Chapter 238: The Balance at Both Ends 19
Kui Xin’s chaotic thoughts were suddenly clarified.
“First I, and now I found ‘myself’?”
Find me?
She had bet with Augus on who would find the other first. Now, Augus from the First World was right in front of her. Kui Xin had found him, but upon entering the Dark Realm, Augus looked at the “self” in the Dark Realm and said this line.
What Kui Xin had found was probably the body of Augus from the Second World!
She took out her mobile phone and glanced down, and not surprisingly found that her phone was already malfunctioning, the screen was black, and she couldn’t open it no matter what.
Previously, Li Wanran and the others tried to infiltrate this place with drones and robots but failed. This place was a crack between worlds, a mysterious and unknown zone where technological devices malfunction upon entry, and extraordinary abilities dissipate when someone with such powers enters.
Kui Xin’s Investigative Eye was a passive ability, active all the time, but just when she turned back to look at Augus, she could no longer see any of his extraordinary abilities.
“The person on the ground is you…” Kui Xin’s voice turned deep. She spoke slowly in slightly accented English, “The nuclear power station’s waste processing area in Fusgong City overlaps with the tobacco factory in Tonglin City. The Dark Realm is the intersection of the two worlds. You entered the nuclear power station in the Second World and returned to our world there.”
Augus carefully picked apart the words Kui Xin spoke, barely understanding her meaning, then said, “That’s right.”
“Is the Dark Realm also in the Second World?” Kui Xin asked gravely.
“Indeed, it exists in the Second World as well,” Augus smiled. “It’s just that the Federation keeps it very well hidden.”
Kui Xin’s expression darkened.
A world highly controlled by the Federation and conglomerates, of course, was different from the First World. In the First World, players could gather in mysterious forums, and some loose-lipped players would leak game news online. But in the Second World, the Federation and cartels truly held all the power.
If the higher-ups wanted to conceal any information or block secrets, it wouldn’t take much effort at all.
The news of the Dark Realm descending in the First World mainly circulated among the player community. The Second World also experienced the descent of the Dark Realm, but this news was thoroughly sealed off.
“The Dark Realm is located in the gap between the First World and the Second World. It has its unique operating rules. Just like our planet has its rotation period and the sun and moon rise and set, these natural phenomena can be seen as the operating rules of our world,” Augus said slowly, “The Dark Realm has its operating rules as well.”
He revealed an eerie smile. “I believe you have already noticed some patterns in our current location. For example…”
With a motion of his hand, Augus swept aside the black trench coat, drawing out a gun he had prepared long ago from his lower back. The dark barrel was aimed at Kui Xin, and flames erupted forth!
The bullet tore through the fog and the phantoms and rushed straight for Kui Xin!
She rolled on the ground to find cover as Augus fired, but what cover was there in the Dark Realm? Everything here was the shadow of what did not exist in the world, offering no resistance to bullets at all.
The sound of bullets firing rang out incessantly, and some narrowly grazed Kui Xin’s shoulder, blood instantly flowing from the wound, stinging sharply, and her regenerative abilities completely failed, leaving the wound unhealed.
After completing the first round of fire, Augus raised the gun and said in a voice laced with amusement, “Mayi, Mayi, you can’t hide. Have you realized? Your powers have already failed! You entered here unprepared, while I was fully ready. Now it’s just your mortal body, you without extraordinary abilities—how can you withstand bullets forged of steel and gunpowder?”
He surveyed the surroundings. Bottles and jars obstructed his view, large rusty machinery piled up in this seemingly crowded place, but in reality, it was empty.
He was searching for the concealed Kui Xin, mindful of the limited amount of bullets that needed to be conserved.
Kui Xin released her hand from covering her shoulder, her fingers sticky with blood. Adrenaline surged, her heart raced, and she was sweating, blood coursing through her veins.
Augus’s footsteps were moving… she could hear those sounds.
Her body was hot, but her thoughts were cool. She maintained a hundred percent rationality and focus, quietly moving her steps, slowly navigating according to the sound of Augus’s footsteps.
