Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
The wind howled, rolling up snowflakes in the land of snow. Mountains were swallowed in white, leaving only an undulating snowy landscape on the horizon. Nearby, the pine forest was the only landmark that was still visible. Those evergreen plants that grew in the cold region were now completely covered with snow with no trace of green to be seen. Occasionally, when wind blasted through the forest, the pine trees would sway and bring down the snow in a white blanket of icy-white dust.
Hao Ren stood on the snowfield, his legs planted knee-deep in the snow. He looked back at the portal from which he came; the massive black-red maelstrom had disappeared completely, leaving only a couple of electric arcs zapping in the air. The snow, which was flying in all directions, was the only indication that an intense energy burst had occurred a brief moment ago.
Hao Ren took a deep breath, and a white mist blurred his vision. “Brr, the landing point is in a land of snow?”
He tried to contact the MDT and Raven 12345 via the mental connection. He also tested several other alternative communication channels. Expectedly, there was only static. All communications were cut off. He knew that it was the security protocol that Raven 12345 mentioned earlier. Hao Ren was now located in second mirrored Earth, which was entirely blanketed by abnormal space and time in a sandbox. Before the contamination went away, the sandbox would run at the highest security level with all internal and external communications barred. Raven 12345 should be able to peek at the situation of Mirrored Earth II from outside the sandbox through some means, but it was impossible for her to intervene.
That meant Hao Ren was on his own.
Being alone in a mission was a little too daunting, especially when it was in a bizarre environment. But accomplishing a task independently was one of the ability a qualified inspector must possess. Hao Ren was still not very long in his job, but he never slacked off. So after adjusting his mindset, he began to explore the world with confidence.
First, Hao Ren needed to determine precisely where he was.
Hao Ren opened up his dimensional pocket. Two probes glowing in blue light emerged in the air and quickly flew into the distance. The probes sent back images directly in Hao Ren’s mind. Just when the probes went near the pine forest, the visual quality deteriorated rapidly. Various weird interference flooded his vision. After a while, he lost contact with the probes.
Hao Ren was stunned for a moment. He began to analyze what just happened and quickly gained some idea. It was the influence of distorted space and time. Space and time in Mirrored Earth II were discontinuous, where the stable scene before his eyes was actually a short-term calm in a piece of space-time fragment. So it was not suitable to explore this world using the probes.
It seemed that Hao Ren could only go on foot.
Despite losing his probes, Hao Ren was not discouraged. He began to observe the position of the sun and the surrounding vegetation and recalled the range of Vivian’s activities in history. By this, he tried to figure out his current location.
It was a shame that it was day time now, that meant Hao Ren could only use the sun as a reference. If it were at night, he could use the stars to know his current latitude and longitude on the planet.
“I guess it should be the northern hemisphere. Beneath the snow is the frozen soil, and the surrounding vegetation only grows in cold climate. Could I be in Siberia again?” Hao Ren said to himself while observing the surrounding environment. “Let me think. Vivian used to be active in Siberia for a while in the past. Her ‘last stop’ should be the combat with the vengeful spirit. Ahh, the Andrea family in Siberia! This ancestor of this family was one of the followers of Vivian during this period. Vivian went into hibernation after defeating the vengeful spirit while the Andrea family built a castle near to the seal of the vengeful spirit. That means Vivian’s hibernation location must be somewhere near Siberia. Yeah, it is most likely the case.”
While speaking to himself, he took out a piece of crepe from the dimensional pocket. He unfolded it. It was a diary that Vivian wrote with dark-red paint, her handwriting. The journal recorded a long period of Vivian’s experience and a brief mention of her falling into hibernation. This information was crucial in this turbulent flow of distorted space and time born out of Vivian’s memory.
Hao Ren carefully pondered about the handwriting. The last record was about Vivian’s experience in Siberia. It had more or less confirmed his guesstimate that Vivian was the source of space-time distortion, so every time he entered the space-time turbulence, the landing spot should be near to here Vivian was, and sometime before and after her ‘major activity.’ Vivian’s last hibernation was probably here, and it was only natural that he drop zone was in Siberia.
Of course, it was possible that Vivian could not remember she had had another hibernation in the period after this hibernation. But it was just a wild guess. Without other evidence, Hao Ren could only rely on the handwriting on the crepe.
But it was no easy task to find Vivian’s hibernation place in this vast snowfield.
