Chapter 239: Balancing Two Ends 20
The heart in the chest thumped loudly, its rhythm seeming to coincide with the sound of the monster’s footsteps hitting the ground.
Mennetoh walked around the circular corridor on the second floor of the tobacco factory, the distant sound of footsteps gradually drawing closer… repeating endlessly.
Kui Xin dared not make any sound, merely leaning quietly against the wall and waiting.
Perhaps it was the proximity to danger, the nearness to death, that caused Kui Xin to begin contemplating the people still outside: Su Rong, He Kangshi, Tang Guan, Yu Hansue… what were they doing at this moment? What would they do?
No matter what, she hoped they wouldn’t impulsively enter the Dark Realm.
Fortunately, it wasn’t Tang Guan who entered the Dark Realm.
Once inside, if his Symbiotic Extraordinary Ability was also suppressed, would the Human-Faced Ghost take the opportunity to control his body?
At this moment, Kui Xin had entered the Dark Realm, and her Extraordinary Abilities were completely ineffective; her Death Rebirth ability likely had expired. To die in the Dark Realm meant true death, with no chance for recovery. She felt a degree of relief, thinking that if death was inevitable, she had at least done enough before officially facing it.
The unity of the players was a matter of course; even if they lost the leadership of “Black Snake” on the forum, the remaining players would become aware of the crisis and voluntarily team up to fight against the disaster.
In truth, “Black Snake” was merely a symbol created by Kui Xin using her own information—a banner that attracted the attention of all players. This symbol, this mark, this banner could be questioned or doubted, but it must not be tainted. Once the banner is stained, the players would fall into a circular trap of mutual suspicion and attacks, exhausting each other.
Regrettably, Kui Xin was Black Snake, but she was tainted; her past killings of more than one player served as her stain. Other players wouldn’t care about her reasons; they only cared about the result; humans have never been rational beings.
Thus, it was necessary for Kui Xin to separate the identities of “Remover 233” and “Black Snake.” What was reported was only Remover 233, not Black Snake. Remover 233 could be a subordinate or collaborator of Black Snake, but could never be Black Snake herself.
This was why Kui Xin had He Kangshi impersonate Remover 233 to communicate with Augus.
If she were to use her own account to communicate with Augus, he would equate forum 233 “Black Snake” with “Remover 233,” and upon discovering the secret, he would surely stir up trouble.
To those unaware of the truth, having a mad Remover, who might harm his own kind, as the leader was unacceptable. However, by positioning the codename “Black Snake” as the leader, distancing Black Snake from the series of events where Removers killed players, the players would find it acceptable.
People are irrational and fragile in this way.
In other words… Black Snake can be Remover 233, but Remover 233 can never be Black Snake.
Furthermore, Black Snake doesn’t necessarily have to be played by Remover 233.
Black Snake could be anyone.
If one Black Snake dies, there will be others to rise up. It could be Tang Guan, He Kangshi, Yu Hansue, Li Wanran, Song Tingshuan, or even someone else—whoever serves the purpose becomes Black Snake.
Kui Xin believed that all players coming to Tonglin City with a sense of justice, though never rational, were always courageous. When one flag falls, countless others will rise.
What is the meaning of living?
Kui Xin had pondered this question before, but she had never delved deeply into it; she had only lived in the moment.
Not long ago, Tang Guan’s words had slightly awakened her. She regarded the First World as her home, and in the Second World, she struggled to survive. She had thought that returning to the First World would allow her to live peacefully, but reality struck her down.
If the First World also turned into the twisted version of the Second World, Kui Xin could not accept that; she absolutely could not accept it. By releasing information on the forum and guiding the players, her actions aimed to prevent her lifelong home from becoming unfamiliar.
She would not allow her world to take on another form.
“Boom…”
Mennetoh’s footsteps were incredibly close; it had completed a round in the corridor and returned to its origin.
Then the horrifying footsteps fell silent.
In the terrifying silence, Kui Xin glanced at her watch once more: 9:07.
Mennetoh emerged at twenty-one, returning seven minutes later.
It did not attack, nor did it discover Kui Xin or Augus… it seemed more like… a routine patrol. It circled around and then left.
A strange thought occurred to Kui Xin—perhaps Mennetoh had noticed her and Augus, but deemed them too insignificant, like ants on the ground, and thus ignored them.
She stepped out from behind the wall, gun aimed at her chest, and moved forward slowly.
She navigated around the long wall, accurately pushing through layers of phantoms to find the exit, then headed toward Fang Zhi’s death location.
This action was risky; Mennetoh’s footsteps stopping didn’t mean it had left.
But Kui Xin had to go out and confirm.
Augus was still there, coexisting with her, and his possession of a weapon posed a massive threat to her.
As she approached Fang Zhi’s death spot, the surrounding mist seemed to thicken; she heard faint sounds akin to a sleepwalker’s mumblings, but the sound vanished in an instant.
