pr: roki
Chu Si thought for a moment but didn’t go over. Instead, he picked up the remote control on the conference table and adjusted the surrounding glass cover from transparent to opaque to fully enclose the room.
The only people left in the space were Chu Si, Shao Heng, Roger, and Old Master Shao, plus Sa’e Yang, who was called in by Chu Si, forming a completely secret conference center.
Sa’e Yang projected the intercepted results onto the center of the round table using a holographic projection.
The first thing projected was the military’s actual strategic star map. As Chu Si expected, this strategic star map was different from the one shared by the military in the past. It could even be said to be completely different.
The moment Chu Si saw the star map, his face darkened, and his original somewhat cold temperament became even more prominent. Compared to usual, there was some refinement missing, and a sense of harshness instead. His eyes swept across the entire star map, then landed on the faces of the people standing around the table, taking in their expressions one by one.
“This is the military’s real strategic star map. I asked Mr. Yang to intercept it by relatively unlawful means, so I won’t go into the details. You guys can compare it to the one shared by the military and take a look to see what the difference is.” Chu Si stood in the main seat, both hands propped up on the edge of the table. When he spoke, his tone remained calm, but the content of his words made Shao Heng, Roger, and even Old Master Shao’s expressions change.
Chu Si gestured with his chin, and Sa’e Yang pulled up the star map shared by the military as well. The differences between the two, put side by side, were simply ironic.
In the shared star map, more than ten white dots representing the interstellar army of the City of Silver had arrived in the Beta Star Region, at the edge of the entire strategic star map, well outside the warning lines, heading all the way forward in a spiked formation. If they continued on to the northwest of the star map a bit further, they would be directly out of the strategic zone. That meant that there was no actual threat to the planetary fragments within the rescue area, and their actions had time to be defended against.
This shared star map perfectly corresponded to what the military previously said— that their stealth teams had successfully led away the City of Silver’s military.
But in the actual strategic star map intercepted by Sa’e Yang, the City of Silver’s army was much larger than expected.
A dot represented a combat unit, a unit being a raid team of average firepower level or a medium-sized starship. There were about hundreds of such combat units throughout the entire star map.
These dots weren’t in a sharp knife formation, but rather gathered into groups of three, divided into dozens of groups. A group was stationed at regular intervals, forming a circle around the entire rescue area.
“They’ve also avoided our warning lines out of consideration.” Chu Si laughed mockingly.
The warning lines weren’t established markers in space but cautionary ranges drawn on strategic star maps based on the rescue zone— that was, the area where the planetary fragments were currently gathering, extended outward by some distance. There was an inner warning line and an outer warning line.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
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On this strategic star map, the City of Silver’s army stuck almost precisely to the edge of the outer warning line.
“If there weren’t clear camp markings, I would’ve even suspected that those were troops disguised by our military.” The mocking tone in Chu Si’s words became more intense, and he seemed to grow even colder. “If I remember correctly, the outer warning line was drawn by our military, not by the other party, right?”
The atmosphere in the conference room was somewhat solemn. Even Shao Heng, who normally ran his mouth, remained silent for a moment, and his complexion was also very bad.
After the atmosphere froze for a few seconds, Shao Heng spoke up and said, “What does the military want to do?”
That was right, the military.
At a glance, this star map revealed that the biggest issue wasn’t the City of Silver, but the position and intention of the military. How could the City of Silver accurately determine the location of the warning line while it was still under the self-protection and concealment of the Dragon Pillars?
There was only one possibility for being able to surround the entire rescue area with such accuracy, and that was that someone in the military had provided them with such a strategic star map. Based on the performance of the military during the previous joint meetings, it was likely that the person colluding with the City of Silver was one of the top figures in the military.
“How could that be? Lieutenant Generals Joyce and He Xiuwen are known to quarrel intensely when they meet. Just getting them to sit together peacefully is a challenge. If there was a problem with one of them, how could the other turn a blind eye?” Roger instinctively said.
But after saying this, he realized that something was not quite right. His face suddenly stiffened, and he muttered, “Impossible… could it be…”
Chu Si glanced at him and spoke for him. “I think that both of them play a part in this.”
After speaking, he raised his hand to ring the security alarm, saying to the radio port, “Deputy Executives Zilder Feng, Adams, and Bell, report to the command center for an emergency meeting.”
Zilder Feng and the others came very quickly, and their expressions were solemn after seeing the star map in the center of the conference table.
This was a very bad situation. Whether it was the military in peacetime or the military in this current special situation, they had the greatest combat effectiveness. They were the sword of Aquila Gamma, but now the tip of the sword had turned towards itself.
Unfortunately, at this time, the two lieutenant generals currently in charge of the military headquarters had hidden intentions. This dragged the situation to a dead end—
If the Security Building did nothing, then the military and the City of Silver would succeed, no matter what their purpose was.
