QT: LAC Chapter 122: Eighth World (5)

Chapter 122: Eighth World (5)
Translated by Zombie Shiya of Exiled Rebels Scanlations
Editor: Sulo

Although Bai Duan was suspicious and wary of the unexpected visitor who suddenly arrived at night. Ten minutes later, he still sat in the room face to face with him.

The intruder put his hands in his pockets, looked around the room, and raised a casual smile, “It seems that you have been spending a good time here!”

“It’s been all right,” Bai Duan was on guard, seeing how this man had no self-consciousness of being a ‘guest’. He didn’t know what to say.

The person said his name was Nie LanLei. It seems that he was only sixteen or seventeen years old, but his temperament was far from what young people of his age should have. He was not only calm and sophisticated, but also mysterious and dangerous. He was particularly attractive. Even if one didn’t pay attention, they would surely notice him.

“Why did you come here so late?” Bai Duan still hadn’t rested his mind yet. His gun, however, had been lowered.

“Of course, it’s to seek protection!” Nie LanLei shrugged his shoulders and spread out his hands. “I’m only one person so of course, I have to choose a place with less zombies to escape to. The vast and sparsely populated western mountainous area is a good choice. However, I found that all the farmhouses along the way were almost cleaned out by people. I was not very willing to go back to the city so I continued to walk, but I didn’t expect that when I reached an even more desolate place, I would find this house here.”

“There are so many dogs in the yard, are you not afraid?” Bai Duan raised his eyebrows.

“It’s good to have dogs, isn’t it?” Nie LanLei blinked and chuckled, “These dogs bark fiercely, but at first sight, I knew they were trained and are not wild dogs. Besides, there are cultivation fields around, which only shows that there is someone living in this house. This makes it even more logical for me to stay here.”

“Aren’t you worried that there might be a bad person living in the house?” Bai Duan frowned slightly.

“I believe that people who are able to find such a beautiful place in the end of the world, who keep dogs, grow farms and stand aloof from the rest of the world, must also have a pure mind. And even if it’s a bad guy, I have the ability to protect myself.”

“You are an esper?” Bai Duan slightly squinted.

“Yes, I’m a spiritual type esper. I’m strong, so I was able to come here on my own,” Nie LanLei’s tone was full of confidence.

“If you are a strong esper, I suggest you go to the military base in the south of the city, where a strong esper such as yourself will be very welcomed. I’m sure you can show your strength and get good treatment,” Bai Duan suggested.

“Military base? I also know about that place, and I have also heard that the internal fighting among forces there is becoming more and more intense. I don’t like that kind of environment. I’d rather come to a place like the western mountainous area and find a treasure land of geomancy, and live a leisurely and self-sufficient life.”

Hearing Nie LanLei’s words, Bai Duan was naturally happy to meet a confidant, and nodded, “I think so, too! So I left the military base and came here.”

“It seems that we share the same aspirations,” The smile on Nie LanLei’s face deepened a little, and his gaze on Bai Duan was very sincere, “It must be the so-called like attracts like. Since we are so compatible, why not live together?”

Bai Duan, who was blindfolded by the big jump of the topic, “………”

“What? Is my proposal good?” Looking at his stunned lover, Nie LanLei pasted it up and sat next to him and said, “I believe that we will love each other and be harmonious and happy.”

Bai Duan, “Get the hell out of here!”

Although Bai Duan felt that Nie LanLei’s motive for coming to the western mountain area was not as innocent as he said, and he was also angry with the other side’s sudden flirting that made his heart pound hard, in the end, Nie LanLei was allowed by Bai Duan to stay in the house for the night. Once morning came though, of course, he would have to get out of the house.

For Bai Duan’s relentless deportation, Nie LanLei didn’t pay any attention to it. He was in a happy mood and laid on the floor. Then he stretched out and sighed happily, as if he was sleeping on a soft Simmons mattress.

Bai Duan also blew out the candle and went back to bed, wondering why he was so kind and took such an unknown and threatening ‘stranger’ in for the night.

