Qin Chu was lost in his own thoughts until someone grabbed his wrist, and he realized that Levi had followed him out.
He suddenly looked up at Levi, his movements hidden beneath the black robe carrying a hope he himself was unaware of.
But when he met Levy's gaze, which still held a sense of unfamiliarity, his newly risen hope drooped heavily again.
"you……"
The two spoke at the same time.
Levi paused, then said, "Well...didn't they get married?"
Qin Chu didn't understand what he meant by asking that question, but he thought of something else. He broke free from Levi's wrist and said, "I don't have enough time. Also, next week... I might not be able to come."
After saying this, he turned and left Roy Palace, stepping out under the blazing sun, and soon disappeared at the end of the street.
The old butler didn't understand what Levi's question meant, or what it had to do with acting cute.
Levy paused for a moment in front of the Royal Palace.
His expression was peculiar. Although he was smiling as usual, his eyes seemed to be dazed, and even carried a hint of inexplicable annoyance.
After a while, he turned to the old butler, raised his eyebrows, and asked, "In your capital city, do married people not live together?"
"...Huh?" The old butler looked completely bewildered again.
Burke, who was on guard duty outside, heard this and yawned boredly: "That's for sure, everyone's busy with their own work and their own lovers."
As soon as he said this, he received a smiling gaze from Levy.
But no matter how you look at that smile, it seems to have malicious intent.
Levy turned and went into the corridor.
Burke was horrified by his laughter and was still discussing with the old butler: "Did he take the wrong medicine today? He actually ran outside and stood there? He usually likes to stay inside the most, as if he would melt in the sun if he came out for a while."
Levy heard what Burke said.
Levy didn't go out often, even though he hated the place.
The heavy walls, the long and winding corridors, the rigid and dull atmosphere, and every address of "Your Highness"—each one of these elements was like a dance on Levi's most sensitive nerve.
But he stubbornly endured it.
How strange!
He actually learned to endure it?
To say he endured it would be an exaggeration, because no one could force him to stay at Roy Palace.
They couldn't keep him when they had enough cabinet staff, and they're even less capable of doing so now.
On the contrary, after waking up from the sleep pod, he asked directly, "Where do all the princes of this world live?"
Later, he came to the Palace of Roy, where he was bored to death every day, but he stayed there as if he was determined not to leave.
Why did he choose to stay here?
There is no solution.
Levi raised his hand and tapped his temple.
There was no pain, it was empty, and there were no traces of memory left.
His memories weren't covered up, they were extracted.
It's like something being removed from a mat, leaving only a lingering outline, but even that outline will slowly be smoothed out...
Back in the living room, Levy looked at the old butler behind him and commanded, "Have you heard of Qin Chu, the head of the military department?"
The old butler nodded hurriedly: "General Qin, of course. Now..."
Levy interrupted him: "Give me a copy of his information, as detailed as possible."
The old butler agreed and went to do it.
But at present, this is not an easy task.
With the StarNet shut down, the mainframe, carrying a vast amount of data, is hiding in the virtual world, making it impossible to access the data as before.
Now, an application must be submitted to the Cabinet Information Department, and then a person must manually access the massive data backup repository to retrieve the electronic data stored there.
The prolonged power outage made finding and viewing electronic documents even more difficult.
Levy understood the process well. He waited patiently for three days and finally received a reply from the old butler.
But this reply did not please him.
"What did you say?"
Levy was squatting in the flower bed watering the flowers when he looked up and smiled at the old butler, as if he had heard something extremely interesting.
"Uh, this..."
The old housekeeper didn't dare repeat what he had just said. He just stared at the electronic spray bottle in Levi's hand. The spray bottle was now turned on to the maximum, and the water was constantly spraying water onto the blades.
Soon, a precious plant faced the predicament of being drowned.
"The operator on the cabinet's end said... Your Highness, you do not have permission to view General Qin Chu's information," the old butler repeated, forcing himself to be polite.
Surprisingly, Levy was not angry.
He chuckled twice more, reached out and turned off the spray bottle, then stood up and stretched.
"I don't have permission... well, don't blame me then."
That evening, Levy swaggered out of the Royal Palace.
The old steward chased after him, offering him a cloak, and asked anxiously, "Your Highness, where are you going?"
