Chapter 27 Chapter 27 (1/2)
Chaos
Chapter 27
Ji Yushi’s heavy eyelids opened a small sliver with much difficulty. Light entered his eyes, stimulating the pupils to constrict.
A brilliant aurora once again appeared. It was breath-takingly beautiful.
Green, blue and purple.
They flashed across the dark sky like waves and disappeared far into the distance.
The surroundings were extremely quiet. It was so quiet, Ji Yushi could almost hear his own heartbeat and breathing.
Where was this place?
That’s right, they had started a new mission.
Ji Yushi’s memory stopped at the point before they left.
After coming out of PU-31, they had rested for several days, recharged themselves and everyone had recovered to their best state. With everyone’s consent, they had accepted their new mission.
Everything was normal until they entered their capsules.
But what happened later?
Ji Yushi’s body was frozen stiff. A layer of frost had formed over his dark eyelashes.
He exhausted all his strength, but he could only raise his eyelids slightly. He saw his own capsule stopped not far from him. The silver-white capsule had a large hole and the transparent panel was covered with spiderweb-like cracks. The safety straps were scattered about and there were also exposed wires lying around messily, occasionally emitting small bursts of sparks from time to time.
An accident had occurred during the transition.
“Bzzz.”
The mechanical arm had been squashed into an awkward angle. It seemed to have detected a Guardian’s presence and raised itself, wanting to deliver nutrient solution to the living being.
Unfortunately it was too far.
The arm raised and lowered repeatedly, forming the only sound that could be heard here.
Ji Yushi took in his surroundings. He seemed to be in a large garbage dump.
Countless mechanical wreckage and discarded parts formed a high mountain, exuding a strong stench of engine oil and rot. The wreckage here may have been accumulated over a long time end there were vine-like plants growing through the gaps, entwining itself with the various machinery and blooming with transparent glowing flowers.
Where was this place?
Ji Yushi restored his gaze and saw that he himself was lying in the garbage dump in a strange posture. The pain on his body at this moment far exceeded the level he could tolerate, but he couldn’t make a single sound.
“Clang!”
A sound echoed from far away at a place that was not visible to Ji Yushi.
“Clang! Clang!” That sound got closer and closer. It was as if someone was stepping through the mountain of wreckage, approaching him step by step.
The night sky before his eyes was blocked.
A shadow suddenly appeared before Ji Yushi. Someone was looking down at him.
Round and plump face, blue eyes, flushed cheeks as well as messy reddish-brown hair and beard. That face came face to face with Ji Yushi.
The heat from the other party’s breathing sprayed onto Ji Yushi’s face. It smelled of alcohol and was very unpleasant.
Ji Yushi couldn’t move. He wanted to speak but he could only blink his eyes.
That bearded man looked at him for a few seconds and then stretched out his hand. Pinching his chin with his rough fingers, he looked at him left and right again, as if confirming that he was alive, before he murmured something under his breath. This voice was hoarse and rough, but it was a language that Ji Yushi didn’t understand.
Immediately afterwards, the bearded man walked away. The wreckage he walked through was kicked everywhere.
After a minute, the bearded man returned.
This time he had an extra thick iron chain with him. He used this chain to tie Ji Yushi up and then fasted a lock onto it.
Following that, the bearded man grabbed on end of the chain and dragged him in the other direction.
Ji Yushi almost clenched his teeth hard. He couldn’t exert any strength to make a sound.
His entire body was in severe pain. The addition of the iron chain made his already sensitive body due to the pain feel worse and the wreckage he was pulled over aggravated that pain further. He was sweating buckets. He felt that the things that would happen next probably wasn’t anything good —– This man didn’t seem to be saving him.
He wasn’t dragged for too long.
The bearded man seemed to have noticed something. He dropped the chain and strode off.
Ji Yushi tried to look with difficulty, only to see the other party’s giant body blocking his capsule.
“Clang——-”
It was another loud sound. The bearded man tore off the robotic arm and threw it into the garbage dump. When he turned back around, he held Ji Yushi’s packet of nutrient solution in his hand like he was holding a bottle of medicine.
The bearded man looked very happy.
He examined the nutrient solution, murmured a few words and then stuffed it into his dirty pocket.
Ji Yushi was again dragged away by the bearded man.
The further he was from the tallest peak of that pile of garbage, the wider his field of vision became.
Amidst the excruciating pain, Ji Yushi continued to observe his surroundings. He saw that this was a huge garbage dump, and it was probably as wide as several football fields. In addition to his damaged capsule, there were even satellites, rockets and even space stations, all of which are expensive and advanced items. These were thrown here together with other scraps.
The sky also didn’t seem to be the sky he was familiar with.
It was extremely dark and extremely close to the ground, perhaps only a few hundred metres in height. It looked like a thick film wrapped around the world.
And that breath-taking aurora seemed to be a reflection of nothingness.
Apart from the mountain of garbage and vines that grew through it, there was nothing else in his field of vision.
The vitality of those vines seemed endless. It grew tenaciously through every gap, absorbing the nutrients of these wreckages.
From a distance, the entire garbage dump looked like it was filled with transparent glowing flowers. It looked like lights used to decorate trees during Christmas and it created a rather beautiful sight.
Ji Yushi was thrown onto a spacious, self-made, two-wheeled cart that was covered in unknown filth.
Then, he saw the bearded man throw some other things onto the cart.
Dirty blankets, chairs, some copper tableware, a few cans that appeared to have been damaged or expired.
The last item was thrown in.
Clunk!
Ji Yushi groaned internally. His chest hurt from the impact.
—- Shen Mian.
It was Song Qinglan’s gun.
*
Ji Yushi who was thrown onto the cart tried to keep himself awake but the unchanging sky above him made him even more tired and the rocking of the cart also made it worse.
Even when he was thrown off the cart, he wasn’t fully awake.
The frost formed on his black combat uniform had turned into water vapour. The cold from that reached his skin and drilled into his bones.
Ji Yushi shivered in his sleep. He noticed that he was lying on a cold and hard ground, but he didn’t have the strength to curl up and warm himself.
In such a difficult sleeping condition, he didn’t sleep well.
Where was he?
What happened to the teammates?
Why was Song Qinglan’s gun here?
What did the bearded man want to do?
Those thoughts continued to circulate around in Ji Yushi’s mind. They twisted into a tight string, always alert, constantly reminding him not to really fall asleep.
It was unknown how long he had slept when he heard someone talk to him in a low voice. His hearing however was delayed, and he couldn’t hear clearly.
Then, his stiff upper body was lifted by someone. Something wrapped him up. He opened his eyes slightly in daze and saw that he was wrapped up in the dirty blanket the bearded man had thrown onto the cart earlier. It was made of wool and it had holes made from cigarette butts as well as old sweat stains. It was unknown what could be infesting that blanket and it clearly looked filthy.
Even if every cell in his body wanted to escape from this filthy blanket, Ji Yushi didn’t have the ability to refuse it, nor could he refuse it. With that bit of warmth, his hands and feet gradually regained some of its senses.
He still couldn’t sleep soundly.
After a long time, he finally could move his head a little.
The blanket continued to transmit warmth. It was warmth from a human body. It meant that someone was holding him across the blanket.
It didn’t feel good. Ji Yushi wanted to struggle. In a daze, he saw before him a face that he recognised, and it was also one that left a deep impression on him.
That face looked a little different, but Ji Yushi at this moment couldn’t find the difference.
He was unable to tell whether this was a dream or reality. In any case, seeing that face, all his tensed mood was instantly relaxed, and he was no longer vigilant.
Following that, sleepiness overwhelmed him.