The sun at seven or eight in the morning was still fine, but as Malken approached the underground city, the surroundings became increasingly hot like an oven.
In the distance, there was a rumbling sound, probably a sand collapse. Sand collapses were like whirlpools formed in the sand sea, and once humans or monsters were caught in them, there was little chance of survival.
Malken chose a route in a relatively safe area. Many refugees traveled back and forth between the underground city and Z City on this road without any accidents happening.
Continuing under the scorching sun for half an hour, the underground city finally appeared ahead.
The entrance to the underground city was hidden behind two huge rocks.
Malken parked his motorcycle in a shady spot, and just as he turned around to enter the underground city, he suddenly noticed something off on the ground.
there was a slowly moving object, larger in size than a motorcycle, with a shiny, thick tail behind it.
Damn, could things get any worse?
As Malken realized that the shadow was a distorted giant scorpion, the scorpion jumped down from the rock.
He didn’t have time to remove his weapon, so he could only roll to the side twice. However, the scorpion had twelve legs and moved incredibly fast. Just as he stabilized himself, he saw a large pincer coming straight down towards him.
He had to roll to the side again, and at that moment, with a loud “bang,” the large pincer above his head suddenly exploded. A tall figure holding a shotgun jumped down from another rock in front of him.
“Boss!” Seeing the familiar figure, Malken was so excited that he almost rushed over to hug Klet’s thigh.
Klet approached the scorpion while continuously firing his gun. After a while, the scorpion slinked over the rock and escaped.
“Have you been in the city for too long?” Klet put away his shotgun and glanced at Malken. “Can’t even handle a scorpion.”
“It caught me off guard!” Malken stood up and brushed the dirt off his pants.
Although he was scorned by his boss as soon as they met, he still extended his fist to Klet with a smile and said, “Long time no see, boss.”
Kret bumped his fist against Malken’s fist and then jumped into the underground city through the narrow entrance.
“Did you see the message I sent you?” Malken followed behind Klet, passing through the complex underground passages.
The passages had sufficient lighting because solar power devices were installed on the surface. Apart from the scarcity of water resources, life in the underground city wasn’t particularly bad.
“I saw it.” Klet opened a wooden door and entered a room about twenty square meters in size, or rather, a cave.
The room had no floor tiles or proper walls; it was surrounded by sand.
“Will you help us?” Malken asked.
“No.” Lazily spitting out a word, Klet lay down on the sofa and turned on the TV.
“Boss…” Malken immediately put on a sad face. “We really need you.”
In recent years, the Nightingales had been targeted by the authorities, and they had also tried to reveal the truth about the bombing incident five years ago to the civilians, but people still preferred to believe the mainstream media and labeled them as conspiracy theorists.
But just as Malken said that, he caught a glimpse of something on the TV screen from the corner of his eye.
He thought it would be another SpongeBob SquarePants episode, but it turned out to be surveillance footage from Klet’s old house.
He saw a golden figure hurriedly taking off a bathrobe and putting on a black jumpsuit, rushing out of the room.
If Malken remembered correctly, it was the afternoon of the bombing five years ago when the western district was invaded by distorted monsters. The negotiator was supposed to stay at Klet’s house but ended up joining the fight in this outfit.
The footage suddenly jumped back to the yellow sponge.
Obviously, Klet forgot what he was watching before he turned on the television. The quick transition of the footage indicated that he didn’t want Malken to see it.
“Hey.” Malken sighed, abandoning his casual tone. “You still remember him.”
Klet replied indifferently, “Just nothing else to do.”
“Even if you have nothing else to do…” Malken said in a low tone, then suddenly raised his voice, pointing at the TV screen. “How can you sneakily watch the negotiator changing clothes?”
Klet grabbed a pillow and threw it at Malken’s face. “It just happened to play up to that point.”
“Fine.” Malken took the opportunity to hold the pillow against his chest. “When you were fighting the desert wolves together, I’ve never seen anyone cooperate with you so seamlessly. You still care about him to some extent, right? Haven’t you ever thought about going back to the Tree of Life to find him?”
