Sigaochin was right, the intelligence had been leaked.
On the way to the town, the Contact Delegation was given back their personal work devices.
Once they went online, they saw information about the alien intelligence all over the place, and public discussion exploded with all kinds of views and stances, arguments raging nonstop.
“An alien that needs to eat people in order to answer questions—this is obviously the Fire Thief’s plot, right? It’s a way to use it to further reduce humanity’s numbers! Don’t fall for it!”
“Didn’t the reports say parasitized forms can be used as food too? Trading them for information valuable to humans doesn’t seem so bad, after all they’re humanity’s undying enemies.”
“By the way, the Human Consortium’s coalition has already started fighting in the Black Flag Country. Is all of this just to provide that alien monster with food?”
“No wonder they didn’t make the news public. Are they afraid of provoking public opposition?”
“Why should the Human Consortium be the only ones to decide which questions get asked? We should have voting rights too!”
“I’m firmly opposed to asking it anything! This is the Fire Thief’s conspiracy!”
“If it were up to me, an alien that eats people should be blasted with missiles. Don’t talk about using parasitized forms as food—who can guarantee those “food” won’t include actual humans!”
Besides the angry sentiment online, there was another development that shocked the Contact Delegation, especially the Suroma representatives.
That was Fahe’s surprise assault on Suroma.
According to posts on the work, the assault mobilized thousands of Ascendants and more than ten thousand ordinary people armed with guns.
Such a large-scale operation came with zero prior warning to Suroma, which meant the Fire Thief Worship Cult in Fahe had turned the country into an ironclad fortress, making Suroman spies unable to perate at all.
For many people this development was even more important than the current Doomsday Rule.
Very few people would get the chance to ask the alien intelligence questions, but millions of Suroma people were directly threatened by cultists worshipping the Fire Thief!
This caused all Suroma citizens to focus their attention on fighting the invaders, and online discussions shifted to slogans like “counterattack strongly” and “eliminate Fahe.”
As for Xisiya, the alien intelligence leak dramatically increased pressure.
Within hours of the news breaking, large numbers of outsiders tried to enter through various border areas.
Their purpose was obvious: to see if they could get close enough to the alien intelligence to ask questions.
Asking questions was the point—if they only wanted to catch a glimpse of the alien, fanatics would have already rushed to and occupied the ice-field town ahead of time.
This behavior was extremely dangerous for Xisiya and for Yelanka as the Administrator.
Because the alien intelligence’s landing site was within Xisiya’s borders.
If an outsider proposed a question that consumed huge amounts of food, and the on-site food supply ran out, what would happen next?
From several experiments and conjectures, once it finished the food on site, it would certainly move to the nearest food source—the population centers of Xisiya.
The closest targets would be a few prisons and the ice-field town itself, Sennantata Town. If all the town’s residents were eaten, the next step would be the nearest cities.
Xisiya could not afford that consequence.
So Yelanka, as Administrator, ordered immediate thorough investigation of undocumented entrants, forbidding any such people from approaching the Sennantata Ice Field.
Suroma and Xisiya, two major powers, each had their own problems to worry about, and Beixing was naturally no exception.
...
Countermeasures Research Office.
In the meeting room, a session titled “Reactivating the Mind work” was underway.
Among the alien intelligence’s answers for identifying parasitized forms, the only part humans could understand was the Mind work; the rest was still being decrypted.
The urgent task, therefore, was to see whether there was some way to make the Mind work—which humans had once activated—appear again.
A young academician from the Academy of Sciences was now speaking:
“After receiving the report, we immediately reviewed all the materials and data from the period of Rule Twelve, Digital Detox. There was one discovery concerning the Mind work.”
“At the time, the public generally believed the Mind work had been deliberately opened by the Fire Thief for humanity. The ostensible purpose was to substitute for human electronic works during the rule period, but the real purpose was to isolate communication between Ascendants and ordinary people.”
“I’m sure no one has forgotten how intense the conflict between Ascendants and ordinary people became during that period.”
Everyone present nodded.
When the Mind work appeared, ordinary people launched massive protests.
They believed Ascendants would use the Mind work to secretly plot actions harmful to ordinary people.
The Shen Yun case further inflamed the conflict and nearly caused several major incidents.
Fortunately, after the rule ended, the Mind work closed and became unusable; combined with new laws targeting Ascendants, the ordinary populace gradually stopped protesting.
