The Darkness Within the Great Wall

The voice came from very close by. Even over the deafening music pounding through the room, Fang Chang could tell that the words had been directed at him. His expression straightened instinctively. He turned his head and saw a girl sitting right beside him at the bar. Under the dim lighting, what caught his eye was an unconventional mop of short green hair. Even in Boulder City, such a striking hair color was exceptionally rare. She wasn't tall and had a slender frame. Beneath her fluffy bangs were two mismatched eyes; the left one clearly suffered from visual distortion, almost certainly a prosthetic or cybernetic eye. Her delicate nose and sharp chin looked surgically sculpted, or perhaps were themselves products of technology. Fang Chang's gaze drifted downward to her left shoulder, where a large assembly of mechanical parts was visible, styled similarly to Kuang Feng's. Then again, Kuang Feng's cybernetic arm had come from the *Pioneer*, making it look noticeably higher-end than whatever she had bolted onto her body. The girl didn't seem to mind Fang Chang's unblinking stare, continuing in a casual tone, "If you're interested in those three over at Table Twelve, I can dig up some information on them for you." Table 12 was precisely where the group he had been tailing was sitting. "What's your name?" "Dolly... Your accent is weird. You from out of province?" The girl looked at Fang Chang, her brow arched with a flicker of curiosity. *Dolly?* What an odd name. "Fang Chang." Pausing briefly, he continued, "Where I come from isn't important... Regarding what you just offered, how do you plan on finding anything out?" "I know that dancer. Her name's Nikoxi, and she's one of the top attractions here... one of them, anyway." Dolly pointed at the dancing girl sitting in the booth, speaking without the slightest hesitation. "Slip me a tip, and I can ask her anything for you—including her measurements." "That won't be necessary." Fang Chang fished around in his pocket for a moment, finally pulled out the smallest chip he had, and flicked it toward her with his thumb. Dolly caught it between two clapping hands. Holding it up to the light, she read the number and noticed the color matched her hair. A look of surprise crossed her right eye. "...Boss, that's quite generous." A twenty-five-chip denomination. Working in a factory, it would take two whole weeks of hard labor to earn that much. Dolly's gaze softened into something far more charming, and she looked over this cultured, handsome customer with renewed interest. "What do you want to know?" "Who those three are, what they did today, and..." Fang Chang's mind stirred. "And find out whether they know anything about that warehouse district fire last night." Surprise flickered in Dolly's eyes, and when she heard that last question, her expression grew noticeably guarded. "You shouldn't ask that. Phrasing it like that... any idiot could guess who sent you." Talking in circles with his clumsy grasp of the Human Alliance language was too exhausting, so Fang Chang dropped the pretense and gave an easy smile. "It's fine. You're the only person I've said this to today... Getting scared?" *Scared?* Dolly's eyebrow twitched. She hopped off the stool in front of the counter, wiggled her slender frame through the crowd, and soon slipped up beside Booth 12. Fang Chang watched as she leaned her elbow casually on the back of the sofa, blew a teasing breath into the dancer's ear, and blended seamlessly into the group, giggling and chatting like an old friend. Watching her laughing and whispering with the dancer, Fang Chang rubbed his index finger along the rim of his glass, feeling a prickle of nerves. It suddenly struck him that placing his trust in a complete stranger might have been a bit reckless. What if she sold him out? Or... maybe he should have only given her a deposit? While his thoughts spun in circles, someone tapped him on the shoulder. He turned to find Dolly already sitting beside him again. "Did you get it?" Dolly crooked a finger, motioning for him to lean in. Her thin red lips drew close as she murmured, "...The young guy sitting in the middle is named Alec. He's the security captain for the Weijia Commercial Firm. His older sister, Sophie, is Weijia's mistress and works as an accountant at the cannery under his name. He got lucky today and came into a tidy sum of cash." "What kind of cash?" "He didn't specify, but he kept bragging that all it took was a few words from him to give those high-and-mighty officials such a headache they couldn't stomach their food all day." Dolly's eyes gleamed faintly. "My guess? His boss handed him a stack of chips to stir up the workers into surrounding City Hall... and he probably skimmed a cut off the top." *Meaning a strike?* *Why would he orchestrate a strike against his own employer?