Sea of Darkness (Part 2)

Chapter 2: Sea of Darkness (Part 2)

Kui Xin curled up on her bed, staring at the glowing screen of her phone.

It was late at night, but she wasn’t the least bit sleepy.

What had happened during the day was strange enough to leave her unsettled, making sleep impossible.

All day, Kui Xin had been refreshing the forum, browsing posts from beta testers. Since she wasn’t fluent in foreign languages, she planned to screenshot posts and use translation software, only to find her phone notifying her that screenshots were prohibited on the webpage.

Frustrated, Kui Xin had to manually type out the text for translation.

The number of registered users on the forum was steadily increasing, and so was the number of posts. Many people shared her confusion, with some already asking questions about the "Six Points of Advice for Players" and the blood-red number of 10,000 survivors displayed at the top of the forum.

Additionally, beta testers were starting to receive the silver cards. Like Kui Xin, they hadn’t filled out any address information on the official game website, yet the silver cards had been accurately delivered to their homes.

Kui Xin clicked into the Chinese post with the highest number of replies.

Original poster: "Although privacy is nearly nonexistent in the era of big data, isn’t it excessive for the game officials to behave like this? If they don’t address how they obtained our addresses, I wouldn’t mind taking legal action to protect my rights."

The replies beneath this post were filled with agreement.

But then someone replied: "Something about this feels off, like it’s supernatural. I live in the countryside, and deliveries only come every few days. But guess how my game card was delivered? My cat went out for a walk and somehow brought something back in its mouth. When I took a closer look, it was my game card, with my real name and forum ID written on it. It’s absolutely insane!"

Reply #24: "I also live in the countryside. I found my card when I was gathering eggs in the chicken coop. It scared the hell out of me…"

Reply #36: "I bought an appliance online, and when I opened the package, there was an extra box inside. At first, I thought it was a freebie from the seller, but it turned out to be the game card!" Not only was this bizarre, but it was downright eerie. The IDs were assigned in the order of forum registration, and card production naturally required time.

"How could it be possible for the card to be made and delivered immediately after a person registered? On top of that, players received their cards in a variety of inexplicable ways, shrouding everyone in an indescribable sense of unease."

Kui Xin exited the post and clicked on another thread where someone was showing off their card. The poster had censored their real name and player ID on the card before sharing it.

The card displayed in the post was slightly different from Kui Xin’s. The silver card in the thread didn’t feature the mechanical hand design on its front but rather a sharp-looking pair of scissors.

Kui Xin’s card had the title "Depriver" as a prefix, but the poster’s card had the prefix "Proxy" instead of "Depriver."

Why was that? Was there a difference between "Depriver" and "Proxy"?

Kui Xin frowned, deep in thought.

After browsing the forum for a while, Kui Xin noticed something peculiar.

In all the posts showing off cards, every card had the prefix "Proxy." Not a single card shared her unique prefix, "Depriver."

Kui Xin reached for her card on the bedside table. It emitted a faint silver glow, with her real name and ID engraved on it. It felt like a personal identification document, complete with her name and ID number. The only thing she couldn’t figure out was the meaning behind the word "Depriver." The events of the day had left Kui Xin feeling as though she were shrouded in a thick fog. She glanced at the time: 11:59 PM. Less than a minute remained until midnight, marking the official start of the beta test.

Kui Xin sighed, rubbed her temples in exhaustion, and prepared to go to sleep. She had to wake up early tomorrow to look for a summer job to earn some money.

Life as a broke person was just that simple and boring. But just as Kui Xin was about to put down her phone, it suddenly vibrated. She looked at the screen and realized the forum had posted an announcement.

"All 10,000 beta testers have been registered, and game identity cards have been distributed."

"This beta test will be a free, non-wipe test. There are no shortcuts in this game. Players are advised to keep the six points of advice in mind and explore their own endings."

"Best wishes to all players. Now, the game begins."

The game begins?! Kui Xin was completely caught off guard by this statement. Before she could react, she realized her surroundings had changed. Her hand was suddenly empty; the weight of her phone had vanished.

She was no longer lying on her bed but standing in an endless darkness. She couldn’t see anything above her, nor could she hear any sounds. The dilapidated old house with peeling walls was gone, as were the faintly glowing windows and the whirring noise of the fan.

Everything had been replaced by an eerie stillness. The darkness engulfed Kui Xin like a tide, swallowing her inch by inch. She instinctively wanted to call for help but found herself unable to make a sound, like someone drowning.

Finally, she lost consciousness.

"You have entered a new world."

"Please check your identity settings in this world."

Name: Kui Xin
Faction: Federation – Resistance Army
Identity: Core member of the Mechanical Dawn organization, Trainee Patrol Security Officer of the Federation’s External Operations Team 7, Federation Level-One Fugitive, Undercover Agent for the Resistance Army.
Mission: Steal confidential information from the Investigation Department, gain their trust, and provide intelligence support for Mechanical Dawn’s secret operations.