Taking another step forward, the dense fog suddenly dispersed.
Kui Xin’s breathing grew steadier.
A pitch-black crack spanned the air; if you were to call it a door, it resembled a closed eye, seemingly leaking dark substances from the fissure.
Kui Xin instinctively took a step back, upper body leaning away, struggling to avert her gaze.
This closing crack had a bizarre allure; standing before it felt like being drawn in. What could lie within?
Kui Xin paused her thoughts; Mennetoh had left, and the Dark Realm was temporarily safe.
From the earlier observations, Mennetoh didn’t seem to possess very high aggressiveness, yet when Li Wanran and the others sent things into the Dark Realm for experiments, the monster inside had directly pulled the experimental monkeys and robots in. The Dark Gate could not only lead to Mennetoh but also ordinary beings from the other world… If Mennetoh and the creatures were appearing alternately, was there a pattern to this alternation?
Moreover, concerning the entry and exit issues of the Dark Realm, according to Li Wanran and others’ experiments, the current exhibited characteristic was that only entry was allowed, but the beings from the other world could clearly come out from the Dark Realm.
Why was that? Was it that only at special moments, like midnight, could one leave the Dark Realm, or was the Dark Realm itself unique and selective? Could only beings from the other world enter and exit freely?
Kui Xin stepped back further and turned to hide in another room.
After a few seconds of contemplation, she gripped her gun and shouted, “Augus!”
“Come kill me if you want bullets!”
“Are you afraid?”
After shouting this, Kui Xin immediately left her position and hid elsewhere.
Three minutes passed with no sound.
Kui Xin contemplated pulling out the deformed bullet head from her pocket, crouching down and tossing the bullet away.
“Clang…”
In the sharp sound, Kui Xin accurately caught the sound of footsteps scratching the ground, like someone hurriedly turning around to check after hearing the noise, with no time to be mindful, thus making that sound.
Augus was there!
Without hesitation, Kui Xin instantly fired!
The bullets spat forth, smoke swirling; the sound of the bullet leaving the chamber was deafening, and Kui Xin couldn’t determine from the noise if the bullet had hit its target.
Augus responded quickly as well; he drew his gun and fired back! Due to low ammunition, Augus didn’t recklessly spray bullets.
But at the same time he pulled the trigger, Kui Xin pretended to be hit, letting out a cry of pain. She swiftly untied the rope binding her arm, allowing the blood from her left arm to drip onto the ground, intentionally creating a chaotic sound as she left a trail of blood.
As she let the blood drip, she calmly shifted her position; the crimson liquid pattered down, and once she had run far enough away, she paled and rewrapped the wound before switching hiding spots again.
Kui Xin huddled in a corner, surrounded by phantoms, steadily raising her gun and aiming in the direction where the blood trail had disappeared.
This Dark Realm was a maze fraught with danger; Kui Xin knew the maze’s paths; the phantoms could not confuse her, but Augus couldn’t do the same.
Kui Xin pretended to be an injured prey, leaving a blood trail as a marker to attract the hunter.
She waited silently, like a venomous snake coiling in its den, slowly flicking her tongue out, ready to strike at the throat of any passing prey, constricting its body until it became a butcher’s offering.
She feigned injury, and Augus kept positioning himself as the hunter; Kui Xin understood that Augus was a competitive and vindictive person who wouldn’t miss an opportunity to seize the advantage.
After waiting a little longer, she finally saw Augus appear.
After being put at a disadvantage by Kui Xin, he became extremely cautious, his finger resting on the trigger, not lifting it, and mimicking her, he threw another deformed bullet head he picked up. In the clinking sounds, Kui Xin nearly reflexively opened fire but recognized the false sound and held back her movement.
Augus waited half a minute before daring to follow the blood trail forward.
He came to the end of the blood trail, looking ahead; the blood marked path extended into the phantoms. Augus hesitated, unsure whether to fire a test shot. Before he could decide, Kui Xin took the initiative and attacked!
She dashed out from the mist and executed a sliding kick that knocked Augus down.
Augus fell to the ground with a thud; Kui Xin kicked forward, intending to kick away his gun, but the guy held onto it tightly, making it impossible for her to disarm him.
Kui Xin quickly adjusted her tactics, leaping up from the ground to pounce, pressing Augus’s gun beneath her body. Then, shifting her posture to the side, she forcefully raised her knee to strike Augus’s lower body.
Augus groaned in pain, using all his strength to raise his gun, his finger squeezing the trigger. However, Kui Xin’s weight on his arm severely hampered his movement, causing the bullet to veer, and he fired a blank.
Seizing the opportunity, Kui Xin grabbed hold of Augus’s finger still on the trigger and helped him pull it multiple times, with a series of gunshots echoing. Then, with a click, all the bullets in the gun were fired under Kui Xin’s control!
Augus was taken aback; before he could take any further action, Kui Xin struck him hard in the face with her hand, darkening his vision.
