Chapter 13: Speculations on "Death"

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Organized crime—this is unmistakably organized crime, isn’t it?!

Black Swan thought to herself, could she possibly utter even half a “no” at this moment?

The lingering fragrance on her reminded her that although the young lady before her appeared to be an ordinary first-year origami university student, in truth, she was a petty, vindictive, sharp and ruthless individual, hiding her true nature beneath an unassuming exterior.

Black Swan sighed deeply, suddenly feeling her life had grown somewhat bleak—how did she end up entangled with such people?

But sighing aside, she was now a goose caught in someone else’s grasp and could do nothing but quietly complete her assigned tasks. Black Swan raised her hand and tossed a card towards her. Suddenly, Rachel’s vision shifted abruptly—she found herself standing on the ceiling of a grand hall.

The fountain in the center of the floor remained perfectly normal, with luminescent blue memory essence spraying up like flowing water before falling back into the basin.

It was unrealistic—Newton himself would be forced to seal his coffin lid tightly upon witnessing this—but it was very much dreamlike.

Rachel had to admit that places like Pinoconi, and the reason why the architectural industry and these dream builders were so revered, were closely tied to such magnificent and splendid scenes.

Which dream builder who loved art, architecture, and design wouldn’t feel inspired upon seeing such a fountain, yearning to possess a house with similar grandeur?

“This is my companion, Miss Nameless Guest. I believe Mr. Walter has already introduced her to you,” Black Swan floated beside Rachel. “This lady’s name is Huangquan. She is a... Sea Patrol Ranger.”

Whether from Black Swan’s meaningful pause or from the background music Rachel heard, she could conclude that the title “Sea Patrol Ranger” was likely to be taken at face value.

However, she realized she had seen Miss Huangquan before—the lady without any background music, or more accurately, with the background music completely silencing all other sounds.

Huangquan no longer remembered brushing past her earlier, but she gripped a long sword in one hand and extended the other, clad in a cold metal finger guard, to shake Rachel’s hand. “Hello.”

Meanwhile, Xing curiously circled around Rachel once, then crossed her arms and stood back before her, flipping her hair in a stylish manner. “Hey, beautiful.”

Rachel: “...”

She hadn’t expected the Nameless Guest to be such a person.

Fortunately, although Xing’s nature was rather capricious, she still had an important matter to attend to—she now knew that Firefly was trapped within this dream realm and had not escaped back to reality despite Black Swan’s earlier intervention to rescue them from that Memory Domain meme’s tail strike.

According to the memory fragments Black Swan had gathered, Firefly was currently searching for something, possibly in danger, so Xing was looking for her.

Time was of the essence. Xing understood that the longer she delayed in such a perilous dream, the more danger Firefly faced, so she quickly insisted on setting off again.

Rachel felt she should first mention the possibility that Firefly might be a Starcore Hunter, but Black Swan was quicker; she urged that she had seen someone chasing closely behind and that they needed to hurry.

Perhaps it was better to confront Firefly directly once found. Considering that armor would be impossible for such a petite girl to remove and carry on her back, and as a remnant of the Glamour Iron Cavalry, she likely did not possess technology surpassing that of the Glamour Republic.

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Therefore, that set of armor probably had a transformation device. If they could find it on her, it would prove her identity.

After Black Swan employed some subtle memory techniques, Xing immediately dashed towards what looked like the dream hall. Her long legs carried her swiftly, her long coat billowing behind her like an imperfect 3D model.

—She had already spotted the girl standing in the center of the hall, who seemed oddly out of place there; her silvery white curls stood out starkly in the dim lighting.

Black Swan smiled knowingly, and Huangquan’s grip on her sword loosened slightly, as if everything was moving toward a better outcome. With the lost girl found, at least the urgent matter that troubled them had come to an end. The rest could wait until the team was fully assembled.

Xing’s footsteps were not light; her heels struck the marble floor of the Daydream Hotel’s lobby with a crisp clatter.

As the sound grew louder, the girl who had been standing at the center of the hall, seemingly waiting for something, turned to look. A relaxed smile spread across her face.

At that moment, Rachel suddenly heard a rapid drumbeat—not any song she had heard before, or if she had, she had long since forgotten it.

This song had no lyrics, but its melody carried all the emotions and messages. The tight rhythm, the rising pitch—it was as if a pair of hands were grasping her throat, tightening their grip, bringing an overwhelming sense of oppression and suffocation. Rachel’s heart leapt; she instantly knew trouble was coming.