Bai Duan lived in a small house, so his wooden bed was very close to the floor where Nie LanLei was. Bai Duan could hear the other’s soft and soothing breathing clearly, as if he was close to his ear.

Bai Duan was not used to being so close to others when he was sleeping. He thought he would stay up all night and keep alert, but as he listened to the breathing sound of the other party, Bai Duan’s tense brain and nerves became more and more relaxed. Before long, he fell into a deep sleep without any struggle, even more relaxed and sounder than when he was alone.

Of course, Bai Duan didn’t know that after he was asleep, Nie LanLei on the floor sat up, went to the bed and sat down. His eyes were soft and clear, emphasizing his delicate features. Later, he didn’t seem satisfied with just that. He even moved down, and landed a kiss on the corner of Bai Duan’s mouth.

After a few months and nearly half a year, Nie LanLei finally found his lover, and his thoughts were just like a river. God knows how eager he was to rush into his lover’s house and hug him, and then press him on the bed to have a good time.

——However, his lover pointed a gun at him.

The ineffable Nie LanLei was in a complex mood, “………”

Fortunately, although the first meeting was not friendly, Nie LanLei still managed to enter his lover’s home, and sleep under the same roof as him. After that everything would be easy. As long as he had the opportunity of being near him, then Nie LanLei would definitely become his one and only true love. It would absolutely happen — no accidents were allowed.

With a slight sigh of relief, Nie LanLei carefully changed into a more comfortable position, raised his legs, put one hand on Bai Duan’s waist, and the other hand on his chin, staring at his sleeping face under the moonlight. Even though he was exhausted on the way here, Nie LanLei’s spirit was very excited, and he was not sleepy at all.

This world was also an unexpected task, so Bai Duan was born an orphan again.

However, it was different from the situation in the West fantasy world where the world was on the verge of destruction and was forcefully altered. This world had fallen into turbulent times and had an uncertain future due to the emergence of the variation factors.

The so-called ‘variation factor’ was the “Apocalypse Virus’ in this world, which had the probability to appear in any world. If the evolution succeeds, it would push the world to a higher level and generate more energy. Of course, any evolution is risky, so this process needed the intervention and observation of the Maintainers. It was necessary, in order to prevent the world from collapsing, and to guide it to successfully evolve and change.

When variation factors appear, different individuals would have different responses to them. The variation factors in this world mainly act on human beings. After coming in contact with the variation factors, some people’s gene chains were extremely stable. If the virus was not directly introduced into the body, they would maintain the status of ‘ordinary people’. But some people’s gene chains were more active and could be slightly affected by the variation factors, so that they would have the esper powers under the influence of virus. And other people’s genes were very unstable, so they would be deeply affected by the variation factors, and become zombies, a new species.

The birth and evolution of new species must go through a long process, just as it took millions of years for human beings to evolve from the ape without self-awareness to human beings. Although the variation factors greatly promote the speed of this process, it would still take decades or even hundreds of years for new species to evolve to be able to match or even surpass the existence of human beings.

As the saying goes, “One cave can’t house two tigers”, it is impossible for human beings to wait for their dominant position in the world to be replaced by another species, so there is bound to be conflict between the two sides.

It might result in human beings relying on their current wisdom as advantages to defeat the new species and become new humans with more abilities, with stronger physique and adaptability; it might also result in all human beings getting killed and withering away by new species which had more tenacity and higher potential value; of course, there could also be a situation in which both sides reach an agreement and coexist peacefully after both sides bled and no one could defeat each other anymore.

As an outside Maintainer, Nie LanLei would never intervene in the fight between the two sides unless there was a major accident that would cause both sides to lose and die together. Maintainers needed to stand in a neutral position, neither favoring nor hindering the growth and evolution of any species. Only when they defeated each other in species selection could they create a new world leader who would be more outstanding and strong.

