That effortless, uncaring tone was like merely brushing away some dust, which made Himeko's breathing stop for a few seconds.
How evil did one have to be to speak of life so casually?
"Seele, did you know all about this?" Himeko swallowed with difficulty and asked Seele.
Even though Seele expression already said it all, Himeko still harbored a sliver of hope.
She would rather believe Seele was misled than see Seele consciously transform into another person.
A stranger, and a version of herself that the old Seele would have despised.
However, wishful thinking often led to only heartbreak and despair.
"The high-ranking officials at the headquarters were all killed by me." Seele did not retreat an inch. She said in a calm, cold-blooded, and flat tone, "From beginning to end, I knew exactly what I was doing, Captain."
"Didn't you hate taking lives? Didn't you want to protect Lin's wish? Why did you do this?"
"Wish? Hehehe... Hahahaha..."
Seele laughed.
Without any warning, she covered her face and laughed hysterically, a stifling laugh erupting from a mouth that would have never laughed like this before.
In front of Himeko and Dystopia, Seele lowered her hands, her face contorted like a vengeful spirit.
"What did Lin's wish bring? Did humanity become better? Did the high-ranking officials of the Fire Moth care about the lives of the soldiers?"
"Did you know, before the Fifth Honkai Eruption, that he was so corroded by Honkai Sickness that he was nearly dead? After the Fifth Honkai Eruption, he couldn't even maintain his sanity, but what did that achieve?"
"Can you tell me, what did it achieve! Peace? Happiness? Understanding? You've been at headquarters for so long; have you seen any of that?"
Seele every word pierced Himeko's heart, leaving her speechless, unsure how to reply.
Lin's Honkai Sickness was concealed too perfectly. If his corrosion rate hadn't breached the threshold on the eve of the Fifth Honkai Eruption, causing symptoms to appear, they would still have been kept in the dark.
Peace, happiness, understanding? In such a suppressive environment, these felt like utter fantasy.
"Of course, he is the same." Seele glared fiercely at the Chairman, but he showed no reaction.
"Yes, I was also one of those scumbags. So, I was among those who didn't respect the lives of the soldiers, used Lin as a tool, and voiced opposition to Dr. Mei's proposal." The Chairman conceded after a moment of thought. "That is the way of the high-ranking officials. I am not special."
"So, you loathed the high-ranking officials to the extreme, including yourself?"
At this moment, a discordant, lazy female voice interrupted the confrontation, causing a flicker of confusion on the faces of both the Chairman and Seele.
The transport plane was on autopilot. Logically, there should only be the four of them on the plane. So, whose voice was this...
"Hiss."
The fire suppression system inside the transport plane sprayed a liquid that extinguished the cigarette. Then, in an inconspicuous corner, a camerEllieke device flashed at a specific frequency, projecting a deep blue light.
In everyone's sight, a disheveled woman was projected.
"Dr. Einstein?" The Chairman immediately recognized the doctor in the field of quantum mechanics who had been chasing him. He narrowed his eyes, pondered for a few seconds, and then realized something. He snorted through his nose, shook his head, and said nothing.
"Long time no see, Chairman... No, I should say, Lin." Einstein's projection put her hands in her pockets and greeted the Chairman.
"Lin?!"
The Chairman chuckled and waved his hand, saying to the even more astonished Dystopia and Himeko: "My real name is Lin. That's right, the 'Lin' you know."
Einstein said: "It's been a long time since we last met."
"Indeed," the Chairman sighed. "I thought that not meeting you would reduce the probability of being noticed. You truly live up to your reputation."
"No, you were successful. At least, before Dr. Mei alerted me, I wouldn't have suspected who the killer was, and I couldn't confirm which of the high-ranking officials was the killer until you spoke yourself."
"So I gave myself away... That's quite in line with the villain's style."
"So, why don't you continue? You seem to want to finish what you were saying."
The Chairman mused for a moment, glanced at the indifferent Seele and the completely bewildered Himeko and Dystopia, and smiled in relief: "Alright, let's continue the earlier conversation... Let's start with a group of scumbags preparing to protect humanity."
"The composition of these scumbags was the world's politicians, elites, and leaders. Even before they became high-ranking officials of the Fire Moth, they were the 'pinnacle' who could wake up in a thousand-meter mansion every morning to enjoy hot milk served by a maid, and enjoy the maid who served the milk."
"There's an old saying in Shenzhou that standing high allows one to see far, and this applied to them as well. They were the pinnacle of human society, so what they could see was the entirety of humanity and... the harbinger of disaster."
The Chairman's tone was full of sarcasm toward the high-ranking officials. His words emphasized the power of the high-ranking officials, yet contained his unique cynicism.
Even though he was one of them.
"So, they chose to secretly unite to collectively deal with this human crisis. They believed that the humans under their feet needed them to protect them. This was their obligation and responsibility."
"What an arrogant thought, isn't it? How could a mission like protecting humanity fall to ordinary people?" The Chairman sneered dismissively.
"So an organization was formed—the Fire Moth. Its predecessor bore the shadow of historical organizations from various countries, but it also saw the addition of many new, radical organizations, eventually becoming this final 'ark for protecting humanity'."
"However, once the ark was built, who would be its master? In the myth of Noah's Flood, there was only one Noah, but we had more than one person. So, the organization's power structure was decided: all power would be equally distributed among the founders, and we would jointly command the Fire Moth."
"Before the Honkai Eruption, this system was very successful. It effectively prevented the organization from becoming corrupt and anyone from monopolizing power, ensuring the initial preparations proceeded smoothly."
"They once believed that as long as they worked together, they could defeat the Honkai."
Only here did the Chairman separate himself from the other high-ranking officials.
This meant that from that moment on, he had already embarked on a different path from the others.
"My view was different, but I couldn't single-handedly decide the organization's structure, so I didn't raise any suggestions, and at that time, I hadn't yet formed the idea of changing the Fire Moth."
"Until one day, I was assigned a mission to eliminate anti-humanity traitors."