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Chapter 314 - 214: Demon Conference

After the lively dinner, Chen Xuan and Lin Qing left together and took a walk along the path in the community to aid digestion.

The information related to the Dimensional Limit Mechanism isn’t something that Xu Xuanling can’t hear. It’s just that considering the guests have just entered an unfamiliar environment, receiving too much information might cause their brains to get confused.

The negotiations with Walter went quite smoothly. They didn’t need to worry about the loss of control of the N959 Requiem for the time being, and could also make use of it. Moreover, with the cutting-edge product, the bionic eye, the Walter Company would have its interests tied to theirs for a long time.

Chen Xuan wasn’t surprised by this outcome. Lin Qing, being an authentic traverser, possessed a wealth of the Mechanism’s business secrets, so handling an arms dealer was a piece of cake. The most important thing was replacing nanomachines with peculiar objects for production, which had alleviated a major concern for both of them: whether the future nanomachine disaster would be linked to their actions.

Even though Lin Qing repeatedly emphasized that nanomachines only awakened into self-organization when forming large macro objects and that compliant use was safe, Chen Xuan could see she was a bit unsure.

After all, the nanomachines used in prosthetics and those in nanomachine disasters are essentially the same thing.

Now this hidden worry seemed to have vanished.

Meanwhile, it was indirectly confirmed that Lin Qing herself was not a key figure for the Mechanism to develop nanomachines. Otherwise, if she changed her mind, the entire history should have drastically changed.

The world remained silent, and door 202 was still closed, indicating that the future had not been altered.

Compared to the distant issue of nanomachine proliferation, Chen Xuan was more concerned about the Mechanism’s next move.

Just a quarter of an hour ago, Honglian received a notice from the squad leader.

The Red Lotus Team was going to re-enter the Erosion Zone of the Five Rings Machinery Factory and travel to the other world.

This meant their original plan to have Honglian witness Xiao Canong’s evil transaction with the Demon was no longer applicable... After all, it was already the end of February on that side, with only five days left until the next month, resulting in a definite time conflict between the two sides.

"Phew..." Chen Xuan exhaled a puff of white breath, the early spring of Jiang City still not warming up, and the evening wind carried a chilling cold, "Shouldn’t the entry point be in a resting period by now? Isn’t what Xiao Canong is doing against the rules?"

"That’s the rationale, but rules are meant to be broken." Lin Qing shrugged, "Besides, Xiao Canong has pretty credible reasons."

"Credible reasons?" Chen Xuan pondered, "Could it be that he’s also preparing for the Demon meeting?"

"I guess that’s most likely it."

Negotiating with the Ability Users from another world, naturally, a certain amount of defensive power should be prepared. As a representative of negotiations and squad leader, mobilizing a squad of the Execution Team to accompany for protection was completely reasonable.

Ability Users passing through the entry point would indeed cause the Erosion Zone to expand, but the Five Rings Machinery Factory had long been sealed off, allowing no outsiders close apart from police and Mechanism personnel. As long as there wasn’t an uproar like the one at the Botanical Garden, the Mechanism could do whatever they wanted.

Chen Xuan imagined that the meeting would surely not include Honglian and that the Execution Team acting as "bodyguards" would also be under the Demons’ watch during the meeting. Sneaking Honglian out to watch the live scene seemed implausible.

"Actually, I think... watching the recorded broadcast isn’t bad either." Lin Qing said optimistically, "Initially we worried Honglian held a grudge against illegal Wanderers, not trusting us and being kept in the dark by the Mechanism. But now, she’s getting along well with me, willing to listen to my opinion, and with the Dimensional Limit Mechanism negotiating with the Demon being a clear fact, she wouldn’t doubt the authenticity of the videos."

Ultimately, it’s a matter of mutual trust.

Chen Xuan nodded, "Then we’ll record... However, there’s still one aspect I’m uneasy about."

"What aspect?"

"Why did Xiao Canong specifically choose the Red Lotus Team?" He emphasized "Red Lotus." With Jiang Siqi’s information, they had a good understanding of the Jiang City Division’s structure, knowing the Execution Team, entirely composed of Ability Users, had four teams, including three formal teams and one reserve team. "As you know, since the recent Hongda Daily Chemical Factory incident, the Red Lotus Team has become the most popular star agents online. Combined with Jiang Siqi already being popular online, this team draws a lot of attention, completely on a different level compared to Xiao and White Hot Group."

In a way, the Red Lotus Team could be considered the face of the Jiang City Division of the Mechanism.

And Xiao Canong was deliberately leveraging their popularity to build momentum for the Dimensional Limit Mechanism.

The Red Lotus had already complained to Lin Qing about how she now had to frequently take photos and check-in, added with a bunch of visits or show appointments, almost leaving her with no private rest time.

In this situation, letting the Red Lotus Team continue with promotional work while sending other Execution Teams to escort Xiao Canong’s negotiation would obviously be the more rational choice.

"Hmm..." Lin Qing thought for a moment and found Chen Xuan’s words made sense. The entry point served as a natural barrier, isolating Honglian from this world. Xiao Canong needn’t worry about public opinion regardless of his actions. "Do you have an idea?"

"It’s always wise to be cautious of others, especially enemies." Chen Xuan said, "Why don’t you arrange a meeting with Honglian?"

...

Two days later, Chen Xuan took Lin Qing and Liuli into the other world’s Paris City and then flew to Jiang City.

The meeting location was set at the Cui Ting Building, a skyscraper hotel situated in the city center. From the registration information, its owner was likely a Demon, much like the Yeyue Group building.

Chen Xuan used the same old trick, first renting a nearby residence, setting it as a branch, allowing seamless transition between the two worlds.

Lin Qing pretended to be a guest staying in the hotel, beginning her hacking operations.

With only Lv, an AI, it was theoretically impossible to breach the hotel’s firewall. Despite future electronic information technology not matching that of a century later Mechanism, it excelled in sheer scale.

However, Lin Qing never intended to force a frontal attack.

Her hacking tool was equally simple: a USB drive. Regardless of how interfaces evolved, personal removable storage always held a market share. In the morning she let the programs inside the USB engage with the firewall. In the afternoon, she transmitted this data to N959, having it repair the program with the goal of creating a "key" that could unlock all the network gates of the building.

Although the Demon organization of Paris City suffered a devastating blow, alerting Demons lurking in other cities, at most they’d alter keys and seal potentially leaking network interfaces, they probably wouldn’t entirely replace decades-old security systems in a short time. N959 simply needed to use past experience as a template to repair a mini version of itself inside the USB.

This replicated Requiem was not a peculiar object devoid of self-awareness. Its sole purpose was to infiltrate the hotel building’s electronic systems, enabling Lin Qing to come and go freely within.

After two evolutions, the "key" testing was successful. It still appeared like an ordinary USB drive from the outside, but its internal chip had been transformed beyond recognition by the strange object.

As Lv put it, it had no understanding of how this thing could operate.

On the last day of February, the Dimensional Limit Mechanism party also appeared in the hotel.

The leader was indeed Xiao Canong, but apart from the members of the Red Lotus Team, Chen Xuan also saw two relatively unfamiliar faces: Wang Qianduan and Zhang Yingzi.

Jiang Siqi mentioned these two were more like the squad leader’s secretaries, only bearing the name of Execution Team members and belonging to no particular team.

"Should we greet the Red Lotus?" Lin Qing asked.

After cracking the hotel firewall, she could naturally mobilize some resources in the building, like sending greeting text messages to the rooms.

"No need," Chen Xuan shook his head, "There are too many people and eyes here, it’s better to be cautious."