At the end of April, the sunlight spread across every corner of Yangon Street like melted butter, while the old oak trees by the roadside sprouted tender green buds, swaying gently in the breeze and casting dappled shadows on the asphalt.
Sitting in a white rocking chair in the courtyard, Yvette glanced at the workers busily moving around in the corridor, then opened her Magitek Terminal to check the latest news online.
This was her newly rented house in the city near the Firth River, a two-story villa with over a dozen rooms, a garage, and a small garden.
The workers currently busy at work were cleaners hired from a housekeeping company. The house had likely been empty for quite some time, left to gather dust. A mere gust of wind magic would only leave her covered in dust, so after some thought, she decided to spend a little money instead.
Upon checking the news in New Eden and confirming that her photograph hadn’t circulated online, Yvette logged into her New Eden citizen account and looked at her message inbox.
There were plenty of messages from Miss Irene and middleman Carter, all sent in the past couple of days; the reason was obvious.
It wasn’t just them; even the mysterious Torchbearer from the Civilization Preservation Society had forwarded her related news articles, attaching a thumbs-up emoji—seemingly expressing his admiration succinctly.
Therefore, setting aside Miss Irene and Carter for the moment, Yvette sent a message to Torchbearer: “Do you know anything about the Kux underground base?”
This was information she had been searching for during her spare time over the past few days, but the knowledge she obtained was limited. She wasn’t sure if it was blocked or if the incident was indeed so mysterious that even local residents in Kux were unaware.
“I know.” Torchbearer replied quickly.“How much?”
“100,000 credits.”
“So cheap?” Yvette was somewhat surprised, thinking that perhaps it wasn’t important intelligence.
However, since it was information that couldn’t be found online, she decided to pay the fee anyway—after deducting 120,000 credits for personal income tax from her 3.1 million credits, she still had 1.9 million left, allowing her some limited extravagance.
Fortunately, the state where customs was located had no state income tax; otherwise, in states with higher tax rates, she might have lost another 300,000 or 400,000.
After receiving the payment, Torchbearer immediately stated, “The Kux underground base was a research facility jointly established by the federal government and Linmetamorph Biotech but has since been abandoned. The project previously researched there was reviving ancient whales as large biological weapons secretly cultivated by the federation.”
“Ancient whales?” Yvette’s mind immediately recalled relevant historical information.
According to archaeological findings, during the ancient civilization period 30,000 years ago, Origin Star experienced a flourishing age of high magic, during which dragons soared in the skies, while two equally famous and terrifying monsters, the ancient whale and the ancient kraken, were also known.
The ancient whale was believed to possess flying abilities, making it a ruler of the skies and seas, rivaling the dragons, while the ancient kraken was deemed the king of the deep sea, capable of dragging down anything into its depths, even dragons, without leaving a trace behind.
“Indeed, it’s that ancient whale from the period of high magic,” Torchbearer continued. “This was during the latter half of the last century. At that time, the United New Eden was experiencing tensions with the Blacktide Federation. Shortly thereafter, Blacktide Corporation discovered well-preserved fossils of ancient krakens in the deep sea, leading to a collaboration with the Blacktide Federation and the formation of the ‘Sea Demon Project,’ aiming to glean the genetic sequences from the ancient kraken fossils to resurrect these super monsters from 30,000 years ago and utilize them as biological weapons to gain naval supremacy.”
“The New Eden government already possessed intact ancient whale fossils. Provoked by the actions of the Blacktide Federation, they engaged in a biological weapon race. They partnered with Linmetamorph Biotech to initiate the ‘Sky Whale Project,’ intending to resurrect the ancient whales that could traverse both sky and sea to counterbalance the ancient krakens from the Blacktide Federation, ensuring their naval supremacy near the Blacktide Continent remained secure.”
“And then what? Did they succeed?” Yvette pondered, recalling the mountain whales that were continuously being sent from Kux to the North Sea of the Abyss under Purple Commander’s command, finally understanding why he had chosen that outpost.
So it was because it had the necessary resources for hatching mountain whales!
