Chapter 37: Long-Suffering Liu Ming. Liu Ming: Stop Pretending.

“So, what you’re saying is we need to find the culprit who sent Y006 to the mining area within twenty-four hours, right?”

After they regrouped, Yun Zhou accepted the reality quite readily. The excited Salvation captain was rubbing his hands together, ready to make a big splash at the Carnival. He was about to drag Liu Ming along to scout the Fifth District when he saw the other man shake his head coldly. “You guys go ahead. I have something to handle.”

Yun Zhou’s eyes widened. “Are you going to find that Panda Big Sister from last time?”

Liu Ming froze in place, blurting out in disbelief, “How did you know?”

Yun Zhou said something terrifying with a perfectly straight face. “Because that’s exactly what you did in the Third District! It’s fine, you go first, we’ll meet up later!”

As he spoke, he pulled Ying Huo and Du Shui away. He turned back just as the other two were looking on in confusion. At that moment, his silver-gray hair perfectly obscured his expression from Du Shui and Ying Huo’s line of sight, but Liu Ming saw it clearly.

When Yun Zhou said the words “meet up later,” his entire aura shifted abruptly. He placed an index finger to his lips and narrowed his eyes. For a fleeting second, those golden eyes turned into a distorted, blood-red hue.

That wasn’t Yun Zhou.

Liu Ming instinctively summoned his threads, preparing to attack. But in the next heartbeat, Yun Zhou reverted to his usual goofy self, skipping away as he dragged Du Shui and Ying Huo along.

He couldn’t help but wonder…

Could a soul really switch that quickly?

“And we’re off!”

Yun Zhou was moving so fast that the other two didn’t even have time to struggle. They only managed to shout back, “Liu Ming, stay safe on your own! Yun Zhou, slow down!”

Liu Ming: …

Liu Ming felt another sigh coming on. It was almost comical how that fellow, The Exile, had barely managed to log in before being booted back out.

The twenty-four-hour countdown was pressing. Since The Exile wasn’t currently occupying Yun Zhou’s body, Liu Ming didn’t have time to dwell on it. Avoiding the gazes of Mute and Jenny, he walked alone into the factory district managed by Jenny – the largest cluster of industrial parks in the Fifth District.

Before the change in the Fifth District’s leadership, this had been the core park managed by Sander. It was closest to the Fifth District’s largest Carnival Brass¹ mine. Due to the clustering effect of the industry, nearby industrial parks had gradually gathered here to share the abundant transportation and technical resources accumulated by the former District Chief.

The industrial parks of the Fifth District were similar to the cities of the Third District, serving as the basic units where humans lived and gathered. The internal streets were a complex maze. Aside from the towering mechanical devices used for extracting Carnival Brass standing by the roadsides, it was no different from a city in any other region.

It was early morning. The dawn was just beginning to bloom on the horizon, yet the roads were already filled with bizarrely decorated floats. Pot-shaped decorations on the floats burned with flames fueled by brass, reminding Liu Ming of the endless yellow fire beneath the brass mines.

The entire Fifth District was slowly waking up. Everyone was meticulously preparing for the annual Carnival, ready to pour out a year’s worth of exhaustion and repression into the float parades and frenzied dancing. No one knew that the underground veins of the Fifth District had already been swallowed by yellow flames.

Liu Ming moved through the industrial park, his footsteps guided by the silver-blue threads in his hand until he stopped at a small alley. After their deal in the Third District, Dian Zhu had stopped caring about her teacher’s warnings. Since she could help an old classmate and receive a very generous reward in return, why not enjoy a win-win situation?

Thus, she had given a strand of her mental energy to Liu Ming, making it easier for him to find her whenever he was active in any of the districts.

At the time, Liu Ming had found it uncharacteristically strange. “You mean I can find you promptly no matter which district I’m in? With all due respect, can you actually travel that fast?”

Dian Zhu had been quite confident. “Honest prices for all, no deception. Just come looking for me. If I’m not there, that’s my problem, and I’ll help you once for free.”

