The roads of the Main City resembled a wheel, radiating outwards in concentric layers with District A at its core. It was the Safety District, the very heart of the Main City—the further one ventured from it, the more dangerous it became.
When the vehicle reached District C, the scenery had already undergone a drastic change into the chaos and decay Lian Chuan had grown accustomed to seeing. Compared to the safety district, this area had become a breeding ground for darkness—even the brightness of the artificial sun had started to diminish. The black fog slowly started to emerge in the air, like drops of ink spreading in water.
District D was the Main City’s outermost periphery that could still be called a part of it. Once you leave and pass through each of the enormous archways at each intersection, you would venture beyond the Main City’s control.
Outside lay the Black Iron Wasteland and ruins, the areas abandoned by the Main City. While traces of their former connections were still visible in many places, beneath their crumbling walls, these areas had long become the territory of the Bats.
“Isn’t our unit only responsible for cases classified as Class-II and above?” Lu Qian suddenly asked from behind.
Lian Chuan didn’t even bother making a face, straight up ignoring the question.
“I know that according to the rules, cases are handled by the closest unit, but many critical bug cases are handled by Sixth Unit,” Lu Qian continued, “After all, you…”
“Southwest of Wine Alley,” Lian Chuan suddenly said in a low voice, “Luo Pan and Jiang Xiaogan will circle around from behind, while the others proceed to the original coordinates.”
As he was halfway through the command, the vehicle suddenly made a sharp turn into a small alley next to the District C, Crossing H1.
Lu Qian wasn’t prepared for it; the massive inertia made him instinctively grab onto Lian Chuan’s belt. If it weren’t for his safety buckle, he would have been thrown out.
“Is there an emergency in District C?” He heard Luo Pan’s response through the communicator.
The distance from here to the location of target appearance was quite far, and theoretically, the system shouldn’t have such a large margin of error. If the target didn’t have any equipment, then there had to be an unforeseen situation.
“Yes.” Lian Chuan replied succinctly.
“Understood.” Luo Pan’s reply was just as concise.
As long as it didn’t affect the mission objective of cleaning up the target, Lian Chuan had the authority to temporarily modify the mission’s content. In case of a clash between Lian Chuan and the system, the unit members would also trust in his judgement.
“Let go.” Lian Chuan said.
This command didn’t go through the communicator, so Lu Qian blanked for a moment before quickly releasing his grip on Lian Chuan’s belt. He had tried his best to appear more professional on his first mission, but he still couldn’t help but ask again, “Where is the surprise target?”
“Watch the roofs,” Lian Chuan’s vehicle began to ascend in height.
Lu Qian’s academic achievements were undoubtedly impressive, but his style made it really challenging to tell if he was suitable for the cleanup squad. However, out of those few squad members who didn’t make it back from the school, he was the only one who did, and Lian Chuan couldn’t quite understand the cause for that at the moment.
“Understood.” Lu Qian replied, immediately scanning the rooftops. Although he could neither see anything with his naked eye or through the sensor, he firmly believed in Lian Chuan’s judgement.
Because Lian Chuan was a legend.
Not just a legend within the Internal Security Department, but a legend throughout the entire Main City.
Lu Qian could casually recount more than five of his exploits, easier than bragging to people in a bar—all kinds of impossible missions, miraculous survivals, all kinds of… acts of ruthless decisiveness.
Lian Chuan was unable to see the target, and the abnormal presence he felt before had also vanished, but he didn’t doubt his judgement. So, he slowed down the vehicle.
This was a very long alley. It was called Wine Alley because of the disordered rows of small pubs lining high and low on its sides, a total of forty nine—or sixty one if counting the closed ones.
There were also pubs in the safety district with better quality drinks, but aside from the inflated prices, the Main City also had the night curfew to uphold, so those who wanted to drink all night could only come here. Even though this dusky, decrepit place seemed as if it would never see the light again, it was still a good place to forget one’s worries.
“Didn’t find anything.” Luo Pan’s voice came through the communicator.
“Keep watch.” Lian Chuan said before jumping off the hovering vehicle and heading deeper into the Wine Valley.
