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Aether Gazer chapters 13-15

Xu Heng Arc

Chapter 13

Day 0-14

After the events of chapter 12, Thor remains in Aether Gazer HQ, whilst Odin returns to Xu Heng to continue their mission. The story starts with a chat between Odin and Geng, who is the leader of Xu Heng. In brief, this chat ends with Odin heading to the [Source Layer] to find a [Cinder], which she believes to be related to the [Source] of the visbanes, baiting Geng into tagging along. Their activities will be covered in the interlude chapter. As an exchange of favor, Geng also requests to borrow the [Mimir] system, which is how the Admin gets involved...

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Meanwhile... in Xu Heng, a number of merchant groups in the outskirts were assaulted by the cognizant visbane Gremory. Strangely, most of the victims survived, although they lost their memory as a result. This case remains unsolved as no one knows about Gremory or her actions due to the memory loss.

Thus, the Quad (governing body of Xu Heng) partners with CORG to investigate this case in secret, where the assigned CORG agent is Khnum. Having killed all the encroacher visbanes, CORG concludes the mission. However, Meng (Quad captain) is unconvinced, and continues to investigate the bane energy involved, which only caused injury but did not kill. He believes that unlike mindless, violent visbanes, an intelligent one that does not mindlessly kill is far more dangerous, for it has an ulterior motive. Through intel from Aether Gazer, he deduces that this must be the result a cognizant visbane.

Following Geng’s request, the Admin arrives in Xu Heng with Ver, and Ling (Quad captain) intends to task them with helping search for the [Heterocore]. Learning about this request, Meng guesses that the cognizant visbane will target either the Aether Gazer members or the [Heterocore], and decides to use this opportunity to bait the visbane into showing themselves. Before meeting with Ling, the Admin and Ver stop by a ramen store where they “coincidentally” bump into Meng. (Side note: Ver asks the Admin if they can hang out in Xu Heng for a holiday after their task. Admin misses the memo and wants to invite other AG members as well... Ver just wants a date :P)

Meeting up with JianBing (Quad captain), they head over to the Tian Lu Traders, where they meet LuLiang (TianLu’s boss), Ling and LinYu (Quad member). At this moment, Gremory appears as a normal merchant/trader. Here, we learn that the LinYu has a potpurri (fragrance) pouch that she really treasures. This is an important clue.

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Ling formally makes the request to Admin|Ver, which is to use the [Mimir] system’s computational abilities to help search for the [Heterocore]. She explains that the [Astral Engine] is functioning on Geng’s prime power, but the burden is causing Geng’s prime power to deteriorate. She hopes to use the [Heterocore] to heal Geng. Unfortunately, [Mimir] is unable to locate the core as the signal is too weak. The group decides to head to the Old Town (ground level) to search for it. (Side note: After the [Cloudsong crisis] 20 years ago where XuHeng’s geology had anomalous gravity, the old Xu Heng (ground level) was abandoned and the society migrated to the floating rocks, which is stabilised by the [Astral Engine].)

The 5 of them (Admin|Ver, Ling, Linyu, JianBing) arrive at the Old Town, heading to the safe house, where they noticed the automated machines have been possessed by bane energy. Clearing the machines, they decide to rest for the night. At night, the alarm was triggered, and they find “LinYu” injured in her room. Ling stays to treat her and the remaining 3 members chase after the automaton culprits. There, they find Meng who was stalking them. Hearing that “LinYu” was injured, he is unsettled as he recalls the assault cases, and joins the team. On the way back, Ver reports about her strange dream (This dream is the first hint that there is something unusual about Ver... for a future plot...).

Back at the safe house, Meng finds “LinYu”’s pouch on the bedside, which has been damaged. Passing it to “LinYu”, she says that she didnt notice it... This change in attitude regarding her precious pouch, is a sign that she has already been possessed by Gremory.

The next day, [Mimir] analyses the signal and locates the [Heterocore] at the top of Mount Jingdu. Meng notices “LinYu” isnt carrying her pouch, and suspects her involvement with the cognizant visbane. He insists that she tags along with us for the search, hoping to bait the visbane.

The group head over to Mount Jingdu using a plane, although the electromagnetic (EM) interference at the mountain causes them to crash. As it turns out, there are defensive mechanisms littered around Mount Jingdu, the work of the [Heterocore]’s inventor, Zhu (Deceased Quad member). Since Meng is the closest to Zhu, he leads the group out of the maze and up the mountain.

At this point, Meng hatches a plan. Pretending that he spotted an encroacher type visbane, Meng chases after it alone. In reality, he is setting up a trap to split up the group. Whilst waiting for Meng, “LinYu” also heads off to search for remaining traps. This is also a scheme, where she sets up a trap for Ling and JianBing.

