SSSG Chapter 59: The Truth

Can’t You Listen to Me?

You should read this chapter over at Travis Translations – It’s free and the ad revenue is much better for me!

Du Yixin looks about his temporary residence. The open window is occasionally letting hot wind inside, which sways the curtains some. As the burly redhead said, the room is clean. There’s white cloth placed over all the furniture to prevent dust.

“Since we might add regulars at any time, we’ve arranged for furniture in all the rooms. This one has remained unused to this point,” Liu Hong moves and carefully removes the sheets, then folds them up so that no dust falls onto the furniture. He adds, “there’s bedsheets and blankets in the closet. I’ll bring you some toiletries later.”

“Thanks,” it seems he’ll be living here from now on, despite some reluctance on his part.

That said, the university has already been exposed, and after Ying Sheng’s rebellion and his removal of the pin Whitebird might add even more surveillance or even snatch him away. It’s important he has a hideout, so his older brother’s arrangements were the best.

Although he really isn’t comfortable that he was just taken without talks or negotiation or information.

“You should rest a little bit first. Have you eaten?”

To be honest, he did just eat before entering the Instance. He rubs his tummy though, feeling as though it’s all digested already. The burly guy chuckles and says, “then wait a bit. There’s still leftover curry in the kitchen. I’ll reheat it and bring it here.”

After he left, it’s only Du Yixin left in the room about a dozen square metres in size. He goes to take a look out the window, and it seems the room is near the kitchen downstairs, as he can see several big rubbish bins in the distance (TL: …Uh, wouldn’t it really smell in the room then? Poor Du Yixin).

He closes the window then sits on the bed and takes out his phone. He wants to contact Ying Sheng.

After he has had his black pin removed, Ying Sheng is no longer under Whitebird’s control. Du Yixin can’t help but want to know what he wants to do next. Yet, there’s only a dial tone following his dial.

“…”

Du Yixin stares quietly at the phone for a few seconds before putting it away.

Nevermind. He’ll think about it later.

Soon enough, Liu Hong is back with a steaming curry rice and a glass of orange juice. The smell is amplifying Du Yixin’s appetite. After a meal, even his mood is lifted a little.

“By the way, you said there’s five regulars here. Are the other two not here?” Since they’ll be living together, Du Yixin would like to know a little more.

“One of them is here right now, but he’s a severe case of shut-in. Other than the toilet and the showers he never comes out. I need to bring meals to his door,” the burly man answers, scratching his prominent red hair.

“He doesn’t go into Instances?”

“The five of us are a small team, and we’re in charge of different areas,” the man explains, “I’m logistics and support, so I’d cook and clean and stuff. There’s three operatives, two you’ve seen already, and one is working elsewhere. The shut-in is our intelligence guy. He is in charge of communications with other cities’ bases and gathering and sharing information on Instances. He’s the one we rely on to know when new Instances are coming up.”

“How do you actually know that?”

“Whitebird has someone with the ability to ‘see’ where Instances would appear next. We just hacked into their systems and listen in on their commands for their operatives.”

In that case, even though his older brother’s organisation is against Whitebird, it’s also terribly reliant on them, isn’t it.

Maybe the burly redhead is telling him all these on purpose, but at least everything is clearer now. His older brother has these well-defined groups all over, and is essentially doing the same thing Whitebird is doing——Going through Instances to gather more Keys. The main difference being that the forceful way of taking someone’s Key is only a last resort for his older brother.

And the animosity between the organisations is not just because his older brother rebelled with a significant chunk of Whitebird, but also because they would severely affect their own gathering of Keys.

Right now, both sides are desperately trying to grow in power. The one with more ‘Keys’ will be able to secure an advantage in this ‘power struggle.’ Given that keys can be fused together, when all keys are gathered up onto one person, they will be able to possess immense power.

When keys are over level V, they can already use the ability in real life; and just level V is already enough to cause mass chaos.

Whitebird seems to like to brand itself as a government-sanctioned official organisation, but who knows what it really is. And besides these organisations, it seems only reasonable that there’s even more hidden players moving behind the scenes.

The game is not even just a struggle for power and strength, but it might even end up dictating the future of humans.

Are the members of his older brother’s teams all doing missions knowing full well of the immense burden of responsibility on them?

He can’t help but look at the redhead with renewed respect, despite his rough appearance and his not-so-glorious role of a nanny.

