Chapter 1491: Xinran
We took off again in two Buick GL8s. I rode in the car at the front.
Zhang Chun took a seat beside me and rubbed his palms together. Suddenly, he asked me in a serious tone, "Are you surprised that I personally showed up to receive you?"
I nodded and answered simply, "Yeah."
Zhang Chun exhaled before continuing, "Well, I can assure you that it wasn’t a mistake."
"What is going on?" I asked.
"I can’t tell you the details yet, but you’ll know when we reach Eternal Moon’s headquarters…"
That caught me by surprise. "Wait, we’re heading to Eternal Moon’s headquarters, not the VR department?"
"That is correct."
……
That got me worried, but Zhang Chun refused to say anything more no matter how I tried to prod him about it.
I was just worried about Xinran’s safety. She might just be a pile of data, but I still wanted her to be safe and sound. That was the only reason I entered the Purgatory and even the Banished Lands to find her.
It took over an hour to arrive at the Beijing headquarters, one of the three main headquarters of Eternal Moon Corporation. It was even rumored that the Beijing headquarters used to be the true headquarters until a shift of capital caused the core to be shifted to New York.
After we got out of the car, a group of employees wearing chest badges walked up to us and greeted us warmly. Standing at the forefront was none other than Tang Feng himself, and after he shook my hand he said, "Sorry to make you come all the way here, Lu Chen."
I nodded. "It’s nothing, Chief Tang. By the way, the three of us haven’t had anything substantial during noon. Why don’t we talk business after we’ve had lunch?"
Tang Feng thought for a second and, to my surprise, didn’t agree to even that. “No, let’s talk about this first, and have a good lunch after.”
I frowned. "This must be really serious if we’re delaying even lunch to talk about it."
"Just follow me…"
"Mn!"
We entered a skyscraper that was at least 40 floors tall. There was another group of Eternal Moon employees in work uniforms in the main hall, and a middle-aged man about 50 years old or so walked up to me and said, "Hello, Lu Chen. I am the CEO of the Chinese branch of Eternal Moon Corporation, Xu Ning!"
"Hello…"
I glanced to the side and saw that Shusheng and Ling Xue were present as well. Ling Xue took a step forward and introduced herself formally, "I am the CEO of Eternal Moon’s southern China branch, and this is Shusheng. You already know us…"
I nodded. "Mn. So, what is going on here?"
Shusheng sighed once before replying, "We want you to meet someone."
"Okay?"
The CEO, Xu Ning, led the way with solid footsteps. I had only ever heard of this man until now. His assets probably exceeded tens of billions.
……
The employees took our luggages away while we entered a lift and went down to the bottom fifth floor. He Yi and Lin Yixin were very surprised, but not panicked even though we still weren’t given an explanation until now. It was because Ling Xue, Shusheng and Zhang Chun were with us. There was no way Eternal Moon Corporation would try to harm us.
We walked to the end of a long corridor where a huge, white-colored electronic door was. Xu Ning took a moment to enter the password, and it slid open to reveal yet another door. Three such doors later, we finally arrived at a gigantic laboratory.
There was no one in the laboratory, but there was a huge running computer and a monitor projecting[1] all sorts of ever-changing data. The rapid changes made it look like the place was alive.
Zhang Chun saw my confusion and explained, "This is the Eternal Moon’s main computer. Most people thought it was in New York headquarters, but it had always been in China. China is the origin of Eternal Moon…"
I exclaimed, "So, Eternal Moon isn’t an international company after all…"
Ling Xue chuckled. "We are an international company, it’s just that we were founded in China."
We continued forward until we reached a giant glass-made electronic door. Xu Ning pointed toward it and said, "The answer to everything is behind that door, but you are the only one who has the right to enter. Head in, Lu Chen. It’s all on you now…"
……
I shivered. "What on earth is behind this door?"
"You will know when you head inside…" Xu Ning bowed his head and gritted his teeth. "Please, head inside and fulfill your and my mission… There are only two people in this world whom the retina scanner on the door will work on. One of them is me, and the other one is you…"
There was nothing else to say. I stepped toward the door and allowed a red light to scan my retina. After it slid open, I stepped inside and was greeted by one of the most shocking sights of my life—
Lying inside a giant capsule filled with translucent liquid was a naked girl with a dozen or so cables connected to her head. Her eyes were closed, and her body looked relaxed. Her perfect chest was in full view, her long legs were a miracle of the Creator Himself, and her countenance was nearly unparalleled in this world!
……
Thud!
I dropped to my knees as I placed a hand on the outer glass of the capsule. I murmured, "Xinran… is that you, Xinran?"
She continued to sleep as if she hadn’t heard me at all.
The right palm I placed on the capsule felt ice cold. I began shaking uncontrollably as I asked, "What is going on here? Who put you in here? How are you… Why are you… Can you open your eyes and answer me, Xinran? It’s me! Please…"
I was so agitated that I punched the glass. It didn’t budge in the slightest, however. It was clearly bulletproof.
My mind was a chaotic mess at this point. Xinran was real[2]! She wasn’t a pile of data, she was a girl who really existed in this world!
I abruptly turned around and strode out of the small room.
……
"Lu Chen? Are you okay?" Lin Yixin immediately noticed my agitation.
