CNS | Chapter 1

Chapter 1 Dream

“I’ve heard that from the moment two people with a profound destiny are born, an invisible thread will be wrapped around them here.”

A blanket of white light spilled through the floor-to-ceiling window and filled the narrow bathroom. Misty steam and the smell of blood tangled together. The boy grabbed the teenager’s mangled wrist and extended his slender fingers, making a knotting motion.

His expression was solemn, as if there really were an invisible thread in his hand.

“See? With this thread, no one can separate us.”

Thump, thump.

In a daze, the teenager truly felt the boy’s pulse.

He looked at his own wrist and, amid the beating of those pulses, felt his connection to the world.

“It doesn’t sound like a rope knot. It sounds like gravity,” the teenager murmured.

“Hm? Then I want to be a satellite orbiting around Older Brother, never separating from him.”

The teenager buried his head in the hollow of the boy’s neck, repeating the low words like a spell.

“Never separate…”

The floor-to-ceiling window behind the boy exploded with a bang. The dream shattered in an instant, and the white light faded.

After that, a dark, sunless, cold, and silent night came roaring at the boy, violently tearing the two people who were holding each other apart.

No! Don’t leave me!

The teenager screamed soundlessly. Struggling, he reached out his arms, wanting to pull the boy into his embrace again.

The boy was swept away and swallowed by the tide of darkness. Between light and dark, only a scarlet thread remained. Relying on that fragile thread, the teenager could still feel the boy’s beating pulse.

At the very end, as if in response, a low and hoarse voice echoed in the teenager’s ear.

“I will find you. No matter where you are, I will definitely come back to your side again…”

Scene 3

In 2057, Saint Grange City, Emerald Bay District.

When Shen Run woke up from the sofa, the pink-haired young man in a denim jacket was hurrying down the stairs.

“If anyone comes looking, say I left Saint Grange for Liu Island.”

After saying that, he did not look back and strode out of Eden Bar.

“Going out at a time like this, be careful someone smashes your skull.”

Jiede stood behind the bar and muttered softly, unsure whether the young man had heard her.

The young man’s name was Chi Yu. He was Shen Run’s rather unreliable shidi, and usually also helped Jiede out at Eden Bar.

He was skilled in hundreds of ways to implant malicious viruses into a customer’s brain, yet could not even mix the simplest drink.

Shen Run sat down at the bar and pointed in the direction Chi Yu had left. “What’s wrong with that brat?”

“He got caught hacking someone else’s access pod, what else could it be.”

Jiede, wearing a bartender’s uniform, was wiping down a strangely shaped glass. A metal choker hung around her neck, and exaggerated smoky makeup was painted on her face. She looked like a corpse that had given up on life.

“This time he seems to have provoked a ruthless one. I just heard that person say he was going to kill him.”

Shen Run nodded, not worried about his shidi’s safety.

Out of seven days in a week, Chi Yu was chased on four of them. Every victim threatened to kill him, but that brat always managed to keep his life and, even now, was still alive and kicking.

Saint Grange’s nightlife only really began after midnight, so it was still early, and there were not many customers in the bar.

Beside Jiede’s hand sat an old radio, playing the program she listened to most often, 136.3 Saint Grange Rock Night, an underground station that moved within the gray area.

“Good evening, night owls of Saint Grange!”

The radio DJ roared out his classic opening line in a vibrant, passionate voice.

“Before the show starts, I need to first announce yesterday’s prize quiz answer. As most people expected, our ‘City Ranger’ once again launched a righteous attack and randomly smashed the skulls of several unlucky people!”

“As for the guess on the number of victims, that was miserable. Only two listeners were lucky enough to guess the number correctly, and the right answer is seven!”

Shen Run rubbed his temples. “It’s been half a month, why are they still talking about this guy…”

The “City Ranger” in the DJ’s mouth was a lunatic who had appeared from nowhere and smashed the heads of over a hundred people in just half a month.

For some unknown reason, he only targeted evildoers who moved about between cities, and that mysterious, ranger-like aura made him a star in Saint Grange overnight, taking over the front pages of major media outlets.

Jiede used her champagne-colored mechanical hand to pour Shen Run a glass of whiskey. “He seems to be looking for you.”

Shen Run shrugged and took a sip of the liquor without changing his expression. “Yeah, a lot of people have been looking for me lately.”

As early as when the first few attacks happened, someone had called to tell him, Shen, there’s a lunatic who is devoted to drilling holes in people’s heads looking for you.

