Rules Ch.340

Chapter 340: Megan: A Failed Investigation

Everly’s first encounter with the Megan Group was when she was in elementary school.

At the time, she was getting her teeth replaced rather late and went to a dental clinic for an examination, only to discover that the clinic had already been acquired by the Megan Group. Everly was restrained inside the clinic and forced to watch the so-called Megan Medical Group “promotional film” from beginning to end.

That film was extremely contaminating. According to Rebecca, after watching it, Everly automatically established a connection with some unknown deity and became its believer. It was only after suffering terribly that Everly eventually managed to sever that link of faith and restore her mental world to a state of purity.

The next time Everly heard the name Megan Medical Group, she was already in junior high school.

That year, the United States was rocked by the globally infamous “Butterfly Fall Incident.” Terminally ill actress Seradiya, seeking eternal life, willingly cooperated with the Megan Medical Group and distributed a contaminated video depicting people jumping from buildings.

Anyone who watched the video would become involuntarily obsessed with it. Eventually, they would be completely infected and become Seradiya’s “believers,” scrambling to leap from rooftops and offer up their lives for Seradiya’s resurrection.

Remia once revealed during a casual conversation that, at this stage, the Megan Medical Group’s main goal had been “artificially creating a god.”

The dental incident had been a kind of “preliminary feasibility study” for them. The Megan Group wanted to use the dental video to verify whether faith could be spread through video.

The result of the experiment was: yes, it could.

After that, they shifted their focus to “creating a god.” Seradiya, who possessed a huge following, was consequently selected to become their experimental subject.

The Butterfly Fall Incident caused a tremendous uproar in the United States, and the Megan Medical Group consequently came under SAI’s scrutiny. Not long afterward, the Megan Group was shut down, and all of its senior executives were arrested. Only Grant Megan’s whereabouts remained unknown.

With so many of its key personnel arrested, the Megan Group suffered a severe blow, and its god-making project was forced to come to a halt.

After that, they kept a relatively low profile for a while. The next time any news emerged, it was during the summer after Everly graduated from high school—in August 2X14, when the zombie crisis broke out in Radyard and the city was reduced to rubble by artillery fire.

During the “One-Day Loop” incident, Everly had accidentally found the diary of Mad Scientist Mark. According to the diary, before becoming the founder of a live-streaming website for brutal killings, Mark had worked at an underground research facility.

That research facility used “HeLa cells” as its research material, attempting to find a way to extend human life. The zombie virus that caused the fall of Radyard was precisely an accidental byproduct created during their research.

Unless something unexpected had happened, that underground research facility was most likely another secret laboratory secretly established by the Megan Medical Group. Otherwise, there was no way to explain why Grant had appeared at the site of the zombie-virus outbreak.

Artificially creating gods and extending human life through viruses might seem completely unrelated at first glance, but in reality, both could allow people to transcend the limitations of the mortal body and reach the “immortality” that belonged to the gods.

Once she reached this conclusion, the Megan Group’s dealings with the Black Goat believers suddenly became much easier to understand. Clearly, the Megan Group had hoped to use the giant egg from an unknown deity in the believers’ possession to unravel the secret of divine immortality.

In the end, through a bizarre twist of fate, they failed to figure out immortality, but did manage to create a giant whale.

Taking all of the above into consideration, Everly believed there was a very high probability that Grant Megan had come specifically for the Fountain of Youth.

Tsk. What a hassle…

Staring over there for too long would easily attract attention. After giving the area a quick glance, Everly shifted her gaze away and turned her back, pretending to look at the clothes in a shop window while secretly observing Grant’s movements through the reflection in the glass.

The island had a fairly warm climate, and by noon it was even a little hot. The island’s residents and tourists were mostly dressed in brightly colored T-shirts, shorts, and long skirts, with flip-flops and sandals being the most common footwear.

Grant alone maintained his usual old-money style even in such an environment. He wore a white long-sleeved shirt with a black suit vest on top, and a pair of well-tailored suit trousers below. Apart from his neck, wrists, and face, he exposed not the slightest bit of unnecessary skin, making him look extremely proper and serious.

Compared with him, the bodyguards surrounding him looked rather bizarre. Some had dark skin and were covered in strange tattoos. Others wore black robes that concealed their faces, dressed like assassins. One of them was even holding a string of prayer beads and wearing the Buddhist monk’s robes commonly seen in movies and television dramas.

Normally, a group of people like this standing together would be an extremely eye-catching sight. Yet despite the constant stream of pedestrians along the street, very few people glanced in their direction.

This was obviously not because they lacked curiosity. Rather, it seemed that under the influence of some unknown force, the people around them instinctively overlooked their existence.

In fact, even Everly, after briefly looking away and then turning her gaze back toward the glass, almost mistook the reflections of Grant and his companions for part of the background crowd.

It seemed that Grant really did have some tricks up his sleeve if he’d managed to evade SAI’s pursuit for so long.

Everly no longer dared to casually shift her gaze. She changed her position and watched the group with even greater concentration.

Grant was waiting for someone.

Surrounded by a group of bodyguards who appeared to be psychics, he stood by the roadside for a very long time. He waited so long that Everly changed positions several times, and she had accumulated so many things in her arms that she could barely hold them all. Only then did the person he had been waiting for finally appear.

