Chapter 155: One Punch Hit
Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations
Editor: Karai
This had originally been an impulsive guess Lin Xu blurted out. His condition was bad enough already; even if he was wrong, it couldn’t get much worse. But Alfred was only somewhat surprised and then immediately acknowledged his identity without hesitation.
Lin Xu remembered that the first time he met the emperor, the emperor’s expression and demeanor were completely different from how Alfred now presented himself through this body. However, their subsequent meetings, looking back now, all clearly showed Alfred’s style.
“Easy to recognize,” Lin Xu slowly shifted himself to the edge of the bed. The electric shocks from the inhibitor ground back and forth on his wound, and a few muffled groans slipped between his teeth. Lin Xu sat on the floor, leaning against the bed’s edge, and spoke to Alfred, “Blond hair, blue eyes, just like the old you. Your bone structure and features are similar too. What, did you plan ahead to one day wake up and purposely match a breed for yourself so you could find some familiarity on this face hundreds of years later?”
This cell was basically the same style as the one from three thousand years ago—cold and dim, with no extra decoration. It seemed the previous white room had been specially prepared by Alfred for Lin Xu. Alfred did not answer Lin Xu’s question, but instead asked, “Does it hurt?”
“What?”
“The electric shocks.”
“You can try it yourself.”
“No,” Alfred joked, “I’m just an ordinary person. If I got shocked like that, I’d die instantly.”
When ability-users mutated, their bodies were generally enhanced, requiring dozens of times more electric current to suppress their willpower. As Alfred said, such an amount of electricity could kill an ordinary adult male on the spot.
“That was your plan at the time. You knew this very well,” Alfred said.
At the beginning of the apocalypse, ability-users’ powers had just started to appear, becoming a major help for humans to fight zombies and mutated flora and fauna. But from the start, the administrators realized the uncontrollable nature and danger hidden within these powers.
Research into ability inhibitors was quickly put on the agenda. It took a full ten years to develop electromagnetic suppression technology. Before its emergence, humans controlled ability-users deemed threats with another method. That was the electric shock neck shackle in front of them.
This design concept was originally proposed by Lin Xu. Because the technology was simple, engineers finalized the internal and external designs and quickly put it into production. Even the strongest ability-users could not resist the intense shocks tightly pressed against their necks.
The Eastern District shared the blueprints with the Northern District. When Alfred saw the name “Lin Xu” written on the blueprint edges as the designer, he made a special satellite call, “Isn’t this method too harsh? Our base’s ability-users were pretty unhappy about this device’s designer. Didn’t you encounter opposition?”
“I did. Doesn’t matter.”
Alfred joked, “What if one day I awaken as an ability-user? Wouldn’t I have to wear the electric shock neck shackle you designed?”
“…We only used inhibitors on those judged to be highly dangerous ability-users. It’s protection, not a shackle.”
“But who’s dangerous depends on your judgment.”
At that time, Lin Xu didn’t continue responding to Alfred’s poor joke. Later, Alfred never awakened any abilities; instead, Lin Xu unexpectedly did.
Whenever Lin Xu underwent a new ability transplant or experienced fluctuations in his mental state, the chief physician would have him temporarily wear the inhibitor to prevent his powers from running wild and causing irreparable consequences. Lin Xu had no objection to this.
The prison cell had no windows; only a small window above the corridor where Alfred sat let high-altitude light spill inside. Lin Xu said, “Yes, I understand. Now that we have met, can you take this thing off me?”
“No,” Alfred replied, meeting Lin Xu’s cold and sharp gaze. “You are dangerous.”
Lin Xu turned his head to look at Alfred. The pale sunlight fell on his face, casting sharp shadows across his features. In Alfred’s memories, Lin Xu often showed a deceptively gentle appearance when facing strangers, and because of his handsomeness and intelligence, he could win favor during first meetings.
But memories always beautified themselves. So when Alfred left Earth with the Ark Fleet, he brought three photos of Lin Xu with him. One was cut from a graduation group photo, and the other two were secretly taken while Lin Xu was reading and writing.
Whenever the Ark Fleet’s affairs allowed, Alfred would take out those three photos to correct his memories.
One time while reviewing the photos in his room, he first encountered the Spiritual Monarch. The Spiritual Monarch used Lin Xu’s face, Lin Xu’s voice, and Lin Xu’s figure. At first, Alfred thought his brain had been warped by cosmic radiation, producing some hallucination.
But it turned out the Spiritual Monarch really existed and, for some reason, this alien lifeform took Lin Xu’s appearance. Alfred could only guess that when the Spiritual Monarch came to the Ark Fleet, the first thing it saw was those three photos in Alfred’s hand.
It couldn’t directly copy the appearance of anyone on the ship—two identical-looking people existing simultaneously always horrified humans—and since Lin Xu was long dead and hard to resurrect, the Spiritual Monarch chose this form.
Alfred knew this was an arrogant and conceited guess. But he was someone who considered himself extraordinary. He knew Lin Xu was the same.
Lin Xu closed his eyes. “Fine, I am dangerous. Alfred, I have a question. I read Marion’s history. The Imperial Empire’s first founder clearly married, had children, and died peacefully. Why are you still alive?”
“Just a clone,” Alfred did not avoid telling Lin Xu this. “Why live? I want to live, that’s all. Hibernation technology kept me alive until now, but the original body aged and became useless, so I transferred my consciousness into a descendant’s body.”
