Chapter 184
The people in the Supervision Department usually have high salaries, and their families enjoy life more than ordinary people. This time, Muter was not the only one who planned to go to the eighth floor to participate in the carnival activities, but everyone else went there with the intention of having fun and relaxing. Only Muter was worried, but forced himself not to show anything unusual.
Rong Yuan once thought about whether to completely hide it from her, but later rejected this idea. Because if things really change, he needs Mu Teer to immediately believe and obey the arrangements of the contact person to ensure safety. In this case, they must make an agreement in advance.
Seeing a group of women walking hand in hand and laughing into the gate of the carnival venue, Muter was sandwiched between them. He turned around and waved at Rong Yuan with a smile, but his figure was blocked by the surging crowd.
Rong Yuan, who escorted them here, had no intention of joining in the fun. He found a quiet little restaurant nearby and sat in the corner. He ordered a few signature dishes, and then while waiting, he swiped his wristband screen like an ordinary customer.
Not long after, a person sat down opposite him, and Rong Yuan looked up and glanced at him.
The man opposite was wearing a black night cloak and a mask with red chips on the eyes. This kind of dress was very common and unremarkable in the carnival where all kinds of monsters and demons were rampant. But when Rong Yuan looked at the man opposite dressed like this, he still smiled with a hint of teasing.
"Owner."
Alpha took off his mask, and there was some subtle helplessness and embarrassment in his voice. It was hard to imagine that an intelligent life would have such real and complex emotions, but Alpha and its predecessor Noah were different from other intelligent life in the Milky Way.
"Rong Yuan!"
Pea jumped out of Alpha's cloak, grabbed Rong Yuan's clothes on his chest, looked at him pitifully, and whispered: "I miss you so much! Let me stay by your side in the future! I can turn into headphones or a bracelet like before! I guarantee it will be much better than the one you are using now!"
As it said this, it glared at Rong Yuan's bracelet. This bracelet was just an emotionless tool, otherwise it would have trembled under the threat of Wandou.
Rong Yuan smiled, patted its head and said, "Okay. I was planning to take you back this time. I may need your help next time."
"Great!" Pea cheered, clenched his fists, and said happily, "Don't worry, I'm useful and I won't let you down."
Rong Yuan nodded, put Pea on his shoulder as before, and looked at Alpha.
Alpha said: "The permanent population of Tiucasao is 370,000. After checking one by one, the following eleven people are most likely to be the murderers who caused the destruction of the seven asteroids."
As Alpha spoke, he sent a list to Rong Yuan. The first person on the list, and the person with the greatest suspicion, was He Yun, the former owner of the spacecraft who was said to have been dead for many years. The second was the current Liu Ka. The third was Alima, the former director-general of the Supervisory Department who was also deceased. The fourth was Davalo, the current director-general of the Intelligence Department. As for Mapu, the person whom Todd was most suspicious of, was only ranked ninth on the list.
In addition, among the list of eleven people, four were marked as having died many years ago in official records.
The list also included various doubts and analyses listed by Alpha, but Rong Yuan did not look at it carefully now and asked, "What else did you find?"
"When I was investigating the population flow and material inflow and outflow records of each ship floor, I found something very suspicious." Alpha said, "Except for the ship owners and the general manager who occasionally report on their work, there is no record of anyone else entering or leaving the eighteenth floor of the spaceship. There are only records of the regular delivery of various materials every week, and these information have traces of human modification. I cross-checked the information records of all the materials on the spaceship and finally found out the amount of materials provided to the eighteenth floor."
At this point, he paused for a moment, and then continued, "At least half of the precious medicines, minerals, biological samples, etc. that Liukasao has purchased from other star systems over the years have ended up on the Eighteenth Floor. In addition, two-thirds of the exotic materials such as the longevity jade that this spaceship has obtained from various sources have also ended up on the Eighteenth Floor, but that's not the strangest thing. The strangest thing is that over the years, each ship floor has provided food and nutrient solution to the Eighteenth Floor. Although the amount provided by each floor has changed each time, the total amount obtained by the Eighteenth Floor has remained at a very stable amount, at least in the past twenty years, there has been almost no change."