As for the reason behind that conclusion…

Before the City Ranger smashed someone’s skull, he would always ask the poor victim one question.

“Do you know ‘Sleeve Blade’?”

For some reason, very few people in Saint Grange knew Shen Run’s full name, and “Sleeve Blade” was the codename he used in Heimdall, as well as the name by which he was known.

What puzzled Shen Run was that no matter whether the victim answered that they knew him or did not know him, they could not escape the fate of having their heads blown open.

The radio program had already changed content, and noisy rock music poured out from the radio.

“Boss, do you have some kind of terminal illness?”

Jiede rested her chin in her hand and casually said something so strange.

“Did I offend you somewhere?” Shen Run felt as if those words were a curse and looked at Jiede with confusion.

“Your face looks very bad. You look like a dead person.”

She handed him a small mirror. In the mirror, Shen Run’s face was somewhat pale, black broken hair lay across his forehead, and he had a pair of peach blossom eyes with downturned outer corners. His pitch-black eyes were always veiled by a layer of obscure emotion.

Time had not left any trace on his face. Although he was already past thirty, Shen Run still carried some inexplicable childishness.

Jiede always said, “If you were to enter a university campus, the gate guard wouldn’t even let you show your ID.”

Shen Run covered the mirror with his hand. “Maybe it’s because I work with you every day, and I’ve been marinated in the corpse smell on you.”

Jiede rolled her eyes and cursed, “Crazy.”

Shen Run muttered, “What a headache. Just thinking that there’s someone hating me so much and watching me in the dark, how could my face look good…”

“It may not necessarily be hate,” Jiede said while putting away the mirror. “It could also be deep love.”

Shen Run glanced at Jiede and felt that this girl’s understanding of love might be different from his.

“Don’t look at me like that.” Jiede frowned. “Love and hate are like the upright and reversed positions of tarot cards. In essence, they’re the same thing.”

“So mystical…”

Shen Run muttered, then thought of something.

“Can tarot cards interpret dreams?”

“Hm?” Jiede raised her eyebrows, signaling for him to continue.

“Just now I had a dream, I dreamed of someone I hadn’t seen in a long time.”

Shen Run touched his wrist, always feeling as if there were a thread wrapped around it.

“Tarot cards can’t interpret dreams. But from an occult perspective, suddenly dreaming of someone you haven’t seen in a long time means that your and his magnetic fields have aligned. Either that person is also thinking of you, or he’s right next to you.”

Jiede blurted it out, then thought of something else. A trace of alertness flashed in her calm eyes. “Wait, who did you dream of? Lu Yun?”

Pfft.

Shen Run almost spat out the liquor he had just drunk. “If I dreamed of that guy, the thing I should be asking you for advice on would be how to exorcise a ghost.”

“That’s true.” Jiede nodded thoughtfully. “Then who did you dream of?”

Shen Run raised his hand and pointed to the giant billboard outside, where Saint Grange’s brightest star, Wei Lan, was displayed.

“A person who looked ten thousand times better than him.”

As Shen Run spoke, the final appearance of that child in his memory automatically surfaced in his mind.

It was a flawless face, delicate and beautiful like a classical sculpture. Even though so many years had passed, it was still vivid in Shen Run’s memory, quietly shining in a corner of his recollection.

“Impossible!” Jiede’s tone rarely became so intense. “There is no one in this world who looks better than Wei Lan!”

“Believe it or not, up to you.”

Shen Run did not dwell on it. He rubbed his swollen temples, found a cigarette pack of unknown origin in the corner of the bar, and casually took one out to put between his lips.

Jiede threw a lighter to Shen Run. “Even if you’re the boss here, please get the hell outside to smoke.”

“All right, ma’am.” Shen Run shrugged, took the cigarette and lighter, and obediently walked outside.

Scene 4

It really was raining outside.

Whenever it rained, Shen Run’s headache was more punctual than the weather forecast, and Saint Grange’s long flood season was nothing less than torture to him.

Shen Run leaned on the railing. Across from him, the building was covered with brilliant and dazzling billboards. Holographic projections twisted through the air, and the city under neon lights was like a stage.

From where he stood, he could look out toward the dock. The black Emerald Bay stretched into the distance like a velvet curtain.

Emerald Bay District was located in the southeastern part of Saint Grange. It was the product of land reclamation. According to the original plan, this place should have become Saint Grange’s vacation paradise.

