Illuminati

Illuminati

Without a doubt, Huang Ji's story was complete fabrication.

He was merely making up an explanation for what he knew.

In truth, Huang Ji did not know the old man's son at all.

But the old man's son was already dead. Attributing some of his knowledge about the old man to a dead man was undoubtedly the most perfect approach.

Sure enough, when Huang Ji gave his son's name and claimed to be his friend, the old man's eyes immediately dimmed.

"Xiao Fan's death was because we overestimated ourselves. You never even joined us, so what do you have to apologize for?"

The old man was dejected, his eyes concealing hatred and despair...

"What are you talking about?" Lin Li truly understood nothing.

The old man glanced at him but said nothing.

Huang Ji, however, said, "Inside the Moon, powerful members of an extraterrestrial civilization are hidden. They monitor, and even raise Earth Civilization in captivity. Though no one knows why they have not conquered humanity, their intentions are far from good."

"On Earth, they have cultivated a group of 'human traitors' to act as agents for alien forces. They keep humanity from uniting and suppress human space technology."

"They even smuggle people for them."

Huang Ji had sensed this from the old man's experiences. In other words, this was what the old man believed to be true.

Seeing Huang Ji lay it all out so directly, the old man continued, "The members recruited by those lackeys are all top-tier tycoons. They possess subordinate organizations spanning an extremely broad range of fields: banks, think tanks, multinational corporations, research facilities, foundations, and other institutional networks. They secretly control more than a hundred capitalist countries. Their name is the Illuminati. Their symbol is the 'All-Seeing Eye' that watches over all living beings."

Huang Ji said, "The Illuminati has infiltrated the classified institutions of many countries and concealed the existence of aliens from the public to make their operations easier. But the truth could never remain hidden forever. Among the countless UFO enthusiasts who believed aliens were right beside them, a group of elites united and established an organization opposed to the Illuminati—the Messiah. Its goal was to sabotage Illuminati operations, obtain irrefutable evidence of the aliens' hostile intentions, acquire and release all alien files held by the Illuminati, and inspire all humanity to unite and resist."

"Throughout its history, the Messiah has collapsed and reorganized many times. It has suffered several betrayals from within, as well as Illuminati extermination campaigns."

"In power, wealth, capability, and even organizational rigor, it was utterly outclassed by the Illuminati in every respect. It was a complete defeat! Since its founding in 1948, it had never posed a foundation-shaking threat to the Illuminati, much less the alien forces hidden behind them."

"Today, you are the Messiah's third reorganization. You are far, far weaker than the previous two generations, practically made up entirely of enthusiasts. Yet last year, you infiltrated the Lockheed Martin Armaments Research Facility in New Mexico, intending to steal technological data."

"Xiao Fan died during that operation, didn't he?"

The old man covered his face as he sat on the sofa, hiding his reddened eyes.

That foolish operation had been a desperate gamble. They had lost nearly half their people, while some of the survivors had gone into hiding and others had been exposed as Messiah members and scattered in flight.

Lao Wang was one of those who had fled. He was Chinese, and Hua Country happened to be one of the nations least influenced by the Illuminati, so he hid in Magic City and became a decrepit old man.

He did not dare work or reveal his name. He simply hid in the West Suburbs, hanging around with a bunch of hooligans, bluffing and swindling them out of enough money to live on while remaining anonymous.

"My God! Something like that actually exists? Wait, are you serious about the aliens? Or are you messing with me?"

Lin Li was dumbfounded as he listened from the side. What the hell? Aliens were on the Moon and had even cultivated a pack of lackeys?

Huang Ji said, "I'm not joking. The Illuminati possesses technological power beyond that of every nation, and every few years, they sell humans to the aliens in exchange for certain technological products."

"What? They sell humans? What do aliens want humans for?" Lin Li asked in shock.

Lao Wang sneered, his eyes red. "What else could it be? To become Slaves, of course!"

Huang Ji neither agreed nor disagreed.

As for why the aliens needed Earth's population, all the members of the Messiah believed they needed Slaves.

It was an incredibly naive notion. Though Huang Ji had never seen an alien and did not know what the aliens purchased humans for...

Based on the Overseer race's assessment that Earthlings were "delicious," perhaps those transported away did not even qualify to be Guinea Pig test subjects. They were merely food.

At this point, Lao Wang muttered again, "Maybe Xiao Fan is still alive. Maybe he's only being held somewhere, one of the next batch to be sent to the aliens. If that's the case... maybe I can still save him."

"He's already dead. The New Mexico police department publicly released news of his death, and the media also reported the casualties from the 'terrorist attack' on the research facility. Xiao Fan was among them," Huang Ji said.

Huang Ji had retrieved all this information through Lao Wang's memories. In other words, Lao Wang knew perfectly well that his son was dead.

But Lao Wang did not want to believe it. He said, "It's all a smokescreen. In reality, they're secretly sold off by the Illuminati as human cargo."

