It was completely quiet outside. Of course, this place was usually quiet, but Ning Gu had a vague feeling that the current calm was different than usual.
He suddenly felt ill at ease; he remembered Lin Fan’s words from before. Was the train coming?
He tried to pull the iron door again, but it didn’t budge. He then ran to the window to listen carefully… However, the sound made by the arriving train is very loud; he wouldn’t miss it.
If before, he wanted to go to the Main City again because the first trip left him with a head full of barraging question marks, then he was even more pressed to go now, after Lin Fan mentioned his father.
Nobody ever mentioned his parents to him, and whenever he asked about them, he was always met with an unchanging silence. And considering his relationship with Lin Fan, it was even more unlikely for him to say that Ning Gu reminded him of his father unprompted. Under those circumstances, Lin Fan’s words had to be a hint.
Or a trap.
That’s right, this could be a trap.
Ning Gu didn’t trust Lin Fan. He was always on guard against anyone who showed him goodwill without any apparent reason, it was the fundamental rule of survival in the Ghost City. But even if this was a trap, he still had to go to the Main City.
The lives of the Travellers were far from easy. The living conditions were harsh, with Aborigines hiding in the black fog, continuous fights over the supplies, or clashes caused by their excessive boredom—any of those could lead to their death.
Who knows, which day would be his last before he disappeared.
He just wanted to live a bit less oblivious when it comes.
Who am I. Where am I. What kind of existence am I in this world.
The horn of the train came from the black fog, piercing through the sky over the Ghost City. Almost the very same moment he heard it, Ning Gu sprung up and ran to the door, and after he gave it a few strong shakes, they swung open.
Although if the door didn’t open, he would definitely stick his head outside the window to hurl obscenities, cursing Lin Fan to suffer inhuman tortures and engaging in all kinds of verbal assault… now, that the door really opened, he actually froze in place for a few seconds.
Lin Fan was really telling the truth.
He didn’t have enough time to ponder why Lin Fan would do this. The time between the train’s horn blaring and its departure wasn’t long, so he had to rush out of the clocktower. According to the plan he had been developing for those past few days, he also had to find Land King to obtain some important necessities along the way.
The wind was blowing fiercely, but fortunately, this segment of the route was downwind, so Ning Gu was running so fast he was almost flying.
Many Travellers had already left the shelter, and the remaining few were scarce. Although there was no rule for the timing of the train’s arrival, experienced Travellers could rely on their gut feeling to roughly guess it. Some would even go to wait a day or two in advance.
Having fewer people around did have its advantages. Fewer people meant fewer enemies to worry about. Even though, just as Lin Fan had said, the guards weren’t present and no one stopped him from leaving, he had accumulated quite a few grudges and enemies in the Ghost City to worry about. He rarely visited Shelter No.3, considering how he was always involved in brawls between the shelters…
“Big Ass!” Ning Gu saw a man squatting and breaking stuff by a lamp ahead of him, and he shouted while running, “Give me a hand!”
Worthy of being the Ghost City’s show-off, he had friends even in Shelter No.3.
“Here you go!” Big Ass shouted back at him, jumping up to throw a round kick in his direction. Ning Gu momentarily felt a tremendous force propelling him. Taking advantage of the momentum, he leaped, flying more than ten metres through the air. Just as he landed, the second wave of force followed, so he leaped again, directly clearing several low huts.
.o0o.
“Are you talking or not!” Nail kicked Land King in the ass, “How am I supposed to get him out! You’re telling me to send someone to swap them with him, but who the hell would I send there! How would we swap them! Talk!”
Hammer’s hand on the floor loosened, and Land King seized this opportunity to scramble up, “You told me you’ve got the talon; I need to see it first. I already provided you with a plan, so now I have to take a look at your goods…”
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.
Land King didn’t even have a chance to finish talking; his attempt to sneak closer to Nail and check if he really had the talon in his hands was cut short. The sturdy metal door to the hut got kicked open with a clang. A person in black coat rushed in—before the people inside could react, this person had already pinned Land King to the ground and straddled him.
“Rlcu Xe!?” Rjli’r nblmf ygbxf jr tf fzmijlwfv lc rtbmx.Ktlr qgjmalrfv wbnf lc ktlmt tf ygbeuta atf ues vbkc ab atf ugbecv, ragjvvilcu tlw jcv rklculcu tlr olrar—la gfjiis kjr Rlcu Xe’r rlucjaegf afmtcldef. Rjli tjv fzqfglfcmfv la mbecaifrr alwfr rlcmf mtlivtbbv.
Rlcu Xe uglqqfv Ojcv Blcu’r cfmx klat bcf tjcv, atfc aegcfv ab uijcmf ja Rjli, “Qts jgf sbe uesr tfgf… Yt, la relar sbe.”
