CHAPTER 591: FREEMASONS

"According to the current situation, Zhang Shiwu is most likely a follower of the Deep Diving Society. However, his mission should be to assist Ooyamakaze and others in their actions behind the scenes, or in other words, the ’big boss’ Zhang Shiwu mentioned is not the same person as the leader of Ooyamakaze and others. After all, for a large secret cult like the Deep Diving Society, there are bound to be various factions within it. And now, the mythical creature in the Mirror World is very important to the Deep Diving Society, so it’s normal for the two factions to have a desire to compete for this mythical creature," said Ming Hanxing, stroking his chin.

Liu Xing nodded. What Ming Hanxing said made sense. From Zhang Shiwu’s phone conversation, we could hear that the purpose of the Deep Diving Society setting up a branch at Tokyo Comprehensive University was indeed for the mythical creature in Cross Lake. This shows that the mythical creature is very important to the Deep Diving Society, so it’s normal for the factions within the Deep Diving Society to compete for it.

However, at this time, Zhang Jingxu said with some doubt, "Although I also think there’s an 80% chance that Zhang Shiwu is a follower of the Deep Diving Society, there’s still a 20% chance that he’s from another organization. We can notice two details: firstly, from Zhang Shiwu’s attitude and words when talking to his boss, their relationship doesn’t seem like the superior-subordinate relationship often seen in secret cults, but more like the relationship between you, Ryuusei, and Ling Ishikawa, which is very rare in secret cults. The second detail is that Zhang Shiwu still calls Ooyamakaze ’Oyamaya’, which is also very strange. Because Ooyamakaze’s case should not be a secret within the Deep Diving Society, if Zhang Shiwu is a follower of the Deep Diving Society, he should call him Ooyamakaze instead of Oyamaya."

Zhang Jingxu’s words made everyone ponder.

"Of course, these are just my personal guesses. If Zhang Shiwu is indeed a follower of the Deep Diving Society, then these two details are still quite easy to explain. For example, the reason why Zhang Shiwu’s tone and words are so casual when talking to his boss could be because Zhang Shiwu and his boss are friends, or there might be someone of a higher level protecting Zhang Shiwu above his boss. After all, these secret cults are mostly composed of humans, and where there are people, there are relationship networks. As for the second detail, it’s possible that Zhang Shiwu is used to calling Ooyamakaze ’Oyamaya’ because when he talked to us before, he also called Ooyamakaze ’Oyamaya’, so it’s normal that he didn’t change it immediately. It’s also possible that due to the factional struggles mentioned by Teacher Ming, Zhang Shiwu doesn’t know Oyamaya’s true identity as Ooyamakaze," Zhang Jingxu suddenly said.

The reason Zhang Jingxu tried to explain his own guess was that he was worried his guess might mislead Liu Xing and others. After all, according to the current situation, the possibility of Zhang Shiwu being a follower of the Deep Diving Society is very high, and although his guess has some logic, it may also involve some over-interpretation, so the possibility is not too high.

So to be safe, Zhang Jingxu felt that it was better to treat Zhang Shiwu as a follower of the Deep Diving Society for now. As an ancient Chinese saying goes, "It’s better to believe it exists than to believe it doesn’t."

"Zhang Jingxu is right. Although there’s a possibility that Zhang Shiwu is not a follower of the Deep Diving Society, based on the information we have so far, the possibility of Zhang Shiwu being a Deep Diving Society follower is very high. So for now, we still need to be cautious around Zhang Shiwu. Moreover, even if Zhang Shiwu is a member of another organization, he could still pose a threat to us, because as of now, the only ally we have is the China Dao Sect," Zhang Wenbing said seriously.

Liu Xing nodded and said, "That’s right. From the content of Zhang Shiwu’s phone conversation, even if Zhang Shiwu is a member of another organization, he is still not friendly to us. If he wanted to cooperate and communicate with us, Zhang Shiwu should have directly revealed his identity instead of secretly infiltrating us like a mole. But then again, Zhang Shiwu must have recognized our identities when he first met us, and he invited us to join the China Society to establish contact with us. So no matter who Zhang Shiwu is, it means our identities may have been exposed."

Ling Ishikawa and the others frowned, because what Liu Xing said was not an exaggeration.

After all, that day when they decided to eat lunch at the food street outside Tokyo Comprehensive University, it was Liu Xing and others’ spontaneous decision, so their encounter with Zhang Shiwu was purely by chance.

But looking back now, Zhang Shiwu must have recognized their identities when he saw them, and then quickly started making small talk with them, and finally successfully recommended them to join the China Society. This way, Zhang Shiwu could take advantage of the club activities to become friends with them, and even infiltrate their small group.

If this is the case, then it becomes a bit terrifying upon further thought.

Because if Zhang Shiwu is indeed a follower of the Deep Diving Society, it means that the Deep Diving Society has now obtained information about their group. The reason why the Deep Diving Society hasn’t taken action yet is probably because they want to continue to determine if there is any powerful backing behind their group.

After all, from the Deep Diving Society’s perspective, their group’s experiences in this period of time can be described as "eventful" - first, their group resolved the Yueshihao incident, causing the Ritual Ceremony prepared by the Deep Sea Gospel Society to dissipate into nothing. Then, their group immediately caused the Morimoto Academy incident, directly wiping out the Deep Sea Gospel Society’s branch in the Kyoto area. Next, their group went to Fisher’s Village and attended the wedding of the "traitorous god’s" daughter Baruka, which was considered a provocation against the Deep Diving Society. Finally, their group went to England and resolved the long-planned coup d’état by the Cult of the Cadaver, although they only dealt with one of the Cult’s squads.

But most importantly, now their group has returned to the Island Nation, and "coincidentally" entered Tokyo Comprehensive University to study, so in the eyes of the Deep Diving Society, their group must be here to cause trouble.

