The Traitor

Red’s raised hand slowly lowered.

As her telekinetic force gradually withdrew, Vena adjusted her posture and came to a stop in front of them.

“Was that magic?”

“You could say that.”

“Then—”

“Forget that for now.”

“Did you see anything?”

Xia Yupeng cut Vena off mid-sentence.

She was a little displeased, but only briefly.

Soon after, she began describing the scenes she had seen while trapped inside the fireball.

After listening, everyone fell into silence.

“So… what exactly was it?”

Vena couldn’t help asking.

By ordinary logic, what had just happened was very hard to explain.

“Some kind of core energy from a monster.”

“Anything that comes into contact with it gets affected to some degree.”

Xia Yupeng explained.

“Knowing what happened is already a good lead.”

“But can you extract what you saw as video data?”

“If we treat it as evidence, we might get more clues.”

“I can.”

“But I’ll need specialized external equipment to output the data.”

“There aren’t many compatible interfaces.”

“That’s fine.”

“The seller left some behind.”

Vena reached behind her long hair toward the usual data port at the back of her neck.

At least, that was what she intended.

But the moment her hand touched her neck, she froze.

The interface was gone.

“Um…”

Vena’s expression turned awkward.

She looked at Xia Yupeng.

“Boss.”

“There seems to be a problem.”

“The interface is gone.”

“What?”

Xia Yupeng frowned in confusion.

Vena turned around and exposed the smooth, pale back of her neck.

Red’s mind suddenly filled with the image of a goose’s long white neck.

She had the inexplicable urge to grab it.

“Hm.”

“Could it be that thing is turning you into a human?”

“But is that even possible?”

Delta couldn’t help but interject.

“Why wouldn’t it be?”

“A monster’s transformed form is basically a different species from its original.”

“Didn’t Ma Guohao almost turn from a human into a robot?”

“Won’t the Human Ethics Committee investigate?”

“So what if they do?”

“At worst, it’s a fine, a report, and a self-criticism.”

“It’s not like we did anything immoral.”

“I still think finding a humanoid robot of this level already violates regulations.”

Delta looked helpless.

Xia Yupeng, however, didn’t seem bothered at all.

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a long tube, about as thick as a syringe, with a light at the tip.

He aimed it at the spot where the interface should have been and fired a green beam.

A wisp of steam rose from Vena’s neck.

A square data port slowly emerged.

Vena herself showed no reaction.

“So you really did bring a robot.”

Only now did Red fully believe that Vena had originally been a robot.

From her telekinetic scan earlier, Vena’s body state had already been extremely close to human.

“To study something that’s basically soul-adjacent, this is the only way.”

“Besides, we don’t have any soul-searching forbidden techniques.”

“Other people’s aptitude is so poor they can’t see anything at all.”

“So the only option was downloading and reading the data through a robot.”

“Oh, right.”

“Delta.”

“Go get the data cable and tablet.”

“And download the memory as well.”

Xia Yupeng turned and issued the order.

“So that’s it?”

“Nothing else?”

Red sounded impatient.

She had already made the trip, it was getting late, and she still planned to deal with school matters early tomorrow.

But to Xia Yupeng, it sounded very different.

Like a superior looking at your work and saying, that’s all?

“Of course not.”

Xia Yupeng’s face broke into a smug grin.

The kind that made him look like a puppy waiting for praise.

Red felt mildly uncomfortable.

He handed her a thick stack of reports.

They were inspection records of the bomb-type monster’s body parts.

“The bomb monster that attacked Tianshui No.1 High School last week.”

“Its body was basically stitched together from materials bought all over the internet.”

“Most of them were common items.”

“Fabric.”

“Backpacks.”

“Stuff anyone could buy.”

“But some of the core components aren’t sold on the market.”

“They’re industrial-use only.”

“So you traced the source?”

Red flipped through the documents, intending to read for herself.

Page after page, nothing stood out.

Her patience wore thin.

“The Ma family.”