* Fang Chang felt intrigued, sensing he might be missing a vital piece of the puzzle. Still, his quest hadn't required him to untangle these secondary details. Confirming the identities of the organizers was plenty. "What about the fire last night?" Fang Chang asked, returning to the point he cared about most. "That's not something you can just blurt out, but he did apologize to my friend, saying some business came up last night that kept him from coming here to keep her company..." Dolly spoke with a hint of mockery playing across her face, though it was hard to tell whom she was mocking. "Thank you. That information is very valuable." Fang Chang flicked his index finger across the VM peeking out from his cuff, saving the audio log. [Side Quest Completed] [Reward: 120 silver coins, 100 contribution points, 500 "Boulder City" regional reputation...] [Triggered Side Quest: Compile Intelligence, Draft a Press Release] [Quest Requirements: ...] Looking at the notification popping up on the screen, Fang Chang raised an amused eyebrow. *Writing articles?* Now that was right up his alley. "Don't mention it. I'm just hoping you'll become a regular. Customers with pockets as deep as yours don't come around every day." Dolly's lips curved upward into a bright, animated smile. "No matter what kind of secret it is, as long as you bring the person to me, I'll find a way to pry it out of their mouth." Hearing that, Fang Chang chuckled and put the VM screen to sleep. Within *Wasteland OL*, three great unsolved mysteries had always circulated among the player base: exactly how deep Shelter 404 went, just how busty Yaya really was, and when the hell Dog Guang was finally going to launch open beta. Pity Ah Guang wasn't actually inside the game. Otherwise, Fang Chang would have loved to drag his good buddy here for a drink and squeeze out a few inside scoops no ordinary person could ever know. "My official questions are done, but I have a few personal ones, if you don't mind." "Fire away." Having hit her quota for the day, the girl was in no rush to scout out her next mark. She rested her chin on the back of her hand and regarded him with lingering amusement. "Your eyes are quite unique." Dolly laughed and poked fun at him. "That's a bit too deliberate for a pickup line... and honestly, it sounds fake." No normal person would find her android-like prosthetic eye attractive. Yet she had clearly misread his angle. When the man before her said "unique," he meant it entirely literally. "No, I'm genuinely curious. Where did you get that eye and your cybernetic arm?" Fang Chang asked with keen interest. Sporting an electronic eye and a mechanical arm was ridiculously cool, wasn't it? Especially for an archer like him. He would bet good money that if there were a place capable of doing cybernetic conversions, he wouldn't be the only player lining up at the door. Noticing his genuine enthusiasm, Dolly froze, her expression turning somewhat sour. "Your order was already fulfilled. That counts as a second question." She had intended to brush him off, but before she could finish that thought, a fifty-chip piece was already spinning lazily across the counter before coming to rest. Dolly's eyes widened, and her mouth fell open, speechless for several seconds. "...Are you serious?" "Guess I overpaid," Fang Chang teased. He was starting to find this NPC quite amusing. "Too late!" Dolly snatched the chip up and slipped it into her bosom. Fang Chang watched her and continued, "Now that you've taken the money, don't you think you should share a bit of your secret?" Dolly went quiet for a moment, then waved at the bartender, flashed two fingers, and pointed toward the top line of the drink menu. Before long, two blood-red cocktails were set upon the counter. "...Two glasses of 'Dragon's Blood.' Enjoy." The sharp, pungent reek of alcohol immediately reminded Fang Chang of an unlicensed dive bar tucked away in an alley behind his apartment in the Shanghai suburbs. The aroma of bootleg, blended spirits was identical down to the last note. Considering the Queen of the Night was supposedly one of the top establishments on this street, the living standards of wasteland inhabitants were truly dire. Or maybe this harsh burn was precisely what people were after? Fang Chang reached to pay, but the girl beat him to it, handing the fifty-chip piece he had just given her straight to the bartender. Pocketing the forty chips in change, Dolly picked up her glass, lightly clinked it against his, and took a small sip of the fiery concoction. "It's hardly a secret... You've heard of Awakening, right?" "Of course." Fang Chang found himself puzzled. What did cybernetic prosthetics have to do with Awakening? Reading the confusion on his face, Dolly continued, "Boulder Military Industries makes a serum with the exact same name as this cocktail: 'Dragon's Blood.' If you inject it, there's a chance you can Awaken..." "Naturally, not just anyone qualifies