Chapter 685: Mission Complete?

'The situation outside... is currently going smoothly.'

Seeing the burned man haul out the sniffing officer, who struggled briefly before being strangled into unconsciousness, Li Ang relayed with a peculiar expression:

'Just now, a sniffing officer came out smoking—probably just wanted some fresh air—and he happened to open the hatch for us. But... uh... the bottle containing your ass got knocked off by the swinging hatch, and it should've fallen to the bottom of the tower by now.'

'...'

'Don't worry, Senior Pioni.'

Sensing the complex emotions of 'Little Silver Man' Senior, Li Ang quickly reassured him:

'To prevent remote weapons from attacking the airship's envelope, the area beneath the boarding tower is strictly off-limits. Your ass won't end up in anyone's hands. And once this mission is over, we'll immediately descend to retrieve it—I guarantee we'll find your ass!'

'...'

Whether the ass itself matters... not so much. But what's in front of it—that absolutely cannot be lost!

'Alright... fine.'

Having barely gotten onto the private airship and with the mission now just one step away from completion, Pioni could hardly ask everyone to immediately go search for his ass—he sighed and reluctantly warned:

'Then you'd better hurry. The feeling of being without an ass... is really strange...'

'Don't worry, Senior. So far, aside from your unfortunate ass incident, everything has gone perfectly. This mission will be over soon.'

After calming down the grieving 'Little Silver Man' Senior, Li Ang handed the thermos to the burliest burned man to carry, then touched the tiny horn peeking from his cufflink and checked the airship's interior conditions.

Soon, as the world before him subtly shimmered, the positions of soul flames were directly 'marked' by the Black Goat's soul vision.

'Five in the front cabin—likely the airship crew; twenty-three in the rear cabin—probably the mineral sample guards; only eleven in the largest middle cabin, and they're scattered.'

'Judging by the airship's layout, the middle cabin consists of many separate rooms. Anyone with a private room here must be one of the sniffing officers.'

After briefly summarizing what he had 'seen,' Li Ang began organizing the operation:

'A little further ahead is the storage compartment. First, use your spatial ability to drag this unconscious sniffing officer into storage and lock him up.'

'Then we move forward along the corridor straight to the front cabin's control area, shut all sealed valves between compartments to prevent the rear guards from emerging, and finally return to the middle cabin to find the remaining sniffing officers and completely overwrite their memories... Any issues?'

'None.'

'Simple!'

If this were about giving speeches or campaigning, the rebels might've struggled—but this kind of infiltration, sabotage, and strike? These old 'criminals' knew it inside out.

No sooner had Li Ang finished speaking than, except for Lucy and Phoebe—who were only responsible for memory alteration—the others filed in one by one, moving with practiced ease toward the front cabin, each step as silent as a cat's.

In Li Ang's soul vision, less than twenty seconds after the rebels reached the control area, all five crew members had lost consciousness, and the sealed valves between compartments were cleanly lowered.

Their infiltration skills were far superior to mine.

After marveling at the rebels' efficiency, once the front-cabin team returned to position, Li Ang led Lucy and Phoebe into the middle cabin. The sniffing officers, sensing something amiss, had just stepped out of their rooms when they were each struck by the psychic shock of the 【Sacred Spirit Pendant】, collapsing one after another with rolled-back eyes.

This operation... was pure fluid grace.

Less than a minute had passed since they jumped down, yet they had already seized control of the entire 120-meter-long airship and neutralized all key targets. Li Ang nodded in satisfaction, then, while Lucy and Phoebe altered memories, led the team into the sniffing officers' rooms and retrieved their sniffing reports.

【ID: 941001】

【Location: Northern Layne County and Merino County, Hespeto Volcanic Cluster, Gray Ridge Pass】

【Objective: Crustal heat source survey】

【Lead: Isaac Asimov】

【Geological conditions: Primarily basalt and andesite; mining is difficult...】

【...】

【Quality analysis: a-, high processing difficulty; requires construction of an S-class mega-mining facility and associated infrastructure...】

【Reserve estimate: SS+, under stable geological conditions, crustal energy can output power semi-permanently, total duration exceeding 300 years...】

【Value assessment: B+ for standard cooperative mining; S- for extreme special extraction.】

'However, extreme extraction would satisfy over 80% of current energy demands, but would cause catastrophic environmental damage within a 12, 00-square-kilometer area; ash-laden dust clouds would drift westward with oceanic monsoons, causing years of acid rain... Cost too high—recommend abandonment...'

