Chapter 51: Singularity

"A doomsday prepper??"

Lin Xu looked somewhat dumbfounded.

This did not quite match the image of Skull’s wife that he had pieced together from information obtained earlier from Skull himself and other team members.

To be honest, in those somewhat one-sided descriptions, Skull’s wife was basically a total bitch.

Vain, gold-digging, and promiscuous.

To get more money, she had forced Skull to take on increasingly high-risk missions. Lin Xu even suspected for a while that Skull had abandoned legal Private Military Contracting and accepted his mission precisely because his wife was pushing him from behind.

But looking at it now......

It seemed not to be that simple?

While looking at the data on the screen, trying his best to commit everything to memory, Lin Xu asked aloud:

"So what exactly is the situation with your wife? If it is confirmed to be a clue related to Planetary Reincarnation, we will consider cracking down on these illegal and criminal activities."

Lin Xu said this with such a righteous, lofty, and correct tone, as if he truly wielded the iron fist of truth.

Looking at his expression, Skull was deeply convinced.

After all, the things Lin Xu had displayed in the mere twenty minutes just now did indeed cast a layer of mysterious color over his identity.

Therefore, having no doubts whatsoever, Skull provided Lin Xu with the clues from the perspective of a public-spirited citizen.

"Actually, it's not as complicated as it sounds."

"My wife used to be very normal, just that kind of exceptionally normal wife."

"She would worry about me getting hurt working outside, she would take care of our home, and she would plan for our future life."

"Like how many children to have, where to settle down in the future, how to educate the kids, and things like that."

"But later on, I don't know when it started, she suddenly changed."

"She lost interest in many things and instead became obsessed with doomsday survivalism."

At this point, Skull paused slightly, as if recalling carefully.

"She turned our home into a 'fortress' and spent a lot, a lot of money."

"She resolved to stop having children, and even secretly took birth control pills when I wasn't paying attention."

"She was always saying things I couldn't understand—something about divine revelations, hyper-dimensional experiences, and the like."

"At first, I thought she had joined some kind of spiritual cultivation class, but gradually, as time went on, things felt more and more wrong."

"It was as if she had fallen ill......"

Skull's tone was tinged with deep melancholy and regret. Lin Xu could tell that he truly loved his wife.

But......

Your wife might not love you back!

You are not just wearing green on your head; you are practically a walking traffic light!

"Anything besides that?"

Lin Xu asked.

"Besides that......."

Skull pondered for a moment and continued:

"She has severe self-destructive tendencies, including self-harm and engaging in extremely risky, radical behaviors."

"She even tried to persuade me to let her join a PMC—no, what she wanted to join was far more dangerous illegal mercenary missions."

"After I refused her, she began to...... indulge herself."

"Parties, drugs, alcohol......."

"I always felt like something might be wrong with her mental state."

"Maybe depression?"

"Get real."

Lin Xu shrugged.

"I think you'd better go check and see if your wife has fallen down the radical feminist rabbit hole."

"Impossible."

Skull said with absolute certainty.

"I know her. I know her better than anyone else."

"Her change happened at a specific, single moment—the 'divine revelation' she keeps talking about."

"I don't understand what that is, and she doesn't seem able to describe it to me."

"But anyway...... we used to be an absolutely, totally devoted and happy couple."

"Yet that kind of happiness seemed to be destroyed in a single instant."

"I seriously suspect some illegal organization brainwashed her."

"If this clue is valuable, I hope you can...... help me."

"Understood."

Lin Xu let out a soft breath.

At this moment, only the last two minutes remained.

He had already memorized everything he needed to retain. Seizing the final moments, he turned to Skull and said:

"What you're describing is indeed very strange."

"When you say a sudden change, do you mean she woke up one day and was completely a different person?"

"That's right."

Skull nodded.

"And did she tell you about the so-called divine revelation the very next morning?"

"No, she didn't know it was a divine revelation at first. She was just terrified and lost."

Skull recalled carefully.

"It was a long time later that she started calling that strange experience a divine revelation."

"What kind of experience?"

Lin Xu glanced at his watch.

One minute left.

"She still hasn't been able to describe it clearly to me."

"She just told me that at a certain moment, she vanished."

"'I took a step forward and saw my own back,' 'I ran ten thousand meters and nothing changed,' 'I saw everything, but couldn't remember anything.'"

"That's how she described it to me."

"And...... she told me she isn't the only one who has had such an experience."

"Not the only one?"

Lin Xu frowned.

At this point, things were starting to feel wrong.

But time had run out.

Only the last ten seconds remained.

"No time left," Lin Xu said.

"Your wife is right; the apocalypse is coming."

"If you're not dead immediately afterwards, tell me the most important information you can think of!"

"Right now!"

A flash of white light.

Lin Xu kept a tight grip on the opposite Skull's shoulder without letting go.

And at the very last moment, the other man shouted at the top of his lungs:

"No matter what you all say, she is definitely not a bitch!"

.......

The darkness receded. Lin Xu opened his eyes, waking up in his bed.

He let out a helpless sigh and massaged his throbbing head.

He had only gone in this time to copy data, but unexpectedly, there was a bonus discovery.

Skull's wife was indeed not born a slut—which explained why, despite receiving so much adverse information about her from others, Skull always maintained such deep affection and devotion.

In theory, this was simply because her various outrageous behaviors hadn't yet completely exhausted the "emotional savings" built up between them.

----Of course, for Lin Xu, betrayal was unforgivable.

No matter the reason, it could never be used as an excuse.

However, Lin Xu had to admit that behind the transformation of Skull's wife, something profound might truly be hidden.

"Took a step forward and saw my own back"?

"Saw everything, but couldn't remember anything"?

Such a somewhat mystical description......

Could it also be related to the real apocalypse?

After all, she truly believed the apocalypse was coming, and the apocalypse had indeed arrived.

Let's write it down first.

Lin Xu opened his computer and updated the document with the information he had memorized from the two sets of materials.

This time he had relatively ample time, and the information he recorded was quite comprehensive.

The completeness of the document had reached over 90%; one last entry would be enough to finish it completely.

Immediately afterward, Lin Xu updated the information obtained from Skull into the "Clues" document.

The main keywords recorded were [Divine Revelation] and [Hyper-dimensional Experience].

After finishing everything, Lin Xu glanced at his phone. It was only 9:30.

At that moment, Jiang Xingye's message had been sent half an hour ago.

Jiang Xingye:

"Want some late-night snacks?"

.......Eating again?

Lin Xu hesitated for a moment and typed his reply:

"Yes."

"Coming downstairs in a bit."

"By the way, let me ask you a question."

"If someone says, 'I took a step forward and saw my own back,' what kind of experience is that considered?"

Lin Xu sent this message to Jiang Xingye simply thinking that she was also a woman and might perhaps understand the deeper meaning behind such a bizarre description.

However, the message Jiang Xingye replied with exceeded his expectations.

"When did you get interested in general relativity?"

"Isn't that a classic description of a singularity?"

A singularity??

Lin Xu was stunned.

Are you kidding me?!

How did it veer off into this direction??