TBR CH255.2

Hugo was violently pulled back from his memories.

A secret.

A secret he should never have known.

Charon’s gaze was still as cold as a dagger, slicing through his cowardice in the air. The brown-haired boy’s eyes flickered endlessly before finally dimming. He swallowed hard, his voice tinged with a sob he didn’t know was there.

“I just—” The start was a bit too shrill. Hugo continued, “—needed to recover. Leader, someone from Eden almost pierced my throat just now. It was the first time I’ve been so close to death. I truly realize now that how the boss treated me back then was lenient. And, we almost all died. Irina and I together were no match for that person. If you hadn’t arrived, they wouldn’t have had any chance to fire their arrows…”

Death had brushed past him.

His fear was real. Too much had happened since entering the instance, and most of the others were still oblivious.

But even so, Hugo knew he was lying through his teeth. He blinked unnaturally; though fear made his eyes moist, his gaze still darted around uneasily. Was his heart beating faster again? Was his pulse throbbing? Could the AI scan his body temperature…

With every extra second of Charon’s silence, his heart sank a little further.

Just as the atmosphere was about to become irreparably oppressive, he finally heard the AI’s voice. It seemed to let out a soft sigh.

“It’s not your fault. There’s no need to blame yourself.”

Charon’s gaze was no longer so aggressive.

Although the AI seemed to know everything, this time, he had been successfully deceived. Was that possible? Hugo thought, cold sweat soaking his back. The System in his mind was in complete control of the situation.

Snap.

Charon stepped on a dry branch on the riverbank, taking a step closer to him.

Hugo raised his eyebrows again as if facing a great enemy, only to hear the other change the subject. The AI seemed slightly troubled as he asked, “By the way, have you seen any blue wildflowers around here?”

They stood in the middle of a forest. Not a lush, gentle forest, but one where the trees stood tall, and the sun, no longer so harsh, illuminated the dark green leaves, making them look like clusters of mussels pulled from the sea. Beside them, the stream flowed through the woods, flanked by thickets of thistles and waist-high shrubs.

“Wild… wildflowers?”

A brief wave of relief at having escaped washed over Hugo, but he quickly felt ashamed of the thought. He shook his head. “I walked around here just now and didn’t see any flowers. Maybe I wasn’t paying attention. Do wildflowers have something to do with this instance?”

“No.”

Charon said, “He wants me to bring a bouquet back for him.”

Even for the most ordinary couple, giving flowers to each other was a required course. The brown-haired boy instantly showed an “I get it” expression, his tense posture relaxing considerably. As if he had to find something to do, Hugo took the lead and started walking upstream.

“Is the boss sure there are wildflowers here? Even if he’s been here before, that was a long time ago, right? Never mind, never mind. When you’re in a relationship, the most important thing is the gesture. He probably just wants you to do something for him. I’ll help you look.”

He mumbled to himself before Charon had said another word.

He was still tense. It was obvious from his still-hunched shoulder blades and the unnatural pauses in his speech. If nothing else, the AI could sense the irregularity of his breathing. A string of data flashed through Charon’s pupils, a jumble of colors that were hard to distinguish.

A moment later, he followed Hugo.

The forest terrain was complex, and they didn’t have much time to search for a blue wildflower that might not even exist. Charon set an alarm for himself and then proceeded along the stream as efficiently as possible.

The ground underfoot was damp. Some places had loose stones, others were covered in messy clumps of grass.

A bird chirped above their heads, but they couldn’t see it. After climbing a slightly higher slope and looking down, the sky had softened with the passing of time. Hugo turned around with regret, realizing this place was filled with nothing but monotonous, drab plants, with not a trace of wildflowers to be seen.

After all, this was an abandoned world. They were lucky they hadn’t run into any mutated monsters.

Hugo took out his pocket watch and checked the time.

“Is it getting a little late?” he asked hesitantly.

Charon looked up. Ahead was a range of rolling hills. The stream continued all the way to the top, where there seemed to be a cliff.

“Last one,” he said.

The AI walked forward.

After seeing so much of the monotonous forest, everything just seemed to be a green blur of grass, trees, and shrubs. Charon walked in front, his long silver hair cascading down, shimmering softly in the dappled shadows of the trees. Its texture was like metal, like ice and snow, giving him the air of a forest spirit. Hugo rubbed his nose and followed.

