Chapter 339: Flaws!
Translator: ryuxenji Editor: H2dH2mr
Han Jijyun thought back on his youth 1 — every time he heard his father speak of the Twilight Empire, there would always be a sort of banked rage on his father's face. Back then, he had not understood why the Federation was willing to fight such a long protracted war instead of just finishing off those smaller empires ... looking back on it now, he had truly been rather naive. This enduring war between the Federation and the Twilight Empire was not purely between the Federation and Twilight — it also involved those great nations hidden behind Twilight ...
"How godd*mn despicable!" Having figured things out, Han Jijyun finally could not stop himself from swearing. This caused Qi Long who had come over with him to stare in surprise. He had never expected the typically calm and astute Han Jijyun to ever behave so agitatedly.
In order to salvage the image of his sworn brother in Boss Lan's eyes, Qi Long quickly changed the topic and asked, "Boss, we've already received the answer for the mission. When do we leave?"
They had managed to obtain unexpected information from these people's confessions about why the distress signal sent by the Swift Dragon base at the start had so quickly disappeared.
When the hackers from the Caesar Empire had successfully taken over the Swift Dragon base, they had not accounted for the presence of an NPC senior officer in the base who had actually evolved to have some sense of autonomy. When the hackers managed to replace the mainframe and gained administrative control of the Swift Dragon base, this evolved NPC immediately discovered the discrepancy due to this sense of autonomy. However, as it was only in the early stages of its evolution, it did not know how to act covertly. It had sent a direct distress signal to the mainframe and was instantly discovered by the hackers controlling the base. The hackers had killed the signal as well as the NPC involved.
Still, the mainframe was the mainframe after all. Even though the hackers had successfully infiltrated the Swift Dragon base and perfectly blinded the mainframe's search, the mainframe had still sensed something off about the situation. That's why it had repeatedly issued the command for the military and even players to go investigate. Due to multiple previous failures with nothing to show for it, the mainframe had upgraded the mission to investigate the Swift Dragon base into an SSS-rank, while dispatching an elite investigative team from the military at the same time ...
Coincidentally, Ling Lan had tried to accept a mission to establish her battle clan at this time and just so happened to offend the city lord of Grandsweep City at the same time. The city lord had seen this new SSS-rank mission issued by the mainframe and this had given him the idea of using a large spin wheel. He had hoped to teach Ling Lan a lesson by saddling Ling Lan with this impossible mission. Therefore, there were many reasons which had come together to make it possible for Ling Lan to accept this mission. There was a share of luck and serendipity involved. It's hard to say whether Ling Lan's luck had been amazing or horrible.
Ling Lan had also flipped to the part of the confessions regarding the distress signal by now. She searched through her bag for the mission token and saw that the vivid bright red words displaying the SSS-rank mission had turned orange. Taking it out to take a closer look, a notification entered her mind's eye:
Clan-formation mission, mission ranking: SSS rank. Mission content: A month ago, Fleet Swift Dragon, which is stationed at the Nebula Boundary, sent over an extremely subtle S.O.S.. As the message was too brief, the Federation military was unable to determine whether it was a mistake or true request for assistance ...
Mission progress: The relevant proof has been obtained. As long as this proof is brought back to Grandsweep City and submitted to the city lord, the mission will be complete. Warning: The person holding the proof must return alive and submit the proof personally to the city lord of Grandsweep City. If the person dies along the way, you will fail the mission!
Receiving direct confirmation from the mission token itself, Ling Lan was very pleased. Hadn't they weathered all the difficulties to come to the Swift Dragon base just for this? They had finally found the answer and could return now.
Ling Lan flicked the confessional papers in her hand in satisfaction and began to consider how they could return to the central district of Mecha World without any fuss. After some thought, she could not help but look in the direction of the investigation team sent by the Federation military which had been ambushed ...
She abruptly stood up and commanded, "Let us go!" Since they had already obtained what they wanted, there was no point in staying here any further.
Qi Long and the others acknowledged the order in unison, and Ling Lan walked right out the door without sparing another glance at those bound hackers. It was as if she had forgotten all about them.
Seeing Boss Lan leave without saying what to do with these people, Han Jijyun could not help but frown slightly. However, out of his deep respect towards Ling Lan, he did not say anything and merely followed Ling Lan out the door. Han Jijyun felt that just leaving these hackers like this was not very appropriate, but he could not think of a good solution himself ...
Qi Long and the others did not think as much, dutifully following Ling Lan out. Meanwhile, Li Shiyu was the second last to leave. He looked at the last one in the room, Li Lanfeng, and his mouth twitched. He had a vague idea of what the final outcome of these people would be, but he also really did not know what he could say. In the end, he could only let out an almost inaudible sigh before turning on his feet to leave the room.
The remaining seven or eight hackers in the hidden room could not help but feel a surge of happiness when they saw the cold and ruthless lead youth leave the room without giving any orders on dealing with them. But after that, they saw that the final person left in the room with them was that spectre who had already killed so many of their comrades, and their hearts froze up in fear.
One of the hackers seemed to realise something — his expression changed drastically and he screamed shrilly towards the door, "You said that if we told the truth you'd let us go! You're going against your word! Bastard! Demon ...!"
