The Safe Zone Is Very Safe

Song Shiyi got up at exactly seven. She showered first, dried her hair, drank a cup of warm milk, then began looking through the notes on her phone.

No matter what happened yesterday, Withdrawal Amnesia would always clear out the memories in her mind on schedule, leaving her able to remember only things from before she turned fourteen.

Some people said having too good a memory was a burden.

But for Song Shiyi, constantly forgetting was also a regret.

She always woke up to a blank slate, dazedly discovering that the person in the mirror had suddenly grown up. It was as though she had arrived at the age of twenty overnight.

What exactly had happened during those six missing years?

Song Shiyi could never stop herself from wondering.

According to the records provided by the hospital and the committee, she had been injured by a special item during an arrest operation three years ago. That had caused her current brain abnormality, leaving her unable to retain recent memories.

Her days practicing and performing with the SUH Girl Group felt like they had happened yesterday.

Song Shiyi opened the notes she had synced to the cloud server. The first line read:

"Every day is a new beginning."

She had been chosen by the Simulator at a very young age and had become one of the God players. Those memories had remained completely intact.

Or rather, the related memories seemed to be protected by some kind of rule-based power. Even items capable of destroying memories could not strip them away.

The notes were divided into two sections.

The first section was work, and the second was life.

She opened the work section first.

The latest entry read:

"Mark and locate the player named [God Yao] in the Pantheon. The Fragmented World he is in is related to [Golden Plains]."

She lightly tapped beside it, and a recording popped up.

A woman said, "Why is it you? Can't you send someone else?"

"...All I know is that guy calls himself 'God Yao.' I know nothing else."

Song Shiyi had no recollection of that conversation whatsoever.

But she was already used to it.

She would hear conversations on her phone that she completely did not remember, strangers would constantly call her, and people she did not know would greet her...

Sometimes, she imagined that perhaps she was not Song Shiyi at all. Perhaps she had merely inherited or seized the personality and life of someone called Song Shiyi and was walking through this world in her place.

Or perhaps the real Song Shiyi had died long ago. Maybe she was only a substitute that could be used for twenty-four hours, resetting once those twenty-four hours were up, like some machine with insufficient storage.

But that did not really matter.

After all, in everyone's eyes—including her own, which could not deny it—she was Song Shiyi.

Her phone suddenly rang. The caller was an unregistered, unfamiliar number.

Song Shiyi answered on speakerphone.

But there was no sound from the other end.

"Hello?" Song Shiyi tried. "This is Song Shiyi."

Then the other party spoke. "Come out and meet me."

It was a girl, and she sounded quite young.

Song Shiyi asked, "What is this about?"

"We met before, in an alley with lots of cars. Donghai Clan's Yu Yao was there. I have some information to tell you, and I also want to ask you a few things."

Song Shiyi opened the work section and counted downward by date.

Sure enough, she found the relevant entry.

"Outside the Locomotive Factory Dormitory in Jiuyuan Community, parking alley. Donghai Clan's Yu Yao, a follower of Jia Xiaokai, caused two deaths. Executed by the female Apostle Mary."

"Ah, I remember now. Hello, hello."

Only then did Song Shiyi agree. "Then shall we pick a place?"

The other party said, "The alley where we met last time."

The call ended there.

Song Shiyi looked at the number. It was an entirely normal phone number.

But she did not investigate it. Even if she did, she might not find anything. To her, her greatest advantage was forgetting people after meeting them. It caused neither trouble for herself nor burden for others.

That was also the key to why she had so many informants.

Song Shiyi changed clothes, slung on her bag, and waved at the crystal chandelier in the living room.

"Mingzai, I'm heading out."

A little sparrow flew out of the gleaming chandelier and landed on Song Shiyi's shoulder.

The instant it left, every light in the house went out.

The sparrow used its short beak to preen the feathers on its chest, tilted its head, and looked at Song Shiyi with tiny eyes. It was no different from an ordinary bird.

"The usual rules. No matter how hungry you are, you can't steal electricity or fire outside, especially from public facilities. We agreed on that." Song Shiyi scratched its head with a finger.

Mingzai nodded, pecking like a chick.

Outside the Locomotive Factory Dormitory, two half-grown children of eleven or twelve were kicking a soccer ball around in the parking alley.

After Song Shiyi arrived, they kept sneaking glances at her. Even their conversation with each other was absentminded, and the ball at their feet kept getting away from them.

When they met Song Shiyi's gaze, the two boys flushed and hurriedly looked away, pretending to seriously practice passing and coordination.

Song Shiyi looked over her outfit.

She wore a wool jacket over a fitted black knit top, along with jeans and leather boots. Her silver-gray hair was short, fluffy, and even with her ears. She wore no earrings or necklace, only a little eyeliner and natural-colored lip gloss.

The outfit made her look slightly more mature.

