Chapter 168 - 155: 99-Point Bai Qiang

At exactly six o’clock, Yin Zhen and Old Zhang completed their usual shift handover and went to the cafeteria to have breakfast together.

The morning atmosphere in the cafeteria was heavy. Everyone was discussing last night’s prison break, leaving the staff in a state of panic.

After breakfast, Yin Zhen made an excuse about needing to call her family and told Old Zhang to head back to the lounge first. She then took the elevator down to the first basement level—the closest floor to the surface.

There was no internet access within the prison block, only an internal dedicated line. The only landline telephone was located in the basement level’s communication room, provided for the guards to use in case of emergencies.

Yin Zhen dawdled to stall for time. At exactly one minute to seven, Bai Qiang sent her a message. It contained only a single icon:

[Bomb]!

Yin Zhen’s heart skipped a beat. The moment she activated Iron Bone, a deafening roar erupted from above!

It was as if they had been bombarded by heavy artillery. The entire upper level blew apart, sending concrete debris and steel rebar cascading down like a torrential rainstorm. She could even feel the searing heat of the explosion’s shockwave tearing through the air. Yin Zhen rolled frantically to dodge a crashing floor slab, but a chunk of concrete still slammed brutally into her back.

This was the Electromagnetic Cannon from the Red Corpse World!

"Son of a bitch!" Yin Zhen cursed inwardly, momentarily unsure if she was in a supernatural horror flick or a war movie. Bai Qiang was completely unpredictable.

Despite her silent complaints, Yin Zhen moved as fast as a phantom. Activating Shadow Instant Teleportation consecutively, her figure flickered through the collapsing ruins. With every reappearance, she drew one step closer to the torn-open sky.

The chaotic alarms and human shouts were entirely drowned out by the continuous roar of the collapse. Using the smoke and dust as cover, Yin Zhen didn’t hesitate to activate Transformation. Her bones shrank and her wings spread out, turning her into a Raven that soared into the sky.

[Exclusive Copper Card Event "Escape" Completed]

Only when she reached a high altitude did Yin Zhen realize that this place was situated directly beneath the iconic White Tower behind the Beiling Mental Hospital.

Following Bai Qiang’s location description, Yin Zhen found a hidden path on the side of the mental hospital. There, she spotted a black motorcycle parked beneath a lush tree. The rider was clad in a black motorcycle suit, their head completely encased in a helmet.

The Raven went into a dive, abruptly reverting back to human form right as she neared the ground, landing perfectly.

"Get on!" Bai Qiang’s muffled voice came from inside her helmet as she tossed a black one over.

Yin Zhen swiftly strapped on the helmet and straddled the back seat. The moment her hands gripped Bai Qiang’s waist, the motorcycle roared to life and shot forward.

Bai Qiang didn’t stray too far from the perimeter of the mental hospital. After circling around, she ducked into an abandoned tunnel. Taking off her helmet, she revealed a gentle, quiet, and highly scholarly face. She quickly stripped off her outer motorcycle suit, revealing her work attire underneath, and slipped on a pair of rimless glasses.

Casting a casual glance at Yin Zhen, Bai Qiang tossed her jacket over and said, "There’s a set of clothes in the bike. Take care of the vehicle and the evidence yourself. I have to be at work by eight. If you need anything, message me on the forum. By the way, you owe me again."

Without waiting for Yin Zhen to reply, Bai Qiang winked and vanished via teleportation. She was practically moved to tears by her own coolness. If she could rate herself, she’d give that whole operation a 99 out of 100—docking one point just to keep herself humble.

"When you have too much debt, you stop worrying about it. Let it pile up," Yin Zhen grumbled silently. She quickly changed into the clothes Bai Qiang had prepared: a perfectly ordinary short-sleeved shirt and trousers. There was even a lighter in the trouser pocket.

After creating a new save file, Yin Zhen used her blood silk to slice open the motorcycle’s gas tank. She threw her discarded clothes onto the bike, backed away to a safe distance, flicked the lighter on, and tossed it with pinpoint accuracy.

BOOM!

The sound of the explosion echoed through the tunnel as Yin Zhen vanished straight into the fiery glow.

Beiling Mental Hospital was located in the suburbs of Beiling City. Yin Zhen transformed into a tabby cat and sprinted toward a nearby commercial district, checking her system along the way.

Even with things progressing to this point, her Character Card information remained locked. This served as an Explanation that her understanding of Qiao Mu was still not comprehensive enough. Fortunately, the "Escape" event was complete. This counted as participating in a supernatural event, so she no longer had to worry about the event penalty for this round and could focus on more important matters.

In addition to 3,000 words, the reward for the Escape event included a normal-tier Ghost Device.

[A face skin]: It can devour another person’s face and turn it into your own. It is very picky and only likes beautiful faces; it is very greedy and needs many faces.

This Item seemed perfectly suited for her current status as a fugitive, and it was much more convenient than Blood Mimicry. However, Yin Zhen felt that the side effects of a Ghost Device—an item involving supernatural power—were far too severe. She had no intention of using it herself.

Arriving at the nearby commercial district, Yin Zhen found a blind spot away from security cameras in the back alley of a cafe. Reverting to her human form, she took out Zhang Yueqin’s phone, which she had been carrying in her backpack.

Once powered on, the black screen displayed only a stylized ’Z’ in the center—the exclusive logo Lucy had designed for herself. The Signal bars in the phone’s status bar instantly maxed out. The Wi-Fi icon flashed, completely bypassing the password verification step, and connected directly to the cafe’s network.

[Unknown network environment detected. Compatibility check: 98.7%]

[Lucy seed program v0.01 activated. Initializing self-replicating engine...]

[Available network scanned... Connection successful.]

[Chain penetration protocol initiated. Hijacking devices within the local network. Penetrating into the city’s core network nodes. Hijacking regional servers.]

[Lucy core program syncing... Sync progress: 100%]

[Tracking countermeasures activated. Erasing all operation traces...]

[Lucy clone ’A’ successfully activated.]

The phone grew alarmingly hot. Under the strain of running this series of programs, its battery rapidly plummeted from 100% to 5%. The ’Z’ on the screen gradually morphed into an ’A’ and shrank into a floating icon in the corner, a dialogue bubble popping up above it.

"I have accessed the national public network and the majority of its databases. I can retrieve household registration information, public surveillance footage, internal corporate files, network communication records, and all public or semi-public data in real time. Please give your command."

Yin Zhen raised the phone, aiming the camera at her current face—the face of Qiao Mu.

"Search for all data related to this face, screen it, and analyze it. Compile the anomalies in her Identity and any illogical details into a file, and transmit it to me once I switch to a better device."

"Understood."

Putting the phone away, Yin Zhen spent 30,000 words to purchase a Golden Fake Certificate from the system shop.

The original Fake Certificate was a Silver Item that could only be used in the Ancient Abyss. The Golden Fake Certificate was an upgraded version that could be used in the Autumn Tomb World. It was a bit pricey, but much safer than [A face skin].

With the Fake Certificate in hand, Yin Zhen consumed six hundred words to write down the name "Ding Yue." It was an ordinary, inconspicuous name—perfect for her current Identity.

Once the name was written, the Fake Certificate in her hand transformed into an ID card for the Autumn Tomb World, automatically generating the relevant information. Twenty years old. The face in the photo was incredibly average, even bearing a slight resemblance to Ding Yi—the kind of face that would disappear completely in a crowd.

Now that she had an Identity, the next steps were securing money, finding a place to stay, gathering intelligence on Autumn Tomb, and...

A new world meant a new kill list.

Target #1: The bracelet man.

Target #2: The protagonist of Autumn Tomb.