After waking up from a nap, Ning Gu took the bandages off his waist and saw that the wound had already healed. Uncle Old Eight’s ability was indeed quite useful—it could instantly heal any minor injury with a simple touch. However, the annoying part of it was that he had to spit on the wound, setting it apart from the other healing abilities—after all, this kind of power wasn’t really rare in the Ghost City.
Ning Gu got up, wanting to find some water to wipe himself up, but there wasn’t anything of the kind in the room. He circled around the room and noticed someone standing outside in the open space outside the clocktower. That person stood next to a small red lantern tended by a human lighter, he couldn’t really tell who it was.
He approached the window and waved his hand, but the person just turned and left, walking along the dimly lit alley. It wasn’t Nail—if it were him, he’d be too scared to stand in the open light like this.
The person looked like Lin Fan. This guy wanted to search through his shoes on the train, Ning Gu had heard that clearly, but at the time he wasn’t able to react.
Fortunately, Li Xiang had prevented Lin Fan from the thorough searching, because he had actually taken that so-called ‘key’, and it just happened to be hidden in his shoe alongside the feather.
Ning Gu hadn’t shared this information with anyone. It seemed like Hammer had reacted quickly and helped him conceal the information about this ‘key’ without prior communication with him.
Ning Gu sat back against the wall and carefully took out the black orb from his shoe. It appeared to be an iron ball, and it kept clinking metallically against the metal plate in his boot.
There were numerous tiny holes on the orb’s surface, but their purpose wasn’t really clear. It seemed like this item could be significant, as it only took Yellow Flower Eye’s mention of the ‘key’ to trigger a bunch of people to chase after him without questioning the situation. Besides, Ning Gu suspected that this thing had some connection to him, or at least the Main City did. Lin Fan’s actions surely seemed to suggest that.
The metal sphere protecting this thing was riddled with small dents, as if many people attempted to break it, bite it, knock it open, but failed. If Yellow Flower Eye’s claim was true, then indeed, no one had ever managed to open it.
However, the moment he picked up this ball, he immediately sensed a part that could be pressed to open it, so he pressed it a few times. And sure enough, it opened up to reveal something inside.
A key?
Where was it from? What was its purpose? Did he need to find a matching keyhole to insert it into? That potential scope of such search would be quite extensive. All the Bats seemed to know about it, so it wasn’t much of a secret.
…Or maybe someone had already opened it before and replaced the contents with this small orb?
Regardless of the scenario, this mechanism he picked up was from a place he had never stepped in before, and it opened just like this.
An ordinary person born and raised in the Ghost City, someone who didn’t even know his parents…
“Who are you?”
He still remembered the voice from that little dark room.
Who am I?
Ning Gu, the local bully of the Ghost City, single-handedly raised by Captain not at all to be its later leader, as well as its handsome show-off…
So who are you?
He had asked Captain about that so many times when he was a kid. Who am I? Why don’t I have parents? Why does nobody know who they were? Captain’s response was always silence.
Ning Gu tossed the small orb up in his hand. Maybe the answers to all those questions were in the Main City. Maybe that’s why Captain and the others didn’t want him to go there. So it meant that he needed to go back there.
Besides… he also had another compelling reason.
Why did Lian Chuan want him to see those things?
One thing he could be now certain of was that Lian Chuan definitely knew he could see them. He deliberately revealed his eyes just to let Ning Gu see them—to make him feel it all.
Why?
.o0o.
“Locked onto the targets,” Lian Chuan reported.
The vehicle sped forward in the air, turning around and stopping in front of the young pair of frantically fleeing humans.
A man and a woman, hands tightly clasped. They were clearly a couple.
“Main City cleanup squad,” Lian Chuan observed them through a scope, repeating the lines he had already said countless times before, “According to Main City birth regulation law, female No.70135 is not eligible for giving birth…”
“She has a name!” The young man yelled, his voice full of anger. “She’s not some number! Her name is-…”
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.
Lian Chuan pressed the trigger, and a silver beam struck the man’s leg, causing him to instantly collapse. He gasped frantically for air, in too much pain to make a sound.
I don’t want to know her name.
