Becoming The White Moonlight’s Human Weapon After My Death - Chapter 12

After parking the car at the airport, Yan Chenli made a call to remind the other party to pick the car up and drive it back. The journey was very ordinary, the only thing that surprised Shao Dongmi was Shen Lu separating from them when they went through the entrance of the terminal.

“Hey, where’s he going? Isn’t he coming with us?”

“A-Lu can’t go through the security check.” Yan Chenli answered.

That’s right.

Shen Lu wore his suit tightly with his collar secured by a tie, but one could still see the beginnings of a metal structure from a side of the back of Shen Lu’s neck, so he could imagine that, if Shen Lu were to go through the security check, he would set off the alarms and be caught and stripped. Things like these weapons seemed to be something that probably couldn’t be brought onboard a plane.

“What’s he going to do then? Can he fly along the back of the plane?” Shao Dongmi tried to use popcorn flicks to understand the current situation.

Yan Chenli laughed: “The Executioner’s technology isn’t that supernaturally advanced. It’s okay, he’ll find his own way in, he even bought a regular ticket.”

They nibbled on their apples while in the waiting room, and Yan Chenli reminded him meaningfully, “You have to carefully enjoy this fruit, you’ll understand once we get there, it has to be the sweetness of Yinjiang’s apples.”

It wasn’t long after the two of them sat down inside the plane that Shen Lu also came into the cabin normally, having found his way inside in some unknown way.

Shao Dongmi looked at the seemingly ordinary passengers around him, wondering to himself how they would feel if they knew that a Terminator-like thing was sitting with them in the plane. And, thinking that he would also have such a cool partner soon, the sense of a “with great power comes great responsibility” calling suddenly sprung up.

After a day’s long weary travel across the ocean, they finally arrived at the region bordering Mississippi and Augustus. The ground was very uneven, and the bus would occasionally jostle. Shao Dongmi couldn’t rest at all, but Yan Chenli slept like the dead the whole way through, completely unaffected.

Just like his enviable boundless energy, Yan Chenli also had an enviable sleep quality. Shao Dongmi had personally experienced him energetically saying “We still have to wait five minutes? Then I’ll sleep for a bit” and then completely falling asleep two seconds after speaking, even faster than him logging out of a game.

The closer they got to their destination, the fewer people there were on the road. The city was deserted and clearly not developed. The bus stopped at the border and Yan Chenli woke up in a flash as though he had telepathy, he lifted his hands and stretched, “OK! The holiday’s over, let’s get on duty with one hundred twenty thousand points of vitality starting from now.”

Shao Dongmi: No, you consider the past few days a holiday??

According to Yan Chenli, all transportation into Augustus had been completely cut off, there were no direct flights, trains, or buses, and one could only drive there themselves by renting a car nearby.

Fortunately the three of them didn’t have much luggage, Shao Dongmi was carrying a shoulder bag, Yan Chenli held a long, black rectangular bag, and Shen Lu only had an apple. He was dressed impeccably, carrying that apple the whole way through.

Yan Chenli rented a small car from the only car company nearby, and after going through the procedures and waiting for the car to be brought up, Shao Dogmi, who had nothing to do, began looking for something to say. He saw that Shen Lu had been wearing earphones, not the kind of of surveillance earpieces that go inside the collar of the shirt, but more like normal earphones used to listen to music, so he leaned closer curiously, “Lu-ge, what song are you listening to?”

Shen Lu was a little surprised by Shao Dongmi’s sudden closeness in both manner of address and distance, and was momentarily stunned. Yan Chenli, who was used to being easy-going, directly stretched out a hand and took an earphone from his ear, then put it into Shao Dongmi’s, “Here, ever heard it before?”

The music coming through the earphone was a symphony. The song was vast, majestic, and dripping with passion, it sounded like a huge orchestra with pianos, flutes, horns, saxophones and drums, and who knows how many violins and cellos. It was very lively, evoking the grand, majestic scene of black-suited performers playing atop a huge stage as if it were happening in front of them.

Shao Dongmi had always admired that kind of classical music from a respectful distance, thinking it dull and imprisoning. It was only after joining the Investigations Department and listening to Yan Chenli play the violin a few times during their team-building activities and bringing out an indescribably delicate sense of beauty to old-fashioned pop songs that he gradually eased his fear of traditional music.

“Hey, I’ve heard this song before! What was it called…” Shao Dongmi scratched his head.