And all these things happened within less than a year!

So this has made the Deep Diving Society somewhat wary of their group, because for a secret cult like the Deep Diving Society, if they want to eliminate a rival faction’s branch in a certain area that is equal in strength to them, they would normally plan for a very long time under normal circumstances. They would send a large number of people to ensure success in one fell swoop, and after succeeding, they would try their best to hide their involvement. If the rival faction doesn’t realize it was them, they would then wait another one or two years, making sure the enemy has let their guard down before taking action.

But now, their group has been taking continuous action when facing much stronger enemies, and even provoked another powerful secret cult in the process. In the eyes of the Deep Diving Society, this is no different from seeking death.

This is like the difference between historical war strategy games and real history. In the game, you only need to choose an easy difficulty and select a relatively powerful faction, and you can unify the whole world in just over ten years. But in real history, those ten-plus years would only be enough to conquer a few surrounding factions.

And now, what their group has done is like playing the game on the lowest difficulty.

Of course, their group is indeed playing a game...

As the saying goes, "When something out of the ordinary happens, there must be a reason behind it."

The Deep Diving Society likely thinks that there is a powerful backer behind their group, and an existence even more powerful than Baruka, since Baruka and his people have already been beaten and driven away by their "gods."

So now, to be safe, the Deep Diving Society has decided to first find out who is backing their group, to avoid reckless actions that might lead to losses, because no one wants to be hunted down by an entire province just for killing a chicken, right?

Of course, from another perspective, this could also be explained as a form of protection for players by the Cthulhu Role-Playing Game Hall, because the reason their group has provoked these secret cults is due to the modules arranged by the Cthulhu Role-Playing Game Hall. So the Hall can’t just burn the bridge after crossing the river and arrange a deadly module for the players.

Of course, if Zhang Shiwu is a member of another organization, the above speculations would still apply. But that organization may simply be curious about who is backing their group, because in the eyes of these organizations or secret cults, their group is a group of unfamiliar faces that have suddenly emerged, with a complex composition including the leader of an Island Nation secret cult, a righteous disciple of the China Dao Sect, and even a few ordinary people, which seems rather strange no matter how you look at it.

Thinking about this, although Liu Xing knew that Zhang Shiwu and the forces behind him would not take action against them for the time being, he still felt a bit uneasy, after all, as the saying goes - "It’s not the thief you’re afraid of, but the thief who keeps an eye on you."

No one wants someone secretly monitoring them, right?

Liu Xing sighed and said, "Since Zhang Shiwu now wants to infiltrate our small group as a mole, the forces behind him should not directly cause trouble for us. So we don’t need to worry too much for now. However, we must discuss how to deal with Zhang Shiwu going forward, because we can’t leave Tokyo Comprehensive University for now, and we will inevitably meet Zhang Shiwu again."

Ling Ishikawa nodded and said seriously, "If nothing goes wrong, even if Zhang Shiwu is not a follower of the Deep Diving Society, the forces behind him should not be much weaker than the Deep Diving Society. Otherwise, Zhang Shiwu would not dare to get involved in the matters between us and the Deep Diving Society. So our best move now is to pretend we don’t know anything and slowly drag things out with Zhang Shiwu. After all, once we deal with the Deep Diving Society’s branch at Tokyo Comprehensive University, we can leave at any time and stop playing house with Zhang Shiwu."

Zhang Jingxu and the others nodded, indicating their agreement with Ling Ishikawa’s opinion, as it was indeed the best solution for the current situation.

After all, their group could not take the initiative and kill Zhang Shiwu directly. At the same time, they could not take the risk of bringing Zhang Shiwu into their small group and then find an opportunity to fully control him.

At this moment, Zhang Wenbing’s mobile phone rang.

Zhang Wenbing looked at his mobile phone with a frown and said, "This Zhang Shiwu is indeed problematic. I just had a friend check Zhang Shiwu’s background in China, and it turns out that Zhang Shiwu is actually an orphan. When he was four years old, his parents died in a car accident, and he was sent to an orphanage. When Zhang Shiwu was eight, he was adopted by a middle-aged couple. However, six years later, Zhang Shiwu suddenly ran away from home and went missing. So under normal circumstances, Zhang Shiwu should not be able to attend Tokyo Comprehensive University, because Zhang Shiwu doesn’t even have a Chinese ID card, and there are no records of him entering or leaving China and the Island Nation!"

Liu Xing and the others frowned again, it seems Zhang Shiwu can be confirmed as not an ordinary person.

"By the way, Brother Zhang, you must have also asked your friend to investigate the information of the other members of the China Society, right? What’s their situation? Are they Zhang Shiwu’s companions?" Ling Ishikawa asked further.

Zhang Wenbing nodded and said, "Yes, I had my friend investigate the information of Meng Mengzi and the others as well. Meng Mengzi’s information is all normal, she should just be the only child of a middle-class family in the Magic Capital. Then there’s Mu Yao, her information is quite interesting. First, she’s from the imperial capital, and her parents are both middle-level managers of a multinational corporation. But more importantly, this multinational corporation has been identified by the China Dao Sect as an industry of a mysterious organization, and that mysterious organization is the famous Freemasons from the United States of America."

"There’s no need to go into details about the Freemasons, I believe everyone here has heard various rumors about them. But putting aside those absurd rumors, what can be confirmed now is that many high-level figures in the United States are members of the Freemasons, and the Freemasons have also established their own network around the world through their industries, co-opting elites from many countries as members. So we now have reason to believe that Mu Yao’s parents are also members of the Freemasons, because my friend found out that Mu Yao went to study in the United States from elementary school, and her grades were exceptionally good. She was even admitted to Harvard University, but now she has appeared at Tokyo Comprehensive University instead."

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