As she moved, Kui Xin passed through those phantom images of old machinery. The feeling of her body entering the shadows felt just like normal walking, except her vision was limited, as if covered by an invisible curtain. It was akin to poor-quality game models, making it seem like something was there, but upon walking closer, she would pass through, and the model was empty inside.
Augus pulled out a pocket watch, a mechanical one he had prepared. The electronic watch on his wrist had long lost power; only the pure mechanical watch could be used in the Dark Realm.
The mechanical watch had one disadvantage: it was prone to error. Augus could only roughly estimate the time with this watch.
It was now 8:32 PM.
Augus loudly whistled and announced, “It’s almost nine o’clock. In light of our fortunate connection, let me give you a piece of advice, Mayi, watch the zero point and multiples of seven… if you’re lucky enough to survive until that time.”
After saying this, he paused and listened, hearing no response.
In the wide-open silence, he grew even more excited.
“It’s fine; I’m very interested in playing hide and seek with you,” Augus said, looking down at the row of spare magazines on his hip. “You hide, and I seek.”
Watch the zero point, watch the multiples of seven.
Was Augus reminding her to keep track of time?
While slowly moving, Kui Xin exited the material phantom, just about to continue seeking cover when she suddenly touched a wall of air. She was startled, reached out to touch it, and discovered this wall was transparent, allowing her to see the jars and bottles still present in the waste processing area of the nuclear power station in Fusgong City.
Kui Xin stepped on something, bent down cautiously to pick it up, and recognized it as a deformed bullet head, one left behind by Augus when he was shooting around.
Kui Xin picked up the bullet head, contemplated for a moment, and then placed it in her pocket.
She touched the strange transparent wall, feeling her way forward.
After walking about two to three meters, her hand suddenly hit empty space as the opaque wall vanished at that spot!
A flash of insight struck Kui Xin. Her eyes widened, and a clear guess formed in her mind.
Upon entering the tobacco factory, she had entered through the front door, walked about three meters, and saw the radioactive symbol of the Second World. Then Augus came in as well, fired his gun, and she dodged to the right.
Kui Xin began to recall her actions upon entering the tobacco factory, comparing the distance she had moved with the layout of the factory in her mind, and integrating the position of the transparent wall she had just touched with the floor plan of the tobacco factory…
Her breathing became rapid.
She understood! This was the Dark Realm, but it was still the tobacco factory! Those phantoms were really just phantoms, existing only due to the tobacco factory. The actual layout in the Dark Realm was equivalent to the layout of the tobacco factory, but had a new graphic overlaid to obscure the original layout.
If she closed her eyes and moved according to her memory of the tobacco factory’s layout, she would still run into walls where she would, and encounter stairs where she should; it was just that her eyes were deceived by the Second World’s illusions, so she could not see the walls and stairs that would otherwise be revealed!
Then according to her memory of the map, the opening before her should be the stairs leading up.
Cautiously, Kui Xin lifted her foot, took a step forward, and joy filled her face.
Her foot touched solid ground, then she took another step, landing on the second step.
This was indeed a staircase!
Kui Xin had traveled back and forth in the tobacco factory countless times and was already familiar with the layout here; there was no way she could go wrong with her eyes closed.
But what about Augus? Did he know the specifics of the layout?
With this thought, Kui Xin walked further up the invisible stairs to shield her body, then called out, “Augus!”
As soon as the name left her mouth, a barrage of bullets immediately struck the ground beneath her feet, clanging as they hit the steps and the side of the invisible wall, some deformed bullet heads wedged into the unseen steps and walls while others clattered down the steps.
Augus’s footsteps drew near, and Kui Xin moved further up the stairs, looking down from a higher position at the apparently nonexistent stairway.
Augus appeared, habitually failing to look up, walking forward as usual. He did not run into the transparent wall, but the next moment, his foot caught on the step, making him stumble, nearly falling hard.
He awkwardly lifted his head and saw Kui Xin above him.
Kui Xin dexterously retreated, quickly leaping up the steps into the second floor of the tobacco factory, utilizing the phantom of the second floor to conceal her body.
