Chapter 1 The Scene

When the last piece of broken cement slab was pried open by two mercenaries working together, the scene beneath was revealed to everyone.

The tall mercenary standing in front looked down, patted Hao Ren on the shoulder, and sighed softly, "This godforsaken era, eh?"

A tragically battered blonde girl was pinned under the concrete rubble, having been dead for an unknown length of time. A horrifying wound pierced her chest and abdomen, almost allowing a view of the ground on the other side. Around the wound, flesh curled back, revealing what looked like electronic wiring. Upon closer inspection, these wires and tubes appeared to have grown together with the flesh. The girl lay on her back beneath the rubble, her vacant eyes wide open, as if her last sight before death was the sky. Bloodstains clung to her blonde hair, sticking it to her face and adding to the desolation.

Hao Ren: "..."

He felt the navigational signal of the data terminal emanating from this corpse, clear and precise.

"Terminal, do you know what you've become?"

"How would I know?" the data terminal's voice was energetic. "Damn it, all services have restarted, but I can't connect to the sensors. How did you get in this time? This teleportation is different from the others!"

Hao Ren: "...I suspect it's because your sensory mode has changed. You've now... become a corpse."

The data terminal's scream echoed in his mind: "Whatareyou saying?!"

Hao Ren didn't know how to explain it. He could only shake his head with a pained expression, bend down, and try to lift the corpse—whether human or cyborg—out of the hole. He waved to the mercenaries beside him, "Hey, you guys, give me a hand and lift these steel bars..."

"You..." Nolan watched the scene with a somber expression, her fingers gripping the rifle white-knuckled. She shook her head expressionlessly. "Understood. Ulanov, Karl, go up and help. Also… my condolences."

Hao Ren didn't quite catch the last sentence, as he was focused on carefully extracting the corpse to avoid further damage. After working together, the blonde girl's "corpse" was finally freed. Hao Ren took off his jacket, wrapped it around the horrifying wound in her chest and abdomen, slung her over his back, and smiled at Nolan, "Let's go. I don't know the way."

Hao Ren's face was stained with blood, making the smile look extremely bizarre – at least, to Nolan. She had seen many hysterical expressions on the battlefield. People who had lost loved ones were either angry, crazy, or desperate, but no one had ever looked like the guy in front of her, his face covered in blood, yet smiling as calmly as a normal person. She sensed madness hidden in that smile.

But in fact, Hao Ren genuinely just wanted to smile...

The mercenary wearing a fully enclosed helmet, whose name was Ulanov, couldn't help but ask, "You're taking her with you?"

"Yeah," Hao Ren nodded matter-of-factly. "It wasn't easy finding this one."

"I understand your feelings, but you should find a place to bury her," Nolan said calmly. "She's dead. Can't you see that?"

Hao Ren was stunned, realizing there was a huge misunderstanding. But he couldn't explain the situation, so he just gave a dry laugh, "Well... for special reasons, I have to take this one with me. And to be honest, it's not dead yet. Would you believe me if I told you I'm talking to it right now?"

Saying that only made the gazes around him even more complicated. The mercenaries, who were used to death and suffering, couldn't help but look away, thinking the same thing: this man must have gone crazy from the loss of his lover...

Ulanov, his expression hidden by the helmet, patted Hao Ren on the shoulder and said in a low voice, "You have to accept reality, or you won't last long."

Hao Ren thought for a long time but couldn't come up with a good reason to explain his motives. In the end, he could only put on a stern face and insist, "No matter what you say, I have to take it with me. Don't worry, I'll carry this one, and I definitely won't slow you down."

The mercenaries looked at him with pity and sadness, making Hao Ren's scalp tingle. His brain was a bowl of wontons. He could only curse the culprit in his mind: "Damn you! I've suddenly been thrown into the role of a tragic male lead, and the partner is you, you brick!"

