Chapter 15
Because the only survivor was emotionally agitated, Jiang Yichen had no choice but to spend some time comforting him.
His subordinates were surveying the scene, coming back from time to time to report on the situation.
“Captain Jiang, we found a large number of human remains at the scene. We’ve already accessed the database for comparison. All of them were either staff or passengers of the bus.”
“Some of the remains were found outside the bus. The cause of death was a mutant creature attack…”
“Ahem, Captain Jiang. A severely damaged corpse was found at the scene. After genetic comparison, the body was found to belong to Chen Yan, a Class D wanted criminal.”
Jiang Yichen thought clearly felt that they were coming and going to watch the fun; an uncontrollable smile could be seen at the corner of their eyes.
Si Chen was crying very pitifully but his ears were pricked up.
He’d bought a ticket back to Jiangchuan and the purchase was definitely recorded in some backend database.
Unless Si Chen wanted to be a refugee in the wilderness for the rest of his life, it was best to stay where he was and wait for the Safety Bureau.
They probably didn’t expect the situation to be so severe, the team hadn’t brought much equipment.
Seeing that Si Chen was gradually calming down, Jiang Yichen let him ride at the back of his motorcycle.
It couldn’t be helped. The other team members were lugging around all sorts of things, his back seat was the most spacious.
A kind officer handed Si Chen two gene medicines. This is specially provided to the Safety Management Bureau and it is different from the liquid gene medicine circulating in the market. This gene medicine was pressed into a solid form. Its efficacy is also stronger than that of general liquid gene medicine. And most importantly, it is easy to carry around.
The elder sister who delivered the medicine whispered, “This is from Captain Jiang.”
As she said that, she also draped a jacket lined with lambswool onto Si Chen’s shoulder. “This jacket also belongs to Captain Jiang. His family is rich. Most people wouldn’t be able to afford this jacket.”
Jiang Yichen, who was recording the scene, turned his head and with reddened ears, shouted, “You don’t need to say such things!”
A somewhat surprised expression appeared on Si Chen’s face. He looked back at Jiang Yichen. He then turned his head and whispered to the person in front of him, “Thank you.”
The white pills dissolved on the tip of his tongue. It actually tasted a bit sweet.
Si Chen still didn’t know that some permanent pathological change had happened to his sense of taste. This was a side effect of being parasitized by the Eternal Life Abyss.
His sense of taste was now the same as the Eternal Life Abyss’.
Although he was seriously injured, Si Chen didn’t feel much pain due to being an Evolutionary. However, he felt really sleepy.
Like a butterfly in its cocoon, before growing wings, it needs to sleep in a cocoon.
Fortunately, the side effect of the gene medicine he’d been given was drowsiness.
Si Chen would nod off bit by bit and whenever he’d topple over, he would startle awake and shake his head.
Because the incident was more serious than expected, Jiang Yichen had already notified headquarters. But it would still take at least two or three hours to drive to the scene from the city.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
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The full name of the Safety Bureau is the Safety Management Bureau. It is one of the few armed institutions in the Alliance composed entirely of Evolutionaries. They were responsible for handling cases related to High Dimensional creatures and Evolutionaries.
Si Chen had a fuzzy memory of being carried off the motorcycle.
He was exhausted. When he arrived at the Safety Bureau, he was shaken awake and led to the recording room.
A recording room; not an interrogation room. It showed that the Safety Management Bureau didn’t consider Si Chen a suspect.
The room was fairly spacious. Out of consideration for the witnesses’ mood, the air circulation system was also sprayed with a light fragrance.
The record-taker brought over a cup of hot water and put it in front of Si Chen, her tone was very comforting, “Si Chen, we need you to recall what happened. You are the only survivor, so your recounting of the event is very important.”
Si Chen understood that this was his last hurdle before going home. Any omission may turn his safety record from green to red.
“On February 13, I bought a ticket back to Jiangchuan and took the bus back home.”
Jiang Yichen raised his head, “Why were you in Zhuangshan? There’s no record of you having purchased a ticket to go there.”
Si Chen bit his lower lip and replied in a low voice, “I took a black car to Zhuangshan. The bus ticket was too expensive and the black car was cheaper.”
