Locke: I rely on intelligence to dominate the world and ensure the survival of my nation.

Zhao Tianyu's encrypted communicator was installed the day after the announcement of the secret realm. He obtained the device from overseas through family channels, and the signal hopped through more than a dozen nodes, making it theoretically impossible to track.

He sat at the control panel in the basement of the villa, put on his headset, and pressed the call button.

"Mr. Sato, I am Zhao Tianyu."

There was a five-second silence on the other end of the line, followed by a deep and restrained voice: "Mr. Zhao, you are two hours late for the agreed time."

"I need to confirm safety." Zhao Tianyu's voice was low. "Lin Chen's control over the Bureau is stronger than I imagined. His people are all over the departments. If anything goes wrong, it will be a disaster for us."

"So you regret it?"

"No." Zhao Tianyu's answer was quick, as if he had been prepared for it all along. "I'm more certain than ever that Lin Chen must disappear."

He picked up a folded document from the table, which unfolded into a hand-drawn map of the secret realm. The lines were rough, the markings were messy, and some parts had been repeatedly revised—this was "core intelligence" that Li Kai had pieced together from various sources over three days, which Zhao Tianyu had bought for 500,000 yuan.

"I have a basic map of the secret realms in China. It shows the safe passages to the outer grasslands, the routes to the first three levels of the thorn maze, and the entrance to the poisonous fog swamp."

Kenichi Sato's voice rose slightly: "Are you sure this is true?"

"Li Kai's team spent three days scouting this out. Although it's not as comprehensive as the intelligence Lin Chen has, it's enough to save you at least two days of scouting time."

"And the price?"

Zhao Tianyu took a deep breath, as if he were making an irreversible decision.

"First, 500,000 Lockheed Dollars, deposited into my account before the secret realm opens. Second, inside the secret realm, your men must help me deal with Lin Chen at crucial moments. No need for a direct confrontation, just hold off his main force for ten minutes, giving my men a chance to flank him."

"Third—" he paused, "If the fate of China is harmed as a result, I will become the new leader of the Locke Territory of China. The Sakura Kingdom needs a sufficiently influential ally in front of the new leader."

On the other end of the communication, Kenichi Sato remained silent for a long time.

"Mr. Zhao, do you know what you're doing?"

"Know."

"You are betraying your country."

Zhao Tianyu's lips twitched slightly, but he quickly regained his composure.

"Mr. Sato, in this world, nations are meaningless; survival is what truly matters. Lin Chen is blocking my path, so I'm going to remove him. As for what means I'll use—"

His voice turned cold.

"unimportant."

Kenichi Satoh laughed. It wasn't a loud laugh, but the kind of laugh that came from deep in his throat, tinged with obvious contempt, made Zhao Tianyu's fingers tighten slightly.

"Mr. Zhao, you are more honest than I thought. At least you didn't pretend to be a patriot."

"Deal. Send over the intelligence; the Locke Bay will arrive tonight. Inside the secret realm, the Sakura Kingdom will help you stall Lin Chen for fifteen minutes."

"But remember this—if you can betray China today, you can betray Japan tomorrow. That's why I don't trust you."

"I was just using you."

Zhao Tianyu gritted his teeth: "Likewise."

The call ended. Zhao Tianyu took off his headphones, scanned the hand-drawn map of the secret realm into an electronic file, and sent it over via an encrypted channel.

Transmission complete.

Zhao Tianyu turned off the equipment, leaned back in his chair, and closed his eyes.

The basement was so quiet that he could clearly hear his own heartbeat.

He didn't notice that in the reflection of the fluorescent light above his head, a black lens smaller than a pinhead was pointing directly at his every move.

Administration building, monitoring room.

Lin Chen sat in front of a row of monitors, the screen in front of him playing the complete recording of the phone call between Zhao Tianyu and Sato Kenichi. The sound was so clear that every breath and every pause could be heard perfectly.

Zhang Guodong stood behind him, his face ashen. Leng Feng leaned against the opposite wall with his arms crossed, his eyes as cold as ice in winter.

Su Muxue sat in the corner, her fingers writing something on a small notebook. She wrote with great force, the pen tip almost piercing the paper.

Wang Hao stood at the door, his fists clenched, his knuckles cracking.

