The day the New Misurugi Kingdom completed its globally broadcasted Newtype verification experiment, the entire world was in an uproar.
For Naturals, the path of human evolution had been reopened. The road ahead was no longer shrouded in ambiguity but now had a concrete direction toward which they could strive.
Perhaps it was because the appearance of Coordinators had already built up a resistance to the emergence of new human types among the people of the CE Universe. Furthermore, the worldwide broadcast made it impossible to conceal the information, and unlike the UC Universe's Earth Federation, the CE Universe lacked a single, monolithic organization that could dictate the narrative.
Therefore, with the birth of Newtypes this time, not a single government in the entire Earth Sphere voiced opposition, nor did they deem them a form of life that should not exist.
However, a lack of opposition did not mean a lack of concern.
After all, Reid's performance had been too dazzling—so dazzling that even Coordinators could hardly hope to match it. If all Newtypes were of this caliber, then old-type humans would be crushed into dust by the wheels of time.
Thus, how to treat the Newtypes who might appear one after another in the future became a topic on the table for every government.
The paper, "The Evolved Human—The Newtype," which had been studied countless times over the past five days, was brought to the meeting table for discussion once again.
At the same time, individuals across the globe confirmed to possess high Spatial Awareness suddenly became hot commodities.
After being dragged away by the military for a battery of tests, Morgan Chevalier was stuffed with a huge amount of supplements, and his rank was promoted directly from Captain to Colonel.
This would have been a happy occasion, if not for the fact that the supplements provided by the government included a massive amount of aphrodisiacs.
Morgan Chevalier protested that he was already 50 years old this year. Were they really expecting him to act as a stud horse?
However, Morgan Chevalier could not escape his fate as a stud horse. Within a few days, the 50-year-old middle-aged man had several new girlfriends in their twenties.
Of course, the same fate befell other confirmed holders of high Spatial Awareness in other countries, with the exception of Mu in the New Misurugi Kingdom.
It couldn't be helped. Since the New Misurugi Kingdom already had three bona fide Newtypes, no one would naturally demand that Mu become a stud horse.
However, as the Flada Family was known to carry the gene for high Spatial Awareness, Mu had recently received many invitations from families that had been friendly with the Flada Family in the past. It seemed they wanted to coax Mu back to the Atlantic Federation.
Unfortunately, Mu had long seen through the true colors of the Atlantic Federation and those families. He was enjoying incredible freedom in the New Misurugi Kingdom; only a fool would return to the Atlantic Federation to be used in various ways.
Furthermore, this experiment had resolved a question that had been lingering in the minds of the Eurasian Federation and the Atlantic Federation.
That was why the experimental subjects cloned from Reid Isaac's genetic records from his time in the Eurasian Federation could only inherit a fraction of his combat talents.
It turned out that during his time in the Eurasian Federation, Reid Isaac had not yet evolved into a Newtype; he merely had the potential. Naturally, using his genetic records from that time, one could not clone the Newtype version of Reid Isaac.
Consequently, after this incident, the Atlantic Federation dug up the log data submitted by the Archangel at the Alaska base. (The Atlantic Federation had withdrawn early, so they naturally took the database with them.)
Originally, the Atlantic Federation had dismissed the paranormal incident at Junius 7 as a hallucination of the Archangel crew, who had been pushed to their limits by ZAFT. Now, looking back, and combining it with the footage released by PLANT showing the wreckage of Junius 7 being pushed away, that incident might very well have been the strange phenomenon that occurred when Reid Isaac had his Awakening.
However, since Reid Isaac's genes were now confirmed to have evolutionary potential, Neo Roanoke became a key subject of observation for both nations.
The current Neo Roanoke was a clone of Reid. Although the defects of cloning had not been resolved, and coupled with the violent, rapid growth process, this clone could at most live for another three to five years, even with regular medication and no other issues.
But if he were to awaken as a Newtype, it was possible he could overcome his congenital genetic problems. Therefore, they decided to let him continue his work and place him under close observation.
In short, the reaction from the Naturals to Newtypes was mainly a mix of excitement and apprehension.
On the Coordinator side, however, the emergence of Newtypes was met with sheer euphoria.
Especially since one of the three currently known Newtypes was a Coordinator with verifiable records, proving that Coordinators still had a future. It would be strange if they weren't ecstatic.
The moment Durandal returned to the PLANT embassy in the New Misurugi Kingdom, he was pulled into a meeting by the Supreme Council.