to receive a dose. I hear the stuff isn't cheap. Whenever the Tide rolls in, Boulder Military Industries helps the militia recruit mercenaries, and they run every applicant through a basic medical exam. One of the tests measures your compatibility with Dragon's Blood." "If you pass, you get a shot for free. And if you manage to Awaken and display exceptional capabilities, you have a shot at becoming a direct employee of Boulder Military Industries, securing a comfortable life for the rest of your days." Fang Chang looked at her in surprise. "Did you Awaken?" "No." Setting her glass down, Dolly's eyes were clouded with gloom. "Passing the exam doesn't guarantee Awakening. Dragon's Blood has a fifty-percent success rate. Forty percent of the time, nothing happens at all..." "And the remaining ten percent suffers irreversible tissue damage... According to those bastards, that's technically a form of Awakening too. Just like mutation, not every deviation turns out to be beneficial." Fang Chang's throat bobbed. He finally understood why she had been so resistant to the topic. Her missing arm and damaged eye were what Dragon's Blood had taken from her. The New Alliance possessed serums that could induce Awakening as well, but their success rates were a mystery, and they required the user to have innate potential that was notoriously hard to measure reliably. Such concoctions had no effect on players; within the game's mechanics, they were essentially items meant for leveling up NPCs. In Fang Chang's view, players and NPCs operated on entirely separate power systems, which meant their evolutionary paths diverged completely. Even so... While the New Alliance's serum didn't have an exceptionally high success rate, he had never heard of anyone suffering adverse side effects from it. One could even take multiple doses to try again. "Sounds like I brought up a painful subject." "It's fine. I know you're not actually interested in Dragon's Blood—a rich guy like you wouldn't need that kind of gamble anyway." Dolly gave a self-deprecating smirk and tapped her left arm with her right index finger. "Boulder Military Industries installed this arm and my eye. Boulder City's bank was generous enough to grant me a loan, and in return, I have to pay them fifty chips every single month until I turn forty. And these pieces of junk don't even work half as well as you'd think. They glitch out constantly, and if you miss a payment, they shut down remotely. Sometimes I think... it would have been better if I'd just died back then." Fang Chang fell silent for a few moments. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have brought up bad memories." Much as he felt sympathy for her, what was he supposed to say? A crippling disability, crushing debt, and apparently an orphan too... It felt like every tragic backstory trope had been piled onto her at once. "Save your sympathy." The girl gave a wry smirk and nudged his glass with hers. "If you really feel bad about it, just drink with me." *** Meanwhile, in the slums. Lao Bai and two other players followed the woman's footsteps into Black's dwelling. The place was far from luxurious, but compared to the ramshackle shanties scattered across the slums, it was practically a mansion. Empty liquor bottles were jammed next to the entryway shoe rack, and a cardboard box lay discarded on the floor, overflowing with spent shell casings collected for scrap. "My name's Mary. And you?" "Lao Bai." As he spoke, he shot a glance toward Sha Bi, a Perception-type player, signaling him to check upstairs. Gou Dongxi, on the other hand, made his way into the adjacent storeroom. Guided by Black's confession, he located a locked safe tucked inside a moldering ammunition crate. According to that same confession, the unspent portion of the advance deposit was hidden inside. "Lao... Bai? That's an unusual name." Though surprised, the woman didn't dwell on it. She took a candle from a shelf, set it on an aluminum tray, and lit it. Carrying it over to a low wooden coffee table in the living room, she set it down, casting a dim, flickering glow over the pitch-black space. Unlike the area inside the Great Wall, the slums had no electricity. Those who could afford it relied on candles or kerosene lamps, while most people simply went to sleep as soon as night fell. After all, there were no guards patrolling out here. The neighborhood gangs merely disliked people stirring up trouble right on their doorsteps; they certainly wouldn't bother checking the name on every corpse that turned up in the gutters. This was true lawless territory, where the residents were like wild grass, sprouting back up with every passing spring breeze. Compared to the sheer numbers who froze or starved to death each year, or vanished while scavenging out on the wasteland, those lost to murder or accidents hardly registered on the charts. Sitting down on the sofa, Mary looked across