For a long time after the message from Oracle arrived, Su Liying simply stared out her window at the sea of city lights, her mind a raging storm of disbelief and terrifying certainty.
It was one thing to have a suspicion, a wild, thrilling theory. It was another thing entirely to have it confirmed.
Her small, insignificant data submission, a footnote in a forgotten government report, had been the key. Only Oracle, with his impossible, god's-eye view of the world, could have understood its significance. He had not only understood it; he had rewarded her for it. The 50 Contribution Points sitting in her new Alliance account were not just a prize; they were proof. They were Oracle's quiet, terrifying admission.
The weight of the knowledge was suffocating. The boy who sat behind her in class, the "triple-zero waste" that everyone pitied or scorned, was the single most powerful and important individual on the planet. He was a strategic genius commanding a hidden army, a prophet changing the course of the war from a school library terminal.
Her first instinct was a jolt of pure, primal fear. What was she supposed to do with this secret? She couldn't tell anyone. Her parents would think she was overworked and delusional. The government would lock her in a room and interrogate her for a month. If she was wrong, she would be a laughingstock. If she was right... exposing him would bring the fury of every powerful faction in the world down upon his head.
Then, the fear was replaced by something else, something fierce and unexpected: a profound, protective instinct. He was carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders, all while enduring daily humiliation without a single word of complaint. He was utterly, completely alone. The thought filled her not with dread, but with a strange, aching empathy.
She finally understood the sensation his aura gave her. It wasn't emptiness. It was the crushing gravity of a lone star in an endless void, a silence born not of nothingness, but of bearing witness to everything.
She took a deep, steadying breath. Her course of action became clear. She would not confront him. She would not expose him. She would play her part. At school, she would be Su Liying, the concerned classmate. In the Alliance, she would be Crystalline_Mind, the promising new analyst. She would use her proximity and her access to observe, to learn, and perhaps, in her own small way, to help. Her quest was no longer simply to solve the mystery of Qin Mo. It was to understand the burden of Oracle.
Just as Oracle had promised her, the Alliance platform lit up with a new, urgent notification that was broadcast to all members. A high-priority bounty had been posted.
[URGENT BOUNTY: Extermination & Prevention - ID: 1002]
[OBJECTIVE: A new variant of Abyssal Razorcrab ('Chitin-Hardened' type) has been identified gestating in the Yangtze River Delta marshlands, coordinates [45.182, -112.739]. Predictive models indicate mass hatching will occur within 24 hours. NOTE: This variant's shell possesses a crystalline structure rendering the OSE-Model 2 frequency ineffective.]
[PRIMARY GOAL: Infiltrate the nesting ground and destroy the egg clusters before they hatch.]
[SECONDARY GOAL: If hatching has already commenced, neutralize all emerged variants. High caution advised.]
[REWARD: 1000 Contribution Points (CP), to be distributed among all participating squads based on verified contributions.]
A wave of shock and frantic energy washed over the forums. A new, more dangerous monster was about to be born, and their new trump card, the OSE-2, was useless against it.
But before panic could set in, a new item simultaneously appeared in The Archive, its availability announced alongside the bounty.
[BLUEPRINT AVAILABLE: 'Resonance Cascade' Mine (RCM-1)]
[DESCRIPTION: A disposable, deployable mine that generates a multi-frequency sonic cascade upon detonation. Ineffective against singular, mobile targets due to its area-of-effect nature. However, it is highly effective at inducing structural failure in brittle, stationary objects, such as crystalline formations or large clusters of Abyssal eggs.]
[COST: 100 CP]
The brilliance of the strategy was immediately apparent to the veteran hunters. Oracle had not only identified a new threat before anyone else in the world, but he had also simultaneously provided the exact, custom-built solution for it. He wasn't just giving them answers; he was giving them the right answers at the right time.
