NOVPUBChapter 121: Chapter 120 Suspect
Chapter 121 -120 Suspect
This couldn’t be a coincidence anymore.
The decentralization of virtual currency could ensure a certain level of transaction confidentiality, but it was by no means an impenetrable wall. No matter how networked something was, it could not exist without real-world servers, gateways, and lines—and virtual currency was no different. Every transaction record was left on the market’s servers, and if the internet was inconvenient for inquiry, then a physical breakthrough could be equally effective, if not more so.
Someone was clearly targeting him.
And they had already traced from the Paradise game’s payment account all the way to the virtual coin market, and might now have even reached domestic grounds.
Chaoyang had also forged the account data. Even if the other party had found all the exchange records from the Bulgarian company’s server, it wouldn’t necessarily pinpoint his location immediately. But this was undoubtedly a very dangerous signal. If he had not noticed these investigations and continued to use the same account for subsequent transactions, exposure was only a matter of time after accumulating certain characteristics.
Without hesitation, he dived into the bank’s network and directly froze his account, which still had a large balance. Then, he altered many past transaction records.
After doing all this, he finally felt slightly at ease.
However, the most critical point was that the targeted nature of this round of actions was rather astonishing. Their methods did not seem to be investigating an illegal gaming company but appeared to be aimed at him personally.
It was almost as if they knew he was a Demon…
With that thought, Chaoyang’s heart skipped a beat!
No, it was impossible for them to know he was a Demon.
But that didn’t mean they didn’t know Demons existed!
This was a perspective fallacy!
After all, the awakening of Angels and Demons had persisted for thousands of years. Now, Demons no longer had a place to live on Earth, which didn’t mean they were always in such a sorry state in the past. Perhaps at some point, Demons walked openly under the sun, wantonly extracting other people’s souls, and even some ambitious individuals would cooperate with Demons, because as long as they had wishing power, they seemed omnipotent. Considering this, if the descendants of those people were alive today, Demons for them would no longer just be a myth from the books.
After pondering for a moment, Chaoyang closed his eyes and used his consciousness to dial Ailuodi’s number.
After a long wait, the voice of connection finally came through from the other side.
“Hello, it’s okay for you to call me, but can you not change the screen to an eye?”
Beyond the girl’s voice, he could vaguely hear some noisy sounds.
“What’s the matter? Are you busy?”
“It’s nothing, don’t mind them, I’ll go to another room.”
A moment later, it finally quieted down on the other side, “Go ahead, what do you want?”
The last time he called, Ailuodi had a highly resistant tone, thinking that Demons should not contact her in reality. This time, she seemed relaxed and natural.
“You said there is more than one Angel in the world, so how many Awakeners have you actually encountered?”
“What are you up to! I can’t tell you that!” Ailuodi immediately became alert. 𝓷ℴ𝓿𝓹𝓾𝓫.𝓬ℴ𝓶
“Please, after cooperating with me so many times in Paradise, how could you still not understand what I’m thinking? Angels gain wishing power by hunting Demons, so what do Demons get from killing Angels? You don’t think that the first thing I’d do after finding out their whereabouts is to send them to their deaths, do you?”
“This…” Ailuodi hesitated, “you first tell me why you wanna know this.”
“Joe James… that is, Wayne James has vanished from the face of the Earth.”
“Eh!?” The other party was taken aback.
“He disappeared into thin air after being sent to prison, not even a record of his incarceration is left. Nine out of ten, this guy is gone, but this incident probably wasn’t directed at him. I later discovered that someone was secretly tracking me. The current speculation is that a player got noticed by someone or a power within their circles while promoting Paradise, determining that Paradise is related to Demons and has started tracking purposefully. And as Joe James is one of the potential leak points, it must be sealed off quickly,” Chaoyang summarized in a few brief sentences, “I want to ask about the Angels, see if there’s anything worth learning from.”
Ailuodi’s first reaction was somewhat unexpected to Chaoyang.
“Are you okay? Have you exposed your tracks?”
“You have time to worry about me, you might as well answer my question.”
“That’s a different matter,” she huffed, “Wayne James deserved his punishment, his death is nothing to be pitied. Personally, I still hope you can live a bit longer, at least for now. How about this… I can tell you about some other Angels, but not including where they currently live.”
“Alright, whatever you think you can tell, just tell.”
“I didn’t tell you everything last time. In fact, I know two Angels… one I’ve only chatted with online, named ‘K,’ but he’s of quite high status, a very respected good person, successful both in career and home life. He used to enthusiastically answer our questions, but now his replies are seldom seen.”
“K?” Chaoyang was having trouble keeping it together, “You haven’t even met him, and you don’t know his real name? Hmm…”
Could this be a street-fighting expert who likes to play with fire?
“Are you doubting me? He’s more like a mentor, guiding new Awakeners on how to adjust to their identities, I learned a lot from him,” Ailuodi defended, “If you had the chance to talk to him, you’d definitely feel his wisdom.”
That surely didn’t include signing a contract with a Demon. “Alright, what about the other person?”
“The other person was also introduced to me by K, her name is Tiffany, ten years older than me and awakened much later than I did.”
“Did you meet her in person this time?”
“Yes, K thought she could learn something from me, but that experience was pretty terrible…” Ailuodi’s voice lowered, seemingly not wishing to recall that event, “We only got along for half a year before we had a falling out. She thought everything I did was ludicrous and laughable, but more than that, I couldn’t stand her disdain for my partners. She eventually went to the United States alone, and we haven’t been in touch ever since.”
“And here I thought you were on good terms with other Angels, turns out that’s all the connection you have?” Chaoyang sneered, “Even if you wanted to tell me their exact locations, I bet you couldn’t come up with them on the spot, could you?”
“As the saying goes, words are also a sword, Demon!” Ailuodi retorted angrily.
“That might be your French saying, we call it ‘bitter medicine is good for health,'” he shrugged, “But what you’ve said does hold some value. If living undisturbed, both Demons and Angels end up having intersections with people around them, they are after all a part of the era.”
“So, you got any leads now?”
“Actually, I do.” First off, Cyber Eye was his unique ability, but if someone was well-versed in Demons, they would definitely be wary of the fact that Paradise could send invitation emails into the internal network at will. Even if they couldn’t fully understand Cyber Eye, they would be especially vigilant against cyber leaks. This showed the enemy’s keen insight, but it also could be their weak point—if they don’t rely on the network, then they’d have to resort to physical action. “But for this method, I need your help. I’m planning to investigate Tyler, Anthony, and Qianyuan Meiko—if this matter isn’t much related to Joe James, but with Demons themselves, then all three are suspects.”
