Chapter 77: Artificial Soul 04
Kui Xin ran into the subway, hurrying home as fast as she could.
On the way, she opened her mobile phone and searched social media for keywords like “Mirage” and “Evening Sky,” clicking on real-time posts to check.
Suddenly, various photos popped up. It was clear that she wasn’t the only one who noticed the evening sky phenomenon. People from all over the country were posting their pictures on social media, and marketing accounts had started a trending topic.
#Mirage Spotted in the Evening Sky Nationwide#
Kui Xin’s expression immediately darkened.
She browsed through the images posted by netizens, scrolling down until she found that the times for the mirage sightings across different locations were not consistent. When Kui Xin had just seen the mirage, she glanced at her phone and noted the time was 6:39 PM.
The mirage lasted less than twenty seconds, with little discrepancy from her phone’s time.
However, some of the photos shared by other users were taken as early as 5 PM. She even saw a student studying abroad who posted pictures, but for them, it was broad daylight, not evening. Intentionally searching for posts from users located abroad, she ultimately uncovered a chilling fact—mirages had appeared in various regions around the world over the course of approximately two and a half hours.
Kui Xin was stunned, feeling a greater emotional impact than when she received the investigation task regarding the “Cultist Murder Case” while in the subway, comparable to staring directly at the Eye in the cocoon aboard the Kraken.
A sense of oppression enveloped her.
It felt as if the ceiling above her was gradually descending, compressing her standing space until she could only bend over, crouch down, and eventually lie flat on the ground.
What bore down above her wasn’t a ceiling, but an entire city… a world!
Kui Xin suppressed her anxious emotions and regained her composure.
After struggling in the Second World for so many days, she had learned how to control her emotions, as if her mind had an invisible switch. When she forced herself to stay calm, the emotional switch activated, pushing any inappropriate feelings deep into her mind.
The topic picked up by marketing accounts quickly surged to trending status, with more and more people posting their own photos.
Kui Xin continued to browse through the images, then clicked on their profiles to check their locations. She saved those images, planning to analyze the details once she got home.
To conserve smartphone storage space, she selected only the clearer, more representative images, yet even so, her phone’s memory quickly filled up.
Reluctantly, Kui Xin stopped collecting images and turned her attention to examining the details of the pictures.
The blurry mirages depicted one city after another, but these cities were inverted—ground as sky and sky as ground, bizarre like trees growing upside down. The skyscrapers in the phantom city only had vague outlines, slightly distorted under the refracted light.
Those gray-black building phantoms were entwined with neon lights, dazzling like the aurora, though the colors were hard to distinguish due to the evening timing of the photos. However, judging by the existing images, the phantom cities within the mirages indeed had the style of the Second World.
Kui Xin searched among the images of the mirage for the familiar phantom of Hei Hai City.
If the phantom of Hei Hai City also appeared over a city in the First World, then the situation would be quite severe.
The announcement of the next subway station rang out, signaling it was time for Kui Xin to disembark.
She tucked her phone away and quickly ran home, immediately pulling out her phone to compare pictures upon arrival.
Hei Hai City was the city she was most familiar with in the Second World; she could recognize its iconic architecture at a glance.
The central technology tower, the port’s searchlights and lighthouse, the crowded container terminal by the sea… She searched the pictures for familiar phantoms to validate her hypothesis.
Finally, Kui Xin found it.
She dazedly set her phone down, staring at the lighthouse depicted in the image.
The phantom of that lighthouse was very familiar to her; she knew its structure and height well because she had been there personally. On the day she prepared to kill the Python Sphere, she was hiding out at that lighthouse with a sniper rifle.
The location where the phantom of Hei Hai City appeared was a small fishing village in a coastal area known as “Black Sand Corner.”
The shapes of the continents in the First and Second Worlds were not exactly the same; some had similar shapes and regional cultures, while others had geographical conditions and significant cultural differences compared to the First World.
However, the appearance of the Hei Hai City phantom over Black Sand Corner, both of which were coastal cities, must have some special connection… Perhaps, every city in the First World corresponded to a city in the Second World, linked together.
Kui Xin’s throat felt as if something were blocking it; she sat in silence on her chair.
Looking outside now, the sky had darkened, and the colorful fiery clouds had vanished. The sky transformed from deep blue to a gradient of deep purple. It was empty above, with no mirage or urban phantoms, yet the rising trending topics and the enthusiastic discussions of netizens openly revealed a brutal truth.
The influence of the Second World on the First World was increasing, or rather, the two worlds were seeping into each other.
The First World’s influence on the Second World manifested through the invasion of players, where people from the First World replaced the natives of the Second World and occupied their bodies.
The Second World’s influence on the First World initially wasn’t obvious.
The earliest sign Kui Xin could find was Fang Zhi, a member of the Secret Cult, who was a devoted follower of the ancient gods. After encountering the Eye in the cocoon aboard the Kraken, Kui Xin had deeply suspected that deities indeed existed in the Second World—real deities, with the likes of Fang Zhi being their minions.
Starting today, the Second World had officially begun its invasion of the First World, with the city phantoms in the sky serving as the harbinger.
The city phantoms had appeared; what would follow?
