Chapter 154: Dark Boundless Realm 09
“It’s so cold…” Kui Xin shivered, a puff of white mist escaping her lips.
In White Whale City, located within the polar circle, the temperature difference between day and night is extreme. During the day, it can reach over ten degrees, but at night, it plunges below ten degrees.
Kui Xin glanced at her communicator; the current temperature was five degrees. She pulled her clothes tighter around her, feeling a bit uncomfortable.
In August, the sun rises before five in the morning and sets fully after nine at night. In June, the phenomenon of midnight sun lasts for nearly a month. During winter, the city also experiences polar night, hence the two large zones of the city are named the Poleward District and the Midnight District.
There are few security officers patrolling the streets of White Whale City. During the day, there are more people, but at night the streets are nearly deserted. Due to the harsh cold, the Investigation Bureau usually relies on robots for patrols.
In the grim Midnight District, a drunk man could truly freeze to death on the street in such weather. Robots that find a drunken individual will call in the alarm or summon an ambulance, but whether through an alarm or an ambulance call, help rarely arrives.
The Poleward District is different; everything is just fine here. The buildings are tall, the roadside shops are bright and attractive, and the people strolling down the street are well-dressed. Calls for help are handled properly, making the two districts worlds apart.
“A city without nightlife is incomplete,” Kui Xin quipped.
It wasn’t as lively as Hei Hai City here; the cold wind swept through the empty streets, with hardly any pedestrians around.
“That’s because you haven’t found the right places. You should try bars, nightclubs, underground fighting rings, and casinos. There’s bound to be a lot of excitement there,” Augus said. “Wealthy people know how to enjoy life; you could even find indoor golf courses and horse racing tracks here—it’s warm all year round.”
Kui Xin smiled, “True, with the Poleward District around, those with money wouldn’t be foolish enough to stand outside in the cold.”
There weren’t any clear boundaries between the cities in Hei Hai City. Although there were four districts—northeast, northwest, southeast, and southwest—these were merely for geographical division. The layout of White Whale City was different; a wall of electronic barriers separated the Poleward District from the Midnight District.
To move freely in and out, one must pass through the electronic wall’s scan. Citizens ranked five and below cannot enter; only level four citizens can come and go freely. Any attempts to break through would provoke automated machine guns on the electronic wall, which would open fire on intruders.
The social hierarchy here is even more defined than in Hei Hai City.
Kui Xin walked through the electronic wall’s main gate legally—the real control of the electronic wall lies with the Investigation Bureau, and every person authorized to pass needed to be scanned by Augus. Once he identified Kui Xin, she was allowed through.
In terms of prosperity, however, there isn’t much difference between Hei Hai City and White Whale City. The Poleward District of White Whale City is filled with skyscrapers, with holographic projections drifting through the city skies and large advertising screens decorating the spaces between buildings. However, the buildings here seem to prefer laser lights for decoration, and those colorful lights with strong penetration illuminated the night sky, casting rings of halos on the low-hanging clouds.
When she first arrived in Hei Hai City, the hover tram that cruised above the city left quite an impression on Kui Xin, but White Whale City has no hover trams; it only utilizes surface transportation.
“This city has a long winter, and icicles can easily hang from tram tracks, making it a messy and dangerous job to clear them—people walking below could be hit,” Augus explained. “So from the initial city planning stage, White Whale City abandoned hover trams in favor of surface vehicles. You can see that the streets in White Whale City are about one and a half times wider than in Hei Hai City, to facilitate vehicle traffic.”
Every city has its own character. In the First World, architectural styles and lifestyles vary significantly across regions, and the same is true in the Second World; different geographical conditions yield different development patterns.
Kui Xin examined the shops along the street—many are still operating at midnight. She strolled leisurely, stopping now and then.
When she reached the busiest street in the Poleward District, she looked up and saw the impressive building of a technology company, with its name gleaming in large letters: Chuangtuo Technology.
Kui Xin had a very deep impression of this company, not only because her memory told her it was the facade company for Mechanized Dawn, but also because this company was promoting “artificial limbs.”
Everything Mechanized Dawn did was premeditated.
The establishment of Rick Technology and now Chuangtuo Technology, though seemingly unrelated, were both actually controlled by Kui Haidong, who in turn was controlled by Eve. If Rick Technology ceased to exist, Chuangtuo would still remain. Rick Technology researched bioroid technology and mechanical prosthetics, while Chuangtuo took it a step further, researching artificial limbs—technology aimed at completely replacing the human body.
Kui Xin’s blue electronic eye blinked twice, automatically magnifying the images her eye had captured. Her eyes possessed built-in telescope functions. Since the switch to her electronic eye, she no longer needed to blink to keep her eyeballs moist and clean; she blinked to control the electronic eye’s photography. A single blink would capture an image, while two blinks would magnify it, which was incredibly convenient.
