Chapter 101: So That’s How It Is?

Chapter 101: It Was Like This All Along?

What?

The R&D data for the newest weapons was stolen?!

When they realized some firearms were missing, everyone’s stomachs dropped—but they still tried to comfort themselves by thinking it might not be that serious.

After all, a missing gun didn’t necessarily mean it had been stolen. Every year, there were always one or two scatterbrained colleagues who accidentally left their guns somewhere before turning them back in, thinking they’d lost them entirely.

But usually, those guns weren’t truly gone—they were found pretty quickly.

Even if a gun really was lost, it didn’t automatically spell disaster. Maybe some punk kid jacked it to look cool, or some clueless civilian swiped it as a toy. The odds of someone actually using it for crime were about as good as a snowball’s chance in hell.

And even if the worst happened, the ammunition in a service pistol was limited. A retooled range gun from a shooting club could do just as much damage. If someone was bent on committing a crime, they’d find a way regardless. Sure, it’s bad—but losing the blueprints would be far worse.

Setting aside the firepower gap between a single gun and advanced weaponry, the difference between losing a gun and losing weapon development data was like losing one fish versus losing the whole damn net.

In fact, this wasn’t just losing a net—it was losing an entire net-making workshop.

Once they realized the weapon blueprints had been stolen, everyone’s hearts sank straight to the bottom.

But that wasn’t even the worst part.

“Besides the blueprints, the finished products are also missing.”

“It’s not just weapons—top-secret prototypes have disappeared too.”

“Including, but not limited to, nuclear technology, aerospace tech, biotech…”

“Even the Commander-in-Chief’s stamp is gone!”

[Holy—!]

Sheng Qingquan was shocked, but also lost.

“What would they want with the stamp? To fake paperwork?”

“But that’s completely useless.”

“Once the theft is discovered, the stamp will be voided on the spot. And all recent and upcoming documents stamped with it will be gone over with a fine-tooth comb under much stricter standards. Any forged documents wouldn’t fly—they’d be exposed even faster.”

“Most importantly, a document isn’t valid just because it has a stamp. Just the fraud safeguards I know of include at least two or three hidden watermarks/tells.”

“Maybe the thief doesn’t know about these?”

Sheng Qingquan thought about it. He himself had only learned about these subtle tells once he started working with officials.

Maybe it was normal for ordinary people not to know?

“Or maybe they do know, and they stole the stamp not to fake anything, but to throw weight around or spit in our eye?”

“But whatever their game…”

Sheng Qingquan was well aware of just how tightly secured the Supreme Leader's office was. The difficulty of stealing the official stamp from within was unimaginably high.

Not to mention, even without knowing the exact security measures of the nation's top-secret laboratories, it stood to reason that something classified as "highest secrecy" would naturally have the highest level of protection.

Yet, despite all this, they still succeeded.

This was in a league of its own compared to stealing a service weapon from a police officer, medicines from a hospital, or toxic chemicals from a factory.

And it wasn’t just a fluke.

They succeeded again and again.

"The mastermind is way too powerful."

Judging by their actions, Sheng Qingquan found it hard to convince himself that they meant no harm.

"If before the first disappearance, one could argue there might have been lapses in security, after the initial loss of materials and finished products, every lab had already gone on maximum alert."

"Not just security personnel—even ordinary researchers were on high alert during work. Yet despite all precautions, even under one-on-one or multiple-person surveillance, items still vanished into thin air in plain sight."

"There was simply no way to trace them. It was as if an invisible hand had reached out from the void and taken them away."

"As time passed, not only did the stolen items grow increasingly classified, but the quantity taken each time also multiplied."

"If earlier it was petty theft—an apple here, a tube of toothpaste there—or even when stealing documents, only one copy would disappear at a time (albeit repeatedly in a short span), now they were taking large quantities at once."

"It was less like theft and more like full-on looting."

"Some labs were completely emptied out."

"Gone without a trace."

"Research data, results, samples, materials, instruments… even lab benches, test tubes, beakers, chairs, desks, trash cans—everything, useful or not, including the building itself—was taken away."

"All that remained was a gaping hole in the ground."

"And the people inside it."

"Nothing was left behind except the stunned researchers. That was as thorough as 'emptying' could get."

If this didn’t qualify as "emptying," Sheng Qingquan couldn’t imagine what would.

"We should just be glad they didn’t take the people along."

"There’s absolutely no clue how the mastermind, or organization, managed this."

