Chapter 167: New Developments
The puddle left behind after the girl melted emitted a pungent, foul stench coupled with a bizarre, eerie sweetness.
Chen Yu pushed the broken cart, lowered his head, and walked forward step by step.
He squatted down and used a tool to shovel up the still-warm fragments of flesh and blood, his movements mechanical and his expression completely blank.
The laborers and overseers around him looked at him with changed eyes.
At this moment, A-Zhe looked like a living corpse that had just crawled out of a grave.
This kid had witnessed a human being "melted" alive with his own eyes, yet he hadn't even frowned.
Damn it, he was a ruthless bastard.
Chen Yu didn't care about any of that at all.
Right now, there was only one thought in his mind.
Damn it, he had been wrong.
His own laughable bit of goodwill, that self-righteous signal, had killed a girl who could have lived a few days longer.
If he wanted to survive, if he wanted to drag that idiot Li Qing out of this place, he could no longer afford to be human.
He had to transform into a thorough, unadulterated beast.
With a blank expression, Chen Yu dumped the garbage into the incinerator, turned around, and left with the empty cart.
Returning to the stinking, foul basement dormitory, Chen Yu curled himself up in the filthiest corner.
He spread out his palm, staring at the scrap of fabric soaked in blood and filth.
The girl's memento.
The only thing left behind by a girl who had died because of him.
Guilt gnawed at his heart like a poisonous snake once more.
However, he forcefully suppressed the emotion.
It was useless.
In this place, emotions were the most useless things of all.
He glanced at the blood-red S-rank mission countdown lingering in the back of his mind.
Time was running out.
Sister Ping's map was fake; it was a death warrant.
A forced infiltration would be no different from throwing his life away.
Where on earth was that path?
Chen Yu's gaze fell back onto the scrap of fabric in his palm.
[Causal Resonance] could perceive emotions.
What about [Causal Retrospection]?
He had previously used it on the survivor Lin Lin and had seen all of her memories from the past year.
That was applied to a "person."
What if it was applied to an "object"?
This thought struck him like a bolt of lightning, cleaving through the chaos in his mind.
Fuck!
Of course!
The system couldn't possibly be so rigid that it could only cast skills on living people, could it?
Try it!
Take a gamble!
He closed his eyes, concentrated all his mental focus onto the rag in his palm, and chanted silently in his heart:
[Causal Retrospection, activate!]
He had expected to be dragged once more into the torrential, despairing memories of the girl.
Yet this time, it was completely different.
There were no coherent images, no clear storyline.
It felt as though hundreds of surveillance cameras had been switched on in his mind simultaneously, as countless fragmented, entirely unrelated images flooded in crazily!
A man wearing an overseer's uniform roughly threw the garment at the girl.
The perspective was from the point of view of the clothing itself.
The girl stood trembling in a corner as she changed into the clothes.
The perspective was from the point of view of the clothing itself.
Then, the scene shifted.
A massively magnified face wearing a sickly smile appeared directly in front of the "lens."
It was Wen Qian!
He was pinching the girl's chin with a gloved hand, while Chen Yu's "line of sight" originated precisely from the piece of fabric on the girl's shoulder!
He could clearly see every single pore on Wen Qian's face, could clearly see the undisguised amusement and cruelty in his eyes!
These images did not belong to the girl's memories!
This was... this was the "memory" of the clothing itself!
Chen Yu's breathing stuttered.
A thought of ultimate madness exploded thunderously in his brain!
Holy shit!
Holy fuck! It could be used like this?!
[Causal Retrospection] was not limited to reading the past of a human being.
It could read every single causal chain that an "object" had come into contact with!
In other words, any object whatsoever, as long as he could touch it, could be turned into his own "surveillance camera"!
He could read everything that this object had "seen"!
In that exact instant, Chen Yu felt his entire worldview turn upside down.
Stealth, reconnaissance, undercover work—
They were all absolute garbage compared to this!
In his eyes, the entire Butterfly Dream Manor instantly transformed from an impregnable fortress of steel into a virtual world composed of countless streams of data, riddled with vulnerabilities everywhere!
He no longer needed to risk his life, exploring those fatal traps step by step.
