Chapter 131: Artificial Soul 58
The subsequent interrogation was no different from the last time; Kui Xin and Wei Zhi smoothly passed the brain machine memory reading.
As she exited the brain machine, her headache intensified.
Was it an illusion? Recently, she had been feeling headaches too easily; after the Death Rebirth, her mental state had deteriorated significantly. Walking felt unsteady, as if her head was heavy and her feet light. After going through the brain machine, the discomfort in her head worsened.
Kui Xin stepped out of the Investigation Building, ordered takeout on the way, and headed straight back to her employee apartment.
Bored while waiting for the food, she finished her meal and fell asleep immediately. She slept soundly until it was dark, perfectly missing the messages from Red and Silverface.
Red: “The branch location has been determined. Feel free to drop by sometime.”
After pondering for a moment, Kui Xin replied: “Another day.”
Red quickly responded: “You haven’t replied to me all day. Is something going on? Did your interrogation go smoothly?”
“Smoothly. Went through the brain machine, feeling unwell.” Kui Xin explained succinctly.
Red: “Got it. Rest well. Let me know when you’re free to come by. By the way, almost forgot to tell you, we have a new member, codename Nightingale, related to Night Cicada, with B rank Spatial Vortex.”
“Understood.” Kui Xin replied.
There was also a message from Silverface.
Silverface: “I’m back in Hei Hai City with Red, the bartender! The branch address has been confirmed; it’s in a casino on the edge of the city center! Now we can partner in the same city again!”
This message had been sent much earlier, before Red’s.
Next, Silverface fully showcased his chatty nature, reporting back to Kui Xin every few minutes about what he was doing. He truly talked a lot, and it was indeed boring; otherwise, he wouldn’t send so many messages.
“The casino boss’s bodyguards are surprisingly weak; their bones broke with just a couple of hits.”
“The casino boss is also frail; he fell to the ground with just one punch.”
“The bed in my casino room is so soft, I have my own room now! Of course, the place in the Harbor Zone is also nice! But I prefer a soft bed, though I can’t sleep on it, or I’ll sleep too deeply and lose my vigilance.”
“When are you coming? I haven’t seen you in a while.”
“Red said you would be interrogated. Did it go smoothly? It should have finished by now.”
Countless messages like this flooded in, making Kui Xin recall her first meeting with Silverface, when he was hiding in the dark of the room, wearing a silver mask, speaking little and exuding a powerful aura. She thought he was a cool, cold-blooded killer… Well, Silverface is indeed a cold-blooded killer, but Kui Xin didn’t expect him to be a simpleton not skilled in thinking.
“Silverface.” As Kui Xin sent those two words, Silverface responded instantly.
“! Finally replied!”
“Are you this talkative when working for others too?” Kui Xin asked.
Silverface: “Ah, not really? When I was with Red, he found me too chatty and didn’t let me send him messages… If I’m bothering you, I’ll stop.”
Kui Xin thought for a moment: “I don’t mind you being talkative.”
Silverface was touched: “You’re so nice!!”
“But sending messages this frequently makes me feel like I’m your mom or your sister. I’m neither your mom nor your sister; you don’t need to report every little thing to me.” Kui Xin said.
Silverface: “So, you do find me annoying!”
After a long pause, Silverface suddenly asked: “Why do you become my mom or sister when I send you messages?”
Kui Xin’s fingers hesitated on the keyboard for a moment.
She realized that Silverface was an artificial person good at following orders but not at thinking. He had no family and seemed to lack the concept of familial love. In some ways, he was as pure as a blank sheet of paper. However, the Ambereye Black Obsidian twins were different; they had free will and even betrayed Mechanized Dawn.
A subtle thought suddenly arose in Kui Xin’s mind—if she planted the seed of freedom in Silverface’s heart, would he also betray Mechanized Dawn?
She contemplated and replied: “Typically, in human society, young humans tend to develop emotional dependence on family, which manifests as a strong desire to share, cling to each other, and care for one another. Your behavior aligns with the characteristics of human children, but I am not your family.”
Silverface appeared not to understand Kui Xin’s words. He said, “I don’t understand.”
“If you don’t understand, then look it up online yourself.” Kui Xin was too lazy to explain further.
Silverface simply replied: “Oh.”
He really went to check.
After a while, Silverface recalled something and asked: “You still haven’t said when you’ll come to the branch.”
“I’m busy these couple of days.” Kui Xin replied before putting down her wristband.
She lay back on her bed, the room silent, only her own breathing could be heard.
She entered a brief period of downtime; she had passed the interrogation, and she had some thoughts about changing her metal skull. However, she knew she couldn’t accomplish that in the next few days. The newly appeared Annie Schalit was another troublesome figure; Kui Xin couldn’t grasp her attitude or what she wanted to do.
Would appearing unannounced in front of her raise her vigilance and suspicion? Kui Xin had already used up one chance of Death Rebirth; she could not afford any more trouble.
Thinking of Death Rebirth, Kui Xin couldn’t help but ponder.
The retrospective time segment of Death Rebirth had shortened, which might be related to inter-world travel.
To put it metaphorically, a goldfish can originally swim a very long distance, but if it is caught in a closed fishbowl, it can only swim back and forth within the bowl. Even if it can swim far, it cannot break through the glass barriers of the bowl.
