“Hmph…” After her identity was exposed, Grace Brooks didn’t bother with any pointless denials. She just snorted coldly and retorted, “And who exactly are you? Also pretending to be young here, ‘Charles Reed’.”

She pronounced Ethan Logan’s fake name in a mocking tone, the implication obvious.

“Yeah, Charles Reed is indeed a fake name. My real name is Ethan Logan. It’s a pity to meet you under these circumstances.” Ethan Logan replied. A second later, he added, “Oh, by the way, I’m not pretending to be young—this face is real.”

“Fine, I’ll remember this face… and your name.” Grace Brooks spat out viciously.

“Remember it or not, I don’t care.” Ethan Logan replied. “Stop interrupting and just listen to what I have to say.” Without waiting for her to retort, he continued, “I can understand why you didn’t take Lily Bennett away. Her ability is indeed a bit tricky for you. Even if you tried to knock her out and imprison her, she might still kill you while unconscious.

“So, you could only try to stay close to her, build a good relationship, gain her trust, become friends…

“But now, you don’t have to worry anymore. I’m here to help you solve this problem.”

With that, Ethan Logan took something out of his pants pocket.

It was five capsules, each wrapped in a transparent isolation shell to prevent contamination or accidental dissolution.

“What’s this?” Grace Brooks’s gaze quickly shifted to the capsules in his hand, and she asked.

“You don’t need to worry about what it is…” Ethan Logan replied. “All I can tell you is, this is a drug that can suppress the special abilities of espers. For someone like Lily Bennett, a beginner, half a capsule is enough to keep her powers suppressed for five days. And here you have five capsules, which means fifty days of suppression… For these fifty days, as long as you give her the medicine on time, she won’t be able to use her abilities. Whether you want to sell her or do something else… this should be enough time for you to act, right?”

“Heh…” Grace Brooks sneered. “How do I know if this drug is real? What if this is your scheme…”

“If I wanted to harm or kill you, I wouldn’t need to go through all this trouble.” Ethan Logan said. “In the past two days, if I’d just had someone put a little undetectable poison in your food, you’d already be in the morgue by now.”

This sentence made Grace Brooks’s expression change drastically, because she suddenly realized a very serious problem: “The cafeteria staff are yours…”

“Of course. Otherwise, how could I always pass on information right at mealtime?” Ethan Logan interrupted her. “It’s good you figured that out yourself—it saves me the time of explaining… and it leads to the next thing I want to say…” As he spoke, he got up from the bed, walked over to Grace Brooks, who was still shaken, took her hand, and stuffed the capsules into it. “For the past two months, every single meal eaten by everyone in the cafeteria… has had something added to it.”

“What!” Grace Brooks was shocked, and her expression became very odd, as if she’d been contaminated by something filthy, her face full of disgust.

“It’s a special kind of nano-mechanical virus, extremely tiny, almost invisible to the naked eye.” Ethan Logan continued. “Once inside the body, these inorganic particles attach to the stomach lining and lie in wait, and when they sense similar machines nearby, they attract and combine with each other.” He spoke in a relaxed tone, completely unconcerned about how the listener might feel. “When the total mass of these machine viruses gradually accumulates to a certain threshold, they can be activated with a matching remote device to attack the human brain.

“Unfortunately, it’s hard to calculate exactly when that ‘threshold’ will be reached; after all, everyone’s eating habits and meal sizes are different… That’s why I had to sneak into this center a few days early. I thought I might have to stay here for a week or even ten days, but as things stand, I can leave as soon as tomorrow.”

“You… what are you, really?” Grace Brooks asked again, but this time, her tone and the meaning of the question were completely different from before.

“I told you, my name is Ethan Logan. That’s all you need to know.” Ethan Logan replied. “As for the rest, I doubt I could tell you even if I wanted to.”

Grace Brooks took several deep breaths to calm herself down and give herself time to think things over.

After a while, she spoke again: “You just said I should ‘leave today,’ and that ‘not only do I have to go, but Lily Bennett has to go too’?”

“See, you’ve finally learned how to communicate with others.” Ethan Logan said with a teasing smile, then continued, “My suggestion is, before midnight tonight, pick a time, take half a capsule’s worth of powder from what I gave you, find a way to get Lily Bennett to swallow it, and then, under cover of darkness, use your ability to take her away… After that, you and I will have nothing more to do with each other.”

“What about the mechanical virus in my body?” Grace Brooks pressed.

“Just drink coffee and it’ll be eliminated.” Ethan Logan replied.

“Huh?” Grace Brooks made this sound, wanting to confirm she hadn’t misheard.