Concealing the Risks to Kill by Another's Hand, the Liaison Office Chief Traces the Records
The air in the White Bone Hall was heavy with quiet.
Lynn's stylus hovered over the frontline stalemate briefing submitted by the Stability Maintenance Office, hesitating to put it down.
The briefing was short and restrained, but it conveyed a sense of helpless anxiety. Hela's Undead Fleet, along with her own Death Authority, was firmly blocked outside the "XN-734" Timeline by an invisible wall.
Unable to advance, and unable to find a legitimate reason to use force.
The checks and balances framework of the "Special Task Force" he had painstakingly built has begun to crack due to this sudden resistance. Pressure is now flowing back from the distant front lines, through unseen bureaucratic channels, back to his desk as Director.
Lynn put down his pen and leaned back in the large chair.
TVA's "compensation" has been strange from the start. First, there was that inexplicable ancient distress signal, and now there's this Mind Stone shield that can resist the Death Force.
Too many coincidences mean they are no longer coincidences.
He pressed the Internal Communicator.
"Director Gwen Stacy, come to my office."
A minute later, there was a knock on the office door. Gwen Stacy walked in, still holding her Data Pad, her expression as calm as ever, only her brows were more furrowed than usual.
"Director, a communication just came from the front lines at Erebus-2. Director Hela is asking if we can apply for an upgrade to the level of authority for armed probing."
"Rejected." Lynn answered without hesitation.
He looked at Gwen Stacy and calmly assigned her the new task.
"The Liaison Office will immediately establish an internal review team, and you will personally lead it."
Gwen Stacy's gaze flickered slightly.
"The subject of the review is all the original files related to the 'XN-734' Timeline, transferred from the TVA."
Lynn emphasized her words.
"I'm talking about everything. This includes, but is not limited to, archived underlying data logs, energy overflow records from the pruning process, and fragmented files marked as corrupted or irrelevant. Not a single byte should be overlooked."
Gwen Stacy didn't ask why, she just nodded.
Within the system, the phrase "reviewing original case files" itself represents the highest level of distrust. It implies that all seemingly impressive official reports may be problematic.
"Yes, I'll take care of it right away."
Gwen Stacy turned and left, walking faster than she had come.
Negative Zone Management Committee, S-3 Central Data Archive.
The massive server array hummed softly, and the air was filled with the distinctive cool scent of coolant. Gwen Stacy stood intently before the visualization screen displaying the torrent of data.
The Liaison Office review team she led had been working here for eleven consecutive hours.
The case files transferred by TVA amounted to thousands of terabytes. Ninety-nine percent of them were worthless junk information generated during the trimming process. The difficulty of finding a deliberately hidden needle in this vast ocean of data is unimaginable.
"Director, the data screening for Area A and Area B is complete. No keywords related to ' Mind Stone energy' or ' Mutants ' were found," a Technician reported, rubbing his sore eyes.
"The redundant log comparison in Area C is also complete. Except for a few unreadable damaged sectors, everything is normal."
A sense of exhaustion permeated the entire review team.
Gwen Stacy's gaze remained fixed on a separate folder in the center of the light screen, labeled "Pending Destruction - Formatting Contamination." This folder was very small, less than 1GB in size. According to TVA's archiving regulations, such files were usually invalid data damaged by energy Impact during the trimming process and would be cleaned up periodically.
It was so inconspicuous that it was overlooked by everyone during the previous receiving process.
"Retrieve the metadata for this folder," Gwen Stacy commanded.
Lines of code scrolled rapidly across the screen.
"Director, nothing special. The creation time matches the timestamp of the pruning operation, and the source is TVA's ' Final Adjudication Tribunal,' indicating extremely high authority."
Gwen Stacy's gaze fell on the word "Adjudication Tribunal".
"Cross-compare its underlying signature with the ' Ke'er Incident ' files we handled previously, as well as all the official documents sent by TVA."
The Technician was somewhat puzzled, but he immediately carried out the order.
A few seconds later, a bright red warning box popped up on the screen.
"Match found!" the Technician's voice suddenly rose. "The underlying encrypted signature of this folder is inconsistent with other files in the ' Adjudication Tribunal.' However... it shares more than 70% overlap in signature source with another sealed memo about the ' X-Men ' Timeline deep within the TVA archives!"
The air inside the archives seemed to freeze instantly.
Gwen Stacy's heart skipped a beat.
"Force decryption, dig out what's inside."
At the command, several top Technician immediately began operations. The complex decryption program ran rapidly on the light screen, like countless keys trying to unlock a long-sealed lock.
Ten minutes later, with a crisp unlocking tone, the folder was opened.
There was no lengthy report inside, only a fragmented Star Map and a three-second-long excerpt of an energy fluctuation pattern.
The coordinates of the Star Map correspond to the "XN-734" Timeline.
Every senior Technician present recognized that energy diagram. It represented one of the most primal, violent, and unsolvable forces in the universe.
In the Management Committee's internal database, its code name is "Phoenix".
Below the diagram is a brief note, like a cold record left by Judge.
[Reason for elimination: A host for the ' Phoenix Force ' has emerged in the target Timeline, and it has completely spiraled out of control, with a threat level assessed as ' Multiverse level'. The ' Final Adjudication ' is being executed, resulting in its complete elimination.]
[Follow-up suggestion: This Timeline debris possesses extremely high energy absorption and deceptive properties, and can be used as a high-value 'consumable' to deal with potential future external threats of similar magnitude.]
The truth was laid bare before everyone.
There was absolutely no "compensation".
This was, from beginning to end, a meticulously planned political conspiracy.
TVA packaged a dangerous world, destroyed by the rampage of the "Phoenix Force" and resembling a nuclear waste dump, as a harmless gift and presented it to the Negative Zone.
They want to use this sleeping "Phoenix," which could awaken at any moment, to deplete the Management Committee's core high-end combat capabilities.
This was a case of using someone else to do the dirty work.
Hela and her invincible Undead Fleet were the first knife to be handed out.
Gwen Stacy felt a chill run down her spine. She could even imagine that if Hela suffered setbacks on the front lines, the impatient Wanda might resort to Chaos Magic. And that stimulation from another top-tier energy would be the perfect key to awakening the Phoenix.
TVA's schemes were meticulously planned, each step precise and deadly.
Gwen Stacy a deep breath, suppressing the shock in her heart. She immediately grabbed the Internal Communicator on the table, ready to report this earth-shattering discovery to Lynn as soon as possible.
However, her finger had just touched the Communicator's button.
A sharp, urgent, highest-level alarm suddenly blared throughout the entire data archive.
That was an urgent communication request from the Delta-1 Forward Observation Station; the signal bypassed all intermediate levels and forced its way in with the highest priority.
On the screen, a technical supervisor's face was contorted with extreme terror, and he was almost screaming as he reported.
"Emergency alert! Emergency alert!"
"The Minister of the Department of Technology, without authorization, arbitrarily invoked the ' Chaos Matrix ' to launch a high-frequency energy Impact on the shield of the 'XN-734' Timeline!"
"Target shield core... supercritical reaction detected!"
"Oh my god... it... it's awake!"