Crustal heat source, volcano... This must be the report.

Having successfully located his target among dozens of sniffing reports, Li Ang exhaled softly, then rubbed his cufflink, pulled out a small bottle, uncapped it, and poured its contents onto the report.

'Squelch!'

With a sticky sound, a black-and-white worm-like creature landed on the report, rolling lazily as if half-asleep.

【Name: Word-Eating Earthworm Substrate (Knowledge, Simulation)】

【Appearance: A thumb-thick, multicolored ringed worm whose color automatically adjusts to match the paper and ink; its underside bears numerous strange organs resembling octopus suckers.】

【These tiny suckers are its mouthparts—any text on the paper, once crawled over from above, vanishes instantly.】

【Ability: Extract text, simulate output】

【Cost: After requesting its aid, you must provide a creative, knowledgeable, or entertaining piece of writing as payment—note: it is very picky.】

【File: A subspecies split from the Divine-Class Word-Eating Earthworm, issued to each Director-level member of the Cleanup Bureau as one of their 'tools'.】

Primarily used to consume classified documents generated after cleanup operations, preventing external gods from forcibly probing via power; also assists in modifying documents requiring changes, reducing the Directors' workload.

【This juvenile was issued seven years ago to Olivia, Director of the Cleanup Bureau's Virgin Branch. It has consumed 617 classified documents and 215, 07 beverage bottle labels. Currently temporarily lent to Level-3 Incident Handler Li Ang of the Virgin Branch.】

【Evaluation: A fascinating little creature. After consuming so many bottle labels in Olivia's office, it has developed a taste for alcohol. After it finishes modifying your document, you might try offering it a sip of whiskey—just enough to cover the cap.】

【Contamination Level: 0. 】

Eat! Eat! If you can alter this report, I'll not only give you a cap of whiskey—I'll buy you a whole barrel!

After being prodded awake by Li Ang's finger, the black-and-white 【Word-Eating Earthworm Substrate】 lazily stretched, then began crawling slowly across the sniffing report in his hand.

As it advanced line by line along the paper, the report's text vanished row by row. When it had eaten nearly all, the earthworm reversed direction and retraced its path, 'puling' the consumed characters back out. Yes—pulling them back.

One by one, characters utterly different in content but identical in handwriting fell from its needle-point 'mouth' and naturally merged into the paper, as if they had always been written that way—even the original writer couldn't tell the difference.

【ID: 941001】

【Location: Northern Layne County and Merino County...】

【Objective: Crustal heat source survey】

【...】

【Quality analysis: D+, high processing difficulty; requires construction of an S-class mega-mining facility and associated infrastructure, but energy impurities are excessive and require repeated purification before use...】

【Reserve estimate: S-, under stable geological conditions, crustal energy can output power semi-permanently, but this region experiences frequent crustal shifts—estimated exploitable lifespan is low...】

【Value assessment: C- for standard cooperative mining; B- for extreme special extraction.】

【Advantage: Massive reserves, capable of semi-permanent supply if no geological changes occur. But large-scale mining would carry excessive cost—not only catastrophic environmental damage within 12, 00 square kilometers, but also trigger extremely intense warfare... Benefits do not justify costs... Recommend abandonment...】

Good. Though the method is disgusting, this little booze-worm's ability is genuinely impressive—it looks perfectly authentic.

After verifying the convincingly altered file and finding no obvious flaws, Li Ang relaxed and pulled out the first three chapters of last night's hastily written 'The Tyrant Duke Loves Me,' offering them to the earthworm, which had raised its head expectantly.

Well done. Eat up. If you're still hungry, there's more.

'Chief.'

