EM CH20

Chapter 20: Rivals

The left hand grabbed the right hand by a finger, hoisting it into the air, and was just about to deliver a flurry of old-fashioned punches to execute justice on heaven’s behalf when its movements abruptly froze. It noticed someone was peeking from above. Leaning against the wall around the corner, Yu An stood half-exposed, watching them in astonishment.

“Oh? Another one.”

With its tracks exposed, the left hand dropped the right hand and spun around to flee, only to be caught in a flash by Yu An.

“Are you sewer fairies? And a pair at that.” Holding Kaopu up before his eyes to inspect it, Yu An said, “You’re very pretty too.”

The left hand paused, its fingertips blushing faintly pink.

__

Half an hour later.

Inside a self-serve frozen dessert shop in the mall, the right hand, draped in gold and silver, gripped the dispenser handle of the soft-serve machine and pulled. Yu An held a wafer cone underneath to catch the ice cream, thoroughly enjoying himself. Meanwhile, the left hand reclined lazily in a seat watching them, its middle and index fingers each sporting a silver-and-black metal band: gifts from Yu An.

It picked up Yu An’s phone, sent a message to Zhao Ran reading: “Already found a new master, don’t miss me. (From Left)”, and then deleted the message record.

Grey Crow Game Company, Reception Room.

Several subordinates from the Emergency Order Team stood in the distance whispering among themselves: “The team leader is totally off today. He’s crushed his phone screen twice already, sitting by the floor-to-ceiling window without moving a muscle, tanned completely white by the sun! Who is he even angry at?”

Carrying a logbook, Xiao Qi strolled past, remarking without a ripple of emotion: “He’s angry at his own conscious reflections and personality splinters. And he’s too stubborn to admit it.”

Hurried footsteps came from outside the door as the general manager of Grey Crow Game Company arrived late. A short, plump middle-aged man carrying a briefcase, his steps were rushed and travel-worn.

“Apologies! Apologies, everyone, sorry to keep you waiting.” Manager Chen clasped his hands together in an apologetic gesture. “At four in the morning, I was summoned by the Peeping Eagle Bureau to pick up a junior streamer from our company. Dealing with all that cost a great deal of time, I am truly sorry.”

“This must be Team Leader Zhao. An honor to meet you, an honor.” Manager Chen routinely reached out to shake hands with his guest, but upon brushing Zhao Ran’s fingertips, he suddenly sensed an unfriendly chill in Zhao Ran’s expression. Realizing his blunder, he immediately pulled both hands back and nodded instead: “Having you here puts my mind at ease.”

Tossing his phone aside, Zhao Ran rose to exchange a few pleasantries with Manager Chen before cutting straight to the chase.

“Time is limited. Tell me about your situation first.”

“Right.” Manager Chen bowed slightly to pour tea for Zhao Ran. “It’s a long story, truly terrifying. Our streamers have already begun a joint protest, demanding the company cancel their required hours for late-night horror games.”

“Here is what happened: the year before last, our company released an open-world exploration horror game called Grey Crow: Haunted Mansion. The protagonist solves puzzles by gathering items in designated environments, and escaping the location counts as clearing the game. The studio designed novel and thrilling jump scares and puzzles, so the moment the free demo went live, it drew discussions from millions of players.”

“We all placed high hopes on this game, but in the very first week of the official release, an unexpected and severe problem cropped up.”

“Casual players were fine, but several gaming streamers reported that the jump scares in the full release were too clichéd, with far too many cheap jump scares that caused sensory fatigue and disappointment.”

“We were thoroughly baffled. Haunted Mansion was explicitly marketed as a psychological horror game, with fewer than five jump scares placed across the entire playthrough; how could that be considered excessive? So we collected screenshots provided by players, and taking a look chilled every single one of us to the bone.”

“The screenshots they took weren’t the simple, crude ghost faces you might imagine, but fully rendered 3D models of monsters none of us had ever seen. Put simply, the game was generating uncontrolled monsters on its own and deliberately sending them to attack players. We paused the servers trying to track down the bug, but came up empty-handed every time.”

“With no other choice, we dropped weapons and firearms into the game environments so players could scavenge weapons to fight back against the things leaping out at them. A perfectly fine psychological horror game like Haunted Mansion ended up turning into a half-baked shooter, with reviews and revenue falling far short of expectations.”

“At the start of this year, our company prepared to launch a new title, Grey Crow: Dollhouse. We already released a demo build and handed it to our own contracted streamers to play and build up hype. Yet during that promotional warmup, a major catastrophe occurred.”

“Several streamers reported hearing knocking on their doors while playing the game with headphones on.”

“When they took off their headphones to open the door or peered through the peephole, there was no one there. At the exact same time, the knocking would sound again, except this time it came from the inside of their front door, as if someone had snuck into their home.”

