Kieran turned and left, his pace as unhurried as ever. Passing the corner of the corridor, two patrolling soldiers stopped and saluted him. He gave a slight nod, maintaining the dignity expected of a major general.
It was only when he swiped open the lock to his room and the metal door sealed shut behind him that a crack finally appeared in his perfect mask.
The room was unlit. Kieran stood in the darkness, tearing open the collar of his military uniform, stripping off his jacket, and tossing it over the back of a chair.
Something was wrong. Something was terribly wrong!
He replayed everything that had happened today in his mind, frame by frame.
Ever since Gary dropped those words in the middle of the crowd, the direction of events had been steeped in an indescribable eerie feeling.
"The Supreme Commander's condition is temporarily stabilized, and the purification is halfway done. A1 is a restricted zone for the next few days. Don't go looking for trouble."
Gary's words carried too much information. On the surface, it was meant to stabilize military morale, but loudly proclaiming "halfway purified" and specifically issuing a strict order "restricting officers below S-class from approaching the A1 core zone" was too deliberate.
This was equivalent to releasing an extremely dangerous signal to the outside world: Baal's terrifying 3S-class spiritual rampaging pressure had dropped to around the S-class level. Otherwise, with the oppressive force of a 3S-class, there would be no need to specifically draw a cordon; low-ranking officers would bleed from their orifices just by getting close.
Combined with Jiang Lijin's feeble, exhausted appearance and the so-called tranquilizers she brought...
It was all too coincidental.
This clearly told everyone: the Supreme Commander is weak and vulnerable right now, come and kill him!
A trap! This was absolutely a trap!
But... he was the one who personally administered the poison.
He had covertly injected that substance into Baal's specially supplied nutrient solution without anyone noticing.
Although Baal's food and drink had to pass through seven or eight strict instrumental checks, the poison was colorless and odorless, entirely outside the chemical scope of the known universe. Even the most mysterious Senluo Pavilion in the galaxy would find it incredibly hard to obtain!
The person who provided him with the poison would absolutely not fool him with a fake at this critical juncture. To ensure nothing went wrong, Kieran had even secretly taken three C-class logistics soldiers for live testing half a month ago, hiding it from everyone.
The dosage was precise down to the microgram. He had watched with his own eyes as the spiritual domains of those three soldiers collapsed instantly upon injection, tearing themselves into a bloody mess in extreme frenzy and agony.
Baal had definitely drunk that bottle of nutrient solution; this was an ironclad fact!
Logically speaking, Baal's spiritual domain must be riddled with holes right now. Even if Jiang Lijin truly had the immense ability to purify rampage levels, it was absolutely impossible for her to eradicate a poison that had already seeped into his bones and blood!
Kieran suddenly pulled out the metal chair and sat down. Raising his slightly trembling left wrist, he forcefully suppressed the panic in his heart and activated his personal optical computer.
His ten fingers tapped rapidly on the virtual keyboard. As a major general in the military, the backdoors he had buried in the system ran far deeper than that fool Gary could ever imagine.
He inputted three extremely complex command strings, bypassing the main control room's highest firewall. The image on the screen flickered violently twice before finally forcing its way into the surveillance feed of the A1 core zone isolation room.
The camera angle faced directly at the explosion-proof glass. Under the cold white light, Baal lay flat on the medical bed, completely lifeless.
But Kieran's pupils suddenly contracted.
On the metal floor beside the bed coiled a massive black shadow—that was Baal's spiritual entity!
The surveillance camera's resolution was extremely high, allowing him to see the giant python's abdomen rising and falling slightly with its breaths, unusually steady.
So steady that an indescribable fear bloomed in the depths of Kieran's heart.
Reason frantically warned him in his mind: this is bait. Gary intentionally exposed a flaw, waiting for him to walk right into the trap. The wisest choice was to immediately turn off the optical computer, take a shower, and go to sleep, pretending nothing had happened tonight.
But he couldn't back down now.
He stared fixedly at the time in the bottom right corner of the screen.
Less than forty-eight hours left. In forty-eight hours, the Zerg vanguard would cross the jump point and arrive at the designated coordinates near the base.
It had been an extremely covert communication. The other party's voice had been passed through multiple frequency modulations, but the conditions offered were incredibly tempting.
"Hand over the defense deployment map for the third defense line, and we will help clear the obstacles in your path to the top."
Kieran certainly knew that conspiring with the Zerg was tantamount to drinking poison to quench a thirst, but he was too desperate for this war. As an S-class officer with no background, it would be impossible for him to climb to the position of Supreme Commander even if he worked himself to death normally.
War was the fastest shortcut to promotion!
He wanted supreme power, so he wasn't stupid enough to give the Zerg the true core coordinates. He had given them a deviated coordinate.
But at such a close distance, a large-scale Zerg surprise attack would be enough to throw the defense line into chaos.
And he had already formulated a plan to lure the enemy in deep. As long as he sacrificed a third of the troops, he could exchange it for a tragic but great victory.
A single general's success is built on ten thousand rotting bones; this was an eternal truth. What did a few tens of thousands of deaths matter? That would be their magnificent contribution to the Federation, to the galaxy, and to him, Supreme Commander Kieran!
But now, looking at the steadily breathing giant python in the surveillance feed, Kieran was no longer certain.
What if... what if that poison was ineffective against a 3S-class? Or perhaps, it was only a temporary suppression?
Once the Zerg army bore down on the border, as long as this 3S-class Supreme Commander could still open his eyes, he would naturally take over the entire situation.
When that time came, the plan he had schemed for so long, the chaos he had traded for at the risk of being hanged by a military tribunal, would all turn into nothing but an embellishment on Baal's military medal!
Even worse, the matter of the poisoning couldn't withstand an investigation at all. As long as Baal woke up and followed the clues, he, the mole, would be rooted out sooner or later.
All that awaited him was absolute ruin and a dead end!
Kieran closed his eyes and took a deep breath. When he opened them again, the fear in his eyes had been replaced by the madness of a man driven to a dead end.
Baal must die! And he had to die before the war started!
He calmed down, his brain working at lightning speed. If this was a setup, the one setting the trap was definitely not Baal. With Baal's deeply ingrained arrogance, he would disdain playing such convoluted psychological games; he preferred to directly crush his enemies' throats.
Therefore, the only person currently controlling the situation and laying out this bait was Gary.
As long as Gary was transferred away and left with no time to split his attention, the A1 core zone would become a true, defenseless empty shell at the mercy of others.
Kieran turned around and walked back to the desk.
Transferring Gary away required a reason that would force him to handle it personally.
For example, an unidentified attack on a crucial frontline outpost that absolutely could not be lost, or the paralysis of the logistics supply line.
He clicked open the holographic projection map of the star sector, his gaze sweeping rapidly over several key nodes.
Soon, his eyes locked onto a coordinate three hundred light-years away from the main base.
The K79 Mining Planet Supply Station.
That was the core hub for the energy of the entire frontline base. Should anything happen to it, the base's protective shields would face the risk of shutting down.
As the current highest acting official, Gary would absolutely not dare to sit idly by.
A cold sneer curled the corners of Kieran's mouth.
In this high-stakes gamble, no matter what, he had to win!