"It’s beyond comprehension."

An entire laboratory, building and all, disappearing entirely.

Just the thought of it felt surreal. Had it not been for the weird occurrences witnessed over the past two years, they might have doubted the reality of it all.

"Actually, the real prize in a lab are the people. It’s not as if the perpetrators couldn’t take living beings—that might have been true initially, but by now, that clearly wasn’t a limitation anymore. Otherwise, when clearing out the lab, they wouldn’t have left just the humans behind—experimental animals would’ve remained too."

"But in reality, nothing was spared except the people."

Before this, Sheng Qingquan had suspected that the mastermind, or organization, might have awakened some extraordinary lineage, decided they were above the ordinary, and aimed to seize power, stealing resources to prepare.

Now, the more he observed, the less that held up.

"Ordinary people might gain such powerful abilities after awakening, but could they really have such fine control?"

"The precision control is this exacting?"

Removing an entire laboratory while leaving the staff unharmed and fully alert—could a novice really pull that off?

Even if they weren’t complete beginners by then, looking back, when they first started stealing things—like delicious meals—they didn’t damage the tables or spill the dishes. They just cleanly lifted the food along with the plates. Could someone who had just awakened really manage that?

Sheng Qingquan tried putting himself in their shoes and concluded he couldn’t. He’d never stolen food, but as for a laboratory, he estimated that if he piloted a mech in cloaking mode, he could remove the entire lab without being noticed.

But he couldn’t selectively leave the staff behind while taking only the lab. Nor could he make the lab vanish into thin air.

If it were him, the lab would probably be torn from its foundation and then float away publicly.

No chance he’d pull it off as smoothly as the other party.

"If the entity behind this has such capabilities, why go through all this trouble? They could just muscle their way to power."

"Crises at home and abroad!" one staff member sighed.

With insiders causing unrest and transdimensional entities hovering like vultures, it’s no wonder Providence handed Tianlanxing a cheat like the Prophecy Book.

If not for the Prophecy Book—or if it hadn’t fallen into the hands of someone as upright as Sheng Qingquan—Tianlanxing would’ve been destroyed countless times by now.

"If it’s not someone with awakened bloodlines, then is it aliens?"

Sheng Qingquan kept doubting until he finally flipped to the next chapter to see the plot directly.

No matter what, the answer would surely come up later.

"So that’s what it was?!"

Sheng Qingquan’s pupils dilated violently.

"Tianlanxing was being treated as a looting ground by a system."

"Right! When I read system novels, why did it never occur to me—where do all those reward items the system gives its hosts come from?"

"Legitimate systems like the one in the 'Divine Child Training Game' are one thing, but how many of those rogue systems actually obtain their goods legally?"

"Tianlanxing just had the bad luck of running into such a lawless system."

"And became its unpaid resource pool."

"Looking at it this way, it makes sense. Early on, when the host was low-level and weak, the system’s rewards were laughable—practically worthless. Like a pack of tissues or a lighter."

"But as the host completed more tasks and leveled up, the rewards improved in both quantity and quality."

"And it wasn’t just about rewards. The system stole so frequently not just to fulfill rewards but also to fill its system marketplace for free."

"How is this any different from theft or robbery?!"

"Our breakthroughs just vanished like that. Especially scientific achievements—researchers bled their hearts dry, grinding away for decades before finally seeing results. And before they could even revel in it, their work was plundered. If there were backups, fine, but if not..."

The mere thought made Sheng Qingquan’s blood boil.

"Not to mention the valuable research—even something as simple as a cup or a bottle of shower gel. Didn’t the owners pay for those? If they threw them away themselves, that’s just their own loss. But what entitled the system to take them without paying a dime?"

That's right, they could've just done legit business.

The Azure Star faction is still too weak!

From now on, during days off, we'll add two hours of extra training! The staff members swore under their breath. If they can't control anything else, at least they can control themselves.

"But..."

Sheng Qingquan still felt puzzled.

"If the system is 'restocking,' what's the point of taking used items?"

*Even a bootleg system wouldn’t reward its host with men’s worn underwear or half-finished lipsticks, right?*

"The system can't be that desperate—*that’s just pathetic.*"

"What’s the point of a hundred used underwear and a hundred half-finished lipsticks?! Even tissues would be better than this crap!"

"Wait!"

Sheng Qingquan kept reading and was shocked to discover—

"After receiving someone else's worn underwear and used lipstick, the host was actually thrilled?!"