Jeanne saw the look of suspicion in Swire's eyes and immediately felt that the cat was misunderstanding something. However, she truly didn't know how to explain the experiment they had just conducted.
Jeanne was well aware that to certain people, her ability looked exactly like the "evil powers" used by protagonists in certain adult animations—the kind that could easily fill a several-hour-long movie. But Jeanne was a decent person! She would never do such things; Swire really shouldn't look at her through such a biased lens!
It hadn't occurred to Jeanne until now: was this really how her method of controlling Wyverns looked to others when applied to humans? In that case, in the eyes of those Wyverns, had her past behavior made her the "protagonist" of such a story?
Then again, given the intelligence level of most Wyverns, they probably weren't capable of thinking about things on such a deep level.
"What are you standing there daydreaming about!"
Ch'en saw Swire's expression becoming increasingly bizarre and cut her off before she could say something that would ruin Ch'en's heroic reputation. Although Ch'en was still a bit short of breath and panting slightly, she could tell Swire was heading in a very wrong direction mentally. She had to shut it down before Swire blurted it out!
"Nothing, maybe I'm just overthinking it."
For a moment, Swire couldn't quite pin down what was going on with Ch'en. She decided not to press the issue and quickly ended the topic. Besides, knowing Ch'en, the woman was definitely hiding something big—possibly something so big that even Ch'en couldn't quite handle it. Swire decided to wait until Ch'en felt the time was right to talk.
"Right, I almost forgot the main reason I came. You two should come to my office. I've narrowed down the potential pharmaceutical companies from the confession. Let's take a look together."
Swire remembered why she had been waiting for them personally. She quickly briefed them. She had cross-referenced LGD records with her family's private intelligence network to find a few suspect companies, hoping to find a new breakthrough in the case.
Normally, Swire wouldn't use her family's network to solve cases. To her, doing so served no practical purpose other than showing off her family's influence, which wasn't healthy for the future of the LGD. But this was no ordinary case; they were dealing with terrorists armed with Originium bombs!
If the case stalled, what if the suspects attacked the wealthy investors in Lungmen? Or worse, planted Originium bombs to blow them sky-high? Right now, those criminals needed Lungmen to be in total chaos so they could blend back into the crowd and continue their criminal empire.
Swire was primarily worried that her family's investments in Lungmen would go down the drain. In this city, her family was simply too conspicuous. They were like that 1.8-million-Lungmen-Dollar piano in Swire Plaza—the top target for every criminal. Ever since that piano was placed there, countless groups had tried to smash it or steal it for cash. Fortunately, under Swire Plaza's security measures, they were usually subdued and handed over to the LGD before they could do anything.
"Impressive. Your search speed is actually quite fast, you 'char siu'! How long has it even been? You've already found a general range for an event from years ago?"
Ch'en put on a look of immense pride—as if Swire had brought honor to the LGD—and praised her lightning-fast speed.
In the future, if anyone dares call you a mascot, I, Ch'en Huijie, will be the first to object! How could you just be a mascot? Look at how powerful your intel-gathering skills are!
Ch'en teased her internally. The look she gave Swire turned mischievous, which made the feline feel uneasy. Intuition told Swire that whenever this Pink Sausage Lung looked at her like that, she was definitely not thinking of anything good! Having known her for so many years, how could she not know what was on that woman's mind?
As for being called "char siu," Swire didn't particularly care. She called Ch'en "pink sausage" all the time anyway, so they were even.
"It wasn't that hard to find. We already had the clues, didn't we? A Columbian pharmaceutical company with a department head who vanished during those specific years... that's not exactly a secret you can keep hidden forever."
For Swire, investigating business matters wasn't difficult, especially since there weren't that many Columbian firms in Lungmen to begin with. However, she hadn't found any records of "missing" executives. Almost all the department heads had "resigned normally"...
"Among these managers, only a small portion left under unknown circumstances. Some were said to have been killed by wandering Infected or bandit groups while on business trips across the land. A few others supposedly ran into Catastrophes and didn't make it out."
Swire placed a stack of printed files in front of them. The categorized folders were piled up like a small mountain.
Jeanne stared blankly at the heap of paper. She would honestly rather go back to interrogating the Vouivre brute than read through files; it was just too much. Jeanne clutched her forehead in mental agony, though she tried to maintain a calm exterior. After flipping through them for a while, she felt her remaining shreds of sanity beginning to slip away...
Someone help me... these things are a headache! Especially the technical medical terms... why can't I understand these words when they're put together in a sentence?
Jeanne sat there, forcing herself to look through the documents in hopes of finding the hidden company. After an unknown amount of time spent in painful screening, Jeanne suddenly remembered her "Revelation" ability—the one that had been acting buggy lately! How could she have forgotten her own "cheat" code?
She only needed to use Revelation to find the correct file. Why had she made something so simple so complicated and given herself a headache in the process? Why had she forgotten something so important? According to her habits, this should have been impossible! Something must be affecting her!
Jeanne looked at the files with regret, feeling like a thousand horses were trampling her heart. Jeanne, what are you doing! Why would you throw something so important aside? This isn't like you!
She felt as if someone had sucked the intelligence out of her, causing her mental capacity to plummet. She felt that if there were a mirror in front of her, she would see a "-1 INT" prompt popping up over her head constantly.
Talulah! You must be the reason for this, right? Has my IQ been assimilated by that dragon?
(Talulah: No, that's just who you are. Don't blame your forgetfulness on me! Besides, this problem started after you left me. It's debatable whether you were the one draining my intelligence back then. I don't have some "stupidity aura" affecting you!)
Once Jeanne cleared her mind, she focused all her attention on the mountain of files. She asked the Revelation in her mind: Where is the target? Which file is it?
Ch'en and Swire, who were also flipping through the papers, noticed Jeanne staring at the pile. They watched curiously to see what she would do next.
Sure enough, the all-powerful Revelation did not disappoint. Whether God had fixed the bug or it just decided to work properly today, Jeanne's vision changed. At the very bottom of the stack, one specific file seemed to have a massive exclamation mark over it, jumping up and down rhythmically in her field of vision.
Is this some new mod God added to my Revelation? Why does it feel like a quest marker from an MMO? If I pick it up, will an Epic Quest pop up?
Jeanne felt like her God might have been drinking a bit too much lately. If this continued, would everyone in the city start walking around with exclamation marks over their heads, waiting for her to accept their quests?
Swallowing her urge to complain, and under the watchful eyes of the other two, Jeanne reached out and pulled that specific file from the bottom. Written on the cover was the name of the company: Rhine Gold Biopharmaceutical.