Chapter 492: Chapter 300: Suspicion, Strategy Meeting
"Black Cocoon?"
Gu Qiye looked up at Urushibara Ryuri and slowly pronounced the name.
"That’s right, Black Cocoon."
Urushibara Ryuri looked at him, smiling. "I remember when you were a Mutant in Li Jing, he once sought to meet you alone? Back then, there were quite a few rumors online."
With a "clang," the elevator’s metal doors closed.
A feeling of weightlessness came over them as the carriage they were in made a rumbling noise, descending all the way to the tenth underground floor of the Empire State Building.
Gu Qiye thought for a moment. "He just arbitrarily pestered me, I never engaged with him. Ever since I faked my death under the identity of ’Blue Arc,’ I haven’t seen him."
"Oh? Really?"
Urushibara Ryuri raised an eyebrow, staring directly into his eyes.
Gu Qiye didn’t avoid her gaze nor did he hurry to respond. He knew Urushibara Ryuri was with the Salvation Society and that discussing Black Cocoon with her wasn’t something he could do casually. Black Cocoon had also warned him of this in a prior message.
He’d heard that in the Salvation Society, Black Cocoon was a sensitive figure but wasn’t clear on the specifics.
At this moment, a short silence enveloped the carriage, broken only by Esther’s continuous yawning.
This two-hundred-year-old puppet girl looked speechlessly at the two of them, as if watching a pair of kids fighting with sticks in their bare bottoms.
"I feel like our great hero here is avoiding the topic," Urushibara Ryuri pressed aggressively, "Why aren’t you speaking?"
"You can interpret it however you like; I can’t wake someone pretending to be asleep," Gu Qiye said expressionlessly.
"I’ll return that statement to you," Urushibara Ryuri shrugged. "Who exactly is pretending to be asleep?"
The elevator continued its rumbling descent, getting closer to the tenth underground level.
Just then, You Ruirui, playing with a tablet, suddenly paused her fingers.
Without lifting her head, she spoke, "Please stop bickering; it’s unfriendly to my ears."
"What are your great insights?" Urushibara Ryuri asked her.
You Ruirui slowly lifted her head, glancing at Urushibara Ryuri with a blank expression, "That fugitive named Black Cocoon looked for me before in Paradise, wanting to cooperate. Clearly, he lacks self-awareness, seeing everyone as potential partners. Therefore, I believe Gu Qiye being targeted and harassed by him is nothing special, just a normal incident."
She paused, "And you, having never even met the fugitive, how can you be so sure about his relationship with Gu Qiye?"
Gu Qiye was slightly taken aback and glanced at the girl with the demeanor of an ice sculpture.
"I agree," he nodded, offering a mild acknowledgment.
Urushibara Ryuri looked at You Ruirui, then at Gu Qiye, and sighed softly, "Alright, since our tri-zero girl is backing you up, I won’t press further."
"Not backing up, just speaking the truth." With that, You Ruirui withdrew her gaze and continued to fiddle with her tablet.
"Fine, fine, speaking the truth," Urushibara Ryuri smirked, no longer looking at the two.
"Make way, little ones, I’m ready to fall asleep in this elevator..." Esther lifted her head to break the silence, casting a cold glance at the tense trio ahead.
With a "ding," the elevator cab door slowly opened, and she passed through the gap between the three, entering the meeting room ahead of them.
The three behind her followed suit in an orderly fashion into the meeting room.
Gu Qiye paused at the elevator door, silently raising his eyes to scan the figures seated around the long table.
As his gaze swept over the eerie man dressed in an oversized coat with his face wrapped in bandages, an almost imperceptible chill flashed in his eyes.
The Father of Puppets... the one who killed my mother, standing right before me, he thought.
At this moment, all twelve members of Rainbow Wings were assembled; each sat before the table, either with eyes closed resting or staring silently into space, quietly waiting for the meeting to start;
Only Fan Dongqing lounged casually against the chair back, head down, playing on his phone.
Gu Qiye and You Ruirui sat together, their seats adjacent.
"Father of Puppets... Urushibara Ryuri, Oda Ehgo, and... Polar Scholar ’Kalina.’
Gu Qiye silently recalled the Salvation Society undercover list Black Cocoon had shared with him and glanced at Oda Ehgo directly opposite him.
This Japanese man, dressed in a black kimono, kept his head lowered, slipping his interlocked arms into his sleeves while resting against the chair back with eyes closed.
Meanwhile, Urushibara Ryuri seated herself to the right of the Father of Puppets, while the Gothic Puppet "Esther" and the twin-tailed girl in a Russian military uniform, "Jiushijiu," sat close together.
Gu Qiye cast another glance at the woman named "Kalina," a blonde dressed in an experimenter’s white coat, wearing goggles.
At this moment, Kalina was intently examining a piece of Light-Eating Bee dissection data, her lips twisted in an intrigued smile.
After everyone was in place, with a "snap," the giant projection screen at the end abruptly lit up. A beam of light shot out, projecting a large human figure onto the table.
This figure was a Chinese woman dressed in a suit, wearing glasses.
The woman’s name was "Chen Xi," one of the combat commanders of Rainbow Wings. Most commanders were merely nominal, allowing Rainbow Wings’ personnel freedom on the battlefield, yet combat briefings were an unavoidable task.
Whenever a combat meeting began, all twelve members of Rainbow Wings had to endure her lengthy explanations, though it was a stage they had grown accustomed to.
Only the upper half of Chen Xi’s projection was visible. She raised her hand to adjust the rimless glasses on her nose and scanned the surroundings.
After confirming that everyone was present, she began speaking:
"Next, I will introduce the operational plan for this mission. During the Photon Swarm investigation on July 8, our team in Osaka, Japan successfully captured several humanoid creatures known as ’Photon Swarm’."
