"An old acquaintance?"
At those words, Wei Yanchi thought of the demon he had torn apart in the History Instance until only its tail remained. Seeing the faint, mocking smile on Mr. Xie De's lips, he seemed to realize who this supposed old acquaintance was.
It was the one who kept getting tangled up with Mr. Xie De.
Wei Yanchi frowned. "The Illuminati couldn't even keep watch over a Demon Tail?"
"They said someone broke in and caused it," Xie De said casually. "Any ideas?"
"Broke in?"
Wei Yanchi pressed his lips together and laid out his analysis.
"The Instance Faction obtained Immortal Mountain. There's no keeping that under wraps, so the Laboratory and the Club must have found out right away. But both sides have been oddly noncommittal. Neither is in a hurry to act or negotiate. I suspect the two organizations are after something bigger."
"Both organizations wield enormous power. The Laboratory, especially, practically controls the lifeblood of the Western economy, while the Club has won popular support in the Otherworld by backing independent people with special abilities. Their recent research topics have been things like mutation, cloning, immortality, supercomputers, digital life, holographic imaging..."
"If they're working together now, that can only mean they've run into a problem so difficult they have to cooperate to solve it, or that cooperation is the only way to maximize their gains."
"I've examined their recent exhibits and the proposals they abandoned. After some speculation and consideration, I think what they want to research is-time."
"Time research is incredibly reckless. Maybe someone with a conscience emerged among them? Someone wanted to stop them, so they sabotaged things at this critical moment."
Another enormous heap of analysis.
Xie De felt the urge to smoke. Lowering his gaze, he recalled the information on the