Is that really the case?
Wang Ye discussed the matter with the other party for a whole day, and didn't return to his lodgings until midnight, analyzing the possibilities the other party had mentioned.
If we accept his explanation, the initial experiment was planned by a group of powerful figures, and multiple of them at that. However, they were nowhere to be found in the subsequent data world—not a single one of them. This is indeed unusual. Considering the mysterious military figures who secretly arranged for the Heavenly Secrets to be discovered, and the fact that the Heavenly Secrets have completely disappeared, everyone would immediately think that at least some of those people were hiding in secret.
But has it really been hidden for that long?
Wang Ye sensed something was amiss. Based on his current understanding of the history of Data City, a group of lone warriors who went in and spent some time there could have risen to become the rulers of that world. After all, players could Samsara indefinitely, and they were the first group to do so. Logically, they should have taken control of that world long ago.
Add to that their deep-rooted influence in the real world, and even if they didn't rule two eras, they're certainly a powerful family now, right?
Why so quietly?
Even the game world they were in had only been opened recently, and that group of people seemed to have been keeping a low profile, as if they were afraid of being discovered.
In Wang Ye's view, this was actually quite unreasonable.
There must be some of those people still alive. According to Chen Qing, it's highly likely that those people were the ones who reintroduced the dead into that world using gene replication. So they're probably secretly manipulating some situation. But the question is, if they've really been hiding for so long and have such deep roots, do they really need to hide like this?
Wang Ye felt it wasn't that simple; what were those guys hiding from?
Thinking of this, he looked at a piece of white cloth beside him. It was left by Heavenly Secrets, who said that if anything happened to him recently, he should take this and go back immediately to find Chen Qing.
He examined the white cloth for a long time. There was no magical energy on it; it was clearly just an ordinary piece of white cloth. He wondered what use it would be to bring this thing to Chen Qing.
Moreover, the truth is right before our eyes. If we don't find out the truth and just go back like this, it won't be of much help to Chen Qing. After all, the gap between my strength and Chen Qing's is huge. Without obtaining intelligence, my current combat power is probably not even as good as a squad of the Fighter Army.
But the most insightful person I can contact right now is Hou Jie. He's just a middle-class kid, and he relies on his own guesses on many historical issues. That wasn't entirely useless in helping to uncover the truth back then, but it could only provide a general direction. For the specific details, we still needed to work with specialists.
Wang Ye closed his eyes and considered for a while, then his body swayed and he disappeared from the spot.
We can't afford to use gentle methods to wear them down any longer. Heavenly Secrets has disappeared, and there's been no news from Chen Qing either. I've tried contacting him several times with no response. Something has likely happened there. I need to get the useful information as quickly as possible!
--
"He went to see Hou Jie?" The person in charge of monitoring Wang Ye reported the information about Wang Ye. At this time, the person in charge of monitoring Wang Ye was the Wang Household, one of the ten major families in Data City. Because they shared the same surname, even if they offended someone in some way, they could use the surname to show some leniency.
This was the decision made by higher-ups, but Wang Xin, the person in charge, felt immense pressure at the time.
Monitoring NPCs in another world, especially powerful ones, is no easy task. One cannot be too blatant, nor can one be too careless. After all, although those two NPCs seem harmless, their physical energy is astonishing, and they are said to possess very strange special abilities. Their level of danger is dozens of times greater than that of the top Transcendent players in the past. It is speculated that Wang Ye alone could destroy all the Transcendent data life forms in the Central Federation at this stage!
The guard of such a humanoid nuclear bomb is under immense pressure, because whether he or she dies depends entirely on the other party's mood. Despite being born into nobility, even if he were killed by the other party on some pretext, the entire Central Federation, including his own family, would probably not come to his aid or even pursue the matter afterward.
But at this moment, the other party's behavior was unusual, so he had no choice but to bite the bullet and go out to do the job.
Two days ago, another NPC went missing. This matter was reported to higher-ups, who immediately held a meeting and sternly instructed themselves to keep a close eye on the other one.
But now.
"Tell Hou Jie that I'm going to pay him a visit. Then prepare a late-night snack for Mr. Wang and ask him if he needs a masseuse to relax."
Some time ago, the old man called Mr. Heavenly Secrets became obsessed with foot massages at the end of the line and often tempted Wang Ye to go with him. At first, Wang Ye was very resistant, but after being dragged along a few times, he started going almost every few days. Obviously, like most men in the Central Federation, he had come to enjoy this kind of leisure activity.
After giving his instructions, Wang Xin went directly to Hou Jie's dormitory. Hou Jie's heart skipped a beat at the thought of the other party coming at this late hour.
Data-driven individuals don't inherently need physiological sleep, but their powerful memory inertia forces them to allow their brains to rest during the day, and they can't work overtime without sleep like they did when they were alive.
The sufficient dormancy period for data lifeforms was jointly determined by the two Federation, because in the early stages, there were indeed many precedents of data lifeforms becoming a group of four data beings within a few days of entering Eastern Enterprises.
According to research, data life forms are far less mentally resilient than mortal beings. Frequent overtime and all-nighters can easily turn a person into dead data. After the establishment of the Data City, both the Eastern and Western Federation have introduced normal vacation time for workers.
It's fair to say that for people Data City, the eight-hour sleep schedule is practically mandatory.
He planned to try and get some information out of Hou Jie first. If the other party didn't know what was good for him, he wouldn't mind taking him back for a thorough interrogation. Now, most of the high-ranking officers of the new army had already entered that world, and the threat was far less than it had been a few months ago.
But just as he was about to go to Hou Jie with this thought in mind, he found that no one answered the door.
After his men forced their way in, they were astonished to find that Hou Jie had vanished!
This discovery made him realize instinctively that the guy Wang Ye was up to something.
He quickly pressed the alarm!
Wang Ye also disappeared.
This result put all the high-ranking officials in the Eastern Federation on tenterhooks!
They were constantly on guard against the two NPCs, fearing they might cause trouble. But despite their best efforts, they couldn't overcome the NPCs' extraordinary abilities.
"The surveillance footage showed nothing, yet Hou Jie disappeared from his room? And what about that Wang Ye?"
"It must be some kind of ability," an expert analyzed. "It's very likely something like teleportation. To protect the privacy of officials, there were no surveillance cameras in your room, so we don't even know when he took Hou Jie away."
"But the key is that Hou Jie doesn't have much authority," someone else asked doubtfully. "What's the point of taking Hou Jie away?"
" Hou Jie is useful." Suddenly, a girl in the upper floor of the conference room interrupted everyone.
The senior members of the aristocratic families were all taken aback, because the woman who spoke was not one of them, but a secretary responsible for preparing documents. Logically speaking, this secretary was not qualified to speak.
"He has one authority that you've all probably forgotten." The female secretary, completely oblivious to the need for attention, coldly looked at Human Dao, "Have you all forgotten? He used to work in the main archives!"