Witch, Fireball and the Evil God of Steam-Chapter 702 - 88: Have You Betrayed?

Once again, Merlin did not directly answer the question but responded with a meaningful glance, which made Zhuang Xiao want to pick up the bottle of mineral water on the table and smash it into Merlin's bewildering face.

First, he used her to advance his plan, and now he's playing the riddler here.

Zhuang Xiao was sick of riddlers, especially when having to stay in the shelter every day, under a constant oppressive atmosphere.

She deemed Merlin to be an unreliable person, only adept at spouting motivational nonsense and making empty promises.

She was already contemplating kicking Merlin aside and listening to what Chen Qi had to say instead.

At the thought of this, Zhuang Xiao felt her future was shrouded in darkness; Chen Qi's gloating gaze was still fresh in her mind. Having to choose between him and Merlin was like picking the lesser of two evils, but... in either case, it was still a pile of shit.

She felt much clearer now and didn't want to continue believing in the "beautiful future" Merlin had described.

However, one thing Merlin said was right: the future is something you have to create for yourself. Next, the only person she could trust was herself; she had to find out the truth to make a wise decision, whether she ultimately stayed in the shelter to wallow with those gloomy people, or returned to her dream, it would have to be her decision.

"If you're not going to answer me, I'm leaving."

Zhuang Xiao's face turned cold, and her tone gained a hint of sharpness.

"Colonel Zhuang Xiao, I said you're a perceptive person, but this person's situation is somewhat unique to us."

"Ha, confidentiality agreement, what level is it this time?"

"The highest level."

Merlin said, "I dare say that fewer than five people in the shelter know about her; unfortunately, that doesn't include me... I can understand how you feel right now: Goddess, Lindong, but until now, you still don't know her real name, do you?"

The conversation finally progressed. 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

Zhuang Xiao temporarily dismissed the idea of leaving in a huff.

Recently, she also thought a lot about matters concerning Lindong. It was evident she entered that world much earlier than they did. When the shelter selected them and gave them a "pioneering" mission, Lindong had already become a Goddess, just from the perspective of authority, she wasn't someone from their side at all.

She held a status equivalent to the "Old Gods," even faintly above them.

Before she returned to reality as "Scarlet," "Old Gods" was one of the few blind spots of knowledge for the guild, and the reason she could bind Argos was also dependent on the incantation left by the Goddess; with their strength alone, it was impossible to contend with the Old Gods.

They are ancient and mysterious beings, constantly beyond the realms detectable by the company.

"What do you know?"

"I know nothing."

Merlin said, "But that's precisely the problem, isn't it? She plays a crucial role in the entire plan, possibly even the key to everything, yet she didn't leave any trace in the shelter — we don't know which zone she was born in, there's no information about her past, which can only mean one thing, the people at the top of the shelter have covered up everything related to her."

"What about the 'ward'?"

Zhuang Xiao immediately asked.

The "ward" was their term for the area where the cryogenic pods were located; it had the highest level of security in the shelter, and of course, an extremely high level of secrecy. The vast majority of residents in the shelter weren't aware of the "ward's" existence, even though "Shelter News" frequently updated residents on "otherworldly" progress, they really didn't know how the "pioneering team" entered.

Zhuang Xiao thought that if Lindong shared their situation, she must have been properly placed somewhere in the "ward."

"I've checked, there are no related records inside, unless there is another 'ward' in the shelter that we're unaware of."

Merlin took out a list from the drawer, "Interestingly, two hours after you woke up, Chen Qi sent two people over there again, as usual, their original identities unknown, the chips recorded them as a pair of unfortunate lovers persecuted by the 'company,' I suspect they've reached the Empire by now."

This was the third batch of the "pioneering team," Merlin had no way of knowing what tasks have been assigned to these two.

He could only say the shelter was becoming more adept at deploying personnel; they knew the methods over there, regardless of how the two were interrogated by magic or how many truth serums they drank, they wouldn't divulge any information related to the shelter because, under the influence of the chip, they were entirely integrated into their new "lives."

"Think carefully, what was the task the chip gave us back then?"

"...Find the Goddess."

Zhuang Xiao fell into contemplation.

There were no subsequent directives; at the moment they found the "Goddess," their pioneering mission was complete. In hindsight, after founding the guild and going their separate ways, it was not unrelated to the task assigned by the chip.

Back then, they didn't know the shelter existed, nor did they know they might be bearing the fate of a world doomed for destruction.

"Strange, isn't it?"

Merlin knew what Zhuang Xiao was thinking because he had gone through the same phase when he woke up.

From a time perspective, they all wasted thousands of years there; they clearly had more time to engage with Ethan, even build more harmonious and stable relations, which would help them implant ideas in Ethan's mind but what happened was just the opposite.