Hong Haocheng looked at the woman still lying in his arms as if in a coma.
He sensed his body—the voice of his heart that had always responded to him was now gone, but it hadn’t completely died. He could still feel the soul energy, and it was even clearer. Or rather, his perception had become sharper.
So it was true?
–You little liar, tricking me into thinking you were only twenty-eight. Damn it.-
Hong Haocheng got up, glanced at the woman on the bed, and while she was in that rare state of deep sleep, carefully opened the small suitcase and rummaged through its contents.
–Phone? Hmm, no need to check.-
He tossed it aside, searched a bit, and easily found the thing—the marriage certificates. Both copies were indeed there.
That day, after being forced to go through the marriage ceremony, they had taken a photo together on the island. After the certificates were made, Xuji showed them to him but wouldn’t let him touch them, saying she was afraid he would tear them up.
Then the two went their separate ways, as if they had only played a game of house.
–Gotcha now, hehe. Let me see how ugly you made me look in the photo.-
He opened it and took a few glances; a look of shock spread across his face.
The photo was of the two of them, and his ID number was correct, but… in terms of age, he was two years older than her.
–Why… isn’t your name Wang Xufei?-
Hong Haocheng’s heart pounded as he looked at the name below the woman: Wang Xiyi, Female, 26 years old.
–Wang Qianyi? Isn’t that the girl whose files I knocked over… and then called to tell me to escape?-
Hong Haocheng turned to look at the woman lying quietly asleep on the bed. Though she was beautiful, compared to Xu Fei, she lacked a certain simple yet profound and far-reaching temperament; their styles were completely different.
Suddenly, he felt his body sway.
—-Alert, alert. The aircraft has encountered a current and is making an emergency landing.-
—-Alert, the airplane engine has malfunctioned!-
–What?!-
Hong Haocheng’s expression changed. He quickly put on his clothes, grabbed the marriage certificate, and pulled the sheet over the dazed woman who was opening her eyes.
–Honey, what’s wrong?-
–The plane is bumping. Misfortunes never come singly—it also blew an engine.-
He realized that he could still stand steadily despite the plane’s violent rocking. It seemed he had unconsciously absorbed a lot from his training.
Bang! The door burst open. Feng Juguan glanced at the people inside. –Quick, hand her over to me.-
–I can carry her. My balance has already…-
–Give her here!-
Feng Juguan’s shout made Hong Haocheng freeze for a moment, then he obediently handed Xu Fei to Feng Juguan.
–The marriage certificate is in the suitcase. Go get it,- the woman said.
Feng Juguan nodded. He was about to carry Xu Fei inside when Hong Haocheng blocked him. Hong pulled out the marriage certificate he had just put into his pocket and handed it to him.
The young man said, –Give me the other one.-
The woman whipped her head around. –No, give them to me—both of them.-
–Why?- Hong Haocheng stared at her, puzzled by her sudden panic.
–I…-
–What else are you hiding from me?-
With that question, Hong Haocheng seemed to vaguely recall something—a fuzzy memory that wasn’t his own.
It came from the devouring of the woman’s psychic power last night. Though only a sliver of memory was transmitted, a blurred imprint of a shattered world now blazed across the ocean of his consciousness like fireworks, stirring up immense waves.
The young man’s expression changed. He looked at Xu Ji in Feng Juguan’s hand.
–You may leave now.-
–You… you know?- The woman looked at his suddenly relieved expression.
Hong Haocheng navigated the cabin where objects slid from side to side, moving steadily like a seasoned sailor toward the opposite end.
–Go now. If I’m right, any later and it’ll be too late. Go.-
Feng Juguan looked down at the woman in his arms and whispered anxiously, –Why is this happening ahead of schedule? We haven’t even reached the prepared base.-
The youthful radiance that once shone in the woman’s eyes had vanished.
–Perhaps this is fate. Those preparations are no use anymore.-
She raised her head to look at the young man’s back ahead.
–My real name is Xufei. I have no surname. Forget me after this.-
Without a moment to think, Feng Juguan gritted his teeth, clutched the woman, and dashed toward the rear door of the cabin. The plane tilted and dove steeply through the clouds.
Suddenly, the thick fog within the dense clouds behind began to churn.
Boom!
An even larger pale gray aircraft roared out from the clouds.
— –Calling BA6278…-
The massive gray plane, like an advancing continent, locked onto the unsteady BA6278 from above. On the side of its huge fuselage were several five-pointed star patterns.
Beside it, two more fighters sliced through the disturbed clouds, approaching with contrails, their sides bearing crescent moon and star-spangled stripes.
The formation held steady with the runaway aircraft. Several ropes dropped down from above, and the figures of special forces soldiers slid to the bottom of the ropes. With almost impossible acrobatics, they swiftly transferred everyone on the out-of-control plane to the larger one—except for the boy himself, who was watching it all.
Hong Haocheng gazed calmly at the scenery outside the window, recalling the stories the woman had told him over these days.
In the 19th century, the Polish explorer brothers Iwanowski vanished in the Arctic Ocean.
Amelia Earhart, the first female pilot to fly solo across the Atlantic, disappeared in 1937 during her circumnavigation.
In 1803, Australian explorer George Bass disappeared while sailing near South America…
–So the story you’ve been telling all along is about me.-
Several more planes from different countries emerged from the clouds behind them like swords piercing the heavens, as if a hidden fleet of aerospace craft was revealing itself.
