Chapter 153 - 150: The Eye Behind the Scenes
In the suburbs of Lyon, there was a small hotel. It wasn’t large, but it was lavishly decorated.
Due to its proximity to the reservoir and its complete facilities, it had been temporarily commandeered by a French government department. The teams from China and the United States were staying here.
Of course, the members of the Special Security Team were mostly at the hospital right now, so only the Americans were currently staying at the hotel.
Inside a large suite on the third floor, the lounge was bustling with activity. Norton and a dozen of his subordinates were all gathered there.
Information on several laptops was constantly being updated. The cross-referencing and verification hadn’t stopped since they returned.
"FWOOSH~"
A single-seat sofa suddenly burst into flames. Ben quickly grabbed a nearby jacket and beat at it vigorously until the flames were extinguished.
Baru calmly walked into the bathroom, brought out a basin of water, and poured it over the sofa, dousing the remaining embers.
"I think it won’t be long before we can get the French to replace a few sofas for us."
The joke lightened the atmosphere in the room a bit.
"Ben, I know you’re worried about Mr. Huang, but you need to relax. After all, we’d have to pay if we burn down the hotel..."
Norton added, his tone light and teasing.
During a previous period of research and treatment that lasted over a month, Huang Jiutian’s presence had played a major role in helping Ben overcome his fear and regain his confidence.
The old saying goes that fear stems from the unknown. Huang Jiutian’s own Perception, combined with his excellent communication skills and patience, had been key to Ben’s rapid recovery and his ability to control his own evolutionary power.
In Ben’s heart, besides his parents, there were two people he was most grateful for. One was Avin, the medical doctor who had treated him back in the United States, and the other was Huang Jiutian.
"Don’t worry, Ben. We’ve received confirmed news from Hua Country. Huang is evolving again. What a guy... his potential is terrifying!"
It wasn’t hard to hear the thick envy and bitterness in Norton’s words.
He then turned his attention back to the computer screen. The data on it hadn’t been updated for a while.
The hundreds, even thousands, of pieces of information listed seemed like a lot, but ninety percent were just single-sentence mentions. The remaining ten percent were difficult to verify due to their age.
"So far, what we’ve gathered from quick internet searches and follow-up investigations of surface-level data is our limit. These fragmented pieces of information are the most we’re going to get."
"For the rest, we’ll just have to slowly sift through ancient texts and rely on time and luck to piece things together!"
When Norton said this, he was basically telling everyone that their work for the day could come to an end.
Baru skillfully peeled an apple in his hand in ten seconds with a knife, then opened his gaping maw and bit off nearly half of it in one go.
He chewed it two or three times before swallowing.
"Indeed. From what we’ve seen so far, the Dawn Association is different from orthodox religions, and it’s also different from other organizations involved in key historical moments."
"They haven’t left behind any records significant enough to make a deep mark on history, and we can’t find any information about their internal organizational structure either."
He ate the rest of the apple in his hand in one bite and swallowed.
"But that, in itself, is the most important point!"
"Exactly! Right now, the things we’re fairly certain about are their footprints and the eras they were active in. For a mysterious organization with such an exaggerated geographical and temporal span, it’s not hard to imagine its immense scale. How could its records be so marginalized!"
Jonathan picked up the thread, a little excited.
"And we’ve already confirmed several records of the Dawn Association accumulating wealth. It seems they sometimes enjoyed playing tricks on rich families and nobles, acquiring vast funds from them to use as operating capital."
"But just like a company, when you continuously acquire money, you have to keep investing it. Where did their money go? I have a feeling..."
"Besides them, there must be other things existing outside of history, and the Dawn Association’s resources were all spent there!"
Jonathan’s words reminded everyone of the wall carvings they had seen today. What he was referring to was obvious.
"You have a point, but that raises another question. Although the information on Dawn is fragmented and scarce, at least we found something. But if, as you say, these mutations have appeared before, why is there nothing recorded in history?"
Another member offered his own opinion.
Baru put away the fruit knife, his expression suddenly turning serious.
"Is there really no record? Those stories our elders used to scare us with as children, those legends passed down by word of mouth, the blockbuster movies and source materials so popular today... I doubt they’re all just the inspiration of human genius..."
Baru’s reminder sent a jolt through the person who had just spoken, who realized he had made a fatal error of conventional thinking.
Norton tossed an orange up and down in his hand.
’Could they have been the ones who helped us at the Los Angeles Crystal Ore and in Saint Louis?’
...
Meanwhile, in the rest area for the personnel of France’s Super Research Department, aside from those on rotating shifts guarding the reservoir, a number of their elite members were also hard at work.
It wasn’t long until dawn, but they believed that neither they nor the Chinese and American teams—who needed to adjust to the time difference—would be getting any sleep tonight.
"This data basically just tells us that such a mysterious organization exists. This feeling of touching upon something critical but being unable to find it is even more frustrating!"
"Have you checked the record files?"
"Checked them. We can’t find any records related to Dawn among the nationally registered private organizations, various religions, or even in the building’s property information. The previous file for this building’s location actually listed it as a shop."
Kodell said no more, carefully reviewing the existing information, hoping to find something by reading through it multiple times.
But Vernix suddenly spoke up, interrupting his review.
"Director, I suddenly have a question!"
"Speak!"
Kodell didn’t even look up. He took a sip of coffee and continued switching between folders.
"I think the group of people who were ’treasure hunting’ everywhere in our previous leads are probably not members of this Dawn Association—at least not directly affiliated!"
This viewpoint quickly captured everyone’s attention.
"Explain."
Kodell’s gaze left the computer screen and turned to the exceptionally talented young man.
"Although the records of their bizarre disappearances do suggest the existence of Supernatural Power, that power might not have been their own."
"Judging from the tracks they left everywhere, they didn’t know the exact location of this secret building. Furthermore, their methods seem to lack planning and their actions lack precision. Based on the current data, I don’t believe the real Dawn Association would make such a basic mistake."
"So what you’re saying is?"
"I believe this group was another private organization, corporate consortium, or historical family that knew some inside information. And it’s very likely they actually found real members of the Dawn Association. The traces of their subsequent disappearance were a measure taken by people from Dawn to prevent anyone from following the first group’s trail to them."
Kodell took a large gulp of his coffee.
"That’s a very logical analysis. In other words, either there’s still a key clue hidden in that building, or the key clue has already been taken by that first group."
"That should be it. Let’s hope it’s not the latter."
Right now, every single clue needed to be taken seriously. So, just five minutes later, a large team was once again organized at the reservoir site to enter the building and conduct a thorough search, hoping to find any crucial information that might have been left behind.
...
All three parties were continuously searching for information. Although each had its own advantages, they inevitably hit a bottleneck.
One thing was certain: the Dawn Association was indeed a vast and mysterious organization, and in the changing environment of the modern world, mysterious factions with powerful abilities had indeed appeared.
But whether the mysterious faction they had encountered was the Dawn Association, and how to find them, became new questions.
The latter question was difficult to solve for now, but for the former, they could place their hopes on the comatose Huang Jiutian.
He was one of the few ordinary people in the world with the deepest contact with these mutations.
A faint premonition told everyone that even if these two were not the same faction, there was bound to be some kind of connection.
Their caution, their globe-trotting, their accumulation of wealth and their extermination of evil—all their behavioral patterns, both understandable and incomprehensible, were all for a single purpose!
Those pairs of eyes, always watching from outside of normal society. For thousands of years, they were the vigilant ones operating behind the scenes of ordinary human society.
Now, in the 21st century, what they had been standing guard against had finally arrived.
PS: Saturday’s second Chapter.