Chapter 235: Two Ends of the Balance 16
Once again back in Tonglin City, Kui Xin was accompanied by Yu Hansue.
Yu Hansue’s aunt and uncle did not work in the provincial city and only went there to seek treatment for her. The two elders had to travel back and forth between the two cities, which was very troublesome.
Kui Xin used Hypnotic Sound to erase the memories of the hospital staff, making them believe that Yu Hansue had been discharged through proper procedures, allowing her to move freely. As soon as Kui Xin returned to Tonglin City, he immediately looked for her aunt and uncle and used Hypnotic Sound on them as well. According to Yu Hansue, it was safest for her relatives to know nothing.
Since she had no place to stay, she temporarily moved into Kui Xin’s home.
“Your house looks exactly the same as before,” Yu Hansue said.
“Yes, it’s all old stuff, hard to part with,” Kui Xin replied as he pulled out some new clothes for her. “You can wear my clothes after your shower, though the pants might be a bit long…”
“Okay.” Last night, Yu Hansue had changed from her hospital gown into whatever clothes she could find to hide her appearance. After a quick wash-up, she put on Kui Xin’s clothes and finally looked like a vibrant young person.
Yu Hansue gazed at herself in the mirror in surprise and said, “I remember you used to wear a different style. You always wore sports and casual styles. Your new clothes are quite… demure? I like the heart pattern on this short-sleeve shirt.”
“Just changing styles a bit; it doesn’t hurt to be careful. I originally wanted to wear these clothes at university, but since I’ve taken a leave of absence, there’s no need to intentionally create a different style,” Kui Xin replied. “I’ll still wear casual clothes when handling serious business.”
Yu Hansue said, “That makes sense. I guess I need to be a bit more careful and change my style like you.” After thinking for a moment, she added, “In the Second World, I rarely interacted with outsiders. Secret research institutes are managed in a closed manner; I hardly even interacted with colleagues. Each of us is responsible for a specific area and doesn’t leave our work zone unless necessary.”
“You and Augus are trading with each other. Have you considered the exposure issue? Helping him infiltrate the research institute isn’t an easy task,” Kui Xin said.
“Augus’s purpose in entering the institute is to kill the test subjects to harvest abilities. My plan is to escape amidst the chaos,” Yu Hansue replied, distressed. “I can’t stay in the research institute forever; once my ability level increases a bit more, I don’t need to reach S Rank, maybe just the peak of A Rank, and then I’ll have the means to escape.”
Kui Xin asked, “Aren’t there enough test subjects in the research institute to help you upgrade to S Rank?”
“Reaching S Rank is really difficult… the test subjects I have access to are of very low level, most of them are E Rank,” Yu Hansue explained seriously. “There’s an invisible experience bar in the Game System, and repeatedly harvesting low-level abilities seems to yield less experience over time with diminishing returns. Upgrading to higher levels requires a vast amount of experience. At my current stage, killing test subjects provides negligible gains. If I want significant improvements in the future, I can’t keep harvesting E Rank subjects; I need to target higher-level test subjects.”
Kui Xin had also sensed this experience value diminishing issue.
The S Rank ability that Augus showcased last night was likely “Material Reorganization,” which he acquired in the beginning. How many people had he killed to elevate his ability to S Rank?
“Can you tell me more about the research projects at your secret research institute? It seems like a deep sea of information,” Kui Xin said. “Since the secret research institute was built by the Federation, what does the Federation hope to study through it? What are they trying to achieve?”
“As far as I know, the research projects at the secret research institute are many, built underground and divided into different areas,” Yu Hansue organized her thoughts and slowly explained. “The researchers inside the institute are ranked; I’m in a lower tier with limited authority, responsible for handling chores rather than conducting research. The project I’m involved with focuses on time-related extraordinary abilities. They collect various time-related extraordinary abilities, not just the ‘Wheel of Time,’ but others like time freezing and time barriers… my responsibility is to work on the ‘Wheel of Time’ as part of the time-related extraordinary abilities project… the structure of this secret research institute is very vast and complex.”
“What other types are they researching apart from time-related abilities?” Kui Xin inquired.
“Quite a lot, including space-related and mental-related abilities. The rarer the type, the more resources they invest. But I don’t know much about other research projects,” Yu Hansue said. “Xin Xin, take a guess — with so many special extraordinary abilities, how does the Federation collect them?”
Kui Xin pondered for a moment. “The Federation doesn’t hide the existence of Awakened individuals from ordinary people; Awakened individuals often receive preferential treatment, and ordinary citizens’ civic status improves after awakening. The Federation’s population in the Second World is large, and casting a wide net to find so many special abilities isn’t rare.”
“That’s right, but not entirely,” Yu Hansue’s smile dimmed. “When a civilian awakens extraordinary abilities, they might soar to success or fall into hell.”
Kui Xin caught on, “You mean… the Federation may nurture them, or capture them to be test subjects for experimentation?”
