Meng Chao’s smile froze on his face.
There were indeed two souls living in the depths of his body.
One of them was his eighteen-year-old self. He was at the height of his youth and vigor, and he was full of passion. He was rash, determined, naive, and had a somewhat righteous mindset. He also believed that something beautiful was happening right now. In other words, he was similar to the other people around the same age as he was.
The other one was a broken soul which had survived hundreds of battles and returned from the apocalypse.
He should think about it carefully. When Dragon City was destroyed, what sort of mindset did he have?
He fought for decades, and the battles he faced every day grew more and more brutal and tragic. Even though the experiences refined and polished his ability to kill, he lost everything—his family, his home, and his future.
There was no way this sort of soul would be as passionate, bright, and naive as his eighteen-year-old self.
When he had just returned to the past, his cerebral cortex was still very weak. So, the broken soul from the apocalypse was suppressed by his eighteen-year-old self.
As he awakened to his supernatural abilities, his spirit energy kept on stimulating his brain, and the broken soul from the apocalypse started waking up. At the same time his eighteen-year-old received rich fighting experience and support skills, they brought back his habits, mindset, and instincts from the apocalypse.
There was something that Meng Chao had been subconsciously overlooking over the past few months.
Just how did a third-class fighter like him manage to struggle and survive so long in the apocalypse?
Many outstanding fighters had died, so why didn’t he?
Was it because of the incredibly brutal skills in his arsenal, like ambushing, infiltrating, poisoning, assassinating, setting up traps, and interrogating others? They had become as easy to him as breathing. What sort of price did he pay to learn them, and in what situation did he learn those skills?
What did he lose in the process of turning from a passionate youth of eighteen years old to a broken soul which had crawled out of hell? What did he gain from it?
Humans usually beautified their memories.
As for the memories that they could not beautify, they would choose to just wipe them off.
It was just like how his mother simply could not remember all the things related to the X-shaped eye and the mysterious hospital.
Meng Chao himself also seemed to have forgotten how he turned from a normal person the Dark Witch mocked as baggage to a third-class fighter who thrived in the apocalypse.
His neck hurt. He felt as if there was blood gushing out of it.
He could not breathe.
Meng Chao gulped. He instinctively covered his neck, but he did not know why he did that.
Luo Hai did not notice that there was something off about his expression. “Seriously, I can accept everything else, including you lying in ambush in a shrub to ambush other students. That’s still kind of a normal fighting skill. But you slitting Duan Lian’s throat? Even if it was fake… it’s still too crazy. It makes people’s skins crawl!
“I’m not just treating you as a friend, but also a partner I chose from among thousands of people. We’ll be working together to build our empire, you know? You have to pay attention to your personal image and your market value, get it?
“For example, when you become the spokesperson for Surging Lightning, we’ll be causing a huge storm when we package the saber, promote it, and get ghostwriters to sell our product. At that time, if our competitors reveal that you cut Duan Lian’s throat, what is everyone going to think?
“I don’t understand, even if Duan Lian is really difficult to deal with, wasn’t there a more suitable approach to settle the problem? Did you have to be so brutal?”
‘That’s right.’ With his hand covering his neck, Meng Chao looked ahead with confusion. ‘Why did I decide, without any hesitation, to cut his throat?’
Sharp pain flared in his neck. A memory fragment that he had been ignoring suddenly bloomed red.
Countless bloody streams shot out and dragged his consciousness to the depths of his past life.
Meng Chao felt like he had been plunging for a long time through a nightmare until he crashed into a foul-smelling puddle of mud.
Luo Hai and the cultivation room were gone.
In their place was a strange-looking forest and a black swamp.
A quick look around revealed that he was waiting in ambush with a group of soldiers with cold gazes and bleak presences.
All of them had already removed their camouflage uniforms, guns, and daggers. They brought out lively-looking coats made of monster materials, which turned them into half-beasts with really horrendous appearances.
Then, they put on armor made of monster bones and bronze and grabbed crude cold weapons with crystals embedded carelessly in them.
The human soldiers opened their mouths and stuffed sharp fake teeth into them.
Then, they used paint that looked like chalk to draw animal faces for themselves. It made them look like skeletons.
“This is…”
Meng Chao’s mouth was dry. He realized that he had returned to a military operation from his previous life.
He turned his head around and used his HD binoculars to observe a village not far in the distance. It was located beyond the forest.
The village looked to be straight out of a fairy tale or a fantasy novel. It did not have any advanced technology or showed any signs of industrialization.
The area, however, was surrounded by man-eating flowers and poisonous, spiked vines. They formed a simple barricade.
There were also Shriekers who were as big as beach umbrellas. They were intelligent fungus with incredibly sharp senses. If someone unfamiliar approached them, they released spores at a rapid speed, which created shrill sounds.
Through the fence, Meng Chao could see the villagers working hard.
They were humanoid beings with lean bodies and sharp ears.
Their skins were blood-red, and they were covered in dazzling tattoos that looked like spirit tattoos.
