"I'm just a history enthusiast; there's no need to drag me onto this pirate ship."
Upon learning Wang Ye's ultimate goal, Hou Jie was on the verge of tears, regretting that he hadn't been so boastful in the first place.
He truly hadn't expected the other party to be someone who acted on impulse without any scruples. But now that he thought about it, it made sense. The other party wasn't even from this world; so what if they turned this Data City upside down?
"Brother, that place may be abandoned, but we can't possibly find it," Hou Jie said with a wry smile, giving an awkward look to the old man who was currently being held hostage.
The old man's surname was Jin. He was not among the top ten ruling families of the Federation, but he was in the same camp as the number one person in the Jade Dynasty region: Elder. After the New World opened, Elder and others were among the first to enter the New World, while he, as an old man who maintained the Jade Dynasty World, was left behind.
With everyone's attention focused on the New World, this group of former elders under the command of the elders have been receiving less attention lately, but unexpectedly, they have already been targeted by Wang Ye.
Over the past six months, Wang Ye has gotten to know many elderly people through various social channels, marking them with his own information. After confirming with Hou Jie that the elderly people would not have their data recorded, he chose the one in front of him.
But both Hou Jie and the old man were now filled with shame.
"Command Room"
" Mr. Wang," Elder Jin tried his best to calm his tone. In the Jade Dynasty World, he was the head of the Dragon Head Peak of the Qingyun Sect. When the elders were not around, he was the acting sect leader. He was an old man who stabilized the morale of the army from the rear. Even if the elders were not in this world, he could still stabilize the situation in the Jade Dynasty World. He was a person who was highly respected by both the elders and the current high-ranking officials of the Federation. He held an extremely high position.
But at this moment, he had no choice but to humble himself before the young man who looked like a greenhorn.
The reason is simple: the opponent is very strong!
He knew from his intuition alone that even if all the elders of the Qingyun Sect and the elite of the Federation Special Guard were gathered in the current Federation world, this young man would kill them all without a doubt.
Damn it, are they serious about letting someone like this stay in the Data City for so long?
See, now trouble is brewing.
"Although the command center is abandoned, its functions haven't been dismantled. I know you definitely don't want to do anything harmful to Data City; you're a kind person."
Wang Ye suddenly laughed, a faint smell of blood emanating from his breath. He didn't know why, but everyone who met him thought he was a kind and upright person. Yet, within him lay a demon, a bloodthirsty demon. Chen Qing believed in him, fine, but why did so many people think he was a gentle and kind person?
This even includes his own mentor.
But never mind, it's not important.
"I have some questions that I need to answer by talking to someone in the command center."
"If Mr. Wang has any questions, I can answer them," Elder Jin said quickly.
"You can't answer that," Wang Ye shook his head.
He had already thoroughly investigated the background of the old man in front of him. People like Elder Zhang's camp were all rising stars in the Jade Dynasty World. They didn't have deep foundations, and even though they possessed strong combat power, they were always marginalized in the Federation Governing Bureau, and few of them could obtain core positions.
This group of people couldn't possibly know what happened back then, nor could they be the mastermind behind that group.
The exercise of power requires people to accomplish it. This is different from individual strength; it is a collective quality. No one can accomplish it alone. Whether it's secretly bringing those designers into the game or secretly manipulating the entire game, it all requires people to do it, and it requires a person with high power. Otherwise, it cannot be done silently.
There must be an inside agent for those people within the Federation government!
It's still unclear who it is. As an outsider, I have no idea about the power dynamics within the Federation. It's impossible to find out the whole story while being on guard. Now that there's no news from Chen Qing, and even after I sent out the news of Mr. Heavenly Secrets's disappearance without a response, it means that something very troublesome has happened. I have no choice but to take a risky approach.
"The command center was a very important department of the Federation back then, controlling the life and death of the entire Data City. I wonder what Mr. Wang wants to find by reopening it? And as you know, the command center was closed in the first place to lure a very dangerous person. Now that it's reopened, aren't you afraid that dangerous person will come out?"
"He has already escaped," Wang Ye said calmly.
Before he announced the disappearance of the Heavenly Secrets, Chen Qing sent him a message stating that the King of Qin had successfully escaped from there using the Outer Heaven Demon Statue by creating a backup copy.
Wang Ye has been cramming on modern knowledge here for a while. To be honest, he can't understand how the King of Qin did it. But if the King of Qin were in the New World now, this thing in Data City would probably be useless by now. And at this point, there's no time to worry about the King of Qin.
"Do you have any evidence?" The old man frowned.
The person who was imprisoned back then was a madman who wanted to shut down Data City. He successfully escaped, which is a big deal. How come there wasn't a single word about it?
"There's no time to present evidence now," Wang Ye said, looking at the other party. "The situation is extremely critical."
"If that's the case, why not report it to the Federation?" Elder Jin asked, puzzled.
There is a traitor.
"A traitor." Elder Jin frowned. "How could that be?"
"Didn't you ever suspect that the adventurers were able to set foot in the New World so smoothly without any support from people here behind the scenes?"
"I admit that the elders later had grand ambitions and wanted to restart that New World, but what about before that? The New World was never shut down and continued to consume enormous amounts of electricity. Who was secretly supporting that place to remain open?"
"The closure of the New World has always been an important issue, and the reason it hasn't been closed for so many years is due to some historical reasons," the old man said in a low voice. "Every time the council tries to close it, something unexpected always happens."
"Always?" Wang Ye laughed. "Once or twice is an accident, but multiple times? What a coincidence! Over hundreds of thousands of years, I've seen Federation records showing that due to resource shortages, the resolution to shut down the New World Project has been raised no less than ten thousand times, almost every ten years, but it has never succeeded, not even once. Do you think that's normal? From a probability standpoint, it's not normal either, is it?"
" Mr. Wang, are you saying that all of this has been orchestrated behind the scenes?" Elder Jin frowned.
"This is the only possibility, and those behind the scenes have incredibly powerful backgrounds, possibly beyond your imagination. They might even be the true behind-the-scenes King of the Federation."
Mr. Wang's statement is too conspiratorial.
"Whether it's a conspiracy theory or not, you'll find out by opening that."
"Why do we know that just by opening that?" Elder Jin asked, puzzled.
"The people in the command center are all elites from various families. The general who was used as bait was an heir to a certain family, right?"
Elder Jin nodded. "Yes."
"Those people must know something. Of course, this is just a guess, but it's the only way I can find out the truth. Other family members might be lying, but those who have been abandoned are the most likely to be won over by the scions of powerful families."
"But they're already dead!" Elder Jin asked, puzzled. "Data life that has been shut down won't return to normal after being restarted. Someone has done experiments on this before, and although it was banned by the Federation, it's a well-known fact."
"It's generally accepted," Wang Ye laughed. "What if this experiment was just a show? What if it was just to make you believe that data life cannot be restored to normal after it's shut down?"
"What's the point of this?" Elder Jin was stunned.
"I've been thinking about something," Wang Ye said, taking a breath. "How could a group of people from so long ago hide for so long, both in Data City and the New World? Logically speaking, it's impossible for them to leave no trace after so many years. After all, if it were about Samsara, no matter how powerful they were, they would be easily discovered."
"But they didn't. If they don't Samsara, then they are top-tier ancient beings, and it's even more unlikely they won't be discovered. The more powerful the ancient beings, the larger the place they need to hibernate, the more resources they need, and the harder it is for them to hide. But what if... they were shut down?"
Elder Jin: "."