To obtain firsthand information, the PLANT Supreme Council took a risk, with all its members traveling to the vicinity of the Earth Sphere in a warship to hold this meeting with Durandal. They needed to confirm one thing.
Could the birth of Newtypes solve the problem of Coordinators' third-generation infertility?
This PLANT Supreme Council meeting, held in a makeshift venue, also had an extra guest. Aura, having nowhere else to go, had sought refuge with her old acquaintance, Durandal.
Durandal naturally accommodated this supporter of his plan and, while at it, had Aura participate as a subject of the comparative experiment to help explain the Council's questions.
The other members of the PLANT Supreme Council had no objection to this extra guest. Right now, the more professionals who could explain this matter, the better.
However, neither Durandal nor Aura could give a definitive answer as to whether Newtype genes could solve the Coordinators' fertility problem.
The reason was simple. The genes of the three Newtypes were already physically different from those of Naturals. What effect these genes would have on a Coordinator was completely unknown.
And now that the genetic samples had been destroyed, they had no material to work with even if they wanted to conduct specific research.
The genetic information from the hair and skin flakes of Reid Isaac that Patrick Zala had brought back from the Star Palace Colony Satellite was completely insufficient. A clone created from such a small amount of genetic information would definitely have huge genetic flaws, and any genetic research based on such a clone would be meaningless.
Therefore, after discussion, the PLANT Supreme Council decided on a two-pronged approach.
First, to search the entire Earth Sphere for a fourth awakened Newtype, because it now seemed that some people might awaken as Newtypes without even realizing it. After all, Noin Lucrezia had not experienced a significant increase in intelligence.
Second, some questions could only be answered by Reid Isaac and Nanai Miguel, who specialized in this field of research. They needed to initiate another private meeting.
Of course, during this meeting, the person responsible for ousting Nanai Miguel from PLANT's research community, as well as Durandal for his poor judgment of character, were once again dissed by many council members.
After the meeting, Durandal and Aura had another long, private conversation. Both of them were now keenly aware of one thing: the Destiny Plan had to be modified, and its algorithm redesigned.
Setting aside what Durandal and Aura discussed, the day after Reid's status as a human was reaffirmed and he was allowed to wander around again...
The Earth Alliance and PLANT, with a tacit understanding, each submitted a request.
The gist from both sides was more or less the same: they felt that this new evolutionary form of humanity, the Newtype, was still unfamiliar, so they asked if Reid would be willing to have a private chat.
Reid knew it was all too easy to guess what they wanted to talk about—nothing more than questions about how to awaken as a Newtype. They also wanted to confirm if the phenomenon of pushing away the Junius 7 wreckage was a Newtype ability.
So, after discussing it with Une, Reid decided that rather than engaging in political maneuvering in small meetings with the three nations of the Earth Alliance and PLANT, where they might not even believe him if he told the truth, it would be better to hold a large press conference and lay everything out in the open.
This way, regardless of whether the Earth Alliance and PLANT had malicious intentions, they would have to think thrice before answering any questions related to Newtypes, and many of the doubts they could raise in private could not be spoken of publicly.
Therefore, that afternoon, the New Misurugi Kingdom officially announced that a press conference on the topic of Newtypes would be held in three days, primarily to answer questions the general public wanted to know.
With this announcement from the New Misurugi Kingdom, the three Earth Alliance nations and PLANT understood. They dispatched all their major and minor media reporters. Other countries also sent their own media representatives.
Three days later, seeing so many people wanting to attend the press conference, Reid figured that even one question per person would be enough to keep him busy for a whole day.
So, Reid made a decisive last-minute decision: only one state-run media outlet from each country would be allowed in, and everyone else was barred. This made things much more manageable. However, looking at the sea of beautiful female reporters below, Reid couldn't help but feel that the other countries of the world must have some kind of misunderstanding about him.
What followed was the standard press conference procedure. After announcing the theme, the first to ask a question, according to seating order, was a reporter from the Atlantic Federation. And her very first question made Reid's composure crack a little.
"Chairman Isaac, may I ask if females have an advantage over males when it comes to awakening as a Newtype? Of the three cases that have appeared so far, two are female."
However, this question was still relatively easy to answer. Reid stated directly,
"Miss Reporter, on the matter of biological evolution, the conditions faced by men and women are the same. So while individuals cannot be generalized, humanity as a biological species is equal. Therefore, there is no gender-based advantage in awakening as a Newtype. It all depends on the conditions one is in."
