GRMFBS CH149

Xia Yuexian felt that the recent situation was a bit strange.

Suppressing Zhan Yunkai’s popularity wasn’t the most important task; the most important thing was to protect the Chongming Demon King’s ordinary human identity. But she had already prepared to deal with it, so where were the people who were supposed to be digging for information?

With the trouble resolved, Zhan Yan returned to his normal daily rhythm.

Browsing forums and various group chats to upgrade his gossip system, helping the great Shen Ying investigate anomalies, and bickering with Artisan…

Zhan Yan had already passed the key ring to Artisan through the Square Tile. Artisan expressed his thanks online after receiving it. Perhaps because he had confirmed that this key ring was indeed useful to her, Artisan no longer resisted communication and, on the contrary, became quite talkative, chatting with Zhan Yan about everything.

The Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau was very eager to continue getting information about the apocalypse from Artisan, so Zhan Yan continued to chat with her.

But Artisan had a bit of a strange temper. He only talked about things he was interested in. If Zhan Yan relayed the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau’s questions, this guy would immediately go offline, and it was anyone’s guess when he would be online again.

Zhan Yan lay in bed before sleep, idly chatting with Artisan.

Recently, Artisan had been more interested in the topic of the “underworld.”

Artisan: “The apocalypse world has no underworld.”

Approaching Science: “Then where do souls go after they die?”

Artisan: “I don’t know, I haven’t encountered it.”

“Perhaps, like in this world, souls become ghosts.”

“Is there a difference between souls and ghosts?”

Zhan Suiru carefully guided the conversation. She needed to use Approaching Science to get the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau’s information on souls. She had already obtained some information about ghosts and life and death from the Tie Lao Ghost King, but the living’s research on souls was different from the dead’s research on souls.

What she wanted was resurrection.

Zhan Suiru was in her workshop.

Previously, Zhan Jinli had tattled on her, and she was caught off guard, forcing her to go home at night. After staying home for less than two days, she discovered that Zhan Jinli was no longer coming home.

Zhan Suiru had a sudden realization. Her brother wanted to go out and have fun at night himself!

The siblings had a private fight and finally agreed to take turns going home to feed the stars.

In the middle of this, their father came home for a few days. After making a light meal for their mother and delivering it to her company, he left again. During these few days, both of them acted as good children and stayed home at night. After their father left, they continued to take turns.

Zhan Suiru chatted with Approaching Science while making a list. Part of this list was materials she needed the broker to find, and the other part had to be obtained through her various other clients.

A refreshing cool breeze blew in through the ventilation system.

“Xiao Ran, get me the blueprint in B-3-75.” Zhan Suiru was used to multitasking. She took the blueprint and began to look at the ideas she had been stuck on due to a lack of information.

The most important thing was to obtain the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau’s data through Approaching Science.

She couldn’t say too much, lest she be discovered. She needed this topic to be related to the apocalypse so that the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau would be interested. They would provide her with the information she wanted in exchange for more information about the apocalypse from her.

Zhan Yan couldn’t keep up with Artisan’s topic. He had no research on souls and ghosts, but fortunately, he had a huge support group—the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau was more than happy to help him have a deep and meaningful conversation with Artisan.

The information from the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau included a lot about the structure of the underworld. Zhan Yan’s “Organization” column thereby accumulated another small star, and the depth of information he could directly access increased a notch.

[You have already realized the importance of information depth. Now, come, repeat after me: As long as you wield your shovel well, there’s no information you can’t dig up!]

He went through Artisan’s gossip feed again, feeling that something was off about it.

Having used the gossip system for so long, Zhan Yan had also figured out the rules of information depth.

For subjects with weak information interference, the gossip system could reveal their behavioral logic. For example, Bing Jinhong went out to stake out and follow Zhan Yunkai, and throughout his subsequent misfortunes, he never gave up on the idea of selling his dad’s information.

For powerful figures with strong information interference, it could also reveal some of their less-guarded behavioral logic, such as Xiang Liu being very angry after losing an online argument.

But if this information was more important to the powerful figures and they consciously wanted to hide it, it was easy to only see their actions without their underlying thoughts. For example, when his mother decided to destroy the Infinite fragment, he only learned about it from the gossip system as it was happening.

Zhan Yan often encountered this situation when looking at his parents’ gossip. They were involved in too many important matters in their high-level identities. When the information interference was strong, Zhan Yan couldn’t access it.

Artisan’s gossip feed was the same. He could see that Artisan did many things, but he couldn’t see why Artisan did them.

Zhan Yan felt that Artisan had his own sneaky little plans!

But Artisan was cunning as a fox. If Zhan Yan probed even slightly, this guy would go offline. After a few times, Zhan Yan got angry.

Approaching Science: “Just go offline, go offline.”

“Next time, go talk to someone from the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau.”

“Don’t come to me, I’m going offline too.”

