Five years later.
At the border of the Western District Z City and the neighboring city.
Neon lights flickered above the abandoned buildings, projecting three-dimensional advertisements. However, the content of the advertisements now featured firearms, banned drugs, and other things that would never have appeared before.
Motorcycles rode through streets filled with rubble on both sides. The exterior wall of the destroyed five-star hotel only had the words “Chris Tun” remaining.
A small mouse ran across in front of the abandoned hotel but was unfortunate enough to be stepped on its tail by a sand fox with enormous ears, becoming a meal for the deformed sand fox.
Malken slowed down the motorcycle, looked at the once iconic building, and sighed twice before continuing towards the destination, the bar.
The bar was located near the former music square. There was no longer music or fountains there. It was surrounded by a high wire fence, and inside was an arena for underground boxing matches.
Five years ago, when the government announced the abandonment of the reconstruction of the Western District Z City and designated Z City as an area outside the Tree of Life, the city became “Underground City No. 2” and turned into a paradise for refugees.
Despite occasional glitches in the defense system and frequent invasions of large deformed monsters, the entertainment venues like bars and strip clubs there were incomparable to the desolate underground city.
two shirtless men were fighting, while outside, the excited refugees shouted loudly.
Malken maneuvered through the crowded crowd and entered the dimly lit bar.
“Give me a Crazy Underground City,” he said as he sat at the bar.
“Hey, Malken,” the bearded man next to him raised his glass in greeting, “Long time no see.”
“Long time no see,” Malken spun the high stool around and leaned against the bar, his elbow resting on the table as he looked at the swaying crowd, “It’s quite lively here.”
“Of course,” the bearded man took a sip of beer, “The environment here is better than the underground city.”
As the bearded man spoke, the music happened to end, and a drunk person suddenly jumped onto the stage, snatched the microphone, and asked, “Is the alcohol good?”
The people below raised their glasses in response, “It’s good!”
“Are you all happy?”
“We’re happy!”
“We have what we have today because of who?”
“Klet! It’s Klet who led us into the Tree of Life!”
“To Klet!”
“To Klet!”
The bartender pushed over a glass of dark red drink. Malken shifted his gaze back and asked the bearded man next to him, “Have you seen Klet recently?”
The bearded man shook his head, “He should be in the Deserted Underground City.”
Malken checked his communicator and saw that there were no responses to the messages he sent. Ever since Klet left the Tree of Life five years ago and discovered that there was no person named Iwen in the military, let alone an Iwen from the Mag race, he had left the Tree of Life alone.
Malken couldn’t say for sure, but he felt that their leader had inexplicably become disheartened, as if he had lost passion for everything.
At that moment, the communicator suddenly displayed an incoming call.
Malken pressed the answer button, “Leizhe.”
“Have you found the target?” Leizhe asked.
After Klet left the Tree of Life, Malken had nowhere to go, so he joined the Nightingales and started working for Leizhe. Over the past five years, he had become the second-in-command of the Nightingales and had made a name for himself on the military’s wanted list.
“Not yet,” Malken took a sip of the strong liquor, “Tomorrow morning, I’ll go to the underground city to look around.”
“Alright,” Leizhe said, “Stay safe.”
Actually, there was no need for Leizhe’s reminder. Malken also knew to stay safe. The desert not only had deformed monsters but also extremely dangerous sand traps. Traveling at night was too risky, so he chose to go during the day.
However, since tonight was the last night in the city, it wouldn’t be right not to enjoy it to the fullest.
With this in mind, Malrken set down his empty glass and jumped into the bustling dance floor
Back at the tree of Life, level three physical training room.
“Thump, thump, thump—”
Countless fist marks appeared on the sandbag-shaped iron block, completely destroying its original cylindrical shape.
The man wearing a white short-sleeved shirt and black boxing shorts put all his strength into the final punch, causing the deflated iron block to detach from the ceiling and fly into a corner of the training room.
The trainer was startled, but still managed to ask, , “Captain Shen, do you still want to continue training?”
Shen Siwei glanced at the back of his hand, which only had some redness around the joints but no broken skin.
It seems that what Moran and Dr. Chen said was true—his skin was indeed immune to blades and bullets.
“No need to continue.” He picked up a towel and wiped the sweat from his forehead.
The trainer handed him a water bottle and asked, “Do you feel any discomfort?”
Discomfort? Not really.
Shen Siwei took off his small charcoal-colored oxygen mask, tilted his chin, drank water, and looked up at the ceiling with an empty gaze.
If he had to point out something he was not accustomed to…
Ever since he woke up from cryogenic sleep, it seemed difficult for Shen Siwei to experience emotions. Even after learning about his extraordinary physical strength and his lover, Moran, he didn’t have any thoughts or feelings about them.
Just as he was thinking about his lover, the lift door of the training room opened, and Moran, wearing black military boots, walked in.
“How are you feeling? It’s been two days since you woke up. Are you adjusting well?” Moran walked towards Shen Siwei while gesturing to the trainer with his eyes.
The trainer took the water bottle from Shen Siwei’s hand and left the training room on his own.
“Doing fine,” Shen Siwei said.
