Chapter 96: What Gave You the Illusion That I Was Kept in the Dark?
Leon stepped into the digitized expanse of the upgraded Simulated Universe. The moment his boots touched the synthesized floor, the weight of multiple cosmic gazes pressed down upon his shoulders from the endless void above.
Aha, Fuli, Nous, and Nanook—four Aeons had cast their attention his way, peering into the simulation with an intense, voyeuristic curiosity.
'Stop looking,' Leon transmitted his thought outward, his tone dry and utterly unimpressed.
In the higher dimensions, the cosmic entities reacted to his mental swat.
Aha, the Aeon of Elation, practically vibrated with amusement. 'The fun-seeker wants privacy? How boring! No matter, Aha will just quietly tag along~ I promise not to cause any trouble~'Fuli, the Aeon of Remembrance, silently adjusted their cosmic focus.'Will observe quietly. Must record a few more snapshots for the archives...'Nanook, the Aeon of Destruction, let out a low, rumbling huff that shook the stars.'I do not comprehend why observation is forbidden. But if it is forbidden, I shall avert my gaze.'Nous, the Aeon of Erudition, whirred with infinite processing power.'Calculation results finalize... optimal choice is to respect the anomaly's wishes.'
"Mr. Leon, are you alright?" Screwllum's mechanical, gentlemanly voice echoed through the comms.
Herta had hidden the Aether Cartridge deep within the core of the Simulated Universe. This entire setup was an elaborate trap—a test designed by her and Screwllum specifically to catch Silver Wolf. And the genius hacker from Punklorde had, naturally, responded to the challenge in her own uniquely arrogant way. The true focus of this dive was Silver Wolf, not the peanut gallery of Aeons hovering in the cosmos.
"I see our little hacker," Leon chuckled, his lips curving into a knowing smirk.
Floating a few paces ahead of him was a translucent, glitching phantom of Silver Wolf, constructed entirely from residual data. It was merely a holographic echo left behind in the system. Or, at least, that was what it was supposed to be.
"Silver Wolf?" Leon asked aloud, feigning ignorance.
"Conclusion: That is a holographic recording generated by the Simulated Universe," Screwllum explained, his tone calm and analytical. "Within this space, every variable is preserved in careful detail—naturally, this includes the digital footprints left behind by any outsiders."
The mechanical aristocrat paused, likely monitoring the data streams. "The enemy's intrusion has spread to the very depths of the Simulated Universe. She was just a hair's breadth away from the data chain where the Aether Cartridge is located. What we are currently viewing is the surveillance footage from that exact moment."
"Hey, I'm talking to you—why have you been staring at me?" The phantom of Silver Wolf suddenly spoke up. Her voice carried that signature lazy drawl, laced with a heavy dose of teenage impatience. She crossed her arms, shifting her weight onto one hip.
"That's because you're pretty," Leon replied smoothly, not missing a single beat.
"I have advanced the temporal process of the Simulated Universe," Screwllum gently reminded him over the comms. "She is not speaking to the current you. This is merely a static record of the past. Please do not interrupt the recording; listen carefully. We might gain further insight into her methods."
Sure enough, the holographic Silver Wolf completely ignored Leon's shameless flirting. She continued her one-sided conversation, her tone defensive.
"First of all, I wasn't 'thinking about it day and night'." She rolled her eyes. "The story of that cartridge is no different from a basic textbook back in Punklorde. I've never been interested in boring stuff that everyone already knows."
"A classic tsundere. Says one thing, but completely means another," Leon commented aloud, his smile widening into a teasing grin.
"Secondly, that's not just some random game disc," the phantom continued, clearly explaining the situation to an unseen third party. "It's an Aether Cartridge. To a hacker, it's a second pair of eyes, a second brain, a second heart..."
"See? Still a tsundere," Leon chuckled, folding his arms. "You want it so badly, yet you insist on making up all sorts of elaborate excuses to justify it."
"Finally, let me emphasize this one more time—I wasn't thinking about it day and night!" The phantom's voice pitched up slightly, revealing a crack in her cool facade. She was clearly arguing with someone on the other end of a comm link. "I'm saying all this just to explain exactly how powerful it is, got it? Kafka."
"Got it, my little tsundere Silver Wolf," Leon replied softly, his eyes glinting with pure amusement.
Somewhere in the vast digital network, Silver Wolf's fingers froze over her holographic keyboard. '...Was I seen through?'In his private monitoring room, Screwllum's optical sensors flickered.'...Was I seen through?'
Both the genius hacker and the mechanical aristocrat suddenly felt a creeping sense of doubt.
In reality, Leon knew exactly what was happening. Both Silver Wolf and Screwllum fancied themselves the brilliant 'hunters' in this scenario, completely unaware that Leon had already read their entire playbook. To him, this grand battle of wits was nothing more than an entertaining playground.
