Chapter 23 Part 2

Wenren Tu slapped an object onto the coffee table. “Quick, look! This is the knife you’ve been drooling over for ages. I brought it especially for you to play with today!”

The Wenren Family possessed an ancient blade named Haojin, passed down from antiquity. Its power was immense, its killing aura intimidating all who saw it. This blade rarely left the mountain, and only the Family Head could wield it. The Wenren Family forged several long knives modeled after the ancient Haojin blade for clan members’ use. They were similarly powerful but forbidden from being passed to outsiders. Today, Wenren Tu brought her own.

Zhu Ming showed a sliver of interest. She reached out to touch it. “Oh.”

Wenren Tu frowned. She turned her head to look out the window and exclaimed in surprise, “Oh my god, an armored truck spilled its money!”

Zhu Ming shrank back onto the sofa and started playing on her phone again.

Wenren Tu made a face as if she’d seen a ghost. She pulled Yun Zouchuan aside and said seriously, “Tell me everything—how you entered the Dark Realm Space, what happened inside, and what happened after you came out. Every detail.”

This was unscientific. What kind of evil had possessed Zhu Ming?

Yun Zouchuan held nothing back and told Wenren Tu everything. But there was too much she didn’t know, and even after telling her, the two of them couldn’t figure out a conclusion.

Wenren Tu decided to have a serious talk with Zhu Ming. She sat down beside her and said, “Zhu Ming, I got dumped.”

Zhu Ming finally showed a flicker of real interest. She slowly turned her head towards Wenren Tu. “What a coincidence?”

Wenren Tu was shocked. She straightened up abruptly. “No way, you got dumped too? When did you start dating someone behind my back?”

Zhu Ming was struck by a sudden wave of sorrow. “What dating? I only realized just now that they never truly loved me at all!”

Wenren Tu choked up. “Me too! She said she just mistook her feelings of sisterly friendship for romantic love, and now she’s come to her senses and wants to get married. Bullsht! I swear I’ll never fall for a straight girl’s tricks again in my next life!”

“Why do you have to fall for straight girls anyway?”

“Your ex has been gone for seven years now, so why can’t you let go?”

As they talked, the two of them ended up crying in each other’s arms.

Yun Zouchuan: “…”

She hadn’t called Wenren Tu here so they could share their mutual misery. She silently put on her headphones, blocking out the miserable crying.

Half an hour later, the two had finally cried themselves out. Wenren Tu pulled out a tissue to blow her nose. “Alright, I have important business to discuss with you.”

Zhu Ming was curled up on the sofa, her eyes red-rimmed. After a good cry, she indeed seemed much better, still a little listless, but at least not so utterly dejected.

Wenren Tu temporarily set aside her own cuckolding woes. “Serious business, serious business. Since you’ve also come into contact with the Dark Realm Space, there are some things I need to tell you.”

Being in the Anomaly Management Bureau, Wenren Tu was far more informed on these matters than ordinary Awakened. She provided Zhu Ming and Yun Zouchuan with more detailed information.

The Dark Realm Space was an independent space whose specific location had yet to be found. It was potentially divided into countless smaller and larger spaces, each one independent—what participants commonly called ‘Instances’.

Its appearance dated back at least three months, with a global scope. Awakened everywhere were being periodically selected to enter. Once entered, there was no stopping it except through death.

Those who died in the Dark Realm Space disappeared from reality. The Management Bureau’s investigations led them to suspect that their corpses and souls likely remained trapped within that dimension.

As for the pattern of how Awakened entered instances, it had yet to be fully understood. It was only known that the elements involved in an instance were often things the participants had previously encountered. The time interval between entries ranged from one to three months. The appearance of an Invitation Letter was the sign.

There was also a special rule: if Awakened A received an Invitation Letter but Awakened B did not, B could press their handprint onto A’s Invitation Letter. There was a high probability B would then receive the same Invitation Letter, allowing both to enter the same instance.

Wenren Tu said, “Our Management Bureau is drowning in work right now. Not all Awakened can protect themselves. If we let these instances run rampant, the casualties will become more and more severe. We’ve divided into many small teams to clear instances, trying our best to ensure all participants in the same instance come out safely. But we’re terribly understaffed. Who knows how many of these damned instances there actually are.”

Moreover, identical instances rarely reappeared. Even if the story background and location were the same, the details and Rules inside often changed. This made it impossible for participants to derive one hundred percent reliable walkthroughs. Having experience was better than having none, but there was also the fear that later participants would rely too much on past experience and lose their lives through carelessness.

Wenren Tu said, “A-Zou just gave me a detailed account of your instance. That’s good; we’ve collected another piece of intel. Speaking of which, were there any Awakened you met in your instance worth noting? Like the murdering, arsonist, utterly villainous types.”

Zhu Ming rolled her dead-fish eyes and looked at her silently: Are you hinting at me?

Wenren Tu gave an embarrassed laugh. “We must guard against enemies from within the people.”

