Spy-x-War Showdown
Chapter 776 - 781

Chapter 776: 781

Yang Yi was only concerned about how Yarebin managed to link several seemingly unrelated events to the Grey-cloaked People. Without Yarebin’s willingness to explain the details, it was simply impossible to get a clear understanding.

But the details were not so easy to explain.

Intelligence analysis was not something you could conclude with a flash of inspiration, nor could you guess the results by slapping your forehead and indulging in wild thoughts. Intelligence analysis had to be based on a large amount of data for analysis, and then through a process of extracting useful information from a mountain of useless information.

Sometimes intelligence analysis did indeed require keen intuition to find useful things in seemingly useless intelligence, but keen intuition was an ability, a talent, not something forcibly pieced together.

So Yarebin couldn’t talk about the details; it was really too time-consuming. If Yang Yi were Yarebin’s student, Yarebin might have taken the time to explain his thought process and how he reached his conclusions, but what was Yang Yi to Yarebin, and why would Yarebin explain such things to him?

So all Yang Yi could do was to regret.

Looking calmly at Yang Yi, Yarebin said, "Through these events, what have you discovered?"

Without hesitation, Yang Yi straightforwardly said, "Some things are hard to understand. You said the Grey-cloaked People are pushing for a world war, to be precise, a nuclear war. Nuclear war means the end, the end of human civilization. Even if there isn’t an apocalyptic nuclear winter, a major regression of human civilization is unavoidable."

Yarebin nodded, "Continue."

"Why would the Grey-cloaked People push for a nuclear war? Normal humans wouldn’t have this idea. A madman... It couldn’t possibly be the work of a madman. If the Grey-cloaked People are as powerful as you say, the members of this organization can’t all be mad. So why would they do this?"

Yarebin smiled, "Are you asking me? But how would I know?"

Yang Yi exhaled and said, "In this world, the behavior of normal people is quite predictable. For instance, if one stumbles upon a huge sum of money on the road, most people would claim it for themselves, a few with high morals would return it to the owner, a very few would ignore the money for fear of trouble, and some would call the police, opting to let someone else handle the situation. These are choices normal people would make."

"What about the abnormal then?"

"There are also many instances of abnormal behavior. Individuals with cognitive impairments might not recognize the value of money and could treat it as a toy, ignoring it—anything could be normal for them. But then there are those who, upon finding the money, would not use it for themselves or return it to the owner. They might just burn the money on the spot to relish the owner’s anger or switch it with counterfeit bills. In doing so, their enjoyment doesn’t come from finding the money, but from intensifying the owner’s agony. We usually call these people psychopaths."

Yang Yi swallowed hard and with a look of deep contemplation said, "In your description, the Grey-cloaked People are like the psychopaths who find money but won’t keep it or return it to the owner, choosing instead to burn it. Normal people wouldn’t welcome a nuclear war, not Americans, not Soviets, because everyone knows it means the end. So why would the Grey-cloaked People want it?

Let’s consider a few simple possibilities. First, from a benefit standpoint, what would the Grey-cloaked People gain from instigating a nuclear war? Assuming the existence of nuclear binding strategy, first would be the mutual destruction of the major nuclear powers, following which the Grey-cloaked People might rise to power. But I don’t believe that a mysterious organization would want to rise in a new world order after a nuclear war.

The second possibility is that someone, or some people, are very dissatisfied with the current world, so they want to destroy it, driving them to foster a nuclear war. This reason is laughable, but in fact, such people are not rare, they are quite common. However, although there are many such lunatics, few can actually accomplish anything. It’s easy to have one mad person wanting to destroy the world and also being very capable, but an entire organization of such lunatics is highly unlikely.

The third possibility is religious reasons, which I need not explain further. In short, these are the three reasons; there are no other possibilities."

After listening to Yang Yi, Yarebin stroked his forehead with a smile that was not quite a smile and said, "You’ve given three reasons, and you still think some things are impossible? If you understand that the Grey-cloaked People’s motives must be one of these three, then you should realize that the possibility of a bunch of madmen is actually very high."

Yang Yi frowned, "I don’t deny there are many lunatics who want to destroy the world, but very few of them actually manage to do anything."

Yarebin continued with his quasi-smile, "Oh, what about the Illuminati, the Freemasons?"

Yang Yi began to feel a headache, then somewhat helplessly said, "You can’t be serious. Such cliched secret organizations appear in every conspiracy theory, but what have they accomplished?"

Yarebin said indifferently, "Since you brought up that question, I should ask you in return. Given that organizations like the Illuminati and Freemasons, which have now become semi-public secrets, have existed for so long, how much do you really know about them?"

Yang Yi was really stumped.

Having mingled in the spy circles for a while, though he hadn’t achieved anything notable, Yang Yi had at least come to realize one thing—that ordinary people simply couldn’t grasp the truth behind so-called state secrets. Ordinary people believed they knew the truth, but in reality, they knew nothing about the secrets.

Yarebin exhaled and then said in a low voice, "Aside from the Grey-cloaked People, there’s also a ’Cleaner.’ Do you know that?"

As Yarebin asked about the ’Cleaner,’ he gazed directly into Yang Yi’s eyes.

Yang Yi was startled, and precisely because of that surprise, he didn’t immediately answer Yarebin’s question. And because he didn’t immediately deny or show confusion, Yang Yi knew he couldn’t feign ignorance or lie in front of Yarebin.

The best course, and the only one, was to remain silent.

Yang Yi didn’t answer, and Yarebin didn’t press further, but Yarebin already knew the answer.

Yarebin merely said indifferently, "I’ll tell you a big secret..."

Yang Yi braced himself to listen, but after waiting a while, he found that Yarebin hesitated.

After a long hesitation, Yarebin finally shook his head, "No, I’ve decided not to tell you after all. The consequences of revealing this could be very serious, and I cannot tell you."

Yang Yi almost spat out blood. If Yarebin was playing games, he shouldn’t be so blatantly shameless.

Yarebin sighed and said with a look of resignation, "I’m old, I no longer have the energy or time to investigate these things. I wanted to share a secret with you, but I can’t."