All he needed to do was... touch a key item.
A mobile "surveillance camera"!
His brain began to operate at an unprecedented speed.
What kind of things could move unhindered throughout the manor?
He had it!
Those items delivered at fixed times and places directly to various core areas!
The food trays sent up to top-tier administrative personnel!
The medical instrument cases transported to the laboratories!
Even... a mop used by cleaning staff to sweep the floors! An access card utilized by different overseers every single day!
All the previous confusion, guilt, and despair were swept clean in this single moment.
Replaced entirely by the exhilarating thrill of holding a "god's-eye view"!
Damn it, I'm not here to be disposable cannon fodder.
I'm here to hack the entire map!
A brand-new, unimaginably crazy plan rapidly formed in his mind.
The breakthrough point was none other than... Mr. Wen, the man who had treated him like trash.
At noon, Chen Yu was assigned to the upscale auxiliary kitchen, responsible for washing tableware.
This was an opportunity dropping straight down from the heavens.
Just like usual, he played the role of the terrified, submissive, spineless gambling addict "A-Zhe."
The chance had arrived.
A cart loaded to the brim with tableware used by the high-ranking officials was wheeled in.
Using the corner of his eye, Chen Yu scanned and locked onto the tray furthest inside, which still held half a small steak.
He memorized the unique pattern along the rim of the plate; it was high-end merchandise that only people like Wen Qian would use.
That was the one.
He picked up a basin of freshly washed bowls and pretended to slip on the floor.
"Aargh!"
He let out an exaggerated cry of shock as his body "lost control" and crashed directly into the food cart.
With a loud crash, the majority of the bowls in the basin shattered into pieces.
Meanwhile, his hand "coincidentally" pressed against the handrail of the food cart, his fingertips making precise contact with the plate Wen Qian had used.
"Are you blind, you fucking idiot?!"
The head chef rushed over and slapped the back of Chen Yu's head hard.
"I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I didn't mean to, the floor is just too slippery..."
Chen Yu clutched his head, scrambling backward as he apologized profusely, his face plastered with just the right amount of panic.
Amidst everyone's curses and vitriol, no one noticed that the eyes hidden within the shadows of his brow flashed with a terrifyingly bright light.
Contact complete.
While cleaning up the shards scattered across the floor, he activated [Causal Retrospection] in his mind, targeting the exact moment his fingers had brushed against the plate.
Boom!
A massive torrent of information flooded into his brain once more.
This time, the images were exceptionally clear and completely continuous!
He saw it!
Wen Qian was sitting inside a luxurious office, cutting his steak and eating with elegance.
He saw Wen Qian finish his meal, stand up, and walk out of the office.
He walked down a long corridor draped in red carpeting.
He stopped in front of a heavy, unmarked door.
The most crucial scene arrived!
From the perspective of a servant carrying the tray and following closely behind, Chen Yu clearly saw Wen Qian extend his hand and punch a series of numbers into a keypad embedded directly into the wall!
[7, 2, 9, 5, 1]
Seen crystal clear!
The heavy door unlocked and swung open, and Wen Qian stepped inside.
The subsequent scenes grew blurry, but Chen Yu had already obtained what he desired most!
An absolutely secure route leading straight into the core zone!
A password known exclusively to high-level administrators!
Suppressing the wild thumping of his heart, Chen Yu rapidly integrated and cross-referenced these fragmented pieces of intelligence with Sister Ping's "death map" in his mind.
A brand-new "causal pathway" that bypassed every single surveillance camera and trap gradually grew distinct!
Behind that door lay, with a high probability, Laboratory Number One—the very place Wen Qian had mentioned earlier!
The core facility where "Butterfly Dream" and the "Stabilizer" were manufactured!
The antidote had to be in there as well!
Slowly finishing the cleanup of the debris on the floor, Chen Yu lowered his head and backed out of the kitchen amidst the head chef's ongoing insults.
He raised his head, gazing toward the most heavily guarded building deep within the manor.
In his eyes, not a single trace of hesitation or guilt remained.
The key capable of unlocking all the secrets of Butterfly Dream Manor—
He had already obtained it.