary citizens were sighted.”
It was Azier who answered Frondier’s words.
The heads of the pros who still didn’t understand tilted even further.
“Uh… why? Then they’d be caught. Where their hideout is.”
“It’s the opposite. We thought we could find their hideout by following the sighting information, but they actually made it so that they were sighted in places where we could never find them. In other words, we were being led. By them.”
Fortunately, the pros who didn’t understand were kindly explained by someone nearby.
There was a bit of commotion, but thinking it was necessary time, Frondier remained silent for a moment.
Meanwhile, Philly’s eyes, which had been brought to her mouth, turned to the lower right.
“…For that to be possible, it would mean that it takes time for the symptoms of Mana infusion to manifest. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be able to manipulate the sighting locations as they please.”
As expected. Frondier admired inwardly and nodded.
“That’s right. It’s similar to the incubation period of a virus. Immediately after Mana is infused, there are no abnormal signs, but after a certain amount of time, the symptoms we know well, such as increased body temperature, rough breathing, sweating, and bloodshot eyes, begin to appear.”
“And the enemies would know the time of that incubation period.”
Frondier nodded. And he looked around. The noise in the conference room, which had been a little noisy, gradually subsided, and they focused their attention on Frondier again.
──Good, good eyes.
“Hey, Frondier.”
At that moment, another pro spoke up.
“When did you start to notice this?”
“I knew the purpose of the false information itself on the day I first came here.”
“Why didn’t you say so right away?”
At those words, Frondier seemed to choose his words for a moment. And he slowly opened his mouth.
“There are a few reasons for that. First, I thought no one would believe me at that time. Even now, the level of trust in me is unclear, but back then, I was just an unknown student.”
At those words, the pros had nothing to say. There were quite a few pros who had been looking at Frondier with suspicion until just now.
“Secondly, I was concerned about the intention of the false information.”
“Intention?”
“Yes. If they really intended to completely match the sighting information with the false information, they wouldn’t normally flood us with so much false information.”
In the first place, if they wanted the pros to head towards the sighting information, there was no need to create false information. They could just leave the sighting information as it was.
The reason they were creating false information, and in such large quantities…
“The enemies wanted to guide the pros to the sighting information by any means necessary. So that not a single team would go to a different location, because the clearer the thing to find was, the less likely they would be to head to a different area.”
“…Does that mean that if we head to a slightly different area, we’re more likely to be caught?”
“I waited a week to find out. Since I can distinguish between sighting information and false information, false information is the enemy’s intention.”
In fact, what Frondier was doing was absurd.
These people were listening as if it were nothing because Frondier was speaking as if it were nothing, but in reality, it was almost impossible to distinguish false information from this flood of information.
In the first place, it wasn’t easy to distinguish them since they were talking about the same locations as the sighting information.
But since he was tracking the enemies based on that, naturally, from the enemies’ point of view, Frondier’s distribution work was almost like being unmarked.
“Through the trends of the past week, I confirmed that they were gradually moving the locations of the false information away from a certain place. And today, there was a particularly large amount of false information compared to other days.”
“……Exactly. Today, not only is there an unusually large amount of false information, but the trend of the information clearly indicates that they’re trying to get us away from a certain place.”
Azier’s brief summary. The meaning was obvious.
Frondier nodded.
“Their operation will probably be carried out today.”