Top edge chapter 34

After attaching four empty iron barrels to both sides of the off-road motorcycle, and then checking the remaining mileage of the battery, Klet, with his long legs, swung onto the off-road motorcycle, and immediately Malken occupied the seat behind him, which should have been empty.

“I want to go too.” Malken held onto the back of the motorcycle tightly, afraid that Klet would pull him down.

“You’re wasting my battery.” Klet tilted his chin slightly and looked at Malken behind him.

The heavier the weight, the higher the power, and naturally, the battery of the motorcycle will be consumed faster.

“Perhaps,” Malken shamelessly said, “you can bring back fewer ice blocks.”

The underground city lacked water resources and needed to transport ice from the northern ice fields. Four iron barrels are exactly one month’s supply of water for Klet, and he didn’t want Malken to disrupt his plans.

 Malken was aggressive, and had a determined look that he wouldn’t give up unless Klet agreed. In the end, Klet couldn’t be bothered to argue and started the off-road motorcycle.

Although it was hot during the day, there were fewer distorted monsters. Klet swiftly rode along the safe route. After about three hours, ice chips gradually appeared in the soil, and the weather around them became noticeably colder – the two had entered the ice fields.

The cold wind whistled, making Malken shiver. He wrapped his leather jacket tightly around him and asked with chattering teeth, “Boss, aren’t you cold?”

Like Malken, Klet was wearing only a UV-resistant jacket, which had no effect in keeping warm.

“Not .” He casually uttered these words and accelerated the motorcycle.

A stronger gust of cold wind blew, causing Malken to curse.

After another half an hour, the two arrived at a resting point.

The resting point was a narrow wooden cabin built by a group of adventurers.

Although the weather in the ice fields was extremely harsh, fortunately, there were no distorted monsters. Therefore, for those adventure enthusiasts, crossing the ice fields was the best way to explore.

The resting point where Klet and Malken were located was on the edge of the ice fields, close to the western desert. 

After parking the off-road motorcycle, Klet took a shovel and spent more than ten minutes filling the empty iron barrels.

On the other hand, Malken had already swiftly taken off his clothes and jumped into the hot spring next to the resting point.

It’s not surprising that there were hot springs beneath the ice fields.

“Boss, stop shoveling and come soak for a while!”

No one comes to the ice fields without bathing in the hot springs.

Klet put the four iron barrels back on the sides of the off-road motorcycle and then took off his clothes and stepped into the hot spring.

“Are you really not going to help?” Malken asked.

“Mm.” Klet rested his head against the edge of the pool and lazily closed his eyes.

“But Nightingale really needs you.” Malken persisted, “Only you can accomplish this task.”

Klet: “Quiet.”

 “If you don’t help, how can I explain to Laizhe?”

Klet still couldn’t be bothered to talk.

“He’s a great guy, takes care of his brothers, and does everything himself without any airs.” Malken said to himself, “You’ll know once you get to know him, he’s definitely worth helping.”

Malken was usually talkative, but he rarely praised someone so generously.

Klet finally lifted his head and raised an eyebrow as he looked at Malken. “You like him?”

Malken didn’t deny it, “Everyone in Nightingale admires him.”

“No,” Klet said straightforwardly, “you know that’s not what i mean.”

Malken naturally understood the implied meaning in his words and immediately denied it, “I don’t have any ulterior motives. Don’t tarnish our pure friendship!”

Klet chuckled softly and stopped responding.

For some reason, feeling guilty, Malken added, “I also admire the Negotiator. If he hadn’t informed us about the bombing in advance, who knows what would have happened.”

The smile on Klet’s lips visibly faded.

Knowing that it shouldn’t be mentioned, Malken awkwardly touched his nose and said, “I hope he is doing okay…”

When Shen Siwei arrived at the central station at the bottom of the Tree of Life on the vertical train, he noticed that many civilians had gathered in the hall of the station.

Most of these civilians stretched their necks and looked outside the station. Shen Siwei followed their gaze and saw that there were many police officers maintaining order outside the spacious glass doors.

“Nightingale is causing trouble again. When will it ever end?”

“Without the Marg people, there would be no Tree of Life. How can they not be grateful?”

In the few days since waking up, Shen Siwei caught up on the current situation of the Tree of Life.

First, due to the sacrifice of many civilians five years ago in order to drive away the distorted monsters, the “Declaration of Refusal to Reproduce” was temporarily suspended, and the government allowed newborns.

Second, the new organization Nightingale, under the guise of peace, was no different from the terrorist organization Night Hawk.

Listening to the idle chatter of the people beside him, they had gathered in the station hall this time because Nightingale was protesting outside the station and had clashed with the police.

Ordinary civilians were afraid of being affected, so they hid inside the station, intending to wait until it was safe before going out.

“Always engaging in conspiracy theories, causing chaos for us.”

“I wonder how long this will go on.”

As the two spoke, Shen Siwei stood very close to them.

One of them, while speaking, suddenly noticed Shen Siwei eavesdropping and instinctively took a small step back in the opposite direction.

The other person followed the first person’s gaze and turned around. After seeing Shen Siwei, they also moved away and kept their distance from him.

