But then he saw the markings on both sides of the off-road vehicle’s dark shell; Silver paint engraved in relief and depicting a white tower. This was the emblem exclusive to the Central Military District.
They were from the Imperial Capital.
Yan Ji raised an eyebrow. He snapped the chip of the communicator and tucked it into the pocket of his windbreaker.
The hill where the off-road vehicle had stopped wasn’t far, less than a hundred meters away.
Yan Ji saw the people on the hill looking in his direction and was sure they had seen him.
Even though there was a sentinel’s corpse next to him when he was spotted, Yan Ji remained calm.
He waited at ease, his back leaning against the border railing. The white paint on it had completely peeled off, exposing the raw concrete underneath.
When the group walked up to him, Yan Ji asked in a pretentious manner, “Officer, did you come here because you received my report?”
Of course not.
Anything involving sentinels along the northern border fell under the jurisdiction of the Northern Desert Watchtower.
This group was clearly sent from the Imperial Capital.
Yan Ji’s gaze swept over them. The two men walking in front were obviously sentinels, and the insignia on their combat uniforms indicated they held fairly high ranks.
As for the young man behind them… he wasn’t in uniform, but he carried a med-gun and a listening device.
Weak, pale, sickly.
A guide.
Yan Ji had just seen him loading the med-gun. The bit of wrist bone showing between his glove and the cuff of his down jacket was white and thin. Yan Ji felt like he could snap it with just a bit of force.
Guides were all so weak.
They were clearly of not much value, yet just being a guide meant hundreds or thousands of sentinels would bleed or even die to protect them.
Yan Ji noticed that when the young man saw the corpse, his pale lips pursed together.
‘Scared already?’ Yan Ji’s gaze darkened.
Wei Zhuo gave Yan Ji a glance, then stepped past him, kneeling down to inspect the dead sentinel.
The body was lying face down, eyes wide open, neck twisted at an unnatural angle.
He looked like he had been dead for two or three hours. His face was pale with a bluish tinge, and the corpse spots were a dark red, different from the bright red seen in frozen corpses.
Ruling out death by freezing, Wei Zhuo flipped the sentinel over.
The heart had been hollowed out, the wound still carrying the scent of a Folded Zone monster.
The blood had completely soaked into the snow, and the area where the body had lain looked like a patch of red crystal.
Lamb Wool Curls spoke to Yan Ji, “You misunderstood. We’re not from the Northern Desert Watchtower. We came from the Imperial Capital. Are you a local resident?”
Yan Ji smiled, “Yeah, I grew up here.”
Lamb Wool Curls said, “Then you must know where the Northern Desert Watchtower is. That’s great. When we drove here, the satellite navigation clearly showed we were in the right place, but we couldn’t even see a trace of the watchtower.”
Yan Ji: “This is the border. The Folded Zone keeps expanding. The signal’s often unstable.”
Wei Zhuo finished searching the body and turned around, “Killed by a monster attack. But the communicator of the deceased is missing.”
That meant they couldn’t immediately confirm the identity.
All three turned to look at Yan Ji.
Yan Ji shrugged. “I’m a good citizen.”
He even pulled out his citizen ID card from the chest pocket of his windbreaker.
Xin Hexue noticed the name on the ID and lowered his lashes.
Yan Ji didn’t actually look all that similar to He Botian… at most, there was a slight resemblance in the eyebrows and the ends of the eyes. They weren’t even the same type.
The young man in front of them had overly sharp features typical of someone just entering adulthood, and his silver-gray messy hair gave him a rebellious air.
His smile was careless, showing a canine tooth.
Was it this part that looked similar? Xin Hexue’s eyes flickered.
Although the feeling when he smiled was completely different, He Botian also had a slightly pointed canine tooth.
What truly caught Xin Hexue’s attention was the wording on the ID card… ordinary citizen.
That section didn’t say sentinel.
………
Wei Zhuo re-established contact with the Northern Desert Watchtower and briefly explained the situation.
They moved the body into the off-road vehicle’s trunk, and with Yan Ji leading the way, headed toward the watchtower.
Along the way, Xin Hexue, Lamb Wool Curls, and Yan Ji sat in the passenger compartment.
They had a general understanding of Yan Ji’s background.
Both his parents had been sentinels, but unexpectedly, when Yan Ji was tested at age fourteen, no combat ability or mental power could be detected in him. He was neither a sentinel nor a guide.
Just an ordinary person.
That probability was extremely low.
Because children born to sentinels and guides were almost always sentinels or guides themselves, and by age fourteen, their combat or mental power levels could be measured. After that, they would be sent to the “Towers” for registration and initial training.
The Black Tower was for sentinels, and the White Tower was for guides, which were institutions under the Empire’s unified system for managing sentinels and guides.
Lamb Wool Curls asked, “Are your parents still serving at the Northern Desert Watchtower?”
Many watchtowers were set up along the border, which were essentially small military districts, resisting the inward expansion of the Folded Zone.
Yan Ji’s expression didn’t change. “Them? They died four years ago.”
Yan Ji said flatly, “I’m an orphan.”
