Chapter 149: Chapter 143: Lin Qi’s Method of Retaliation, Seemingly Familiar

Si Ranran hadn’t been too affected when Lin Qi casually swatted away the first Spiritual Needle.

But the second one was crushed by Lin Qi in the most brutal way imaginable, and Si Ranran suffered an extremely powerful backlash.

If the first time was just a warning...

...then the second was a punishment.

In Si Ranran’s perception, the Spiritual Tentacles Lin Qi had unleashed at full power, enhanced by Spiritual Power Materialization, were far beyond the strength a Tier Two Extraordinary could possess.

Combined with reports from the siege on the Liu Clan tower last night...

...Si Ranran could only conclude that the Liu Clan was secretly hiding a Tier Three Wizard.

"Don’t attack again. Save your strength. The hidden Wizard in the Liu Clan is even stronger than that dead man Liu Xingzhou, and his methods are far stranger."

Si Li had already anticipated Si Ranran’s failure.

Everyone from the Liu Clan was on the Red and Green. How could the hidden Wizard not be with them?

Si Ranran put away the straw doll and wiped the blood from the corner of her mouth, saying stubbornly, "I’ll get my revenge sooner or later."

Si Li sat in his chair, a complicated look in his eyes.

’Can the company still hold on?’

The potion industry was the Si Clan’s core business. Now that they had split from the Liu Clan and failed to secure support from the European Administrative Region...

...the Si Clan was on precarious ground. At any moment, the Big Business Alliance could force them into bankruptcy liquidation.

A savage glint flashed in Si Li’s eyes.

If it really came to that, the Si Clan would not just sit by and wait for death. Even if it meant starting a local corporate war, they wouldn’t let the pack of wolves tear them apart piece by piece.

...

On the Red and Green Platform, Lin Qi clearly felt the malicious gaze disappear.

’Have they given up?’

No new Spiritual Needles were forming around him.

’It must be an Extraordinary Professional from the Si Clan, and their target is me. The second attack on Elder Dong was more like a probe. Why are they fixated on me?’

Lin Qi prided himself on having concealed himself perfectly.

In the Cyber World, Guang Ling should be the only one who knew his true identity and his Wizard Profession.

Thinking carefully, Lin Qi gradually untangled the threads. ’The only thing that connects to me is the conflict I had with Si Ying back then. And the one attacking me seems to be that woman in the long black dress... Si Ranran?’

Lin Qi had identified his target and figured out the truth.

Si Ranran clearly believed he was involved in Si Ying’s death.

But she definitely couldn’t pinpoint him as the murderer; at the very least, she had no proof.

Otherwise, the ones attacking wouldn’t be sending Spiritual Needles, but the various Mercenary Corps attracted by Si Ying’s revenge fund.

The total amount in that revenge fund was enough to attract even a T0-level Mercenary Corps.

Just as Lin Qi was lost in thought, the doors of the Red and Green train slowly slid open.

It was time to board, momentarily interrupting Lin Qi’s thoughts.

Liu Xuan and Liu Heng, the two public-facing members of the Liu Clan, went directly into car number one—the same one Lin Qi had ridden when he first came to Greenfield City.

Lin Qi’s entry into car number one back then had been a pure fluke; this time, he had no chance of getting in again.

As per the seat assigned by the company, Lin Qi entered car number two.

The batch of researchers who had traveled all the way from Red Fruit City had died here, but now, all traces of that event had been erased.

Lin Qi calmly sat down in a seat near the front of the car.

Coincidentally, the person sitting to Lin Qi’s right was Dong Wenlong.

Sitting in the row in front of Lin Qi was Liu Weicai.

Liu Weicai leaned his head back from the front row and said to Lin Qi, "Lin Qi, although the company’s Greenfield branch is being shut down, the Pharmaceutical Department is being kept. And according to my intel, it’s going to undergo a large-scale expansion after we return to Red Fruit City. It seems the company intends to develop the potion market."

"Theoretically, when you get back to Red Fruit City, you’ll be transferred back to the Prosthetic Engineering Department and reinstated to your L-Class status."

"But I’d like to formally invite you to transfer to the new Pharmaceutical Department. You can keep the A-level project you were working on, and you can keep Old Dong. And this time, there’s no deadline."

Liu Weicai extended the invitation to Lin Qi.

Lin Qi was a bit surprised. He turned to Dong Wenlong. "Didn’t Elder Dong say he was taking a vacation after this job?"

At these words, Dong Wenlong’s already unhappy face turned a few shades greener.

Liu Weicai explained on Dong Wenlong’s behalf, "Headquarters doesn’t have an annual leave policy. You’ve worked at HQ before, so you should know."

"The Pharmaceutical Department’s annual leave policy was something I got specially approved from the branch office. But now that the branch is dissolved, according to his employee contract, Old Dong has to comply with the company’s reassignment. Once he becomes an A-level Researcher at headquarters, annual leave is naturally out of the question."

Hearing Liu Weicai’s words, Dong Wenlong’s old face visibly turned from green to red.

"Eighteen years! That’s eighteen years of non-stop work I put in to save up that vacation time! And it’s gone just like that? Is that reasonable? Is that humane? Is there no law?"

Dong Wenlong finally couldn’t hold it in any longer and started ranting at Liu Weicai.

The two of them had already had an argument before boarding the train, presumably about the vacation time Dong Wenlong had accumulated over eighteen years.

Over three hundred days of annual leave!

In Dong Wenlong’s original plan, if it weren’t for this whole affair involving Lin Qi, he would have kept saving up his annual leave.

He would have saved for another ten-plus years, until he was 78.

Then he would take it all at once, staying on paid leave right up until his retirement at 80.

It was his grand plan to retire two years early.

But now, everything was ruined.

What did those eighteen years of non-stop work count for?

Did it just count as a lesson learned the hard way?

Liu Weicai turned his head to look at Dong Wenlong. "It’s perfectly reasonable. And while I agree it’s not very humane, it is the law—the law as written by the company."