Lu Qian followed behind him and jumped off. Lian Chuan turned his head to take a look at him, initially wanting to order him to stay and wait for the further instructions—he was but a newbie who had just died the day before; it would be pretty tragic if he died again today. But after a moment of hesitation, he didn’t say anything.
If he happened to die again, he could discover why Lu Qian was able to become the only person to come back—after all, right now even the applications for citizen birth permissions were very hard to get, not to mention the resetting of a deceased grown-up citizen.
After following him for a couple of steps, Lu Qian’s actions provided perfect evidence of being a complete newbie. He walked up to the entrance of the nearest pub and nodded at the burly guard, who was tightly strapped with seven or eight unevenly thick black belts from head to toe. “Have you noticed anything abnormal?”
The eight black belts guy stared at him with disbelief and took a moment before replying, “Yes.”
“What was it?” Lu Qian asked.
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.
“C Lsfcj jmaejiis mjwf jrxlcu wf obg vlgfmalbcr. Rbk, lrc’a atlr jycbgwji?” Sluta Dijmx Dfiar rjlv, ijeutlcu rb tjgv tf kjr jiwbra bea bo ygfjat, tlr ojmf oliifv klat wbmxfgs.
Oe Hljc mifjgis tjvc’a mbcrlvfgfv remt j rmfcjglb jcv kjr ifoa raeccfv. Oljc Jtejc aegcfv yjmx jcv kjixfv bnfg ab tlw.
Eight Black Belts continued to laugh, “That’s exceptionally abnormal, isn’t it? Don’t just mention tonight, even if you consider yesterday, tomorrow, and the day before, it’s still so…”
Lian Chuan raised his hand and pressed it against his throat. The guy went stiff for a second, then bent down in pain, clutching his throat.
Lu Qian didn’t even see clearly what Lian Chuan did. He only knew that after the guard bent down, Lian Chuan entered the pub, so he quickly followed.
There were quite a lot of people in the pub, and when they noticed someone entering, they all turned their heads. When they saw the equipment on both of them, they turned their heads away again.
“Why did the cleanup squad come all the way here?”
“Ptui, a pack of Hyenas.
“Lower your voice.”
“What are you afraid of…”
Their voices were hushed, but still audible.
Lian Chuan remained silent, slowly walking through the crowd. He could sense something—it was definitely not their mission target, just a sense of unease that he couldn’t let anyone detect.
Amid the subdued buzz, Lian Chuan pushed open the back door of the pub and walked out. After standing in the back alley for a while, that unease disappeared, and he lost trace of the target.
Lu Qian was behind him, not saying a word, but his breathing sounded somewhat heavy.
“Where did you grow up?” Lian Chuan asked.
“Greenfield.” Lu Qian replied.
“No wonder,” Lian Chuan turned to look at him. Greenfield was one of the most important and peaceful areas of the Main City—none of its residents had an ordinary background. “This right now is your first lesson on incognito investigation.”
Lu Qian stared at him.
“Everyone hates the cleanup squad.” Lian Chuan said.
Lu Qian didn’t say anything, just furrowing his brows.
Lian Chuan wasn’t sure if it was Lu Qian’s first time hearing someone use the term ‘Hyenas’ to describe cleanup squad members, but he definitely knew that in all kinds of the legends of the Main City, ‘Hyenas’ were synonymous with the God of Death.
As soon as the cleanup squad appeared, it meant that another person would disappear, regardless of how this person was seen by ordinary people—the cleanup squad was always associated with death.
The anomaly in District C had vanished. Lian Chuan knew that his judgement didn’t fail him, but the anomaly had indeed disappeared.
“To the original coordinates.” Lian Chuan said.
“Roger.” Voices of both Luo Pan and Jiang Xiaogan came through the communicator one after another.
Half of the unit set out once again.
For the remaining time, Lu Qian didn’t speak again. Lian Chuan could see him continuously checking his left and right through the real-time monitoring in his visor, staying on high alert. Lian Chuan was very happy with this; it was much quieter this way.
It was District D, Crossing H3 was close to the last landmark of the Main City—that is, one of its archways. However, the mission target hadn’t passed through the archway to leave, possibly due to the strengthened border patrols by the Internal Security army during the time of festival.
After they arrived at the place, the tracks showed that the target kept lingering near the crossing.
