novelraw Chapter 30: Sea of Darkness - (30)
Chapter 30: Sea of Darkness - (30)
Su Rong’s foundation in high school mathematics was indeed abysmal. She could only answer the first two multiple-choice questions, which may be wrong. As for the long-form problems, she had no clue whatsoever, barely able to write down the “solution” at the start.
When Kui Xin asked about her grasp of functions, Su Rong admitted to having virtually no understanding. When questioned if she knew how to solve trigonometric problems, Su Rong replied negatively, and her knowledge of conic sections and related topics was completely lacking. The more Kui Xin inquired, the more Su Rong felt like a complete dunce, unable to answer most questions. Embarrassment overwhelmed her, causing her to hang her head almost to the ground in shame.
Kui Xin selected one of Su Rong’s less challenging summer homework sheets for her to work on. Su Rong completed it within fifteen minutes because she knew only a few problems well, making her progress particularly swift.
Kui Xin had no choice but to open her first-year high school textbook and meticulously explain it from the very first unit.
After three hours of tutoring, Su Rong felt unusually defeated.
“You shouldn’t feel embarrassed about not knowing these topics,” Kui Xin said straightforwardly. “What’s concerning isn’t your lack of knowledge, but rather that you become so disheartened that you don’t want to learn anymore. Your grades in Chinese and English are quite good, which somewhat compensates for your weaker subjects. Learning is a long process; you can’t expect significant results overnight.”
Exhausted, Su Rong replied, “I understand, Sister Xinxin. No matter how tough it gets, I have to keep learning.”
“Do you still have all the worksheets and study materials that your school has issued since starting high school?” Kui Xin asked. “Please find them.”
Su Rong retrieved a thick stack of mostly blank math worksheets from the bottom of her bookshelf.
As Kui Xin flipped through the papers, she circled several simple multiple-choice and fill-in-the-blank questions on each sheet. Given Su Rong’s current level in mathematics, those were the only ones she could attempt accurately.“Finish these questions before I arrive for your lesson tomorrow. Don’t look at the answers; if you get any wrong, I’ll explain them to you,” Kui Xin said. “It’s not realistic to start from scratch and cover the entire math textbook now. Instead, our focus will be on scoring points based on common question types. We’ll skip the difficult ones, but it’s crucial to secure full marks on the simpler questions.”
“Okay,” Su Rong humbly agreed.
By 6 PM, Kui Xin politely declined Su Rong’s mother’s invitation to stay for dinner and headed home alone.
As she walked, her phone vibrated with a buzz—the meteorological bureau had issued a severe storm warning via text message. Looking up, Kui Xin noticed dark clouds obscuring the evening sky, signaling that rain was imminent.
She hastily rushed towards the subway station, hoping to reach home before the downpour began.
It was rush hour, and the subway was crowded with people. Pushed by the throng, Kui Xin navigated through the jostling crowd and finally managed to squeeze onto the train.
“Oh my god, this is terrifying—check out this news.” Two young individuals whispered to each other amidst the subway crowd. “The whole family is dead… It’s horrifying that those cults are causing such harm.”
Ever since Kui Xin’s physical attributes mysteriously synchronized between the two worlds, there has been a significant leap in her stamina, strength, agility, and sensory acuity compared to her previous state. With ease, she could hear the conversation of the two young people amid the noisy subway environment.
“Hiss… Killed his entire family? Has he gone mad? He looks quite normal to me.”
“If he wasn’t insane, why would he believe in a cult? The police have issued a wanted notice with a reward of 100,000…”
Kui Xin nervously opened her phone to search for news, catching these keywords.
She had heard from Shu Xuyao that, in addition to practicing superstitions and consuming Divine Blood, the secret cults in the Second World committed particularly brutal acts such as human sacrifices. Consequently, the Federal Government continuously escalated its crackdown measures against religious groups.
Those who consumed Divine Blood experienced bodily mutations and gradually lost their sanity under its influence, becoming deranged over time.
As this was Kui Xin’s first day back, she couldn’t help but be overly cautious.
As soon as she unlocked her phone, a news alert popped up. A blue-tinted police officer’s notice caught her eye, clearly detailing the suspect’s basic physical characteristics and home address. The reasons for the warrant and the charges were plainly stated; according to the notice, the suspect, driven by mental instability due to belief in a cult, murdered his entire family.
The suspect fled immediately after committing the murders last night. Strikingly, the location of the crime was quite close to the city where Kui Xin lived, just in the neighboring city—a distance reachable within twenty to thirty minutes by high-speed train.
“Regional mission triggered.”
A screen flashed before Kui Xin’s eyes, causing her pupils to constrict and her mood to plummet.
Why… why can missions be triggered even in the real world?!
So far, Kui Xin has only encountered one mission, which was “Investigate the Port Explosion Case” when she first entered the Second World. She had yet to complete it.
She never anticipated that missions could also occur in the First World, let alone a “regional mission,” a new type of quest she hadn’t experienced before.
[Mission Description]: An unknown crisis has emerged in your hometown, within the familiar region you know. The once tranquil city is no longer peaceful, and stable lives have been disrupted by eerie shadows and extraordinary forces invading your daily existence. To maintain the tranquility and stability of your homeland, you may bear the responsibility to thoroughly investigate this terrifying event.
As a regional mission, you are not the only one receiving the task invitation. Other players residing in the same area have also received the mission prompt. You can choose to collaborate or conduct the investigation independently.
You have the option to accept the mission or decline it.
