Chapter 454 - 292: Two Solutions to the Problem
About ten minutes later, Lin Qi received a reply from King Arthur.
[Wizard, your intel was spot on. They are indeed from the Eastern Alliance—one a Tier Four Soul Seeker and the other a Tier Four Death Warrior. After I revealed my Knight’s Will to them, they stopped bothering me.]
King Arthur brought good news. Her trouble had been successfully resolved with Lin Qi’s help.
This meant King Arthur now owed Lin Qi a favor.
But considering all their past interactions, a single favor was hardly worth keeping track of anymore.
[Do your best to stay safe. This mission from the Mercenary Corps is a little... out of the ordinary.]
It seemed Lin Qi was giving King Arthur a hint. He clearly also thought Guang Ling’s recent decision was strange.
When King Arthur saw Lin Qi’s message, her expression visibly changed.
’So the Wizard has also sensed there’s a problem with Guang Ling? But he’s putting it so cryptically... he must be worried Guang Ling will intercept the message. He doesn’t want to bring this out into the open.’
King Arthur began to ponder. What was Guang Ling’s objective? What did they truly want?
Even now, the members of the Highest-Level Mercenary Corps knew very little about Guang Ling, making it difficult to deduce their objectives.
’Ninghang Technology? Or perhaps the European Big Business Alliance? The core powers involved in this mission are, without a doubt, tied to Europe...’
King Arthur wasn’t stupid; she just couldn’t be bothered to play mind games with the other members of the Mercenary Corps.
Now, seeing the nature of the Mercenary Corps’ mission, and even the coincidentally hostile attitude all the members shared toward Europeans, she had a flash of inspiration.
Guang Ling’s scheme, it seemed, was ultimately aimed at the European Big Business Alliance.
...
After sending the message, Lin Qi waited for a minute or so.
When he didn’t get a reply from King Arthur, he put away his wrist-comm.
’I don’t know if King Arthur understood my hint, but regardless, now isn’t the time to openly question Guang Ling.’
’From the perspective of the Mercenary Corps members, Guang Ling is still a competent leader for now.’
Lin Qi’s thoughts drifted for a moment before his gaze fell upon the various instruments in his workshop.
He couldn’t go to the company today, which meant he couldn’t access the S-Class Pharmacy Literature.
It seemed the whole day would be wasted. Even Meditation wasn’t very effective.
After all, given the conditions in the Cyber World, the efficiency of Meditation was terrifyingly low compared to in the Doomsday World.
But Lin Qi wasn’t completely out of things to do. With the equipment and materials in the Prosthetic Clinic, he could at least conduct some prosthetic modification experiments to gain more experience in Prosthetic Engineering.
Lin Qi picked up some schematics and a pen, sketching for a bit.
He then left the workshop and headed upstairs to the Prosthetic Clinic’s warehouse, planning to grab some used, L-Class prosthetics to practice on.
As he passed through the reception area, Lin Qi saw Lin Xin fiddling with the red-and-white model, regaling Liu Xuan with embarrassing stories from his past.
"Lin Qi originally planned to get a prosthetic with this color scheme. What do you think, Xuan? Isn’t it just hideous..."
Hearing Lin Xin’s words, Lin Qi’s eyes narrowed slightly.
’What complete nonsense!’
’Ugly? How is it ugly?’
’It’s clearly awesome, okay!’
Although it might be a bit out of sync with the Cyber World’s aesthetics, Lin Qi didn’t think it was ugly.
Lin Qi was about to ignore Lin Xin and continue to the warehouse, but just then, he heard a voice that was at once familiar and strange, "It is pretty ugly, but men’s taste is always a little different from ours."
It was a woman’s voice.
The moment he heard it, Lin Qi stopped in his tracks and whipped his head around.
Baili Xueyuan was standing right behind Lin Xin.
’When did she get here?’
Lin Qi couldn’t tell if Baili Xueyuan had just arrived or if she had been hiding in the Prosthetic Clinic for some time.
If it was the latter, it meant his Spiritual Vision was incapable of detecting Baili Xueyuan’s presence.
"Teacher? Why are you here again? Aren’t you supposed to be keeping an eye on things?"
Lin Xin sounded extremely surprised. Based on her understanding of the Assassin Alliance’s current operation, Baili Xueyuan shouldn’t have had time to visit the Prosthetic Clinic.
Baili Xueyuan reached out to ruffle Lin Xin’s hair, then turned to Lin Qi. "Something unexpected came up," she said. "I might need your brother’s help."
The expression on Baili Xueyuan’s face was one of resignation; clearly, things hadn’t gone exactly as the Assassin Alliance had planned.
In just one night, an incident had occurred that was serious enough to make even Baili Xueyuan seek help.
She glanced at Lin Qi, then over in Liu Xuan’s direction.
From that expression alone, he could tell the matter was likely related to the Liu Clan.
Lin Qi walked over to the reception area sofa, taking a spot beside Liu Xuan. He asked Baili Xueyuan, "What happened?"
Baili Xueyuan gave Liu Xuan a meaningful look, then, after a moment’s thought, decided against pulling Lin Qi down to the basement alone. Instead, she said in front of everyone, "The number of cases of that new type of cyber psychosis you discovered has increased again."
"It’s infected nearly all the employees at United Pharmaceutical and Liu’s Heavy Industries. I suspect yesterday’s internal issue at the Liu Clan alerted Ning Hao, and he’s enacted a new contingency plan."
Hearing this, Lin Qi’s expression shifted slightly.
He quickly asked, "Are there no limitations to inducing this new cyber psychosis? If there aren’t, then even with a treatment plan, we most likely won’t be able to keep up."
Liu Xuan heard Lin Qi’s question, still unsure of what was going on. Of everyone present, besides the old Doctor Lin, she was the one with the least information.