Song Shiyi looked around and found that the other party was already sitting in a car.

"Over here." A girl waved at her.

The Xiali the girl sat in was covered in dust. Song Shiyi did not know whether its owner had abandoned it, but that did not matter.

Song Shiyi climbed into the back seat of the Xiali as well.

She observed the other girl.

Mary was a girl in a gray hoodie. She looked about seventeen or eighteen, wearing a baseball cap as a disguise, with long green hair pinned up beneath the brim.

The girl wore sunglasses, apparently unwilling to let anyone know her true appearance. Ordinary people would never understand that terrifying Apostle power was hidden inside this seemingly slender body.

The other girl said, "I want to find someone. Prayer God."

The girl said softly, "He has something that is very dangerous."

"Miss Mary."

Song Shiyi said, "I do know some information related to Prayer God. But as an investigator for the committee, leaking classified information is a violation of regulations..."

"May I ask what item makes you think it is dangerous?"

"No comment."

Song Shiyi was not surprised by her reaction.

At their core, she and her informants exchanged intelligence for mutual benefit. But there were red-line rules within the committee that had to be obeyed.

Both sides fell silent for a while.

Mary suddenly said, "The item may be hidden in the Safe Zone, not in the Fragmented World. That is what I know."

Song Shiyi was not sure what she meant.

But to the committee, normal order in the Safe Zone had to be the first priority.

"Miss Mary, the Safe Zone is still safe," Song Shiyi said.

"Is it?" Mary asked in return.

That left Song Shiyi somewhat speechless.

Recently, two cases had occurred nearby.

Yuan Lisha's robbery faith case, and the case of Jia Xiaokai's follower breaking through the barrier and killing someone...

Public security had truly been far from good lately.

Song Shiyi could only use the official line. "We will do our best to stop danger in advance, but manpower is ultimately limited. We cannot prevent every case..."

Mary interrupted her. "That's not what I mean."

"Then what do you mean?"

"Something more dangerous... such as [Whistleblower]."

Song Shiyi immediately shook her head. "Impossible."

Mary answered with silence.

"I don't know your reasons. But..."

Song Shiyi immediately blurted out, "According to dimensional parallel theory, high and low dimensions have always remained relatively parallel. The physical distance between players on Earth—strictly speaking, the information exchange they generate—maintains a certain synchronization with the low-dimensional worlds."

"From a macro perspective, unlike the active and ever-changing low dimensions, high dimensions remain in a long-term static state and cannot directly overlap with or interfere in other dimensions."

"If a player from another dimension wants to arrive here, they must move the world they are in and create overlap at the world level. But the higher the dimension, the harder it is to move."

"Any closed world or Fragmented World that cannot form a two-way passage or overlap at the world level fits the definition of a Safe Zone. Earth in the High Realm Dimension is one of them."

"As the saying goes, no one can lift the ground beneath their feet."

"The usual method is for players to use the Pantheon to descend into a low-dimensional world. By moving the low-dimensional world they control, they overlap with or interfere in other low-dimensional worlds."

"It is like two people living in different countries. They cannot move their entire houses and cities, so they can only go out and meet through transportation that can be moved."

Song Shiyi cited many established conclusions before finally summarizing, "The Safe Zone is like the deep sea, while the Crawling Zone is like shallow water."

"The pressure of the deep sea makes it difficult for shallow-water creatures to survive. All the abilities they take pride in will fail here, and they may even suffocate."

"Even if players from other dimensions manage to reach the Safe Zone, they must sever their own arms and lose every ability they possess in the Crawling Zone. At that point, they are no different from ordinary people or animals here, and would instead place themselves in extreme danger."

Mary said, "There are exceptions to everything."

That casual sentence made Song Shiyi think of many things.

The Safe Zone theory was a conclusion drawn after extensive practical testing.

But as the committee's research into the Simulator continued to deepen, new views and ideas kept emerging.

Any risk to the theoretical barrier protecting the safety of the Safe Zone would bring unbearable consequences.

Even if the possibility was low, they still had to guard against it. Mary would never have revealed this information to her merely for amusement.

"Thank you for the information, Miss Mary."

Song Shiyi said seriously, "I will report this matter to the committee as information from an anonymous source."

Lu Yao, in the room, let out a long breath.

Every organization had security anxiety. All he needed to do was point out a theoretical risk, then release some ambiguous major news, and they would be left half-believing and half-doubting.

This time, he had really only wanted an answer to one question.

"Is the Safe Zone actually safe?"

Lu Yao had made a whole plate of dumplings just for this little bit of vinegar.

Since the Safe Zone was stable and Gods from other dimensions could not come over for a real-life PK, Lu Yao had nothing to fear.

What [Whistleblower] or [Skinner]?

Like he said.

On Garlic Tribe territory, if your people dared show their faces, he would beat them down every time they appeared.