On the surveillance screen, orange-red flames swallowed the black Lincoln, the firelight leaping as it turned the highway's asphalt into a scalding iron plate.
Sonozaki Ryuubei watched the image with no real expression on his face. He simply picked up the cup of Ceylon black tea beside him, long since gone cold, and took a small sip.
The tea's bitterness slid down his throat like some kind of ritual.
"I wasn't the one who harmed you, Zhang Qi. It was your talent that harmed you—"
He spoke in a low voice, as if addressing the sea of fire on the screen, and yet as if speaking to himself.
After a long while, he set down the teacup. Bone china struck the rosewood desktop with a crisp sound.
His gaze moved away from the screen and swept over the humming equipment inside the underground ruins.
Their design blueprints, their core theoretical framework, had all come from the young man who had already been devoured by the flames.
For instance, this surveillance system based on the "EYES" Memory was a product born from that very theory.
Before this, he had never imagined that Gaia Memories could be used in such a way—
It was precisely because of that talent that their research into the memories of this planet had been able to leap across an entire era.
But unfortunately, he, Sonozaki Ryuubei, disliked things that slipped out of control.
There was only a fine line between genius and madman, and Zhang Qi's talent had already far exceeded the safety line he could draw.
He could tolerate Zhang Qi's harmless little maneuvers only because he still needed that talent.
But now, he no longer did.
He turned around, his leather shoes stepping across the cold floor as he walked, step by step, toward