Life Game In Other World
Chapter 554: The Influenced Mind (Long - , Seeking Monthly Pass)

Chapter 554: Chapter 554: The Influenced Mind (Long Chapter, Seeking Monthly Pass)

"I have limited knowledge about the Mysterious Person,"

Thorne leaned back in the chair, gazing at He Ao.

After the recent few clashes, he realized that He Ao definitely had some information in his hands, and the person in front of him was both similar and different from the Jess he knew. Before achieving his goal, this man would truly take his life.

Although the other party might not personally take action due to the limitations of his own character, he would give others, like Heish, the opportunity to do so.

Strictly speaking, the current ’Jess’ gave Thorne the impression of someone who had experienced a great change and had begun to grow.

He still maintained some of his past perseverance but was also trying to use less old-fashioned means to uphold it.

He had changed, but not completely.

’Jess’ hadn’t fully integrated into the underground world and hadn’t become a cold-blooded and ruthless person.

And this piece of information was good news for Thorne.

It meant that he could continue to exploit some of ’Jess’’s weaknesses to turn around his own situation.

And, before the final counterattack, sharing some genuine intelligence was reasonable.

Besides, Thorne didn’t know exactly what information the person before him had. ’Jess’ was kind but not foolish and was not easy to deceive.

So at this point, Thorne also wasn’t prepared to continue beating around the bush, relaying incomplete or erroneous information.

If in the end it affected ’Jess’’s perception of him, it would backfire, like trying to steal a chicken only to end up losing the rice used to lure it.

He composed his tone and continued, "My contact with the Mysterious Person was also very limited. We’ve met in person only a handful of times. We’ve always connected through real-time anonymous chat, and it was always him who initiated the contact. After every chat, all records would be destroyed."

"Through this bracelet?"

He Ao looked towards the bracelet on Thorne’s wrist.

"Yes," Thorne took off the bracelet, disabled the password in front of He Ao, and handed it to him, "It was through that software called ’Paper Book’ that we communicated."

’Paper Book’ is one of the Federation’s more notorious peer-to-peer anonymous chat software. Unlike ordinary instant messaging software where both parties’ information goes through the software company’s servers, ’Paper Book’ messages are sent directly peer-to-peer.

The information and files sent by the sender are encrypted and sent directly to the recipient, without going through Paper Book company’s servers, nor can they be intercepted.

In addition, Paper Book encrypts users’ network addresses multiple times to prevent hackers from tracking the chat participants’ network addresses by following the trail of communication.

Because of these security features, Paper Book has become one of the most popular chat apps in the underground world, and a vast amount of illicit black-market information resides in the app.

Consequently, Paper Book has faced numerous lawsuits.

Of course, Paper Book is not completely confidential.

Although the operating company of Paper Book claims that their encryption system is very advanced and cannot be cracked, and when an attack is detected, it will automatically destroy the relevant information.

But there are no walls in this world that don’t let any wind through, and there are many ways to bypass Paper Book’s encryption system to trace its users.

Companies like Trison and Nord, who are major providers of smart devices, can access data on Paper Book’s use by customers using their devices. If a user sends information harmful to them through Paper Book on their devices, they can easily locate the user’s position in the real world.

Ande learned this information during idle chats with instructors while training at the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

When investigating cases involving Paper Book, the Federal Bureau of Investigation tries to seek help from these communication device companies, although most of the time, these companies do not cooperate.

Therefore, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has been working for years to crack the encryption system of Paper Book.

Of course, those communication device companies always claim outwardly that they absolutely do not monitor users’ private information.

He Ao took the bracelet, opened the ’Paper Book’ app, and inside there was only a friend whose nickname was blank and whose profile picture was pitch-black.

This proved that the other party was not online. For users who are not online, even Paper Book’s operating company does not know their IP address.

He Ao opened the chat interface of the friend, which was completely empty with no chat history or files remaining.

This is Paper Book’s ’burn after reading’ feature.

"Is this bracelet for me?"

He Ao exited the app interface and looked at Thorne.

"Of course."

Thorne didn’t quite understand why He Ao had to ask him again. When he handed over the bracelet, he didn’t think of taking it back.

The bracelet contained no key information, for he was in the habit of regularly clearing the bracelet.

"When was the last time the Mysterious Person contacted you?"

He Ao put away the bracelet and continued asking.

"The night before last,"

Thorne watched as He Ao put away the bracelet. He Ao’s movement was very slow and not wide-ranging.

Although Thorne was not very powerful, he still had basic discernment, and he knew this meant He Ao had wounds on his back, and the injuries were not light.