Shen Siwei acknowledged that he didn’t have a fierce and menacing appearance, but he was well aware that he didn’t quite fit in with the civilians gathered there.

Chestnut-colored hair was not uncommon and gave a friendly impression, but the dark green eyes sent chills down people’s spines — these evaluations came from his training partner.

In addition to the pilot’s jacket and professional equipment backpack, Shen Siwei clearly didn’t look like an ordinary person.

He walked through the crowd and exited the hall, only to find that the police had already restored order and he didn’t see anyone resembling a Nightingale member.

He had thought that if the police couldn’t handle it, he wouldn’t mind helping out, but now it seemed that he had no role to play there.

Bringing up the map, Shen Siwei headed straight to the parking lot, where a specially prepared dual-purpose heavy-duty motorcycle was parked.

In a small alley two hundred meters away.

Laizhe pulled off his Nightingale mask with one hand and patted knock’s head with the other. “How many times have I told you, don’t be impulsive, don’t get into conflicts with the police! Today’s goal was a peaceful protest!”

“I’m not in a good mood today,” knock frowned and dodged to the side. “Those police officers provoked me.”

“You’re still in a bad mood?” Who asked your brother to take on that mission?”

“Did I arrange it?” Laizhe was almost exasperated. “It was Avis himself who wanted to go, what could  I have done? You brothers are really a handful!”

Five years had passed, and the once young boy knock had grown up and become a key member of Nightingale.

But he was still too young, always doing things that gave Laizhe a headache. And unfortunately, the only person who could control him, Avis, wasn’t around. Laizhe was stuck dealing with knock, and it was truly a headache.

You should have stopped him,” knock muttered.

Laizhe couldn’t be bothered to talk anymore. He turned and walked away, unaware of a figure with chestnut hair riding a motorcycle passing by on the street.

After leaving the bustling city area, Shen Siwei switched the motorcycle to flight mode and flew low towards the west.

Amor’s locator signal finally disappeared at a self-service hotel in the Z District of the western city. If what Adolf said was true, he deliberately concealed his whereabouts and went to the western district, most likely to find identity smugglers to remove the locator from his body.

But regardless, making a deal with criminals definitely carried risks.

Shen Siwei increased his flying speed.

Around noon, Shen Siwei crossed the defense barrier between Z City and the neighboring city, entering this abandoned city.

Although he had seen the scenes of this place in the news, when his combat boots stepped on the gravel-covered street, Shen Siwei felt a surge of complex emotions.

Regret? Sighs?

He couldn’t pinpoint exactly, but he felt strangely familiar with the self-service hotel in front of him.

During the daytime, there were no activities of refugees on the streets, and the abandoned self-service hotel was empty.

The door of the hotel was almost blocked by gravel, and Shen Siwei squeezed through the narrow gap before entering the hotel lobby.

The screen of the self-check-in machine had been smashed by a fallen ceiling, leaving only the frame standing intact.

Shen Siwei casually glanced at the frame, not paying much attention at first. But for some reason, he inexplicably stopped in his tracks.

He stared at the broken check-in machine, feeling as if someone had leaned against it before and casually talked to him.

Who could it be?

Shen Siwei couldn’t recall. He shook off the thought and continued walking inside.

The floor of the lobby was covered in thick dust, with countless messy footprints visible.

Shen Siwei squatted down and observed the patterns of the footprints. Surprisingly, those footprints belonged to military boots.

—Had an action team already been here?

Moran hadn’t mentioned it to Shen Siwei, but the appearance of military boots was not surprising. Perhaps someone had already come to find Amor but failed to locate him.

The footprints continued along the corridor and led to the third floor, where they became more chaotic, and it was almost impossible to find a complete footprint.

Bullet holes covered the walls of the corridor, confirming Shen Siwei’s speculation that a task force had indeed been there, and something had happened that caused the members of the task force to panic.

Following the chaotic footprints, Shen Siwei entered an open room and found packaging bags of nutrition supplements, used wet wipes, and other items. These items had little dust on them, indicating that someone had recently been there.

Ordinary people rarely used such expensive wet wipes. It was evident that the person who had been there could only be Amor.

But at that moment, Shen Siwei suddenly noticed something.

All the footprints were heading in the same direction, indicating that after these people arrived at the hotel, they did not leave through the main entrance.

He walked to the window and looked outside, seeing countless footprints on the windowsill. The window was covered in piled-up gravel, so jumping from the third floor wouldn’t cause any harm.

Shen Siwei pieced together the events that had occurred at that time.

Amor had likely arranged to meet an identity trafficker and used illegal means to remove the location tracking from his identity chip. Meanwhile, members of the task force followed him, and he could only hastily escape through the window.

The task force members tracked him to the third floor but unexpectedly encountered some kind of ambush, which forced them to evacuate through the window.

Shen Siwei temporarily set aside the matter because he noticed a leather-covered journal that had been left behind near the bed.

The journal was already half-written, and as Shen Siwei casually flipped through it, a map of the ice field fell out. The latest page read, “Heading to the ice field tomorrow.”

