Qin Xuezhong actually didn't want to come.
She still vividly remembered that the last time she wanted to go out and see the world, she encountered a contact who wanted to assassinate the original owner and learned the location of the original owner's safe house.
Going out was dangerous; this was the most profound understanding she had of this world.
But then she thought, she couldn't spend her whole life just commuting between work and home, afraid to touch anything, right?
Now, she had the mainframe protecting her, and at home was a powerful puppet soldier, an employee who had been awarded by the Security Department, holding the reins of a strong underground organization known as the Ghost Organization.
Not to mention, she had become one of the power holders of the Fifth Consortium.
With such an identity, if she still feared and hid at home every day, only daring to commute between work and home, that would be too pathetic.
At the very least, in this area of Xigu Valley, if she encountered danger, she could likely summon half the city's combat power to protect herself.
So, what was there to be afraid of?
Qin Xuezhong came boldly.
While other colleagues might still feel a bit restrained, she had already started eating without caring about her image.
Forget about the ingredients; just the taste was worth the price. In all her time in Xigu Valley, she had never eaten anything this delicious.
She knew that at this moment, most of the people in the restaurant were likely various members of the Fifth Consortium, wanting to observe her and, if given the chance, make contact.
Qin Xuezhong simply ignored them.
As she enjoyed the food, she played with the hyper-realistic virtual dream system in the top-tier restaurant.
This system was somewhat like AR from before her crossing. It could change the entire dining hall, the other guests, what they wore, and even the utensils in her hand by connecting to the user's chip through the hotel's powerful wireless signal.
Just as she thought about it, the hall transformed into a school cafeteria.
Everyone was in school uniforms, with stainless steel cutlery in front of them. Even the scenery outside the window changed, revealing distant teaching buildings and a lush green lawn below.
The music in the restaurant faded away, replaced by a cacophony of noise.
This gameplay opened her eyes.
According to the information Zhang Yuan had given her, the runaway puppet Muxing Deng used to be responsible for the hyper-realistic virtual dream system and later became the technical leader of this system.
Even though Qin Xuezhong was an outsider, she could guess that being responsible for this system in the Golden Mountain Hotel, providing perfect fantasy service for so many dining and lodging guests, was definitely not an easy task.
Moreover, people with this ability weren't just petty criminals.
For someone to make her completely disappear, it would either have to be her own choice or a larger organization orchestrating everything.
Qin Xuezhong took a sip of her drink and glanced at the seat next to her.
Zhang Yuan was already gone.
According to his previous plan, he would go to the restroom, connect to the hotel's internal system, and check the information.
With Qin Xuezhong's program and the mainframe's authority, almost no one could detect him.
Before long, she received a message from Zhang Yuan, saying he had found the relevant file.
She pretended to communicate with someone else and walked alone to the outdoor balcony.
"Speak." Qin Xuezhong asked succinctly.
"Yes." Zhang Yuan replied, "On September 19, 2995, Muxing Deng finished work normally. According to work records, she had two meetings scheduled for the next day and was supposed to host an important client. However, she didn't come to work on September 20, only sending a resignation letter saying she was quitting."
"At 10 AM on September 20, a man named 'Mu Yu' visited the Golden Mountain Hotel, claiming to be Muxing Deng's older brother, saying the family was moving to the capital area and he was there to help with her resignation procedures."
"Wait," Qin Xuezhong interrupted, "A high-ranking executive suddenly disappears, and no one in the hotel is suspicious?"
"There's no record in the file, but I suspect there might be, because I looked at several people's search records, and they all checked on this Mu Yu, confirming his identity. They also checked other relevant venues and companies to see if Muxing Deng had been poached."
"Wait," Qin Xuezhong interrupted Zhang Yuan again, "the previous data didn't show that Muxing Deng had a brother."
"Right," Zhang Yuan's tone became cautious, as he was puzzled about this too, "I just checked Mu Yu's citizen number and found it belonged to a person who died 50 years ago. The contact number he left for the hotel is also out of service."
In an instant, Qin Xuezhong felt a little scared.
A person who had been dead for 50 years suddenly claims to be the missing woman's brother?
She glanced around and said, "Hold on."
Then she called the mainframe, asking, "Mainframe, is this Mu Yu really related to Muxing Deng?"
The mainframe immediately responded, "Negative. There is no evidence indicating that Muxing Deng's parents had another child."
"Then why did the hotel check Mu Yu's identity and find no problems?"
Mainframe: "Unclear. I just investigated the network records from that time; there are no search records originating from the hotel."
"Okay, thanks." Qin Xuezhong felt like she was grasping something vague.