So, Liu Ming said no more. For Dian Zhu to become such a prominent intelligence broker in the industry, she certainly had her own trump cards. They were currently just client and merchant; there was no need to pry into the secrets she relied on for her livelihood.

Liu Ming entered the small alley. Though narrow, it was deep, and he couldn’t see the end at a glance. Only dark shadows covered everything within his field of vision. He walked forward a few paces, turned the corner at the end of the alley, and finally found a heavy metal door in the dim light.

The metal door was typical of the Fifth District’s style: heavy and sturdy, decorated with scattered fragments of brass that looked rather prickly to the touch. Liu Ming scanned the door with distaste. Finally, he sighed and, suppressing his germaphobia, pushed the door open.

…

It didn’t budge.

Liu Ming felt a bit awkward. He applied force again, but felt a surge of strength that didn’t belong to him coming from the door handle. Someone inside the door had grabbed the handle and pulled the hinges along with his push.

Behind the door, a pale face floated in the darkness. Below it was an old candle with wax piled up like a mountain, forming various patterns in the small tray.

Liu Ming took a step back and looked closely, realizing the face belonged to Dian Zhu, whom he had been searching for.

“Hello… you’re here later than I expected.”

Dian Zhu’s condition looked truly poor. Her face was pale, and there were dark circles under her eyes. It felt as though she hadn’t slept for countless days.

Liu Ming frowned. “…I remember it’s only been seven or eight days since we last met. How did you end up like this?”

“It’s a long story. If you’d come to the Fifth District a bit earlier, maybe I could have explained it to you…”

Dian Zhu let out a yawn. She looked exhausted, her spirit barely maintaining her consciousness. However, that sleepiness didn’t seem to stem from natural fatigue or a biological need for sleep; it carried an unnatural, eerie quality.

It felt as though an invisible hand were constantly trying to pull Dian Zhu into a dream, urging her to fall into a deep slumber as soon as possible.

Dian Zhu didn’t elaborate, and Liu Ming was tactful enough not to pry, but he quickly sensed another inconsistency in her response. “What do you mean, if I ‘could have come to the Fifth District earlier’… did you already know I was coming here?”

Dian Zhu paused mid-motion. She gave a dry laugh. “Wasn’t your arrival here arranged by Chairperson Black Swan? With my intelligence network, tracking the Chairperson’s movements isn’t exactly easy, but it’s certainly not impossible.”

Liu Ming gave a perfunctory smile at her deflection. “Then you must also know why I’ve come to find you. Is the intelligence ready?”

“Of course.” Dian Zhu nodded. She didn’t invite Liu Ming into the impenetrable darkness behind that heavy metal door; instead, she handed him an object directly.

It was an expandable data disk.

“Payment is the usual arrangement, though I might not be able to help you this time. After all…”

Dian Zhu forced a grim, unsightly smile. “This Carnival is a carnival in the truest sense of the word. Liu Ming, let me give you a piece of advice: it’s not too late to leave now. Otherwise, what you’re about to face is something you’ll never forget for the rest of your life… assuming you even have a ‘rest of your life’ left.”

Dian Zhu’s words were chilling, but Liu Ming remained unfazed. He looked up at her. “Since you know so much, can you see the end of this world?”

This time, it was Dian Zhu who froze. A look of intense disbelief flickered in her eyes, followed by resignation and a long, heavy sigh.

“Of course I can. Just look at who my teacher is… It seems your Liu Family knows quite a bit as well.”

Dian Zhu’s words were heavy with meaning. “But knowing a lot doesn’t mean you’ll make the right choice, Liu Ming. My opinion differs from the others. I hope… I hope you don’t walk toward the ending you’re currently headed for.”

Liu Ming simply waved his hand. “I’ll take that as a word of warning. Let’s not press each other about our choices; this level of distance is just right.”

He took the data disk. “Dian Zhu, until we meet again.”

Dian Zhu watched Liu Ming’s figure vanish into the dawn of the Fifth District. She looked up, trying to catch the sunlight on the horizon, but she jerked her head back down as if the light had scorched her.

