Chapter 145: He Needs Defensive Weapons
Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations
Editor: Karai
After leaving the border region, Lin Xu rarely had a reason to delve into the dark web. The dark-themed pages filled with glaring fluorescent characters always made him dizzy and skeptical of the designers’ aesthetics.
He spent some time sifting through numerous bounty and anti-bounty posts targeting the Bovajiah group, eventually finding a contact number linked to those who hired assassins.
When Lin Xu boarded the S109, Heinrich had already handed him a detailed report on the museum murder case, which included the names of two assassins involved. Lin Xu didn’t know where the Bovajiah operated; these people hid deep like rats, impossible to tear through space-time to interrogate directly. But dealing with such small-time rats had a simpler method.
Lin Xu sent a message directly to the Bovajiah contact: “I want to know who hired Cassier and Grier for their last mission.”
The reply came swiftly: “We have business ethics. We don’t reveal clients.”
“I’ll pay.”
“Please, don’t joke.”
“Five million star coins. Paid any way you want.”
“…”
“I can only say, it was a small player from Capital Star… but now, he’s a big deal.”
“Account number.”
Upon hearing the money, the Bovajiah responded quickly, giving Lin Xu an anonymous account at a small bank in the Long Whale Region. Minutes later, the sound of a large transfer made Bovajiah’s fingers quick and honest.
“CAPP02187439812. That’s his contact account. At the time, he thought he contacted me anonymously.”
Lin Xu stopped chatting and forwarded the account number to Ika to investigate the account owner. The result showed the account was held by the Capital Star Central Bank, under the name of someone who disappeared thirty years ago on a space expedition.
Clearly a cover identity, but Bovajiah knew the real owner through it.
“Keep tracking the funds.”
—
An attendant bowed beside the emperor’s armchair, nervously presenting an electronic report. The armchair faced a window in this small two-story study; outside, green leaves shimmered as birds briefly perched. As Alfred took the tablet, its screen’s reflected light startled the birds, which flapped away into the scenery.
“Prisoners Paris and Neumann were beaten?” Alfred raised an eyebrow as he read the report: “Fractured orbital bones, dislocated wrists, multiple internal hemorrhages…”
The attendant lowered his head further upon hearing secrets he wasn’t supposed to know. “Your Majesty, may I take my leave?”
Alfred gestured with two fingers to signal dismissal. He scrolled through the electronic report: Z9 Prison’s defenses detected no intruders entering the cells of Paris or Neumann at the time of injury. Internal audits found no staff abusing their access to their holding areas. Yet both prisoners insist they were brutally beaten during interrogation; medical examinations confirmed they were telling the truth. Someone had savagely beaten them.
Paris and Neumann were high-priority prisoners sent by General Luca Neumann. The Z9 authorities reported the abnormalities to Luca, who then forwarded them to Alfred. The report included Luca’s statement: “Your Majesty, I have ordered cyber experts to investigate if hackers breached Z9’s systems, altering electronic logs.”
Alfred despised anyone laying hands on Lin Xu. After awakening in the emperor’s body, he immediately started eliminating inconvenient nobles, replacing them with new personnel to rebuild a controllable power structure.
Paris and Neumann’s crimes had been exposed by him. The subsequent trial and imprisonment followed Imperial law, and Alfred had ignored those pests ever since.
But beaten nearly to death? Alfred almost laughed. Paris and Neumann had only power because of their titles and official positions. Without their ranks and posts, they were nothing—easily replaceable by countless others. And the cost of infiltrating the Z9 planet was exorbitantly high.
Who would bother wasting time and resources just to beat these two? Could the payoff really justify the effort? The more Alfred thought about it, the more abnormal it seemed. His mocking smile gradually faded.
To completely bypass the internal and external defenses of Z9, how many people or organizations within the entire Imperial system could actually do that? Or, as the report suggested, it wasn’t an external invasion nor an internal sabotage. The infiltrator had simply appeared suddenly on Z9. A chill ran down Alfred’s spine into the back of his head. He had a sudden suspicion. Maybe it was subconscious—his brain naturally linking two unrelated matters.
Or perhaps his guess was right: the one trying to extract information from Paris and Neumann was Lin Xu, who used that strange space-time ability to easily slip into Z9. That meant Lin Xu could also easily infiltrate the Imperial Palace and strike directly at Alfred.
Perhaps Lin Xu was not yet sure of the emperor’s role in all this danger, but Alfred knew that with Lin Xu’s intelligence, that day wasn’t far off.
