Chapter 150: Dark Boundless Realm 05
Boris owned many properties, and the one Kui Xin was heading to was one of his houses hidden with various weapons.
He had a collection obsession for firearms, and certain powerful weapons were controlled by the Federation. If anyone was caught trading them, they would be confiscated and held accountable. However, he had basically collected a complete set of weapons available on the black market, and that villa was specifically for storing weapons.
Kui Xin hacked into Boris’s villa using data manipulation, first taking control of the cameras and various sensors, and then hypnotizing the bodyguards guarding the place with Hypnotic Sound.
She calmly walked through the front door of the villa.
The front door was an automatic door made of high-strength alloy, consisting of three layers that could withstand several explosions without shattering.
Kui Xin swiped her access card to enter. After swiping, she also needed to undergo an iris scan and a fingerprint scan. If the scans failed, the alarm system would automatically trigger, but Kui Xin ignored the scanning steps entirely.
She connected to the villa’s alarm system control port using data manipulation, while simultaneously communicating with Augus—who was teaching her how to breach the villa’s defense system.
During the past few days of travel, Augus frequently took the opportunity to teach her how to use data manipulation, and now was a perfect time to practice.
“Any firewall has vulnerabilities,” Augus said. “Find the right path, and you can enter and exit at will. The systems of the Investigation Bureau and the Federal government have been researched and improved by countless engineers, making them virtually impenetrable, with the chances of a hacker breaching that firewall approaching zero. The control system Boris uses is nowhere near comparable to the systems developed by the Federation; the firewall is as fragile as paper, and breaking it is very easy.”
“Easy for you, an AI with servers all over the world,” Kui Xin replied.
“Once you learn the method, it will be just as easy for you,” Augus said. “Keep your data synchronized with mine; I’ll guide you into the ‘wall.'”
The term “wall” was merely a convenient metaphor for Kui Xin to understand. Her consciousness bypassed the “wall” in the data world, traversing through a labyrinth filled with hidden dangers, reaching the core of the maze.
The “wall” crumbled, and under Augus’s guidance, Kui Xin seized control of the villa’s defense system.
“Ding Dong—”
With a thought, the final layer of the metal door automatically opened, revealing the lobby on the first floor of the villa. The first-floor lobby had no windows, only four walls of hard metal, resembling a small fortress made of steel. The living room lights came on silently, revealing rows of display racks filled with weapons, both cold and hot.
“Welcome back,” the villa’s intelligent butler greeted Kui Xin’s return.
Stepping into the villa, Kui Xin clicked her tongue. “Even though I already knew, this guy’s wealth is beyond my imagination; he spends thirty percent of his earnings on firearms.”
She casually picked up a g*n from the display rack and fiddled with it. Boris’s collection of firearms was inferior to the Investigation Bureau’s; in terms of quantity, he only had about two of each type, but the models were comprehensive, ranging from ordinary firearms sold for 800 Federation coins on the black market to nearly man-sized sniper rifles, and hand cannons loaded with explosive rounds.
Since the arms manufacturers in the Second World were mostly private enterprises, there wasn’t strict control over firearms. An ordinary person could acquire hot weapons if they were determined enough.
Kui Xin circled around the first-floor living room, picking out a few guns that felt handy, replenished her ammunition, and switched to a sharper dagger. On the display rack to her left hung a new material bulletproof vest, lighter and sturdier than the one she had been wearing. She removed her old vest and donned the new one.
After updating all her gear, Kui Xin felt refreshed.
She briskly ascended the stairs to tour the entire villa. The second and third floors were filled with arms storage, lacking anything worthwhile; however, the basement had resting areas and a secret passage leading to the outside. But Kui Xin didn’t need the secret passage; she already had the Spatial Vortex.
Arriving at the basement, Kui Xin collapsed onto a sofa and rubbed her sore neck.
The sofa sensed someone sitting down and quickly activated its automatic massage function, massaging her shoulders and lower back.
She hadn’t rested properly in a long time, having traveled for consecutive days, eating poorly, not sleeping well, and constantly on guard, leaving her feeling completely exhausted.
After lying on the sofa for a while, she summoned the game panel to check her basic information.
“Name: Kui Xin
Faction: None
Identity: Defector from Mechanized Dawn, defector from the Investigation Bureau, defector from the Resistance Army, level one wanted criminal in the Federation.
Personal Title: Hunter.”
Since breaking away from various nested organizations and regaining her freedom, Kui Xin’s game identity had experienced a significant change. Old identity information had vanished, replaced by three defector identities, and her personal title was displayed on the panel.
But the changes didn’t stop there.
Kui Xin switched to her basic attribute panel.
