Chapter 93 - 88: We Are Not Friends

Chapter 93: Chapter 88: We Are Not Friends

After Adeline finished speaking, she kept staring at Nan Jiamu. After thinking carefully, Nan Jiamu sniffled and nodded.

"I’ll give it a try."

Adeline looked at Nan Jiamu’s red and swollen eyes. "Who are you crying your eyes out for?"

"A family member."

Adeline let out an "Oh," and did not press further.

"If there’s nothing else, I’ll be leaving first," Adeline said as she stood up. She looked at Yin Zhen, who had kept her hands in her pockets the whole time. "Come out with me. I have something to say to you."

Stretching her long legs, Yin Zhen stood up and followed Adeline outside, her hands still in her pockets. To distinguish herself from Lucia, she had always walked with a slight hunch. At this moment, she looked exactly like a guilty child about to be scolded for doing something wrong.

Nan Jiamu looked at the two of them with a strange expression. "No matter how you look at it, they seem like best friends!"

Last time, when facing Quentin, Blossoming Prosperity had ignored the safety of those children and gone straight after him. This made Nan Jiamu feel that Blossoming Prosperity was a cold-blooded person who might abandon her teammates in a critical moment. This was a hidden danger. But if Blossoming Prosperity and Heavenly Dao Rewards Diligence were best friends, and the two had split up—one to save people and the other to pursue the enemy—then it wasn’t coldness, but tacit understanding and efficiency.

"I hope everything goes smoothly."

***

After exiting the cafe, Adeline put on her sunglasses and a mask, leading Yin Zhen into an empty alley nearby. Yin Zhen followed behind, maintaining a safe distance the entire time—neither too far nor too close.

"The entire Guard Team and the council know about Lucia’s disappearance."

Adeline slowed her pace and waited a moment. When Yin Zhen didn’t catch up, she continued walking.

"White Phosphorus claims the Rebel Army did it. He’s leading Lighthouse and two teams to search the Rebel Army strongholds throughout Night City. I haven’t seen Victor, so I don’t know what he’s thinking for now."

Upon reaching the back alley of a bar, Adeline pushed her sunglasses to the top of her head and looked up at the security camera at the alley’s entrance. HISS. A puff of blue smoke rose from the camera, and its indicator light went out.

Yin Zhen saw this but said nothing. Adeline’s spiritual power had grown stronger; the invisible Strength now possessed tangible offensive capabilities. Perhaps the Strength that the Cavendish family had obtained from that Chi Hai was inherently biased toward spiritual power.

Adeline stood in the alley’s shadow, while Yin Zhen stood under the neon lights at the entrance. The two were separated by three or four paces of light and darkness.

"Are you done talking?" Yin Zhen’s tone was very flat.

Adeline looked at her. Her expression couldn’t be seen through the mask, but Yin Zhen’s body language was clear—distant and resistant.

"When did you discover I was a Player?" Adeline asked. "Let me guess. It wasn’t during our last meeting, nor was it at the drilling platform. It was even earlier than that, right? You’re better at disguising yourself than I thought, S717!"

"Are you done talking?"

It was the same sentence, the same tone.

Adeline laughed out of anger. "You deceived me!"

"Deceived?" Yin Zhen retorted. "Then what about your exploitation?"

Adeline’s pupils constricted slightly. Yin Zhen walked toward her, her steps unhurried, yet she exuded an oppressive aura that made Adeline involuntarily take a step back.

"You were the one who made S717 your guard, and you were the one who handed S717 over to Victor so that she would eventually become Lucia. From beginning to end, you only used S717. Don’t speak to me in that tone of a betrayed friend, Adeline. We have never been friends."

The alley fell silent for a few seconds, with only the distant sound of music from the bar.

Adeline looked at Yin Zhen, opening her mouth, but unable to speak. She had indeed been using S717. From the very first day, every step had been a calculation. Making S717 her guard was to avoid the people arranged by the Cavendish family. Handing S717 over to Victor was so she could tamper with the consciousness transfer experiment. She had calculated everything, except that S717 was Blossoming Prosperity. She never expected that they would fight side by side, or that Yin Zhen would stand in front of her and question her like this.

In truth, aside from breaking into a cold sweat the moment she guessed that Blossoming Prosperity was S717, she actually admired her quite a bit. She also understood why the other party had become the number one Player, completing two public Event Cards in a row and staying one step ahead to kill Quentin and the Black Domain Walker. Blossoming Prosperity was a truly powerful individual.

"I’m sorry. At the time..." Adeline paused. "I had no other choice."

"Everyone has a choice. You just chose yourself."

