When Ye Muo woke up the next day, Faceless was already awake and sitting on the sofa. He turned to look at the child the moment he woke up, before he had even opened his eyes fully.
Faceless rose. “There are clothes next to you. The room upstairs is ready.”
With that, he walked over to the closet and began putting on his gloves and other clothes.
Only now did Ye Muo notice that all the personal items in this room had been packed up. A black handbag and a suitcase were next to the sofa.
He looked at the clothes Faceless had prepared for him. They were black in colour and a style popular with young adults nowadays, similar to the sweatshirt Ye Muo had before. However, the new clothes were much softer and felt expensive.
Faceless was soon back to his usual state with almost no exposed skin. He quietly waited by the door for Ye Muo.
Ye Muo picked up the pace and soon was dressed. Then he realized even the boots by the bed were new.
They were somewhat familiar. He glanced at Faceless’ boots, which were the same style.
They fit him just right when he slipped them on.
Ye Muo’s previous shoes were temporarily borrowed from Katia and ran slightly large.
Faceless was also holding a smaller cloak like his own. He handed it to Ye Muo before picking up the suitcase. “The black bag over there has the clothes you changed out of yesterday.”
He paused, “They’ve been cleaned and checked over.”
Ye Muo quickly glanced at Faceless before making a sound of acknowledgement. He put on the cloak and picked up the handbag. Faceless’ hand paused on the door handle. He pulled up the hood of Ye Muo’s cloak just enough to cover his face.
“Remember not to let others see your face when you’re outside.”
They went to the suite upstairs. There was a living room inside and conveniently separate bathrooms for each room.
Faceless set the suitcase on the table in the living room. “Choose a room and put your things inside.”
Faceless glanced at Ye Muo. His only possessions were in that black handbag.
Ye Muo carefully peered into each of the rooms before turning back and choosing the second room he checked. He set his things by the bed before poking his head out to speak with Faceless, “You can see the garden from the balcony here.”
As soon as Ye Muo made his choice, Faceless simply picked the room closest to him.
When Ye Muo came out again, Faceless had already taken off all his excess clothing. His face was exposed, but he was still wearing long sleeves and tactical boots meant for ease of movement.
Faceless opened the suitcase on the living room table.
Ye Muo could not help but stare at Faceless and slowly shuffle in his direction. Faceless’ eyelashes trembled for a moment, but he didn’t stop Ye Muo. Now there were two people squeezed in front of the suitcase.
Ye Muo peered inside. At the very top was the photo frame and several securely wrapped boxes. Beneath that were several daggers, various firearms and an assortment of other weaponry.
Ye Muo was disappointed to not find any new leads. His gaze swept over those boxes before returning to the photo frame.
Faceless paused. He took out the photo frame and handed it to Ye Muo, who sat down cross-legged on the spot and placed the frame before him.
Faceless neatly laid out the daggers and firearms on the table. He put them back after maintaining each of them.
Then he placed a dagger next to Ye Muo. The child looked up at him.
“A gift.”
Faceless briefly stated before putting his cloak on again and leaving.
There were a few clicks afterwards. Faceless had locked the door from the outside.
Ye Muo turned back and picked up the dagger which lacked a scabbard. He carefully held the handle as he toyed with it. His movements gradually slowed to a crawl. Then he inexplicably flipped his grip on the handle and gently pressed it against his chest.
The dagger slipped from Ye Muo’s hand and landed soundlessly on the carpet. Ye Muo stared for a moment before leaning over and picking it up again.
……
Faceless walked some distance away before stopping around a corner. He waited for a while before a person in uniform came over.
The man wearing a baseball cap pressed super low whispered, “The laboratory wasn’t able to withdraw in time back then. Basically all the data was destroyed, so there aren’t many leads left, sir. The list I sent you yesterday was all that was left. If you require anything, I will submit an application. You should receive them in about three days or later.”
Faceless nodded. He had seen the list. There were still four doses of neutralizing agent left. Perhaps the general abundance of neutralizing agents was how four doses managed to remain. In addition, there were a random assortment of instruments, drugs and data.
“Everything on the list, ASAP.”
The man in the baseball cap nodded quickly. “I will submit the request to HQ ASAP. In fact, I’ll go in person and bring you those items next time, sir.”
The security mechanism was injected into Ye Muo’s bone marrow as an embryo.
This technology was originally developed by a megacorporation involved in many industries for use in a human experimentation project. The results of said project were brought to light by a researcher tormented by his conscience. The man committed suicide afterwards.
Because the experiment was too inhumane, coupled with the fact that some of the subjects were excellent soldiers kept in the dark about all this, it inspired mass public outrage.
This technology had been banned along with human experimentation long ago, but it was a very mature technology before the ban.
General examinations would not be able to detect it, only the in-depth analysis of a blood marrow sample.
Each drug has a corresponding neutralizing agent. It was imperative that they found the one corresponding to what was used back then and administer three injections to fully neutralize.
Faceless was unaware when Ye Muo was injected with the security procedure. He wasn’t a researcher so he didn’t know about many things. All he did was go everyday when he had the time to interact with Ye Muo in their own special way.
The researchers actually got into several arguments regarding this subject. Most believed Ye Muo should be dealt with cautiously as the only successful subject. Any little mistake could halt his development, much less the safety procedure that needed to be injected into his bone marrow.
Faceless remembered the three injection sites quite clearly. Both legs and the spinal cord.
Those wounds especially ghastly on Ye Muo at the time. Faceless kept an eye on them. They were still on the child’s body when he handed him over to his sister.
When Faceless returned, Ye Muo was still where he had left him. The man left his shoes by the door and sat down cross-legged on the carpet as well, across from the photo frame and that dagger. He turned on the room’s radio.
