Hidden moth

Chapter 2 I Traveled Through Me

The man tapped his fingers on the table subconsciously: "We can't make any conclusions yet, but let's talk about what happened last night. There are three possibilities.

The first is that the person who reported the case made a mistake. Whether she was distracted and remembered it wrongly or she was mentally abnormal, it was her own fault.

The second possibility is that she lied, regardless of her purpose, in short, she deliberately reported a false case. Excluding these two possibilities, the last possibility is that a new hidden moth has appeared.

But that's not what I want to ask you. After all the information I've just given you, haven't you come up with any patterns? Patterns about cryptic moths."

The girl blinked her eyes and counted her fingers one by one, saying, "First, it is said that the hidden moth can inexplicably appear and disappear in a certain place, but no one has seen it with their own eyes.

In other words, people can only see the results but not the process.

Second, the crypt moth never dies. Even if a crypt moth disappears, new ones will appear every once in a while. But it seems there's only one crypt moth in the world, and a new one can only appear after the old one disappears.

Third, many cryptids are relatively weak, but that's not necessarily the case, as there's no evidence to suggest that all cryptids have short lives... Master, what do you think of my conclusion?"

The man glared at her and said, "Don't call me Master in public, call me Brother-in-law!"

Girl: “There’s no one else here.”

Man: "This is a public place!"

The girl spoke again with a slight lilt: "Brother-in-law, how is my summary?"

The man shook his head and said, "Not so good! Isn't this what I told you? Let me ask you again, how does an ordinary person become a hidden moth?"

Girl: "Yeah, I was thinking about this too. How can I become a stealth moth?"

Man: "Just thinking is useless. You have to learn to analyze. The most important information is that after becoming a Hidden Moth, they are still ordinary people.

Therefore, the ancestors of all generations believed that they had obtained something, which, according to modern people's understanding, was like some prop in novels or games, and was called the hidden moth object.

Anyone who obtains this item can become a Hidden Moth, which explains why Hidden Moths are individuals rather than a group. There may be restrictions on using this item, or there may be a price to pay, so many Hidden Moths are not in good health.

The girl added, "It may not just be a physical issue. If they commit crimes frequently, they are more likely to get into accidents."

Man: "Finally, you said something useful. It's possible! From now on, you need to pay more attention to gathering intelligence in this area and strive to determine the identity of the hidden moth, or at least a rough outline of its identity."

The girl suddenly seemed to realize something, and her tone changed as she asked, "Brother-in-law, you asked someone to use their connections to get me a job as an operator at the command center just to find the hidden moth?"

Man: "The last known Hidden Moth appeared in Qiyuan City. Over the past twenty years, there have been other suspected Hidden Moth sightings here as well."

So I think that after Zhou Du died, his belongings were acquired by someone else, who became a new hidden moth and lived in the local area.

Some bizarre incidents have been reported, but it is difficult for the police to trace the results, so I arranged for you to be an operator at the police reporting center, and then promote you to be a team leader or something after a while, so that you can have access to all the reporting records.

I didn't expect you to find such an important clue after only a few months of work."

The girl leaned forward and said, "I found out that the person who reported the case last night is named Gao Xue'e, she is 2004 years old, and lives in Room , Building , Bishu Renjia Community. She bought that house not long ago.

Her workplace, not far from her home, was the headquarters of Qiyuan Company, a major internet company, Tengxin Group. The company was currently recruiting, and Gao Xue'e's department was also hiring.

Working at the crime center is so boring. Even though I run into hilarious idiots every day, it gets boring after a while. Why don't I quit and apply for a job there?
If the Yin Moth was responsible for yesterday's incident, then it must be an acquaintance of Gao Xue'e's, and perhaps have some conflict with her. I think Gao Xue'e is investigating clues, and following her might reveal the identity of this Yin Moth."

The man frowned and pondered, "Teng Xin? As far as I know, they have been recruiting new members this year. The new members at the bottom level are recruited to be office workers, but the requirements for joining are quite high.

Don't rush to resign yet. Stay at the reporting center, there might be other clues. At this point, it seems Gao Xue'e may have encountered a hidden moth, but there's no guarantee it was the moth's doing.