Zhu Ming thought for a moment, then said, “There was a strange girl in that instance. Her name was Xiao Xue…”

Xiao Xue, who lived in Room 2006, was the closest to Room 2007. With her intelligence, she couldn’t have discovered nothing. She’d always speak up at opportune moments, neither offending anyone nor standing out, but she never made a mistake either.

This person gave Zhu Ming a very subtle feeling. When she suspected Xiao Song was the ghost, she had also considered the possibility that Xiao Xue was the mole. But it hadn’t been her, which only made the girl seem even more suspicious.

At the same time, hundreds of miles away from the Little Fire God Strange News Studio.

The sun shone brightly, the breeze gently blew, and it was an extremely pleasant day. A young woman in a white dress rode a shared bicycle, leisurely weaving through the crowd.

She rode past a street corner. Ding-a-ling—The bicycle stopped in front of a small supermarket.

“Boss, a bottle of water. And let me use your phone for a moment.”

“Sure thing, it’s two bucks. Here’s the phone. The password is 123456.” The boss was engrossed in a TV drama. Since his phone was borrowed, he simply brought a small stool inside to watch his show from the back.

Bai Lianxue unlocked the phone and dialed a number.

“Beep beep beep—”

“Sister, the instance I just entered hasn’t been destroyed yet. There were only two people inside worth noting. One was named Zhu Ming. I don’t know the other’s name, but they were very odd…”

A moment later, Bai Lianxue hung up, deleted the call log, put down the phone, and placed two one-yuan coins on the counter.

The wind chime at the door jingled. A breeze blew, and in the blink of an eye, the young woman in the white dress had already ridden away on her bicycle.

The boss sat in front of the TV, watching with great interest, when suddenly a shrill voice called out, “Boss! Is the boss here? I want to buy something!”

It turned out a few students had come to buy things. He jolted awake, hurriedly got up to settle their bill, and saw them off. Looking at the phone left on the counter, he suddenly felt it was a bit odd.

Strange. Why had he suddenly thought of going to watch TV just now? And so engrossingly, too, that he even forgot his phone.

.

Meanwhile, inside the Little Fire God Strange News Studio at No. 126 Peace Street, South District, Flower Capital.

After hearing Zhu Ming’s description of Xiao Xue, Wenren Tu looked at Zhu Ming. “Anything else?”

A subtle flicker of hesitation crossed Zhu Ming’s face. “And then there’s Yin Yu…”

Wenren Tu knew the name Yin Yu. Zhu Ming had told her a little about their past. Because the Wenren Family was closely tied to the Anomaly Management Bureau, she had even used the Bureau’s system to investigate the name, but unfortunately, nothing came up.

Once, Zhu Ming had hesitated, wondering if she should actively seek Yin Yu out. She’d also harbored a faint hope, imagining that the full story might not be what she’d overheard back then.

At the time, she was just a child, terrified by those bizarre events. Her immediate instinct was only to seek help from the police.

After leaving Yin Yu, Zhu Ming’s Supernatural Ability had suddenly awakened. She suspected it was connected to the intense pain of that night, suspected that Yin Yu hadn’t truly intended to harm her… It was a pity she couldn’t find her, unable to verify anything. And she was also afraid of verifying an answer that would disappoint her.

That was why she still felt a sliver of guilt when facing Yin Yu. She feared her choice back then had been wrong, feared that Yin Yu had her reasons and she just hadn’t given her a chance to explain. If that were true, then she was the one who had caused the heartbreak.

But now, Yin Yu had reappeared, and Zhu Ming had heard from her own mouth the words “I don’t love you.” This was no misunderstanding.

Perhaps it was a good thing. It was time to finally let her go completely, to banish her from her world forever. It was a way of saying goodbye to her past, pitiful self.

Zhu Ming then said, “We couldn’t find anything about her before. This time, I only ran into her by chance inside the instance. If she doesn’t show up in reality, I’m afraid we won’t get any information.”

As long as Yin Yu didn’t appear, their paths would never cross again, and whatever schemes she had would have nothing to do with her.

Wenren Tu shrugged. “I’ll make a note of it. If anyone from our Bureau happens to run into her in an instance, we certainly won’t let her off easy. You should be careful too, A-Zou. Not all Awakened are good, and not every participant is a teammate. Be cautious.”

Yun Zouchuan nodded. “I’ll remember that.”

Aside from some disheartening intel, the Management Bureau had also discovered relatively better news: Instances could be completely shut down.

The method was simple: destroy the Instance Core. But not many people could do it.

Yun Zouchuan posed a question. “What if a participant runs out of time and still hasn’t finished the task?”

Wenren Tu replied, “That involves the reward and punishment mechanism of the Dark Realm Space. After you came out, did you notice anything different?”

Yun Zouchuan said, “Yes, I found my Ability had slightly improved.”

“Exactly. That’s the reward for completing the task. Not only that, next time you enter an instance, another item will appear along with the Invitation Letter.”

Wenren Tu explained, “That’s the Protective Talisman. So far, we’ve discovered two types: gray and white. The gray one is common and has limited use, given as a reward to all participants who clear an instance. The white one is very rare and only appears after an instance is completely shut down.”