If he could, Lamb Wool Curls would’ve gone back five seconds and slapped himself twice.
Why did you have to ask so much?! Why?! He just couldn’t stop asking questions!
Xin Hexue tilted the teapot in his hand. The hot tea poured from the narrow spout, steam swirling up in wisps.
He filled all the teacups on the table with tea.
Lamb Wool Curls finally found something to change the subject. “Have some tea, have some tea!”
This off-road vehicle had been converted from a military-grade heavy wheeled armored vehicle, and the passenger compartment was very spacious.
Outside the window was the typical icy, snowy landscape of the Northern Territory.
In the vast whiteness, everything looked the same.
It was no different from the day Yan Ji’s parents died.
Fourteen-year-old Yan Ji had been waiting at the border for his parents to return from their mission.
It was his birthday that day. His parents were stationed at the Northern Desert Watchtower. Although they were usually busy and had daily training even on days without missions, they could still return home at night, and they had two fixed days off every month.
Before leaving for this mission, they had planned to spend his birthday evening with him. Then, during their two-day leave, the family would drive inland to visit another city and see different scenery.
But what Yan Ji waited for were two corpses.
His parents had died on this mission to protect a guide sent by the Imperial Capital.
At fourteen, Yan Ji couldn’t yet understand the sorrowful looks his parents’ comrades gave him. He stood in the rain and snow, turning to look at the guide surrounded by a crowd.
The high ranking officials of the watchtower were fussing over the guide, offering him warm ginger tea. No one paid attention to his parents. The precious guide from the White Tower was still angrily blaming the sentinels in his squad for being useless, for not protecting him, for letting him get hurt.
Yan Ji saw clearly the wound on the guide’s body…a small scratch on the arm, which would probably heal in two days.
Guides, being few in number, were treasures of the Empire. From the moment their mental power was detected, they were sent to the Empire’s only White Tower to be pampered in luxury, while most sentinels struggled at the borders near the Folded Zone.
Guides would usually find a matched sentinel partner even before graduating from the Sentinel-Guide Military Academy. After that, they would perform mental guidance solely for their partner, stay in the comfort of the Imperial Capital, and wait for their sentinel, who faced life-or-death missions, to return. That was what counted as “service” for a guide.
They might never face the monsters of the Folded Zone in their entire lives.
Because they were weak, timid, and useless.
They couldn’t even do their primary job of mental guidance properly.
Even the guide who had been sent by the Imperial Capital four years ago was only due to a rare and urgent situation. That’s why the Northern Desert Watchtower had dispatched so many sentinels to protect him, to keep him from dying in the Folded Zone.
And to protect him, Yan Ji lost his parents.
After years of fighting off the Folded Zone, the Empire’s finances were tight. So the Black Tower did not issue much pension to the families of fallen sentinels.
After all, compared to guides, the large number of sentinels were merely expendable resources.
The compensation Yan Ji received was enough to support him until adulthood and then some, but because he had no guardian, he was placed under the management of the Northern Desert Welfare Institute.
Two years later, Yan Ji heard that a newly graduated guide from the Joint Military Academy had volunteered to fight on the front lines, joining Legion A and becoming a permanent member of one of its squads.
He heard that the military had made many sacrifices because of the guide.
Many institutional reforms were introduced, like new combat uniforms specially designed for field guides, new squad formations centered around guides, and new combat tactics… According to rumors, more and more guides were being inspired and choosing to follow that person’s example. The number of field guides at the frontlines had broken from zero into double digits.
Yan Ji scoffed.
He had seen what that guide who went on the mission with his parents looked like four years ago.
A guide participating in frontline combat? It probably meant the entire squad had to fight to the death to protect them, dying for the guide and still getting blamed for not protecting well enough.
The Imperial Capital was far away, and news that made it to the Northern Territory was inevitably vague and ambiguous.
Yan Ji didn’t believe those rumors.
And he no longer cared.
Whether it was the Empire, the watchtower, or the future of humankind, Yan Ji didn’t care.
He had nothing to protect, no attachments, and felt light all over. It was good to be alive, and dying didn’t matter. He would just live one day at a time.
After sending the group from the Imperial Capital to the watchtower, Yan Ji jumped out of the off-road vehicle.
Without saying any farewells, all that was left of him was the back view of the black windbreaker on his back. The prints of his work boots stretched into the snow.
………
Yan Ji dismantled the communicator of that sentinel, and scattered the parts across different shops for recycling.
After bargaining two or three rounds over the price, he got enough money to live through the next month.
The cost of living in the Northern Desert City was very low.
Although it was the largest city in the North, its streets were dilapidated, the buildings were low, and after years of invasion from the Folded Zone, the city’s infrastructure remained as it had been decades ago… maybe even worse due to lack of funding for maintenance and now looked more desolate and barren.
The Folded Zone’s expansion was growing stronger by the day, and people died here every day.
The numbness to life and death showed on everyone’s face, and confusion lingered in their eyes.
Did humanity really have a future? No one here could give an answer.
Yan Ji walked through the dilapidated and cold streets. As expected, at the end of the alley, sentinels were once again secretly trading in guide elements.