The data terminal couldn't see the surrounding scene, but it could tell the current situation from Hao Ren's mental connection. The thing still sounded smug. "Look on the bright side. Maybe this isn't the worst thing that could happen?"

"Then tell me, what could be worse!?"

"Maybe you'll be mistaken for a necrophiliac…"

Hao Ren was grief-stricken, wanting to throw the thing off his back – just like he usually threw bricks. But he was afraid that such an impulsive action would lead to even greater misunderstandings. He could only grit his teeth and vow in his mind, "From now on, you can be a smart aleck, but every smart remark you make will be accounted for when we get back to the surface world!"

The data terminal finally fell silent. However, the silence in his mind only made Hao Ren feel relieved for less than half a second, because the mercenaries standing around him didn't know why this guy insisted on carrying a female corpse on the road: according to normal logic, the only explanation was a love tragedy worthy of two hundred thousand words.

Oh, of course, it could also be explained as necrophilia…

The exceptionally tall mercenary (named Karl) looked somewhat displeased, clearly thinking that letting Hao Ren carry such a burden was not a smart decision. But Nolan waved her hand at the soldiers, "Forget it, let him take it."

Karl frowned, "If we run into wanderers or rangers..."

Nolan glanced at Hao Ren and turned to walk away. "The pickup is almost here. Don't engage in combat until then. Yesterday's two recruits, go check if there's anything worth salvaging. The rest of you, follow me. Prepare to depart."

The mercenaries responded sparsely. The two young men ran to the fallen soldiers and retrieved a few intact pieces of equipment. The equipment displayed error messages indicating user mismatch, but after Ulanov fiddled with them, he said, "We can have the professor reset it when we get back. Natural's stuff, not too difficult."

It seemed that although these weapons had identity recognition features, they couldn't stop outsiders from stealing them: mercenaries who roamed the battlefield all day were good at this.

Hao Ren, carrying the data terminal that had become a teenage corpse (doesn’t that sound weird?), followed behind the mercenaries, embarking on a journey through this war-torn city. He mainly wanted to understand the current situation of this planet and whether there were any First Born or other guardians active here. Therefore, he focused on listening to the mercenaries' conversations, trying to piece together some world view from their words while preventing himself from inadvertently revealing anything suspicious.

But his focused listening and silence could be interpreted as a bunch of messy things – especially with the tragic blonde girl on his back, enough to bring tears to anyone's eyes just from looking at his back. Ulanov deliberately walked beside Hao Ren. This mercenary, who hadn't shown his face yet, seemed to be the most enthusiastic one in the seven-man squad. He casually started a conversation, "How did you two meet?"

Hao Ren was discussing with the data terminal in his mind about why the latter had turned into a corpse. Hearing Ulanov's words, he subconsciously replied, "Issued by work."

Ulanov stiffened and sighed unnaturally, "So you really are from the extremist conservative natural-controlled zone… I didn't expect the persecution of second-generation evolved to be this bad there."

Then he glanced at the girl’s corpse on Hao Ren’s back: “But you actually were willing to go this far for her...it seems that nothing is absolute.”

Hao Ren couldn't imagine what this guy was imagining, but he didn't know how to reasonably explain the current situation, so he simply let the other party continue to misunderstand. It saved him the explanation.

Hao Ren's silence led to more misunderstandings on Ulanov's part. The deep-voiced mercenary chuckled in a hoarse voice, "It's not easy for anyone in this world, is it? It seems that you finally couldn't stay in your hometown and decided to flee... Unfortunately, the lawless zone is more dangerous than you think. Although life is difficult in extremist cities, you can still survive as long as you are obedient. But here, accidents..."

Ulanov saw a strand of blood-stained blonde hair hanging on Hao Ren's shoulder out of the corner of his eye. He immediately stopped the topic, "Sorry, I said too much."

Hao Ren: "..."

This was the first time in his life that he had a real scandal.

The object was a brick.

He wanted to die.