Chapter 81: The Phone Call

“Was that person just now named Dong Xin?” Chen Shaotian turned to Chen Hao for confirmation.

“That’s right. That’s how she introduced herself—said she’s an internal employee of Illusion Corporation,” Chen Hao nodded. “But I didn’t know her before this.

And honestly, I’m very suspicious of her motives. She claimed to have arrived in Kestarl a few days before us, but when I was booking hotel rooms earlier, the entire top floor was available. It’s unlikely that she, that butch woman, just happened to book at the last minute. As far as I know, these kinds of high-end hotel suites on the top floor don’t take walk-ins—they have to be reserved in advance. Unless she knows someone high up in the hotel and pulled some strings at the last minute.

Another thing—her coming over and knocking on our door is really strange. She said she was bored being alone, noticed someone moved in across the hall, so she decided to drop by and say hello, maybe make friends.

That sounds reasonable enough, but how did she know we’d moved in? The hotel’s soundproofing is excellent, and when we arrived, the door across the hall was clearly closed. She shouldn’t have been able to hear anything.

Plus, the people who stay on the top floor of a hotel like this are all either wealthy or influential and generally don’t like to be disturbed, let alone have strangers popping in unannounced. Besides, she chose to come knocking precisely when I wasn’t in the room—waiting until I went downstairs, leaving only Meng Yan and Yi Rou there. Quite a coincidence, isn’t it? I suspect that butch woman may have been watching us all along and only approached Meng Yan and the others when she saw I’d left.

And she didn’t do it to hide from me—because even if I didn’t know at first, Meng Yan would have told me as soon as I got back. I suspect she deliberately waited for me to leave so she could try to get some information out of Meng Yan and the others while I was gone.”

“Well... Young Master, all your theories are based on your own suspicions, aren’t they? There’s no proof, right? Maybe it’s all just a big coincidence?” Shaotian asked cautiously—not out of fear of displeasing Chen Hao, but because he felt it was inappropriate to make such subjective assumptions about someone without evidence.

“Hmm...” Chen Hao thought about it and nodded. “You do have a point.”

Although he said that, Chen Hao inwardly dismissed Shaotian’s perspective. Maybe it was a coincidence—one coincidence is a coincidence, two are still coincidence, but when you pile up enough coincidences, isn’t it practically inevitable?

The first coincidence was Chen Hao accidentally entering the game world, meeting Vivian, and revealing his identity to those people.

Then, upon his second entry into the game, he happened to run into Vivian being captured, and—coincidentally—Vivian managed to escape right under the noses of so many... no, so many monster NPCs, slipping out of the cage? And he just happened to log in and show up at the scene?

Then, by another coincidence, Vivian flew straight toward his side of the canyon, despite there being two to choose from.

Next, another coincidence—while he was fleeing with Vivian, there was an ambush of human NPCs and GMs right ahead, perfectly equipped and ready to rescue them both.

Returning to the real world, on the very day he and Gu Mengyan resigned, another “coincidence”—that butch woman Dong Xin was newly transferred into his department, actively sought him out, clashed with him, and they parted on bad terms.

Just when he thought he could enjoy a few days of peace, the three of them had barely set foot in the hotel, he’d just finished unpacking and gone downstairs, and—what a coincidence—Dong Xin came knocking at their door.

And this was during the very period when strange things were happening in Kestarl? With so many coincidences stacked together, Chen Hao didn’t believe this was mere chance! It was obviously premeditated and planned.

Shaotian only questioned it like this because Chen Hao hadn’t told him about the bizarre experience of entering the game world. First, even if he did, Shaotian might not believe him. Secondly, if Shaotian did believe him, he’d definitely report it to his father, and who knew, maybe his father would order him to go find Shaotian and lock him up for study, just like when he’d trained in martial arts as a child under his father’s watchful eye.

Until Chen Hao figured out what was happening to himself, he had no intention of telling anyone else. It was enough that Gu Mengyan knew; not even Fan Yirou had been told.