Levi didn't take the cloak, but turned to smile at him, his blue eyes shining brightly in the darkness: "Since you won't let me see the information, I'll have to go see the real person."
After finishing his statement, he disappeared into the night.
After the mastermind betrayed them, all the sleep pods were placed under centralized management.
Throughout the entire planet, each city has its own central hub to facilitate the care of medical personnel.
But there are always some exceptions, namely the empire's management.
These people have special identities and absolutely cannot be allowed to make any mistakes, so they are concentrated in the most central part of the Imperial Capital Star. Even in this period of scarce human resources, there are still many people guarding it.
This is the place Levy is going to.
He originally had no intention of meeting Qin Chu.
He had been to a military academy and knew what the atmosphere was like in the military.
Those people don't even have holidays normally. At most, they can check the web through their personal terminals. They don't have the right to access the Star Brain through the entire virtual pod system.
In other words, even if everyone in the empire is pulled into the virtual world, the military personnel will still diligently stay in the peripheral star systems.
Because of his background, Levy didn't like going to the outer star systems.
That area is all the territory of the Star Beasts.
That's how it usually works, but Levy noticed that the man in the black robe said something.
He said he wanted to access Qin Chu's sleep pod.
This indicates that the military leader, who should have been overseeing the situation in the outer galaxy and preparing for the next beast tide, was also drawn into the virtual world for some reason.
That's really strange.
Levi knew from his school days that Qin Chu seemed to be a model student, his whole demeanor as rigid and meticulous as a thick handbook issued by a military academy.
How could someone like this secretly use a virtual pod while at work? And even get pulled in by the mastermind?
Levi leaped off the overpass against the night wind, landing lightly like a large feline, and arrived in front of a secluded domed building.
Now that StarNet is shut down, most network-based security measures have come to a standstill, leaving only the most basic infrared equipment and armed Ministry of Defense soldiers.
It deftly and effortlessly evades infrared scanning devices.
Even though he had safely crossed the road, he glanced at the infrared switch inside and, out of sheer impulsiveness, pressed it, smashing the switch to pieces with his force.
"Beep beep beep, alarm! Alarm! Someone is intruding..."
The piercing alarm sirens echoed through the circular metal building, growing ever more deafening.
Immediately, hurried and heavy footsteps echoed around, and the air seemed to tense up.
In this tense atmosphere, the person who had impulsively grabbed something actually looked quite pleased, as if the alarm wasn't sounding but rather some pleasant welcoming music.
Levi hummed a song as he walked forward, directly encountering the energy gun pointed at him from the front.
Before anyone could pull the trigger, he stepped forward and knocked one of the guards unconscious with each hand. With the last one, he stomped on his face. In no time, he had taken down a large number of the outer guards.
They lifted a half-dazed guard, pried open his eyelids, and placed him on the red membrane scanner at the gate.
With a "beep," the door opened, and Levy, having thrown everyone aside, clapped his hands and entered.
After he went inside, he still wasn't satisfied with just imagining it, so he found a highlighter and drew a smiley face on the door.
Pure provocation.
His actions clearly told the cabinet: You won't let me see the data, but now I'm here to see you in person. Are you happy?
The alarm was still ringing, and Levy had already circled the corridor and walked to the innermost area where the sleep pods were placed.
The sleep pods are arranged in a ring, with each pod occupying its own glass room, which contains instruments for detecting mental fluctuations and electrocardiograms.
Levy was familiar with this place because it was also where he woke up.
He walked around the sleeping pods and saw several familiar faces, all of whom were top-ranking officials in the cabinet.
Looking at the "sleeping faces" of these old acquaintances, Levi felt a mischievous urge and really wanted to reach out and press the shut-off button on the sleep pod.
Then I thought about it and realized that letting them stay in the wonderful virtual world seemed a bit too lenient on them, so I gave up on the idea.
The sleep pods were placed close together, but not in large numbers, far fewer than the gathering points outside.
As Levi walked, he began to ponder again: what exactly was the relationship between Qin Chu and the man in black robes? Why would he specifically ask about it?
Moreover, the man in black robes was clearly very concerned after hearing that Qin Chu was suspected of betraying them.
This is not normal.
From the first moment he saw the man in black, Levy knew he was a bold fellow.