The following morning.
Inside the temporary base.
The curtains remained tightly closed.
Several terminals were running simultaneously.
The only sound in the room was the low hum of the equipment.
On the main screen.
All the surveillance footage recorded over the past four days had been completely organized.
The footage had been divided into dozens of different time points.
From the moment the manager entered the office building.
To the moment every employee had left work.
Every period had already been compared.
The technician sat in front of the terminal.
His fingers continuously dragged across the timeline.
The four recordings switched back and forth.
The sixth-floor office area.
The manager's office.
Employees arriving and leaving.
Every scene was repeatedly played.
No one spoke in the room.
Only the recordings continued playing.
...
9:02 a.m.
Day One.
The manager entered the office building.
Day Two.
The same time, 9:02 a.m.
Day Three.
The same again.
Day Four.
The deviation was less than one minute.
The technician placed all four recordings on the same screen again.
Four different dates.
Four different scenes.
The manager's movements as she entered the company.
The first step she took.
The exact moment she swiped through the access control.
Even the movement of casually placing her files on the desk after entering her office.
They were almost completely identical.
He stopped the playback.
Then gently rubbed his temples.
After going without sleep for an entire night.
His eyes were already bloodshot.
Yet the final result.
Was still the same.
There had been no changes.
Lucian stood in front of the screen.
His gaze remained fixed on frame after frame.
For the past four days.
They had devoted manpower.
Equipment.
And time.
All to this ordinary office building.
Yet the information they had obtained.
Was extremely limited.
The manager went to work normally.
The employees worked normally.
The company operated normally.
If they ignored the fact that the manager never seemed to leave the office building.
There was not even a single trace here that could be connected to a secret organization.
The technician let out a quiet breath.
Then shut off the recordings.
The room fell silent again.
He slowly spoke.
"Keep observing."
"There won't be any new results."
Lucian did not respond.
He simply stared at the now-dark screen.
The technician was right.
Long-distance observation.
Had reached its limit.
All they could confirm.
Was that the manager stayed in her office every day.
As for what happened beyond the office.
No one knew.
Whether she was actually there the entire time.
No one could confirm that either.
A telescope.
Could only see the windows.
It could not see beyond the walls.
Much less those areas inside the office that remained outside their line of sight.
...
Lucian slowly walked to the window.
He pulled the curtain open slightly.
In the distance.
The eastern district remained covered beneath the gloomy winter sky.
That office building stood quietly in the distance.
Eight stories.
Ordinary.
Even somewhat old.
The convenience store downstairs had already opened.
Vehicles continued passing along the street.
There was nothing that distinguished it from any other office building around it.
Yet this very building.
Had stopped them for four entire days.
Lucian stared into the distance.
After remaining silent for a long time.
He finally spoke.
"Go in."
His voice was not loud.
But the technician in the room immediately looked up.
"Go in?"
"Yes."
Lucian did not turn around.
His gaze remained fixed outside the window.
"Keep observing."
"There's not much point anymore."
"We've already seen everything that can be seen from outside."
"What remains…"
"Can only be confirmed from inside."
The room fell silent again.
No one answered immediately.
Because they all knew.
What those words meant.
For the past four days.
They had remained outside the target's field of view.
But once they entered the company.
It meant voluntarily stepping into a range where the other side could interact with them.
From that moment on.
Whatever happened.
Would no longer be as safe as observing from a distance.
The room remained silent for several seconds.
The technician was the first to speak.
"Going in directly is too risky."
He brought up the office building's information again.
On the screen.
The floor plan of the six-story management company unfolded once more.
Then.
The employee list.
The visitor registration process.
The property management regulations.
All appeared on the screen one after another.
"Although this company isn't large…"
"Visitors still have to register."
"Name."
"Contact information."
"Reason for the visit."
"All of it will be recorded."
As he spoke.
He brought up a surveillance layout of the property management lobby.
"If you use your real identity…"
"These records…"
"Could be retrieved later."
"As long as they start investigating…"
"They'll find you immediately."
Lucian nodded slightly.
He had naturally considered these problems.
Once the investigation entered the contact stage.
His identity.
Would become the biggest vulnerability.
If this were an ordinary organization.
They might not care about a single visitor registration.
But an organization worth investigating.
Would never overlook a suspicious record.
The technician continued.
"So."
"Before going in…"
"We need to change your identity."
With that.
He stood up.
Then walked toward the corner of the room.
There.
Sat a silver-gray metal case.
A discreet Jace Family insignia was engraved on its surface.
The technician entered the required authorization.
The metal lock clicked open.
The lid slowly lifted.
Inside.
Various pieces of equipment were neatly arranged.
Wigs of different lengths.
Contact lenses in different colors.
Several boxes of biomimetic patches as thin as paper.
Several sets of ordinary business clothes.
And a silver voice-changing device no larger than a thumb.
Everything was categorized and stored according to numbered compartments.
Not a single thing was out of place.
The technician took out a document from the top layer.
