Su Ming’an stared at the bullet in his hand.
It was crystal blue all over, extrely beautiful, like a clear blue crystal.
This was sothing Su Rin gave him before he left the Sanctuary.
...
[Source Breaker Bullet (Purple Grade)
Type: Consumable item
Description: Load it into any firearm to activate. Your next gunfire will inevitably sever the target’s neural connection to the Dawn System, destroying the Dawn Chip implanted in their body.
The shot individual may survive with ergency first aid but will permanently lose recognition of certain parts of their body.]
...
Ming’an had never expected Su Rin to give him such an item.
...This "Source Breaker Bullet," could forcibly remove the Dawn Chip from a person.
Anyone hit by this bullet will lose their Dawn Chip permanently. As long as they receive ergency aid in ti, they will not die.
This item was found by the Sanctuary in the Danger Zone. It reminded Su Ming’an that the Danger Zone held many treasures, despite being extrely chaotic due to the presence of spatial turbulence. Yet the effect of this item was indeed miraculous, almost transcending the standards of the world.
[Who this bullet is ant for, you decide yourself.] These were the words Su Rin had spoken to him.
"—What are you looking at?"
Xiaoi’s voice floated over gently, her hand clutching an old, tattered parts basket.
"A thing for killing," Ming’an put away the bullet.
He surveyed the scene around him—today was the fifth day since the replica had opened. The buildings in The Fringe were far from as modern as those in the city, giving off a vibe of an urban village. Buildings with exposed rusty steel rebar were everywhere, with floating dust, yellowish-brown bricks, discarded machinery, and containers filling the view.
The reason he and Xiaoi were acting together was due to a system notification:
[You are currently on a TE route.]
[This replica is an open-world type, featuring countless TE routes. If you actively pursue multiple TE routes, additional Points will be awarded as a reward.]
[After completing a Perfect Pass on one TE route, you can still pursue other TE routes.]
...
[Current route: TE2 (bias 65%)/TE6 (bias 23%)/Other (bias 12%)]
[TE2·"The Evil Dragon Enters Her Heart" (Maximize "Dong An’an’s" Favorability—must experience all scenarios with her, cannot forcibly increase it using the Ruler’s Skill)]
[TE6·"Her and Him on the Screen" (Fulfill AI Xike’s wish)]
...
[Perfect Completion Progress (TE2): 30%]
...
By doing so, the problem of racing against ti was essentially solved—he could first complete the relatively simple Perfect Pass, monopolizing the position where only one person in the tens of thousands of players could Perfectly Pass the instance, before considering supplenting other Perfect Completion progress based on the situation, ultimately achieving an SSS-grade Perfect Pass.
It seed that as long as he stayed with Xiaoi, the progress bar for Perfect Completion would increase.
He activated AI Xike—by now, he didn’t care whether the Dawn System locked onto his position or not. After staying here all night without the chanical Army coming to capture him, it was clear that Dawn wasn’t in a hurry to apprehend him.
[Good morning, Doctor.] Xike’s voice erged.
Upon seeing Xike appear, desire filled Xiaoi’s eyes.
A beautiful, intelligent, highly intelligent AI with extrely high privileges was no different from the most precious treasure in such a world.
Xike noticed the faintly glowing Dawn Chip on the nape of Xiaoi’s neck, a light that was orange in color.
[Citizen information: Xiaoi. Current Emotional Value: 64 points, emotions are in the orange zone, at risk of overload any mont.] Xike suggested: [I recomnd you take your dication promptly or engage in emotional healing.]
Xiaoi’s grip tightened, and she lowered her head. How could she possibly take the ti to receive any healing.
"—Whoosh—!"
The light rail swooped overhead, bringing a gust of cool wind, and a couple stepped off the platform. Their voices drifted over on the breeze.
"I’ve been classified as a Type-II Persona, maybe in a few days, I’ll be leaving The Fringe to start working in the city," the young man said.
"Congrats! It’s still a few days before my test results co out... If I’m classified as an inferior Persona, it would ruin my life; I don’t want to be stuck with that bunch in The Fringe forever..." The girl hugging him lowered her head.
"Don’t worry, even if you have an inferior Persona, I will buy you dicine, I... I won’t let you suffer from Emotional Overload," the young man promised with a flushed face, "I’ve been listed as a Hawk Hound reserve, the salary won’t be low."
