Chapter 107: Concealment

Chapter 107: Chapter 107: Concealment

Come to think of it, that actually made sense...

The warden had been working from the very beginning to cover up everything related to Xiang Yi.

And after that, whenever Xiang Yi killed someone, he almost never left any witnesses — last night was the exception, when two unremarkable guys somehow managed to survive.

If he hadn’t already known what Xiang Yi was capable of, he probably wouldn’t have been able to connect a wanted fugitive laying low with a killer capable of wiping out an entire network of compromised operatives.

All things considered, it made perfect sense that Chairman Liu’s people didn’t have the full picture.

So then... should he say something...?

The warden wrestled with himself. He was afraid that the moment he opened his mouth, all the blame for the company’s dead informants would land squarely on his shoulders.

His own informants getting killed — that was his problem. But the company’s informants...

Just as the warden was still stuck in his head, Liu Hongyu continued, laying out his thoughts on Xiang Yi: "...Does he have anyone close to him? We could go after the people around him."

"I’m already arranging that."

"Good."

After hesitating for a long while without reaching a decision, the warden suddenly hit on an idea and asked, "So... as for what happens to me after all this..."

Liu Hongyu’s expression shifted, turning unreadable. Chairman Liu had given him considerable discretionary authority for this trip — enough to decide the fate of a great many people.

A cold smile crept onto his lips, the kind that made it clear he had the warden completely in his grip: "That depends entirely on how well you perform on Anka Star."

With those words, the warden’s life was tied directly to the Power Armor situation.

Xiang Yi lives — the warden dies.

Xiang Yi dies — the warden lives.

The warden clenched his jaw and gave a hard, firm nod, saying nothing more.

Liu Hongyu found a place to stay within the prison, and once he confirmed there were no surveillance devices in the room, he contacted Chairman Liu and reported everything the warden had told him.

Chairman Liu wasn’t surprised by any of it.

Idiots at the bottom of the chain were par for the course — the problem was they always had too many ideas of their own.

Some things would’ve been so much simpler if they’d just reported up the chain and let their superiors handle it. But no — they always had to go and do it themselves.

Apparently his reputation among his subordinates wasn’t exactly that of an approachable man.

That was the effect he’d been going for, of course — but when things actually went sideways because of it, it was still irritating.

Still, on the bright side...

Chairman Liu picked up a paper document from his desk.

It was the last remaining unaltered copy of Xiang Yi’s personnel file.

The photo on it showed Xiang Yi in military uniform, expression stern.

Chairman Liu casually flicked his lighter and set the document on fire, dropping it into the large ashtray.

Every other loose end had been tied up over the past few days. All the evidence had been wiped. With only Xiang Yi himself left, there was nothing to worry about anymore.

With no memory and nothing but his own word, there was no way for him to explain or prove anything about his past.

Best case, they kill him — that buries the evidence for good.

Worst case, even if they can’t, there’s no way a single man could dig up a truth that had been buried this thoroughly.

Besides, the charges were still pinned on Xiang Yi. Let the Bounty Hunters keep him busy for a while.

Once Anka Star was brought under control, he’d have nowhere left to run anyway.

Chairman Liu had already decided to shift his focus away from wrapping up the Xiang Yi matter and onto securing control of the new colony.

As Wu Yi had pointed out, an ordinary Star System colony wasn’t worth this much effort to control.

Unless it was a colony that had been developing for exactly fifteen years, situated in the Edge Star Realm rather than the Border Star Realm.

In that case, a Black Stone was bound to have appeared there.

That was a power beyond even Abnormalities — it mattered far more than anything else.

The company’s operations there didn’t seem to be going smoothly, though. He’d been so occupied dealing with everything else these past few days that he hadn’t paid it much attention.

Sending his trusted subordinate over wasn’t just about dealing with Xiang Yi — he also intended to personally oversee the infiltration operation on Anka Star.

To find out exactly what had gone wrong.

Anka Star.

Anka Star Government.

The Premier’s Office.

