Dirty Politics

Lin Wei felt a peculiar sensation.

It was as if his body were sinking into the deep sea silt, heavy, clinging, and devoid of light.

This should have been a terrifying experience, but Lin Wei felt neither discomfort nor panic, just lying there calmly, enjoying the darkness and weight enveloping him, while his gaze drifted upwards.

Far above, at a great distance, was the shimmering surface of the water, the light from the outside world utterly unable to penetrate to this muddy depth.

The reason he called the feeling peculiar was that Lin Wei felt he should actually be floating on the surface.

"Weird feeling…"

Lin Wei thought, encased in the dark silt.

So, he wanted to verify his thoughts, and tried to reach out.

And he really did raise his arm, extend his hand, without any of the expected stickiness or resistance. With incredible ease, he reached above the water's surface.

Lin Wei realized he really was floating on the surface. A warm breeze, bright sunshine. He raised a hand, feeling the warmth of spring.

Pulling his arm back, he felt himself return to the seabed silt. But this time, he clearly saw, on the calm sea surface, another version of himself, peacefully floating in the shimmering light, breathing in time with his own breath, so that even in the dark silt, he didn't feel suffocated.

"Weird feeling…"

Lin Wei thought again, carefully experiencing this bizarre visual sensation.

"Am I having some kind of weird dream?"

… … … … … …

"Dee-dee-dee…"

Just as Lin Wei felt he'd found an interesting new toy and was about to properly explore this strange dreamscape, an unexpected phone ringtone, like a bull suddenly charging in, brutally jolted him awake from his slumber.

"Who is it?!"

Lin Wei's mood plummeted. He, who usually considered himself good-tempered, rarely threw a morning tantrum, but now, without even looking, he jabbed the answer button and said with extreme impatience,

"Disturbing my peaceful sleep this early, what is it?!"

At the same time, he grumbled inwardly, Next time I sleep, I'm definitely putting my phone on silent!

"Early morning? Disturbing your peaceful sleep?! Hah?! Lin Wei, you wanna hear what you're saying right now?! And let me give you a friendly piece of advice, open those eyes of yours that are still so sleepy you don't even know your own name, and take a good look at what freakin' time it is for you right now! Agh, you're gonna piss me off, why don't you just sleep yourself to death, you bastard!"

The voice on the other end seemed to choke for a moment, then exploded as if enraged, giving him a very "friendly piece of advice." After a few seconds, it continued to ask,

"See it clearly now? What time is it? Please consider the time difference! It's me who's having my sleep disturbed right now, me!!"

Lin Wei frowned, and couldn't help but move the earpiece slightly away from his ear. He could still clearly hear what was being roared into the phone.

Oh, Tesla…

This alarm clock's quality is top-notch. Refreshes the mind. Lin Wei thought to himself that he was now refreshed and completely awake.

Peeking through the curtain gap, he looked outside. The sun was already slanting, sunlight tinged with the colors of dusk.

Estimating that it was probably late at night in North America, no wonder Tesla was so angry…

Lin Wei thought with sympathy.

Muting the microphone, Lin Wei opened his mouth and asked,

"Sakura, how long have I been asleep?"

He trusted that Yae Sakura would give him the clearest answer.

Yae Sakura gently pushed open the door from the outer room and walked in, speaking in her usual pleasant voice,

"Since returning home two days ago, you have been asleep for two days, two nights, and a morning. How is your rest, Lin Wei-kun?"

As she spoke, she walked to the bedside, gently pulled open the curtains, letting sunlight flood in, and opened the tightly closed window. Then she gave Lin Wei a soft smile, and gently withdrew, leaving only a faint scent of cherry blossoms in the air.

Lin Wei was slightly stunned, then gave a helpless smile. What was that supposed to be?

Gathering his thoughts, Lin Wei re-enabled the phone audio, and asked the person on the other end,

"Dr. Tesla, calling me in the middle of the night, is there something important?"

"Hmph!"

Tesla snorted, a little haughtily, but didn't want to dwell on this trivial matter any longer, and directly stated her purpose.