I'll check on her first to see if there's anything new to discover. If it's confirmed to be related to the hidden moth, I'd encourage you to resign and apply for a job there."

The girl said in a somewhat exaggerated tone: "Brother-in-law, are you going to touch her? I heard that woman is quite pretty, don't make a mistake!"

The man said with a straight face, "Stop talking nonsense! I suggest you be careful too. We're not the only ones who know about the existence of the Hidden Moth and are pursuing clues about it. There must be others—including those who are truly capable."

Girl: "We have another clue, which is the company that lost the official seal. It doesn't seem like these two things were done by the same person. One was an outburst of justice, and the other was a pure prank."

Man: "Nothing is impossible. Human nature is so complicated."

Girl: "You just said you could draw a psychological profile of the perpetrator, but you haven't explained it in detail yet. In your opinion, what kind of person is he?"

Man: "This kind of psychological profiling can't guarantee complete accuracy. It's just an inference of general characteristics..."

The girl and the man chatted in low voices for a while, and finally paid the bill and left.

Not long after they left, another young man hurried into the coffee shop. The waiter behind the counter, fiddling with his laptop, looked up and said, "Why are you here again? Aren't you working this afternoon?"

As he walked, the young man replied, "My phone is missing. I've been searching for it for ages but can't find it. It was right here when I last used it."

Waiter: "No one has ever sat in that seat. Please look carefully... Have you found it?" As she said this, she closed her laptop and prepared to come over to help.

The young man painstakingly dug out a cell phone from the gap between the booth and the wall. He waved his hand and said, "I found it. My hand slipped when I was trying to put it in, and it fell here... I'm going to work now. See you later!"

The young man's name was He Kao. He found the seat where the phone was placed, next to where the man and the girl had been sitting, behind the man. ...

He Kao, 2 years old this year, recently graduated with a master's degree and works in the cloud life project team of the Qiyuan branch of Tengxin Group as a P-level employee. He has been working there for just half a year.

He was woken up by the alarm on his cell phone early this morning. He opened his eyes and sat up yawning. He was dazed for a while, as if he didn't recognize the world in front of him. Everything was so strange, as if he saw it for the first time.

He had an inexplicable sense of absurdity, as if there was an invisible barrier between him and the world.

Everything in front of him was actually no different from what it was before he went to sleep yesterday. This was the Sesame Street studio apartment he had just rented last month, known as Sesame Apartment for short.

Sesame Street is a small community consisting of five high-rise apartment buildings, and most of the tenants are workers in large factories like He Kao.

He Kao's apartment has a construction area of 27 square meters and a usable area of about 16 square meters. The monthly rent is 2,500 yuan, and the water and electricity bills are paid by the owner.

There is a two-meter-long and one-meter-wide entrance corridor at the entrance. There is a small stove on the right side of the wall against the wall. It is equipped with a range hood and a sink. There is no natural gas, but you can use an induction cooker to cook simple meals, such as noodles.

On the left side of the entrance corridor is the bathroom. In addition to the toilet, washbasin, and shower room, there is also a washing machine, making full use of the space.

Through the corridor you enter the bedroom, which is also a living room, reception room, study, and workroom... It covers an area of about ten square meters.

The room was furnished with a bed, a table, a chair, a cabinet, a square stool, an old refrigerator in the corner, and a wall-mounted air conditioner. The single bed was 1.2 meters wide, enough for two people to sleep together.

Although the apartment was a bit small, He Kao was quite satisfied. This was in the central urban area of Qiyuan City, and most importantly, it was not far from his workplace.

He doesn't need to squeeze into the bus and can reach the company building in fifteen minutes on foot, which saves not only commuting costs but also commuting time. Time is life!

He Kao sat on the edge of the bed and looked at the furnishings in the room. His brain seemed to restart from a freeze, and his consciousness gradually became clear. He confirmed that this was where he lived, and he was himself.

The tables, chairs, wardrobe and the scenery outside the window seemed to be able to speak, silently sending him strings of codes, not only telling him information about the world, but also telling him that his name was He Kao and it was time to go to work.

How can I describe this feeling? It’s like traveling through time - yes, it’s traveling through time, this damn feeling of traveling through time!
Due to the popularity of online literature, the concept of time travel has long been popular, so some people joke that: every time I wake up, I always feel like I have traveled through time, to another world.

