Chapter 205: Meeting? Usurpation! (Light Novel Fanboy, Part 2)
Chapter 205: Meeting? Usurpation! (Light Novel Fanboy, Part 2)
【Name: Gate to the Beyond (Gate, Space, Escape)】
【Appearance: It has no physical form and manifests as a strange door with an undefined width, unknown size, unclear thickness, and a difficult-to-determine material and style.
The only certain characteristic of this anomaly is a cork nameplate affixed to the door frame of the infested door, with the words "I want to escape" carved on it using fingernails.】
【Ability: Parasitic Door, Space Teleportation, Crisis Transfer】
【Cost: A portion of its power will be permanently occupied, or it will lose everything it possesses and become a wanderer in the afterlife, until the "door" it opens disappears.】
【File: One of the many functional anomalies created by the Water Bottle Director of the Purification Bureau to fulfill his wishes, temporarily numbered 0001. It is a part of the Director's most prized creation. To ensure the safety of this anomaly, he forcibly mated it with another anomaly called the "Escape Nameplate," granting the holder an extremely strong escape ability.
Thanks to the powerful effect of the "Gate to the Beyond," which allows for distance-ignoring teleportation, the Rogue Gang, with a membership of over a thousand, has never been truly exposed, despite enduring the kingdom's extremely harsh manhunts for several years. This changed when they caught the attention of Lyon Lane, a cleaner from the Virgin District Police Station, during one of their attack activities...】
【Evaluation: Possesses an incredibly powerful ability to freely teleport through all doors in the capital city and can be unconditionally activated during a crisis, instantly removing the holder from danger and making them nearly impossible to capture.
Furthermore, when activated by its first user, Joshua Robben, this anomaly reveals its true form as the "Gate to the Beyond," briefly connecting to the future.】
【Imbue Value: 0.1】
Damn, they've thought of everything...
Reading the item description and seeing words like "escape," "crisis transfer," and "impossible to capture," Lyon, who had been eyeing the "Gate to the Afterlife," couldn't help but click his tongue in frustration, temporarily giving up on the idea of acquiring this "Portal to the Afterlife."
It seems that whether it's the sober director of the Purification Bureau or the old silver coin, the Water Bottle Director, those who have climbed to high positions in the agency are all extremely thorough, leaving no room for others to exploit.
Upon reflection, this is quite normal. After all, if someone were to be careless and not leave enough backup plans, they wouldn't even last a few months in the agency before falling victim to the ten percent annual mortality rate. Those who are not cautious enough are in the minority.
Hmm... Even if I might not get this extremely useful anomaly, I've already accomplished almost all of my infiltration objectives on this trip. I found the hidden prince, met the "grandparent and grandchild" with memory abilities, and gathered a lot of intelligence. It's time to wrap things up.
Lyon reluctantly withdrew his hand from the Gate to the Beyond and reached into his pocket, tapping his Magic Mirror. He instructed Little Fifi to hold the valley topographical map, or rather, the Rogue Gang's hideout location map, and immediately return to the agency to summon the others. Then, amidst the astonished gazes of the crowd, he turned and walked back to his seat.
"Your Excellency Nathan, your ability is to foresee the future, isn't it?"
After voicing his "deduction," Lyon glanced at the middle-aged man sitting in the main position with a sullen expression while secretly switching his Elite Performer emblem, feigning a disappointed look.
"I'm sorry, but no matter what you saw in the future, I still believe that your leadership has resulted in a series of grave mistakes."
...
If Lyon had summoned the others yesterday, it would have been his team coming to "wrap things up." However, the director has likely already left for the headquarters to interrogate the Water Bottle Director. That means Emma, his senior, will be the one arriving here.
Since the Rogue Gang's hideout is not in the capital city, it will take Emma some time to reach this remote valley. Adding the time it will take for Little Fifi to run back to the mirror world and deliver the message, it's estimated to be around forty to fifty minutes.
Lyon's task now is to stall the members present, especially the middle-aged man who is the gang leader, and the "grandparent and grandchild" with memory abilities, for the next forty to fifty minutes until the "net" arrives, to facilitate Emma's capture and complete the infiltration objectives.
Having determined his task, Lyon didn't wait for the middle-aged man to rebut and boldly declared:
"I don't know what kind of future you've seen, nor do I understand why you ordered the attack on the Dock Tower. But one thing is clear: if we continue to follow your lead, it will only lead us to another failure!"
"..."
"What do you know?"
