Chapter 1424 - Back to the Future (1/2)
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.