[Hegemony Company New Moon City Branch, Secret Meeting Room]

Zhao Yiming stood alone in front of the giant holographic screen, the walls and floor of the room pitch black, only the screen’s cold blue light revealing him clearly.

The screen was divided into six sections, showing not real people but abstract images.

The King, with an imposing and lofty gaze.

The Empress, both beautiful and cold.

The towering and solid Chariot.

The Bishop, with a face full of sorrow.

The Knight, with eyes sharp as blades.

The Pawn, with a resolute and unyielding expression.

In front of the six massive holographic images, Zhao Yiming seemed like a humble ant, needing to exert effort just to look up at them.

Silence spread with a sense of oppression, time seemed to stall, every second stretched infinitely.

Then, a deep voice sounded, the Pawn spoke first: "Zhao, New Moon City has been quite lively recently."

Zhao Yiming nodded in response: "Thank you for your concern, the recent events have already been settled."

The Pawn’s voice suddenly grew heavy: "We do not like this kind of liveliness."

Zhao Yiming’s fingers twitched involuntarily.

Knight: "Not to mention the dead, they’re insignificant. But causing such an uproar in the city, what do you think it benefits us?"

Zhao Yiming: "I’m cleaning up this matter, and will provide the board with a satisfactory answer."

Bishop: "The intelligence department said you sent someone unrelated to this matter to surrender."

Zhao Yiming: "Yes."

"Explain why." The Empress commanded.

Zhao Yiming: "The company’s information security team analyzed the virus’s source code, in its language structure, I saw very familiar logic... I know who wrote it, but I don’t want the Public Security Bureau to bother her."

Empress: "She’s one of yours?"

Zhao Yiming: "No. We used to work together, she’s a hacker who later left the company for personal reasons."

The Chariot’s emotionless voice came: "You should know the principle — if someone has strength but cannot be used by the company, they should be dealt with early."

Zhao Yiming: "I remember the principle. But I want to keep her because she’ll be useful in the future."

Pawn: "Zhao, you think too much, right now the most important thing is next year’s Upper Court Council election rather than your little maneuvers."

The Bishop added: "New Moon City should have been the company’s advantage city, but currently among the 8 governing commissioners, 3 clearly support the Iron Blood Alliance, 1 supports the Black Domain Group, and only 2 support us."

"With the remaining 2 undecided, losing any one would be incredibly detrimental. And you’re still here doing insignificant things."

Zhao Yiming closed his dry lips, his gaze somewhat unsteady, seemingly struggling inwardly.

After hesitating for a moment, he said solemnly: "Forgive my offense, dear board members. The reason for this situation, I believe, is prior strategic mistakes made by the headquarters in New Moon City."

"We were always trying to win over the officials and societal elites within those financial groups, attempting top-down control over New Moon City."

"This strategy may work in other cities, but New Moon City has a very special environment, it’s the Mercenary City, with mercenaries infiltrating all social strata, influencing all aspects of New Moon City."

"Any top-down orders, if the city’s mercenaries don’t cooperate, simply cannot be executed, even forcibly, it will involve extremely high costs."

"Before I took office in New Moon City, the Iron Blood Alliance had already been cultivating the mercenary realm for decades, now mercenaries like King of Mercenaries Zhou Hanyan, along with many mid-large mercenary corps, were all fostered by them."

"Iron Blood controls the mercenaries in the middle class, affecting all aspects of social life below, and promoting officials to issue directives beneficial to them above."

"Pardon my straightforwardness, board members, New Moon City is no longer the company’s advantage zone, we’re slowly losing the competition here."

The Empress said with undeniable conviction: "Speak of the future, don’t speak of the past."

Zhao Yiming: "My thought is simple, the old pattern dominated by the Iron Blood Alliance must be broken, New Moon City needs a new King of Mercenaries."

Bishop: "Recently, the most promising mercenary newcomer is New Moon Seven Stars, I remember there’s an insider among them, do you plan to support him?"

Zhao Yiming: "That guy, although somewhat capable, is essentially a wastrel; without his father he’s nothing, will never amount to much."

Empress: "You plan to support who, Mo Xue?"

Zhao Yiming: "Edge."

Empress: "Hmm."

Bishop: "Edge is closely linked to the Iron Blood Alliance, their leader started by relying on Audiana and Dress, two intermediaries with close cooperation with Iron Blood, how do you intervene?"

Zhao Yiming: "Intermediaries are intermediaries, mercenaries are mercenaries, although their relationship is close, they’re independent of each other. Edge is still small, Iron Blood hasn’t even looked at them seriously, this is our opportunity to intervene."

Empress: "Sounds like you’re confident."

Zhao Yiming: "From Edge’s operation to defeat Tigerfang, it’s evident that Su Mo values companions greatly. Therefore, I’ll assist him by giving him a companion, this person will become our future leverage to control him."

Bishop: "You mentioned earlier, that hacker is not yours, will she comply?"

Zhao Yiming: "She won’t, but I can turn her into a piece in Edge, with the right opportunity."

Empress: "If the opportunity never arises?"

Zhao Yiming: "Then I’ll create an opportunity, everything is already in place."

The meeting room fell silent, as if all the board’s questions had been answered.

Zhao Yiming’s tense nerves slightly relaxed amid the silence.

Then, the King who hadn’t spoken from the beginning finally said something.

His voice was calm, but precisely because of this calmness came supreme authority: "Xiaozhao, remember the chess games we played a dozen years ago, your skills left a deep impression on me."

"Ordinary people see step by step, but you’re a strategic player, seeing a hundred steps ahead."

Zhao Yiming nodded humbly, his racing heart seemed to burn hotter.

King: "But it seems, you can only see a hundred steps."

Instantly, Zhao Yiming’s pupils dilated, his entire form frozen like a statue.

The holographic images on the screen began to darken, board members going offline one after another.

Changing lights and shadows intermingled on Zhao Yiming’s face, chaotic and tangled.

Finally, only the King’s majestic and imposing image remained on the screen.

The King spoke slowly: "Xiaozhao, President Jiang of your branch will retire next year, and it’s been a while since you returned to headquarters to catch up with me... I look forward to your return, to play a good game of chess."

Fire rekindled in Zhao Yiming’s vague eyes, he bowed deeply to the King in front of him, remained bent over even after the holographic image vanished.