Silence returned to the castle once more. It was late at night. Ed watched the occasional figure passing by outside the castle and finally let out a long sigh of relief.
A week had passed since the liberation of White Wax Town, and only now was he finally able to utter the words, "The phase of the mission is complete."
Currently, the players can only act as henchmen, and there aren't many subordinates who actually obey his orders. He has to handle many things personally.
Now only one thing remains, something that concerns himself.
So Ed and his Symbiotic Tree companion began communicating in their minds:
" Little Green."
"Um?"
How long will it take to fully digest the Territory Secret Pact of White Wax Town?
"About three days, don't be too anxious. The area covered by this secret agreement includes White Wax Town and all the surrounding villages except for the Baron's territory, which is about five times the size of the Baron's territory. It's normal for it to take a little longer."
"Okay, I understand."
Ed didn't rush him, but Little Green continued:
"With my current strength, I estimate that two days would be enough to Territory Secret Pact like a baron's. Please keep up the good work and bring me more Territory Secret Pact. I can already feel that thirst for land."
"What kind of despicable landlord are you?"
"I am a tree! Of course, a tree longs for the soil, so please keep working hard so that my roots can Spread to farther places."
"It sounds a bit like a story about a man-eating tiger and its accomplices."
"It's clearly a story about perfectly coordinated partnerships."
"Alright, but this should be a development period for now, focusing on farming and construction. There won't be any battles for a while, after all, even war-mongers need to digest the occupied territories..."
"Your memory tells me that I shouldn't easily reveal such a flag..."
"In any case, once Territory Secret Pact of White Wax Town, the idea I mentioned before can officially become a reality, right?"
"Yes, I can do it with my increased abilities, if you're sure you want to do it..."
"Trust me, they'll like it."
In the real world, at a university research institute.
Six hours of deep sleep left Professor Li Yinhua feeling refreshed, and he was now sitting in his office chair reviewing his students' first drafts of papers.
Then his refreshed feeling vanished.
The sky outside the window was terribly gloomy, just like his mood as he reviewed his students' papers, waiting for a storm to break out during the afternoon group meeting.
Since World of Disorder removed the login time restrictions, his game time has become much more flexible.
As a mature adult, he still keeps the real world and the game very separate, and he would never leave problems from the game to be solved during work hours.
However, his two students clearly couldn't make such a clear distinction, and they had been somewhat distracted lately on their research projects, for reasons he was somewhat aware of.
This is something we really need to seriously emphasize to them.
As the professor was thinking this, he heard someone knocking on his office door.
"Come in."
He glanced at the clock on the wall and roughly guessed who the visitor was.
The office door opened, and the young man in black appeared before him once again.
To avoid attracting attention, the professor had discussed it with him beforehand and moved the daily report submission method from his own doorstep to the school.
The young man in black walked confidently to the desk, picked up the handwritten report, but instead of leaving immediately, he handed the professor a piece of paper:
Please write anything you like.
The professor frowned almost imperceptibly, but still pulled out a pen from his shirt pocket and casually jotted down some errors from the student's paper, asking as he wrote:
"Handwriting analysis? Isn't that unnecessary?"
The young man in black didn't explain anything, put the paper with handwriting into a file folder, and then looked at the professor:
You'll have to come with me.
The professor looked surprised upon hearing this, but showed no sign of fear, as he believed he had a clear conscience.
"What do you need me for? Shouldn't we meet at the research institute?"
The young man in black quickly stepped forward, grabbed the professor's arm, and asked:
Have you noticed anything different about your body lately?
Seeing the anxious expression on the other person's face, the professor pondered for a moment but still couldn't find the answer the other person wanted. He simply said:
"I feel great, and I have a lot more energy than before, but this isn't what you want to hear, is it? What happened?"
The two quickly arrived downstairs, where a black van pulled up in front of them. The side door opened rapidly, and the young man said apologetically:
"We'll talk about it on the way."
Inside the van, the professor once again encountered the middle-aged man in black who had first met him.
He was anxiously peeking out an Ignite cigarette, his sharp eyes scanning the professor's face through the rearview mirror.
"Long time no see, Professor."
"Long time no see, where shall we go now?"
"I've already arranged leave for you; we're going to the hospital."
"The hospital? Didn't they confirm before that there were no problems with your health?"
The middle-aged man looked at the young man through the rearview mirror:
"Explain it to the professor."
The young man nodded and pulled out a blank sheet of paper, placing it in front of the professor:
"Professor, we found... unknown radiation residue in a document you submitted a few days ago."
The old professor felt a sudden tightness in his chest, and an ominous premonition surged up within him.
The car bumped as it drove over a low-lying area, and a muffled clap of thunder sounded in the sky. At that moment, the long-brewing rain began to fall.
The professor felt his heart skip a beat; everything seemed so coincidental, as if someone was watching everything that happened in the car from the shadows.
The atmosphere in the car plummeted to freezing. Looking at the professor's serious face, the young man pointed to the blank sheet of paper:
"Please write something else, whatever you like."
The professor nodded, though he didn't know why the other party wanted him to do this, but he still chose to comply.
But when he picked up the pen, he found his hand trembling slightly.
The professor scribbled down some grammatically incorrect sentences that even he couldn't understand, then handed the blank sheet of paper back to the young man for sealing.
The young man carefully put away the second handwriting sample and nodded to the professor.
"I'm sorry if this startled you, but it's something we have to do. Now let me explain the situation."
The professor nodded, roughly understanding what the other person meant. While the statement was true, it might have been exaggerated. But what was the purpose of doing so?
While he was pondering, the young man spoke:
"Your report on the liberation of White Wax Town was very detailed and interesting, but on the day before we were to file it, we suddenly discovered that the words could emit visible light in the dark."