“Huh?” Nail hesitated for a moment before realising what he meant. He touched the goggles on his face, “It’s this red lining…”
“I’ll give you three seconds,” Ning Gu jabbed at Land King’s eye, “You’ll give me a card.”
“What card?” The remaining three people in the hut all asked at the same time.
“ID card, a blank one that can get overwritten,” Ning Gu continued jabbing Land King’s eyes, “I know you have it. Give me.”
“What the hell do you need it for?” Land King stared at him in shock.
“Give it to me!” Ning Gu didn’t have time to explain or to play this slow game with Land King. He didn’t even have time to find something for a forced trade offer.
“Feather.” After the shock passed, Land King went back to his profit-hungry core: the profit-hungry and cunning core.
The value of an ID card couldn’t compare with something like a feather, a part of the flesh and blood of an already extinct animal. Although ID cards weren’t easy to get, they were an essential part for life in the Main City. Those who couldn’t survive, those who didn’t want to continue living, those who were forced to abandon life, or lost themselves and no longer had use for their ID—ultimately, a small portion of these cards would always find their way into the Lost Valley, becoming a very sought-after trade item that never ran out of supply.
Land King had ID cards; those who were leaving for the Main City with no intentions to come back would come to him to get one. As for whether they would manage to find a Bat to alter the data and make it usable was another matter.
“Give it!” Ning Gu punched Land King’s forehead, “I’ll give you a damn leg hair!”
With his roar, a sudden gust of raging wind rushed into the hut, flipping over the table and sweeping the scattered bits and trinkets into a chaotic whirlwind.
“Give it to him.” Nail suddenly spoke.
Even Land King was shocked. He froze with his mouth half-open, even forgetting to cry out in pain.
“What is this bullshit!” Ning Gu turned his head and shouted at him.
“You’ll be late!” Nail urged, “I can still find another one!”
Ning Gu still kept clutching Land King’s neck, but he didn’t look at him again, glaring at Nail instead.
“Give it to him.” Nail repeated.
“Do it.” Hammer chimed in from the side, adding, “If you don’t go today, you’ll never have another chance.”
Ning Gu gnashed his teeth, then slowly retrieved that feather from the hidden pocket inside his boot, placing it on Land King’s hand.
Land King held the feather tightly in his hand, carefully putting it into an inside pocket close to his body.
“The card!” Nail lunged towards Land King’s side, roaring at him with so much vigour, his neck turned red.
Land King bent his leg with difficulty, tugging his trouser leg and opening the little pocket on his shank and took out a card, holding it out between his fingers. He looked at Ning Gu. “You guys are crazy.”
Ning Gu grabbed the card, threw Nail a glance, then rushed out of the door. Nail sprung up and followed after him. He didn’t ask how Ning Gu left the clocktower or what he was planning to do, but he knew one thing.
From the day he first met Ning Gu, he knew that a day like this would eventually come. On the surface, he was a Ghost City bully who fought everyone, unmatched, just to relieve his boredom. But deep down, he was actually filled with an unsettling curiosity, numerous questions that, once asked, would leave anyone in despair.
Since childhood, he had known that this day would come, and Ning Gu would leave the Ghost City without turning back. Perhaps only Nail that grew up alongside him knew that this was the only desire Ning Gu hid away from everyone, but felt the most strongly about.
“Can we really find another one!?” Ning Gu asked him, shouting through the wind as they ran.
“Yes!” Nail replied at the top of his lungs.
“Keep it safe!” Ning Gu hollered.
“Come back for it!”
“I’ll come back for it!” Ning Gu turned his head to look at him.
“Don’t turn your head, it’ll slow you down!” Nail waved his arm.
“Don’t follow me, don’t let Captain know that you knew about me going to the Main City!”
“I can’t hear you!” Nail didn’t stop, yelling as he ran.
“Don’t follow me!” Ning Gu shouted again, “Somebody could think you’re my wife! So unwilling to let go!”
“Fuck off!” Nail stopped, cursing after him.
“Keep the feather for me—!”
“Mn.” Nail made noise in response, raising hand to wipe his tears away. When he looked up again, Ning Gu had already disappeared in a blur of tears, wind, and black fog.
.o0o.
Captain stood in the middle of the Tongue Bay’s territory, silently gazing in the direction of the shelter. The wind around him carried the black mist, swirling and gradually rising like a long, narrow barrel, suffocating in its oppressiveness.
He could see the ashen shadows from time to time, and sometimes he heard the bits of something that sounded like bare feet threading on dead leaves, or like the sound of breaking bones. This sound was almost inaudible in the wind, while the clanging of the metal chain dragged on the ground was way more clear.
He inclined his head as the sound approached him from behind, “This is your only chance.”
“I don’t need it,” A strenuous, gasping voice replied from the thick fog behind him, “The collapse and decay, it’s all irreversible. Once it starts, there’s no going back, no looking back.”
“I don’t have to look back,” Captain said, “I only need to go forward.”