“You don’t just want to live, you want to live youthfully and in glory and wealth,” Lin Xu said flatly, with a hint of mockery.
Alfred replied, “Just like you.”
No matter how much they discussed the dangers of ability-users here, or how cruelly they controlled them, Alfred’s envy and craving for abilities in his heart could not be erased—especially after Lin Xu awakened his abilities too.
In Alfred’s impression, Lin Xu seemed never to have borne the marks of time from beginning to end.
Lin Xu was still young during his studies. After the war broke out, the two had no private contact until Lin Xu took power in the Eastern District. Occasionally, the districts held video calls.
Later, Lin Xu originally planned to meet Alfred in the Northern District, but on the way, he was attacked and awakened his abilities. That meeting was ultimately canceled.
The abilities and genetic modifications had returned Lin Xu’s body to peak condition, maintained to this day, while Alfred relied on hibernation technology, sleeping and waking, spending over a hundred years on the Ark Fleet, already old and feeble.
“What else do you want?” Lin Xu asked. “If you think my existence is a threat to you or to the Marion Empire, you can kill me now—just like you killed Rolson.”
If previously the two could still talk as if recalling old feelings, secretly harboring their own intentions, Lin Xu’s words now would completely shatter the pretense between him and Alfred.
They were no longer comrades or cautious friends probing each other. This was a standoff between a beast and a hunter. But Alfred froze for a moment. His expression blanked briefly, as if he was struggling to organize his thoughts inside.
“I didn’t mean to… kill you.”
Lin Xu’s gray eyes stared intently at him. Alfred opened his mouth but didn’t know what to say next. He fell silent, his gaze drifting restlessly over Lin Xu.
His black hair stuck to his forehead with cold sweat, and the pain from the electric shocks had bitten deep marks into his lower lip. Lin Xu’s voice sounded calm, but when the two of them quieted down, Alfred heard the trembling in his breathing. The edges of the charred wound on Lin Xu’s neck were red and purple, and the veins twitched.
The spasms and pain caused by the electric shocks hadn’t subsided yet. Lin Xu was merely forcing himself to keep talking to Alfred. Alfred’s eyes lingered on the shocking wound.
Lin Xu looked like a carnivorous fish dragged ashore in a fishing net, gasping for water, or a lone wolf caught in a trap, dragging a bleeding wound as it sent out a hoarse bloody threat to its hunter.
Alfred liked Lin Xu very much. Behind Lin Xu’s gentle disguise, he saw mockery, pride, and a passionate desire for control. He was one of the few people who could tear through Lin Xu’s facade and draw out his cold sneers and curses. He was fascinated by the entanglement of that disguise and reality.
But three thousand years ago, he never had the chance to be Lin Xu’s opponent. After graduation, Lin Xu found a quiet job. Later, when the apocalypse came, the district bases cooperated to survive. The distance was great, and there was neither the ability nor the need to wage war against each other.
Finally, like a trapped beast, Lin Xu appeared before him. All the traps were set by Alfred himself. An intense excitement spread inside Alfred. Lin Xu looked at Alfred’s ever-changing expression, his brow furrowing tighter.
Why had Alfred replaced the electromagnetic inhibitor with the neck-shackle type? From a safety standpoint, the former was more effective and could completely suppress abilities. But the latter… its appearance looked like a kind of torture device, with a humiliation that even surpassed control. Alfred…
Lin Xu’s eyes darkened. He prepared to activate his powers. A strong electric current struck again, the tremor even stronger than before. White smoke rose from the shocked area.
“Ah—” Even though Lin Xu was mentally prepared, when the shock truly hit, the intense pain made his vision blacken. He rolled and curled on the ground like a shrimp dropped into boiling water. After a moment, the shock stopped. Lin Xu’s face contorted in pain, his chest heaved as he gasped heavily, teetering on the edge of fainting.
At the moment the shock struck again, Alfred jumped up in surprise, opened the terminal, ready to call the doctor in at any time. After quite a while, Lin Xu barely recovered. He shakily crawled toward Alfred, grabbed the iron bars, and pulled himself up. But he couldn’t stand steadily and leaned entirely against the bars.
“Alfred Nobleson…” Lin Xu gritted his teeth, trembling and in a sorry state. Alfred’s adrenaline surged as he was stared at like that. His blood rushed rapidly. Thoughts of doctors and treatment vanished from his mind. His Adam’s apple moved as he couldn’t help stepping closer to Lin Xu.
Lin Xu’s jaws were trembling. Alfred reached out his hand, wanting to touch Lin Xu’s cheek. He knew he was being perverse. He also clearly knew what a moral, decent person should do at this moment. All Alfred’s moral and kind appearances were for this instant.
Lin Xu was a madman too, Alfred knew this clearly. Lin Xu liked control and liked seeing people break down, so… could Lin Xu guess all of Alfred’s moves?
The instant Alfred’s fingers touched Lin Xu’s cheek, a fist suddenly smashed hard into Alfred’s face, the sound of bones cracking loud and clear. The fragile capillaries in Alfred’s nose burst instantly, blood splattered onto Lin Xu’s fist, and Alfred was struck back repeatedly, finally crashing against the wall.
Lin Xu held the bars, stood fully upright, and looked down coldly at Alfred sliding down the wall. He knew exactly how Alfred would act; this punch had been part of his plan all along.
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