Unfortunately, as the Free War swept across Yalan, investors withdrew their capital one after another and left, leaving behind only rows of beautiful empty buildings.

In the chaos, Admiral Sam Phoenix, formerly of the Misty Sea Fleet, led his soldiers to land from Emerald Bay Port and took this beautiful district for himself.

This shrewd warlord established a complete and enormous smuggling network here. Under his “careful management,” Emerald Bay once again came into the view of those companies.

Even though the persistently high crime rate had turned this place into a “no-man’s-land” abandoned by the municipal government and SGPD, there were still swarms of speculators who rushed into this filthy sea like moths to a flame.

What was that saying again?

This was the best of times, and the worst of times.

Human enhancement, cybernetic augmentation, net roaming… these things that once existed only in imagination had, without warning, entered the lives of ordinary people, and the old social order had thus turned to bubbles.

Shen Run could not tell whether he was lucky or unlucky. The lucky thing was that he had exceptional talent. After being augmented, he could easily use a net access pod, let his consciousness leave his body, and enter the dreamlike network space.

Relying on that talent, he had always lived a relatively prosperous life.

The unlucky thing was that he had therefore become a victim of war.

Seven years ago, Shen Run came to Saint Grange from Alicia City and nearly died here. In order to survive, he concealed his identity and began working for the warlord who controlled this district.

Alicia had become his hometown that he could never return to.

Shen Run lit the cigarette in his mouth and took a light drag. The gray-white smoke intertwined with the fine rain, and he thought back to the dream from earlier. The scene of the boy solemnly tying a knot for him was still vivid in his mind.

How long had it been since Xiaoze had appeared in his dreams?

Shen Run counted on his fingers. Five years? Or six?

“So it’s already been this long…”

He should already have graduated from university by now, right? He did not know what major he had finally chosen, whether he had found a job, or whether he had a girlfriend.

The last image of the boy in his memory was the two of them lying on the sofa, planning their graduation trip. Shen Run repeatedly promised him that he would definitely finish work as soon as possible and go with him to a scenic island for a vacation.

The next day, Shen Run boarded a private plane to Saint Grange, and a month later, news of his “death” was sent back to Alicia.

“He must have cried very sadly…”

Shen Run sighed and stubbed out the cigarette on the railing.

He walked toward the steps not far away. A man in a dark suit was sitting there, looking as if he belonged to a different layer from the filthy surroundings.

From the moment he stepped out of the bar, he had felt someone watching him. That gaze was extremely fervent, as if it wanted to devour him piece by piece.

Shen Run’s access pod was connected to the building’s integrated network. Hundreds of surveillance cameras were under his control. In less time than it took to smoke one cigarette, he easily found the man hiding in the corner, sneaking around and staring at him.

The man had neatly combed oiled hair, an exquisitely tailored suit, and an expensive branded wristwatch. At a glance, it was obvious that he was not a local.

In Emerald Bay, where evildoers ran rampant, such a flashy outfit would not make the rats living in the gutter flatter you. On the contrary, it might invite a fatal disaster.

For some unknown reason, many equally foolish outsiders like this man had suddenly appeared nearby starting some day, recklessly provoking Emerald Bay’s rules of the game.

“Do you have business with me?”

Seeing Shen Run suddenly appear in front of him, a flash of panic crossed the suit man’s face. He seemed not to understand when he had been exposed.

He quickly adjusted his expression and asked, “Are you ‘Sleeve Blade’?”

“I am.”

“Our boss wants to see you.” The suit man stood up from the steps and looked down at Shen Run.

His gaze made Shen Run somewhat unhappy. “Why doesn’t he come see me himself?”

The suit man did not answer directly. “Please come with me. Our boss promises that as long as you can give him what he wants, he will definitely give you generous compensation.”

“Ah, then you’d better go back.” Shen Run turned around and left, raising a hand to wave. “I have a non-compete agreement. If my employer found out, he’d be very unhappy.”

Shen Run felt that he was not lying.

Although there was no written agreement, given the employer’s personality, if he left Heimdall, the employer probably would not let him continue doing work of the same nature as he was doing now.

The suit man jumped down from the steps and drew a short knife from beneath his coat, while his other hand grabbed Shen Run’s wrist.

“Mr. Sleeve Blade, if you won’t cooperate, then I may need to use some rather impolite methods.”

Shen Run stared fixedly at the hand tightly gripping his wrist, his gaze fierce.

Behind him, several people dressed as mercenaries walked in this direction.

He coldly spat out a few words, “You’re courting death.”