Chapter 28: Just Turned Eighteen

“To be safe, I’ll ask one more time. Are you sure 4396 won’t expose us?”

Zhang Jiwei asked uneasily.

“Hey, show some respect and call her Lin Yanan. Don’t worry, I’ve baptized her. No one can search her true memories.”

“Won’t that arouse the Processing Bureau’s suspicion?”

“Of course it will, so we have to race against time. I left two signals for that little girl. She only needs to discover one of them.”

“What if she doesn’t find them?”

Zhang Jiwei continued to press.

“With so many of her kind dying in front of her, I don’t believe she’ll remain indifferent.”

“What if she can’t access Virtual Universe equipment?”

“Heh, Gu Yu really is stingy enough for that to happen. Although I’d like to say there aren’t that many ‘what ifs,’ if it really happens, then we’re basically screwed.”

Seemingly annoyed by the questioning, the man shrugged and made a joke.

However, Zhang Jiwei’s expression remained solemn.

“Don’t joke around! Give me an answer that puts my mind at ease, Tzeentch!”

“I told you not to call me by my name.”

“You picked the name yourself, why can’t I use it?”

Zhang Jiwei frowned.

“Ugh.”

Tzeentch smiled helplessly.

“It seems I overestimated your age. Forget it, don’t worry about it—it’s just a meme. As for your question, rest assured, the Lord will provide the answer.”

Zhang Jiwei was clearly unsatisfied with the answer, but Tzeentch had no intention of explaining further.

He had no choice but to send a trending video to Tzeentch.

“What do these last few words from 4396 mean? What do twenty and thirty represent?”

Tzeentch frowned.

“Maybe that’s just how Deviant Androids are. Their minds get scrambled and they hallucinate. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be called Deviant Androids.”

Then, Tzeentch grew alert and raised an eyebrow.

“He’s about to wake up. I’ll leave the rest to you. Keep your friend steady.”

He cracked his neck, took out a stun baton and an electromagnetic pulse gun from his security uniform, and whispered softly, “As long as she enters any public server, she will be captured and baptized by the Lord. Just wait for the good news.”

He walked out into the sunshine.

Zhang Jiwei watched him leave with a heavy expression.

“Hey, let me in!”

Su An had been sending requests to Server 2030.

However, she received no response.

Even Baozi couldn’t stand to watch anymore and offered a kind reminder, ‘Why not try entering a public server for a bit?’

Su An was unwilling.

She had finally overcome eighty-one trials, only to be stuck at the final step.

[Beep-boop, someone has invited you…]

Su An’s eyes lit up.

Was it finally happening?

[Your real-world friend, ID Xiao Yu, has invited you to play “The End” together]

‘That’s not right. Shouldn’t it be an invitation to the Narrow Gate’s Server 2030?’

‘Wait, real-world friend? ID Xiao Yu? Could this be Gu Yu?’

Su An wanted to refuse, but she was even more afraid that if Gu Yu—the Android killer—discovered something was wrong, she would just kill her right then and there.

After thinking it over, she realized she couldn’t delay any longer.

She gritted her teeth and accepted the invitation.

[Your friend ID Hongjun Laozu has accepted the invitation and entered the game.]

“Huh? Ancestor? That suffix looks weird,”

Gu Yu muttered with a frown.

She could accept Hongjun, but what kind of name was “Ancestor”?

“Change it.”

“Yes, Master.”

Using her Local Model, Su An forcibly suppressed her anger and changed the ID to the two-character name “Hongjun.”

The young Gu Yu didn’t seem to know what that name represented.

Thinking of Gu Yu made Su An recall the things in the art studio.

She couldn’t help but feel heartache and rage.

Her poor daughter—how could she have met such a monster?

But for now, she could only endure.

Endure!

As long as she got through tonight, she would have a chance to contact Xiao Xue on Friday!

She would win!

A few hours later.

Gu Yu looked at the 5,000 shattered diamonds she had worked hard to grind and nodded with satisfaction.

She had paid some attention to game development before.

“Isn’t this generosity pretty good?”

she wondered.

She didn’t understand why people were saying the game’s rewards were terrible.

However, when she clicked into the Resonance Pool…

“Wait, what do you mean 5,000 for a single 10-pull?”

She pressed the button and then stared at the giant panda in front of her, falling into deep thought.

“Is this… right?”

To the side, Su An kept her brow furrowed, appearing somewhat distracted.

She kept praying for Gu Yu to leave quickly.

[(Hidden) Affection Level: 20 (She views you as an enemy)]

[(Fake) Affection Level: 100 (Bond of life and death)]

Gu Yu laughed out of sheer anger.

She logged out immediately and made a phone call to the Head of the Game Development Department.

The Head of Game Development, fuming with rage, called the person in charge of the relevant studio.

The studio head immediately promised to handle it.

Following President Gu’s orders, an email was sent out containing 100 limited pulls.

After hanging up, the person in charge grabbed a whip and literally whipped the planners into a frenzy.

Overnight, the entire server received 100 limited pulls and a standard selector!

