Chapter 614: Infection

Superior, senior, investor, competitor—and he also took Luo's spine.

The face that emerged on the coffee table showed a thoughtful expression. After several seconds, Yu Sheng's voice broke the silence: "That sounds like a pretty complicated mix."

"...Yeah, it is pretty complicated. This is a complicated place."

Yu Sheng raised an eyebrow. "But from the atmosphere here and your attitude, I think these identities can be compressed into one: your enemy. Am I wrong?"

Luo also raised an eyebrow, hesitated for a moment, then nodded. "Put that way, it seems about right."

"So do you need me to take him out?" Yu Sheng asked curiously.

"Not easy," Luo said, thinking seriously before shaking her head slightly. "The one who came today is definitely not his real body. Although he's crafted a fierce image for himself, Old Joe is actually more afraid of death than anyone. As far as I know, he's been trapped in desperate situations more than once, even falling into a trap where his shuttle was blown up, but he always shows up intact the next day and retaliates in the cruelest way... He's never admitted it outright, but I suspect he's built a bunch of robotic avatars, and the one that shows himself in public is always just a shell."

Yu Sheng thought seriously. "Then this might take some time," he said thoughtfully, his gaze falling on Luo again. "And I noticed you contacted this Old Joe as soon as you arrived... Your goal probably isn't just to simply kill him, is it? You suspect he's connected to those anomalous records at Black Rock Space Station?"

Luo's expression shifted slightly, and her tone turned serious. "I have more than one suspect, but now I'm almost certain he's at least involved in this."

"How can you tell? Because he took over your assets and is the primary beneficiary?"

"From the fact that he so readily accepted my 'invitation' and rushed 'personally' to the meeting place I arranged," Luo explained patiently. Some details were only visible to her, and she knew her new boss didn't understand these complex 'interpersonal relationships' within Black Point Group. "Black Point Group is a place of ruthless competition. No one really cares about a 'colleague' who has suffered a major defeat and is visibly losing value, let alone someone who, as you said, benefited from my failure and took over the mines and starport facilities I left behind.

"Based on my understanding of Old Joe, his most normal course of action at this point would be to stall me, trying to pry out my real situation while simultaneously leaking news of my return to the Dim Meteor Sector to all my competitors. With his level of information, he must already know that I once fell into the hands of the Special Services Bureau. Even if he didn't, he could fabricate enough evidence to kick me while I'm down, ensuring I have no chance to come back and shake the benefits he's already swallowed."

Yu Sheng thought for a moment. "So, the reason he so hastily accepted your invitation and came to see you is..."

"He's extremely surprised that I'm alive. This completely deviates from some 'plan' of his, so much so that he had to come see for himself what's going on."

Luo paused, then continued thoughtfully. "Of course, that reason alone isn't enough. Old Joe coming in person only proves he's surprised I'm alive. What really makes me suspect his involvement is the deal terms he proposed."

Yu Sheng: "Oh, he wants your research data, right? And in exchange, he'll vouch for you, help you get back into Black Point Group, and give you a lab or something..."

"They're all smokescreens. I won't believe his promises," Luo shook her head. "Only one thing he said was real: he wants my research data from these past few years. When he made that request, the temperature of a cooling grille on the right side of his chest increased by 0.2 degrees. That's significant to him.

"In fact, if he weren't still a bit wary of me, given Old Joe's personality, he wouldn't go through all this trouble. He'd find a way to capture me, take me to his ship, cut open my brain in his lab, and peel out my cyberbrain for analysis. That's how he always deals with defeated competitors."

"Your corporate culture is a bit wild, I'm serious," Yu Sheng said, twisting his mouth. "Anything else? What else did you notice?"

"...He was in a hurry," Luo hesitated, frowning. "Or rather, a bit too much in a hurry. He didn't need to expose his goal so obviously—coming right over and bringing up the research data at the first meeting would definitely arouse my suspicion. He's not stupid; he couldn't have been unaware of that."

"Maybe he doesn't care about your suspicion—after all, you've lost most of your assets, have no status in Black Point Group, and are burdened with the suspicion of being captured by the Special Services Bureau and being out of contact for a long time. In his understanding, you're at the end of your rope," Yu Sheng analyzed seriously. "He kept emphasizing that he's your last support in Black Point Group, probably to remind you not to cherish any unnecessary illusions."

Luo frowned. "Maybe. Arrogance is part of his personality, and not to mention he's been pretty displeased with me these past few years."

"Displeased with you? Why?"

"...Can you accept that the lab animal you kept in a cage one day suddenly broke its chains, not only escaped and gained an identity outside, but even climbed step by step to the same height as you, obtained the same resources as you, and talked to you face to face as an equal?"

Yu Sheng: "Why not? That's amusing."

"?"

Luo's eyes widened, staring at the face on the table as if she'd seen a ghost.