“Shostakovich’s “Second Waltz”.” Yan Chenli smiled as he spoke, then asked, “Can you make out which version it is?”

“There’s different versions? Aren’t they the same?” Shao Dongmi tilted his head and listened seriously for a moment, “I don’t know, anyway, the end-of-class bell at our school was this song for a time, it was the same version.”

Yan Chenli turned his head towards Shen Lu and raised his brows, revealing a proud smile which seemed to say “See? I told you”.

Shen Lu was dazzled by that smile, and his heart skipped a beat.

Yan Chenli got the car key and waved at them, indicating they could get going. Shao Dongmi took the headphone and returned it to Shen Lu, the feeling of veneration in his heart climbing up a step higher.

A human weapon actually had to have such high artistic training, he really felt inferior.

A few minutes later, Yan Chenli drove two of them along the road in the small damaged vehicle tottering in the edge of collapse. The small truck looked no better than a scrap car frame from the junkyard, with not a single chunk of intact paint on any side, nor any unbroken glass left, and the accelerator pedal let out a cracking sound upon being stepped on.

Shao Dongmi began fretting, “Captain, hey, Captain, will this car do? I feel like it’s just going to fall apart!!”

Yan Chenli seemed used to it: “It’s a three hundred yuan single-use ride, what did you expect?”

“Single-use?” Shao Dongmi stared at him quizzically, “Isn’t it a rental? Can it make it back?”

“It could be blown up or stolen, here in Augustus it’s always a one-way trip with no returns no matter where you drive.” Yan Chenli whistled as he spoke in a relaxed tone.

Shao Dongmi: ??

“Hey, but we have a cool human weapon!!”

“What will that do? There are bandits everywhere here, do you want A-Lu to kill everyone?”

Shao Dongmi choked: “That makes sense.”

The small, damaged vehicle shook and wobbled along the road, and Yan Chenli asked, “Dongmi, how much do you know about Augustus? I’ll give you a rough introduction. Have you ever heard of the name?”

Shao Dongmi clung to the window frame anxiously, worried that the car door would fly away by itself midway through: “I seem to have watched a movie about it? I feel like it’s a remote and desolate place where people kill for money.”

“Haha, that’s about right. But a few decades ago Augustus a world-famous wealthy city.

“This place was once an important port city in the north. At first, a large amount of technological firms and processing factories gathered here and quickly accumulated primitive capital and technology, becoming the world’s top household electrical appliance factories and car manufacturers. Along with the rise of these large firms, Augustus established plentiful commercial trade, education, and medical systems, as well as huge labour unions.

“Labourers who joined a union could get even more generous remuneration——with the same skills and experience, they could get five times the remuneration, five times! Dongmi, what’s your current wage? Around five thousand, right? Then, if you had agreed to move to Augustus, you could’ve gotten twenty-five thousand per month. How about that? Tempting?”

Shao Dongmi: “Wow, twenty-five thousand?! Damn, that’s too much, I could buy two graphics cards every month, use one, and break the other.”

“Hahaha, yeah, it’s really attractive. At that time both companies and workers earned plenty, it was truly deserving of being the world’s capital of wealth.”

The small broken vehicle had already driven into Augustus.

Completely different from the magnificent landscape in Yan Chenli’s description, the scenery outside the window was that of prosperity and ruin coexisting, to the point that it seemed incomparably strange——

Lush parasol trees densely covered both sides of the street, with their warm golden fallen leaves covering the ground like the most expensively decorated elegant flower garden. The car had been travelling for more than ten minutes, but the entire city looked deserted.

There were grand villas right next to both sides of the road, with fountains, ponds, and intricately carved stone railings, looking like the kind of mansions that only the wealthy middle class could afford, but, without exception, these buildings were all utterly ruined at the moment: the glass in the windows had all been shattered, half-detached doors hung from their frames over the steps, mottled walls were covered in climbing plants with fragments of tiles and bricks still falling down, their brightly-painted wooden structures had long since faded from exposure to the sun with no one to take care of them, and were now covered in a dim layer of gloomy ash.

Every door and window in these uninhabited grand residences were like pitch-black cave openings, like dried-up eyes and soundless mouths, silently peering at the vehicle where Shao Dongmi was——the only living being inside the empty city right now.

Everything in front of his eyes was the same as in an abandoned city in a disaster movie where humanity disappeared into thin air.

The ruins of the empty city were so shocking that Shao Dongmi momentarily forgot to speak, he had never thought that there would actually be these kinds of disaster movie-like scenes in the era he lived in.

