Great! I'm surrounded by villains!
Chapter 351 - 270: The Traitor

Chapter 351: Chapter 270: The Traitor

For someone like 37, who had been severely brainwashed, had unquestioning faith in the organization, and would steadfastly carry out even a suicide mission, Duan Mingyuan thought that the best method was to use magic to defeat magic, and his current job in the prison was precisely as a junior mage.

"What do you mean you found it?"

asked in astonishment.

Although the sergeant’s expression was clear and precise, she still couldn’t believe her ears.

For a half-mechanical cyborg, the Mechanical Pioneer was the most mysterious and greatest existence; only those who followed the guidance of the Pioneers and purified their sins could have their souls reach the Digitalized World after death.

This was the spiritual ideal of all the Specters, giving them a sense of purpose in life.

"It’s pretty obvious."

Duan Mingyuan felt that it was better to guide 37 step by step to discover the "truth" rather than forcefully brainwashing her.

He had never been someone who liked to force others; he respected the choice of every free will, even though Jiuyue had pointed out more than once that coercion could bring a different kind of excitement to life, but he had always refused.

"Eisenberg-Adler is key to everything. It was Shelby Olborn, the mentor who pushed forward research in artificial intelligence and brain-computer interface over twenty years ago, who laid the framework of the Digitalized World during that period. Today, twenty years later, Eisenberg continued this theory, pulling the entire Prison Planet into the Digitalized World. Do you think all this is just a coincidence?"

Although half-mechanical cyborgs are reluctant to admit it, in others’ eyes, Shelby is known as the father of mechanical modification; he, with a mortal body, created a race that lies between humans and artificial intelligence.

Duan Mingyuan was not lying; he simply laid out all the facts in front of 37 and then trusted the girl’s ability to fill in the blanks.

For half-mechanical beings with brain-computer interfaces, any factual lies could be seen through at a glance, and truth was a swift blade for them.

Duan Mingyuan learned every day, and this knowledge was all gained from the Owl.

What he was doing now was akin to some journalists.

By arranging and combining unrelated facts and truths, they can create a deception that goes against the real truth.

"You mean... the Judge?"

fell into deep thought; her ability to fill in the blanks was at work, greatly.

This operation, along with the events of the past two days, gave her ample space to speculate. When she thought of the sergeant’s current state as a mage, which she didn’t know when had occurred, she was even more convinced of the truth she had surmised.

This revelation shocked her to the core.

The sergeant wasn’t here to return to the organization this time, but for the Mechanical Pioneer he recognized!

instinctively wanted to reject the truth her mind had concocted, yet the more she thought about it, the more she realized the Judge nearly fulfilled everyone’s imagination of the Mechanical Pioneer, even accomplishing the feat that not even the Mechanical Pioneers had managed – dragging a planet into the Digitalized World!

Duan Mingyuan thought the same.

Apart from the Judge itself not knowing it was the new Mechanical Pioneer, all its characteristics matched the half-mechanical cyborgs’ imaginings of the Mechanical Pioneer.

A "divine being" that could be seen, that had been given form, and existed not as a vague concept in the imagination any longer.

In fact, according to his observations, all the "Cocoons" shared many commonalities with the deities described by humans in some aspects, except these deities didn’t seem to like humans much and were always scheming to sweep them off the planet.

It took about a few minutes for 37 to calm down from her excited state.

She knew this was unprofessional; as an officer of the Ghosts, she shouldn’t show too much emotion, nor should she let it cloud her judgment.

But she was utterly confused now.

The sergeant had discarded his codename and acquired a name just like any common person, and everything he did seemed to prove that he had defected from the organization. But if one thought about it more deeply, the Specters existed to practice the will of the Pioneers, and each Specter commander was considered an angel envoy of the Pioneers, endowed with exceptional abilities to hear the messages left by the Pioneers amidst the chaotic Digitalized World.

So, if defecting from the organization was guided by the Mechanical Pioneer, how should she treat the sergeant?

On this issue, the commander’s position was clear; he almost immediately made a decision—after receiving Agent 37’s report, the commander issued the order concisely and decisively.

The sergeant had betrayed everyone.

Execute the traitor, and then bring Eisenberg-Adler back to Ghost Headquarters.

The commander ordered not just the execution of the sergeant, but also altered the way Eisenberg was to be handled in detail.

They were originally supposed to deliver Eisenberg directly to their employer, not to Ghost Headquarters!

All these details pushed Agent 37 to one side without reservation.

From the commander’s orders, she saw urgency and unease. Logically, given the sergeant’s position and the contributions he had made to the organization, even if they truly needed to execute him, the procedure would require him to be brought before a military court, not reminding her not to let the news leak and to strike suddenly when the other party was off guard.

This only made her believe the sergeant’s words even more.

The Mechanical Pioneer was with them, and right before their eyes.

However, the missions the Specters had carried out in the past might not have been messages left by the Pioneers.

This was not the first time Agent 37 had heard such an argument.

In recent years, many rebels had emerged among the half-mechanized individuals, believing that the current commander and the Shanqi Commerce Association had grown too close to each other. Many of their actions did not seem like messages left by the Pioneers, but rather killings aimed at eliminating dissidents. They noticed that the Specters were gradually transforming from an organization established to cleanse sins and protect their homeland into something akin to an assassin’s organization.

They suspected that the current commander was using his power for personal gain, turning the entire organization into a tool for realizing his ambitions.

These were typically the last words of such rebels.

When Agent 37 was ordered to execute the rebels, those people always tried to defame the commander’s image with such remarks, unrepentant until death.

"Are the commands conveyed by the commander really the instructions of the Mechanical Pioneer?"

Duan Mingyuan saw Agent 37’s hesitation and asked again.

At this question, Agent 37 tensed up, her hands on her thighs gripping her own flesh, causing the fabric of her black form-fitting combat suit to sink in.

Because it looked all too similar to the sophistry of those rebels.

A voice inside her kept telling her to execute the traitor before her eyes, to leave no more chance for his bewitching words to spread.

If it had been before, she would have followed her instincts without hesitation, quickly raising her blade to chop off the heads of the traitors—on this score, half-mechanized individuals were just like humans, death would follow the loss of their heads, and all incessant babbling would cease instantly.

But what if the sergeant had not lied?

More than the sergeant’s betrayal, this question filled Agent 37 with fear.

If the sergeant had not lied...then it was very likely that those ordered to be executed by the commander in the past were not really traitors, and her hands were already stained with the blood of the innocent.

"You reported what I just said to headquarters."

The composed Duan Mingyuan sitting opposite her seemed to see through her heart, and he asked casually, "What did the commander say? Did he order you to execute me, the traitor?"