Chapter 35
Darkness, like a thick velvet cloth soaked in ink, enveloped everything completely. The brief reassurance brought by Qi Jin's words, "Let's talk about it at dawn," was quickly swallowed up by the deathly silence and coldness.
Shi Ye remained frozen on the bar stool, her fingertips digging into her palms, leaving a crescent-shaped dull pain. The spot on her head where Qi Jin had rubbed her still seemed to retain a trace of unfamiliar warmth, burning her heart with unease.
Figure it out? How do you figure it out? Drag that half-dead system out of your head and torture it? Or shout at the air, "Hey, broken world, come out and let's talk?"
A slight rustling sound came from the direction of the living room sofa; Qi Jin had sat down. In the darkness, one could only rely on hearing to detect the subtle movement. She didn't seem to be asleep either; her breathing was heavier than usual.
A faint glow shone from under the door of the guest room, the glow of a mobile phone screen—Lin Xiaoyu was probably playing on her phone. That tiny glow was the only sign of human warmth in this absolute darkness, although… there was a potential risk that the bunny pillow might start snoring at any moment.
Shi Ye shifted his stiff body, intending to stumble back to his room. Rather than be tormented by darkness and wild thoughts here, he'd rather go back and face that rabbit that might have a lousy voice-generating device built in.
She had just pulled her feet out of her slippers (too big, the sound of her footsteps was too loud in the silence) and was about to slip back barefoot—
"Sizzle..."
A very faint sound, like an electric current running across the surface of water, rang out without warning.
It didn't come from the TV, nor from the refrigerator.
The source of the sound... seems to be Qi Jin's laptop on the central island, whose screen has completely gone black?
Shi Ye froze, listening intently.
The sound rang out again, fainter and shorter, like a dying insect giving its last kick.
Then, the laptop screen... lit up.
This is not the normal boot screen.
It was an extremely dim, grayish-white light, as if the power was severely depleted, barely illuminating the screen itself and a small circle around it. There were no icons, no desktop, just a blank screen, with an unhealthy, pale white hue.
Then, in the center of that stark white expanse, a black cursor with extremely low resolution and blurry edges slowly appeared.
It flickered.
Then, the movement begins.
It wasn't typing; it was more like... random scribbling.
It moved a little to the left, paused, dragged a crooked short line to the right, jumped up, and then drew a few meaningless circles in place.
It's like someone who's not fully conscious, aimlessly swiping their fingertips across a touchscreen.
Shi Ye held his breath, staring at the cursor. What was this now? A new trick from Honkai Impact 3rd? A mass resurrection of electrical appliances?
The cursor stopped.
Then, it began to draw a pattern on the blank screen at a slow but steady pace.
A very simple pattern: a circle with two small triangles on top, and two short lines connecting the bottom of the circle.
...A cat?
It's still the kind of cat that kindergarten kids can draw at a simple sketch level.
After the cursor finished drawing the crooked cat, it stopped at the cat's face and started blinking again.
A few seconds later, it moved next to the cat's face and began to "write" words.
The font is still low resolution and incomplete, like a text message received when the signal is extremely poor.
【……wrong……】
The cursor paused.
[...I don't want to...make a mistake...]
Then another pause.
【……help……】
As I typed, the cursor began to blink violently, and the buzzing sound became piercing. The gray-white light on the screen also began to flicker erratically, as if it were about to go out completely at any moment.
It struggled, and squeezed out another twisted radical after the character 【帮】—【扌】.
Help...hand?
helper?
【……helper……】
After writing those two words, the cursor seemed to have exhausted its last bit of strength and suddenly went out.
The screen then went dark, merging back into the darkness.
Once again, only that lonely electronic clock remained in the kitchen—it had somehow regained power, and the scarlet numbers were ticking: 03:22.
Shi Ye sat in the darkness, his hands and feet icy cold.
[Wrong] [Don't want to be wrong] [Helper].
That cursor... is it System 007? Or something else? Is it pleading for help? Or issuing a warning?
"Helper"...does it mean she should help correct her mistakes? Or does it mean...it will become her helper?
The chaotic information, like a tangled mess, filled her mind.
"Timely Visit".
Qi Jin's voice suddenly rang out very close by, startling her. She hadn't even heard Qi Jin approaching.
A hand grasped her wrist. Qi Jin's fingers were cold, but his grip was steady.
"You saw it." It wasn't a question.
Shi Ye took a deep breath, grabbed Qi Jin's wrist, and pulled her towards the central console, pointing to the computer that had fallen silent again. "Just now... the screen lit up by itself and wrote something."
Qi Jin was silent for two seconds. "What did you write?"
Shi Ye repeated the three words he had seen.
In the darkness, she felt Qi Jin's grip on her wrist tighten slightly.
“Wrong…I don’t want to be wrong…helper…” Qi Jin repeated softly, as if he were savoring the meaning of these words. “It’s talking to you.”
“It could be,” Shi Ye said hoarsely, “It could also be… a trap.”
“If it were a trap, there would be no need to use this method.” Qi Jin released her wrist and reached for the computer. She pressed the power button, but there was no response. She held it down, still no response. The computer was as cold as an ice block, showing no signs of life. “It’s weak, or rather… trapped.”