Oljc Jtejc jlwfv ja atf kbwjc yfrlvf tlw. Vtf ibbxfv ja atf wehhif jcv rwlifv.
Lf qgfrrfv atf gfaglfnji yeaabc yfobgf rtf tjv j mtjcmf ab rqfjx. Pc jc lcrajca, atf bcis bcf gfwjlclcu bc atf ragffa kjr j wjc ijslcu bc atf ugbecv, tlr ojmf kfa klat afjgr. Ktf qjlc tjvc’a sfa reyrlvfv, ifjnlcu tlw ecjyif ab wbnf bg rqfjx, bcis jyif ab rajgf tjafoeiis jr Oljc Jtejc aegcfv jcv wbecafv tlr nftlmif.
“Death to the Hyenas!” Someone yelled in his stead.
Lian Chuan started the A01.
“Devil! Reaper! Butcher!” Another one joined in.
“The Main City doesn’t need you! Get the fuck out!”
Lian Chuan raised his head. After leaping to the rooftop, Boss threw him a glance, following him by running on the top of the buildings.
“Wanna come join us for a bit?” He heard Li Liang’s voice through the communicator, “You’re pretty close to us now.”
“Not coming,” Lian Chuan replied.
We’re not drinking,” Li Lian chuckled, “I’m at Guangguang’s place with Lu Qian. There aren’t many people around at this time, so we’re taking a break here.”
Guangguang was Li Liang’s friend. A girl from Greenlands whose rebellious nature caused her to abandon the direct paths to the Internal Defense or City Affairs Bureau and opened an unassuming entertainment shop in District C.
Entertainment shops were all around Districts A, B, C, and D, but as those regions descended into chaos from within, the entertainment in these shops evolved from playing cards, chatting, and small games to various performances, massages, and other alternative services.
It was rumoured that Bats also had their renditions of it, heavily flavoured with their own violent style—like fully modified Bat duels that only ended when one of them fell apart. Lian Chuan had never seen those, and he had no interest in them. The most he was willing to do was the head massages. For someone with a never-ending migraine like him, it was a very comfortable experience.
“You really don’t want to try anywhere else, aside from the head?” Guangguang leaned against the table with her arms crossed, her expression helpless as she looked at Lian Chuan. “Shoulders, arms, legs, they can all use some relaxation. You’re all so tired from running around all day long, is a head massage really going to be enough?”
“You’re making it sound like we’re running on our heads all day long,” Lian Chuan closed his eyes, “Just go with the head. The equipment helps with the rest of the body, it’s not tiring.”
“That’s right, there’s no equipment helping with the head and we also need to wear that helmet, so tiring.” Li Liang lay down on the nearby bed. Since they could get another mission at any possible time, he was still fully dressed in the exoskeleton.
“Fine,” Guangguang walked to Lian Chuan’s side and started massaging his head, “Care for some drink?”
Lu Qian was behind the bar, modifying the beverages now that there were no patrons around, mixing together all kinds of colours.
“No.” Lian Chuan said.
“You can try the one I made,” Lu Qian offered, “It should feel pretty good.”
“No.” Lian Chuan repeated himself, causing Li Liang to chuckle.
Lu Qian drank a sip of liquid he modified, then frowned. “Why is it all the same flavour?”
“The ingredients hadn’t even gone through the seasoning machine,” Guangguang said, “So of course, it tastes the same.”
Seasoning machines weren’t very affordable, so apart from the more affluent Safety Zone residents, only various entertainment shops and bars would use them. The ingredients that didn’t go through it would all taste the same. Compared to the automatic rations allocated by the system, the food and drinks that went through it had more variety of flavours and the taste was a bit better.
It was this kind of food Lei Yu invited him back home to eat. Auntie Chun was very skilled at using the seasoning machine, she could enrich the food to have a better texture and more complex flavour with repeated usage of it.
But Lian Chuan wasn’t really interested in any flavours. Instead, he would sometimes wonder—was this taste something the machine applied to the ingredients and then onto his tongue, or did it directly pass some kind of information into his mind through them?
