"So what you're saying is that Qiao Yifeng's daughter has completely disappeared now?"
Bluesea sat in his room, tapping his fingers on the tabletop in front of him. With drooping eyelids and a neutral expression, he seemed devoid of any discernible emotion.
Dressed in black, the figure standing before Bluesea wore a serious expression. After a moment's consideration, he spoke slowly, "That's the gist of it. I've confirmed with everyone, including Mr. Qiao's associates, the crew members, and the company's assistants. They've all shown cognitive deviations."
"The people you confirmed with are all non-Awakened individuals?"
"Yes, all of them are non-Awakened." The man in black pondered for a moment before continuing, "As of now, there are four Awakened individuals, including myself, among Mr. Qiao's associates. Regarding the members of the other three teams, I haven't hastily confirmed anything. Instead, I reported the anomalies as soon as I noticed them."
At this, Bluesea raised his eyelids, his gaze calm as he nodded. "You've done well."
The man in black remained silent.
"Cognitive deviations occurring at the level of ordinary people. Completely erasing someone's existence, this kind of thing undoubtedly only the system has the ability to do, and only the system can achieve. Qiao Yifeng's daughter has completely disappeared... in that case..." Bluesea pondered for a moment before slowly continuing, "Starting from now, there will be a change in Qiao Yifeng's close protection personnel. You will continue to stay by his side, while the other three individuals will be immediately transferred back to Zero City headquarters. I will arrange for additional personnel from the field team to fill the vacancies, selecting individuals who are not familiar with Qiao Yifeng's family situation."
"In any case, try not to alarm Qiao Yifeng as much as possible, and do not let him notice these changes on his own—well, considering that his memories have also been altered, the likelihood of him discovering it himself is slim, unless someone tells him."
"Understood, I will keep it strictly confidential."
Bluesea raised an eyebrow and looked at the man in black. "Of course, I trust you implicitly. You are one of the veterans in the team. I'm referring to the others..."
"You mean, Chen Xiaolian?"
"I suspect that something significant has definitely happened to Qiao Qiao." Bluesea frowned and sighed, "It seems like I need to make a trip out."
...
"Is there really no hope of revival?" Roddy gulped down a glass of beer fiercely, slammed the glass onto the table, glanced at the empty bottle in front of him, furrowed his brow, and shouted, "Boss, bring another case! Make sure it's chilled!"
Chen Xiaolian held the glass, drinking it sip by sip. Although he didn't gulp it down, he drank steadily. After setting down the empty glass, he took a deep breath. "I don't know... If it's an Awakened individual, Qiao Qiao should have been reset to an ordinary person by now. But if she has completely disappeared..."
"Is there really no other way?" Roddy sighed.
Chen Xiaolian felt a bitterness in his mouth and lowered his head, pondering for a moment. "I don't know."
"Well, what about the GM? Can't we ask it? Is death really irreversible?" Roddy suggested.
A thought stirred in Chen Xiaolian's mind.
Vulnerabilities, once dead, couldn't be revived. So asking the GM might not be useful.
But what about Mr. San?
Back then, Mr. San and his associates were the true first batch of vulnerabilities.
Or at the very least, they were earlier than himself.
Did Mr. San's group of vulnerabilities have anyone resurrected after death?
Probably not.
If there were, Mr. San wouldn't be so lonely right now.
But... could there be an exception?
A thought sparked in Chen Xiaolian's mind.
Bai Qi!
The relationship between Mr. San and Bai Qi was peculiar. So, reasoning it out, Bai Qi might have been Mr. San's companion back then, making Bai Qi a vulnerability too?
Then... what's Bai Qi's current status?
The only question was whether Bai Qi had died back then or not!
Or perhaps he didn't die but was manipulated into becoming what he is now.
From a vulnerability to becoming a boss in a duplicate...
This kind of change...
"If it's all possible, then... who dares to guarantee that resurrecting dead vulnerabilities is impossible?" Chen Xiaolian pondered inwardly.
This was a roadside barbecue stall, noisy with several men at the adjacent table drinking heavily and playing dice. Some were smoking, and there was a lot of raucous banter.
This place was one of Roddy and Chen Xiaolian's favorite barbecue spots in the past. According to Chen Xiaolian, the crispy ribs here were the best in Jinling. In reality, Roddy had complained before that Chen Xiaolian only liked this place because it was close to his home and he was too lazy to go elsewhere when invited out for supper.
Since getting involved in this game, it had been months since the two of them had come here.
Roddy quietly poured himself another beer. One beer crate on the ground was already empty. He gritted his teeth. "Now that my body's been enhanced and my tolerance has increased, I can't even get drunk..."