"The total amount of food and nutrient solution has hardly changed?" Rong Yuan frowned and asked, "Does this mean... its total population has always remained at a constant value?"
"Yes. According to my calculations, there should be about 10,000 people." Alpha said, "In the past 20 years, no one has been born, and no one has died. In other words... every time someone dies, a new person will immediately replace him. This is how their demand for the outside world remains constant."
"What do you think is the most likely reason for this phenomenon?" Rong Yuan asked.
"Clone." Alpha answered without hesitation, obviously he had thought about it a long time ago.
Rong Yuan nodded, he thought so too.
"What have you found out about Villanueva?" Rong Yuan said.
"There are only more than 300 cases of this disease in the records published by Liukasao, but in fact, the number of people suffering from the disease is between 100,000 and 150,000." Alpha said, "It is very rare to find someone like Miss Xi Yanxin who was fortunate enough to receive your personal treatment and survive for more than half a year under harsh conditions. Even if there are people, they can only survive with expensive drugs and the highest level of medical services in the medical department on the 12th floor. In other words, those people spent a lot of money to buy back their lives. But the vast majority of people who get sick are homeless people and lone adventurers who often die within a few hours or three to five days after getting sick. The bodies after death are almost unrecognizable, and are basically regarded by the Fighting Department as ordinary causes of death such as hunger, influenza, serious illness, and aging. Without any investigation, the bodies are directly cremated."
"The Fighting Department?" Rong Yuan said, "I have met Yin Mu, the chief of the Fighting Department, twice. He doesn't look like someone who would do such a thing."
Alpha replied, "Yes, according to my analysis, the probability of Yinmu's involvement in this matter is less than 3 % , and the probability of knowing about it is less than 7%. In fact, the members of the Fighting Department who were arrested and executed by the Supervision Department two days ago were the direct persons responsible for handling such corpses and covering up the facts. In addition to them, 37% of the Fighting Department members participated in this matter, but I think more than 90% of them do not know the inside story. They just think that the senior officials on the spacecraft do not want these accidental deaths to spread and affect the order of Liukasao. In addition, there are traces that these people received instructions from the Director-General of the Intelligence Department, Dawalo, but the direct person who issued the order should be Mapu."
Rong Yuan pondered for a moment and asked again: "Four people on your list died many years ago. Why are they also suspects? Have you found any signs that they are still alive?"
Alpha shook his head and said, "That's not the case, but... most of the exotic substances that Liukasao has purchased from adventurers and the outside world in recent years have the effect of extending life, increasing cell vitality, and promoting benign changes in body functions. Some of them can even revive the dead in legends, but the effect has not been verified. In addition, the materials they purchased from the Interstellar Alliance also tend to be in this aspect, and these materials have basically flowed into the Eighteenth Floor. Therefore, I think the suspect is likely to be someone who is nearing the end of his life or even dead in a physiological sense."
"Indeed, there is a great terror between life and death. It is not surprising that a person would do anything to survive."
Rong Yuan sighed slightly.
Traveling to many planets over the years, he had seen too many people who did many incredible things because of fear of death. Some took elixirs, some sought immortality, some ate human hearts, some took yin to replenish yang or took yang to replenish yin, some replaced skin, blood, organs, and everything else that could be replaced, some directly removed their brains and kept them in machines filled with nutrient solution, and some tried to transfer their consciousness to the star network, but the result was death without exception.
There are also some long-lived races in the Milky Way, whose life spans are much longer than those of ordinary intelligent races, and some can even live for thousands of years. But no matter how long their life span is, when facing death, they are all unwilling to accept their fate and struggle with all their might.
