Hyperdimensional Warlock

Chapter 3860 Tampering

Chapter 3860 Tampering

According to general logic, the purpose of "tampering" is either to correct errors or to cover up the truth.

The former is mostly used to correct internal wrongs, while the latter can be used both internally and externally.

And Alfred is not a member of the Fashion Guild, so it is most likely the latter.

"If someone really tampered with this information, perhaps it was to cover up the truth..." Angel squinted his eyes and murmured, "But what kind of truth is being covered up?"

Alfred's disappearance is closely related to Dark Corner.

Could it be that the truth behind Alfred's disappearance is actually hidden in the sentence "Alfred frequently comes to the surface, going to an unknown destination"?

Otherwise, this sentence has not been tampered with.

If his speculation was correct, did it mean that someone within the Fashion Guild already knew the truth about Alfred's disappearance?

Moreover, this person is very likely to hold a high position.

Otherwise, he wouldn't be able to tamper with the records.

Who could this person in a high position be? Could he be a senior spy of the Dark Round Table?

But among the group of magicians with extremely powerful auxiliary means, is there really a spy who can become a core member of a hostile organization?

Or maybe, was it "him" who did it?

The only person Angel could think of who was suspected to be in a high position in the Fashion Guild and had connections with the Seven Knights of the Dark Round Table was only one.

It is to bring order to the chaotic underground blocks, build a digital town, and usher in the uncrowned king of hope.

He is also the man behind the Dark Round Table.

Or the real leader of the Seven Knights—the Dark Lord!

So far, the identity of the Dark Lord is still unknown, but according to the speculation of "Fallen Dream Knight" Bonette: the chaotic people who survive underground never desire order. Those who truly desire order are often those who have been exposed to order, or even those who originally lived in order.

In addition, the Dark King possesses enormous energy and has built underground towns, which makes Bonette suspect that perhaps the Dark King's true identity is a powerful magician living in the sun.

As for the identity of a powerful magician "under the sun", the only thing Bonette could think of was... the Fashion Guild.

Therefore, the uncrowned king of the underground block is most likely from the Fashion Guild.

This is also the only person Angel can think of who has the ability to "tamper" with intelligence.

When Angel brought the mysterious character of "The Lord of Darkness" into this matter, he found that many problems seemed to have at least one solution.

Even some hints that had been heard before have now been rekindled.

For example, Angel remembered that Bonette once mentioned one thing: she joined the Dark Round Table only three years ago, and not long after she joined, the Dark Lord assigned a task to the Knights - to find the former Noble Knight!

Although this task has not been completed yet, it can be seen from this that the Dark Lord still values ​​a retired noble knight very much.

Does this mean that the Dark Lord has always known about the deeds of the previous Noble Knight? Otherwise, why would he continue to pay attention to someone who has retired?

There is another clue. According to Bonette, the relationship between the Dark King and the Noble Knight has changed recently. Every time the Dark King issues an order, it is relayed by the Noble Knight.

This is true for both the former and current noble knights.

It can be said that within the Knights Templar, the only one who might know the identity of the Dark Lord is perhaps the Noble Knight.

From all these, Alfred, as a former noble knight, might have known the Dark Lord. In fact, the Fashion Guild recorded that "Alfred frequently came to the surface" just to meet the Dark Lord.

It is for this reason that the Dark Lord tampered with intelligence to avoid exposing his identity.

At the same time, because of their close relationship, the Dark Lord knew what Alfred usually did, which was why he was able to issue a search order to the Knights as soon as he disappeared.

Otherwise, how could the former boss know so much about the life or death of a subordinate who has been out of office for a long time?

"The Lord of Darkness..." Angel thought silently in his heart, will he be the breakthrough?

If so, who is his real identity?

……

In the following time, Angel contacted Lizzie again, mainly to inquire about the "Dark Lord" and who was qualified to modify the intelligence.