Shen Siwei couldn’t understand why a sociologist would go to the ice field. There was no society there.

However, since the clue pointed in that direction, he had no choice but to go and investigate.

At that moment, Shen Siwei suddenly heard a hissing sound. When he turned around, he finally understood the kind of ambush the task force had encountered.

A deformed giant python appeared at the door, its head alone as wide as the door frame.

Its sinister eyes stared straight at Shen Siwei, and the crimson forked tongue continuously released a dangerous breath.

Shen Siwei didn’t want to waste time there, but as soon as he moved his heel by a centimeter, the giant python pounced, spewing a large amount of sticky venom at him.

The venom splattered onto the journal, instantly corroding the cover. Shen Siwei quickly slapped off the venom with his hand to prevent it from further damaging the contents inside.

But as he was momentarily distracted, his whole body was entangled by the giant python, its massive snake head looming above, seemingly about to swallow him.

However, Shen Siwei remained calm.

He grabbed the snake’s forked tongue and forcefully pulled it out. The giant python writhed in pain, rolling on the ground before finally leaving the room in a sorry state.

Indeed, his enhanced body was quite useful.

However… his clothes and pants had quite a few holes burned by the venom.

There was no water in the hotel room, so Shen Siwei could only briefly wipe his body with a dirty bedsheet and change into spare clothes.

The outer wall defenses of Z City had already been in a state of disrepair, so it was no wonder that mutant monsters roamed the city.

Other cities had speed limits for flying, but Shen Siwei didn’t want to pass through the city. He chose to travel directly from Z City to the outskirts of the Tree of Life, activating the motorcycle’s maximum power and speeding towards the northern ice field.

After an unknown period of time, white mountains finally appeared ahead, reflecting the dazzling and scorching sunlight. Although they seemed just a few kilometers away, Shen Siwei had flown for a long, long time before finally approaching the edge of the ice field.

Compared to the heat, Shen Siwei couldn’t tolerate the cold.

Actually, his skin wouldn’t freeze or burn, but he just really disliked the cold.

The map showed a rest stop not far away, and Shen Siwei decided to go there and take a break. He had only cleaned off the slime with a dirty bedsheet earlier, and he still felt very uncomfortable.

As he got closer, Shen Siwei discovered that there was actually a hot spring next to the rest stop, which was like a gift prepared just for him.

Parking his motorcycle next to a small cabin, Shen Siwei took a quick look around. There was no one else in the cabin.

He took off his shirt and used ice fragments to clean off the remaining slime on his body. Then, he undressed and stepped into the moderately warm hot spring.

Since waking up, Shen Siwei had found it difficult to have any emotional fluctuations. However, he now clearly felt a sense of pleasure.

The gentle hot water enveloped his body, soft like a mother’s embrace.

Shen Siwei closed his eyes and enjoyed the moment, but at that moment, a sense of déjà vu inexplicably appeared in his mind.

— The last time he soaked in a hot spring, there seemed to be someone beside him. And he had this strange feeling that he had always enjoyed taking baths.

Something wasn’t right.

Shen Siwei suddenly opened his eyes, his cold green gaze staring blankly at the vast ice field.

The familiar sense of déjà vu appeared time and time again, and it couldn’t be explained by mere illusion anymore.

Personnel files, beef and nutrition supplements, self-check-in hotels, hot springs… These things seemed to exist in Shen Siwei’s memory, yet they also felt like they existed in his dreams. He tried hard to grasp onto them, but it felt like his memories were like a kite with a broken string, drifting away to a place beyond his reach.

Could there have been a problem during the transformation process?

Or maybe he should ask Moran.

Shen Siwei raised his right hand from the water, intending to activate the communicator, but at that moment, he suddenly heard faint footsteps behind him.

Even if it was a cat walking, it would not be able to move silently on the ice shards.

Moreover, Shen Siwei clearly sensed that there were two men approaching him from behind, and they weren’t light in weight.

The footsteps were getting closer and closer, and Shen Siwei quickly picked up the gun placed by the poolside. He swiftly turned around and aimed at the two men who were quietly approaching.

The hot spring made a splashing sound as intense ripples spread, but once the ripples subsided, only the sound of someone sniffing snot remained.

Shen Siwei frowned alertly, and indeed, the two men who approached him from behind were there. One of them had his hands tucked in his armpits, continuously sniffing snot, seemingly freezing cold.

The other person was only wearing a thin coat and seemed to be completely unaffected by the cold, staring straight at Shen Siwei’s face.

In that instant, the character profile appeared in Shen Siwei’s mind.

klet, age unknown, height 1.95 meters, number one wanted criminal…

Seeing the real person now, Shen Siwei realized that the 1.95 meters of height seemed even more tall than in the picture.

Wait a minute.

Shen Siwei’s gaze slightly flickered. Why did he always feel like he had this thought before?

klet, standing by the pool, furrowed his brow and asked, “negotiator?”

Hearing that name, Shen Siwei’s brain momentarily disconnected. He quickly snapped out of it and pointed the gun at klet, questioning with suspicion, “Who is negotiator?”