Augus didn’t have time to fire again and could only watch as Kui Xin vanished before his eyes.
“Damn it,” Augus cursed softly.
He gripped his gun tightly, his face darkening as he rechecked the time.
8:45.
There were only fifteen minutes left until 9 PM, and accounting for the error of the mechanical watch, he had to be prepared at least five minutes before nine o’clock.
“Augus!” He heard the voice of Remover 233 again; her voice seemed to echo in some hallway, sounding empty and resonant. “I’m curious, is that phantom lying on the ground you? Was that phantom your purpose for coming here? What do you want?”
Augus’s anger from his earlier mistake faded somewhat, as superiority returned to his heart.
He knew more than she did. He had uncovered the truth first, and Remover 233 knew less than him—that was the source of his superiority.
“Since you want to know, I can answer you,” Augus stated nonchalantly. “It’s just a choice, isn’t it? Haven’t you known that all along? We all have choices to make.”
While speaking, he cautiously moved his feet up the stairs.
He wanted to communicate with Remover 233, hoping she’d speak more so he could use her voice to pinpoint her location.
“What choice?” Kui Xin asked. “Choose one body between the two worlds?”
“Not just that, Mayi.” Augus’s eyes flickered, realizing the sound seemed to be coming from the left.
Looking to the left, there was another nuclear waste processing area, albeit with slightly different equipment—thick electrical wires coiling chaotically, obscuring the real scene. The phantoms misled Augus’s eyes, and he could see nothing.
He could only continue talking to lure Kui Xin into speaking.
“In the world, it’s our souls that traverse. What happens if our bodies are left with only one in the end?” Augus proposed.
As he spoke, he slowly raised his gun, aiming left; if Kui Xin spoke again, he would be able to confirm her location and fire immediately.
But Kui Xin did not speak.
Augus held his gun for half a minute, finally hearing a voice, only for it to come not from the left but from the right. He quickly turned his gun to the right and fired several shots in a flurry.
Smoke billowed as the sound of shooting continued, but Kui Xin’s voice did not cease.
“The gunfire is too loud; did you hear my words clearly? If not, I’ll ask again,” Kui Xin said. “We can only stay in one world forever, never to traverse and return again, correct?”
“You could say that.” Augus sneered coldly, “You are quite clever to have figured out some of the Dark Realm’s secrets so quickly.”
“But I suspect that having body and consciousness permanently remain in one world is temporary, because fundamentally the two worlds will eventually merge,” Kui Xin asserted. “Once they merge, the concepts of traversing and returning will cease to exist.”
“Perhaps,” Augus quietly moved closer to the direction of Kui Xin’s voice.
The phantoms acted bi-directionally; Remover 233 could not see through the phantoms to see him, and he could not see her.
Both were not blind but moved like two blind people, detecting sounds and positioning themselves against the enemy.
However, Kui Xin had not made a sound for a long while.
Material illusions lay right before him; entering the illusion would also limit his sight. Augus pondered for a second, ultimately deciding to take some risks and step inside.
He raised his right foot and stepped into the illusion, immediately stepping on something—human feet!
Augus couldn’t turn his gun fast enough to shoot because Kui Xin was half-crouched to avoid being shot, her shoulder slammed into his abdomen, arms wrapped tightly around his waist, and both feet pressed forcefully, sending him flying.
With a clang, a metallic object fell to the ground—a pocket watch, Augus’s.
The human abdomen lacked skeletal protection, being the softest part. The shoulder charge hit Augus’s stomach right, causing a wave of nausea and heaving a mouthful of bile, making it hard for him to straighten up. Before he could recover, he hastily raised his gun and fired into the shadows, deafening gunfire resounded.
One bullet hit Kui Xin’s arm squarely, blood sprayed out, and in the next moment, she retreated into the illusion, snatching the pocket watch left on the ground as Augus’s remaining bullets missed their target.
Running low on bullets! Augus paused his attack and hurriedly felt for the magazines strapped to his belt, but all he found was emptiness.
He looked down to see his belt was bare; all the bullets had vanished.
“Haha! You really surprise me, Mayi!” Augus laughed in fury, his expression exceedingly grim.
