High-Quality Subordinates

In opposition to the righteous organization stands the leader of the villainous organization, the Stolen Operator. To fill the massive void left by both leaders' non-intervention, he had to supplement the setting, leading to the emergence of strange elements.

[Stolen Operator: Forcibly steals world energy using degraded Common Operators (i.e., monsters or human subordinates?). Worlds on the brink of collapse are easier to steal energy from.]

[Additional notes:

1. Agreement: Both sides agree not to intervene directly, only indirectly influencing events. (Note: The Common Operator is wary of the Stolen Operator destroying the world during moments of weakness, while the Stolen Operator fears the Common Operator might abandon their role and use deep connections to drain the world's energy, causing a mutual loss scenario. They've reached a temporary agreement.)

(The grand finale will depend on circumstances. If sufficient power is obtained, a world domination plot will unfold, with the Common Operator emerging victorious. If energy is insufficient, the Common Operator will be temporarily suppressed, leading to a stalemate as this generation of those in the know passes away...)

2. Monsters are created by the Stolen Operator fusing with human spirits (Inspiration: C-class and above monsters possess human characteristics and intelligence)

3. ...]

The second additional note is crossed out, with a small annotation written below:

[Things that can be fact-checked are unpredictable. Scientists from any country might suddenly make breakthroughs, easily exposing flaws. Temporarily keep the monster creation process vague.]

Holy smoke!

Qi Yuan clearly remembered that the idea for the second monster origin came from setting up a premonitory dream when he ran out of inspiration, aiming to gain ideas for crafting the villain organization.

Now that parts of the inspiration from the premonitory dream had been confirmed, he felt uneasy about the contents of his notebook.

He couldn't predict whether using different setting words for each premonitory dream would cause discrepancies...

Moreover, while information was incomplete, Qi Yuan had also incorporated words like fabrication, construction, and hypothesis.

The initial inspiration might not have been accurate, and he had derived different versions from certain points. He could no longer remember how many versions there were or what the original inspiration was...

Ever since he gained the ability to create duplicates, he had been living multiple days in one.

Events from a few days ago felt like they had happened weeks ago.

Qi Yuan opened his notebook, rubbing the pages between his thumb and forefinger, trying to sort out his tangled thoughts.

There was no need to take all the settings as truth. It was possible that the premonitory dream had provided such inspiration because he had gathered enough information...

No, whether it was true or false didn't matter.

As long as he was strong enough, he could turn even truths into falsehoods, using them as stepping stones for his villainous organization.

With this realization, his tense nerves relaxed slightly, and his goals became clearer.

Trying to understand or overthink matters with too much missing information would only waste time. He should focus on his areas of expertise, exploring the limits of his superpowers.

After all, his self-imposed goal wasn't to become an omniscient god. High intelligence wasn't his defining trait.

If he became strong enough, verifying his guesses would be much simpler than it was now. Losing sight of priorities was a cardinal sin.

Having sorted out his thoughts, Qi Yuan closed the notebook and tucked it back into his spatial storage.

He slowly made his way downstairs to provide investigative directions to the two people waiting for "Orange" at the original location.

Halfway down, Qi Yuan suddenly realized: was this the reason for his calm demeanor in the premonitory dream?

Indeed, just like in the dream, although he had noticed, he couldn't summon the interest to change the outcome.

His arrival immediately caught the attention of Gao Changze and Yin Qingran, who stood up to greet him.

"Brother Yuan, how did it go?" Gao Changze asked, approaching first.

"...These are my conjectures," Qi Yuan told them the information consolidated from his dream, picked up the monster control device from the table, and examined what types of supernatural items were needed to compose such a device.

"You can investigate the former sponsors of Nanwu Orphanage. You might find something there. As for the orphanage director's diary I mentioned earlier, I remember the local Duty Bureau cooperated with the research institute, but its exact whereabouts are unclear. You can ask Pang Team Leader about it."

The cooperation with the research institute was his speculation. Qi Yuan remembered seeing discussions on a forum about Nanwu Orphanage, debating whether the fusion realm was a phenomenon produced by the overlap of current and past timelines.

At that time, the research institute would certainly not have overlooked such an important item as the diary.

Gao Changze listened in amazement. How were all these disparate clues connected?

Although it sounded reasonable, there was no evidence to prove...

How did they suddenly jump to investigating Nanwu Orphanage?

But after a moment's consideration, he gave up trying to understand.

The trail had gone cold anyway, and looking into it wouldn't affect other matters. What if they did find something?

This was a lead provided by Brother Yuan, after all.

Compared to Gao Changze, Yin Qingran was much calmer. She had witnessed the Qi family's powerful information gathering abilities multiple times. The information Qi Yuan had provided her so far had never been wrong.

She guessed that perhaps it wasn't that there was no evidence, but that Qi Yuan didn't want to expose certain information to them. Otherwise, he could have just told them his conjectures instead of asking them to investigate Nanwu Orphanage.

However, Yin Qingran was still shocked. To be able to investigate such secrets, the Qi family's intelligence network must be terrifyingly extensive.

She was still too weak...

Otherwise, she could trade with Qi Yuan for information.

Yin Qingran took a deep breath and adjusted her mindset. Qi Yuan had already provided enough help. If her revenge relied solely on others' assistance, she might as well give up.

Others' goodwill wasn't a reason for her to push her luck.

"I understand. Thank you!" Yin Qingran thanked him earnestly, gesturing for Gao Changze to bring out something.

Gao Changze understood and took out a paper document from his spatial storage, handing it to Qi Yuan.

"This is the financial report of the Superpower Affairs Office for last... I mean, this year. You can take a look when you have time. The profit share has been transferred to your account."

Huh?!!

Caught off guard by the sudden payment, Qi Yuan was dumbfounded.

Yin Qingran said sincerely, "I know you don't need this small amount of money, but if it weren't for your behind-the-scenes help, we wouldn't have been able to start our business so smoothly."

When did I help?

If it was about lending his reputation to open the office, giving him a share of the money would make sense, but he couldn't remember helping them at all.

Qi Yuan looked at them suspiciously.

Yin Qingran, feeling his gaze, sat up straight: "Rest assured, we absolutely haven't used your name."

If Gao Changze had said this, he wouldn't have believed it, but Yin Qingran...

After a few seconds of thought, Qi Yuan suddenly understood. They had promised not to use his name back then, so this explanation was just an excuse to give him money.

As a manager with no capital investment, no actual management, and no resource support, Yin Qingran could only use the excuse of behind-the-scenes assistance.

Look at this, what a high-quality ~~leek~~ (crossed out) subordinate!