Chapter 1 Late Night

Late at night, all was silent.

A business car as black as a ghost, with all its lights off, was parked not far from Gu Shen's dilapidated apartment building.

The old man had his eyes closed, seemingly resting, but in reality, he was waiting, tapping his fingers against his arm.

"Ding—"

A real-time communication request rang in the car. Mr. Shu slowly opened his eyes and chose to answer. The next moment, soft light poured down and gathered at the starlight ceiling inside the car, forming a light screen.

Nan Jin's face appeared in the virtual light screen.

"Teacher, the containment mission for A-009 has been completed," she reported respectfully.

But it was clear that this was not the purpose of her call.

"It's rare to see Teacher value someone so much, personally escorting Gu Shen tonight..." Nan Jin paused for a moment, then solemnly asked, "Do you hope to recruit him into the 'Arbitration Office'?"

"Ah ha... yes."

The old man smiled frankly. "I have high hopes for him. Surviving the A-009 incident unscathed as an ordinary person is not easy."

Indeed... Nan Jin nodded.

Since it was someone her teacher valued, it couldn't be wrong.

She asked again, "Are you so sure... that he will join the Arbitration Office?"

"Actually, I'm not sure either, so there's a bit of a gamble involved." The old man held up two fingers and rubbed them together, smiling slyly. "I gave Gu Shen a number and am now waiting for the phone to ring."

Waiting for the phone to ring?

Nan Jin was stunned.

A series of events flashed through her mind... A-009 escaped, emergency capture, train detachment, helicopter cleanup—

Such a commotion must have attracted the attention of "those people."

And those people only needed to follow the train information to easily find the person at the source... Gu Shen.

She immediately understood her teacher's intentions.

"Tonight's uncontrolled incident has attracted a lot of attention."

"For those who crave things to get out of control and escalate, it's disappointing if a high-sequence transcendent's loss of control only results in a train derailment..."

"At least, someone has to die, right?"

Mr. Shu lowered his eyes and muttered softly, "Coincidentally, A-009's ability is corrosion. With such an ability, even if the person involved leaves the incident and dies in an 'accident', it can be explained. Poor little guy, if he's sharp enough, he's probably sensed the danger by now, right?"

Is Teacher trying to test Gu Shen?

Nan Jin was a little worried. "Those guys are different from A-009, with no fixed patterns to follow. If they take action, how can Gu Shen resist? He's just an ordinary person after all..."

"Ordinary people can't survive in the hands of A-009, and they're not qualified to join the Arbitration Office... When I was on the train, I saw the look in that boy's eyes. He's different from you, he cherishes his life." Mr. Shu's expression became serious as he stared at his beloved disciple. "So Gu Shen won't risk his life, but will try everything to save it."

"In this case, if he can't even make a phone call for help..."

Mr. Shu's expression became calm, composed, as if he didn't care about anything.

He closed his eyes again, as if talking in his sleep, his voice getting softer and softer, "Then it means I misjudged him. Gu Shen survived the A-009 incident just... by chance."

...

...

"I'm back—"

Gu Shen pushed open the door and called out softly.

The simple one-bedroom apartment was empty and bare, only thirty or forty square meters. Aside from a table and a bed, there was nothing else. Calling it sparsely furnished was no exaggeration.

The mottled light in the bedroom flickered faintly.

Did he forget to turn off the holographic screen on the table when he left? Gu Shen paused for a moment.

"Meow—"

What usually responded to him was an urgent meow for food, but today's response was a little slower and sounded much calmer than usual.

An orange cat was squatting in front of the holographic screen, staring at the entrance.

It was a stray cat that Gu Shen had just picked up not long ago. He named it Orange. After bringing it back, he realized... this thing could really eat. As expected of a big orange, but it didn't gain much weight, just ate without getting fat.

So much had happened today that it was already past two in the morning when he got home. It must have been hard for it to wait until now.

Gu Shen yawned and took out a large bag of cat food, pouring it into the plate. "Orange, dinner time."

There was no response.

Gu Shen was a little surprised that this silly cat didn't rush over immediately. He had his back to the table and didn't see that the orange cat on the table was looking down at him, with a faint glow in its eyes.

"Not eating? You'll miss the only chance you get." Gu Shen turned his head back in annoyance.

"Meow!!!"

