I created the Bureau of Anomaly Control

Greick and Radi returned safely to the containment room. Although they didn't bring back anything of value in the end, they obtained quite important information without even realizing it.

The message from the Divine Firmament Walker said, "The snake has already crawled into your bed," confirming his suspicion of Shen Zhihe. She also mentioned a deal between the Federation and the Salvation Alliance and wanted Ma En to accept this deal.

This was also the "blade in the shadows" among the three prerequisites she mentioned for killing the Moon God. The other two were "the blade of the Forerunner" and "a trap called Oblivion."

After waking up, Ma En had read some stories related to prophecies, most of which involved misinterpretations of the prophecies. However, if the person who left the prophecy was a true prophet, he shouldn't need to consider this possibility too much.

Even if he misinterpreted it, it might still guide him to the correct path, because the Divine Firmament Walker wrote that passage not because she saw something, but because she knew that seeing that passage would make him move towards the future she wanted.

Therefore, he had already done the most basic analysis of the passage. The shadow either referred to a literal hidden place or the current Director of the Investigation Department, Shadow, or the Investigation Department he represented.

The blade of the Forerunner in the tower should be the easiest of the three phrases to understand. The Forerunners obviously referred to the Titans who had already embarked on the path of fighting the gods. This sentence meant that there was a god-slaying weapon from the past hidden in the tower.

As for the trap called Oblivion, Ma En had some doubts, but the previous sentence, "crossing the passage that crosses mountains and rivers," ultimately confirmed his answer.

The earliest he saw the word "passage" after waking up was on the employee passage on the note he left himself, and it could indeed cross mountains and rivers, and even do far more than that.

Then Oblivion obviously referred to the Unforgettable who helped him escape from the mental hospital. Because of his existence, Ma En had not yet tried to return to the hospital, even though the lycanthropy patients underground had the possibility of being converted into employees.

He could completely return underground and trade with them like a devil, using "regaining freedom" as a condition. He believed that many lycanthropy patients would be willing to pay a huge price, but Ma En had never considered this idea.

The Unforgettable couldn't kill him back then, which didn't mean that he still couldn't do it now. Perhaps he was in a weakened state after fighting him, which was why he couldn't end his life.

Ma En himself was still in this weakened state, and he hadn't found any way to reverse the effects he suffered. Even simple attempts to evoke emotions were useless, and even telepaths hadn't heard of any techniques specifically for dealing with memory erasure before.

After all, no one would try to fight something that didn't exist.

But if the Divine Firmament Walker's prophecy really pointed to the right path, then perhaps the current Victor Sanatorium was not as dangerous as he thought. But if it wasn't dangerous to him, how could he lure the Moon God into a deadly trap?

Before getting information about the other two things, he might not be able to accurately figure out what the trap was all about, and he didn't know the specific way to lure the Moon God into the trap.

But Ma En actually had a doubt about the trap—the purpose of her writing these words was definitely not to benefit him, but to shift the future towards successfully saving the world, so his life and death might not be within the scope of consideration.

And this concern largely came from what the Divine Firmament Walker told him. She said that although she could see her future, she couldn't remember it, but she still wrote these words, which also proved that even he couldn't completely influence her judgment.

Then, how much of the impact he caused could the Divine Firmament Walker see? Could she clearly perceive whether his life and death were good or bad for the future she expected, or putting that aside, would there still be the most important question?

That is, is his life and death good or bad for the world?

The answer to this question itself was also unknown. Even though Ma En now felt that he was definitely on the side of justice, he couldn't guarantee that he would maintain this idea in the future.

And he did have the potential to threaten the safety of the world.

To think of it in a better way, even if he now vowed to always walk on the path of helping to save the world and strictly demanded himself to follow this belief, it wouldn't mean that his existence was positive for the world.

After all, no one dared to say whether the actual impact of their life on the world was in line with their ideas. Even saints without any moral flaws might accidentally touch some abnormal items and cause the world to slide towards destruction.

Based on Ma En's understanding of Qin Luan, she wasn't the kind of crazy person who judged the lives and deaths of others based on pure probability and the results themselves. She still had normal moral concepts, but the problem was that the words she wrote weren't what she wanted to say.

Qin Luan not only couldn't understand those Chinese characters at all, but also couldn't influence what she wrote.

Therefore, the realization of this prophecy could only ultimately allow the future to move in a direction that conformed to Qin Luan's expectations, and Ma En couldn't be sure that this was also beneficial to him, and he couldn't directly conclude that returning to the mental hospital was safe.

But he could also push the future in the direction he expected.

And the probability of the prophecy leading to his death was actually very low. This was just the worst possibility. Ma En was more reminding himself not to take it lightly because of the existence of the prophecy through thinking.

Moreover, the current situation was slightly different from the prophecy. The deal didn't come directly to him as described in the prophecy. The order Lei Yu and the others received was to contact Qin Lan through Ma En and kill him.

This also made him feel confused.

The Investigation Department definitely wanted to negotiate with Qin Lan, but if they simply wanted to do this, killing him shouldn't be the Investigation Department's top priority. This approach would only reduce their chances of success.

They should adopt a more gentle approach, unless killing him was also one of their goals.