【Basic Attributes】
Name: Kui Xin
Occupation: Remover
Extraordinary Abilities: 【Shadow Transition·E Rank (Can be fused)】, 【Spatial Vortex·B Rank (Can be fused)】, 【Deception Skill·C Rank (Can be fused)】, 【Hypnotic Sound·A Rank (Can be fused)】, 【d*ath Rebirth·A Rank】, 【Data Manipulation·A Rank】, 【bl**d Spirit·A Rank】, 【Iron Bone·B Rank】, 【Investigative Eye·B Rank】, 【Electromagnetic Detection·B Rank】, 【Flesh and bl**d Regeneration·C Rank】, 【Burning bl**d·C Rank】, 【Magnetic Sword·C Rank】, 【Serpent Body·C Rank】.
Inherent Talents: 【Performance Persona】, 【Life Fortitude】, 【Absolute Prediction】, 【Rapid Learning】.
Since her entrance into the game, Kui Xin had acquired several abilities.
“Shadow Transition” and “Spatial Vortex” were both space-type abilities, while “Deception Skill” and “Hypnotic Sound” were mind-type abilities, deemed fusable by the game system. Kui Xin had previously attempted to choose for the fusion, resulting in the game system issuing a prompt.
“Would you like to choose the extraordinary ability 【Shadow Transition】 as the fusion subject? After a successful fusion, your extraordinary ability 【Spatial Vortex】 will become inactive, and the level of 【Shadow Transition】 will increase to B Rank.”
In other words, if Kui Xin wanted to fuse the two abilities, it would be like implanting the experience value of one extraordinary ability into another, and she could only retain one of them.
Kui Xin then attempted to select Spatial Vortex as the fusion subject, curious if she could sacrifice Shadow Transition to elevate the rank of Spatial Vortex to A Rank. The system indeed issued a prompt: “Would you like to choose the extraordinary ability 【Spatial Vortex】 as the fusion subject? After a successful fusion, your extraordinary ability 【Shadow Transition】 will become inactive, and the ability level of 【Spatial Vortex】 will be upgraded to A Rank.”
Shadow Transition was currently the ability Kui Xin was most adept at, and it was also the first ability she acquired. She found it somewhat reluctant to give up this ability.
She was well aware of the various shortcomings of this ability. First, regarding the battlefield, this ability was practically ineffective in places without shadow coordinates, and its combat effectiveness would be halved during the daytime. Furthermore, the distance for transition was limited to three meters. Compared to its shortcomings, the advantages of Shadow Transition were also evident: while in the shadow mist state, physical damage could be completely immune, which was immensely beneficial during close combat.
In contrast to Shadow Transition, while Spatial Vortex had a longer transition distance, it could not ignore physical damage, and it took about two seconds to open the vortex, unlike Shadow Transition, which could be activated instantly.
Kui Xin felt a bit hesitant. Her journey to White Whale City had been too busy, and she didn’t have time to contemplate until now when she couldn’t make up her mind about fusing this ability.
Nonetheless, “Deception Skill” and “Hypnotic Sound” were fuseable.
Deception Skill was a rather useless ability with a very low effectiveness probability. It also relied on voice and language as mediums for activation, making it equivalent to a lower-tier version of Hypnotic Sound. Losing it wouldn’t be a loss.
Kui Xin thought for a moment, focused her gaze on the game panel, and chose to fuse.
“… After fusion, your extraordinary ability 【Deception Skill】 will become inactive, and the ability effects of 【Hypnotic Sound】 will be enhanced.”
Kui Xin’s eyebrows twitched, as if she realized something.
There existed an invisible “experience bar” between the levels of extraordinary abilities. Some extraordinary abilities were quite powerful within B Rank, close to leveling up, while others, though A Rank, were far from S Rank, making it impossible to level up even with fusion.
But it didn’t matter since, after the fusion, she would only lose a “Deception Skill” that hadn’t proven useful so far.
Without much thought, Kui Xin confirmed her decision.
“Fusion successful, 【Deception Skill】 has been deactivated.”
On the game panel, Hypnotic Sound still displayed its ability level as A Rank.
Kui Xin pressed the corner of her eye and gazed at the ceiling, pulling out a small black box from her backpack.
She opened the box, cold white mist poured out from the opening, and inside were two glass tubes and several syringes filled with dark red liquid. The glass tubes held red-hidden line bugs. Mechanized Dawn had given Kui Xin a total of three hidden line bugs; she had used one and had two left. The remaining syringes contained the bl**d of the Bartender, Red, and Schalit.
She had already read the bl**d of the Bartender and Red, gaining quite a bit of useful information from Red’s bl**d memory. Now it was time to read Schalit’s bl**d memory.
“I’m worried about losing consciousness later; please connect to the villa’s security system to keep watch for me,” Kui Xin said.
Augus simply replied with one word: “Got it.”
Kui Xin looked at the bl**d in the syringe, took off her gloves to disinfect her hands, squeezed a drop of bl**d onto her index finger, activated bl**d Spirit, and licked the bl**d.
The moment her tongue touched the drop of bl**d, memories flooded into her mind like a torrential flood.