"Turn on the TV immediately, and watch the latest news. I have something to ask you."

Her tone was still far from friendly, but Lin Wei smiled slightly, not taking it to heart.

Their "cooperative relationship" was still in a mutual observation period. They weren't exactly friends yet, and he shouldn't expect to become real friends so quickly. They just needed to be useful to each other at key moments.

Just like in the original story, Anti-Entropy forcibly established a cooperative relationship with Theresa's Far East Branch by invading St. Freya. And then what?

Of course, next time they met, they'd still fight to the death!

But this didn't affect the following fact: after Kiana was captured, both sides immediately joined forces, cooperating sincerely to storm Schicksal HQ together.

This kind of shift was so seamless that Lin Wei once suspected that Cocolia… might have been a scapegoat pushed out under the tacit understanding of all parties?

Ugh… dirty politics!

Before Lin Wei could make any move, just after Tesla finished speaking, Yae Sakura, who had just left Lin Wei's bedroom, proactively picked up the remote control in the living room, turned on the TV, and considerately turned up the volume, so that Lin Wei, separated by just a door, could hear clearly—

"...According to fire department confirmation, the accident was jointly caused by electrical circuit failure and gas leakage within the building, jointly triggering catastrophic consequences, resulting in the unfortunate deaths of dozens of innocent citizens trapped inside. The Singapore government hereby reminds all citizens…"

When the TV turned on, the news was already nearing its end, reaching the concluding remarks, but it was already enough for Lin Wei to understand what was going on.

Dozens of deaths? This news's ability to downplay major events into minor ones is really strong, Lin Wei thought to himself.

Also, the term "innocent citizens" felt quite ironic to him.

"See it?"

As if watching the same news together, Tesla only spoke again after this news segment ended, her tone very unfriendly.

"Did you do it?"

"Yeah, I did it."

Lin Wei readily admitted, then stretched languidly, preparing to get up.

"Admitting it so readily, but why did you do it?! Do you know how many people that is?"

Tesla on the other end became completely enraged. Such an incident happening in Singapore made her immediately think of a certain someone who had recently settled there.

"I just checked, Schicksal has no reaction to this at all, which means this wasn't a Honkai event at all, just a completely malicious incident! Lin Wei, since you admit this is related to you, you have to give us an explanation!"

"Uh-huh, uh-huh… Done talking? Respectable Dr. Tesla, do I need to remind you again who I am?"

Lin Wei got dressed, picked up the phone he'd thrown far away, perfunctorily "uh-huh"ed a few times, then said in a teasing tone,

"I'm being very magnanimous by not asking you for an explanation, you know? So, you'd better put away that pointless temper of yours, and speak nicely… Of course, if you really can't control your menopause, then I suggest you better find someone else to talk to me."

After speaking, Lin Wei moved the phone away from his ear again, to avoid being hit by a new wave of bombardment. But instead of the expected lion's roar from the east river, he heard a burst of chaotic noise, and then a shout filled with anger and a hint of grievance—

"He actually said I'm menopausal?!"

The voice sounded quite far from the microphone. Lin Wei's heart twitched, and he brought the phone back to his ear.

"Mr. Lin Wei, please don't mind her. After all, according to our agreement, both sides need to share intelligence in a timely manner."

Sure enough, immediately following, a calm female voice, completely different from the fiery one just now, came from the phone.

"Although this news event doesn't seem to involve the Honkai or Schicksal as agreed, it is still significant. I believe Mr. Lin Wei isn't someone who wants to see the world in chaos, so Dr. Tesla and I want to understand the situation with you, to eliminate these unnecessary misunderstandings. This is beneficial to both of us, what do you think?"

Lin Wei chuckled. This pair of partners was really interesting, playing this "bad cop, good cop" routine. He just didn't know if it was intentional or unintentional.

"Should've said that earlier, right? Some information really should be shared. You've come at just the right time."

Lin Wei didn't want to dig too deep into those trivial matters. Since Einstein's attitude was still okay, he'd just go along with it.

