Wen Xishu's speculation was correct, Clara is indeed the Destructive.
And as a Destructive, she possesses a rather striking appearance, naturally adept at manipulating others.
Clara has an excellent memory, so good that she knows every card in her hand.
Everyone in the casino, every piece's role at this stage, Clara has it all in her mind.
In her plan, a few assassins will soon commit the most foolish act of their lives, leading to a complete shift in their fate.
The assassinated targets were all meticulously investigated by her.
Even the assassins wouldn't be aware of who their targets are or what consequences they might bring.
Even if it were Von Neumann, Renault, and other big figures, they couldn't trace it back to her, and even if they did, it wouldn't matter.
It would simply start the next cycle.
Certainly, in the future Three Towers War, Clara is nothing, and being Destructive itself means having no future.
But they possess an endless present.
Clara is a variable, Destructives are variables.
But Wen Xishu is very clear on one thing: the more it is so, the more Destructives fear variables, the more they fear anomalies appearing in their territory.
Just by stepping into the gambling club, Wen Xishu immediately caught Clara's attention.
A dozen or so men and women were exchanging tricks of deceit, and Clara immediately noticed... a piece had strayed from its position.
Ethan!
She, of course, knew that Ethan was a programmer, a very skilled hacker, but with personality flaws, it was hard for him to step out of his room and make friends.
In Clara's eyes, every piece has a "fluctuation," but Ethan's "fluctuation" should have been the smallest.
How could someone like that appear here?
Clara likes creating variables, but when a variable descends upon her own vicinity, she instinctively feels fear.
Wen Xishu didn't say much, he walked directly to Clara.
This wasn't the first time, the difficulty in the past was identifying who the Destructive was, but this time with a perfect entry, Wen Xishu had figured out everything:
"Clara, manipulating assassins to kill the relatives of big figures, ultimately leading to their capture must be quite fun, right?"
Clara's pupils changed, showing undisguised fear.
"You... Ethan... you... no, you're..."
Her whole persona was in a state of mental chaos, becoming incoherent. She knew it was Ethan, but she knew she should pretend not to know, yet panic led her to expose quite a few issues.
"Pfft."
Wen Xishu waved his hand:
"As a Destructive, can't we maintain some dignity? Look at yourself now, is there even a hint of the composure you had when playing with others?"
It can be said that every word from the appearance of Wen Xishu to this moment had been shocking to Clara.
Us?
She looked at Wen Xishu incredulously.
Wen Xishu continued:
"Those assassins have a greater role in the unreachable future, so... the higher-ups among us have decided that your game has to be stopped."
"Simply put, stop interfering with their fate trajectory. Go play with someone else. I'm here to deliver this instruction."
"You should know who I am, right?"
Wen Xishu himself didn't actually know who he was.
But back then in the seventh level, An Rongzai's subordinate Jin Zaimin mentioned that a Destructive from a higher tier seemed to have awakened some ability, capable of connecting Destructives from other tiers, thereby significantly affecting history on a large scale.
Wen Xishu speculated that Destructives might have an organization.
So Wen Xishu was attempting to act as someone under this role's charge.
He was also trying to, through the role he played, deceive Clara, to extract some information about the Destructive "organization."
This was also why Wen Xishu didn't use his own face. Using Ethan's identity was actually more shocking for Clara.
Clara knew Ethan was just an "npc."
If it were "Wen Xishu," someone who had never appeared here before, Clara might realize this was a "player."
And the reason he considered Clara to be an "organization" member was that he felt the 49th level is very much related to the 7th level.
Simply put, everything was just a probe by Wen Xishu before killing the Destructives.
But this probe indeed led to discoveries.
After being surprised for a while, Clara immediately stood up, chased away everyone from the gambling club, then closed the club door and with some respect said:
"How long do you intend to stay?"
This sentence itself carried an enormous amount of information, and Wen Xishu immediately grasped the key point.
Clara was also probing.
By asking how long one intends to stay, she was actually seeing if the other party knew that crucial point.
Wen Xishu is very good at reading between the lines. The word "you" indicated that Clara first realized she might be dealing with someone of a higher level than her.
But Clara's latter half was a bit strange, her words were a bit vague, which might be a probe.
Not lightly would multiple Destructives appear in one region.
With this in mind, Wen Xishu said:
"If you are sensible enough, then Ethan will remain Ethan, and you can continue to be yourself. But I think, an Ethan wouldn't talk this much with you, perhaps Ethan doesn't have to be Ethan anymore, and you don't need to be you either."
Mess up a question, just delete that question, what do I have to fear with the Three-phase Power? Such composure places Wen Xishu and Clara on entirely different levels of mindset.