Smoke curled into the air. The village was full of life. The adults were busy, and the children laughed. They were no different from humans.
Meng Chao saw three children run outside the village due to some game.
They took turns extending their four-fingered hands toward the pistils of the man-eating flowers. Before the pistils could shrink back, they pulled their hands back at lightning speed.
This was a children’s game, and it happened to be a really stupid and boring one.
“Don’t speak in any language from Earth, and don’t use weapons from Earth,” a deep voice said from behind Meng Chao. “Don’t let even a single person survive, understand?”
Meng Chao turned around and saw an incredibly large half-beast with its face painted to resemble a deformed skeleton.
In truth, though, it was an Earthling in the disguise of a monster.
He chewed on something in his mouth, and his breath stank horribly.
“Sir, there are children over there,” Meng Chao heard himself say.
The instructor drew closer to him, and a savage smile bloomed on the skull he had for a face now. “99, are you mad or blind? There aren’t children there, just cubs of the creatures of the Other World. We’ve killed a lot of monster cubs before, these aren’t any different.”
Meng Chao heard himself hesitate. “But—”
“No buts!” The instructor squeezed his shoulder. His grip was so strong that he nearly crushed Meng Chao’s shoulder blade. “99, you’re one of the ones I favor a lot in the training camp. Your talent with the gun and your exquisite skills with the knife, which you gained from harvesting, are both miracles for someone your age.
“But your personality is weak.
“Put aside that humanity of yours, it’s not appropriate for this situation. Think about the difficulties and dangers that Dragon City is facing now. Many of our comrades might be taking action or dying for us!
“Remember, even if you become a despicable cockroach, a brutal demon, or a cold machine, as long as we can preserve the flames of Earth’s civilization, everything is worth it!”
Meng Chao heard himself saying stiffly, “I-I understand.”
“Really, 99?” The instructor smiled and stuffed a mace embedded with the shattered teeth from monsters into his hands. He slapped Meng Chao on the shoulder and said, “Then, I’ll have you deal with the three cubs of the Other World’s residents, alright? You’ll leave the training camp in possession of even greater power!”
Meng Chao stared at the hand he used to hold the mace. It was trembling heavily.
“I…” He couldn’t say anything.
“What? You can’t do it?” The instructor frowned.
“I don’t know, Sir. I… I might not be ready yet,” Meng Chao heard himself say weakly.
“You aren’t ready yet? True, the other people in the training camp were sent in to be trained since they were young. You’re the only who joined halfway. You’re too old, and your head is stuffed full of things that are preventing you from becoming stronger. It’s only logical that you’re not prepared yet.”
The instructor patted his shoulder gently. He sounded sympathetic and even a little considerate.
But the next second, he cut Meng Chao’s neck with his palm. “If you’re so useless, die!”
Meng Chao’s eyes went wide as pain flared in his throat. Blood gushed out, and he fell limp on the ground.
All of the human soldiers who pretended to be monsters and used pictures of skulls to hide their real faces walked over his body.
Like a punctured ball, he instantly lost all of his strength. He could not move nor see the wound on his neck. He could only hear the sound of blood gushing out. It kept on running down his skin, and he felt his life rapidly flowing away through his fingers.
Even if he was just remembering the feeling of moving closer to death inch by inch and being devoured by darkness, that feeling still invaded his senses like acid, making him want to scream, but he could not release even a single sound.
The instructor squatted down and stared at him.
“In your next life, no matter what I say, you’re only allowed to give me one answer, and that’s ‘Sir, yes Sir!’”
He used his bloody, deformed hand to pat Meng Chao’s cheek gently. “Remember the standard answer, 99.”
Meng Chao remembered it.
The instructor rose and left then. “I repeat. Don’t speak using any language from Earth!”
Soon, the Shriekers started shrieking at a spot Meng Chao could not see.
He waited for his death while listening to them.
Darkness soon enveloped him. He moved through it and returned to the present, where he found himself curled up in a corner. He still had a hand covering his neck, and his arm as well as chest were covered in blood from his nose.
He hadn’t sweated during the fight earlier, but now, his shirt was drenched in cold sweat.
“Meng Chao, what’s wrong?!” Luo Hai was dumbfounded. He wanted to help his friend up, but he did not know how he should even begin helping him. He did not dare to shake him either. When he saw him open his eyes again, as if he had regained his senses, he said, “Did your spirit energy deviate?”
“No.” Meng Chao sucked in a deep breath. He felt like he was a man who had drowned in a swamp for several minutes before he was saved.
It was no wonder why his memories had to be unlocked bit by bit.
The impact from the memory just now was too strong and terrifying.
If he had unlocked it a few months ago as a normal human, his brain might have been burnt to a crisp.
Even now…
Meng Chao covered his burning head, still immersed in the immense shock he experienced.
‘So, I used that fake throat slit on Duan Lian because I had personally experienced it in some secret training camp in my previous life, and it left behind a deep impression on me?
‘Just what did I, Dragon City, and our entire civilization turn into for the sake of survival?’