Though the man then asks, with a worried tone, “are you ok? You look like you want to go to the toilet.”

“…” He barely ate.

That is when there is a knock on the door. It’s Ruri. She says, “the Captain is calling for you both.”

They head downstairs and enter the second floor office. There’s only Du Heng inside. Ruri leaves after bringing them in.

“Caps, what is it?” Liu Hong asks with a respectful tone.

“You’re not in charge of anyone now, right?” Du Heng asks.

“Yeah,” the man scratches his head, trying to recall, “we haven’t had new operatives around for a while. Right now I’m only doing groceries, meals, dishes…”

“Then you’ll train Du Yixin.”

“Eh?” The man pauses for a bit before asking, “training? As in fighting?”

“Yes,” Du Heng turns to his younger brother, saying, “you’re too unfit to fight right now. Liu Hong will be training you in the meantime.”

Surprised his older brother is arranging for this, Du Yixin asks hesitantly, “so you’re letting me join your operations later?”

“No.”

“Then wh——”

“It’s a precaution,” Du Heng says with a neutral tone, “as long as you hold a key, it can’t be helped you’ll be way more likely than normal people to be pulled into Instances from even greater distances away. This is to increase your survivability. You’ll not be an operative, nor will you need to do anything else.”

“Ge, you know my ability don’t you? I’ll be able to raise the chances of successfully completing an Instance a lot.”

They might fail, but not once, not twice, but thrice he has the chance to come back to life. He can find the optimal solution through an admittedly painful but effective trial-and-error.

“I can train for now, but as long as I can protect myself I can go in Instances with you guys! I can help!” Du Yixin looks at his older brother with hope on his face, hoping he would understand.

Liu Hong is looking at the two of them back-and-forth, but he’s unable to interject.

Du Heng is looking at his younger brother in silence.

They’ve been living separately more often than not these years. On the rare occasions they meet, every time he can see his younger brother growing into a splendid man… physically. Mentally, he’s still as immature as ever.

This is not a game. They can train to become the world’s number one martial fighter, but even then they could not say for sure they will definitely be able to protect themselves. Levels are deceptive, and nobody can guarantee coming back out of any level of Instance.

It is because they are not just trying to survive, but also confronting the perpetrator——The owner of the Key who opened the Instance in the first place.

Regulars? There are no regulars. The members right now? None of them were there in the beginning. The friends he escaped Whitebird with? All died. Recently, key collection has become even more of a bottleneck as only high level Instances would appear, but the members’ levels have been stagnating. They’ve also failed to gain any converts or new members for a while now.

Du Heng rejects Du Yixin in the end, saying, “no.”

“I won’t hold you back!”

“I won’t allow it.”

Du Yixin is so angry at his obstinate older brother he’s slamming the office desk, loudly asking, “why are you always like this?! I also want to help!”

Yet his older brother cuts the conversation short, “that is all. You’re dismissed. Liu Hong, take him back to his room.”

“!”

“Hey little guy, let’s listen to the Caps. It’s all really, really dangerous business…” It looks like the man is about to use his absurd force again.

“Wait!” Du Yixin blocks the guy, and gives a fierce glare to his older brother, “you won’t budge no matter what, is it?”

Du Heng stares right back at him.

“You must at least answer me this.”

Du Heng narrows his eyes, neither allowing nor disallowing it.

“When I was dragged into my first Instance ever, I died.”

“…”

“But, I came back to life——From my ability.”

“…”

“Why do I have a key in my first ever Instance.”

“…”

“Ge, tell me, honestly, what happened in the past.”

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TL’s notes: Eh, the chapter’s been a bit frustrating and depressing so far, so time for a comedic recommendation! 《宿主他演技奇差[穿書]》(The Host’s Acting Abilities Are Abysmal) (Chinese) (Well, you can probably find full access somewhere, perhaps, not that I’m encouraging you to, of course)

It’s a comedy about a guy transmigrating and asked to perform a character archetype… Unfortunately, he is both bad at acting and hates the role he has to perform, and so comedy ensues everytime he has to perform. Somehow, though, the Top manages to fall in love with our lovable Protagonist Bottom regardless, so all is well. I liked the story as it depicted two characters understanding each other well. Everything else… Well, it’s no 80 Days Around the World level of immersion and worldbuilding, but it works fine enough. I’m pretty sure it’s not on NU at the moment, but do give it a read if you’re interested. At least, I enjoyed it when I read it through in one go myself!