Chapter 1 A Snowy Beginning

The cold wind carried snowflakes across the land, and everywhere one looked was a vast expanse of white snow. The distant mountains were hidden by the wind and snow, leaving only a series of faint, undulating shadows lying on the horizon. The only landmarks visible nearby were a swaying pine forest, its evergreen needles almost entirely covered in snow, leaving hardly a trace of green. Occasionally, a strong wind would blow through, causing the pines to sway, and snow would fall from the trees with a rustling sound, creating a cloud of white "smoke."

Hao Ren stood on the snow-covered plain, his legs almost submerged to the knees in deep snow. He looked back at the passage he had come through, only to find that the enormous black and crimson vortex of clouds had completely disappeared. Only one or two crackling crimson sparks of electricity lingered in the air, and the snow blown outward in a radial pattern showed that a powerful release of energy had occurred there.

He breathed out, a puff of white mist obscuring his vision: "Hah... the landing point is actually on a snow-covered plain?"

He tried to call the Data Terminal and Raven 12345 through the mental connection, and then tested several other backup communication channels. Unsurprisingly, he found that they had all been cut off. He knew this was the "security system" that Raven 12345 had mentioned taking effect: he was now located in Mirror Earth No. 2, which had been thoroughly contaminated by abnormal spacetime. This mirror was located within a safe sandbox, and until the contamination subsided, the safe sandbox would be in the highest level of security mode, and all internal and external communications would be cut off by the system. Raven 12345 should be able to learn about the state of Mirror Earth No. 2 from outside the sandbox through technical means, but direct intervention would be impossible.

Next, he could only rely on himself.

Carrying out a mission alone could bring great unease, especially in such a bizarre environment, but the ability to complete missions independently was a quality that a qualified inspector must possess. Although Hao Ren had not been on the job for long, he had never slackened off, so after a simple adjustment, he confidently began to explore this world.

The first thing to do was to determine his current location.

Hao Ren opened his dimensional pocket, and two probes emitting blue light appeared out of thin air and flew rapidly into the distance. The images transmitted back by the probes appeared directly in his mind. However, as the scan extended near the pine forest, the stability of the images transmitted back by the probes began to decline sharply, and various strange interference patterns filled the images. After a moment, the two probes were completely lost.

Hao Ren was stunned for a moment, and began to analyze the cause of this phenomenon, and vaguely had a guess: due to the influence of spacetime distortion, the time and space of Mirror Earth No. 2 were actually in a discontinuous state. The stable environment he saw was actually just a brief calm in a fragment of spacetime, so the means of detecting the surrounding environment through wide-area probes was not applicable here.

It seemed that he could only go down to earth and walk on his own.

The most useful detection method had a problem, but Hao Ren wasn't too discouraged. He began to observe the position of the sun and the surrounding vegetation, and recalled Vivian's historical range of activities, guessing roughly where he was currently located.

It was a pity that he could only observe the sun now. If it was night, he should be able to better determine his latitude and longitude by observing the starry sky.

"It should be the Northern Hemisphere... and the snow is underlaid with permafrost, and the surrounding plants are all things that grow in cold climates. Could it be that I've gone to Siberia again?" Hao Ren muttered to himself as he observed the surrounding environment. "Let me think... Vivian did operate in Siberia for a while in history. Her 'last stop' should have been in Siberia fighting the Nu Ling (Wrath Spirits)? That's right, the Andrei family of Siberia, the ancestor of this family was one of the followers Vivian received during this period. After Vivian finished fighting the Nu Ling, she fell into a deep sleep, and the Andrei family built a family castle near the Nu Ling seal... Then Vivian's sleeping place should also be somewhere near Siberia... That makes sense."

As he spoke, he took out a piece of silk cloth from his dimensional pocket. It was covered in "diary entries" written in dark red ink. This was Vivian's personal journal, which recorded her experiences over a considerable period, as well as a rough record of her falling into a deep sleep. In this space-time turbulence twisted by her memories, this was a crucial source of information.

Hao Ren compared it to the records in the journal. The last entry recorded Vivian's activities in Siberia. His guess was confirmed to be seven or eight points correct: the source of the spacetime distortion was Vivian, so every time he intervened in the spacetime turbulence, his landing point should be near her, and around one of her "major events." And Vivian's last sleep was likely to have taken place here, so it was normal for his first landing point to be in Siberia.

Of course, it was possible that Vivian had had sleeps that she herself didn't know about after this period, but this could only be regarded as a guess. Before there was other evidence, Hao Ren could only believe the journal in his hand.

But finding Vivian's sleeping place in this boundless snow-covered plain was not an easy task.

Because Hao Ren soon realized an infinitely坑爹 (kēng diē -坑爹 means "pit father", internet slang meaning something is a rip-off or disappointment) fact: Vivian would specifically choose uninhabited places before falling asleep each time, and would even deliberately bury herself underground or sink into the water to make herself extremely hidden. What was even more life-threatening was that Siberia was already a magical place where birds don't even shit. Three hundred years ago, the only breathing creatures in this place were basically bears and wolves, except for the hard-labor prisoners who were exiled here by Tsarist Russia to wait for death. He couldn't even find anyone to ask for directions here... Where could he find anyone on this vast snow-covered plain?!

