Chapter 181: Dark Boundless Realm 36
Kui Xin woke up from the memories of Remover 4, taking some time to organize the information.
The Remover named Wu Yingzhu left home to make a living after turning eighteen and had been active in Jinshui City for a long time.
When the cultist murder case broke out a few weeks ago, he was extremely excited and practiced his ability for several consecutive days with the intent to kill Fang Zhi. Unfortunately, Fang Zhi headed straight for Tonglin City, and Wu Yingzhu was unable to execute his plan, which left him furious. During a night out on the streets, he broke the bones of a drunken punk who had provoked him…
Originally, this week Wu Yingzhu had planned to return home. He harbored resentment towards his foster parents who raised him and wanted to go back for revenge. If it weren’t for the incident of the Dark Realm’s arrival, he might have gone back by now.
He was too impatient and his means were too low-level.
With his personality and style, even without Augus’s provocations and Kui Xin being an obstacle, he would have eventually stumbled.
Wu Yingzhu’s ability to survive in the Second World thus far was largely due to luck; after all, the starting identity of a player was extremely important—someone born as a black household could avoid being searched by the Federation.
From what Kui Xin could see of this portion of memory, Wu Yingzhu’s communication with Augus was limited to the internet, and there was no special intersection. It was uncertain whether the other Removers had more connections with Augus.
She pondered what Augus’s ultimate goal was. Was it to let the God descend? To kill all players to strengthen himself? Either goal was quite mad.
Kui Xin temporarily suppressed her inner questions and went to the refrigerator to find some meat to feed the little white mouse in the bathroom.
Little White Mouse No. 3 was still agitated, while the other surviving little white mice looked no different from normal mice, lively and active. Kui Xin raised the mouse trap closer to observe and noticed that Little White Mouse No. 3’s claws seemed to have grown quite a bit and appeared very sharp. Upon examining its tail, it looked a little sturdier too…
Was it starting to mutate?
Little White Mouse No. 3 seemed very hungry and had a strong demand for food. If it was given enough food, could it provide sufficient energy to accelerate its mutation?
Kui Xin thought for a moment and then took more food from the refrigerator to feed Little White Mouse No. 3.
As for the remaining surviving little white mice, if they could continue to survive without mutating for a longer period, it would indicate that the diluted mutated blood was not contaminated. This would potentially lessen the crisis facing the First World.
Kui Xin checked her game board.
The investigation progress of the “Dark Realm Arrival” task was zero. Generally, as long as things made progress, the investigation progress would slightly increase. In certain special cases, even if the investigation task was not completed, the progress could still be marked as one hundred percent.
For instance, in the task of “Investigating the Cultist Murder Case”, when the investigation target was eliminated by him, the investigation progress directly turned to one hundred percent, considering the task completed.
As of now, Kui Xin had received four tasks. The first was to investigate the port explosion case in Hei Hai City, which was the Kraken incident; the second was the cultist murder case; the third was the task of breaking free from Mechanized Dawn, the Resistance Army, and the Investigation Bureau; the fourth task was the Dark Realm Arrival.
The first two tasks were already completed, while the latter two were still ongoing.
The task of regaining freedom was at seventy-five percent progress, but the progress bar remained stuck there, not moving at all.
At first, she didn’t understand why, but after accessing Annie Schalit’s memories and obtaining some information, she realized that she seemingly had not completely detached from the Resistance Army… since the mental coordinates in her mind had not been eliminated.
Assuming that the sign of Kui Xin breaking away from Mechanized Dawn was the extraction of the metal skull, then the sign of her breaking away from the Resistance Army should have been the elimination of the mental coordinates. Only with this thing eliminated would she truly be free, and the task progress bar would rise to one hundred percent.
Therefore, the “Mental Immunity” obtained from Remover 4 was very important to Kui Xin. At this moment, she felt a bit regretful that if she hadn’t fused “Deception Skill” into “Hypnotic Sound,” perhaps it could have elevated “Mental Immunity” to A rank?
She had also obtained another important skill from Remover 4: “Void Hand.”
Yet another spatial ability, and not weak in attack, but unfortunately, it was only C rank.
Kui Xin looked at her skills and attempted to select skill fusion, then the system displayed a line of text: “…After fusion, your extraordinary ability [Shadow Transition] will become inactive, and [Void Hand]’s level will increase to B rank.”
What if she fused Void Hand back into Shadow Transition? However, fusing a higher-level ability into a lower-level one seemed to incur experience penalty…
“After fusion, your extraordinary ability [Void Hand] will become inactive, and [Shadow Transition]’s level will increase to C rank.”
No matter which ability it was, Kui Xin found it difficult to part with.
Void Hand temporarily supplemented Kui Xin’s lack of offensive means while in the First World without firearms; it was genuinely useful. However, Shadow Transition was an assassin-type ability that allowed her to pass through walls, teleport, and immune to some physical attacks. She had navigated through many perilous moments using it. The downside was that she couldn’t carry too much when transitioning, and even her clothes couldn’t be too thick.
Fusing Void Hand into Shadow Transition would not only significantly enhance its strength but also increase the items she could carry during each transition. She really needed it to level up; otherwise, she would have to remove extra gear before every battle…
Weighing the options for a moment, Kui Xin ultimately decided to sacrifice Void Hand.
The lack of offensive means could be compensated in other ways, such as utilizing Spatial Vortex effectively as an attacking skill, but parting with Shadow Transition, this life-saving technique, was truly regrettable.
