At this moment, Qin Xuezhong had already put on her mask, so the fat man didn't recognize her immediately. He looked around at the surrounding operatives and tentatively asked, "Is it you?"
Qin Xuezhong replied, "It's me."
Hearing her voice, the fat man finally sighed in relief. As the two began to converse, the surrounding team members confirmed her identity and slightly stepped back.
He struggled to get up, took out a small box, and pressed a button. Qin Xuezhong immediately sensed a signal scanning her brain chip for identity verification. A green light lit up on the box.
The fat man eagerly handed the box to Qin Xuezhong and said, "Alright, here you go."
Qin Xuezhong took it, bewildered. The fat man continued, a bit emotional, "I thought you had left already; I didn't expect you to still be here."
Qin Xuezhong had no idea what he was talking about and could only vaguely reply, "I have some things to take care of."
The fat man raised his hands innocently and said, "Just don't drag me into it, okay? And… be careful. Since someone found me, it means they want to use me to find your family. You might as well stay over there."
He pointed at the box.
Qin Xuezhong felt confused, unsure of who the fat man was or what was inside the box. She could only nod silently.
After saying that, the fat man carefully asked, "Sister, can I… leave now?"
Qin Xuezhong replied, "Sure, be careful."
The fat man smiled brightly, nodded, and quickly left.
At this point, the commander gave an order in the channel: "Thoroughly check the bodies; see if there's anything to confirm their identities."
Then he asked Qin Xuezhong, "Echo17, is there anything else?"
Little Qin shook her head, "Shouldn't be."
Echo17 was the code name for the identity Qin Xuezhong had created. When the black space was initially constructed, Zhang Yuan had incorporated many designs to protect the real identities of the organization members, such as code names. Each member, upon entering the black space, was randomly assigned a string of letters and numbers as their identity.
However, within the black space, familiar individuals often received nicknames. For example, the first person who earned money through a transport team raid was nicknamed "Financier" because their acumen for making money was better than others, and they contributed a significant portion to the Ghost organization's public fund.
Another individual, who assisted Kays in developing the earliest Zero virus antibody, was nicknamed "Professor" because he always spoke in an academic tone, as if writing a thesis.
As for Little Qin's identity, which had just been created and hadn't had much interaction with others, she was only referred to by her original code.
At that moment, someone hesitantly asked, "Echo17, you… can't be the legendary Er Gou, can you?"
Little Qin was startled.
How did they figure that out?
In truth, she had always known that many people in the black space were aware of each other's real or online identities. This was because her initial invitation code had been shared through Kays and Zhang Yuan, who had likely invited several trusted individuals from their reality or online circles.
Among those invited by Kays were his training buddies and colleagues from the mercenary club. Since the first time Kays had fought alongside Qin Xuezhong in the training device, he had shared that footage with those around him.
Two of them were on the combat team tonight.
It wasn't that they recognized specific traits of Qin Xuezhong; rather, in Qingshu City, very few people could stealthily track like this. Moreover, they were all friends in Kays's circle, naturally speculating whether Qin Xuezhong was the elusive Er Gou from the training device.
Little Qin hesitated for a moment and nodded.
Everyone around immediately started complimenting her, marveling at the talents within the Ghost organization.
From that point on, no one called her Echo17 anymore; they all began calling her Er Gou.
Adding "boss" to the name sounded rather impressive. However, for the commander and the operatives in the field, the primary factor when addressing comrades during operations was brevity.
Whether it was Echo17 or "Er Gou, boss," both sounded a bit lengthy. Thus, in less than an hour since her registration, her identity had been shortened to simply Er Gou.
Little Qin felt a wave of regret. Had she known this would happen, she would have chosen a better name.
After this incident, everyone's distance from one another diminished significantly, and after witnessing Er Gou's skills, many wanted to challenge Qin Xuezhong to friendly matches in the training device.
Little Qin smiled wryly and agreed.
After chatting for a bit longer, the examination of the bodies was nearly complete.
"Er Gou, come take a look," a team member called out.
Little Qin stepped forward and saw the remnants of a gun in the person's hand.
---
This was the remnant left after a tactical thermite round had burned everything. Someone nearby explained, "It's the same as what was used in the Security Department's detention room; the entire body was incinerated. This gun was lucky; it rolled a bit when it fell, so part of the serial number and chip are still intact. If we check, we might trace its origin. Do you want to take it, or should we take it back to investigate?"
"Take it back; thanks." Little Qin preferred to be lazy. Then she asked, "What about the bodies?"