"These creatures possess the intelligence of twelve to fourteen-year-old adolescents, allowing them to blend into the city and come out to hunt at night."
As her voice faded, a large video screen at the end of the conference room projected a video. It showed an izakaya with lanterns emitting a red glow, employees, the manager, and customers lying on the ground.
An old song from the Showa era played in the background with a soothing melody.
At this moment, a half-human, half-bee creature sat in front of the bar, holding a plate in one hand and a knife in the other. It tore a customer’s body in half, placed it on the table, and cut various organs with the knife, savoring them quietly on the plate.
The twelve members of the Rainbow Wings showed no expression on their faces. They were accustomed to such grand scenes; mere man-eating creatures were nothing to them, except for the overloaded boy "Garfield"—the thirteen-year-old boy in a black turtleneck sweater who sighed softly.
"Ugly and disgusting." He said, expressionless.
Chen Xi glanced at her script and continued: "Currently, it’s known that the Photon Swarm can absorb the memories of the humans they consume, which means they can evolve their knowledge and cognition through devouring."
She paused for a moment: "They don’t need to learn, just to seize. Therefore, their evolution rate is extremely fast. A regular adult Photon Swarm can greatly enhance its cognitive level after devouring a human brain, surpassing the human by far.
"Consuming humans also enhances their physical attributes; if the consumed human is a superpower user, they can even evolve corresponding special abilities.
"In summary, the evolutionary ability of the Photon Swarm is alarmingly dangerous, and their reproductive capability is not weak either.
"Within the hive, only the ’Queen Bee’ can reproduce. Other bee races provide the nourishment required for reproduction.
"Thus, most Photon Swarms, after finishing their meal, will choose to take the remaining ’prey’ back to an island across the sea, where the hive of the Photon Swarm race is located."
Upon hearing this, Gu Qiye took a deep breath, thinking that this island would be the place where he faced his nemesis in a life-and-death battle.
Information was passed among them through Black Cocoon; at that time, Gu Zhuo Case, Su Wei, and Lin Yilong would arrive on this island to join forces to eliminate the four Salvation Society spies within Rainbow Wings.
The primary target, of course, was the nemesis who killed his mother—the Father of Puppets.
Thinking of this, Gu Qiye raised his head again, glancing at the trench coat bandage man sitting in the corner from the corner of his eye.
The Father of Puppets remained motionless, robot-like, listening to the commander’s operational briefing. With his face wrapped in bandages, no one could see his expression or demeanor.
The commander’s voice drew back Gu Qiye’s thoughts and attention. She said:
"With the assistance of participating Rainbow Wing members—Oda Ehgo, Kalina, and Garfield—we successfully located the position of that Nameless Island."
Following her words, a large map appeared on the projection screen.
A conspicuous red dot pulsated on the map. The position of the red dot was enlarged, revealing an isolated island in the sea about seven or eight kilometers from Osaka.
Oddly, in the satellite view, this isolated island was shrouded in pitch-black darkness. It was clearly daytime around, but the area near the island seemed covered in a night shroud.
"The Photon Swarm race can absorb sunlight, so the light on Nameless Island is extremely dim, as if covered by a thick dark cloud." Chen Xi explained.
Gu Qiye looked up at the eerie scene on the screen, arching his eyebrows.
After a long silence, Commander Chen Xi continued:
"Undoubtedly, if the Queen Bee is allowed to continue reproducing and feeding, humanity will soon face an existential disaster... But based solely on these conditions, it’s not enough for the authorities to prioritize the Photon Swarm as the highest elimination target."
She lowered her voice: "They are so dangerous because the Queen has recently given birth to four ’candidates for Bee King,’ referred to as the ’Four Great Bee Lords’ by the bee race."
"Currently, we haven’t seen any ’Bee Lords’ in person. However, through interrogation of a captured Photon Swarm, we extracted a lot of intelligence. The intelligence suggests that these four Bee Lords are of exceptional strength, far surpassing the average of their race, standing at the pinnacle of the entire race."
"They might even have reached the ’Catastrophic level’ of strength."
Hearing the words "Catastrophic level," the twelve members of the Rainbow Wings remained calm, even flippant, as if facing catastrophic-level opponents was routine for them.
After a pause, Chen Xi proceeded: "The strongest Bee Lord will become the next ’Bee King,’ exclusively enjoying all the ’human resources’ brought by the worker bees, continuously evolving through massive consumption, eventually leading the Photon Swarm race to dominate the human world."
As her voice faded, a burst of chuckle echoed from the conference long table.
Everyone turned their gaze; it was from Fan Dongqing, who was playing with his phone and hadn’t looked at the projection screen once during the meeting.
Ke Qingzheng, sitting next to him, hugged his shoulders and sighed gently.
In the silence, another yawn was heard.
Glancing towards the sound, they saw the Gothic-dressed girl Esther holding a bunny doll, her head bobbing up and down, eyelids drooping, as if about to fall asleep any moment.
Chen Xi remained expressionless.
She was long accustomed to the flippant attitude of the Rainbow Wings members, indifferently reminded them:
"I must warn you, this is not a simple task. After the birth of the Bee Lords, the evolution speed of the bee race is accelerating... The longer it drags on, the stronger they become, possibly unstoppable."
"Thus, to prevent further deterioration, the United Nations high command decided to dispatch all Rainbow Wings members, meaning that in the coming week, you will head to Osaka, Japan, investigate the island where the hive is located, devise an operational plan, and then..."
At this point, Chen Xi lifted her eyes from the document, her gaze sweeping across the twelve Rainbow Wings members, emphasizing almost word by word:
"By August 15, within a week’s deadline, the entire Photon Swarm race must be eradicated."