In that brief confrontation, he had been robbed of a belt full of magazines by Kui Xin, and she also got away with his pocket watch! Those magazines were his entire stock! He had spare guns, but without bullets, what good was a gun?
Kui Xin’s voice came from an unknown distance, seemingly from farther away: “Watch the multiples of seven; that’s what you said.”
She paused, “Your pocket watch shows eight minutes left until twenty-one o’clock. Tell me what will happen at nine, and if you do, I can return a magazine to you.”
“You’re still in the mood to discuss this with me?” Augus scoffed, “I see your injury! I saw it! If the gunshot isn’t treated in time, you could die. You don’t have extraordinary abilities now; aren’t you worried you’ll die?”
“No need for your concern.” Kui Xin tore the hem of her clothing to bandage her wound, tightly wrapping her injured left arm to stop the bleeding, but even doing so, the blood quickly soaked the fabric.
The scent of blood permeated the air, the pain burning her nerves.
Kui Xin’s face turned pale as she attempted to move her left hand. Luckily… it still moved.
Though her extraordinary abilities had vanished, her physical qualities rivaling an A-class Awakened remained intact; her resistance to pain and recovery rate were the same as before; it was just that she had lost her regeneration ability.
“There’s danger here, so you carry a gun. You didn’t expect me to come in, so the gun wasn’t meant for me; it was meant for something else,” Kui Xin said. “What is in here? Xenomorphs? According to previous patterns, monsters emerge from the Dark Realm at zero o’clock.”
She glanced down to check the time again, “Augus, there are seven minutes left. Are you sure you want to waste your time like this?”
Augus’s face darkened even more, not just because of the stolen bullets, but also because Kui Xin was at a distance, and her accent made it difficult for him to clearly understand her. Each sentence required careful deciphering.
“Mennetoh,” Augus pronounced an unfamiliar word, “In the religious texts of the Secret Cult, Mennetoh is the guardian and gatekeeper of the underworld. When believers die, Mennetoh splits their souls in two, sending one half to the underworld as an offering to the god.”
This was a bit difficult to comprehend. Kui Xin pondered for a long time until she heard Augus further explain, “The underworld is comparable to hell, the resting place for the god; Mennetoh is akin to the three-headed dog of hell or the soul guide Anubis in our world’s myths. You can understand Mennetoh as a being far more terrifying than any xenomorph.”
“Why would Mennetoh split the souls of believers in two?” Kui Xin involuntarily asked, sensing this might be a crucial question.
“Seven Days of Blood.” The term Augus mentioned was very familiar to Kui Xin, “When the gods descended to the world, seven days of blood rain fell. The religious scriptures say it was due to two gods fighting, and during the fight, they got injured, causing their blood to fall like rain, hence forming the blood rain. Later, the two gods made a truce and reached some sort of agreement. The soul of a believer is split in two because one half is offered to the god of the underworld, and the other half is offered to the other god. Only by receiving benefits would the other god agree to a truce.”
Kui Xin looked at her watch: “Four minutes left until nine.”
Mennetoh was a gatekeeper… the gate… the Dark Gate?!
Was it possible that at nine o’clock, Mennetoh would emerge from the gate?
From this religious story, it could be inferred that Mennetoh would seize the souls of believers. Kui Xin was horrified to think—Fang Zhi was a believer, his soul bearing the mark of the god. Had Mennetoh taken away half of Fang Zhi’s soul, anchoring the Dark Gate at the tobacco factory?
After killing Fang Zhi, it seemed that Kui Xin had also become an anchor point.
By seizing the Death Rebirth from Fang Zhi, she had effectively taken away some special substance from him, such as… the remaining half of his soul!
“Why multiples of seven?” Kui Xin asked again.
“Who knows? God created the world in seven days, and the blood rain legend lasts seven days too; seven symbolizes certain rules,” Augus explained. “So monsters might appear during time intervals that are multiples of seven.”