"They're gone; basically all turned to charcoal. Some parts frozen by the cold smoke bombs might have DNA residues; we could check those. We estimate that it's mostly Yue Zhao."
Another person asked, "Are you investigating Yue Zhao by yourself? What about that fat guy?"
Everyone was curious about what had happened today.
Little Qin shook her head. "I'm not sure; I was just entrusted to retrieve something from that person."
"Alright, let's discuss the rest in the space." The commander interrupted the conversation through the headset. "Er Gou, are you leaving with everyone, or on your own?"
"I'll leave on my own."
"Okay, clean up the scene and then retreat!" the commander ordered.
Little Qin didn't go home directly, nor did she communicate with anyone in the black space. Instead, she went to the restroom in the subway station and locked the door.
She wanted to see what the fat man had given her in the box.
According to the fat man, he and the original owner likely knew each other well, perhaps even had a good relationship. Otherwise, he wouldn't have mentioned that someone could find her through him.
The small box looked simple, yet it required fingerprint, iris, and blood verification. Glancing at the thick interior, Qin Xuezhong had no doubt that if the verification failed, this thing could self-destruct.
Sure enough, inside was a key card and a note.
The note read: [Jinshan District, Wangwan Apartment - 7901]
It was a room.
Was this a safe house prepared for the original owner?
She knew about Jinshan District; it was a wealthy area. A quick online search revealed that Wangwan Apartment was a top-tier luxury residence, with one unit per floor, sprawling across an entire floor.
The value of such a place was comparable to villas near Central Park.
Qin Xuezhong vaguely guessed the original owner's intentions—based on what she knew, she seemed to come from a slum and loved living in a shanty town.
Someone like her choosing such a flashy luxury apartment felt counterintuitive and made it harder to be discovered.
No wonder she was the former director of the Leisure Dream Company; she really had money.
She examined the box carefully and discovered another compartment that required verification. When she opened it, her attention was instantly drawn to what was inside.
It was an exquisitely crafted chip—encased in a translucent cube, secured in the center by six hair-thin wires.
It looked like it was in a vacuum, but when shaken gently, it revealed a transparent, viscous liquid that protected the chip.
Upon seeing it for the first time, Qin Xuezhong recognized it immediately.
This was a standard citizen chip produced by the central brain factory, implanted in every federal citizen at the age of one. Even the cube was the sealed shell from when the chip was manufactured.
Logically speaking, there shouldn't be any unactivated chips like this floating around outside.
This was one of the most strictly controlled items in the entire federation.
Even the powerful Fifth House couldn't obtain an unactivated chip.
Even if they did get one, they wouldn't be able to pass the central brain's review process to acquire a new identity.
And the original owner had actually prepared an unactivated chip and a safe house.
At the same time, many events that happened tonight made Qin Xuezhong uneasy.
She had only wanted to check the locations in the memory fragments but ended up discovering that someone wanted to kidnap the original owner's street friend, likely to learn her address.
Those people were probably clones of Yue Zhao.
These recent events felt like a series of troublesome puzzles, shrouding her in uncertainty.
One thing she was sure of was that she couldn't go home now.
What if, like the fat man said, someone was looking for her? If others knew the original owner's address, her home might be exposed, making it dangerous for her to return.
She steeled herself and decided to go to the safe house.
Before reaching her destination, Little Qin was astonished.
She had never seen such a luxury residence.
The towering 300-story building looked like a stack of crystal slabs reaching into the clouds, adorned with lush greenery and scattered lights, giving it an air of mystery.
After swiping her card and undergoing biometric verification, Little Qin entered.
What greeted her was an exaggeratedly large floor-to-ceiling window that offered a view of almost the entire Bay Stream District's dense buildings and Central Park. A glance revealed a dazzling array of neon lights spreading toward the horizon.
The living room was simply and elegantly decorated, instantly making one feel at ease.
However, Qin Xuezhong didn't have time to admire it.
As soon as she entered with the cube, it lit up, triggering some automatic mechanism in the room.
One of the walls flipped over.
Revealed was an automatic surgical bed.
Countless precision fixtures and miniature robotic arms surrounded the neck area. One of them was clearly designed for the chip.
Even without checking the data, Qin Xuezhong could guess what it was for.
This surgical bed could replace chips.
She had never heard of such a thing—there weren't even rumors online—about an adult being able to change their identity by replacing a chip.
She realized that for some reason, the original owner might indeed want to change her identity and start anew.
If that was true, it meant she had a chance for a fresh start too.