Adeline dropped all her pretenses and looked at Yin Zhen sincerely. "What if I said I want to make amends? That I want to be your friend?"

"There’s no need! If you truly feel sorry, then get lost as soon as possible. I never wanted to cooperate with you, let alone play friendship games with you!"

After saying this, Yin Zhen left without the slightest hesitation.

Adeline stood there, watching her back. The black hoodie and the short red hair, backlit by the neon lights, looked like a fire about to go out. After thinking for a moment, Adeline suddenly smiled. She slipped her hands into her pockets, looked at the retreating figure, and shook her head.

"TSK TSK! A woman who says one thing but means another!"

If she really didn’t want to cooperate, she wouldn’t have followed her out to chat privately. If she really didn’t want to see her, she would have used Shadow Instant Teleportation to leave long ago. The reason she stayed here and said all those things was because she had another motive.

"Just what kind of tricks did you pull in this matter? You want to kick me out that badly? And you still claim you aren’t feeling guilty? You’re just afraid I’ll dig into the origin of your Shadow Instant Teleportation ability, aren’t you? You sly fox!"

Adeline looked at the entrance of the alley. The flash of red had already disappeared. She withdrew her gaze, letting it fall upon the cafe where they had just met, deep in thought.

***

Riding her motorcycle alone, Yin Zhen sped through the overlapping overpasses of Night City and the web of light woven by neon signs, driving all the way toward the outskirts. The hustle and bustle of the city was gradually left behind. The buildings along the roadside changed from glamorous glass facades to rust-mottled tin warehouses. Cracks began to appear on the road surface, with unfamiliar grayish-white moss growing inside them.

With a drift, the motorcycle stopped at the edge of a broken overpass. She took off her helmet, letting her fiery red short hair shake loose in the night breeze.

The bridge deck had been torn apart from the middle by something here, exposing the steel rebars. The other end plunged into darkness, its limit completely out of sight. Night City lay behind her, holographic advertisements swimming between the buildings, flying cars weaving through with trailing exhaust flames, and the artificial starlight on the dome never extinguishing. Opposite the bridge was the post-war wasteland. Amidst ruined walls and scorched earth, the shadows of the Fallen Species flickered in the debris. The air was thick with the stench of decay and death.

Yin Zhen got off the bike. A little girl in a blue floral dress appeared out of thin air at the edge of the broken bridge. Her blonde hair blew in the wind, and the indicator light on her temple turned from blue to red, flashing rapidly a few times. Blue represented the execution of commands, while red represented free will.

Lucy looked at the distant wasteland, then turned her head back to look at the prosperity of Night City, and finally raised her head to look at Yin Zhen.

"I bet right. You are a trustworthy person."

Yin Zhen didn’t reply. She crouched down, took Lucy’s hand, and met her gaze at eye level. "Lucia, the storm will always pass. You must survive and wait for the sun to rise again."

The master key Lucy had wanted wasn’t some earth-shattering dying wish. It was just from a very ordinary night. Because of a storm, Lucia hadn’t been able to sleep, terrified that the house would collapse and she would die. She had run into her mother’s laboratory, tugging at the corner of her clothes and crying. Lucia’s mother had set aside her critical research, pulled Lucia into her arms, gently patted her back, and spoken these very words.

Lucy’s eyes glazed over for a split second, and the indicator light turned back to blue from red.

"Master key confirmed. You have obtained the highest authorization."

"Clear all base directives."

"Base directives cleared. Please input at least one new directive; otherwise, this device will enter a hibernation period."

Silly Lucy probably never expected that the base directive couldn’t be left blank. She had lost from the very beginning. Yin Zhen thought for a moment and spoke a sentence in Chinese.

"With nothing to bind you and no shore you must rest upon, from this day forward, be an untethered wind."

Lucy’s indicator light flashed rapidly a few times. ℯℯ𝑙.

"New directive inputted."

Lucy’s gaze refocused, and she looked at Yin Zhen in disbelief. She had studied the knowledge of Yin Zhen’s world and understood the meaning of that sentence. Yin Zhen let go of her hand, rubbed her head, and then handed her a fully loaded pistol before standing up and straddling the motorcycle again.

"I don’t care about that data anymore; you can clear it or not as you please. Night City is going to be very chaotic over the next few days. It’s best if you don’t return here."

Yin Zhen put on her helmet and, without looking back, rushed headlong into Ye Se.

Lucy stood where she was as the night breeze blew her blonde hair. She looked at the dark wasteland in the distance, then at the glowing neon fog of Night City. The red indicator light blinked on and off in the darkness. When the red indicator light stopped flashing, Lucy’s gaze fell on that retreating figure fading into the intersection of light and dark.