Right on Target (TARGET)
Inspector ignored the cat's tail as if it hadn't just poked him. He shifted his gaze to Su Heting, his eyes conveying a clear message of "believe it or not."
Wait.
—That look.
Su Heting pondered silently.
—Why does this look feel so familiar?
"People here bleed," Yu Cheng, the bespectacled one, hastily interjected, worried Su Heting wouldn't believe him. "To make the Punishment Zone more realistic, the Main God System designed humans as fragile beings who bleed when injured and dissipate upon death. So, anyone who bleeds is human."
"Hold on," Su Heting recalled his last visit to the Punishment Zone, his wandering gaze settling back on Inspector. "I remember this officer can resurrect."
He enunciated the word "officer" with deliberate clarity.
"That's—"
"That's a transfer of consciousness," Inspector cut in and continued, "I don’t share the same settings as them. When I leave temporarily, an auto-regulator repairs my virtual vessel here. Once the vessel is restored, my consciousness is reimported, making it seem like resurrection."
"Got it," Su Heting said. "Your body isn’t in the Farm."
Humans in the Light Rail District—the Farm—were monitored by artificial intelligence. They entered the Punishment Zone through unified interfaces or chips, and were bound by the Main God System’s programming. Even with scramblers, they could still get injured or die. But Inspector’s ability to transfer consciousness at will was too unrestricted, so Su Heting guessed his body wasn’t in the Farm—likely an illegal stowaway like himself.
"Mhm." Inspector tacitly admitted it but didn’t reveal where his body was.
Su Heting suddenly asked, "You’re not a robot, are you?"
Inspector replied, "...For now, I’m still human."
The new world hadn’t yet achieved full consciousness storage. They could only search for potential bugs in vast, complex virtual worlds like the Punishment Zone. As Inspector said, he could only leave briefly. If his auto-regulator were destroyed and his virtual vessel took too long to repair, he would die too.
Only artificial intelligence was exempt—they could inhabit machines and, even after destruction, survive for extended periods, if not forever.
"Since we’re all human," Su Heting asked, "why were you trying to kill me last time?"
"Couldn’t confirm your identity," Inspector said, the bell between his fingers jingling softly. "You were using a Xingtian interface."
"Which brings us to the question," Su Heting took a deep breath, his expression both serious and puzzled, "why aren’t you working with Xingtian?"
Xingtian was currently humanity’s strongest and largest armed organization. Their goal was to retake the Light Rail District and liberate all humans. If Inspector and his group were prisoners in the Farm, their objectives should align.
"Xingtian’s undercover agents are all here to find the super-evolution system 'Jue’." Hua Zhi tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear. "I bet Xingtian told you that destroying the Main God System would be as simple as finding Jue, right?"
"Yep," Su Heting answered innocently.
"That’s why the officer kills undercover agents," Hua Zhi said. "We can look for Jue, but we can’t destroy the Main God System right away."
"You, the ones who escaped the Great Explosion, are the last survivors," Hua Zhi lightly tapped her finger in Su Heting's direction. "Xingtian has already abandoned the rescue operations in the Light Rail District. We've all been abandoned. If Jue falls into Xingtian's hands, the Punishment Zone will collapse, and we... hundreds of thousands of humans in the breeding farms will die."
"Only by liberating the Light Rail District first," Yu Cheng adjusted his glasses, "can we shut down the Punishment Zone and safely log out."
The sound of rain outside the vehicle was deafening, blown in by the wind. The nighttime temperature in the Punishment Zone was lower than in the Black Market, reminiscent of late autumn in the old world. Su Heting felt a long-lost chill.
The number "hundreds of thousands" was staggering. The cries of so many people might even drown out the Punishment Zone's torrential rain. Their bodies were bound and their consciousness imprisoned, like wandering ghosts of the new world, drifting in the shadows of the virtual realm, enduring the slow torture of time.
The atmosphere inside the vehicle grew heavy.
After a moment, Su Heting asked, "If that's the case, why not just kill me?"
"You've been in contact with Jue," Dong Fang quickly glanced at Inspector. "Didn't you enter the Time-Limited Hunt? We want to find Jue and talk to it."
"Ah..." Su Heting wanted to raise his hand to touch the tip of his nose but stopped when it tugged at Inspector's grip. He had to lower it again, meeting the gazes of everyone in the vehicle. "Though I could come up with a dozen excuses, I'll just say it straight—everyone..."
He paused irritably, wrinkling his nose.