"Treason." Zhang Guodong's voice wasn't loud, but every word was like a nail driven into the ground. "Zhao Tianyu is committing treason."

"Is there enough evidence?" Lin Chen asked.

"That's enough. The call recordings, file backups, and signal traces of his encrypted communication devices have all been locked."

"Then let's leave him alone for now."

Zhang Guodong turned to look at Lin Chen: "Why?"

Lin Chen stood up from his chair and walked to the tactical whiteboard in the monitoring room. The whiteboard displayed the secret realm map, the allied forces list, and the BOSS mechanics, with three words written in the center—Sato Kenichi.

"Zhao Tianyu is a lead. Follow this lead, and we can catch Sato Kenichi." Lin Chen picked up a marker and circled Sato Kenichi's name. "Japan is the strongest force in the Allied Forces besides the United States. If we can cripple Sato Kenichi first, half of the Allied Forces' encirclement will collapse."

"You want to use Zhao Tianyu as bait?"

"He's already done it." Lin Chen turned around, looking at the map of the secret realm on the whiteboard. "He sold the fake intelligence that Li Kai pieced together to Sato Kenichi as top secret. The route in that intelligence was half real and half fake."

Leng Feng raised an eyebrow: "You did this on purpose?"

"The safe passage through the outer grassland is real. The route through the first three levels of the thorn maze is also real. Even if I didn't give you this information, Kenichi Sato could have figured it out in two days. Giving you the real information is to make him believe that what comes later is also real."

Lin Chen moved his marker to the southeast corner of the map—the border between the fourth level of the Thorn Maze and the Poison Mist Swamp.

"The core of the false intelligence lies here. Li Kai's 'scouting team' never entered the fourth level of the Thorn Maze; all their route maps were deduced based on the surrounding terrain. I had Li Kai 'accidentally discover' a shortcut to the Poison Mist Swamp, marked as 'the planned route of the main Chinese team.'"

"But in reality, this shortcut doesn't lead to the safe zone of the Poison Mist Swamp, but to a dead zone. The toxin concentration there is three times that of the normal area, the monsters are five levels higher, and they are all Bug-type—Bug-type is super effective against Grass-type, and the main pets in Sakura Country are Grass-type."

Wang Hao understood: "You want to lead Sato Kenichi down that dead-end path?"

"It's not about what I want," Lin Chen put down the marker. "It's about making him feel like he discovered the path on his own. That's how human psychology works—you doubt what others tell you. But you believe in what you 'discover' yourself."

Su Muxue put down her pen and looked up: "What about Zhao Tianyu? He knows too much. If Sato Kenichi finds out he's been deceived, Zhao Tianyu will be the first to be implicated."

"Everything Zhao Tianyu knows, we've made him know," Lin Chen said calmly. "His 'core intelligence' comes from Li Kai, and we control Li Kai's information sources. Zhao Tianyu thought he had stolen China's lifeline, but in reality, he stole a time bomb."

The monitoring room was silent for a few seconds.

Leng Feng straightened up from the wall and walked up to Lin Chen.

"Lin Chen, I questioned you before. Now I take back what I said."

"You don't need to take it back," Lin Chen said. "You just need to complete the task assigned to you in the secret realm."

Leng Feng, stand at attention and salute.

"clear."

When Lin Chen walked out of the monitoring room, there was no one left in the corridor.

He walked up the stairs to the rooftop and pushed open the iron gate. The night wind was strong, making his clothes flutter loudly. In the distance, on the horizon, Zhao Tianyu's villa was lit up, like a lonely firefly.

Zhao Tianyu, do you think you're making a deal with the devil?

But you are not a trader.

You are the commodity being traded.

Lin Chen opened the system interface and glanced at the countdown to the opening of the secret realm.

Six days and three hours.

Kenichi Sato will soon receive that false intelligence. He will verify it, send people to scout the route, and confirm the authenticity of that "shortcut" in his own way. And the result of his verification will be that Lin Chen's carefully designed plan—the first half of the "shortcut" is indeed safe, while the danger of the second half is disguised as the difficulty of an ordinary secret realm.

He will believe it.

Because he wants to believe.

Lin Chen closed the interface, turned around and walked down the stairs.

Behind me, the night wind rattled the iron gate, like some ancient warning.

But he didn't turn around.