Tower of Overturn

Whether it was that group of mercenaries, or Amirus, or even Bad Day...

In the airship hijacking incident, everyone's actions had an eerie sense of weirdness.

It seemed as though the mercenaries were hired by someone to take Amirus alive. For this, they even acquired a special virus that only Babel had possession of.

But since their employer provided such a level of logistical support, and they had even killed the flight attendants directly, why didn't they use the virus to invade the airship's firewall, directly access the passenger manifest, and precisely locate Amirus's room?

Given Amirus's identity, it wouldn't be difficult to know that Babel would initiate an attack on Happiness Island the evening before. Yet, for this trip, he didn't bring a single bodyguard.

All Elves were unable to use Spiritual Energy and held high positions.

But Russell had never heard news of any Elf being assassinated... Since the headquarters couldn't censor news, only choose to release it or not, Russell tended to believe that such incidents truly never occurred.

There were far too many Elves who went out without bodyguards—not just Amirus, but even Russell's mentor as well.

As a child, Russell had heard an urban legend that Elves could detonate the chips in people's brains, instantly killing those who disobeyed... It was later that Russell learned about certain individuals called the "Codeless."

Even if Elves could control those ordinary people who still had chips, those who had lost their chips, the Codeless, would definitely not be detectable, right?

The Codeless couldn't even be located—in fact, many Codeless removed their chips at black clinics to avoid corporate law for crimes such as "murder," "theft," "embezzlement," "unpaid debts," and became Codeless.

Once someone became a Codeless, they couldn't live in the Upper City District for one thing... On the other hand, corporations also couldn't locate them anymore.

All mercenaries were necessarily Codeless. So why had there never been an incident involving an Elf?

Russell inclined to think that Elves must possess some other kind of special ability that was unknown to the public.

This ability, at the very least, enabled them to hold their own against Spiritual Energy Users.

Russell had heard that the Cyber Church seemed to also have abilities that sounded like "Divine Arts" even though they didn't believe in any real gods, they still acquired Divine Arts.

The philosophy of the Cyber Church was very simple, as Russell had heard from their missionaries many times—the gist being that whether it was civilization itself, or an individual's talent, love between people, or the Awakened Spiritual Energy, all stemmed from the sea of the Group Subconscious, which is their "God."

But as individuals, thoughts cannot immerse into the sea of the Group Subconscious. Hence, they hope to realize cyber eternity for all of humankind... which is mind uploading.

If everyone's thoughts were uploaded onto the same server, then it means all the disputes, pain, jealousy, hatred, and misunderstandings of the mortal world would dissolve. No one would ever be alone again; everyone could be an individual and also part of the collective. All their efforts were to achieve cyber eternity for all humanity in the future.

—The sacred Kara connects us, intermingled with the frailties of flesh and human wholeness.

Now, when Russell reminisced about the Cyber Church's missionary work, his expression would become very nuanced.

Perhaps the transcendent abilities Elves possessed originated from the Cyber Church.

After all, the Cyber Church exclusively occupied a Sky Island... meaning that their status was also supported by the giant dragons and was fundamentally on par with the headquarters.

The Elves had lived for so long and had no apparent conflicts with the Church. Thus, their relationship was close, and they might even be fellow victors—after all, this world had experienced two world wars.

Such conjecture, too, sounded quite reasonable, right?

If one assumed that Elves had transcendent abilities... then Amirus, in fact, was not as harmless and fragile as he appeared.

Although he seemed very grateful to Russell—if Russell truly was a recent graduate without his memories from birth restored, he might genuinely believe Amirus to be a kind old gentleman.

But as matters stood, Russell felt... that things were a bit too coincidental here.

He still remembered, Amirus woke up with a hum after hitting his head against the wall. Moreover, waking up without any signs of concussion, as if he was simply roused from sleep.

Russell wasn't very familiar with that virus... but with its powerful ability to breach the Firewall, could its paralyzing effect on the human body be lifted so easily?

It was at that moment that Russell began his initial suspicion.

That's why he immediately adjusted his expression, switching to business mode.

And now, Glass's words were like a sharp dagger, wedging into the suspicion in Russell's heart and prying it open forcefully.

Of course.

Considering Glass was now a suspect for being a "Demon," he couldn't fully trust her every word and action.

But for her to lie about this matter didn't make much sense.

If there were indeed so many people who knew, a simple investigation by Russell would reveal the truth—he could use the Disc Plate himself, and obtaining this information would be very easy.