Chen Xiaolian looked at Roddy and said slowly, "If you really want to get drunk, anything will make you drunk."
"Don't mess with me!" Roddy glared at Chen Xiaolian, took a deep breath, and said, "Do you know? Right now, I really want to beat you up! Beat you up hard!"
"Because I didn't show any sadness?" Chen Xiaolian hesitated for a moment. "I'm sorry."
"You... you.. Fuck! It's not about apologizing to me! It's about Qiao Qiao!" Roddy slammed the table! He stood up suddenly: "Chen Xiaolian! What the hell is wrong with you? The Chen Xiaolian I know is not heartless! If I didn't know you for many years and understand you well, I would really think now that you never truly cared about Qiao Qiao!! My friend, even I shed tears for her sacrifice, and you! You..."
He pointed at Chen Xiaolian, his finger trembling. "You act like nothing's wrong!!"
With that, he slapped the table, and suddenly all the glasses and plates on the table flipped onto the floor.
At the nearby table, upon hearing the commotion, some heads turned, including that of a fierce-looking bald man who glared over and muttered a couple of curses.
Roddy raised an eyebrow, but Chen Xiaolian promptly restrained him, speaking in a low voice, "Enough, whatever you want to ask, I'll tell you everything. Let's not make a scene here."
Roddy snorted and looked at Chen Xiaolian.
His eyes suddenly welled up with tears, his fists clenched. "Little Face! It's me, it's me! If you're forcing yourself in front of others, not wanting your brothers in the team to see your weakness, then I understand! But now it's just us two, there's no one else here. You don't have to keep pretending. You can cry, you can get drunk, I'll be here for you as your brother! Little Face! If you want to cry, I'll get drunk with you! But... how can you be so indifferent?"
Chen Xiaolian fell silent for a moment. He poured himself a drink, gulped it down, took a deep breath, and stared at Roddy. Then he pointed to the location of his heart.
"I don't know why, but right here... it's empty." Chen Xiaolian's tone was bitter. "I also know that my behavior isn't normal. Qiao Qiao... she died, and I should be the one in agony, the one going insane, the one shedding tears. But I just can't cry, I can't even feel impulsive. It's like... something has hollowed me out, completely empty. Do you understand? Empty!"
Roddy was stunned.
"Do you think I don't want to scream? Cry until my throat's sore, get so drunk I can't stand?" Chen Xiaolian whispered, "But now I wonder if something's wrong with my fucking brain. I don't feel anything, even though you know how important Qiao Qiao was to me. But... I'm just fucking indifferent, like a robot! I don't know what's wrong with me, I really want... I really want to stab myself! Just to see if I still feel anything, if it hurts, if I bleed!"
"You... there couldn't really be something wrong with you, could there?" Roddy expressed concern. "A psychological issue? I think you should see a psychologist."
"A doctor?" Chen Xiaolian sneered. "With the system, I can exchange for the best medical supplies, and if it's a mental problem, I can use the Stone Sword to eliminate all negative mental influences... Why would I need a doctor? I'm starting to suspect that I'm just a fundamentally twisted bastard."
"You're not a bastard. The Chen Xiaolian I know has more compassion than anyone," Roddy shook his head. "You're the kind of person who's willing to fight desperately to protect the people around you."
"But now I'm like this bottle of wine." Chen Xiaolian picked up a bottle of wine, didn't open it, and held it sideways. "I know I should be sad, I should be in pain, just like this bottle, it should have wine inside—everyone assumes there's wine in it. But when I turn the bottle sideways, nothing comes out."
...
Soo Soo walked to the central resting area and saw a lone figure sitting at a table.
She approached slowly, standing behind Soo Soo.
The girl was hunched over the table, a blank sheet of paper in front of her. On the paper was a sketch, depicting Qiao Qiao.
Soo Soo's drawing skills were still quite amateurish. The sketch bore only about fifty or sixty percent resemblance to Qiao Qiao herself.
Standing behind Soo Soo, Lun Tai watched silently for a minute before softly asking, "Still not resting?"
Soo Soo shook her head, whispering, "Brother Lun Tai, I... can't find any pictures of my sister, not even one. I can only draw her, but I'm drawing so poorly. I'm really scared..."
"Scared of what?"
"Everything about my sister is gone, not even a single picture. I'm worried... that if it continues like this, after a long time, the image of my sister in my mind will gradually fade... Maybe in a few years, when I want to remember her, I won't even be able to recall her face..."
Soo Soo bit her lip hard, tears streaming down her face.
Lun Tai reached out a rough hand, placing it gently on Soo Soo's head, giving it a light pat.
Soo Soo gripped the sketch in front of her tightly, crumpling the edges of the paper with both hands, then forcefully lifted it and pressed it against her chest.