Nie LanLei doesn’t know how long this process would take. The big possibility is that even when his body reached the end of its life, he would still be unable to see the result. When Nie LanLei’s life is exhausted and leaves this plane, he would be replaced by a new Maintainer, who would continue to observe the evolution of the world until a new leader was born and the plane returned to stability.

As part of this, Nie LanLei needed to record his observations and hand them over to his successor. So that the other party could understand the process of the world more easily and quickly.

Of course, in addition to the observation records, Nie LanLei also carried the ‘branch task’, that is, to complete the original’s wish and pay the ‘cost’ of using the body.

In this era of moral decay and law extinction, innocent people die every day with hatred, so it was very easy to find a body and attach to them. And the “original body’ that Nie LanLei chose was also a common one among many dead people.

His birth mother died and his father remarried quickly, which not only made him have a stepmother, but also an illegitimate little brother. After that, the original’s position in the family also fell rapidly.

Before the end of the world, he was ignored by his father, bullied by his illegitimate younger brother, driven away by his stepmother, and finally when he arrived at the end of the world, he was pushed into a hoard of zombies by his stepmother who was unwilling to take a useless burden with them.

At the moment when zombies knocked him down, he reached an agreement with Nie LanLei. However, even though Nie LanLei was well prepared, in this critical situation, he still got bitten by the zombies several times.

Nie LanLei was very confused about being infected with the Apocalypse Virus as soon as he entered the world. Without Bai Duan, he didn’t care whether he was human or zombie — he had a strong mental power. Even if he became a zombie, his mind won’t be wiped out by the mutation factors like ordinary people.

However, Nie LanLei still remembered his commitment to his lover’s ‘reincarnation’ in the last world. Of course, if he became a zombie, Nie LanLei would remain rotten and disgusting for a long time.

This was a necessary process for the evolution of species, and even Nie LanLei cannot violate this natural law. His various internal organs would stop working in the process of evolution, and the whole person would be like a walking corpse; his skin would also rot and fall off, making room for new and stronger body surface attachments. There are many aspects of such changes, even if he further accelerated the upgrade of the variation factors, and completed the whole evolution process faster than any other zombies, then finally even he wouldn’t know what kind of creature he would become.

Nie LanLei couldn’t let his lover see his disgusting and horrible appearance, and couldn’t stand to be far away from his lover to wait for the evolution that might take years or even decades to complete.

After confirming that he was infected with Apocalypse Virus, Nie LanLei chose to cheat and buy drugs from the system to inhibit the factor and slowly swallow the virus up — so that his species would neither be human nor zombie, but the intermediate between them, maintaining a delicate and dangerous balance under the action of drugs. It took Nie LanLei several more months to grow his flesh back and make sure that he was in human form. Of course, during this period, he did not have nothing to do, but quickly completed his branch task, and achieved the desire of ‘original body’ — revenge. In the end when such killing had become common, revenge was really enjoyable for Nie LanLei.

As for the stepmother who pushed him into zombies, Nie LanLei gave her to the zombies as food as well; as for the illegitimate younger brother who had been causing physical and mental damage to the original body, Nie LanLei destroyed the esper power he just got, so that he could only be an ordinary person for life; as for the biological father who ignored the original body, Nie LanLei also ignored him and let him take his one and only son who was arrogant and willful and could never have esper powers again to struggle for survival in the world together.

As for what would happen to the two afterwards, whether they would still be ‘father and son who cared for each other’ or ‘enemies’, Nie LanLei didn’t care. Anyway, from the perspective of his numerous lives, they would never have a good life, he was also sure they would not be able to survive in the end of the world.

After taking revenge for the ‘original body’, Nie LanLei, who was all light and happy, finally ‘tracked’ his lover’s location down with the system’s guidance. He found his lover hiding in the western mountains.

Nie LanLei was very satisfied with the place where his lover chose to live. After all, as a Maintainer, he should not go outside to stir up the wind and rain, so as not to affect the process of natural evolution. As such, to live with his lover in the seclusion of the mountains, farming and flirting, and living in a two person world was his dream life!

——He and his lover really have a connection in their hearts!