The Price of a Cheat

Ye Qingluan's words stayed with Lin Yuan all night.

It was not because he was nervous. ZAFT's appearance had been entirely within his expectations. What truly kept him awake was what he discovered when he reviewed the technology tree again after the communication ended.

At two in the morning, in the independent office area on the third underground level of the Special Equipment Bureau, Lin Yuan sat beneath the only lit desk lamp, the terminal screen before him dark.

He closed his eyes and let his consciousness sink into the vast engineering blueprint library within his mind.

Taogang Alloy. The smelting process, casting standards, and industrial mass-production parameters were all complete.

Explosive Warhead System. The warhead structure, propellant ratios, and rifling design were all complete.

Plasma Reactor. The foundational principles, miniaturization plans, and MS-level adaptation framework were all complete.

Up to this point, everything was normal.

But when he tried to open the higher-level templates, the problem appeared.

The Void Shield technical framework was complete, but the core parameter section for large-scale matrix networking protocols was blank.

The Machine Soul AI's single-unit support modules were all present, but the advanced architecture involving multi-unit coordinated judgment and autonomous learning had been wiped away page after page, leaving only the table-of-contents headings.

Lin Yuan opened his eyes.

The desk lamp's halo cast his shadow across the wall, stretching it long.

He picked up a pen from the desk and wrote three lines on a blank sheet of paper:

Void Shield matrix protocol missing.

Machine Soul AI advanced architecture missing.

Large warship energy coupling missing.

Three missing sections. All of them were concentrated at the technological level of "surpassing individual-unit combat and entering systematized warfare."

What did that mean?

It meant the technology tree in his hands could allow East Asia to build a heavily armed unit that crushed any existing MS on its own, triple a battleship's firepower, and push armor defense an entire era beyond Phase-Shift Armor.

But if they wanted to build a truly systematized army and fleet capable of networked operations, AI-coordinated command, and full-area Void Shield coverage, he would have to rely on East Asia's own engineers to fill those blanks.

Lin Yuan set down his pen and leaned back in his chair.

The cheat had given him direction and a starting point, but not an endpoint.

East Asia had to walk the road in between on its own.

Footsteps sounded in the corridor.

Sheng Lan appeared at the doorway, carrying a cup of tea that had already gone cold.

"Director, you've been here for four hours."

"Come in."

Sheng Lan walked in and placed the teacup at the corner of the desk. Her gaze swept over the sheet of paper, but she did not linger on it.

"There's something I need to discuss with you." Lin Yuan got straight to the point.

"Please go ahead."

"The 811 Institute's staffing has been approved, but you know the state of East Asia's military-industrial R&D system. Materials are under the Materials Bureau, energy under the Power Institute, ammunition under the Ordnance Industry Group, and control systems under the Electronics Research Institute. Five departments, five separate leadership teams, separate budgets, separate technical routes."

Sheng Lan nodded. "Fragmented administration, everyone governing their own territory. It's an old problem."

"I want to break it." Lin Yuan tapped the desk with his fingers. "The 811 Institute needs a cross-disciplinary core team. Materials, energy, weapons, control, and structural design all gathered under one roof, with unified coordination and a unified goal."

"Draw personnel from the existing departments?"

"Yes."

"Director, this will touch a lot of people's turf." Sheng Lan's tone was even, but her wording was precise. "Director Chen of the Materials Bureau and President Zhao of the Ordnance Industry Group both hold seats on the National Defense Committee. Behind the Power Institute stands the capital of East Asia's power sector—"

"I know."

"Then how do you intend to pull them over? Forced transfer orders, or negotiated secondments?"

"Second them first, in the name of project cooperation. Once results come out, transfer them into permanent positions." Lin Yuan took a printed form from the drawer. "This is the first batch of personnel I drafted. Seventeen people, covering all five fields."

Sheng Lan accepted it and scanned it line by line.

