Chapter 138: A Giant Tree Inevitably Breeds Maggots |
Shi Rang grew suspicious.
If they had merely edited out those disturbing screams, it would be understandable. However, the editing marks were present from the very beginning of the operation and lasted until the very end. Such a procedure was both difficult and completely unnecessary.
'Could there be a hidden truth behind this incident?'
His physical body lay in the hotel. Having previously told Jing Zi not to disturb him, he could investigate freely.
Deciding to go all in, he effectively took up residence inside the doctor's computer, waiting stubbornly for two whole hours. When the doctor finally finished writing the report and sent it to his superiors along with the conversation recording, Shi Rang followed the data stream directly. He continued his surveillance. During this time, the device he was currently mounting was about to leave the charging station, so he seamlessly switched to another idle communication device to maintain his cover.
He really had to thank the Anomaly Management Bureau for ensuring their charging ports could also transmit data. It made it convenient for them to synchronize information, and equally convenient for Shi Rang.
The report paused briefly with the medical site's superior before being divided into six copies and forwarded to various departments. Lacking the ability to split his attention, Shi Rang crammed the recipients' names into his mind to examine them one by one.
The medical site's superior, the site's general leader, a representative from the Ethics Committee, someone from the Intelligence Department, the Field Department leader overseeing the matter, and a member of the Field Department...
Wait a minute.
"Agent Huang Xiao of the Dongshang City Field Branch."
This was someone completely unrelated to the tragedy.
The email traveled through the Terminal Station's intranet. However, if Shi Rang left the medical site and returned to the Terminal Station's data stream, he would lose his free access to systems outside the communication device. A mounted device would not feed information back to him unless he was actively controlling it. If the device was moved away, this site would permanently disappear for him on a data level, lost in a vast ocean without a trace.
He waited a little longer. Only after confirming that no more emails were being sent did he look up this agent's receiving address.
"Dongshang City North Operations Site."
In the real world, Shi Rang opened his eyes, clenching his jaw against a splitting headache.
He groggily sat up, his vision completely blurred.
He had stayed in a non-communication device data environment for far too long.
"Get the car ready!" Shi Rang growled.
Jing Zi, who had been in the presidential suite's living room, immediately rushed into the bedroom and tried to support him.
"I'm fine. Drive me to the north side of the city, as fast as possible!"
After passing the security check, Huang Xiao left the operations site. He was currently on standby, allowing him to leave the premises freely.
"Brother Huang, you seem to be in a great mood," a colleague remarked with a smile as he returned from outside. "You're grinning from ear to ear."
"Yeah, it's pretty good."
Huang Xiao replied casually. He found his car in the parking lot and drove out of the site, which was disguised as an ordinary office building.
He drove in a few circles around the streets, making sure no one was tailing him before heading toward the suburbs. Once the surrounding traffic thinned out, he found an open-air parking lot. Sitting inside his car, he activated his communication device's encryption feature and made a call.
The person on the other end was the commander in charge of the containment operation for the "Heartless Room," Xing Jianyuan's superior, Hu Lihua.
"Hello? How did it go?" an anxious voice asked from the other side.
"He believes it completely."
"Believes what? Stop speaking in riddles. Ever since you scrambled his brains, I haven't known what you're trying to make him believe. That there really was an anomaly in there?"
Huang Xiao tilted his head back, lowering the driver's seat and lying down. "He believes he was the one who did it. He doesn't even realize I knocked him unconscious back then."
Worried the other party wouldn't believe him, he played a specific audio clip he had intentionally extracted:
"So you destroyed all the heads of the corpses?" "Yes! It was me! I did it!"
"Beautiful!" Hu Lihua exclaimed. "When the higher-ups assign blame, they won't find out, right?"
"The people returning favors to me thought they were just doing a minor task. They don't know the full story, so I'm not worried about them letting anything slip. I've wiped out everything that needed deleting, leaving absolutely no traces. Not even the Ethics Committee or the Supreme Council will be able to trace it back. Besides, the higher-ups won't care who actually did it. What's done is done; they just need a name to take the fall."
