Lian Chuan opened his eyes the moment Lei Yu stopped the car and turned his head to wake him up. There was no visible fatigue on his face, and the look in his eyes was so clear that it could make one wonder if he was faking sleep just now.
“Want to go to my place?” Lei Yu asked, “Let Auntie Chun prepare something for you to eat, you won’t have to rely on rations today.”
“No,” Lian Chuan opened the car door and stepped out, “I’ll go to sleep now.”
Caracal stood up from the backseat and gracefully jumped out of the car window, heading straight into the building where Lian Chuan lived.
“Lian Chuan.” Lei Yu called out to him through the car door.
Lian Chuan turned towards him, resting his arm above the window. “Mn?”
In that brief moment, a faint trace of weariness could be seen on his face, but it quickly disappeared.
“Was there anything unusual about 009?” Lei Yu inquired.
Lian Chuan pushed himself away from the window and distanced himself from the car door. “No, the abilities of the specimens never repeat; each time is different. If I had to describe it as unusual, then they all would be unusual in a similar way.”
“I feel like…” Lei Yu began, but Lian Chuan had already turned and started walking toward the building.
“I don’t,” He said while leaving, “Go back, it’s getting late.”
Lei Yu asked this question based on Liu Dong’s reaction. Until now, no previous specimen’s destruction made him slap the table from anger.
However, when he asked the question, he didn’t expect Lian Chuan to answer. Lian Chuan was exceptionally skilled at concealing, to the point where you couldn’t even discern whether he had ever concealed anything in his life. One thing he never concealed, though, was his profound distrust of people.
I wouldn’t tell you if there was something weird about 009—I can’t trust you.
I can’t trust anyone.
Who knows where it came from—this vigilance that seemed to be an integral part of him ever since he began to comprehend the world around him. Growing up in the Combat Department, undergoing everyday training where hardly anyone survived, wasn’t the sole reason behind it. It merely transformed this vigilance into the ‘coldness’ and ‘ruthlessness’ that other people perceived in him.
Lei Yu sighed and turned the car around.
With the cat around him, there wasn’t much for Lei Yu to worry about.
Perhaps only Boss was able to earn Lian Chuan’s trust—after all, at least Boss was already no longer a human.
.o0o.
He really wanted to vomit. He wanted to puke when he showered, but wasn’t able to. When he walked out of the bathroom, Boss was seated by the doorway.
“That’s not really appropriate,” Lian Chuan tugged at the towel around his hips, “What if I forgot you were here and walked out naked?”
Boss turned his head and walked away.
“Do you want to eat something?” Lian Chuan walked over to the supply box and opened it to take a look. The automatically supplied dinner was still there. He took out the box and examined the label, “We have apple, mango, and beef.”
Boss hopped onto the sofa and lay down.
“Have you ever tasted real food?” Lian Chuan placed the box on the table, “Not the rations, and not Aunt Chun’s cooking, but the kind mentioned in historical records. The non-synthetic food.”
Boss closed his eyes.
“Have we discussed it before?” Lian Chuan rubbed his face, then walked to the sleep pod, “I’ll go to sleep first, there’s only five points left.”
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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For Lian Chuan, sleep pods were pretty useful. Of course, according to the regulations, their profession required them to use it at night.
However, perhaps nobody knew that their consciousness and body would get separated inside it.
Once the sleep pod’s lights dimmed, only a faint yellow number at the top displayed the remaining sleep time. Everyone would fall asleep before the countdown began. No matter from which point the countdown started, they would never see the following number—the moment they woke up, it would always be 0.
The number above changed from 5 to 4.
Sometimes, Lian Chuan couldn’t comprehend why he existed—someone with countless errors, possibly the only person with them in the Main City, or maybe one with the most amount of them.
No matter where the countdown began, he could always see the second number, then the third, all the way to 0.
He could feel that he had left his body, and although he couldn’t move freely, he could still sense everything. Yet it all was so surreal.
But he only felt it.
It was as if he had merged with a formless fog, with only that pale yellow number in his field of vision. Besides that, he couldn’t hear, couldn’t see, couldn’t touch anything.
This didn’t occur every time, and there was no discernible pattern, so he could only adapt and learn to use this ‘non-existent time’ for contemplation. To pretend he was having a dream.
That Traveller hiding behind the wall, his activated Main City gun.
It was 009 that was contained in the suitcase he and Boss retrieved. He was sure about it, even though they modified it immediately, he could still identify it.
He had some doubts when retrieving it—after all, why would they need Betelgeuse to bring back this kind of specimen?. Retrieving specimens didn’t warrant a classified mission and activation of Betelgeuse, which Internal Defense avoided at any cost, even during the Class-I mission.
