The night is as dark as water, and the shining lights of the stars and the moon cover Manhattan like a layer of mist.
Inside Lupin's safe house, everyone gathered again, and the atmosphere was solemn.
"… That's the thing. Karen is your girlfriend, so Alex, it's up to you to decide how to deal with her."
After briefly recounting what had happened, Colin sat on the sofa and said nothing more.
Lupin and his group looked at each other, frowned, and didn't know what to say for a moment.
Dana wanted to say something to help Karen, but when she saw Alex's face full of sadness and Karen's cold, undisguised murderous eyes towards Alex, she could only lower her head and remain silent.
"Why...we used to love each other so much!" Alex asked in a low voice.
From the moment Colin started telling the story, the memories and emotions related to Karen in his mind began to recover rapidly.
But now he would rather not remember it, at least that way he wouldn't feel such heartache.
"Ever? Us?"
Karen seemed to have heard some extremely funny joke and gave Alex a look of disgust.
She opened her mouth and wanted to say something, but turned her head to look at Dana who lowered her head, paused, and said coldly: "There is nothing to say. For a monster like you, I just want to kill you at all costs. Now that I have failed, just kill me directly."
"Or, you can just devour me like you devoured the others and get the answers you want from my brain!"
There was a look of sarcasm on Alex's beautiful face. When he heard that, a chaotic aura suddenly burst out from his body.
Colin, who was watching from the side, frowned slightly and secretly sent a signal to Lupin.
After receiving the call, Lupin raised his eyebrows, looked at Colin in surprise, stood up and laughed, "Well, it's better to talk about it openly. I believe Miss Karen must have a reason for doing this."
"Well, it's not appropriate for us to listen to this kind of thing. Let's go, Jigen, Fujiko, Goemon."
Lupin said this, pulling and dragging his dazed companion outside.
Colin also stood up at this time and said, "That makes sense. Let's go together, Lupin."
"By the way, you don't have to stay here anymore. Just leave this to the two of them."
As he said that, he pulled Dana, who was sitting on the sofa, and walked out.
"Wait! What are you doing, you bastard!?"
Dana was suddenly pulled up and struggled hard. Although Karen's betrayal was confirmed, she still didn't want to see Karen being killed.
She's here, at least I can talk to her when the time comes.
"Why are you struggling? Why do you, an outsider, interfere in the affairs of a couple?"
Ignoring Dana's struggle, Colin still dragged her towards the door.
When he came to Alex, he paused for a moment and whispered in his ear: "Don't worry, things are not as bad as you think, buddy."
Alex's eyes moved suddenly when he heard this, and after seeing Colin's affirmative look, his violent aura gradually calmed down.
"I am Alex's sister, not an outsider..."
"Yes, of course you are Alex's sister, but you are not Alex's girlfriend. Or do you like Alex while being his sister? I didn't expect you to be so perverted, Dana!"
"Fuck! I was right, you are a bastard!"
"A bastard is much better than a brother-loving pervert like you..."
"I'm going to kill you! I'm definitely going to kill you!"
Dana's angry voice gradually faded away. Alex regained his composure and looked at Karen, who had an expression of undisguised murderous intent and disgust. He pondered for a moment and took two steps forward.
…
"Wow! You found a room so quickly. You're amazing, Lupin!"
Colin praised as he followed Lupin's scent into another room in the same building.
"I'm just borrowing it temporarily because the owner is not here." Lupin explained, and then asked, "What do you mean by what you just said to me? Did you know that Karen was a spy?"
"Let me go, you bastard..." Dana, who was trying to struggle out of Colin's hands, was stunned when she heard this. She paused and looked at Colin.
"Feel sorry."
He let go of Dana's hand, apologized to Dana without any sincerity, and nodded in acknowledgment.
"Yes, I found out not long after meeting her. She has always had a very strong desire to kill Alex. I originally planned to deal with this matter after things here are over, but those bastards fired a few missiles, so I have to eliminate this hidden danger now."
Dana heard it and asked in a daze: "Why didn't you do it in advance..."
"Tell you in advance?" Before Dana could finish, Colin shrugged and said, "Karen is Alex's girlfriend, and I am just an outsider. I don't have any concrete evidence, and telling you will only cause trouble."
"And I've already said that I was originally planning to wait until things here are over before dealing with it. But, the result now probably won't be bad. Let them handle their own affairs. I believe Alex will handle it. Now, tell me about your gains. I heard that..."
"Wait!" Before Colin could finish, Dana excitedly grabbed Colin's clothes and said, "What do you mean by the result is not bad! There must be a reason why Karen betrayed Alex, right? Do you know?"
"Well! If you want to know, just tell me. I'm also curious about why this happened." Lupin joined in the conversation, and Fujiko nodded vigorously with a gossipy look in her eyes.
Colin looked at the curious and expectant eyes around him, thought for a moment, and said helplessly: "Okay, then tell me, but I'm just guessing, you have to understand this!"
Colin reminded everyone, looking at their impatient expressions, and got to the point: "If I'm not mistaken, Miss Karen probably regards the current Alex as the enemy who killed the previous Alex."
"The current Alex killed the previous Alex?"
Everyone repeated this, except for Lupin who looked thoughtful, everyone else had a confused look on their faces.
"Speak clearly!" Dana asked anxiously.
Colin didn't care about Dana's slight faux pas and continued, "The number of people infected by the Blacklight virus has reached a very high level now, but have you ever thought about why only Alex and Elizabeth became super-evolved bodies, while the others who were infected were just ordinary zombies?"
