GRMFBS CH140

Artisan: “Are you from the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau? Or did they commission you?”

 Approaching Science: “Neither.”
“I just don’t want this matter to lead to internal strife.”

Zhan Yan didn’t quite understand the Artisan’s choice. Contacting the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau was bound to happen sooner or later, and the longer it was delayed, the more troublesome it would become. From the Bureau’s perspective, their suspicion would only grow. This was unless the Artisan had no intention of contacting the Bureau at all, planning to simply drag things out until the post-apocalyptic world made contact with this one, at which point everything would be self-evident. And he was confident he could drag it out until then without being found by the Bureau.

Zhan Suiru was also very clear about this. She just hated the questioning she would have to face next, as it would remind her of many old things she didn’t want to remember. But now that Approaching Science wanted to get involved, she could totally dump the problem on him!

Zhan Suiru decided to tell Approaching Science about the situation in the post-apocalyptic world and then have him communicate with the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau.

Approaching Science agreed.

Zhan Suiru: Very good. A person who knows how to adapt to circumstances.

Artisan: “There’s nothing to worry about regarding the post-apocalyptic world. There’s nothing left there.”

“To this world, the post-apocalyptic world is just a new piece of land.”

Approaching Science: “What do you mean by ‘nothing left’?”
Artisan: “Any living beings or dead spirits, any abnormalities, any contamination—they no longer exist.”

Zhan Yan was shocked by this news. He had originally speculated that the post-apocalyptic world had severe contamination, which led to the disappearance of all spirits in that world. The Artisan was a survivor who had escaped.

Approaching Science: “How are you so sure?”
Artisan: “I did it.”

Looking at these three nonchalant words, Zhan Yan’s first reaction was to open his gossip system to see if the Artisan was bragging.

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

It was actually true!

Zhan Yan was completely stunned. So what exactly did “I did it” mean? The Artisan had wiped out all living things in her own world along with the contamination? Was this person he knew a final boss? The kind that destroys their own world? But wasn’t the Artisan’s ability in the support category? Why was her combat power so fierce?!

There were too many questions, and they were too shocking. For a moment, Zhan Yan didn’t know where to begin asking.

Artisan: “That’s all. I’m logging off.”

Zhan Yan quickly typed for him to wait, but the Artisan’s avatar had already turned gray.

Zhan Yan: …

The old trouble was solved, and a new one was born.

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

Who would ignore a person who had once destroyed a world wandering around in their own world?!!

Zhan Yan felt his hands and feet go numb just staring at the chat history.

Glorious achievements… Something that could be called “glorious achievements” by the system couldn’t possibly be a great villain who truly destroyed their own world, right? But it was hard to say…

Zhan Yan suddenly remembered the dream he had. Before dreaming of the Artisan, he had first dreamed of the post-apocalyptic world. He saw blade-like starlight shining from within the world, cleaving through the filth and rust on its surface, 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 post-apocalyptic world back then? What prompted the Artisan to make this choice? Was it with the thought of mutual destruction? Was it a desperate last resort? Or was the Artisan herself such a dangerous person?

Zhan Yan began to frantically search the “Artisan” entry in his gossip system.

While Zhan Yan was struggling, Zhan Suiru, having successfully dumped the trouble on Approaching Science, felt a sense of relief.

The post-apocalyptic world was once very important to her, but it was no longer important now. Zhan Suiru had only been excited for a moment when she first sensed its approach, and that excitement wasn’t even entirely positive. The post-apocalyptic world was dead. Everything she cared about in that world had been destroyed. Everything she now owned and cherished was in this world.

Zhan Suiru re-immersed herself in adjusting Xiao Ran’s structure.

The doll butler sat on the ground with its chest open, the core hidden in a box beating gently like a heart.
“I suggest you play a game with your younger brother now,” he said.

Zhan Suiru gave him a questioning look.

The doll butler: “In the company of your brother, your mood will improve rapidly.”

Zhan Suiru paused. “I’m not in a bad mood.”

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

Zhan Suiru emphasized again, “I’m not… forget it.”

She put down her tools and looked into Xiao Ran’s eyes. In the depths of those eyes were intricate gears. Exquisite and beautiful, but unable to convey inner feelings like the pupils of a living being. Zhan Suiru could have made these eyes more realistic, just like his skin with its fine fuzz and texture, his changing breath and heartbeat. But she didn’t. She was originally going to do so. She had already made a pair of completely realistic eyes, but then she discovered that to make these eyes convey emotion, she also needed to preset them.

The moment she faced the debugging phase, she felt a great sense of powerlessness and anger. The pair of realistic eyeballs shattered into pieces in her palm. The doll butler, completely indistinguishable from a living person, was given a pair of mechanical pupils.

Now she looked at the gears in the depths of these pupils, losing herself in their sometimes fast, sometimes slow rotation.

Xiao Ran had never met her current family, but from the information that flowed through the internet and the occasional snippets she mentioned, he sensed her relaxation when she was with her family.

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

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

Zhan Suiru’s fingers trembled.

She suddenly remembered the origin of that keychain.

Many, many years ago.

Perhaps for others, it wasn’t that long ago. They didn’t have the memory of the post-apocalypse being rebooted again and again like a game instance. For them, time was a line, but for Zhan Suiru, it was a line followed by a ball of yarn that could never be unwound.

This keychain was hung on her before the reboots began.