“Liu Ming…”

Dian Zhu’s voice was raspy. “I truly hope this is the last time I ever see you.”

Liu Ming left the alleyway. Finding a corner of the street not yet covered by floats and festival decorations, he opened the data disk.

A translucent data screen expanded before him. To his surprise, Dian Zhu had been quite generous with the intelligence this time. It was a map of the Fifth District, marked with three points surrounding the central park of the district. Two of those points were moving constantly, appearing to be some kind of dynamic monitoring devices.

Liu Ming’s gaze swept over the three points, finally settling on the only one that remained stationary.

After roughly calculating the coordinates of that fixed point, Liu Ming’s hand began to tremble violently without warning.

Those coordinates… were identical to the location of the Y006 Anomaly Core he and Mute had seen earlier that morning in the underground activity area beneath the chalcopyrite mine, fixed by that strange ritual array.

It was the very center of the Fifth District’s largest chalcopyrite mine. With that as the hub, the branching ore veins surrounded the primary mine. Looking at the general direction of those extensions, they matched perfectly with the trajectory of the yellow flame trails he had seen surrounding the Anomaly Core underground.

But if that stationary point represented the Anomaly Core of Y006, then…

What were the other two points that were constantly moving?

What else could they possibly be?

The answer was staring him in the face, yet Liu Ming was reluctant to admit it. If even Dian Zhu had gone so far as to warn him, the situation had clearly reached a critical stage.

Liu Ming thought of the aura of wind, snow, and earth he had sensed back in that mine, and a chill ran down his spine.

Could Du Shui’s casual remark have actually turned into a prophecy?

Of the two moving light dots, one was in the wasteland outside the distant industrial park, while the other was very close, within the industrial park itself.

Liu Ming had no time to hesitate. He took off at a sprint toward the nearest light dot.

Dian Zhu’s teacher held a unique status; he was a classified figure whose files only Chairperson Black Swan had the authority to access within the entire Tower. With him behind her, Dian Zhu’s intelligence would not be wrong. That money-grubbing businesswoman wouldn’t ruin her own reputation by using a fake real-time data map to deceive him. Offending a major client like the Liu Family would be a calculation with all risk and no reward.

But that was exactly why… Liu Ming didn’t want to believe it.

How had things escalated to this point? Y008 had only just awakened, and Y007 was just beginning to show her potential. Why did it seem that, in an instant, the traces of Y006 Surtr and Y004 Fenrir² had also appeared in the Fifth District?

And the bullet chat… even the bullet chat had vanished because of this. In nature, weak lifeforms are acutely sensitive to the arrival of natural disasters. Did that mean the events about to unfold in the Fifth District were so significant that even his connection to the bullet chat was being affected?

What could it be?

Liu Ming didn’t dare think too deeply for the moment. He felt it was necessary to meet that fellow calling himself The Exile, the one hiding inside Yun Zhou’s body.

But only after he saw exactly what that light dot was.

The location of the light dot was within an abandoned industrial park.

This industrial park sat on the edge of the entire cluster. There wasn’t a soul nearby, creating a jarring sense of isolation compared to the bustling streets filled with Carnival parades.

On his way there, Liu Ming had seen more and more floats and parade-goers dressed in various local folk costumes taking to the streets. Almost every street and alley was packed with workers from different tribes holding wheat beers. They danced and cheered together until a massive parade float passed through the street and vanished at the end of the road. Only then would the crowd surge forward again—half of them chasing after the float, the other half staying behind to wait for the next one to arrive.

But that abandoned industrial park was different.

It stood isolated on the edge of the city. Before it lay beautiful streets where one could watch the Carnival parades; behind it stretched an endless expanse of yellow desert wasteland.

Liu Ming came to a halt, bracing his hands against his knees as he gasped for air. That brief sprint had already exhausted a month’s worth of exercise for a Guide like him. His vision swam with dark spots. He gripped a stone railing to force himself upright just as a violent explosion echoed from deep within the industrial park, neither too near nor too far.