"Special physique?" Fujiko guessed.
"Maybe it's a little different from the virus that infected Alex. The virus he was infected with is the first generation." Ciyuan also said.
Colin listened and nodded, saying, "Perhaps there is a factor in this regard, but more importantly, from a biological point of view, the current Alex is no longer the previous Alex. Instead, the Blacklight Virus has devoured Alex's body and used it as a basis to reconstruct a replica that is extremely similar in shape, appearance, and even personality."
"Ms. Karen probably knew this, which is why she is so hostile to Alex."
“Are you saying that my brother is not my brother at all now, but just a group of... viruses?” Dana’s face turned pale and her steps staggered a little.
Colin turned his head and raised his eyebrows, "When did I say Alex was a virus?"
Dana's face regained some color, and she asked hurriedly: "Didn't you just..."
"Master, you are only talking about the biological aspect. I'm sure there are other aspects as well," Lupin interrupted, looking directly at Colin.
Colin smiled and said, "Yes, although this is true from a biological point of view, Alex's soul is still in his body."
"The soul... does it really exist?" Dana asked in disbelief.
"Of course. You've even seen a wizard like me. So there's nothing strange about the existence of souls."
"But generally speaking, after a person dies, the soul will be drawn to the world of the dead by the laws of the world within half an hour. But Alex is a miracle. His soul, which should have disappeared, has completely condensed into one with his body for some unknown reason."
"You are not mages, so you may not know how incredible this phenomenon is. Coupled with the potential of the Blacklight Virus itself, to be honest, when I saw Alex for the first time, I wanted to put him on the dissection table and study him carefully from body to soul to see how such a miracle of life could come about!"
Colin said this with emotion, and Dana heard it and looked at him with a wary look in her eyes.
"Don't worry, I'm just thinking about it. Alex is my important ally, and I would never do such a thing. Besides, unless this miracle happens right in front of me and I can see every detail in detail, I won't be able to figure out anything even if I study it."
There was a hint of regret in Colin's tone.
Fujiko, who was listening nearby, muttered, "I think the latter is the most important."
When everyone heard this, they looked at Colin's regretful expression and nodded together.
"how come!"
Colin laughed dryly and quickly changed the subject, "I told Alex about this when I first met him, and I also gave him a meditation method to verify whether what I said was true."
"And Miss Karen, although she is full of murderous intentions towards Alex now, that is only because she is unaware of the situation. In addition, when she learned that Dana was in life-and-death danger because of her, I felt that she felt a strong sense of guilt towards Dana. It is not difficult to see that Miss Karen still has feelings for Alex. I think it will not be difficult to resolve it as long as we talk it out later."
"Sister Karen..." Dana murmured.
After Colin said this, she recalled many scenes that she had previously ignored.
At that time in the house, Karen did not answer Alex's question, but provoked Alex with words. It must be because she did not want Alex to know the "truth" that her brother was just a virus.
It’s true, it’s hard to get angry!
Dana clenched her fists as she thought about it.
"Although you said so, Miss Karen may not believe it." Lupin said after thinking for a while.
He didn't think Colin was lying, but he wasn't sure about Karen, especially since there was no way to verify such things.
Ke Lin said helplessly: "Of course I know, this is one of the reasons why I plan to postpone this matter, but this is the only way for the time being. As for how to verify it... I have a preliminary plan now, and I will talk about the details when the time comes."
He shook his head and stopped talking about this topic. He asked, "Let's put aside Miss Karen for now and tell us about your gains."
Before Alex came back, Lupin mentioned a few things about his side's gains, but because of Karen's matter, it was put on hold. Now, it was time for him to figure it out.
"Us? I think we have the evidence you want, but it will probably take some time before you can actually see it."
Listening to Colin's words, Lupin said as he took out the hard drive from his space belt.
"Well, what does that mean? And why do we have to wait for a while?" Colin asked with some confusion.
"It's like this..." Lupin briefly recounted his group's actions, and then said, "The evidence we need should be in these hard drives, but they are now blocked. According to what the hacker lady said, if we want to crack it, it will take about three to five days, depending on the technical level and hardware."
“… I think I understand what’s going on.”
Looking at the hard drives on the floor, Colin nodded, but...
"Who is Miss Hacker?"
How come he didn't know there was such a person on his side
"Huh? You don't know?" Lupin was even more surprised when he heard Colin's words.
Colin shook his head, the corners of his mouth twitching slightly.
No one has told him, so why would you think he would know
"How strange! There are things you don't know!" Lupin said in amazement.
Colin's source of information has always been a bit confusing, and he somehow knows a lot of things all of a sudden.
The news about Vesbania Ore was known in advance in the Vesbania Kingdom, and the same is true for this virus incident.
Now that Colin said he didn't know Miss Hacker, he felt vaguely relieved.
"There are so many things I don't know... What's going on?" Colin asked, pinching his brows and resisting the urge to swear.
He is not a god, how can he know everything
"Okay, but we don't know much about Miss Hacker. We only know that Miss Hacker has a very high level of skills and she is a girl. For more information, you have to ask Miss Dana who recommended Miss Hacker to us."
Lupin pointed his finger at Dana, who had been thinking about something since the beginning.
Colin looked over and immediately alerted Dana: "What do you want to do? I'm warning you! She is my good friend, you are not allowed to have any ideas about her!"
(End of this chapter)