Chapter 163: Dark Boundless Realm 18
The amount of information from these messages was overwhelming, and Kui Xin’s mind struggled to organize everything.
The last mission was limited to the Jingchu region, but this time the mission range has expanded. If the situation continues to develop, will there be global region missions in the future?
Both He Kangshi and Su Rong’s mission descriptions mentioned “Tonglin City.” Other players who received mission triggers likely know about it as well… If they are motivated, they will come here to carry out the missions issued by the game. At that time, Tonglin City will become a gathering place for many players.
Tonglin City, one of the starting points of the mutations, suggests that the terrifying changes didn’t only happen there. What are the other locations that have experienced mutations besides Tonglin City?
Kui Xin stayed calm for a few seconds and replied to them one by one.
“The situation needs to be confirmed, wait.” She sent a message to He Kangshi.
She tried to avoid replying to three people at once, spacing out her responses instead.
…
“Did that girl reply yet?” Xie Gankqing asked.
Yu Qiwen, sitting in front of the computer, said, “Not yet, maybe she’s busy.”
“This regional mission is on a different scale from the last one; the difficulty level is certainly not the same.” Yuan Lu was staring at the forum for updates. “‘Dark Realm Descends,’ this mission description is really strange…”
“The dark world has descended? Something not from our world has appeared? Literally, it seems to be that way.” Yu Qiwen said. “When players returned, there was speculation that as the worlds merged, xenomorphs and gods would also appear in our world. Is this ‘Dark Realm Descends’ mission a precursor?”
Xie Gankqing pinched the bridge of his nose, saying seriously, “But the key question is, why Tonglin City?”
Yuan Lu gathered his thoughts: “The Heterogeneous Blooded Fang Zhi later escaped to Tonglin City, and he was most likely killed there. He didn’t appear in Tonglin City for long before he died, and at the same time, the system announced that someone had already completed the regional mission. At that very moment, there was a report on the forum about Remover 233 killing the Proxy… Now, the refresh location for the second regional mission is still Tonglin City.”
“These events are connected… If you think about it, Tonglin City brought together many extraordinary people. An Heterogeneous Blooded under investigation by the system, a Remover that killed Heterogeneous Blooded all on his own…” Xie Gankqing pondered. “Do you remember? Fang Zhi seemed to have actively gone to Tonglin City, and he was killed right after. Was there something that lured him there?”
“Either Tonglin City itself is a special location, or there is something special hidden there.” Yu Qiwen concluded. “Otherwise, I can’t understand why such a small city would become the core location for two regional missions.”
Yuan Lu proposed another possibility: “Perhaps the first and second regional missions are causally related, with the second being a continuation of the first; the two missions are not independent.”
“That makes sense.” Xie Gankqing called up the system panel to recheck the words on it.
“[Mission Description]: Twisted shadows draw near again, and dangerous footsteps come silently. When trouble arrives, someone resolved it for you, but now trouble has surfaced again. Do you want to place your hopes on others to resolve it, or do you want to face this trouble yourself? Currently, Tonglin City has mysteriously reported wild boar attack incidents, but the truth behind this event might not be that simple; you must investigate the underlying circumstances.”
“You need to think carefully about the risks of accepting the mission and the costs of failure. Life only happens once; this is not a joke.”
Yuan Lu and Yu Qiwen’s mission descriptions were the same as Xie Gankqing’s.
Based on their previous experience, not completing a mission after accepting it wouldn’t incur punishment, so all three accepted the mission, but they needed to consider whether they should go to Tonglin City.
“Tonglin City feels like a frozen lake to me,” Yu Qiwen said.
“On the surface, it looks calm, but in reality, there are cracks everywhere; if you’re not careful, you’ll fall into an ice crack and never climb back up.” Yuan Lu said, “Dangerous things are hidden beneath the ice.”
“Exactly, that’s what I mean.” Yu Qiwen scratched his head. “Kui Xin will be my classmate after she starts school, I’m really worried about her; her home is there; she can’t hide.”
“I’ve already messaged her to remind her.” Yuan Lu said, “A normally sane person wouldn’t approach danger; she’s obviously a clever girl. The game’s d*ath rate is very high, and her being alive until now is quite remarkable.”
“So… are we going to Tonglin City?” Yu Qiwen asked.
