Chapter 172: Chapter 170: The Purification Society’s Infiltrator
The content of this Chapter has been revised. The Chapter name will be changed by the editor after the holiday. My apologies to everyone again! The word count is higher after the replacement, but there will be no extra charge.
~
Five years ago, Kristen joined the Central Intelligence Agency as an intern. She stood out due to her exceptional work performance and was quickly given significant responsibilities.
Six months ago, one of Nick’s secretaries died in a car accident. Kristen was brought in as a replacement, becoming one of his several secretaries.
Of course, as a secretary with access to classified documents, she had undergone an extremely thorough background check.
Kristen was a native-born citizen of Eagle Country. She had previously enlisted in the military, served two years in Iraq, and had an outstanding record. She was no mere token.
In terms of loyalty to Eagle Country, she was considered practically beyond reproach.
No one would have ever suspected Kristen of being a traitor, a spy.
But in the "True Apocalypse Game," within the Gray Tide Mission World, the information provided by the Commander shockingly included Kristen!
To be precise, it was information about a certain driver who caused an accident.
That driver was a peripheral member of the Purification Society who had long since disappeared. His disappearance had even made the local papers back then, after which he lived under an assumed name.
After running a big data comparison, Jingwei discovered that this driver was indeed the Purification Society member who had vanished years ago.
And the person he had killed in the crash was Nick’s former secretary.
A sudden accident, a logical promotion, and just like that, Kristen became one of Nick’s secretaries.
Relying on the sharp intuition of an intelligence chief, Nick immediately sensed it.
Kristen... was a problem.
With Nick’s gun pointed at her, Kristen’s face was a mask of shock and terror. She seemed not to understand what he was saying, her voice trembling as she spoke:
"Director, I... I don’t understand what you’re talking about... I’m Kristen! What Purification Society? What are you saying?"
Although the agents behind him were also confused by Nick’s actions, they still drew their weapons and aimed at Kristen, remaining in lockstep with Nick.
As veteran intelligence officers, they naturally knew that the Director often possessed high-level information that he alone was privy to.
They didn’t know the specifics; they just needed to faithfully execute their orders.
Nick didn’t answer. Instead, he stared into Kristen’s eyes and slowly said:
"Faulkner... Kadi Cohen... Brendan..."
He recited several names in a row, but Kristen maintained a look of utter confusion, as if she had no idea what was going on.
Just then, Nick suddenly said rapid-fire:
"Cthulhu has been secretly executed."
At these words, Kristen’s pupils contracted sharply!
Nick nodded and said:
"Good. So you do know Cthulhu."
Kristen still wore an innocent expression, quickly saying:
"Director, I have no idea what you’re talking about! Even if you are the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, you have no right to do this to a dedicated civil servant! I want to see my lawyer! I want to see the press! I have my rights as a citizen of Eagle Country!"
Then, with tears welling in her eyes, she put on a look of profound grief and said:
"I served my country in Iraq, risked my life, and now I have to endure this kind of suspicion? Is this what people who fight for their country deserve?"
Nick was unmoved. He continued to stare at Kristen and said:
"You’ve been undercover for so many years. It’s commendable. But everything is different now. The Savior has arrived. An organization a thousand times more powerful than the Purification Society is gradually being built. The Purification Society is about to be purified. Everything Cthulhu has schemed is nothing but a joke... Did he think he was well hidden? But tens of thousands of people already know of his existence. When we find him, we will burn him to ash and let him truly fulfill the death he designed for himself twenty years ago..."
Nick stared intently into Kristen’s eyes. The feigned confusion and innocence in them was fading, replaced by flashes of anger and shock.
Her mental fortitude was excellent; otherwise, she would never have passed the previous background checks and lie detector tests.
But the Purification Society and Cthulhu were clearly her weak spots, her faith.
Nick, his face devoid of expression, continued:
"You’re nothing but a group of pathetic cultists, bewitched by unspeakable ramblings. You’re the dregs of humanity, trash, the lowest of the low, and yet you treat it as your ideal..."
"Shut up!" Kristen could no longer hold back and roared in anger.
The moment Nick exposed her true identity, she knew there was no escape.
Over the years, she had come to understand this Director’s personality and methods quite well.
He was an absolutely rational man, as cold as a robot, with an iron will that was difficult to sway, and his execution was flawless.
At this point, it was useless to keep playing dumb.
The innocent look on Kristen’s face was completely gone. She stood ramrod straight, her expression grim, as she stared at Nick and said:
"You are nothing but pathetic ants. Only by obeying the will of the supreme god can you attain the ultimate purification, become a part of His will, and achieve final glory!"
Hearing this, the surrounding agents couldn’t help but look shocked.
Only now did they understand that Kristen was a spy from some mysterious organization who had infiltrated the Central Intelligence Agency!
