28. Xia Ling: The most useful episode for the mole

A moment later, in the office.

Theresa, who had enjoyed Xia Ling's hug, quickly jumped off Xia Ling's lap.

"You did this on purpose, didn't you!"

Theresa blushed. After all, her authority as the headmistress made her somewhat vulnerable to being carried in a princess carry in public, even when she was invisible.

"I just realized, you could have just teleported me in here!"

"Hey, this is because I'm afraid the spatial fluctuations caused by teleportation will alert the enemy."

Xia Ling put away the Scale Cloak and then went to the target's desk.

"It's so messy..."

Theresa turned the object gently, trying not to make too much noise.

"Overdue loan collection letter, electricity bill payment reminder..."

"That shouldn't be the case. He's a professor, after all. Is his financial situation really that bad?"

"There's a diary here... Let me see."

Xia Ling picked up a diary and began to read it.

"No wonder... this guy took out a loan and went all in on a project, but nobody wanted to invest in it, his paper kept getting rejected, and he ended up with a mountain of loans, completely driven to despair..."

"Hmm? Interesting..."

Xia Ling's fingers, which were turning the page, suddenly stopped.

"There is a very interesting phenomenon in Theresa's diary."

"What?"

"Although he is the number one puppet, he was summoned to Theater of Domination."

"In other words, the process by which he was transformed into a doll seems to be no different from that of other dolls."

"This is interesting... It seems that their collective consciousness has a higher priority than that of the first puppet?" Xia Ling murmured to herself, "But where did this so-called collective consciousness come from when there were no puppets at the beginning?"

"Unfortunately, apart from these, all the information we have here is what we already know."

Theresa put down the documents in her hand and suddenly said.

"Xia Ling, searching like this is too slow. Let's split up."

"?"

Xia Ling looked up at Theresa with some confusion, after all, Theresa had insisted on acting with her just now, while Theresa gave Xia Ling a look that said "something's up".

Oh... Xia Ling had a general idea of what was going on. Theresa probably found evidence that some doll was nearby and wanted to set a trap.

"Okay, so... how should we divide the work?"

"I'll go check on his teachers' dormitory. Xia Ling, you can ask the security guard about the reason for his disappearance."

To make sure Xia Ling understood, Theresa added, "After all, it seems we've come up empty-handed; the doll isn't here."

"Then we don't need to hide our identities anymore; we can just go directly to the school and ask them to cooperate with the investigation."

"Okay, we'll do it your way."

Xia Ling placed her hand on Theresa, and the two were instantly teleported out of the office.

Sure enough, not long after the two parted, Xia Ling found a doll waiting for her ahead.

"Excuse me, is there something you need?"

In this eerie atmosphere, the puppet spoke first.

"Hmm? Dude, something seems a little off about your body."

The doll appeared in front of her at an extremely fast speed.

Xia Ling silently activated the Seven Thunders of Retribution, quietly observing what this seemingly old puppet was up to.

"Nodules, tumors, stones?"

"Hmm... no, but this doesn't seem like Herrscher Core either. This is a very strange phenomenon..."

The doll, who was a medical professor in life, stared at Xia Ling curiously, its gaze seemingly able to penetrate her body.

"What a rare sample... Would you like to join my research group?"

"Research group? You've become like this, how many people are left in the research group? You're not trying to trick me into being your slave, are you?"

The familiar words from the doll immediately reminded Xia Ling of her tragic experience writing papers in her previous life, and she suddenly felt unwell.

"Of course not, how could I possibly waste such a precious sample? You just need to take a nap..."

"I'd like to decline. After all, being a research subject in a research group is hardly worth anything, like being a cow or a horse."

The Seven Thunders of Retribution in Xia Ling's hand immediately formed an electromagnetic barrier, blocking the puppet that wanted to touch her.

"Strange, I don't have Herrscher Core, so why are you so interested in me?"

Xia Ling frowned. She didn't believe these puppets could take away the power of the Origin, but her own body seemed to have a great attraction to these puppets.

It can't be because this doll was a lolicon in its previous life, right?

"Hehe, I'll tell you the answer to this question if you join the research group!"

"Don't even think about it!"

A golden chain suddenly shot out from behind the doll, binding it tightly.

To prevent the puppets from escaping back to the theater, this time Theresa used chains imbued with Power of Restraint.

"Don't be in such a hurry, Theresa. I still want to get some more information out of you."

Xia Ling shrugged, and purple lightning instantly pierced through the doll's head.

"Lu Ling'er, Su Shan, Si Ba, Shi Lingmeng, could it be... that you're afraid I'll be taken away by the doll?"

"No, that's not true!"

"What if, what if it suddenly pulls you into the theater? I can't enter the theater on my own..."

"Okay, okay, I won't be taken away by the doll, don't worry so much."

Ignoring Theresa's classic arrogant remarks, Xia Ling rubbed her head and placed the doll's body into the prepared container.