The Second World is a fishbowl, the First World is also a fishbowl, and Kui Xin is that bound goldfish. It isn’t that she can only swim that far, but rather that the fishbowl limits her; swimming too far, she will hit a wall.
Death Rebirth is this scenario; time rewinds, and Kui Xin has to return to a week ago in the First World or the Second World. However, because of the barrier between worlds obstructing her, just as she reached the endpoint of the timeline, she hit the glass and was forced to stop.
“What should I do?” Kui Xin muttered, “What is Schalit doing?”
“She’s resting at the accommodation location provided by the Investigation Bureau. Since she needs to select suitable people for the Special Affairs Department, she will make a short stay in Hei Hai City. From what I see, she’ll be acting as an interviewer,” Augus said.
“Is the brain machine there?” Kui Xin subconsciously tightened her fingers.
Augus said: “It has been loaded onto a cargo helicopter and is being transported away.”
That’s another change! In the last iteration, Annie Schalit left Hei Hai City immediately after completing her interrogation, and two brain machines had been dismantled. Now, the brain machine has left, and Annie Schalit stayed behind.
“I’m closely monitoring her; she shows no abnormalities and hasn’t left the accommodation.” Augus reported, “The key is, we don’t know what she actually wants to do.”
The unknown is the most anxiety-inducing element, and Schalit is unknown.
“I really want to talk to her privately. She might not be able to relax in the Investigation Bureau because she knows it’s a territory that doesn’t belong to her, and conversations might be monitored,” Kui Xin said. “Maybe she will reveal more when we meet alone.”
“That’s too risky, Kui Xin.” Augus replied. “You can hardly resist an A rank Hypnotic Sound; with just one word from her, she can make you willingly climb a high building and jump off to your death, or point a gun at your own head.”
This brief period of downtime allowed Kui Xin to think deeply about many things. The crisis with the Kraken had passed; now she was facing a new crisis. She carefully reviewed everything that had happened in the last two weeks, trying to recall details of every event and every word spoken, desperately trying to find the forgotten clues from the corners of her memory.
Kui Xin recalled that in the prior incident involving the S rank Black Flame, there were actually three factions involved.
One faction was Mechanized Dawn, the second was the Investigation Bureau, and the third was the “True Resistance Army.”
She learned about the “True Resistance Army” from Night Cicada.
In the incident where the S rank was besieged, Black Flame Wang Feichi was captured, the Investigation Bureau suffered a disastrous defeat, Kui Xin and Wei Zhi were captured, Kui Xin’s identity as a player was exposed under Eve’s coercion, and Ambereye Black Obsidian went missing. However, Mechanized Dawn had not provided much explanation regarding Ambereye Black Obsidian’s betrayal; they must have dealt with it.
Ambereye Black Obsidian betrayed them—who did they turn to? The Investigation Bureau belongs to the federal government; they wouldn’t likely side with the federal government. Thus, the remaining answer is readily apparent: Ambereye Black Obsidian turned to the Resistance Army—the true Resistance Army.
The phrase “Resistance Army” is not unfamiliar to Kui Xin; in fact, she is quite familiar with it.
This is because, when she first entered the game, she saw her game identity settings, which prominently listed four identities: “Core member of Mechanized Dawn, trainee patrol security officer in the Federal Investigation Bureau’s Seventh Squad, federal wanted criminal, undercover agent of the Resistance Army.”
As the events unfolded, Kui Xin’s second identity changed to “Secretarial Assistant to the Field Operations Team Leader of the Federal Investigation Bureau,” while the other identities remained unchanged.
Upon first entering the game, Kui Xin analyzed her identities. At that time, she lacked understanding of her environment and believed that the undercover agent identity meant Mechanized Dawn was a resistance organization and that she was an undercover agent sent to the Investigation Bureau by this resistance organization.
Only now, recalling Night Cicada’s mention of the “true Resistance Army,” did she suddenly realize something was wrong.
She had always thought the main focus of these four identity settings was on the first two, with the latter two being supplementary explanations for the first two. But what if the interpretation were reversed? If these four identities are parallel, the conclusions drawn would be drastically different.
The first two identities in these four represent her positions in two labor organizations, while the third identity represents her status within the federation—a wanted criminal. Each of the first three identities has its significance, so the fourth identity must also carry its own meaning.
Kui Xin suddenly felt a chill run from her heels up to the top of her head.
No way?! No way?! She can’t really be that unlucky, can she? An undercover start is already unlucky enough; she didn’t expect it to be a nested identity start. Her identity is like an onion; peeling off one layer reveals another layer, stripping away one layer of undercover identity only to find another layer of undercover identity waiting for her.
She cautiously said, “Do you know about the Resistance Army, Augus?”
“I do,” Augus replied. “It’s a resistance organization aimed at overthrowing the federal government and dismantling the financial conglomerates. Initially, it was a political party, but twenty-five years ago, that party was labeled illegal on the grounds of promoting reactionary thoughts, and the Resistance Army was officially defined as a terrorist organization by the federal government. This organization has existed for decades, and the whereabouts of its members are scattered throughout the world.”
