McGillis was dumbfounded. Direct internal line connection, video calls—had the impersonator completely cloned him? Otherwise, how could they deceive everyone so thoroughly?
But after careful consideration, McGillis quickly dismissed this possibility. Even if it were a clone, advanced identity verification methods like iris recognition would be able to distinguish between them.
Moreover, information such as payment passwords was known only to him. How did the impersonator obtain it?
If the impersonator could directly crack his account, would there even be a need to impersonate him? They could simply transfer the money away. After all, McGillis never checked his account balance regularly. As for bank transfer notifications—if they could crack his account password, would intercepting or mimicking his voice be difficult?
And if anyone was to blame, it was himself for this secret operation.
To keep it hidden from the other Seven Stars families, the Gjallarhorn Mars Branch only knew he had come to Mars but had no idea why or where he was going.
That was why, when someone identical to him appeared, the Gjallarhorn Mars Branch was so easily deceived.
McGillis knew very well that blaming his subordinates at the Gjallarhorn Mars Branch was pointless now.
The most important thing was to minimize the losses. So, McGillis directly instructed the subordinate, "Notify the Mars Branch warehouse immediately and have them halt all shipments. Also, no matter how many rare metals that impersonator purchased, contact the suppliers and cancel all orders!"
However, as soon as McGillis finished speaking, the subordinate trembled and said, "Lord McGillis, it was you who personally went to the Mars Branch warehouse to collect the supplies. You even mobilized the surrounding garrison troops to help transport the goods onto an unfamiliar large aircraft. Since it was your direct order to empty the warehouse, there was no verification process. The supplies were moved out an hour ago.
As for those rare metal orders, as far as we know, you personally negotiated with the companies. Virtually every mining and transportation organization on Mars received orders and has already started clearing their inventories.
These are all major corporations. If we try to cancel these orders, you may need to intervene personally. After all, with such large orders, if we claim the purchaser was an impostor, these companies are unlikely to believe us."
Upon hearing this, McGillis knew the subordinate had a point.
Realizing he needed to calm down first, McGillis instructed the subordinate to immediately compile and send him the list of ordering companies. Then, sweating profusely, he ended the communication.
After hanging up, McGillis immediately opened his personal terminal to check the balances of all his private and public accounts. What he saw made his vision go dark, and he nearly fainted.
Every financial account McGillis checked—as long as it allowed overdrafts—was now maxed out.
Not only his visible accounts but all his anonymous, hidden accounts had been completely drained.
And according to the subordinate, this money was only for down payments. Just how much had that bastard impersonator bought?!
It could only be said that McGillis, who had schemed against his childhood friend and the woman who secretly loved him without hesitation, felt no psychological pressure whatsoever when it came to screwing over a parallel version of himself.
For McGillis, who was now part of Code Amelias' team, his aspiration had shifted from cleansing Gjallarhorn of corruption and reforming the social system to saving countless parallel worlds.
For such a grand goal, what reluctance could he possibly have about spending a bit of money belonging to another version of himself?
However, McGillis was, after all, a ruthless character who had endured being treated as a catamite by his adoptive father since childhood. So, he forced himself to calm down, opened the cockpit, and addressed Reid and the others who hadn't left yet:
"Sir, your warning has come true. Could you tell me who is impersonating me and for what purpose? It can't really be just to swindle a bit of money, can it?"
In truth, Reid had been listening to McGillis' earlier conversation with his subordinate, including the subsequent moment when McGillis checked his accounts and discovered he was drowning in debt—all of which Reid had monitored. So, inwardly, Reid was still chuckling to himself, thinking that McGillis was a ruthless person—even to himself.
But faced with McGillis' question, Reid outright lied:
"Mr. McGillis, I actually don't know who is impersonating you.
I only became aware of this matter while searching for Hashmal's location, when I discovered a McGillis making large-scale metal purchases, and then found another McGillis here with Tekkadan. Due to the highly unusual nature of these metal purchases, I concluded that the person making them must be an impostor.
However, since this ultimately isn't my concern, I didn't bother to investigate further."
Reid's explanation was reasonable, and McGillis couldn't find any flaws in it.
Of course, McGillis had suspected that the person impersonating him might have been orchestrated by the leader of this mysterious team before him.
But as he looked at the mountain of gold before him and considered the suspected space-teleportation ability, McGillis admitted to himself that he couldn't think of any reason why this mysterious leader would need to deceive him.
Moreover, if the intention was to deceive him, why would this person have forewarned him, giving him a chance to cut his losses in time?
Just as McGillis was about to ask Reid for help in tracking down the impersonator's whereabouts, however, his subordinates from the Gjallarhorn Mars Branch sent over a list of companies involved in the purchases, to the best of their knowledge.
When McGillis saw it, he nearly blacked out again.
The list included companies directly managed by economic zone administrators from across the solar system.
After all, everyone wanted a piece of the lucrative rare metal transport business, so naturally, everyone had gotten involved.
McGillis realized that if all these companies truly believed the impersonator was him, he would have no way to clear his name.
Never mind that he was only a Brigadier General and commander of Gjallarhorn's Earth Outer Orbit Fleet—even Gjallarhorn as an organization would have to carefully consider whether it could bear the consequences of angering every company on that list all at once.
So, McGillis set aside his attempt to pry more information from Reid and urgently instructed his subordinates to obtain the signed contracts from the relatively more "approachable" companies on the list for review.
Then, despair set in for McGillis, because when he saw the signatures on the contracts and the recorded videos of the contract signings, he almost believed he had genuinely signed them himself.
Even Reid himself couldn't find any differences between himself and this impostor - their appearance, speech, and habitual gestures were completely identical. Even Isurugi Camice admitted that if he hadn't been staying with McGillis the whole time, he would have believed the McGillis in the video was real. So it was perfectly normal for others to be unable to tell them apart.
