The next day.
Yue Shi spent his day at the Investigation Bureau as usual. Everything was calm, as if the phone call with Ghost the previous night had been nothing more than a hallucination.
He waited patiently, wanting to see in what form the other party's so-called "sincerity" would manifest.
Or perhaps the guy simply didn't dare to cause trouble while things were so heated.
That night, just after Yue Shi finished a simple late-night snack, the light in his room suddenly flickered and then went out completely.
It wasn't just his room; the entire staff dormitory building, and even the night view outside the window, instantly fell into a dead silence of darkness.
Yue Shi frowned and walked to the window to look out.
Everything was pitch black. He could only see the silhouettes of buildings by the faint moonlight; even the streetlights were out.
"A power outage?" The thought occurred to him.
It looked like a large-scale blackout covering a vast area.
Could this grand display be Ghost's doing?
If it was him, would he really just cause a city-wide power outage?
As Yue Shi pondered, countless pitch-black ravens flew out from the shadows, blending perfectly into the night as they soared toward all corners of Amber City.
Through the ravens' shared vision and hearing, Yue Shi sensed the changes in the city.
The din of voices drifted from various residential areas. Many people had been caught off guard by the sudden, total blackout. Cries of surprise, questioning shouts, and the sounds of children crying were faintly audible.
On the streets, some cars turned on their headlights, providing a bit of illumination for the darkened roads.
The Investigation Bureau building had also fallen into darkness, with only the green exit signs in the emergency corridors emitting a ghostly glow.
Just then, Yue Shi's phone screen lit up. It was a message from Ling Xun in the work group.
「Large-scale power outage. The entire power supply system of Amber City has been systematically sabotaged. The main substation and key nodes of the distribution network in multiple areas were destroyed simultaneously. We are currently conducting emergency inspections and repairs!」
Yue Shi immediately replied: 「Do we know who did it?」
At the same time, he controlled all the ravens to meticulously search every corner of the city for any suspicious figures.
He truly wanted to meet Ghost.
Since the other party was so desperate for revenge, surely he wouldn't mind offering up his source to contribute to Yue Shi's strength.
Ling Xun replied in the group: 「We can't confirm yet. The perpetrator's methods are highly professional. It's as if they have an intimate understanding of the city's power grid layout; all the points of destruction were chosen at vital locations.」
Yue Shi said no more. He walked to the window and, without hesitation, vaulted out. He merged into the night, sensing the city that had ground to a halt.
At first, it was just uneasy whispers.
But soon.
"Boom!!!"
A massive explosion suddenly erupted from the direction of the city's eastern district. The fire even briefly illuminated that patch of sky.
Then, as if it were a signal, more explosions and commotions broke out in succession across different parts of the city.
"Boom! Boom!"
This time, it seemed like gas pipelines or some small chemical facilities had been detonated. The dull, heavy thuds even made the ground vibrate slightly.
"Ah!!"
Screams came from the direction of a commercial district, interspersed with the harsh sound of glass being shattered in bulk, as if a zero-dollar shopping spree were underway.
"Bang! Bang! Bang!"
Gunshots rang out in a certain direction—perhaps guards or private institutions trying to resist something—but the shots soon became sparse, drowned out by the sounds of chaotic impacts and terrified cries.
Countless ravens circled in the sky, attempting to track the source of this chaos.
The level of disorder in Amber City was gradually intensifying.
After an unknown amount of time.
Found him!
Through a raven's vision, Yue Shi captured an extremely blurry figure moving at an astonishing speed.
The figure was like a gust of wind, frantically weaving through the city's complex streets and buildings. Wherever it passed, chaos inevitably followed.
Vital lines were cut, backup generators were detonated, communication base stations emitted black smoke, and transportation hubs were sabotaged...
This figure had just used some unknown means to fuse a main underground fiber optic cable along with its backup lines.
Having completed the destruction, he turned around, preparing to dash toward his next target.
His movements suddenly froze.
A pitch-black raven sat quietly by the roadside, head tilted, watching him wordlessly.
The two stared at each other.
He immediately looked around.
Aside from that raven, there was no one else.
He breathed a sigh of relief. He was just scaring himself—
"Little thing, what are you so relieved about?"
A cold voice suddenly exploded in his ear.
Yue Shi had appeared beside him out of nowhere, right next to him!
He was startled, launching himself backward in an extremely comical manner to put distance between himself and Yue Shi.
Yes, "comical."
That adjective flashed through Yue Shi's mind.
Because the other party wasn't human at all—it was a plush teddy bear!
The teddy bear was large and very worn. Its seams were split, and dirty cotton was leaking out.
It was precisely because he was a teddy bear that the ravens had been able to lock onto him so quickly in the chaotic city.
A teddy bear sneakily causing destruction in the streets was far too conspicuous.
At that moment, the teddy bear reached out with a furry paw, grabbing at its own split belly as if trying to pull something out to deal with the uninvited guest.
"I suggest you don't do anything rash. If you don't believe me, look up," Yue Shi said flatly.
The teddy bear instinctively looked up.
Ravens were circling in the sky, and the surrounding trees were suddenly filled with ravens, countless pairs of eyes all focused on him.
The teddy bear's body stiffened instantly.