"Ah, no need to take a test, directly checking compatibility to start work, that’s great... I rember a long ti ago, people needed to take exams and various certificates for a job, wouldn’t that have been exhausting? Thank goodness for Dawn System, it’s done away with all that useless effort..."
"All thanks to the City Lord..."
Murmuring to each other, they walked further away.
Su Ming’an watched the couple, knowing they were a man and a woman enjoying the privileges of the City-State, with countless such "happy" n and won within the city itself.
The malice he saw directed at Yasa Acto was actually just from the minority. The majority of the City-State’s citizens still worship Dawn and Acto like deities; not everyone has the heart of a wolf and the lungs of a dog, "the change of the tis" is not a reason that convinces them.
To the vested interests, this era is great.
It couldn’t be any better.
Following the direction in which the couple had left, he suddenly saw on the cinema’s LCD screen, a line of big characters:
[Movie—Does the chanical Heart Dream of the Thing of Truth? Now screening hotly!]
"Xiaoi, let’s go watch a movie," he said, turning back to her and looking at her earnestly.
Upon hearing his words, not just Xiaoi, but the viewers too were shocked.
[Whoa, this is the first ti I’ve seen entertainnt elents in this streaming room!]
[What’s this? Billions of broadcasts for a new movie in the Ruined World?]
[Everyone quiet down, the Number One Player says watch a movie, there must be his reasons for it, and maybe there’s more to this film than ets the eye.]
[I’ll watch whatever Su Ming’an streams, even if he’s telling naughty jokes!!]
[What exactly does ’Ta Wei’ an? Just plain thought intrusion? I always feel like sothing’s off...]
[...]
What Su Ming’an was really interested in were the words "Thing of Truth" in the movie title. "Searching for the Thing of Truth" was his Ruler’s Quest—it was also undoubtedly the core of the instance.
Su Rin gave him dicine for fever last night, and he was no longer feverish, his physical condition was also still good.
"I, I have no money," Xiaoi said softly.
She saw Su Ming’an walking into a shop.
This is a tal recycling shop, a very common type of store where people can exchange valuable items they find in trash for money, and the shop can profit from buying and selling these items.
"Recycling tal? Put it on the table, I’ll have a look in a bit." The sweaty bald middle-aged owner said indifferently upon seeing Su Ming’an. He was busy eating a boxed al and had no ti to attend to custors.
At this mont, Su Ming’an was wearing "Wang Han’s Human Skin Mask," a unique prop with special rules. Once worn, it automatically grants him a fabricated NPC identity. Back in the Fourth World, the mayor had identified him as Poli, a son returning ho, because of it.
In the eyes of the tal shop’s owner, Su Ming’an, with a different face, was not the Lord of Acto City but an ordinary resident living in The Fringe, confined to a wheelchair.
"Xike, do I have anything valuable on ?" Su Ming’an whispered to Xike.
Here in The Fringe, network paynts were not very applicable; most people still bartered or used cash. Even though there should be a lot of money on Su Ming’an’s Acto card, it was useless here.
"You should ask... what on you isn’t valuable." Xike replied softly.
"Clang." The owner finished his al, wiped his greasy lips, and walked over. Su Ming’an hesitated for a mont before pulling out a component from an inside pocket, a discarded part he used three days ago to practice his chanics skills. Such parts were common in Central City, the cheapest thing on him.
But when he took out the component, the owner’s expression changed in an instant.
Trembling, the owner reached out and gingerly held the dark gold component, carefully examining and almost staring a hole through it.
After a mont, the owner turned his head and stamred a question to Su Ming’an, "Where, where did you get this thing?"
"Found it." Su Ming’an lied without batting an eye.
"This is a proprietary part from the [T-92] model submachine gun. Those guns were sealed off thirty years ago due to excessive lethality." The owner took a deep breath, "What a waste. Those people above can airdrop such things to us, you are really lucky. 20 Rosebloods (currency), I’ll take it."
... What?
Su Ming’an was slightly startled, knowing that 5 Rosebloods was enough to support a large family in The Fringe. Little i didn’t even have 1 Roseblood in savings, yet this single component was worth 20 Rosebloods?
And that was the owner deliberately lowering the price to profit.