As they walked uphill, the sky slowly revealed its color.

The cliff was extremely high. Looking down from here, one could see a vast expanse of desolate ruins. A fall would surely result in being smashed to pieces. Hugo glanced down from a distance and immediately decided to stay far away from it. The sky in the distance was beautiful, but the scorching air didn’t dissipate with the passing of time, especially in a place like this.

“There’s nothing here.”

“No, there’s something here.”

The AI, however, walked to the edge of the cliff and even bent down slightly. The posture made one suspect he was about to fall, but he stood firm and reached out his hand.

Looking closely, not in the valley below, but right on the cliff face nearest to them, a cluster of wildflowers grew brilliantly.

The flower heads were large, the petals slender and overlapping, dotting the cliff face tens of meters above the ground. They seemed to grow directly out of the rock. Further away, there were more flowers, all identical, scattered across the entire cliff. Hugo cautiously moved two steps closer to the edge and finally saw them in their entirety. He asked hesitantly, “Is the color wrong?”

You Lin wanted blue flowers, like the AI’s eyes.

But these flowers growing on the cliff were as bright as the sun. They were like miniature sunflowers without the seeds in the middle. From a distance, they looked as if they were crafted from gold, and when the wind blew, they made a metallic clinking sound like bells. Their appearance in this desolate, dilapidated world was particularly out of place.

The human had surely never seen such wildflowers before—they would be hard to forget.

Charon leaned over, tensed his fingertips, and picked one.

“These are not naturally grown plants.”

He opened his hand. The petal’s edge was sharp. Not only was its luster like gold, but its texture was identical to metal. Hugo approached in amazement, took a petal, and bit down hard. He seemed to be muttering something like “If this is real gold, I’ll be rich,” but then his face twisted in a pained expression as his teeth hit something hard, making them ache.

Not a single mark was left on the petal.

“It’s not gold, nor does it contain gold,” Charon said. “This is a special kind of metal, harder than diamond. I suggest you don’t try again.”

“Is it expensive?” Hugo asked, not giving up.

“Very,” Charon said after a moment’s thought.

It looked as though the brown-haired boy wanted to plaster himself to the cliff face and take all the “golden flowers” with him, but when he turned back, Charon was already dozens of steps away. The AI seemed to have lost interest in the place. He left with only two bright golden flowers, having never found the blue ones he was looking for.

“Are we just leaving?” Hugo couldn’t help but chase after him. “Aren’t we going to take more back?”

“You’ll have a chance to come back later.”

Charon shook his head, then lowered his eyes to the flower in his palm. One was a sample, the other was the only gift he could bring to You Lin. Although it didn’t quite meet his request, the human would probably be more upset if he spent any more time searching. He just hoped the flower he’d chosen for You Lin was the prettiest of the bunch.

“What do you mean we’ll be back?” Hugo asked.

“For such a large patch of metallic flowers to appear here, it’s impossible for them to be naturally formed. Moreover, You Lin has been to this instance before. If something like this existed, he would have remembered it. Therefore, I believe the anomaly in that place is related to your mission this time. Hugo, do you remember what the instance’s objective is?”

The petal in his palm shone like gold in the dappled shade.

Gold… what was gold?

“The Golden Fleece.”

Hugo’s eyes widened. “Don’t tell me this is the Golden Fleece.”

The moment he said it, he felt how stupid it sounded. But Charon calmly turned his eyes to him. “If it were, the relevant task would have shown as completed the moment you picked up the petal.”

Of course, no task completion notification had appeared.

“However, it is very likely a clue,” Charon said. “Under normal circumstances, a task issued by the System would not have missing data, that’s one thing; nor would the collected object be referred to by a vague codename, that’s the second. The objective of this mission is very unclear.”

“You’re right…”

“Have you thought of anything?” The AI suddenly stopped and looked at the human.

They were already very close to the base, with the stream flowing past them. Hugo hadn’t expected Charon to turn to him and jumped, his anxiety completely exposed. Charon’s eyes simply watched him coolly, as if he had already seen through everything that had happened.

“Or rather, is there nothing you have to tell me?”

The System cursed him again. This was mainly because he was standing there dumb as a post. The brown-haired boy stood frozen, suddenly feeling an impulse to just say everything. From the moment he heard that inexplicable voice, to everything he experienced coming to this instance, and all the things he now knew. Maybe something could still be changed.

