Chapter 2

A metal bullet tore through Chu Zu's black hair and shot past him, the heat of the gun barrel brushing his cheek.

Hankao crashed to the floor. Blood sprayed from his exploded head, sizzling as it came into contact with the severed circuits in his brain.

Fine red specks spattered Chu Zu's white shirt.

Gun silencers had been perfected in this era, and everything happened without a sound. A pool of blood gradually spread around the man on the floor.

Dai Xian was forced to lie in it. She had thought Chu Zu was doomed and that she would be next, but she had still underestimated Luciano's talent for tormenting people.

The corpse was rotting right beside her. On the verge of a breakdown, she finally screamed.

A subordinate nearby came to his senses, suppressed his horror, and immediately stepped forward to cover her mouth.

"Jeeves."

"Yes. Hankao gave your schedule for this week to the Mitoli remnants. I investigated his file and found signs that it had been overwritten. Based on an analysis of his actions over the past three years, he has been confirmed as a traitor."

"What about Chu Zu?"

"You have modified Chu Zu's file three times. Based on an analysis of his actions over the past thirteen years, one behavioral anomaly was found. Chu Zu met Tangqi today. A wide-area jammer was present around the meeting facility, so the content of their interaction could not be determined. It is impossible to determine whether an act of betrayal took place."

"Would you lie to me?" Luciano was still holding up the gun.

"No," Chu Zu answered without hesitation.

"What did you go to see Tangqi for?"

"I didn't go looking for him. He came to me."

Luciano scoffed. "What did he want?"

Chu Zu was frighteningly composed. His voice was even steadier than Jeeves's, with an inhuman detachment. "He said he and I were the same. He said I was forced to become your blade, while he chose to become those people's weapon."

Every expression vanished from Luciano's face. He was so cold that strangers would have kept their distance, his usually inscrutable temperament laid bare before ordinary people for the first time.

"What did you say?"

"I said I wasn't forced."

Luciano's gaze remained fixed on Chu Zu's face.

He had made his guesses. Everyone in the upper echelons knew what Tangqi was like.

A fool who held power over life and death yet still hypocritically "urged people to be good." Plenty of people from the upper echelons had died at his hands, and he was a saint who put on a pained expression after killing them.

According to Dai Xian's "rumor," Chu Zu had let Tangqi go, and Luciano would kill Chu Zu for it. It was no surprise that Tangqi would try to persuade Chu Zu, and Luciano would not be angry over that.

But he should not have used such disgusting words.

Who was the same as whom?

"You knew I wanted the password, but you didn't bring him back."

"I could kill him, but I couldn't take him away. The interference in the area was severe, and I couldn't tell whether there was a trap. After considering everything, I left."

"So you let him go again."

"The first time."

"Then there will be a second." Furious to the extreme, Luciano laughed instead. "Chu Zu, don't you think that counts as betrayal?"

Chu Zu was silent for a while. His mist-shrouded eyes were as still as a stagnant pool.

Luciano guessed he was thinking—not about how to phrase his answer, but genuinely considering whether it counted as betrayal.

And when he could not reach a conclusion—

"I'll give you more, until you think it's worth it. That's what we agreed."

He would make a promise.

Under the gaze of those eyes filled with spreading red mist, Luciano gradually calmed down.

He casually tossed the gun to Chu Zu.

"None of this really matters." He suddenly became gentlemanly, mild and courteous. "We've known each other since we were children, and we've had our disagreements, but we always came to an understanding in the end. Remember? When we were still in school, I told you to kill that Mitoli boy. At first, you refused."

Chu Zu deftly dismantled the handgun completely. It was not a weapon he usually used, so there was no point keeping it.

He made no comment on Luciano's reminiscence, either, and listened quietly.

"When I smashed him to death in the training room with the instructor's data box, his younger brother accidentally saw me. See? Because you threw a tantrum, that lovely little boy who used to sweetly call you big brother at banquets died too."

Luciano sighed.

"I really am no good at killing people, and children keep squirming around. It's a pain. I dug out his eyes and broke his limbs, and he still tried to move toward you. I thought then, if he was really lucky enough to crawl in front of you, I'd cut out his vocal cords and let him live. Do you remember what happened?"

"I forgot."

"He mistook me for someone else and crawled over to me. He grabbed my trouser leg, looked up, and called me big brother. It was quite horrifying, so I asked you to do it for me. You didn't refuse this time. You're good at killing people, naturally gifted."

Luciano looked at Chu Zu as though he could see the silent, surging chill that had radiated from the boy of fifteen or sixteen. A moment later, he sighed again.

"While you were unconscious, I did some reflecting too. You're an unmodified pure human, and pure humans need plenty of firsthand experience to grow. You only learned after those two Mitolis died."

"What happened with Tangqi wasn't your fault. I didn't think it through." He said, "Go get an adjustment. Mitoli's technology is safe enough and reliable enough."

Luciano's voice was plainly seductive, like the serpent flicking its tongue at Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.

"I always give you the best, don't I?"

Chu Zu said, "All right."

Luciano smiled. "Finish the mission after the surgery. There's so much to do right now that my head aches."

Chu Zu again said, "All right."

Luciano waved, indicating that he could leave.

"Luci." He called out to Luciano, who had returned to his seat. "I want to take Dai Xian with me."

Luciano raised an eyebrow. "You like her type?"

"She warned me that Tangqi was investigating me."

Luciano tapped the commemorative coin on the desk. "So that's why you gave her the thing I gave you."

Chu Zu nodded.

"Do as you like." Luciano's tolerance seemed boundless as he teased him with a smile. "Actually, it wouldn't be bad if you did like her type. Dai Xian is a beautiful and capable lady. As long as you can get her consent, I'd be happy to see a happy ending, of course."

