(*) Conditions for Joining
That night, the ETO's virtual meeting room—still the same dim virtual world, like the void of a chaotic universe—once again burst into commotion.
There was no other reason: the at least thousand ETO elite members who had logged in on time and gathered there had all seen the footage provided by the sophons of yet another failed attack:
The little girl Wallfacer, Annie, and more than a dozen others had calmly found and hidden inside a huge flower cage made of nothing but scrap rebar, just half a minute before the attack. Then they'd escaped unscathed from the magnetic storm plasma bomb that the ETO had worked so hard to obtain from their Lord—the Trisolaran civilization?
And what made it even harder to stomach was that their target seemed to have realized what they were planning in advance. She had even cleared everyone from the plaza beforehand in a way that seemed almost like a "coincidence." So this time, their attack had accomplished nothing beyond scorching the floral decorations at the center of the plaza and killing the brave and fearless ETO warrior who'd carried it out?
Naturally, that result left the ETO remnants who had watched the footage—and considered themselves elites—terrified, furious, and incredulous. Some even began to rant and argue with one another hysterically:
"I don't understand!"
"How did she find out? How did she evacuate the crowd in advance?"
"There's a traitor among us. It has to be!"
"Hah!"
"Who's the traitor? You? Or me?"
"Don't forget, aside from the core leadership, the sophons decided the exact time and location of this attack. None of us knew!"
"Ha!"
"That's impossible!"
"Our magnetic storm plasma bomb took ages to charge. It had as much energy as a large residential complex used in half a