“No, the project failed.”
“Failed?”
“The world’s environment has changed dramatically; how could such a project succeed? Whether it’s dragons, ancient whales, or krakens, they are all products of a high magic environment. Even if they were successfully resurrected, how long could they survive in this world? It’s simply a laughable notion stemming from the naivety of the people of that era regarding this field.”
There was a hint of mockery in Torchbearer’s reply: “In short, these two plans wasted countless taxpayer funds and ended up being summarily stopped. They served no purpose other than to enrich a few corrupt officials. The research base in Kux was sealed, and even related information was classified. You could only access historical materials on this topic from networks connected to the Jadeite or Silvermirror Continents.”
Now Yvette understood why Torchbearer sold the information for such a low price; it turned out that this information could be easily found if one had a network using an appropriate gateway to another continent.
She felt somewhat frustrated and then inquired, “Did the Sky Whale Project leave behind any embryos or similar remnants?”
Torchbearer seemed surprised: “How did you know about that?”
“Is there such a thing?”
“There are, but they’re merely cold-stored, nearly non-viable embryos of bioengineered creatures. They are the only thing that this foolish project could be called a ‘result’…” he said. “This is considered a core secret of the project; aside from those high-ranking individuals in the federal government and Linmetamorph Biotech, no one outside should know, so for you to know this, Miss Nameless, you continue to surprise me.”
“Likewise.” Yvette said, recalling the Blacktide Corporation’s Sea Demon Project, pondering whether she might encounter aberrant giant krakens in the future. She just didn’t know how their combat capabilities compared to those of the mountain whales.
“By the way, do you know where Zero and One are?” she asked again.
She didn’t mention who Zero and One were, but given Torchbearer’s current demeanor, she believed he knew exactly who she was referring to.
“I’m not sure, but they should have gone to Rustbone. Since you’re asking this, I suspect Miss Nameless, you might have found some clues while in the Firth?” Torchbearer said with a knowing tone.
…
After receiving some confirmation from Torchbearer, Yvette ended the conversation and began to focus on how to find Zero and One.
Honestly, from a practical standpoint, acquiring knowledge about necromancy from the Holy Spirit Sect might be more pressing.
However, this carried risks, and moreover, she was slightly more interested in those two little girls, as it concerned her past.
What were the ultimate three philosophical questions again?
—Who am I? Where did I come from? Where am I going?
Though she already knew where she had come from, how could she understand who she was if she didn’t clarify this? How could she know where she ought to go?
…
Later in the evening, Yvette purchased a few time capsules, deciding to bury them in a suitable location.
The Firth River would eventually be submerged, but regarding the high-altitude mountains and fields nearby, she could identify which areas had familiar topography and were relatively stable geologically. Just to be safe, she would bury several, each at varying depths to ensure everything was foolproof.
After completing all this, Yvette returned to the city.
Due to the poor infrastructure along the Firth River, her abilities as a runic hacker were severely limited. When she failed to find leads on Zero and One, she had the taxi driver drop her off at the headquarters of the Holy Spirit Sect in the Firth’s district, the “Soulfire Cathedral,” planning to gather some intelligence first.
As the most widely followed religion in the Rustbone Free State, the Soulfire Cathedral was still bustling with activity in the evening, with a constant stream of people coming and going, presumably for mass.
After getting out of the taxi, Yvette surveyed the ominous-looking black-spired church, feeling it looked rather eerie; the arches resembled arranged ribs, and the wall reliefs were formed from countless skulls. The clergy were uniformly robed in black cloaks with hoods. However, since they worshipped the god of death, it somewhat fit the overall theme.
After watching for a while at the entrance and preparing to step inside, she suddenly felt a movement in her heart and glanced up to a certain position above the church.
There, she caught a fleeting glimpse of a familiar translucent human face, disappearing into the deepening twilight.
Expressionless, she withdrew her gaze and continued walking in, thinking that the malevolent spirit she had encountered in the slaver camp was indeed related to the Holy Spirit Sect.