Chương 196: B2 Chapter 195: Bayesian Crocodile

Eyxim crossed two fingers over her palm, twisted her wrist, then finished with another small gesture. The building immediately locked in. Steel plates rose behind them and folded across the entrance, cutting off the street. Thin red targeting lines appeared at the same time, spilling from the walls, ceiling, and hidden corners until bright dots rested across all five of them. Nothing actually shot them, but Meno was not giving the system points for restraint yet.

Eyxim dropped her hands and stood behind the reception desk again, perfectly comfortable with the fact that Hyperion had just sealed five streamers inside and painted them with targeting lasers.

"Is this necessary?" Meno asked.

"Yes," Eyxim said.

"A qualified person has been notified, but he is currently not present inside the building. Be patient."

"Do you guys not have phones?" Karmabeast asked. Eyxim ignored him and kept looking straight ahead. Arayu had already wandered over to one of the aquariums. She pressed her face close to the glass and tapped near a passing shark, trying to get any reaction out of it. The shark cared even less than Eyxim.

"PBG, can you seriously explain?" Karmabeast asked.

"I can't Deflect projectiles IRL." Meno needed to calm him down without saying anything useful to the microphones. Confusion was safer.

"Think of a dragon," Meno said.

"Dragons don't exist. Make it more realistic, or I can't imagine it," Karmabeast said.

"Fine. Crocodile. You throw a chicken in. Chicken disappears, more crocodile. Chicken survives, less crocodile."

"What if there was never a crocodile?" Thorn asked.

"Then we learn that instantly," Meno said. Aurelia folded her arms.

"Meno, I expected you to take us to Feltforge or raid a TV studio for content, but you have managed to exceed all my expectations. If you cause a world-state progression in real life, it won't come with a nice notification and a reward." Meno glanced toward Eyxim, then sent it anyway.

"BrineSaint was right. It doesn't matter if you can beat the content. If it takes too long, the losers following the river will eat all the fish. It's inefficient, but I am not sitting in a boat queue." Thorn started to interrupt.

"I thought this was about—""Don't," Meno said. Eyxim's attention shifted for half a second. Good. It was still too early to hand her a convenient explanation. There was no universe where half the tower was not watching them like a stream, trying to work out how PrayerBeadGod had walked in off the street and started reviewing a classified KKF like they had sold it to him with a warranty. Hyperion's worst possible customer had arrived unannounced. They could not casually make Meno disappear.

Millions watched his movements, his last public post tagged Hyperion directly, and four other high-profile streamers were standing beside him. But leaving him alone was not simple either, because he clearly knew things he should not. Hyperion had absurd damage, but Meno had Reflect. Swinging randomly was a bad trade. He pulled out his phone to take another picture and found a dead black screen. The side button did nothing. His phone was a brick. Meno held it toward Aurelia.

She checked her own phone, got the same result, and let out a short nervous laugh. Feltforge could have disabled their phones remotely, or Hyperion could be suppressing every unprotected device inside the building. Either way, Meno was glad he had posted before walking inside. They spent another seventeen minutes watching sharks circle behind glass while Eyxim remained behind the desk and Arayu continued talking to the sharks. Eventually, Eyxim stepped away and motioned for them to follow.

The dark steel elevator behind reception was large enough for all six of them, but it had no buttons, floor display, or visible interface. Eyxim did not even use the hand gestures this time. The doors shut, and the elevator simply started moving without giving Meno any clue whether they were going up or down. That had to be intentional. The whole building looked hack-proof. No exposed controls, convenient network panels, or buttons to tear out and bridge manually.

Everything had to be controlled from somewhere else, either high above them or buried farther underground. When the doors opened, the lobby had been replaced by one enormous executive lounge. There were no offices and barely any walls. Leather chairs surrounded low tables, polished smoke trays sat beside them, and a fully stocked bar covered one side of the floor. Instead of skyscraper windows, huge curved aquariums wrapped around the outer walls, with tentacles drifting through the dark blue water.

Hyperion was seriously obsessed with fish.

"Those are octopus-pus," Arayu said.

"So cute." Arayu immediately abandoned the group to tap on another aquarium while Eyxim led everyone else toward the largest seating area. An old man was already waiting for them. He looked at least seventy, with cropped grey hair, a trimmed beard, and a dark suit with no visible branding anywhere. He barely acknowledged their approach, more interested in the crystal tumbler in his hand and several tiny colored vials lined up on the table. He emptied two vials into the drink, turning the liquid black.

The old man glanced at Eyxim. She pointed the group toward the seats, then turned and headed back to the elevator without a word, while he drank the black sludge in one go. Meno sat opposite him, Aurelia on his left and Karmabeast on his right, while Thorn took a chair off to the side and Arayu remained by the octopuses. The old man looked them over without giving Meno much to read.

"I'm Xarr Darion, President of Hyperion." Aurelia sucked in a sharp breath. Meno nudged her thigh with his knee before she could ruin the vibe.

"Hey, I'm Meno Varsh, also known as PrayerBeadGod. This is—""We know who you all are." Good. Meno had been about to introduce Karmabeast before realizing he did not know his real name, which was slightly embarrassing.