A faint electronic voice echoed in her ears, and in her haze, she seemed to see lines of text flash before her eyes…

Kui Xin let out a pained gasp, feeling her head splitting with pain.

It was as if an axe had cleaved her skull; her head throbbed so intensely it felt like it might explode.

"Stitch her up," a man’s voice said beside her. "Close the wound and give her another dose of the special painkiller. She’s on the verge of collapse."

Was she on an operating table? Kui Xin couldn’t open her eyes, but her consciousness remained surprisingly clear. She felt the sharp prick of a needle piercing the skin of her arm.

The medication was injected into her body, and the painkiller worked quickly, alleviating much of her headache. She wasn’t dreaming. No dream had ever felt this vivid.

Kui Xin understood that the situation she was in was far from normal. Her experience defied all logic. Perhaps she truly had encountered something straight out of a fantasy novel or movie—time travel.

She had traveled from her dilapidated little room to an unknown location. The painkiller that had been injected earlier eased Kui Xin’s physical discomfort, allowing her to focus on her thoughts.

Though she was anxious and frightened, she knew that panic would solve nothing. She had to calm down. The beta test forum for Crimson Earth had announced the start of the game, and then she had suddenly been transported to a new location.

Kui Xin speculated that she might have traveled into the game world of Crimson Earth.

In this world, she had been assigned a new identity. Kui Xin concentrated, and the pitch-black void around her suddenly unfolded into a screen of light.

Displayed on the screen were the identity settings she had just heard:
— "Core member of the Mechanical Dawn organization, Trainee Patrol Security Officer of the Federation’s External Operations Team 7, Federation Level-One Fugitive, Undercover Agent for the Resistance Army."

Kui Xin: Uh… so, it seems like my identity is very complicated.

She read it carefully over and over again, feeling utterly at a loss.
She didn’t understand what kind of organization "Mechanical Dawn" was, but terms like "core personnel" were weighty enough. Then there was the Federal Investigation Bureau... That should be an official organization. What was worse was that she apparently had another identity—Federation Level-One Wanted Criminal. What the heck was that? And as if that wasn’t bad enough, her identity as a "Resistance Army undercover agent" sounded like the kind of role that screamed betrayal.

Being a traitor leads nowhere! Kui Xin had watched countless spy films, and undercover agents rarely had good endings. She felt her prospects were bleak, with a tragic fate waving at her from the distance.

The sound of medical instruments clashing echoed continuously. Kui Xin could vaguely sense the suturing needle piercing in and out of her flesh, pulling at her blood and skin.

Kui Xin's heartbeat gradually stabilized from the initial intensity when she regained consciousness. Her brain was spinning, and her emotions were calming down as she thought things through.

After an unknown amount of time, Kui Xin suddenly felt she could control her eyelids again. The effects of the anesthesia were wearing off. The man who had been performing surgery on her said, "The medication has worn off; she should be waking up soon."

Kui Xin had no choice but to abandon the idea of pretending to stay unconscious. Her eyelids slowly opened into a narrow slit.

The glaring incandescent light made her uncomfortable, and a silver source of light kept flickering before her eyes.

Kui Xin blinked laboriously, adjusting to the brightness. After a moment, she realized the silver light wasn’t coming from the lamp but rather from the reflection of the lead surgeon’s glasses.
She moved her head slightly, her eyes darting around, and she blankly stared at the circle of doctors and nurses gathered around her operating table.

“You’re awake?” The bespectacled doctor nodded at Kui Xin. “The surgery was very successful.”

Kui Xin decided to feign complete ignorance.
She summoned all her acting skills and put on a look of someone struggling to recall: “W-what happened to me?”

The doctor’s expression turned sympathetic as he looked at her with pity. “Poor kid, you’re really unlucky. First time out in the field during your internship, and you ran into armed criminals... Sigh. The criminals got away, and your head took quite a hit—a fractured skull...”

“Fractured... skull?” Kui Xin looked confused on the surface but was inwardly overjoyed.
A fractured skull—such a severe injury would give her the perfect excuse to feign amnesia! She had transmigrated here without retaining the original body’s memories, and one careless slip could expose her.

“Yes, a fractured skull, a big hole in your head, blood pouring out like crazy,” the doctor said kindly. “But don’t worry, out with the old, in with the new!”

“What do you mean, out with the old, in with the new?” Kui Xin asked, puzzled. “Sorry, I seem to have forgotten a lot of things...”

“It’s normal to be a bit muddled for now; the anesthesia will wear off soon. Your fractured skull was quite severe, and repairing it was difficult, so we replaced the damaged part of your skull,” the doctor chuckled. “Federal cutting-edge technology—ultra-light alloy skull. With this, you’ll never have to worry about your head getting smashed while catching criminals in the field again!”

Kui Xin: “???”

Oh, wow, did she just acquire the legendary ‘iron skull’? She loved it, absolutely loved it!
From now on, if she got into a fight, she could just headbutt someone, and her opponent’s brain would be ringing for sure!