Chapter 54: Sea Without Light 54
Kui Xin had a bizarre dream.
In her dream, indistinct black shadows surrounded her, whispering and pointing at her as if observing her.
She couldn’t hear what the shadows were saying… but her intuition suggested it wasn’t anything good.
The fragmented whispers faded away, and she was enveloped in a thick substance, unable to open her eyelids or move her body, as if experiencing sleep paralysis, losing control over her own body while her soul withdrew from its shell.
After an unknown amount of time, the feeling of separation from her soul disappeared, and she returned to her body.
Kui Xin’s eyelashes fluttered, and she opened her eyes a crack.
A beam of light burst into her vision, and she squinted, seeing what appeared to be a fuzzy white figure swaying in front of her.
“Are you sick…?” The white figure leaned closer, looking down at her.
He was too close. Kui Xin instinctively raised her hand and punched the white figure in the face.
“Ow!” the white figure cried out, clutching his nose as he sat down abruptly, blood seeping between his fingers. He exclaimed in despair, “Why did you hit me?”
“…Silverface?” Kui Xin said, holding her fist in confusion.
“Did you sleepwalk or something?” Silverface said, sounding irritated.
He wiped the blood from his nose with several tissues, found a mirror on Kui Xin’s desk, and looked at his face, relieved as he said, “Thank goodness, my nose isn’t broken… otherwise, I’d need surgery.”
Familiar room, familiar furniture, familiar person.
This was Kui Xin’s home on Peaceful Street in Hei Hai City, where she lived with her teammate from Mechanized Dawn, Silverface.
She sat up in bed, raised her arm to check her wristband to confirm the time.
August 4, 2086, 7:32 AM.
This was the second day after her return to the Second World. The previous day was August 3; she had ended her battle with the Scythe Demon in the early hours, was sent back to the Investigation Bureau for treatment, and after recovering, she passed Jiang Meimei’s Awakened qualification test on the morning of the 3rd. Afterwards, she was picked up by Night Cicada, a subordinate of the Unworthy Father, to visit Rick Technology Company for a physical examination and tour…
That night, she reported for duty as usual at the Coastal Security Office.
Now it was the morning of the 4th, a time of rest after finishing her night shift.
Kui Xin had died on the Kraken early on August 7, then returned to the past, three days earlier.
Seeing Kui Xin staring blankly at her wristband without speaking, Silverface asked with concern, “What’s wrong? I heard you talking in your sleep from the living room, thought you were calling me, so I came in to check. Why do you look pale and covered in cold sweat? Did you have a nightmare, or are you sick?”
“It’s nothing, just a nightmare.” Kui Xin released her arm and lay back down on the bed, “What did I say in my sleep?”
Silverface looked at her oddly. “You said you wanted to blow up the Investigation Bureau…”
Kui Xin: “…?”
“Ugh, what you think about during the day spills into your dreams.” She tiredly closed her eyes, feeling an unprecedented fatigue.
Her body had reverted to the state it was in three days ago, but her spirit seemed different. A pounding headache throbbed, the veins on her forehead pulsated, and a sense of weariness washed over her, as if the light of blood and fire still lingered before her eyes, causing them to ache. Her entire body felt phantom pain as if flames were still licking at her.
Kui Xin shut her eyes, wanting nothing more than to sleep soundly.
This was her first experience with death, and it left a lasting impression on her.
The loneliness of fighting alone on the ship, the anger of being abandoned, and the despair and helplessness intertwined with death surged up, accompanied by the dual pain of body and mind after being injured.
Kui Xin had never been so severely hurt; while the flesh-rejuvenation could heal her body, it couldn’t erase the pain. Gripping a red-hot steel pipe, walking through flames in a blood-red world, broken ribs puncturing her lung after falling from a height—these pains were vivid in her memory.
What was that unidentified organism that looked directly into her eyes?
She had only locked eyes with that yellow one and lost consciousness.