Lun Tai sighed heavily.
...
Chen Xiaolian and Roddy entered the base in the middle of the night.
Lun Tai sat at the table, with a bottle of whiskey in front of him, now less than a third full.
He glanced back at Chen Xiaolian and Roddy.
Roddy seemed to be drunk, supported by Chen Xiaolian as they walked in.
Chen Xiaolian noticed Lun Tai and seemed somewhat surprised. He glanced beside Lun Tai and saw Soo Soo curled up in a chair, already asleep.
"She insisted on waiting for you to come back," Lun Tai forced a smile. "I couldn't persuade her, so I let her be."
Chen Xiaolian nodded, then walked over. Lun Tai took the already intoxicated Roddy from Chen Xiaolian's hands.
"How much did he drink?" Lun Tai asked.
"He drank up all the beer from the barbecue stall owner," Chen Xiaolian chuckled bitterly. "Then he went to nearby stores and bought two more crates. Finally, he felt satisfied."
"Give him to me, I'll take him back to his room." Lun Tai carried Roddy towards a door, but then turned back to look at Chen Xiaolian. "We need to talk!"
His tone was very serious.
Chen Xiaolian seemed prepared for this and nodded. "Okay, I'll wait here for you."
After Lun Tai carried Roddy away, Chen Xiaolian lifted Soo Soo, who was curled up in a chair, and carried her into her room, laying her on the bed.
Standing by the bed, he looked at Soo Soo, still tightly curled up with traces of tears at the corners of her eyes.
Chen Xiaolian reached out and wiped away a tear from Soo Soo's eye. Then he sighed and covered her with a blanket.
"Being able to cry... is also a kind of luck."
He turned and walked out of the room.
...
In the central lounge, Lun Tai was already sitting there waiting.
Chen Xiaolian walked over and picked up the whiskey bottle on the table. "How much have you had?" he asked.
"This is the third bottle," Lun Tai replied casually. "Don't worry, I'm still sober. With my current physical condition and alcohol tolerance, I'd probably need to drink about seven bottles to get drunk."
"What do you want to talk about?" Chen Xiaolian sat down in front of Lun Tai.
Lun Tai glanced at Chen Xiaolian, then reached out to take the bottle from his hand, tilted his head back, and finished the remaining contents of the bottle in one gulp.
A few seconds later, Lun Tai exhaled and looked at Chen Xiaolian. "Our team has a big problem this time."
Chen Xiaolian remained calm as he looked back at Lun Tai.
"The task with the magic array, the dream illusion before the final task," Lun Tai's expression was grim. "Qiao Qiao's death was an accident, but apart from her sacrifice, our team encountered serious issues this time. As the leader, if you don't handle it properly, our team might just fall apart!"
Chen Xiaolian remained silent.
"Actually, things were already off when the illusion ended," Lun Tai continued in a deep voice. "I don't know if you noticed, but right when the illusion ended, Soo Soo's attitude towards Qiao Qiao was very strange. And Xia Xiaolei and Qimu Xi, from inside the Instance until we returned, didn't exchange a single word between them, zero communication throughout! Then there's Roddy, his mood was very low... I can be sure that this low mood isn't just because of Qiao Qiao's death. Roddy has something on his mind, something heavy."
Chen Xiaolian still didn't speak.
"I'm sure Roddy is not the kind of 'disloyal' brother," Lun Tai furrowed his brow. "I don't think Roddy has any special feelings for Qiao Qiao. But I made a discovery just now... when I took that guy back to his room, he was already drunk and said something incoherent."
Chen Xiaolian raised an eyebrow, looking at Lun Tai.
Lun Tai frowned. "He was muttering: 'Why wasn't it me who died? I'm willing to die in your place.'"
Chen Xiaolian listened quietly.
"I think Roddy definitely doesn't have any other special intentions towards Qiao Qiao, so when he said 'dying in your place' in his drunken rambling, perhaps the 'you' he meant is someone else?"
Chen Xiaolian sighed. "He... I heard that drunken phrase too, he said it at least a dozen times on the way back."
Lun Tai paused.
"If I didn't know Roddy well and was certain he didn't have any special feelings for Qiao Qiao – if it wasn't like that, others might misunderstand from hearing such words," Chen Xiaolian shook his head. "This 'you,' I guess, he was referring to Nicole."
"That's the problem," Lun Tai frowned. "Roddy's mood is very off, he has been low-spirited all along. Ever since we returned from the Instance... more precisely, ever since that dream illusion ended, he has been acting strangely."
"That woman is also suspicious," Lun Tai continued, frowning. "In the final moments of the Instance, that woman, she manipulated Roddy's floating device."
