38: Chapter 38 A First Look at the Game: The Tip of the Iceberg of the Deep Government

Noon the next day, Brooklyn Heights apartment.

Heavy blackout curtains blocked out the midday sun completely, and a few cool-toned spotlights were on in the living room, setting an atmosphere like a wartime command center.

The map of New York on the coffee table had been scribbled over beyond recognition with various colored markers.

George sat amidst a pile of scattered electronic components, fiddling with a newly assembled military-grade radio scanner, with headphones hanging around his neck.

Chen Mo sat opposite him on the sofa, playing with a coin engraved with the Ouroboros emblem—it was something he had pilfered from the dead Commander last night.

"Tell me about this Council." Chen Mo broke the silence.

George stopped what he was doing, took off his glasses, rubbed the space between his brows, and his expression turned grave.

"The Council—this isn't some urban legend; it truly exists."

George's voice carried a chill of recollection.

"When I worked at Langley (Central Intelligence Agency headquarters), I once came across a file classified as a black box. There were no names in the file, only a codename—Cornerstone."

"They are the cornerstone of this country?" Chen Mo sneered.

"No, they think they are," George corrected.

"At the inception of this country, several families who controlled the lifeblood of arms, energy, and banking secretly established a coordinating body to ensure the permanence of their power. Initially, it was to avoid infighting among the families, but over time, this organization became a behemoth."

George pointed to Wall Street on the map.

"They control the Federal Reserve, deciding when to print money and when to raise interest rates; they control The Pentagon, deciding where oil needs 'democracy'; they even control Hollywood, deciding what values the public should see."

"And Ouroboros is just the dog they keep," Chen Mo added.

"More terrifying than a dog," George shook his head.

"Ouroboros is the Council's immune system. Its duty isn't to fight external wars, but to conduct internal purges. Any virus that attempts to threaten the Council's interests—be it a politician who crosses the line, a disobedient tycoon, or an agent who knows too much—will be devoured by Ouroboros."

"In that Commander's memories from last night, one term appeared repeatedly," Chen Mo said, his fingers tracing the edge of the coin. "Unit-734."

George's hand jerked violently, and the screwdriver in his hand fell to the floor with a crisp clatter.

"Unit-734..." George's face went deathly pale instantly, as if he had seen a ghost.

"That was a secret project during the Cold War, and also the reason for my retirement. We found some things in an underground bunker in the Middle East... some human experimentation data that shouldn't have existed. It was the prototype for consciousness uploading and human weaponization. I thought that project had been destroyed."

"Apparently not," Chen Mo said coldly.

"That corpse last night, that implant, proves that not only did they not destroy it, but they have already made it operational. Moreover, this is just the tip of the iceberg."

Chen Mo closed his eyes, accessing the memory fragments in the system.

It was a terrifying picture pieced together from Councilman White and the Commander.

"The Human Elimination Plan..." he slowly spat out these words.

George suddenly looked up. "What did you say?"

"Phase One: Virus deployment and vaccine screening." Chen Mo opened his eyes, a dangerous glint flashing in his gaze.

"They are creating panic, and then using vaccines to filter out the compliant and those with superior genes. As for the rest... that is what they call 'clearing inventory'."

The room was deathly silent, with only the humming of the server cooling fans echoing.

George felt his throat go dry; he grabbed the whiskey bottle and took a hard swig.

"Insane... these people are completely insane. This isn't just a power struggle anymore; this is a crime against humanity! We must expose them!"

"Expose them?" Chen Mo looked at the agitated George, his eyes chillingly calm.

"To whom? To The New York Times? They control that."

"To the FBI? You saw it last night; people like Jessica Vance are in the minority. There are far more lackeys like Chief Brian."

"Besides, even if we expose them, would the public believe it? They would only think it's another conspiracy theory."

"Then what can we do?" George asked, somewhat desperately. "With just the two of us, how can we fight such a monster?"

"We cannot face a tsunami head-on, but we can become the hidden reefs within it."

Chen Mo stood up and walked to the map. "They are massive and bloated, which means they are full of cracks and conflicts of interest internally."

"Rockefeller doesn't want Morgan to monopolize energy, and DuPont doesn't want Boeing to snatch away military contracts. As long as it is an organization made up of people, it has weaknesses."

Chen Mo's finger drew a line between the red circles on the map.

"I am going to build a network." Chen Mo's voice was full of ambition.

"A network composed of countless aliases."

"I will be the god of investment on Wall Street, the media tycoon of Hollywood, the legendary detective of the police force, and the godfather of the criminal underworld. I will use their own rules to play them to death."

"You mean to..." George looked at Chen Mo, a flash of horror in his eyes. "You want to replace the Council?"

"Why not?" Chen Mo turned around, his back to the sunlight outside the window, his entire figure shrouded in shadow, like a monarch yet to ascend the throne.

"Since this world needs a mastermind behind the scenes, why can't it be me?"

George looked at the young man before him, his heart pounding violently.

Fear and excitement intertwined, making the blood in his veins begin to boil.

"We need intelligence." George took a deep breath, quickly slipping into his role.

"Relying on those memory fragments alone isn't enough; we need real-time, core internal intelligence. We need to know who Ouroboros's next target is, and the specific timetable for the elimination plan."

"I know who has it." Chen Mo sneered and took out that encrypted phone.

"Who?"

"A viper that wants to crawl out of its cage."

Chen Mo dialed a number. "If we're going to play big, we need to find a dance partner with enough weight."

A beeping sound came from the other end of the line.

"The Human Elimination Plan..." George muttered to himself, his brows furrowed tightly.

"Kid, this isn't a joke. Once you step in, you either become a god or go to hell."

"We are already in hell, George."

Chen Mo looked at the connected phone interface. "Now, all I have to do is turn this hell into my throne."