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Chapter 558 - Five Hundred and Fifty-Five: ’Edward, I Will Kill You.

Chapter 558: Chapter Five Hundred and Fifty-Five: ’Edward, I Will Kill You.

The office was filled with the incessant tapping of keyboards.

Standing in the center was the Chief of Staff of the United Group, Aishikel, who had once proposed the "Hero Plan."

"Was the information really breached from inside? Among us, there is actually someone acting as an inside informant for hackers..."

Aishikel hung up the communicator.

A few days ago, the news of Edward’s mental breakdown, along with their resource allocation plans, had been leaked. They discovered that the source of the leak was internal, but they did not know which bastard was responsible.

At that moment, a middle-aged man wearing a silver star walked in.

"...Su Ming’an is here," the middle-aged man whispered.

Aishikel was slightly startled.

Many of the handover affairs of the United Group were his responsibility, including external communications, but he hadn’t heard of any recent invitations to Number One Player.

So, did Number One Player come on his own initiative?

"Did he come on his own?" Aishikel smiled, "Then shouldn’t someone go and greet him quickly... Send someone familiar to him, preferably Hubert, Eni, someone he knows. What is he here for? To cooperate? To help us mediate public opinion? Or to request team trading, asking for equipment supply? No matter what, we can satisfy him, I’ll head over now..."

Aishikel and the man beside him had once looked down on the youth from the bottom of their hearts.

But now, now among those standing at the pinnacle of the world, most were surprisingly young. The top rank was nineteen years old, the second rank twenty-five, ages that previously couldn’t even qualify for a high-level title, yet now they were seen as fighting for all of humanity.

"No, he didn’t come on his own initiative. He said he was invited by the United Group, but we haven’t issued any official invitations..." the middle-aged man said.

Upon hearing this, Aishikel’s smile disappeared:

"Are you suggesting that there is a mole pretending to act on our behalf?"

He knew that the United Group was not as united as imagined.

After all, in a world where everything could be seized, apart from the truly pure-hearted, few were willing to be the stepping stones maintaining order.

— People in the organization were considering their prospects after the game ended.

Now they were sacrificing their time and energy to prepare for a stable order, but what would become of them, who would own nothing, once it ended? Would people still protect them out of a year’s sentiment for the "old favors of the united group"?

...Even Aishikel himself started to worry about the situation a year later. He was now the chief of staff of the United Group, a position of high esteem, but what about after the game ended? He definitely could not compete against strong players, then what about his wife who had not entered the game, his son, what would happen to them?

"What is Number One Player here for?" Aishikel asked.

"It seems someone invited him to visit Edward, Yang Changxu went to receive him; I don’t know which source it was..." the middle-aged man said.

"Ridiculous!" Aishikel roared, causing other people tapping at their keyboards to turn their heads.

—To visit Edward? Is that something to be done?

The direct cause of Edward’s madness was Su Ming’an; now letting Su Ming’an visit Edward, wasn’t that provocation? Whose idiotic idea was this?

Aishikel even suspected that the two might end up fighting in the hospital room, greatly exacerbating in-fighting among humans.

He immediately threw on his coat and rushed out of the door, intending to stop the two before the situation escalated.

...

"Bang."

Su Ming’an closed the hospital room door and sat down in a chair next to the bed.

Outside were anxious medical staff who wanted but dared not enter.

Su Ming’an noticed that there were still fruits at Edward’s bedside; he peeled a banana and pointed it at Edward.

"Here, want to eat?" Su Ming’an asked.

"...Are you here to mock me?" Edward sat on the bed, his face dark and grim.

There were still traces of pillow fibers in his blond hair, falling like snowflakes onto his blue and white hospital gown.

"If a person sees himself as a ’joke,’ then anyone who glances at you is ’watching a joke,’" Su Ming’an said indifferently. "Unless you avoid seeing anyone from now on, abandon the progress and points of humanity, then you won’t be ’watched as a joke.’"

He took a bite of the banana, staring at Edward.

Edward indeed looked very haggard, with deep dark circles under his eyes, a thinner physique, and his handsome face showed signs of impact injuries, possibly self-inflicted during his breakdown.

Even now, his fingers were unconsciously scratching at the sheets, like the claws of an arched eagle. His breathing was heavy and rapid, his face flushed with anger... or perhaps from his spirit nearing collapse.

His state, and Su Ming’an’s state when he was on the brink of metamorphosis, were very similar, with vacant eyes and breathless panting.

Pity that Su Ming’an had come through it, but Edward had not.

...This pitiful, detestable man, on the brink of collapse and desperately struggling like a bird strapped at the wings and kept here for treatment...was this Edward?

In Su Ming’an’s memory, this man was always brimming with vigor. Although nurtured by an aristocratic education and not as arrogantly pretentious as a nouveau riche, he exuded a disdain for the common folk innately.

But now, the man lying on the bed looked extremely fragile all over, his eyes full of redness, barely able to speak coherently.

Edward was not foolish. In decoding certain clues, it was evident that Edward was a smart man with a high IQ.

But he was raised too pure. Or rather, brainwashed too well. Once faced with worldly affairs, he became extremely foolish, as though growth in certain areas had been deliberately suppressed.

...Truly terrifying, this United Group.

Su Ming’an began to peel an apple.