This synthetic, low-grade guide element was addictive and caused more harm than ordinary mental stabilizers, but since it could simulate the pleasure of being soothed by a guide, even though the Empire strictly limited its production and use, many still risked everything to manufacture it. And countless sentinels were willing to buy it, spending all their salary, even going bankrupt.
Yan Ji walked past with his hands tucked into the side pockets of his windbreaker, his expression blank.
Whispers from the deal drifted into his ears.
“Are you robbing me? How dare you sell at this price?! Didn’t you hear there’s a guide outside the watchtower offering free mental guidance to sentinels today?”
“What does that have to do with me, a seller of guide elements? If you have the ability, go let that guide soothe you.”
“Forget it, I’m not buying anymore. I might as well go queue up outside the watchtower.”
“All the sentinels in the city are out there. It won’t be your turn even if you wait until next year! Anyway, whether you buy or not, my guide element sells at this price. Don’t buy today, who knows if there’ll be stock tomorrow!”
After arguing and bargaining, the buyer still bought the guide element. He probably believed he had no chance of receiving mental guidance.
There were no guides in the North.
So the guide they spoke of was only one person.
Yan Ji stood still for a moment, then began walking toward the watchtower.
………
Sure enough, a long line had already formed outside the watchtower.
One by one, the strong and robust sentinels stood there. Even in the bitter cold of the North, they wore only thin combat uniforms.
In the snow, the line was full of people rubbing their hands, chattering enthusiastically.
“How long are we going to wait? I don’t think I have a chance today.”
“I heard this guide is a public guide from the Central Military District’s logistics department. He can do ten mental guidance sessions a day and that’s not even his limit.”
“But we have five thousand registered sentinels at our watchtower. I don’t think there’s any hope for me today.”
“I don’t know if he’ll still be here tomorrow. If he’s still offering mental guidance tomorrow, I’d trade in my military merits for a chance!”
“Get lost. With your small merits? Who can’t beat that?”
“I heard the guide’s very good-looking, is that true? I came too late and didn’t see him.”
“Really? People in front praised him so much it sounded like some god descended from heaven.”
“Why not check the forum? There should be posts discussing the guide.”
“…No signal. I haven’t opened the Deep Sea Forum in years. And anyway, it’s just a bunch of Central Military District sentinels bragging. It makes me angry just looking at it.”
“Who cares what he looks like, if he can purify my mental landscape, even if he’s a cat, I’d still kneel down and thank him!”
Yan Ji wasn’t a sentinel registered with the watchtower, so he didn’t line up. He continued forward past the crowd.
At the end of the line was a temporary tent.
Despite their high combat ability, sentinels seemed like an incompletely evolved species.
The appearance of one guide was like cold water dropped into boiling oil, enough to make them explode into crackling sparks, acting like beasts that had never been tamed by civilization.
As Yan Ji walked by, he passed two sentinels heading in the opposite direction. They had come out from the tent marked with a medical insignia. It seemed they had already received mental guidance.
One dark-skinned sentinel said to his companion, “Fuck, did you see that? That guide has a great figure… white coat, wool sweater, and such a thin waist. If he rode me, I swear I’d make him tremble to the core!”
His companion smiled knowingly. “What are you dreaming about in broad daylight?!”
The dark-skinned sentinel got even more excited, whistling with a lewd tone, “I’m not joking. To be honest, with that kind of figure, I bet he’d be calling me daddy after two rounds!”
Yan Ji stopped walking. “Hey!”
The two sentinels turned their heads and saw it was a just-of-age kid calling them. They looked him up and down with disdain. “What?”
Yan Ji stood against the sunlight, his figure casting a long shadow in the snow.
He curled his lips in contempt and said to the two, “With mouths that foul, even if you have the guts, it doesn’t mean you have to shit from your mouth.”
………
A warning siren pierced the clear sky, shrill and sharp.
When Xin Hexue came out of the tent, someone informed him that two sentinels had gotten into a fight with an ordinary citizen.
What was even more strange was that the two sentinels were beaten up badly.
Through their swollen and bruised faces, he barely recognized them as the same two he had provided mental guidance earlier.
The watchtower questioned them to find out what had happened.
The two beaten sentinels hung their heads so low they looked like they wanted to bury themselves in the ground, unable to face the guide standing before them.
Xin Hexue’s gaze swept over them with cold and indifferent eyes.
He said to the watchtower administrator who had come, “Handle it according to your local sentinel-guide tribunal regulations.”
Harassing a guide was a serious offense, even verbal harassment.
The two guilty sentinels were taken away by the watchtower.
Xin Hexue didn’t pay much attention to it. He turned back and looked at Yan Ji, who was still standing in place.
The young man was wearing the same clothes as in the morning. After all, going up against two people with just his fists, it was hard not to get injured and a bruise had already appeared on his cheekbone.
Xin Hexue raised the corners of his lips slightly. “Do you want…”
He had originally meant to ask if Yan Ji wanted to come into the tent and treat his injuries.
But Yan Ji directly handed over his communicator in front of him. “Add, contact info.”