Yu Sheng didn't mind and kept muttering. "Do you know Hu Li raised two chickens? She initially kept them as emergency food, named White Cut and Salt Baked. Now the three of them are almost like sisters. The other day I heard the two of them secretly chatting, saying they can't keep cultivating anymore, or else they'll have to go out to work... Hey, speaking of which, should I find them jobs..."

Luo continued staring wide-eyed at the face on the table.

This time Yu Sheng could no longer pretend not to notice. "What are you staring at me for?"

Luo pursed her lips, suddenly realizing that she had always been a conservative. In a sense, her new boss in front of her, even if placed in the most chaotic place in the Dim Meteor Sector, could be considered a Chaos Saint—his chaos had completely evolved in another direction, so that both the righteous and evil factions might find him somewhat... humanoid when looking at him.

And even more frightening, Bai Liqing, that steel-faced person, didn't think there was anything wrong with this guy.

Not just Bai Liqing; that Mo Ran also didn't find anything wrong with the fact that they were standing on a living planet, and those children living in the foreign valley, that demon used as a weapon by the Thunder Titan, that ghost trying to teach an alchemical puppet how to fly a sword...

Cold sweat dripped from Luo onto the coffee table. Yu Sheng's big face shifted aside by more than ten centimeters. The new boss seemed to be seriously thinking about something, then suddenly added, "There's another possibility: that 'Old Joe' has someone behind him."

Her thoughts, which were about to drift, were suddenly pulled back. Luo hastily refocused. "You mean?"

"He's not in a hurry, but the person behind him might be. Either that, or he himself is caught in a bigger whirlpool. The massive explosion in your Vanguard Lab brought many things that were originally hidden beneath the surface to light—so much so that he had to rush to come directly to you for experimental data, even at the risk of arousing your suspicion, and yet he didn't dare to make too big a scene, at least not daring to fall out with you on Gray Dwarf Star.

"Let's make some bold associations. What has your competitor done that he doesn't want the group company to know? Secretly colluding with the Holy Sanctuary Order? Diverting group company assets? Selling company secrets? Engaging in vicious competition with colleagues, ultimately causing the loss of a Vanguard Lab? These are no small mistakes, but I still have ample reason to suspect there's something bigger. After all... your corporate culture is really quite wild."

Luo listened, stunned, to Yu Sheng's serious analysis. Her surprised and earnest gaze made the face on the table a bit uncomfortable. "Why are you staring at me again? If there's something wrong with my analysis, just say it."

"No, it's not a problem," Luo frowned. "Boss, I'm just very... surprised. How did you think of all this? I mean, you live in the Borderlands and haven't dealt much with people from the lawless zones, Black Point Group's ways..."

"Is that hard to imagine? It's something anyone with a brain could figure out," Yu Sheng raised an eyebrow. "Oh, right, I'm also a writer..."

Luo: "...Huh?"

"I'm a writer, didn't you know?"

Luo's expression was odd. "I... didn't know. Should I have known?"

"Oh, it's fine that you didn't know. Look it up online later," Yu Sheng said casually, then bluntly pulled the topic back. "Anyway, let's not talk about that now. Starting from now, I'll be watching that 'Old Joe.' That iron shell of his might just be an 'avatar,' but it looks well-made. He must have a time when he returns to his lair for maintenance. I'll first lurk inside him—actually, it's a good thing you reminded me, otherwise I was about to just burst out on him, and then I'd have to reveal myself early."

The more Luo heard this, the stranger it seemed. She looked Yu Sheng up and down a few times. "This sounds like you're a virus or something."

Yu Sheng thought for a moment. "Then this would be called 'being sick'..."

Luo blinked, clearly not catching the pun.

In terms of cold jokes and puns, she was at least a dozen Bai Liqings behind Eileen.

At the same time, above Gray Dwarf Star's orbit, the silver-white luxury shuttle was docked in the hangar of a frigate.

In the shuttle's cockpit, Old Joe hadn't left his seat. Instead, he remained ready to take off at any moment, while connecting to the frigate's data link to inspect the entire ship. Then, still uneasy, he checked the adjacent ship and the access logs of the entire nearby traffic system.

He irritably scratched his shoulder again.

Ever since leaving that tower, or more precisely, since leaving Luo's reception room, he had felt a certain... 'itch' on his body.

Steel doesn't itch. He had become very unfamiliar with this sensation that originated from weak flesh, so much so that even after scratching again and again, he couldn't recall exactly what this feeling was called. He only felt a deep-seated discomfort.

After scratching a couple more times, Old Joe felt like he was about to discover something.

Now, he only needed to lift one of his armor plates, and perhaps he would see the nerves and blood vessels slowly pulsating underneath.

But suddenly, that strange discomfort and displeasure vanished.

Old Joe's scratching stopped. His speaker emitted two crackling sounds, and the last traces of doubt turned into a brief electrical current in his logic chip, dissipating in that transient noise.

The itch was gone.

Old Joe relaxed.

Yu Sheng's face slowly receded from his hard steel cranium.