Edward wanted to drive him out, but thinking that he wouldn’t stand a chance in a physical confrontation due to their differing strength points, he gave up.

"Nobody invited you to see me, get out!" Edward shouted out loud.

"No one invited?" Su Ming’an said softly. "It seems there are quite a few moles within the United Group, even invitations could be sent mistakenly."

Edward’s eyes fixed on his face.

"Or are you..." Su Ming’an threw the banana peel into the trash bin, raised his eyelids, gazing into Edward’s eyes, "—perhaps you are one of them?"

"You..."

Su Ming’an cut him off, "The one who leaked ’Edward went mad’ and ’United Group’s resource plan,’ was it you?"

This news was only known to those deeply insiders, and after ruling out all impossibilities, the only possible source of the leak was Edward himself.

Others, due to a blind spot in their thinking, had not noticed this fact, but Su Ming’an had seen through the truth long ago.

Edward’s eyes trembled slightly.

"I originally thought you were foolish enough, but it turns out you could be even more so," Su Ming’an said, "Let me guess further... you must have already made some deal with the Organizers, becoming a ’special identity’ that can exploit humanity’s adverse situations..."

Edward’s eyes trembled even more.

"This is a type of identity I’ve never heard of before, the powers of the Organizers, are they evolving too? I noticed earlier that their game versions seemed to be continuously updating, whether it’s Boss Rabbit’s youth appearance or the richness of the World Forum... all are changing..." Su Ming’an muttered to himself: "Now such an ’internal traitor’ identity has appeared, humanity’s future is indeed in grave danger."

Upon hearing this, Edward instead calmed down.

He clutched the bedsheet, his expression very calm.

"These are just your speculations," he said.

"Yes, just my speculations," Su Ming’an smiled.

In fact, when he spoke to his enemies with such certainty, he generally was 99 percent sure.

Shadow had already informed him about Edward’s past actions in the Eighth World, kneeling and begging for a special identity, Edward even loudly exclaimed, "Do you only want dogs like Su Ming’an?"

From this, it was evident that after an unsuccessful attempt, Edward naturally would try a second time, and this time, he might have made contact with the Organizers.

"I came here not caring about whatever worms are in the United Group, nor who harbored thoughts of compelling me to fan the flames." Su Ming’an bit into an apple: "I just want to inform you of one thing."

"What?"

"Edward, I will kill you," Su Ming’an said.

Edward’s pupils shook violently.

For a moment, he even thought he had heard wrong.

—This guy, always lenient towards the top Players and even more accommodating towards the Perfect Pass Players. Could he be talking like this?

"—Then kill me. If we meet in the instance, do you think I would let you escape?" Edward suddenly sneered. Everyone knew that if they encountered each other in the instance, it would definitely be a fight to the death.

Previously, Su Ming’an had already spoken such words to him. They were both Perfect Pass players, and naturally, if they met in an instance, neither would relent.

Su Ming’an threw away the apple core.

He stood up, staring at Edward’s red, frenzied face, as if he could see through those blue eyes, the collapsing soul within.

A glimmer of light seemed to fade within, never to brighten again.

Edward’s fire was extinguished.

He initiated infighting, leaked human intelligence, and went to be a dog.

Disregarding the big picture, he wasted the healing resources the United Group disassembled from ordinary Players, giving up on himself and striking a harsh blow to humanity.

Even from the standpoint of the Organizers’ Rulers, Su Ming’an could not accept such a person standing by his side.

The disgust toward Edward seemed very reasonable, not abrupt.

Su Ming’an turned and walked toward the door.

As he pushed the door, he happened to meet the urgently rushing Chief of Staff Aishikel and a few familiar faces, Eni, Hubert, Qiao Liya...

He gave Aishikel a symbolic smile, then turned back, and finally said to Edward:

"Edward, what I said, wasn’t about in the instance."

...

"Pa-ta."

Soft footsteps sounded, carrying a moist dragging sensation.

The blond boy walked across the blood-covered floor, blood smearing under his high-cut shoes, spreading ripples.

He picked up a golden knife and said to the child lying on the bed:

"Have you decided? Are you sure you want to trade with me?"

The child was very skinny, but his gaze was firm. He nodded decisively at Noel:

"My mom has gone mad, I need to save her! The healing resources for ordinary Players are very limited... I am willing to undergo transformation, I want to become strong, a powerful Player! I need to save my mom!"

Noel sighed softly.

The little knife in his hand caught fire, the flames flickering in his eyes, and he suddenly felt some hesitation.

Despite having done such a surgery countless times.

"...I’m not wrong," he murmured to himself.

He administered the anesthetic, pushing the syringe into the child’s neck.

"...I’m not wrong."

The thread moved slightly, his knife gleaming with a layer of sharp silver light, slowly fusing the mechanics with the flesh.

"Su Ming’an..." he comforted himself, murmuring: "I shouldn’t be blamed... I’m not wrong."

"Humanity is already nearly devoid of a future..."

"To help these children, even if they don’t have the decision-making level of adults... I’m not wrong..."

"I’m not exploiting them, I am helping them, giving them the strength to face hardships..."

Blood splattered on his white gloves.

Under the light of the fire, the child beneath his hand, originally as blank as paper, was gradually transformed into the semblance of a human weapon.

Strong, firm, resolute.

Impervious.