I created the Bureau of Anomaly Control

Inside the largest real-world stabilization device in the world.

The figure of Shadow slowly materialized in the special compartment prepared for him. This unremarkable man from the Eastern Federation straightened his collar and looked at the special identity verification device.

The door opened.

He passed through layers of security channels, going through dozens of doors with different functions before reaching his destination. In theory, they didn't need so many measures to lock Qin Luan inside, but no amount of caution was excessive when dealing with a Divine Firmament Walker.

This was not only because the price of her escape was unacceptable to the politicians, but also because of her extremely high value.

Shadow pushed open the last meaningless door and walked into the spacious and luxurious prison. The living facilities inside were quite extravagant even for the wealthy. The politicians only wanted to use her, not harm her.

And they knew they couldn't make Qin Luan submit.

The Divine Firmament Walker was sitting cross-legged on the ground not far from the entrance, with her eyes closed. In front of her was a Go board with an unfinished game.

"You're not trying to contact some subconscious ocean creatures to save you, are you?" Shadow joked. "If so, save your energy. I'm in charge of mental-level operations."

Qin Luan slowly opened her eyes and looked at Shadow standing in front of the door, her expression as if she had just woken up from a dream.

"No," she said with a smile. "I'm just doing the simplest meditation."

Shadow walked to a spot one meter away from her, directly opposite, and also sat down cross-legged:

"You should have seen your new believers, right?"

As his voice fell, the embedded invisible screen on the wall lit up, showing a place where nearly two thousand ability users lived. Everywhere were statues and murals of the Divine Firmament Walker. They were all wearing the same clothes and often whispering sentences that were difficult to hear.

The Divine Firmament Walker maintained her gaze on Shadow:

"What did they send you here for?"

Shadow smiled:

"What, shouldn't we catch up first, then chat about the outside world, and then get down to business? You haven't had a living person to talk to these days, have you?"

The Divine Firmament Walker lowered her head and stared at the already set up Go board:

"Compared to what I'm facing, loneliness is not a challenge. And I'm just a mortal now. Being with a dangerous powerhouse like you makes me feel uneasy."

"No need to mock me," Shadow replied. "And even if you hate me, aren't you at all interested in the whereabouts of your sister, or your followers? You should care about them."

Black and white Go pieces were reflected in the Divine Firmament Walker's eyes:

"I can see that you didn't catch Qin Lan."

Shadow instantly showed a shocked expression, but then he quickly calmed down:

"If you could really see, you wouldn't tell me.

"But you're right, Qin Lan is indeed still at large. But Ma En, who helped her escape our search, is almost in our grasp. I'm curious...

"If he is caught by us, how long can your sister hide?"

The Divine Firmament Walker had no intention of paying attention to him.

Shadow was not discouraged by this:

"Did you arrange for Ma En? Is he some kind of contingency plan of yours?"

The Divine Firmament Walker shook her head:

"You're worried about this?

"Then I can tell you, he wasn't arranged by me. If I really saw that my sister would be in danger and had arranged someone there in advance, I would definitely also see what you wanted to do to me.

"So you should also be able to imagine that whether you can catch Qin Lan through him is also unknown to me. You can try as much as you like, after all, I have no way to stop you.

"I've already lost, haven't I?"

Shadow raised the corner of his mouth and said:

"That's right, since that's the case, why are you still resisting?

"You should know that you only have two choices—death or acceptance.

"And as long as you cooperate, you will become the Minister of the Investigation Department. You will gain even more power than you had in the past. You can act according to your own ideas. You can still save the world, and it might even be easier than before. All they want is...

"Just insurance."

Insurance that politicians will never be threatened or overthrown by her.

The Divine Firmament Walker smiled:

"You should know why?"

Shadow did know.

There was only one reason that could prevent this savior from cooperating.

That was that if she really cooperated, there would be no way to save the world.

On this point, the politicians' interests seemed to be completely consistent with hers, but in reality, there was a subtle difference.

That was that Qin Luan had lived longer than all of them. What she wanted to prevent was not only the destruction of the world while these politicians were still alive. The savior's goal was to ensure that the world would never step into the abyss of collapse.

But the politicians' demands were only that they and their descendants for several generations would be safe and sound. Even if there were any problems at that time, their descendants would naturally solve them. And they also craved to live longer than mortals, so this time was not even several hundred years.

But the Divine Firmament Walker's ambition was too great. There was definitely no way for her to reach an agreement with them.

"Not only that," she said as if she could read minds, "If I can't threaten their position, there's no way to stop the end of the world. I'm not saying I want to kill them.

"It's enough as long as they're still afraid of me."

Shadow shook his head:

"This won't look good.

"Before long, my people will catch that Ma En and bring Qin Lan to me through him. Then they will definitely use your sister to threaten you, propose a condition that you can accept, and take another step forward in controlling you.

"Then they will constantly repeat similar practices, and you won't have such good treatment then."

The Divine Firmament Walker replied:

"She will understand me."

Shadow looked into her eyes and said:

"You can't fool me. I'm one of the strongest mental ability users.

"I know very well that you're not that kind of person at all."

Qin Luan replied with a smile:

"You think you understand me?"

Shadow said:

"Yes, you're just trying to avoid us using your sister and other things as conditions to threaten you by acting heartless. Acting tough can indeed work sometimes, but you know what they're capable of.

"And no matter what, you will yield to us. This is the simplest game theory.

"As you said, the end of the world is coming. There are two ways to stop it: they let you out, or you voluntarily put shackles on yourself and regain enough power to fight it.

"They know you will surrender first.

"Because they are not the savior...

"But you are."