Of course, Su An knew nothing about this.

She was just relieved that Gu Yu was finally gone.

When she returned to the game Narrow Gate, an invitation popped up.

[ID Ye Hua invites you to enter Server 2030. Do you accept?]

“Finally!”

“You’re finally awake.”

Hannah breathed a long sigh of relief.

Carnation blinked her azure eyes.

Once her vision fully recovered, she slowly sat up and looked at the sunset outside the window.

“What happened?”

“You were infected with a virus by that Deviant Android.”

Carnation held her head and began to slowly organize her memory modules.

However, as she did, her brow suddenly furrowed.

“What’s wrong?”

Having relaxed, Hannah returned to her usual casual manner, crossing her legs and looking curious.

“Something’s wrong!”

Carnation said with a serious expression.

“I just found a problem while organizing my memories!”

“The first Android was tampered with by 4396—Lin Yanan—in a bathroom where there was no surveillance! But the second Android was different. She also didn’t show any deviant traits, which means someone else tampered with her instructions too!”

Hannah realized the implication and stood up, her emerald eyes narrowing.

“True. Lin Yanan was hiding in the bathroom until she took advantage of the chaos to escape downstairs. During that time, she wouldn’t have been able to contact the second Android! Which means…”

Carnation nodded.

“There’s more than one Deviant Android!”

However, Hannah’s tense expression suddenly relaxed, and she smiled.

“What if we’re overthinking it? What if the second Android was just supposed to pass through there and was only suspected by the sensitive President Gu?”

“No!”

Carnation said firmly.

“Oh?”

“That glass bottle containing blue liquid was placed there intentionally!”

“Haha, you might have forgotten, but that was just a bottle of cleaner. It’s nothing special, not poison or anything like that.”

Hannah shrugged.

“No! I’m not talking about that. There was a small black strip on that bottle. I’m certain something was hidden inside! But my memory module is damaged, so I can’t see clearly what it was.”

“So?”

“I need to go back. I want to see the surveillance one more time.”

Carnation stared intently at Hannah.

Hannah glanced out the window.

“It’s just a guess. It’s so late today, why don’t we go tomorrow—”

Before she could finish, Carnation grabbed Hannah’s hands and said sincerely,

“Come with me! Please.”

Hannah’s expression wavered, but she finally scratched her blonde hair as if annoyed.

“Fine, fine, fine. We’ll go. I really can’t say no to you.”

The corners of Carnation’s mouth curled up slightly.

She pulled Hannah’s hand and set off immediately.

“Hey, hey, hey! We’re going right now?”

Hannah cried out.

Liu Rui watched the two of them dragging each other away and took a sip of his coffee, a knowing smile appearing on his face.

Then he suddenly realized something.

He put down his coffee, stood up quickly, and chased after them.

“Wait! Don’t leave yet! The two of us have to go to Jewel Street in the Northern Suburbs for a routine check tonight!”

“What did you say? I can’t hear you! It’s all yours!”

Hannah, who was being pulled by Carnation, leaped into a car, preheated it in microseconds, and vanished in a flash.

Liu Rui froze in place, his hand still extended mid-run.

“You… I…”

He laughed in frustration.

“Hi, brother.”

Just then, a large hand clapped Liu Rui on the shoulder.

“Hmm? What is it?”

The guy’s strength was considerable and it hurt a bit, but Liu Rui forced himself to turn around.

The newcomer was probably over 2 meters tall and covered in muscle.

The 1.8-meter-tall Liu Rui actually had to look up at him.

Liu Rui frowned slightly, feeling like the man looked unfamiliar, but the photo on the uniform and ID number matched.

“I happen to be free tonight. I’ll go with you.”

The muscular bald man smiled, looking a bit creepy.

“Huh?”

Liu Rui was surprised, but then he thought of Hannah and nodded thoughtfully.

Good looks always brought convenience.

Before he knew how bad Hannah’s personality was, he had also harbored fantasies and helped whenever he could.

This guy probably hadn’t seen it yet.

“Sure.”

Liu Rui nodded with a smile and agreed.

Only a fool would turn down free labor.

“Oh, by the way, brother, you look new. Which team leader do you work under? What’s your name?”

Liu Rui asked conversationally.

“Team Leader Wang. You can just call me Selie.”

“Huh? Kled?”

Liu Rui asked, shocked.

“It’s Selie,”

the man sighed.

“Sorry, sorry, brother. I just thought of a name. I guess I really am getting old. By the way, is ‘Se’ actually a surname?”

“I don’t know.”

Selie shook his head, crossing his arms over his bulging pectoral muscles in a defensive stance.

“When I was born, it seems the concept of surnames no longer existed.”

“Haha, stop joking. Surnames were only abolished in—”

Liu Rui’s face stiffened.

“2032… eighteen years ago? That long ago? Wait, brother, how old are you?”

“I just turned 18.”

“Haha, you old geezer, you’ve exposed yourself, haven’t you? Still trying to use memes.”

Selie scratched his head in confusion and said earnestly,

“I really just turned 18. My birthday was 1 month ago.”

“?”