Even though He Ao looked neat and pristine in clean, new clothes, the injuries to his body did not diminish due to the change of clothes.

It seemed that escaping from those mercenaries’ clutches last night cost the man before him quite a lot.

As thoughts flickered rapidly, Thorne’s facial expression remained unchanged. He naturally diverted his gaze and continued, "The Mysterious Person wanted me to cooperate with the mercenaries to set up traps."

"What about the approximate time he contacted you?"

He Ao asked softly.

"Around eleven o’clock at night."

Thorne replied.

Eleven o’clock at night was roughly the time when He Ao finished dealing with the mercenary squad two days earlier, and eventually, he used the bracelet of the killed C-level to take a call from the mysterious person.

It seemed that right after hanging up the phone, the mysterious person immediately began to arrange the next plan to surround and kill him.

He Ao leaned back in his chair, gazing at Thorne before him.

Thorne’s gaze was calm, as if he had accepted his current fate, waiting for He Ao to ask enough questions so he might have a chance to leave.

But He Ao was very aware that some of the body language he exhibited was noticed by Thorne.

After thinking for a moment, he looked at Thorne, "As a qualified intermediary, you wouldn’t easily trust a commissioner, would you, even if he could produce a substantial amount of wealth in a short time? So how did the mysterious person gain your trust?"

Thorne, although greedy, was also afraid of death.

Taking on a commission from someone whose background you don’t know is a dangerous thing because an intermediary doesn’t know whether the money from that commissioner is a fee or the price for his own life.

Previously, Eve had collected some information on Thorne, who also tended to be selective about his commissioners.

"Of course," Thorne seemed confident in his role as an intermediary, smiled, and said,

"Any qualified intermediary would not accept the commission of a stranger—that is a mistake only rookie newbies might make. The reason I chose to accept the commission of the mysterious person is because..."

At this point, he suddenly stopped.

In that instant, He Ao caught a flash of panic deep within Thorne’s eyes.

Ever since He Ao entered the room, Thorne’s expression had been stable. He had always been confident that the situation was under his control. Although there were some hiccups, it would ultimately come back under his control.

However, the current panic indicated that Thorne had recalled some memories beyond his control.

His body tensed slightly, his muscles taut as if he was struggling to remember something.

Then, looking somewhat bewildered, he looked up at He Ao, sweat beading down his forehead, "I don’t know, I don’t know why I trusted him..."

In this crucial commission, so lucrative that it pushed Thorne to the brink of death, he knew nothing about the commissioner and didn’t even know where his trust in the commissioner came from.

He had stepped onto the road to potential death so easily, making a mistake that only a rookie new intermediary would make.

Of course, this wasn’t possible that Thorne had suddenly lost his wits in the face of the mysterious person and forgotten his past experiences.

He Ao’s hand rested on the metal chair armrest.

He remembered an ability, ’cognitive alteration’.

The Transcendent item he obtained last time in the Copy World, ’The Fake Master Bracelet’, had a former owner who was a Transcendent who had his cognition altered and eventually went mad because of dislocated cognition.

The ability shown by the mysterious person at this moment wasn’t as terrifying as cognitive modification, but it was obviously an ability that could affect people’s thoughts.

And ’Super Memory’s’ ’Ease Thought’ was also an ability that could forcibly alter someone’s thoughts.

Perhaps the mysterious person possessed a similar ability. As He Ao watched Thorne, still panicking and recalling, he spoke softly, "What do you feel when you’re with the mysterious person? Do you think there is something special about him?"

"Something special?"

He Ao’s question pulled Thorne back from his confusion. He lowered his head to think for a moment, seemingly caught up once more in his memories, "He is very perceptive, so perceptive that it’s as if he knows what I’m thinking, always able to offer what I want."

At this point, Thorne finally began to taste the truth as if the fog obscuring his thoughts had been lifted, allowing him to see some things he had never noticed before, "He must possess an ability similar to mind reading."

He Ao watched Thorne, still wrapped up in his memories, and suddenly spoke out, "You once said that the mysterious person looked somewhat familiar, which means you may have seen him somewhere before."

"Hm?"

Upon hearing this sentence, Thorne paused as if some sealed memory had been unlocked. He suddenly remembered something, looked up at He Ao, and said,

"I have indeed seen him before, he came to see me a long time ago to request a commission. Back then, I was just a small intermediary, but even when he first approached me for a commission, he didn’t verify his identity, and I shouldn’t have trusted him so easily..."