This doubt of his got dispelled the moment he was faced 009.
Its attacks were formidable, creating winds resembling countless sharp blades when disturbing the air. Each black cut in his skin caused him sharp pain, and those blades could easily cut through his bones. However, among the numerous specimens, this ability couldn’t be considered particularly special. It wasn’t worth the effort of transporting it from the Ghost City, let alone having Betelgeuse retrieve it in person.
But when Betelgeuse fought hand to hand with 009, Lian Chuan experienced a fear like never before. Even when searching through his reset, fragmented memories, he couldn’t find any similar sensation.
Someone was watching him.
It wasn’t the surveillance, nor the person behind it, and not even 009.
What frightened him wasn’t merely the idea that ‘someone was watching him’… it was the realisation that someone was him through means other than sight.
What he feared the most was that particular something that absolutely couldn’t take place, perhaps capable of uncovering all his secrets.
009 was a medium.
The people in the Combat Department were surely unaware of 009 having this ability, or only knew it possessed an extraordinary ability, but were uncertain about its nature. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have allowed it to confront him so directly, leading to the swift destruction of this rare specimen by Betelgeuse.
However, Lian Chuan couldn’t relax. 009 was nothing more than a medium.
He needed to find the person on the other side of that medium—the Traveller who managed to evade Betelgeuse’s senses.
.o0o.
Out of safety concerns, Hammer compelled Ning Gu to stay in that dilapidated house for quite some time before cautiously venturing out into the streets. In reality, they didn’t encounter a single person throughout their journey, not even a vagabond.
“Do vagabonds exist in the Main City?” Ning Gu asked.
“What do you think Hyenas are for?” Hammer said, “There are certainly none in the Safety District; I heard that if they spot one, they’ll shoot them to pieces. There might be a few scattered in the outer areas. If you want to see a vagabond, you can find them in the underground market.”
“Don’t wanna.” Ning Gu said, “How would we even blend into the underground market? It’s obvious at first glance that we’re Travellers, right?”
“What are you thinking,” Hammer retorted, “At first glance, we look just like vagabonds.”
Ning Gu stared at him for a while, then lowered his gaze to scrutinise himself for a long moment.
His clothes were definitely very old. He had worn them for many years, and although he cleaned them regularly, their original colour was already beyond anyone’s guess. He really hadn’t thought about this issue before coming.
Did vagabonds of the Main City really have such high standards? In the Ghost City, one would get called a vagabond if their bodies were wrapped in nothing but tattered rags. His outfit, on the other hand, was more of a fashionable local bully look, complete with stylish little leather pouch on his pants.
Before Hammer could react, Ning Gu raised his leg and kicked open the door of a nearby store.
“What are you doing?” Hammer was startled, and quickly looked around nervously.
Generally, the Travellers wouldn’t cause trouble in relatively well-administered areas like this. After all, the Main City’s security system was far more advanced than the Ghost City’s loudspeaker broadcast system.
“Looking for clothes…” Ning Gu walked inside. He had already noticed several sets of clothes hanging inside, none of them looking new; it seemed like a second-hand shop.
Just as he was about to reach out for the clothes, a sound came from the corner. Ning Gu turned his head and saw a man and a woman huddled together, their faces painted with fear.
“I’m just taking…” Ning Gu’s words were cut off as the man suddenly lunged to the side, reaching out with his hand for something. Ning Gu didn’t hesitate and kicked the man’s wrist, and then delivered another kick that sent him crashing against the wall.
After the man rolled to the side, Ning Gu finally noticed a button on the floor next to a chair. It seemed to be an emergency call device, which could be activated by stepping on it in case of burglary. Ning Gu suddenly felt a cold sweat break out.
“Don’t kill us, don’t kill us!” The woman cried out as she huddled, tears streaming down her face.
“Stop yelling!” Hammer stood at the entrance, his voice low and growling, “Yell again and you’re both dead!”
Ning Gu remained silent. He grabbed a coat from the rack and hastily put it on before swiftly turning and walking out.
The Travellers never begged for mercy. Among those he had fought, some wouldn’t stop cursing, while some turned their head to run for their lives. However, none had ever pleaded for their lives. This was also why he felt so uncomfortable hearing someone beg for the first time.
“Run,” Hammer said as he followed him out.
Ning Gu reacted instantly, breaking into a sprint.
The button was right there—those two would press it the moment they left, and the Hyenas would arrive immediately.
.o0o.
District D Area A6.
Li Liang was the closest, but his partner, Lu Qian, was still a rookie, so they still needed Lian Chuan and Boss, who were stationed nearby, to provide support—the resident alert indicated an intrusion of two Travellers.
