Horsehead Nebula, Anadis System, Kronos Space Station, Cerberus Headquarters.

Anadis is a star that is gradually cooling and dying – a burned-out star that rapidly expands outward, expanding its diameter to one-half the size of the entire galaxy, and evolving into the massive MIa red giant Anadius. The red giant Anadis devoured all of its children in the process of expansion, no matter how big or small - a single qiē in a galaxy, whether it was a planet, a meteorite, a dust, or a comet, all captured and devoured, and became the glowing fuel of the red giant.

Today, the Anadis red giant is about 20 times the mass of the Sun, but its radius is 1,500 times that of the Sun!

In the remaining "short" tens of millions of years, in this last splendor, the red giant will become brighter, emitting infinite light and radiation, but the temperature on the surface will quickly cool down.

Kronos, a space station with no record or any obscurity, floats in the glow of the red giant. The periodic eruptions of red giants obscure all information about the space station.

An empty and transparent hall, made of glass, the floor reflecting a faint light like the surface of the water.

In the middle of the hall is a chair, around which various holographic images and charts are constantly projected, reflecting various real-time changes from across the galaxy. A dozen steps forward from the chair is the outline of the entire outer side of the space station - like a large window without a window frame.

That's a completely transparent space station shell...... Through it, you can just admire the huge red giant star that is dying. It floats right in front of the viewer's eyes. Or rather, the space station floats in the shadow of the red giant—when there is no lighting in the hall, only the faint flicker of a hologram—the red giant's cracked surface like a dry riverbed. From time to time, orange-red flames that are thousands of kilometers long will be spewed, illuminating the entire hall.

A handsome middle-aged man sat on that one-of-a-kind chair.

He wears a modest Giuli Vorn light linen-blend suit, with the neckline of his shirt slightly open, revealing a little of the skin on his chest. From there, you can even see some scars that have healed. He sat in front of the "window" with his legs crossed facing the red superstar. Holding a cigarette and a half-square glass of wine in his hand.

The sparkle of the red giant star occasionally illuminated his short silver-gray hair. When the light of the red giant star dimmed, the gazer noticed between his fingers. A burning cigarette butt, and a pair of synthetic eyes that shimmer with a pale blue glow.

Jack. Harper, the leader of the human supremacist organization Cerberus. However, no one knows his name, and now everyone calls him "IllusiveMan".

*****

"Buzz~" with a slight electric sound. The Phantom Man's front flickered a few communication requests. Immediately, on the surface of the water, a circle of light was drawn and then stretched upwards into a mesh-like cylindrical hologram - and about a few seconds later, a hologram hundreds of thousands of light-years away appeared in front of him.

"Mu Xing? ...... "Unexpectedly and reasonably, after seeing the person standing in front of him. The Phantom Man, though a little surprised, had no idea what had gone wrong with this operation on Earth. But he still sat upright in his chair, his fingers waving his cigarette. He said the name softly.

"And what should I call you? Behind this? Or...... Phantom Man? On the other side of the world, Mu Xing stood in a circle on the floor of the communication room. The holographic image is sent to the other side hundreds of kilowatt-years away with a delay of a few milliseconds through the back door opened by Cerberus on the buoy network.

"By the way, I've taken care of your minions!" The combination of the heroic Twilight Star and Mu Xing casually dropped the alloy tube they were holding, and the alloy tube clanged and fell to the floor, and this scene was transmitted to the other end of the network.

Perhaps it was precisely because of this twilight that even if the phantom man saw her hologram, he still couldn't confirm it at that moment. Although Cerberus's communication equipment can only transmit the image standing in the circle to the phantom man. But Mu Xing believed that after hearing her prompt, the Phantom Man must have another way to see that behind her, Cerberus's armed men had already covered the corridor......

"I'll contact the Star Alliance Navy in half an hour, you know what I mean." Mu Xing followed the example of Twilight Star and announced very strongly.

"Thank you for the reminder." The Phantom Man nodded, not seeing what he was doing, but Mu Xing was sure that he had activated the Tail Sweep.

This qiē is all in Lu Yuan's plan, and his meaning is very clear, Cerberus is still a force that can cooperate, and he can't hit too hard. Lu Yuan wants to take advantage of this opportunity to completely eliminate Cerberus's forces from the navy! Thus reducing the penetration of Cerberus into military power. (It is impossible to purge out of Parliament, the Paralytic Party is the main party supporting Cerberus, is an important force in Parliament, and is perfectly legitimate.) ）

All the Cerberus members, sympathizers, bribe-takers and perimeter personnel involved in this military operation have been located by the information bomb that Muxing has buried in the network in advance! If they fall into the hands of the navy, their fate will be much worse than that of a simple armed person like Wang Yanli!

However, since Lu Yuan had given Cerberus half an hour to retreat, he expressed his unwarranted stance that he wanted to kill them all - perhaps because they retreated in a hurry, they might be charged with various crimes and lose a lot of political resources. But at least, I don't have to worry about my life and that of my family......

Both men became silent.