The rustling of paper stopped.

The answer clearly surprised her.

After thinking for a moment—

“An insider?”

“More precisely, one of the Ma family’s hardware factories.”

“They specialize in equipment made from special alloys.”

“The core components were manufactured there.”

“We can’t rule out the possibility that someone stole parts from the factory.”

Xia Yupeng added.

Given Ma Guohao’s monsterization, the possibility of an insider couldn’t be dismissed.

**

Have you ever thought about what it feels like to be another gender?

Most people never truly know what it’s like to live as a man or as a woman.

He Zunyi had once thought about this too.

But that was a long time ago.

Ever since he took over Xia Yuhe’s body, she finally had the chance to find out.

Right now, as a girl, she lay disheveled on a pristine white hotel bed.

Her skirt and underwear had been tossed onto the floor.

Her upper clothes were no better, torn aside and barely hanging on.

She lay spread-eagle, staring up at the ceiling.

Her face was flushed.

Her eyes were empty.

She had entered sage mode.

She let out a long sigh.

A few deep breaths back and forth.

Finally, her body calmed down.

This was a habit he had developed over many years to cope with stress.

Jumping from one body to another. Stealing someone else’s life. That had always been part of the plan.

He didn’t care much. People died all the time.

He was just letting someone else die in his place.

That was the organization’s plan.

You can’t blame just me, little girl.

She picked up her phone and typed in a string of numbers.

It was her contact after the plan’s success.

Once she used Xia family’s eldest daughter’s identity to attend the Ma family young master’s birthday banquet next Tuesday—

Once she worked with that person from the inside—

Once she obtained the Ma family’s custom-made enhanced serum—

The mission would be complete.

She could retrieve the Qianjie blueprints.

But she hesitated.

Did this even count as a success anymore?

Judging from Kada’s reaction, he probably thought she had failed.

That was why he had taken Xia Yuhe away.

The clock ticked to 23:00.

Since Kada still hadn’t contacted her, Xia Yuhe must have already gained his trust while inside her original body.

In his eyes, she was still Xia Yuhe.

In the organization’s eyes, she was still Xia Yuhe.

Other than Xia Yuhe herself, no one knew who she really was.

Her finger exited the dialing screen.

She didn’t call the contact.

After weighing every possibility, she chose to abandon the rest of the mission.

Her current identity, body, and life were far better than that of He Zunyi, who was still selling his life to the organization and likely wouldn’t survive past next week.

As for the real Xia Yuhe—

She returned to the warehouse.

On the way, she wasn’t sure what Kada had made her drink.

Her body, which had been weak to the point of collapse, suddenly recovered enough strength to move freely.

So this was probably how He Zunyi had managed daily activity.

No wonder the person who designed such machines obeyed orders so obediently.

Kada followed behind her.

But he kept glancing around nervously.

Afraid Red might suddenly come back for round two.

If that happened, he’d really be captured alive.

Xia Yuhe had come back to retrieve the helmets that allowed consciousness exchange.

If they could swap minds, they could swap them back.

The helmets were placed beside the computer.

Smashed into pieces.

Xia Yuhe’s heart sank.

“How could this be?”

“Did Miss Xia figure out our plan and smash the helmets in anger?”

Kada felt something was wrong.

“If she knew from the start and still played along, wouldn’t I have been used?”

“No.”

“Without swapping consciousness, there’s no way she could know how it worked.”

“When she was kidnapped, her expression suggested she thought it was just a normal abduction.”

“It could’ve been Red.”

“She caused a lot of destruction.”

“Getting hit by collateral damage isn’t impossible.”

So what now?

Xia Yuhe was shocked, but essentially finished.

She wasn’t a genius doctor.

She couldn’t just handcraft black tech.

She was an ordinary person.

All she could do was wait and see what Kada would suggest.

“He Zunyi.”

“If you don’t mind the blueprints being leaked…”

“I know a place where this can be repaired.”

Kada presented his next proposal.