Huang Ji did not argue. Though he had already seen through Lao Wang's situation of having no descendants and confirmed that Xiao Fan was definitely dead.

He merely said, "What exactly did you risk your lives to obtain? Don't tell me you got nothing..."

Lao Wang shook his head. "We didn't get it. So many of us died, and in the end, we got nothing."

Huang Ji knew that the other man did not fully trust him.

After all, quite a few people knew these secrets and knew his son. Aside from their own people, he could also be an enemy.

The Illuminati knew these things as well.

Lao Wang was very cautious. He had not revealed that he possessed an "alien item" that his son had stuffed into his hands before their retreat from that operation!

Huang Ji smiled and looked at Lin Li. "You're a college student, after all. Don't tell me you were fooled by the old man's empty words?"

When Huang Ji had first encountered Lin Li, he had truly just been an ordinary college student. But after learning about how Lin Li had been scammed, Huang Ji discovered something strange.

Lin Li was a college student. Ordinary tricks should not have been enough to fool him.

After investigating further, Huang Ji discovered that Lin Li had trusted the old swindler so completely because he had witnessed a display of Golden Core Dance!

It was a pale golden ball the size of a mud pellet. Lao Wang held an ancient-looking wooden staff and sucked it up into the air.

Worth mentioning was that the suspended "Golden Core" was not closely attached to the wooden staff. Instead, it remained roughly ten centimeters away!

It could hover above the staff, or hang upside down beneath it. Even Earth's gravity could not pull it away from the staff's vicinity!

Lao Wang had waved the staff around like that, playing with the Golden Core and keeping it neither too close nor too far from the staff as it danced around the staff's surface.

He called it controlling the core with qi.

Huang Ji could not see through the trick from Lin Li's memories alone. Unless he saw the actual object, he could not directly read its information.

But he knew it was definitely not controlling a core with qi. It used the Electromagnetic Force.

The way the Golden Core hovered resembled superconducting magnetic levitation under the Meissner effect. If a magnet were hidden inside the wooden staff, then the old man's performance could indeed be achieved: no matter how it danced, the Golden Core would maintain its distance from the staff without falling.

This was the property of flux pinning. A superconducting block could stably levitate above or below a permanent magnetic track.

But there was a problem. Superconductors required extremely low temperatures to possess such properties. Known room-temperature superconductors did not exist—at least, humanity's technology could not create them.

Lin Li had also considered the possibility of a superconductor, but he had touched the Golden Core himself. It was not cold at all. It was even slightly warm.

Lin Li, who was deeply fascinated by all kinds of strange and unusual things, had naturally become his disciple on the spot.

Huang Ji had also encountered Lin Li by chance. From the man's experience of being swindled, he sensed that something was suspicious. That was why he secretly accompanied Lin Li to the meeting that night and silently observed Lao Wang outside the private room like a passerby.

Thus, he learned that it was neither magic nor sorcery. Inside that Golden Core was a genuine room-temperature superconductor!

It required no low-temperature treatment and remained superconductive anytime and anywhere—an alien creation whose technological sophistication utterly crushed humanity's current technology.

That was how he subsequently learned of the Illuminati and the Messiah.

"Oh, right! Old man, how did you make that Golden Core dance last time?" Lin Li remembered it and, together with Huang Ji, recounted the Golden Core Dance that Lao Wang had once performed for him.

Lao Wang said, "It was just a magic trick."

Huang Ji smiled. "I only knew Xiao Fan. He trusted me, and before he left, he told me everything he knew. He also told me that you were the person closest to him. His greatest dream was to pilot a spaceship built by humanity itself and take you soaring through the stars."

"I never expected that when I met you, I'd find you scamming people in a restaurant."

Lao Wang had an exceptionally thick skin, but even he felt a little embarrassed now.

Messiah meant savior, yet he, a member of this savior organization, had fallen so low that he had to make a living by scamming people on the streets...

He raised his head and stared at Huang Ji, realizing that everything Huang Ji said was true.

Xiao Fan only told me about his dream. Yet he could repeat it word for word. He definitely isn't one of the Illuminati. It seems he truly was a friend Xiao Fan made back home.

Before last year's operation, Xiao Fan returned to the country once. He must have met him around then.

This person is so young, yet he's quite capable. He knows martial arts, observes every detail, and is cautious and resourceful. It would be perfectly understandable for Xiao Fan to want to recruit him and tell him all this.

After several thoughts crossed Lao Wang's mind, he said, "Xiao Fan had high standards. He looked down on ordinary people. If he acknowledged you as a friend, then you must possess abilities beyond those of ordinary people!"

Huang Ji laughed. "Huh? He had high standards? He opened his mouth and spouted dirty jokes. Not long after I met him, he told me about how you taught him to mix urine with mud when he was little. I didn't see where he was so proud and arrogant."

Lao Wang's mouth twitched, and he hurriedly said, "That brat was talking nonsense. I never taught him that!"

After saying that, he finally let down all his guard against Huang Ji and believed that he truly was his son's friend.