From the Abyss of Stars

099. Ruins Investigation

 

"What's going on?"

 

The emergency brake caught the other bounty hunters off guard, some were momentarily stunned and unable to grasp the situation.

 

"That shaman betrayed us! He killed Ox—"

 

The warrior's companion had just spoken when Xue Nian lifted his bear paw, claws piercing the ears, crushing the head immediately.

 

Bang bang bang bang bang bang!

 

Someone reacted, firing the rifle continuously. Xue Nian ducked behind the seat, the narrow space of the bus blocking the opponent's long weapon, making it impossible to aim.

 

"It's a bear shaman! Damn it, focus fire on him, don't let him get close, he can tear a car apart with his bare hands!"

 

At this moment, Luo Le hacked into the vehicle's lighting system again.

 

Pop pop pop!

 

The power overload caused all the light bulbs to explode, shattering glass injured the nearby bounty hunters. Just as they were about to retaliate, they were plunged into darkness.

 

【Air conditioning system hacked—[Heating mode] temperature: 38.9°C】

 

"I can't see anything!"

 

"Use thermal imaging sights—damn it, why did the air conditioning temperature suddenly get so high!"

 

Xue Nian remained silent, activating his spiritual power. His ghostly green eyes, like ghostly flames, saw through the spiritual vision, those bounty hunters trapped in darkness were defenseless, like lambs to the slaughter.

 

"Jump out of the car—" Someone realized something was wrong, groping in the dark to find the window, immediately lifting their weapon and breaking hammer to try to smash the glass and escape.

 

【Protective panels raised】

 

Luo Le leisurely sat in the back, his electronic eye glowing red, watching these NPCs break the glass only to hit the bus's protective steel plates, creating a resonant clanging sound.

 

Clang clang clang...

 

Lu Run was stunned by this scene. In a brief moment, the ferocious desperados were hunted down and slaughtered by Xue Nian and Luo Le.

 

Although he couldn't see in the dark, the continuous screams and the experience gains from team bonuses left the newbie deeply shocked.

 

"Here."

 

Suddenly, Luo Le handed him a pistol:

 

"Gain some experience, boost your attributes. In danger, you can only rely on yourself."

 

Lu Run suddenly realized, hurriedly holding up the pistol, asking Luo Le how to use it, then started to finish off the enemies and gain kills.

 

This battle was completely one-sided, not to mention Xue Nian as a 【Shaman】 of the 【Eerie】 system, his strong physique and spiritual power erosion made the bounty hunters helpless. Luo Le's secondary profession 【Hacker】 played a crucial role in this battle.

 

The power system was restored, some lights were reactivated, and the entire bus was illuminated again, leaving only the three of them alive.

 

"The blocking time is seventy minutes left, I need to hack into the bus's program and rewrite the destination."

 

Luo Le handled the next tasks, while Xue Nian and Lu Run began to count the loot.

 

"These people's equipment is of such low quality." Lu Run couldn't help but complain as he watched Xue Nian dismantle the synthetic spines from their bodies.

 

Xue Nian was accustomed to it: "It's normal, poor people can't afford good prosthetics—these third or fourth-hand items, combined, aren't worth 20,000 Derbies."

 

"I'll help you." Lu Run stepped forward to help dismantle the prosthetics from the dead bodies, suddenly realizing something: "Hey, if a player dies, will their prosthetics disappear too?"

 

"It depends." Xue Nian said: "You probably don't know about the player's resurrection mechanism, right?"

 

"No. That's right." Lu Run nodded: "I only know that our bodies seem to be formed by summoning NPCs. What happens to players after they die?"

 

"Simply put, you descend into an NPC's body, also having some special abilities."

 

Xue Nian said:

 

"If you check the information of yourself as an NPC, you'll find that players have signed a lifelong service with the 'Neritan Member Medical Institution.'"

 

"Neritan Member Medical Institution? What's that?" Lu Run caught the term.