Yan Chenli’s smooth voice continued: “But misfortune also followed—. The Federation’s economic core moved to the north, and Augustus’ shipping industry gradually declined, losing its geographical importance. At the same time, the industry of global economy deviated along with technological iterations——pretty much like the innovation of information technology, the market for conventional household appliances dried up, smartphones replaced landlines, small engine cars replaced large engine cars——things like that.

“Augustus’ large industries couldn’t completely transform in time, adding onto that the rise of crude oil and the effect of the financial crisis, as well as the excessively forceful unions which refused to concede in lowering worker’s wages——you could almost say it was due to the joint efforts of both internal and external factors that the once finest, most well-known large industries in the world quickly went deeply into debt.”

Shao Dongmi frowned as he listened, counting with his fingers: “Was it from the impact of the last… no, the last last last Great Depression?”

“Uh-huh, correct, it was at that time. The prosperity bubble burst with a ‘pop’, and a large number of firms went bankrupt or moved, and capital receded astonishingly fast, like the tide. Large quantities of middle-class people not only lost their jobs but were also saddled with high debts, becoming poor and homeless overnight. Desperate people began savagely burning, killing, and looting without end, and the government’s security system, which was already lacking the strength to continue operations, was completely paralysed and dissolved, the government subsequently declared bankruptcy as well.

“After that, law and police officers completely withdrew from the territory, and this place was finally reduced to one of the cities with the highest crime rates in the world.”

Shao Dongmi finally understood why he’d said that this operation was lead by an NGO during the interview. He’d been living peacefully for too long and had forgotten that there were regions in the Federation in which public security was contracted to private companies. They had to consider profits and losses like ordinary companies, and they could also go bankrupt and exit the market as well.

There would be no replacements before this place could be profitable, and the judicial vacancy would forever remain, like those shops that failed to earn money.

Shao Dongmi could clearly sense that the road conditions here had become unusually bad. The ground itself was worn-out and damaged, still bearing traces of explosions and burning, and, in addition to this, the road was covered in construction debris like cardboard boxes, steel bars, and wooden planks, there were even corpses which one couldn’t tell whether they belonged to humans or animals, and the heavy humidity mixed with the sour smell of rot from time to time.

Yan Chenli seemed to have gotten used to it long ago as he ran over those things that couldn’t be deeply investigated, the violent jostling making one feel very unwell.

The poor road conditions lengthened the trip, there was still a rotting smell of unknown origins filling the air, and his fatigue from barely getting a few hours of sleep on the plane had not been alleviated, so the severe nausea made Shao Dongmi feel like he couldn’t hold on anymore.

Can’t stand it, I want to throw up.

“Cap—Captain, slow down a bit… ugh, that’s not right, we’d better end the torture quickly… bleurgh———”

“Hahaha fine, fine, rest for a bit first.” Yan Chenli stopped the car, opening the door and letting Shao Dongmi slowly get down.

Shao Dongmi crouched by the side of the road and bent down holding his stomach, already deeply feeling that his future would not be good.

Yan Chenli knocked on the roof of the almost-collapsing car, “Don’t worry, you’ll adapt very quickly. Plus, when you switch to one of the Tribunal’s armoured cars you won’t get jostled as much.”

“Armoured… armoured cars…?” Shao Dongmi wiped the spit off and raised his head, feeling even crazier.

What’s that, a tank? Since there were such small human weapons like Shen Lu, was it possible he was actually here to drive a Gundam?

Yan Chenli looked at his pained appearance with great relish, leaning on the roof of the car with one hand and pointing at the ruined luxurious villa by the side of the road, “These villas are still listed for sale, guess how much they cost?”

Shao Domgi turned his head to look, they seemed to be at least 400 squared metres, with two storeys, and the shadow of its former grandeur could be vaguely seen from its framework, only now it was covered with overgrown weeds.

“Ugh… Something this big would be about forty million in Yinjiang, right? But this is Augustus, so I’m guessing a hundred thousand? Two hundred thousand?”

“The answer is one yuan, hahaha! Cheaper than Lawson’s white radish.” Yan Chenli smiled brightly, “But you still need to pay the land taxes, is that better?”

After a brief rest, their party got on the road once again, and the surrounding buildings changed as the car passed through the most fringe suburbs.

Large expanses of abandoned factories covered the sides of the road at the moment, with huge heavy machinery left behind in place, though they were broken and their parts had already been stolen. There would occasionally be commercial office buildings and large, empty storefronts facing the street, and Shao Dongmi could vaguely read may familiar-sounding brands on their severely faded and worn-out old advertisement signboards.

