Chapter 58 - 54: Explosion of Acting Skills

Chapter 58: Chapter 54: Explosion of Acting Skills

In the helicopter, both Yin Zhen and Adeline rested with their eyes closed, remaining completely silent.

White Phosphorus had been endlessly recounting how Lighthouse sacrificed himself at the moment of the explosion to throw her into the sea. Yin Zhen couldn’t be bothered to listen. Instead, she focused her attention on the System Panel to review the system logs.

Besides the unexpected completion of the heartbeat event, the Silver Card event to save Night City was also completed.

[Reward: attribute points x10, 5,000 words, Skill Upgrade Book x1]

[Skill Upgrade Book: Can upgrade any learned skill by one Level (You must know it first to upgrade it)]

Yin Zhen left these rewards untouched, planning to use them to strengthen her original body after her return.

In her own world, she couldn’t get her hands on firearms, but she did have ways to learn how to fight. Coupled with S717’s combat memories, grasping the basics of a Fighting Skill wouldn’t be difficult. Once she learned the basics, she could use the Skill Upgrade Book to rapidly increase her Combat Specialization Level.

In addition to this, Yin Zhen had an unexpected harvest.

[Character: SHL-717]

race: Blood Clan

Life Value: 100%

Strength: 23+10 (Can punch a love-struck fool to death with one blow)

Constitution: 25+10 (Victor goes BAM BAM with two punches, and you’re dead!)

Wisdom: 17+10 (Wow—your brain is finally sufficient)

agility: 25+10 (Still a bit short of catching bullets barehanded)

Luck: 1

Skills: Basic Fighting, Intermediate Firearms, Basic Driving

Transcendent: S-level Blood Source Resonance (4/10)

resonance: D-level Super Sensing +/-, C-level Transformation +/-, A-level Blood Silk +/-, A-level Shadow Manipulation +/-

Special: Shadow Servant

Excluding Luck, All Attributes increased by 10, and her Blood Source Resonance Level had even risen to S-Class.

The minus sign behind the resonance ability represented forgetting the ability, while the plus sign indicated temporarily boosting it to S-Class for thirty minutes. However, after one use, the ability would completely disappear. Her Blood Source Resonance ability would also enter a three-day cooldown, meaning all other resonance abilities would go on a three-day cooldown as well.

The enhancement was due to that white creature; those fleshy membranes had injected something into her body. The sensation was remarkably similar to the Extraordinary Ability Catalyst.

Could it be that the core ingredient of the Extraordinary Ability Catalyst came from deep-sea aberrations?

So, even though the existence of aberrations posed a threat to the Blood Clan, the Saint Group still hadn’t stopped dumping genetic waste into the sea. They were intentionally breeding these aberrations! Their formidable biotechnology level must have benefited from researching these aberrations.

Yin Zhen looked toward the ocean. The drilling platform had already sunk, but she had a premonition that the white creature wasn’t completely dead and would eventually make a comeback.

Could that thing be the final boss of this world’s main storyline? Judging by the current outcome, did her act of rescuing Zoe count as stealing Zoe’s opportunity?

Yin Zhen felt she was already walking the path of a villain, having done nothing but villainous deeds so far.

[Congratulations, Player, for completing the ’Heroine Saves the Beauty’ event. Reward: 1,000 words, Overlord Aura (30 seconds)]

As the system notification chimed, Yin Zhen suddenly grew tense. Ian had already returned to the Saint Group.

If Victor could tell Ian about the intruders, he undoubtedly intended for Ian to probe and observe her. Although she had formed a temporary alliance with Ian, she still couldn’t be certain whether he would reveal her secrets to Victor. However, Victor’s uncertainty also meant she still had a chance.

Yin Zhen glanced at Adeline, who sat opposite her with a solemn expression, and recalled the psychological profiles she had done for Victor and Lucia.

Victor was absolutely rational, yet deeply valued bonds and loyalty. Lucia possessed strong self-esteem; seemingly mature, but actually sensitive. Deep down, she was just an immature, love-starved child.

Yin Zhen focused her mind, simulating various scenarios and her corresponding countermeasures.

Later, Yin Zhen walked down the corridor and arrived at the brain-computer laboratory.

Victor and Ian stood side by side in the hallway, conversing in low voices. Hearing her footsteps, Victor glanced back at her.

A few days ago, when Victor had beaten her, his aura was formidable, but it had been the suppression of an elder disciplining a junior. His fists had been heavy, but his gaze hadn’t been. Now, things were different. The aura radiating from Victor was completely cold and hard, devoid of any unnecessary emotion.

Yin Zhen didn’t show any abnormalities, maintaining a steady pace as she walked over.

Ian gave Victor a nod and walked toward her. As they brushed past each other, Ian gave a polite nod of greeting, but his eyes quickly darted in Victor’s direction. It was a hint that he had handled Victor.

Receiving the cue, Yin Zhen’s tension eased slightly, but she knew that making Victor completely drop his suspicions wouldn’t be that simple. An absolutely rational person wouldn’t just listen to others; they would observe and judge for themselves.

