Slime Evolution

Chapter 385 - Investigation

Dylan sat in his synthetic leather chair in his private office, located on one of the mid floors of a skyscraper in the Upper Zone of that planet, a little put off at not being at home, but he knew that in a moment like this, handling a task like this, it would be far better for him to be there in person than to deal with it remotely.

The room was lit by a cold, bluish light, coming from the multiple holographic panels floating around him.

Dylan, even though he no longer had as good a relationship with his parents as he once had, was still the heir to a family that had made its fortune in the information security and private surveillance sector.

In the real world, his resources were superior to those of the vast majority of heirs when it came to this kind of work, even compared to families much bigger than his, in this respect he was still ahead, and he was using every bit of that advantage to carry out the task Bella and Halon had assigned him.

In front of him, Vex and Richard, who in Elysium were an assassin and a tracker, worked physical terminals with an agility that gave away their level 14 integration.

When hiring the members of his group, Dylan hadn’t just picked whichever Uncommon Base Players first showed up in front of him, he’d also weighed these people’s backgrounds and the knowledge they held, bringing new, promising talent into his own operation.

He’d even found Rare Base Players willing to join his group in Elysium, but they were people who’d just gotten lucky landing rare bases, without any other capability beyond that he could actually make use of.

And these two beside him now were specialists in navigating the Deep Syn, the hidden layer of the Human Federation’s data network.

"Give me the status of the sweep, Vex," Dylan commanded, adjusting the thin framed glasses he wore to reduce eye strain. "Have we found anything beyond the Broken Suns’ front accounts?"

Vex shook her head, her fingers dancing over the touch keyboard. "We’re still on the surface, boss. The only name we’ve managed to link to the Broken Suns is Silas, but in the real world he’s just an ordinary office worker, hardly anyone of relevance in the guild, probably just hired to handle the public side of things. In the real world, Silas is a former drone maintenance worker with a dreadful credit history. There’s no way he could hold any real relevance in running a guild the size of what they’re building."

"That’s obvious," Dylan murmured, crossing his legs and watching a connections graph form on one of the holograms. "They’re using Silas as a shield. What interests me is the flow of money into his account over the last seventy two hours. Nobody gets backing from nobles in Thalendor without massive starting capital for bribes and quality gifts."

Richard cut in, pointing to a series of encrypted transfers coming from a private communications satellite. "I managed to trace the origin signal of these transfers, boss. They’re not coming from any of the big known groups. The trail leads to a mid sized company called ’Aurora Integrated Solutions.’ They specialize in experimental biotechnology, but their revenue has suspiciously doubled since Elysium’s launch."

Dylan raised an eyebrow. "Aurora... Aurora... Aurora... I think I’ve heard that name in a few of my father’s meetings. They’re aggressive, but they don’t have the weight to challenge the big corporations openly. The fact that they’re operating through the Broken Suns suggests they’re trying to carve out a pocket of power in Thalendor before the big players notice."

"We need more names, Richard," Dylan continued, his tone growing more pragmatic. "Real IDs of the field leaders. Who is the Player behind the character that allied with the Eldamar in Thalendor? If we need to, use the reserve fund to bribe Aurora’s data administrator. Everyone has a price in this world, and to be honest... we just need to find out whether his price is in credits or in Elysium coins."

Vex let out a short laugh, without taking her eyes off the screen. "Most people prefer gold coins these days, boss. Elysium gold’s value is outpacing federal credit four to one on the black market, and there’s no sign of it dropping."

Dylan was about to give a new order when a golden alert flashed in the center of his vision, projected by his neural chip. He sighed, feeling the weight of the double responsibilities he was carrying.

"Damn it... we’ll have to pause the deep investigation for now," Dylan announced, standing up from his chair with a natural elegance. "Astralis Requiem’s recruitment protocol enters its final phase in forty eight hours. We have two hundred candidates approved from the initial screening, and I promised Lisa and Halon we’d conduct the in person interviews for the elite scouts personally... damn, I have so much to juggle at once..."

Richard looked at him with a doubtful expression. "Are you really going down to the Lower Zone to interview some of these candidates yourself? A lot of them live in sectors where the air is almost solid from the pollution."

"Astralis doesn’t discriminate by social class, Richard," Dylan replied, his voice carrying an authority that closed the matter. "And I won’t be going completely unprotected, if the security company can’t even keep me safe I can just shut down that money pit. As for you two, keep the Aurora trail hot. I want a detailed report on their CEO by the time I get back. If they want to burn their own sun against Astralis, I want to know exactly how much ash they’ll leave behind."

While Dylan prepared for the recruitment logistics, the scene shifted to another location on a nearby planet.

Alice Muller, in her own operations center, wasn’t being nearly as discreet as her friend. Her room was an explosion of energy, with Alice jumping off a treadmill while dictating commands to her technical team through the voice link.

Alice was focused on the money trail too, but from a more "aggressive corporate" angle.

She wasn’t just tracking coins, she was hunting for financial vulnerabilities. If the Broken Suns were getting backing from Aurora, as Dylan had just informed her, Alice wanted to know what that company’s other partnerships were.

"Lina, did you get Aurora’s supply contracts?" Alice asked, breathless from the exercise.

"Yes, Lady Alice," Lina’s voice replied through the comm. "They have exclusivity contracts with the Clark Group for delivering purified chemical reagents, we’re looking into whether big groups like the Clark Group are involved, but so far no lead points to that."

Alice stopped the treadmill and wiped the sweat off her forehead with a towel. Her eyes gleamed with the adrenaline of the hunt. "Hmm, that’s a good sign, if they don’t have major backing, dealing with them will be even easier. Keep digging into Aurora’s ownership structure. I want to know who their angel investors are. If I find the name of any Vance subordinate in there, we’ll have a family diplomatic problem on our hands."

In total contrast to the technological bustle of his vanguard leaders, Lohan was in the quiet of his Upper Zone apartment.

He was in the middle of the penthouse gym, running through a series of strength training exercises that would have been impossible for him just two weeks ago, when he didn’t have access to equipment with such heavy loads.

Calisthenics had been great, but for the speed of his growth, he’d noticed the lack of equipment was holding back his progress, but now with a big gym like this available, his progress had surged forward again.