Moreover, this fake McGillis had actually used his account to pay the deposit for the goods, making it even less likely for anyone to suspect this McGillis was an impostor.
Now, the real McGillis found himself seemingly having to pay for what the impostor had done.
Returning the goods was out of the question. These numerous corporate organizations were all major players on Mars, with backing from leading figures across various economic spheres.
If he made these people feel he was toying with them, he wouldn't be able to operate on Mars anymore, and might even find Earth untenable as well.
After all, part of the funds for purchasing these metals came from the Gjallarhorn public account under his control. If he couldn't quickly replenish the money, he could absolutely be convicted of misusing public funds.
At this moment, McGillis recalled the golden mountain that mysterious unit leader had dragged back to camp earlier.
McGillis now understood - that golden mountain wasn't meant to tempt Tekkadan, but was bait specifically for him.
Now he was penniless, burdened with debts he couldn't repay even if he sold himself.
That mysterious unit leader transporting the golden mountain right before his eyes was essentially telling him:
"Short on money? I've got plenty here. Come to me for some 'special arrangements' and I'll give you some."
So, even though McGillis knew there might be a hook beneath that golden mountain meant to trap him, he had no choice but to try swallowing it now - otherwise his life would be ruined.
Actually, McGillis guessed correctly. After intercepting communications confirming McGillis was now bankrupt, Reid knew he would come begging.
Therefore, after returning to camp, Reid waited for McGillis to show up.
In fact, McGillis was even more anxious than Reid had anticipated. Less than an hour after Reid returned to the ship, before he could even finish a can of cola, McGillis arrived alone.
This time, Reid still didn't plan to show his face. He had a native from the Gran Chaos deliver a communication device without video function to McGillis, not even allowing him aboard the Gran Chaos, intending to make him communicate from outside.
Such disrespectful behavior would normally make McGillis turn and leave immediately. After all, McGillis wasn't the type to enjoy humiliation or kissing up to others.
But now he needed help, so McGillis had to patiently stay in the wasteland to communicate with Reid.
Knowing that Code Amelias's team had spent this world's McGillis's money on large quantities of minerals and machinery, Reid was certain they wouldn't leave this world within a day or two.
So Reid wasn't in a hurry, and even had the mind to tease this McGillis further. When the call connected, he spoke with unusual laziness:
"Mr. McGillis, we parted less than an hour ago. What urgent matter brings you to me again now?"
To be honest, McGillis wasn't quite sure how to begin. He couldn't just say "I need your golden mountain for emergency funds, but I have nothing to mortgage to you."
However, seeing that McGillis had remained silent, Reid decided to apply more pressure and said:
"Mr. McGillis, I've accomplished my objectives for this trip and am preparing to leave. If you have nothing important to discuss, let's talk again if fate allows. Given your current troubles, you shouldn't waste time here."
Upon hearing this, McGillis realized this mysterious force's leader had likely already figured out his situation.
Knowing he had no room for negotiation, McGillis adopted a desperate attitude and declared:
"Sir, you must already be aware of my circumstances. Therefore, I want the gold you transmitted earlier - name your price."
Reid immediately laughed upon hearing this, responding with slight mockery:
"Name my price? Mr. McGillis, you must be joking. With your current debt situation, you're in no position to ask others to name prices. Besides, money is the least useful thing to me."
McGillis naturally knew this mysterious being didn't want money, which suited him since he had none anyway, so he directly stated:
"What I possess isn't limited to money. As long as I maintain my status and position, they hold significant value, don't they?"
Reid understood this as McGillis hinting at his willingness to defect.
Unfortunately, Reid didn't dare employ such a turncoat - he was only suited to remain beside Code Amelias, whose very nature involved betrayal.
So Reid didn't beat around the bush and directly stated what he wanted:
"Let's drop it, Mr. McGillis. Your position is still too low to be of help to me.
Getting the gold is actually quite simple, and I won't make it difficult for you.
This gold mountain was transmitted by me to purchase two Gundam Frame Units from Tekkadan.
If you can find two complete Gundam Frame Units for me, I'll give you all that gold. Even if you only find one, I'll give you half.
Of course, I won't accept Gundam Barbatos. Don't think about using that unit to make up the numbers.
Additionally, for the Gundam Frames, I'll only stay for one day at most. If I don't see the units by this time tomorrow, I'll leave.
Keep the communicator - you can contact me through it until this time tomorrow. I've given you the opportunity, now go back and work hard."
After speaking, Reid had the natives escort the guest out. Right before McGillis's eyes, the Gran Chaos, which had collected all the Pluman wreckage, took off and vanished before him.
Naturally, the communicator given to McGillis had been tampered with, containing tracking and monitoring devices.
Moreover, Hoshino Ruri and Nein could monitor McGillis's every move through the Martian network.
To minimize his losses, McGillis would certainly go searching for the Code Amelias team that had been impersonating him.
After all, the Code Amelias squad had purchased so many items under McGillis's name - there must be delivery addresses.
While McGillis couldn't terminate all contracts, modifying delivery addresses to render the Code Amelias squad's efforts useless would be quite simple.
If the Code Amelias team's McGillis dared to continue impersonating this world's McGillis,
With McGillis's capabilities, he would naturally discover him, and thus Reid would have caught the tail of the Code Amelias team.
Even if McGillis lacked the capability to track down Code Amelias's squad, Reid wouldn't lose anything.
After all, given McGillis's current circumstances, he would resort to theft or robbery—doing everything possible to acquire two Gundam Frame Units.
Otherwise, McGillis might truly have to sell himself to make ends meet.
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