He could only hope that his landing point was close enough to Vivian, preferably so close that he could accidentally kick Vivian's coffin lid after taking two steps forward, or that Vivian wasn't sleeping at this time and was going crazy, so she could at least make some noise for him to see...

While thinking about such irrelevant thoughts in his mind, Hao Ren strode towards the pine forest: compared to the completely unshielded snow-covered plain, the pine forest was at least a place that could shelter him from the wind and snow, and if Vivian really wanted to find a sleeping place, she should also look for a prominent landmark, at least it was unlikely to be on an endless plain, because the plain was suitable for human development, and the chances of being dug out while sleeping here were too high - this was a "sleeping secret" mentioned by Vivian during a casual conversation...

It was a pity that the things recorded in the journal stopped completely after entering this section of Siberia. Vivian's last sleep here caused her to completely forget this place, otherwise Hao Ren would be able to grasp more information now.

Of course, Hao Ren did not act blindly. While going deeper into the pine forest, he also completely released his mental power.

Using mental power to perceive external objects was not Hao Ren's forte, but when his own power became strong to a certain extent, a person's perception would become abnormally keen. Even Hao Ren, a jack-of-all-trades, could accurately scan within a few hundred meters of his body. Although this distance was not wide, it just avoided the interference caused by the discontinuity of this twisted spacetime, so even if the probe could not be used, he had other ways to quickly detect the surrounding environment.

He stopped not long after advancing in the pine forest.

Something was approaching around him, and there were many of them.

But after confirming what those things were, Hao Ren could only shake his head: just a pack of Siberian wolves.

He was still expecting some highwaymen to block his way and rob him - so that he could rob them back, and also ask for some information...

But thinking about it, in such a backward era, in such a godforsaken place, to go to Siberia as a group to be bandits, how缺心眼 (quē xīn yǎn – lack of heart-eyes, meaning stupid) would one have to be to do such a thing? At least there were rabbits passing by waiting for rabbits to hit the tree, but who would you rob in this broken place? It was better to dig potatoes and have a stable harvest...

Extremely subtle sounds came from the bushes in the distance. The wolves were obviously coming for Hao Ren, a lone "prey" who had broken into the forest. In this place, human power was insignificant. Wolf packs and brown bears were the overlords at the top of the food chain, and they would never let go of lone humans.

It was just that these hungry guys would never have imagined that they were going to gnaw on a very hard guy.

The wolves were very careful when surrounding their prey, and showed unexpected organization and intelligence, but in Hao Ren's perception, the positions of these creatures were as clear as the lice on Izhaks's forehead. They had approached to within a dozen meters of the surrounding area, which was an unbelievably close distance for wolves.

Hao Ren was surprised that they could endure to such an extent.

But the wolves' next actions made him even more confused: they didn't pounce up to bite, but cautiously and quickly exchanged positions around them. There were subtle sounds from the bushes, and if you looked closely, you could even see gray and white fur flashing through the gaps in the plants - what were these guys doing?

Hao Ren really hoped that Lily could be by his side at this time. It would be much easier for the husky girl to communicate with these canines.

After a while, the wolves still didn't mean to attack, but arranged themselves into various strange arrays around them. This strange behavior finally wore down Hao Ren's patience. He simply strode forward, and this time, the wolves finally couldn't hold back.

Accompanied by bursts of howls calling for companions, dozens of gray and white figures burst out from the surrounding bushes and trees. Their green eyes reflected the light of hunger, and the tips of their sharp fangs dripped with stinky saliva. These wolves had obviously calculated the angles and positions of their attacks precisely, and there were no dead spots when they pounced!

Then the fastest few wolves had their mouths full of teeth knocked out by the rigid shield.

Hao Ren touched his chin, feeling that this scene looked a bit familiar.

Then he swung his fists and knocked the Siberian wolves that kept pouncing over one after another into the air.

In the pine forest, the miserable howls of the wolves rose and fell, interspersed with the muffled sounds of fists hitting flesh. In almost an instant, only a ground of wailing gray wolves and patches of blood were left around Hao Ren.

Although Hao Ren only knocked them away, this fierce combat power still shocked the entire wolf pack. The few gray wolves that could still stand were standing far away with their tails between their legs, looking like they had completely given up fighting.

Just when Hao Ren thought the farce was over, a powerful aura suddenly appeared in his mental perception, and rushed towards him at an extremely fast speed!

He quickly looked up, only to see a high plume of dust rising in the pine forest, and at the front of the dust, a silver-haired girl in a leather jacket was rushing towards him with amazing momentum.

The girl's silver hair fluttered behind her head, but a pair of energetic pointed ears stood on top of her head, and her eyes were also different from ordinary people: in the sunlight, the pair of golden eyes shone like amber!

Hao Ren was stunned when he saw the girl: "Lily?!"