Erin Xavier tried to find an ally, his eyes immediately falling upon Nathan Lockwood next to him.
Everyone had been running, yet Nathan Lockwood seemed completely unaffected. Only a light sheen of sweat graced his forehead, leaving his poised and aloof demeanor intact.
If not for the extra towel the instructor had given him, you couldnât even tell he had just been exercising.
Nathan Lockwoodâs gaze followed the backs of Chase Shaw and Zoe Pierce. "If youâre not happy about it, you can go after them."
Erin Xavier rolled his eyes at him. "Why would I go after them? Thatâs no fun."
Although his curiosity was piqued, it was obvious they hadnât invited him, and he wasnât about to go and make things awkward.
Turning to Nathan Lockwood, however, Erin Xavierâs lips curled into a smirk. "Nathan, youâre the one who wants to follow them, arenât you?"
He got no response. Nathan Lockwood just gave him a cool glance. "Iâm heading back."
Seeing he was now the only one left in the Psionic Training Room, Erin Xavier lost any desire to stay and casually strode after Nathan Lockwood. "Iâm out, too."
As for Zoe Pierce, she was still a little dazed from being pulled along by Chase Shaw.
He was surprisingly strong; Zoe Pierce had to break into a light jog to keep up as he pulled her along.
Her hurried footsteps reached Chase Shawâs ears, and he relaxed his grip slightly, slowing his pace.
Zoe Pierce was confused.
She watched him open a different Psionic Training Room, then he gestured with his chin. "Open your Intelligent Brain."
Zoe Pierce opened up permissions on her Intelligent Brain and watched as a series of documents transferred over.
"The Pierce Familyâs mineral assets... most of their buyers are above board. But in recent years, a new one appeared." Chase Shaw pointed to a name at the very top, highlighted in red.
"Wesley White." He pulled up a photo, revealing a man with red hair and brown eyes. He wasnât tall; in fact, he was rather thin and small-framed.
"A Beta male." Chase Shaw tapped Wesley Whiteâs face on the screen. "Over the past few years, thirty percent of the Pierce Familyâs energy ore has been sold to him, with the quantity increasing year by year."
âIf he were just a simple merchant, Chase Shaw wouldnât have gone out of his way to point him out to me.â
"As for the other buyers, even if their operations are smaller, we can trace the specific applications of the energy ore they purchase."
"But this Wesley White runs a shell company. He doesnât sell a single Mecha a year. You can check his tax recordsâthere are no sales in that sector. Most of his revenue comes from selling common household appliances."
When it came to Mecha, Chase Shawâs expertise was nearly as impressive as Nathan Lockwoodâs.
"Hereâs the problem: I took a look at the inventory and disclosed sales figures for the household appliances they sell. The numbers donât add up."
Chase Shaw pointed to the ore produced by the Pierce Familyâs mines. "This N781 ore... a fist-sized chunk has enough energy to manufacture about a thousand of these household appliances."
"Logically speaking, if you were a normal person with such a surplus of energy supply, would you keep increasing your purchases of energy ore year after year?"
Chase Shaw waited for her answer. The question wasnât about the specific use of the ore, but about human nature, and Zoe Pierce could draw a conclusion quickly. "I wouldnât."
"If I were Wesley White, I wouldnât purchase so much just to create a backlog of inventory." From the list Chase Shaw had given her, she could clearly see the sales contracts for this energy ore went back five years.
Over those five years, the price of the ore hadnât fluctuated wildly, so there was no way he was profiting from it like a futures commodity.
"But Wesley White did exactly that," Chase Shawâs husky voice cut in. "In fact, he nearly doubled his purchase volume every single year."
"He went from a buyer who made up only five percent of your familyâs sales to one who makes up thirty percent. Among all your clients, heâs the biggest one by far."
âEven for Mecha applications, the required amount of N781 energy ore wasnât particularly large.â
Which raised the next question.
âSo, what else could Wesley White be doing with all that N781?â
Dozens of holographic images of devices materialized in front of them. "These are all the devices that can be made with N781," he said. "There are too many."
âSo there was no way to pinpoint what Wesley White was trying to do.â
Besides, the Pierce Family was only a small-to-medium-sized energy ore supplierâthey couldnât even be called solidly mid-tier. A shift in sales volume like this would never attract any attention.
"I also looked into Wesley Whiteâs other energy purchasing channels. I discovered heâs using the same method with different types of energy oreâgradually increasing his purchase ratio year after year."
"A company of this size has absolutely no way to absorb that volume of energy ore. And yet, the books show no losses."
"Whatâs even more interesting is that after you and your parents were in that mining accident, Wesley White vanished."
He disappeared in the most literal sense of the word.
That was the most suspicious part.
"If you investigate him, youâll find he almost never shows up anywhere else. The only times heâs been captured on any recordings are when heâs purchasing energy ore. He keeps an extremely low profile."
"The last trace I could find of him was a record of him buying a starship ticket off the Capital Star."
He left alone, on an unremarkable day, without a single soul noticing.
âThis was clearly not so simple.â
"But my brother told me the police ruled the accident involving my parents and me as a natural collapse caused by energy depletion in the caverns."
Zoe Pierce had learned this after she woke up. And Nathan Lockwood had explicitly told her that Damien Pierce couldnât have been the one behind it.
Now, with the sudden appearance of this eerily mysterious person, it was hard for her not to connect the dots.
"Is it possible? That this person orchestrated my familyâs mining accident?" Zoe Pierce tried to reason it out.
âItâs very possible he inadvertently helped Damien Pierce.â
âBecause she had leverage over Damien Pierce with his account books, and because the Pierce Familyâs problems were clearly numerous, she had been able to present herself as a completely different person to Ethan Grant and Michelle Young.â
"I wasnât able to find the actual Pierce Family ledgers," Chase Shaw said, turning to look at Zoe Pierce. "Youâve already doctored the accounts."
"And you clearly did it meticulously. When I first looked into it, I wasnât suspicious at all."
"But when I thought about Damien Pierceâs actions later, I became almost certain that the old you had to clean up a lot of his messes."
"Your familyâs real account books should be in your possession. Think about it. Where would you have hidden them?"
âEven though I knew my past self had done a lot, now that itâs come to this, I feel like Iâm stuck in a loop.â
âRight now, Iâm like Schrödingerâs cat. I havenât experienced the betrayal or the business with the Pierce Familyâs energy mine. Iâm so new to this that my grasp on the common sense of life in Interstellar Space is still spotty.â
âAnd yet, now I have to deduce where my other selfâthe one who went through everything and became so meticulousâwould have hidden the account books.â
âThis was unreal.â