His wailing made the others realise what was coming as well. They began to struggle — if their hands and legs had not been tied securely by Qi Long and the others with a special method which could not be unravelled, all of them were likely to have leapt over to attempt a suicidal attack and bring Li Lanfeng down with them. This was because they already knew what the other was planning to do to them; the other had never ever intended to let them live ...
Just like that hacker had said, that cold-faced youth was a demon who had crawled out from hell. Not a single person would dare to kill off so many of Caesar's top hackers just like that — even those great marshals of the Huaxia Federation would have chosen to tolerate this affront, too afraid of war officially breaking out with Caesar to actually give such a ruthless command.
"If you all want someone to blame, then blame your country. Why did it have to turn its greed towards the Huaxia Federation ..." Li Lanfeng too understood Caesar's plan. If Ling Lan had not been able to successfully stop the T-virus, their Federation would have descended into a chaotic mess. The flames of war would have spread across the entire planetary sector of the Huaxia Federation, and all its citizens might have become slaves from a dead nation. Li Lanfeng did not really believe that these hackers were truly completely innocent, completely blameless, in all of this. This made his heart incredibly resolute.
And so, amidst their howling cries, Li Lanfeng unleashed the full extent of his spectre powers, obliterating the consciousness of all the remaining hackers. Seeing all of these people's figures become countless white dots slowly dissipating into the virtual world, a petrified expression appeared on Li Lanfeng's face. Despite building himself up in his mind to be cold-blooded and heartless, telling himself he needed to be ruthless and firm, his heart still felt heavy and unanchored after truly killing all these people. It was because this was the first time Li Lanfeng had killed anyone, and he had ended up killing nearly 20 people at that. No matter how determined he was, he still felt a little overwhelmed by such a massive number.
Spectre powers could really kill people invisibly ... Li Lanfeng felt as if his two hands were already stained red with a thick coat of blood, unable to be washed clean ever again.
When they heard the screams and wails crying out 'demon' from within the room, the rest of the team who had already walked out the door realised what the outcome of those hackers was. Han Jijyun's expression shifted slightly before settling into calm. Once more, he looked towards Ling Lan at the head of the team, and the heat in his gaze ran even hotter. He found that their Boss Lan had unconsciously become even more formidable — this was not only reflected in terms of capabilities and skills, but was also reflected in terms of mentality.
Han Jijyun knew very well that Ling Lan's decision was absolutely correct. By doing this, he had put a proper end to things, ensuring the team's safety for the future ... no one knew they had come here, so the Caesar Empire would never suspect that the ones who had ruined their plans were actually just a bunch of cadets. In contrast, even though he knew deep down that these people could not be allowed to live, he just could not make the decision to kill all of them.
When Qi Long and Luo Lang heard the shouts of the hackers, they merely pursed their lips heartlessly and thought that those men deserved it. They trusted their boss and also felt that it was not a shame for these people who wanted to invade their Federation to die. Alright, so coming from a military family, they had an innate hatred toward invaders.
Only Xie Yi's and Lin Zhong-qing's pupils contracted sharply when they heard the screams. The two of them shared a look and when they looked back at Ling Lan once more, their admiration carried a kind of fear. It looked like this decision of Ling Lan's had shocked them considerably.
When Li Shiyu heard these cries, his body trembled. Looking at the firm footsteps of Ling Lan walking at the front, he finally could not take it anymore and was about to speak when Chang Xinyuan, who had been observing him closely, stopped him by tugging sharply on his arm. Li Shiyu turned back to look at Chang Xinyuan in confusion, and Chang Xinyuan shook his head firmly.
Li Shiyu clenched his fists and pushed down the compassion in his heart. He reminded himself repeatedly that he could not afford to be soft-hearted — he absolutely could not be soft-hearted ... the intelligent Li Shiyu knew rationally that Ling Lan's decision was not wrong, but his heart had still been shaken by those terrible cries.
At this time, he once again recalled his mentor's words, saying that he lacked the heart of a soldier. Back then, he had still been unable to fully understand those words, but now he knew. Compared to these companions, he indeed lacked a soldier's heart. He did not possess the decisiveness and ruthlessness a soldier should have ...
"Shiyu, the Li family needs your efforts in the future. I have faith in you but also worry about you. Your heart is too kind. This is both your strength and your weakness ..." These words that his eldest cousin brother Li Mulan had said to him from his sickbed rang out once more by his ear, "One day in future, when you feel that this is your weakness, you must stay by the side of the person who makes you feel that way and learn from the other, until you master what you need to learn."
So, eldest cousin brother, you had long known what my weakness was. You just could not bear to speak up and hurt my pride, right? And so you had tried to counsel me subtly, telling me to learn well to get rid of this weakness, right?
Li Shiyu abruptly bowed his head, the sweetness in his heart overlaid with a strong tang of sourness. His eldest cousin brother was wise and astute beyond imagining ... was this proof of the saying that ' those who are too insightful are sure to be hurt 2 '? So God would not allow this kind of person to exist in the world?
At this thought, Li Shiyu's eyes were suffused with a wave of tenacity and self-confidence. He would definitely get rid of his weakness and then fulfil his heart's desire — he would snatch his eldest cousin brother back from the hands of God! For this objective, he would not falter even if he had to descend into the demonic pits of hell.