GRMFBS CH149

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

Suppressing Zhan Yunkai’s popularity wasn’t the most important task; the most important thing was to properly protect the Chongming Demon King’s ordinary person identity. But she had already prepared all the countermeasures, yet where were the people coming to dig for information?

Having resolved his troubles, Zhan Yan returned to his normal pace of life.

Scrolling through the forum and major group chats to upgrade the Gossip System, helping the big shot Deep Shadow investigate anomalies, and bickering with the Artisan…

Zhan Yan had already passed that key ring to the Artisan through Fang Pai, and upon receiving it, the Artisan came online to express her thanks. Perhaps because she confirmed that this key ring was indeed useful to her, the Artisan no longer resisted communicating; instead, she became quite a chatterbox, talking to Zhan Yan about everything.

The Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau eagerly wanted to continue extracting doomsday-related information from the Artisan, so Zhan Yan continued chatting with her.

But the Artisan had a slightly eccentric temper. She only chatted about things she was interested in. If he conveyed questions from the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau, this guy would immediately go offline, and he wouldn’t know when she’d be back online next.

Before going to sleep, Zhan Yan lay in bed casually chatting with the Artisan.

Recently, the topic the Artisan was most interested in was the “Underworld”.

Artisan: [The doomsday world doesn’t have an Underworld.]

Approaching Science: [Then where do souls go after death?]

Artisan: [I’m not sure, I’ve never come into contact with them.] Artisan: [Perhaps, just like in this world, souls turn into ghosts.] Artisan: [Is there a difference between a soul and a ghost?]

Zhan Suiru carefully guided the topic. She wanted to coax out the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau’s data regarding souls through Approaching Science. She had already obtained some information regarding ghosts, life, and death through Ghost King Tie Lao, but research on souls conducted by the living was somewhat different from research on souls conducted by the dead.

What she wanted was resurrection.

Zhan Suiru was in her studio.

Previously, Zhan Jinli had snitched on her, catching her off guard and forcing her to go home at night. Just two days after staying at home, she discovered that Zhan Jinli wasn’t coming home.

Zhan Suiru suddenly realized that her brother wanted to go out and party at night himself!

The siblings bickered privately and ultimately agreed to take turns going home to feed Xingxing.

Midway through, their dad came home to stay for a few days, cooked simple meals for their mom, delivered them to the company, and then left again. During those few days, both of them acted like good kids and stayed at home at night, resuming their shifts only after their dad left.

Zhan Suiru made a list while chatting with Approaching Science. A portion of these materials she needed the broker’s help to find, and the other portion she had to acquire through her various other clients.

The night breeze blew through the ventilation system, bringing a mind-clearing coolness.

“Xiao Ran, bring me the blueprints from B-3-75.” Zhan Suiru was used to multitasking. She took the blueprints and began looking at her previous ideas that had stalled due to insufficient data.

The most important thing was the data from the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau obtained through Approaching Science.

She couldn’t say too much lest she be detected; she needed the topic to be related to the doomsday. That way, the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau would be interested, and because they wanted to coax out more doomsday information from her, they would provide her with the information she wanted.

Zhan Yan couldn’t keep up with the Artisan’s topic. He hadn’t done any research on souls and ghosts, but fortunately, he had a massive support group—the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau was very happy to help him chat more and have deeper conversations with the Artisan.

The information he got from the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau contained quite a bit about the framework of the Underworld, which allowed Zhan Yan’s “Organization” tab to gather enough for another little star. The depth of information he could directly flip through increased by another notch.

[You have already realized the importance of information depth. Now, come, repeat after me: As long as the hoe is swung well, there’s no information that can’t be dug up!]

He scrolled through the Artisan’s gossip threads again, always feeling that something was slightly off about them.

Having used the Gossip System for so long, Zhan Yan had also figured out the patterns of information depth.

When facing gossip targets with weak information interference, the Gossip System could reveal the target’s behavioral logic alongside the gossip. For instance, when Bing Jinhong went out to stake out and follow Zhan Yunkai, and throughout his subsequent unlucky ordeal, he never gave up on the idea of digging up his dad’s information to sell.

When facing big shots with strong information interference, it could also reveal some behavioral logic they didn’t care much about, like how Xiangliu was extremely angry after losing an online argument.

But if this information was relatively important to the big shots and they consciously wanted to hide it, it would tend to only display their actions and not the thoughts behind them. For example, when his mom 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 scrolling through his parents’ gossip threads. The two of them dealt with too many important things while in their big shot identities, and once the information interference became strong, Zhan Yan wouldn’t be able to scroll to it.

It was the same for the Artisan’s gossip threads. He could scroll and see that the Artisan did many things, but he couldn’t scroll to see why the Artisan wanted to do them.

Zhan Yan felt that the Artisan had her own sneaky little plans!