Yuan Lu said slowly, “What are you going there for? You have extraordinary abilities, and you think you’re tough? What will you do if you d*e? Who will take care of your parents? Do you still want to go through university safely? After being beaten up by the Second World, you still have the adventurous spirit; are you looking to court d*ath?”
“Sigh… alright.” Yu Qiwen hesitated.
Xie Gankqing said, “Hackers shouldn’t expose themselves in the public eye too much; give you a computer, and you can do a lot.”
“We can’t be the ones to take the lead; let’s observe the situation first.” Yuan Lu said. “One can predict that many players with different motivations will head to Tonglin City; we’ll wait for news and then decide.”
Yu Qiwen nodded, feeling troubled.
The “Player Guild” they formed was just starting out but faced many difficulties, with the first being that, compared to forming alliances, most players preferred to take the solo route, making it hard to recruit members… So, up until now, the guild has only been run by the three of them.
Now that players were gathering in Tonglin City, Yu Qiwen keenly sensed – this was an opportunity for many players to interact offline and possibly the real onset of alliances.
However, this alliance was not a result of internal player development but rather catalyzed by external pressures.
…
As night fell, Kui Xin walked alone on the street.
In the First World, she never returned late except during late-night study sessions in her senior year, but now it was eleven o’clock, and she was still wandering the streets. In the Second World, she often did this, where the public security was poor. When she went out at night, it was either to patrol or to k*ll; at least in the First World, she didn’t have to worry about flying bullets sending her into d*ath rebirth when she was out at night.
“d*mn, this wild boar can really run.” Kui Xin clutched her mobile phone, checking the surveillance footage as she turned and ran forward.
She had seen the wild boar running in the city surveillance footage on her home computer, which was why she came out. Because there were no suitable space jump locations on that route, she didn’t use her extraordinary ability to hurry, and when she arrived, the wild boar had already escaped. Not every route had surveillance; she wandered around for a while before finding the wild boar’s trace again.
Kui Xin went out fully armed every time; she covered her face tightly, with a mask and a hood, and had a shiny kitchen kn*fe tucked at her waist.
She soon caught up with the wild boar.
The wild boar was running wildly in the street and tried to bite an old man out for a night jog, scaring him back so much he almost fell. Quickly reacting, Kui Xin picked up a half-brick from a flower bed by the roadside, raised her arm, and smashed it forward; the brick struck the wild boar’s head perfectly.
The wild boar screeched, its bl**d-red eyes locking onto Kui Xin not far away.
She provocatively whistled, instantly enraging the wild boar, which turned to charge at her, and Kui Xin took off running.
It wasn’t that her combat strength had diminished and she couldn’t defeat the wild boar; it was just that there were scattered pedestrians nearby, making it inconvenient to engage. She worried that if she ran too fast, the wild boar wouldn’t catch up, so she deliberately slowed her pace a little.
Seeing the wild boar chasing after Kui Xin, the old man exclaimed in panic, pulling out his phone and shouting, “Girl, run faster! I’m calling the police! Is there anyone who can help? A little girl is being chased by a pig!”
The convenience store owners along the street, open twenty-four hours, heard the old man’s cries and rushed out with brooms to help Kui Xin chase the wild boar, but they only caught a blurry glimpse of her running figure.
Kui Xin darted to the right, turning into a village within the city, and once she was sure there were no cameras or people nearby, she stopped running. The wild boar also halted, glaring at her with its crimson eyes, showing off its tusks.
Kui Xin turned around and snapped her fingers.
“Clap!” With a crisp sound, the spatial vortex opened.
The wild boar, unable to stop, ran straight into the spatial vortex.
“Finally caught it.” Kui Xin sighed in relief.
She opened the spatial vortex in a densely vegetated and sparsely populated area outside, so as not to alarm others.
Seizing the opportunity while no one was around, Kui Xin hurriedly entered the spatial vortex.
Minutes later, the patrol police arrived, the convenience store owner wielding a broom appeared, and even the old man who had been out jogging came panting along. Yet, the area was empty, with no sign of the wild boar or the people.
“Maybe it ran away; that thing can sprint really fast.” One officer said, “Let’s continue patrolling to prevent the wild boar from hurting anyone.”
…
In the dense grass, Kui Xin turned on her phone flashlight to examine the wild boar’s corpse.