He Ao kept his eyes on Thorne. Thorne himself knew that the mysterious person looked familiar, but he could never fully recall him, proving that his memory had been ’covered’ by some force.

While thinking, He Ao also realized something and continued to ask, "When was the first time he commissioned you? What was the content of that commission?"

"It was about twelve years ago,"

Thorne’s somewhat unsettled mind gradually calmed down. He realized that his nervousness was pointless; what had happened couldn’t be changed, and he was already on the only path with no room for choice. He collected his thoughts and continued,

"He commissioned me to create an explosion, but at that time, I did not find a suitable person to fulfill the commission within the specified time, so the commission was canceled."

Twelve years ago was the year Jess’s father died. The event that led to the death of Jess’s father was an industrial explosion.

"Was the location of the explosion he asked for in a chemical plant?"

He Ao inhaled deeply and pressed on.

"I don’t know, I didn’t find the right contractor, so I didn’t get the detailed information on that commission,"

Thorne replied, looking at He Ao’s face slowly.

He had seen Jess’s family information and knew that Jess’s father died in a chemical plant explosion twelve years ago, but he had not accepted that commission back then and indeed did not know if the mysterious person was the one behind the death of Jess’s father.

He had said so much already; there was nothing left to hide at this point.

He Ao also knew that there was a high probability that Thorne wasn’t hiding anything; he simply didn’t know.

After all, at that time, Thorne was just an ordinary little intermediary.

He Ao took a deep breath and then continued to ask Thorne about any clues regarding his parents, but all he got were negative answers.

The only thing Thorne had come into contact with was Jess, and that final commission from twelve years ago, which he ultimately didn’t take on, was the closest he ever got to Jess’s parents.

And He Ao took note of this information.

Although there were no specific details, it couldn’t have been a mere coincidence that at the same time, the Mysterious Person wanted to create an explosion, and then Jess’s father was killed in a blast.

Therefore, this clue might become a small breakthrough in finding the true cause of Jess’s parents’ death.

Next, He Ao asked Thorne some other questions, most of which received negative responses. Although Thorne had encountered the Mysterious Person many times, he did not possess much deeper information, being merely an ordinary executor on the surface.

During the negotiation process, Thorne repeatedly put forward his own conditions, and they became increasingly excessive.

He initially demanded that all his subordinates leave with him and that he be provided with vehicles, as well as heavy weaponry.

Moreover, he requested that He Ao escort them as they left.

He Ao rejected some of the conditions and modified others,

He Ao would let Thorne leave; Thorne and his subordinates could go together, and He Ao could also escort them.

However, providing vehicles and heavy weapons was out of the question, as that would give them the capacity to harm He Ao.

But Thorne was relentless, insisting on having vehicles and weapons for self-defense.

Eventually, after some haggling, He Ao indicated that vehicles and weapons could be provided, but they would have to be purchased with cryptocurrency transactions.

Then came the pricing phase. He Ao quoted a very high price, clearly wishing to deter Thorne. In the end, after some more negotiating, they agreed upon a price that Thorne could barely accept.

Once all the dust had settled, He Ao left the warehouse, and when he pushed open the warehouse door again, he sent a message to Heish.

After a while, Heish came over.

"How did the questioning go?"

She glanced at He Ao and then at the dark and deep warehouse, asking softly.

She knew very well that He Ao had gone to great lengths to capture Thorne, and he must have wanted to learn something from him.

"Got some information,"

He Ao nodded lightly, looking toward Heish, "Do you have any off-road vehicles and G-05 mini laser cannons here?"

"Off-road vehicles, yes," Heish pondered. "But G-05 laser cannons are not easy to come by; at extreme conditions, they can even damage C-level beings."

"Then do you have any G-04s?"

He Ao continued to ask.

G-04 is a simpler version of G-05 with lower output power and structural strength. It’s generally used against D-level exotic beasts and is one of the most abundant small laser cannons on the market.

Under normal circumstances, G-04 is also the most powerful weapon owned by many large city gangs.

"I have a few G-04s," Heish looked at He Ao, "What do you plan to do?"

"Are the G-04s for sale?"

He Ao asked in a low voice.

"If you need them, you can just take them to use,"

Heish responded straightforwardly.

"No need," He Ao shook his head, "I need to resell them, so I must buy them."

After some thought, he continued, "The official guide price for a G-04 is 2.08 million federal coins. The scarcity isn’t too high, and the black market usually marks up by 15%, so it’s around 2.4 million federal coins. Let’s round it up; 3 million for four off-road vehicles, some heavy firearms, how does that sound?"