Those ingredients were like a hollow dream with no sound, no smell, and no texture, but still leaving you aware of what you heard, smelled, and ate. All of it is only conveyed to you by your brain. Tongue is only supposed to do the speaking.
Guangguang really liked to welcome the members of the cleanup squad into her shop. They were all laid-back, didn’t talk much, and never did anything unbecoming.
District C was now different from what she remembered as a child, where it only had a touch of grey on its streets and a relative piece. Nowadays, it slowly became more like the more remote District D, dark and lawless. The people here also became scarier, spats and fights were already an everyday occurrence on the streets.
Every change comes from a human heart. With the Main City’s resources decreasing at an increasingly fast pace, a lot of people started to secretly worry that they could be the generation that would witness the Main City getting swallowed by Black Iron Wasteland.
But that was fine. Guangguang would rather bear a witness to the world withering away than just silently suffer the inescapable retrieval and death.
The moment she finished massaging his head, Lian Chuan’s communicator made a sound, and she didn’t even have time to take her hands away before he got up. As he walked outside, a voice finally came through the device.
“Unit One and Six assemble, you’re going to inspect the station exit.” He heard Lei Yu’s order.
“Unit Six copy,” Lian Chuan looked back, and Li Liang and Lu Qian had already followed him.
“Unit One copy,” Long Biao reported.
Li Liang exchanged looks with Lian Chuan. The last time they received orders to inspect the station exit was due to the system error that opened the gates of the specimen warehouse, allowing a lab specimen from the Irregularity Project to escape.
“Please confirm the mission details,” Long Biao requested through the communicator.
“Seize specimens VB39 and VB45,” Lei Yu said, “VB39 is a high-risk target.”
Lian Chuan mounted his vehicle. This kind of code meant that the specimen had already gone through the testing phase; they were mature individuals in preparation for the manufacturing tests phase.
They should be under pretty strict supervision, so how did they actually manage to escape? Or was it a system error again? This possibility wasn’t particularly high.
“Why isn’t this being dealt with by the city guards?” Lu Qian asked doubtfully through their unit channel after they set off, “They’re so close, yet it’s us who have to hurry over there to handle it.”
“The city guards defend against the outside enemies, and the public security keeps the disturbances inside at bay,” Li Liang said, “Everything else goes to us.”
“The scope of this ‘everything else’ is much larger than what I imagined,” Lu Qian sighed, “No wonder my trainer told me to get my brain examined when I applied to the cleanup team.”
“It’s never too late for that.” Lian Chuan replied.
“Hm?” Lu Qian turned his head and looked at him across the street as they glided over the rooftops.
They heard the laughter of their unit members in the communicator.
.o0o.
The station exit was just a stretch of overgrown wilderness when the train wasn’t there. There was never any building there, and there were also no traces of any human life. Only a solitary stretch of train tracks extending vaguely into the depths of black fog. The Main City was behind them, but if one didn’t turn back to look, they would only see the lifeless, desolate landscape that seemed as if the world had already ceased to exist.
Compared with that, although dilapidated, even the ruins of the Black Iron Wasteland with their crumbling walls appeared more welcoming.
People from Unit One and Six had already arrived. As per the protocol, they formed an arc-shaped search formation to surround the area, preparing to advance and press forward.
“Cleanup team arrived at the mission site,” Long Biao reported, “Start the scan.”
They already got the target intel displayed on their visors. VB45 was a standard level specimen, female, with no attack-oriented ability. The similarly female VB39’s intel was marked with red, indicating that she posed a high-danger risk with her corrosive ability.
Lian Chuan frowned. The direction of the Irregularity Research didn’t seem consistent with their initial declaration—striving to awaken the latent potential of human bodies and increasing their resistance to raise their chances to survive in the unfavourable environment…
If he could still assume that the K29 monster he had seen before was a mishap, then VB39’s kind was completely a different case. Their functionality was closer to a complete test subject, and they were clearly intended to contend against the Travellers.
Unless this was a completely different project that even the City Affairs Bureau didn’t know about—a secret one.
Who did this? Why did they do it? Lian Chuan didn’t really want to know, but he could be certain of one thing.
…Next day, his head was going to hurt again.