However, Lizzie knew nothing about this.

She said that the process of transmitting intelligence often involves many steps, which are progressive and difficult to modify.

If you really have to make changes, there are only two possibilities: either start from the source, or confuse the cause with the effect and start from the result.

In other words, either the person who collected the intelligence modified the intelligence himself, or the person who could "see" the intelligence modified the intelligence.

If the "Lord of Darkness" is really in the Fashion Guild, he obviously cannot be an intelligence agent collecting intelligence, so the only possibility is the latter.

The person who can "see" the information must be a big shot in the Fashion Guild, such as Lizzie.

She was a deputy director in Tina Entertainment, and the corresponding position in the Fashion Guild was a supervisor. Above her were only the elders, the vice president, and the president.

In other words, if the "Lord of Darkness" is hiding among this group of people, he must be at least a senior figure in the Fashion Guild.

There are relatively few people of this type, but it is very troublesome to track them down.

Even Lizi is not qualified to investigate people of the same level.

Of course, there is no problem in checking secretly, but if you are discovered by others, the risk will be very high.

Angel did not ask Lizzie to investigate the identity of the "Dark Lord" to put her at risk. Instead, he assigned her another task:

Find the intelligence agent who collected intelligence on Alfred.

By finding this informant, we may be able to know whether the statement "Alfred frequently comes to the surface, his destination is unknown" has been tampered with.

Angel handed the task to Lizzie and temporarily cut off contact.

But what Angel didn't expect was that in less than three minutes, Lizzie took the initiative to activate the illusion node on her body.

After Angel's inquiry, Lizzie found out that the intelligence agent who recorded Alfred's intelligence was sent to other cities as an intelligence agent for the branch, and the branch would contact the headquarters through special channels only every six months.

The last contact was just one month ago.

In other words, they had no way to contact the branch, so naturally they had no way of knowing the situation of the intelligence officer.

This news sounds like there is nothing wrong with it. It is just a normal job change, and the job of the intelligence officer is still to collect intelligence, but it has changed from collecting intelligence on individuals to collecting intelligence on other cities.

But after further inquiries, Angel discovered that when the Fashion Guild made personnel changes in the intelligence department, this intelligence officer was the only one who was transferred away.

You know, the intelligence team he was in at that time had at least dozens or hundreds of people, but he was the only one who was transferred away.

This can no longer be called a coincidence.

There must be someone behind this.

If nothing unexpected happens, this person may be the "Lord of Darkness".

After cutting off contact with Lizzie, Angel's mood was not affected, but he was even somewhat happy.

Because his previous speculation that "Alfred frequently came to the surface and went to an unknown destination" was problematic. In fact, he only relied on "general logic" and had no evidence, which was a case of "void search".

General logic is the logic that is most prone to errors.

Angel has always been worried that his "void search" was wrong. Perhaps the intelligence agent did not collect intelligence on the surface at that time because the intelligence agent lived underground...

But now, judging from various details, his logic of forcibly searching for the enemy should be correct.

Although it is still impossible to prove that the person behind the scenes is the "Dark Lord", it at least proves that Alfred's intelligence is indeed problematic.

"If I don't find any clues in this villa in Qingshuiqu, then... maybe I can start with the Fashion Guild's intelligence tampering to investigate Alfred's disappearance." Angel whispered to himself.

When I came here before, there was no clue at all, but now at least one clue has popped up, although this clue is not in the clear water channel.

But at least there are clues to follow.

……

After another minute or two, there was a rustling sound outside the villa, accompanied by footsteps.

Ingres stood up and went out to greet him.

Not surprisingly, the person who came was Zuniga... No, it was also a bit surprising, Zuniga's appearance had changed.

Before this, every time Ingres saw Zuniga, he looked like a sloppy homeless old man, with sticky hair, dirty clothes, and obvious thread pulling and torn collars.

But at this moment, Zuniga has completely lost his past "carefree" look.