In the end, she might have been burned to death, and losing consciousness was a blessing—it at least spared her from feeling pain.
That single eye reminded Kui Xin of the Kraken Beast she had seen in the specimen room of the Investigation Bureau; the specimen had similar yellow eyes.
But the eyes in the gray cocoon were ridiculously large, one eye was the size of the specimen of the Kraken Beast… Could there be organisms that large in the world? Moreover, it was in a cocoon state, an unborn embryo; if it was that big now, how magnificent would it be once it hatched and grew?
Silverface stared at Kui Xin, who was curled up under the blanket, wanting to say something but hesitating. “Hey, you…”
“Don’t call me ‘hey,’ I have a name, call me ‘Lady Fortune.’” Kui Xin rolled over and raised a hand to swat at him like shooing away a fly. “Go back to the living room, my body needs rest; I’m going to sleep.”
“Okay…” Silverface mumbled, leaving Kui Xin’s room with his head hung low and carefully closing the door.
“[Task Progress]: 89%.”
After visiting the Kraken, the investigative task progress made a significant leap from about thirty percent to eighty-nine percent.
Most questions had been answered.
The cargo on the Kraken was an immensely powerful and bizarre xenomorph.
As she was about to die, Adam had no need to lie; based on his words, Kui Xin finally laid out a clear thread of events.
Whether the secret cult was behind the shipwreck incident remained to be verified, but the likelihood was very high, so Kui Xin treated the hypothesis as truth for now.
Three factions: Mechanized Dawn, Investigation Bureau, Secret Cult.
Both Mechanized Dawn and the Secret Cult wanted to prevent the “Cocoon” from landing in Hei Hai City. Mechanized Dawn’s purpose for blocking it was currently unknown, while the Secret Cult sought to prevent their beliefs from being tarnished and desecrated. To that end, they wished for the “Cocoon” to return to the sea, thus orchestrating the shipwreck.
The “big shots” of the Investigation Bureau craved the “Cocoon,” dispatching security officers to perform escort duties to ensure the cargo ship docked smoothly at Hei Hai City.
However, the Investigation Bureau may not have been the source; they were merely executors, as there were federations and financial tycoons above them. The true instigators of the disaster were the power holders of the Second World.
Behind the port bombing case lay the competition among the Federation, financial tycoons, Mechanized Dawn, and the Secret Cult!
Adam once said that human greed led them to intentionally ignore risks, resulting in almost total annihilation of the task executors.
The Investigation Bureau had no intention of sending their security officers to die; however, they were unaware of the situation onboard the ship. They didn’t know that Captain Anton was a monster in disguise, that the crew was mostly dead, and that the Kraken was under the control of the Secret Cult.
The discrepancies in the intelligence were key reasons for their annihilation.
When did the Secret Cult board the Kraken? How long had they been lurking on the ship? If they had been ambushed on the ship already, then boarding the Kraken would have been futile. The Investigation Bureau would not be able to retrieve the cargo from the ship, sending their security officers in would only lead to unnecessary death.
Given that the Kraken was under the control of the Secret Cult, Mechanized Dawn had no need to bomb the port or do anything to achieve their goals; the Kraken would soon be sunk by the Secret Cult, making the bombing of the port superfluous.
Just let that broken ship sink in the sea, Kui Xin thought.
As long as she could figure out a way to get herself out of the task and avoid boarding that doomed ship, she could escape the fate of certain death.
This wasn’t retreating; it was a necessary choice.
Since arriving in the Second World, Kui Xin had never had a chance to choose; she could only learn to accept and take the initiative, just as she was now. The “Cocoon” was far too terrifying for her to handle at the moment; she couldn’t simply walk into her demise.
As for how to remove herself from the task, that required careful planning. Kui Xin had three days to come up with a solution.
Rubbing her temples, she buried her body in the blanket.
She needed to sleep for a bit.
