Free Web NovelChapter 523: Chapter 140: Number 0 and Sequence 15
"As someone about to report to a company under the consortium, someone with a bright future ahead, I suddenly get a phone call, and you spout nonsense to me... What two worlds, what Rebel Army, what outsider..."
"Is that appropriate? The extent of how far-fetched you are now is just like how Morpheus took out two pills in ’The Matrix’ and told me one is reality and the other is a dream."
Combining his own experiences, the eerie agility, the intermittent memories, and the two phantoms that others can’t see.
Bai Wu probably believed... the ludicrous content of the phone call actually had some credibility.
But he still chose to express symbolic skepticism.
The person who resembled Arcas said:
"I could’ve threatened you, for instance... I know it was you who killed the Order Faction."
"Deal, I’ll go with you."
If anything went too smoothly, he would suspect there was a catch.
The fact that the other side had a backup plan somehow made everything seem more reasonable to Bai Wu.
For the next while, "Arcas" led Bai Wu through the various streets of Well City non-stop.
Around five-thirty in the morning, close to six, the sky was still quite dim.
Huge billboards displayed advertisements from the Seven Consortiums.
"Enjoy healthy food that makes you stronger!"
A fat man with a brain full of guts gave a thumbs up, apparently the spokesperson for some type of canned food.
When Bai Wu saw this fat man, a name exploded in his mind, along with the ensuing revulsion—Zhong Xu.
The one he referred to as Zhong Xu was simply a mukbang streamer under Gluttony Company.
Known for genuine eating, daring consumption, no waste, and no purging, many people liked watching him eat bizarre foods.
Like surströmming, bread drizzled with vinegar and soy sauce, or the burnt rice crust from the bottom of a rice cooker.
All of these were Bai Wu’s own memories, or perhaps they belonged to the Bai Wu of this world.
However, when he thought of the burnt rice crust from the rice cooker, Bai Wu suddenly stopped in his tracks.
He felt as though he had lost some important treasure.
But this feeling was quickly overpowered by the numerous other consortium advertisements.
On the way to the Rebel Army stronghold, Bai Wu saw many familiar faces. fгeewebnovёl.com
The cosmetic surgeon Yan Zhao from the Pride Consortium.
The football coach Qin Ye from the Greed Consortium.
And a fitness instructor from a gym under the Wrath Consortium.
Skyscrapers stood tall, neon lights flickered with various colors, and the huge billboards flashed with many familiar faces.
In an advertisement for a psychological consultancy under the Lust Consortium, Bai Wu even saw Cain.
Throughout the process, Bai Wu voiced his doubt:
"Could it be that everything I’m seeing now is the reverse of the real world?"
Arcas shook his head:
"Reverse? If only it were such a simple correspondence."
"You mean... the correspondence is complex?" Bai Wu asked.
Arcas nodded:
"Extremely complex. This world corresponds to your real world, but that doesn’t mean it’s the opposite."
"For instance, if it’s comfortable here, it might be an extremity temperature zone outside, but it could also not be."
"For example, if we plant a spy in the Order Faction, it might lead to a sudden appearance of a special Doomsday Puzzle fragment in the actual area, or it could cause a mutation in some ordinary person."
"Which parameters each person corresponds to in the real world, all of this needs to be confirmed."
Upon hearing "Arcas" mention parameters, the proud Ten of Spades glanced at Jing Liu.
Jing Liu snorted coldly:
"Hmph, even if the Well is indeed connected to the world, as the Inner World is, there are still significant differences inside."
"Yes, yes, but at least... I didn’t lie, did I? Look, dear Sister Six, I can be quite honest occasionally."
Spade Ten made a face at Jing Liu.
Jing Liu shivered with disgust.
If Jing Liu had to pick the most disgusting person among Old K, Bai Yuan, and Spade Ten, she’d find all three k’s from the Golden Generation repulsive.
But Spade Ten was unquestionably the most disgusting.
At least Bai Yuan was good-looking, and Old K was easy to deceive.
Bai Wu didn’t pay any attention to the bickering of his two "attached extras" and roughly understood.
"It seems that intelligence work is of the utmost importance."
"Yes, intelligence work is very important."
If the Rebel Army caused random destruction in Well City, it might not necessarily have a positive impact on the real world.
Arcas, with Bai Wu in tow, had already reached the sewer.
The stench in the sewer was so foul it made Bai Wu want to vomit.
However, Arcas was used to it, and continued schooling Bai Wu:
"For the majority of people here, killing them would indeed reduce the distortions in the real world. But there are some special cases. We once made a mistake."
"What mistake?"
"During an assassination attempt on a middle manager of the Sloth Group, our assassin messed up. Well... not messed up, but accidentally killed the target’s wife too. Guess what happened in the real world?"
"What happened?"