at Lao Bai, seemingly hesitating over how to begin. Lao Bai didn't waste any time. He enabled the VM's translation function, hooked up his earpiece, and spoke directly. "Your friend took on a job he never should have accepted." "Is he still alive?" "He is, but he'll likely spend the rest of his life behind bars." "Behind bars?" A look of mild confusion surfaced in her eyes, though she didn't press the matter. It was obvious she didn't particularly care what fate awaited Black. The man brought home cash on occasion, but he had never been generous with her. If that meal ticket was gone, she needed to make plans for tomorrow as quickly as possible. Such situations were commonplace in the slums. Not everyone possessed the courage to stare down the horrors of this world alone; attaching oneself to the strong was always an option. "Ask whatever you want." She crossed one leg over the other, leaning back slightly against the worn sofa as she looked at Lao Bai. Lao Bai got straight to the point, setting a hundred-chip piece down beside the candle. "What did he tell you before he left?" Mary pinched the chip between two fingers, her red lips parting slightly. "He said we were about to hit it rich. A generous client had handed him a massive advance deposit. He even said he put the money in the bank, and once the job was done, he'd take me to live inside the Great Wall." There wasn't a trace of longing in her voice as she recounted this; she had heard those same promises so often that calluses had practically grown over her ears. That brute was incapable of saving a single coin, and he would never survive city life anyway. By contrast, the man sitting before her seemed like a far more realistic ticket to a better life. "Did he mention who hired him?" Lao Bai pressed. "A man named Bite. An old acquaintance of his who lives in an apartment on Street Seventy-One in Boulder City. Rent over there isn't cheap—I hear it runs two thousand chips a month." A flash of envy crossed Mary's face as she said this. "Have you met this Bite?" "Of course. He's nothing like rough-edged Black. He's polite, carries himself with refinement, and has clear, honest eyes. Word is he handles business for some big shot in the city. If only Black could learn a thing or two from him, we wouldn't have to rot away in this sewer." Mary couldn't help venting a complaint, while Lao Bai committed the clue to memory. It seemed Black hadn't been entirely forthcoming during his interrogation. He and Bite were no chance acquaintances, nor had they met for the first time at the Pirate Bay Tavern. Taking advantage of the moment, Lao Bai sent a quick message to Fang Chang back in the city, telling him to check out the apartment on Street 71. To his surprise, Fang Chang didn't respond. *His status still shows him online...* Lao Bai's expression turned odd. After waiting briefly, he figured Fang Chang must be tied up with something, so he forwarded the message to another teammate who was currently active. This time, the reply arrived almost instantly. [Kidney Fighter: Got it! Heading over to check right now!] [Lao Bai: Just locate the target first. Don't startle the snake.] [Kidney Fighter: Understood!] *Let's hope he really does understand.* Pulling his finger back from the screen, Lao Bai returned his attention to the woman across from him. "...Do you know what kind of business this Bite conducts?" "He seemed to mention..." Mary tapped her chin with a finger, thinking it over. "Arms? I remember him saying that southern plantation owners needed heavy machine guns to handle thick-skinned mutants, and large-caliber weapons were selling like hotcakes down there." Surprise flickered in Lao Bai's eyes. *The people who ambushed us were arms dealers?* That was precisely the least likely possibility. "...Could it be Boulder Military Industries?" Sha Bi, who had just come downstairs, happened to catch the exchange. Glancing at the translation on his VM, he traded a look with Gou Dongxi, who was stepping out from the adjacent room. "That would be huge... but wait, that doesn't make any logical sense," Gou Dongxi muttered, scratching his head. "I thought the New Alliance's negotiations with Boulder City yielded concessions on the arms trade?" Sha Bi gave a nuanced nod. "...Yeah, that's what I heard too." New Alliance weapons were barred from entering Boulder City's market, while Dawn City placed no restrictions on Boulder City's arms. In exchange, Boulder City opened up other sectors of its market and granted mutual tariff preferences with Dawn City. Anyone else had a reason to bear a grudge against them, but arms dealers from Boulder City had none whatsoever. Sha Bi couldn't help wishing Brother Fang Chang were here. That guy had a head full of convoluted logic and could definitely spin out a plausible theory on the spot. "...Who is this big shot? Boulder Military Industries?" Lao Bai kept his focus on Mary, refusing