“Did you have a good dinner?”
“I just had some nutritional supplements, which are more convenient.”
That day, Moran had prepared a delicious dinner for Shen Siwei, but he didn’t touch it at all. After drinking the nutritional supplement, he went straight to the training room.
Delicious food, beautiful scenery—none of it managed to pique Shen Siwei’s interest. Since waking up yesterday, he had a feeling that his body was stronger but something deeper inside him remained frozen.
“You can try eating food,” Moran said, “You’ve been frozen for twenty-five years, so you’ve probably forgotten the taste of food, right?”
“I don’t need to.”
“Then, would you like to come stargazing with me later?”
“I don’t want to.”
Shen Siwei’s responses were extremely rigid, not because he had anything against Moran, but simply because he didn’t know how to interact with him as his lover.
In his memories, he had willingly participated in the body modification program, which had greatly saddened Moran. Perhaps… as the so-called lover, should he accompany Moran to go stargazing?
But Shen Siwei didn’t want to go; he felt it was a waste of time.
“Shen,” Moran sighed helplessly, “You don’t have to be so indifferent.”
Shen Siwei simply said. “Sorry.”
“Would you like to come to my place tonight?” Moran suddenly asked.
Shen Siwei was puzzled, “Go to your place?”
“You should know,” Moran placed his hand on Shen Siwei’s shoulder and lightly massaged the back of his neck with his fingertips, “there are many things lovers do that we need to catch up on.”
His frozen expression was like a bug in the system, causing Moran to quickly say, “Forget it, you should stay at the lab tonight.”
Shen Siwei’s gaze refocused, “Okay.”
“I’ll come to the lab to pick you up tomorrow morning,” Moran continued, “You’ll come with me to meet General Miller on the top floor.”
Everyone in the Tree of Life knew Miller; he was the highest leader and also the oldest person in the Tree of Life.
The previous day, when Shen Siwei had just woken up, he faintly overheard a conversation between Moran and Dr. Chen—he was awakened because General Miller had a mission for him.
At that time, Moran and Dr. Chen weren’t talking to him directly, so he couldn’t ask about it. But now that Moran brought it up, he could ask directly, “Can you tell me what General Miller wants from me?”
“It’s a small task,” Moran said, “Go to the lower level and find his son.”
“Find his son?”
“His youngest son went missing in Z city in the western district. You probably don’t know, but that area was once invaded by distorted monsters and is now classified as an area outside the Tree of Life.”
“Outside the Tree of Life…” Shen Siwei frowned.
“That’s right, so no one else can go.” Pausing for a moment, Moran added, “Except for you.”
If an ordinary civilian went missing outside the Tree of Life, there wouldn’t be any police officers searching for them. Because the survival rate for humans outside the Tree of Life was less than fifty percent, even if Miller sent a task force, there would certainly be members sacrificing their lives in vain.
But Shen Siwei was apparently more appropriate because he had the ability to protect himself and had a high probability of returning safely.
“However,” Moran suddenly changed the topic, “even though this is a task assigned to you by General Miller, if you really can’t find him, you don’t have to force yourself.”
Shen Siwei had a vague feeling that there was an underlying meaning in Moran’s words and asked, “Don’t have to force myself?”
“His youngest son is a scholar. How much chance do you think he has of surviving outside the Tree of Life?” Moran said, “So you can casually search outside the Tree of Life, and if there are no clues, just return directly.”
Shen Siwei neither agreed nor disagreed. Although he also believed that a scholar couldn’t survive outside the Tree of Life, he wasn’t the type to treat a mission half-heartedly.
“Also,” Moran continued, “instead of looking for his youngest son, since you’re going outside the Tree of Life, you can also look out for this wanted criminal.”
Shen Siwei asked, “Which one?”
Moran opened the palm-sized computer in her hand, projecting a page of a personnel file in the air.
“He is the main culprit in the abandoned area of Z City in the western district. Previous intelligence personnel have discovered that he can approach the deep-sea energy station., the military tried to go to the deep-sea multiple times and were repelled by deep-sea monsters. So he must have a special way of reaching the deep-sea and needs to be captured immediately and interrogated.”
The photo in the file was a screenshot from a surveillance camera, showing a man looking up at the camera from below, emitting a fierce aura that seemed to show through the photo.
It was strange; Shen Siwei was sure he didn’t recognize this man, but he felt as if he had seen the photo before.
“According to current intelligence, this person has been hiding outside the Tree of Life,” Moran continued, “General Miller certainly hopes you can find his youngest son, but to be honest, I think the hope is slim. I don’t think you want to make a wasted trip either, so if there are any clues about this wanted criminal, you might as well take a look too.”
Shen Siwei’s gaze left the photo and moved to the “Name” column.
Seeing a name that seemed oddly familiar, he couldn’t help but be slightly dazed and murmured softly, “klet?”
“What’s wrong?” Moran quickly asked, his expression appearing somewhat nervous.
“It’s nothing.” Shen Siwei shook his head with a calm expression.
He couldn’t describe it, but he felt…
His icy heart seemed to have skipped a beat suddenly.
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