The Travellers were described as ‘very vicious’ even though they only took one piece of clothes.
The Travellers wouldn’t waste time upon reaching the Main City. They would loot supplies, food, alcohol, and trade necessities, keeping themselves quite occupied. However, for two very vicious looters to only steal one piece of clothing, it was so unusual.
Lian Chuan had never encountered Travellers this humble.
The system couldn’t identify Travellers as a target, so it could only scan within a certain range. After all, in this generation, the Travellers no longer carried identifiable data from Main City. Li Liang and Lu Qian headed for the shop first, where they could gather limited leftover target data. Their main goal was to capture any residue to predict the Travellers’ abilities.
“They’ll head to Lost Valley,” Lian Chuan’s A01 took a turn, accelerating towards the most remote area of District D while Boss continued to follow him on the rooftops, where he could see him from time to time, “Boss and I will go ahead to intercept them.”
“Understood.” Li Liang replied.
.o0o.
Lost Valley was an underground market at the border between the Main City and the Black Iron Wasteland. It was an honest-to-god border, with one fair half situated beneath the wasteland and the other beneath the Main City. It was also an honest-to-god underground market, not only for clandestine transactions but also by the virtue of being underground.
With numerous entrances and exits and a maze-like layout, those entering or leaving had to memorise a specific route—one wrong step and they wouldn’t be able to find their way back. If the Bats were to emerge from the entrances on the Main City’s side, the result would be them meeting their end, and vice-versa.
What was even scarier was the existence of countless forks leading to unknown destinations, where once you entered, you could never return.
Lost Valley fell within the jurisdiction of the cleanup squad, but even when mission coordinates were located within the market, they would only set up an ambush by the exits. This wasn’t because the Main City gave up on Lost Valley, but rather due to the powerful function left behind by the unknown generation of Main City, retained by the underground market apart from its exceedingly complex and dangerous terrain.
This function couldn’t be eliminated or replicated—it existed solely in that one place.
“We’re about to reach Lost Valley,” Hammer asked as they ran, “Is anyone chasing us?”
“Don’t know,” Ning Gu said with a joyful stride, “You look back to check.”
“Why aren’t you looking back?” Hammer asked.
“Looking back will affect my speed,” Ning Gu reached into a small pouch on his waist and took out a small piece of metal. This was also forcibly borrowed for him by Nail, who demanded him to return it in person. He lifted this shiny piece of metal to look at the image it reflected, “It looks like…”
“Hm?” Hammer leaned his head over.
“There’s a vehicle flying over the rooftops…” Ning Gu saw a black vehicle far behind them, and an unclear black silhouette of a person on it. Seeing such high-end equipment, he didn’t have to think long before he guessed who it was.
“A Hyena!” He suppressed his voice.
Hammer remained silent. While he accelerated, trying to keep an eye on the vehicle reflected in the metal piece, Hammer suddenly came to a halt so abruptly that he could hear the sound of his shoes scraping against the ground—the soles of his shoes definitely wore through with that one.
“What’s wrong?” Ning Gu couldn’t completely trust and follow Hammer’s actions—after all, he was Nail’s brother, not Nail himself. Moreover, it was his startle that had caused them to run like two madmen when they just entered the city. So, Ning Gu slowed down a bit, but didn’t stop.
However, when he shifted his gaze from the nearing black vehicle to the road ahead, he also came to a sudden stop, even more abruptly than Hammer did, stopping almost immediately and quickly retreating to his side.
There was something in the middle of the road ahead.
Its body was slender, with glossy brown fur, its eyes fixed on them with pupils contracted into needle-like slits.
Even though he had never seen a real animal, even though there was no resemblance between this animal and the Crazy Uncle’s drawings, and even though this animal was much larger than he had imagined…
He still recognised it immediately.
It was a caracal.
And its legendary master, the bloodthirsty Hyena of the Main City, was most likely on that black vehicle behind them.
Ning Gu turned his head.
The vehicle behind them came to a halt, hovering about twenty metres from them.
From this distance, he could already see the person riding it clearly. Black uniform, a silver exoskeleton enveloping his body, weapons emitting a dark blue glow on his arms and legs, and a muzzle aimed directly at them, along with half a face showing behind it.
He couldn’t see his eyes, only the tightly pursed lips and a seemingly chiselled jawbone beneath the black visors. There was no expression on his face, and the coldness pervading him in and out made it feel like some off-screen voice should be heard at that moment.
“It’s Lian Chuan. We’re done for.” Hammer muttered.
Спасибо за перевод! ❤❤❤
I’m always exited when they mention Boss
Thanks for the chap! ❤️❤️❤️