The door to the interrogation room shut tight.
The two guards stationed outside exchanged a glance and shook their heads in unison.
Lu Xin's father was Lu Youde, a lecturer at the Academy. Relying on his father's status, the guy had always strutted around the Academy with his nose in the air.
He was tolerable enough toward his fellow Academy members, but to anyone else...
Still, remembering Sean's reputation, the two guards shrugged, completely indifferent.
He was in for some suffering...
Inside the interrogation room, Sean was cursing in his head.
'Is that guy Moza still not done?'
Getting the toxin from the little girl at the zoo hadn't been part of Sean's original plan. But since he had his hands on something so good, there was no reason not to use it. The Airship's ventilation system was all connected; if one person deployed the poison, the whole crew would ascend to the heavens.
As a game designer, he knew exactly how potent that toxin was. The Airship's filtration system wouldn't be able to scrub it clean—not when he had emptied out half a stomach's worth of the poison.
However, Sean hadn't anticipated that there would be a brutal interrogation phase in the middle of all this.
The name Lu Xin wasn't even in Sean's memories. He should have just been an ordinary NPC... Had his predecessor slept with the guy's woman?
He watched Lu Xin lock the door and double-check it to ensure they wouldn't be interrupted.
Then, the man walked straight toward him.
Then, the ropes and mask binding Sean were completely untied.
Before Sean could even process what was happening, Lu Xin bowed his head. "I've caused you to suffer. Back out there, I had to keep up appearances."
'Huh?'
Sean's mouth twitched.
'You've got thick eyebrows, big eyes, and a sinister expression—the classic face of a hot-tempered rich brat—and you're a fucking mole?'
Lu Xin's previous arrogance and gloomy demeanor had vanished completely. He spoke quickly, "My father and I are both Lord Jin Kui's pieces. Although we didn't receive any orders, my father judged that Lord Jin Kui values you highly, so he commanded me to save you."
Sean was speechless.
In the game's storyline, Jin Kui did plant moles in other factions, but the perspective was usually focused on the main protagonist, so many of these minor details were barely touched upon.
A script of a few million words was massive for a game, but in a real, living world, it was incredibly thin.
Sean realized that even though he knew the entire early and mid-game plot, there were countless details he remained ignorant of. Furthermore, with his arrival, the trajectory of the story might have already begun to shift.
'To think he was one of our own...'
Sean's eyes suddenly widened. He hurriedly grabbed the mask and strapped it back on, then signaled for the confused Lu Xin to cover his own nose and mouth.
"You should have said we were on the same side earlier," Sean's muffled voice came through. "I was getting ready to drug everyone on this entire Airship..."
Lu Xin paled in horror. He clamped his hands over his face and, following Sean's directions, immediately rushed to block the ventilation vent in the room.
"The toxin should be seeping in by now. Let's just wait," Sean said, waving his hand as he plopped down into the interrogation chair.
Lu Xin's eyes darted with uncertainty before shifting into a gaze of profound admiration.
'As expected, how could someone valued by Lord Jin Kui be as useless as the rumors claim?'
'To risk his own life and even have foolproof preparations ready... Wait, doesn't that mean Miss Luo Xi has already been turned?'
'In other words, the Academy's plan fell apart long ago. I thought I was here to rescue him, but in reality...'
'As expected of the second-in-command of the Gold Ghosts...'
Inside the interrogation room, Lu Xin stood respectfully to the side with his hands down, while Sean waited in silence.
A while later, a sudden clamor broke out outside.
The commotion didn't last long. Soon enough, there wasn't a single sound left in the corridor.
Clunk—the sound of grinding machinery echoed as the ventilation system shifted into heavy filtration mode.
Wearing his mask, Sean stepped outside. The wind was howling through the corridor; the Airship's entrance had been thrown wide open for ventilation. Moza, also wearing a mask, stood at the doorway.
Checking the time and waiting a little longer, Sean finally pulled off his mask.
The toxin was incredibly potent. Even Luo Xi couldn't withstand it, let alone anyone else.
Its only flaw was its rapid evaporation rate, and it required close-range inhalation or ingestion to take effect quickly.
Fortunately, the Airship was a giant, sealed tin can.
Seeing Lu Xin trailing submissively beside Sean, Moza's eyes sharpened before shifting into confusion.
'This guy...'
Sean flashed a hand signal, and Moza instantly understood. 'This kid is actually a mole planted in the Academy by the Gold Ghosts?'
'As expected of Boss Sean...'
Moza walked over. "I'm sorry for hurting you earlier."
Lu Xin offered a bitter smile and shook his head. "I can't blame you. If it wasn't for Mr. Sean, I wouldn't have blown my cover anyway. But to think..."
His tone shifted into deep reverence. "...that all of this was part of your plan."
Sean nudged the unconscious guard beside him with his foot and stretched lazily. "The results weren't bad. Moza, stop the ship and call the others up."
"Yes, Boss."
The steel behemoth slowly came to a halt in midair. A signal was fired, and in the distant sky, a team riding hoverboards immediately gunned their engines.
Just then, Luo Xi walked out of the cockpit. From the moment she boarded, she had actively used an energy forcefield to isolate the air around her, so she didn't need a mask to avoid poisoning.
"Your plan was a success. It went so smoothly it's almost eerie," Luo Xi said, frowning slightly.
She was currently in a sensitive state, finding everything suspicious.
Sean waved a hand dismissively, signaling her not to overthink it.
It certainly had gone smoothly, but that was entirely built on the fact that he knew the full plot and had obtained the key item.
If this had been the original storyline, he probably wouldn't have even managed to earn Luo Xi's trust.
'Now then, it's time to reap the spoils...' Sean's eyes brightened.
The reason he had gone to such great lengths to win Luo Xi's trust, even risking his own life to return to this Airship, was for the single most important item on board!
Airships were undeniably valuable, but Sean knew full well that in this world, the utility of large aircraft was extremely limited.
What he cared about wasn't the Airship or the Academy's technology, but something else entirely.
The Blood Source.
This Airship spent most of its time docked outside the city, and its usual task was merely transporting materials.
The Academy's exploration teams would hunt down roaming frenzy beasts, pile their kills onto the Airship, and transport them back to the Academy once they hit capacity.
But this time, hidden inside the Airship's cargo hold was a very special frenzy beast corpse.
A newborn Deep Red Level frenzy beast, one that looked utterly indistinguishable from an ordinary one.
Deep Crimson frenzy beasts stood far above the King Rank. Every single one was a horrifyingly powerful monster; during the game's beta test, the developers had only ever introduced Peak King-Grade frenzy beasts.
That was because, according to the development team's settings, even a player's maximum possible progression wouldn't be enough to fight a Deep Crimson frenzy beast.
And this ill-fated Deep Crimson frenzy beast on the Airship was exceptionally unique. The crystal inside its heart was known as a Blood Source.
A Blood Source was something with absolutely zero stock across the entire wasteland.
Because this item could grant its user a complete metamorphosis—a second genetic evolution.