Chapter 116: Artificial Soul 43
Five minutes later, He Kangshi received a reply from Black Snake: “You can choose to join them.”
He Kangshi: “!!!”
“They are temporarily trustworthy individuals,” Black Snake continued.
“Boss, am I not your person?” When He Kangshi uttered these words, his mind twisted through several thoughts.
Black Snake knew who the hacker that contacted him was and understood what kind of organization that hacker wanted him to join, so he felt at ease. Or perhaps… did Black Snake have a special purpose for making him join someone else’s organization? For example, to infiltrate and gather intelligence, or to maintain contact with other players?
Sure enough, Black Snake said, “This is not contradictory; you are only responsible to me personally. We are partners. You and they can form a mutually beneficial alliance—we can form alliances with anyone, for mutual benefit.”
The last sentence seemed to imply something deeper.
He Kangshi displayed a profound expression on his face, his fingers typing quickly: “I understand, Boss. Gather more friends and fewer enemies.”
“Exactly.”
“Agreeing to their invitation right away, would that be a bit too deliberate?”
“They won’t contact you only once; you can agree next time.”
Black Snake seemed to know the hacker that contacted him very well.
“Is this new force large in scale?” He Kangshi asked cautiously.
Black Snake replied, “It’s decent, quite promising, but its style is immature; we’ll have to observe for now.”
The evaluation was surprisingly specific… He Kangshi immediately felt that Black Snake was not ordinary.
His mood soured when he received the second invitation, but Black Snake’s attitude remained relaxed and casual, as if he had no regard for the other party at all.
“If they contact you again, you must inform me in a timely manner,” Black Snake said. “You can gauge the tone of the conversation yourself. The other party is unlikely to make any unreasonable demands of you and may even assist you.”
He Kangshi felt reassured and said, “Got it.”
The chat box on his phone disappeared, but a small red point appeared on the screen’s border. As long as he tapped that point, the chat box would expand again.
He Kangshi didn’t immediately go to sleep. He left his computer desk and rummaged through his belongings to pack clothes. He had moved hastily and hadn’t prepared many clothes, so he packed quickly.
Holding a small suitcase filled with clothes and his laptop, he sat on the bed, wiping the sweat from his brow.
Once Black Snake sent him the message about moving, he would grab his bag and leave.
He Kangshi calmed himself and considered that, with so few players around, using public transportation was the safest option, as it was covered in surveillance, and places like train stations typically had police presence. Black Snake had also mentioned that most players were not strong enough to compete with firearms.
He turned the ringtone up to maximum, then turned off the lights in his bedroom and lay down, falling into a deep sleep. He had installed surveillance cameras outside his rental unit, which would automatically alert him if anything moved in front of the camera.
However, he was unaware that Kui Xin had already taken over control of that camera. The surveillance camera was a silent eye, watching everything around He Kangshi.
…
Kui Xin acted with remarkable efficiency and arrived in He Kangshi’s city early the next morning.
She sat at a breakfast stand downstairs from He Kangshi’s rental unit, sipping spicy soup and eating two yuan water-fried buns.
The stimulating spicy flavor awakened Kui Xin’s senses, and while nibbling on the buns, she communicated with He Kangshi through data manipulation.
He Kangshi: “Boss, that hacker contacted me again!”
“What did they say this time?”
“That guy also wants me to move to Jingchu, saying they can provide me protection…” He Kangshi looked puzzled, “Is Jingchu some sort of feng shui treasure? Why are there so many high-level players there? And they’re all big shots…”
“Must be a coincidence,” Kui Xin replied. “You can agree to their invitation. Book a ticket; leave as soon as possible. I found you a train around eleven, and there are available seats. If you feel rushed, you can leave in the afternoon.”
“Eleven o’clock works for me; I’ve already packed my things.” He Kangshi got excited and immediately switched pages to book a ticket.
Kui Xin responded, “Okay. I’ll plan the route and send it to your phone. I’ve cleared all the virus programs on your phone.”
“You cleared them so early?” He Kangshi asked.
Kui Xin: “What I’m about to tell you, you mustn’t be scared.”
He Kangshi: “Pfft…”
He couldn’t help but laugh.
“I want to see if you can lure out some demons and monsters during your transfer.”
He Kangshi’s smile gradually disappeared.
“The probability of encountering danger is very small, but it’s not zero,” Kui Xin said bluntly.
“I’m prepared,” He Kangshi replied, trying to sound composed.
“As long as you’re prepared, just focus on reaching your destination; don’t worry about anything else.”
That simple statement gave He Kangshi immense comfort. If the boss said it was fine, then it was fine.
He glanced at the time; it was just past nine, and he still had a bit of time.
He walked to the bathroom and looked at his scruffy self, talking to himself, “No, my appearance is too terrible…”
Overwhelmed by fear and anxiety, he hadn’t shaved in weeks. The consecutive nights of insomnia had left him looking ten years older, with dark circles under his eyes and bloodshot whites. He seriously washed his face, applied foam, shaved off his stubble, changed into a fresh outfit, and finally combed his hair.