“There’s more than one,” Lian Chuan said, “Watch out for weapons.”
Luo Pan’s vehicle drove over from behind, stopping parallel to him about ten metres to the right. This was their standard formation—as long as there was no surprise like the one at the school, their next task was to close in and surround the target, aiming for retrieval.
Just two steps.
“Target discovered.” Jiang Xiaogan said.
Coordinates appeared on his visor. The unit’s encirclement quickly tightened around the coordinates.
“What’s the situation?” Luo Pan dismounted the vehicle and asked. They were already very close to the target.
The target was right behind a huge overturned billboard in front of them.
“There’s two of them,” Jiang Xiaogan replied, “I can’t see clearly, but they don’t seem like normal humans.”
“The system only gave us one target.” Luo Pan said.
“Scan the target data files.” Lian Chuan said.
When Lu Qian wanted to follow him and approach the billboard, Lian Chuan gestured for him to wait in the original place.
Lu Qian wasn’t very willing, but he still remained in place, only lifting the retrieving unit in his hands and aiming at the billboard.
Lian Chuan and Luo Pan continued approaching, one on the left and one on the right.
Through his scope, he could clearly read the words on the billboard, despite the peeling colours and its inverted position.
Let the Main City’s sunlight wake you up every morning.
It was a real estate advertisement.
It was anyone’s guess for how long the billboard had maintained this state since Lian Chuan first passed through this place, as if proving its slogan, “Let the Main City’s sunlight wake you up every morning”, to be merely a collapsing dream.
The Main City no longer had the space or supplies to accommodate more people.
“We’re from the cleanup squad,” Luo Pan advanced, moving to the front next to Lian Chuan while aiming towards the billboard, “According to the City Affairs Bureau Redundant Population Standard No.109, you have been confirmed as redundant in the system. In the name of the law, the cleanup squad will proceed to retrie-…”
Before Luo Pan could finish his sentence, a figure suddenly leaped up into the air from behind the billboard, with a height and distance that clearly exceeded the capability of an ordinary human.
This was the one the system failed to detect—it wasn’t a redundant citizen of the Main City.
“A Bat.” Lian Chuan noticed that beneath a layer of metal wrapped around the exposed bones beneath the festering skin of the Bat’s shanks. Just from the sight of this excessively hardcore alteration he could already determine that this was a vagabond from the Black Iron Wasteland.
The Bat leaped up, pouncing at Lu Qian.
Luo Pan’s first shot missed, and by the time Bat landed, he was less than two metres away from Lu Qian.
“Boss, attack,” Lian Chuan’s posture while holding the retriever hasn’t changed—he didn’t turn his head, didn’t seek cover, waiting until he saw the mission target peeking out from behind the billboard in his scope to press the button.
He hit the target, and a cloud of black-grey particles shot up.
As they got sucked into the retrieving unit, a slender and strong figure darted out from the darkness, pouncing between Lu Qian and the Bat to swing its claws with a chilling gleam.
The Bat fell to the ground.
It was the legendary elusive caracal ‘partner’ of Lian Chuan’s.
Lu Qian’s reaction was relatively quick; he immediately lowered his arm, pointing both retriever and the gun on his arm at the fallen Bat.
The rest of the team didn’t move, giving the newbie the chance to kill him.
“Hyenas!” The Bat squeezed a sentence through his clenched teeth, “Die, all of you! You should all die!”
Perhaps it was just one-thousandth of hesitation in Lu Qian, but he certainly hesitated.
After all, with just a gentle press of a button, whether it was a Redundant, a Bat, or something else, they would all disperse into the air forever. All of their memories would scatter, slowly merging into the black fog beyond the sunlight. Everything you ever felt and possessed, whether it was sorrow or joy, the memories you wanted to forget, or those you tried to remember…
A thin ray of beam of light streaked by, and it seemed like the Bat’s body had been scorched by tens of thousands degrees.
When Lu Qian came to his senses, he found himself surrounded by the dust-like body particles of the Bat hit by Lian Chuan. He could even feel it choking him a bit. He was once again stunned, standing among the ashes that smelled of death.
“Dismiss.” Lian Chuan turned away and left.
Luo Pan gave Lu Qian a push, helping him leave the ashes lingering in the air.
