Chapter 119: Chapter 85: Chavez
John had every reason to believe that Oulos had experienced her most satisfactory field mission since arriving in Eden City.
On the sweat-drenched tie clip, she harvested considerable emotional value, grinning ear to ear, and successfully extracted the final set of keys from the computer room.
The tie clip looked utterly defeated.
When he was finally released, he seemed uneasy and dazed, awakened by the cold wind upon stepping out of the villa’s sliding door, visibly shivering.
His arms and legs were broken.
The illuminated decadence of Eden City seemed hazy and distant; the world where he once thrived had left him, and now every small corner could conceal a gunman hunting him down.
The tie clip shuddered slightly.
He had lost his wealth, status, information, and background, yet he still had to muster the courage to survive.
John stood by the floor-to-ceiling windows, gazing at his silhouette and said, "I should go out and give him one shot."
"Don’t be so gentle, John. Revenge should have a proper ending too."
Oulos sat in the living room.
The room was surrounded by equipment.
Dozens of data cables of varying thickness extended up from the basement.
John asked her.
"Now that you have a bunch of dirty secrets from high society, what’s next?"
"Take some time to contact each involved party."
"Become the next tie clip?"
"Wow, of course not... I’ll have them do some small tasks they can manage and then return the original files, even if it’s just to make each of them pay me one dollar."
"What’s the difference?"
"Let everyone know I handed over the secrets. During the intelligence processing, gradually connect my resources in Europe to Eden City, saving many occasions of social networking."
A data stream flashed rapidly across the screen.
Oulos rose to pour herself a drink; she brushed against John’s cheek as she passed by. "Aren’t you going to handle your spoils?"
[Mission Objective Updated]
[Reject Oulos, leave the villa. (Optional)]
[Access the data chip in person. (Optional)]
John sat on the sofa and inserted the chip the tie clip gave him into the data slot.
Oulos stood facing him.
She held a steaming cup, two modified prosthetic limbs supporting her on the sofa, Messiah’s Eye continuously flickering, prepared to analyze his every micro-expression.
[Data Loading...]
John’s pupils flickered with a pale light.
His vision was blurred with a filter, folders continuously popping up from the corners.
[Tiebang Logistics Personnel Files]
John saw many familiar faces, all colleagues from a transportation convoy, including Geoffrey, who was terminated during the Plato experiment.
The files contained detailed lists and information on Eden City residents.
John skimmed through quickly.
His brow suddenly twitched slightly.
The scene froze on one of the files.
The transport driver’s ID was one he knew backward and forward; the data showed the employee was born in Old Northern America, came to Eden City at 17 years old, joined Tiebang Logistics two years later, and has over five years of driving experience...
[Name: John Chavez]
The photo showed a stranger with a neck tattoo.
John searched through the files but couldn’t find his own photo, unable to resist going over this Chavez guy again, discovering his resume was identical to John’s.
"Wow, you really didn’t know."
Oulos narrowed her eyes, showing a thoughtful expression. "Could it be your deception skills have even fooled the data?"
"F*ck, you saw these files?"
John couldn’t help but ask.
Oulos nodded. "These were pulled from Tiebang Logistics database by the tie clip, very crudely; when Kuang Xin cleaned up the traces, he copied a set for me."
"Who the hell is this..."
"Isn’t it written right there? He is John Chavez. Now the most interesting question is... who are you?"
"F*ck, I’m John."
"You’re not lying, now this is interesting."
Oulos passed him several photos.
They included field mission records, medical records, even annual stages of employee social insurance payment photos, and face scans signing attendance confirmation.
All identified as John Chavez.
Oulos quickly asked, "Do you have any recollection of the Concord transportation order from ’72?"
"Uh... wait."
John furrowed his brows, memories flooded in.
"The year after I joined the company... roughly... around Christmas, a convoy of over fifty Exile insurgents attacked about two hundred kilometers from Eden City..."
"Those maniacs set the tanker trucks aflame... only two from the battle squad survived... all drivers sustained second-degree injuries... I nearly blew up a bomb to die with the bandits... barely waited for reinforcements."
John rambled on about the details.
Different images surfaced in his mind.
Oulos nodded.
"Do you remember the injury details?"
"Over twenty percent of my body burned, multiple fractures of varying severity, left foot pinkie severed, severe laceration at the base of the thumb..."
John’s voice grew smaller.
He frowned, looking down at his own body—the injury sites were all replaced by prosthetics and synthetic leather, impossible to find concrete evidence.
"Everything matches, very precise."
Oulos sent over the medical records from that time.
She had plenty of reasons to investigate John, emerging suddenly as a street-level nova, exceptionally talented, needed to get a grasp beforehand.
But as the investigation deepened...
Oulos found that the city bore no traces of John’s presence.
After Kuang Xin obtained the employee files, they conducted another detailed background investigation, all they found were records of another Chavez having existed.