to get sidetracked. Mary looked completely blank. "I don't know... Maybe?" Minutes ticked by, and before they knew it, a sizable chunk of the candle had melted away. Following the checklist on his VM, Lao Bai asked a battery of further questions while the sky outside turned completely pitch-black. "...I've got the general picture. Thank you for your cooperation." Lao Bai tapped his VM, dimming the screen's faint glow. "Are we done already?" Disappointment crept onto Mary's face. Lao Bai nodded. "Yes. If necessary, I'll contact you again." Unwilling to let the opportunity slip away, she made no move to see him off, casting a lingering glance toward the window instead. "Look how dark it is out there. Going back into the city after seven means paying double the gate tax... If you don't mind, you could stay the night here and head back once the sun comes up." Her voice carried an unmistakable undertone of suggestion, if not an outright invitation. Lao Bai froze for a moment. *Is this game...* *Really rated for all ages?* His gamer instincts told him that choosing yes or no here wouldn't alter the main plotline down the road. Just like the choices he'd faced back in *The Witcher 3*. Then again... *Would the screen just fade to black here?* Before his thoughts could drift any further, a sudden knock on the front door shattered the suggestive atmosphere in the room. "...Probably another of that bastard's drinking buddies. I'll go check." Muttering under her breath, Mary rose from the sofa. She glanced back at Lao Bai, suddenly looking embarrassed, and whispered, "...Um, could you please keep quiet for a moment?" Even though Black likely wasn't coming back, if she couldn't leave this place right away, she still needed to preserve some shred of reputation. It would make finding her next provider that much easier. Lao Bai nodded in understanding, throwing a glance at his two teammates nearby to signal them to stay out of sight. Relieved, Mary swayed toward the door with an unwilling pout. The sound of the doorknob turning came through, followed by the creak of the door swinging open, eerily quiet against the flickering candlelight. Muffled voices drifted in from the threshold, too indistinct to make out. Lao Bai drew a deep breath, steadying his nerves. Just then, a thunderous bang shattered the silence. He sprang from the sofa by pure reflex, his grip tightening instantly around the submachine gun concealed beneath his coat. The gunfire didn't stop at a single round. By the time he reached the doorway, Mary had already collapsed in a pool of blood, her body riddled with bullet holes. The entryway was painted a ghastly crimson. The two men standing outside froze, clearly not expecting anyone else to be in the house. The one clutching a PU-9 submachine gun immediately swung his smoking barrel toward Lao Bai. Lao Bai, however, was far quicker. A throwing knife slipped from his hand, driving straight through the shooter's forehead. The sheer kinetic force jerked the gun upward, sending a wild burst rattling into the ceiling. In a single lunge, Lao Bai grabbed the dead man with the knife in his skull along with the surviving accomplice, hauling them both inside before kicking the door shut with a heavy thud. The hallway was plunged into near darkness, the floor slick with blood. The captured man, held firmly by the throat, completely lost control of his bladder, trembling violently as his voice cracked with terror. "Don't... don't kill me! I-I was just following orders! If I'd known you were still alive, I swear to God I never would've gotten involved in this!" He had evidently mistaken Lao Bai for Black. Alerted by the gunfire, Sha Bi and Gou Dongxi bolted out of the side room, staring in shock at the two bodies on the floor. "What happened?!" "Lao Bai, you good?" Why had a firefight erupted out of nowhere? "I'm fine." Lao Bai pinned the man to the floor, resting the muzzle of his submachine gun directly against the back of the thug's head. "Y-You're not Black?" The man's voice dissolved into incoherent sobs. "Don't... don't kill me, I beg you! It was too dark outside, I didn't see a thing!" "Who sent you?" Lao Bai demanded in a low, heavy voice. The man stammered through chattering teeth, "Our boss... He said the Awakened living on our street botched the job and crossed people he shouldn't have crossed. He told the two of us to come sweep up the mess..." The street outside remained dead silent. Every household had shuttered their windows and bolted their doors tight; not a single person stepped out to gawk. Lao Bai noticed a tattoo on the neck of the man beneath him. The ink depicted a dagger. He didn't give a damn about some street gang, and the so-called Dagger Gang meant nothing to him. He had personally slaughtered over a hundred marauders in Xizhou City who were far more savage and bloodthirsty than these street thugs. What truly unsettled him was