Chen Xiaolian narrowed his eyes. "No, it wasn't Roddy's floating device, that device belongs to Nicole."
Lun Tai was startled. "So that's why I said that woman is suspicious. Although I don't know much about the Angel Corps, I at least know one thing: a floating angel, such an advanced exclusive item, isn't something just anyone can learn to manipulate. And the way she manipulated it, she seemed much more skilled than Roddy."
"So you suspect?" Chen Xiaolian frowned.
"We all saw Nicole die," Lun Tai shook his head. "I'm confused now too."
"Roddy had previously gone to find Nicole... the revived Nicole after her death. He found her and observed her from close range, confirming that Nicole had indeed died and respawned as an ordinary person. That much is certain," Chen Xiaolian frowned. "So now, with this mysterious woman appearing, capable of controlling the Floating Angel, I suspect she might be connected to the Angel Corps of Zero City."
"The woman disappeared on her own after the Instance mission ended. We were teleported to different locations after the Instance ended, making it difficult to find her now," Lun Tai shook his head. "And don't you find it strange? She seems to be very familiar with everyone in our team. We hadn't met her before, but in the Instance, she could call out your and Roddy's names."
Chen Xiaolian pondered for a moment, about to say something.
Suddenly, in the central hall, the metallic sphere that served as the central control center flickered, emitting synthesized electronic sound.
It was the voice of the main control GM of the base.
"Chen Xiaolian, I've detected a communication signal being blocked by the base. It's a communication attempt on your mobile phone. Should I allow it to connect to you? Or continue blocking it?"
"Hmm?" Chen Xiaolian was taken aback.
"You've made a setting before that I would ignore regular calls and let the base continue blocking external communications. But this call happens to be from someone on your important list," the GM's voice remained emotionless.
"Who is it?"
"It shows the caller ID is from Qiao Yifeng."
Chen Xiaolian froze.
After a second, he took a deep breath. "Connect."
Chen Xiaolian took out his phone, and the signal was soon unblocked. As he looked at the incoming call on his phone, he answered, immediately hearing Qiao Yifeng's irritated voice.
"You, Chen, what have you done to my daughter?!"
Faced with such fiery questioning, Chen Xiaolian instinctively hesitated, blurting out, "I'm sorry..."
But as soon as those words left his mouth, Chen Xiaolian suddenly realized something was amiss.
When Qiao Yifeng said "my daughter," who was he referring to?
"You dare to mistreat her like this? She likes you so much, willing to fall out with me just to be with you! And now you're treating her like this? Making her cry and leaving her alone at home?"
Qiao Yifeng's furious voice made Chen Xiaolian suddenly realize.
This judgment immediately made Chen Xiaolian understand: Qiao Yifeng's memory had also been refreshed and reset by the system.
"I... I'm sorry," Chen Xiaolian sighed.
Qiao Yifeng, surprisingly, was stunned by Chen Xiaolian's apology. After a few seconds of silence, he spoke softly, "Young people together, it's normal to have some quarrels. You... you need to treat her well. After all, she's just an ordinary person. She can't feel the pressure you're under. You promised me to take good care of her."
A hint of sadness suddenly welled up in Chen Xiaolian's heart. Undoubtedly, he had indeed said words like "take good care of her" to Qiao Yifeng before.
But the "her" he was referring to was not Yu Jiajia, but Qiao Qiao!
Just as he was beginning to feel a tinge of sadness, Chen Xiaolian suddenly felt as if some strange force had completely emptied out all the sorrow from his emotions!
This abrupt feeling of emotional vacuum, coupled with the familiar sensation of emptiness in his heart over the past few days, left him dumbfounded.
He gripped the phone, unable to move, and stared into space.
What was this feeling exactly?
"I'm in Japan doing something right now. After I finish, I'll come back and see you guys," Qiao Yifeng said softly, "Take good care of her! Treat her well, you promised me, kid!"
With that, the call ended.
Chen Xiaolian held the phone, lost in thought. Tyre watched him daze off, furrowing his brows, "Was that Qiao Yifeng? What did he say?"
"...Nothing," Chen Xiaolian replied, carefully pondering the sudden feeling of emptiness that had replaced the sadness he had just experienced.
Suddenly, he stood up! He turned and strode out of the base.
"Where are you going?" Lun Tai asked.
"To find someone and confirm something!"
...
Chen Xiaolian left the base, departing from the small island. Once on the mainland, he retrieved a car and drove towards the city.
Arriving in the city, Chen Xiaolian parked the car and immediately walked to a small square next to a green belt. He looked at the pedestrians in the square and shouted loudly, "Come out!! I have something to ask you!! I know you can hear me!!"