After being absent-minded for a while, Rong Yuan said, "It seems that the root of all this is still on the eighteenth floor. As long as we can uncover the secrets of the eighteenth floor, many questions can be answered. In six days, I will take the opportunity of the general meeting to go to the eighteenth floor, and then I will try to figure out everything."
The pea, who had been sitting on Rong Yuan's shoulder and listening quietly, changed his expression at this moment. It subconsciously grabbed a corner of Rong Yuan's collar and said nervously: "Rong Yuan, why don't we just explore this time and don't do anything else! The enemy this time is different from the previous ones, it's too dangerous! If I'm not mistaken, those who suffer from Verana degeneration and the people on Lanxi Star died because their vitality was plundered. Especially on Lanxi Star, those deaths show that many, many people died in an instant! It has such power after crossing 3.5 light years. This ability is too powerful and too terrifying. Your string force may not be a match. There shouldn't be such people in the Milky Way! And... and there may be ten thousand such people!"
It bit its finger in worry, looked at Rong Yuan timidly and said, "Rong Yuan, I... I know I shouldn't say this, but... but if it's really impossible, can you please just stop caring about it? Can we just leave?"
As the spirit of the Book of Merit, saying such words violated its basic principles. But in Wandou's heart, his concern for Rongyuan surpassed everything.
Rong Yuan felt warm in his heart, smiled and tapped Wandou's forehead and said, "Don't worry, I'm not the protagonist of a hot-blooded anime, I won't rush in. If I'm not mistaken, there shouldn't be many people with that ability. The most likely possibility is only one person, and the other 9,999 are just cloned tools. And if it really exceeds my ability, then I will naturally think of other ways."
"Then we have a deal. We won't take any risks. No matter what the situation is, no matter how many enemies there are, your safety comes first." Pea said stubbornly.
"Okay, I promise." Rong Yuan comforted him softly, "Besides, you are still here to watch over me. If you feel any danger, we can leave immediately, okay?"
"Okay!" Pea nodded vigorously, "I will definitely help you keep an eye on it!"
Rong Yuan said to Alpha again: "Please take good care of Muter for me. If there is an emergency, take her away immediately."
Alpha responded, "Yes."
"Also, find a way to take over the weapons system on the thirteenth floor and prevent the families of the people in the Supervisory Department from being attacked. If anything happens, remind them to evacuate immediately."
"yes."
"When I reach the eighteenth floor, our communication may be cut off. You will then decide for yourself what action to take."
"yes."
"Okay, you go ahead. My lunch should be up by now."
"Yes." Alpha responded, stood up, but did not leave immediately.
"What's wrong?" Rong Yuan looked at him and asked, "Is there anything else you forgot to say?"
Although essentially as an intelligent robot, there is no such thing as "forgetting". However, at this moment, Alpha hesitated to speak, which was something he had never seen before. Rong Yuan found it interesting and made a joke.
Alpha shook his head and looked at Rong Yuan in silence for a while before whispering, "Master, you must return safely!"
He said this in a dry voice without any emotion. But Rong Yuan was still stunned for a long time. It was not until Alpha left that he could not help but hold his forehead and laughed softly.
"Although I am really touched by your concern, but...why do you all think that I am the weaker one compared to that cunning guy?"
He turned his head to look at Pea and asked.
Pea was stunned for a moment, then silently crawled into Rong Yuan's pocket and zipped it up.
"Heh." Rong Yuan chuckled and snapped his fingers.
The waiter in the restaurant suddenly remembered that the dishes for this table had been ordered a long time ago but had been forgotten to be served, so he hurriedly brought up the dishes that had just been prepared. To express his apology, he also presented a glass of bubbling blue drink.
Rong Yuan tasted it and found it sour and sweet with a hint of alcohol, which was not bad.
Suddenly, his vision darkened. A man sat opposite him and said in a lazy voice that seemed to contain sugar: "Hello, do you mind I sit here?"
Rong Yuan had already detected this person through his perception. When he looked up, he saw that it was the person they had just mentioned - Davalo, who was ranked fourth on the suspect list.