Kui Xin fixed her gaze on her phone screen, contemplating, before proactively calling Yuan Lu.
“Did you know about the mirage this evening…”
Before she could finish, Yuan Lu replied, “I know.”
Yuan Lu paused briefly, then said with difficulty, “Those are real cities from the Second World. I saw a phantom of my city… Yu Qiwen and Xie Gankqing did too.”
“Is there any pattern to it?” Kui Xin quickly probed.
“None discovered yet.” Yuan Lu seemed troubled, stating, “It was Yu Qiwen who first noticed it; he found the landmark of his city. Damn, I can’t wrap my head around what’s going on!”
Continuing the call, Kui Xin moved to the window to gaze at the endless night sky.
“I think… it’s fusion, mutual infiltration, or perhaps invasion?” Kui Xin said. “In the near future, the mutual influence between the two worlds will become increasingly significant.”
“That makes sense.” Yuan Lu, on the other end of the line, pounded her head in frustration. “We’re facing this situation like idiots, constantly on edge, fearing some unknown change in the world.”
“At the very least, we’re informed of the changes; those ordinary people know nothing. If real danger descends in the future, they might remain oblivious…” Kui Xin whispered.
This was a war between players and the natives of the Second World, as well as a conflict between the First World and the Second World.
Kui Xin felt as if the two worlds were engaged in a tug-of-war, each trying to overpower the other, merging yet resisting simultaneously.
She pressed her lips together and opened the forum to browse posts.
Sure enough, the forum was in an uproar, with countless users posting they recognized their cities, and the arrival of city phantoms was global, impacting countless people, even ordinary individuals who had witnessed these phantoms.
Although there had been instances where extraordinary abilities manifested in the real world, and secret cults committed murders, these incidents only caused localized disturbances, with players still managing to conceal themselves effectively.
However, this appearance of the mirage caused an impact akin to a nuclear bomb. It affected not just players but ordinary people as well.
……
Meanwhile, in a certain country in the Americas.
The narrow, crowded streets of the slum were cordoned off, with police using loudspeakers to disperse the crowd. Many officers held guns, using car doors as cover while anxiously watching a dilapidated house.
It was morning now, but the previous night had seen multiple bloodshed incidents. Initially, the police had received reports of gang conflicts within the slum, but upon arrival, they discovered the situation was not as it seemed; only one person was responsible for the massacre!
He had single-handedly killed fifteen members of a gang that had occupied the slum for years and had successfully escaped.
The police, accompanied by a police dog, followed the trail of odors and located the suspect’s hideout, already surrounding the place.
Every officer present had one question in mind: how did the suspect manage to achieve this? Those fifteen individuals were not meek little lambs; they were fierce wolves, armed with knives and guns! How could he possibly escape unscathed after facing fifteen attackers?
The authorities faced off against the suspect concealed inside the building.
Fifteen minutes later, it seemed the suspect had lost patience; he burst out of the door, attempting to escape. At that moment, the officers opened fire collectively, bullets striking the suspect and producing a clanging sound—his skin was tougher than steel, deflecting the lethal bullets.
As Officer Dylan fired alongside his colleagues, he was shocked and exclaimed, “FK! FK!”
Cursing a string of words starting with F in his astonishment, he was even faster at swearing than shooting. What left him further distraught was the suspect, seemingly endowed with superpowers, charging towards him, trying to break through the blockade.
Seeing the bullets had no effect, Dylan steeled himself, lunged forward, and wrapped his arms around the suspect’s waist, using his combat experience to bring him down. The suspect’s gun tumbled aside.
In that tumble, Dylan assessed that the suspect’s base strength wasn’t great; with no combat experience, the only reason he remained unhurt was due to his bulletproof abilities.
In a lightning-fast moment, Dylan noticed the suspect’s gums were bloodied; his toughness only applied externally; internally, he remained soft!
The suspect reached for his back, seemingly trying to pull out another weapon, but Dylan was quicker. He swiftly retrieved his backup gun, shoved it into the suspect’s mouth, and pulled the trigger.
With a gunshot, the suspect collapsed.
Blood splattered, and chaos erupted.
Dylan’s colleague rushed over to support him, still shaken, saying, “That was close, brother. We encountered a monster.”
Dylan stood up, assisted by his colleague to the car.
As he sat down to catch his breath, he felt a slight vibration from his pocket. Thinking it was his daughter checking in on him, he took out his phone, only to see an email alert.
A strange expression gradually appeared on his face.
Because the email’s subject line read: “Congratulations! You have obtained beta testing qualifications for ‘Crimson Soil.’”
……
At the same moment, on the game forum, a new official post was pinned at the top in red.
“Game Rules Update.”
First Floor: Ordinary people in the First World can forcibly gain entry into the Second World by killing players.
For further rules, players should continue to explore.
Upon seeing this post, Kui Xin recalled the last official post that introduced the game rules, the final line being “For further rules, players should continue to explore.”
This indicated that only rules uncovered through exploration would be compiled and published by the official game. There must still be many hidden rules lurking within this game that had yet to be discovered!
Now someone had activated this rule, meaning… an ordinary person had killed a player?