Li Wanran and the others conducted experiments in the Dark Realm around noon, and the experimental monkeys they released were pulled into the Dark Realm by unknown entities. Kui Xin remembered clearly; their experiment took place around 2 PM, and at that time, she had been eating at Teacher Wang’s home, chatting shortly after their meal. Two PM was indeed a multiple of seven.
“Where did you learn all this?” Kui Xin seized the moment to ask.
Augus responded, “No comment. Do you really take these things seriously, Mayi? Some parts might be true, but there’s no need to be so on edge; the gods are far, far away from us. The intersection of two worlds has only just appeared; the gate hasn’t expanded; it can’t withstand strong monsters crossing over. Now, could you return my bullets?”
“I could. But you need to give me a gun,” Kui Xin said expressionlessly. “You must have prepared more than one gun; I know.”
“You’re being too greedy.” There was a hint of gritted teeth in Augus’s tone.
“You’re running low on bullets. According to your own words, every time the clock hits multiples of seven, terrible monsters emerge from the gate. When it reaches zero, it’s possible that monsters will come through as well,” Kui Xin stated calmly. “You have no bullets; you’ll die. I have no gun; I’ll also die. The best course of action is for you to give me a gun, I give you some bullets, and we can cooperate for mutual benefit. You want to live; so do I.”
She added, “Augus, only four minutes remain until nine.”
Augus quickly relented, “You must give me the bullets first.”
Kui Xin thought for a moment, moved a bit closer, and took half a dozen bullets from one of the magazines on her belt.
With a clatter, several bullets rolled over to Augus. These few bullets were definitely not enough to reach a deal, nor were they sufficient for him to survive in the perilous Dark Realm until midnight.
“Here’s half to prove I’m not deceiving you,” Kui Xin immediately concealed herself, “Now you need to give me a gun; throw the gun into the illusion.”
Augus’s face darkened as he detached a spare gun from his back and tossed it into the illusion.
At the same time he threw the gun in, he raised his own to aim at the spot where the gun had disappeared. The moment Kui Xin emerged to retrieve the gun, he would immediately fire, attempting to kill her.
But Kui Xin was not reckless. She took off her outer coat, holding onto the sleeves to whip the clothing over the gun; it perfectly covered the weapon, and when she yanked it back, the gun was reclaimed.
Simultaneously, two gunshots rang out, Augus’s bullets missing her entirely and instead hitting her coat. When Kui Xin slipped the coat back on, it was now marred with several scorched bullet holes.
Kui Xin lowered her gaze to inspect the firearm and aimed at the blank illusion, firing a shot. The gun functioned perfectly.
Augus’s expression soured. “The bullets.”
Kui Xin contemplated for a moment, then said, “You said we would win together, yet you fired at me; I don’t want to give them to you.”
She bared her fangs.
“Don’t you want to know more information?” Augus sneered. “With just the information you have, you won’t survive here.”
“That’s not necessary. Having you as a sacrifice is quite worth it,” Kui Xin rubbed the bullets still on her belt, her face devoid of expression, “Let me remind you, there are only three minutes until nine.”
Augus’s breath hitched, stepping back a few paces into the illusion.
Nine o’clock was about to arrive… Kui Xin changed hiding spots.
She adjusted her breathing, performing a final check on her weapon.
Finally, nine o’clock arrived.
Kui Xin’s ears throbbed as chaotic and distorted murmurs flooded in. She immediately held her head with both hands, as her head throbbed with pain, feeling like it might explode.
The murmurs only lasted a moment.
Kui Xin took a breath, wiped away the sweat from her forehead, and strained to focus.
She knew that just one wall away was the corridor where Fang Zhi had died; the initial openings to the Dark Realm were there.
She pressed herself against the wall, straining to listen, hearing the sound of heavy objects hitting the ground, causing the entire second-floor floorboards of the tobacco factory to tremble.
Then came another heavy thud, followed by a third and fourth… each time the floor vibrated subtly.
It seemed a massive creature was traversing the vacant corridor.
The footsteps gradually faded, the terrifying sounds echoing in the looping corridor.
A creature known as “Mennetoh” opened a bloodied single eye, its sticky tentacles parting the phantoms and mist, surveying the Dark Realm.
