Chapter 119: Artificial Soul 46
August 15, the sixth day since returning to the First World.
The experiences in the Second World were thrilling enough and also quite exhausting.
In comparison, the First World, while still harboring some dangers, was overall much more peaceful. At the very least, Kui Xin didn’t have to live with her head on the chopping block.
Su Rong had not fully recovered from her illness and was in poor spirits. Her family was genuinely worried about her health, so they arranged for her to take a few extra days off. As a result, Kui Xin had not been giving her tutoring lessons for the past few days.
These leisurely days were rare. Kui Xin trained diligently every day, occasionally browsing the forum and the news to keep up with various happenings. She was especially concerned about the movements of the Secret Cult members.
Some players had become members of the Secret Cult after crossing over to the Second World, Fang Zhi was one of them, and the man in black that Kui Xin killed on the train seemed to be another.
The dying words of that man in black piqued her interest: “I am not alone; the God is watching over you.”
At first, Kui Xin thought he had said that because he had accomplices on the train, but later realized it was not the case; the attacker had been alone throughout the entire incident. Therefore, the man’s last words might imply: many Heterogeneous Blooded individuals are watching you; they will come for you, and there’s no escape.
The man’s words made Kui Xin think of Fang Zhi.
Fang Zhi had come to Tonglin City without reason and had found Su Rong’s home without any explanation. It was as though some divine force had guided him, leading him to the correct location.
Currently, the crisis facing Kui Xin in the First World mainly stemmed from the Heterogeneous Blooded and the “God” they worshipped.
To prevent the Heterogeneous Blooded from suddenly seeking her out, Kui Xin deliberately connected to the city’s surveillance system. She momentarily lacked the ability to analyze every surveillance camera in the city, so she focused on monitoring the ones around her home, Su Rong’s home, and He Kangshi’s residence.
Additionally, Kui Xin copied a set of resident information and face recognition software. She spent a good amount of time inputting the resident information into the program; once there were unfamiliar individuals from other provinces or cities within the monitored key areas, Kui Xin would be alerted.
Due to the storage limitation of her mobile phone, it could not support such vast amounts of data, so she had to go to a computer store to buy components and assemble a good-performance computer that met her needs. Then she could input the compiled data and link the alarm system to her phone.
Kui Xin felt like a real data-mining tycoon.
She could not program face recognition software, but she simply had to hack into professionals’ computers and copy the recognition codes as they were. Her vision could not cover too broad an area, thus utilizing an existing surveillance system was a great choice.
One must learn to use the tools at hand wisely.
Kui Xin had other things to do and could not expend all her energy on processing data and staying alert for the Heterogeneous Blooded, so she employed the computer to save time and energy, only needing to respond when she received automated alerts.
During these days, He Kangshi’s contact with Kui Xin had decreased; he was busy making money.
Because he couldn’t go out freely or make appearances online, He Kangshi had lost his source of income. Therefore, he reluctantly created a small account to stream video game commentary using voice only.
When he started this, he specifically asked Kui Xin for help with encryption to prevent being doxxed.
“I bought a voice changer online, and it’s here,” He Kangshi said. “I’ll stream every night; Boss, you can come and watch too.”
At Kui Xin’s request, he changed how he addressed her from “Boss” to “Big Brother.”
One evening, with nothing else to do, Kui Xin clicked into He Kangshi’s streaming room to have a look, and a peculiar expression crossed her face.
His voice changer turned his voice into a female voice, a sultry one at that. The room was filled with comments, “Sister, your voice is very nice! Attack them hard, hit them again!”
Then she noticed the signature of He Kangshi’s newly opened account: “Making money, not shabby!”
Wow, this guy really understood the formula for audience engagement.
On the 15th, evening.
After finishing dinner and taking a moment to rest, she did a few sets of exercises and then conducted another security check on the city’s surveillance as usual.
Tonight was a critical night; after midnight, it would be August 16.
The official announcement stated that at midnight on August 16, the list of players for the second batch of internal testing for Crimson Soil would be released.
For many, this night was destined to be a sleepless one.
Those who had not entered the game hoped to be selected, while players who had already experienced the game were waiting for the influx of 100,000 players to the forum, eager to educate the newcomers.
With ten minutes to midnight, Kui Xin stopped everything she was doing and sat on her bed, refreshing the forum.
Players were actively chatting on the forum.
“Will newcomers think we are playing some weird role-playing game when they enter the forum? The screen is filled with terms they can’t understand and strange discussion threads, and everyone seems so engaged; they must be freaked out, right?”
“As soon as those 100,000 people come in, the secret of crossing over will be hard to hide; there will definitely be someone leaking the information from the forum. Just thinking about it gives me a headache.”