 

"I don't know, but it's there, probably arranged by the AI—in short, this medical institution implants special nanomachines in the body you descend into—here, give me the gun."

 

"Oh." Lu Run quickly handed the gun back.

 

"It's like this."

 

Xue Nian took the gun, adjusted it to burst mode, and casually shot himself in the head.

 

Bang!

 

Under Lu Run's gaze, Xue Nian's brains and blood splattered all over the row of seats.

 

"Fuck!"

 

Lu Run screamed.

 

Xue Nian, shot in the head, knelt on one knee, struggling slightly before collapsing to the ground, his pupils gradually dilating, but a calm explanation came through the voice channel:

 

"No matter what fatal injury a player suffers, they won't die immediately. When your health drops to zero, you'll enter a 'dying' state for up to one minute. During this period, if you receive treatment, you can recover from the 'dying state'—take the healing agent from my pocket and give me a shot."

 

Xue Nian's calm tone quickly brought Lu Run back to his senses. Following his instructions, he took out a healing agent from Xue Nian's pocket and injected it into his neck.

 

"As long as the player's dying state doesn't exceed one minute, they can return safely."

 

The next moment, Xue Nian's head swayed, the wound quickly healing before their eyes. Aside from a slightly pale complexion, he stood up as if nothing had happened, then ate and drank, taking some medication to restore his health.

 

"It's amazing..."

 

Lu Run was very tempted, picking up the gun, about to try it on himself.

 

"Even if you die, it's fine," Luo Le, who was hacking into the transport vehicle's computer program, interjected: "If you exceed one minute, the player's character is considered dead, and Neritan will immediately activate the nanomachines to revive you."

 

"Does that mean players can resurrect infinitely?"

 

"Not that easy—although even if only a molecule is left, as long as it doesn't exceed one minute, you can be saved... well, it does sound amazing."

 

Xue Nian explained:

 

"But it doesn't mean you can die limitlessly—based on our calculations, nanomachines can only perform full-body repairs three times. Also, after each death, you don't revive on the spot, but at the nearest player hub or main city."

 

Lu Run's eager heart quickly calmed down, hesitantly asking:

 

"What happens after three deaths? Permanent account deletion?"

 

"No, only the NPC's body you descended into dies." Xue Nian said: "After dying three times, the body is completely useless, unable to bear your descent anymore. Your account needs a 24-hour cooldown—in the game, that's about 30 days."

 

"What a loss... Will there be any other effects after that?"

 

"Yes, after the 24-hour cooldown, when you log back into the game, your interface won't be 'Descent.'"

 

Xue Nian said:

 

"You need to redeploy, carrying your knowledge, experience, level, and rank, and descend into a similar NPC character."

 

"Wait, won't my previous identity, accumulated tasks, held equipment, and favorability be gone then—"

 

"Yes, your identity will change, the faction usually won't, task progress resets, current level experience progress clears, as for favorability..."

 

Xue Nian said meaningfully:

 

"As far as I know, NPCs with favorability below 500 (Respect) won't remember you anymore. Those above 500 points won't care how you came back."

 

He wanted to ask more, but Luo Le suddenly said:

 

"The position is adjusted, we'll arrive at Abyss Humanitarian in about 15 minutes."

 

"Be prepared." Xue Nian nodded: "The difficulty of Abyss Humanitarian seems very high. Even if Li Aozi destroyed it, before the Rose Army arrives, nearby bandit gangs might target it."

 

"Those scum aren't even enough for me to level up." Luo Le scoffed: "Let's quickly find Li Aozi's footage, complete the company's promotional task, and get on with our tasks—I don't want to work overtime four or five hours a day. I really don't get it, prisoners work eight hours a day, this is slavery, isn't it? I'd rather watch meteorites on a colony."

 

"Stop complaining, at least the company doesn't withhold wages."