But the Artisan was incredibly cunning. Whenever Zhan Yan probed slightly, this guy would go offline. After a few times, Zhan Yan got angry.

Approaching Science: [Go offline then, go offline.]

Approaching Science: [Next time, go chat with the people from the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau.]

Approaching Science: [Don’t come looking for me, I’m going offline too.]

Zhan Suiru: …Why are young people so impatient?

She obviously couldn’t go chat with the people from the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau. How abnormal would it be if the Artisan, with her current persona, chatted idly with the people from the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau every day? Wouldn’t they see through it instantly?

Zhan Suiru had no choice but to pause going offline.

Artisan: [What’s there to chat about with that group of people from the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau?] Artisan: [What do you want to ask on their behalf? Ask away.]

Approaching Science: [Do you know the ‘Lord’ Rong Sui?]

Artisan: [I know of her.] Artisan: [Are you done asking?] Artisan: [Once you’re done, let’s chat about something else.]

Approaching Science: [Go find the people from the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau to chat about something else!]

Artisan: [Wait, wait, wait.] Artisan: [Sigh, what’s there to chat about regarding her? Instead of chatting about her, we might as well chat about Tianshi together.]

Zhan Yan felt smug.

Humph humph, did you think both our identities were just Tianshi fans? Your idol is my mom!

The two bickered for a few more lines. Zhan Suiru leaned back against her chair, her tense forehead relaxing slightly.

She wasn’t chatting with Approaching Science entirely just to coax out information. For some reason, she always felt relaxed whenever she chatted with Approaching Science; perhaps they just hit it off well.

“I believe you should learn to balance work and rest,” the puppet butler advised, finding a gap to speak.

“I believe now is exactly the time to grind,” Zhan Suiru solemnly refused.

Artisan: [There’s nothing to chat about regarding Rong Sui.] Artisan: [She failed, the current state of the doomsday world is the result.] Artisan: [Your world succeeded, so don’t let yourselves fail.]

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

The Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau had learned information about the doomsday dungeon through the players. Those now-useless dungeon guides also revealed a lot of information.

The doomsday’s final and largest base was named “Hope”, originally established together by the Artisan and Lord Rong Sui.

The Lord’s powerful supernatural ability could shield the base from both pollution and anomalies, while the Artisan’s special supernatural ability built this last pure land into a home for every survivor.

There were also conflicts between the two, and arguments would break out. But in those recorded dungeon endings where the base was destroyed, 58 times Lord Rong Sui sacrificed herself to buy the other survivors the final moments to escape. The Artisan returned alone to the ruins of the base to search for Rong Sui’s remains, perishing from the erosion of the ruins’ pollution. 46 times the Artisan used mechanisms to send Lord Rong Sui and the other survivors out of the base, remaining trapped alone to die. After taking the survivors away, Rong Sui began frantically clearing anomalies and Black Nests, ultimately falling amidst a tide of anomalies. In the remaining endings, they perished together with the Hope Base.

“As long as one of these two people was lost, it would inevitably lead to a base destruction dungeon ending,” Zhuo Xun, the leader of the Retirees’ Alliance, had said. “Without the Lord, no one could shield against the pollution. Even if the Artisan could build a base, it would fall sooner or later. Without the Artisan, no one could build a fortress that allowed the Lord to temporarily put down her guarding responsibilities and rest peacefully. No one can withstand using their supernatural power without a single moment of rest; she would have gone mad sooner or later.”

Zhan Yan suddenly couldn’t help but ask a question.

Approaching Science: [Do you resent Rong Sui?]

Zhan Suiru stared at those two words. Rong Sui. No one had mentioned this name in twenty-six years, so long that she almost felt these two words were unfamiliar, so long that now, when people frequently brought it up, she could talk about this name as if talking about a stranger.

Now someone was asking her if she resented her.

Zhan Suiru suddenly lost all expression.

Suppressed, dust-covered things she didn’t want to think about began surging in a dark undercurrent.

Those smiling faces, those terrified faces, those ashen-gray faces. The warm yellow nightlight shattered, the walls of the house collapsed.

Her world died.

Approaching Science: [I think, she already tried her best.]

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

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

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

Mom’s company was shooting some promotional video, and the partner took a liking to her younger brother to save money. The other female character was Lan Xiqiao, an actress the company had sponsored before. By comparing Lan Xiqiao’s itinerary and Zhan Yan’s class schedule, the person in charge found a time when both sides were free, which was these two days.

The puppet butler was very gentle: “Understood. I will prepare the things you need to take back with you.”

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

Puppet butler: “This is a batch of handmade baked cookies. You can take them back as a gift for your younger brother.”

He wasn’t very good at sculpting, but he was highly proficient at making foods like pastries that followed recipes.

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 home,” the puppet butler said.

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

What use did the older brother have?