204: Chapter 204 If you can't even beat me, what's the point of talking about modification?

The underground detention room.

The lights were dim.

Suzaku was covered in bandages, tightly shackled to a specially made alloy interrogation chair.

Lelouch removed his mask and tossed it onto the iron table nearby.

"Suzaku, stop deceiving yourself."

Lelouch looked at his former best friend.

"Charles doesn't care about the lives of civilians at all. Your idea of reforming the empire from within is nothing but a joke."

"Shut up!"

Suzaku struggled violently, the alloy shackles on his wrists emitting a harsh, grating sound.

"What right do you have to judge me? You're even willing to use Nunnally to achieve your goals! You started a war, filling Tokyo Settlement with dead people!"

"War inevitably leads to bloodshed."

Lelouch took a half-step closer, pressing his hands against the edge of the iron table.

"If we don't overthrow that corrupt imperial power, civilians won't even have the right to bleed; they can only be endlessly exploited by the empire. Open your eyes and look—the empire you are loyal to is turning this place into a giant slaughterhouse."

"Princess Euphemia already established the Special Administrative Zone!"

Suzaku's eyes were bloodshot as he roared hysterically.

"She gave the civilians of Tokyo Settlement equal rights! If it weren't for The Black Knights interfering and inciting riots, peace would have arrived long ago!"

Upon hearing Euphemia's name, Lelouch's facial muscles twitched.

He wanted to tell Suzaku that the princess he was so devoted to was actually their inside agent, but he held back. Explaining these things to someone with such a rigid mindset was a waste of breath.

"You are too naive."

Lelouch shook his head.

"The Special Administrative Zone is just a means for Charles to pacify the civilians. Do you think wearing the cape of the Knights of the Round allows you to change the rules? You are nothing more than a tool in Charles's hands, a tool used to deal with me."

"Even if I am a tool, I will climb to the highest position!"

Suzaku gritted his teeth, the veins on his forehead bulging one by one.

"I will seize power, and I will use my own methods to end this twisted world. I will never collude with you, hiding behind a mask while letting others go to their deaths!"

Heavy footsteps came from outside the door.

The alloy door was pushed open.

Yu Feng walked in slowly, one hand in his trouser pocket and the other holding a can of cola.

Kallen followed behind him.

"You two are having a lively chat."

Yu Feng pulled the tab on the can, tilted his head back, and took a sip.

Suzaku glared fixedly at Yu Feng, wishing he could tear him apart.

It was this man who had crushed his lancelot with one foot, grinding his pride into the mud.

"Reforming from within?"

Yu Feng walked up to the interrogation chair and looked down at Suzaku from a position of superiority.

"You can't even beat me, you can't even touch the corner of my clothes, so what are you going to use to reform that man-eating empire? With that mouth of yours that only knows how to shout slogans?"

"What do you know!"

Suzaku roared.

"Force can't solve everything! Only by changing the system—"

"*Slap!*"

Yu Feng raised his hand and struck Suzaku across the face with a solid slap.

The force of this slap was immense.

Suzaku's head snapped to the side, his cheek instantly swelling up, and blood trickled from the corner of his mouth.

"I hate self-righteous moralizers like you the most."

Yu Feng crushed the empty cola can and tossed it into a trash can in the corner.

"You chose a path where you act as a dog for your enemies, yet you insist on wearing a halo of saving the world. Who are you trying to disgust?"

Suzaku turned his head, eyes bloodshot, glaring at Yu Feng.

"Don't be so arrogant! I admit your physical strength is formidable, but so what? Under the concentrated fire of thousands of the empire's main cannons, no matter how strong you are, you'll just be reduced to ashes! Kill me! If you have the guts, then kill me!"

"Kill you?"

Yu Feng scoffed.

"It wouldn't take much effort to finish you off. But I'm in a good mood today."

He turned to look at Kallen.

"Take off the shackles."

Kallen was stunned for a moment.

"Take them off? He's one of the Knights of the Round."

Lelouch also frowned.

"Yu Feng, releasing a tiger back to the mountains will cause endless trouble. Suzaku's abilities are strong; if you let him go, the empire's retaliation will come again."

"Take them off."

Yu Feng repeated, his tone flat.

Kallen didn't say anything more; she stepped forward and entered the code.