But she never imagined she would see “Baby Bus” suddenly appear. The nursery rhyme background music of Baby Bus intertwined bizarrely with the perilous tune, making the scene absurdly comical yet eerily terrifying.

The Baby Bus sped forward from behind, rushing past Xing’s shoulder and shoving her almost to the point of stumbling. It was heading straight for Firefly, scooping the girl high into the air, then suddenly impaling her chest with its tail.

Rachel: “!”

Her eyes widened in disbelief—she could never have guessed that such an act would be committed by Baby Bus, a Memory Domain meme that usually acted coquettishly towards her. Could the background music she heard be misleading about the true nature of Baby Bus? Fireworks’ background music perfectly matched her personality and fate...

Perhaps because of her prior interactions with Baby Bus, Rachel was shocked but still somewhat rational. She saw Xing open her arms to catch the girl, who now bore a massive impaling wound in her chest, only for her to dissolve into a spray of memory essence in Xing’s embrace—like the girl was not a person but a humanoid water balloon that burst under the pressure.

Behind Baby Bus, pink mist appeared once more. Like before, it was about to depart, but before leaving, Rachel felt it had noticed her. It flicked its tail in greeting.

And the Baby Bus nursery rhyme continued unabated—Rachel found it hard to firmly believe, under these circumstances, that it was truly a malevolent monster, the kind of rule-bound ghost that kills without cause upon meeting certain conditions.

Moreover, there were more puzzles for Rachel in this scene.

First, Firefly’s identity: through Walter and search software, she had gained a deeper understanding of the Starcore Hunter’s identity.

At least, she knew the little girl who had sent dream coordinates to many was a hacker from Punk Lord, skilled in editing reality or employing ether technology.

Walter also said that according to the methods of those Punk Lord hackers, in places like Pinoconi, where memory essence was especially dense, they could operate much like memory users from the Flowing Light Memory Court, feeling completely at home.

Rachel couldn’t help but connect this to the earlier incident when she was turned into a “wanted criminal.” It made perfect sense if the Starcore Hunters were behind it—consistent with their character.

And Rachel believed no sane person would think the Starcore Hunters lacked the strength to confront a Memory Domain meme.

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Yet, Firefly was impaled so suddenly, with no sign of the mech summoning any resistance or counterattack—the whole process was eerily calm. The only reaction was a whispered “sorry” to Xing.

What was she apologizing for?

Besides that, there were other oddities—for example, the way she disappeared in the form of memory essence.

The memory essence that had splattered like liquid moments before was now rapidly dissipating into the air.

Rachel immediately thought of the time when Xing and Firefly were sent to another layer of the dreamscape by Fireworks’ bullet handler.

They had vanished similarly then, except their memory essence had been bubbles, while this time it resembled a liquid state.

Rachel felt her inference was not without merit.

In other words, perhaps they had just been transported elsewhere.

And honestly, this hypothesis fit perfectly with the song “Baby Bus.”

Because a bus is a mode of transportation, carrying passengers from one station to another—even though Baby Bus might not literally do that... but who said the literal meaning of “Baby Bus” couldn’t be taken at face value?

Rachel thought this guess was plausible and ran toward the pink mist that had not yet fully vanished. The tail of the Memory Domain meme had not completely entered the mist yet; its sharp tail hook was still raised, and the eye atop it still looked her way.

Her reaction was swift: from running forward to tipping her toes sharply under the pink mist, exerting power from foot to ankle to leap up, and almost simultaneously beginning to chant, “I want to fly higher”—[1]

All of these actions happened in an instant.

Rachel floated upward as if something lifted her, reaching the same height as the pink mist. She reached out and grabbed Baby Bus’s tail.

Despite Black Swan’s anxious pleas for her not to follow, Baby Bus’s hard shell trembled with a low hum. Rachel felt a subtle, slightly chaotic emotion conveyed to her.

This Memory Domain meme expressed refusal—not cruelly—but accompanied by this emotion came an onomatopoeic sound:

“Tick-tock.”

Rachel wasn’t sure if this counted as communication between the meme and herself, but she knew others heard it too, as Black Swan floated up as well. However, before Black Swan could draw her card, the meme gently shook Rachel’s hand loose and then completely vanished into the pink mist, which disappeared moments later.

Rachel remained suspended in midair, locking eyes with Black Swan.