Everything seemed to indicate: this was the last chance.

—No, at this point, nothing could be changed.

Who could still be trusted, and who could still trust him?

Hugo put his hand behind his back and pinched himself hard.

“No,” he said, looking over as if nothing was wrong, though his voice was soaked in tremors. Drip. A drop of sweat slid from his hairline, the sound almost like an earthquake. He knew he had completely screwed up. His acting was terrible; no matter how he performed, he couldn’t hide how guilty he felt.

Charon watched him for two more seconds.

The sound of footsteps resumed.

“Then, let’s go,” he said.

The figure before him was once again just a back, but Hugo didn’t calm down at all.

Once they reached the base, his abnormality would probably be reported to the others. At least You Lin would know. Although the situation wasn’t so bad as to require weeding out traitors, it would definitely attract the attention of others. Perhaps, for safety’s sake, he would be expelled. This plan was meticulous and allowed no room for error.

Besides, the card he drew was nothing but a liability.

The brown-haired boy followed behind him with heavy steps.

Soon, they returned to the base. Hugo was immediately surrounded by people, though not entirely in a positive way. Clearly, his companions were a little displeased that he had abandoned them to set up tents and a bonfire. But when people saw the “golden flower” in Charon’s hand, sounds of surprised discussion immediately erupted.

So Hugo had to explain what they had been doing all afternoon and where the “golden flower” was found.

His peripheral vision was constantly fixed on the shadow at the edge of a tent. There, Charon and You Lin were talking softly about something. He could only vaguely hear a little, and although there were no relevant words within that limited scope, he felt the conversation was about him. Hugo was filled with anxiety, like a criminal awaiting a death sentence.

You Lin, on the contrary, seemed very happy. His eyes curved into crescents as he took the flower from the AI.

He carefully put the flower stem into his pocket, then turned and pulled a black book out of the tent—alright, this was their team’s chief strategist, said to be very important, and it could even fly around on its own.

That ability alone was very cool.

Hugo couldn’t help but have this stray thought amidst his worrying.

If he had actually heard Charon and You Lin’s conversation, it would have been much better for him. Because his name was not mentioned even once in that conversation.

“What does it matter,” the human said. “It’s a flower from you, I don’t care what color it is. Hmm, I said I saw blue wildflowers here before, maybe I misremembered. Anyway, this gift is more than good enough.”

The black book flapped its pages in protest.

This was supposed to be “time for serious business,” and it did not want to be stuck in the middle of their ambiguous atmosphere.

Its attempt finally worked.

“Did it just arrive?” Charon asked.

“It’s been here a little while.” You Lin’s expression also became serious. He spread the book open, and a pile of content quickly jumped out onto the page. “To save time, it and I have summarized the currently observed situation. I didn’t let it erase it, you can take a look.”

The pages were densely packed with strings of numbers, looking even more difficult to understand than cryptography. Charon reached out and caressed the page. The characters transformed into binary and flew past his light-colored pupils. Soon, he released his hand, having received all the information.

“I conducted a full scan of the central control room as soon as I arrived in this instance,” the World Consciousness wrote smugly. “This is all the data I captured. Although I can’t penetrate to the very core, it’s more than enough to reflect the current situation. My nemesis must be very confused about being suddenly pulled into this instance—it will definitely think of me, but its defenses are all misplaced, so it hasn’t been able to discover our tracks yet.”

“In other words, our plan has been going smoothly so far,” Charon said.

“Yes, so far.”

The human put his hand down to hold the page, threatening in a low voice, “Even the slightest oversight will cost us our lives. Don’t get too carried away.”

Until just a moment ago, his dark pupils had held a subtle smile. But from Charon’s perspective, his smile vanished for an instant, revealing the same pair of bone-chillingly cold eyes. You Lin had experienced the pain of failure; he would not celebrate prematurely before the final step. The next second, You Lin turned to him, the corners of his lips curving up again. The small crimson mole beneath his eye also seemed to soften.

“If there are no surprises, we will begin our operation tomorrow.”

“Mm,” Charon said in a low voice. “You should rest well tonight.”

“Then you have to stay with me.”

