Chapter 60 Node Not Reached

After finishing dinner with Jiang Xingye, the two didn't return to the office, but instead headed straight back to the apartment.

The time was eight o'clock in the evening. Lin Xu glanced at his wristband, and the number displayed on it had returned to four.

Good grief, can falling in love actually restore one's energy?

This sounded like some kind of setting from a galgame...

Yet Lin Xu truly felt much more refreshed.

Perhaps people genuinely needed some relaxation after all.

Seeing that it was still early, he opened his computer, created a new page in his clues document, and organized the tasks he needed to accomplish.

First, the material issue for Star Voyage 1 had now been resolved, so there was no need to repeat the acquisition process and waste time.

Thus, the most pressing to-dos lying before him were reduced to only two.

First, figure out the location and status of the Zhurong rover, and attempt to make physical contact with it.

Second, search for the truth regarding "higher-dimensional space" and determine its connection to the doomsday.

The former required finding Bai Mo, while the latter required further communication with Skullhead.

Skullhead was easy enough to find, but Bai Mo?

Lin Xu was not sure whether seeking out Bai Mo would carry any risks. After all, the last time he merely mentioned Jiang Xingye's name, it had attracted the Rapid Response Force.

As the contact person chosen by Jiang Xingye, would Bai Mo also be under surveillance?

Assuming she wasn't under surveillance, what method should he use to gain her trust after contacting her?

After pondering slightly for a moment, Lin Xu picked up his phone.

随后, he sent a message to Bai Mo.

"We need a safe word between us."

A moment later, Bai Mo's reply came back.

Bai Mo:
"Safe word??"

Lin Xu:
"To be precise, a secure passphrase."
"In the future, if any accident occurs, as long as I mention this safe word, you must unconditionally trust me and provide me with all the information I need."
"This is an anchor point."
"You must firmly remember this anchor point."

Bai Mo:
"Understood. What is it?"

Lin Xu thought in silence, not replying immediately.

Such a passphrase had to be simple, yet something that would absolutely never be mentioned in daily life.

It had to be sufficiently... safe.

"Butterfly."

Lin Xu typed and replied:
"The passphrase is 'butterfly'."

Bai Mo:
"Understood, I will remember it."

Lin Xu:
"You must remember it! Never forget it for the rest of your life!"

Bai Mo:
"I'll get it tattooed on my body."

Lin Xu:
"Great, thank you."

After sending the message, he let out a long sigh of relief.

That should be enough, right?

Such an operation should be sufficient to influence the world inside the wristband, shouldn't it?

By then, relying solely on this passphrase, he would be able to quickly gain Bai Mo's trust and thus acquire sufficient information.

Once the secret of the Zhurong rover was unraveled, his "temporal pincer movement" could also get on track.

He lay back down on the bed with satisfaction.

Then, he gently touched his wristband.

His consciousness was hollowed out once again...

...

"So..."
"Your wife didn't lie to you."

Lin Xu interrupted Skullhead's standard speech and then spoke up:
"Drive."
"I need to retrieve communication equipment for external contact. Go find me a wristband."

"Right now??"

Skullhead was stunned.
"Wait, what do you mean?"
"Operation cancelled?"
"If you're still going ahead with the operation, we must absolutely not take risks!"
"Once you activate your personal communication device, our location will be locked onto rapidly, and our identity information will be exposed."
"All our previous efforts will go down the drain. We can't carry on with the operation anymore, because even if it succeeds, we won't be able to escape—and your money won't be refunded either!"
"Have you thought this through?"

"I've thought it through."

Lin Xu answered without the slightest hesitation:
"Now, hurry up, I want a wristband!"

".......Fine!"

Skullhead gritted his teeth and nodded, then spoke into the radio to give an order:
"Old Ma, help me get a wristband."
"Send it near Qixia Mountain, and we'll rendezvous there."
"Make the shielding as thorough as possible. If you have the ability, crack the network monitoring module."

"No can do."

Old Ma's voice came through the earpiece.
"The new generation of network monitoring has already been integrated into the quantum cloud; I don't have that kind of capability."
"I can only buy you a few minutes of communication time through a channel attack."
"Can you accept that?"

Skullhead looked at Lin Xu, and Lin Xu nodded decisively.

"Then let's move!"

At Skullhead's command, the convoy headed straight toward Qixia Mountain.

The scenery outside the window flashed past rapidly. Lin Xu's gaze fixed closely on the towering buildings and facilities within the Tiangong Technology Park, only to find that everything here remained unchanged.

The "critical node" had not been reached yet.

Perhaps it wouldn't change here until the two materials were actually manufactured?

Lin Xu frowned slightly, and right at that moment, Skullhead opposite him suddenly asked:
"What did you mean by what you said earlier about my wife?"

Good grief, you still can't get your wife out of your mind!

Lin Xu sighed and answered casually:
"The 'divine oracle' your wife spoke of is real."
"There's a high probability she really entered another space, and a high probability she truly witnessed the doomsday."
"Although it's uncertain how she saw it..."

"How do you know? !"

Skullhead interrupted Lin Xu in stunned disbelief, while Lin Xu replied in a flat tone:
"I'm from Maritime Security, I know everything."

This single sentence left Skullhead completely speechless. He seemed to want to say something more, but ultimately swallowed it back.

The convoy sped all the way and arrived at Qixia Mountain, where Skullhead's contact had already delivered the wristband.

"How do you use this thing?"
Lin Xu asked.

"Power it on and verify your iris and fingerprint; the system will bind automatically."
"You guys... still don't use wristbands nowadays?"
Skullhead asked cautiously.

"Our bureau's equipment is rather conservative."
Lin Xu replied as a matter of course.

"Indeed, indeed... That sounds just like you guys..."
Skullhead leaned in closer.
"Who are we looking for? Do you remember the phone number? Or their ID, or national ID number?"

"Phone number."

At this point, the wristband had completed verification. Lin Xu inputted Bai Mo's memorized number into the holographically generated screen in the void, only to find out after dialing that this number had long since expired.

Twenty years... seemed reasonable, I suppose?

He continued by inputting her national ID number and name to search, and immediately afterwards, the call went through.

The next second, Bai Mo answered the phone.

There was no video; her somewhat weary voice came through the wristband.

"Hello, who is this?"

Lin Xu took a deep breath.

"Butterfly."

"......Butterfly? Who is that??"

Huh?

Lin Xu was stunned.
Didn't it work??

"I am Lin Xu."
"The passphrase is butterfly, remember?"

"Lin Xu?!"

Bai Mo's voice clearly shifted somewhat.
"You? What are you looking for me for??"

Crap.

Lin Xu suddenly realized that his relationship with Bai Mo in reality still hadn't reached that node yet!

Trying to make her subjectively do certain things seemed to be useless!

"Do you have a butterfly tattoo on your body?"

"No, what on earth are you trying to do??"

Bai Mo's voice revealed a hint of a warning tone.
"Tell me your true intentions, or else I'm calling the police!"

"Wait!"

Lin Xu gritted his teeth.
"The world is flat."
"The world you saw in that space is flat!"