Chapter 1007: Clue

Chapter 1007: Clues

The secrets of the residents of Vault 404 were, in truth, no longer much of a secret.

Officials at the ministerial level and above across the entire Alliance, as well as some grassroots workers in special departments, had long grown accustomed to the astonishing abilities displayed by the "players."

These included telepathic communication, resurrection from the dead, and so on.

Though these rumors had not become widely accepted truths in the public consciousness, drowned out by many more absurd and distorted urban legends, most wastelanders who had dealt with players for long periods still had a certain feeling—

These blue-coated outsiders, so out of place in the wasteland, might not merely be misfits.

They seemed as though they were not from this world at all.

Based on this understanding, the vast majority of high-ranking Alliance officials and relevant grassroots personnel harbored complex emotions toward the identity of "Vault 404 residents."

Respect was certain.

Even if death could be reversed, it did not mean the sacrifices made by the vault residents, leading the charge, were insignificant.

Yet humans inevitably fear the unknown, for no one knew why they did these things.

Thus, rather than respect, "awe" might be a more fitting term.

Yin Fang was not the first to voice his inner confusion; He Ya had previously raised similar questions.

Perhaps it was due to differences in their fields of expertise.

Compared to resurrection, which could barely be explained by "science," Yin Fang was far more astounded by the players' ability to exchange information across communication barriers.

Especially when he discovered that this exchange could span a distance of five light-years, his feelings could no longer be described as mere shock—it was as if his entire understanding had shattered into pieces.

"...Actually, I don't know how to explain this either," Chu Guang sighed leisurely.

"I believe I've mentioned before that I am not the sole administrator of this vault. There were several before me, though I possess no information about them."

"My authority was directly granted by the first administrator. When he handed this vault over to me, the clues he left were merely a few recordings and a few small scraps of paper."

Yin Fang stared at Chu Guang in disbelief, struggling for a long moment before forcing out a sentence.

"He just handed the vault over to you like that?"

"That's right. Sounds reckless, doesn't it?" Chu Guang said in a joking tone. "Honestly, I think he should have found someone more professional to manage this facility. But sometimes I can't help thinking that perhaps this was the best arrangement."

He had seen many professional vault administrators.

Whether face-to-face or through administrator logs. Whether they were the first generation or, like himself, successors from a previous holder.

Though each faced different problems, they all shared one thing in common.

That was "alienation."

Whether passive or active, they almost inevitably transformed themselves into beings that stood above the rest.

This did not mean they became physically different species, but that they had lost the ability to empathize with humanity.

Chu Guang himself had encountered this same issue, and due to his physical alienation, the feeling was especially intense.

Had he not deliberately exercised restraint, he wouldn't even need to speak—a single glance could make people cheer or kneel.

But that was something he was unwilling to do.

"...Well, I don't really care about what you've said. I don't doubt that the first administrator made the best arrangement," Yin Fang said after a moment of silence, sighing. "I just want to know how this information transmission across spatial distances—even across time—is achieved."

Chu Guang smiled.

"To be honest, it's not just you. I'm also very curious. How about we set up a research project in the scientific expedition team to study it?"

Yin Fang was taken aback.

"Is that... okay?"

Chu Guang said casually,

"I never said this was a topic that couldn't be explored. Besides, it helps us understand ourselves."

Previously, he had always waited for the first administrator to voluntarily reveal the secrets he didn't know.

But ever since that guy handed over the B7 layer and a series of authorities, he had been silent for a long time.

Perhaps he should dig into the vault's secrets himself, rather than wait.

Not just Yin Fang—Chu Guang himself was filled with curiosity about this method of communication that ignored time and space.

Unexpectedly, Chu Guang nodded in agreement, and a look of ecstatic joy spread across Yin Fang's face.

"Thank you for your support! You might not believe it, but I have a strong intuition... we might discover a new physics!"

Watching the excited "Alliance Chief Scientist," Chu Guang couldn't help but tease,

"Don't get your hopes up too high. Since we're already using this technology, I think someone must have discovered it long ago."

Yin Fang smiled.

"That doesn't matter. Rediscovering forgotten knowledge is still a kind of discovery."

"Haha, I'm glad you think that way," Chu Guang said with a laugh, seeing Yin Fang's spirits lifted. "Let me think about what information I can provide you..."

