Baron Coleman's Past

For Fu Luo, he had gradually begun to get used to the feeling of having his opinions ignored.

Looking at Lin Yu, Coleman, and Pankto, Fu Luo sighed.

"Thanks to your mother, fine, stay if you want."

He leaned back against the carriage wall, then sighed, "So... there must have been one or two 'wrongful convictions' that happened to you, right?"

Baron Coleman nodded. "Of course, if you're talking about wrongful convictions, then both Pankto and I do indeed have a long-standing injustice to bear."

Pankto was taken aback. "Me? I have one too?"

"I've really forgotten so many things."

Pankto rubbed his temples, looking pained, and said.

"Speaking of grievances... could it be that the assassination attempt on the President that Truth Company wasn't carried out by you two?"

Lin Yu asked.

Baron Coleman denied Lin Yu's question, "No, it was indeed the two of us who did it. Rather, the reason I was determined to assassinate the President was because of the injustice I was carrying."

He looked at Fu Luo.

"No one who has been falsely accused doesn't want their reputation to be proven clear. Since you've come here because of the injustice done to me, I'll tell you..."

Baron Coleman cleared his throat and then spoke.

"Eight years ago, shortly after I was promoted to head of Independent Laboratory No. 7 in the R&D department of Truth Company and obtained A-2 level clearance, I discovered some loopholes in the laboratory's log files—there were discrepancies between the financial records and the actual project payments."

"At first, I thought it was just a case of misappropriation of funds by the former supervisor or some researchers in the lab, but then I realized something was wrong."

"Because if it were misappropriation of funds... everyone who enters the lab is smart, they shouldn't leave any flaws that I can spot at a glance, especially since my entry into Lab 7 was a compliant transfer and promotion—which means that before I became the head of this lab, the previous head and others who were qualified to manipulate project funds had at least half a month to balance the books and make everything look perfect."

"So, at that time, I considered two possibilities."

"One reason is that someone deliberately left this loophole, wanting to recruit me, the new manager, into their group. As long as I don't report it, they will contact me."

"Moreover, since the flaws are so obvious, it means they have already prepared a 'scapegoat,' and they probably have powerful backers in the company's Board Members and top management—so they are not afraid of my lack of cooperation, and even if I report it, it won't be enough to seriously damage them."

"This was essentially a very 'subtle' invitation... so I decided to accept it."

Upon hearing this, Pankto.

"Jerry Coleman Hunter... how did you become so... so slick a few years after I started Memory you?"

Pankto couldn't help but call out the other person's full name.

Baron Coleman is not a nickname, but a genuine title of respect— the City That Never Sleeps, despite its advanced technology, has a relatively backward system and still has many powerful and Noble families.

His mother came from a distinguished family, and he inherited her title.

His real surname is actually "Hunter".

Because of certain old stories in his family, people who know him rarely call him by his full name.

Pankto called out like that, he was clearly genuinely shocked, and it also implied a lack of approval towards him.

Baron Coleman smiled and addressed his old friend by his full name as well, "Pankto von Valetti, there's no need to be so secretive if you want to call me cunning and shrewd."

"All you need to know is that we were already inseparable friends back then; our personal relationship was almost like that of blood brothers."

"You weren't clean back then either."

Although he wore a smile and spoke calmly, Lin Yu could hear the anger in Coleman's words.

"Me too, I've changed so quickly?"

"Pankto said incredulously."

Fu Luo couldn't help but interject, "No offense, but if you were a good person... you wouldn't have been chosen to undergo the 'Eightfold Calamity' transformation."

"What is that thing?"

Pankto scratched his head, bewildered.

"Alright, stop interrupting, we'll talk about you later," Baron Coleman abruptly cut off the conversation. "Anyway, after waiting for three days and no one coming to see me, I realized... this is actually another situation."

"Someone deliberately left this loophole, but instead of an invitation, it was a hint."

"It's not that someone wants to pull me into some interest group that embezzles public funds; it's that there really is a Ghost Project within Lab 7 that even my A-2 level clearance isn't enough to know about, and that reports directly to someone at the very top."

"So... I went and investigated."

"That's what Baron Coleman said."

"Wow, you actually went and investigated? That's a classic case of curiosity killing the cat."

Fu Luo sighed, "Given my opinion of Truth Company's character, you should have turned a blind eye."

Lin Yu glanced at Fu Luo, wanting to retort, "You dare to say that curiosity killed the cat?"

But after all, "Zhu Ming" and Forpolo were not familiar with each other, so Lin Yu still held back his complaints.

"That's the nature of Truth Company, but I'm not," Baron Coleman said, looking at Lin Yu. "And what I find out next will answer your two questions, madam."

"Why was I spared? And... why did I end up with Pankto and ultimately choose to assassinate President Paris?"

"Because I spent nearly three months figuring out what that Ghost Project that was consuming so much funding actually was—to be precise, it wasn't just a Ghost Project attached to Independent Lab 7."

"3, 6, 7, 8, 12... Of the twelve independent laboratories of Truth Company, I found the same accounting problems as in laboratory number 7 in four of them. Furthermore, 'Ghost Employees' have appeared in laboratories number 3 and 12—several extra B-Class access accounts that do not belong to any researcher I am aware of."

"This is only part of what I've found out."

"If you combine these people and the money, you can piece together a whole new... ghost laboratory."

"A highly influential Board Members member, Decision-making Level, or top-level manager secretly established a laboratory that other senior executives might not have allowed to research some 'taboo' subject."

"When the investigation reached this point, I realized... I seemed to have touched on something terrible, but although I was nervous, I didn't feel like I was on the verge of disaster—after all, I was still thinking that I could join."

Coleman paused for a moment as he spoke.

"But this naive idea stopped after I learned what they were actually researching."

"The projects developed by this ghost laboratory originated from a research project and technology that was ordered to be halted fifty years ago..."

Coleman looked directly at Lin Yu: "That technology originated entirely from an A-Class researcher, Professor Dort."

"Professor Dort had only one prized student in his entire life, whose name was..."

"Vell Valetti."