Chapter 480 The Cicada Sheds Its Shell
The President of the Apocalypse Association suddenly opened his eyes, drenched in sweat.
"The gun didn't fire! I'm not dead! You have to keep your promise!"
Elbert's eyes flickered. "Promise?"
The President stiffened. "You wouldn't..."
Elbert still held the antique gun, speaking slowly, "Of course, one must keep their word."
But then, Elbert's palm began to heat up. The antique gun emitted wisps of smoke, and the barrel slowly turned red-hot.
The President stared at the barrel intently. "What's happening?"
The gunpowder inside the antique gun ignited from the heat, and the steel ball shot out instantly. A bloody hole appeared in the center of the President's forehead, blood gushing out. His eyes went blank, life rapidly fading away. "You..."
"It misfired."
Elbert's expression remained calm as he tossed the gun aside, turned around, and stepped out of the cabin, boarding the Celestial Pioneer, which quickly flew away.
The President slumped against the wall, his momentum completely gone.
...
On the Celestial Pioneer.
Robert's voice came through, "Elbert, that guy isn't dead."
"I know."
Elbert stood with his hands behind his back, quietly watching the distant stratospheric fortress. "He's not the President of the Apocalypse Association."
"What?"
Robert was full of questions. The man they just encountered had no identity records online.
"Robert, replay the footage from earlier."
Elbert's perspective showed the scene of him walking into the meeting room.
"Robert, look. He started using pine oil to wipe the gun handle, precisely."
"When his body paused and then resumed, his actions changed."
"He repeatedly got pine oil into the gun chamber!"
"Pine oil oxidizes metal and makes gunpowder damp. He must know that."
Robert was puzzled. "What does that signify?"
Elbert pondered slightly. "It signifies panic."
"You previously judged human emotions by heart rate, blood flow, and so on."
"My method is to look at human nature!"
"This President was calm before, but when the time came, he became extremely panicked, full of flaws."
"I suspect there are two people inside him!"
"One person, through a brain-machine interface, used his body to say the first three sentences to me, then disappeared."
Elbert paused. "That was the real President!"
"And this puppet President has too many flaws!"
"He didn't know Sith was dead! He didn't question me about the nuclear bomb, which means he didn't even know it would be prematurely detonated!"
"He didn't know the antique gun was always loaded."
"Such a poorly informed, insecure person could never be the meticulous President of the Apocalypse Association."
"He simply doesn't have the intelligence!"
"Elbert, I gotta say, you're getting sharper by the day!" Robert exclaimed. "How'd you figure all this out?"
Elbert spoke deeply, "When you really start paying attention, you see things differently. Everything we saw today was the real President's strategy, a 'golden cicada shedding its shell' move. He sacrificed the obvious to hide himself."
"I deliberately left this puppet President to verify my guess. Robert, check this plane!"
Moments later, Robert's voice came through, "You're right! This plane's fuel is almost gone, and there's no refueling tanker within thousands of miles! The plane's range is only 3..."
Elbert shook his head slightly. "Three miles? The real President of the Apocalypse Association is indeed ruthless!"
Robert interrupted, "No, it's 3...2...1!"
As Robert finished speaking, the distant B-52 stratospheric fortress's engines suddenly sputtered and then stopped. The pilot seemed long dead, and the plane quickly lost control, plummeting towards the ground.
Ten minutes later, a thunderous crash echoed from the ground. Thick smoke billowed as the B-52 crashed into a mountain, turning into a heap of wreckage. Elbert watched closely, ensuring no one escaped.
Robert was stunned. "Elbert, I learned something! But why didn't we trace that brain-machine interface earlier?"
Elbert squinted his eyes. "The first part of the President's speech had no pauses, didn't wait for my response. That wasn't him; it was just a 'message.' You won't find his whereabouts on that machine. Instead, it would alert him. He's good at hiding, and I don't want to lose the trail. Fighting him requires some thought. I must avenge Yulia Village and the Apex Guardians, that won't change. But we must be fully prepared, with a guaranteed kill."
Robert added, "Elbert, I need to mention, he might not be human but a program!"
Elbert raised an eyebrow. "Hmm?"
Robert continued, "I don't think anyone in the world is smarter than you!"
Elbert shook his head slightly. "Robert, that satellite has been exposed. The Apocalypse Association's mastermind won't use it again, but to eliminate future threats, we need to destroy it."
Robert agreed, "We'll have to keep tricking Sterling."
Three minutes later, Victoria's four military satellites suddenly had thruster failures, wildly adjusting positions in space, eventually colliding with a piece of space debris. Victoria's government suffered a loss of nearly $40 billion.
The Celestial Pioneer streaked across the sky, heading back to Veridiania.
"The Apocalypse Association is severely weakened; they won't act for a while," Elbert pondered. "Robert, next we need to focus on your upgrade. How's Melissa's smart shop doing?"
Robert replied, "It's doing great! In less than a month, someone wants to buy it, and it's an offer we can't refuse!"
Elbert frowned. "Who?"
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