Following the trail into a deeper investigation: the staggering darkness of cross-dimensional dirty money

The meeting has ended.

The meeting wasn't officially adjourned, but everyone knew that this so-called meeting was over.

Ravonna Renslayer didn't say another word. She stood up, her movements steady and devoid of any emotional fluctuation, as if the document that had just rendered all her offensive efforts futile was merely an insignificant meeting summary.

The Technician behind her quickly retracted the light screen, lowered his head, and dared not breathe.

Ravonna didn't pause at all as she passed Gwen Stacy.

As she passed by Hela, she could feel that cold, mocking gaze piercing her back like needles.

She ignored it.

The Alloy Door slid open silently and closed silently behind her.

Inside the door, Hela snorted coldly, her gaze towards Gwen Stacy still carrying a hint of confusion. "Just like that, she's gone?"

"Otherwise, Director Hela?" Gwen Stacy put away the Data Pad in front of her, her voice flat. "The Inspection Group's meeting should naturally end after the situation is reported."

"Rules." Hela squeezed out the word through gritted teeth, stood up, stopped looking at anyone, and walked straight out.

Wanda's gaze shifted from the closed door to Gwen Stacy profile, lost in thought.

Back at the Inspection Group's temporary Residence, a standardized metal room without any unnecessary decorations.

Ravonna said to the Technician behind her, "Get out. No one is to approach within thirty meters of this room without my order."

"Yes, Your Excellency Observer." The Technician, feeling as if granted a pardon, bowed and withdrew.

The door closed again.

She was left alone in the room.

The hard, calm mask that had been on her face just moments before shattered silently in that instant. She walked to the center of the room and stood there for a long time, motionless.

humiliation.

Utter humiliation.

She was like a clever hunter who set out with carefully prepared traps and hounds, only to find that the prey she was chasing had a royal exemption badge on its body.

And he himself became the biggest joke in the entire hunting ground.

But Ravonna was not one to be defeated by humiliation. Her anger and embarrassment lasted only a short time before being replaced by a deeper, colder suspicion.

That document is genuine.

That old TVA seal is also genuine.

The problem is that this "Resolution 003," jointly filed with Negative Zone, simply doesn't exist in the TVA Central Database, which she has the authority to access.

what does that mean?

This means that from the very beginning, this was a shady deal—a deal deliberately erased from official records, a deal that couldn't be brought to the light of day.

She was tricked. Not by Negative Zone, but by certain people within TVA.

She took a deep breath and walked to the control panel in the corner of the room. This wasn't a device provided by the Negative Zone, but rather Personal Terminal with the Highest Encryption that she had brought from TVA.

She sat down, her fingers hovering briefly over the cold, hard metal keyboard before beginning to type rapidly.

A pale blue light screen unfolded, and countless Data Stream cascaded down. Instead of accessing the database through the conventional path, she initiated a Deep Link Protocol, directly connecting to TVA's Low-Level Log Server. This was an extremely dangerous operation; each access would leave an indelible timestamp bound to her personal key.

But she couldn't care less.

She needed to figure out exactly what kind of quagmire she had stepped into.

Her first search query was neither "Resolution 003" nor Negative Zone.

Instead, it's "Ke'er".

She wanted to follow this vine and find the melon behind it.

Ke'er's file was instantly accessed. Public and encrypted information unfolded layer by layer: resume, mission reports, evaluations... everything was almost identical to the one Gwen Stacy had provided.

Ravonna patiently flipped through the pages, like a meticulous auditor, not overlooking a single number or punctuation mark.

Her gaze finally settled on a financial Audit Report issued after Ke'er was transferred to the Battleworld Foreign Affairs Office.

The report was brief, consisting of only a few words. The conclusion was that the Battleworld had incurred a bad debt of up to 300 billion Standard Energy Unit during a certain period, which had been written off and classified as "asset loss caused by force majeure."

Three hundred billion.

A figure that could bankrupt any small civilization was simply wiped out with a stroke of the pen.

Ravonna's pupils contracted slightly.

She immediately retrieved all the raw energy flow data related to this bad debt. The data was incomplete; the records at the terminal nodes had been forcibly and physically destroyed.

This is a standard high-level method for disposing of stolen goods.

Ravonna did not give up. Instead, she retrieved the energy fluctuation records of the entire Multiverse black gold market under TVA's monitoring during the same time period. This was a task so massive as to be almost impossible to complete, with a data volume comparable to cosmic dust.

However, she did not conduct an indiscriminate search.

She entered the second keyword.

"Hydra".

The terminal began performing data hedging and model matching at an almost frantic pace.

The only sound in the room was the low hum of the Mainframe's fan.

Time passed second by second.

Ravonna's back was completely against the chair back, her eyes fixed on the screen.

Finally, amidst the Chaos sea of data, a red alert popped up.

Match successful.

Ravonna sat bolt upright.

On the screen, two energy flow curves were placed side by side. One was from the bad debt that had been written off in the Battleworld. Although the terminal data was destroyed, the energy spectrum characteristics that escaped during its transmission path were captured.

The other one comes from a mysterious transaction completed by the remnants of Hydra on a black market in a Border Dimension during that period, with a perfectly matching amount.

The spectral characteristics of the two curves show a similarity of up to 99.9%.

The money was not "lost" at all.

It simply changed its name, flowing from TVA's accounts into Hydra's pockets.

TVA executives are funding Hydra.

This conclusion struck Ravonna like a thunderbolt.

That "inspection-free endorsement"...

Ke'er, this so-called "tainted witness"...

Everything is connected.

Ke'er wasn't a defector at all; he was a front man planted in the Battleworld by TVA executives to conduct illicit transactions with Hydra! The so-called "Amnesty Resolution" and "exemption from inspection" were just to give this front man a legal veneer! If things came to light, they could use "historical issues" as an excuse.

And myself...

My aggressive inspection this time was like that of a fool kept in the dark, using a magnifying glass to examine the authenticity of a counterfeit.

She wasn't checking the accounts for Negative Zone.

What she investigated was the shady business of TVA's top management.

She stumbled headlong into an absolute no-go zone.

Ravonna felt a chill run down her spine and through her limbs. She abruptly shut down the terminal, and the room fell into a deathly silence.

The light screen disappeared, leaving only her face, which appeared exceptionally pale in the darkness.

The information gap underwent a dramatic reversal at this moment.

She possesses shocking inside information that could completely reshuffle the highest levels of TVA.

But this cover-up wasn't her achievement; it was her death warrant.

She knew very well that those who dared to make deals with Hydra would never allow a "Inspection Group Leader" who knew the secret to return to TVA alive.

What should she do?

Risking one's life to report to a higher-ups? But who would one report to? Who can guarantee that the person in a higher position isn't also a participant in this illicit money deal?

She was caught in a huge, invisible political vortex. To go forward meant certain death. To retreat meant utter ruin.