"But before that, I suggest you check out Coral Island, see if there's been any news there recently."

Einstein's expression remained unchanged, but inside she was wondering what this guy was up to again. Tesla, on the other hand, had great chemistry with her, reaching out from the side to grab a tablet computer and start keyword searches—

"South Pacific earthquake strikes suddenly, Coral Island affected, small-scale collapse appears in the artificial island foundation, fortunately no casualties, economic property losses are under assessment. For this exposed major project quality issue, the United Nations has dispatched a professional investigation team to station there, to prevent similar situations from happening again."

The two looked at each other. They were all too familiar with this kind of whitewashing wording that tried to cover things up.

"Mr. Lin Wei is suggesting that there is some kind of connection between these two events?"

Tesla wisely remained silent, letting Einstein continue the call with Lin Wei.

"Yeah, that incident was also my doing."

Lin Wei readily admitted, speaking casually,

"Due to some coincidences, I was targeted by an organization that specializes in kidnapping Honkai disaster survivors. They also used underground boxing rings as a front, doing other criminal activities like human trafficking, drug dealing, and arms smuggling. I have a bad temper, couldn't stand to see it, so I wiped them out."

"Then, following the Honkai survivor lead, I tracked it to Coral Island. There's an underground base of some unknown organization there, specifically collecting and kidnapping people who can survive in Honkai energy environments. Then, during my investigation, I triggered a self-destruct device, and the base was completely buried under the seabed."

Lin Wei concisely spoke about the key points of information to share.

Honkai disaster survivors?

The two doctors exchanged glances again. This term reminded them of the Tower of Babel from the past, and they both associated it with the name of the organization behind that place—

Schicksal?

"Oh, right. On the way, I met a Valkyrie who was also investigating this matter, because in other parts of Southeast Asia, Honkai survivors were also being captured and taken there."

Letting the other side digest the information for a moment, without waiting for them to speak, Lin Wei continued,

"You can use your own channels to check if there are any unusual troop movement records for Valkyrie units stationed in Southeast Asia recently, and that'll prove whether what I'm saying is true or false."

"Why didn't you tell us about something so important earlier?"

Tesla called out, somewhat dissatisfied.

Was there even a need to check?

Involving Valkyrie units, lying about this kind of thing was pointless—unless the other party was Otto, and had some conspiracy, in which case he could naturally make his Valkyries cooperate unconditionally.

But, was he Otto?

The two doctors weren't really sure in their hearts, but since Welt had chosen to believe him, they chose to believe Welt as well.

"Because I'm just an ordinary person, participating in such dangerous things, inevitably exhausted in body and mind. So I've been sleeping ever since I got home, and then you guys woke me up with a phone call."

Lin Wei said shamelessly.

Tesla was so angry her nose was practically twisted. An ordinary person with a Divine Key, is it? An ordinary person who can use a Divine Key, huh?

Wait a minute!

Tesla seemed to have thought of some loophole, snatching the communicator from Einstein's hand and starting to question loudly,

"The one you have is the Key of Erosion, isn't it? How could you trigger a self-destruct device so easily and be helpless? Have you forgotten how you used to bully our Anti-Entropy?"

She felt like she'd caught Lin Wei's weakness, and could finally counterattack triumphantly!

"Heh, I was just about to ask you that question!"

Lin Wei chuckled coldly. He guessed he'd deliberately shown a flaw to bait this big lobster.

"Not many people in this world know that I possess the Key of Erosion. I'd like to ask both doctors, how is it that so coincidentally, my casual investigation just happened to run into a method to restrain me, and it just happened to be a deeply buried underground base? I even thought it was a trap specifically set up by certain people to ambush me!"

Lin Wei transformed into a "master editor," cutting off the beginning and end of the facts, and editing them beyond recognition.

"After all, all sorts of clues, and all sorts of perfectly timed coincidences, are just too coincidental, aren't they?"

"You!"

Tesla was so enraged she was seeing red. Could there be someone who slandered and falsely accused others so casually?