With a click, the alloy shackles sprang open.

Losing support, Suzaku toppled forward.

He braced himself on the ground with his hands and looked up in disbelief.

"You... you're letting me go?"

"Since you think that path of yours, acting as a dog for the empire, is viable, then get lost and go back to it."

Yu Feng crossed his arms over his chest.

"Go back and tell Charles not to try to disgust me with a few broken mechs. Even if you bring ten thousand mechs next time, the outcome will only be that they get crushed under my feet."

Suzaku gritted his back teeth and struggled to stand up, leaning on the chair.

Three of his ribs were broken, his internal organs were damaged, and every breath was excruciatingly painful.

"You will definitely regret this."

Suzaku's voice squeezed through his teeth.

"I will come back with the true power of the empire. I will personally send you all to hell!"

"I'll be waiting."

Yu Feng pointed toward the door.

"Those two useless knights next door still have half a life left. Take them and get lost."

A few minutes later.

In the ruins on the outskirts of the base.

Suzaku dragged his broken body, helping the right-arm-fractured Gino and the silent Anya, moving step by step as they disappeared into the night.

Their retreating figures looked utterly wretched.

Lelouch stood in front of the surveillance screen, watching them leave.

"You're just letting them go like this?"

Lelouch turned around.

"The empire is currently in dire need of a victory to cover up the disastrous defeat in the Kyushu campaign. They will definitely embellish the story when they return, and Charles will certainly send the entire joint fleet he's been keeping in reserve."

"That's exactly what I want him to do."

Yu Feng walked to the sofa and sat down, crossing his legs.

"My star destroyer needs to be upgraded to the ninth tier, and the materials I'm missing are an astronomical figure. Just raiding those small armories isn't even enough to fill the gaps between my teeth."

Lelouch was stunned.

"If Charles doesn't reveal all his trump cards, where am I supposed to get that much high-dimensional special alloy?"

Yu Feng took out a cigar and lit it.

"This is casting a long line to catch a big fish. The more fleets they bring, the richer the materials I can harvest."

Lelouch looked at the man sitting on the sofa, puffing on his cigar.

This man didn't treat the empire as an opponent at all.

He was treating the entire Britannia as a resource pool that could be harvested at any time.

"I understand."

Lelouch nodded.

"I will cooperate with you and lure out the empire's main fleet. However, to lure them out, we need to provide some strong incentive. The higher-ups in the empire are arrogant, but they aren't fools. Having lost three Knights of the Round in a row, they will definitely re-evaluate our combat strength."

"I'll leave it to you."

Yu Feng exhaled a smoke ring.

"I just need them to come. As long as the imperial fleet dares to show their heads, I can wipe them off the screen with one shot. Your task is to be responsible for cleaning up the battlefield and picking up all that fallen scrap metal without missing a single piece for me."

Kallen opened her mouth but didn't say anything.

Wiping the screen with one shot.

Those four words would be boasting if said by anyone else, but coming from Yu Feng, it was a literal, physical fact.

"But before that."

Yu Feng stubbed out his cigar.

"Keep a low profile for the next few days. The empire's intelligence network must be going crazy, and I expect they'll infiltrate every corner of the Tokyo Settlement very soon."

He turned to look at Lelouch.

"Can you handle things at Ashford Academy?"

"No problem."

Lelouch nodded.

"I've set up jammers in the school. They won't be able to find any useful information."

"Alright. You two carry on."

Yu Feng walked out with his hands in his pockets.

"I'm going back to the ship to catch some sleep."

A few days later.

Ashford Academy.

The atmosphere on campus was somewhat eerie.

Although it looked like students were playing and laughing on the surface, there was a distinct, murderous chill in the air.

At a window seat on the second floor of the cafeteria.

Yu Feng sat in a chair with an extremely sumptuous steak meal set in front of him.

Shirley sat to his left, carefully cutting the meat for him.

Kallen sat opposite him, biting on a straw and drinking juice.

"There have been a lot of new faces in the school recently."

Kallen lowered her voice, her gaze sweeping over a few tables not far away.

A few boys in school uniforms were sitting there, well-built with rigid, upright postures.

Their eyes kept drifting toward this side inadvertently.

"Elite operatives from the Imperial Military Intelligence Agency."