But no one expected that now this thing would again become one of the methods needed to identify parasitized forms.
The young academician continued: “When the Mind work existed, Ascendants who spoke frequently in it began to show consumption of Mind Power. This is widely recorded.”
“Correct.” Zhang Minglu nodded. “At the time I also had base Ascendants do detailed tests. Initially speaking in the Mind work caused no consumption, but as the number of utterances increased, Mind Power began to drop.”
The young academician nodded: “Exactly. From this we can boldly infer that perhaps the activation and deactivation of the Mind work is related to the amount of Mind Power.”
“You mean Ascendants with high Mind Power can reactivate the Mind work?”
Zhang Minglu frowned and didn’t accept the inference outright.
The young academician: “It’s only a hypothesis and needs testing.”
“But tests were already done after that rule ended. Base Ascendants repeatedly tried to rebuild the work and failed,” Zhang Minglu said.
The young academician replied: “Maybe the base Ascendants’ Mind Power still isn’t high enough.”
“The base ones aren’t high enough?”
That remark triggered lively discussion among those present.
“The base Ascendants were carefully selected high-talent individuals, and with massive resource investment their growth rate exceeded outside Ascendants by more than double! If even they aren’t enough, then…”
“We need to test using world-class top Ascendants.” The young academician raised his voice.
Zhang Minglu looked to the person in charge, Gao Liangwei.
There were only a handful of the world’s top Ascendants, and Beixing had only a few of them.
Like Dragon Soul, Bai Xuewu, Shi Jingyi, Shadow...
Gao Liangwei thought for a moment and said to the young academician, “Han, be specific.”
“Yes, Director.”
Han looked at Zhang Minglu: “Dr. Zhang manages the base’s Ascendants. I want to cooperate with him to obtain Mind Power data for the base Ascendants, select several top candidates from that data for testing.”
“Also, since the research office has an established long-term cooperative relationship with the Ascendant ‘Shadow,’ I hope to obtain his data and contact him to invite him to participate in this test.”
Zhang Minglu shook his head: “The base Ascendants’ Mind Power data and Shadow’s personal data are all highly classified.”
“Heh, this isn’t for my own sake. It’s to quickly find a method to restart the Mind work and use it to identify parasitized forms. Director, what do you think?”
Han looked at Gao Liangwei, and Zhang Minglu glanced over as well.
Gao Liangwei thought a moment, then slightly nodded: “Alright, proceed.”
Han smiled: “I’ll make preparations immediately.”
Zhang Minglu felt uneasy and immediately went to Gao Liangwei’s office after the meeting to question him.
“Director, is this really okay? The base Ascendant data is one thing, but Shadow’s identity has always been top-secret.”
To date, fewer than ten people in the Countermeasures Research Office knew that Shadow was Guan Tong. Those ten included Wang Yan, Chen Na, Silver Fox, and others.
Such strict confidentiality was precisely Gao Liangwei’s requirement.
Now his agreement to Han’s request meant another person would be added to the circle of the informed.
Gao Liangwei asked back: “Dr. Zhang, what do you think of this Han?”
“Well… he became an academician at twenty-eight. His abilities must be outstanding. I don’t know much about him, only that he’s skilled with data research.”
“Do you think he’s untrustworthy?”
“Not that.” Zhang Minglu denied it. “It’s just that Shadow’s identity is so important—every additional person who knows increases the risk. We worked hard to build this long-term cooperation; we shouldn’t introduce uncertain variables.”
“You have a point.” Gao Liangwei nodded, “but being able to identify parasitized forms quickly is also of grave importance. Do you know why the alien intelligence’s information was leaked?”
“…Could it be?”
“There are two possibilities. One, they infiltrated the top decision-making layer of a Human Consortium member nation and obtained the intelligence. Two, they made a secret deal or cooperation with Fahe and got the intelligence from those people.”
Zhang Minglu was slightly shocked: “I can understand parasitized forms trying to infiltrate Human Consortium member states, but them cooperating with the Fire Thief Worship Cult?”
“Why not. Both parasitized forms and the Fire Thief Worship Cult are hostile to the Human Consortium and are at a disadvantage against it. Cooperation in such circumstances isn’t surprising.”
“But for the Fire Thief Worship Cult, parasitized forms are their enemies too, right? And how would the cult get the intelligence—ah, could it be…”
Zhang Minglu imagined a terrifying possibility.
