Chapter 233: The Balance at Both Ends 14
Kui Xin hurriedly finished dealing with the scene and ran towards the direction where Yu Hansue had disappeared.
She quickly found her; Yu Hansue was crouched in a flower bed by the roadside, a large pool of blood at her feet. The blood stained the soil, causing the flowers and plants to wilt rapidly.
Yu Hansue had already killed that Heterogeneous Blooded individual.
When Kui Xin suddenly appeared silently by her side, Yu Hansue was startled.
“We have to clean up the scene. The blood can’t be left here; it will cause mutations in normal organisms,” Kui Xin said in a low voice.
Yu Hansue stood up from the ground, her expression complicated as she looked at her, wanting to say something but hesitating: “Xin Xin, I…”
“Let’s handle the scene first,” Kui Xin said clearly, “There are police cars patrolling at night; we can’t stay here too long.”
Yu Hansue swallowed the words she wanted to say and nodded.
Kui Xin looked around, moved a green trash can from nearby, and ran across the road to enter a sanitation station through the wall, returning with two shovels.
She handed one shovel to Yu Hansue and quickly began digging. Both of them worked together to put all the blood-stained soil into the trash can.
“What should we do with what’s in the trash can?” Yu Hansue asked.
“Burn it at high temperature, or dilute it with a huge amount of water,” Kui Xin replied.
Yu Hansue said, “I know there’s a gas station nearby, less than a hundred meters ahead. We can get some gasoline there. But individuals need to show identification to buy gasoline…”
“Don’t worry, we’ll get it,” Kui Xin said. “You wait for me in a concealed place for three minutes.”
Yu Hansue nodded, worried.
Kui Xin’s figure disappeared at the end of the street, and Yu Hansue followed her instructions and waited in hiding.
Three minutes passed, but Kui Xin didn’t return. Yu Hansue kept glancing at her phone to check the time, growing increasingly anxious. After another two minutes, Kui Xin hurried back, carrying a metal can.
Yu Hansue finally breathed a sigh of relief. Before she could say anything, Kui Xin scanned the surroundings cautiously and then opened a Spatial Vortex, saying, “Get in with the trash can.”
Yu Hansue didn’t dare to delay and quickly complied.
When she pushed the trash can out of the Spatial Vortex, she found herself in a completely different place.
There was no one around; it was filled with small mounds of earth scattered with bricks and stones. It looked like a developing park.
“I passed by here when I came to the provincial city for school; it’s right nearby. This place is a construction site, and no one will come at night,” Kui Xin said as she opened the trash can and began pouring gasoline inside. Finally, she stepped back a bit and pointed at the gun in Yu Hansue’s hand.
Yu Hansue raised the gun and fired a shot at the trash can.
With a whoosh, the bullet struck the trash can, erupting a burst of flames.
The fierce fire burned the trash can’s plastic shell out of shape, and the air was filled with an unpleasant charred smell that made it hard to open their eyes.
When the fire was nearly finished burning, Kui Xin poured a bit more gasoline to let it burn longer.
She used the shovel to stir the soil a couple of times, confirming that the Heterogeneous Blooded individual’s blood had been thoroughly burned, before feeling relieved and tossing the two shovels in to burn them as well.
“Now all we can do is pray…” Kui Xin murmured.
“Pray for what?” Yu Hansue turned to look at her.
“Pray that the dead Heterogeneous Blooded individual is not an Anchor Point and that it won’t trigger the descent of the Dark Realm,” Kui Xin said. “Only a few players qualify to become Anchor Points. Many people have died, but the locations for the Dark Realm’s descent are limited.”
“Anchor Point?” Yu Hansue repeated.
Kui Xin briefly explained, “The Dark Realm in Tonglin City was triggered by a dead Heterogeneous Blooded individual. I’m worried that after they die, it could activate an Anchor Point and lead to the Dark Realm descending… If the Dark Realm descends in a bustling area, it would surely cause a disaster.”
Yu Hansue exclaimed in shock, “Should I not have killed that person?”
“Absolutely should not have… But if you hadn’t killed him, his body would have collapsed anyway. Look at him—he’s already mutated like that; he wouldn’t have lived long… Killing or not killing is irrelevant,” Kui Xin rubbed her temples in frustration. “I didn’t expect Remover 777 to arrive so quickly.”
“I’m sorry, Xin Xin. Had I known he was your enemy, I wouldn’t have made that deal with him. Part of the reason he’s here is because of me. After I contacted Augus, we agreed that I would help him infiltrate our biological research institute, and he would give me a Heterogeneous Blooded individual with high-level flesh regeneration… I actually work at a secret research institute for the Federation. My abilities weren’t awakened; I obtained them by killing test subjects,” Yu Hansue said, pursing her lips. “I need flesh regeneration; I must obtain it.”
From her sleeve, her right hand, missing three fingers, was slowly growing new limbs. The regeneration of bones and flesh and the accelerated division of cells caused her right hand to experience intense itching and pain.
Kui Xin said softly, “I understand. The environment is too dangerous, and there are too few things to rely on; you can only seize every opportunity as much as possible. You did nothing wrong, and there’s no need to apologize to me. You might think what you did isn’t very honorable… but I haven’t done anything honorable either, so you don’t need to think too much about it.”
Yu Hansue’s expression softened, and her voice became gentler: “Hmm.”
She didn’t ask Kui Xin about the identity of Remover 233 or delve into what she had done that led to her being reported for murder on the forum. She also didn’t question the relationship between Black Snake and Remover 233.
“Aren’t you curious about what I’ve done?” Kui Xin asked.
