GRMFBS CH140

Artisan: [Are you from the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau? Or did they commission you?]

Approaching Science: [Neither.] Approaching Science: [I just don’t want this matter to descend into internal friction.]

Zhan Yan actually didn’t quite understand the Artisan’s choice. Contacting the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau was bound to happen sooner or later; the longer it dragged on, the more troublesome it would be. From the Bureau’s perspective, their suspicion would only grow greater.

Unless the Artisan didn’t plan to contact the Bureau at all, intending to just drag it out until the doomsday world came into contact with this world and everything became self-evident, and she was confident she wouldn’t be found by the Bureau until then.

Zhan Suiru was also well aware of this. She just truly hated the questioning she would face next, which would remind her of many old matters she didn’t want to think about. But since Approaching Science wanted to get involved now, she could totally just dump the matter on him!

Zhan Suiru decided to tell Approaching Science the situation of the doomsday world, and then let him communicate with the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau.

Approaching Science agreed.

Zhan Suiru: Excellent. He’s someone who understands the situation.

Artisan: [There’s nothing to worry about regarding the situation in the doomsday. There is nothing left there.] Artisan: [To this world, the doomsday is just a new plot of land.]

Approaching Science: [What do you mean by nothing left?]

Artisan: [Any living beings or undead, any anomalies, any pollution, all no longer exist.]

Zhan Yan was shocked by this news. He originally deduced that severe pollution existed in the doomsday world, which led to all spirits in that world disappearing. The Artisan was just one who managed to escape and survive.

Approaching Science: [How can you be sure?]

Artisan: [I did it.]

Staring at those three understated words, Zhan Yan’s first reaction was to open the Gossip System to see if the Artisan was bragging.

[You were shocked by the Artisan’s past glorious achievements and developed an erroneous suspicion.]

It was actually true!

Zhan Yan was numb with shock. So what exactly did “I did it” mean? The Artisan wiped out all living things in her world along with the pollution? Was this person he knew a Boss? The kind who destroyed their own world?

But weren’t the Artisan’s abilities in the logistics direction? Why was her combat power so fierce?!

With too many questions and being too shocked, Zhan Yan temporarily didn’t know where to start asking.

Artisan: [That’s it. I’m going offline.]

Zhan Yan hurriedly typed for her to wait, but the Artisan’s profile picture had already gone gray. Zhan Yan: …

The old trouble was resolved, but a new trouble was born.

He could already foresee the consequences of taking this statement to the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau.

Who could possibly ignore a person who had once destroyed a world wandering around their own world!!!

Zhan Yan felt his hands and feet go numb just staring at this chat log.

Glorious achievements… something called a “glorious achievement” by the system couldn’t possibly be a major villain who truly destroyed their own world, right?

But it’s hard to say…

Zhan Yan suddenly remembered the dream he had. Before dreaming of the Artisan, he first dreamed of the doomsday world. He saw starlight like sharp blades shining out from within the world, cleaving away the stains and rust on it, and then submerging the entire world.

Could that have been the Artisan’s doing? Was that how she destroyed her own world?

But why? What was the situation in the doomsday back then? What prompted the Artisan to make this choice? Was it with the thought of mutually perishing together? Was it a helpless last stand? Or was the Artisan inherently such a dangerous person?

Zhan Yan began frantically flipping through the Gossip System, searching for “Artisan” entries.

While Zhan Yan was entangled in his thoughts on this end, Zhan Suiru felt thoroughly relaxed on the other end after successfully dumping the troublesome matter onto Approaching Science.

The doomsday world used to be very important to her, but it was no longer important now. Zhan Suiru was only excited briefly when she first sensed the doomsday approaching, and that excitement wasn’t even entirely positive.

The doomsday world was already dead. Everything she cared about in that world had already been destroyed.

Everything she possessed and cherished now was in this world.

Zhan Suiru threw herself back into adjusting Xiao Ran’s structure.

The puppet butler sat on the floor with his chest cavity wide open; the core hidden in the box beat gently like a heart.

“I suggest you go find your younger brother to play a game right now,” he said.

Zhan Suiru gave him a puzzled look.

Puppet butler: “With your younger brother’s company, your mood will rapidly improve.”

