277: Chapter 278 Li Jieke

Dog Brother and Dumpling pulled back the heavy wooden chairs and sat down at the round table.

Dumpling's gaze swept across the opposite side.

When he saw Melissa Lan sitting on the left with a complex expression, he couldn't quite suppress the anger in his heart.

He sneered and mocked unceremoniously, "Good, good, good, what a spectacular performance. It's a real waste of your superb acting skills to be holed up in this backwater instead of performing at a theater on Terra."

Hearing Dumpling's mockery, a trace of guilt flashed across Melissa Lan's face.

She stood up from her chair, folded her hands in front of her, and bowed deeply to the two of them, "Respected guests who have traveled from afar, I am truly sorry. It was not our intention to welcome you in this manner. But please believe that we will provide a reasonable explanation."

"No need for an explanation." Dumpling didn't even look at her, just let out a cold snort.

Dog Brother, on the other hand, appeared very composed.

After all, he was a corporate executive in reality and had seen too many scenes of treachery and deceit.

He didn't show any signs of agitation, simply casting his gaze toward the old man in the wheelchair sitting at the head of the table.

The old man watched the two men's starkly different reactions, a flicker of appreciation passing through his cloudy eyes.

He raised his hand slightly, signaling for Melissa Lan to sit down.

Then, speaking in Chinese with a thick accent, he said calmly, "Let me introduce myself first. My name is Jack Li."

The old man's voice echoed in the spacious conference room, "I am one of the legitimate heirs to the Pan-Pacific Empire's government-in-exile. Ten thousand years ago, that warlord and barbarian entrenched in the Himalayas shattered our nation. He cruelly murdered our leader and even slandered our leader as a tyrant. In order to preserve our last bloodline, we were forced to..."

The old man was immersed in tragic historical memories, preparing to launch into a long-winded accusation against the atrocities of the God-Emperor who now sat on the Golden Throne.

Just then, "Stop, stop, stop!"

Dumpling suddenly reached out his hand, making a pause gesture in mid-air, and impatiently interrupted the old man's monologue.

Jack Li was stunned. His stomach full of impassioned and tragic lines was stuck in his throat.

"Old man, that's enough."

"Let's just skip the cutscene. I don't want to hear about historical grudges from ten thousand years ago. Get straight to the point: Why did you go to such great lengths to stage this betrayal and encirclement?"

Jack Li was so choked by this sudden retort that he almost couldn't catch his breath, coughing violently a few times.

The leaders of The Three Great Families beside him also widened their eyes, staring at Dumpling as if he were a monster.

In their worldview, no one had ever dared to interrupt this wise elder so rudely!

"Cutscene... skip?"

Jack Li, while catching his breath, chewed on these two unfamiliar terms with a look of confusion.

But upon reflection, thinking of these people's abstract, psychopathic behavior on the battlefield, he immediately let it go: one really couldn't communicate with this group of mentally unstable people using common sense.

Jack Li calmed his breathing and followed Dumpling's lead, saying, "Alright, let me answer your question first: Why did we stage this play?"

The old man's gaze suddenly turned sharp, "Because we need to see clearly what kind of entity the Spark Alliance standing behind you really is!"

Hearing the words "Spark Alliance," Dog Brother and Dumpling's hearts skipped a beat, and their scalps tingled.

You have to understand, the Spark Alliance's home planet, Yuanwang Star System, was countless light-years away from this star sector! How did these natives, who hadn't even left their own star system, know about the Alliance's existence?

The old man saw the shock in their eyes. He smiled with great satisfaction and reached out to stroke his sparse beard, "Melissa Lan should have mentioned to you earlier that although we, The Three Great Families, guard this place, we have our own special channels to obtain intelligence from the outside world."

The old man's gaze locked onto Dumpling, and his tone suddenly shifted, speaking in an eerie voice, "For example... in thirty seconds, you will try to scratch your butt with your right hand."

The conference room fell silent instantly. The atmosphere became incredibly eerie.

Thirty seconds later. Dumpling, who had been sitting upright, suddenly felt an unbearable itch on his right buttock. Subconsciously, he reached out his right hand and scratched hard through the gap in his Power Armor.

After scratching, Dumpling suddenly realized what had happened. His old face flushed red instantly, and he was so embarrassed that he wished he could dig an air-raid shelter into the stone floor with his toes.

"Holy shit!" Dumpling cursed inwardly. "You can foresee the future? You have precognitive abilities?!"

