Eous gently pushed open the heavy shop door. Light spilled out from the old video store, falling on Lu Yingheng.
The moment he stepped inside, he saw a man and a woman waiting in the store. They were Wise and Belle.
Lu Yingheng: Looks like these are the protagonists, right? All that trouble wasn't for nothing. I finally got in.
Belle's eyes lit up, and she immediately rushed over, circling Lu Yingheng again and again. Her steps were light, and her playful, mischievous nature was on full display.
She tilted her head back and studied the black-haired young man from head to toe, murmuring under her breath all the while:
"Oh my god, he's so handsome... He's really so handsome."
Her gaze lingered on Lu Yingheng's pale but handsome face, and she made no attempt to hide her amazement.
Wise stood to the side, watching his sister helplessly. Then he turned to Lu Yingheng, a hint of apology in his eyes, and spoke slowly:
"Sorry, my sister is a huge fan of yours. Now that you've lost your memory, you might not remember anything.
"But Belle and I both want you to know that before you lost your memory, you were always a good person."
Lu Yingheng listened quietly and nodded. Then he stood there blankly, his black bangs hanging over half of one eye. He looked lost and helpless, unsure what he should do.
(The author would like to clarify again that the protagonist's amnesia and pitiful state are both an act. Only by doing this can he infiltrate the main storyline.)
Belle grew bolder. She moved to Lu Yingheng's side and reached out to touch his sleeve, rubbing the fabric between her fingertips with brazen curiosity.
Seeing this, Wise sighed softly and spoke up to help him out, while also making arrangements for his stay:
"You can stay at the video store for now. You can rest on the sofa in the little room downstairs.
"During the day, just help us organize the video shelves, and help out at the stall when you have time.
"By the way, can you still read and write?"
Lu Yingheng nodded slowly, indicating that he could still read and write.
"Then from now on, you can communicate with us in writing," Wise said earnestly.
"When you're helping at the stall, make sure to hide your identity. You can't let anyone know you're here.
"I have one more question. Do you still remember which factions joined forces to plot against you back then?"
Lu Yingheng shook his head gently, indicating that he didn't know.
You've got to be kidding. Can I really tell him I plotted against myself?
Belle immediately gave her brother a light kick on the shin and pouted in displeasure.
Before Wise could ask anything else, she grabbed Lu Yingheng by the wrist and pulled him toward the door.
"Don't start by asking such heavy questions! I'll take him out to buy a few changes of clothes first. When we get back, he can take a hot bath and get a good night's sleep. Everything else can wait."
Wise watched his sister and Lu Yingheng disappear around the street corner, then turned around and called softly, "Fairy."
[Fairy here. Please go ahead.]
A sweet, soft electronic voice sounded.
"What was his original name before he was awarded the Void Hunter title of 'Dragon Emperor'?"
[Search complete. Original name: Lu Yingheng.]
Wise lowered his eyes in thought, tapping his fingertips lightly on the table. He knew how serious this matter was.
He was only a Proxy who couldn't operate in the open. The protection the video store could offer was limited, and there was no way he could keep Lu Yingheng safe in the long term.
To give him complete protection, Wise had to find a faction he could entrust him to, one willing to do everything in its power to shelter him-the Dragon Emperor Guard.
He hesitated no longer. He opened an anonymous communications port, composed a message, and sent it as a reply to a thread in the Dragon Emperor Guard's public forum.
The thread was dedicated to collecting leads related to the Dragon Emperor.
At the top of the thread, the mysterious new head of the Dragon Emperor Guard had stated that anyone providing genuine information about the Dragon Emperor could claim a generous reward.
Tens of thousands of comments of every kind had piled up beneath the post, a mixture of truth and lies.
Wise had no other choice. After the fall of the Old Capital, his old network of contacts had been completely severed, and he had no way to find a private channel to contact the new head.
So he could only pass the message along through a public comment like this.
Elsewhere, in the top-floor office of the Dragon Emperor Bureau.
The spacious room was decorated in cool tones, and the buildings of New Eridu rose beyond its floor-to-ceiling windows.
Vivian curled up on a large leather sofa, clutching a soft cushion tightly to her chest. Her fingers dug into the fabric, her knuckles white.