"In your world, there’s a Suspended City." This statement wasn’t the main point, Arcas explained:
"We’ve investigated. The middle manager of the Sloth Group was responsible for selling things like hot air balloons, while his wife was a kindergarten teacher whose greatest joy was playing with the kids, blowing lots of soap bubbles with soap water."
The oppressive darkness and stench made it hard to move forward, but Bai Wu, unbothered by these, was more interested in the story, saying:
"It sounds like they both had fairly uncommon jobs, doesn’t it? The work should be quite good?"
"The point isn’t whether their occupations are good or not in the Well World but the impact they have on the real world."
"Our assassin accidentally killed his wife too and we thought... since she was a kindergarten teacher, perhaps in the real world, she corresponded to some sort of rule that disturbs the mind. Good riddance, we thought, let the rule disappear with her."
Bai Wu furrowed his brows:
"But that wasn’t the case?"
In the darkness, "Arcas" shook his head:
"Yes, because of this accidental killing, a major accident occurred in that area, and it completely became a forbidden zone."
"The reality was greatly different from what we had imagined. Our assassination target, who was responsible for selling travel equipment for the Sloth Group, mainly hot air balloons."
"His impact on the real world was to reverse gravity in a certain area, causing many buildings to float up. Hence the Suspended City came to be."
"As for his wife, we kept wondering about her real-world impact, whether it was a unique rule in a certain area, on a mental level."
"After all, ’education’ by a kindergarten teacher mostly related to the mind in the past."
"We were completely wrong. The real significance of the target’s wife lay in blowing soap bubbles..."
"Every time she and those children blew soap bubbles, it would lead to the appearance of many... radioactive metal spheres in the real world..."
Upon hearing this, Bai Wu’s scalp tingled.
Who would have thought that soap bubbles from the Well World could make a bunch of radioactive materials appear in the real world?
This target’s corresponding element in reality might be her profession, or a certain lifestyle trait. Even a specific addiction or particular behavior.
As for Arcas’s story, Bai Wu didn’t need Arcas to elaborate on the remaining details; he could infer the rest himself:
"So above the Suspended City, many radioactive metal spheres appeared... because gravity had been altered, these spheres floated above?"
"But because you killed this couple from this world, the collapse of the gravity coefficient caused these metal spheres... to all fall from the sky?"
"The metal spheres exploded due to severe collision, causing a nuclear leak?"
Arcas nodded:
"Although that place was very remote, it later led to the deaths of some humans in the neighboring regions from radiation."
Bai Wu seemed to understand the meaning of this story.
The people under the various consortia in the Well World—
actually didn’t correspond to a particular person in the real world, but rather to the rules of the real world.
Each living person, in the real world, was essentially like the rules of gravity, temperature, the speed of time, the sense of spatial dislocation, matter recombination, chemical reactions... and all sorts of rule-related things.
These people lived in an organized manner.
But what they corresponded to was a world where all rules were chaotic and unordered...
The Well World and the real world were not opposite of each other, but rather connected by a complex web of relationships.
Having realized this, Bai Wu said,
"So who are you? What do you correspond to in the real world?"
As Bai Wu asked this question, "Arcas" had already brought Bai Wu to the entrance of their stronghold.
In a dark sewer corner, within the depths where a foul stench lingered, there was a door.
Arcas opened the door, the iron door slid, and the sound of rusted metal scraping echoed throughout the sewer.
Then a familiar voice came from inside:
"You come from the Pure Well District, outsider, and having made it here, you must have some understanding of our civilization. We are the remnants of a previous civilization, and what we correspond to is order, rules, stability."
"Once upon a time, we lived just as those people do, with orderly lives and a bright future."
"But due to the forced opening of the Well... The number of people from the Seven Sins’ forces surged. And obtaining higher abilities, those of us with power were driven out, and those without power were assimilated."
Suddenly there was light in the darkness, and as the light tore through the shadows, Bai Wu saw the person who had called him, in this mysterious room.
This person looked a lot like Arcas, only not as tall, and more like a teenager.
"Zero?"
Bai Wu was surprised as he always remembered the names of these people he met, but many memories were now unclear.
"It seems that the projection you see in me is a person you care about in reality. Even though you have lost all other memories about this projection, I can feel that inside you, there is joy." freewēbnoveℓ.com
The owner of this stronghold of the "Rebel Army" was indeed Zero.
Jack of Spades and Jing Liu knew what Zero meant to Bai Wu, and although they couldn’t see his face, since the projection Bai Wu saw was Zero, perhaps this person corresponded in the Well World to... a being like Zero in the real world.
And in reality, Zero could provide Bai Wu with tremendous assistance.
So Jack of Spades began to explain what kind of existence Zero was.
As Bai Wu listened, he conversed with "Zero."
