Chapter 621: Earth Online

The President of Country M recognized the name.
On CAI's list of high-priority suspects, this guy was ranked near the top.
He was the President's number one henchman, having done countless dirty jobs for him over the years, his hands stained with enough blood to dye a river red.
Such a loyal henchman had actually turned against his master?
Even the President of Country M was stunned by this news.
One can only imagine the heart-wrenching pain of betrayal felt by the President, who considered him a brother, in his dying moments!
Ha, but what right did he have to laugh at others?
The President of Country M thought of his equally "loyal" former Secretary-General, John, and a bitter smile crept onto his lips.
“But I remember the files saying that Sergei was a tough nut to crack, an absolute die-hard loyalist, right? How could he have been turned?”
“The investigation revealed that Sergei’s two children, who were studying in Europe, were secretly kidnapped by a mysterious force.
They’re using them to blackmail him, claiming he had no other choice…”
“I see, that explains it.”
The President of Country M nodded, but another, even bigger question immediately arose in his mind:
Who exactly is this powerful figure, possessing such extraordinary means to kidnap Sergei’s carefully hidden children and use them to blackmail him?
"Was it those oligarchs?"
"Unlikely.
According to our intercepted intelligence, the Imperial President seems to have anticipated the oligarchs' plot to revolt and dispatched special forces preemptively.
As a result, while the oligarchs were secretly meeting, the special forces descended from the sky and wiped them all out, leaving no survivors."
This was a huge amount of information; even the President of the United States felt a bit overwhelmed.
The entire power structure of the Empire had clearly become incredibly bizarre in just one day.
The Imperial President's last order before his death was to purge all the oligarchs.
If it really was the oligarchs who hired the assassins, then this script was too dramatic—
They and the Imperial President were practically hand in hand, heart to heart, going to their deaths together, staging a real-life version of "mutual destruction, all for one."
“Rumor has it that the oligarchs first extended an olive branch to the ‘Wildfire’ organization, but ‘Wildfire’ then sold this intelligence to the Imperial President.”
“So the Imperial President preemptively struck, massacring the oligarchs?” The President of Country M deduced logically.
“But the question is, Sergei’s children, hiding in Europe, are extremely secretive. Who found them?
And who had the ability to kidnap them so stealthily?”
“Yes, Mr. President, that’s the crux of the matter.”
“…”
The President of Country M’s pupils suddenly contracted, a chilling thought rapidly forming in his mind.
“…You don’t mean to say it was ‘Wildfire’?”
“Very likely. Mr. President, as everyone knows, ‘Wildfire’s’ agents are everywhere in Europe, infiltrating every corner.”
Hearing this, all the clues connected in the President of Country M’s mind, forming a complete and terrifying chain of logic.
A series of breathtaking scenes slowly unfolded before his eyes.
"You mean...Fang Huan Investment deliberately set up this scheme from the very beginning to eliminate both sides...?"
"Mr. President, that's the only plausible explanation.
From start to finish, the President and those oligarchs were merely pawns on Fang Huan Investment's chessboard, manipulated by an unseen hand."
The intelligence officer's voice carried a chill.
"Ultimately, Fang Huan used the President to eliminate the oligarchs, and then used the oligarchs' pretext of hiring an assassin to force Sergei to kill the President."
It sounded like a fantasy, but considering everything that was happening, it was chillingly real.
"Think about it, Mr. President.
Why did those bloated, self-satisfied imperial oligarchs suddenly decide to betray their president?
When did this whole scheme begin?
It was Gao Li's collapse!
And the subsequent catalyst was Fang Huan Investment's decisive move—
precisely freezing the astronomical sums of assets the oligarchs had hidden in the Bitcoin network!
This move, cutting off their lifeline, directly cornered them."
To protect their wealth, they chose to cooperate with 'Wildfire,' plotting to assassinate the imperial president.
But 'Wildfire,' or rather Fang Huan Investment, acted like a double agent, selling intelligence to the imperial president and igniting the fuse for their conflict.
"The ultimate winner is Fang Huan Investment.
The Imperial President is dead, and the oligarchs are all wiped out.
Their frozen Bitcoin assets, worth hundreds of billions of dollars, because of their owner's death...
will forever and rightfully become ownerless, lying quietly in the servers controlled by Fang Huan."
Without firing a single shot or losing a single bullet, hundreds of billions of dollars in wealth fell into Fang Huan's pocket with ease.
"This...this is too insane!" another aide exclaimed.
"To swallow this money, he dared to turn the Empire upside down, even pushing it to the brink of collapse?
Fang Huan is incredibly audacious!"
Hearing this, the President of the United States chuckled, his laughter filled with weariness and mockery.
"You're still too young." He shook his head, looking at the naive aide with eyes like that of someone looking at an innocent child.
"Do you really think Fang Huan invested so much money and set up such a grand scheme just for a mere few hundred billion dollars?"
"Huh? Isn't that right?"
"Do you know how much money they're making in a day?
They're making a fortune in a day that you and I could never achieve in a lifetime.
That amount of money is probably nothing more than pocket money to them.
Their appetite is far greater than we imagine.
Doing this must be for a deeper, more terrifying scheme!"
The future of the empire is now shrouded in chaos.
Who will be the next president?
How will that protracted war end?
Everything is unpredictable.
But one thing is certain.
The President of Country M gazed out the window, his eyes as deep as the sea.
"Everything is proceeding flawlessly, exactly as Fang Huan Investment wrote in the script."
He knew this better than anyone.
It was true in the past, it is true now, and it will likely be true in the future.
On this planet, no matter how epic the drama, no matter how many heroes and villains rise and fall,
in this game called "Earth Online," the ultimate crown of victory, from the very beginning, has been woven for only one name.
That is, Fang Huan Investment!