"This is exactly the misunderstanding we should eliminate, Mr. Lin Wei."

Einstein remained unperturbed, her tone calm.

"After all, if you really suspected us, you probably wouldn't have even answered this call."

Lin Wei clicked his tongue, bored. This woman was too smart.

"That base wasn't controlled by a conventional operating system, but by using biotechnology and quantum information technology coupled together. Using pheromones, in a way similar to how a queen ant controls an ant colony, to control and maintain the base. This is the information I gathered from investigating that base."

Lin Wei didn't hide any of this information, trying to focus on the key points, then said in a somewhat strange tone,

"It almost completely avoids the areas I'm skilled in. For such a place, it's not strange that I couldn't hijack and disable its self-destruct device, is it?"

"So, both doctors, can you explain to me, why is all of this so coincidental?"

"..."

The two doctors were silenced.

If what Lin Wei said was true…

Unless he was the kind of idiot who liked to show off everywhere, then Anti-Entropy would probably be really hard to absolve of blame for this obvious trap set against the Key of Erosion.

But if he showed off everywhere, with the level of hatred the Erosion Authority attracts, Lin Wei's grave would probably be overgrown with grass by now.

Judging from a rational standpoint…

"Is our intelligence leaking this badly?"

Tesla looked at Einstein with some doubt about life, hoping she could give her some strength.

Einstein shook her head.

"Dr. Tesla, you're not unaware of how severely our organization has been infiltrated in recent years."

Her tone was still calm, as if talking about something unrelated to herself.

Tesla slumped like a defeated rooster.

"Mr. Lin Wei, thank you very much for being willing to tell us this. It shows that our foundation of trust still exists. As for the question you raised, we will conduct a thorough internal investigation to see if it's our side that leaked secrets."

Einstein said to Lin Wei,

"Also, if it really is Anti-Entropy leaking intelligence, then it's best if you relocate to a new city. You don't need to tell us where your new location is, just keep our communication channels open. This is also for your protection, I hope Mr. Lin Wei can understand."

"Mm, I'll consider it."

Lin Wei understood. Welt was useless, Tesla was largely incompetent, only Einstein was the mainstay of Anti-Entropy!

No wonder Lobster-head always got overshadowed by Chicken-hair head, Lin Wei mused to himself.

Both sides reached a consensus, misunderstandings cleared up, and the call ended.

"Heeyah…"

Lin Wei threw his phone onto the bed, stood up and stretched comfortably, muttering to himself,

"You offered yourselves up, don't blame me for dragging you down into the mud, okay? Who told you to ask so many questions."

Lin Wei felt that there would be follow-up reactions to this matter, so he wanted to seize the opportunity to muddy the waters as much as possible, so he could fish in troubled waters.

"Lin Wei-kun, you're plotting against people again."

Yae Sakura walked in, her pair of clear blue eyes glanced at Lin Wei, feeling truly helpless with this detestable guy.

"After sleeping for so long, your stomach must be weak. I've made some miso soup and tamagoyaki, have a simple bite to eat?"

"Thank you for your hard work, Sakura."

Lin Wei felt inexplicably guilty under her gaze, coughed once, and walked towards the dining room.

Yae Sakura stepped aside to clear the path, then followed behind him.

The meal was indeed simple, not like a proper dinner, more like breakfast or dessert, looking quite delicate.

But the bowls and plates were all large, emphasizing generous portions, very characteristic of Yae Sakura.

"How is the taste?"

After sitting down, Yae Sakura watched Lin Wei's eating motions intently.

"Very delicious, thank you, Sakura."

Lin Wei looked up, meeting Yae Sakura's beautiful eyes, sighed, and said softly,

"Can I trouble you with something?"

Yae Sakura leaned forward slightly, waiting attentively.

"Please pour me a glass of water, just the right temperature,"

Lin Wei said with a smile,

"Add some honey."

Yae Sakura was taken aback for a moment, then smiled, like cherry blossoms in full bloom, a delicate fragrance filling the air.