Jiangchuan has a developed economy and bus tickets were expensive, easily several thousand credits.
“I grew up in Zhuangshan District.”
Si Chen’s voice was a bit bitter, “I’m an orphan. I grew up in a state orphanage. All the older ones, I called gege and jiejie; all the younger ones I called didi and meimei. We had no home and the state orphanage was our home. When I was 10 years old, a Space Fold enveloped our orphanage, only gege and I survived.”
“But gege was attacked by a High Dimensional creature in the Space Fold and he couldn’t get away. Before I came to Jiangchuan to study, I was the one who took care of him. Later, I had to ask the auntie nurse to help me look after him. Every month, I send money to the state orphanage.”
“I went back to Zhuangshan this time because the auntie nurse told me that gege didn’t have long anymore. So I…”
He lowered his head, his voice choked up, unable to speak.
Jiang Yichen frowned, looking down at the information he had just called up in his hand.
It was a record of some of Si Chen’s life experiences.
Jiang Yichen came from a collateral branch of the Jiang Family. His father was an Evolutionary on the Fifth Step and he too worked in the Safety Management Bureau, thought his rank was much higher than Jiang Yichen’s.
This kind of family background has kept his life relatively free of hardship. His worries as well as the worries of the people in his circle amounted to nothing more than choosing which kind of evolutionary path to choose and what kind of career they would pursue in the future.
Si Chen was still very young, only 22 years old; a minor. His entire personal history was recorded on a thin sheet of paper.
When he was just born, Si Chen was abandoned in a Space Fold area. He was found in a pram, dying of starvation, with only a note in the baby carriage that read, “Please take care of him”.
He was later adopted, but his adoptive parents abandoned him. He returned to the state orphanage but was disabled due to an accident.
All of Si Chen’s experiences throughout could be summed up in one word — “miserable”. Any turning point should have made him unable to stand up again, but in the end, he carried it all on his shoulders.
The record-taker continued, “Okay, so what happened in the bus?”
Si Chen’s body stiffened instantly and his pupils visibly constricted.
His lips trembled. “It was already late into the night and I was still sleeping. Suddenly, mutant moths hit the car window one after the other. Everyone was startled.”
“The driver stopped and told us not to panic, he was going to contact the Safety Bureau to deal with the mutant creatures… Then… the person sitting across from me suddenly grew a third arm. He threatened the driver with a gun.”
The bureau employee said in a low voice, “It was Chen Yan, the Ghost Hand. He was a wanted criminal, a poacher. An Evolutionary on the Second Step, his evolutionary path was spiritual transformation.” Cheng Yan was his alias.
“The driver had no choice but to continue driving to appease him. But the passengers in the bus were scared and they hid in the back half of the bus and refused to come out. The man told the passengers to go back to their seats…”
Si Chen briefly described the bloody experience.
Halfway through the memory, he closed his eyes, his expression full of pain.
Jiang Yichen gritted his teeth. “This bastard, he got off too easy burning to death.”
The record-taker temporarily stopped recording to comfort Si Chen, waiting for Si Chen to calm down.
Si Chen: “He was an Evolutionary and we were no match for him. In desperation, the driver opened the doors and told us to run. As soon as I got out of the bus, the bus exploded.”
Jiang Yichen looked at Si Chen’s face and asked, “How many people got out of the bus? Why are you the only survivor? What about the others?”
The female employee straightened her back and berated softly, “Captain Jiang, don’t be so aggressive. Do you think you’re interrogating a suspect?”
This is a common tactic in interrogation. One person played the good cop and the other played the bad cop. It was so that the subject would let down his guard and develop a good impression of the nicer officer.
Si Chen’s put on a helpless expression. “I don’t know. I really don’t know. I just wanted to run away. After the bus exploded, I passed out. When I woke up and saw the burning bus, I realized what happened.”
“Then why were you holding that hand?”
“It woke me up.” Si Chen replied in a low voice.
Unless the Ghost Hand can speak, this matter would probably end here. Dead men tell no tales, after all.