Yu Feng swallowed a piece of beef without even looking up.

"Disguised as transfer students and the new P.E. teachers. The security guards sweeping the floor at the main gate have been replaced, too."

Shirley's hand gripping the knife and fork tightened, her face full of nervousness.

"Are they... are they here to catch you?"

"Catch me?"

Yu Feng picked up his cup and took a sip of water.

"These people are here to gather intelligence. I suspect Charles is getting desperate and has issued a kill order to uncover the secrets of Zero and myself."

"Then what do we do?"

Shirley's voice trembled.

"We eat when it's time to eat, and drink when it's time to drink."

Yu Feng cut off a piece of rare beef and put it into his mouth.

"Just a few flies. If they don't come to provoke me, I'll pretend I don't see them. If they dare to reach out, I'll chop off their claws."

At the same time.

The third-floor corridor of the school building.

Lelouch was carrying a stack of exercise books, walking side-by-side with Rolo.

A new teacher wearing a suit walked towards them.

"Student Lelouch."

The teacher stopped and wore a professional smile on his face.

"I heard you took sick leave a few days ago. Are you feeling better?"

Lelouch stopped and his expression perfectly switched to the bewilderment of an ordinary high school student.

"Thank you for your concern, teacher, I'm much better."

"That's good. The Ashford family has had a lot going on lately, don't put too much pressure on yourself."

The teacher's gaze lingered on Rolo for a second.

"And who is this?"

"I'm his younger brother, Rolo."

Rolo spoke first, revealing an innocent smile.

"Hello, teacher."

"You two brothers are very close."

The teacher pushed up the glasses on the bridge of his nose.

"It hasn't been peaceful outside the Tokyo Settlement lately. Try to go home early after school, and don't go to those dangerous places."

"We will."

Lelouch nodded in acknowledgement and continued walking with Rolo.

Turning the corner, once he was sure the teacher couldn't see them, the smile on Rolo's face vanished instantly, his eyes freezing cold.

"He's from Special Ops Team Three."

Rolo lowered his voice.

"He has a high-frequency recording device on him. He was testing your voiceprint just now."

"Ignore him."

Lelouch's expression was calm.

"The jammers in the school are on; the only thing he recorded was static."

The two entered an empty utility room.

Lelouch locked the door and pulled an encrypted communication terminal from his school bag.

The screen lit up, and Milly Ashford's face appeared on the display.

"Lelouch, Euphemia just sent over the latest intelligence."

Milly Ashford's voice was crisp.

"The Empire's Third and Fourth Joint Fleets have arrived in the waters near Area 11. They are carrying a large number of bunker-busting missiles."

Lelouch sneered.

"Just as I expected. After Suzaku returned, Charles intends to root us out completely."

"We need to use this opportunity to lure their main fleet to our preset battlefield."

Lelouch tapped his fingers quickly on the terminal, bringing up a map.

He drew a circle around the abandoned bay casino in Tokyo Bay on the map.

"Notify Kaname Ohgi to move a few abandoned Knightmare Frames here. Create the illusion of large-scale, high-frequency energy residue."

After cutting the communication, Lelouch turned to look at Rolo.

"Rolo, I need you to do something."

Rolo immediately stood up straight.

"Brother, tell me. Who do you want me to kill?"

"No killing."

Lelouch walked over to Rolo and placed both hands on his shoulders.

"I want you to go to a secret contact point of the Intelligence Bureau and 'accidentally' leak a piece of intelligence to them."

Rolo was stunned for a moment.

"Leak intelligence?"

"Yes."

Lelouch took a micro-storage card out of his pocket and stuffed it into Rolo's hand.

"It contains false information that The Black Knights are about to move their core base to the abandoned bay casino. Pass this information to the Imperial Intelligence Agency."

Rolo looked down at the storage card in his hand, his brow furrowed.

"Brother, this is too dangerous. If they discover it's a trap, the fleet's artillery will completely flatten that place. You..."

"I won't be going there."

Lelouch interrupted him.

"This is just bait."

He looked into Rolo's worried eyes and reached up to remove the silver pocket watch he always wore around his neck.

This was a keepsake left to him by his mother, Marianne.

He shoved the pocket watch into Rolo's palm and closed his fingers around it.

"Take this."