A gray-black delta-wing aircraft flanked the convulsing, falling BA6278 on both sides.
The roar shattered Hong Haocheng’s train of thought.
He listened to the crackling hum inside the plane, and then a broadcast echoed through every part of the cabin.
—-Comrade Hong Haocheng.-
A few seconds passed.
–Mm.- Hong Haocheng answered calmly, lifting his head to look at the speaker. –I’m still here.-
—-We’re waiting for you to come home.-
The plane screamed downward toward the vast, desolate earth.
He felt as if he were trapped in a dream—falling and falling, never reaching the ground, the radio waves fading away, only the endless background static remaining.
Hong Haocheng watched the ground rush closer through the window, an indescribable calm welling up inside him.
—-Zzzz…-
The young man remembered Xuji’s smile, and her words: –Wherever you go, I want to live in your heart.-
He closed his eyes, letting his body fall with the plane, but a strange peace settled in his chest, as if he was returning to the destiny that had always been his.
–Thank you,- he murmured.
The aircraft wing exploded and burned, hurling all items in the cabin into the corner. An indescribable aura began to permeate the entire cabin, quickly turning obscure, eerie, and oppressive.
Thump, thump, thump.
Faint heartbeat sounds echoed in his ears and deep within his heart, like heavy ghostly footsteps trampling on a heart.
This fall stretched into an unimaginably long silence, as if the distance between heaven and earth had been magnified ten thousand times.
……
–What kind of existence is the Lost Illusion Company?-
Yang Zicang lay on his own comfortable soft bed, hand pillowed under his head, pondering this question.
The night was silent, save for the faint ticking of the clock that stirred the stillness of the darkness.
Here, after only three or four hours of sleep, his spirit was fully restored. But if he were to get up now, the habits ingrained over time couldn’t truly command his body to do anything. And even if he did get up, he wouldn’t know what to do.
He turned his head to glance at the time displayed on the wall.
04:12:28。
Out of boredom, Yang Zicang, clad in fluffy cotton pajamas, picked up a delicate card the size of half a palm from beside the pillow and flipped it back and forth, examining it. As he lifted it, the hard card glowed faintly.
[Through the ‘Employee ID Card,’ I know that my mental power intensity is currently at the eighth level of the second ring.]
–I really have no idea how something like this was made.-
[I want to know the design principle of the employee card… but this is not something I should be thinking about.]
After toying with the employee card for a while, Yang Zicang reflected on some information about himself.
In just half a month, he had advanced his mental strength by two stages. Although it was partly due to the nature of the work—new employees always improve quickly at the beginning—the team leader said that someone improving as fast as him was extremely rare; at least, she had never seen it before.
But Yang Zicang, still toying with the card, furrowed his brows slightly.
Although a comfortable life and safe power advancement were the true reasons why those who knew of this place’s existence wanted to enter, that did not include him.
The threat from Morri had not been eliminated; Mu Xiaoyu had not yet been brought into the town, and there were many other matters, like the year-end city ranking battle. And… that distracting silhouette on the land of lost frequencies.
Although he had only been in this world for a short time, he had already formed many bonds.
–I need to act quickly.-
Yang Zicang shifted his body to the side.
[I wonder, where exactly can that bookshelf be? I want to get back soon.]
The young man in the bed thought about the information on the Lost Illusion Company that had been imprinted into his consciousness through that manual. Compared to the materials on the Lost Frequency Land, which even contained detailed formulas for certain Lost Thought Engines, the information about this place was scant—virtually zero beyond the name.
[I wonder, how did the original –Free Advance Legion- manage to uncover information about this place?]
[Are those people that formidable?]
Thinking of the credo left by the –Free Advance Corps,– Yang Zicang subconsciously straightened the fingers holding his employee card and traced the strokes of the character –前– on the wall. Then, he immediately wrote two horizontal lines, followed by two vertical lines intersecting them…
He yawned, withdrew his fingers, and thought to himself.
[Could the dark gold linking silver and red refer to… the Moxel color of those executives?]
Suddenly, a jagged line shot toward him.
{Zicang, I can see your employee card is now capable of communication links. So, are you awake?}
Yang Zicang was slightly startled—the girl’s voice resounded directly in his mind—then he relaxed.
–Jiao Ma Team Leader, are you still awake too?-
{Yes, I get up at this time every day.}
–Huh… In that case.- Yang Zicang threw off the covers and got up, touching his employee card as he said, –Group Leader Jiaoma, may I go to the archives to look up materials?-
{Of course you can! I’ve been wanting to invite you for a long time.}
–For a long time?-
Yang Zicang let out a heavy sigh inside his heart.
He never expected that the so-called mysterious –Old World Document Library- he had been yearning for and sneaking around to find was actually a place anyone could go to here. He should have asked earlier.
A feeling of –poverty shrinks ambition, daring not to speak rashly- suddenly welled up in the young man’s heart.
–Then I’m free right now. Can you tell me the way to get there?- Yang Zicang asked, a hint of eagerness in his voice.
I didn’t expect success to come so quickly.
{Well, it’s possible. I’d even love to go with you, but…}
–But what?-
{The library contains all data about the old world. If you read them, you won’t be able to return to the Land of Lost Frequencies, you know.}
–Wha, what?- Yang Zicang’s eyes widened instantly.
[I am wailing.]
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