Regardless of the reason, it was definitely not as simple as described in the prophecy for him to obtain the "dagger of the shadows" now. Then, comprehensively, the goal that he should complete first should be to obtain the weapon in the tower.

It was precisely because of this that Ma En came outside the containment room.

When he opened the door, the Metal Controller, Greick, was staring at the direction he walked in, but his gaze didn't focus on Ma En, as if his eyes could penetrate Ma En's body.

"I refuse to carry out the second exploration mission like this," Greick stated his request calmly and firmly. "Don't play tricks on me. I'm familiar with that kind of thing.

"If you didn't need my skills, I would have been dead long ago."

He was doing what a high-ranking Level 0 employee used to do, asking for what he wanted.

Ma En slowly sat down in front of him:

"You're not stupid, but you should realize one thing.

"I know what you want, and you know what I want, but I have far more chips than you. I can waste the resources in my hand at will, but you can't afford to lose even once.

"You only have one life."

Greick showed a "you're right" expression and shook his head as if he had given up.

"Okay, I have no room to refute. You are the strong one, not only controlling my life and death, but also depriving me of my power." He lowered his head slightly and said, "So I really only have the path of letting you manipulate me.

"Although I don't know what's going on, it seems that the Federation has underestimated its opponent."

Greick slowly raised his hand to signal:

"But before you rush me to the next mission, I would like to ask you to listen to a few words from me. If you are still unwilling to change your mind after listening, I will stand up and carry out the second mission.

"I know the guy who caught me. He should be Shen Zhihe, a member of the Salvation Alliance. From what I know, you don't seem to be so free. Randomly capturing low-level ability users will definitely bring you risks, so if you are not even willing to listen to these few words...

"Then I will gladly go to my death."

Greick looked at Ma En with calm eyes:

"After all, I am just a prisoner. This is the worst behavior I can do. The outcome between us was already destined before I was caught. I can't shake your victory, but at least I can let myself lose with dignity."

Ma En nodded slightly to him:

"Speak."

Greick said with respect:

"In my opinion, giving us prisoners a little bit of hope that has no practical meaning may be more beneficial to you than maintaining the current situation. I believe you must have thought of this.

"But as a real prisoner, I have some of my own experience to share. You have the technology to control our power and teleport us, but you can't directly judge our life and death, and what is in front of me is a mission that is likely to be carried out until death.

"This feeling of being destined to die and not seeing any light makes me feel heavy despair. For many people, this kind of terror may be higher than death. I believe there will be many smart people who choose to end their lives.

"Moreover, most of your prisoners should have been ability users who could decide the life and death of ordinary people. Falling to this point will make them feel extremely unacceptable, and may even cause a hysterical reaction.

"Even if reason tells them that the best choice is to continue the missions again and again and try to survive as long as possible, this is not the path that those ability users who once boasted of being superior will choose. They will try to escape, work passively, and even directly resist you.

"They are destined to lose, and you will always win. This is the fact.

"But you can get more benefits than now, as long as you give them some visible hope, like a carrot hanging in front of a donkey, they will not choose a path worse than death in despair, but will try to live.

"You can even use the resources in your hand to make us do absolutely impossible suicide missions, such as giving their families some money that is useless to you.

"Everyone fears death, but when there is no choice, we all want to die with less regret. In other words, we all hope that our death can be a little meaningful, even if it is fake.

"What do you think of this idea?"

Ma En nodded:

"What you said is very good."

In fact, he already had the same idea. If he wanted to send these Level 0 employees to their deaths, he couldn't just rely on the threat of death. However, he originally thought that he shouldn't have to spend time on this in the short term.

However, the man in front of him brought up what he was thinking, and he maintained a fairly low attitude when he spoke, even when he said the information he had, he still maintained his superficial respect for him.

This kind of guy is not something that can be dealt with casually, but relatively speaking...

His ability will be stronger than other employees, and this will help Ma En successfully obtain the weapon in the tower. Moreover, when life is completely controlled, this kind of guy who thinks clearly is actually safer than other ability users. There is no possibility of deliberately messing up the mission.

As he continued to recruit Level 0 employees, if he wanted to keep the more capable ones, he had to make them see hope, otherwise they would at least resist by passively doing missions.

Of course, this is on the premise that resources are limited.

Ma En said:

"There is something we want to get on the tower you saw back then. If you can successfully take it out, I will consider your proposal."

Greick nodded gratefully:

"Thank you for listening.

"Then before this mission is complete, you already have 100% of my and Radi's loyalty. As long as I am alive, I will do my best to carry out this mission, and Radi will even be willing to die for it.

"Because I will put the mission above his life, and he trusts me quite a bit.

"Of course, unless there is no choice, I will not let him take risks.

"He is the only friend left."

He didn't ask what reward Ma En would give, and he didn't show any curiosity about it. This was not only because he wanted Ma En to feel his sincerity, but also because there was no point in asking now.

Only after completing this mission could he get the real answer. Ma En's current promises might not come true, and he could change his mind at any time. And if Ma En wanted to play him, he would be able to see it sooner or later.

Greick didn't ask for much, just a path to freedom. Even if the purpose of building this path was not to let them leave here, and it was so difficult that it was impossible to pass, it didn't matter as long as there was an end...

He could walk to it.