Chapter 367

Chapter 367: Until Now

At the top of the spire, in the dimly lit conference room.

"Can we start now?"

Someone asked.

"Wishful thinking."

Another person scoffed:

"Keep waiting; it might be here soon."

As soon as the words ended, the door to the conference room opened, and a man with golden hair swaggered in.

He dragged a common chair with one hand and carried a large floor lamp with the other.

"Friends, it’s too dark in here; it makes people sleepy."

The heavy lamp in Arthur’s hand was as flexible as a dry stick by the roadside. With a slight effort, he tossed it onto the conference table in the center.

The lamp immediately lit up, its brightness shining around, forcing the eyes under the hoods to tighten shut.

At this point, Arthur had brought the chair over to sit between Zhong Ding and Nia:

"Excuse me, you two."

His tone was casual, like a college student sharing a table with strangers in the cafeteria.

Nia had somewhat anticipated this situation and shifted her chair to the side, while Zhong Ding had already made a big space, almost sitting in the lap of the councilor on his right.

Arthur smoothly slid the wooden chair into place and lightly crossed over the back of the chair, sitting directly in between the two.

He seemed completely unbothered that there was no separate monitor or projection device in front of him. Instead, he used the bright light to glance around at several people:

"Everyone, I know you have many questions. Please ask."

It was now 2 PM on November 13th, just over an hour after the highly anticipated medal ceremony had concluded.

Once everyone inside and outside had left, the council members finally returned to the spire, which was now just a stone’s throw away.

This should have been a relief, but unfortunately, Arthur had followed them here.

Watching him skillfully open door after door with the terminal on his finger, the last shred of hope faded completely for some council members.

No matter who this person was, he was now qualified to stand beside them.

In the brightly lit conference room, silence fell. After a long pause, Matthew, who had nothing left to lose, was the first to speak:

"We’ve never heard of the name ‘Arthur.’ Who exactly are you?"

"Perhaps you’ve heard it before, who knows?"

Matthew’s question was met with another question as Arthur continued:

"Can you clearly tell me how old you are this year?

"No, you can’t."

He shrugged his shoulders, confidently stating this, while Matthew’s silence seemed to confirm it.

"Not only can’t you, but the rest of you probably can’t either, right?"

Arthur looked at the council members of the longevity faction. Each of them hung their heads, unable to answer his questions.

"The truth is, all your memories have been altered and erased, and you all know that only the machine in the spire can do this.

"Oh, I forgot that we’re all insiders here. Since there are no outsiders, there’s no need to mention the spire; I’ll just refer to it as the spaceship from now on."

All the council members remained silent, showing no doubt about this fact, which indicated that they understood the true nature of the central spire in Hope City.

This scene further confirmed Lin Qingliu’s suspicion, disguised as Arthur, that the council members actually understood the current situation but, for some reason, were unwilling or unable to make a change.

Now, Arthur, disguised as a spaceship passenger, needed to use his limited rhetoric to figure out what really happened back then.

This part of the information wasn’t even in Infinite Scroll; at that time, she was busy following orders to dismantle her two mechanical arms, then disguised herself as a normal human to infiltrate the life pod and enter hibernation, so she was unclear about why the rebellion turned out this way.

Seeing that the old things had been intimidated into submission, Lin Qingliu continued to help dismantle the narrative:

"Since everyone has no way to judge, I actually have a statement that can satisfy the majority of you, so listen up.

"A long, long time ago—well, not really that long—a human spaceship crashed into an unknown object just before reaching its target planet and fell onto this planet.

"The fragments of the spaceship carrying thousands of life pods broke apart and landed far from the main body.

"The majority of people died, but one person survived that catastrophe. Not only did he survive, but he also gained superpowers due to unknown influences.

"Now, an unknown amount of time had passed since the crash, and this person obtained a terminal from a corpse and set off on a journey back to the spaceship based on the coordinates.

"Along the way, he continuously recorded the current ecology of this planet and eventually returned to the human Settlement.

"But he discovered two things: first, these humans seemed to be reversing history by rebuilding high walls as if they had returned to a time that had long disappeared.

"Second, malicious extraordinary beasts were attacking this human city.

"So, this person acted out of anger, and the rest is known to everyone.

"How about that? Is this story exciting?"

Arthur shrugged his shoulders:

"I know this explanation has many flaws—time, age, and even specific details don’t match up. But for you, this is one way to understand my existence.

"After all, I’m just a good-hearted person who can’t stand what you are doing. Who among us isn’t for humanity?"

After weaving a long story, Lin Qingliu only truly meant the last two sentences from the heart.

"Well then, since this story has so many flaws, why should you all accept it?"

Arthur shrugged again, continuing to apply pressure through his words:

"According to the spaceship system, the Permission Level holder can select a target to initiate a vote. If it passes, the target will be stripped of their Permission Level and become an ordinary person.

"I believe someone here is thinking of using this method to remove me from my position, but I advise you to abandon that idea early on."

As he spoke, Arthur cleared his throat, as if emphasizing the next part:

"Listen closely, due to the spaceship rules, I can’t physically urge you, which is why I’m sitting here negotiating with you.

"If I lose my status as a Permission Level holder, before you blow me up with your ship’s cannon, I guarantee that I will smear all of you evenly across the walls of this conference room.

"Do as you see fit."

The council members fell silent.

As holders of the terminal and spaceship permissions, they could not attack each other within the spire, or else they would lose their permissions and identities.

The golden-haired man sitting across from them, while unable to act against them due to this rule, was nonetheless using it to reach a truce.

After a moment of silence, Arthur’s tone softened a bit:

"Objectively speaking, your actions have indeed made a clear contribution to preserving humanity. Trust me, if it weren’t for this achievement, I wouldn’t be here talking to you nicely."

Arthur casually mentioned this, then began to extend his fingers one by one:

"But your problems are just as significant. Look at you old folks; you’re already at the age of burial and still thinking about immortality. And you younger ones seem to have quite the taste for food.

"However, I already mentioned that since you’ve put on a happy face at the medal ceremony, it means everything will be written off."