Chapter 444: Exposed?

She saw the little cat on her electronic screen suddenly disappear, replaced by a fluorescent‑green pixel "YES".

Meng Kexin subconsciously pursed her lips; if the person opposite really were Ying Duo, what about Yang Yixie, who looks exactly like Ying Duo?

Since Ying Duo is a Dome‑sent undercover agent dispatched to Tianmian City, he most likely isn't using his real name.

"How did you find me?"

She lowered her voice and asked, and a speech bubble popped up above the cat head, reading: "Your guess."

Meng Kexin stared at those two utterly punch‑worthy characters for two seconds; although she hadn't seen the person, the familiar feeling was exactly the same.

How to put it, Meng Kexin felt a lingering irritation when she recalled Ying Duo's face, whereas Yang Yixie always seemed well‑behaved.

Meng Kexin looked left and right; no one around was paying attention to her, and the cat head bounced again on the screen, a new speech bubble appearing above it:

"We need information from Tianmian City; I think we can cooperate."

Meng Kexin furrowed her brows; the phrase "need information" that emerged from this guy translates to "I need you to act as my spy."

She knows the risks all too well; the Chen Family isn't a charity, and any clan that can hold its ground in a place like Tianmian City inevitably has blood on its hands.

Now she works wholeheartedly for the Chen Family, and the Chen Family can make use of her, so it counts as a pleasant cooperation.

If she ever harbors other intentions, not to mention what would happen if Chen Mo Zhi discovered it, the Chen Family's senior steward has been watching her all along.

The cat head seemed to understand her hesitation and popped up another speech bubble:

"Of course, I'll also provide the intelligence you need."

Meng Kexin twitched the corner of her mouth, eager to hear what conditions Yang Yixie might offer.

Although Yang Yixie holds her real‑world identity, isn't she the same in return?

These days the Church as a whole adopts a relatively friendly stance toward Undead, so even if her identity is exposed and she loses contact with the Chen Family, safeguarding herself remains doable.

In terms of circumstance alone, Yang Yixie is far more dangerous than she is.

Being in a high position naturally grants access to more information.

For example, the Dome's massive hunt for Undead, and the freshly issued bounty notice concerning Ying Duo on the Dome's side.

Shen Zexi had previously asked her and Chen Mo Zhi to keep an eye on Ying Duo's movements; who could have imagined that only a short while later, Ying Duo also had a bounty posted on the neighboring Dome.

Considering they are both Undead with no choice, isn't Ying Duo's troublemaking becoming too frequent?

Does Co‑Absorption have some trouble‑making metric, like how often you must stir up a certain amount of trouble?

The cat head hopped onto her wrist, and its head changed to a string of emoticons:

"d(=^･ω･^=)b Consider it?"

"First, from what standpoint are you communicating with me? Co‑Absorption? Or Yang Yixie?"

Meng Kexin asked warily, and Yang Yixie was not surprised that his identity had been exposed.

The fluorescent‑green energy effect is truly unusual, not to mention Meng Kexin has dealt with it many times.

Whether as Ying Duo or as Yang Yixie.

Moreover, Meng Kexin is a smart person; otherwise she wouldn't have gone from an unnoticed decorative vase to becoming the indispensable "strategist" that Chen Mo Zhi handed over to the Chen Family.

"Of course, as an alliance of player identities."

A long block of text appeared in the speech bubble:

"Over here at the Dome, especially the Mutation Division, it's all a bunch of lunatics; the weak, pitiful, helpless players over there are constantly bullied."

The cat head's mouth formed an upside‑down "U", and a pixel tear hung at the corner of its eye.

Meng Kexin stared at that pixel tear in silence, and Ying Duo's face flashed in her mind—

the expressionless face that had shouldered a cannon to blast a hole in Tianmian City.

She then swapped that face for Yang Yixie's, quiet and obedient, sitting at a computer typing.

It seems… not entirely impossible?

She brushed the odd thought away, poked the screen with a finger; the cat head rolled a circle to the side, steadied, tilted its head at her, and a question mark popped up in the bubble.

Pretty fun.

"Stop rambling; what reward can you give me?"

The cat head tilted its head, looked at her for two seconds, then blinked.

"As for reward, we've already paid in advance on our side," the cat head spun around the dial, as if dancing.

"Otherwise, how do you think you obtained that list of Chen Family infiltrators earlier?"

Meng Kexin's breath caught for a beat; she had speculated before, since she'd interacted with both the real world and the game, perhaps only one person could know her identity.

"How did you manage it?"

"Business secret," followed by a tongue‑out emoticon.

Meng Kexin suppressed the urge to curse and said, "Cooperation is possible."

"But I have conditions: first, I only partake in intelligence trades, not in your operations; second, I won't disclose matters that touch the Chen Family's core interests."

The cat head bounced twice on the electronic screen, and a big "OK" appeared above it.

Meng Kexin exhaled in relief, about to speak, when the light above her dimmed.

She looked up.

A man stood before her, wearing a dark‑blue uniform with a silver‑edged shoulder strap; a badge on his chest read "Special Incident Handling Division."

He looked down at Meng Kexin from a height, his gaze landing on the still‑glowing electronic watch.

The fluorescent‑green cat head on the electronic screen remained oblivious, still bouncing out emoticons.

The man furrowed his brows and turned his head toward the person standing half a step behind him.

"Why wasn't her watch confiscated?"

The other hurried forward a step, a fine layer of sweat beading on his forehead.

"Report, we only seized watches with communication functions for centralized management; this one at most has extra entertainment features—just telling time and raising an electronic pet—so it's outside our confiscation scope."

The man just gave Meng Kexin a glance, "She's also a Special Ability Practitioner; register her as well."

The person beside him was startled for a moment, then quickly recovered.

Special Ability Practitioners generally have some energy fluctuations within them; only a tiny fraction of players know how to conceal them, yet before someone whose use of energy surpasses theirs, there is nowhere to hide.

The test in the waking room was only the first step; the authorities have other methods to locate the ability‑wielders hidden among players.

If what ordinary players need is protection so they can survive in the game, then for these players with special abilities, the authorities must play a supervisory role.

Meng Kexin was caught a bit off guard by this move; she considered her control over energy already quite good, but as a Special Ability Practitioner of the Consciousness Law, she was inherently hard to defend against.

Although she no longer attended Mitra Academy, the Chen Family hired a specialist to teach her and Chen Mo Zhi.

Under that premise, she had originally been confident she wouldn't be easily discovered.

In the end, she was directly exposed.

But the man didn't look at her again; instead, he turned his head and continued speaking to the person beside him.

"Also, gather the players who are in Tianmian City in the game; the authorities have some matters to ask them."