Yu Hansue nodded. “Awakening isn’t necessarily a good thing; it can even turn into a death sentence.”
How to put it… Upon suddenly learning this explosive news, Kui Xin felt not the slightest surprise, but rather a sense of inevitability.
Because the Second World was just too rotten, deeply and irreparably so. Kui Xin harbored no expectations for that world; no matter how disgusting the ruling class behaved, she felt no shock.
“I’ve always been quite disgusted by the Federation’s actions against players, but thinking about it now, I can understand why they’d do such things. After all, they don’t treat their own people any better, not to mention us players caught in the cracks of the world,” Kui Xin sarcastically remarked.
High levels of control, extreme oppression, deprivation of freedom, and a life dictated by others—the ugliness of the powerful was fully manifested.
Yu Hansue said, “Due to my long exposure to time-related projects, I actually have a hypothesis.”
“What hypothesis? Tell me about it,” Kui Xin said, looking at her.
“If you have wealth, status, and even control the greatest military force in the world, where everything you desire is within reach… what else would you want?” Yu Hansue asked.
Kui Xin’s mind stirred, and she answered immediately, “Eternal life!”
With wealth and power, one would naturally want to ensure that it lasts longer in their hands, but human life is finite. It is unrealistic to expect to hold onto wealth and power forever.
Unless one can attain immortality.
The moment that answer surfaced in her mind, Kui Xin almost scoffed.
The thoughts of the powerful are difficult to decipher yet also easy to guess; ultimately, they care about just a few things. Although they possess a huge portion of the world’s wealth, human greed is insatiable; holding onto something is never enough; they always want more.
Immortality is a clichéd theme. Throughout history, countless individuals have sought it, and many have walked this path.
Though it’s a trite theme, it remains timeless.
The reason it never gets old is that humanity has never achieved immortality. For things that remain unattained, people maintain an unwavering passion.
What kind of existence could achieve immortality?
Perhaps… only gods.
Some scattered bits of information connected into a line, and Kui Xin suddenly realized.
Why were the Investigation Bureau and certain research institutions studying xenomorphs? Why did the Investigation Bureau receive orders to escort cargo from the Kraken? Why was the Federation researching divine blood? Why did the Federation want to attain “God”…? The upper echelons were pulling all these strings, researching time-related extraordinary abilities and divine blood, but their ultimate goal was always unified.
It turned out that what they sought from the very beginning was this clichéd, shallow, and easily understandable desire—immortality!
Then what about Eve?
What was the deal with Eve assigning the Mechanized Dawn team to the Kraken mission? Did she hate humanity so much that she didn’t want the ruling class of the Federation to obtain the Cocoon of God and uncover the secrets of immortality?
For that particular mission, Eve had given two options: either let the ship dock in the neighboring city or blow up the Kraken.
This at least indicated that blowing up the ship wasn’t Eve’s first choice. To some extent, Eve was also tempted by the Cocoon of God; she could suppress her greed and let it go when unattainable, unlike the Federation, who would fill that void with the lives of Investigation Bureau security officers.
She probably chose to keep the Cocoon from landing in Hei Hai City because it was the headquarters of Mechanized Dawn at the time, and Eve believed leaving it there was too risky. Once the Cocoon revived, it would attract xenomorphs to come and worship.
Kui Xin belatedly thought… if the Cocoon had truly landed in Hei Hai City and revived, would the xenomorphs rise from the sea and surge into the city like a tide?
To avoid this risk, Eve chose to redirect the Cocoon to the neighboring city… unfortunately, her plans ultimately fell through. She sank the cargo ship, achieving nothing, and the Federation would gain nothing either.
“Xin Xin… Xin Xin?” Yu Hansue called her twice, “What are you thinking about?”
“Um, just recalling some things I experienced before,” Kui Xin murmured. “Thanks to your reminder, I finally understand some things and see the cause and effect… though it’s a little late to understand… no, it’s not too late; this matter is already irrelevant to me now. Knowing early or late makes no difference.”
Yu Hansue studied Kui Xin’s expression for a while and, confirming that Kui Xin wasn’t troubled by negative emotions, said, “The Federation is a behemoth that can’t be easily shaken. Let’s not think too much about it for now; we still have a long way to go.”
Kui Xin shook her head. “No, our journey isn’t that long; the world is changing too quickly, and we have no time to adapt. Augus is in Tonglin City; we need to find him and eliminate him.”
Yu Hansue looked at Kui Xin and said, “We will. Can you still track his location?”
“I can.” Kui Xin looked down at the time. “It’s currently 4 PM, and we have eight hours left until the next shift.”
“Each time we shift or return, it brings significant changes to our world,” Yu Hansue said. “I wonder what the Tobacco Factory will be like next week.”
Kui Xin nodded. “I think Augus is waiting, waiting for midnight to arrive. He must be planning something with the Dark Realm of the Tobacco Factory when the time comes.”