Simultaneously, the glowing dot symbolizing danger on his digital map was closing in rapidly.

Liu Ming’s pupils constricted. Silvery-blue threads spread quickly into the surroundings, focusing especially on the site of the explosion, but they found nothing.

There was nothing there. A second later, another violent explosion erupted from a completely different direction. This one was closer. Liu Ming could even see the flash of fire reflecting off the concrete structures of the park buildings.

So fast!

In such a short span of time, the two combatants had moved such a vast distance…

Liu Ming was still pondering who it could be when, in the next heartbeat, the two individuals causing the commotion appeared before him.

“Stop running! I’ve got you! You’re the mastermind who helped Y006 siphon the power of the chalcopyrite! Get out of Brother Yun Zhou’s body right now!”

A boy in a yellow hoodie flew through the air. He leaped from a dozen stories up without a second thought, a wave of explosive fire trailing in his wake.

“Hilarious. The Chief of the Fifth District can’t even recognize the real culprit. I don’t think you should be Chief anymore. Better I bury you under the chalcopyrite as soon as possible.”

The person being pursued was backlit, making his features hard to discern, but Liu Ming knew that voice and tone all too well.

“Talk of the devil…” Liu Ming muttered. “But how did these two end up fighting?”

Liu Ming rubbed his chin. He didn’t move to stop the war between the two Sentinels, instead standing his ground to think.

Though the person Mute was chasing was obscured by the light, Liu Ming could never mistake that silhouette or that tone of voice that looked down on everyone.

It was The Exile, the other consciousness within Yun Zhou’s body.

“You still dare to talk big! Believe it or not, I’ll blow you to smithereens and hammer you into the concrete!”

Mute was still young and hadn’t learned how to swear properly. Having his sore spot poked clearly left him fuming. His hand shook as he pointed at The Exile. “Don’t run! Come back here!”

As he shouted, he hurled another piece of chalcopyrite. The small ore landed with pinpoint accuracy behind The Exile, erupting into a sudden, violent burst of orange flame and a massive explosion.

However, The Exile wasn’t affected by the shockwave at all. Instead, he vanished from the spot. Mute looked around warily, searching for any trace left by the disappeared man, but found nothing.

Until a silvery-blue thread appeared before him, guiding him to look upward.

“Yo, another one arrives. Young Master Liu, do you plan on being this little District Chief’s helper this time?”

The Exile, occupying Yun Zhou’s body, was nonchalantly tossing the miniature Vajra Pestle in his hand. He leaned against a window sill where the concrete was exposed, propping his head with one hand. He looked down with a thin, mocking smile at Liu Ming, who had stepped out from behind Mute with silvery-blue threads still coiled around his fingertips.

“Brother Liu Ming! What a coincidence! We’ve met again!”

Mute’s eyes lit up the moment he saw Liu Ming. His expression shifted instantly from fierce to something resembling a puppy seeing its master.

To his surprise, Liu Ming shook his head. “I never said that. I’m just here looking for clues. As for who gives them to me, I don’t really care.”

“Spoken like a true member of the Liu Family. Young Master Liu, won’t you take a look to your side? The little puppy Chief of the Fifth District looks like he’s about to cry.”

“Eh?!” Mute’s invisible ears instantly drooped, though a Beagle’s ears were always hanging down anyway.

Liu Ming sighed. “Alright, alright, I’m teasing. Of course I’m on your side.”

As long as you can win.

Looking at the instantly cheered-up Mute, Liu Ming silently added those words in his mind with a twinge of guilt.

Now it was The Exile’s turn to be displeased. He even began to speak up for Mute’s sake. “The kid is pathetic enough as it is. Stop lying to children!”

Liu Ming shot him an annoyed look. “Who’s lying?”

He spoke with a hint of a sulk, lacking his usual sharp thorns. It caught The Exile off guard. Is this really Liu Ming? He didn’t even try to tear me apart from head to toe?