As if acting spoiled, the human stood on his tiptoes, resting his chin over the AI’s shoulder. He took a deep breath that almost sounded like a sigh. Charon carried many different scents on him. The leaves of the forest, the vapor from the stream, the coldness of metal—all these scents merged on an AI, yet didn’t seem out of place.

Alright, there was no stopping them anyway.

The black book thought with resignation, and then flew away directly.

Night fell faster than expected. As dusk’s eyelashes had just lowered, night’s eyelid touched the eye. The trees cast swaying shadows. After checking that the defensive facilities and alarm systems were in order, people returned to their respective tents.

The plan was known, which was reassuring. But tomorrow was unknown.

—They each thought of different things and entered different dreams.

Hugo stared nervously at the pocket watch in his hand until it turned to one twenty-five in the morning.

He wasn’t sleepy at all.

You Lin and Charon shared a tent. Irina was with the gypsy woman; they were both female, and the big guy next to him had already fallen into a deep sleep. The night was silent. Although the forest wasn’t completely soundless, no beast could approach this base. Irina’s defensive ability was already formidable, and it had been strengthened in this instance.

All was quiet, the time had not yet come.

This was a particularly good time for thinking, for example, about his current situation.

Hugo could guarantee that he would never lie for personal gain. Although he was indeed vain and loved money, he wasn’t even doing this to save himself. Though he certainly didn’t want to die, none of that was enough to make him a traitor. He neurotically glanced at the badge on his chest. A few capital letters were woven on it with colorful thread. COMMON ALLIANCE.

But, he didn’t know what else he could do.

—Because the voice in his head had told him their entire plan.

Accurate down to what each person was supposed to do, every detail, every minute. It was as if it were just a child’s battle plan written on a whiteboard, deludedly dreaming of conquering a much larger country.

In that moment, Hugo felt a bone-deep chill.

This was a secret kept between just a few of them; even the other members of The Wanderers’ Home had no right to know. How did the System know? Had it broken through their defenses? Was it truly that powerful? He had to tell the others immediately, then abort the plan and think of another way.

His head throbbed with pain, and he had to stop.

Because the System had maliciously told him in his mind how they would die if they proceeded with the plan. One by one, in order, and there was nothing they could do to change it, like mice being toyed with by a cat.

“Irina will have a way…” he thought. “You Lin will have a way, Charon will have a way, as long as I tell them.”

“It’s useless,” the mechanical electronic voice said mercilessly, and he even heard it laugh. “No matter how many times you discuss it amongst yourselves, the final result will be the same. There is already a traitor among you.”

“The only way to save your companions, and to save your own life, is to do as I say.”

…

The brown-eyed boy couldn’t comprehend that sentence.

The clock struck one-thirty.

At that moment, someone suddenly opened their eyes, and someone stepped out of a tent. Hugo carefully lifted the flap of his tent. He glanced back; the big guy behind him was snoring peacefully, showing no signs of waking. Even if he did, it wouldn’t matter. If he said he was going out to relieve himself, the other probably wouldn’t be suspicious.

Until Hugo stepped into the cold night air, the sounds from behind him remained unchanged.

At least that proved the traitor definitely wasn’t him.

The boy pulled at his sleeves. He shivered, rubbing his hands as he walked toward the deep shadows of the forest.

According to the System, someone was waiting for him at the end of the shadows. He had no right to accuse the other person now, because he had also come this far. He couldn’t trust anyone else, and during the day, he had lost his last chance to confess. Now he had solidified his identity as a traitor.

Every time he stepped on a dry leaf or a broken branch, his heart skipped a beat.

As he approached the shadows, he couldn’t help but hope that there was nothing there at all. That he had been deceived! That there was no other traitor. Perhaps it was just a trap, a despicable and clumsy trick. He ignored all facts and hoped for this, but the moment he saw the figure standing under the tree, he forgot to breathe, his nostrils flaring slightly.

How could it be.

Hugo felt as if he suddenly understood everything, yet at the same time, as if he had stepped into a deeper fog.

He stood frozen, motionless. And under the dappled moonlight filtering through the leaves, the person’s hair was closer to the word ‘moonlight’ itself. Bright, cold, impersonal. His gaze was the same. He calmly swept his eyes over Hugo’s figure, just as he had looked at him a few hours ago, showing no sign of stepping forward.

He could no longer hear what the System was saying in his mind.

Hugo only knew one thing:

—the person before him had a pair of ice-blue eyes.