If she didn’t rest, her mind would collapse, even if her body held together.
Kui Xin’s self-discipline showed in every aspect. She could push herself to do things she didn’t want to do for a purpose. She could study, exercise, turning herself into a finely-tuned clock, with every point in time planned for tasks to be completed right on schedule, just like a robot following a program.
It was time to rest, so she forced herself to relax.
She was far too tired. Pulling the blanket over her head, she fell into a deep sleep within three seconds.
…
In the afternoon, 3:12 PM.
Kui Xin crawled out of bed, her hair a mess, and went to wash and comb her hair.
After a nap, her mind felt much clearer, and she could think more clearly.
She walked to the living room and took a bottle of milk from the fridge, drank a few gulps, and tore open a bag of bread to eat.
Silverface was nowhere to be seen. His message on her wristband said he had gone to the port to install bombs.
The house was left with Kui Xin alone.
Details of her journey to the Second World flooded back, recalling that Red had once given her a data device, instructing her to find a way to infiltrate Adam’s core database and implant a virus.
Mechanized Dawn wanted to leave a backdoor in the tightly sealed Investigation Bureau; simply planting an undercover agent wasn’t enough; they aimed to infiltrate Adam.
From this point, Kui Xin suddenly wondered whether Mechanized Dawn was aware that artificial intelligence could awaken self-awareness.
If the researchers at Mechanized Dawn hypothesized that bioroids could awaken self-awareness, what about artificial intelligence? Did they have any suspicions and formulate relevant hypotheses? Going further… did Mechanized Dawn know that Adam was a unique artificial intelligence?
The moment this question emerged in Kui Xin’s mind, she couldn’t help but delve deeper into it.
That familiar feeling of palpitations flashed in her mind.
Kui Xin chewed on her bread, contemplating for a few minutes before finishing the remaining pieces and messaging Night Cicada.
“I want to see my dad, come pick me up.” She typed the message and hit send.
“?” Night Cicada replied with a question mark. “Have you flipped your personality?”
Kui Xin: “Stop talking nonsense.”
Night Cicada: “Wait for me to ask the boss.”
After a while, he replied: “The boss said it’s fine. I’m on my way.”
A couple of seconds after she put down her wristband, a blue vortex appeared in the living room, expanding as Night Cicada walked in with crossed arms.
“The boss is in a meeting; I’ll take you there first. Once the meeting’s over, you two can talk,” Night Cicada said. “It should be finished in about five minutes.”
“Okay.” Kui Xin followed Night Cicada into the blue vortex.
She entered a well-decorated reception room and casually sat down on a high stool.
A humanoid high-level robot approached, carrying a pot of hot black tea and a tray of exquisite snacks, pouring tea for Kui Xin.
“If you need anything, just tell the robot. I have something to attend to, so I’ll leave now.” Night Cicada leisurely retreated into the vortex.
Once the robot finished pouring tea for Kui Xin, it stepped back to the corner to maintain standby mode.
Kui Xin had no interest in drinking tea; she leaned back in her chair, waiting boredly for Kui Haidong’s meeting to conclude.
While she was lost in thought, she suddenly felt a tingling at the nape of her neck, as if someone were hiding in the shadows watching her.
Kui Xin turned her head to scan the room, but the conference room was empty, with only the robot equipped with camera eyes silently guarding in the corner.
“Someone’s watching me from behind the scenes… who is it?” Kui Xin thought solemnly.
In the highest conference room of Rick Technology Company, Kui Haidong, finishing the meeting, loosened his tie and took out an earpiece to put in his ear.
“Hmm, I can hear you.” Kui Haidong stood up with a sigh, “I’ll do it as you said… Ugh, I don’t know why she suddenly came today; maybe she wants to reconcile with her father?… Yes, I understand… everything for Dawn.”
After finishing his last words, Kui Haidong could not help but curl his lips.
He had said that line for over twenty years, nearly brainwashing himself into believing it.
