I'm a villain in the superhero world.

On July 29, 2014, at dusk, on the ring gate line track,

The headquarters of the Dominion—Francis' Sky City—hangs silently high above, watching over the earth.

As always, every night.

[Encryption and Packaging Center - Seventh Dispatch Console]

This was the first stop on the route that Rime's report, submitted through the highest-level encrypted channel in the Far East region, took.

This vast, white space has always been filled with a soft, unnamed light source.

The towering alloy filing racks, reaching to the dome, resemble a silent forest of giants, moving slowly and rhythmically on their own.

The constant humming of gears meshing filled the air, while the subtle fragrance of books permeated the surroundings.

All signs indicate that this is one of the regular convergence points for the global information flow of the governing body.

Every moment, tens of thousands of electronic and physical reports and documents that require re-encryption, rating, and classification flow into this place.

These documents and reports are then initially screened and distributed through the massive automated system at the headquarters of the governing body.

Soon, the report from the Far East region was screened and immediately marked as urgent because it concerned the Swordholder and decision-makers.

[Communication Log - Encryption and Packaging Center, Seventh Dispatch Console]

接收时间：2014-07-29 21:47:33

Source: Far East Regional Decision Makers' Office - Designated Liaison Officer (Himi Rime)

Initial marker: [Highest Priority] - [Related to Swordholder Lü Buyi] - [Related to the Long Night Conference]

Signal decoupling, quantum key verification passed, contamination screening negative.

Format conversion successful, headquarters receiving stamp and primary classification label confirmed...

The key terms "Lü Buyi", "decision-maker", and "sword-wielder" have been detected, and the system has automatically prioritized their transmission paths to the highest level.

Because the personnel in charge of each process in between have no right to inquire about any of the matters involved.

Therefore, this paper report naturally went directly to the Secretary-General's office and was received by the Secretary-General's assistant.

The outer hall of the General Secretary's office in the top-level administrative area.

Chief Assistant to the Grand Secretary Christopher.

The man named Ellis, who always wore a sharp suit and had his hair perfectly styled, frowned as he looked at the physical document bag that had just been delivered by an internal courier.

The document bag was a specially made dark silver color, with a wax seal from the Far East Region and Rimi Himi's signature on the closure.

The bag flashes a Level 4 security symbol that can only be seen by authorized personnel.

More importantly, it was marked as "[Directly presented to decision-makers - for the Secretary-General and President]".

The Grand Secretary is currently chairing a cross-regional coordination meeting and therefore has no time to attend to this matter at the moment.

So Ellis originally planned to put the report on his desk temporarily, following his usual procedure.

But after reflecting for a moment on the character of that Far East region's decision-maker and his actions over the years...

Ellis believes that this report is probably more urgent than the meeting currently underway.

So he picked up the internal communicator, hesitated for less than a second, and then directly connected to Secretary General Christopher's private line—

This was extremely rare during the conference, but Ellis did it anyway.

"Your Excellency, I apologize for the interruption, but there is an urgent report from Lord Lü Buyi of the Far East Region, delivered by his retainer Himi Rime."

"I think you need to take a look at this immediately."

There was a two-second silence on the other end of the communicator, followed by Christopher's steady but slightly deep voice.

The voice wasn't just answering Ellis; it was also giving orders to the others in the meeting.

"Deliver it to my office."

"The meeting is paused for thirty minutes—"

Shortly thereafter, in the office of the Grand Secretary, Christopher Vandro, the Grand Secretary of the Council...

The day-to-day operations and most of the department's direct managers stand here quietly, without saying a word.

He was an elderly European man who looked to be in his fifties.

Although his silver-gray hair was still neatly combed, his deep-set face and weary eyes silently spoke volumes—

He's not young anymore.

Christopher held the report in his hand, not letting go for a long time.

He's already watched it three times, but it seems he'll need to watch it a few more times.

"Either I don't go, or the Dragon Emperor resurrects..."

Christopher repeated in a low voice, seemingly trying to force a helpless smile, but ultimately failing.

"Using this excuse to skip a long night meeting is truly unprecedented."

"The good news is that this doesn't sound like a lie; the child in the Far East region isn't trying to shirk responsibility."

"But the bad news is, this doesn't seem like a lie—the Dragon Emperor really is in danger of resurrection, right now?"

Christopher's gaze was extremely grave, and he was deeply troubled by the news.

Lu Buyi spent his childhood, from the age of twelve to sixteen, in the arduous studies of the Ivory Tower.

Christopher is the nominal principal and administrator of the Ivory Tower.

Therefore, he understands Lü Buyi, and it could even be said that he watched him grow up.

That's how he realized that while his student, the strongest Taiyin Divine Child in a thousand years, might be a bit bad at dealing with people, he was definitely not someone who spoke without reason.

Lü Buyi may be arrogant, or he may act eccentrically.

But when it comes to issues at the level of the "Dragon Emperor"—he wouldn't joke about it, much less use such a thing to brush off a meeting.

The phrase "the Dragon Emperor has been revived" can actually be interpreted in two ways.

Direct reference or metaphorical reference—these two different interpretations represent different possibilities.

The first interpretation is the literal meaning.

Lu Buyi now possesses certain conclusive signs or intelligence pointing to the imminent resurgence of the Dragon Emperor, so urgent that he must deal with it personally and has no time to spare for anything else.

The second interpretation is to use the danger and urgency of the Dragon Emperor's resurrection to represent the crisis of this event.

Lü Buyi needed the reason of "the Dragon Emperor's resurrection" as an irrefutable excuse for his absence.

—Go and deal with another matter that he considers equally important or even more important, but which cannot be discussed openly for the time being.

But either way is bad enough.

Either way, it means that something big is happening or about to happen.

Therefore, in this situation, the report should naturally be submitted to that person so that he can make the final judgment.

Christopher walked back to his desk and slowly sat down.

He opened a sealed drawer and took out an old-fashioned walkie-talkie of an unusual model.

This outdated object was completely out of place with the style of the ruling council, but who could blame him for liking such things?

Only this could allow him to directly contact Azathoth, whose true form was still observing him deep in the universe, in a short period of time.

Clicking the button on the walkie-talkie slowly brings up the president's exclusive encrypted communication interface, which then connects directly.

"We're in trouble, old friend—"

Christopher didn't beat around the bush and went straight to the point about the urgency of the situation.

"This is a really big problem."

He stared intently at the report on the table, his gaze sharp, his voice calm, each word deliberate and measured.