"Always at your service." The mainframe fell silent again.
Qin Xuezhong uncertainly asked Zhang Yuan, "There should be surveillance in the hotel lobby, right? Is there surveillance footage of Mu Yu's visit from two years ago?"
"Uh… there should be. The Golden Mountain Hotel has kept all surveillance footage since it was renovated 20 years ago. Let me check…" Zhang Yuan said, then shouted, "Okay, found it! I'll send it to you."
A file transfer alert appeared before Qin Xuezhong.
She clicked to accept.
On the screen was the grand lobby of the Golden Mountain Hotel, where an ordinary-looking man walked in from outside and communicated with the front desk.
Soon, a person hurriedly ran over and led the man into the office meeting room.
Twenty minutes later, the two emerged from the meeting room.
The man left looking normal, while the other employee's expression was quite grim.
The footage ended there.
"What about the other person? Is he a hotel employee? Where is he now?" Qin Xuezhong asked.
Zhang Yuan answered in a low voice, "Liu Guiqing, who was the hotel system supervisor at the time, Muxing Deng's superior. He died in a car accident a year and a half ago."
At this point, anyone could sense that something was off.
Qin Xuezhong's intuition grew stronger.
A person using the identity of someone who died 50 years ago, interacting with someone who then unexpectedly died, alongside the completely missing Muxing Deng.
All of this happened in the Golden Mountain Hotel.
It all happened in the Golden Mountain Hotel?!
Qin Xuezhong suddenly realized.
She was currently on the terrace outside the top-tier restaurant.
Since she had just experienced the hyper-realistic virtual dream system here, in her eyes, the scene before her turned into a campus.
The railing she was holding even had chipped and faded paint.
Turning back, she saw her colleagues in school uniforms eating inside, while on the other side of the restaurant was an incredibly realistic food serving window, with several chefs dressed in uniforms inside. These chefs were all illusions created by the system based on her thoughts...
Illusions?
Qin Xuezhong suddenly had a bold idea.
Could it be... that Mu Yu is also fake?
The hyper-realistic virtual dream system of the Golden Mountain Hotel can create hallucinatory scenes; could someone have fabricated a fake person just to make Muxing Deng disappear more easily?
Qin Xuezhong shared this speculation with Zhang Yuan.
Zhang Yuan was stunned for a moment before answering, "Boss, I can't analyze this footage, but I'm sure this is the original data. If there really is a problem... it may be up to you to find out."
Zhang Yuan felt a bit discouraged.
Originally, it was an opportunity to earn favor with the boss, but in the end, it still required the boss to solve the problem.
Qin Xuezhong said, "Alright, I'll give it a try. You did well; come back and eat a little."
Zhang Yuan felt anxious yet touched—just like a boss, even while executing a task, she still cared whether her subordinates had enough to eat.
"Understood, thank you, boss. You've worked hard." Zhang Yuan obediently replied, then explained the restroom access point to Qin Xuezhong before returning to the restaurant.
To avoid arousing suspicion, she waited until Zhang Yuan returned and a few others had gone to the restroom before she stood up.
As soon as she got up, the entire restaurant went silent.
Then, as if everyone noticed something was wrong, they started talking even louder to cover up the previous silence.
Qin Xuezhong chuckled inwardly, pretending nothing happened as she walked out.
Following Zhang Yuan's guidance, she directly entered the restroom stall, opened the panel of the nearby entertainment system, and connected.
The virtual consciousness quickly scanned the entire hotel system, and she found the footage.
With the powerful infiltration capability of her virtual consciousness, she immediately discovered that this footage had been encrypted in a very complex and covert manner.
When normally accessed, the base data showed no issues.
But in reality, deep within the hyper-realistic virtual dream system, some codes had been quietly altered, causing the image of Mu Yu to automatically generate whenever someone accessed that footage!
This wasn't a virus or an intrusion program; it was simply a clever manipulation of the code by someone.
Even Qin Xuezhong's virtual consciousness couldn't correct it.
Nonetheless, she was still able to envelop the original footage with her virtual consciousness and extract it directly.
In the original footage, at the same time and place, there was simply no Mu Yu present in the lobby.
Only the front desk clerk, wearing a professional smile, was speaking to thin air.
Then, Muxing Deng's superior rushed out, gesturing wildly at the air for a long while before walking into the meeting room alone.
Twenty minutes later, he emerged by himself, staring at the entrance.
—It was like watching a surreal mime performance.
Qin Xuezhong felt a chill run down her spine.
It was as if she could see an invisible pair of hands erasing Muxing Deng from this world.