Lelouch's voice softened, carrying a rare warmth.

"Make sure you come back safely. I'll be waiting for you at home."

Rolo shuddered.

He stared blankly at the pocket watch in his hand, feeling Lelouch's lingering body heat on it.

Since he was a child, no one had ever said the words "I'll be waiting for you at home" to him.

An indescribable, fanatical emotion exploded in Rolo's chest.

He gripped the pocket watch tightly, his eyes instantly turning red.

"Don't worry, Brother."

Rolo looked up, his eyes filled with a kind of extremely paranoid madness.

"I will definitely complete the mission. Whoever dares to harm you, I will stop their time forever."

Late at night.

Ashford Academy, boys' dormitory building.

There were no lights on in Yu Feng's single dormitory room.

He leaned back on the sofa, fiddling with a lighter in his hand.

The sound of the metal lid opening and closing was exceptionally clear in the quiet room.

A faint sound of clothing rubbing together came from outside the window.

Two black shadows silently climbed up the exterior wall's drainpipe and skillfully used a special tool to pry open the window lock.

They flipped inside.

These were two of the Imperial Intelligence Agency's top-tier infiltration agents.

They wore night-vision goggles and held special tranquilizer guns equipped with silencers, creeping toward the bed from the left and right.

"What are you looking for?"

A lazy voice suddenly came from the direction of the sofa.

The two agents' hearts pounded wildly, and their guns instantly turned to aim at the source of the voice.

Click.

The lighter lit up.

The ghostly blue flame illuminated Yu Feng's nonchalant face.

"Breaking in through the window in the middle of the night. Have a death wish?"

Yu Feng lit a cigarette and took a deep drag.

The agents didn't waste words and pulled the triggers immediately.

Several high-concentration tranquilizer darts whistled through the air toward Yu Feng's face.

Yu Feng didn't even move.

His S-rank divine power circulated slightly within his body.

An invisible force field expanded half a meter away from his body.

The tranquilizer darts hit the force field and were instantly crushed into powder, leaving not even a speck of dust behind.

The two agents immediately drew the short blades from their waists, preparing for close-quarters combat.

"Too boring."

Yu Feng exhaled a puff of smoke.

He raised his right hand and snapped his fingers.

Space underwent an extremely brief tremor.

The two agents, who were halfway through their charge, suddenly froze in place.

The murderous intent and tension on their faces vanished instantly, replaced by complete bewilderment.

Yu Feng used his divine power to invade their brains directly, forcibly erasing all memories from the past twelve hours.

"The door is on the right. Remember to close it on your way out."

Yu Feng pointed to the dormitory's wooden door.

Like puppets on strings, the two agents mechanically turned around, walked to the door, opened it, and walked out.

They even gently closed the door tightly behind them.

Yu Feng leaned back on the sofa, watching the night outside.

"The bait has been cast. Now we just have to see how much of a fortune Charles is willing to spend."

On the other side.

Tokyo Settlement, 11th District.

Imperial Intelligence Agency secret contact point.

Rolo was wearing a tattered hoodie, stumbling as he rushed into the alley.

Three plainclothes agents were in close pursuit.

"Stop!"

The agents raised their guns and fired.

Rolo did not use Geass.

He deliberately let his left arm be grazed by a bullet, blood staining his sleeve red.

He ran to a trash can and pretended to collapse to the ground from exhaustion.

The micro-storage card in his pocket slid out, landing on the edge of the sewer grate.

Rolo didn't go to pick it up; instead, he quickly scrambled up, climbed over the wall, and disappeared into the night.

The three agents chased to the trash can and stopped.

The lead agent swept his flashlight and discovered the storage card.

He put on gloves, picked it up, and inserted it into the data reader he was carrying.

A line of encrypted data popped up on the screen.

A few seconds later, the agent's expression changed.

He immediately pressed his headset.

"Calling Command Center! Intercepted top-secret intelligence on The Black Knights! Their core base is about to move to the abandoned bay casino!"

Inside the Imperial Joint Fleet flagship.

Suzaku sat in his wheelchair, looking at the intelligence coming in on the big screen, his fists clenched tightly.

"All fleet units, listen up."

Suzaku roared into the communicator.

"Change course! Target: Tokyo Bay abandoned bay casino! Launch immediately!"