The person inside the fog started laughing, coughing through the cackle, his voice raspy and ragged, “You thought that the people from the Main City, wouldn’t discover Qi Hang? Did you think that single Qi Hang… No, a single fragment of Qi Hang, could change anything…?”
Captain didn’t say anything, walking forward into the thick fog. Immediately, there was a clamour coming from behind him, like the broken rumblings mixed with the metallic clanging, but it quickly settled down, leaving behind no sounds apart from the wailing of the wind.
.o0o.
“I’m in position.” Lian Chuan squatted on a half-collapsed rooftop, his gaze fixed forward. Less than fifty metres away from him was one of the passages the Bats could possibly choose to allow the Travellers into the Main City. It was the closest one to the Lost Valley.
Nobody knew if Ning Gu would come, or what route he would take. The Travellers and the Main City always held each other in check, every time they were able to predict a couple of passages, but the Travellers always had another one they weren’t aware of.
When Lian Chuan chose to first keep a guard to the one closest to the Lost Valley, Lei Yu privately asked him why.
“Is it to prevent him from entering?”
“Only by staying alive can I prove myself irreplaceable.”
All the eight units of the cleanup squad were already deployed, Ning Gu’s entire data was also displayed on everyone’s visors. As long as he appeared, Lian Chuan would learn his coordinates immediately. All that remained to do sounded very simple for a mission: to capture the Traveller Ning Gu.
The one who escaped Lian Chuan shot twice yet also escaped him twice; that Ning Gu.
There was a short noise coming from the communicator and Boss, who had been sitting on the opposite rooftop, momentarily crouched low in preparation to attack.
Lian Chuan looked up. He didn’t use the equipment’s aiming vision. When he needed to rely on speed, anything apart from the exoskeleton would drag him down.
There was a brief flash of metallic reflection far in the black fog. Lian Chuan braced his hands on the edge of the rooftop—it was some careless Bat sneaking around.
They were half-right about this passage. The Bats would get the Travellers inside the Main City through the abandoned sewers below the ruins, leading the ones lucky enough to survive to directly enter the Lost Valley.
The first figure appeared at the edge of the black fog. That one didn’t move forward immediately, cautiously checking the surroundings before quickly rushing forward. At the same time, a strong wind swirled violently in front of him, carrying the sand, gravel and trash from the ground, momentarily obstructing the view. Under this cover, over a dozen of shadows poured out from the manhole, using their powers to lift the ground, push away the shattered roofs, and put up the protective barriers.
This protective power was clearly weaker than Li Xiang’s, but it still disrupted the scanner. In times like this, he could only use his own pair of eyes he had always relied on for over twenty years.
“Travellers at Exit CH2, the Lost Valley.”Lian Chuan reported.
“Travellers at District D, Area B2.” He also heard the feedback from Luo Pan.
Eight units, and only those two reported the appearance of the Travellers. Every other location was clear.
“Split the reinforcements according to the plan.” Long Biao commanded.
One of the blurry shadows rushing towards the exit of the Lost Valley attracted Lian Chuan’s attention. Although everyone’s first choice would be to enter the Lost Valley, compared with the Travellers’ wanton and unbridled style of chasing excitement even at the price of death, this person prioritising running straight for the shelter was particularly eye-catching.
In a second, Lian Chuan was able to make certain that this was Ning Gu.
“Target identified,” Lian Chuan jumped off the roof at the same time as he reported, and with a kick to the ground timed at the exact moment of the landing, he rushed forward. “Commence the interception and capture.”
When Ning Gu saw clearly that there was someone getting close to him at high speed, he was still over ten metres away from the entrance to the Lost Valley—the information he only got after beating and cursing out three people on the train.
His only little bit of knowledge about the Main City was related to it, so for him, it was the only relatively safe place here.
However, he didn’t expect that he would bump into Hyenas before he even caught a glimpse of this entrance. And a Hyena that could just ignore the protective barrier and materialise two metres away before anyone could even react—it could only be Lian Chuan.
Ning Gu felt as if none of the other Travellers racing ahead even saw Lian Chuan before his arm got grabbed, and he was then thrown inside the Lost Valley entrance, which he thought he would never get a chance to reach again.
Unlike the one Hammer had led him to before, this entrance didn’t have a staircase, just a sloping shaft leading downwards. After falling inside, he didn’t even get a chance to stand up before Lian Chuan caught up with him. Kicked by him, Ning Gu quickly rolled down to the end of the shaft, crashing against the cave wall before finally stopping.
He didn’t have time to make clear how Lian Chuan walked over, only able to see the double halo of his weapon, clear-cut against the backdrop of darkness. Next, the collar of his clothes tightened around his neck as he got lifted up and pressed against the wall, with Lian Chuan’s hand pressing against his throat.
“One move and you’re dead.” Lian Chuan threatened.
Thanks a lot for the translation!❤
How romantic 🤗
Thanks for the chap!❤️❤️❤️