It was a young, beautiful girl.

She looked to be around twenty. Her thick, black, curly hair spilled over her shoulders like seaweed, with numerous little braids woven with colorful cords and beads framing both sides of her face. Her skin was a light brown, a healthy flush coloring her cheeks. She wore a brightly colored gauzy dress, with all sorts of strange and unusual accessories adorning her neck and wrists.

As the girl bounced along with an energetic stride, the little braids at her temples swayed back and forth, while the various ornaments on her body knocked lightly against one another, making soft clack-clack sounds. She looked incredibly cute and playful.

When Grant saw the girl, the corners of his lips lifted, and the tense expression on his face softened into the faintest hint of a smile.

He lowered his head slightly and said something to the girl in front of him. She then lifted the shopping bag in her hand and showed Grant what was inside, chattering away as though she had an endless supply of things to say.

The two of them looked just like a sweet couple, talking and laughing as they walked away from the street corner.

Seeing Grant leave, Everly casually picked out a straw hat from a roadside stall and chose a shawl. She quickly changed her appearance, intending to follow them without being noticed.

However, no more than a dozen seconds passed. She had merely stopped to buy something, and when she turned around, Grant and the others had already vanished completely, like drops of water merging into the ocean. Everly searched the surrounding streets thoroughly, but she couldn’t find a trace of them.

With no other choice, Everly carried her purchases back to the harbor, started the boat, and headed toward the meeting point she’d arranged with Kesuye while calling Remia on her phone.

Over the years, Remia and Gregory had been tracking Grant’s whereabouts. Everly figured that if she told her two old friends where Grant was, they might be able to help her get rid of this discordant element.

There were still more than ten days before the Transit of Venus. Given SAI’s speed, surely that was more than enough time for them to make it over, right?

Everly’s plan sounded perfect.

Unfortunately, plans rarely survive contact with reality.

The call went unanswered for a long time before Remia finally picked up. Her voice was hoarse, thick with exhaustion, and she sounded somewhat distracted.

Everly’s brows drew together. The moment she heard Remia’s voice, she had a feeling things were going badly. Sure enough, after pressing her for details, Everly learned that Gregory had been cursed.

It had happened just three days ago. While investigating leads related to the Megan Group, Gregory had been stabbed with a dagger made of bone.

The dagger was a cursed object of evil. Anyone stabbed by it would fall into a coma and undergo unimaginably terrifying experiences within their dreams. If they were killed in their dreams, they would also die in real life. The only way to break the curse was to find the cursed object and destroy it through a ritual.

At present, Remia and her colleagues at headquarters were doing everything they could to track down the bone dagger. For the time being, they had no time to spare for anything else.

“Could Grant Megan have had someone do it?”

“Very likely… If I could, I’d love nothing more than to arrest him immediately. But there isn’t enough time… Gregory is just an ordinary person without psychic abilities. The monsters in his dreams are far too powerful. He won’t be able to hold out for long. I’m the only one who can save him. I have to hurry…”

Remia’s voice was filled with such pain that Everly’s heart ached as well.

There would still be a chance to catch Grant if he escaped. But if Gregory died, there would be no second chance.

As his friend, Everly naturally couldn’t coldly pressure Remia to come after Grant.

And so, the matter of capturing Grant was temporarily put aside.

Although Remia promised that she would head to the Bahamas as soon as Gregory recovered, Everly had a feeling that by then, Grant would probably have already left.

After hanging up, she sat in the cabin and thought for a long while. In the end, she decided that she still had to figure out why Grant had come to the Bahamas this time.

If he wasn’t actually here for the Fountain of Youth, then everyone could simply live happily ever after. Everly would pretend she’d never seen him in the first place.

If he really was after the Fountain of Youth, Everly would have to think of a way to sabotage him.

Although Everly had never heard anything about the Fountain of Youth only granting immortality to one person at a time, it didn’t take much imagination to know that Grant Megan was hardly the sort of person who would willingly share.

The Transit of Venus would only last for a short time, and if Everly wanted to obtain the Fountain of Youth, she was bound to cross paths with him on the island. If Grant discovered her presence, he could kill her to silence her, interfere with her plans, or wait until her grandfather had used the Fountain of Youth and then abduct him as a test subject. Everly could instantly think of several disastrous outcomes.

As for a happy ending?

Sorry, that simply didn’t exist.

If that was the case, then it was naturally safer to sabotage their plans before they even realized she was there.

With that thought, Everly pulled out her phone and called Orff, who was still back in the United States.

Grant had all sorts of extraordinary people around him, making it practically impossible for Everly to tail him in person. She could, however, investigate the entry records kept by Bahamian Customs.

Alice Town was just an ordinary little town. It had no particularly famous scenery or renowned historical and cultural landmarks. The reason it attracted a steady stream of visitors was that it had an officially designated port of entry—and that port was very close to Dalifer State in the United States.

Most foreign vessels arriving from Dalifer State would choose to register their entry in Alice Town.

Grant couldn’t possibly have brought his whole entourage here just for sightseeing, could he?

Everly didn’t understand why a wanted criminal would obediently follow such a boring regulation either.

But since he’d come here, it was worth checking.

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