I strode right up to Xu Ning, grabbed his collar with one hand and pointed the other at the room. I growled, "What happened to Xinran? Why is she like this? What is going on here?"
Xu Ning gently removed my hand from his collar and shot me a bitter smile. He said, "Calm down, boy. I know that you became the big miss’s acquaintance inside the game, and that she’s very dependent on you, right?"
"Big… miss?" My confusion grew even bigger.
Xu Ning nodded and let out a long sigh. He then looked at the main computer some distance away from here and said, "Are you aware that the Eternal Moon system was built by a genius scientist called Dong Ren?"
I shook my head.
Xu Ning continued, "In Eternal Moon, Dong Ren is known as the founding father. He had single-handedly created the mainframe, and the reason he did so was to save his own daughter…"
Xu Ning pointed a finger at the sealed laboratory where Xinran resided and said solemnly, "Her true name is Dong Xinran[3], and I am just Dong Ren’s assistant…"
For a time, I was too shocked to say anything.
Shusheng, Ling Xue, Tang Feng, Zhang Chun and everyone else were gravely silent.
Xu Ning gritted his teeth visibly before explaining, "The big miss was born without control of her senses. She couldn’t feel, hear, or see. She is now 17, but she has spent her whole life growing up inside a nutrient-filled capsule and a lab. The master created this system in hopes of one day using it as a stimulus to awaken her senses. He predicted that the technology would mature enough to seamlessly connect a person’s brain wave to the game, and that’s why he created Eternal Moon. It was all so that one day, when he could connect Xinran and his creation, it would trigger her brain activity and awaken her from her coma."
Xu Ning then clenched his fist and punched the glass door beside him hard. "Unfortunately, he wouldn’t live to see that day. His illness had taken him on the fifth year of the first game, Eternal Moon. As he predicted, the technology experienced a qualitative leap during the fifth year of Spirit of Grief, and we officially connected the big miss to the game in the first year of Heavenblessed. That was how the two of you came to meet each other. During the battle of Sainthelm Ruins, the big miss’s brain activity reached an unprecedented peak. We believe that it is a sign that she is soon to awaken. Do you understand how important you are to me and the big miss now, Lu Chen? The master spent 7 years developing Eternal Moon’s mainframe just so that someone could awaken her from her eternal slumber one day!"
I slumped against the nearby wall as if in a daze and looked in the direction of the room. "Xinran… is really a real person?"
Xu Ning nodded. "Haven’t you seen her with your own eyes? In real life, she is stuck in a coma and is unable to speak with you. In the game though, she is the Wind Singer you’ve interacted with all this time. Is that not real enough for you? Her words, her actions, her thoughts; do you doubt them, Lu Chen?"
"Enough… It’s enough…"
I clenched my fists and asked, "What do you want me to do?"
"You’re already doing it."
Xu Ning patted my shoulder assuringly while saying, "The seven days you spent in the Purgatory are proof of it. You must like the big miss a lot, don’t you? You wouldn’t go this far if it wasn’t for her."
I nodded. "Yes. Xinran is infinitely important to me!"
"Good. All you need to do is to go back into the game and awaken her. This time though, you’re going to awaken her both in the game and in real life!"
Suddenly, Xu Ning dropped to one knee in front of me and said solemnly, "This was the master’s long-cherished wish. I, Xu Ning, am a failure of a businessman. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have sold the game’s copyright to an outsider for a high price or split off Eternal Moon’s shares into too many pieces. However, I am at least a man who won’t break his vow, and I have sworn to witness the big miss’s awakening with my own eyes!"
My mind was a complete mess right now, so I simply stared at the kneeling CEO and didn’t try to lift him to his feet.
Shusheng, Ling Xue and Zhang Chun were panicking, however. They hurriedly pulled him to his feet while saying, "What are you doing, President Xu? Are you trying to kill the foolish boy?? OMG!"[4]
……
After Xu Ning rose back to his feet, he asked, "How far have you progressed into the Purgatory, Lu Chen? I don’t have the authority to make such an inquiry to the main system, so I can only ask you in person."
I answered, "There is another floor below the seven floors of the Purgatory called the Banished Lands. An NPC told me that Xinran was exiled to that floor. I’m already there, but the place consists of many smaller maps, too many to count really. I can only search them one by one, so I still haven’t found her."
Xu Ning nodded strongly. "Got it. Thank you for going to the lengths you did to save her. As long as you awaken the big miss, I will reward you with, er, a lot of money!"
I shook my head and started to leave. "I don’t need it. All I want is for Xinran to awaken."
"Really? Let me cancel the 1 billion USD monetary reward tied to Xinran’s name then…"
I stopped dead in my tracks. “What did you just say?"
"..."
1. T/N: projecting in holograms, not displaying ☜
2. E/N: New site doesn’t let us comment, so there you go, a big footnote! This was our theory since the very first foreshadowing of it… somewhere at the beginning. Lu Chen mentioned "car", and she said it sounded familiar. After 1400 chapters of waiting, it finally paid off! ☜
3. T/N: The Xin here is a different character, but it’s fine in this case ☜
4. T/N: I’m not quite sure how to explain this. It is believed that if an elder kneels before a youngster, or if a youngster bullies an elder, or if someone gets something that they don’t deserve and so on and so on, karma will correct it in some way. This is basically it ☜
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