He Denghong felt a chill surge from his spine to the back of his head. He and He Jiulu both widened their eyes in unison.
“What exactly is going on…” he murmured to himself.
How many days had it even been?
By his count, He Jiulu had only participated in two battles: one in a midnight alleyway and one at the park during noon.
While there were many witnesses during the park incident, that scene had been so chaotic. How could anyone have remembered every single detail so clearly — and then so quickly produced such a precise, vivid, and even dynamic portrait?
This wasn’t just about ‘drawing well.’ It was as if someone had used a high-precision scanner on He Jiulu’s entire body!
The arrangement of the golden buttons on the military uniform, the subtle creases in the sash, and even the style of the boots were all perfect!
With a trembling hand, he clicked on Sui Luowen’s file.
The same exquisite three-dimensional dynamic illustration appeared, along with equally detailed information. This included the name of her wand, ‘Criticism,’ her trait, ‘Physical Distortion,’ and the space-fissure abilities the wand could manifest. Everything was recorded.
The website also featured filters for continents, countries, and cities, as well as an active forum section.
The forum was already flooded with various discussion threads:
[ **[Hot] A rational discussion on the coordinated combat efficiency of He Jiulu and Sui Luowen!** ]
[ **Latest battle footage of North America’s ‘Thunderous Carol’ — Paid content!** ]
[ **Leak! The Exploiter of that Esoterica in South America is suspected to be a talking stone!** ]
[ **How do I apply to the Public Salvation Society to become an Esoterica? Waiting online, it’s urgent!** ]
[ **Science: The patterns of ‘Anomalies’ appearing through the lens of Universal Overlap Theory.** ]
The forum was incredibly active. Posts and replies were flying by at high speed, filled with professional terminology, combat data analysis, and even fan threads for different Esoterica and Exploiters.
The entire community exuded a feverish yet strangely organized atmosphere.
He Denghong scoured the entire site and found that, just as the notification had said, more sensitive personal information like real ages or social identities was not included.
The website focused on the ‘combat identity’ of the Esoterica. Even so, the detail and the speed of the updates had reached a terrifying level.
This was definitely not something ‘hobbyists’ could achieve. Behind this, there had to be powerful organizational strength, information acquisition capabilities, and perhaps even… official tacit approval or direct support?
Was it the Public Salvation Society itself? Or the intelligence agency of some nation? Or something else entirely?
Did the Red-Black Rabbit know about this website? He Denghong felt a shiver run down his spine.
He had originally thought his dual identity was a secret, but now the existence of ‘He Jiulu’ had been placed under a spotlight, observed, analyzed, and discussed by countless unknown eyes.
As the first Esoterica on Earth, He Jiulu naturally commanded an immense amount of attention. Her file’s like count had already surpassed 100 million.
“The Public Salvation Society official site? Doesn’t look like it. If that smelly Red-Black Rabbit had that kind of free time, it would be better spent figuring out how to pay my salary.”
He Jiulu and He Denghong sneered simultaneously. The voice remained raspy, and the synchronized pain put him in an awful mood.
“Then is it… a higher level? Or… some other ‘thing’?” He Denghong guessed, feeling a sense of powerlessness.
He tried to find more information about the operators on the website, but besides the incredibly professional interface and the fanatical yet orderly forum, he couldn’t find a single clue about the creators or administrators.
Privacy Policy, About Us… when he clicked these standard sections, he found only obscure legal clauses and philosophical manifestos that seemed to come from another dimension. They were enough to make one’s head spin.
“Zee-gugu…”
The Red-Black Rabbit’s communication was always so ill-timed yet punctual, ringing directly in He Denghong’s mind.
“Did you see that little website? It’s put together quite nicely, isn’t it? It looks much better than our Public Salvation Society official notification page, zee-gugugu!”
“You know about this site? Who made it? How do they have such detailed information? They even know the exact number of buttons on He Jiulu’s clothes!”
He Denghong and He Jiulu questioned at the same time, their emotions transmitting through the connection.
“Oh my, don’t get so excited. The universe is vast; there’s nothing too strange to exist.”
“There are always certain existences that naturally love to record, observe, and even… ‘glamorize’ everything they find interesting or important.” The Red-Black Rabbit’s tone remained casual, as if it were talking about the weather.
“The operators behind this archive — let’s just call them ‘The Recorders’ for now. They seem to be a kind of… well, phenomenon? Or perhaps a neutral information aggregate that naturally manifested as the universal overlap process intensified? We aren’t entirely sure of their specific form or ultimate goal.”
“But for now, they don’t seem to harbor direct malice. They are simply extremely keen on collecting, organizing, and displaying all information related to ‘Abnormalities’ and ‘Esoterica,’ and they do it with terrifying efficiency.”
“In a way, they’ve even helped us with some of our information integration work, though the method is a bit… unsettling.”
“Are they safe? Will my personal information be exposed?” He Denghong was more concerned about this.
“Rest easy. ‘The Recorders’ seem to strictly follow a certain code of ‘information anonymity.'”
“They only display the combat identities and related abilities of the ‘Esoterica.’ They will never directly reveal your real-world identity, social relationships, or any core privacy like that.”
“Otherwise, you wouldn’t be receiving a call from me right now, but rather countless curious phone calls and knocks on your door, zee-gugu~”
“But why are they doing this?”
“Who knows? Maybe they think it’s fun? Maybe they’re pushing some kind of ‘cognition’? Maybe they are simply part of the laws of the universe? Don’t use the logic of you carbon-based organisms to speculate on such nameless existences.”
The Red-Black Rabbit let out a yawn. “Just get used to it. As long as they don’t cross the line, the Public Salvation Society doesn’t care to intervene. After all, our primary goal is to deal with ‘Abnormalities,’ not every single supernatural phenomenon.”
“By the way,” the Red-Black Rabbit’s next words followed immediately, “the basic operations of the Yulin City Branch of the Public Salvation Society require a lot of ‘Elements’ for support. The reserves held by me and this living building aren’t enough.”
“Starting today, in addition to handling sudden ‘Abnormalities,’ you and Sui Luowen must conduct regular ‘patrols’ — “
“Actively search for and eliminate those small ‘anomalies’ and ‘foreign objects’ that have just seeped through. They have weak energy fluctuations and haven’t caused substantial harm yet. Treat them as ‘batteries’ to ‘feed’ the branch.”
“I’ll send you the patrol routes and the general range. Sui Luowen has already headed out, so hurry up, zee-gugu~”
A link to an electronic map followed the message, marking several light points flashing randomly across Yulin City. These seemed to be the suspected energy fluctuation areas.
“Screw that, I’m not going.” He Denghong was about to send the reply when his fingers suddenly paused.
‘What if that child encounters danger? As an adult, if I insist on doing nothing while knowing she might be in danger, isn’t that being too irresponsible?’
Mature adults are good at shirking responsibility, but clearly, He Denghong wasn’t quite that mature yet.
Should he go accompany his junior? He didn’t have much to do right now anyway. What if something actually happened to her?
Besides, he didn’t necessarily have to work for the Red-Black Rabbit; he could just act as a guardian on the side.
In any case, now that he knew this much, he had no excuse to back out. He had no reason to pretend he didn’t know.
“Fine, I’ll go with her.”
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