Chapter 117 -117-Zoey’s True Identity

Chapter 117: Chapter117-Zoey’s True Identity

"I’ve met Gray Ledger’s guild leader in the game."

"He said targeting Zoey was a decision made by the board."

John set the documents down.

"Why would a consortium’s board of directors specifically send people into the game to hunt down their own heiress?"

Alfred fell silent for a moment.

"That was also the strangest part of the investigation."

He paused briefly before continuing.

"Sir, you should already know that Apocalypse is connected to the Digital Life Project."

John nodded.

They had uncovered that information before.

Alfred continued,

"The Rosewood Consortium is one of the primary investors behind the Digital Life Project."

"The amount of capital they’ve invested is enormous."

"However, according to the information we currently possess, the Rosewood board’s attitude toward the project is extremely contradictory."

"They’re willing to invest in it."

"Yet they’ve consistently avoided allowing their own core members to become deeply involved."

"Especially Miss Zoey."

"Her father strongly opposes her spending extended periods of time inside Apocalypse."

John frowned.

"He’s afraid she’ll become a test subject?"

"That would be one way to interpret it."

Alfred nodded.

"At least judging from the behavior we’ve been able to verify, he does seem to regard those deeply involved with Apocalypse as some kind of high-risk group."

"That makes it even stranger."

John lightly tapped a finger against the table.

A project.

They had poured an enormous amount of money into it.

Yet they refused to let their own people become deeply involved.

If even the investors themselves were this wary of the project...

Then whatever was hidden behind Apocalypse was probably far more complicated than anything John currently knew.

Alfred’s expression also became slightly more serious.

"Ocean Hotel originally intended to continue investigating."

"We wanted to determine why the Rosewood Consortium kept increasing its investment while simultaneously resisting any involvement from core members of the family."

"But just as the investigation began uncovering something..."

"The operative assigned to the case had an incident."

John looked up.

"What happened?"

"Suicide."

The single word made John’s gaze sharpen slightly.

Alfred continued,

"There were no obvious warning signs beforehand."

"After returning from the investigation, the operative suddenly began displaying abnormal behavior."

"Hotel personnel arrived at the scene quickly and attempted to save him."

"By then, however, his consciousness was already extremely confused."

"He could only utter a few fragmented phrases."

John asked,

"What phrases?"

Alfred looked directly at him.

"The Five Great Fleets."

"The False Sky."

"And several names whose meanings we still haven’t been able to confirm."

Silence settled over the dining table.

John’s eyes narrowed slightly.

"The False Sky..."

That phrase.

He felt like he had encountered something similar before.

Soon, the memory surfaced.

Some time ago, an extremely strange video had appeared online.

An abnormal phenomenon had appeared in the sky.

Not long after the footage was uploaded, every related post and copy had been removed at an astonishing speed.

Then there were the strange celestial phenomena that had occasionally appeared recently.

Those inexplicable changes.

Pieces of information that had originally seemed completely unrelated—

were suddenly connected by the words "False Sky" into a faint, blurry thread.

John leaned back in his chair.

For a long time, he said nothing.

This world...

seemed to be hiding quite a few secrets.

Apocalypse.

The Digital Life Project.

The Five Great Fleets.

The False Sky.

Even Ocean Hotel itself.

Every time he dug a little deeper,

more questions surfaced.

After a while, John pulled his attention back to the documents in his hand.

"Let’s talk about Zoey first."

"If her father doesn’t want her playing anymore, why go through all this trouble?"

"Wouldn’t it be easier to just stop her from logging in?"

Alfred answered immediately.

"There is a wager between father and daughter."

John raised an eyebrow.

"A wager?"

"Yes."

"Miss Zoey insisted that she could use Apocalypse to prove that she was qualified to decide her own future."

"In the end, her father gave her that opportunity."

Alfred spoke calmly.

"There are two main conditions to the wager."

"First, if Miss Zoey’s game character dies, she must temporarily stop logging in for three days."

"Second, once the national tournament begins, if she fails to place within the national top ten, she will permanently lose the right to log into Apocalypse."

Understanding immediately dawned on John.

No wonder Gray Ledger had chosen to go after her so viciously inside the game.

If her father simply confined her in reality,

Zoey probably wouldn’t accept it.

But if she died in the game according to the terms of their wager,

then she would have no choice but to honor the agreement herself.

The board behind Gray Ledger only needed to keep applying pressure.

Keep pushing her.

Until she was completely eliminated.

John thought back to the guild war involving Black Rose.

Zoey’s insane bounty at the very end.

And the 99+ unread messages piled up in his chat list.

It seemed she really had been pushed into a corner back then.

Now that her guild ranking had already fallen outside the top ten,

there wasn’t much need to guess how that war had ended.

John lifted his coffee and took a sip.

"Looks like I won’t be seeing her for a while."

Three days without logging in.

For an ordinary player, that might not seem like much.

But Apocalypse was developing faster and faster.

Rankings.

Guilds.

Main cities.

Class advancements.

The national tournament.

Everything was progressing at a rapid pace.

Three days.

That was more than enough time for an enormous gap to open.

Still, this was ultimately an issue between Zoey and her father.

John had no intention of getting involved for now.

He had already had enough for one day.

He had just torn down Gray Ledger’s headquarters inside the game.

Then, in reality, he had watched a group of people break into his old residence.

And now he had suddenly learned a whole pile of bizarre secrets.

His brain needed a break.

John put the documents back into the black envelope.

"Alright."

"Thanks."

"If anything else comes up, I’ll call you."

Alfred inclined his head slightly.

"I am always at your service, sir."

With that,

he collected the empty plates from the table.

His movements were just as calm and composed as always.

Then he turned and left the dining room.

John remained seated alone at the table.

His fingers lightly tapped the document envelope.

His gaze eventually settled on one particular phrase.

The False Sky.

After a while,

he placed the documents inside a drawer.

"Things just keep getting more troublesome."

At least the situation with Zoey had mostly been cleared up.

A wager between father and daughter.

Gray Ledger acting under orders from the board to pressure her inside the game.

As for what conflicts existed within the Rosewood Consortium, or what Zoey and her father planned to do next...

John wasn’t particularly interested.

Someone else’s family affairs.

The less he got involved, the easier his life would be.

What truly bothered him was something else.

Gray Ledger.

Those people had actually managed to track down his residence in the real world.

If he had still been living there yesterday...

He really couldn’t say what would have happened.

Alfred had indeed told him that protecting John’s safety was also part of his assignment.

But the problem was...

John raised his head and glanced toward the old butler, who was clearing dishes not far away.

His hair was already white.

Though his movements were still absurdly steady and composed.

"..."

An old man.

No matter how professional he was...

Could he really handle an entire criminal organization?