Fate Trading System – Chapter 228

Plan A

Mist Map 1

Bai Yan¹

【Returning to System Space, settlement in progress.】

【Real world frozen sleep released. This Task World settlement is twelve months. Remaining lifespan is ninety-seven months. Memories have been successfully blurred. Host, please enjoy yourself. See you next month.】

Okay.

Su Xin opened her eyes. She was on that sealed-off little island, leading a group of children.

To be honest, it was very dull and boring. Su Xin didn’t have any particular peculiar habits; she wouldn’t abuse those children outside of training. Besides playing on her phone, all she could do was play on her phone, stuck on this island.

Su Xin fell into a deep sleep, slept for ten minutes, then opened her eyes, washed up, and began supervising the children’s training.

“Today, pair up for sparring. Choose your own opponents. No weapons allowed. Whoever knocks the other down first is today’s winner. If I find anyone going easy on someone else, then those two won’t be eating dinner tonight.”

Su Xin gave Qiu Qingqing a mischievous smile, because the two of them had been punished like this before. Back then, it was also sparring training. Su Xin had naturally paired up with Qiu Qingqing, but she had gone very easy on her, hitting her lightly. The two of them were too green back then, so the Instructor immediately saw something was wrong and reprimanded them both.

Afterwards, the two of them never paired up again. After all, whether it was beating Qiu Qingqing mercilessly or being beaten mercilessly by Qiu Qingqing, neither felt reconciled to it. So, the two of them happily decided it was better to go beat up other people.

“There’s still a drop of water here.”

Qiu Qingqing reached out a finger and wiped away a bead of water from her temple.

“Has Laoda² said when we can leave? Those two probably won’t be coming back. She just gave birth a few months ago. After giving birth, she has to have her postpartum confinement month³, right? After the confinement month, she has to feed the baby, right? How long are we two going to stay here?”

“I’ll ask him later and tell you the answer.”

“Okay.”

Su Xin and Qiu Qingqing lived together. Although it was sealed off, under the Instructor, nothing essential was lacking.

Fresh ingredients were delivered regularly every three days. This was, of course, because Qiu Qingqing knew how to cook. If it were someone who couldn’t cook, like Su Xin for example, then takeout would be delivered regularly three times a day.

“What would I do without you.”

Su Xin gazed at the table full of delicious food and sighed with emotion. To be able to live life like this was already extremely satisfying.

“Then just stay by my side always, don’t leave, okay? Anyway, I don’t plan on finding anyone in the future. Don’t tell me you don’t want to spend the future with me?”

“How could that be possible? Being with others isn’t as comfortable as being with you. There won’t be such a person.”

Su Xin went to the kitchen, washed her hands, picked up her chopsticks, took the bowl of rice Qiu Qingqing had served her, and started eating.

Qiu Qingqing chuckled and sat down to eat with her.

Su Xin received a response from Laoda’s side, saying they should stay here for another four months, at which point new candidates would arrive to take over their work.

Nothing particularly special happened, and in the blink of an eye, another month passed quickly.

【Host, there is a request from a parallel plane. Accept? Special reminder: the task in this plane is rather unique. My monitoring and investigation functions are ineffective regarding the main characters.】

Hmm? What does that mean?

【There is a certain risk factor, as it is a suspense world. Non-paranormal.】

If you knew the answer from the start, there would be no need for deduction.

Su Xin understood. They really knew how to stir things up.

Since it wasn’t a paranormal incident, it meant there were no ghosts involved. Since there were no supernatural cases, then everything was man-made. And since it was man-made, there was nothing to fear.

As long as they are human, they will eventually reveal a weakness.

Accept.

【Proceeding to System Space for handover with the client.】

It was a girl who looked apprehensive, undisguised terror on her face. Her body trembled with fear, as if she had just experienced something terrible.

There was sweat on her forehead, her lips pale.

“Hello, I am the commissioned agent for your wish. May I ask what your wish is?”

“You can know all my memories after you inhabit my body. My wish is for this body to survive, and to find the stolen ‘Mist Map’.”

The girl, who looked no older than twenty-five, clenched her fists.

Her original wish was for herself to live, but since her soul was the price, didn’t living and dying overlap in a sense? If her soul was lost, that was also death. But she couldn’t just die like this; she absolutely had to accomplish one more thing.

“Okay.”

Sounds exciting.

Su Xin propped herself up on her arms, half-sitting up in bed. Her whole body ached, and the throbbing pain in her head made her feel very uncomfortable.