“Not looking anymore.” Klet stared at the TV intently. “If I can’t find him, I can pretend he’s not dead.”
As Klet spoke, there was a subtle hint of weariness in his tone.
Malken knew that the person Klet had been searching for for twenty years was already dead. Perhaps, as Klet said, if he hadn’t learned about that person’s death, he could still hold onto some hope.
“But you can’t stay in the underground city forever.” Malken sighed again. “Our grand mission is not yet complete.”
“Not interested.” Klet said. “Even if it’s completed, there’s no one to share the joy.”
“How is that possible?” Malken protested unhappily. “You still have me, your dear Malken.”
Klet replied, “Get lost.”
“Tsk, I see now, you’re someone who values romantic relationships over friendships.” Malken sat on the sofa, saying, “Well, I won’t leave.”
Outside the huge glass room was an endless sea of clouds.
The glaring sunlight was blocked by special glass, allowing only soft light to illuminate the room.
At the head of the long table, which could accommodate about twenty people, sat an old man wearing a white robe. The old man had gray hair, but his skin was in good condition, without any sagging or signs of aging, only a few wrinkles.
“Captain Shen, thank you and your mother for the contributions to the Tree of Life.”
The old man raised his champagne glass to Shen Siwei.
Shen Siwei also raised his glass and replied, “It’s an honor.”
The old man was Miller, the leader of the Marg tribe.
Over a hundred years ago, Earth was facing an energy crisis, and Miller and the leaders from the political and business sectors decided to build the Tree of Life and create a suitable environment for human habitation.
As the first residents of the Tree of Life, the people of that time did not fully enjoy the advanced medical technology, so to this day, only Miller is still alive.
Shen Siwei’s mother didn’t live long either; she passed away in her seventies. She dedicated herself to designing the Tree of Life, remained unmarried throughout her life, and only conceived Shen Siwei through advanced embryo cultivation technology.
After a brief toast, Miller signaled the servants to continue serving the dishes.
Shen Siwei held his knife and fork, looking at the steak on the plate, and a thought suddenly came to his mind.
So the Marg people don’t eat nutrient supplements, huh?
Wait a minute.
Why did he think of “that” just now? Was he curious about this before?
Beef… nutrient supplements…
A familiar déjà vu inexplicably arose, but at that moment, Miller’s voice interrupted Shen Siwei’s train of thought.
“Captain Shen, Amor is my favorite son, and I’ll trouble you again this time.”
“General, please rest assured.” Moran took the initiative to continue the conversation. “Captain Shen will do his best.”
Miller gave some more instructions to Shen Siwei, showing his great concern for this matter.
However, Moran’s attitude was completely different from when he spoke to Shen Siwei yesterday. He didn’t express any sense of “dim hope,” but instead kept reassuring Miller that his youngest son would be fine.
Shen Siwei quietly ate his steak, and another thought emerged in his mind.
His lover seems to be a bit inconsistent.
After the meal, Miller asked, “Captain Shen, are you done eating?”
Shen Siwei nodded and replied in an official manner, “I’m done.”
In fact, the taste of the steak wasn’t as good as the last time he had it.
When was the last time he had steak?
It should have been twenty-five years ago.
But for some reason, Shen Siwei felt like it was just yesterday.
Miller and Moran had other matters to discuss, so they let Shen Siwei wander around by himself.
After the study door closed, Miller put away his amiable attitude and looked at Moran expressionlessly, asking, “Are you sure he won’t cause any trouble this time?”
Without Miller explicitly stating it, Moran knew he was referring to the previous mission.
The Power Station – they only found out that the energy supply came from the deep sea, but after five years, the military still couldn’t access the deep sea.
Klet – they were willing to destroy an entire city to kill him, but later the military realized that the deep-sea environment hadn’t changed and they needed Klet to reveal the method of getting there. Not killing him turned out to be a good thing.
Setting aside the Power Station and Klet, even Shen Siwei, the military’s most advanced weapon, had problems.
So, to summarize, the mission from five years ago was a complete failure.