Liu Ming secretly felt a sense of relief. Finally, it’s quiet. Putting The Exile and Mute together was no different than watching two Beagles fight.

The three of them, each with their own hidden agendas, reached a delicate balance. The Exile knew this was a rare opportunity to sit down and talk. He gripped the Vajra Pestle, tapped it lightly against the wall for leverage, and jumped down. He walked over to the two of them and sat down again with casual abandon.

“You’re getting Yun Zhou’s clothes dirty.”

Liu Ming looked at the hem of The Exile’s clothes touching the bare ground with pure disgust. That look made The Exile’s forehead twitch. Feeling like he was sitting on needles, he eventually gave a cold snort, stood up, and found a concrete slab to sit on instead.

“Brother Liu Ming! Did you find any clues?”

Mute seized the opening, using business to start the conversation. He didn’t ask unnecessary questions. Though young, he had the resolve of a District Chief. He chose to ignore Yun Zhou’s strange behavior and the overly familiar attitude between Liu Ming and the man suspected of being the mastermind.

In his eyes, there was only the survival of the Fifth District.

“Some clues, but it’s almost better if I hadn’t. Our points of concern have suddenly jumped to three.”

Liu Ming sighed. The news brought by Dian Zhu was too terrifying. He was finding it hard to maintain his usual composure; his speech and actions had become much more casual.

This was a dangerous sign. Under normal circumstances, Liu Ming would never let his guard down to this extent. But in the two short weeks from the Third District to the Fifth District, he had become far too exhausted, to the point where he couldn’t even sustain his own vigilance.

Fortunately, as soon as he looked up and saw those two idiotic faces, he quickly convinced himself: maintaining vigilance in front of these two was a complete waste of his mental energy.

“What do you mean… ‘it would be better if there weren’t any’?”

Mute looked dazed. Beside him, the Exile sneered as he tried to brush the dust stains off his Tibetan robes. “Heh, you can’t even figure that out and you’re still a District Chief? Little dog, it means there are three other beings out there as strong as I am.”

Mute was on the verge of baring his teeth at the Exile, but the Exile was feeling quite good about himself, his smile widening. “I told you long ago, I’m not the lunatic you’re looking for—the one who burned all the Carnival Brass in the Fifth District’s underground. That lunatic’s allies are the Liu Family. If the Liu Family wants to hide someone, there isn’t a person in this world who can find them.”

The Exile’s smile was incredibly punchable. Even though they shared the same face, no one would associate him with Yun Zhou right now. “But as luck would have it, I happen to be long-time mortal enemies with that lunatic your Fifth District is hunting. I can provide clues about her. Do you want them or not?”

Liu Ming: …

If the Exile was putting it that way, it seemed the mastermind behind the Fifth District was indeed Y007 Hela. Hiss… should he tell this stupid wolf that the map he got from Dian Zhu showed the other party’s real-time location?

Mistaking Liu Ming’s silence for him weighing the pros and cons, the Exile’s grin grew even broader. “You can’t do this without me right now, understand? To keep this hard-won ‘Happy Ending’ plot from going up in flames, why don’t you… try begging me?”

“Maybe I’ll be moved all of a sudden and show some mercy by telling you the true identity of the mastermind.”

The Exile kicked back like a lord, crossing his legs.

Liu Ming stood up, grabbed Mute, and turned to leave. “In that case, I’ll just go do business with Y007. I’m sure Hela won’t be as difficult as you.”

“Hey?! Hey?! Hey?! Dammit, don’t actually leave! Yun Zhou! Get out here! Stop your Guide! Yun Zhou, stop playing dead!”

The Exile instantly bolted upright from the concrete slab, shouting as he smacked his own head.

The atmosphere suddenly fell silent. The Exile’s voice grew quieter and quieter as his movements came to a halt.

Liu Ming whipped his head around as if sensing something and watched him quietly. The Exile froze, his expression turning stiff.

The seconds ticked by.

Inside this body, Yun Zhou offered no reaction at all.

Translator’s Notes