Truth Company, Veil Valetti's Request

Fifty years ago, the "Truth Company" rose to become one of the newest giant corporations in the "City That Never Sleeps" through a new alchemical technology called "Emotion Conversion".

"Emotion Energy" has gradually become the most commonly used energy source in the entire "City That Never Sleeps".

Initially, the technique of "Emotion Conversion" was very simple, only able to extract human "joy" and "sadness".

The "Truth Company" created one emotion collector after another and provided the citizens of the "City That Never Sleeps" with a plethora of entertainment products.

Soon, the technology advanced rapidly, and more and more "emotions" could be transformed, with increasingly sophisticated extraction techniques.

The extracted "emotions" have been found to be not only used as "fuel," but also as various materials to create machinery and architecture.

Meanwhile, the ever-expanding "Truth Company" began to conduct more in-depth experiments that were previously forbidden.

For example...

An emotion called "fear" was developed, resulting in a substance called "Oil of Fear".

This is the most "versatile" kind of emotional creation; it is the most efficient fuel, and as a raw material, it can be transformed into almost any "matter".

It can even disguise itself as "life".

This seems to confirm that statement.

Fear is the most instinctive and primal emotion deep within the human soul.

However, precisely because of this, "fear" is also the most difficult to extract and store; a slight misstep can drive a person to madness or even death.

Moreover, this fear, solidified into Entities, even possesses another function that other materials do not have...

It can "store souls".

It's less about "storage" and more about "imprisonment."

The principle behind this "Oil of Fear" being able to masquerade as life is that it can even perfectly simulate human consciousness.

Therefore, although the two other corporate oligarchs in "City That Never Sleeps" joined forces for the first time to suppress "Truth Company," forcing "Truth Company" to promise to abandon the development of "Oil of Fear."

But...

How could I possibly give up?

With such an enticing technology and limitless possibilities, Truth Company could never give it up.

Then...

Outside the "City That Never Sleeps," outside the Federation, in the endless "Great Wilderness," in those backward human settlements, the "Truth Company" began secretly building experimental bases.

"Winter Mountain" is one of them.

There used to be several human settlements in this area that relied on hunting for a living.

The "Truth Company" has its eyes on them.

After all, most of the inhabitants of the Great Wilderness are foolish and short-sighted.

Therefore, several senior executives and A-Class researchers from Truth Company built a complete "Oil of Fear" conversion device at the foot of Winter Mountain, which is always covered by snow and wind, next to the town, and lied to the outside world that it was an ordinary Emotion Conversion device.

Then, they disguised themselves as Noble and tricked the townspeople into believing that there was a precious resource in the mountains called "Black Gold Oil" that they could exchange for money.

The townspeople, believing the rumors, entered the area. The "Truth Company" executives, through the "Snow Monster Rumor" they had spread beforehand and the company's unique "Dream Manufacturing Device," terrified those who had come to Winter Mountain to try their luck in treasure Treasure Hunt. They provided a large amount of "fear" and refined a large amount of Oil of Fear.

This was the plan known as "Chate".

But...

Even the executives hadn't anticipated that while the "Oil of Fear" was a near-omnipotent ingredient, it had a fatal flaw that no one had discovered before due to insufficient data.

It has a strong tendency to destroy life and devour souls!

The ability to "store souls" is not a characteristic of this animal, but rather a kind of "instinct"!

Although the Oil of Fear is not alive, it is a creation derived from human emotions, yet it exhibits patterns that are almost like those of life.

The initial "fright" created fear, only driving the poor, innocent townspeople mad with dread.

But then, the amount of the Oil of Fear kept accumulating... and the situation began to get out of control.

These tangible fears even began to affect the operation of the instruments themselves.

Among those who were frightened...

Victims began to appear who died in their sleep, or were scared to death.

And the souls of those people were also taken by the Oil of Fear —and the sight of these dead souls appearing from time to time only deepened the fear of others who entered Winter Mountain!

All of this happened so fast, it was all done in just a few days.

So much so that even the Senior Researcher and executives of "Truth Company" didn't realize what was happening.

They simply considered it all as "equipment malfunction" and focused on "how to fix the problem" by making technical adjustments.

Thus, this arrogance cost these "culprits" dearly—in a dream, they too were forever left behind in the base beneath the Snow Mountain.

However, this "evil begets evil" cannot be considered a good thing.

Because of the loss of maintenance personnel, the machine eventually malfunctioned and leaked—all the emotions and the souls of the devoured people assimilated, forming the "Oil of Fear"—or, a monster that could be called "Chate"—that possessed a certain level of consciousness and could almost control the entire Winter Mountain.

This "monster," for the purpose of self-replication, continuously releases a portion of the Oil of Fear onto the surface, maintaining the "hoax" previously fabricated by the Truth Company to lure innocent people to Winter Mountain.

It's clever enough to even allow a small number of people to leave safely with the Oil of Fear —even without buyers, the "black oil"—a small amount of which can sustain someone through an entire winter—is enough to attract many more people to this place.

This cycle repeated itself for several years, Oil of Fear continued to grow stronger.

Given time, it may eventually grow to a point where it is completely out of control!

Above the underground steps, Will Valetti, formed from the Oil of Fear —Oil of Fear his soul and consciousness trapped within it—tells Lin Yu and Sherlock the "Truth" about Winter Mountain.

"What a story in the style of the 'Truth Company'," Sherlock remarked. "No wonder we haven't seen any real monsters along the way."

Lin Yu nodded slightly.

Therefore, it seems the Rank Advancement Mission is trying to uncover the "scam" and the "Liar"...

This should correspond to the "Chate" project and the entire "Truth Company".

Only...

Lin Yu still had questions.

He looked at Will Valetti in front of him and asked.

"Why did you tell us all this and lead me here?"

Will Valetti looked at Lin Yu and spoke with a burning gaze.

"I told you...you are very smart, the smartest person I have ever met who has come to Winter Mountain."

"So, I think you have a chance to 'end' all of this!"