He was wearing a simple long grey trench coat, of excellent quality and without a single wrinkle. Underneath was a light blue cotton shirt, buttoned neatly at the collar, looking very fresh. Below was a pair of black straight-leg trousers, the trouser legs falling just right over a pair of black casual leather shoes. The shoes were polished to a shine, reflecting the surrounding light.

With the beret on his head and his clean-shaven beard, he even looks a bit elegant and handsome.

He no longer looks like the homeless old man he used to be. Instead, he has turned into an elegant middle-aged man with a clean temperament.

Zuniga had already arrived at the door of the villa. Seeing Angel staring at him with strange eyes, he seemed a little uncomfortable.

cough cough...

After a cough, Zuniga's expression gradually became calm, and he even said in a joking tone: "It's not easy to go meet a citizen of my homeland, so I must dress formally."

"Besides, if the other person is a beautiful lady, I definitely cannot lose my composure..."

Angel: "Have you found the people of the mountains?"

Zuniga shook his head: "Not yet, but this is also preparation in advance."

Angel curled his lips: "If you want to prepare, a coat alone is not enough. If the other party wants to visit your home, where will you take him? The slums?"

Zuniga touched his chin and said, "This is something that needs to be considered. How about I buy a single-family house now?"

Zuniga walked into the villa while chatting casually with Angel.

"Do you still have money to buy a villa?"

Zuniga: "Although I don't have any Modern Dollars, I have a lot of pages, which is enough to sell."

Thinking that Zuniga would be targeted by the fashion monster almost every few days, Angel immediately realized that if this guy wanted to, it would not be a dream to make a fortune every day...

After entering the villa, Zuniga stopped chatting with Angel and began to observe the situation inside the villa seriously.

Angel didn't bother him, but just followed him silently.

The villa only had two floors, and Zuniga finished the tour quickly.

"Did you find anything?" Angel asked.

Zuniga thought for a moment and said, "I can't say that I didn't find anything... I can only say that if I think too much, it will be very troublesome to investigate."

"What do you mean?"

Zuniga: "Didn't you just say that the clues here might be related to local culture and a kind of deduction and deciphering?"

Angel nodded. This was indeed what he thought.

Zuniga: "If it is really a mystery, then every object with traces and images, and even the order in which multiple objects are placed and stacked, could be a puzzle."

“When I looked at the house with this thought in mind, I felt like every corner could be a mystery.”

"For example, the broken glass at your feet may even be part of the puzzle."

Angel looked down and saw that there was indeed a broken glass at his feet, but...

Angel: "I accidentally knocked over this glass."

Zuniga was silent for a moment. “Perhaps the original position of the glass can also constitute a puzzle.”

Angel: "..."

He suddenly felt that asking Zuniga to decipher the secret might not be a good decision.

"Ahem, I was just joking." Zuniga: "What I meant is that there are no clues yet, but I believe in your inspiration."

"So, let's start with the things you just suspected."

Before this, when Zuniga was still in Silver Wing Express, he asked Angel to write down the things he felt suspicious about, and then have Print Girl send them to Zuniga.

These include tapestries, canvases, posters... and more.

Zuniga had been conducting research on the road for some time, and now he wanted to come to the villa and conduct another in-depth exploration based on the surrounding environment.

As he spoke, Zuniga came to Alfred's bedroom.

"Except for special people, most people regard the bedroom as a safe haven." Zuniga: "Moreover, the bedroom is a relatively private space that can only be entered by certain people. This gives individuals a sense of exclusive control over the space, forming a psychological protective barrier."

"Therefore, when normal people hide things at home, the first choice in their minds is basically the bedroom."

"If the former noble knight did not deliberately hide the clues, then in my opinion, the most likely place he left the clues is in the bedroom."

And in the bedroom, there were indeed two scenes that Ingres asked the Printmaker to record.

One is a canvas, the other is a tapestry.