Kui Xin selected fusion.
“Your extraordinary ability [Shadow Transition] has been upgraded.”
“[Shadow Transition]: You can use shadows for spatial teleportation within a certain range.”
Standing up, Kui Xin activated Shadow Transition to test it. She effortlessly transitioned from one end of the building to the other. The limit of her transition distance suddenly increased significantly, but unfortunately, it was daytime, and the space inside the building was limited, so she couldn’t do further testing. She assessed the feeling when using the ability and believed that the transition distance should have increased to about ten meters.
Kui Xin picked up her large backpack from her third year of high school and activated Shadow Transition. The black mist swirled as she stopped at the doorway of the kitchen.
The maximum volume of items she could carry had indeed increased; at the very least, carrying a full backpack was no problem. This was sufficient. To be cautious, Kui Xin conducted some additional tests and ultimately determined that the maximum she could carry through Shadow Transition was the size of a 20-inch suitcase.
Not bad, with further upgrades, she should be able to do “crossing with people.”
After testing her abilities, Kui Xin read for an hour at home and rested for a while before beginning her simple exercises and warm-ups.
Tonight would be eventful; xenomorphs might continue to surge forth from the Dark Gate, and she had to be well-prepared.
At ten o’clock at night, the night deepened.
Kui Xin sent a gathering message to Su Rong and set off on time.
At the same time, He Kangshi also reported to Kui Xin that he was disguised and headed to find the night patrol partners he had just met the previous night.
Several drones hovered over the Old Industrial Zone, each equipped with night vision cameras, while some drones were also outfitted with flamethrowers and weapons.
All the drones circled the tobacco factory; they hovered in the sky, forming the first line of defense.
The second line of defense outside the drones had combat personnel on standby. Song Tingshuan and Li Wanran sat inside the car, nervously watching the images displayed on the monitor.
Based on yesterday’s experience, filming the opening of the Dark Gate would result in equipment damage. However, before the equipment was damaged, the footage would continue to transmit, and every second of live recording was precious, potentially allowing important information to be analyzed.
At ten thirty, Kui Xin arrived at the outskirts of the Old Industrial Zone and began to wait.
She sat on the edge of a rooftop, gazing at the distant flickering lights of the Old Industrial Zone.
Before long, she noticed an unusual gaze; turning her head slightly, she found a stranger player standing on the rooftop of the adjacent building. This player was well-prepared and had brought a telescope…
He spotted Kui Xin, hesitated for a moment, and waved at her friendly.
Kui Xin was momentarily taken aback but raised her hand to wave back in greeting.
The player received the friendly signal, took a spare telescope from his backpack, and made a motion as if he was going to toss it over.
He actually threw it! The telescope arced through the air, but unfortunately, the trajectory was off, and Kui Xin couldn’t catch it. Just as the telescope was about to hit the ground, her Shadow Double extended like a noodle, swiftly reaching out to catch it.
The Shadow Double fiddled with the telescope, confirming it was fine, and then handed it over to Kui Xin.
Kui Xin looked at the player in surprise and nodded to thank him, adjusting the telescope to observe the deeper parts of the Old Industrial Zone. In truth, she didn’t need the telescope; she had long since accessed the drones surrounding the tobacco factory through Data Manipulation… but she had to maintain appearances.
Many players who came here had a strong sense of mutual assistance, which was a good thing.
Time ticked by.
After some time, Kui Xin’s phone in her pocket vibrated a few times; her alarm had sounded, and midnight was approaching!
She turned off the alarm and saw the time displayed on the phone screen: 23:59.
Kui Xin stood up, her face beneath the mask turned serious.
00:00:00!
“Whoosh—”
A sharp whistle sounded as a brightly colored signal flare shot up into the sky.
Other than that, there was no further movement.
Under the drone’s lens, the abandoned tobacco factory was eerily silent, with no spatial distortion and no monsters rushing out.
The people surrounding the area dared not relax their vigilance, maintaining their original alert postures.
Ten minutes later, still nothing happened…
The defenders began to sense something was off; the Dark Gate actually hadn’t opened tonight!
Kui Xin’s expression grew grave, yet she felt no joy within.
The absence of monsters was a good thing, but their non-arrival meant that the rules governing the opening of the Dark Gate were not as simple as an everyday occurrence, which rendered their previous speculations completely invalid! This took them by surprise.
Today was the fifth day, and this night was calm; it seemed nothing had happened.
People kept vigil throughout the night, leaving before dawn arrived.
On the sixth night that followed, everyone returned to the Old Industrial Zone to stand guard, but the Dark Gate still did not open.
Until the seventh day came back around.
Kui Xin contemplated for a long time and decided to abandon her plan to rest at home and wait to return to the Second World, opting to come to the Old Industrial Zone to keep watch like the previous days.
The Dark Gate had not opened for two whole nights, yet she remained very concerned; this matter wouldn’t conclude so quickly…
She stepped into the night, arriving at her familiar waiting spot.
At the appointed time, her phone alarm rang on cue.
Midnight had arrived!
At that moment, a massive black covering, many times larger and more conspicuous than before, suddenly descended! A pitch-black door flashed within the tobacco factory of the Old Industrial Zone, and this time no monster roars echoed from within, nor were there any indistinct mutterings.
Everything was eerily quiet, a distorted shadow silently crossed through the doorway into this world.
Kui Xin couldn’t see this scene because, at that moment, she returned to White Whale City and opened her eyes in the safe house.