"You handled the aggregate creature matter very well," Victor said. "I called you over for something else. You need to represent the Guard Team and report the detailed intelligence to the council."

He stepped aside, gesturing for Yin Zhen to look inside.

Yin Zhen followed his gaze. The laboratory was illuminated by pale, glaring lights. A person was strapped into the central brain-computer chair—the medic who had once been on the sidelines of the training ground.

He was covered in injuries. His head hung low, looking incredibly weak, and his skull was hooked up to a dense cluster of cables. The other ends of those cables were connected to the head of a man sitting in front of the console. That man wore a dark uniform adorned with the laurel branch crest of the Cavendish family. His eyes were closed, and his fingers lightly tapped the armrest, as if he were playing a melody only he could hear.

"His name is Qian Jin." Victor’s pronunciation of the two Chinese characters was somewhat inaccurate, his enunciation heavy. "He comes from another world. A country similar to Ancient China, but not the Huaxia we have here.

"Over the past three days, many people like this have appeared in Night City. They’ve replaced the people around us, taken over their bodies, and are living using their Identity. What are your thoughts on this?"

Yin Zhen knitted her brows together, putting on a perfect expression of utter confusion. "How do you think I should view this? Don’t tell me you’re talking about parallel universes?"

Victor maintained a stern expression, not replying.

"Where’s the proof? How do you prove that this Qian... whatever his name is, comes from another world?"

"Over three days of interrogation, although we couldn’t extract answers to crucial questions like ’how did he get here’ and ’what is his purpose,’ we discovered he possesses the complete memories of another person’s entire life," Victor explained. "From minor details like price fluctuations to major events like urban development and national conflicts, everything is incredibly detailed and logical. This isn’t something that can be achieved through fabrication or memory implantation. Most importantly, the major events in his memories follow the exact same timeline as those of several other intruders, corroborating and complementing each other."

Yin Zhen frowned in thought, turning to stare at the man inside. "Are they all human?"

"Yes."

Yin Zhen’s eyes lit up right on cue. She didn’t know if her Wisdom stat was higher than Victor’s, but for now, she just had to keep acting.

"Doesn’t that mean if we find out how they entered this world, we could potentially counterattack theirs? The council has always wanted to rebuild a human society and raise them in captivity as a food reserve!"

Yin Zhen’s reaction didn’t reveal any anomalies to Victor, but ever since the consciousness transfer experiment, he’d had a lingering feeling that something wasn’t quite right. Previously, without the prerequisite of ’intruders,’ and with Ian claiming the experiment was a success, he had convinced himself not to be overly sensitive. But now, he knew that a sufficiently clever intruder was entirely capable of disguising themselves as someone else. Every intruder he had captured possessed the last seven days of memories from the person whose body they’d taken.

"Don’t you want to turn back into a normal human?" Victor suddenly asked. "Do you remember when you first woke up from your slumber after the Blood Plague? Back then, you..."

"Victor," Yin Zhen interrupted him. "Are you probing me? Do you suspect that I’m an intruder too?"

She stared at him, a look of sudden realization slowly dawning on her face.

"So that’s how it is. I was wondering why you suddenly called me here. Ian, Z13, Z49—you sent them all to keep an eye on me, didn’t you? Well? Did you find anything?"

Yin Zhen laughed. The laugh held no warmth, only endless mockery.

"Right, of course! I’m currently stuffed inside this damn experimental body, in the exact same situation as that guy in there. It’s perfectly normal for you to suspect me. If our positions were swapped, I’d suspect you too.

"So what now? Are you going to eliminate me? Or do you need me to prove myself to you? Do you want me to go in there and kill that man to prove I’m not the same as him? Or do you want me to recount everything from my childhood up to now?

"Oh right, I forgot. There’s a brain-computer here, and an interrogator from the Cavendish family. Did you bring me here specifically to strap me into that chair like a criminal? So you can have him rip open my brain and examine all my memories?"

Yin Zhen’s voice began to tremble, the corners of her eyes reddening. She looked like an injured little beast, yet she kept her chin held high, refusing to lower her head.

"You don’t need to care what I think, nor do you have to care if I’ll have any dignity left when this is over. All you need to do is protect the Dracula family and guard this damn Night City. Is that it?"

She glared at him. Her eyes were red, but not a single tear fell. "I thought... I could treat you as the last family member in this world I could trust..."

Victor was rendered speechless. Even though her physical vessel was different, that wounded look suddenly reminded him of the time right after the Blood Plague. When Lucia had awakened from her slumber and learned of her mother’s death, she had questioned him with that exact same look, asking why he hadn’t protected her mother.

Her gaze back then was exactly like it was now—stabbing into his heart like a knife, welling up a profound sense of guilt within him.

"You want proof, don’t you? Fine, I’ll prove it to you right now!"

Yin Zhen drew her gun and shoved open the laboratory door. Aiming the muzzle directly at the nearly unconscious Qian Jin in the chair, she pulled the trigger without hesitation.