But this world looks exactly the same as the original one, and the person you traveled through is still doing the same things with the same identity. This is called "I traveled through myself."

There's a more accurate term for this psychological phenomenon: "Worker's Syndrome." Many workers, like He Kao, might wake up one day feeling a similar sense of trance.

He stared blankly at the stool, as if the stool was an anchor connecting him to the world, accelerating the process of his brain from crashing to restarting.

All the other items in the house were bought by the landlord, except for this stool, which he had purchased online and had only just arrived yesterday. Having regained some clarity, He Kao was still confused. Why had he spent six hundred yuan on such a stool?
There was originally only a simple computer chair in the room. If there were visitors, the extra person would have nowhere to sit except on the bed. It was necessary to add a stool, but it didn't need to be so expensive. Aren't the plastic stools that cost fifteen yuan each in the supermarket better?

The stool is made of pure cherry wood with beautiful orange-red grain and exquisite workmanship. It looks out of place next to the large wardrobe and computer desk made of density boards, as if destroying a certain consistency and certainty.

Just buy it. You can take it with you when you move, and maybe even pass it on to your descendants. He Kao glanced at the stool again before getting up to wash up...

It was as if I was washing up in the apartment one second, and in the next second I was transported directly to the office, sitting at the desk and turning on the computer. The whole process in between seemed blank.

But He Kao knew it wasn't a blank moment; twenty minutes had already passed when he looked at his phone. He still remembered how he'd gotten downstairs, which route he'd taken to get to the office, and how he'd gotten into the elevator.

However, these processes are completed subconsciously, and if you don’t recall them carefully, they will seem to be erased.

Looking at the work content on the computer, He Kao instinctively thought that his abnormal state today might be related to this, because he had been thinking in his head - how to build a virtual world that seems real?

He Kao's workplace is registered as the Qiyuan Branch of the Tengxin Group. Its basic business scope includes not only Jianghai Province where Qiyuan is located, but also two other neighboring provinces.

The so-called core business is customer development, maintenance, and technical services, while there is another core business internally, called the Cloud Services Division. He Kao works in the Cloud Life Project Team under the Cloud Services Division.

The Cloud Life Project Team, I’m a little confused about what it means, but in fact its predecessor is the Metaverse Business Unit.

A few years ago, the concept of the metaverse was very popular, as if it represented a new direction for the development of the information age. Major Internet companies followed suit and invested, recruiting personnel and forming teams.

However, trends come and go quickly. Due to various reasons, the Metaverse Division of Tengxin Group quickly began to reduce its scale and investment. Many "outstanding talents" were either absorbed internally or transferred to society.

The business unit was also downgraded to a project team and placed under the cloud service business unit, becoming a very inconspicuous marginal department. The name was changed to Cloud Life, which sounds far less impressive than Metaverse.

It is really sad to see it fall to this state in just a few years.

Such a marginal department started recruiting new members this year because the group has a new project to give them to test, and this project is "Ideal City".

The universe is too big, so as a second best option, we can build a city, right?

The market value of Tengxin Group is trillions of yuan, with annual sales revenue of hundreds of billions of yuan and a wide range of business. In the past few years, due to the influence of the overall environment, the group has carried out a strategic contraction, and recently it has begun to try new breakthrough directions, one of which is e-shopping.

The online shopping mall business based on e-shopping has been controlled by other Internet giants for many years. The progress of Tengxin Group in this regard has not been very significant, so it thought of finding another way by upgrading its business model.

The so-called business upgrade is based on the increasing maturity of AI artificial intelligence and VR virtual reality technology. AI technology is used to create a digital virtual city, and then VR technology is used to allow users to enter this virtual city.

Virtual schools, virtual cinemas, virtual parks and even virtual residences, and the most important of these are virtual shopping malls. These concepts are actually not new, but to successfully integrate and present them is to upgrade the business model.

The top management of Tengxin Group may not think that this project will succeed. In short, they decided to give it a try, so they handed the trial task to the team left over from Metaverse - the cloud life project team where He Kao joined.

**
(End of this chapter)