Deputy Premier Wu Yi had come in early, powering up his work terminal and going through the reports that the Special Internal Affairs Department had sent over the past two days.

The contents were nothing short of alarming.

In two days, over a dozen people had died in the Southeast City District — the majority of them key figures in their respective departments.

Every single one had clear evidence linking them to Iron Shell Company. Last night’s report even indicated that the Minister of Internal Affairs was compromised.

The colony was already in a critical state. They had shut down the port by force, risking civil unrest in the process, but it had at least cut off the company’s most direct avenue of infiltration in the short term.

If the colony’s civilian economy started to crack on top of everything else, the consequences would be unthinkable.

Otherwise, these people would have just kept hiding, waiting for the right moment to strike the killing blow.

And the government couldn’t solve this on its own — without stepping outside the bounds of local law, there was simply no effective way to root people out one by one at that kind of speed.

It was all thanks to the fact that he’d agreed to Master Chang’s request. Thanks to a person who had appeared on their planet out of nowhere.

"Xiang Yi..."

Capable, decisive — within just a few days, he’d already gotten the lay of the land and managed to dig up leads on the company operatives who were hunting him.

And perhaps most terrifying of all... he had survived an attack carried out through their own military orbital satellite after it had been hacked.

That thought inevitably led him to think of the military, and his expression darkened slightly.

He shook his head and turned back to the documents.

He was genuinely surprised that Xiang Yi had left two people alive last night.

He’d started to wonder if he’d misjudged Xiang Yi — that the kill-everything approach was just who he was — but it seemed like the kid had just been running hot before. He wasn’t bad, all things considered.

According to the intelligence Xiang Yi had provided last night, all compromised personnel currently operating in the Southeast City District had been eliminated.

Anyone still posing a threat was either embedded within their own government departments or operating out of other districts.

There were no more active informants in Southeast City.

Both the physical evidence and the leads extracted by their data analysts pointed to the same conclusion.

It was, without question, very good news.

They still had to stay vigilant against further infiltration by the company, but this would take a massive amount of pressure off their internal operations.

Wu Yi finished reading through the files and pulled out his terminal to call Master Chang.

"What do you need?"

"Nothing much. Just checking in — how’s that kid of yours doing lately?"

"Fine. Wakes up, kills someone, goes back to sleep. I can barely get a hold of him on a normal day. Besides, I’ve got my own stuff going on right now — if that’s all you’ve got, I’m hanging up."

"What are you busy with?"

"Catching small animals."

"...What?"

"And having people rebuild the junkyard while I’m at it."

"You switching careers? Going into livestock farming?"

"Just a little side project. You’ll find out when I’m done. Just don’t go green with envy when you do."

"Fair enough."

After a bit of small talk, Wu Yi steered things back to business.

"He’s still refusing to hand over all the intelligence to us?"

"Yeah. Even after last night — he took out a bunch of compromised people and brought a few back alive — he still thinks there are rotten people at the top of your government. So? Is he right?"

The silence on the other end of the line was answer enough. Master Chang already knew what it meant.

Wu Yi offered a somewhat hollow explanation: "It can’t be helped. When things get chaotic enough, you end up with all kinds of people."

Master Chang gave a short laugh and moved past it: "Well, you’ve got people like Xiang Yi too, don’t you? He hasn’t done anything wrong. Why not just trust him?"

"He’s bought you breathing room these past few days. Even if he handed over every last piece of evidence right now, you still couldn’t arrest everyone at once."

"You’re right. We’ll just have to keep relying on him then. Let’s hope he doesn’t slip up."

"Speaking of which — wasn’t Xiang Yi a wanted man to begin with?"

"He still is. Why?"

"I’ve had a new citizen ID card made for him on my end."

As Wu Yi spoke, he pulled a paper card and an electronic one from the stack of documents in front of him. Xiang Yi’s basic information had already been entered into both.

Beyond the basic details — name, gender, age — everything else, all past records and history, had been entirely fabricated.

"This is a completely new identity."

"As long as Xiang Yi has this card, he’s just some guy who happens to share the same name as that wanted criminal and looks a bit like him."