"What abilities are you talking about?" Bai Wu asked.
This was undoubtedly a key point, and Zero responded seriously:
"Most people living in the Well World are just like the people in the real world, without superpowers."
"Some people are very important and hold high positions. Killing them can bring about great changes in the real world."
"But these people may be easy to kill, because they have no superpowers; or they may be hard to kill, because they might have awakened troublesome abilities."
"Zero" looked directly at Bai Wu:
"Just like you could easily kill two members of the Order Faction, you belong to the empowered ones."
"Are these abilities... linked to my abilities in the real world?"
"No, if you were very powerful in the real world and equally powerful here, many problems would easily be resolved."
"In fact... no matter how strong you are in the real world, when you come here, your strength is an unknown. Seven hundred years ago, someone came here and joined the Order Faction. His abilities were quite ordinary, but when he returned to the real world, he became an invincible existence, causing us a lot of trouble."
Bai Wu roughly understood and then asked the next question:
"How do you know about the real world? Can you observe the real world from this one?"
"This is my ability, Sequence Fifteen—Spy Satellite."
"I can see any corner and the area related to that corner, much like the connection between multiple worlds. So whenever I see a place in the Well World, I can see the corresponding place in the real world."
The Ten of Spades looked towards Jing Liu, for this question fell within her domain. Jing Liu spoke:
"The sequence of the Causal System, though a sequence is a usage of the original force after purification, much like Prayle’s Eye. Compared to the pure Causal Force, its usage may be limited, but it is more efficient in the corresponding domain."
"This person’s ability, although purely supportive, is akin to a full-map vision... In a sense, despite being unable to see the past or the future, he commands the highest amount of information in the current moment."
In the end, Jing Liu only added three words:
"Very dangerous."
Bai Wu also sensed the danger.
If this person were not an ally... then what a terrifying enemy would he be?
No matter where you flee, as long as you are still on the current timeline, he can see everything clearly.
Of course, searching the entire world would still take time. Perhaps that is the only weakness of this ability.
It’s no wonder I killed two members of the Order Faction, making sure no one saw, yet he could see.
Bai Wu said:
"So I am an ability user. You found me... what do you want to do?"
"I hope you can join the Rebel Army and help us fight against the Seven Sins Consortium. We need to assassinate someone right now—he has abilities and is very troublesome, having already cost us a lot of people. If you kill him, the probability of humans in the real world becoming Evil Fallen will decrease significantly."
"That’s indeed a very important parameter. It seems this person is no simple matter," The Ten of Spades said to Bai Wu.
"What kind of person is this?" Bai Wu asked,
Suddenly, lights and shadows appeared on the black wall, as if a projector had cast an image.
In that instant, Bai Wu’s expression changed ever so slightly.
Fortunately, it was not obvious in the dim light, and Bai Wu himself had a strong ability to restrain his emotions.
For "Arcas," "Zero," and even The Ten of Spades and Jing Liu, all the people they saw lacked any real projection and were faceless.
There were no facial features; everyone looked the same. The only distinction was the sequence number around their necks.
But Bai Wu saw differently; he could see the corresponding projection.
Thus, when the target for assassination appeared in the image, Bai Wu suddenly felt averse.
Because the target—was Gu Qingyu.
When the words "Captain" surfaced subconsciously in his memory, Bai Wu knew... he could not do this.
This person must not be killed.
"Does ’Zero’ have any other features?"
"What?"
The abrupt question from Bai Wu took "Zero" by surprise.
The Ten of Spades knew the question was directed at him.
Being extremely intelligent, he guessed that Bai Wu must have seen some special real projection, and since he had just been speaking well of Zero, he immediately understood that Bai Wu now needed to hear about Zero’s "not so good side."
"In a way, Zero has a certain possessive desire for you, hoping you would assist him in managing Mechanical City. Zero is indeed exceptionally special to you, but he does not have a liking for humanity... even after your ’feigned death,’ Zero outright refused to help humans."
"If not for you, I wouldn’t be surprised if Zero even stood against humanity."
Jing Liu was astonished; how did The Ten of Spades know so much about Bai Wu’s past?
Bai Wu pondered in secret.
If the projection before him was Zero, as described by The Ten of Spades, did it imply that... this person truly intended to recruit him, sincerely, but more so, wished to... use him?
In reality, Zero might aid humanity for his sake, but this world was different; this world had only two forces.
Although the projection of this person was Zero, it doesn’t necessarily mean he was completely the same as Zero.
Upon reflection, within the Order Faction’s territory, why had there been no obstacles for him and "Arcas" on their journey?
The process of meeting this "Zero" seemed a bit too smooth as well.
If it were not for the assassination target being Gu Qingyu, maybe Bai Wu wouldn’t have doubted.
But now, he began to ponder whether these people before him were really the Rebel Army?
