"It depends. Normally, they'll overlook it, but if I borrow someone else's account, they'll notice. However, if they investigate further and discover that I'm the one borrowing that person's account, they'll overlook the browsing history again.
"Just like their meeting yesterday, when they even came up with an Anomalous Entity designation for me: Transparent Man. But that's actually the thirty-eighth designation they've given me. The reason they can still study me now is that they actually think Edward is the Anomalous Entity with antimemetic properties.
"Once they realize Edward isn't Transparent Man and that it's someone else, I'll become the suspect they've subconsciously zeroed in on. My ability will take effect, and they'll think [Transparent Man] is perfectly ordinary, with absolutely no reason to keep it in the Containment Bureau's files.
"Then... they'll casually delete it and put all the strange things that happened out of their minds."
"I get it!" Xia Shou perked up. He knew what to do now.
He could have Su Weiyu look up information on sealed anomalies for him. Although borrowing his employee account would leave a record, if anyone investigated, he only needed to say he had never looked anything up. They would check the surveillance footage or consider the possibility that someone else had done it.
And once their thoughts started heading that way, Su Weiyu's Transparent Man ability would activate, and everyone would forget the whole thing.
"Do me a favor."
"No need to be so polite with me! Just tell me what you need." Su Weiyu was incredibly enthusiastic, even unusually excited, as though she had been waiting for an opportunity like this.
"Help me look up a few things. Let's start with... the Death Record Notebook," Xia Shou said.
Su Weiyu nodded emphatically, took a bite of steak, and sat down at Xia Shou's workstation. She typed "Death Record Notebook" into the search box of the lookup program.
The loading indicator began to spin.
Xia Shou waited quietly behind Su Weiyu, praying that the Containment Bureau had information about this Death Record Notebook.
Two seconds later, information about the Death Record Notebook appeared.
LUCK!
They really had it!
[Death Record Notebook] [Utility assessment: S-class] (Possesses immense, irreplaceable strategic value) [Anomaly Level: Reverse Level One] [Designation: 48-111] [Containment risk: None] [Overview: A special notebook capable of housing (or simulating?) its holder's personality.] [Holder interrogation record: Date: ■■/■■/■■ We will now begin interrogating A, the current holder of the Death Record Notebook. Interrogator: "Where did you learn about such a dangerous ritual?" Subject A: "This notebook told me." Interrogator: "But its pages are blank." Subject A: "Only I can see the writing on them. It explains things in great detail, as if someone inside the notebook were really talking to you." Interrogator: "Can that... person inside the notebook perceive your current circumstances? For example, does he have any way to see the interrogation room you're in right now?" Subject A: "I can let him see, or stop him from seeing. If I want his guidance, he can perceive everything around me. But if I don't want him to see, he can't. He can only ask me." Interrogator: "Then how do you communicate with him? Or do you simply receive his guidance without responding?" Subject A: "I can communicate with him by writing in it." Interrogator: "Was killing your son also his instruction?" Subject A: "Everything was done to ensure the ritual went smoothly." (The subsequent conversation is classified and requires clearance. It will not be disclosed.)] [Summary of interrogation findings: Based on the clues provided by Subject A, we ultimately identified the soul inside the notebook as Mist City's New Ripper. Through the notebook, the Ripper taught the subject the Invisible Arts, deceived the subject into digging up his remains, and used the subject's son as a ritual sacrifice in an attempt to return from the dead. The attempt ultimately failed. This incident demonstrates that the Death Record Notebook serves not its holder, but the soul residing within it. The Death Record Notebook's influence on the living world depends on whether the soul inside is good or evil.]
"So this notebook won't necessarily be helping me all the time." Xia Shou frowned and continued reading.
[Other experimental findings: 1. The Death Record Notebook houses or simulates the personality of a deceased notebook holder. However, we currently cannot determine whether the entity responding within the notebook is the soul of its previous holder or some anomalous being highly skilled at imitation. 2. To trigger the Death Record Notebook's personality-housing function, the current holder's Anomaly Level must exceed that of the personality within the notebook. Otherwise, even if the holder dies, the personality inside the Death Record Notebook will not be replaced. 3. The notebook cannot be destroyed. If it is damaged, its anomalous properties will transfer to another ordinary notebook. After a period of time, this ordinary notebook will return to the current holder through various unnatural coincidences. 4. The specific criteria by which the Death Record Notebook selects its holder are unknown. However, all holders share one trait: an aptitude for diving deep into the Root Sea.]
"The Root Sea... look that up next." Xia Shou had picked out a more sensitive and important term.
Su Weiyu's slender fingers flew across the keyboard as she typed "Root Sea" into the search box.
The file soon appeared, but its description was different from what Xia Shou had imagined.
[Root Sea] [Designation: None] [Hazard rating: Cannot be assessed] [Overview: A completely unknown, mysterious phenomenon. A small number of Transcendents have a chance of entering ocean-themed dreams while asleep. The scenes in these dreams are usually beneath the surface. We refer to people capable of dreaming about the Root Sea as "deep divers." There are a vast number of deep divers on record, but their descriptions of these waters contain many contradictions. Each person dreams of a different stretch of sea. However, the Root Sea is not a hallucination, as it possesses interconnectivity. Sometimes, two Transcendents' deep-sea dreams will connect. The latest research suggests that the Root Sea is a place formed from an accumulation of countless cognitive concepts. The deeper one goes, the more chaotic it becomes. In its depths, it is possible to transcend all existing rules and make things that defy logic occur in reality. In the real world, the Root Sea's effects are often negative. Deep divers who enter the Root Sea are highly likely to develop mental illnesses, experience various dangerous delusions, lose the ability to distinguish reality, and suffer a breakdown in logical thought. Even their own anomalous properties can undergo extremely abnormal increases or decreases. These individual symptoms, which pose a severe threat to society, are collectively referred to as "Abyssal Diving Syndrome." Abyssal Diving Syndrome has granted many deep divers incomprehensible special powers. The effects of these powers sometimes extend to ordinary people. Therefore, the containment of deep divers is essential. The anomalous research community knows very little about the Root Sea. However, it is undeniably a supernatural phenomenon that cannot be utilized, understood, observed, or studied.]
Aside from this basic overview, there were several terabytes of downloadable material about the Root Sea, including videos and audio recordings.
Xia Shou had Su Weiyu download a few at random. He discovered that most were subjective accounts given by deep divers, with long passages of classified text removed, making them virtually unreadable.
Why include such a jumble of information?
If you couldn't even read these documents properly, they might as well not include them. Wouldn't it be better to simply put them in files requiring higher clearance?
Still, he had figured out that even the Containment Bureau knew very little about the deep-sea dream he had experienced.
But this investigation had not been entirely fruitless. At least he knew he was not the only person who dreamed of that deep sea. It was probably a relatively common "condition" among Transcendents.
"Thanks."
"No need to thank me. You saved my life before, remember?"
Xia Shou took his seat at the workstation again, closed the lookup program, and opened his work schedule.
His superiors had instructed him to go to Central Hospital and find a doctor named Wang Long.
Apparently, the doctor would tell him the specifics of the job once he arrived.
Su Weiyu leaned against the back of Xia Shou's chair and asked thoughtfully, "Is this your job for today?"
"After lunch, I'm planning to go to the hospital to see a doctor. Want to come along?"
Su Weiyu rubbed her chin, weighing it up, then clapped her hands. "Reading books to 678 isn't that urgent anyway. I'll go to the hospital with you today!"
Before you continue