Chapter 1231 - Werewolf Detective

The mission requirement was to catch the ‘culprit’, not the ‘true culprit’. He wondered if the mission was based on the truth or the dynasty’s perspective.

If it was the latter, did this mean that as long as he could prove someone was the culprit to the dynasty, the mission would be considered complete?

If that was the case, he would have a chance to complete it.

No way was he going to turn himself in, not in this life. A werewolf would not kill himself, only frame others. That was the only way to live.

Han Xiao shook his head. He did not have the compulsion to clear out every mission. From the way he looked at it, it would be best if he could complete this mission, but it would not matter if he could not complete it.

According to the nature of the mission, the reward was most likely going to be mainly the dynasty’s Contribution Points. If this was in the past, he would have needed them to acquire more blueprints from the dynasty. Now, however, with Jayz’ treasure, the dynasty’s Contribution Points were no longer valuable to him. The only thing that was still useful would be Political Assets.

…

The next day, Han Xiao entered the online channel of the dynasty task force on the dot. His remote projection appeared in a conference room.

As soon as he entered the room, projections appeared one after another, sizing each other up.

Han Xiao saw familiar faces like Clotti, Kant, Ravenlaude, and so on, as well as unfamiliar faces.

Before they started chatting, Tarrokov appeared, attracting everyone’s attention. “Everyone here is a member of the dynasty’s task force, so I won’t waste any time. You all know what needs to be done. This team has gathered the experts of various fields. You guys are authorized to use all resources the dynasty has in the Flickering World. The dynasty only has one requirement; find the culprit and Gaud’s whereabouts.”

The next moment, Clotti said, “I’m the team captain for the task force for the time being. Any requests to utilize resources can be made through me. As for the detailed arrangements of your jobs, the vice-captain will decide.”

This time, a tall, skinny dynasty officer stepped up, looked at everyone, and did a dynasty style greeting.

“You can call me Sherlock Dillman. I work for the dynasty’s intelligence department. Pardon me for not sharing the details of my work. For this task, the upper echelons have sent me to be the vice-captain. I’ll be in charge of the investigation work. My power alone is limited. Everyone will have to work together.”

Han Xiao raised his brow.

Sherlock? The name sounded like a famous detective. This person was definitely not ordinary. He should be the dynasty’s special talent in the investigation field.

The task force did not need muscles, only expertise. Therefore, Sherlock was the vice-captain, and the Beyond Grade As in the team were experts in different fields. In simple terms, the Beyond Grade As were acting as tools.

The rest introduced themselves one after another. There were three experts in charge of the quantum network search, Kant, Judith—the dynasty’s direct member—and himself.

Sherlock allocated different jobs for the experts in different fields one after another. Very soon, he came to the three of them and quickly pointed out the requirements.

“… That’s the situation we’re in. The Virtual Domain is a key area of the search. Please find clues to the best of your abilities. I’ll leave it to Your Excellencies.”

Sherlock bowed. His attitude was very respectful. After that, he turned away and went to assign tasks to the others.

Seeing that Sherlock had left, Kant scratched his head and said, “You two are more than enough. I’m not a Virtual Mechanic, so why did the dynasty call me here?”

“The dynasty was probably just being nice and did not think you’d agree, but to their surprise, you’re actually thick-skinned enough to really come,” Han Xiao joked.

Kant’s mouth twitched. “… Black Star, you’ll lose me as a friend like this.”

“Ahem, ahem, Your Excellencies, we’ve already received the authorization. We better get to work,” Judith said from the side.

Han Xiao focused and received the quantum network authorization shared by Judith.

The dynasty had called them, the experts, of course, not to let them fight alone. The dynasty had opened up almost all the resources in the Flickering World for them to use.

For example, the three of them could command all of the dynasty’s Virtual Mechanics in the Flickering World. The backdoor of the quantum network stations the dynasty had set up in the Flickering World was also open to the three of them. They could log in to the Flickering World’s quantum network as administrators.

Furthermore, even some permissions of the dynasty’s main artificial intelligence ‘Heroic Soul’ were temporarily given to Han Xiao and Kant, despite them being ‘outsiders’. Other than to investigate the case, Judith’s mission also included preventing the two of them from doing anything out of the line while they had such high-level authority.

Han Xiao logged into the network through the backdoor. His mind sank into the quantum network vision, and everything seemed so clear.

The network of more than half of the Flickering World was clearly laid out in front of him, all within his control. He felt like he had become the processor of the network. He had access to any and all data in every station. With so much power, he almost felt all-mighty.

“Nice.” Han Xiao enjoyed it quite a lot.

No matter how strong his Virtual Intrusion ability was, he would still be a thief sneaking into someone’s house. Now, however, it was like the owner of the house had directly rented the entire house to him; he could do almost anything he wanted.

Although Judith and Kant were beside him, with his abilities, he should be able to do some things without them noticing. However, the best thing to do for the time being was to observe how things were going first.

More importantly, with this level of authority, he could totally wipe out the possible flaws he might have left, erasing any evidence that could lead to him even more thoroughly, completely making his alibi legit.

Since the dynasty had given him this chance, he was certainly going to ‘treasure’ it.

Han Xiao spent the next few days submerged in the quantum network, carrying out the investigation with Judith and Kant.

Initially, Han Xiao thought he would not be able to find any leads. However, to his surprise, this was not the case. He discovered that the situation had taken a slight turn.

He did not have to do anything. The Super Star Cluster Alliance and Manison were already fighting with each other. They had started forging evidence and framing each other.

Both sides were doing it very discreetly. If not because he had the administrator authority of the Flickering World’s quantum network, Han Xiao would not have discovered what the two of them were doing.

With the authority and his incredible Virtual Technology, their tricks did not escape his eyes.