Zhan Suiru: … Why are young people so impatient.

She definitely couldn’t talk to someone from the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau. If Artisan’s current persona was idly chatting with people from the Bureau every day, how abnormal would that be? Wouldn’t they see through it at once?

Zhan Suiru had no choice but to hold off on going offline.

Artisan: “What’s there to talk about with that group from the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau?”

“What do you want to ask on their behalf? Go ahead, ask.”

Approaching Science: “Do you know ‘Lord’ Rong Sui?”

Artisan: “I do.”

“Are you done asking?”

“If you’re done, let’s talk about something else.”

Approaching Science: “Go talk to someone from the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau about something else!”

Artisan: “Wait, wait.”

“Sigh, what’s there to talk about with her? Instead of talking about her, let’s talk about Tianshis.”

Zhan Yan was smug.

Hmph, you think both of our identities are just Tianshi fans?

Your idol is my mom!

The two bickered for a few sentences. Zhan Suiru leaned back in her chair, her tense forehead relaxing slightly.

She wasn’t just chatting with Approaching Science to get information. She didn’t know why, but she always felt relaxed when chatting with him. Perhaps it was because they clicked.

“I believe you should learn to balance work and rest,” the doll butler reminded her at the opportune moment.

“I believe now is the time to grind,” Zhan Suiru refused in a serious tone.

Artisan: “There’s nothing to talk about with Rong Sui.”

“She failed. The current state of the apocalypse world is the result.”

“Your world succeeded, so don’t let yourselves fail.”

Zhan Yan remembered the information he had gotten from the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau.

The Bureau had learned about the apocalypse instance from the players. Those useless instance guides also revealed a lot of information.

The last and largest base in the apocalypse was named “Hope,” initially established by Artisan and Lord Rong Sui together.

The Lord’s powerful ability could shield both contamination and anomalies from the base. Artisan’s special ability built this final pure land into a home for every survivor.

The two also had conflicts and would argue. But in the recorded base destruction instance endings, Lord Rong Sui sacrificed herself 58 times to buy the other survivors time to escape. Artisan would return to the base ruins alone to search for Rong Sui’s remains and die from the contamination. 46 times, Artisan used mechanisms to send Lord Rong Sui and the other survivors out of the base, dying alone while trapped inside. Rong Sui would then lead the survivors away and begin a frenzied cleanup of anomalies and black nests, finally falling amidst a tide of anomalies. In the remaining endings, they perished along with Hope Base.

“As long as one of these two was gone, the base destruction instance ending was inevitable,” said Zhuo Xun, the leader of the Retirees’ League. “Without the Lord, there was no one to shield the contamination. Even if Artisan could build a base, it would eventually fall. Without Artisan, there was no one to build a fortress where the Lord could temporarily let down her guard and rest. No one can withstand using their ability non-stop; she would eventually go mad.”

Zhan Yan suddenly couldn’t help but ask.

Approaching Science: “Do you resent Rong Sui?”

Zhan Suiru looked at those two words. Rong Sui. No one had mentioned that name for twenty-six years, so long that the name itself felt unfamiliar, so long that now, when it was mentioned frequently, she could talk about it as if it belonged to a stranger.

Now someone was asking her if she felt resentment.

Zhan Suiru’s expression suddenly went blank.

The suppressed, dusty things she didn’t want to think about began to surge like a dark current.

Those smiling faces, those fearful faces, those ashen faces. The warm yellow night light shattered, and the walls of her home collapsed.

Her world had died.

Approaching Science: “I think, she did her best.”

The doll butler brought over a cup of hot cocoa with milk. “You should rest.”

Zhan Suiru looked at the screen, the warm cocoa warming her fingertips that had been chilled by the night wind.

She slowly took a sip of the hot cocoa. “Xiao Ran, Yan Yan is coming home tomorrow, so I have to go home early. You wait for me here.”

Her mother’s company was shooting some promotional video, and the partner had taken a fancy to her own younger brother to save money. The other female role was an actress the company had previously sponsored, Lan Xiqiao. The person in charge had compared Lan Xiqiao’s schedule with Zhan Yan’s class schedule and found a time when both were free, which was in the next two days.

The doll butler was very gentle: “Okay. I will prepare the things you need to take back.”

The next day, Zhan Suiru looked at the exquisite box tied with a ribbon in front of her and asked, “What is this?”

The doll butler: “This is a gift of handmade baked cookies that you can take back for your younger brother.”

He wasn’t very good at sculpting, but he was adept at making food like pastries that followed a recipe.

Zhan Suiru was very surprised: “Why didn’t you prepare a gift the last time I went home?”

“Last time, only your older brother was at home,” the doll butler said.

He had a very good impression of the younger brother. The younger brother could solve problems when Zhan Suiru was stuck at work or in a bad mood.

Was the older brother of any use?

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