 

"Nonsense, prisoner wages are so low, after buying a few crates of soda and a meal, it's gone. If they withheld that, Tricksy Network must be broke."

 

Xue Nian and Luo Le bantered, leaving Lu Run unable to interject. He idly continued watching Li Aozi's footage and data, thinking about how to edit the footage.

 

Suddenly, he noticed his reflection on the screen—compared to his previous thin appearance, his contours and edges seemed increasingly similar to his real self.

 

"What a magical game..."

 

Not long after, they arrived at the P-205 shelter. The three of them carefully sneaked in through the main entrance. Along the way, they saw severed limbs and remains everywhere, the rotting stench making them nauseous. They couldn't help but put on respiratory masks, even in the game, to avoid any infection.

 

However, their caution seemed to be unnecessary.

 

The place was empty, not a single person around.

 

"The lower levels were burned by fire, the first floor is basically cleared out, not even a rat."

 

Luo Le found the Abyss Humanitarian's machine room and server, while Xue Nian noticed some not-so-fresh military boot prints and Frost-Plated bullet casings on the ground.

 

"Looks like Frost-Plated came here earlier." Xue Nian said regretfully, "They probably took the most valuable information."

 

"Not necessarily."

 

Power was restored, Luo Le hacked into the Abyss Humanitarian's server. After searching for a while, he immediately laughed:

 

"Frost-Plated's hacking expert must have gotten in through connections, their cracking methods are very poor. Look at this database, they actually tried to use a virus to break in—if it were me, I would extract the host computer's authentication protocol like this, bypass the firewall, and unlock it."

 

As he finished speaking, he unlocked the Abyss Humanitarian's confidential database.

 

"Let me see... Holy crap, what is all this? Bio King Kong, anti-gravity system, bio-machinery, virus pods, camouflage form, Theseus brain, bio high-voltage current, living batteries, cellular computers, chitin bio barrels, brainwave remote sensing, psionic communication—"

 

The wealth of information stunned Luo Le.

 

"These materials... at least involve 40 basic knowledge topics of the 【Exquisite】 system, 3 advanced topics, enough for a 【Biochemist】 to quickly advance to Beta tier (β, the second Greek letter)!"

 

"There are also 75 human experiment records: 'Physiological Mutations Caused by Omega Energy in Adolescent Males and Females: Detailed Anatomy Diagrams'—my God, how many lives were sacrificed to obtain this."

 

As Luo Le browsed, he quickly found a special video. Its name was a string of numbers and letters, different from the orderly arrangement.

 

Out of curiosity, he immediately clicked to play:

 

The screen went black first, then brightened up. The sound of a subway whistling came through, and the light illuminated the station name: Krasnaya Gora Station.

 

"Is this subway surveillance?"

 

A fierce armored train arrived, braked, and stopped. The doors opened, and a group of tall, imposing soldiers in black and white uniforms slowly disembarked, carrying crates of ammunition, supplies, and equipment.

 

Soon after, a woman's voice slowly sounded:

 

"You finally arrived, agents of Law III, you've had a long journey."

 

"No problem, Professor Anna."

 

The camera moved to a young intelligence officer with a peaked cap, a stern look, and half-black, half-white hair. He saluted Anna, without shaking hands, his blue eyes extremely cold, and he said calmly:

 

"Law III, Level 2 Investigator, Du Zexin, ordered to transfer these supplies."

 

"Du? That surname is rare in Frost-Plated..." Doctor Anna was slightly surprised, "Forgive me, what is your relationship with Ms. Du Jiali?"

 

"Same surname, nothing more."

 

Du Zexin said coldly:

 

"If you doubt my gender and position, don't. I earned my place through my own ability."

 

As Du Zexin finished speaking in the video, Luo Le had already retrieved the relevant information:

 

Du Jiali: Deputy Director of the Frost-Plated Republic's Education Bureau

 

Relationship: Du Zexin—nephew.

 

"Damn, this one is even more heavyweight."