Reid's words were diplomatic and unproblematic. The Atlantic Federation reporter's question was just an appetizer. Subsequently, the East Asian Republic reporter's question cut straight to the core.
"Chairman Isaac, besides the long-term living in space mentioned in the paper 'The Evolved Human—The Newtype,' are there any other influencing factors for awakening as a Newtype in your country?"
For this question, Reid only planned to tell a bit of useless truth while hiding the useful information. He replied,
"As for the conditions that might stimulate a rapid awakening of a Newtype, our country is actually still in the process of researching them. Personally, before my awakening, I had a long period of strange dreams and once thought I was having psychological problems.
"However, the awakening of a Newtype occurs for humanity to adapt to the space environment, so living in space for a long time is a basic condition."
The East Asian Republic reporter was clearly not satisfied with Reid's answer, but according to the rules, she could not ask any more questions.
Next, it was the PLANT reporter's turn. Following up on the East Asian Republic reporter's question, she asked something PLANT was very concerned about.
"Chairman Isaac, I would like to ask, since living in space for a long time makes it easier to awaken as a Newtype, can we assume that it will be easier for Newtypes to appear in PLANT in the future?"
This was a question that Nanai Miguel had actually researched specifically, but the answer was definitely not what PLANT wanted to hear.
So, Reid answered with great seriousness,
"Regrettably, based on current research, Coordinators are actually less likely to become Newtypes than non-Coordinators."
As soon as Reid said this, the PLANT reporter became agitated. She disregarded the rules and retorted,
"Why? Didn't the paper clearly state that living in space for a long time is the key to evolution? And Dr. Miguel is a Coordinator herself."
Reid understood the PLANT reporter's feelings. The hearts of the Coordinators back home watching the live broadcast were probably clenched tight right now. He gestured for security not to restrain the reporter just yet, then smiled at the other reporters and said,
"This is a question the people of PLANT must be very concerned about. I ask my friends in the press to give this reporter a moment."
With Reid's words, the other reporters present would certainly give him face, so they all nodded slightly.
Then Reid's expression turned serious again, and he shot back a question of his own.
"Miss Reporter, do you remember the purpose for which George Glenn made Coordinator technology public? Can you repeat it here?"
This was a basic question about Coordinators, so the reporter answered without a second's hesitation.
"Of course. Dr. George Glenn made Coordinator technology public in the hope that humanity could better adapt to life in space after entering the space age. And through genetic technology, to solve some of the diseases that have plagued humanity for thousands of years.
"Facts have proven that Coordinators are indeed superior to most non-Coordinators in terms of physical fitness, so they adapt more easily to life in space."
After she finished speaking, the reporter seemed to realize something, a look of astonishment on her face.
And at that moment, Reid spoke the words she least wanted to hear.
"Miss Reporter, you seem to have realized the problem.
"It is a fact that Coordinators are better adapted to life in space. And Newtypes are an evolution that occurred for humanity to cope with the new environment of space.
"In other words, the theoretical basis that Newtypes need to live in space for a long time to promote evolution is precisely because the lack of adaptation prompts humans to evolve into a more adapted state.
"And Coordinators are already better adapted to space life than people with unadjusted genes. Therefore, in terms of the possibility of evolving into Newtypes, Coordinators are actually less likely to evolve.
"As for Nanai Miguel completing her evolution, it only proves that the probability of a Coordinator evolving into a Newtype is not zero. But she herself has yet to figure out which step led to her evolution."
After Reid's further explanation, the PLANT reporter was utterly stunned. She didn't know how to refute this point.
All the people of PLANT had been hoping that the emergence of Newtypes was the future for Coordinators, but the reality seemed exceptionally cruel. Because Coordinators had adjusted their genes to better adapt to space life, they had, as a result, made it harder for themselves to evolve.
At this moment, the reporters from the Atlantic Federation and the Eurasian Federation below began to snicker.
The Blue Cosmos supporters from the Atlantic and Eurasian Federations who were watching the press conference immediately began to mock the Coordinators for finally paying the price for artificially modifying their genes.
Because if Coordinators were less likely to evolve into Newtypes, and considering their third-generation fertility problems, then Coordinators had truly thrown away their future possibilities for a temporary advantage. The phrase "killing the goose that lays the golden eggs" was the perfect description for them.
(End of Chapter)