As Li Ang curiously watched the 【Word-Eating Earthworm Substrate】, wondering how it would react after devouring 'The Tyrant Duke,' the rotund middle-aged rebel squeezed in through the door and grinned as he reported:

'Lucy's finished—memory alterations for all personnel are complete. If you're done too, we can withdraw.'

'Good!'

Hearing Lucy had completed her task, Li Ang's spirits lifted. He tossed the earthworm, still feasting on 'The Tyrant Duke,' into the Mirror World, instructed the Black Goat to open a bottle of whiskey for it, then stepped out of the sniffing officer's room.

'Final check—look for any traces left behind. Erase everything we touched. Leave no trace if possible...'

After instructing the team to perform a final sweep, Li Ang instinctively touched his cufflink and, using the Black Goat's soul vision, scanned the surroundings.

'Wait!'

Seeing the soul flame at the entrance to the secret harbor—familiar in scent—Li Ang was stunned.

Nathan... No! Joshua, the middle-aged man who returned to the present via the 【Gate of the Other World】? Wasn't he taken away by the Water Bottle Director? Why is he here at the boarding tower?

'What's wrong?'

Seeing Li Ang's expression, the rebels tensed up. The rotund man asked anxiously:

'Chief, did the guards spot fake credentials and come up the tower to find us?'

'No.'

Li Ang shook his head slightly, frowning:

'It's Joshua. Not the confused prince—the former leader, using the alias Nathan.'

What? Nathan?

Hearing Li Ang's words, the rebels exchanged stunned glances.

As the founder who had built the rebellion and led them against the kingdom, Middle-aged Joshua still held some authority among them. Now they were using intelligence he'd provided to carry out the very attack he'd wanted—and they'd just been caught red-handed by him. The feeling was deeply odd.

'Let's go out and meet him.'

After checking the soul states of all rebels and confirming no one had wavered, Li Ang studied Joshua's soul flame, then declared:

'What we're doing now is exactly what he dreamed of. So if Joshua is in control of the body, he won't act against us now. But I fear the person behind him might interfere.'

'If something changes on his end and he attacks you, I'll hold him off—you retreat into the airship and open the thermos. The contents inside will protect you.'

'Understood!'

Hearing Li Ang's orders, the rebels nodded and followed him out of the airship, tense and alert.

'It's been a long time.'

Clearly aware of the 【Sacred Spirit Pendant】's maximum lethal radius, Middle-aged Joshua didn't approach. He waited until the rebels emerged from the airship, then stared fiercely at Li Ang, standing at the front, and sneered:

'I thought you'd seized the rebel leadership and done something remarkable. But all you've done is use the intel I gave you to carry out the very mission I wanted? So what's the difference between you and me? Hmm?'

'There's a huge difference!'

The middle-aged merchant, pot-bellied and flushed with anger, stepped forward and replied:

"Inside… Joshua, to you, we're all just tools—you only need us to obey you and do your bidding. As long as we help you achieve your goal, you don't care how many tools die."

"If you had commanded this operation, half of us would be lucky to survive—but Lord Barksen didn't just get us out alive, he actually showed us a true path forward. He truly values us!"

"Heh, fine. Think whatever you like."

Having long abandoned any hope of reclaiming his position as leader of the rebels, the middle-aged Joshua Lande argued with them. He sneered contemptuously and retorted:

"But are you truly certain that following this 'little Barksen' will get this done?"

Huh? What did he mean by that?

Looking at Joshua's soul and realizing he wasn't bluffing, Li Ang's brow furrowed slightly. Behind him, the burn-scarred man, who had held his tongue too long, could no longer contain himself—he stepped forward, face impatient:

"Why wouldn't it work? If it weren't for you, you spineless coward, we'd have finished and withdrawn already! Get on with it—spit it out!"

This damned barbarian…

The middle-aged Joshua's face darkened at the insult, his cheeks twitching twice. He wanted to curse back but knew he couldn't win a verbal fight, and he knew he couldn't win a physical one either. So, scowling, he obeyed and spoke:

"Altering memories alone won't work. If you want to hide the news of the volcano, you must completely destroy the airship!"

(End of Chapter)