Death Game: Starting as a Trickster, Pretending to Be a God
Chapter 254: Baron Coleman's Past
For Fu Luo, he was gradually getting used to having his opinions ignored.
Looking at Lin Yu, Coleman, and Pang Kedo, Fu Luo sighed.
"Damn it, fine, we'll stay then."
He leaned back against the carriage wall and sighed again. "So... there must be one or two so-called 'unjust cases' that happened to you guys, right?"
Baron Coleman nodded. "Of course, if you're talking about unjust cases, both Pang Kedo and I indeed have grievances that we've carried for many years."
Pang Kedo froze. "Me? I have one too?"
"I've really forgotten too many things."
Pang Kedo rubbed his temples, his expression pained as he spoke.
"Speaking of grievances... could it be that the assassination attempt on that Truth Corporation CEO wasn't actually done by you two?"
Lin Yu asked.
Baron Coleman denied Lin Yu's question. "No, that incident was indeed done by us. Rather—the reason I resolved to assassinate the CEO was precisely because of the grievance I carried."
He looked at Fu Luo.
"No one who has been framed doesn't wish for their reputation to be cleared. Since you came here for the grievance I carry, I'll tell you..."
Baron Coleman cleared his throat, then began speaking.
"Eight years ago, just after I was promoted to director of Truth Corporation's R&
D Department's No. 7 Independent Laboratory and obtained A-2 level privileges, I discovered some discrepancies in the laboratory's log archives—there were inconsistencies between the fund accounts and actual project allocations."
"At first, I thought it was just the former director or some researchers in the laboratory embezzling funds, but upon second thought, I realized something was wrong."
"Because if it was embezzlement... everyone entering the laboratory was smart enough not to leave flaws that I could spot at a glance, especially since my transfer to No. 7 Laboratory was a compliant promotion—this meant that before I became director of this laboratory, the former director and others qualified to manipulate project funds had at least half a month to balance the accounts and make everything look perfect."
"So at that time, I considered two possibilities."
"The first was that someone intentionally left this flaw to pull me, the new director, into their group. As long as I didn't report it, they would contact me."
"And since the flaw was so obvious, it meant they had prepared a 'scapegoat,' and likely had backing even within the company's board of directors and highest executive levels—so they weren't afraid of my non-cooperation;
even if I reported it, it wouldn't seriously harm them."
"This was equivalent to a very 'subtle' invitation letter... so I decided to accept this invitation."
Hearing this, Pang Kedo nearby couldn't hold back.
"Jerry Coleman Hunt... how did you become so... so slick just a few years after the memories I have now."
Pang Kedo couldn't help but call out his full name.
Baron Coleman wasn't a nickname but a genuine honorific—although Sleepless City had advanced technology, its system was relatively backward, still having many powerful figures and aristocratic classes.
His mother came from a prominent background, so he inherited the title from her.
His actual surname was "Hunt."
And due to some old family matters, few people who interacted with him called him by his full name.
Pang Kedo calling him this way showed he was truly somewhat shocked and implicitly disapproving.
Baron Coleman responded with a smile, also addressing his old friend by his full name: "Punkdo Von Valetti, if you want to call me cunning and slick, no need to be so indirect."
"Just know that by that period, we were already inseparable friends, our personal relationship almost as close as biological brothers."
"You weren't clean either by that time."
Although he wore a smile and spoke calmly, Lin Yu detected anger in Coleman's words.
"I changed that quickly?"
Pang Kedo said incredulously.
Fu Luo couldn't help interrupting. "No offense, but if you were a good person... you wouldn't have been selected for the 'Eightfold Calamity' modification either."
"What the hell is that?"
Pang Kedo scratched his head confusedly.
"Alright, no interruptions, we'll talk about you later," Baron Coleman abruptly cut off the topic. "Anyway, I waited three days without anyone coming to me, so I realized... this was actually another situation."
"Someone still intentionally left this loophole, but it wasn't an invitation letter—it was a hint."
"It wasn't that someone wanted to pull me into some embezzlement interest group, but that within No. 7 Laboratory, there truly existed some ghost project that even my A-2 level privileges weren't sufficient to know about, directly subordinate to someone at the very top."
"So... I went to investigate."
Baron Coleman said.
"Wow, you actually investigated? That's the standard 'curiosity killed the cat' opening."
Fu Luo exclaimed. "Based on what I know about Truth Corporation's nature, you should have turned a blind eye."
Lin Yu glanced at Fu Luo, really wanting to retort "you're one to talk about curiosity killing the cat."
But "Zhu Ming" and Furbollo weren't familiar after all, so Lin Yu held back the retort.
"Truth Corporation may be like that, but I'm not," Baron Coleman said, looking at Lin Yu. "And what I discovered next can also answer two questions you have, ma'am."
"Why I was spared with my life intact, and... why I joined forces with Pang Kedo and ultimately chose to assassinate President Paris."
"Because I spent nearly three months discovering what exactly this ghost project consuming massive funds was—to be precise, it wasn't just a single ghost project attached to No. 7 Independent Laboratory."
"3, 6, 7, 8, 12... out of Truth Corporation's twelve independent laboratories, I found the same accounting issues in four of them like in No. 7, and even 'ghost employees' appeared in Nos. 3 and 12 laboratories—there were several extra B-level privilege accounts that didn't belong to any researcher I knew."
"And this was only the part I uncovered."
"If you combined these people and funds, they pieced together an entire new... ghost laboratory."
"Some board member or executive decision-maker, highest-level director with extensive connections had secretly established a laboratory that other high-ups might not permit, to research some 'forbidden' subject."
"When my investigation reached this point, I also realized... I seemed to have touched upon something major, but although I was nervous at the time, I didn't feel cornered—after all, I still thought I could join them."
Coleman paused.
"But this naive thought stopped once I learned what they were actually researching."
"The project created by this ghost laboratory originated from a subject and technology that had been ordered stopped fifty years ago..."
Coleman looked directly at Lin Yu. "The entire technology came from one A-level researcher, Professor Dort."
"And Professor Dort had only one prized student in his lifetime, named..."
"Vale Valetti."