the sheer reach of that colossal military conglomerate over the entire city... Whether within the Great Wall or outside it. Every single component seemed to revolve around a hidden core submerged beneath the surface. Those people could treat human beings like disposable chess pieces, casually deciding the life and death of individuals or entire groups. And they didn't even bother hiding it. It suddenly dawned on Lao Bai that there might be no genuine order here at all. Or perhaps, no genuine civilization. The brilliant lights within the Great Wall might very well conceal a darkness far deeper than that of the wasteland outside... Interpreting the prolonged silence as hesitation, the captive assumed the man behind him was weighing whether offending the Dagger Gang was worth the life of a dead woman. Thinking he could outsmart his captor, he lowered his voice conspiratorially. "...Friend, the light's terrible in here. I didn't get a look at your face. If you let me walk, I'll tell the boss that the poor bastard who took a shot at you got knifed by the woman... He won't look into it too closely." "...But if both of us end up dead here, this isn't gonna blow over quietly." Lao Bai hadn't caught every nuance of the first sentence, but he understood the threat at the end perfectly. He let out a dry laugh. "Well now... trying to threaten me, are we?" Lao Bai hoisted the man up by the collar, turning the thug's face directly toward his own, and smiled coldly. "Get a good look now." The man's face drained of all color, his eyes widening in sheer horror. Just as he braced himself to be silenced permanently, he was shoved hard onto the floor. "Let's pull out." Lao Bai didn't spare him another glance. Flashing a hand signal to his teammates, he led the way out of the blood-drenched house. Right then, the VM on his forearm buzzed softly. [Kidney Fighter: I reached the building, but the apartment is cordoned off by guards... Big crowd gathered. Word is, someone got murdered.] Hardly surprised, Lao Bai typed back a response. [He's probably already dead. Pull back for now. Rendezvous at the save point later.] [Kidney Fighter: OK.] Lao Bai glanced at Fang Chang's icon, which still hadn't responded, feeling a flicker of concern. *I'll ask him about it once we log off later.* *** After Lao Bai and his group departed, the surviving thug struggled to his feet inside Black's house. Aside from his warm, soaked trousers, every inch of his body felt ice cold. "Dammit..." He spat a curse, venting his terror through profanity as he limped toward the doorway. He pushed the door open. The cool night wind brushed against his face. For a fleeting moment, he felt that being alive was truly wonderful. Right then, a group of figures stepped into view. Catching sight of the man leading them, the thug's eyes widened in shock, and an ingratiating grin immediately plastered across his face. He scrambled forward in hasty strides. "...Master West, what brings you here?" The man standing before him was the boss's trusted confidant and the lieutenant who oversaw this entire district. West eyed the open door behind him, his brow furrowing. "What happened?" The thug instantly gave a full account of the events, spicing up the details along the way. West listened in silence, then asked abruptly, "Do you remember what that man looked like?" "I do! Of course I do!" The thug nodded vigorously, a vindictive gleam in his eyes as he snarled, "I'd recognize that face even if he were burned to ash! Just let me lay eyes on him again, and I'll pick him out in a heartbeat!" West gave a slight nod, glanced at the subordinate beside him, and turned on his heel to leave. A single gunshot shattered the quiet night. Not long after, flames roared to life inside Black's house, consuming the three corpses within. *** At the same time. Inside the outer-city municipal building. The conference room was brightly lit. Dulong stood before his staff, eyes glowing with excitement as he laid out his brilliant proposal for a two-hundred-million-chip loan in vivid, sweeping strokes. Deputy Director Yege looked completely bewildered. He had no idea what madness had seized the man before him, nor what kind of bewitching brew those gophers had fed him. Yet, if pressed to poke holes in the proposal, he couldn't find a single flaw on short notice. After all, nothing of the sort had ever been attempted in the past two centuries. Sitting across the table, Bank President Melven frowned, smoothed his brow, and frowned again. He harbored his own reservations, but the sheer size of the pie being dangled before him was impossible to ignore. A loan of two hundred million chips... While not without risk, it was infinitely safer than lending funds to traveling merchants and roaming mercenaries. After a long silence, he gave a slow nod. "...While there's certainly no historical precedent for this..." "It does sound like a rather good idea."