The Alliance exploded into a frenzy of organized activity. Squads based in the Shanghai-Nanjing region immediately began forming strike teams, pooling their CP to purchase the RCM-1 blueprint. Hephaestus was bombarded with technical questions, which he answered with his usual gruff impatience. Nomad-Lead and Old-Man-Jiang began coordinating the response, directing teams and setting up a chain of command.
The nervous system that Oracle had built was now fully active, responding to a new threat with astonishing speed and efficiency.
The next day at school felt different for Su Liying. The familiar classroom, the drone of the teachers, the chatter of her classmates—it all seemed like a play, a thin veneer of normalcy stretched over a world of incredible secrets. And she was now one of the few people who could see the stagehands moving behind the curtain.
She watched Qin Mo. He was the same as always. He listened to the lectures with a placid expression, doodled incomprehensible geometric patterns in his notebook, and stared out the window for long periods. But for her, his every non-action was now filled with profound meaning.
She knew she had to talk to him. Not to confront, but to connect. To see if he would give her even the smallest sign.
She waited until a break between classes, then walked towards his desk, her heart pounding a nervous rhythm. She "accidentally" let a heavy textbook slip from her grasp, and it landed on the floor near his feet.
"Oh, clumsy me," she murmured.
Qin Mo bent down with his usual fluid grace and picked up the book, placing it on her desk. His eyes met hers for a fraction of a second. They were as calm and deep as ever.
"Thank you, Qin Mo," she said, her voice soft, but her gaze intense.
"You're welcome."
She took a breath, taking her first, careful gamble. "I was up very late last night... studying some very... complex problems. It's truly amazing how a single, seemingly insignificant piece of data can completely change the entire picture, isn't it?"
She was speaking, of course, about her data submission to the Alliance.
Qin Mo's expression did not change, but he held her gaze for a moment longer than usual. "It is often the case," he replied, his voice an even, unbothered monotone. "The most critical variable is not always the most obvious one."
It was a generic, philosophical statement. But to her, it felt like a direct response. A confirmation. He understood what she was saying.
She decided to push, just a little more. A tiny, calculated risk. "The physics test we had... I found some of the questions incredibly difficult. Especially the one about multi-nodal resonance and cascading structural failure."
She was referencing, as subtly as she could, the new 'Resonance Cascade' Mine.
This time, there was no flicker of recognition in his eyes. No sign that he understood her hidden meaning. He simply tilted his head slightly. "It was a straightforward application of foundational principles. You may have overthought it."
He then turned his attention back to the book on his desk, the conversation clearly over.
Su Liying walked back to her seat, her mind reeling. His non-reaction was the most powerful reaction of all. A normal person, a normal "triple-zero" student, would have been confused by her bizarre, technical questions. They would have asked her what she was talking about. But Qin Mo wasn't confused. He was perfectly, unnaturally, unshakably calm. He had understood her every word and had chosen to reveal nothing.
He knew. He knew that she knew.
An unspoken, terrifying, and thrilling understanding had just been forged between them in the silent space of a high school classroom.
As Qin Mo watched Su Liying walk away, his mind processed the encounter with the speed of a supercomputer.
'Subject Su Liying's verbal patterns and topic choices have deviated by 12.7% from established social baseline,' he analyzed. 'The probability of her probing for information based on a correlated suspicion is 99.3%. Her discovery of the link between my academic performance and the Oracle persona was a high-probability event, accelerated by her inclusion in the network.'
He continued to observe her as she sat at her desk, pretending to read but her posture rigid with thought.
'Current emotional state indicates high levels of cognitive dissonance, awe, and caution. Hostile intent probability: less than 1%. She poses no immediate threat to the operation's secrecy.'
He paused his analysis.
'However... she remains the single greatest uncontrolled variable in my Earth-based operations. Her intelligence and proximity require a fundamental re-evaluation of my low-key protocol.'
The king had just realized that another player had sat down at his chessboard, uninvited. The game, he conceded, had just become significantly more interesting.