"I've lost my memory."
He had no recollection of any Time-Limited Hunt, let alone some super-evolved system called Jue.
Yet the people in the vehicle remained eerily calm.
Hua Zhi said, "Oh."
Yu Cheng followed up with reassurance, "It's fine, you can take your time to remember... uh, no pressure."
These people were highly suspicious.
Su Heting used his other hand to rub his nose, scrutinizing them. "If I'm useless now, why not kill me? Keeping me around for the holidays?"
"We believe... uh," Yu Cheng stammered nervously and kept pushing his glasses up repeatedly, as if trying to hide the fact that he kept glancing at Inspector, "that you're a good person who loves Earth and stands by your comrades."
Su Heting: "?"
You think that highly of me?
The atmosphere grew increasingly bizarre. The three of them avoided eye contact, neither daring to look directly at Su Heting nor to Inspector.
Inspector's hand moved. He handed Su Heting a bell. "Wear this so you won't get lost."
Su Heting took the bell, feeling as if he'd been officially inducted into the group. But then he flicked his tail at Inspector, its tip clicking as it folded and reassembled into a small glowing light.
"I come with my own light," he said. "I never get lost."
Inspector stared at the light, and Su Heting felt the weight of his gaze. "After sunset is the hour of slaughter. The rain will extinguish all mortal lights."
The Main God System was the deity of the Punishment Zone. Its programmed rules were divine edicts here. Even if some managed to escape, everything else still had to obey its laws.
Su Heting said, "Even the lights of stowaways go out? I'm from the Black Market. I shouldn't be bound by the Main God System's restrictions."
Inspector lifted his gaze, meeting Su Heting's briefly. His eyes were deep, devoid of mockery or scorn. In that moment, his expression wasn't the usual emotionless coldness but an indescribable loneliness.
Softly, he said, "They will. All light fades eventually."
The bell jingled softly, its sound light and ethereal. Su Heting absentmindedly shook it, his mind replaying that phrase.
After sunset comes the slaughter.
Suddenly, the car door was flung open with a thwack, and a child in a raincoat climbed in. Unzipping the coat, he revealed a face that looked no older than eight or nine. "Holding a debriefing? The wind outside nearly blew me away."
Yu Cheng hurried to pour tea.
"So this is the newbie the boss brought along?" The kid shed his raincoat and greeted Su Heting, "Hello, kitty."
Su Heting replied, "Hello, kid."
"Call me Xiao Gu. I'm not a kid," Xiao Gu took the tea, downed half in one gulp, and flashed Su Heting a grin. "I'm 36 this year."
Su Heting leaned forward while still locking eyes with him. "Huh—?"
"I was one of the first exiled to the Punishment Zone. It's been six years now." Xiao Gu cradled the cup with an air of aged wisdom. "Ah, how I miss the old world. Time flies."
Su Heting eyed him skeptically. "You're 36?"
Xiao Gu chuckled, stroking his nonexistent mustache. "There's a bit of a bug in the system. If you want to hear about it, I can explain—"
Dong Fang clapped a hand over Xiao Gu’s mouth and dragged him away from Su Heting. "Let the boss explain it to him!"
Like a gust of wind, he swept Hua Zhi along too before slamming the partition shut.
Now, only three people remained in the car.
Su Heting, handcuffed to Inspector, and the unshackled Yu Cheng, still holding the teapot.
"I…" Yu Cheng’s face flushed abruptly as he glanced around nervously. "Maybe I should also…"
Weird.
Su Heting stretched out a long leg, blocking Yu Cheng’s path. He didn’t want—no, he really didn’t want to be left alone with Inspector. So, steeling himself, he blurted out a question: "Do you all have jammers?"
"Y-yes, mine’s the glasses…" Yu Cheng adjusted his spectacles again, looking like he was about to break into a sweat. "Dong Fang’s are cufflinks, Hua Zhi’s is a hairpin…"
"And the boss has the cross star?" Su Heting’s pronunciation of boss sounded like it had been chewed between his teeth.
Yu Cheng nodded vigorously.
Su Heting pressed, "Then why do I get stuck with a bell?"
"B-because…" Yu Cheng stammered again.
Inspector raised his hand slightly, tugging Su Heting closer. A faint, clean scent lingered around him. The smooth line of his jaw and the curve of his throat came into Su Heting’s view.
"Because it was the last one left," he paused before turning his head away under Su Heting’s gaze, his tone utterly indifferent. "It suits you just fine."
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