“I think this batch will have more thrill-seekers and rebels; after all, everyone has tried hard to persuade them not to play the game, yet they still want to come in. That’s not our fault…”
Kui Xin silently browsed the posts, calmly scrolling through one thread after another.
At midnight, the time on her phone turned to zero. As the clock on her phone reset completely, Kui Xin quickly clicked refresh.
The forum page was blank at first, then began to change subtly.
The upper part of the page added a navigation bar, with sections labeled First Section, Second Section, and Personal Section.
Kui Xin was stunned.
After another refresh, many posts labeled “New” popped up.
“The forum has been divided into sections! Wow! The first batch of test players belongs to the First Section, so the soon-to-arrive second batch of internal test players should belong to the Second Section!”
“There’s even a Personal Section on the side?? What is that for? Is the Personal Section for players’ affiliations?”
“I can’t click into the Personal Section… The Second Section is clickable, but it’s empty inside; maybe the second batch of players hasn’t finished registering yet. Let’s wait a bit.”
“What’s going on with the Personal Section??”
The Personal Section is not clickable…?
Kui Xin hesitated for a moment, then clicked on the button for the Personal Section. As the page loaded, a window popped up: “Detected that the player has the forum title [Hunter]. You meet the conditions to open a Personal Section. Upon opening this section, you will be the sole administrator, with the authority to delete posts, stick threads, mute users and set rules. You may invite other players to discuss and engage in this section; players without an invitation cannot enter. Would you like to proceed?”
Kui Xin was taken aback, never expecting that the seemingly useless title reward from killing Fang Zhi held such true significance; only players who obtained a title could unlock a Personal Section.
Without a doubt, this feature would accelerate the division of player factions, leading them into tighter-knit groups.
She no longer hesitated and clicked confirm directly.
“Please set the name of your Personal Section.”
After pondering for a few seconds, Kui Xin typed in the space: “Black Snake.”
“Personal Section [Black Snake] has been opened.”
The forum page automatically refreshed.
On the navigation bar, the First Section, Second Section, and Black Snake were now listed side by side.
The words “Black Snake” stood out distinctly in the navigation bar, appearing extremely discordant.
As soon as those two words appeared, players in the First Section were bewildered.
“Personal Section [Black Snake], what the heck is this? It suddenly changed!!”
“What is Black Snake? Is it a nickname? So a player named Black Snake has opened their personal forum; am I understanding this correctly?”
Kui Xin’s phone buzzed incessantly, with He Kangshi, who was also awake, frantically sending her messages.
He Kangshi: “Boss!! Is that Black Snake in the Personal Section you?”
Kui Xin: “It’s me.”
He Kangshi: “Wow, wow, wow!”
He Kangshi: “You’re making waves!! Get that momentum on the public screen!!”
Kui Xin’s lips twitched.
He Kangshi, overly excited, said, “Boss, I feel like I picked the right person. It’s like a rebellion where I discover the person I’m following is destined to be a dragon! I’m following someone who is meant to be an emperor!”
Kui Xin: “…”
This guy has lost his mind.
“The first player to open a Personal Section on the forum, what does that mean? One in ten thousand, a global exclusive, the strongest pro in Crimson Soil!” He Kangshi threw compliments one after another, without repeating a single phrase, “Just think about it; anytime a new batch of players enters the game and clicks on the forum page, the first thing they see will be your code, Boss! The name Black Snake is destined to be etched in everyone’s memory! Isn’t that impressive?”
Kui Xin facepalmed and closed the dialogue box, ignoring him.
She clicked into her Personal Section, which was still completely empty. After some thought, she created a new post with only punctuation.
The new post displayed the username in bold, showing her nickname prefixed by the title “Hunter·233.”
Kui Xin clicked on her username and discovered she could hide the prefix title, so she hid it, leaving only “233” as her name, then deleted the new post that had only punctuation.
After studying the features of the Personal Section for a while, she found the invite button. In the invite box, she entered He Kangshi’s username “Maicyo is me” and pulled him into the section while instructing him on her phone: “Don’t speak out of turn without my permission.”
After finishing these tasks, Kui Xin returned to the forum homepage and clicked into the Second Section to have a look.
Fast users among the second batch of internal test players had already registered, with only a few posts. One of the post titles read: “Can second batch internal testers not enter the First Section? The section called [Black Snake] is also inaccessible; does anyone know what’s going on?”
Kui Xin pondered for a moment, then returned to the First Section and found an old player commenting: “I’ve tried; it seems the first batch of internal testers can freely enter the Second Section and also post there, but players from the Second Section can’t enter the First Section.”
Kui Xin nodded thoughtfully.
First batch internal testers had priority and could freely access lower sections, while the permissions for second batch internal testers were limited.
In other words, the forum had a hierarchical structure.