The entire building structure appeared before Kui Xin’s eyes, its external details fully displayed.
However, understanding the construction of this building couldn’t rely solely on the external appearance; obtaining internal schematics would be ideal. Every floor in such buildings would have a fire safety map, and seeing that map would be beneficial.
“Don’t large enterprises undergo fire safety inspections? Does the Investigation Bureau have backups?” Kui Xin asked Augus.
“That’s the responsibility of the Fire Safety Department, not within the Investigation Bureau’s scope. I don’t have the authority to access that information,” Augus replied. “I suspect Mechanized Dawn must have altered the internal structure; the fire safety maps might not be accurate.”
“It seems I need a way to capture an internal employee and read their blood,” Kui Xin thought of that feeling and almost gagged.
She circled around the Chuangtuo Technology building several times, capturing multiple images with her electronic eye before turning to leave.
She mustn’t act recklessly; timing is essential for a successful operation.
The next location she intended to visit was the port, the port of White Whale City.
The port was far from the city center, and it took Kui Xin over an hour to arrive.
The reason for visiting the port was due to the fact that in Hei Hai City, all stories begin at the port, and Kui Xin held a subtle emotional connection to it.
Especially regarding the Kraken incident, the freighter that carried the cocoons had set out from the poles. White Whale City was a stop for the freighter, and the Heterogeneous Blooded Fang Zhi was from White Whale City; the captain of the Kraken, Anton, was also from White Whale City. Tang Guan boarded the ship in White Whale City, and even the shipping company that operated the Kraken was based in White Whale City.
White Whale City was the true starting point of a series of events.
As Kui Xin stood in the cold port, she felt momentarily overwhelmed—like the Kraken had never truly departed; that large ship loomed like a mysterious shadow over her head. Just because she had temporarily avoided it didn’t mean she had resolved it. The cocoons aboard had not vanished; they had hatched and sunk into the sea, and in the near future, they would return.
Kui Xin had looked up which shipping company operated the Kraken, and she made her way toward the company’s location, only to find the company building sealed with a notice.
“This company has been shut down because of the Kraken incident; most of the crew perished, and the company needs to pay huge compensation, so they applied for bankruptcy,” Augus stated. “The families of the deceased have not received their payments.”
Kui Xin thought for a moment, “Is there a chaebol backing the shipping company?”
“Yes,” Augus slowly replied. “The Popov Clan, which almost monopolizes the entertainment and service industries in White Whale City, is the actual controlling entity behind this shipping company. The Popov Clan is the wealthiest family in White Whale City. They own many entertainment companies, and most casinos, nightclubs, and horse racing tracks in both the Poleward and Midnight Districts have ties to them. Their political power might not be the strongest, but they are undoubtedly the richest.”
“The wealthiest Popovs?” Kui Xin nodded, noting the surname.
After checking out the shipping company, Kui Xin passed by the port again on her way back.
The port of White Whale City exuded an air of cold desolation, with the silver moon reflecting off the deep black sea. Various ships moved in and out, their silhouettes dimly outlined by the waves, swaying gently with the water.
The wind at the port was quite strong, sounding like ghosts wailing in sorrow. The lighthouse standing on the shore shone silently.
There weren’t many people here now; the port would only operate normally during the day.
If it were winter now, the distant sea might be frozen over, blanketed in desolate white, and icebreakers would be needed to clear a navigable route.
“Between Hei Hai City and White Whale City, which do you prefer?” Augus asked.
“Neither,” Kui Xin replied, lowering her head and raising the collar of her leather jacket against the cold wind. “It’s like asking me if I prefer chocolate that tastes like shit or shit that tastes like chocolate. I’ll tell you that I hate both.”
“You certainly don’t hold back,” Augus said, “but that’s quite a unique way to put it.”
“I no longer expect to see anything normal in this world,” Kui Xin remarked. “After all, I can’t even maintain my own normalcy; perhaps I can’t demand normal standards from other things either. It’s best to relax expectations for myself and for everything else. People who are fixated on trivial matters in this world do not fare well.”
“Where to next tonight?” Augus inquired. “Or should we find a place to warm up?”
“I’ll just wander around,” Kui Xin said casually, but in her heart, she already had her next destination in mind.
The Popov Clan in White Whale City owned many entertainment companies, and it seemed Su Rong was a star under one of those companies.
The hotel where she was staying was located in the Poleward District.
Kui Xin used data manipulation to connect to her communicator and searched for posts related to Su Rong. She found that Su Rong had quite a few fans, and many were interested in her fan meeting in White Whale City, with some already revealing details about her hotel.
Determining her direction, Kui Xin headed toward her destination.