The huge buildings, tall enough to reach the clouds, were also uninhabited, standing on both sides of the street like gravestones reaching up into the sky, spread out all over the horizon, making one feel a peculiar sense of shock.

Shao Dongmi thought, getting blown up or robbed wouldn’t be surprising in a doomsday place like this.

Then, the car was really blown up.

Shao Dongmi had been seated when Shen Lu suddenly jumped up and kicked the roof of the car away, he grabbed Shao Dongmi and Yan Chenli in one leap, pulling them out of their seats with one hand each, and leapt up into the air as the explosion rumbled under their feet. The heatwave blew past their bodies in a scalding burst, and thick smoke rolled out covering their field of vision.

Shao Dongmi was shocked and full of questions as he was carefully placed back on the ground by Shen Lu.

Before he could come back to his senses, a group of people scuttled out of a corner, carrying metal bars and wooden planks, shouting loudly as they rushed over.

Shao Dongmi had seen police assault before, but he had never seen such plain and powerful police assault.

“We’re pressed for time today, let’s slip away first.” Yan Chenli turned his head to hand Shao Dongmi’s bag back to him, and it was only then that he realised that Yan Chenli had actually had time to grab both their bags in the lightning-fast moment just now.

He was the one who couldn’t keep up with the tempo, sorry for the trouble.

But how did the apple in Yan Chenli’s hand come about? Did it appear by magic?

Under the cover of the thick smoke, Shao Dongmi closely followed Yan Chenli, and Shen Lu guarded the two of them from the rear. The three of them hid and took cover, crawling and climbing all the way as they crept forward through the roads and off the roads of the construction.

Yan Chenli was like a tour guide, explaining in a relaxed tone as he moved, “This region is full of back-alley gang organisations, these small gangs are everywhere in Augustus, and they won’t let any foreign cars go if they see them. Don’t be fooled by the fact it was just a handful of people, if there really was a fight and you didn’t make any lethal moves, the other party would appear in an unending stream like rats crawling out of the gutter. Anyway, we’re not too far now, we can still get there by making a few turns.”

Shao Dongmi climbed up a window sill and moved laterally through the outside wall of the building, absent-mindedly thinking: Didn’t I come here to report for duty? Why does it feel like I’m crossing through the line of fire?

Shao Dongmi climbed up the rubble of the ruined walls until his brand new suit blended perfectly into the environment, as if he was returning from a construction site, until finally reaching their destination safely.

Yan Chenli lightly dusted off his cuffs and knees, which were actually not very stained, and Shen Lu was completely spotless.

Shao Dongmi thought, he had to practice climbing walls, he really had to practice!

The new base of operations was a seemingly simple group of low-rise buildings with an enclosed courtyard, and it seemed like the site of some small business had been temporarily requisitioned for use.

The very long name of the Tribunal1  was carved on a sign on top of the door: Violence Intervention Emergency Adjudication System – V.I.E.A.S.

“I really don’t know how such a backwards place could have such advanced technology.” Shao Dongmi looked around the simple and even somewhat dilapidated exterior of the office buildings, “Fortunately it’s you, Captain Yan, if it were someone else I would definitely think the guy had mistakenly ended up in an MLM.”

“The founder of the tribunal, Chuan Beixiang, has his own research organisation, and he picked this place to carry out trial operations after completing technological research and development. I know this sounds hard to believe and uncertain, so I’m very grateful for every single person who believed in me and participated.”

There was not a single person in sight inside the deserted courtyard, but there were rows of imposingly strong vehicles parked off to the side. Their outer shells were thick and hard, their whole body painted black, they were very tall and the inside space didn’t seem small. Their shapes resembled something between a car and a tank, they had the professional air characteristic of working vehicles, and engraved on their carriages was the abbreviation “VIE” as well as a symbol of scales. Shao Dongmi’s eyes sparkled as he thought about going up to touch one, but Yan Chenli grabbed him by the collar, “Report for duty first, you can look again when you come out. You’ll have your own, so don’t run around.”

Shao Dongmi nodded repeatedly and urged Yan Chenli to speed up the pace.

“Next we have to look for Executive Chief Jin Sen to report to. That guy looks a little scary, and he’s also a bit dogmatic with work, just pretend in front of him and you’ll be fine.”