However, Hao Ren soon realized a frustrating fact: every time Vivian hibernated, she would choose the remotest place where no humans would ever go. Sometimes she even buried herself underground or underwater. What made Hao Ren feel even more helpless was that Siberia was a freaking wasteland. Other than the prisoners who were exiled by the Russian Empire, bears and wolves were the only breathing creatures in this god-forsaken place. He could not even find a human here, how on earth he was going to find Vivian?
Hao Ren could only hope that when he passed through the portal, he would drop close enough to Vivian. Better still if he could stumble upon Vivian’s sleeping coffin in just a few steps. Maybe Vivian was awake and going mad at this time, she could make enough noise that led Hao Ren to him.
With these wild thoughts in his mind, Hao Ren slowly moved toward the pine forest. Compared to the unobstructed snowfield, the pine forest at least could provide some shelter from the wind and snow. If Vivian wanted to find a place to sleep, she would have looked for a venue like this, not on the snowfield. Hibernating in the snowfield would run the risk of being dug out by the humans. Vivian had mentioned this before to Hao Ren during a casual chat about her ‘sleeping secret.’
Unfortunately, the record on the handwriting stopped abruptly when it came to Siberia. The last hibernation made Vivian forget entirely about this place. Otherwise, Hao Ren could have more information in hand.
Hao Ren did not go into the pine forest blindly. He released his mind power as he slowly walked into the woods.
Hao Ren was no expert in perceiving foreign objects with mind power. But his physique was strong enough that his perception ability became very sharp. Even as half-baked as Hao Ren was, he was able to perceive anything that came close within several hundred meters from him. It might not be wide enough but just far enough to avoid the interference caused by the discontinuity of the distorted space and time. Now, even without the probes, Hao Ren could still quickly detect movement in the surroundings.
Not long after entering the pine forest, Hao Ren halted his steps.
There was movement in the surroundings—many of them.
But after knowing what those things were, Hao Ren shook his head. They were Siberian wolves.
At first, he thought it was some bandits, whom he could rob instead while extracting some information as well from them.
But then, that was impossible. Becoming a bandit in Siberia during this age of backwardness was insane. It was probably more feasible to do farming here than being a robber.
There was a very subtle sound in the bushes in the distance. The wolves had apparently locked on their prey, which was all by itself. Humans were at the lowest point of the food chain in this place while wolves and bears were the apex predators. They would never let go of a lone human.
But these hungry guys had no idea how tough this human was.
The wolves were very careful. When surrounding their prey, their organizational ability and wisdom were exceptional. But in Hao Ren’s perception, the position of each of these creatures was as conspicuous as the tick on Y’zaks’s head. The wolves were already at a dozen meters away. To the wolf pack, it was an incredibly close range.
Hao Ren was surprised that the wolves had not started attacking at this range.
But then, the subsequent movement of the wolves had Hao Ren scratching his head. The wolves did not lunge out to attack him but cautiously and swiftly swapping their positions around. There were subtle rustling sounds in the bushes. When looked closely, Hao Ren even saw grayish white fur moved behind trees. What are these guys doing? Hao Ren wondered.
Hao Ren wished that Lily was here. The husky maiden could easily communicate with these canines at least.
After a while, the wolves still held their ground. They just circled around. It was Hao Ren who ran out of patience. He strode boldly forward. This time, the wolf pack finally could not hold back.
Amid the howls, a dozen gray-white shadows lunged out from the woods in the surroundings. The green eyes of the wolves were filled with hunger. Stench saliva was dripping from their sharp fangs. These wolves had clearly made their move with precise angle and position of attack; there was no blindspot when they lunged at the prey.
Quickly, the few wolves that first bit on Hao Ren’s Steel Membrane Shield had their teeth broken.
Hao Ren scratched his chin as he found that this scene was a little familiar.
Hao Ren clenched his fists. One by one, he sent the wolves flying out backward with each blow of his fist.
In the pine forest, the wolves screamed and cried in pain accompanied by the muffled punches in the flesh. A moment later, there were only crying wolves and blood on the ground.
Hao Ren’s fighting ability shocked the wolf pack. A few gray wolves that could still move quickly ran with their tails between their legs and stood and watched from afar. It seemed that they had lost their fighting spirit.
Just when Hao Ren thought that the farce had ended, he suddenly sensed a hideous scent in the surroundings racing toward him.
He quickly looked up and saw white dust rising in the pine forest. In front a tail of snow was a silver-haired girl in a leather coat, lunging in his direction.
The girl’s long silver hair fluttered behind her as she ran. She also had a pair of striking, pointy ears on her head. Her eyes were extraordinary as they glowed in amber radiance under the sunlight.
When Hao Ren saw the girl’s face, he was stunned. “Lily?”