Chu Zu bent down and gently picked up the woman, who was covered in blood.

At the door, Chu Zu looked back. "Thank you for your generosity, Luci."

Luciano made no comment. He told the remaining people to clean the room and paid Chu Zu no more attention.

"Are you sure Mr. Esposito told him to come in for surgery?" the specialist operating the equipment asked quietly.

"The order came straight from Butler Jeeves," the person beside him said. "Mr. Chu Zu messed things up. The fact that he wasn't dealt with outright already shows how lenient that gentleman is."

The specialist frowned, pressing his lips together as though he wanted to say something but stopped himself.

Chu Zu lay in a ring-shaped pod, his limbs firmly secured. An anesthetic dose far greater than an ordinary person's had been injected into his veins ten minutes ago. Now his eyes were fully closed, and he looked more like a corpse than a corpse did.

After Luciano took control of the Mitoli family, he also took over all of Mitoli's assets.

Virtual reality interaction was Mitoli's largest business. Implanted devices allowed a subject to be fully immersed in virtual reality, replacing their real sensory perceptions.

On the surface, it provided people in the upper echelons with a greater variety of entertainment, but in truth, it was meticulous research into the human brain. Every user with a neural implant was part of their experimental database.

When users wanted to have fun, unrestricted virtual reality could satisfy all their needs.

And when Luciano wanted to have fun, users unable to distinguish between the virtual and the real could satisfy all his needs as well.

There was only one reason Luciano continued to advance the project.

A product developed through the devoted efforts of generations of Mitoli naturally had more functions than that.

The human body was controlled by nerves. The more purely human a person was, the more they depended on neural commands.

Neural commands were expressed in the form of hormones, eventually manifesting as human emotions. Excitement, depression, agitation... controlling the brain and nerves meant controlling the entire person from the inside out.

But this technology was not yet foolproof. Mitoli had not had time to conduct extensive human trials, and all clinical work was still limited to research on blurring the distinction between reality and the virtual.

In other words, actually stimulating the nerves to control the brain was highly dangerous.

The specialist was a longtime Esposito employee. He had not had much contact with Luciano, but was somewhat more familiar with Chu Zu, who was constantly on the move.

When he first met him, Chu Zu had still been such a small, skinny child, working around the clock without rest, doing every dirty and exhausting job. He had made only one mistake, and he had been called in for surgery...

Looking at the man, now grown but still sleeping as quietly as a puppet, he felt somewhat sorry for him.

"Mr. Chu Zu did grow up with that gentleman, after all. I thought their relationship..."

"For the sake of our nearly thirty years of acquaintance, I'll only tell you this," the person beside him said discreetly. "The Tang Family heir also wants to recruit Chu Zu. A lot of people guess that Chu Zu let Tangqi go because he was persuaded."

The specialist was startled. "If he'd really been persuaded, he couldn't possibly be lying here now. He personally handed Mitoli over to that gentleman. He knows perfectly well what this surgery means."

"Yes," the person beside him said. "But that gentleman doesn't believe it. That gentleman doesn't believe anyone."

Chu Zu was still too loyal, stubbornly choosing a difficult path that won him little favor.

Although neither dared actually say it aloud, they both thought the same thing—

He'd be better off going with Tangqi. At least he could really live like a person.

"Do you think I'm still human?"

Chu Zu was not quite sure. The surgery had used more than three times the anesthetic dose for an ordinary person, yet he was merely weak all over. He had somehow remained conscious and could even hear the voices of the people beside him.

Still, that was good too. It had let him know the attitudes of the people around him.

What normal people. So normal they're almost inhuman.

The system was still in the aftermath of its narrow escape and took a long time to respond. "Do you mean after the virtual reality system is implanted?"

"Yes."

"Yes," the system answered instantly. "The technology's functions are still incomplete. At worst, it'll make you go neurotically mad, or just turn you into a fool in Luciano's hands. Madmen and fools are both human!"

Chu Zu said, "..."

"But... I thought you'd use the Physics Divine Beast."

"When Luciano fired at my forehead?"

"That was so dangerous!" The system grew frightened again at the mention of it. "You even gave him the weapon yourself. What if he thought you were provoking him?!"

It was a provocation.

Chu Zu did not say it in his head, for fear of making the system bristle.

After meeting Luciano, he had learned what kind of thing he was.

Luciano did have some feelings for "Chu Zu," but not many. Even if he confirmed "Chu Zu" had betrayed him, he would most likely only brood over it for a while before starting to consider how to maximize his benefits.

That was a good thing. It meant Luciano would not be overly emotional.

If Luciano had any stronger feelings for him, that would be troublesome instead. Anger and a more deeply concealed sense of humiliation could easily make a proud, ambitious man act irrationally.

The current balance was just right.

"Chu Zu" would throw a tantrum over Luciano's suspicion and provoke him in his own way.

If you suspect me, then kill me. Here's the gun. Go on, I won't dodge.

And he was honest enough that everything he said was true. He simply kept his mouth shut about anything he could not say, which could not be called lying either.

For the sake of that little bit of past affection, Luciano had still given him a chance.

"He now believes he's important to 'Chu Zu,'" Chu Zu concluded. "After the surgery, trouble like today's won't happen again either. It's quite a good deal."

The system expressed grave concern for its host's brain. "What if he really turns you into a madman or a fool?"

"You're my external brain." Chu Zu smiled. "As for 'Chu Zu,' it doesn't matter whether he's mad or stupid. He wasn't normal anyway."

The system was instantly fired up. "I swear I'll defend your brain to the death!!!"

"It's not that serious," Chu Zu said. "Help me find information related to Mitoli. Luciano is a madman with a purpose. I want to know exactly why those two children died."