279: Chapter 280 Zhang Wei's Phone Call

The fifteenth day of seclusion.

Huichun Hall.

Zhang Wei sat at his desk with three holographic terminals stacked in front of him, each displaying different content. The one on the left showed real-time trending searches from major Federal news platforms, the middle one displayed the progress report of the Li family's bankruptcy liquidation, and the one on the right was the daily intelligence briefing sent by Chen Shu.

He had been busier than Lin Qi during these fifteen days.

No, to be more precise—much busier than Lin Qi.

Lin Qi only had to deal with one enemy right now: his Breakthrough of the Bottleneck. Meanwhile, Zhang Wei had to deal with the entire internet.

The liquidation of the Li family was progressing smoothly. The Federal Bureau of Investigation was extremely efficient, advancing with a crushing momentum—the evidence was simply too overwhelming. Every audio clip, video, and financial record Lin Qi had released at the press conference could withstand repeated verification. Li Qingcang was currently locked in a Federal maximum-security facility, awaiting trial by a military court.

Some people in the streets had already turned Li Qingcang's facial expressions into holographic memes. The most popular one was a screenshot of him in a video saying, "This is just a small misunderstanding," with a caption that read: "You call this a misunderstanding?"

It had reached three billion shares.

Zhang Wei felt quite vindicated when he saw the meme. However, the end of the Li family didn't mean all the trouble was over.

The problem lay in the "trending heat."

He had spent a massive amount of energy trying to suppress Lin Qi's personal popularity. It worked well at first; the focus of public opinion was indeed guided toward Li Qingcang. Netizens were busy digging up the Li family's dark history and temporarily had no time to focus on Lin Qi himself.

But he couldn't account for some people being stubborn.

A civilian investigation group calling themselves the "Truth Hunters" had launched a special feature called "Five-Day Reconstruction" over the past few days. They had hired professional Law analysts to conduct a field survey of the convention center and collected residual Law fluctuation data.

Their conclusion was: a "complete independent Law Domain" had appeared inside the convention center, lasting for about seven to eight minutes.

The energy characteristics of this Domain did not belong to any known professional system in the Federation.

The last paragraph of the article was written very cryptically but precisely:

"We have reason to believe that during those few minutes, the physical Laws inside the convention center were completely replaced. The person who created this Domain does not possess a powerful skill. What he possesses is an independent set of world Laws."

The readership of this article surpassed five billion within two days.

Five billion.

The total population of the Federation was roughly that number. It was equivalent to saying every literate person had read it once.

When Zhang Wei saw it, he almost slammed his desk to pieces.

The comment section was even more of a disaster area. The top-voted comment read: "So, it's not that he used a cheat within the Federation's Law system, but that he comes with his own entire game engine???"

The second highest was even more outrageous: "I finally understand Li Qingcang's expression that night. It wasn't the despair of being defeated, but the bewilderment of being hit by a dimensional reduction strike."

After reading these two comments, Zhang Wei took a deep breath and pulled his hand back from the edge of the screen.

—Can't smash it. This terminal is a new replacement.

He called Instructor Su Qing.

"That Truth Hunters team, can you find out who they are?"

"Already checked," Instructor Su Qing's reply was brief. "A group of retired researchers in the field of Law studies. They have no background power, just pure academic fanaticism. The old man leading them worked at the Federal Law Research Institute for forty years. After retiring, he had nothing to do, so he specifically started doing these civilian investigations."

"Academic fanaticism? They're painting a target on Brother Qi's back!"

"I know. But you can't touch them."

"Why?"

"Because touching them is equivalent to confirming that what they said is the truth. If you go find someone to delete the post, tomorrow's trending search will become 'A certain mysterious power's emergency PR suspected of covering up the truth of the convention center.' Guess how high that readership will go?"

Zhang Wei shut his mouth.

He understood the logic. The more you delete posts and use PR, the more it shows you have a guilty conscience. There's an iron Law of the internet—the things you delete will definitely spread further than the things you don't.

"Then what should we do?"

Instructor Su Qing thought for a moment: "Let it hype up."

"Huh?"

"Five billion views is already the ceiling; no matter how much it's hyped, it'll stay around there. The more you suppress it, the bigger the matter seems. Not suppressing it will instead let it cool down naturally. If some celebrity has a scandal tomorrow, or if a rift in some city refreshes with a rare monster the day after, this topic will naturally sink. Ordinary people just watch for the excitement; they'll say 'oh' and turn the page."

Zhang Wei frowned: "Then what is the real danger?"

"Not the public. It's the Federal high-level officials."

"What's the attitude on the high-level side?"

"No movement for now. But the Vice Dean of Longya Academy went to the Federal Capital the day before yesterday. Since coming back, he's become very quiet. He used to talk incessantly during faculty meetings, but now he only nods when people ask him things."

Zhang Wei's fingers tapped on the desk, the frequency getting faster and faster.

"You mean, the higher-ups already know?"

"No need for 'already'," Instructor Su Qing's tone was like stating a common fact. "On the day of the convention center, people from the Federal Military were outside. That Colonel only let Lin Qi in because of a supreme command from the Military Department. Do you think the Military Department wouldn't monitor the whole process?"

Zhang Wei swallowed hard.

That made sense.

The military couldn't possibly lack backup monitoring methods. Just because the live broadcast signal was cut didn't mean the military's observation was cut. If those people could count how many hairs were on a rift beast from space orbit, how could they possibly fail to monitor energy fluctuations at their own doorstep?

"Then why haven't they come knocking on the door?"

"Because they aren't stupid," Instructor Su Qing's voice went flat, as flat as a pool of water without ripples. "What would you do by bringing a special operations team to the door of someone who can create an independent world Law? Invite him for tea? Or try to see if you can capture him?"

Zhang Wei's brain automatically filled in the picture—a team of special ops elites bursting through the door, only to find themselves standing in someone else's world Law.

That scene wasn't called an arrest. It was called delivering a snack.

"They are waiting and watching."

"Yes. Just like that mysterious person. Everyone with a brain is doing the same thing: watching, waiting, and not making a move."

Zhang Wei was silent for a while.

"Instructor Su, I suddenly feel that the situation Brother Qi will face after coming out of seclusion will be even more complicated than before he went in. Before going in, he only had to deal with one Li Qingcang. After coming out..."

He didn't finish his sentence.

"That's why he must Breakthrough during this month," Instructor Su Qing's voice didn't fluctuate, but every word was like a nail. "Only combat power at the Tongshen Realm level is qualified to sit at the same table and negotiate with these powers. Until then, the lower his profile, the better."

"Low profile?" Zhang Wei gave a bitter laugh. "A man with five billion views, and you're telling me low profile?"

"Not showing his face is the ultimate low profile," Instructor Su Qing said indifferently. "The heat will pass, but strength will not. Let him Breakthrough in peace. We'll hold the line for the matters outside."

"...Understood."

Zhang Wei hung up the phone and sat in his chair, dazed for a while.

He stood up and walked to the window, looking at the pedestrians coming and going on the street below.

These people were still living normal lives, going to and from work, picking up children, and buying groceries. There was a long queue at the breakfast shop on the corner, and a child sat on his father's shoulders munching on a candied hawthorn.

They didn't know that beneath this city, a teenage boy was trying to do something inconceivable.

They also didn't know that this world might be a 'cage'.

And they certainly didn't know that someone was shouldering these things they wouldn't even dare to imagine for them.

Zhang Wei pulled out that small notebook and added a line after the sixth item.

"6. Federal high-level movements: Focus on monitoring, do not take the initiative to contact."

After writing it, he hesitated for a moment and drew a large exclamation mark next to it.