"Xu Yanqiu has already agreed verbally," Lin Yuan added. "He called me this morning and said the verification data for the Taogang molecular structure formula had come in. The preliminary conclusion is that it's feasible. He now needs an industrial-grade vacuum hot-press furnace and rare-earth alloy materials."

"Then the materials team can begin." Sheng Lan flipped to the next page. "But Liu Yan from the power team had an accident in the plasma laboratory last year. He's still under medical observation."

"His brain is fine. Let him participate as a consultant. He won't be required to take lab shifts."

"On the control systems side, Zhou Boyuan." Sheng Lan paused. "He is the head of AI research at the Electronics Research Institute. Moving him will be highly sensitive."

"I'll talk to him personally."

Sheng Lan closed the list, her gaze settling on Lin Yuan's face.

"Director, I prepared a risk assessment. I wanted to report it to you in person today."

"Go on."

She took a folded A4 sheet from the inner pocket of her uniform, unfolded it, and laid it on the desk.

"Forcibly integrating the technical backbones of five departments will create three short-term risks."

She pointed to the first item with the tip of her pen. "First, the departments losing personnel will complain to the National Defense Committee that their resources are being diverted. Director Luo Qiming has always pushed for East Asia to maintain the joint military technological system. He will use this opportunity to oppose the 811 Institute's independent path."

"Second."

"The Atlantic Federation has a network of commercial agents within East Asia's military-industrial system. Once they discover that East Asia is secretly developing an independent MS project, a technology blockade order will be implemented within a month. Some of Taogang's rare-earth raw materials must be purchased through the international market."

"Third."

"At the parliamentary level, this year is the defense budget review year. The compromise faction will freeze the 811 Institute's funding on the grounds of budget overruns."

She set down her pen and looked at Lin Yuan.

"Of these three risks, if even one is mishandled, the 811 Institute will be strangled in the cradle before it produces any results."

Lin Yuan did not respond immediately.

He reached over, took Sheng Lan's sheet of paper, studied it for more than ten seconds, then picked up a signing pen and wrote four words in the blank space.

Prepare to clear the field.

Sheng Lan stared at those words.

"Director, what does 'clear the field' mean?"

"I need a complete relationship map of Luo Qiming and his people. His dealings with Atlantic Federation arms dealers, his funding chains with the parliamentary business faction, the kickbacks in joint military technology cooperation projects—everything that can be found. Put it on my desk within a month."

Sheng Lan did not answer at once.

"This is counterintelligence work," she said. "I can do it, but I'll need to use the Intelligence Bureau's internal oversight authority."

"Sign it with your executive director authority and route it through the Special Equipment Bureau's classified channel."

"If Luo Qiming notices—"

"He won't." Lin Yuan pushed the sheet back to her. "Because he's busy with something else right now."

"What?"

"The Spark Project's proposal will be sent to the National Defense Committee this afternoon. Naturally, it will be a sanitized version. Luo Qiming will only see an 'overseas technology cooperation assessment project.' But with his sensitivity, he'll spend at least a week figuring out what the project is actually doing."

"A diversion."

"Yes." Lin Yuan rose to his feet and picked up the access card on the desk. "A week is enough for you to establish a preliminary relationship map. By the time the Spark data comes back, I'll have enough leverage in hand. Then it won't be me dealing with Luo Qiming. The East Asian Defense Ministry itself will clear him out."

Sheng Lan folded the sheet and tucked it into her inner pocket.

"I'll begin today."

"Sheng Lan."

"Yes."

"There's something I'll tell you now." Lin Yuan walked to the door, his hand resting on the handle without looking back. "The road East Asia will walk over the next six months will take it farther than it has gone in the past thirty years. Along the way, many people will be offended, and many orders will be shattered. If you think this road is too dangerous, you can still leave now."

Sheng Lan stood where she was, the heels of her military boots pressed tightly together.

"When my father died, East Asia could not even obtain an official investigation report. The Atlantic Federation stamped his life away with three pages of paperwork."

Her voice did not tremble. Every word was bitten off with perfect clarity.

"Too dangerous?" she said. "What's terrifying is if it isn't dangerous enough."