Those memories rushed in like an overwhelming tide⁴, filling her entire brain, instantly occupying all her attention.

Everything had to start from half a month ago. The original owner, Bai Yan, was preparing to go to work as usual. After washing up, she took the trash out, bought breakfast at the stall near the community entrance, and took the bus to the museum for her job.

But on that day half a month ago, it rained heavily. Bai Yan held an umbrella in one hand and the trash in the other. As she passed the trash bin, she threw the trash in. Bai Yan had a habit: before throwing away trash, she would habitually glance into the bin. It was that glance that caused the trouble.

The trash bin was the upright type with a lid. Every morning, that bin would be emptied by the garbage truck. The original owner was among the earliest people in this residential complex to go to work, arguably among the first to throw out trash. But on that day, before tossing the garbage down, she habitually glanced at the bottom of the bin. It wasn’t empty as usual; instead, there was a human head.

Bai Yan was terrified by the head. At first, she thought it was a realistic toy, someone playing a malicious prank. But when she saw the head’s features clearly, her blood seemed to freeze.

Bai Yan quickly called the police. While waiting for them to arrive, she was in a state of extreme unease. This person could be considered her friend, yet this person clearly lived in another city, over a thousand li⁵ away. They had greeted each other just yesterday, yet today she encountered her in this manner.

The Criminal Police Team arrived quickly, collecting evidence at the scene and conducting some questioning with her.

Bai Yan told them everything she knew, her mind in a state of distraction.

The police initially determined it was a vicious dismemberment case. According to Bai Yan’s statement, the owner of the body was from S City, over a thousand kilometers away from their city. The locations of the other body parts were unknown.

Bai Yan took a few days off from the museum, staying home and trying to contact their mutual friends from the past. But none of them responded; her inquiries seemed to vanish without a trace⁶.

It seemed like the matter might just pass, because it didn’t happen in this city but was a cross-province crime, making it difficult for the police to handle.

Bai Yan underwent psychological counseling, intending to forget the incident. When she returned to work, she discovered that an ancient artifact she had been restoring was missing.

This was a major incident. Although the ancient painting wasn’t the work of a famous master, Bai Yan still considered it very meaningful.

Things took a strange turn. The restoration room used a combination lock, and the code was known only to her and a few other staff members. Bai Yan suspected an inside job, but the other staff members had no reason to do this. It wasn’t a very valuable ancient artifact, and it hadn’t even been fully restored yet.

That painting was called the ‘Mist Map’.

It didn’t end there. While Bai Yan was worrying about this matter, the police sought her out again. They brought a photograph and asked if she recognized the person.

Bai Yan didn’t recognize him at first glance; her impression of this person was very vague. But after thinking hard, she finally remembered who it was.

The police said it was a case reported that morning. An eyewitness had discovered half of a mutilated corpse at an abandoned construction site. It was a brutal dismemberment. After reconstruction and DNA verification, they found this person’s photo. The captain in charge of this case immediately thought of her, which is why he came with the photo to ask her.

These two dismemberment cases were undoubtedly connected. Although police investigations into their lives revealed completely different social statuses, different circles of friends, and different hobbies, the only intersection points were that Bai Yan knew them, and their manner of death – both were dismembered.

After extensive searching, the police finally found torsos and limbs in other corners of the city. However, after DNA comparison, they discovered that the torsos, limbs, and heads they found did not match. This meant there weren’t just two dismemberment cases, but four. The remains of the other two victims had not yet been found.

Bai Yan became a key person of interest. Having figured something out, Bai Yan told the police the clues she knew.

Six years ago, eleven people of different ages from different places gathered together because of an online advertisement for an ancient artifact exploration activity. Bai Yan, young and full of spirit at the time, and possessing an extraordinary curiosity about ancient artifacts, signed up for the group.

The group members varied in age; there were youths like her, successful middle-aged people, and strangely dressed young adults. The group headed into the deep mountains to explore the unknown past.

The exploration activity lasted half a month in total. They didn’t find anything valuable, nor did any strange paranormal things happen. Just when they thought the activity would end like this, the activity leader suggested going back in for a little while longer. The 11 of them went back in, and this time they discovered a strange cave.

The cave reeked heavily of blood. There were seven or eight people holding torches, dressed in peculiar clothing. On what looked like an altar lay a young man, also covered in large patches of blood. On the ground were the remains of a fresh corpse, its heart dug out.

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