"That's cool," Meno said.

"Can you tell me if President is above the CEO? Below? Sideways? Who am I talking to?" Aurelia gave Meno a look that promised retaliation later.

"Interesting," Xarr said.

"Whoever coached you should have told you that much. The information is public, and the CEO works for me. Now take off the sunglasses. I would prefer to see your eyes while we talk." Karmabeast and Aurelia both reached for their sunglasses, but Meno stopped them. Xarr was right about the information being public; the problem was that looking up Hyperion's leadership on his phone would have left a trail, while asking Aurelia would have given away the destination entirely.

Meno had used the Feltforge building as a fakeout for exactly that reason, and the suits and glasses were part of the same cover. The glasses also provided Crowd Control protection and Avoidance by keeping Xarr out of his eyes, so Meno was definitely not taking them off. If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

"Can't take them off. They are part of the set. We need the bonus since you have a level advantage here." The sunglasses procced immediately. Xarr's focus slipped for half a second before returning to Meno, enough to confirm someone was feeding him translations. Perfect. Xarr had picked up an Action Speed debuff: Meno could talk to the others in game language while Xarr needed an extra moment to process what any of it meant.

"What is your purpose here?" Xarr asked.

"Who coached you on what to say about our technology?"

"We can get to the purpose soon, but I still have a few questions first. As for coaching, believe me, it would have been nice, but no. I had to figure out how to use your Phantom myself in a live setting. The companion AI was trash, so I put it into full support mode. Less than optimal, but the raid had an enrage timer, so it couldn't be helped." Karmabeast gave Meno a nervous look. His brain was finally putting enough pieces together to realize this was not a sponsor meeting.

Thorn had sprawled back in his chair and was staring at the ceiling, his lips moving around something that looked suspiciously like Chest Monday, legs someday. Maybe if the crew pumps, I lead the way had started carrying more responsibility than expected. Aurelia had gone the other direction. The tension had slowly drained from her shoulders until she looked almost comfortable with whatever Meno had dragged her into. Xarr showed nothing.

He reached into his jacket, removed another vial, orange this time, and emptied it into the glass.

"Would you like something to drink? Then we can get to your questions," Xarr said. Meno was not letting Hyperion casually drug him, but refusing outright would tell them exactly what he was thinking. He turned toward Karmabeast.

"Could you grab Arayu and make us some Honeyjuice at the bar? You are good with cocktails, right?"

"I am going. Me," Thorn said immediately, pointing at Karma.

"You stay here."

"Like hell I let you be alone with Arayu." Karmabeast stood. Xarr said nothing about the romantic aggro unfolding in front of him, but the next swallow from his glass came noticeably harder. Meno caught the crack and filed it.

"Why do you guys even exist?" Meno asked.

"The world is at peace. No wars." Xarr looked at him like he had just said the dumbest possible thing. Meno could not tell whether the old man was still waiting for the hidden point of the question. Aurelia was already fighting a smile.

"Peace is a fragile thing, my young friend," Xarr said.

"It requires protection and constant renegotiation. During wars, credits dry up and lose value. It's bad for business. Hyperion is a company for peace and does not support wars." There it was. Full corporate script. Xarr still had no read on who had sent Meno, how much he knew, or what he had come to Hyperion for. Until he solved that, he was not giving up anything real, which meant Meno still had leverage.

"Okay, how about this," Meno said.

"Let's start with a small exchange. You do a small gesture for me, then I tell you how to improve the Phantom." Xarr finally shifted in his chair.

"There have only ever been three Phantoms produced, and they have never been deployed or tested in a live setting. We never sold a single unit. You see how the implications are extremely severe." Meno had not expected that at all, and the only explanation his brain produced was Feltforge hacking Hyperion, stealing the crafting recipe, and building a fourth Phantom behind everyone's backs. That tracked for Morlando.

"I don't know what to tell you," Meno said.

"The fourth one must have fallen off the truck in transit. Maybe rogues invaded your factory or you have a shapeshifter problem." Meno could practically see the damage stacking. His Chain was ramping hard. If Meno were not high-profile enough to create immediate consequences, they would probably have put him in a basement room until every useful fact had been extracted.

"How much do you want?" Xarr asked.

"How about fifty million?" Aurelia took another sharp breath. Meno was unimpressed. Fifty million sounded enormous until he remembered an XUltra cost roughly twice that, and he had not come here for money anyway. Credits were not the bottleneck.

"Don't need credits. I want information unrelated to Hyperion." Xarr's eyebrows pulled together.

"Unrelated?" Meno let him sit with that.

"I have to admit I am impressed," Xarr said.

"It has been a while since someone managed to cause this level of shitstorm. Speak."

"Okay. Sunday evening, after Veyrath shut down, my girlfriend Rina just poof disappeared without a word. You can look her up online. She is a famous adult content creator. None of it makes sense, and that is what I need your help with." Aurelia snapped her attention toward him.