About a few minutes later, in Mu Xing's sight, the phantom man's hologram shook and became "alive" again, and even the length of the cigarette roll he was holding had magically changed - sure enough, at that time just now, the phantom man should have left his seat and went to arrange the evacuation operation. The phantom man who Mu Xing saw who had been smoking in silence was just a holographic "video".

"Mu Xing, we should talk." The Phantom Man, who returned to his seat, bluntly and even somewhat offended, accused, "Your move is too risky! Blindly believing in your own power. Putting yourself in danger! Because you can't guarantee that when you attack the armed men, they won't really shoot...... Even I can't guarantee that they can be in any situation. 100% obey my orders! What's more, it's you!

Twilight, human nature is always complicated, and the loyalty bought with money is even less worth mentioning, so I strongly disapprove of your childish behavior......

And you should understand that Cerberus never wanted to hurt you! You are so reckless because you have no idea what you are worth! You're ...... than these people," he waved his hand. Behind him appeared the current situation of the base, that is, the images of the unconscious armed men. "You're more important than me, more than all of Cerberus! (Cerberus is still in its infancy at the moment)"

The Phantom Man took a drag on his cigarette. The light that lit up showed his face in front of Mu Xing. The Phantom Man's facial lines are too hard, and with his slightly weird blue synthetic prosthetic eyes, his appearance is not very relatable. But in the words he spoke. It has a strong persuasive power.

"But Seberus made a qiē. I can't continue to believe in you. Mu Xing argued. Not continuing to cooperate with Cerberus is not only due to Lu Yuan's plan, but also Mu Xing's decision, Lu Yuan is just following the trend - Mu Xing is not a bottomless reincarnation like Anne and Ding Mumu, she has values that are very different from Twilight Star and Lu Yuan, and she is even more stubborn in some things.

"We just want to protect you from harm and provide you with a truly safe research environment. Just as you and Miranda have requested, we have a space station for you as well. Lazarus Institute...... A deep-space space station, more advanced than Gagarin's.

…… Mu Xing. Do you feel that those politicians are more trustworthy than Cerberus? The Phantom Man shook his head, his finger flicking in front of him, and as his finger clicked, holographic points of light appeared, then stretched into countless messages. You should understand that Cerberus wants you to only do what you are good at, and not waste your energy on other things.

But what you don't know is what a price Cerberus paid to keep you safe......"

"In the conspiracy that Cerberus intercepted and stopped, you have been involved in various political transactions a total of one hundred and seventy-five times," the Phantom Man said slowly, his hand constantly displaying evidence. The Phantom Man knew that Mu Xing would be able to keep up with him - no one in this galaxy could underestimate Mu Xing's intelligence. "At least one-third of the members of the council have tried to turn you into a bargaining chip.

Even the Navy...... It doesn't seem that credible either. At least during the preparation of the Gagarin station, Cerberus has confirmed that there are four different forces infiltrating the station - their personnel will surround you - and almost all of the people you see and interact with every day are people with ulterior motives, and you can't be sure who you can really trust! At that time, you will lose all your freedom in complete solitude......"

"I ...... I still have Ah Yuan! Hearing this, Mu Xing only felt chills all over his body! Great fear suddenly rose in her heart, and she even wanted to just turn around and flee back to the Dawn!

Twilight in her heart sighed slightly, she knew it would be like this. Whether it is Lu Yuan or Twilight Star, their rich life experience has made them fully aware of the darkness of the world for a long time! Only Mu Xing, who has been engaged in scientific research since he was a child and has always lived in the real room, will be frightened by these suddenly revealed truths.

Although Twilightstar's memories bring countless experiences, "knowing" does not mean that you can "understand".

What's more, Mu Xing has always been very resistant to these glooms, even if it is Lu Yuan's plan. Although Mu Xing is an unborn genius in scientific research, he has other aspects, such as feelings and interpersonal relationships...... Mu Xing is indeed very clumsy. I have to say that everyone on the Dawn has always protected Xiao Muxing very well. However, Twilight Star believes that after this incident, Mu Xing should start to really grow up.

Sensing the weakness of Mu Xing's appearance, the phantom man continued to exert pressure silently.

"You're so kind...... Muxing, do you think that the people around you are good and the world is beautiful...... It's like you will open those excellent research results to the entire human race for only one star dollar! It can be said that such a feat has never been seen in the entire history of mankind......

But you know what? Your real room is the place with the highest theft rate in the entire galaxy! Each chip in the box behind you can't be pinpointed how many times it's been copied. As we speak, there are thousands of people across the galaxy studying your records. They're racking their brains trying to unearth the really important information from between the lines.

Even if the military and Cerberus have been doing everything they can to protect you, cutting off the flow of technology by all means, a third of the results have already leaked out......"

"The Cerberus personnel around you change frequently, where do you think they all went?" The flames of the Red Giant's burst dissipated, plunging the Phantom Man's face back into darkness, "We worked together for six months, and Cerberus paid for it with one hundred and thirty-one lives......

――――――

PS: The characteristic of Mass Effect is to repeatedly wash the floor until it collapses.

PS2: It's still a double shift today, do you want to encourage Lao Lei? (To be continued......)