“Second lesson in incognito investigation.” Lian Chuan mounted the vehicle, “Never let the Bats speak.”
Lu Qian stood in place as he stared at him, frozen.
“Three seconds.” Lian Chuan said.
Lu Qian jumped onto the vehicle and breathed out softly.
“Then what about the Travellers?” He asked from behind, “The passages will open soon, so they’re going to come here. What should I normally do if I come across one?”
“You?” Lian Chuan said, “Run.”
“How about we go for a couple of drinks now?” Jiang Xiaogan’s voice came through the communicator, “Before we get another mission.”
The people in the unit expressed their approval.
“Then…” Lu Qian seemed to slow down a bit, “Can I go as well?”
“You can. Come, get on my vehicle.” Luo Pan said.
Lu Qian was taken aback. “Why?”
“He doesn’t drink.” Luo Pan said.
“Oh.” Lu Qian dismounted Lian Chuan’s vehicle, then jogged over to Luo Pan to join him.
Lian Chuan made a turn back and disappeared behind the crossing.A shadow flit across from the rooftop, disappearing along with him.
“That cat…” Lu Qian raised his head.
“He’s not a cat,” Luo Pan said, “Remember, he’s called Boss.”
“Boss.” Lu Qian nodded his head.
.o0o.
Every day, the sunlight of the Main City shone shorter, every next day darker than the other. Although it was a subtle change, one that would be hard to perceive through a naked eye, if someone watched it thirty, sixty, or hundreds of times, they would be able to perceive it.
“How is it?” Jiu Yi sat on a rock… No, he sat on a piece of metal that looked like a rock. It wasn’t very comfortable, but there was only uncomfortable metal like this in Black Iron Wasteland, and this was the only place from which he could see the tallest tower of the Main City.
The tower was called Light Spike. It was a very straightforward name for a spike that emitted light.
The sunlight had already dimmed; he had been sitting here the entire day. Watching this tallest, brightest spike of the Main City losing its radiance, as if all the light of the world was confined there.
It was his first time visiting the surface since the last Festival Day. The air wasn’t bad, but it was terribly desolate here.
“We couldn’t bring him out.” The person squatting on the side replied.
“I wasn’t asking about this, this was to be expected.” Jiu Yi furrowed his brows.
“Then why still let them try?” The squatting person asked, “We also lost one.”
“Did you give your brains away? You’ve followed me for so long, yet you still don’t understand?” Jiu Yi took a glance at that person, making sure it was his henchman, Prosperity, a trusted aide who had followed him for quite a while already, “If they’re willing to pay, then we bring them out. Life or death doesn’t matter, no one cares about that, so if our people are willing to go, then let them have that little bit of profit. Anyway, dying isn’t that bad of an end either.”
“…Oh,” Prosperity thought for a bit, “I got it. So you’re asking about the Main City’s passages—they’re closed off. Just now, Longevity took the people for a raid. Lost two, they got pummelled into a foam by the city guards.”
Jiu Yi sighed, “You’re saying that there’s no meaning for them to live, they can go and sign up as the meat shields for the city guards.”
“No, not really,” Prosperity also sighed, then stared into the distance and clenched his teeth, “It ought to be our territory in the first place!”
“Shh, don’t let the Travellers hear,” Jiu Yi raised his finger and chuckled, his voice tinted with the strange echo of the metallic wasteland, “They also think the same.”
Lucilla: See you guys next Saturday! ↜(` ∀´ )Ψ
Interesting… thanks for the three updates! ❤️❤️❤️
Thank you for the chapter☀️ see you next week!
Thanks for the chapter
Thank you very much for taking this novella for translation! It’s my favorite of all the ones I’ve read. The world of Wu Zhe is simply incredible and multifaceted in this story, and the characters remain in the heart. I love the main characters! I hope that you will not abandon the translation and will finish translating it to the end, and I will be immersed in this world again with great pleasure
P.S.: I am also not a native English speaker, so I apologize if I made mistakes somewhere 😊
I’m glad to bring it back for you in English! Don’t worry, your English is fine~ And rest assured, I don’t intend to stop translating this novel anytime soon ✨ It may take a (very) long time with the weekly updates, but I’m confident I’ll manage to keep it up until the very end ^^