"Mr. Miki? What a rare visitor. What wind has blown you to my humble home?"
The air seemed to have been sucked out of Grant’s living room in an instant.
"Who is he?" Lance Blue asked Yvette Grant, who was standing closest to him, as he looked at the kindly old man before them.
Yvette Grant glanced at him and explained, "He’s Uncle Miki, the founder of DOS and a member of the Union Council."
Lance Blue’s heart skipped a beat.
???
Miki—the founder of DOS, one of the most powerful figures in Union City.
He stood in the doorway, wearing an impeccably polite smile.
Lance Blue glanced at Grant. The latter apparently had known this big shot for a long time.
Behind Miki’s gold-rimmed glasses, his gaze swept over every inch of the room like a precision instrument before finally settling on Lance Blue.
"Mr. Miki?"
Grant repeated himself, the trace of surprise in his voice swiftly suppressed and replaced by calmness.
"Please, sit. Mrs. Zhang, please make some tea."
Miki entered unhurriedly.
He took the seat of honor on the sofa, relaxed as though he were in his own study.
"Don’t be so tense." Miki’s voice remained gentle, carrying the casual familiarity of an elder speaking to a junior. "I was simply passing through the area, remembered you lived around here, and stopped by to see you."
He looked at Lance Blue. His eyes narrowed slightly behind the lenses, and his smile deepened.
His gaze lingered for a moment on the terminal at Lance Blue’s wrist, then shifted to Yvette Grant. He nodded in greeting. "Yvette is home. How diligent."
His eyes settled on Lance Blue’s face again.
"This must be the hero Miracle? Seeing you in person truly surpasses anything I’d heard. You have even more presence than you do in footage." His praise was gentle and appropriate.
Yet it made Lance Blue feel uncomfortable, as though he had been placed beneath a spotlight.
"You flatter me, Uncle Miki."
Lance Blue gave a brief response and walked over to sit on the armchair beside Grant.
Yvette Grant also silently entered the living room and sat in a chair slightly behind Lance Blue.
The tea arrived, steam curling upward. Miki lifted his teacup and gently blew on it, in no hurry to drink.
"Grant, you seem to have been quite busy lately?" he began conversationally.
"The news industry has suffered a great loss without an investigative reporter like you."
"I’m only doing what I want to do." Grant’s answer was flawless.
Miki lifted his teacup and gently blew on it. "Everyone has their own ambitions." His tone was composed. Then he said,
"Grant, I won’t beat around the bush."
He set down his cup, and his smile faded slightly, revealing a measure of solemnity.
"I came today primarily for two matters. The first concerns that... heartbreaking plane crash not long ago."
Grant’s back straightened almost imperceptibly.
From the exquisite briefcase he carried with him, Miki took out a thin encrypted data pad and placed it on the coffee table. With a tap of his fingertip, he brought up an illustrated report.
The footage was somewhat blurry, clearly filmed from high altitude or a great distance.
But two figures could clearly be made out battling fiercely above the clouds, the shockwaves they unleashed warping the air.
Complex streams of data and analytical annotations filled the side of the report.
"This is part of the analysis of residual energy at the scene, along with some unreleased surveillance footage, which I gathered using private resources within forty-eight hours of the accident," Miki said evenly.
"The conclusion is clear. The direct cause of the accident was an unreported, high-intensity confrontation between the heroes Vortex and Fracture in the airspace beneath a civilian flight route—a confrontation that severely exceeded safety regulations."
"MG’s Vortex unleashed a vortex to seize the upper hand, while DOS’s Fracture..." He paused meaningfully here.
"Used a matter-disintegration field in retaliation. The turbulent interference created by the overlap of those two forces happened to breach a weak point in the right wing of Flight AIR712, causing cascading structural failure."
He raised his eyes toward Grant, then looked at Lance Blue.
"The official report blurred the cause into a mechanical malfunction and placed the primary blame on a minor flaw in the airline’s maintenance records."
Grant’s fists clenched on his knees, his knuckles turning white.
A cold chill rose from the depths of Lance Blue’s heart.
One hundred and forty-seven names. A murder concealed beneath lies.
"You have evidence." Grant’s voice was very soft.
"More detailed evidence than this preliminary report is locked in the highest-access section of my private server."
Miki admitted it frankly. "That includes records of Vortex attacking within airspace designated for civilian aviation, as well as reports documenting Fracture’s various actions."
"All of it is enough to prove that this conflict was a grave dereliction of duty driven by personal pride, one that completely disregarded public safety."
"Then why..." Lance Blue could not help speaking up.
"Why do I care? Why haven’t I released it directly?"
Miki took over for him and sighed. That sigh carried a heavy weight, sounding utterly sincere.
"Fracture was once the hero I valued most. He won the title of X for DOS twice. His downfall and ultimate... end are a disgrace to DOS, and the pain of my own failure in judgment."
"Simply throwing the evidence out there would only trigger a public-relations war between the two Hero Offices, mutual buck-passing, and the complete collapse of public trust in the hero system."
"That would not help reveal the truth, much less prevent the next tragedy."
He leaned forward slightly, his gaze burning as he looked at Lance Blue.
"That brings me to the second matter I came for today—and my most important purpose."
"Lance Blue, no—"
"Hero Miracle."
"I sincerely hope you will join DOS."
Silence filled the living room, broken only by the ticking of the wall clock.
"The truth will be made public sooner or later, so why not seize the initiative?"
Miki’s voice was highly persuasive. "You need a platform, a place that can truly build up your miracle and give it the greatest possible impact.
"We can make a deal."
"A deal?"
"Yes. Sign with DOS and become our lead hero. In return, I will ensure that this truth is not buried forever." Miki’s tone was resolute.
"Since the plane crash, unofficial information has gradually leaked out, revealing part of the truth. Most importantly, it concerns Fracture and Vortex. Some have even elevated their conflict into a power struggle between MG and DOS."
"I pledge on my honor that Fracture’s actions were entirely personal and had no connection whatsoever to DOS."
At this point, he paused.
"This has also affected the Trust Value of the heroes under us. We do not even have a single hero in the top ten anymore."
"Now, DOS needs fresh blood, and that person is you, Lance Blue—hero Miracle."
"I know how deeply you are committed to the truth, and I too grieve for those who died in that accident."
"The truth will certainly be made public, but not now, and not in a way that creates chaos."
"It will be revealed at the appropriate time, in a way that can bring about real change."
"That requires planning, strength, and someone capable of voicing something different from within."
Miki looked at Lance Blue and continued.
"Furthermore, if you join us, DOS will devote its resources to cultivating you."
"Not merely combat training, but systematic theory of abilities, cultural education, strategic thinking, and how to understand, manage, and use your immense Trust Value."
"You will grow rapidly, becoming ten times, a hundred times stronger than you are now."
"Until you become X, you will truly have the ability to accomplish everything you want to do."
The terms were alluring enough to make his heart pound.
Truth, power, growth... They covered nearly every need he currently had.
But Lance Blue lifted his eyes and looked at Miki.
"What is the price?"
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