She couldn't keep watch over the thread around the clock.
Dealing with the unscrupulous, evil conglomerates entrenched in New Eridu already took up most of her energy.
Negotiating, gathering evidence of their crimes, and assigning Dragon Emperor Guard personnel to keep them in check-the endless tasks left her struggling to catch her breath.
Only by carving out a limited amount of free time each day could she sit down and sift through the steady stream of comments in the thread.
It was a regular task she had set herself after taking over as head of the Dragon Emperor Guard.
A moment later, she abruptly sat up straight. Her eyes were still bloodshot as she walked slowly back to her desk and switched on the computer screen.
An endless stream of comments scrolled across the screen, most of them baseless rumors. In her limited free time, she had already read over ten million of them, and she had grown almost numb.
Suddenly, a newly posted comment seized her attention.
Its contents were unusual, a claim she had never seen before:
Deep within a Hollow, the poster had found Lord Dragon Emperor nailed to a cross. The Dragon Emperor was still alive, and the poster wanted to meet her at the ramen shop on Sixth Street to discuss it in person.
Vivian stared at those words without moving for a long time. A low sigh escaped her lips.
The next second, her composure shattered.
She raised her hand and swept it across the desk. An exquisite glass crashed onto the hard floor with a clatter, shards scattering everywhere as clear water spread and streamed across the desktop.
She covered her face with both hands, her shoulders shaking violently. A muffled snarl escaped between her fingers, her unhealthy obsession threatening to fill the entire office.
"A joke... How could that be?"
"If Brother Yingheng were still alive, why wouldn't he come looking for me?"
"How could he not come looking for me!!!"
She abruptly dropped her hands, her scarlet eyes fixed on the screen as a twisted, tragic smile pulled at her lips.
Possessiveness surged wildly in her heart, and her obsession grew. She was certain this was another fraud trying to profit from rumors about the Dragon Emperor.
Vivian picked up the internal communicator, her fingertips icy, and dialed the channel of the Dragon Emperor Guard's dedicated hacker.
"Locate the anonymous posting address for this comment and hack into their terminal."
Her voice was low, carrying a bone-chilling coldness.
"Don't rush to trace and capture him. Send him a warning first, something frightening enough.
"Tell him that making up lies about the Dragon Emperor will come at a price he can't bear."
The hacker on the other end immediately acknowledged the order. A stream of data spread silently from the Dragon Emperor Bureau's server, infiltrating the IP address Wise had hidden.
At the video store on Sixth Street, Wise was sitting at the console, waiting for a response, when Fairy's alarm suddenly rang out shrilly.
[Warning! High-intensity external network intrusion detected! A large number of malicious data packets are breaking through the firewall!]
Wise's expression changed drastically. His body tensed at once, and his hands flew to the keyboard, fingers racing over the keys.
"Fairy! Activate the defense protocols at full power, block all backdoors, and divert the incoming data stream!"
Streams of glimmering blue data flickered across the screen as Fairy operated at full power. Defensive barriers sprang up one after another, forcibly blocking wave after wave of attacks.
But amid the struggle to defend the system, a line of pitch-black text appeared in the center of the screen, its icy words carrying a palpable threat:
"You fabricated rumors about the Dragon Emperor, and made them sound so convincing. We'll dig up everything about you and find where you're hiding. Admit your wrongdoing and your punishment may be reduced."
Wise's breath caught, and beads of cold sweat appeared on his forehead.
He gritted his teeth, his hands never stopping on the keyboard, and shouted an order to Fairy:
"Trace their attack nodes back to the source! Don't take them head-on. Break up their attack chain and disrupt their tracking program!"
[Understood! Fairy is dismantling the intrusion packets and interfering with the tracing signal! The opponent has strong computing power. The pressure on both offense and defense is high!]
Torrents of data in two colors clashed fiercely on the screen. The blue light was Fairy's defensive line, while the pitch-black data stream was the Dragon Emperor Guard hacker's assault.
They fought and maneuvered on the invisible battlefield of the network.
Wise concentrated fully, doing everything he could to rely on Fairy's powerful capabilities to withstand the Dragon Emperor Bureau's cyber assault.