Great! I'm surrounded by villains!
Chapter 330 - 249: Meeting

Chapter 330: Chapter 249: Meeting

"How does it feel, isn’t it utterly fascinating?"

He Ya skillfully enticed from the side. Duan Mingyuan’s ability was so convenient it made her envious to the point of transformation and resurrection. Just these two points alone could bring countless conveniences, and she believed what Duan Mingyuan was capable of was far beyond just that.

It was the strict constraints of Blue Star that had been holding Duan Mingyuan back.

For a long time in the past, he had been an upright ordinary person.

But she believed he would no longer be that soon, although this Transcender still seemed a bit...unforthcoming at the moment, the development he had made in his abilities in just these few months far exceeded the past.

Once the thirst for strength took a step forward, it was very hard to step back, even if the person himself did not get lost in the desires that power brought; the external environment would compel him to continue down this path.

This excited He Ya.

Now was the time to place bets, whether the company, Chamber of Commerce, humans, or even the "Cocoon" would end up being the final victor, she relived the thrill of gambling.

She had once been regarded by the Shan Clan as the Goddess of Commerce, and people generally believed that the shrewdness and gambling nature of the Shan Clan People all came from her, and on this issue, He Ya did not deny it.

She loved the exhilarating feeling of placing bets, but unfortunately, after the "Cocoon" transformation, there were very few unknown gambles left in the universe. She became the setter of gambles, only through emotions emitted by gamblers scattered through the cosmos, using their lives as betting chips, could she relish that slight thrill again.

"Not fascinated."

Duan Mingyuan felt that He Ya might be somewhat emotional, as since just a moment ago, she had been as excited as a grade schooler who had learned they were going on a spring outing tomorrow.

He also did not find it particularly exciting to become Ghost Sergeant Lau-Duan.

"Aren’t you going in?"

He Ya had grown accustomed to Duan Mingyuan’s reticence. If she thought of this stubbornness as being tsundere, it actually made her feel quite good, so every once in a while, she had to "stimulate" Duan Mingyuan a bit.

Of course, she had to grasp the proper degree.

The big show on the Prison Planet was reaching its climax, and she, currently a fragile Hive unmanned drone, did not want to overstimulate Duan Mingyuan and have him yelling "shut up" and slap the drone to pieces.

He Ya reminded, "Your ’subordinates’ have already gone in quite a while ago."

Just now, calls from the Specter team members could be heard—"Shut up, the sergeant is the best soldier, he won’t have any problems!"

Those words were clearly aimed at Eisenberg, and obviously, their first meeting did not seem to go well.

He Ya couldn’t help but marvel again at the convenience of Duan Mingyuan’s abilities; he had met them only once and had already become the most trusted sergeant among the ghosts—much more convenient than them "gods". They initially had to guide believers to set up churches and write scriptures, brainwashing them over and over again, while Duan Mingyuan... he only needed to walk into your brain and modify part of the memory.

Ghost Sergeant Lau-Duan was indeed a bit conservative. As long as Duan Mingyuan wished, he could become the supreme operational commander of a half-mechanically modified person, or even the Mechanical Pioneer they worshipped.

Half-mechanically modified people do not believe in deities, but they trust that the Mechanical Pioneer will guide them in the digital world.

"We must wait for the sergeant to come back!"

After hearing the firm call for the fourth time, Duan Mingyuan walked into the laboratory where Dr. Eisenberg-Adler was.

The place was no different from any top-tier laboratory he knew, filled with instruments he couldn’t name. Dr. Eisenberg did not seem easy to get along with, he looked at Duan Mingyuan with a proud and aloof gaze for a moment, then asked, "Your superiors should have informed you, you’re supposed to bring me something."

Despite Duan Mingyuan’s attire being out of place among the Specters, Eisenberg had no intention of questioning his identity.

"There was a problem up top, and the captain couldn’t come in person to cover for us, but Sergeant Lau-Duan is just as good,"

one of the Specters explained.

In fact, he had already explained the problem to Eisenberg beforehand.

Undoubtedly, he was a troublesome target, and his desire to escape from Prison Planet wasn’t strong; upon meeting, he immediately inquired impatiently about "that thing".

However, they had not received any orders regarding this matter, and for some reason, the captain had not mentioned it to them.

Faced with an uncooperative Eisenberg, they were already considering knocking him out and carrying him out.

After all, their mission was to rescue Eisenberg-Adler from Prison Planet, and they were not required to maintain a good relationship with this difficult-to-get-along-with scientist.

The Specters had always been at odds with the identity of scientists; they were originally created by scientists as "weapons" to combat the crisis of AI and ended up destroying their own creators.

All team members looked toward Duan Mingyuan.

As long as the sergeant gave the word, they would knock Eisenberg out immediately and carry him back no matter what.

"You guys go out first; I’ll talk to him personally,"

Duan Mingyuan instructed.

The Specters didn’t doubt him and immediately left the lab, leaving the space to Duan Mingyuan and Eisenberg.

Once the room quieted down again, Eisenberg suddenly spoke, "Ghost Sergeant, Transcender, or Blue Star People, which one is truly your identity?"

He seemed unsurprised by Duan Mingyuan’s arrival and showed no intention of leaving; instead, he sat down in a chair.

Eisenberg had always been observing the relationship between the Specters and Duan Mingyuan, detecting absolute trust in their eyes.

"You may choose any of them."

"Mr. Mingyuan, I must admit your methods are much more sophisticated than mine; I can only tamper with programs, while you have tampered with people’s memories,"

said Eisenberg, picking up his freshly brewed hot coffee, "The company really needs talented people like you. By the way, I also took part in the neural implant project, which was led by my mentor, who, until his death, could not find a way to manipulate the cognition and memory of semi-mechanical beings."

Decades later, a Blue Star person whose name was never heard in academic circles had effortlessly fulfilled the mentor’s long-cherished wish.

Just a careful thought would reveal numerous flaws in the identity of Sergeant Lau-Duan, but the Specters, for some reason, deeply believed it.

"You’ve modified the Judge’s program."

"As I said, my mentor was an expert in the field of artificial intelligence. Artificial intelligence has its limitations, and during the design process, my mentor was hired as a consultant involved in the entire project... but I guess, you didn’t come for the Judge, there’s something else that interests you,"

Eisenberg paused and glanced at the electronic newspaper on the table, "I heard about the Laurel crash, the Silver Lotus Family lost something, they believe you stole it."