Gao Liangwei looked at him deeply: “You’re right. We suspect it might not have been parasitized forms who infiltrated the decision layer of a Human Consortium member state, but rather cultists of the Fire Thief Worship Cult.”
“Could a decision-maker have secretly converted to the cult? No! It could be mind control! There were already many intelligence reports indicating the existence of Ascendants in Fahe who have mind-control abilities!”
“Right. Humanity is already walking a tightrope against the threat the Fire Thief brings. Parasitized forms and the cult are like pits dug beneath the wire—if humanity falls, it’s irreversible.”
“We cannot cut the wire now, but we can fill in the pits first. Secure the home before repelling the invader; we have to take some risks.”
...
Gao Liangwei spoke calmly, but Zhang Minglu felt a heavy murderous intent radiating from him.
“I understand.” Zhang Minglu nodded. “I will cooperate with Academician Han and share the data.”
Gao Liangwei then brought up an old matter.
“Dr. Zhang, do you remember we once expelled a group of people from the Research Office?”
“Yes, after the Falling Petals Plan.”
As a participant in that plan, Zhang Minglu clearly knew those expelled were connected to the plan’s target, Jiang Lanying.
Those people had even jointly petitioned to remove Gao Liangwei from his position, and were then rounded up.
“The leadership suspected there were escaped fish. Whether that fish changed owners or wanted to start over, it’s a potential threat to the office. So keep vigilant.”
...
After leaving Gao Liangwei’s office, Zhang Minglu still wondered if the director had meant something in particular.
Did Gao Liangwei suspect Han Qiu was that “fish”? Was his agreement to cooperate also meant to monitor Han?
After thinking for a while, Zhang Minglu shook his head.
He didn’t want to get entangled—he just wanted to do his job—but circumstances no longer allowed him that luxury.
“I should contact Shadow. He’s connected to the Administrator of Ascendant Home; maybe he has more information about the Mind work…”
...
Sennantata Town.
This small town with a stable population was today experiencing its peak visitor flow, a teeming mass of people everywhere.
Besides the many alien-intelligence fanatics who had been there when Guan Tong and Uenoshi arrived, hundreds more Contact Delegation members had been added today.
Sigaochin had soldiers drop them off in the town, after which they could take a train away.
Some left immediately, but others chose to stay temporarily.
Leaving aside Louis and a few others who stayed because they hadn’t given up on contacting the alien intelligence, most stayed because the townspeople persuaded them to.
Although these Contact Delegation members had been cooped up at the landing site for days, they had actually seen the alien intelligence in person, which instantly made them superior to the townsfolk.
People crowded around them asking all kinds of questions; some delegation members felt a sense of superiority and were willing to stick around for a couple days to boast.
As they boasted, people learned that Louis was the first to ask the alien intelligence a question.
That changed everything: the crowd began calling Louis the “First Person of Third Contact,” all clamoring to take photos with him.
“As the first questioner, your name will go down in history! Come on, take a photo!”
“Yeah, future records about the alien will definitely include you.”
“Let me take one too!”
Guan Tong and Uenoshi sat in a tavern corner watching the scene of people swarming Louis.
Uenoshi glanced a few times, then returned her gaze and asked Guan Tong: “You’re quite interested, aren’t you?”
Since Guan Tong hadn’t left immediately after his revenge the day before and had stayed the night, Uenoshi suspected he wasn’t being completely forthright.
Earlier he had told her he came to Xisiya only to settle personal scores and it had nothing to do with the alien intelligence. Now it seemed otherwise.
“Mm.” Guan Tong didn’t attempt to save face; he simply nodded in admission.
“You want to ask it a question?”
“...If my idea can be proven.”
Guan Tong was referring to the plan to use living dead as food.
If it worked, he could use reserve Mind Power to create a large number of living dead to substitute for parasitized forms as food, earning himself the chance to ask a question.
Uenoshi warned: “Xisiya has already deployed heavy forces and forbids anyone from approaching. Don’t forget that, Troupe Leader.”
Guan Tong said: “I have some sort of connection with Xisiya’s current Administrator; maybe I can get an opportunity.”
Uenoshi was surprised—she hadn’t expected Guan Tong to know Yelanka.
“Only...”
“Only?”
Guan Tong’s expression turned complicated: “The person I killed in my revenge yesterday was her biological brother. So whether I get that opportunity remains to be seen.”
...
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