"Trapped?" Shi Ye recalled the intermittent distress signals from the system earlier.
“Like my car, the brakes have been cut off, the steering wheel is locked.” Qi Jin’s voice was calm in the darkness, with a hint of unraveling a mystery. “Something is restricting it, interfering with it. But it is still struggling, trying to send a message.”
She paused for a moment: "'Not wanting to make mistakes'... what kind of 'mistake' does it refer to?"
Shi Ye's heart skipped a beat.
Is it a mutation in this world line? Is it her, the transmigrator? Is it Qi Jin going from villain to heroine? Or... that forced connection?
"I don't know," she said, dodging the question again.
Qi Jin didn't press further. She seemed to accept Shi Ye's concealment and instead analyzed, "'Helper'...it needs help, or promises to provide help. The recipient is you."
"Why me?" Shi Ye couldn't help but ask.
“Because only you ‘saw’ it,” Qi Jin said with certainty. “Those… anomalies. The images on the TV, the words on the computer. Couldn’t I see them? Or was it Xiaoyu?”
Shi Ye was speechless. Indeed, Lin Xiaoyu was fast asleep, and Qi Jin seemed to have only seen the television light up abnormally, without seeing any specific images or text.
“It chose you,” Qi Jin concluded, then changed the subject, “or, there’s something about you that attracted it.”
Shi Ye felt a chill run down her spine. Was it the attraction? Was it her identity as an "abnormal individual"? Or was it a residual "signal" from the half-dead system in her mind?
“Whatever it is,” Qi Jin’s hand landed on Shi Ye’s shoulder again, this time with unwavering force, “we’ll find the answer after dawn.”
"How do I find it?" Shi Ye asked blankly.
“First, find someone who can understand these ‘anomalies’,” Qi Jin said. “I know several experts in cybersecurity and electronic engineering, and I also know people who study…non-natural phenomena.”
Unnatural phenomenon? Shi Ye was taken aback. Qi Jin actually believed in this?
“I don’t believe it.” Qi Jin seemed to have guessed her thoughts. “But I respect facts that cannot be explained. When all conventional paths are blocked, we have to consider unconventional possibilities.”
She withdrew her hand. "Now, go and rest. You need to conserve your energy."
Shi Ye didn't move. "And what about you?"
"I'll keep watch." Qi Jin walked back to the sofa, his voice calm and even. "Let's see if any other 'things' will jump out."
Shi Ye stared at her blurry silhouette in the darkness, and from the tangled mess in her heart, a tiny, intricate thread inexplicably emerged. Qi Jin was protecting her, or rather, protecting their fragile "safety" in her own way.
“…Thank you,” Shi Ye said softly, this time sincerely.
"No need," Qi Jin replied calmly.
Shi Ye groped her way back to the guest room barefoot. She gently pushed open the door; the glow of the phone screen inside had gone out, so Lin Xiaoyu was probably asleep again. She climbed into bed in the dark, trying not to make a sound.
The rabbit-shaped pillow was still being pressed down by Lin Xiaoyu's legs.
Shi Ye lay down, staring at the blurry shadows on the ceiling.
The words on the computer screen, Qi Jin's analysis, and the pixelated "her" on the TV screen, pointing at her, kept replaying in her mind.
Wrong... I don't want to be wrong... Helper...
System 007... Who exactly are you? Or rather, what are you?
In the depths of this collapsing world, besides the chaotic data, is there any other consciousness?
What is responsible for initiating that "forced association"?
Countless questions swirl around, with no way out.
She closed her eyes and forced herself to clear her mind.
She didn't know how much time had passed, but in a daze, she felt Lin Xiaoyu turn over next to her, wave one hand wildly, and then "slap" it landed on her arm.
Immediately afterwards, Lin Xiaoyu's indistinct murmurs in her sleep came through:
"...Senior...don't be afraid...the rabbit...has electricity...electrocute him..."
Shi Ye: "..."
She quietly moved Lin Xiaoyu's hand away and casually stuffed the rabbit-shaped pillow, which might have a secret weapon inside, into Lin Xiaoyu's arms.
Alright, at least we have a teammate here with a quirky art style who dreams of using rabbits to carry out electrocution.
Although it sounds a bit far-fetched, it... inexplicably made me feel a little more at ease.
Outside the window, at the edge of the city sky, a faint, almost imperceptible gray-white hue began to appear.
It was almost dawn.
Shi Ye took one last look in that direction.
After daybreak, what awaits them: answers or an even deeper vortex?
She didn't know.
But she knew that Qi Jin would be there.
Qi Jin, who said, "No one can touch you."
Qi Jin, the one who would ruffle her hair.
That... Qi Jin, who chose to face the unknown with her in the darkness.
This realization, like a small, stubborn seed, quietly took root in her barren heart.
She turned over, facing away from the faint light, and closed her eyes.
Sleepiness finally crept in.
This time, I didn't dream of pixelated rabbits, nor did I dream of bloody vaccines.
There was only a deep, weary darkness.
And in the depths of darkness, there was that extremely faint, unknown warmth.
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