Tsk, you guys didn’t even do it, but you’re already trying to frame each other…

Han Xiao’s mouth contorted slightly.

Never mind if the others discovered this, but since he was the real culprit, from his perspective, this situation was like two villagers accusing each other of being the werewolf, while he, the real werewolf, was not suspected at all.

However, with some thought, he understood what the two of them were thinking.

The Super Star Cluster Alliance was afraid that the three Universal Civilizations might claim they were the culprit without any evidence, so they decided to act first. Manison knew this, so he took countermeasures. Hence, both sides immediately discovered each other’s tricks, and they started fighting.

This is exactly why I muddied the waters.

The plan worked!

The two sides are trying to frame each other. Both are suspicious. Since there’s no way the real culprit is going to be discovered, one side will definitely be deemed as the culprit by the dynasty…

Han Xiao’s eyes shifted quickly.

Currently, the two sides were at a stalemate, unable to completely frame each other. This was where he could interfere.

Since the situation had developed in this direction, to him, framing someone else became easier than he had expected.

With his current level of authority, he only had to play a little trick, and the dynasty’s judgement would be affected. He could easily help one side beat the other side, which meant that he was the one who could make the decision.

Who should I help? Han Xiao pondered.

He had always been against Manison, but on this matter, he planned to help the old man.

After all, Manison was the current Beyond Grade A Association president. If he took the blame, though his personal reputation would be damaged, the Beyond Grade A Association would be affected too. The impact would be very negative. If the president had secretly attacked the association’s newest member, many members would feel threatened and much warier, which was bad for the association.

On the other hand, if the Super Star Cluster Alliance took the blame, it would have the opposite impact on the association. The Beyond Grade As would feel that Gaud’s tragedy was because he was involved in the conflicts between factions. They would think that the same thing would not happen to them if they chose not to join any faction but the Beyond Grade A Association. It would instead increase some Beyond Grade As’ sense of recognition for the association, which was beneficial for the association’s growth.

Most importantly, the three Universal Civilizations and the Super Star Cluster Alliance were already at war. If they took the blame, the others would not be impacted.

Although the dynasty would not stop searching for the real culprit after, for the time being, letting the Super Star Cluster Alliance take the blame would minimize the risks for him.

Humph, old Manison, I’m not helping you; it’s for the association.

Han Xiao curled his lips.

Mumbling a little in his mind, he started to execute the plan right away.

No matter how these two villagers accuse each other, in the end, I, the werewolf detective, will still be the one to make the call.

…

“It feels like a mysterious force is helping me…”

Inside the Mechanic Emperor’s secret base, Manison had a weird expression on his face.

In the past few days, he had discovered that the Super Star Cluster Alliance was indeed trying to frame him. Hence, he retaliated.

Originally, both sides were only suspects, and there was no evidence. They had now added quite a lot of ‘flaws’ to each other’s alibis.

In this silent war, Manison was actually at a disadvantage. After all, the opponent was the entire Super Star Cluster Alliance. Although his Virtual Technology was strong, he was alone.

However, not long ago, he discovered something abnormal. Some of the evidence the Super Star Cluster Alliance forged surprisingly suddenly disappeared, as if someone was helping him fight against the Super Star Cluster Alliance.

“To be both able to discover my conflict with the Super Star Cluster Alliance and interfere… is this the doing of the three Universal Civilizations?”

Manison thought about it.

The reason the three Universal Civilizations were doing this should be that they had confirmed the Super Star Cluster Alliance’s guilt, so they did not want them to successfully frame him… Or thinking one level deeper, if the dynasty could not identify who the real culprit was, this would have been a strategic decision to accuse the Super Star Cluster Alliance.

If he went one level deeper…

Manison pondered and fell into a cycle.

…

About a week later, on the Crimson Dynasty mother planet, Urranrell browsed the report of the task force and rubbed the bridge of her nose.

“After the investigation carried out in the past few days, you guys have found a chain of evidence that seems to be legit, all pointing toward the Super Star Cluster Alliance… but this isn’t the dynasty’s initial intention.”

Before her was the remote projection of an intelligence department upper echelon who sighed and said, “Whether it’s real or not isn’t important now. As long as this chain of evidence is more than enough to convince the outside world, it’s enough.”

“I want the real culprit and Gaud’s whereabouts. Why else would I need the task force?”

“But time waits for no man. The real culprit did not leave any traces at all. If we keep investigating like this, the truth will remain out of reach. The outside world is already doubting that the dynasty can find the culprit. There are even people on the internet starting to admire this culprit who enraged the dynasty but still has yet to be punished… We can take all the time we want to find the real culprit in the future, but what the dynasty needs now is results.”

Urranrell frowned slightly.

After the tricks Han Xiao played, the task force found a complete chain of evidence that led to the Super Star Cluster Alliance. However, after carefully verifying it, the task force knew this was forged, most likely by Manison. These two parties’ act of trying to frame each other did not go unnoticed by the dynasty.

However, even though this was the case, after some discussion, the task force still decided to submit this result to the upper echelons. The dynasty upper echelons all knew about this, but still, this report was placed on Urranrell’s desk.

Currently, the public opinion of the outside world was becoming worse. What the dynasty urgently needed was a ‘result’, real or fake. The target this chain of evidence led to matched the dynasty’s war strategy too; the Super Star Cluster Alliance was the best target.

Furthermore, the Super Star Cluster Alliance was trying to create a ‘culprit’. They were the ones that started this. If things were delayed for too long, they would succeed, and the dynasty did not want to see that.

Urranrell hesitated for a few seconds. She did not approve it immediately, sighed, and said, “Call Clotti and Sherlock here. I want to hear their opinions…”

This time, she paused and added, “Call up Black Star while you’re at it.”