Space Odyssey from Abandoned Mining Space Station

Chapter 773: Chapter 230 Missing Evidence_3

He slapped a document that had already been approved onto the table, brimming with fury, and said, ”Why not?”

”I’ve already reported it. I want to see what excuses you have for cheating in a formal competition.”

”Haha...”

A faint chuckle suddenly came from the corner of the meeting room.

It was Cheng Xinghai laughing. When everyone in the meeting room looked at her, she was so frightened that she quickly covered her mouth.

Hearing Cheng Xinghai’s laughter, Lou Wei also suddenly realized something was off.

Chen Ming’s words seemed like a setup for him.

If Chen Ming indeed hadn’t cheated, and yet he, Lou Wei, suspected a participant of cheating in an official match and forcibly interrupted it, he would surely bear enormous responsibility.

Moreover, there’s a problem regarding making this match official, a problem he dared not mention to anyone.

Just the thought of it made Lou Wei’s limbs stiff and cold.

He suddenly slammed the table and said with forced determination, ”There’s no point in arguing now. The people from the Spiritual Ability Research Institute are coming soon, you should tell them yourself about your cheating.”

Having said that, he closed his mouth, showing no desire to continue chatting with Chen Ming.

After Cheng Xinghai laughed, Chen Ming’s face showed no extra expression as he knocked on the table again and said, ”Hey, don’t just play dead and change the subject. How do you plan to compensate for the loss to my research institute?”

Chen Ming’s questioning elicited no response from Lou Wei, who leaned back in his chair, eyes closed as if unwilling to say anything.

Under such circumstances, Chen Ming truly had no means to force him into a corner.

Meanwhile, Bai Quan, who hadn’t spoken for a long time, suddenly received a private chat request from a student.

It was a student associated with Cheng Xinghai.

As soon as the private communication was connected, the student immediately said, ”Vice Admiral Bai, I am Lin Sen, specializing in logistics support. I feel that someone is cheating on our side.”

”When we initially formed the new Rebel Army, I noticed a lot of logistics arrangements that, in hindsight, have obvious problems, yet these issues mysteriously didn’t erupt.”

”Initially, I thought it was luck, but later we were in a rush, and not just me—many of us made mistakes, and we all cross-verified with one another. Yet, none of these mistakes resulted in problems.”

”When we checked back, it seemed like the NPCs had spontaneously corrected these issues.”

”We considered it luck when it was just one or two instances, but none of the problems erupted—there’s something obviously amiss. Even if the NPCs make no mistakes, how could they go so far as to fix nearly all of ours?”

”Our commander seemed to have roughly guessed the reason but didn’t tell us and only hinted for us not to mention it.”

”I now sort of understand; it might be that someone cheated.”

Listening to Lin Sen’s narrative, Bai Quan gradually realized something was off.

When he first saw the formation of the new Rebel Army, he thought those few youngsters among the opponents were doing a good job, finding breathing space in desperate situations.

So when the new Rebel Army developed quickly afterward, he didn’t overly suspect and attributed it to the youngsters’ abilities.

But now, with someone personally coming to talk about it, Bai Quan began to ponder this direction.

Looking at it now, the speed at which this new Rebel Army was developing almost outpaced the development driven by Chen Ming’s Spiritual Energy. Was this a bit too extravagant?

But cheating is not something that can be concluded just by saying it.

Lou Wei forcibly halted this simulation, causing the simulation data to be corrupted.

Not only the participating personnel and simulated world data but also his referee data were affected.

He couldn’t now access logs to confirm whether Lou Wei had tampered with the data.

However, Bai Quan suddenly thought of something: even if the simulation data was corrupted, there would still be a part of the data that wouldn’t be affected.

Bai Quan suddenly coughed and said, ”Lou Wei, where did your administrator privileges come from?”

”Please now, immediately, right away, pull up the administrator log and see if there’s any record of you tampering with the simulation process data.”

The meeting room slightly buzzed back to life.

”Tampering? Lou Wei also cheated?”

”What do you mean ’also’? Chen Ming’s case isn’t settled yet.”

”Slip of the tongue. But Vice Admiral Bai bringing this up suddenly makes it feel pretty close to certain.”

”Shh, just watch. Don’t get involved.”

Amidst the discussions of others in the meeting room, Lou Wei opened his eyes.

When Bai Quan once again asked the question he had just evaded, he knew he couldn’t escape anymore; he’d definitely have to bear this accusation.

But at least he wanted to drag Bai Quan down with him.

After a moment of silence, Lou Wei sent the administrator log showing adjustments made to the strength of the simulated new Rebel Army to Bai Quan.

”I don’t deny that I cheated, but this was just my personal action and has nothing to do with anyone else.”

”But Chen Ming, those initial words of his, aren’t they equivalent to confessing to cheating?”

Bai Quan couldn’t help but laugh in anger as he looked at the administrator log records: ”You cheated, couldn’t beat Chen Ming, and then thought Chen Ming cheated?”

”No, you should have thought Chen Ming was cheating from the start, couldn’t stand it, so you cheated too and found you still couldn’t win. In the end, you angrily used your cheating privileges to directly shut down the simulation, right?”