…
Annie Schalit was born into a wealthy family. Her father was a researcher, and her mother was the head of an orphanage. However, her childhood was far from happy, as her father suddenly disappeared when she was twelve. After her father’s disappearance, her mother no longer smiled.
Schalit repeatedly asked her mother where her father had gone, but her mother remained tight-lipped.
Schalit began to investigate the truth behind her father’s disappearance. She rummaged through her father’s study, which he frequented while alive, and eventually found a paper notebook, its handwritten text unclear and written in a language she couldn’t understand. The notebook contained several illustrations of twisted tentacles and grotesque, ominous eyes.
Before she could examine it closely, her mother snatched away the handwriting left by her father.
With unsteady breath, her mother said, “Don’t look at those things!” Her hands tightly gripped Schalit’s shoulders. “Those are… things left by the devil… Listen, don’t look anymore.”
Her mother took away all of her father’s belongings. Schalit initially thought it was because her mother didn’t want to see her husband’s old things and feel sad, but the truth was quite the opposite. Her mother often studied the notes left by her father in the dead of night, her mental state deteriorating further, and she began to draw those twisted illustrations in her own notebook, occasionally sitting alone and muttering to herself.
Schalit grew concerned and shared this news with her father’s best friend, who was also her uncle.
Upon hearing Schalit’s description, her uncle’s expression turned serious.
“Don’t worry, she simply needs treatment for her mental state,” her uncle forced a smile to comfort her.
However, that very night, a group of armed individuals burst into her home and took her mother away. They wore specially made black combat uniforms, with badges on their shoulders glimmering brightly—it was TQC.
After that day, she never saw her mother again.
Her uncle adopted her, raising her and sending her to college.
It wasn’t until Annie Schalit passed the TQC interview with outstanding results and entered the power structure that she touched the truth of that year.
—Her father and mother had been bewitched by ancient gods, becoming believers of the divine, and were executed by the Federation.
Schalit was lost and confused, but she did not allow herself to immerse in this state. In a department like TQC, if she didn’t strive to advance, she would lose opportunities for promotion. If she wanted to know more of the truth, she had to work harder to climb higher.
But just then, someone suddenly approached her.
At that time, Schalit had just finished a day’s work and was on her way home. Passing a corner, she saw a homeless man lying by the street and bought him dinner. The homeless man took the dinner, looked at her with a smile.
“Madam, may I ask you a question?” he whispered.
“Go ahead,” Schalit responded.
“I am poor and lowly, born in a mire from the start. When I was young, my teacher taught me that if I studied hard, I could change my fate, but I grew up realizing that life is far from that easy,” said the homeless man. “Born in a mire, must I roll in the mire for life?”
Schalit opened her mouth, “The Federation has poverty alleviation policies; you can go to a rescue station…”
“I was kicked out of the rescue station,” the homeless man said. “You and I both know that what keeps me trapped in the mire isn’t my lack of knowledge, nor my bad luck, but something else…”
Schalit didn’t know how to respond. She returned home in a flurry of thoughts.
The next day, the third day, the fourth day, she encountered that homeless man at the street corner daily, each time bringing him a dinner and occasionally chatting with him.
After a long time, the homeless man took the dinner and suddenly said, “I’d like to reintroduce myself… You can call me Ghost.” He raised his head, revealing deep, profound eyes. “I know your name is Annie Schalit.”
It was from that moment that Annie Schalit came into contact with the “Resistance Army.”
She was attracted by the Resistance Army’s ideals and joined as an outer member. After an assessment, she entered the inner circle, where she met “Angel.”
No… she did not know “Angel.” Because she had never seen the true face of Angel; they either talked in dreams or in the mental realm. Angel assigned her tasks, guiding her actions according to plans and providing support for various matters of the Resistance Army.
She rarely met other members of the Resistance Army; everyone’s identities were confidential. Some held important positions in government departments, while others were leaders of secret strongholds or roamed the streets. Members of the Resistance Army spanned all social strata, each fulfilling their roles to form a vast and intricate network, working toward a common goal.
Annie Schalit’s life was far from dull, but her position in TQC was semi-civilian, requiring her to execute only non-dangerous tasks, ensuring her life safety. However, the task assigned by Angel became a turning point in her life.
“We’ve lost contact with a member we excavated from Mechanized Dawn for a long time. Her target has died, but she hasn’t sent any signals to inform us. You just happen to be going to Hei Hai City; meet her and confirm if there are any unexpected situations.” “Angel” issued orders in the mental space.
“Can you provide her code name and specific information?” Schalit inquired.
“Her code name is ‘Ferryman,’” “Angel” said. “If you discover anything abnormal, contact Ghost. Do not act rashly.”
Schalit nodded slightly, “Understood.”
Little did she expect, “Ferryman” was both “Ferryman” and not “Ferryman,” and she never anticipated that she would lose her life because of this mission.