Take the current situation, for example. The phantom standing before him was not a simple recording of the past. Or rather, Silver Wolf had left a recording in the Simulated Universe, but the very second Leon stepped into this digital domain, the hidden graffiti she had buried within the code had pinged her with a live alert.
Immediately after, Silver Wolf had used Aether Editing to quietly slip her consciousness into the simulation. That's right—this seemingly illusory figure glitching in front of him wasn't a dead remnant of the past. It was the real Silver Wolf, actively 'walking alongside' him in real-time.
Every single one of Leon's shameless teases about her being a tsundere had been heard loud and clear. And the best part? Silver Wolf had absolutely no idea that Leon knew she was listening.
As for Screwllum... his grand master plan was to use the Aether Cartridge as bait to lure Silver Wolf directly into the Simulated Universe. Only he and Herta were supposed to know about this trap. At this exact moment, Screwllum couldn't even be certain if the holographic projection had been hijacked by the real Silver Wolf yet.
Yet, watching Leon's casual demeanor, the mechanical aristocrat began to suspect that the man had already seen through the entire ruse. 'Truly not a simple individual...' Screwllum mused internally, his gears whirring quietly. He even began to wonder if Leon was secretly a hidden genius walking the Path of Erudition. During the recent crisis on the Herta Space Station, the sudden cosmic fluctuations caused by the gaze of Nous the Erudition might have actually been directed at him.
To put it simply: Silver Wolf thought she was outsmarting Screwllum. Screwllum thought he was outsmarting Silver Wolf. And Leon was sitting comfortably at the top, watching both of them play checkers while he played 5D chess.
Soon enough, by 'following'Silver Wolf's digital trail, Leon arrived at the core data chain and found the Aether Cartridge. Though, considering he already knew exactly where it was,'following' was a rather generous term.
"Look, there is the Aether Cartridge. We have found it," Screwllum announced over the comms.
"Yeah, we finally found it." Leon stopped walking. He turned his head slowly, locking eyes directly with the glitching phantom of Silver Wolf beside him. A wide, predatory smile stretched across his face. "Isn't that right, little Silver Wolf?"
"You jerk... you knew all along!" Silver Wolf's voice suddenly crackled through the phantom, no longer a recording but a live, teeth-gnashing transmission. That hateful guy! He really had known from the very beginning!
"Assuming what we were viewing was merely a recording of the past, it would be logically impossible for her avatar to reach this exact coordinate in real-time. Otherwise, the cartridge would have been stolen long ago," Screwllum analyzed, his mechanical voice perfectly calm. "Thus, the initial assumption contradicts the current facts. Silver Wolf, you are indeed here."
He then shifted his tone, directing a deep sense of inquiry toward the man standing in the digital room. "However, I must ask... when did you realize it, Mr. Leon?"
"When did I find out?" Leon raised a single eyebrow. His posture relaxed, exuding an aura of absolute, unshakable confidence. "What gave you the illusion... that I was ever kept in the dark?"
He began to pace slowly around the glowing Aether Cartridge. "You let me enter this place because you needed me to act as a beacon for Silver Wolf, didn't you? She left a backdoor in the Simulated Universe, intending to hack in remotely the exact moment I logged on, allowing her to hitch a ride and walk alongside me."
He pointed a finger at the glitching hologram. "And you, Silver Wolf, are quite the skilled actor yourself. Confusing the audience is always the most effective method of misdirection. The graffiti you left behind? It's a two-way data channel. Screwllum can use it to trace your digital footprints, but you... you can also monitor our exact progress through the Simulated Universe by tracking the disappearance of that very same graffiti."
Leon chuckled, shaking his head. "You probably planned this entire layout the day you invaded the Space Station. Placing the graffiti, leaving the backdoor—it was all just setting the stage, waiting for this exact moment to arrive."
He then tapped his earpiece. "And Screwllum, that little 'argument' I witnessed between you and Herta earlier? That was a scripted part of your trap from the very beginning, wasn't it?"
As Leon delivered his deduction, a sleek pair of black-rimmed glasses materialized out of thin air, resting perfectly on the bridge of his nose.
He reached up and gently took them off. With a casual squeeze of his fingertips, the digital lenses shattered into a shower of glowing pixels. Then, in a single, fluid motion, he raised his hand and slicked his hair back.
In an instant, his casual hairstyle transformed into a sharp, swept-back look. The lazy, fun-seeking aura he usually projected vanished entirely, replaced by a suffocating, razor-sharp presence that commanded absolute authority.
'Am I handsome right now or what?' Leon thought to himself, barely holding back a grin at his perfect execution of the classic villain pose.
Silver Wolf stared at him through her monitors. '...I have absolutely no idea what the hell he's doing,'she thought, her cheeks flushing slightly.'But for some reason... why does he look so insanely cool right now?'Screwllum's optical sensors whirred as he processed the sudden dramatic shift in lighting, hair physics, and shattered eyewear.'Analytical conclusion,'Screwllum noted silently.'Mr. Leon is currently executing a highly complex behavioral pattern known to organics as... showing off.'
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