Such a component was rely the most ordinary one he possessed. His wheelchair also had many detachable chanical parts with unknown value...
For the first ti, he felt the benefits of this identity—he was so wealthy.
Pocketing the 20 coins, Su Ming’an left the shop. While buying movie tickets, he saw several machines nearby.
"Automatic Dessert Maker," "Simulated Clothing Store," "Emotion Care Machine," "Health Checkup Machine"...
He approached the machines.
The "Simulated Clothing Store" displayed what custors would look like in their chosen clothes according to their appearance, eliminating the need to try on each piece.
The "Emotion Care Machine" replaced the role of a psychologist, diating appropriately according to the confider’s situation and prescribing ntal dication.
The "Health Checkup Machine" scanned a person’s health status and produced a dical report upon their entering the machine, so people could buy dicine according to the report...
The more Su Ming’an observed, the more miraculous he found technology to be.
These four machines he saw alone replaced the lifetis of a dessert chef, a sales associate, a psychologist, a doctor, and several laboratory technicians.
What caught his attention even more was a machine nearby called the "Electronic Fortune Telling Machine"...
Su Ming’an inserted a 0.05 Roseblood coin, pulled the lever, and with a "whir," the machine displayed "Calculating fortune..."
He was sowhat nostalgic for such things. They were similar to those machines Zhai Xing had—a coin was inserted, and a fortune-telling slip was dispensed. He and his father had played with them when he was young at the supermarket. Although they seed unreliable, they were surprisingly appealing.
Even in this age of extre technologization, such elents of mysticism had not disappeared.
"..." Xike had been silent for a long while. It never expected Su Ming’an to be so childish today, both watching movies and playing with fortune-telling machines, completely different from the image it had of him.
"ZzZzZz..." The machine signaled that the fortune-telling was complete, and a segnt of text appeared on the screen, next to which there was also an image.
...
[—Do you think this sort of life is not good enough?]
[Since that’s the case, don’t delve deeper into it.]
[What is most precious in life is to have a dream that seems unattainable yet one believes it to be within reach.]
[Isn’t this a kind of human naivety?]
...
[Image: (A solid object in the shape of a rose-red flower.)]
...
Su Ming’an’s grip on the rod trembled slightly.
...Sohow, he felt that these words were not only a fortune told for Acto but also seed to be spoken to him.
Was this fortune-telling machine that mystical?
"Bang!" He suddenly heard a dull thud, and when he turned around, he saw Xiao i sitting on the ground with a plop. Her face turned pale as she stared at the image on the machine.
"Xike, what is this picture?" Su Ming’an also noticed the accompanying image next to it.
The thing in the picture was quite pretty, like a blooming flower in the color of blood.
[Roseblood.] Xike’s voice paused: [It’s a highly addictive ntal drug that, due to its low price, has been widely abused. However, it causes significant harm to the human body. To avoid emotional overload, many white-collar workers consu it regularly. Recently, its circulation has been prohibited and listed as an illegal drug.]
"...I see." Su Ming’an nodded, indeed finding the substance disgusting.
Wait a minute.
Why would an [electronic fortune-telling machine] load such an image for him?
He glanced at Xike instinctively.
[It would be best not to focus on Roseblood lately, Doctor.] Xike said:
[There’s no need for you to continue making it for now.]
...
[Current Perfect Completion Progress (TE2): 35%]
...
[Hawk Hound·Third Ring District Headquarters]
In front of the bathroom mirror, a striking woman with silver hair was fixing her hair.
After neatly tying her hair into a ponytail, Luna fastened the square black soft cap of the Hawk Hounds on her head, the badge on her shoulder gleaming brightly—it was the insignia of the head of the guards.
Executing tasks in the Third Ring District and the successful resolution of various cases had earned her quite a few points.
Upon exiting the bathroom, she ran into her colleague Casey.
"Lucy, fancy a cup of coffee? The Roseblood case is indeed tough to pursue; no background on the manufacturer has been found yet," Casey said with a low chuckle.
"No thanks, I’ve got sothing else to do," Luna replied with a stern face, clearly in a bad mood: "We have to catch the despicable individual manufacturing Roseblood as soon as possible. Anyone who dares to commit such a heinous cri deserves to be chopped into pieces, even that wouldn’t be punishnt enough."
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