Chapter 667: The Truth About Enigma City

’She really read too deep into this...’

While Leo’s original motive for revealing his knowledge of the entire plot was to obtain Aurora’s shock-induced obedience, the poor protagonist drew a far more dramatic conclusion.

Being a True Reader didn’t make him a mind reader, but Leo could still read a surge of emotions in Aurora’s face thanks to how obvious she was.

She seemed to feel deep sadness for the villainous brand that he had to live with for the majority of his life.

At the same time, she also seemed to despise herself for being one of the many people who held him in contempt.

Especially so, now that she realized how many times Leo had been helping her, rather than just being another villain who set her as his target as she had assumed back then.

’Then again, this isn’t bad either.’

Looking back at Aurora, who was listening to his words with full concentration, Leo was sure that his desired effect had been achieved even if indirectly.

After all, it was unlikely for the Hero of Light, who believed she was deeply indebted to him, to deny him the smooth cooperation he sought.

If anything, the deep emotional entanglement that resulted from her overreaching realizations guaranteed that she would listen to any request of Leo’s as long as it wasn’t too excessive.

Lastly, as a bonus, even Leo couldn’t help being affected by Aurora’s storm of emotions as the Cassian inside of him felt a hint of warmth at being recognized for his good deeds for the very first time...

"When I looked at the higher-ups of Enigma City from different angles in order to fulfill my quest for revenge, that was when I first realized how rotten the city was."

While he mentioned a hidden detail of Cassian’s life, Leo refrained from fully explaining his whole past ordeal, as this wasn’t an attempt to milk more compassion from Aurora. However...

’To think that I found it heroic to hunt such a poor, misunderstood soul... He was the one true Hero all along.’

Unbeknownst to him, Aurora already knew everything there was to know about Cassian’s and, by extension, Leo’s past.

Hearing him mention it once more only made her guilt deepen as she considered the total sum of suffering that he had to go through from the start to the end.

Once again, Leo managed to obtain another unexpected effect from his words, one that he went out of his way to avoid this time around.

"Actual villains being celebrated as Heroes, heritable merit for those hedonistic young masters, the real villains running amok in slum regions with no accountability. It looked like a typical corruption of power at its finest, but even such a prospect that was constantly being concealed by the unstoppable stream of propaganda ended up being a mere fa?ade."

Being touted as paradise on Earth, Enigma City was like an alternate dimension of its own.

Villain attacks, social disparity, Gate Breaks... In truth, there were many threats that made living in the city just as bad as living elsewhere, if not worse in some instances.

However, like a herd of cattle who only knew to follow the cane of their master, an intricate application of information control and skillfully targeted propaganda was all the City Council needed to brainwash the collective minds of the city’s population, making them believe they were the lucky citizens of this fictional piece of paradise.

After years of experimental tinkering, it became extremely easy to carve a certain idea into their brain using a single news report, as they managed to do with Aurora’s recent rebranding.

After all, Aurora was only able to build her image as the Hero of Light because the City Council had allowed it to begin with.

’It only feels exaggerated from a reader’s point of view.’

From the perspective of a reader who knew all these supposedly hidden details through the novel’s narration, it always seemed like a forced setting for the sake of the plot.

Only when he saw these fantastical control tactics being applied in real time did Leo really understand how terrifying the situation was.

That was especially so when he possessed the memories of Cassian, who came close to dismantling the whole net.

If the last few steps to uncovering the true purpose of these tactics didn’t become absurdly difficult even for someone of Cassian’s caliber, he might have found everything that the novel intentionally hid for the climax before the events of the novel even managed to take place.

Unfortunately, with the difficulty skyrocketing, Cassian gave up on bringing the whole structure down and settled for taking down the target of his revenge without worrying about the repercussions.

Otherwise, the City of Villains might have already fallen long ago.

’Then again, that would have only been possible if he could find the upgrades that I obtained on his own.’

While the Cassian of the past was quite the powerhouse, he still lacked the power to go on an overall war with the entirety of Enigma City.

"Upon taking a deeper look, the concept of corruption was too simple to describe what was taking place. There was a randomness at play when it came to picking the high-ranking individuals who received the perks of this presumed corruption. Supporting the City Council wasn’t a factor; paying or receiving bribes wasn’t one either. It was as if..."

Leo naturally knew the direct answer. However, in order to elucidate the identity of the skeleton hiding in Enigma City’s closet to Aurora, a proper build-up was absolutely necessary.

"It was as if there was an organized structure that the entirety of the city was built to sustain. Power, strength, influence, wealth... None of that was a criterion to be a part of that organization; the only common factor between these people was their pattern of speech! The way they talked in general, the way they conversed with other members of that mysterious structure..."

Even if Cassian didn’t dig this deep, he could easily make up the steps to the most anticipated reveal.

"By the time I had heard enough, I had finally come to realize it. What they shared wasn’t some sort of eccentric speech club; it was belief in a specific group of entities! Enigma City was actually being ruled by a cult!"

"A cult...?"

Having only listened till now, Aurora was quick to react to the unexpected revelation.

"Don’t tell me they actually got contacted by the invaders?"

Just by piecing everything she heard together, she was just as quick to come up with an answer to her own question without waiting for Leo’s reply.

"Somehow, yes. At that time, that was the only conclusion I could make sense of, but I had no idea what they actually believed in or sought to do. At least, that was until I had a similar experience of my own."

"Seriously? Even you had met them?"

Logic dictated that Aurora’s vigilance should have risen on the mention of Leo meeting the same things that supposedly created the cult targeting her life.

However, not to mention the trust she had in Leo, Aurora was having a harder time wrapping her head around the things she had heard.

She already had a hard time imagining the alien encounter mentioned in the news report, yet Leo actually had one of his own?

What was next? Did Star also meet them? Or did everyone in Enigma City have the chance to meet them except for herself?