The group reconvenes and continue up the mountain. Meng activates his trap which envelops the group in a thick fog. As he disappears alone, the remaining 5 are split into 3 groups: Ver and “LinYu”; Ling and JianBing; and the Admin alone. Due to the EM interference, Admin is unable to contact Ver. Just as the Admin gets attacked by visbanes and is about to be killed, Meng arrives to save them. With this, Meng confirms that the Admin is innocent, and gifts a special rifle that is effective against visbanes. Curiously, Meng emphasises twice that the Admin should be careful when using the rifle, that hitting teammates/modifiers is extremely deadly 🤔. Meng suggests the two of them obtain the [Heterocore] alone before finding the rest of the group, as he suspects a traitor.

Back to the other groups, Ver and “LinYu” also suspect a traitor, although “LinYu” convincingly pins the suspicion on Meng. From the players perspective, we are lead to believe that Meng is the traitor. Breaking out of the maze, they encounter an elite visbane, and “LinYu” exclaims ‘why is this here!?’. In fact, this elite is the weapon “LinYu” prepared earlier, but Meng’s trap has sent them to its location instead. Running away, “LinYu” points at a random spot and says that there is an [optical camouflage generator] there that they can use to hide. Although skeptical, Ver follows while “LinYu” activates something on her device, and the elite visbane leaves. Ver suspects that this is the work of a cognizant visbane, and “LinYu” reacts unpleasantly to that term. (These are clues that “LinYu”’s identity is suspicious. It is likely that she lied about the generator and simply controlled the visbane to leave.) They then bump into Ling who is heading up the mountain alone. It turns out Ling and JianBing were sent to the trap that “LinYu” setup earlier, where they are attacked by waves of visbanes. JianBing uses brute force to send Ling out of the trap, but remains stuck inside.

The 3 of them continue forward and regroup with Meng and the Admin. Not expecting the others to catch up so quickly, Meng’s plan A fails, as the admin is the only one he trusts. Additionally, he is extremely wary of Ver and “LinYu”, after they said that they were able to catch up this quickly due to not encountering much visbanes. This is very different from Meng and Admin’s experience where they encountered countless visbanes. After learning about JianBing’s situation, he also suspects Ling as he does not believe JianBing could be trapped by anything. At the same time, Ling starts to suspect Meng as he is behaving unnaturally. The mistrusting group continues their search for the [Heterocore].

Recap of the current situation: Meng suspects: Ling, LinYu, Ver. Vice versa.

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Next, encountering a broken automaton, Meng hatches a plan and starts to act out a scene. He hides a key in the automaton, then pretends to suspect the Admin and attack him with the fixed automaton. The Admin finds the key, and ends up shooting Meng with the gun from earlier. Meng appears to die from this. Interestingly, “LinYu” dosent say a word this entire time, and is probably entirely confused by the situation. Ling urges the 3 others to go on to the location of the [Heterocore], while she stays behind to handle the corpse.

As expected, this was a lie, and Ling knew that Meng was only pretending to be dead. After treating him, they rush to the top. Without having to accomodate Ver and the others, the two of them are able to speed there in no time at all. A research lab sits at the top of the mountain, and the two of them find the [Heterocore] there. Intending to bait the cognizant visbane, Meng sets up a trap on the [Heterocore] and hides away:

the [Heterocore] has an outer barrier that can be released with the key.

if the released [Heterocore] is handled by someone without the key, the trap activates and binds them.

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As expected, after the admin unlocks the [Heterocore], “LinYu” attacks them and snatches away the core, and is thus exposed. However, Gremory refuses to leave LinYu’s body, so they will have to kill her in order to get to Gremory. Ling lets “LinYu” attack her, appearing to be willing to sacrifice herself as she cant attack a friend. However, this was just to get closer to “LinYu” so as to force Gremory out with her blazing fire.

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Exposed, Gremory summons the elite visbane from earlier, and escapes with the [Heterocore]. Ling fights the elite, while Meng chases after Gremory, who escapes into the [Source Layer]. Unfortunately for Gremory, she bumps into JianBing in the [Source Layer], who fought his way there from the earlier trap. JianBing beats Gremory up and snatches the [Heterocore]. Just as Meng is about to kill her, the bind from earlier ends, and Gremory is able block the hit. Then, a powerful being (Turing) opens a rift and pulls Gremory away, allowing her to escape.

Heading back, Meng and JianBing bump into Odin and Geng, who were in the [Source Layer] to find the [Cinder]. The presence of Geng/Odin may be why Turing dosent fight but chooses to escape. The group heads back to the surface, regroups with Ling’s side, and the story ends.

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