"While the doll itself played a part... I have a feeling today's operation went a little too smoothly; even Theresa's plan was fooled by the doll..."

"Don't underestimate the wisdom of this school principal!"

Chapter Twenty-Eight: Xia Ling: The Most Useful Episode of the Mole

Several days later, in the conference hall of the Salt Lake Base.

"The reason I called everyone here today is to synchronize the core analysis progress and formulate the next strategy accordingly."

Welt said in a deep voice, "Then, Einstein Doctor, Dr. Tesla— "

"Our previous hypothesis has been confirmed: the puppets are like an interconnected network, and the Theater of Domination is their common server."

Ain turned on the projection screen, which displayed a very complex-looking mesh structure.

"The puppets can share information with each other to a certain extent, which is their main source of intelligence."

"However, if a particular doll is particularly unsociable, she can also actively disconnect from the other dolls and stop empathizing with them—for example, Miss Mulsus, whom Seele mentioned before."

Tesla added.

"However, conversely, we can also utilize this network."

"Is it the reverse tracing you mentioned before?" Theresa recalled a term that Ain had mentioned before.

"That's right. Through the dozens of core samples that Anti-Entropy has seized in the past few days, as well as the data shared from Schicksal and World Serpent, the laboratory has been able to make a relatively accurate estimate of the remaining number and location of the puppets."

"Based on this, we successfully identified several puppets hiding in the Salt Lake Base, verifying the feasibility of this method."

"This means that we are no longer in a situation where the enemy is in the dark and we are in the light. Now that we know the number and location of the enemy, we can formulate a counterattack plan."

"That is indeed good news." Theresa nodded. "The puppets are extremely weak in combat. If we can bring them into the front lines, we can easily take them out with our fighting strength."

"But now, we've encountered a new and tricky situation."

Ain sighed and opened a world map.

"The puppet's movements have stopped."

"It stopped... what does that mean?"

"It means exactly what it says." Tesla's tone was tinged with frustration. "They stopped causing destruction and chose to hide."

"Has it been discovered that information has been leaked? Or...?"

"It's also possible that they are getting familiar with the powers of the Herrscher of Reason," Xia Ling added.

"That's all possible... But without a doubt, the current situation is not good for us. Nobody knows what these puppets are plotting in the dark."

Welt's gaze swept over the crowd, and he said in a deep voice, "Therefore, we must take the initiative."

"With the Thousand-Man Herrscher now inactive, it's no longer possible to reverse-engineer the host and track the puppet through events as before. We are left with only two options."

"To drive them away—or to lure them in."

"We can't drive them away. As it stands, our firepower has no effect on Theater of Domination itself. If the puppets hide inside the theater, I can't bring too many people in with my abilities."

Xia Ling shook her head. "So, Mr. Welt's intention is actually to carry out the decoy plan, right?"

"That's right."

The air fell silent, everyone waiting for Welt's next words. However, someone else broke the silence.

"... I'll be the bait."

Kiana spoke up.

Kiana?

"Headmaster, this plan itself was proposed to Mr. Welt by me."

Kiana lowered her gaze, clearly feeling somewhat guilty about her unauthorized plan.

"Let me explain."

Welt cleared his throat and said, "The Theater of Domination is the home ground of the Herrscher of Domination. In our previous interactions, we have observed the Herrscher of Domination activating the Theater of Domination on multiple occasions."

"Therefore, the first problem we tackled was how to block this teleportation mechanism."

"Fortunately, this problem is not difficult to solve. We have developed an electromagnetic barrier to disrupt the process of pulling people into the theater."

"So, under this premise, Congress put forward a contingency plan."

"They built a containment base in the uninhabited area of the Arctic to house Kiana. This base is completely isolated from the world, with no trace of humans within a hundred miles."

"Under these circumstances, it becomes almost impossible for the Thousand-Man Herrscher to get close to Kiana."

"The Anti-Entropy Base also uses the same shielding equipment, which means that they are also unable to set up theaters in the Anti-Entropy Base."

"I will agree to the decision to contain Kiana at the meeting the day after tomorrow. Based on the previous situation, the Thousand-Man Herrscher will definitely intercept this information."

"So, if the Thousand-Man Herrscher still covet the two cores within Kiana's body, then they only have one choice left."

"That is—we intercepted Kiana on the Hyperion during our transport of Kiana."

"Isn't this plan... a little too risky?" Theresa hesitated.

"Risk and reward are relative. Compared to us, Thousand-Man Herrscher don't have much time to react. And setting the battlefield on the Hyperion is undoubtedly the most advantageous for us."

Ain explained, "Moreover, if the Thousand-Man Herrscher aren't stupid, they certainly won't confront us head-on."

"They will definitely try to sabotage the Hyperion's power system, cut off the electromagnetic barrier's power supply, and then pull Kiana into the theater to deal with her alone."

"But what they didn't know was..."

"Kiana's spatial power is actually far greater than Xia Ling's... After she enters the theater, she can directly pull the entire Hyperion into the theater."