Strictly speaking, Si Chen was also a victim — only that he’d concealed the fact that he had found and ate an evolutionary species.
Si Chen stayed in the Safety Bureau for more than two hours before finally smelling the fresh and free air outside.
He understood that he had probably passed the final hurdle.
But instead of having a relaxed smile on his face, he simply appeared completely exhausted.
After all, there must be surveillance cameras outside the Safety Management Bureau.
…
…
In the recording room; the record-taker put away the smile on her face and uncharacteristically fell into deep thought.
She had a master’s degree in psychology and was an Evolutionary on the First Step. Her evolutionary direction was spiritual transformation.
Jiang Yichen took a cup of hot water and asked, “What are you thinking?”
The record-taker replied, “I’m just thinking, a weak minor with such a weak and docile personality has experienced several High Dimensional invasions and managed to be the last remaining survivor each time? Isn’t he too lucky?”
After merging with her High Dimensional creature, she had gotten an ability called “Teru Teru Bouzu”. This ability was rather weak; it gave her a sixth sense that was more acute than normal people’s and to a certain extent, she could perceive danger.
For some reason, Si Chen made her feel a little uneasy. But her Teru Teru Bouzu hadn’t changed face.
Jiang Yichen said, “The lie detector didn’t flag him. Besides, being able to retain his sanity after going through so much, it already shows that he’s stronger than most people.”
The record-taker pursed her lips. “You’re right. I’m probably overthinking it. There have been too many cases recently, it’s got me a little tired.”
Half a month after leaving Jiangchuan District, Si Chen finally returned to his home.
Home was still that same cramped apartment totaling five square meters including the balcony. It was so cramped that even breathing felt like a luxury.
Si Chen went to the public bathroom to take a shower. He dried his hair, and lay down on the bed in his pajamas, sinking into the soft bed.
The latest news was playing on his bedside radio: “Next week, the major colleges and universities will officially open registration for the postgraduate entrance examinations. It is reported that this time, the 47 universities in the 35 Safe Zones, for the 127 different majors will recruit 60,000 students……”
Si Chen was very sleepy, but his spirit was unusually stimulated.
Afraid that he wouldn’t be able to help himself from laughing out loud, he even bit down hard on his knuckles.
He was an Evolutionary! Even though it was only on the First Step, he had embarked on a path completely different from that of ordinary people’s.
The Eternal Life Abyss, who was sleeping in his body, slowly woke up and let out a soft “squeak”.
It had already digested the blood sucking butterfly and this had brought a new ability to Si Chen.
[Blood Vessel Recovery: The blood of High Dimensional creatures can stimulate your blood vessels and strengthen your body once.]
[The blood of High Dimensional creatures of the same level only takes effect once.]
The Eternal Life Abyss thought about it for a long time but it didn’t know how to tell Si Chen about it.
It didn’t know many words and so, it could only “squeak squeak” anxiously.
But Si Chen had already closed his eyes and he whispered, “I know. Thank you.”
After all, they were one.
He’s making those insects sound tasty 🤤
Thanks for the chapters!!
Fr, got me out here wanting to eat a fried butterfly fetus-lookung pupa 😭
Abyss is really good child
Thank you for your translation 💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚
That the insects are tasty always reminds me of those interstellar stories where “Zerg” are edible delicacies…
Also, Si Chen really got a good deal with the little Abyss — eat a higher dimensional creature and assimilate some of their traits. That’s really a life saver.
Thank you for the chapter.
Ah yes, when a cooking broadcast streamer recommends burning Zerg swarms to feed the army… And it works. I will forever keep that gold of a food novel close to my heart. UwU
which one was that? sounds familiar but i can’t recall the name
It’s a novel from here too! It’s called the Film Emperor’s Daily Live Cooking Broadcast. If you haven’t read it and have expectations, well, there won’t be much on the Film Emperor part except maybe “that’s why he’s handsome” but there will be lots of food and cooking. That’s all, have fun reading fellow comrade 🫡 🫡
I remember that dearly too! Can’t beat ‘em, eat ‘em! Hahahaha!
Sweet little baby is such a gold finger! Thanks for the update 🤣❤️🤣❤️🤣
Yummy