Then placed it on the desk.
"The identity."
"Was prepared last night."
Lucian walked over.
He opened the file.
The first page.
Contained an entirely new identity profile.
Name.
Age.
Photograph.
Everything was completely unrelated to his current identity.
He continued turning the pages.
Education.
Employment history.
Professional qualifications.
Even the projects he had supposedly participated in over the past several years.
Everything had been recorded in detail.
Every item could be matched against publicly available information.
There were no gaps.
The technician slowly explained.
"This is a new identity created by the Jace intelligence division."
"The database has already been synchronized."
"The public records have also been completed."
"Even if someone investigates…"
"The result will only make them believe…"
"That this person has always existed."
Lucian did not answer immediately.
He simply continued reading.
The farther he went.
The more detailed the information became.
Residential address.
Daily spending.
Phone number.
Bank account information.
Even social connections.
Everything had already been established in advance.
It was not simply a fake identification card.
It was an ordinary person who truly existed within society.
The technician smiled faintly.
"These things…"
"Can't be created in one night."
"After we confirmed the infiltration plan last night…"
"The Jace Family intelligence division took over."
"This entire identity…"
"Was only completed early this morning."
Lucian slowly closed the file.
Of course he knew.
Being able to accomplish something like this.
Was not because of the technician.
It was because of the Jace Family itself.
For them.
Creating a sufficiently convincing new identity.
Was far more difficult than forging a document.
What could truly deceive an investigation.
Was never the information printed on a piece of paper.
It was the entire network of social records.
Only when every piece of information.
Could correspond with every other piece.
Could an identity truly exist.
The technician took the identity file back.
Then opened the metal case again.
"The identity is ready."
"Next…"
"Is the appearance."
As he spoke.
He placed the equipment on the desk one item at a time.
Dark brown short hair.
Light brown contact lenses.
Several boxes of biomimetic patches in different thicknesses.
And the silver-gray miniature voice changer.
Everything had already been numbered.
Making rapid adjustments easier.
Lucian sat in front of the mirror.
He said nothing.
The technician first flattened his original black hair.
Then put on the wig.
He adjusted the hairline bit by bit.
Until the hairstyle in the mirror looked so natural that there was almost no trace of anything artificial.
Next.
A pair of light brown contact lenses was carefully inserted.
The black pupils in the mirror quickly became a light brown.
The sharpness in his eyes also softened slightly.
Then.
Several biomimetic patches no thicker than sheets of paper.
Were applied to the bridge of his nose, his cheeks, and both sides of his jaw.
The technician continuously adjusted their positions.
Every so often, he stepped back several paces.
Then examined the overall shape again.
The patches themselves did not completely alter his facial features.
They only made subtle changes to the contours of his face.
Yet precisely because the changes were almost imperceptible.
They were enough to make his entire face look like someone else's.
After more than ten minutes.
The technician finally stopped.
"Take a look."
Lucian slowly raised his head.
The young man in the mirror.
Still retained his original facial features.
But his overall appearance had changed.
The youthful impression of black hair and black eyes.
Had almost completely disappeared.
In its place.
Was an ordinary face that would be difficult to remember in a crowd.
At first glance.
It would not seem unfamiliar.
But no one would associate it with Lucian.
The technician nodded in satisfaction.
"Unless someone knows you very well…"
"At first glance…"
"They basically won't recognize you."
After saying that.
He picked up the final piece of equipment.
It was a silver-gray device no larger than a thumb.
He gently secured it inside Lucian's collar.
"Try your voice."
Lucian nodded slightly.
Then slowly spoke.
"Is this good?"
The moment his voice came out.
The room fell silent for a second.
The clear voice belonging to a fifteen-year-old boy.
Had become considerably deeper.
It was still young.
But closer to the voice of an adult around twenty.
There was no deliberate lowering of the pitch.
Nor did it sound mechanical.
It sounded completely natural.
The technician adjusted the parameters once more.
"Say something else."
Lucian spoke calmly.
"The weather is nice today."
This time.
The technician looked satisfied.
"That works."
"No one will recognize your original voice."
"Unless they've spent a long time with you…"
"Otherwise."
"No one will connect the person you are now…"
"With Lucian."
Lucian looked toward the mirror again.
The young man in the reflection.
Unfamiliar.
Ordinary.
This was the first time.
He had stood before a mirror under another identity.
No ability user.
No Jace Family.
Nothing that could represent his true identity.
If he walked into the eastern district now.
Everyone would think.
He was nothing more than an ordinary young office worker.
The technician handed the identity file back to him.
"Don't act today."
"First, memorize the identity."
"From this moment on…"
"You're not Lucian."
"You're the person in this file."
Lucian accepted the documents.
He opened the first page again.
Then nodded slightly.
"Tomorrow."
"I'll go in."
The room fell silent once more.
No one spoke again.
Everyone knew.
The days of long-distance observation.
Were over.
Starting tomorrow.
The real investigation.
Would officially begin.