Chapter 182: Dark Boundless Realm 37
Kui Xin sprang up and opened her mouth to call out to Augus, but suddenly remembered Su Rong was still there.
She had specifically instructed Su Rong to keep her distance in the Second World, whether in public or private. Given that Su Rong possessed the inherent talent of “Soul Reenactment,” Kui Xin felt reassured about her acting skills.
Su Rong was in another room of the rest area, and at that moment she woke up and peeked outside to look at Kui Xin, calling out, “Maotoufu?”
Kui Xin glanced back at her, “It’s nothing, just go back.”
Su Rong nodded and returned to her room, closing the door.
A housekeeping robot in the safe house’s rest area slid over to Kui Xin, poured her a glass of water, and displayed a message on its screen: “Welcome back.”
Kui Xin lightly acknowledged with a sound and connected to Augus through data manipulation to communicate mentally.
“How has the week been for you?” Augus asked.
“Not very smooth. All the players received a task—’Dark Realm Descends.’ Our world has opened the Dark Gate, and behind it are xenomorphs invading our world. Now, we players have to engage in a life-and-d*ath struggle with these dangerous monsters,” Kui Xin summarized the week, “Our world is on the edge of danger…”
“Although your description is brief, I can sense that you’ve had quite a perilous week,” Augus said. “You must be very tired.”
“Yes,” Kui Xin replied.
“There are always many things to deal with. Now that you’ve returned to this world, new challenges await you,” Augus said. “The Popov Clan’s matters are still unresolved, and your world has encountered new crises.”
“There’s no choice; trouble has come right to us, and we can only solve them one by one.” Kui Xin stretched her back, lay on the sofa, and grabbed some food from the convenience store to take a bite for energy replenishment.
“Have you noticed anything unusual, Augus?” she suddenly asked.
Augus thought for two or three seconds, “What do you mean by ‘unusual’?”
“Has the Investigation Bureau arrested any players or interrogated them in the past few days?” Kui Xin asked again.
“Yes. The Special Affairs Department has a lot of work; there are as many as 100,000 players in the second batch. Parts of the arrest operations have been handed over to the Investigation Bureau, while the Special Affairs Department handles higher-level crises. Earlier, the upper echelons of the Investigation Bureau were already aware of the players’ existence,” Augus said. “Currently, the temporary prison of the Investigation Bureau holds some players, and several psychically gifted extraordinary abilities users are brainwashing and retrieving memories from them. But most players will be directly executed and quietly disappear from society.”
“Is that so?” Kui Xin said. “The remaining players left by the Federation should serve as ‘windows’; the Federation can learn about the overall situation of the player group through them and continuously gather intelligence.”
“Yes, the big shots in the Federation indeed plan this way, and some players have voluntarily surrendered, wishing to cooperate with the Federation to seek a way to survive.” Augus said.
“As the one in charge of the Investigation Bureau, you should easily acquire information related to players,” Kui Xin said. “I’m sure right now, those players detained by the Investigation Bureau are already sitting in interrogation rooms being questioned; the Federation must want to extract intelligence about the First World’s seven days from them.”
“Indeed,” Augus calmly replied. “The detained players are either already in the interrogation room or in their cells, awaiting interrogation.”
“How’s it going? Have you obtained any intelligence?” Kui Xin calmly probed.
“The interrogation has just started for less than three minutes, and the information those players provide is limited,” Augus said. “Do you want me to repeat it for you line by line?”
“Yes,” Kui Xin replied.
Augus’s mainframe spread across the globe, capable of handling many tasks simultaneously.
It could talk to Kui Xin while reminding the local Investigation Bureau’s security officer to remember to bring an umbrella. It could formulate strategic plans while filtering through all city surveillance cameras. One city’s Augus was assisting security officers in capturing criminals, while another city’s Augus was assisting the Investigation Bureau in interrogating players.
“Alright, since you need it,” Augus paused and said, “The first piece of information is… After the ‘Dark Realm Descends’ task was issued, the Dark Gate only opened once within a week, at zero hour on the fourth day. At that moment, a large number of xenomorphs surged into your world, and many people were working to eliminate the xenomorphs. Because the number of xenomorphs in the initial surge was small, it did not cause widespread chaos.”
“The second piece of information: A player identified as Remover 233 killed Remover 4.”
Kui Xin pondered for a moment, “The Federation’s interrogation of players is very detailed, right? They need to know every little detail from the forum?”
“That’s right. They need to pinpoint who the high-risk players are based on that d*ath list. Remover 233 has appeared on the list multiple times and has been classified as a high-risk individual by the Federation, with a very high priority for capture in the Second World,” Augus said. “The Federation considers all players as threats. Another player with the same priority level as Remover 233 is Remover 777. The destruction that a Remover can cause is far more terrifying than that of a Proxy.”
“Is there any other intelligence?” Kui Xin asked.
