Am I really hallucinating?

Chapter 665 The Non-Existent Guardian
"I can tell you anything! Whether it's the latest secret design from the Wave Society or any intelligence from the Pure White Society, as long as I know it, we can discuss it!" Chen Hongliang admitted in a very loud voice.

He didn't want to get involved in the various things happening in the central government at the moment.

"No need to be so dramatic." Lin Yilin didn't look at him and directly turned on the computer in the room and started operating it.

Chen Hongliang waited for a long time but Lin Yilin didn't ask him anything. Although he felt uneasy, he still didn't make any rash moves. Not all scholars of all schools of thought have paranoia like this, carrying around a bunch of strange things or even directly modifying themselves to gain combat power.

If someone blocked the door, there was nothing he could do but shout for help. He also knew that there were hardly any people left in the place, so shouting for help would be useless.

"So it seems that relying on internal information from here is not very likely." Lin Yilin quickly stopped, having found nothing.

"Excuse me, what exactly are you looking for?" Chen Hongliang asked tentatively.

Although it might seem like he was betraying his country by coming to them without being asked, it was actually an attempt by him to actively seek the initiative.

Lin Yilin glanced at him, not caring about his thoughts: "How do we find the guards in the Tide Factory's teleportation portal area last night? Or is there a way to find out their usual communication channels?"

Chen Hongliang asked suspiciously, "Are you here to investigate what happened last night? But we're about to be dismissed..."

"That's why it's strange, because they suddenly disbanded."

“Because we’re no longer useful, what’s so strange about that?” Chen Hongliang sighed. “The factory is gone and can’t be rebuilt in the short term. Those who are capable will naturally be recruited back into the Pure White Society, and the rest don’t matter. Most of them rarely care about us personally. No matter how you look at it, the accident at the Wave Factory can only be attributed to us.”

"Then let me ask you, do you know exactly what happened on both sides of the teleportation portal at the Wave Factory last night?" Lin Yilin followed up with her question.

"This..." Chen Hongliang really couldn't say it.

It's just that the factory base was attacked, and then their inside man in Dadu opened the gates here. What else could it be...?

wrong.

Chen Hongliang's expression gradually became serious. It sounds simple, but different details can drastically alter the nature of the situation.

"Let me investigate for you. This device is connected to the headquarters' think tank, but it's separate from the factory base. The factory base is basically managed by the Pure White Society, for reasons you understand," Chen Hongliang said after thinking it over.

How can you investigate?

“It’s a bit difficult. First, we need to find the wreckage recovered from the factory base and see if there’s any usable equipment inside. As long as one terminal is still usable, I can try to restore some data from the host. The difficulty is that if we really follow your line of investigation, even if the other party doesn’t delete the data, they definitely won’t leave us with either the terminal or the host server.” Chen Hongliang said clearly and logically, and had even already assumed the role of Lin Yilin’s assistant.

Just as Lin Yilin was about to speak, she saw Zheng Fan, who was next to her, think for a moment and then conjure up a screen and hand it to Lin Yilin.

“Radish and Rabbi are processing the materials that were recycled from the factory base in the central area,” Zheng Fan said.

Lin Yilin nodded, then asked Chen Hongliang, who was still pondering, "Do you recognize this?"

"The base's terminal? You're serious about investigating this..." Chen Hongliang looked surprised.

"Otherwise, would I have blocked you for fun?" Lin Yilin didn't find it funny.

"Feel sorry."

While apologizing, Chen Hongliang took the tablet, then took out his personal computer, connected the two after a few steps, and started working.

He wasn't just making empty promises; several video recordings were quickly recovered.

Although there are still some losses along the way, it doesn't affect the general flow of the process, and there are many perspectives.

After quickly checking everything, Lin Yilin frowned slightly and began to examine it repeatedly. "These... aren't helpful. Everything seems normal until suddenly black lines start extending out, it's all the same." Chen Hongliang was somewhat disappointed after looking at it.

"No, there's a problem, a big problem." Lin Yilin disagreed.

"has a problem?"

Lin Yilin checked it several times before making a final decision.

Oh no!

Upon hearing the sound, Chen Hongliang noticed a cross-sectional diagram of the Inspur factory base that had appeared beside Lin Yilin. Lin Yilin took it, sketched a few lines, and said, "That's the problem. Since the network didn't appear out of thin air but spread outwards, there must be a source of this spread. Based on the location information provided by these images, we can roughly confirm the camera locations at these points. Then, tracing back along the spread of the network in the images, the origin of the network tends to be..."

Lin Yilin pointed to a location: "Teleportation portal."

"A portal!?" Chen Hongliang subconsciously raised his voice.

Zheng Fan found this interesting.

What happened last night was actually quite complicated?
"Didn't I hear that something was desperately trying to get from the gate to Dadu? How come it went from Dadu through the teleportation gate to the base factory?"

Isn't this like taking off your pants to fart?
"Then some questions naturally surfaced. What exactly is the origin of the body that 'Pulse' possessed? Because of her own characteristics, it seems she kept it from me as well," Zheng Fan said after recalling for a moment.

Lin Yilin looked at Zheng Fan: "Mr. Illusion, have you remembered anything?"

“Well, because it absorbs pure white factors, I didn’t feel any problems at the time. Cultivating a host who can fully utilize its abilities is very troublesome for the spokesperson. The wholesaler classmate needs someone to cultivate the system to maturity. 'Skin' has raised so many black people, but there are only three Holy Sons so far. So what about 'Pulse,' this host that was suddenly brought out? Now let’s confirm your speculation. 'Pulse' actually went from the white world to the black world through a portal, and it has been absorbing factors from the white world for a very long time. So what form has it been in while it has been in the white world?” Zheng Fan stroked his chin.

Lin Yilin quickly went through the list in her mind and finally locked onto the keyword "pure white factor".

"Lamplighter..."

Chen Hongliang's eyes widened; he was completely dumbfounded. Lin Yilin suddenly began communicating with something unseen. He couldn't hear what she was saying, but what was the meaning behind this lamplighter who suddenly appeared at the end?
Could it be that the lamplighter is the mastermind behind everything?

Even Chen Hongliang, who had no respect for the lamplighter, found it hard to believe at first when he thought of this possibility, followed by a great chill running through his heart.

Lin Yilin lowered her head and pondered for a moment, then raised her head again and asked Chen Hongliang, "What about the news about the portal guard from last night?"

"Wait a moment, let me check the log." Chen Hongliang quickly lowered his head and began to work.

A moment later, Lin Yilin and Chen Hongliang were stunned as they looked at the log that had been unearthed.

"Why is there such a gap in the shift handover during this period?" Lin Yilin pointed out. "This situation does not appear in other logs or spreadsheets."

"I...I don't know either...Let me see, the reason given is that there was a delay due to temporary personnel reassignment..."

A weak and ineffective reason.

In the past, this wouldn't have been strange. After all, guarding the gate in the central area was just a routine job. Who would normally try to target the portal? Most of the time, the guards would either rest or have fun. Their work was quite simple.

However, the problem arose precisely during this time period.

In any case, at the time of the incident that night, there were no guards around the Tide Factory's teleportation portal.

However, all the portal maintenance personnel and engineers on duty at the time, as well as the Prism Force members who intruded and caused the conflict, mentioned the presence of guards. In fact, without those so-called "guards," the conflict between the two sides would not have escalated to the point of attracting the attention of the Security Bureau.

Who exactly were those guards?
(End of this chapter)