Since she switched to mechanical prosthetic eyes, she hadn’t used a flashlight or worn night vision goggles while walking at night. Returning to the First World felt a bit uncomfortable because she was used to the high frame rate, high-definition images captured by her mechanical eyes; her natural vision felt limited, and after getting accustomed to her electronic eyes, her natural eyesight became a burden.
The wild boar had been smoothly cut in half by Kui Xin using the spatial vortex, and the cross-section of the body was incredibly neat, revealing perfectly halved organs and the still-reacting flesh that hadn’t lost vitality. Dark red bl**d pooled on the ground, staining the dirt and grass leaves.
Kui Xin poked at the wild boar’s internal organs with a gloved finger; as she opened the organs, her expression turned to one of disgust and surprise.
Those organs were covered with various growths, red tumors pulsating as if they had a heartbeat… There wasn’t much food in the wild boar’s intestines and stomach, but instead, it was filled with filamentous flesh, and when the twig touched the flesh clumps, they actually twitched slightly.
As Kui Xin prepared to continue examining the wild boar’s corpse, it suddenly erupted with small bl**d bubbles. More and more bubbles appeared, and ultimately, the entire wild boar transformed into a pool of bl**d, silently seeping into the ground.
Kui Xin’s brow twitched, and she gripped the twig hard until it broke into tiny pieces.
The transformation of a corpse into bl**d is a phenomenon that only occurs with Heterogeneous Blooded who have highly digested Divine bl**d. How could a wild boar from the First World exhibit this phenomenon?
After leaving Hei Hai City, Kui Xin had absorbed a lot of knowledge regarding xenomorphs.
She knew that certain biological research labs under the Federation and the aristocracy were also studying Divine bl**d, particularly low-pollution, non-side-effect Divine bl**d, as the elites wanted to use this power to extend their lifespans.
Biological research labs conducted experiments on animals, and those animals would indeed undergo all sorts of mutations, like mice growing eight hands, monkeys developing an extra pair of eyes, gorillas’ arms transforming into tentacles… Those experimental animals injected with Divine bl**d would d*e shortly after, their bodies turning into bl**d.
The First World has no xenomorphs, and no one conducts experiments on animals; why did this wild boar undergo such mutations?
Furrowing her brow, Kui Xin stepped back from the bl**d-soaked soil.
She contemplated for a long time and eventually used the spatial vortex to transfer the contaminated soil multiple times, placing it in an abandoned street trash bin.
Previously, while protecting He Kangshi on the train, Kui Xin had killed a Heterogeneous Blooded, causing a ruckus. She continued to monitor the situation and even used data manipulation to obtain the investigation records at the scene, learning that the Heterogeneous Blooded’s bl**d was contaminating and could induce animal frenzy, increasing their aggression.
However, as far as Kui Xin knew, the bl**d that Heterogeneous Blooded turned into upon d*ath in the Second World did not possess such terrifying, plague-like qualities; during training, Shu Xueyao had never mentioned this, and Augus hadn’t either.
Out of caution, Kui Xin chose to transfer the contaminated soil elsewhere in an attempt to destroy it… She wondered if burning it would be effective and decided to give it a try.
Kui Xin took the trash bin filled with the dark red soil and used the spatial vortex to move it to a hidden location temporarily, then went to a supermarket to buy two buckets of cooking oil, and finally, through a series of spatial jumps, transported the whole heap of things to a spacious area in the outskirts.
Pouring the oil, she lit it in one go.
The flames soared up.
Once it was burning enough, Kui Xin used the spatial vortex to leave the scene.
She originally planned to go home and organize information, but after one spatial jump, she suddenly halted her movements.
Since killing Fang Zhi, Kui Xin hadn’t returned to the abandoned tobacco factory. She dealt with the initial chaos, but Fang Zhi’s bl**d had stained the ground.
She stood still, thinking for a moment before opening a spatial vortex.
Stepping into the deep blue vortex, she found herself on a dusty cement floor, her footsteps echoing in the empty factory. The wind blew through broken windows, and the blackened hallway seemed to carry the moans of phantoms.
Kui Xin caught a whiff of a foul odor, reminiscent of animal excrement.
Something appeared to be swaying overhead.
Kui Xin silently looked up, spotting a blurry black shadow hanging from the damaged ceiling.
The shadow moved slightly, revealing eight hideous crimson eyes.
