Promotion

A faint chill spread through his mind, and Daniel's slightly muddled thoughts quickly cleared.

The secure jump point was functioning normally. The cerebral port had been routed to a controlled shallow sea of consciousness. Memory disguises and multiple layers of shells were operating as usual. Praise the Outworld Wanderer—his mind was heavily fortified, and no one could glimpse the slightest abnormality through that flawless mental barrier.

Even if the other party was a powerful archbishop.

Daniel steadied himself. He knew he had entered the spiritual world, and in this world on the mental plane, his expression showed not the slightest anomaly.

"Which archbishop are you?" he asked with precisely the right amount of respect and composure.

The woman opposite him wore an unfamiliar face, likely one generated temporarily for this conversation. It was meant to conceal her identity, but Daniel still asked. That was the normal reaction of an open-hearted Sleeper Cultist speaking frankly with an unfamiliar archbishop.

"There is no need to concern yourself with that. This face is merely an interface. The Supreme Bishop Council is speaking with you now," the woman said blandly. "Prepare yourself and answer our questions."

Daniel adopted an obedient demeanor. "Yes. I will conceal nothing."

The woman nodded in satisfaction, then asked, "Recently, you have been investigating fellow believers in the Alderan Region. Is that correct?"

"That is correct."

"This is not within your duties as security director. Why did you conduct this investigation?"

"Recently, there have been many rumors regarding malfunctions in the Mind Network. The security system also detected abnormal fluctuations in certain nodes. I feared that network security had been threatened, so I began an investigation."

"Why did you not report it proactively, choosing instead to act in private?"

"I was uncertain of the details, so I wished to first