Chapter 8: Exploring the Secret Chambers

Chapter 8: Exploring the Secret Chambers

Inside the tunnel, I pushed open the door to the left chamber.

It was a surveillance room.

From here, I could monitor every corner of the school. Some cameras were aimed directly at the washrooms inside the girls’ dormitory building.

Gao Minjun was an old creep.

On the feed from outside the little black room, I spotted Ye Ziping crouched by the ping-pong table, playing on his phone.

I searched for the footage of my entry. When I found it, I wiped it clean without hesitation.

I also identified the blind spots—angles where I could move without being recorded.

The right-hand door opened too.

This chamber held two wired chairs, side by side. Each had a workstation in front of it: large monitor, keyboard, the works.

I sat down, put on a helmet, and flipped the same switch as the one outside.

Ding-dong.

It actually powered up. My heart lifted.

Metaverse, here I come.

I expected a scene to appear. Instead, the screen filled with strings of code.

What was this?

After studying it, I guessed: the game controller’s interface.

But I couldn’t understand it.

If someone were operating the workstation right now, maybe I could read them.

But this was the metaverse—a low-grade AI product, according to Gao Minjun. Could I read artificial intelligence too?

Worth a try.

I treated the screen like a person. I fixed my mind on the code and thought: Read it. Read it.

The strings of code stirred. They transformed into something I couldn’t name—information that entered my mind.

Not language. Program code that resembled thought. I didn’t understand it in any ordinary sense, but I could grasp its meaning intuitively.

With that understanding came the ability to push back. I used the same thought-sense to command it.

The code moved. Through the feedback loop, I felt it responding to my instructions.

I pulled up the control interface for Treading the Wind, Seeking the Dao.

The game interface appeared.

I activated a blacked-out region. Found the resource management system. Moved a large resource box from the dark zone into a ruined temple at the foot of Five-Finger Mountain.

I tucked the box under an incense burner.

Using the code, I defined its contents: spirit stones and Green-Veined Immortal Pills. Top-grade quality. A thousand of each.

Then I shifted focus to content outside the game.

I didn’t care about the game itself. I cared whether the missing people were connected to Gao Minjun.

That’s why I was here.

I entered the names of recent missing persons I knew.

One by one, they appeared.

I exhaled slowly. So it really was connected to Gao Minjun. But I still didn’t know what the symbols beside their names meant. Maybe they were only records. Maybe there was some other method behind them.

I queried. No response.

There were others I didn’t recognize. The system showed ages, occupations, specialties, danger levels.

Danger levels?

The missing came from all walks of life. They didn’t know each other. But if I analyzed what they had in common, it all seemed to point toward artificial intelligence—an interest in it, contact with it, or private possession of it.

Some code strings I couldn’t parse. Only the encoder would know.

All of them tied to AI.

So maybe there were two nets purging artificial intelligence. One visible: the CWP purge organization. One invisible: people like Gao Minjun, lurking among us.

Was I on the list?

I searched my own name.

There I was. Followed by a secret-code string I couldn’t read.

I entered Grandma’s name: Wang Chunyan.

The result: Elite.

Elite.

The very thing Grandma had warned me about.

What did it mean? Things were getting more complicated.

I left the administrator-access chair and searched the room.

Everything was neat. Not much to find.

Two chairs. Two operators? One was Gao Minjun. Who was the other?

A pale mauve scarf caught in a chair gap drew my eye.

Not Gao Minjun’s. Probably something a woman used.

I didn’t dare touch it, though I wanted to.

I crawled out the way I’d come, kept to the blind spots, and found Ye Ziping by the ping-pong table.

He jumped.

“How’d it go?” Ye Ziping asked cautiously.

“We’ll talk when we get back.”

I pulled him toward his house at a run.

Back at Ye Ziping’s, I had him boot up his computer. I guided him to Five-Finger Mountain in Treading the Wind, Seeking the Dao.

Sure enough, the place existed. This region had no major sects and was not the sort of place that produced spirit herbs or immortal pills. It was controlled by minor demon beasts. Ordinary cultivators ignored it.

Ye Ziping hesitated. “There’s nothing good there.”

“Find the ruined temple. I hid top-grade spirit stones and immortal pills under the incense burner. If they’re there, my control worked.”

It didn’t take long for Ye Ziping to control his giant spider spirit and take the place. Under the burner’s base sat a white jade box.

He opened it and froze.

“So many top-grade spirit stones and Green-Veined Pills? We’re rich! How did you do this? How much is this worth?”

“Don’t touch them yet. Put them back. Wait until things cool down. If someone finds out I manipulated the backend and you grab them now, they’ll suspect you’re an accomplice and reset you back to square one. Leave them. What I did has nothing to do with you.”

Reluctantly, he replaced them. Then he set up a formation outside—an early warning system.

In the cultivation world, a single top-grade spirit stone or Green-Veined Pill required enormous sacrifice. This many could raise Ye Ziping more than one realm. No wonder he was tempted.

Gao Minjun returned to school the next day.

I quietly observed him for several days. Nothing unusual.

I went to Zhu Shiqing and asked whether Zhu Zhaojie owned a pale mauve scarf, and whether it was at home.

He confirmed she had one. He’d have to check if it was there. Hearing my question, he assumed I knew something and pressed me for news. I said I had no clear leads yet, but I’d actively help him look for her.

Another week passed. Grandma’s deadline was approaching.

I was about to ask Ye Pingsheng for the letter when Chief Zhu from the Public Security Sub-Bureau summoned me first and told me to make a trip to the town Public Security Sub-Bureau.

In the interrogation room, Zhu Shaohua asked whether I’d entered the school’s teaching base without authorization—the little black room.

While asking questions here and there, I secretly sensed his thoughts.

Zhu Shaohua didn’t have Gao Minjun’s shielding ability. I read him immediately. He was following procedure. The one who’d reported me was Gao Minjun.

Knowing that, I admitted it calmly and laid out my suspicions. I wanted to see how he’d react—whether he and Gao Minjun were working together.

I briefly described how I had crawled into the little black room that day. But I emphasized that I’d gone in to help a father find his missing child. I hadn’t touched their equipment. I framed it as assisting them in solving a case, not acting selfishly.

Zhu Shaohua could decide what to do.

He warned me on the surface: trespassing could be treated as attempted theft. But inside, I sensed no malice. He even accepted my suspicions.

In the end, he warned me a few more times out of duty.

As I left, he handed me his business card. “Since you meant to assist the Public Security Bureau, this won’t be pursued. But if anything comes up in the future, report it to us first. Don’t act on your own.”

I agreed.

I was still curious about the large door I couldn’t open. I suggested the bureau investigate it.

He gave me a stern verbal warning about suspecting people without evidence. But inside, he was already planning to bring people to check.

My goal was achieved. No need to meddle further.

I headed straight to Ye Pingsheng’s house.

When I took Grandma’s letter from him, my emotions surged. I hoped it held answers.

I missed Grandma.

I opened it.

Three things inside.

A name and address. Grandma wanted me to leave Liutan Town and go to Pingdu City to find someone named Gu Qiutang.

A strangely shaped green jade token. I had no idea what it was for.

A bank card. Traveling required money.

Nothing about Grandma herself. Nothing about where she’d gone.

Disappointment settled over me.

Had Grandma gone to Pingdu City to find Gu Qiutang? Hard to say. But at minimum, this Gu Qiutang knew her. If I found him, I’d get answers.

Back home, I started packing, preparing to go to Pingdu City to find Gu Qiutang.

A faint sound came from behind me.

I turned.

Gao Minjun stood behind me with a strange smirk.

My neck went numb.

Then I lost consciousness.