Accompanied by a sharp meow, Orange shuddered all over, as if waking from a dream. The fluorescence in its eyes disappeared, and it jumped off the table with murderous intent, burying its head in the plate to eat ravenously.

That eating posture... Gu Shen looked at it with some disgust.

The silly cat ate its fill, then swaggered to find a place to purr and sleep.

Gu Shen sat in front of the holographic screen, using a tissue to wrap his fingers, and carefully took out the ruler from his pocket. Looking at the silver ruler... he fell into thought.

This ruler doesn't seem to have the ability to corrode?

It didn't seem like A-009 had any malice when he gave him this thing?

But what is the use of this thing?

The scenes after getting on that subway flashed back, froze, and rewound.

Gu Shen had too many questions in his heart... He thought he could get some answers from the people in the interrogation room.

But...

The story he made up on a whim while drinking water was remembered very carefully by that guy named "Wei Shu"... Obviously, there was a problem with the surveillance footage in the carriage. Those people didn't know what happened in the train at all!

What they saw was the normal Line 13.

But what he boarded at the beginning was the old and mottled "Zero Zero One."

"...What exactly happened with that girl and A-009..."

Gu Shen was clueless, rubbed his forehead, and muttered to himself, "That old man said the new era is coming soon..."

"New era... new era..."

He opened the webpage.

The holographic screen showed the effect of layers of waves sweeping and washing away.

In the New Calendar 638, thanks to the supercomputer "Deep Sea" developed by "Alan Turing," the five continents were closely linked by a virtual network. All citizens could enjoy a wealth of real-time information and extremely fast, super-intelligent services without leaving their homes.

"Such a big commotion tonight, but there aren't any related posts..."

Gu Shen frowned, glanced at the temporary news, and felt that something was wrong. He wanted to type on the keyboard but suddenly stopped.

He recalled the old man's words on the train.

["Someone is already paying attention to you."]

This sentence reminded Gu Shen.

"If someone is really watching me... I have to be careful."

Gu Shen knew very well that the search traces he left behind could easily become clues for interested parties to track down.

A very light "ding" sound.

Suddenly, a dialog box popped up on the computer screen.

"Congratulations."

The dialog box showed that the other party was typing: "...You answered that question correctly. Very impressive."

This is... Gu Shen was stunned.

The other party's profile picture was blank, but the tone was obviously that of the girl in the white dress he met on the train.

There was no need to worry about someone pretending... Gu Shen was very sure that no third person knew about his encounter with the girl, not even the mysterious "Mr. Shu."

He immediately clicked on the profile picture, trying to find the other party's information... but no matter how Gu Shen clicked, the personal information and related sections were all blank.

This kind of blank wasn't that nothing was filled in, but that there were no fillable items at all... On the small profile card, there was no name, gender, date of birth, hobbies, signature, nothing at all.

Blank.

Only blank.

Even dead people, as long as they were born, wouldn't have this kind of blank.

Gu Shen had never seen this situation before. Every citizen of the Five Continents had to have their blood collected and recorded in the Deep Sea database. Only with real-name authentication could they log into the Deep Sea network.

But everything on this card was blank... Did the system malfunction?

In any case, it didn't matter anymore.

Gu Shen now felt fortunate... He was glad that he hadn't honestly confessed in the interrogation room. Who knew what crazy things those guys who came with helicopters to collect A-009's body would do if they knew that there was another unmanaged person like the girl?

He didn't want the girl to be imprisoned like A-009!

"Thank you," Gu Shen replied politely, then asked urgently, "I have some questions I want to ask... For example, who are you?"

He had too many questions to ask.

Who was the girl, what was going on with that train, and A-009, and that newspaper... There were too many questions to count.

"My name is Chu Ling." The girl seemed to have mind-reading abilities and immediately replied the moment Gu Shen sent the message, "...I know you have many questions to ask, but now is not the time. The people who want to kill you are on their way."

"??!"

One sentence was like a heavy hammer.

Gu Shen's fingers hovered over the projection keyboard, and his brain short-circuited for a moment.

"The current situation is quite dangerous. Next, communications will be blocked, and the network will be cut off. I will contact you in another way."

He tried to digest this large amount of information. Chu Ling's last message in the dialog box was still the same sentence from when they parted on the train.

"Gu Shen, survive."