“One of our popular streamers, Huang Qi, reported a similar encounter. But unlike the other streamers, his eyesight is exceptionally sharp. When he went to the living room to check the security door, he glanced back toward the bedroom computer and saw a person appearing inside the game screen, knocking against the glass with the knuckle of his middle finger.”

Zhao Ran had been listening quietly, only speaking up at this point: “A person inside the screen? What did he look like?”

“He said it was the face of a youth, expressionless and dull, with heterochromia: one eye gold and the other blue. But his face was pressed too close to the screen, so no other features could be seen.”

Zhao Ran couldn’t help questioning: “From the living room to the bedroom at that distance, could he really make out details like pupil color?”

“Huang Qi’s uncorrected vision is 20/10. That’s verified in his pre-employment medical exam.” Manager Chen wiped the sweat from his forehead. “At first, he assumed it was an Easter egg, so he hurried back to keep playing. But when he sat back down in his chair, the youth in the game had turned around, facing away from him, standing before the screen in an eerie posture like a marionette on strings, slowly raising a bottle of venom.”

“That venom was an item that could be scavenged in that specific game scene, so Huang Qi didn’t think much of it. But the youth suddenly whipped his hand around and splashed the venom right toward the screen, green liquid splattering across the in-game camera.”

“The very next day, Huang Qi was rushed to the hospital, diagnosed with extensive facial burns caused by a toxic substance. This was a critical issue, so we temporarily pulled the demo. If you need it, I can provide you with a copy.”

“Sigh, speaking of Huang Qi, I don’t know where he caught wind of some rumor saying Xiliu Beauty Salon could perform skin restoration. Going once wasn’t enough, so he went again yesterday and got detained by the police. I had to go pick the boy up in person.”

“The kid was pretty shaken up, so I had someone take him home to rest first.”

As Manager Chen spoke, the tip of his nose grew red. He sighed, smoothing his thinning hair: “Dollhouse consumed eight years of painstaking effort from everyone across the company. Every employee has poured their heart and soul into this release. If the same problem happens again, our company will probably have to declare bankruptcy on the spot.”

“I have a rough grasp of the situation now.” Having listened to Manager Chen’s account, Zhao Ran nodded. “After further investigation, we will get in touch again. We might need your company’s cooperation then. Don’t worry too much.”

“Yes, absolutely. We will fully cooperate with Underground Railway’s work. Thank you so much.”

Once the inquiry at Grey Crow Game Company concluded, Zhao Ran checked the time. Subordinate Xiao An brought over a black umbrella to shield Zhao Ran from the sunlight overhead.

“Team Leader, are you heading back to Underground Railway or going home to rest?”

“I’ll head home to rest for a bit first. You and Xiao Qi follow up on the game company investigation, compile the relevant details, and bring them to me.”

“Understood, rest assured. You must be exhausted mentoring an intern lately, Team Leader, and you still have to prepare for the regular internship assessment meeting coming up. You can’t afford to lose to Team Leader Duan and Team Leader Yuan.”

Underground Railway Rapid Response Team Leader Duan Ke and Urban Patrol Team Leader Yuan Xiaoying each held prominent positions among Underground Railway’s upper management, with influence rivaling Zhao Ran’s.

Flipping out a cigarette from his trench coat pocket, Zhao Ran sneered as he lit it: “Those two? What do they have to compare with me? Do either of them have an intern worth showing off?”

Xiao An hurried closer to Zhao Ran, whispering conspiratorially: “I scouted around for you. Underground Railway recruited ten interns in total this year. Aside from Yu An, two of them are ruthless badasses.”

Unconcerned, Zhao Ran exhaled a light plume of smoke: “Yu An cracked an Illusion Chamber alone. Who are those two? What were their internship tasks?”

Gritting his teeth, Xiao An said, “The staff under Team Leader Duan and Team Leader Yuan keep their lips sealed tight; I couldn’t dig up a single detail. But I heard about the big boss’s intentions: he said this assessment meeting involves the fresh blood of Underground Railway and must be treated with utter seriousness. It will certainly be strict, and maybe only the top two will be admitted.”

Zhao Ran shrugged: “The old man is sly. As if he’d ever turn down capable young talents; taking only the top two is just an excuse. He just wants to stoke competition so us old bones voluntarily squeeze our own rest time to train interns. He’s genuinely stingy.”

Other divisions were one thing, but because the primary duties of the Rapid Response Team and the Emergency Order Team largely overlapped, Team Leaders Duan Ke and Zhao Ran had long felt the other’s division had no need to exist, each wanting to absorb the other’s team and rally all subordinates under their own banner.

If the assessment meeting were turned into a ranked competition, whichever intern placed higher or lower would surely ignite a bloodbath among the upper ranks.

