Witch, Fireball and the Evil God of Steam-Chapter 703 - 88: Have You Betrayed? (2)

Later, the Goddess disappeared.

They could only glimpse the future from the elusive "destiny," and Merlin always suspected that the prophecies appearing from time to time were more like a warning mechanism implanted in their brains by chips, reminding them to get down to real work.

Exploring more planes, becoming rulers, or adventurous pursuits had nothing to do with their "main quest."

Sometimes, Merlin truly admired the mindset of the Sanctuary leaders.

Watching those whom they had high hopes for wasting time on the other side, while the Sanctuary constantly faced crises from the surface. If it were someone with a temper, they might have pulled the plug on the life support in their cryosleep chambers.

"But that's not our responsibility; the issue lies with us having an inactive leader."

Merlin carefully untangled the logic of the whole affair; in fact, the instructions in their chips had no problems, "finding the Goddess" was to send more manpower to the project leader on the other side, and once they saw the Goddess, the Sanctuary's handover would be complete.

They didn't seem intent on interfering much with the work on the Goddess's side, leaving all matters on the other side to her direction.

"You mean..."

Zhuang Xiao shivered, suddenly feeling a bit eerie.

She caught the deep meaning in Merlin's words and realized why he always avoided discussing it.

In the Sanctuary, this was a topic that could never be touched, equivalent to completely negating the past decisions of the leadership. More terrifyingly, it would utterly destroy everyone's hope.

But...

The truth had been right in front of them from the start.

In fact, the Goddess never organized them to complete the work. After symbolically empowering them, she left the guild to fend for itself.

"If a concept were to be implanted into Ethan's mind, who could be more effective than the person beside him?"

Merlin laid out all of Zhuang Xiao's inner doubts.

The power that surpassed all guild founders was still unknown to them. To this day, they didn't know the extent of the Goddess's authority, because in the story implanted by the chip, she was the origin of the world's birth. Theoretically, her authority had no limit. As it appears now, her work at the treetop was done quite brilliantly, and she implanted this "idea" into Ethan's mind too.

No wonder the Sanctuary leaders were so invigorated when she awoke.

Regardless of what kind of relationship Ethan had with the Goddess, the ideas she brought would influence Ethan's judgment.

Before Ethan realized the truth, he would certainly be mistaken in thinking the Goddess's power far surpassed his own.

Zhuang Xiao clenched her fists.

From a work perspective, as a frontline member of the "Otherworld Project Team," she had already overachieved the task, practically feeding their leader on a platter. As long as they continued down this path, victory was imminent.

However, after that, Lindong did nothing.

Even when viewed maliciously, Ethan's trip to Dark Furnace City was fraught with suspicious undertones.

Merlin's questions were like opening Pandora's Box, forcing Zhuang Xiao to face all her accumulated doubts.

Ave's teacher sent letters from Dark Furnace City, which unearthed an unusual ghoul attack incident. However, judging by the outcome, all of it was targeted at Ethan.

The unknown contamination area and an "shadow element" they still couldn't explain.

They couldn't monitor the scenes within the "contamination area" or know what happened after Ethan ventured into the mist, but from his interaction with the shadow element, it was clear they had known each other for a long time; the appearance of "Little Dark" even led Ethan to ponder finding his lost memories.

This had completely swerved off the original course of the plan.

In Zhuang Xiao's view, those "lost memories" were the Sanctuary's trump card and the final step of the entire operation.

According to Merlin, when Ethan "recovered" those memories, he would recognize his identity as one of them and help save this already destroyed world.

And the appearance of "Little Dark" had become the biggest unknown variable.

Indeed, on the night "Little Dark" returned to the Imperial Capital, Ethan began to dream.

Merlin's plan further fueled these changes, and made Chen Qi's faction passive in connecting with Ethan due to a lack of intelligence.

If they revealed any flaws during their contact, it could potentially ruin all their past efforts.

Zhuang Xiao thought that if she were in Lindong's position, she would try everything to prevent Ethan's meeting with the shadow element. However, the opposite was true: Lindong even stayed in the Imperial Capital, rarely not accompanying Ethan; it was an act of—they were encouraging this.

It all made her thoughts creep into terrifying areas.

Lindong, she...

Could she have already betrayed?

Forsaking the mission and this world's destiny. 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

Lost in power and authority, lost in the "Otherworld."

If her suspicions came true...

Zhuang Xiao could hardly continue down this train of thought, as it would mean that no matter how much manpower they sent later or how much effort they put forth, it would all be futile. They couldn't possibly pull the Goddess, who had mastered all powers, down from her pedestal.

The Sanctuary had pooled everyone's efforts into creating a being surpassing the Old Gods, and now she was beyond anyone's control.

"No, that's not right."

Cold sweat seeped into Zhuang Xiao's palms, "If she's the plan's key, can you imagine how much the leadership would prioritize her? The chip implanted in her brain must be much more special than ours; the research team would do everything to control her actions."

At least for the second wave of pioneers, the Sanctuary wasn't worried about their betrayal.

Chips were the first line of insurance.

The second was their bodies in the "ward" cryosleep chambers; cutting off their life supports would soon lead their muscles to atrophy and die.

But...

Merlin was confident he hadn't seen Lindong on the list of the "ward."

Faced with Zhuang Xiao's self-consoling inquiry, Merlin responded with just a smile, not intending to argue these points as they were baseless constructs. They knew far too little about Lindong, not even her real name.

"For me, if the worst comes to pass, I still have one last wish."

He tidied up the scattered plan documents on the table, "I want to know why."

The higher-ups of The Sanctuary had hidden too many secrets from them.

Regarding Lindong, the "Cataclysm," and the threats still on the surface.

Merlin despised being kept in the dark.

"Even in death, I want to die understanding, Colonel Zhuang Xiao; that is my life's creed."

He placed the thick stack of files into a drawer, "Would you help me?"

.........

On the other side, in the Imperial Capital.

The aroma of meat broth drifted into the room. As Ethan opened his eyes, the white cat and black cat on the bed were nowhere to be seen. He was immediately overwhelmed by an indescribable fatigue. Despite sleeping soundly the whole night, it seemed to have the opposite effect. He felt like merging with the soft bed on this bright and sunny morning.

Soon, the bedroom door was pushed open.

It was Lindong who entered.

She was pushing a trolley, on which was a pot of stew and Ethan's usual hard bread. The black cat was quietly curled up on the second level of the trolley; she had also prepared Shepherd's Pie for Ethan.

The morning was warm and peaceful, yet Ethan sensed a whiff of conspiracy.

Something was off with Lindong today, mainly her attire.

Her skirt was unusually short, revealing her long legs, clad in opaque white pantyhose, her feet fitted with crystal heels.

Ethan didn't know what had happened; it looked like a scene straight out of the videos he had stored on his tablet had been exposed.

But that should have been a dream, right?

In reality, Lindong and Little Dark hadn't actually appeared in his dream; he saw them in his sleep and incorporated them into his dream...

"Incorrect."

Little Dark, adept at mind reading, lifted her head. She leapt lightly from the trolley, landing gracefully on the ground. With a "thud," she appeared in Ethan's view as a girl with a black ponytail.

The skirt was of the same length, but her socks were black.

"Let's establish three rules: In the future, no more collecting all kinds of random things."