“Not bad; this looks more like my old self,” He Kangshi grinned at his refreshed reflection in the mirror. “Nice! Off to find the boss and start a new life!”
He put on a baseball cap, a mask, and some clear glasses, picked up his small suitcase, and energetically rushed downstairs like a spirited rooster, saying to the aunt selling breakfast, “Auntie! Pack me a bowl of tofu pudding and two pickled vegetable buns, with extra sugar in the pudding!”
The friendly aunt replied, “Okay!”
…
He Kangshi had a bit of counter-surveillance awareness. He kept an eye on his surroundings, occasionally looking back and forth, and pretended to check his phone’s front camera as a mirror to see if anyone was following him.
Unfortunately, such clumsy counter-surveillance methods were easy for Kui Xin to bypass. She followed him into the subway, got off at the same station, and boarded a different train car of the same train.
The journey was smooth, without encountering any difficulties or suspicious individuals.
But this stretch was just beginning.
He Kangshi’s destination was Tonglin City, Kui Xin’s stronghold. However, he wouldn’t go straight to Tonglin City; he would transfer in another city and stay overnight before taking a three-hour train to Tonglin City.
It was this overnight stay that was key.
He Kangshi was tense, his eyes darting beneath his glasses, sneaking peeks at his pocket to check if Kui Xin had sent him any messages.
He followed the planned route to the high-speed train station and boarded the train without issue.
Kui Xin, sitting in the adjacent car, saw him sneak off to the bathroom through the surveillance and messaged her: “I got on the train.”
“I know,” Kui Xin replied instantly, “You can rest for a bit. There won’t be any danger here.”
He Kangshi felt instantly reassured. He left the bathroom and comfortably settled into his seat, taking this opportunity to have a small nap.
When the train arrived at its destination, He Kangshi followed the route Kui Xin had planned and took a taxi to a remote urban village, dropping off his luggage at a small hotel within the village.
He messaged Kui Xin again: “I’m at the hotel.”
“I know,” Kui Xin replied. “Wash up and sleep. It’s fine. Turn your phone volume to the maximum; I’ll notify you if anything happens.”
He Kangshi: “Okay, boss! By the way, it seems there are particularly few people in this urban village; there aren’t many residents, and many houses have collapsed. Is this place about to be demolished?”
“Yes.”
Places with fewer people are convenient for disposing of corpses and for fishing for targets. He Kangshi was no fool; he understood this logic.
He suspected that Black Snake had sent someone to escort him. Otherwise, why was Black Snake so relaxed about his safety? He Kangshi figured out the key and lay on the bed, forcing himself to remain calm.
After all, he was just a novice; being inconspicuous was his greatest contribution, and the boss understood this better than he did.
He Kangshi’s mind ran wild, imagining whether a killer would assassinate him in the middle of the night or if there would be a fierce fight outside his room. He wondered if he would wake up to see corpses strewn across the floor… In the throes of his imagination, he fell into a deep sleep.
The next day, he awoke unscathed. He hadn’t heard any fighting sounds the night before, and when he left with his luggage, he saw no corpses scattered around…
“Great, just a false alarm.” He didn’t forget to report his status. “I’m heading to the train station to catch the train.”
“Go.”
Tsk, managing a subordinate is so troublesome.
Kui Xin sat on the roof of the hotel, legs crossed, watching He Kangshi jog along the village road, hailing a taxi.
Last night was very quiet, and nothing went wrong. Kui Xin remained calm, neither disappointed nor letting her guard down. The enemy isn’t a obedient dog; they won’t just show up.
She leaped down from the three-story building, using Shadow Transition to land steadily on the ground, followed He Kangshi into a taxi, and arrived at the train station right beside him.
He Kangshi thought this journey would take him smoothly to the endpoint, and Kui Xin believed so too.
But this green-skinned train had some issues; it stopped on the tracks.
Kui Xin asked a train attendant for details, and the attendant explained, “There were stones placed on the tracks, likely by local kids, and we need to clear the debris to proceed.”
Stoned on the tracks?
Kui Xin furrowed her brows deeply, sensing that things were not simple.
She glanced back at the car behind her, where He Kangshi was, still wearing his mask and baseball cap.
Half an hour later, the train restarted. The old-fashioned train was noisier than the high-speed train and clanged as it ran.
With a serious expression, Kui Xin carefully discerned the sounds, suddenly hearing something rubbing against the roof of the train—a very faint sound, nearly undetectable for an ordinary person.
She stood up abruptly from her seat, quickly walked to the train car’s restroom.
Calmly, she messaged He Kangshi: “There’s been a bit of an incident.”
He Kangshi: “?!”
“Act appropriately. If you need to change cars, do so. Stay discreet.”
He Kangshi trembled: “Understood.”
Kui Xin took a mask from her clothing pocket and put it on. Looking up at the restroom ceiling, she activated Shadow Transition, passing through the ceiling of the carriage and standing on the top of the moving train.
The wind whipped her hair and fluttered her clothes.
Her gaze fixed firmly on the figure in black standing on the roof of the train car, her expression darkening.
“I hate people who increase my workload,” she muttered to herself.