“There’s nothing to be curious about,” Yu Hansue glanced at the now unrecognizable garbage can and said in a half-joking tone, “If you did something, I would help you bury the body.”
“That’s not necessary,” Kui Xin replied. “I won’t kill someone who shouldn’t be killed.”
The flames gradually extinguished, and Yu Hansue’s phone vibrated.
“The time is up; my caretaker is about to wake up,” Yu Hansue said. “Why didn’t you let me go back to the hospital just now?”
“Augus has a tracking ability. If he injures an adversary, that adversary will be marked, and he can sense their position,” Kui Xin explained. “If you go back to your body and reset the time to before he marked you, you might erase the mark. But I don’t recommend taking that risk because we don’t know how that extraordinary ability works specifically.”
Yu Hansue’s expression changed slightly: “Indeed, to avoid bringing danger to those around me, it’s best not to go back…”
“Don’t worry about the hospital discovering anything; I’ll help you handle it,” Kui Xin said. “Let’s rough it out tonight and stay outside until Augus leaves the provincial city. If I’m not mistaken, his ability’s sensing range shouldn’t be too large.”
Yu Hansue nodded, “Then how will you know if Augus has left?”
“That’s a complicated story,” Kui Xin said.
Yu Hansue understood, “Alright, as long as you have a way.”
Augus carried a mobile phone, and even though he took great pains to protect it, for someone with Data Manipulation like Kui Xin, it was extremely easy to hack. As long as the phone was powered on, she could access it as a port to obtain control permissions and quietly turn on the phone’s location.
Unfortunately, when Kui Xin approached Augus, his phone happened to be on.
Augus was still in the provincial city, but Kui Xin didn’t intend to act against him immediately.
First, Reset had little effect on Augus; it couldn’t seal all his abilities. As for that S Rank ability, Kui Xin still hadn’t figured out what it actually did. Second, knowing oneself and one’s adversary allows for endless victories; Kui Xin needed to read Augus’s blood memory to gather some intelligence before formulating a strategy.
A brief conversation with Augus led Kui Xin to new speculations.
Augus left at the sound of the police sirens immediately, but why?
Augus said he wanted to meet her in Tonglin City; why was that?
These two behaviors contradicted Augus’s previously displayed persona.
First, if Augus’s main purpose in coming to Tonglin City was to have a death match with Remover 233, he wouldn’t need to consider where the battlefield was; any place would suffice.
Second, Augus had always shown no regard for killing. With his S Rank extraordinary ability, killing was like chopping vegetables for him; there was no need to care about others. His deliberate avoidance might suggest he didn’t want to kill too many people to attract attention, which contradicted his previous high-profile behavior of wanting his deeds to be known worldwide.
Kui Xin concluded: Augus’s purpose for coming to Tonglin City wasn’t simple; at the very least, he wasn’t here for Kui Xin’s invitation.
Aside from Remover 233, what else attracted Augus to Tonglin City? The answer was obvious—he was clearly targeting the Dark Realm at the Tobacco Factory!
What trades, what challenges—everything else was secondary; it was just something he did casually.
“Let’s go; we need to find a place to stay overnight,” Kui Xin opened a Spatial Vortex. “You rest first; I’ll take care of the hospital situation for you.”
Yu Hansue nodded, “Alright.”
…
Kui Xin used Hypnotic Sound to control the caretaker and the hospital doctors, modifying their related memories.
After a considerable amount of work, she finally completed the memory modification.
She didn’t immediately go to reunite with Yu Hansue; instead, she stood in Yu Hansue’s hospital room and took out the knife she had carefully preserved, its tip stained with a bit of dried blood.
Suppressing the nausea, Kui Xin licked the blood with her tongue, activating “Blood Spirit.”
Memories belonging to Remover 777 surged forth, thick and chaotic. Kui Xin sank into them, receiving a violent emotional shock. She calmed herself, stripped away the emotions, and began to observe the life of Remover 777.
From a young age, Augus was different, but unfortunately, his uniqueness manifested not only in intelligence but also in personality.
He was born with antisocial personality disorder.
He had a happy family; although his parents weren’t wealthy, they still provided him warmth and love. This seemingly ordinary family was not so ordinary, for his mother’s father—his grandfather—was sentenced to life imprisonment for murder, leading to his children cutting ties with him.
Augus’s antisocial personality was inherited from his grandfather.
When he was in preschool, the teacher asked them to observe small animals in class; Augus was not interested in observing them but was particularly fascinated by choking small animals to death.
In just one afternoon, Augus strangled all the rabbits in his class. The teacher called his parents, who took him home and beat him. However, Augus’s behavior didn’t subside; it only escalated.
As he grew older, he quietly lured the neighbor’s puppy with cookies, then drowned the puppy in the community fountain before returning home quietly and pretending nothing happened. He poisoned several cats by putting rat poison in a bag of cat food and left the cats in front of his own house.
When his mother saw the cat corpses on the porch, she was terrified and fell down the stairs, while Augus watched from behind a tree, even laughing at how amusing it was.
Later, in middle school, when he was fighting with classmates, he inadvertently killed someone and was sent to juvenile prison along with a few of his friends.
Upon his release, Augus was an adult. His parents had a new child, severing ties with him and neglecting him. Augus found a job at an internet café in the city, barely getting by.
When life became unbearable, he illegally purchased a gun and began robbery and theft. He had a hobby of playing games, and one day he saw an advertisement for a game called “Crimson Soil”… He found it interesting and decided to reserve it.
It was this game that brought Augus a new lease on life and helped him find meaning in survival.
He felt that he was born for this game.