And while manipulating pawns from the shadows was amusing, Alfred couldn’t stay hidden forever. When the time was right, he would appear before Lin Xu—and Lin Xu would finally learn who he truly was.
But Alfred wasn’t foolish enough to throw himself recklessly into the fray. Even if he subdued Lin Xu on the surface, Lin Xu’s abilities would be an unpredictable factor. Alfred understood the uniqueness of those powers; he dared not gamble. His face hardened into a scowl of cold anger as he abruptly stood and paced anxiously through the calm, natural study.
Time passed slowly. The sky darkened, and outside the study came the sound of an attendant knocking, asking when His Majesty would dine. Alfred turned sharply and flung the door open, his grim expression startling the attendant.
“Go fetch the Imperial Research Institute’s top expert in electromagnetic machinery. I have ideas to discuss.”
He needed defensive weapons.
– –
If Lin Xu wanted to hack through each of the Imperial’s major official databases one by one, even someone as skilled as Ika would need nearly half a year.
Lin Xu had this concept firmly in mind and didn’t rush Ika. The Slimes were safe aboard the Victoria, and Ryan was under the protection of his father, Vice-marshal Kalt. Lin Xu had nothing to worry about. He had plenty of time and patience to wait.
But only five days after Lin Xu contacted Ika, he sent him a detailed investigation report exposing Detective Rolson’s corruption, bribery, and abuse of power.
The most recent deposit into Rolson’s account was traced to Major Yan of the Imperial Guard. The transfer had gone through multiple layers of intermediaries and cover-ups, but Ika ultimately found a record of the transaction in the Imperial bank’s main vault.
This large deposit had been made three days before the Perser Hotel murder—almost certainly a “service fee” for Rolson’s assistance with the case. Major Yan was the aide to the newly appointed commander of the Imperial Guard and Military Police, General Luca Neumann.
Sure enough, even though the members of the Adjudication Council had all been replaced, the invisible will behind the scenes had never changed. Lin Xu’s gaze grew heavy. Besides the information on Detective Rolson, Ika had also traced the unknown account given by Bovajiah.
Over the past year, this account had seen large amounts of money flowing in and out. Aside from commissions paid to Bovajiah, two huge sums were transferred to the Dionysus Border and the Long Whale Region. Both transfers had been routed through anonymous darknet accounts.
Continuing his investigation, Ika discovered the funds had been sent to two groups of interstellar mercenaries operating in the gray zones. About a month after receiving their commissions, these mercenaries were ambushed while attacking an Imperial logistics starship—and were subsequently destroyed by the Imperial fleet.
The Adjudication Council excelled at destroying evidence. But what exactly had these two mercenary groups done for the Council? The account also showed a large number of smaller, irregular transactions. The data was messy and unstable, making it impossible to analyze further.
Ika compiled all the available mission and docking records for the mercenary groups from the web, creating a navigation chart and handing it over to Lin Xu. The gaps in the chart might indicate the locations of their final, fatal missions. That part would require slow and careful investigation.
When Lin Xu communicated with Heinrich, he sent him the navigation chart as well. Heinrich had been following all cases related to ancient Earth even before the museum assassination. Back then, they could only broadly suspect the enemy among all Imperial New Life factions, but now they had identified specific powerful individuals.
Heinrich might be able to come up with something. Lin Xu lightly processed the scandal about Detective Rolson and sent it to Metz, hoping Metz could find the right media outlet to leak the information.
Lin Xu knew well that with the Imperial’s nest of vipers and rats all colluding, simply reporting the truth wouldn’t be enough. They had to rely on the sensationalist media and the gossip-hungry netizens on StarNet to push Rolson and his connections straight into hell.
At first, Metz hesitated, cautiously asking, “What exactly do you want to do with Rolson?”
“Mr. Metz, I’m not fabricating his crimes. I want him to be punished according to Imperial law.”
“Alright then…”
Metz didn’t doubt Lin Xu’s intentions. He simply thought Lin Xu wasn’t someone who liked to meddle in justice for the sake of it. Rolson had a good public image, and all his filth was carefully hidden. Metz didn’t know what Lin Xu had done to anger him so much that all the dirt was being dug up layer by layer.
“I’ll find the right media people to handle this.”
“If you need funding, I can provide it.”
“I don’t think that will be necessary,” Metz said. “Dr. Lin, these stories are like bloody juicy meat to the shark media—they’ll only regret that no whistleblower came to them sooner.”
“Of course, if you want to fan the flames bigger, a little money wouldn’t hurt…”
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