Zhan Suiru paused: “I am not in a bad mood.”

Puppet butler: “Do you want to go home? You haven’t gone home to see your family for four days, seven hours, and fifty-two minutes.”

Zhan Suiru emphasized again: “I am not… forget it.”

She put down the tools in her hand and looked into Xiao Ran’s eyes.

Deep within those eyes hid intricate gears. They were exquisite and beautiful, but unable to convey inner thoughts like a living being’s pupils.

Zhan Suiru could have made these eyes much more realistic, just like his skin with fine fuzz and texture, and his changing breath and heartbeat. But she didn’t.

She originally intended to do so, and had already made a pair of completely realistic eyes, but immediately after, she found that to make these eyes convey emotion, she also needed to pre-set them.

In the moment she faced the adjustment process, she felt immense powerlessness and anger. That pair of realistic eyeballs shattered into pieces in her palm, and the puppet butler, who was completely indistinguishable from a living person, received a pair of mechanical pupils.

Now, she looked at the gears deep within these pupils, losing herself in their fast or slow rotations.

Xiao Ran had never met her current family, but from the information flowing through the network and the few words she occasionally mentioned, he had sensed her relaxation when she was with her family.

“My family.” Zhan Suiru stared at those gear pupils and asked, “What are you to me?”

“I am your butler,” the puppet butler replied, “My duty is to help you live a healthy and happy life.”

Zhan Suiru’s fingers trembled slightly.

She suddenly remembered the origin of that key ring.

Many, many years ago.

Perhaps it wasn’t that long ago for others. They didn’t have memories of the doomsday restarting again and again like a dungeon. Time for them was a line, but for Zhan Suiru, it was a line followed by an endlessly tangled ball of yarn.

This key ring was hung on her before the restarts began.

At that time, they had just established their base and taken in many refugees. Both she and Xiao Ran were incredibly busy.

As the base’s construction gradually improved, Xiao Ran’s work gradually became easier, but Zhan Suiru’s work became increasingly busy.

Because Xiao Ran’s ability lay in construction, while her ability lay in protection.

The more people in the base, the bigger the target became, and the heavier her responsibility grew.

Zhan Suiru’s spiritual energy enveloped the entire base. She became increasingly nervous, sleeping less and less, and staying awake more and more. After an accident happened during one of the times she fell asleep, Zhan Suiru couldn’t sleep anymore.

Powerful spiritual-type superpowered individuals didn’t necessarily need sleep, but the human mind needed relaxation.

After Zhan Suiru hadn’t slept for seven consecutive days, Yang Ran completed the base monitoring system he had been researching for a long time.

And then, he made a chibi puppet of himself. This small puppet would sound an alarm when the monitoring system detected anomalies and pollution.

Sporting two large dark circles under his eyes, Yang Ran gave the small puppet attached to a key ring to Zhan Suiru: “Sister Suisui, try this out.”

Zhan Suiru tried it. Not only did this little thing sound an alarm to her when it discovered anomalies and pollution, but it also nagged her over and over to go to sleep when she stayed up late. If she still didn’t sleep, it would start singing lullabies.

…

Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau.

Almost 24 hours had passed, and they still hadn’t received a reply from the Artisan. Ning Xi had people investigating on one hand, and sought Ji Yueming’s help to contact the Artisan on the other.

Although an idol might not be useful in the face of such a major event, it was always good to try. Just in case?

Before Ji Yueming’s message was even sent, the Artisan’s contact hurriedly sent news: “The Artisan just replied, saying she has fully entrusted the matter to Approaching Science and told us to contact him.”

Approaching Science? How did he get involved with the Artisan again? And their relationship seemed quite good too.

Ning Xi: “Does the Artisan have a lot of contact with Approaching Science?”

Nie Yu: “Not much. Looking from the forum’s backend, they’ve only cooperated on two tasks.”

Unless the two had private contact, this relationship didn’t look familiar no matter how you looked at it.

Then, one hour passed, two hours passed, three hours passed… Approaching Science still hadn’t made a move.

“The Artisan said she entrusted it to Approaching Science, right?” Nie Yu couldn’t help but confirm, “Wait, there’s a new message… Approaching Science contacted me.”

