Published at 27th of August 2026 7:12 pm

Chapter 4442: Stubborn Daughter

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Ria stared at her father with an expression of fear at his words. "What do you mean, Dad?"

"My Tide of Samsara was not as airtight as I thought it was in its scrambling of the SOS from Planet Pinky," he spoke with a serious tone of voice. "It let slip a single part of the message that the arakai managed to decipher. A single word. ’Key.’"

Ria’s expression grew pale as she realized that that one keyword made her existence as the key to the Universalis Mensis known to the arakai.

"Now, the good news is that they have no idea where the garbled SOS came from, only that it came from within the Orion Star Strand," Rui said solemnly. "The bad news is that the Virus Faction is extremely motivated to find this key because they believe it refers to exactly what it does. You. Now they’re on the lookout."

Ria’s expression stiffened. "...That’s scary. If they get even a single clue pointing them towards me, then they might eventually find me."

"They do have clues," Rui corrected. "The impending success streak of your company when it comes to finding infected worlds is one of them. It is highly unnatural for anybody in the world to be able to identify and discover infected worlds at the rate that you’re about to. It is an anomaly, and if the Virus Faction starts searching the Orion Star Strand for anomalies that pertain to the key of the Universalis Mensis, then it is possible that this will trip their radar."

"But on paper, it could be a million other things aside from me being the key," she insisted. "All manner of technological breakthroughs, or even Transcendents like yourself, or a path thing."

"That’s why I said risk," Rui replied with a grim expression. "But a risk is a risk. And the stakes are extremely high this time. I was willing to let you take risks when it came to domestic players, but..."

His ethereal eyes sharpened. "It’s a whole other thing when it comes to foreign, alien powers."

Her gaze shifted sharply towards her father. "You want me to stop hunting infected worlds."

"I want you to temporarily pause it until I can guarantee that the Virus Faction has stopped looking," Rui told her.

"You were the one who told me to ramp it up, remember?" she frowned. "Because you wanted human civilization to have access to the resources?"

"And that was before the risks escalated," Rui said with a firm tone. "Now the Virus Faction of the arakai is looking for you, I’m telling you to drop this entirely."

Her expression crumpled with defiance as she stood up, facing her father with folded arms. "No. I will not stop. That isn’t your call to make, Dad. This company was started by my friends and me, and now it belongs to me. I avoided support from the Kandrian Empire precisely to avoid anybody having any leverage or stake in my company."

"Ria, your life is in more danger than you could imagine," Rui’s tone grew more stern. "If they find it’s you, they wouldn’t even kill you; they would capture you alive and subject you to horrors beyond your imagination."

Her expression tightened at those words. Clearly, her father’s warnings about the consequences had some impact on her, but she held out, shaking her head. "I’m sorry, Papa, but I’m not backing out. I always knew there would be many risks. One more is not going to get me to back down. My friends died and sacrificed for this enterprise. I will not let their sacrifice go to waste by shutting this business down and dooming all the effort and the lives they gave for it."

Rui stared at his daughter with a glint of impatience. He knew he could stop her by force if he wanted to, and he didn’t even need to rely on his Martial power or his royal authority. He could just stop supplying her with the Tide of Samsara.

Without the Tide of Samsara, she couldn’t complete her missions. There was almost no other way to systematically exterminate every last bacterium of the deep biosphere that wouldn’t also get her killed in the process.

Yet, he didn’t want to bully his own daughter. Not only did that feel horrible, but he knew she would hate him if he forcefully deprived her of doing what she wanted to do. He simply heaved a sigh, shaking his head with a wry smile.

"You get that stubbornness from me, so I suppose I can’t blame you."

He remembered how much his own father was troubled by Rui’s antics and stubbornness. Now he could picture Rael smiling at him as he went through his own share of the exact same trouble.

"So that means you’re going to let me go through with this?" she raised an eyebrow.

"Yes, since you insist, but not without some changes," he spoke with a serious voice. "I will ensure that you have higher security. I’ll bolster your anonymity with the resources of the Kandrian Empire, ensure that it is impossible for anybody to track you down from the activities of EsoQuest Solutions."

He had intended to allow his daughter to handle her own secrecy, and she had done a decent job because she had excellent people working for her and a lot of resources thanks to her deal with the Esoterist. But now that the stakes had become so big, he knew that he couldn’t allow the worst to happen.

The Kandrian Empire was extremely powerful in all regards, including its intelligence and covert operations. If his daughter intended to go through with this, then he would have to use his power to ensure that nobody ever found out that it was she who was responsible.

Of course, just the fact that it was impossible to find information on his daughter would inform everybody of the active intervention of a great power that was suppressing information. But that was an acceptable give, as far as Rui was concerned. Anything as long as his daughter’s identity didn’t come out, he didn’t care.

"Be careful, Ria," Rui told his daughter with a serious expression. "I was not jesting when I told you that your life and more is on the line."

WHOOSH

He teleported away from her room and back to his office.

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