The old man nodded faintly, "Just a minor psychic talent. However, as you can see, once this precognitive ability is revealed by me in public, the future will change, and it often starts to fail."

Dumpling took a deep breath, feeling that this withered old man was unfathomably deep. This old fox first deliberately threw out the suspense of special channels without specifying whether it was psychic power or ancient technology. Then, he immediately demonstrated his ability. This was clearly psychological warfare, inducing players to guess what unfathomable trump cards he still had!

Unfortunately, this carefully designed psychological game by the old fox was completely wasted. As a straightforward life-skill player whose mind was only filled with doing business and grinding quests, Dumpling couldn't be bothered to think about those complex political metaphors.

"Fine, you win." Dumpling rolled his eyes and said bluntly, "So you've been predicting things for a while, what did you actually find out? Do you really want to go to war with us?"

The old man shook his head, "We just wanted to confirm your stance and hope to make peaceful contact with your leader through you. As for why we want to make contact, I cannot say right now, but what is certain is that we have no hostility toward you."

Hearing this, Dumpling was speechless. He leaned back in his chair, sneered, and blurted out the truth, "Bullshit, of course you don't dare to have hostility."

Dumpling pointed at the ceiling, "Old man, have you stayed at home for too long and don't know how cruel the outside world is? Even the main fleet of the Tyranids was rubbed into the dirt by us, and we just personally chopped up the Norn Queen of the swarm. With those dozens of pieces of junk mecha outside, you don't really think you can beat us, do you?"

As soon as these words were spoken, everyone in the conference room except Dog Brother and Dumpling—including the normally unflappable Jack Li—gasped in shock!

"Tyranid swarm?! Norn Queen?!" Melissa Lan couldn't help but exclaim in shock.

As ancient remnants, they knew very well what terrifying weight those cosmic locusts carried! Hundreds of years ago, this star system had been attacked by a wandering fleet of Tyranids. At that time, The Three Great Families had to use all their trump cards and suffered countless casualties to barely repel those bugs, which weren't even a large force.

And this group of people in front of them had just defeated a Tyranid force? And killed a Norn Queen?!

The natives looked at each other, seeing the shock and awe in each other's eyes. They knew the Spark Alliance was powerful, but they really didn't expect it to be this ridiculously strong!

But after the brief shock, a flash of undisguised ecstasy crossed Jack Li's eyes. For them, the stronger the Spark Alliance was, the greater the hope for their hidden plan to succeed!

Dumpling looked at the stunned crowd and tapped the table with satisfaction, "So, you called us here just to officially concede and make peace, and then incidentally ask us to act as intermediaries to contact our leader?"

The old man composed himself and nodded solemnly. He said candidly, "I won't hide it from you two. In our initial simulation, we didn't intend to communicate with you. We had already set up a dragnet, prepared to annihilate your ground forces in one fell swoop."

"Including the Rogue Trader fleet that attacked you in outer space earlier, they were actually lured here by us as bait. The purpose was to use them as cannon fodder to test the real firepower data of your ships."

Hearing this, Dog Brother and Dumpling's expressions darkened. These NPCs were truly vicious. What players hated most was this feeling of being played with like pawns by NPCs!

The old man clearly saw their displeasure. He softened his tone and said sincerely, "But later, we discovered through observation that you carry the same Eastern bloodline as us. Moreover, when facing life-and-death situations, you did not call out the name of that False Emperor; you are clearly not lackeys of the Empire."

"Because of this, we temporarily changed our policy and decided to end the war and seek cooperation."

A brief silence fell over the conference room. The information between the two sides was clearly severely asymmetrical. The natives held too much inside information about the players.

"Just saying nice things is useless." Dumpling broke the silence, "Since you set us up first, if you want to reconcile now, you have to show some substantial sincerity, right?"

The old man smiled slightly. He seemed to have anticipated this situation. "Naturally. For this misunderstanding, we will provide full compensation."

"As a sign of sincerity, we will gift your side a Ranger-class general-purpose knight mecha from our armory for free."

Dumpling's eyes lit up instantly. Dog Brother also raised an eyebrow. An entire knight mecha! This was a true luxury item in the Warhammer Universe!

But that wasn't all. Jack Li paused, took out an ancient data board resembling a metal information pad from his wide sleeves, placed it on the table, and gently pushed it toward the two of them.

"In addition to this, I will personally gift you a precious set of coordinates." The old man's tone became somewhat grave.