"You can't be serious." Meno put one finger to his lips. Maintain position. They were getting close to the next phase, that punished movement. Xarr raised one hand and slowly massaged his temple.

"You came to Hyperion with classified information because your girlfriend left you?"

"It's a bit more complicated than that. I don't want to explain the whole story. I just need you to confirm a few things. It shouldn't be hard with your resources." Meno counted them off.

"First, I want to know if she is affiliated with the government, Senfestra, or anyone else who might use her as a honeytrap. Second, I want to know if she or her brother, who used JustrelaxPete in Veyrath, has been kidnapped. I don't know his real name. Third, I want her current location. I was told she left Vernova toward Fenferro and continued north, but the source is not trustworthy."

"My people are on it," Xarr said.

"They will need time. In the meantime, tell me about the Phantom. The engineers are listening and will confirm the veracity of your statements."

"No. You deliver first. What I'm asking for is trivial compared with the value of my feedback." Meno settled deeper into the sofa.

"We can wait. After that, I'm happy to argue with your crafters. The problem with those people is they stand in the city all day getting fed materials and barely touch the actual content." Xarr watched him for several seconds.

"Okay. Then we wait." Karmabeast and Thorn finally returned with Arayu and a tray of drinks, including one for Xarr. The Honeyjuice looked nothing like the version from the party or The Pearl. It was bright poison green instead of somewhere between yellow and orange, but Meno took a sip and found the citrus still worked.

"Why is it green?" Meno asked.

"Arayu said green stuff was healthier, so I put Midori in it," Karmabeast said.

"Some kind of melon liqueur. The citrus overpowers the taste." Arayu took a large sip.

"Yummy, right?" Meno raised his glass toward Xarr.

"Go ahead and try. It's good. Karma made it with your own bottles, so it's definitely not poisoned." Xarr picked up the drink, smelled it first, then took a small sip and let it sit on his tongue. Meno waited for the appreciation. Nothing.

"Good, right?" Meno asked.

"It's not really a set drink. More like an idea, if you get what I mean."

"Nobody understands you, Meno," Aurelia said.

"I can assure you of that."

"Speak for yourself, blondie," Karmabeast said.

"I get him just fine." The regret arrived too late. Aurelia set down her glass and launched herself over Meno toward Karma, sandwiching Meno between them as she crawled across the sofa. He twisted sideways and held his Honeyjuice behind the backrest to keep it out of the fight.

"Sorry, stop!" Karmabeast said.

"I am ticklish." Aurelia went straight for his neck. Karma covered it with both hands, successfully protecting one weak point while leaving another completely exposed. She hit the nipple twister. Karmabeast yelped loud enough to make one of the nearby octopuses change direction. Satisfied, Aurelia crawled back over Meno and returned to her seat with a smug expression. Meno looked at Xarr and almost laughed. Priceless. The President of Hyperion had finally taken Crowd Control that pierced immunity.

Arayu immediately extended the combo by getting up and sitting directly in Thorn's lap, dealing more burst damage to Karmabeast without saying a word. They waited another half hour, mostly filling the time with banter while Xarr's patience bar visibly drained. Then his focus shifted elsewhere before snapping back to Meno. Whatever he had been waiting for had arrived.

"Okay. I have the information you requested, as much as it was possible to get on short notice." The banter died.

"Let me begin by saying that Rina Serrin traveled from Vernova through Fenferro to Sattlen. She had painted her hair black and deployed advanced autoscrappers throughout the trip, making standard camera surveillance almost useless." So Grandpa had not been lying. Awkward.

"From Sattlen, she took a plane to Skyline this morning under the name Kate Moreno. Our sensor network traced her from the airport to the Senfestra tower nearby. We could not confirm that she has a brother. The username JustrelaxPete belongs to an elementary school teacher in Solena." That hit harder. Pete was not her brother, which meant the note Meno had decoded so confidently had just lost its entire foundation.

"There are strong signs that Rina Serrin is affiliated with Senfestra," Xarr said.

"We cannot confirm in what capacity. We found no evidence that she was kidnapped or traveling under duress. She traveled alone." Damn. That landed harder than Meno expected. The hidden phone made sense now. They knew it was compromised, and the note did not need to be some elaborate coded message. Rina could have been telling herself to relax because she had quit the assignment, with food rotation meaning exactly what it looked like: keep everything normal until she left. Or there could still have been more to it.

She might have started as a honeytrap and ended up caring enough to leave Meno something he could interpret as a warning not to follow. Either way, the important part did not change. Rina had played him. Hard. She had taken one random stream moment, Meno running over JustrelaxPete with a Gravewurm, and turned it into something he would remember. When the name appeared again, she used it as the perfect excuse to reconcile and patch over the fake drama she had created in the first place. That was a pro move.

If Rina had simply approached him as a fan, Meno would have pushed her away. Instead, she had built a mechanic, triggered it, and let Meno think he had solved it himself.

"Fuck!" The word came out hard enough to make everyone jump. Aurelia put one hand against his back.

"Fuck indeed." Thorn pulled out his phone, but the screen stayed black.

"The second we get out of here, I am canceling my subscription."