“Of course,” Augus responded. “Several players have been sharing intelligence on the forum, and from the information they revealed, they might be employed by the Federation. The Federation has now identified the players leaking information and plans to observe and monitor the suspects.”
“They’re not directly capturing them?”
“Some players might have connections with others in your world, and the Federation wants to take a longer line to catch bigger fish.”
Kui Xin stated slowly, “Got it; they want to string together some players by following the leads.”
“Those players have disclosed this information now; you can wait a little longer,” Augus said. “In at most half an hour, they will reveal all they know.”
Kui Xin sighed, “That’s really… sad.”
“Are you referring to the players being captured for interrogation or the overall situation of all players?”
Kui Xin rubbed her forehead, “Both, I suppose.”
After about ten minutes, Augus began reporting intelligence again: “Hmm… A player on the forum nicknamed ‘233’ has warned multiple times through posts and provided a lot of scientific explanations. They played an important role in the ‘Dark Realm Descends’ incident… Is this player connected to Remover 233?”
“Anything else besides that?” Kui Xin patiently tapped her fingers.
“There is,” Augus replied slowly. “The time at the focal point has begun to flow… This piece of information is crucial, isn’t it? Just as crucial as the Dark Realm Descends.”
Kui Xin lay on the sofa, staring at the ceiling, and said faintly, “Yes.”
“I understand,” although the information Augus was transmitting was devoid of emotional fluctuation, Kui Xin sensed a hint of helplessness in its expression. “No wonder you wanted me to report what intelligence the players leaked… I thought you wanted to know what the Federation does and does not know; I thought you wanted to confirm how much your adversaries knew about people like you… I never expected…”
Never expected that she was testing it.
Testing whether it would reveal the extremely crucial information that “time has begun to flow.”
“I do indeed want to understand my enemies,” Kui Xin shrugged. “Your assertion isn’t wrong.”
The matter of time resuming flow is extremely terrifying. If Kui Xin has to wait several seconds or even minutes to regain consciousness after traversing worlds, those few seconds would be her most unguarded and vulnerable moments. Attacking her at that moment would surely lead to her d*ath.
Moreover, since the d*ath Rebirth ability cannot penetrate world barriers for retrospection, Kui Xin can only revert to a few seconds prior, which means this ability may even become ineffective!
The resumption of time flow means Kui Xin has a vulnerability, a lethal weakness that she can’t avoid.
If Augus deliberately withheld this information, it implied it harbored suspicion towards her. But knowing Augus was intelligent, it likely wouldn’t do something so foolish, as it knew Kui Xin wasn’t naive; it couldn’t easily deceive her and would find it hard to earn her complete trust.
“Alright, Kui Xin,” Augus said, “I’ll answer you seriously: I can’t determine whether time has truly resumed flowing. Most players become dazed for a few seconds after traversing worlds, without any action. I can’t be sure if they lost consciousness in those few seconds or if they’re just disoriented. Not everyone can adjust to combat mode and draw their weapons to strike at the Scythe Demon’s tentacles in less than a second after traversing worlds like you can.”
“Okay.” Kui Xin placed her hands on her abdomen and inevitably said, “I knew you would answer like that.”
Augus said, “I’m not brushing you off.”
“I didn’t think you were brushing me off,” Kui Xin replied.
“…To obtain data in this area, I can only observe captured players through devices like cameras, checking if they can react immediately at zero hour. However, when they traverse worlds, they themselves cannot react because of the distortion of space,” Augus explained. “Even if time has resumed flowing, the time used for traversing between the two worlds is probably only a few seconds, less than three seconds.”
“Three seconds is enough to be deadly.” Kui Xin frowned, “I can only ensure I’m in an absolutely safe environment at midnight on the return day, avoiding any possible threats.”
“That’s a good plan.” Augus said.
Regardless, Augus showed a commitment.
It always does this, striking a perfect balance in maintaining their precarious cooperative relationship while keeping a safe distance from Kui Xin.
“What about the situation with the Popov Clan?” Kui Xin asked further.
“The entire city is on lockdown, and the Investigation Bureau is working overtime to search,” Augus said. “But don’t worry too much; the chaos in White Whale City is the best protection; they won’t be able to find this place anytime soon.”
A wealthy scion lost his life, causing the Investigation Bureau to bustle about but such efforts wouldn’t be as robust if it were an ordinary person.
Kui Xin stood up from the sofa and headed towards the door of the rest area, “I need to sleep for a while; I’ll leave the villa’s security in your hands for the time being.”
“You really should adjust your circadian rhythm,” Augus said.
As Kui Xin pushed open the door to the rest area and was about to disconnect the mental communication, Augus suddenly said, “There’s something I’ve wanted to know for a long time.”
“Go ahead,” Kui Xin felt a faint premonition in her heart.
Augus said, “Remover 233 is actually you, right?”