Yan Chenli carried Shao Dongmi forwards, and Shen Lu fell behind a distance away as he followed them. A short trip later, Yan Cheni pushed open a glass door with a sign saying “Administration”, and the middle-aged man that was sitting inside madly typing away on the keyboard on the desk immediately turned his head to look over.

He seemed to have the exact same murderous expression as Gong Xiaolu, or maybe even a more intense one, and Shao Dongmi unconsciously shrank his neck back upon seeing it.

“Jin Sen, we’re here~ This is——” Yan Chenli had just spoken half of his words when Jin Sen got up from his table with a bang and quickly walked over in large strides, “No time for greetings, Chief Adjudicator Yan Chenli, Adjudicator Shao Dongmi, please prepare for action immediately.”

A question mark had barely floated out of Shao Dongmi’s face when Jin Sen pushed him in front of an apparatus, which crackled and rattled as it scanned his face, and pressed his hands to take his fingerprints.

“What happened?” Yan Chenli asked.

The printer hummed and spat out a printed ID card with his name and photograph, Jin Sen grabbed it and stuffed it into Shao Dongmi’s hands, speaking in an astonishingly fast, flat tone, “We’ve lost contact with three of the fifty Adjudicators originally scheduled to report in, their whereabouts are unknown, and one of them has already exceeded the expected time by almost ten hours, they’ve very likely been met with danger. The Tribunal is right in the middle of an all-out search and rescue, I need you two to join in at once.”

Everything that followed was like they had pressed the fast-forward button, Jin Sen quickly repeated the work items and basic rules in one go, then pushed the three of them out of the office.

“So I’m just going to drive this thing and go to work now?” Shao Dongmi pointed at the huge black armoured car.

“Yes, get on first, I’ll give you the rest of the details through the radio in a moment…” Yan Chenli looked at Shen Lu, lowering eyebrows as he sunk into contemplation, “Actually, I’m afraid you have a misunderstood first impression about Executioners. The ones like A-Lu are the minority, you best not trust them too much.”

Shao Dongmi was a little confused: “Huh, isn’t that my partner? Do you mean I need to guard against them?”

“Not so much guard against them. Executioners will obey the authority of those who wake them, that’s a hard, fundamental rule they have no way to disobey. But you can’t really communicate with them like you would with a normal person… Ah, that reminds me.” Yan Chenli lightly clapped his hands, “There’s one Executioner whose state is very similar to that of A-Lu, he shouldn’t cause you trouble. Serial number 049, codename Venus, you can just drive that car in a moment.”

Within just a few brief minutes, news arrived from the dispatch centre that one of the missing Adjudicators had been confirmed dead. Since they were short on manpower, they had no choice but to act separately in order to expand their opportunity for rescue. Yan Chenli’s expression was grave, and Shao Dongmi knew the situation was urgent, so he could only bite the bullet even if he was pushed beyond his abilities.

Shao Dongmi identified that car and successfully started it up according to his authority. The piloting panel in the car was almost as complex as that of an airplane, but fortunately the operation itself was not that much different from that of an ordinary car, so luckily he could drive it. The difference from normal cars was that he could easily reach the rear cabin from the driver’s seat, which was designed to economise the time it took to wake the Executioner up.

Shao Dongmi tested the driving system, then turned to the back of the car to confirm the Executioner’s situation. Yan Chenli had just taught him the awakening procedure, and he wanted to take advantage of the fact it was still fresh in his mind to put it into practice.

The rear compartment was pitch black, and all sorts of data was displayed on the surface of the huge instrument, its indicator lights flickering incessantly. In addition to data like storage conditions and weapon and medicine reserves status, there were the words “049 – Venus”, a steadily-flickering green square, and the number [25].

A person was confined to a mechanical chair by layer upon layer of fetters and handcuffs, their young face shining through the rolling bubbles of the solution.

Shao Dongmi had thought all human weapons would be like Shen Lu, tall and sturdy, but the one sitting inside this vessel was actually a thin, frail man… or rather, a young man? He seemed to be only about 17 or 18 years old, to the point he was even a little childish, and it was impossible to determine whether or not he was an adult. He was pale, slim, and seemed to not have Shen Lu’s feeling of powerful oppression.

The young man wasn’t breathing, wasn’t moving, laying dormant with a scarily stiff expression.

Shao Dongmi felt that this face was very familiar.

He held his chin as he thought for a while, suddenly realised something, and his mind exploded.

That was the face of Chen Xing, who’d been confirmed dead for a long time.