Hearing the harsh judgment from "Little Bavin," the middle-aged man, who had endured for a long time, couldn't help but feel a surge of anger. He stood up and glared at Lyon, saying:
"You have no idea what kind of future I've seen! If you don't follow my instructions, the Corlok Kingdom... Ugh..."
At this point, the middle-aged man paused and touched his temples before sitting back down. He scolded with anger in his eyes:
"You don't understand anything!"
"I understand."
After successfully provoking the man's anger, Lyon secretly tucked the sheep's horn back into the Magic Mirror. He then scrutinized the middle-aged man, whose temples had suddenly turned white, and calmly asked:
"Your Excellency Nathan, if I'm not mistaken, you can't directly reveal the future to us, right? Otherwise, you would rapidly age. Am I correct?"
"Yes!"
After consuming the Black Sheep's Rage Aura, which temporarily lowered his intelligence by thirty points, the middle-aged Joshua directly acknowledged the speculation. At this moment, he felt the flames of anger burning stronger within him. He forcefully restrained himself from cursing and instead asked in a cold, piercing tone:
"Since you believe I can see the future, why do you question my decisions?"
"It's simple. I'm not questioning the future you see, but rather your judgment of it. Or to be more blunt, I question you as a person."
Amid the stunned expressions of the rogue gang members, "Little Bavin," who had just joined the core group, stood up. He looked at the middle-aged leader with utmost sincerity and said:
"Nathan, I'm sorry, but I don't think you have the qualities of a leader. Even if you can see the future, you can't make the best decisions based on the information you receive... And I'm certain I'm not the only one who thinks this way."
After saying this, Lyon looked around, nodding slightly with a hint of apology.
"Everyone, my apologies... Those who agree with me, who believe that Nathan lacks the qualities of a leader, please bow to me."
What?!
Little Bavin's dispute with the leader had unexpectedly involved Lyon himself. Caught off guard, the entire rogue gang, under the effect of the Traveling Thrush Archduke's ability, stood up in unison and bowed to Lyon in a standard gesture.
The only two who didn't bow were Little Phoebe, who had somehow fallen asleep on the table, and the bald lady, a staunch supporter of the leader.
However, what was more shocking was that after seeing everyone agreeing with Little Bavin and believing that Nathan was not a qualified leader, the bald lady, with a look of astonishment, hesitated for a moment and then bowed as well, seemingly swayed by the others.
"You... This can't be! You're lying!"
Watching as each rogue gang member stood up and bowed to Lyon, the middle-aged man's eyes widened in shock. But he quickly recovered and glared at Lyon, saying:
"The condition for your ability is definitely not convincing others! I've always been right! Even if we don't succeed, we manage to escape unharmed! I'm a capable... at least a qualified leader! They... they shouldn't think this way!"
"Well..."
Lyon didn't argue with him but looked at him with a hint of pity and nodded in agreement.
"If thinking this way makes you feel better... then consider me a liar."
Joshua was stunned by the blatant betrayal he had just witnessed. He was shaken to his core, and to prevent him from holding onto any hope, Lyon decided to add fuel to the fire.
"I can understand why everyone feels this way."
As the rogue gang members remained bewildered, Lyon sighed and spoke on their behalf:
"Nathan, you don't understand. We, who willingly joined the rogue gang, don't seek success in every attack. Instead, we want to see a better future!
This future I speak of is not the one you see; it's a future where things are changing for the better. It's a future for all of us, and even for the entire kingdom, moving in a positive direction. But what have you given us?"
Lyon paused briefly, allowing everyone to reflect on his words, but not for too long. He quickly continued, summarizing their thoughts:
"Attack! Attack! And more attacks!"
"Attacking merchants, officials, nobles, and the royal family... You have no idea how to bring about positive change. All you know is how to unleash meaningless destruction, time and time again.
In the years you've led the rogue gang... I'm sorry, but I can't think of a better word than 'rogue' to describe our pointless actions over the years."
Lyon's questioning of the gang's existence and its lack of rationality left Joshua's face turning pale. Leveraging his Elite Performer ability, Lyon feigned deep sorrow as he delivered the final blow:
"After all these years of your relentless attacks, have the greedy and brutal factory owners become more compassionate? Have the corrupt and incompetent officials become more efficient? Have the arrogant and reckless nobles become more restrained? Has the perpetually incompetent royal family changed at all?
If the answer is no, then what have you been attacking for? You've only led us to succeed in destruction while failing in every other aspect. How can you claim to be a qualified leader?"
"Nathan, do you now understand why we no longer wish to follow you?"
(End of Chapter)
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