It was broadcasting the end of some entertainment program right now. The MC’s jokes were very, very corny, but Ye Muo listened attentively anyway. The program soon ended.
The next program seemed to be the news of some country.
Ye Muo lost interest. He looked down and started fiddling with the photo frame again.
Faceless sat down next to him and checked the notifications in his holomind. As a high ranking member of the organization, he received a copy of any information gathered by the intelligence department.
He swiped away the notifications one by one until one gave him pause.
[A portion of the Clay Empire’s military has made initial contact with the Exile Sectors’ garrisons in various countries.]
Faceless swiped it away after a few seconds.
The location of the insect tide would change slightly every time. The Clay Empire was fortunate enough to be on the outskirts of this year’s insect tide, which explained why they had the resources to spare to find members of their exile royal family.
Basically all the major planets in the Exile Sectors were junk planets. It seemed like the newly instated little king was intending to start there first.
In accordance with usual practices, the news channel began to report on the insect tide next: […This tide is much more difficult to handle than ones in previous years. The number of king insect encounters is already several times higher than average. The situation must be worse for the countries in the epicenter of the insect tide. Once again thanking Grantz for holding the frontlines at the rift. No king insects have managed to break through as of yet. May Grantz forever be immortalized…]
Faceless reached over and turned off the radio.
Only then did Ye Muo look up. “What are we going to do now? Go home? How did I get here in the first place? I don’t know any of this.”
“No, there are still some things to do. You’ll be staying with me for a while.”
Faceless paused. He started staring at a point on the wall to the right as he told Ye Muo his baseless conjecture, “It was an accident. You were ambushed.”
Ye Muo shifted closer to Faceless and stared at the wall with him.
“What are you looking at? Does my dad know I’m here? You said he was still around.”
“Nothing in particular. He doesn’t know yet. I can’t let him know for now.”
Ye Muo wasn’t too bothered. “Okay. I’ll ask you again when you’re done with those things.”
He returned to his previous spot. After a while, he looked up again. “I want to go find Chris and the others.”
Faceless turned off the holomind. “They’ve already gone back.”
“I can go find them. I remember the way I came.”
“It’s dangerous out there.”
He couldn’t let Ye Muo stay outside. There were a bunch of people who would recognize him just in this building alone.
Ye Muo fell silent. He looked down at the photo again.
Faceless glanced at Ye Muo. He glanced at him again after a beat and finally said, “I can go with you.”
Then there was immediately a knock at the door. Faceless went to answer it. The person outside lowered his voice, “There’s a situation that requires your presence, sir.”
Faceless turned back to look at Ye Muo, who avoided his gaze.
He turned back. “Leave it to someone else for now.”
“But it’s a major issue, sir. It’s about whether to open the port. The district leader has been waiting for some time.”
Starved Wolf was a subsidiary of the organization.
According to the rules, major decisions were to be made by the most senior member at the current level.
So Faceless could only respond, “Send over some food and– forget it. Just food.”
Faceless originally wanted to get a holomind or a gaming pod, but those could connect to the galactic network. It was likely Ye Muo would be able to glean other information through them.
The other party made a sound of acknowledgement and went to prepare.
Faceless closed the door again. “I’ll take you there after you have something to eat.”
Ye Muo made a sound of acknowledgement, obviously happier this time.
Faceless left to attend the meeting after the food was delivered. As usual, he locked the door from the outside.
The meeting was already halfway finished. The district leader sat where he always did. He gestured for Faceless to take a seat.
There were several others seated already, obviously from two different factions. The first wore military uniforms while the second wore suits and had work IDs pinned to their chest.
The district leader turned to the others. “The other half of the right to use the port is with them. You still require his consent to enter. It doesn’t matter either way to me. Your requests are very reasonable. It’s a yes from my side. Now it’s up to all of you to see if you can convince him. The opinions of the locals are very important. If they don’t agree, you won’t have a good time here.”
People handed Faceless two applications. The one in the military uniform spoke first, “I am applying on behalf of the Clay Empire. We are searching for someone and may require additional permits for that. In exchange, we can provide a certain degree of compensation and assist in cleaning up a portion of the king insects. If you agree, we can discuss the specifics in further detail at a later date.”
The other party also hastily added, “We are reporters looking to do an in-depth shoot regarding the insect tide situation in the Exile Sectors. Feel free to send your people to tail us. We promise not to film anything we shouldn’t. Of course, we would like to do a live broadcast. For that we want to pilot a starship and capture an overhead view.”
“As you know, sir, this year’s insect tide is very different from the ones in previous years. We want to record it and provide data for research purposes. Of course this would benefit your side as well. With more coverage, I’m sure more aid will be sent from various places. They should assist with dealing with the insect tide as well.”z
Faceless understood why they were so nervous and repeatedly stressing that they would not shoot anything else. There was a brash media outlet before that reported on the situation on a certain planet within the Exile Sectors using other topics as an excuse. The attention attracted caused the entire planet to come under scrutiny and ‘correction’ by international organizations.
The local social ecosystems were completely disrupted. Although there was no surge in violence from the galactic pirates and other similar organizations, the already impoverished planet lost its supply routes and descended into chaos. Fortunately, the intervening countries continued to lend a hand and expended quite the effort to stabilize the situation. Now that planet was still expending huge sums of supplies and still scrambling to remedy their heavily skewed import-export ratio.
Since then, both the Exile Sectors and offworlders have been extremely cautious about such matters.
They could send people to tail shooting footage, but live broadcasts were unpredictable. .
Faceless quickly made a judgment that the second application could be detrimental to the organization.
But he didn’t care. He only stayed in the organization because he has nowhere to go and nothing else to do. He didn’t feel particularly loyal to them.
So he casually signed off on both applications.