Closing his eyes in thought for a moment, Chu Guang suddenly had an idea and opened them again.

"Oh, right."

Looking at Yin Fang, who leaned in attentively, he spoke the concept he had heard long ago from a certain recording.

"As for the name of the project, let's call it 'Morphogenetic Field.'"

---

In a forest on the planet Gaia, Ye Shi, who had put on his gaming helmet, woke up inside his power armor, only to be stunned by the scene before him.

Beside his bed knelt a group of graceful young maidens.

They wore clothes woven from straw, holding clay containers filled with water, apparently intending to attend to his bathing and washing.

Their youthful faces were like green apples freshly picked in the morning, their serene and dignified demeanor utterly different from other primitives, causing Ye Shi's heart to race a little.

Though the primitives' aesthetics were hardly commendable, these little green-skinned beings were not descended from trees but had likely "come down from the sky and climbed back up," so by human standards, they were by no means ugly.

There was even a certain wild beauty to them.

As for their emerald-green skin, though a bit strange, it was quite pleasing to the eye after a while.

Especially their chests.

It was hard to believe such delicate branches could bear such large fruit.

Ye Shi suddenly realized that he was not much more noble than the primitives.

He, too, harbored that certain primitive admiration!

Just then, a cold "heh" echoed in the communication channel.

Ye Shi felt a chill down his spine, suddenly remembering that the power armor's action recorder was still connected to the network. He quickly sat up straight in bed.

"What are you doing? Get up, quickly!"

The maidens couldn't understand his words, only exchanging bewildered glances.

One slightly older girl, perhaps catching a few words, stood up and led the others, speaking in a halting, even more broken version of the Common Tongue than the players.

"The priest... ordered... us... to bathe."

This guy probably meant to say he wanted help bathing.

Ye Shi quickly refused.

"That won't be necessary."

The girl blinked.

"But that's how it is in heaven."

Ye Shi almost choked on his saliva when he heard that.

He could tell with his toes that this was definitely some private addition the leaders of these primitives had tacked onto the legends about the Ancestor.

To uphold justice, he spoke with righteous indignation.

"Have you ever been to heaven?"

The few girls exchanged bewildered glances, unsure if they meant they hadn't been there or simply hadn't understood.

Ye Shi continued.

"In heaven, there's equality. It's not like that where we come from... at least, generally speaking, it's not."

His tone started out absolute, but then he suddenly thought of that debt-ridden Big Eyes guy, and his voice wavered with hesitation.

Actually, to be honest, talking about equality in a primitive tribe was pretty stupid, but this wasn't really meant for them—it was to curry favor with someone floating up in the sky.

The girl who could understand him nodded as if she half-understood, but somehow stumbled out a sentence that caught Ye Shi completely off guard.

"You... want... to help us? Bathe?"

"Pfft—"

Hearing that, Ye Shi nearly spat out a mouthful of old blood through his nose, hurriedly waving his hands to clarify.

"No, that's not what I meant."

You can understand me, damn it!

No, wait—

Looking at the girl's expression of half-understanding, Ye Shi suddenly snapped back to reality.

Just now, in his panic, he had spoken Chinese, and the word "bathe" the girl said last was also Chinese...

But the problem was, that word wasn't in his entire sentence.

Ye Shi was completely dumbfounded, unable to figure out what was going on.

And the girl, seeing his reaction, showed a nervous expression on her face, as if she had done something wrong and was begging for forgiveness.

Just as Ye Shi stood there in a daze, Jiang Xuezhou's voice came through the communication channel again.

"Ye Shi..."

That hoarse voice carried a slight tremor, and Ye Shi immediately panicked.

"Xuezhou, let me explain—"

"No, listen to me first!"

The tremor in her voice didn't seem to be from anger, but from excitement.

Jiang Xuezhou took a deep breath, suppressing the shock in her heart, and slowly began to speak.

"I just suddenly realized... they actually don't know the Common Tongue at all."

"What do you mean—"

As soon as Ye Shi asked this question, he suddenly sensed something too, and a stunned expression appeared on his face.

As if confirming his guess, Jiang Xuezhou continued in a calm tone.

"Think back carefully. When you first met them, when did that priest named Saqu say his first word of the Common Tongue to you..."

How the hell would I remember that—

No, wait!