If the Security Building and the military were at odds, and even if the general government joined in against the military, the military and the City of Silver would still win. The two sides weren’t at the same level in terms of military strength.
As soon as the star map came out, the first of the three questions that Chu Si mentioned before began to have an answer. He didn’t think that the connection between the military and the City of Silver had nothing to do with the time experiment. On the contrary, it was precisely because they were involved with the City of Silver that he felt that the direction of everything became clearer.
After all, the draft said that the time experiment initially used technology from the City of Silver and the relationship was later severed due to political reasons. But what if that relationship wasn’t cut so cleanly…
If the military was behind the entire time experiment, and the military even had the City of Silver behind it, then everything would be much easier to understand. Even the reason why Jiang Qi was involved would become less strange. But this was only a rational inference.
Emotionally speaking, Chu Si still had a hard time believing that Jiang Qi would be involved.
Just when the atmosphere in the conference room fell into dead silence, Sa’e Yang suddenly said, “Don’t be busy holding a funeral. There are two other things I suggest you read, and once you read them— maybe you’ll feel even worse.”
After he said this, everyone in the conference room didn’t know what expressions to have.
“What could be worse?!” cried Zilder Feng.
Chu Si knocked on the table and motioned to Sa’e Yang. “Display it.”
If the time experiment really involved the military and the City of Silver, then it wasn’t just him or Sa’e Yang who needed an answer, but everyone present.
“This is what I found in the usage traces of the highest authority channel of the military. It’s something they recently pulled out from a distant database to view. One is a secret letter, and the other is a video,” Sa’e Yang said. “Let’s take a look at the letter first.”
As he spoke, the contents of a letter appeared on the holographic screen. Judging from the particular formatting on it, it had initially been encrypted multiple times, and the letter was in a decrypted state when Sa’e Yang intercepted it.
The opening of the letter didn’t address the recipient in any way. It simply read—
“I’ve been thinking about it for three days, and I’ve still decided to stick with the original plan. Thank you for your dissuasion and concern. I know it’s risky, but it’s indeed a good solution. Besides, it’s the only solution for now, isn’t it? This huge group is beyond my control, and if I become too unsightly, I’m afraid I’ll be shut out completely, and that would be a complete loss of control. There are too many people bewitched. I doubt any of us will end up well, just like poor Elena, but still, I hope that you will live a better life.
If… I mean, if we can really make it to the day when everything gets back on track, we can go to Monte Caminfield for a most pleasant dinner. I like it so much there, though of course, no one knows that except you. It actually has another name, but it’s just so long I doubt anyone knows it, and you certainly don’t. If I get the chance, I’ll show you.
Finally, fuck the immortality experiment. (You’re laughing, aren’t you? I know you will laugh when you see this sentence, and then you’ll wonder if I drank too much.)”
There was also no signature at the end of the letter.
Everyone in the conference room looked a little confused. “An immortality experiment?”
Zilder Feng rubbed one side of his cheek and frowned. ‘’I haven’t heard of an immortality experiment, but when it comes to immortality… If I remember correctly, many years ago, before some of you were even born, the Second Research Institute in the City of Silver once made this joke? It said that it had found theoretical support and was ready to start experimenting, but it ended in failure, and it was said to have almost caused irreversible consequences. It was all reversed in the end, somehow. Anyway, it all seemed like a farce. I haven’t heard of it publicly since, and I don’t know if it has anything to do with this immortality experiment.”
Instead of saying anything to the others, Sa’e Yang tapped on Chu Si’s hand and reminded, “The predecessor of that so-called Devil Project.”
However, after he finished speaking, Chu Si’s gaze remained fixed on a certain part of the letter. He gave only a meaningful “en” in response, sounding very absent-minded.
“What are you looking at?” Sa’e Yang followed his gaze and looked over.
Chu Si said, “The name Monte Caminfield seems familiar.”
After saying this, he shook his head and retracted his gaze. “Forget it, it isn’t important. Have you found the recipient and sender of this letter?”
Sa’e Yang said: “I tried to check just earlier. This letter uses counterfactual quantum communication, which, as you know, is only used for agents and spies. Its intermediate track can’t be captured. As for the sender… you’ll know when you watch the next video.”
As he spoke, he took out his communicator and fiddled with it for a while. Two seconds later, the communicator in Chu Si’s pocket vibrated softly against his leg.
“Cough—” Chu Si coughed to cover up the vibration of the communicator. At the same time, while Sa’e Yang was pulling up the video, he took out his communicator and looked at the message content with an unchanging expression.
thanks for the chapter 🥹
Cliffhanger!!
Thank you for the update!
Necesito saber q dicen los mensajes xD
Familiarity.. Please don’t let Jiang Qi be the bad guy 😭😭