Before Augus could retaliate, Kui Xin rolled away from him, raising her gun and firing four shots at close range toward Augus!
“Bang!”
Due to the rapid firing speed, the gunshots nearly merged into one sound, totaling four shots, each hitting Augus’s arms and legs.
Blood splattered, dyeing the floor red.
Augus weakly raised a hand, but Kui Xin spared no bullets. She immediately fired again, targeting his hands and feet with several shots, each aimed at the joints, leaving him utterly paralyzed.
Every shot avoided hitting his vital organs.
Augus completely lost his ability to move, lying on the ground pale.
Kui Xin lowered her gun and crouched to gaze at Augus, whose limbs were gushing blood.
“You’re younger than I imagined…” Augus suddenly said.
“You’re more foolish than I thought,” Kui Xin retorted.
“If you kill me, don’t expect to know how to leave.” Augus’s consciousness began to blur from excessive blood loss, “You don’t dare kill me; you wouldn’t aim at my vital organs, only shooting at my hands and feet… you’re afraid if I die, I can’t provide you with information.”
Kui Xin stared at him silently for a while, then removed his outer coat, tearing it into strips to bandage his wounds and stop the bleeding.
“Hah…” Augus laughed, “You really can’t bear to let me die…”
“No, how to leave the Dark Realm is secondary.” Kui Xin’s movements were rough, causing Augus to groan several times, “Your only significance in living is to hold on until midnight, and then serve as an experimental subject.”
“Experimental subject?” Augus’s gradually fading consciousness regained some clarity.
“You’re my experimental subject, Augus.” Kui Xin tapped his cheek with the gun’s muzzle, “You came here to make a choice, right? Let me see what kind of changes occur after you make that choice, let me see what transformations will transpire.”
A vessel for consciousness can only have one, yet among players, there are two vessels for consciousness; players must choose one between the two.
Now Augus was about to make this choice, and Kui Xin needed to understand what would happen once he chose, and how it would impact the players’ gameplay.
This was crucial for Kui Xin’s future plans.
Moreover, Augus was correct; Kui Xin indeed did not dare to kill him.
He was an Anchor Point; die in the Dark Realm, would it hasten anchoring?
“Aren’t you afraid of dying? Aren’t you afraid of being trapped here forever?” Augus’s eyes darted, fixed on Kui Xin, lingering briefly on her arm wound, “Monsters will emerge at midnight; the creatures that poured out from here are proof. Even if you survive a battle, you will starve to death from endless hiding and fighting. Are you not afraid I will kill you once I complete my choice?”
“Are you trying to threaten me with death? And stop pretending; I can see through it—you may know a lot, but you don’t necessarily fully understand the rules of the Dark Realm; your movements in this maze are far too awkward.” Kui Xin stood up and kicked his face, “And my name isn’t Moyi, Augus; that’s a false name.”
Kui Xin understood she might die, but before death arrived, she still had things she must do and truths she needed to uncover.
Kui Xin pulled out her bloodstained pocket watch, wiped the dirt from its surface, and wound it up.
The hands turned, time flowed second by second.
In the agonizing wait, midnight arrived!
At the site of Fang Zhi’s death, the pitch-black crack opened wide, and Mennetoh emerged, dragging its tentacles from within… But at the same time, the Dark Realm underwent a strange change; reality and illusion swapped places, the mist dissipated, and Kui Xin suddenly blacked out, losing consciousness, collapsing to the ground.
On the other hand, Augus bore a look of ecstasy, a thought unexpectedly surfacing in his mind: “Here it comes…”
The shadow of the balance rose high in his mind once again, asking that question: “Red Gem or Blue Gem, which one do you choose?”
The appearance of the balance proved that Augus’s thoughts were correct; entering the Dark Realm was indeed the prelude to making a choice.
A complex expression crossed his face; gritting his teeth, he tentatively said, “Red Gem.”
The shadow of the balance dissipated.
Augus’s bloodied limbs suddenly transformed into sand and then evaporated into mist, merging with the Dark Realm.
At the confluence of the first floor of the tobacco factory and the nuclear waste processing room, another Augus lying on the ground suddenly opened his eyes.
He jumped up from the ground, rapidly rushing to the second floor, finally arriving at the place where his First World body had vanished.
Kui Xin’s body was here as well.
Augus reached out to touch her but only felt a phantom. He then touched the nearby electric wires, which, this time, were solid, as were the walls; only Kui Xin’s body remained intangible.
To some extent, the illusions of the Dark Realm were one-way; the First World could see the illusions of the Second World, but the Second World could not see the illusions of the First World… However, players were unique, the illusions revealed.
“Indeed…” He lowered his eyes in regret, looking around, “I can’t kill her here.”
At that moment, thousands of miles away in White Whale City, Kui Xin opened her eyes.
She shouted, “Adam!”
“It’s so good to see you again, Kui Xin,” Adam replied, “Is there something urgent? You seem anxious.”