A flash of insight struck Ye Shi's mind, and he almost blurted out instinctively.

"After I spoke my first sentence to them?"

When that old man saw him, he fell to his knees with a thud and babbled a whole bunch of words, not a single one of which Ye Shi understood.

It wasn't until he told them to get up that the old man finally uttered a sentence.

"That's right. After you spoke your first sentence, or rather, after you expressed your intention to communicate, they immediately understood what you said and acquired your language..."

After giving a positive confirmation, Jiang Xuezhou continued her analysis in a calm voice.

"That priest named Saqu before, that leader named Tunnan, and the girl in front of you... what they actually mastered wasn't the Common Tongue, but 'your language.' They don't actually know a single word of the Common Tongue; every word they know was read from you!"

A creeping sense of dread crawled up Ye Shi's back. Looking at those innocent, bewildered eyes before him, he suddenly felt that the iron lump on his head was as flimsy as paper.

Not paper in the physical sense.

But in the spiritual sense.

Those gazes seemed able to pierce through his armor, even through his face, and directly touch his soul.

Swallowing hard, Ye Shi still couldn't believe such an incredible ability, even though he himself possessed that strange perception that baffled others.

"...But I never said I was called 'Ancestor,' did I? That word was told to me by them."

Jiang Xuezhou continued calmly.

"But you still accurately understood the meaning of that word, didn't you? I know what you're trying to say—he learned words you never spoke from you, right? That's exactly what amazes me. The ability they display isn't just a simple linguistic talent; it's something beyond that... Telepathy? Resonance? Brainwave modulation? Or some unknown higher-dimensional energy field? In any case, the result is that they read certain things from your mind and made use of them."

Sweat seeped from Ye Shi's back.

"...What the hell is this? Mind reading? Damn it?"

Jiang Xuezhou took a deep breath.

"I don't know. I've never seen anything like this in the wasteland... But based on the current situation, I can tell you clearly that the word 'bathe' was something she knew out of thin air. I can testify—you never said it once, and even I don't know what that pronunciation means."

As if worried about scaring Ye Shi,

she paused for a moment before continuing.

"You don't actually have to be so afraid... I feel like they don't fully understand their own ability. And from the results, this abstract ability hasn't given them any obvious advantage in combat or productivity, otherwise they wouldn't be living such a primitive life."

"Then they couldn't have already known that I was actually..."

Ye Shi was about to mention the whole pretending-to-be-a-god thing, but halfway through, he dared not think further, afraid that the girl with the big watery eyes in front of him would see through his thoughts.

Jiang Xuezhou said patiently.

"I don't think so. They can probably only read the information you intend to convey, so you don't have to worry too much about them seeing through your thoughts—unless it's something you explicitly express..."

She paused for a moment, then continued.

"But my advice is, it's better to be cautious in everything... especially when you're about to express something."

In other words, try to say as little as possible that contradicts your heart, and when you say something, think about what you're saying?

Thinking of the girl's earlier misunderstanding, Ye Shi couldn't help but feel a flush of heat on his face, and he cleared his throat before speaking.

"I understand."

Whether it was because she was still angry or not, Jiang Xuezhou, after finishing the serious matter, left a curt "Hmph" in the communication channel and then vanished.

Ye Shi had no idea how to appease her, so he could only temporarily focus his attention on the task at hand.

Turning to the girls he had left waiting for so long, he cleared his throat and said in a stern tone.

"From now on, without my permission, no one is allowed to enter my room... no one at all."

As if confirming Jiang Xuezhou's suspicion, the slightly older girl, who seemed to possess a "strong perceptive ability," indeed understood his words and replied respectfully.

"As you command."

She turned and gave a few instructions to the other young women, then the group prepared to leave the room, carrying their belongings.

Suddenly struck by a thought, Ye Shi called them back.

"Wait. You stay."

The slightly older girl blinked and pointed at herself. Seeing Ye Shi nod, she handed her things to the other girls and obediently remained in the room.

Only the two of them were left in the room.

Looking at the curious girl, Ye Shi took a moment to organize his thoughts, then began to speak slowly.

"I've just returned to this land, and the changes here astonish me. So much has become different, as if we had never been here before."

"I want you to tell me everything you know—about what happened after 'we' left, and about 'you.'"