“Accepting naturally entails certain risks while rejecting it would provide temporary stability after all; encountering trouble directly is a low-probability event.”
[Quest Objective]: Investigate the Cultist murder case.
At that moment, Kui Xin could no longer hear the noisy chatter within the subway carriage.
She pursed her lips, gripping the handrail as she stood frozen for a long time. Only when the train reached its station did she snap out of it and disembark with the crowd.
The distinctions between the First World and Second World were diminishing, causing unease for Kui Xin.
Two worlds, two game arenas—Cyber Online and Earth Online.
Kui Xin’s reality changed, becoming unfamiliar to her.
It seemed that just as her bodies in both worlds were converging towards assimilation, so too were the First and Second Worlds tending towards assimilation.
Moreover, she realized that body assimilation might not be unique to her alone but rather a common phenomenon affecting all players. However, most other players were ordinary individuals without the sudden leaps in physical abilities that Kui Xin experienced.
But what if a player crossed over and became a member of the secret cult, consumed Divine Blood, had their body transformed by it, and then returned to the First World? Would their body in the First World undergo similar mutations?
Has his mind descended into madness like that of those secret cultists?
Could the murderer who killed their entire family and fled overnight play a role?
As Kui Xin emerged from the subway station, it began to rain, and she sprinted home through the downpour.
The heavy rainfall inevitably reminded Kui Xin of her initial days after being transported to the Second World, when Black Sea City experienced continuous daily rains.
Upon entering her home, she immediately took out her phone to check the forum.
“Let’s exchange signals—Jingchu region, regional quest.”
1L: Matched. I’m in the southern part of the province, several cities away from where the incident occurred, but I still received the quest notification. How vast is the coverage area for this regional quest? Did all players across the province receive it?
2L: It might cover the whole province; I received it too. Will anyone choose to accept the quest? It seems incredibly dangerous.
3L: Wondering how many players there are throughout Jingchu province?
4L (reply to 3L): Based on population ratios, approximately seventy players should be present.
5L: What are you guys talking about? What is the is the regional quest?
6L:
Terrifying… Is this still the hometown we know? I’m genuinely scared, everyone. The danger is far too close to us now. For the first time in my life, my hometown feels so alien. Returning to the First World hasn’t distanced us from danger; instead, with the return of players, peril has encroached upon our everyday lives. This isn’t what our world should be like.Kui Xin turned off her phone, changed her clothes and shoes, and then stood by the window, gazing at her city.
Through the hazy veil of rain, neon lights shone brightly. The bridge spanning across the river was adorned with colorful lamps, while cars on the streets moved forward with their headlights illuminating amidst congestion. Yet she found herself in a dim and rundown old residential area, surrounded by crumbling stone paths and malfunctioning streetlights, starkly contrasting with the bustling cityscape.
The era’s development was too rapid, resulting in cities having two distinct faces—both the glamorous and the dilapidated coexisting simultaneously.
At that moment, Kui Xin felt a profound sense of disorientation, as if she were still in Black Sea City rather than her own hometown.
Kui Xin disliked the Second World; she didn’t want it to contaminate the reality she inhabited.
Awakened beings, Variant Blood individuals, secret cults, Cultists… none of these things should exist.
Yet these elements were transforming her world beyond recognition, including herself, who had also become unrecognizable.
Control over the world, control over life trajectories, and control over peaceful existence—all slipping away. Kui Xin was adept at planning her studies and daily life; to feel secure, she needed to maintain control over time and schedules.
However, fate was like a wild horse running rampant, slipping out of Kui Xin’s control.
Just as the mission description stated, the once tranquil city no longer remained peaceful, and her stable life was no longer secure. Those ordinary daily routines had drifted far away from her. After experiencing the edge between life and death amidst battles, it would be difficult for her to return to her previous way of living.
Despite this, Kui Xin still wanted to protect this sanctuary diligently—not for the sake of the mission or others, but for herself, solely for her own benefit.
To achieve that, she must systematically cleanse each element polluting her life.
“I accept the mission,” Kui Xin silently affirmed within her mind.
“Mission accepted.”
“[Mission Progress]: 0%.”
Kui Xin noticed a characteristic of the Game System’s missions—they lacked explicit directives. It mentioned “investigate,” not “eliminate.” In simpler terms, the Game System’s missions only provide direction to the task executor. The Game System is completely unrestricted in terms of completing the mission, whether it involves killing the target or implementing additional actions.
This greatly enhances freedom, allowing Kui Xin to do anything she desires.
The Game System’s issued task served as a reminder, a warning, and a bell tolling that her life had fundamentally changed.
Thus, Kui Xin approached this mission with a completely different mindset compared to before.
When she accepted the investigation task related to the bombing incident, her sole intention was to clarify its causes and consequences before concluding it. Now, as she takes on the task of investigating the Cultist murder case, her aim is not primarily driven by seeking information.
Her objective is “elimination.”
Similar to how the Investigation Department purges alien creatures and apprehends Variant Blood individuals, Kui Xin intends to thoroughly cleanse all contaminating factors and sources of instability around her, removing them entirely without leaving any lingering threats.
Kui Xin gazes at the city’s neon lights outside the window, lost in deep contemplation.
After ten minutes, she opens her phone and notices that the forum post asking for information about alien creatures still has no replies; the relevant thread remains blank with minimal responses.
So, Kui Xin posts her first thread since joining the forum:
“Explaining what alien creatures, Secret Cults, and Variant Blood Individuals are.”
Within less than a minute of posting, the forum erupts.