Great! I'm surrounded by villains!
Chapter 349 - 268: Strategic Coordination

Chapter 349: Chapter 268: Strategic Coordination

The team’s division of labor was very clear.

Dr. Eisenberg was responsible for sorting out theories about "wormholes" and "multi-dimensional space", while Jiuyue and the Judge were responsible for maintaining the prison’s daily affairs before the research was implemented.

As for Duan Mingyuan...

This Mage was not idle either; he and Number: 37 walked into the small meeting room and started addressing the problems of the Specters.

The Specter Squad was the trump card the Shan Clan People had planted in the prison. According to their plan, once Duan Mingyuan and his group left, the Specters would act again, and even if Eisenberg was unwilling to leave the prison, they would find a way to forcibly remove him from there.

The Mandala Consortium was only concerned with the casino’s business. Following the invitation sent by Fu Ling, the casino let it be known that today’s "breakout" was just a minor incident, part of the company’s arranged special program. Since Da Congming was a newcomer to the prison, the audience was not familiar with his character, so they specially arranged such an episode for his biography.

The previous attack on the Prison Governor and the ensuing riot were also part of the show effects.

The trials would proceed as usual, and from tomorrow, all the betting activities would resume.

At this stage of developments, the Shan Clan People were disdainful of pretense; anyone could see that the Mandala Consortium and the Shanqi Commerce Association were in cahoots, managing to command the Specter Squad planted in the prison despite their currently opposing stances.

The mole leaking secrets to the company was about to be exposed.

However, Duan Mingyuan keenly detected something amiss; the relationship between the Specters and the Shanqi Commerce Association didn’t seem solid.

In his view, the Specters were not enemies but potential allies.

While the Shan Clan People were still contemplating who to stab with this sharp knife, Duan Mingyuan’s strategic planning had already begun.

Sitting in front of him at this moment was Number: 37, who was also the overall commander of this Specter Squad.

Her other identity was a junior under the sergeant, a graduate from the same military academy. During her time at the academy, she had heard many of the sergeant’s glorious deeds.

Although Duan Mingyuan had never attended any military academy, this did not prevent him from being considered a senior by others.

From their conversation, he learned that the relationship between the Shanqi Commerce Association and the Specters was more akin to mutual usage.

After the Specters escaped, the Shanqi Commerce Association provided them with a hideout and financial support. In return, the Specters would help the commerce association remove some obstacles they were targeting.

"Sergeant, are you saying we should all abandon this mission?"

Number: 37 frowned deeply.

Although she greatly admired the sergeant, the tradition of the Specters had always been to carry out missions until death, and there had never before been a precedent for changing the mission midway.

In fact, their current behavior had already deviated from headquarters’ demands. The headquarters required them to immediately carry out the original plan. Even if they hadn’t yet found a way to leave the Digitalized World, they were to firmly monitor Eisenberg and, if necessary, were allowed to apply some coercive measures against him.

However, they ignored the command from headquarters and sat at the same table with Eisenberg to discuss ways to develop the Digitalized World.

thought this was the sergeant’s strategy to confuse Eisenberg and the prison’s artificial intelligence, planning to suddenly strike at the moment of setting up the channel, forcefully bringing Eisenberg back to the chamber. However, from that conversation, it seemed that the sergeant was really planning to defy the orders.

"There was a problem with the intelligence; the chamber did not fulfill its promise to share the Digitalized World data with Eisenberg."

"This is a matter between the employer and the mission target, and it does not concern us."

felt that the sergeant’s words just now were very unprofessional and did not match his usual image.

The action principle of the Specters was simple: identify the mission target, execute.

As for whatever love-hate entanglements existed between the employer and the target, it was not their concern to consider.

In her mind, the sergeant was a perfect person and shouldn’t have made such a low-level mistake.

"But this proves one thing—the Shan Clan People had known about Dr. Eisenberg’s research, which is closely related to us."

Duan Mingyuan said, "Once Dr. Eisenberg completes his research, completes the transformation of the Prison Planet into a digitalized world, even if we find him, it will be nearly impossible to take him out of the prison."

And indeed, it was so.

Dr. Eisenberg claimed that with the current technology, it was impossible to enable communication between the virtual and the real, and that it would remain so for at least fifty years.

To change Dr. Eisenberg’s viewpoint, Duan Mingyuan had to reveal his identity as a Mage.

"The Shan Clan People do not know that I am a Mage, which means they issued this mission knowing we might find out that we can never leave the digitalized world."

"Are you trying to accuse them of not leaving us a way out?"

was very confused.

Because the Shanqi Commerce Association never explained in detail how to assassinate a target or how to withdraw after an assassination.

Professional matters are for professionals, that has always been the Chamber of Commerce’s motto.

Every operation in the past was autonomously planned by the execution squad.

Duan Mingyuan couldn’t help but sigh.

It seems that 37’s brainwashing was much more severe than he had imagined.

When the client issued a mission that was almost a death sentence, 37 was still making excuses for the client, thinking it was normal.

Truly a chosen worker, the client’s favorite kind of employee.

"Don’t you wonder what the Specters truly mean to the Chamber of Commerce?"

"Partners, weapons, chess pieces that can be discarded at any time."

answered immediately. His expression unchanged, as if he had long accepted this fact and genuinely believed it was normal.

Instead, she found today’s Duan Mingyuan very unusual, "Sergeant, why are you acting so strange today?"

Just like the number 37, Specters from the moment of their inception have no names and do not need names. Brain-computer interfaces grant them almost artificial intelligence level computational power, bringing unparalleled memory, allowing each of them to possess a photographic memory.

Without the need for names, they would not recognize the wrong person.

"Specters are expendables in war, everything we experience today is repaying the sins that come with being born, death is both glory and relief."

lowered her eyelids, seeming to realize something, "Sergeant, has your current life caused you to waver? Don’t worry, after the mission ends, we’ll go back together. Just overwrite these vulnerable parts, and you’ll return to normal."

"Wait, what do you mean by overwrite?"

"Sergeant, could it be that your memory terminal is malfunctioning?"

37’s concerned tone seemed genuine, as she might have finally found the reason for Duan Mingyuan’s abnormal behavior.

"After each mission, we must perform thought overwriting to ensure no unnecessary emotions remain in the memory terminal."