Yue Shi's tone became gentle. "What are you so afraid of? It's not like I'm going to eat you."
This was, of course, a lie. He really wanted to eat him.
After a long silence, a muffled, buzzing voice came from inside the teddy bear, carrying a sense of helplessness and complaint. "Did you really have to see me in person?"
Yue Shi nodded. "Of course. Otherwise, I wouldn't feel secure."
The teddy bear expressed doubt. "Will seeing me really make you feel secure?"
Yue Shi didn't answer the question, instead observing it curiously. "I'm surprised you're a teddy bear. Is this your true body?"
"Hehe~" A cackle came from within the bear.
In the next second, the teddy bear seemed to lose all support and collapsed limply onto the ground.
At the same time, a translucent, illusory figure floated out of the teddy bear's body!
He looked like a person wrapped in a white cloth, without clear limbs, possessing only a rough humanoid silhouette. His facial features were several distorted, flickering black holes, making him look quite terrifying.
Ghost truly seemed to be a literal ghost from legend!
"This is my true body," he said in a hollow, ethereal voice that was neither male nor female.
Since he had already been dragged out by Yue Shi, although he was extremely annoyed, he quickly made what he considered the optimal choice—showing sincerity to get on Yue Shi's good side.
Yue Shi, however, had no intention of getting on his good side. The moment Ghost's true body appeared, he had quietly activated his Insight vision.
However, the feedback he received made him pause slightly.
【Information Ghost】: An information lifeform composed of consciousness, energy, and information.
【「Physical Immunity」: Information lifeforms exist on a level slightly higher than the conventional physical dimension, allowing them to perfectly evade all attacks or obstacles based on classical physical laws.】
【「Biological Possession」: Can fuse with the neural network of a target organism. Cannot be detected by conventional means. Can read all of its memories and completely control its physical activities.】
【「Inorganic Possession」: Can merge into inanimate objects or structures and manipulate them.】
【「Digitalization」: Can convert its own information into data, allowing it to invade and exist within data networks.】
Upon seeing the annotations for Ghost's abilities, Yue Shi's alertness immediately reached its peak.
Physical immunity? Memory reading? Body control? Network invasion? This was a perfect existence born for intelligence work and hidden survival. No wonder he could escape pursuit from Lab 0!
At this moment, Ghost floated over to Yue Shi, his hollow black eyes watching him as he asked directly, "Are you thinking about killing me?"
"How could that be?" A flawless fake smile appeared on Yue Shi's face.
"Liar!" Ghost's voice carried a hint of sharpness, as if he had seen right through Yue Shi's mind.
"You had me cause chaos in Amber City. On one hand, it was to distract the Glory Association and the Investigation Bureau, but on the other, I'm afraid it was to find me and pin down my location."
"I know what kind of person you are. I don't think for a second that after going to all this trouble to find me, you just want to simply be friends and cooperate!"
Yue Shi didn't respond directly to his words, only saying, "Actually, I'm quite curious. Before, you were always hiding and refusing to show yourself. Now that we've actually met, you seem completely unfazed. Aren't you afraid I'll actually make a move on you?"
Ghost floated around Yue Shi in a leisurely manner. "I am indeed unfazed. If you don't believe me, you can try." His words were both provocative and confident.
"Then die." Without a second word, Yue Shi directly activated Death Sentence.
An invisible curse of death immediately descended upon Ghost.
Ghost's body flickered like a distorted signal, and a ripple of data flow passed through him. His body, along with the death curse inside him, was entirely digitalized.
The portion of data representing the death curse was deleted.
Ghost remained completely intact, as if nothing had happened.
"Whoa~" He leaned in toward Yue Shi excitedly, as if he had discovered some incredible treasure.
"I didn't expect you to be able to use such a violent instant death curse. This intensity could almost rival the Curse Master stationed at Lab 0. What a pity, what a pity—it's useless against me."
He floated around Yue Shi even faster, his tone full of inquiry. "How do you possess so many different types of supernatural powers? And these abilities seem completely unrelated. What exactly is your Transcendent Form?"
Yue Shi's eyes shifted slightly. "You want to know?"
Ghost stopped circling and nodded vigorously.
Yue Shi said slowly, "If you answer one of my questions, I'll answer one of yours. How about it? After all, if we're going to cooperate, we need some preliminary understanding and trust, right?"
Ghost thought for a moment. "Fine. Ask away."
Yue Shi stared at Ghost, striking at the heart of the matter. "You can invade networks and read all kinds of information on them, right? That is your greatest reliance and source of information."
Ghost's silhouette suddenly stiffened as if he had been struck by lightning.
This was his most core secret, a matter of his very survival!
A wave of extremely hostile emotion emanated from Ghost's illusory body. No one would be in a good mood after having their trump card seen through at a glance.
He was just about to ask how Yue Shi knew when he suddenly met the other man's eyes.
Yue Shi's pupils were rippling with a faint golden light, with countless incomprehensible symbols appearing and vanishing within them.
In that instant, Ghost felt as if everything about him was going wrong.
The most fundamental logic of his information-based lifeform was being forcibly invaded, overwritten, and tampered with.
Yue Shi had activated his most mysterious and long-cooldown ability—Feedback!
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