"Your price is 1.5 times the market price. Even with the off-road vehicles and firearms added together, it doesn’t amount to the extra 600,000 federal coins you’re paying. Besides, my G-04 laser cannons are damaged,"

Heish looked at He Ao with a puzzled expression, "I can price these things at cost for you. The off-road vehicles are priced at fifty thousand each, and I’ll throw in some firearms. You can give me 2.5 million, and that’ll be enough."

"This is the first time I’ve seen a seller haggle down their own price,"

He Ao chuckled and shook his head, "2.7 million, find me a modification workshop, a fully equipped one, including the workshop fees and material costs, should be about right."

"I’ve also never met a buyer who raises their own offer,"

Heish smiled, "I have a mechanic workshop downstairs, not sure if that will do."

"Of course, it will."

He Ao smiled faintly.

——Two hours later——

Heish’s modification workshop

He Ao closed the main board cover of the laser cannon, and with the sound of metal locks clicking into place, he unplugged the bracelet from the connection wire.

"I didn’t expect you were skilled in modifying laser cannons."

Heish stood to the side, her face marked by surprise as she gazed at the laser cannon in front of her.

"A little."

He Ao nodded lightly, checking the laser cannon to ensure there were no issues, before slowly stepping back and attaching the energy cell to the laser cannon.

"So this laser cannon can now damage C-levels?"

Heish walked a circle around the laser cannon.

"Yes, but it can only fire once."

He Ao nodded, "I’ve performed an overclocking modification on this laser cannon to enhance its power. In extreme mode, it truly can damage C-levels, but it can only fire once. After that one shot, it will deplete all the energy in the battery. It’s not a difficult thing to modify G-04s like this."

This modification method was discovered by Vian. While researching the G-04 laser cannon, he found that the actual strength of the metal materials far exceeded their theoretical durability, enough to support higher power output, so he attempted to modify the cannon.

The overall modification process wasn’t hard, just a bit of a test of craftsmanship, as tweaking the energy circuits could easily trigger an explosion.

"Is it that simple..."

Heish observed the modified laser cannon in front of her.

Such a ’simple’ thing, yet she had never heard of a successful G-04 modification in all her years. There had been many underground mechanics attempting to modify G-04s, however.

Typically, within a few days, Heish would hear news of their deaths from explosions.

"Who do you plan to sell this cannon to? How much?"

She looked up, her gaze excited as she looked at He Ao.

"Three for three million," He Ao shrugged, "to whoever is willing to pay that price."

"That expensive?"

Even after modification, the G-04’s price would not reach as high as nine million. After all, a true C-level damaging G-05 would sell for less than five million. Unless it was for a collector’s purpose, but typically a piece only gains value after an artist’s death.

And He Ao was very much alive and well.

So what sort of fool would spend so much money on it?

Then Heish immediately realized, "Are you going to sell it to Thorne? Have you decided to let Thorne leave?"

Then hesitantly, she added, "If you sell this to Thorne, he’d be able to pose a threat to you."

"That’s not necessarily a bad thing."

He Ao shook his head with a smile, as he controlled an engineering robot to drag the modified G-04 out toward the modification workshop’s exit.

Heish watched He Ao’s retreating figure, contemplative, then followed him.

Together they walked towards the direction of the warehouse.

"Are you investigating something? Do you need my help with anything?"

Heish sighed softly as she looked at the mountains of garbage piled around and the busy people among them, inquiring.

"How are the commission fees calculated?"

He Ao asked with a smile. Heish’s role as an Intermediary meant that taking commissions always involved commission fees.

"Depends on the difficulty of the task,"

Heish smiled, "If it’s not too difficult, a mere lift of a hand, no need for a commission fee."

"There still needs to be a commission fee. Speaking of which, I indeed have something I need your help with."

No matter what, Heish was once the number one Intermediary in Vitland’s underground world, commanding a powerful information network. With her help, it would save a lot of trouble.

Of course, He Ao wouldn’t actually expect to pay no commission fee, as free things often end up being the most costly.

"What is it?"

Heish looked at He Ao with a measure of perplexity.

"Help me investigate someone."

He Ao considered.

"What’s his name?"

Heish inquired.

"Don’t know. He’s very enigmatic. I generally just call him the Mysterious Person."

He Ao pondered for a moment, then explained.

"Have you seen him? What does he look like?"

Heish asked immediately.

"Seen him, many times in fact,"

As He Ao, who had been moving forward, stopped in his tracks and turned his head to look at Heish beside him, he suddenly froze; a vague and featureless visage echoed in his memory,

"I don’t know what he looks like."