So Chen Hao said, “Let’s not worry about Dong Xin for now. Maybe you’re right, Shaotian—maybe it’s all a coincidence. Still, I’d like you to look into Dong Xin for me when you get back. The more detailed the information, the better. Email it to me when you have it.”

Shaotian nodded immediately. “No problem!”

“Now, let’s get back to Kestarl,” Chen Hao continued. “You said that many of Illusion Corporation’s internal staff are survivors of the Kestarl incident, and they all joined Illusion after that?”

“I’m not sure about the exact timing, but yes, they all joined Illusion after leaving Kestarl,” Shaotian replied. “But my father suspects that the people from Illusion Corporation were already in deep contact with those research institutes back in Kestarl. Maybe they’d already agreed to join the company back then, which is why they resigned from their old posts so decisively afterwards.”

“Wait a second!” Chen Hao interrupted excitedly. “You said there was already contact back then? Wasn’t Illusion Corporation only founded after the Kestarl incident? When Dad first went to Kestarl, wasn’t there no Illusion Corporation yet?”

“There wasn’t, but that just means the company wasn’t set up yet. The founder of Illusion was already around at the time!” Shaotian explained. “In fact, he was listed among the researchers sent to Kestarl.”

“He was one of the survivors?” Chen Hao was taken aback.

“That’s right.”

“In that case, everything makes sense!” Chen Hao exclaimed. “I bet the founder of Illusion discovered something incredible during the Kestarl incident—some kind of information or technology. After returning, he gathered the researchers he’d handpicked back then and they all joined forces to establish Illusion Corporation.

Then, based on the secret technology unearthed in Kestarl, they developed the virtual reality online game, and with other advanced tech, dominated every field, eventually turning into the giant multinational conglomerate they are today.”

“Mm. Young Master, my father has suspected the same,” said Shaotian. “But it’s all still speculation—there’s no evidence. My father has been exhaustively investigating Illusion Corporation for years, but as I said, they’re so powerful that he’s found nothing. Apart from this recently discovered list, he knows nothing else.”

“I really don’t get it. With my father’s abilities, how can there still be things he can’t uncover?” Chen Hao admitted in frustration. “Never mind that for now. According to you, Illusion has had people stationed in Kestarl all these years—hasn’t anyone else gotten suspicious? It doesn’t make sense!”

“That’s the crux of the issue!” Shaotian frowned. “Actually, the oddity you and my father noticed wasn’t hard for others to see either—many people, including various governments, picked up on it.”

“Yeah!” Chen Hao slapped his palm. “Why didn’t our country get involved? With our national strength, it shouldn’t be hard to investigate Illusion Corporation, should it?”

But Shaotian shook his head. “It’s not as simple as you think! Illusion Corporation isn’t registered in our country, so our laws don’t apply to them.

In other words, our country’s laws can’t restrict Illusion’s actions—only international law can. But by the time people realized something was wrong and tried to use international pressure on Illusion, the company had already grown massive—big enough to use their background, capital, and connections to influence international organizations.”

“I see!” Chen Hao finally understood, then asked, “But can’t our country forbid Illusion from coming to Kestarl? Ban them from sending people to stay there? After all, Kestarl is our territory. Anything found there belongs to us. Couldn’t we just refuse to let them do any research?”

“Ah...” Shaotian sighed. “That was an oversight at the time! When the strange buildings and barriers were discovered in Kestarl, our country wasn’t advanced enough to make any headway, so we decided to share the find openly and invite top experts from around the world to study and investigate.

To encourage them to come, we promised all sorts of favorable conditions—including unrestricted access to Kestarl. Illusion Corporation was among the companies that signed those agreements. Who could have predicted that such an obscure little company would one day rise to where it is now?”

Just as Chen Hao was about to ask another question, Shaotian’s phone suddenly rang—unaffected by any signal interference. The screen displayed two words: “Father.”