They quickly got the coordinates of both test specimens. They were quite close, but their position was somewhat precarious, near the end of the safe section of the rail tracks. Just a bit further was the black fog—no one had ever returned after entering it.
“Maintain a safe distance,” Long Biao reminded everyone. By a safe distance, he meant the black fog.
The half-arc slowly advanced forward, and soon enough, Lian Chuan noticed two swaying figures in the thickening mist. They both seemed to be of humanoid form, but VB45’s body was a lot smaller. She seemed like she would at most reach the waist of an ordinary male.
“Take aim,” Long Biao ordered, “Unit One takes the one on the left, Unit Six takes one on the right.”
To the left was VB39, the right one was VB45. Lian Chuan had no opinion on Long Biao wanting to take the high-difficulty mission for himself, as his only objective was to complete the task successfully.
“Locked onto the target,” He raised the capture gun.
He never doubted the power of this weapon before, but ever since he saw Ning Gu remaining able to run like a wind after getting shot by it twice, he just…
And this time, the mission targets were rather unusual. As he aimed at them, he already determined all the possible directions they could escape to, so that he could adjust the capture route at any time.
Both units opened fire at the same time, and the nets made of electric light instantly shot towards both targets.
VB45 fell to the ground with a thud.
VB39, however, jumped back the moment they fired, managing to avoid the attack.
A few steps back would be enough for her to enter the black fog. Even though her speed when dodgingthe attack wasn’t quick, she could pull it off if she guessed the timing of the fire, and it was still enough to retreat into the thick fog.
Lian Chuan was already beside VB45 the moment he withdrew the gun.
Thinning hair, ashen eyes, blackening skin… If this was the future of the humans in the Main City, probably more than a half of people would rather get swallowed by the Black Iron Wasteland.
He caught VB45’s arm and pushed her towards the approaching Long Biao. Then he got to VB39.
Both his movements were done almost instantly.
Everyone knew that Lian Chuan was faster than a gun, only fighting with his bare hands would allow him to put his full speed to use. However, everytime he engaged in a close-quarters battle like this, he would always risk his own safety.
The legend of Lian Chuan being as ruthless as a grim reaper himself mostly came from his unwavering commitment to completing missions.
His strike hit VB39’s shoulder. While not fatal, it would instantly subdue most opponents.
VB39 fell to her knees.
Lian Chuan’s other strike landed on her back. In a moment of hesitation imperceptible even to himself, he noticed a transportation mark—a black circle mark on the back of VB39’s neck.
This mark belonged to the Training Department. The two targets didn’t escape from the laboratory; they fled during transit.
And their escape point happened to be the sole junction between the Main City and the Ghost City.
Despite Lian Chuan’s effort to avoid thinking about it, he immediately reached a conclusion.
The Internal Defense Department intended to secretly transport these test subjects to the Ghost City.
After loading VB39 and VB45 into the confinement trunks, Long Biao cast a glance in his direction. Members of both Units had already noticed that black mark. This meant that everyone was already aware of the situation, and accustomed to it.
“Lian Chuan.” Long Biao stared at him.
“Yeah,” Lian Chuan responded.
“I really hate you so much.”
“No need to reset the memory of this one,” Lian Chuan remarked, “After all, everyone already knows that.”
“Fair,” Long Biao kicked the trunk, “Add another electric lock and send it back to the Internal Defense.”
When Lian Chuan returned to his vehicle, Boss came around, brushing his tail against Lian Chuan’s leg—a lazy form of consolation for yet another potential migraine.
Lian Chuan mounted the vehicle. As he started it, he noticed a small leather pouch in the equipment compartment. He had seized this thing from Ning Gu earlier, but there was nothing noteworthy to report about it.
He originally planned to discard it, but he never did that after casually placing it in his vehicle.
He glanced at the tracks extending into the black fog, then turned the vehicle around.
Ning Gu.
A Traveller that was once a mere chance encounter now elevated into a looming threat for Lian Chuan—now, as he discovered the close connection that went beyond the exchange of experiment materials between the Internal Defense Department and the Ghost City.
Thanks for the translation!❤❤❤