At that time, they had just established their own base and taken in many, many refugees. Both she and Xiao Ran were busy as bees. As the base’s construction gradually improved, Xiao Ran’s work became lighter, but Zhan Suiru’s work became busier and busier. This was because Xiao Ran’s ability was in construction, while hers was in protection.

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

Zhan Suiru’s spiritual power enveloped the entire base. She became more and more tense, sleeping less and less, and staying awake more and more. After an accident occurred once when she was asleep, Zhan Suiru could no longer sleep. A powerful psychic esper could go without sleep, but the human mind needed to relax.

After Zhan Suiru went seven consecutive days without sleep, Yang Ran completed the base monitoring system he had been researching for a long time. And then, he made a chibi-style doll of himself. This little doll would sound an alarm when the monitoring system detected an abnormality or contamination.

Yang Ran, with huge dark circles under his eyes, gave the small doll attached to a keychain to Zhan Suiru. “Sister Suisui, try this.”

Zhan Suiru tried it. This little thing not only alerted her when it detected abnormalities and contamination, but it also nagged her to sleep over and over again when she stayed up late. If she still didn’t sleep, it would start singing a lullaby.

…

Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau.

Almost 24 hours had passed, and they still hadn’t received a reply from the Artisan. While Ning Xi had people investigating, he also asked Ji Yueming for help in contacting the Artisan. Although in the face of such a major event, an idol might not be useful, it was always good to try. What if?

Before Ji Yueming’s message was even sent, the Artisan’s contact person hurriedly sent a message: “The Artisan just replied. She said 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 it seems their relationship is quite good.

Ning Xi: “Does the Artisan have much contact with Approaching Science?”
Nie Yu: “Not much. According to the forum’s backend, they’ve only cooperated on two missions.”

Unless the two had private contact, this relationship didn’t seem close at all.

Then, an hour passed, two hours passed, three hours passed… still no word from Approaching Science.

“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 has contacted me.”

Ning Xi had long since started working on other things. Without looking up, he ordered, “Ask him why the Artisan wants to contact us through him.”

After a while, Nie Yu relayed the message: “He said the Artisan finds dealing with us annoying.”

Ning Xi: …
The Artisan’s contact person: …
Ji Yueming laughed without any courtesy and said to Ning Xi, “Why don’t you reflect on yourself?”

Reflection was impossible.

Ning Xi chose to transfer the control freak’s worries to Approaching Science.

What is the approximate area of the post-apocalyptic world? What is the general topography like? What about the biological situation inside? Even if there are no living creatures, could there be something like DNA sealed in amber? What are the physical laws of the post-apocalyptic world? What about the chemical elements? How is the contamination situation…

Nie Yu sent a long string of questions according to his instructions.

Approaching Science just forwarded one message, which contained two of Approaching Science’s questions and the Artisan’s four-sentence reply.

Nie Yu asked incredulously.

Admin Ling Yu: “That’s it?”

Approaching Science forwarded two more messages to her. One was the Artisan saying she was logging off, 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 of their expressions were slightly more solemn than before.

Ning Xi instructed someone to confirm the authenticity of the news, then said to Nie Yu, “Let me use your account.”

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

Admin Ling Yu: “That’s it?”
Approaching Science: “Are there any unanswered questions?”

There weren’t any. Biological information and abnormal contamination were all gone. The post-apocalyptic world was a dead world. The laws of a dead world are unstable and can be easily influenced by other worlds. So topography, physics, chemistry, and all that were meaningless. In other words, the current post-apocalyptic world was equivalent to a large world fragment.

Ning Xi: …

Admin Ling Yu: “What about the Artisan? What was the specific process of ‘I did it’?”
Approaching Science: “She didn’t say. I can’t ask since she’s offline.”
Admin Ling Yu: “Do you think the Artisan is trustworthy?”

Zhan Yan got a headache just seeing this question.

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

Ninety percent of the Artisan’s gossip threads were in her black market workshop, with the remaining ten percent being her going to other places to collect materials. The only time she went out for something other than work was recently when she was alerted by the commotion from the Infinity Research Institute and went to observe the situation nearby.

In these gossip threads, Zhan Yan found a series of daily routines. Recently, it was the daily routine of being overwhelmed with work and being driven to tears by her own overachieving butler. Before that, it was the daily routine of going crazy over various crafting failures and the daily routine of being disapproved of by her own butler for her irregular work schedule.

Looking at this series of daily routines, Zhan Yan felt as if he was looking at a freelancer whose work hours were so completely free that they spent all their time working. After reading through these gossip threads, Zhan Yan’s impression of the Artisan as a “world-destroying final boss” had turned into a “super workaholic.”

Which big shot would create a butler that nags them to work!

Would such a person really destroy the world? Where’s the motive? Where’s the purpose? And where’s the time?

Zhan Yan couldn’t make sense of the Artisan’s gossip and decided to pass the trouble to the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau. Regardless of whether the Artisan was a dangerous person who needed to be closely monitored, at least the information she provided now was correct. The impending post-apocalyptic world was not dangerous; the real danger still lurked within this world—Infinity was still stirring.

Zhan Yan frantically hinted: The post-apocalyptic world is not important, so hurry up and take my parents off the duty roster, ahhh!

Approaching Science: “I feel that we shouldn’t relax our internal vigilance just because we are too focused on the post-apocalyptic world.”

“There are still lurking Black Nests and people who want to revive Infinity.”

Ning Xi misunderstood: He strongly agreed with Approaching Science’s point of view. They absolutely could not relax internally, and the post-apocalyptic world must also be closely monitored! So, he would have to trouble everyone to work a little harder

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