What?! Absolutely Impossible!

After successfully deleting the login and operation records, Su Yuan felt no particular stir in his thoughts.

The last leader of the assassins had indeed been exceptionally cautious.

He had also chosen the perfect moment to use his trump card, the Flame Orb.

It had blown a gap straight through the South Sea Security Bureau's carefully arranged blockade.

The opening led toward South Sea City, and the assassin leader had been able to slip into the city as quickly as possible.

Once there, he was like a fish returning to the sea.

And even after escaping, the assassin leader hadn't let his guard down.

He'd made a loop around the city and confirmed he wasn't being followed.

Only then had he headed for the Truth Society's covert contact point.

He had displayed the qualities of an experienced international assassin to the fullest.

Unfortunately, the assassin leader was up against Su Yuan.

All his caution, care, and schemes were child's play before Su Yuan. He could see through them at a glance.

Su Yuan didn't need to follow the assassin leader at all. He only had to arrange an ambush at the destination the man was about to head for.

And so,

the assassin leader's fate had been sealed.

As soon as he entered Tongxin Hotel, the contact point, he was swiftly subdued by the Security Bureau's waiting operatives.

"The Truth Society doesn't care much about Qiao Mingyuan."

Su Yuan thought to himself.

At most, Qiao Mingyuan was a promising newcomer in the field of wireless communications.

As for his professional ranking? There was no such ranking in the real world. Su Yuan had learned Qiao Mingyuan's true professional standing through the Grey Mirror.

If the Truth Society had truly valued Qiao Mingyuan, it wouldn't have sent only these international assassins after him.

Nor would it have let Qiao Mingyuan travel all the way from across the ocean to the Xia Kingdom.

South Sea Island, Tongxin Hotel.

"Captain, we've got him."

Chen Hai was standing outside the hotel when someone soon came out and quietly reported to him.

"Got it."

Chen Hai was completely stunned.

He'd already anticipated this beforehand, but even so, watching the assassin leader—who'd only just managed to escape—stride straight into Tongxin Hotel, a veritable death trap, without even looking back still felt like a dream.

The enemy had walked right into their hands that easily?

"Captain, this hotel should be a base for foreign forces," his subordinate continued.

"Mm." Chen Hai nodded.

That didn't surprise him. If it weren't a base, the assassin leader wouldn't have come here on his own.

The real question was, how had the person who'd alerted them known this hotel was a base? And how had they been so certain the assassin leader would come here?

"That mysterious person..." The more Chen Hai thought about it, the more unnerved he became.

From the moment the mysterious person had hacked into the computers, every move the assassin team made had been calculated. In the end, even the assassin leader's destination had been predicted in advance.

If he ever made an enemy of someone like that, he could be sold out and still end up counting the money for them.

And it wasn't just their ability to plan. They also had the hacking skills to infiltrate the Security Bureau's network without a trace...

Half an hour later,

the South Sea Island Security Bureau hastily convened a meeting of its senior officials.

Every member of the bureau's Network Security Department was present.

It wasn't only the South Sea Island Network Security Department, either. Network security leaders from other cities, even the Imperial Capital, joined by video conference.

"So you're saying someone broke into our bureau's network earlier? The firewall didn't block them at all, and they took control of your computer with ease? You couldn't fight back at any point?"

Zhao Yushan, head of the South Sea Island Network Security Department, stared at Lu Tang in disbelief.

Lu Tang was the capable, middle-aged woman who had taken part in capturing the Black assassin team. Now, she said with difficulty, "Yes, that's exactly what happened. My computer was taken over as soon as they broke in..."

Her computer was connected to the Security Bureau's network, and the two shared a firewall. If the former had been breached, that meant the Security Bureau's network had been breached as well.

"Impossible! Absolutely impossible!"

Zhao Yushan shot to his feet. "The bureau's firewall is connected to the national firewall. How could anyone break in? And do it in an instant?"

Everyone else at the meeting fell silent. Even those who knew little about network technology understood what it meant to be connected to the national firewall.

Captain Chen Hai knows about this too," Lu Tang said.

"Leaders, that's exactly what happened..."

Chen Hai felt the pressure as well. He quickly stood and explained everything he knew.

The meeting fell silent again.

Zhao Yushan, in particular, lowered his head and repeatedly checked the records.

Several minutes later, the Security Bureau's director finally spoke. "Zhao Yushan, was the bureau's firewall ever breached?"

"Director, I haven't found any signs of a breach. I haven't found any signs that Lu Tang's computer was breached, either..." Zhao Yushan said with a frown.

"But Little Lu's computer really was taken over for a while," the Security Bureau director said.

Given Lu Tang's position, she had no reason to make a joke like this. Besides, Chen Hai could confirm it.

There was practically no chance she was lying.

Magic City, Villa 66.

Su Yuan lounged leisurely on the sofa.

Meanwhile, deep in his sea of consciousness, he continued questioning the Grey Mirror.

"The reactions of the various parties involved in this incident."

Su Yuan made the inquiry in his mind. After refining the Grey Mirror, he could not only store it in his sea of consciousness, but also question it mentally.

There was no need to worry about anyone else hearing him.

The gray surface of the mirror shimmered and churned, and soon a line of text after another appeared.

[The South Sea Security Bureau Network Security Department joined with network security departments from various regions to check their firewalls repeatedly. In the end, they found no traces of any breach. They classified this traceless, silent "intrusion" as a Network Ghost Incident and recorded it.]

[The South Sea Security Bureau eventually identified the Black assassins' backer as the Truth Society. Their target had been "Qiao Mingyuan," who had fled to the Xia Kingdom. The head of the South Sea Security Bureau tried to find "Qiao Mingyuan," but ultimately came up empty and had to give up.]

"A Network Ghost Incident?" Su Yuan shook his head slightly.

Those network security department heads probably wouldn't have guessed even if they were beaten to death that the so-called "intrusion" had been carried out by "one of their own."

Besides, Su Yuan had followed the Grey Mirror's instructions and deleted every trace afterward. There was no way to retrace or restore them.

The gray surface of the mirror continued to shimmer and churn as more text appeared.

[Two days later, the Truth Society learned that the attempt to hunt down "Qiao Mingyuan" had failed and all the assassins had been captured. Believing that the Xia Kingdom had interfered, they decided to leave the matter alone. It wasn't worth provoking the Xia Kingdom over one "Qiao Mingyuan." With "The Lord" about to descend, there was no need to invite complications.]

Reading the Truth Society's reaction in the Grey Mirror, a trace of disdain appeared at the corner of Su Yuan's mouth. "A bunch of fools."