Ning Xi had long started busying himself with other work, instructing without raising his head: “Ask him why the Artisan has to contact us through him.”

After a while, Nie Yu reported back: “He said the Artisan finds dealing with us very annoying.”

Ning Xi: …

The Artisan’s contact: …

Ji Yueming laughed very unsparingly, saying to Ning Xi: “How about you reflect on that?”

Reflecting was impossible to reflect on.

Ning Xi chose to shift the control freak’s anxieties onto Approaching Science.

Roughly how large is the area of the doomsday world? What is the terrain and topography like? What is the status of the organisms inside? Even if there are no living organisms left, could there be DNA preserved in amber or something similar? What are the physical laws of the doomsday world like? What about the chemical elements? How is the pollution situation…

Following his instructions, Nie Yu typed out a long string of questions.

Approaching Science simply replied with a forwarded message. The forwarded message contained two questions from Approaching Science and four sentences of answers from the Artisan.

Nie Yu asked incredulously.

Administrator Lingyu: [That’s it?]

Approaching Science forwarded two more messages to her. One was the Artisan saying she was going offline, and the other was Approaching Science telling the Artisan to wait, but the other party was already offline.

Nie Yu turned to look at Ning Xi and Ji Yueming.

Both big shots’ expressions were slightly more solemn than before.

Ning Xi ordered people to verify the authenticity of the message, and then said to Nie Yu: “Let me use your account for a bit.”

He used Nie Yu’s account to chat with Approaching Science.

Administrator Lingyu: [Just this?]

Approaching Science: [Are there any questions that haven’t been answered?]

There were no more. Biological information and anomaly pollution were both gone; the doomsday world was a dead world. The laws of a dead world are unstable and can be easily affected by other worlds. So terrain, topography, physics, and chemistry were all meaningless.

In other words, the current doomsday world was equivalent to a massive world fragment.

Ning Xi: …

Administrator Lingyu: [What about the Artisan? What is the specific process of ‘I did it’?]

Approaching Science: [She didn’t say, and I couldn’t ask since she went offline.]

Administrator Lingyu: [Do you think the Artisan is trustworthy?]

Zhan Yan got a headache seeing this question.

Of course he wasn’t sure! Otherwise he wouldn’t have gone through all the Artisan’s gossip threads first before coming to the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau.

Ninety percent of the Artisan’s gossip threads were in her studio in the black market, and the remaining ten percent were her going to other places to collect materials. Apart from work, her only excursion turned out to be heading nearby to observe the situation after being alerted by the commotion at the Infinite Research Institute a while ago.

Within these gossip threads, Zhan Yan saw a string of daily life events: recently, it was a daily life of explosive amounts of work and being pushed to tears by her own involuting-king butler. Previously, it was a daily life of going crazy when artifact creation didn’t go smoothly, and her butler disapproving of her irregular sleep schedule.

Looking at this string of daily life events, Zhan Yan felt like he was looking at a freelancer who worked all the time because their work hours were completely free.

After reading through these gossip threads, the Artisan’s impression in Zhan Yan’s mind had changed from a “World-Destroying Big Boss” to a “Super Workaholic.”

What kind of big shot would create a butler that urges them to work!

Could a person like this really destroy the world?

Where is the motivation? Where is the motive? And where is the time?

Unable to figure out the Artisan’s gossip, Zhan Yan decided to hand the trouble over to the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau.

Regardless of whether the Artisan was a dangerous individual requiring close attention, at least the information she currently provided was correct.

The impending contact with the doomsday world wasn’t dangerous; the truly dangerous things were still hidden within this world—Infinite was still itching for action.

Zhan Yan hinted frantically: The doomsday isn’t important, so hurry up and take my parents off the shift schedule ahhh!

Approaching Science: [I think we shouldn’t relax our internal vigilance just because we are paying too much attention to the doomsday.]

Approaching Science: [There are still hidden Black Nests and people who want to revive Infinite.]

Ning Xi misunderstood: he very much agreed with Approaching Science’s viewpoint. The internal situation absolutely could not be relaxed, and the doomsday must also be strictly monitored!

So he’d have to trouble the capable ones to work harder!