"Excellent. The approval for your transfer will be issued next month. Say goodbye to field work! I've been sick and tired of cleaning up the messes caused by your emotional issues for a long time. This time it was four people; I can't even imagine how many you'll dare to kill next time."
"Hah, you can't count one of those on me! Anyway, thanks. I've been waiting for a cushy office job for almost two years now. I was actually worried they'd stall my promotion permanently after what happened with Director Bjorn in the Third District. Oh, right, you need to pay special attention to Xing Jianyuan's transfer next. Keep him as far away from me as possible."
"Why? After this incident, he'll be stuck running errands in a C-class position until the day he dies."
"I'm worried he might hear about me later. After all, he already believes I'm just a figment of his imagination."
"Understood. Not a problem."
"Let's leave it at that. Any longer, and we'll start leaving a trail."
Hanging up the call, Huang Xiao seamlessly wiped the data on his communication device, remotely syncing the latest general announcements to overwrite the history.
"Going through all this trouble... wasn't it just a bit of bad luck, running into a misjudged anomaly? No operation comes without casualties. If the Intelligence Department knew how to do their jobs, they would've just played along and marked it as neutralized. How great would that be? Why did they have to analyze it so clearly and cause everyone such a headache..."
Huang Xiao quickly tossed the whole matter to the back of his mind.
As the principal offender, Xing Jianyuan would shoulder the vast majority of the blame, while Huang Xiao had already vanished entirely from the operation's records.
Even though he had exhausted many favors to clean up the mess and still owed quite a few, it was well worth the resulting promotion. Moving from a field Containment Specialist to an internal management team leader seemed like a demotion on paper, but it was secretly a massive step up. Many people couldn't get an opportunity like this in their entire lifetimes.
Without a doubt, stepping on Xing Jianyuan to climb this path guaranteed him a bright future.
With his knack for navigating the webs of power, he would seamlessly thrive from all sides.
The Anomaly Management Bureau was an institution dedicated to sacrificing everything for humanity, but it was also an organization riddled with power hierarchies and bureaucratic traits. Some people worked diligently, dedicating their entire lives to humanity and helping this giant tree grow. However, these individuals always died quickly, giving their all until they breathed their last. Right after, another group of people—those much more skilled at playing power games—would burrow into the giant tree, growing fat and comfortable by feeding on the sap formed from that spilled blood and sweat. These people would undoubtedly get the basic job done, but they certainly didn't mind profiting for themselves along the way.
Huang Xiao was an agent with a stellar resume.
He had contained numerous Hazard Items, rising rapidly through the ranks thanks to an outstanding record of entity eliminations.
If he continued to work in containment, he would undoubtedly become a B-class Containment Specialist in the future.
As a hidden hero who had already protected so many humans, what reason did he have not to wield this power to arbitrarily control the life and death of others?
There were far too many civilians in this world. It was inevitable that some would get swept up into the chaos caused by Hazard Items. For every civilian casualty, his mission completion merits increased a bit. For every civilian infected and transformed, he could add another kill to his entity elimination report. The absolute best were anomalies involving cognitohazards and mental pollution. Accidentally killing a few people was no big deal. In some cases, even an autopsy couldn't detect any brain abnormalities, meaning every death simply padded his kill score. He didn't even need to borrow a knife to do his dirty work—oh, wait, no. He actually had picked up a literal knife from right beside Xing Jianyuan.
"I didn't harm you at all, Xing Jianyuan," Huang Xiao murmured with a twisted smile. "Who told that man to lunge over and slash at you? You're the one who killed him. Killing one person or killing four... it's just a difference in numbers."
Just then, he felt his communication device vibrate. He adjusted his seatback to an upright position, clicked the screen on, and glanced at it.
Huang Xiao's smile instantly vanished.
"I don't know what's gotten into Xing Jianyuan, but he insists that you were also involved in the operation. I prescribed him some medication and sent him away. Previously, you said you wanted to help Hu Lihua gather some intelligence, which is why I gave you the report. I won't risk my career for this. Huang Xiao, I remember you two are from the same site. You aren't actually connected to this operation, are you?"