“Let them rank us. We’ll go in cold without prep and wipe the floor with them all the same.” Stubbing out his cigarette, Zhao Ran lowered his head to laboriously type on his cracked phone screen, sending a message to Yu An:

“Come back to my place tonight; I’ll give you extra tutoring.”

At twelve noon, following the interviewer’s instructions, Yu An walked in through the side entrance of the Peeping Eagle Bureau once more.

Officer Timon received him as before. After verifying his identity, they walked into the depths of the Eagle Bureau building.

Ever since his previous visit, Yu An had noticed that after passing the second security checkpoint, the doors along both sides turned into heavy steel blast doors, somewhat resembling a hospital X-ray room. Electrically driven to open and shut, such doors couldn’t be forced open easily with any tool.

Passing by one of the doors, the ambient temperature felt unusual.

Yu An raised a hand to touch the door’s surface. It was scalding hot, burning to the touch. If anyone were inside, they would probably melt from the heat.

A terrifying bang rang out unexpectedly. Yu An took two steps back on instinct, only to see the contour of a human face bulge out on the iron door he had just touched. Someone behind the door seemed to have slammed their head into the panel, packing force powerful enough to warp the heavy steel plate.

Looking closely at the facial contour on the door, he appeared to be smiling.

“No need to worry.” Officer Timon pulled Yu An behind her. “Just a suspect held temporarily for interrogation. The cell door is sturdy enough; he can’t break out. Walk on my left and don’t touch random things.”

“Alright.” Yu An shoved both hands into his pockets, asking no further questions. Yet he remained astonished by the caliber of convicts detained here.

Leaving the holding cells, the oppressive atmosphere gradually thinned out.

Officer Ye was tied up and temporarily lacked time to see Yu An. Yu An sat on a public bench in the hallway, passing the time while cradling his Core Storage Analyzer.

The interviewer had already slotted the Aberrant Cores taken from the doctor couple into the analyzer. Taking advantage of the downtime, Yu An skimmed through their profiles one by one.

Opening the lid, Yu An’s eyes widened.

Three new cores had been added to the Core Storage Analyzer: one purple, one red, and one silver.

Silver? How could a silver-grade core appear? Yu An perked up instantly.

Name: Healing Core: Scalpel

Origin: Female Cosmetic Doctor

Category: Common Species

Rank Assessment: Tier 1 Red (Rose Red)

Base Abilities: Painless Surgical Operations

Usage Restriction: Cumulative 100 hours of use

Description: A healer’s benevolence.

Resonance Condition: Unknown

Name: Healing Core: Rapid Recovery

Origin: Male Cosmetic Doctor

Category: Common Species

Rank Assessment: Tier 3 Purple (Mallow Purple)

Base Abilities: Rapid Healing of External Trauma

Usage Restriction: Cumulative 60 uses

Description: A healer’s benevolence.

Resonance Condition: Unknown

The first two cores required little thought; stripping healing cores from doctors made complete sense. Yu An wasn’t particularly surprised, and having already acquired a Tier 3 Red X-ray core, he wasn’t as shocked by red-tier cores as he had been upon first seeing them.

However, that silver core shimmering with a faint, pale luster captured Yu An’s entire attention.

Name: Illusion Chamber Core: Drawing Into Reality

Origin: Cleared Illusion Chamber “Beauty Salon”

Category: Illusion Chamber Species

Rank Assessment: Tier 1 Silver (Pale White)

Base Abilities: Extracts physical objects from 2D images. Limitation: Can only extract 1:1 scale physical entities from complete images, and cannot extract living beings.

Usage Restriction: No time or usage limits

Description: In the future, artistic creation has infiltrated the operative industry. The combat power of a cybernetic Ma Liang is not to be underestimated. Illustrators and 3D modelers united to form an invincible squad: the Poster Strike Team (though they often suffer internal conflicts).

Resonance Condition: Unknown

“Holy crap.” Yu An slammed the lid shut immediately, shoving the Core Storage Analyzer into his backpack and instructing the left and right hands to guard it closely. What an incredible treasure; it must never get confiscated by the Eagle Bureau.

Just as he concealed the core, a blast of scorching air billowed toward him. Alert, he stood and backed away, pulling up his Pure Black Hood, watching two officers in hazmat suits escorting a prisoner down the hall.

The prisoner was in his early twenties, looking like a hot-headed student. In the dead of winter, he wore only a flame-colored basketball jersey and shorts, his wrists bound in heavy-duty custom shackles. Wherever his boots trod, a trail of boiling, fiery footprints scorched the floor.

The youth kept protesting his innocence the whole way: “I told you, I was the one saving people! This was my internship assignment! How much longer are you keeping me locked up? If I miss the intern assessment meeting, are you taking responsibility? My master is Duan Ke, did you call him yet? When is he coming to bail me out!”