“He definitely won’t this time.” Moran lowered his head slightly and respectfully said, “In recent years, Dr. Chen has made new progress in memory sealing for Shen Siwei. He won’t remember anything from before. Yesterday, I deliberately mentioned Klet in front of him and even showed him Klet’s photo, but he had no reaction. So you can rest assured, he’s like a formatted weapon.”
“Additionally, we can now restore his cardiopulmonary functions with our technology, but just in case, we still keep that weakness, so there’s no need to worry.”
“That’s good.” Miller’s expression softened a bit. “This time he will leave the Tree of Life to capture Klet, but the primary objective is still to find Amor.”
“No problem.”
After parting ways with Moran, Shen Siwei walked through the long corridor and arrived at a standalone villa behind the main house.
Calling it a villa was inappropriate; it was more like a library encompassing human civilization.
Shen Siwei found a deluxe edition of “Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind,” sat down on the leather sofa in the hall, and started reading. After a while, the sound of footsteps echoed in the spacious space.
Following the sound, Shen Siwei saw a handsome man in a black suit walking in through the front door.
The man was tall, with a head of blonde hair, and bore some resemblance to Miller. Shen Siwei had seen him in the news before; he was Miller’s eldest son, Adolf, managing the largest business empire within the Tree of Life.
“Hello, Captain Shen.” Adolf sat down next to Shen Siwei, elegantly crossing his right leg over his left. “I’m Adolf.”
“Pleasure to meet you.” Shen Siwei closed the book in his hand.
“I heard you’re going outside the Tree of Life to find my younger brother.”
“Yes.”
Adolf rested his elbow on the armrest of the sofa, supporting his chin, and said, “I’ve reminded Father that Amor probably doesn’t want to come back, but he just won’t listen.”
Shen Siwei felt slightly puzzled. “Amor doesn’t want to come back?”
“Do you know what his profession is?”
“A university professor, sociologist.”
“Exactly,” Adolf said, “He’s always dealing with common people, and over time, he doesn’t want to return to the top levels anymore.”
“I see.” Shen Siwei pondered.
If Amor deliberately hid his whereabouts, that would at least indicate that he hadn’t encountered any danger.
“Not only that, but he also believes that the society within the Tree of Life is a distorted society,” Adolf continued and suddenly asked, “What do you think, Captain Shen?”
“I…” In Shen Siwei’s memory, he had never encountered such an unfamiliar concept before and couldn’t help but hesitate. He replied, “I think the stability of the Tree of Life is most important.”
“Exactly. Only when the common people obey the rule of the Mag people can the stability of the Tree of Life be maintained,” Adolf said with a touch of emotion, “My foolish younger brother.”
Shen Siwei didn’t know how to interpret that, so he chose not to respond.
To prevent the conversation from becoming awkward, Adolf asked, “Captain Shen, do you have any family members who give you headaches?”
“Me?” Shen Siwei’s gaze seemed to drift slightly. “I don’t have any family or friends.”
In reality, he still remembered his mother and his teammates. But even if he thought about these sentimental matters, there would be no emotional fluctuations after being awakened from cryogenic sleep.
“I heard that your mother is one of the main designers of the Tree of Life,” Adolf said.
“Yes,” Shen Siwei replied, “She was an engineer, primarily responsible for the design of the Power Station.”
“That’s truly remarkable,” Adolf said, “We should erect a bronze statue in her honor.”
“Um… thank you.” Shen Siwei didn’t know how to respond.
He knew that Adolf’s words were likely just pleasantries, but he shouldn’t be struggling with social interactions at this level.
“What about your friends?” Adolf asked. “You must have had teammates in the military.”
“I did.” The image of Lai Zhe appeared in his mind but quickly vanished. “They’re all dead.”
“That’s unfortunate.”
Shen Siwei still felt nothing. He finally realized something was wrong. His emotions seemed to have been frozen.
“Then you don’t have anyone important to you anymore?” Adolf asked again.
“I… don’t.” Shen Siwei said with uncertainty because deep down in his subconscious, he had a feeling that he had forgotten someone important.
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