But when they thought back on her daily behavior, they couldn’t possibly connect Kristen with being a spy.
Her cover was just too perfect!
Thank God the Director had discovered her. Otherwise, the consequences would have been unimaginable!
Nick curled his lip. "Not bad. The guys in the Middle East say the same thing. But didn’t your god promise you anything? Like becoming a king in the wasteland or something. If you give up your accomplices, I can give you anything you want..."
Kristen snorted coldly and spat:
"How could an ant understand the greatness of a Purifier? Your pathetic n****r brain can only think of vulgar things like power and money... To be able to sacrifice my life for the final purification is my greatest honor!"
Blood began to stream from Kristen’s eyes. She then turned to Nick, a sinister smile on her face, and walked toward him, laughing maniacally.
"I bear witness! I bear witness to your death, and I will witness the purification of this world! Man will be devoured by his own greed! He who devours all will devour himself!"
Nick watched the zombie-like Kristen with a blank expression, then suddenly pulled the trigger.
BANG! A gunshot rang out. A large hole appeared in Kristen’s forehead, and her body jerked backward, collapsing to the ground...
But even in death, the corners of her mouth were turned up in a smile, as if she had already achieved victory.
Nick and the other agents gathered around, their expressions grave as they looked at the body on the floor.
A deep-cover agent with such fanatical beliefs—it was the worst possible situation they could face.
"Boss, what exactly is this Purification Society?" Agent G asked with a frown.
"G, your clearance level isn’t high enough. You’ll find out in due time..." Nick said, frowning. "Agent Kristen was an outstanding agent of our Central Intelligence Agency. Due to her excellent performance on the battlefield in Iraq, she was targeted by fundamentalists within Eagle Country. While handling a spy case involving a Mexican Lone Eagle, she was led into a trap and died in a smuggling tunnel on the border. We will forever remember her."
The three subordinates around him immediately showed expressions of understanding.
She was the Director’s secretary, after all. If news got out that his own secretary had been infiltrated, it would cause an uproar. Countless people would question the Director’s authority and the authority of the entire CIA. The CIA’s credibility would plummet.
The opposition party would seize on this vulnerability and attack relentlessly, and the one in the White Palace would be affected as well.
Besides, Kristen was, after all, a soldier who had fought in the Middle East. It was only right to give her a final measure of dignity.
"Ned, Carl, and you, G, stage the scene. As for me... I was never here. Put those two eyeballs back in her... backwards... Motherfucker..."
Those two eyeballs were really unsettling.
Although he had known about the Purification Society for a long time and had conducted numerous investigations, Nick had never imagined that one of them was lurking right beside him.
He was the most professional intelligence officer there was!
If his own inner circle was like this, how many people in the upper echelons of Eagle Country had already been infiltrated by the Purification Society?
The mere thought of it was enough to make his blood run cold!
...
Meanwhile, the players who had received information about members of the Purification Society were logging out of the virtual reality game and returning to the real world.
The information Shen Feng had provided was incomplete, but after cross-referencing it with information from other players, it was enough to reveal a great deal.
At least several hundred people were identified as either members of the Purification Society or individuals connected to it.
For a time, hundreds of accidents suddenly occurred in many Western countries and international organizations, especially within Eagle Country, and many people died one after another.
Their deaths were bizarre and varied: car crashes, maritime disasters, small plane crashes, robbery-murders, and so on.
However, they all shared a few common traits: they held important positions in certain agencies and governments, and their bodies all seemed to have been mutilated in some strange way.
Of course, countless people die in accidents every day. A few hundred more wouldn’t attract much notice.
Except, perhaps, from certain interested parties.
The occurrence of all this brought great relief to players around the world.
The counterattack from the Salvation Army had finally begun.
’Hopefully, everything we’ve done won’t disappoint the Commander.’
Over the next few days, a thousand players successively received an untraceable package in the mail.
Upon opening it, they were stunned to find a single banknote.
A banknote marked with the year 2*25.
...
「Hai City.」
Li Tongchen was dozing on the sofa when a sudden knock echoed from the door.
He raised an eyebrow and checked the security monitor. Outside was his old classmate, Wang Aihua, who worked at the central bank.
’I almost forgot about this.’
Li Tongchen joked, "Old Wang, what brings you here in person?"
Wang Aihua closed the door, glanced around, drew the curtains, and turned up the volume on the TV. Only then did he turn to Li Tongchen with a serious expression and say:
"Old Li, where on earth did you get that banknote? This thing has been driving me crazy for days! The technology used in it is a revolutionary tech the central bank is planning to roll out next year. And test results show that the carbon-14 in this banknote hasn’t decayed at all! Not at all!"
At the same time, a news broadcast could be heard from the TV:
"...This is a major breakthrough for human spaceflight! The birth of a new deep-space hibernation technology will propel humanity beyond Earth and into the cosmos..."
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