The Eleventh Year of Making Hate with My Lover - Chapter 19

During the lunch break, Shen Wang followed Li Lan into the Information Building, where she handed him a freshly printed mission briefing.

Mission Objective: Clear the supernatural anomalies in Xu City; rescue Mr. D.

Mission Rank: S-Rank

Lethality Index: 20%

Shen Wang narrowed his eyes slightly. This specific combination of rank and lethality index was highly intriguing.

The detailed report below explained that this place was once humanity’s ancient capital. It had long since become a desolate wasteland, and an anomaly of unknown origin had recently taken over the area.

“Instructor Li, you just mentioned a rescue…” Shen Wang paused for a moment before continuing, “What exactly did you mean by ‘rescuing my ex-wife’?”

Li Lan leaned far back in her chair to charge herself: “This mission was originally assigned to Wu Que. However, a full week has passed and he has yet to emerge from the perimeter. He has likely encountered a thorny problem and remains trapped inside the domain.”

Shen Wang appeared entirely unconcerned: “It has only been a week.”

Li Lan lit a cigarette, took a deep drag, and exhaled a long ring of pale smoke: “You must realize that in the past, he was fully capable of clearing more than three A-rank missions within a single day.”

“Of course, I believe he can break through it. It’s just that Mr. D’s family is applying heavy pressure. Their clan commands immense prestige in both the commercial and political sectors. When their crown prince goes missing, how could they not be anxious? The pressure is passed down to the Base, so the upper echelon naturally squeezes us.”

Shen Wang lightly flicked the briefing in his hand, noting that it offered no details on how Mr. D had entered the zone in the first place: “Forgive the intrusion, but if Xu City is already a pile of rubble, what business did he have going in?”

Li Lan let out a sharp scoff: “Presumably, it’s just a hyper-wealthy person wanting to re-engineer the ancient capital, transforming the ruins into some sort of amusement park or something.” She sneered, “He isn’t the only one to ever execute such a stunt. However, the other civilians who disappeared over the years didn’t possess such prestigious lineages. Furthermore, this specific Cocoon Domain has remained completely dormant for ages it never expanded its perimeter, nor did it actively hunt targets. Regular people have zero incentive to wander into a wasteland, so the administration simply let the matter drop, and it was left abandoned for years.”

“Ah, yes,” Li Lan supplemented, “There is a highly anomalous variable to consider: over the preceding two years, the Cocoon Domain suddenly initiated an active expansion phase, blanketing the neighboring sectors. Fortunately, the adjacent territories consist entirely of barren wildlands.”

Had a certain corporate heir not vanished within the grid this time, this specific Cocoon Domain would have likely remained synchronized with the dead city, fading into obscurity for several more decades.

Shen Wang originally harbored zero desire to participate in the deployment, his mind already actively structuring a polite refusal. Yet, the moment Li Lan’s disclosure registered noting that a domain dormant for decades had suddenly shifted its parameters within the last two years a distinct spark of suspicion flared within him. Combining this data with the System’s prior revelation that the Phoenix Research Institute had been actively breeding and culturing anomalies over recent years, he suspected a direct structural correlation between the two events.

“Very well, I will go.” Shen Wang folded the briefing document with clean precision. “We depart the day after tomorrow?”

“Refrain from rushing, I have yet to conclude the briefing.” Li Lan initialized her digital screen, tapping the surface to pull up several distinct personnel files. “To guarantee a flawless execution, the upper echelon has mobilized multiple tactical squads. You are mandated to lead your unit into the field. However, the vast majority of your senior team members are currently deployed on external operations, meaning only two available assets can join your vanguard.”

Having returned to the Base for over a week, Shen Wang had indeed failed to cross paths with a single permanent member of his unit; having additional support was a welcome variable.

“An old acquaintance of yours, though I command zero certainty regarding whether your memory banks have preserved her data,” Li Lan rotated the screen toward him. “He Shu. The moment she found out you were executing a live operation; she personally submitted an expedited request to participate. Her transport is already actively inbound to our coordinates.”

Displayed across the monitor was a young girl projecting a distinctly sharp, cool aesthetic. She didn’t look very old likely hovering just under twelve.

Shen Wang audited his cognitive banks for a prolonged interval, yet no data registered.

“The second asset is Lang Xi. His performance metrics during the preceding deployment were highly functional.”

“…” Shen Wang paused. If his memory served him right, the preceding deployment had been largely resolved through the direct intervention of himself and Wu Que helping Lang Xi out.

He offered a tactful counter-proposal: “I believe that to maximize his baseline survival probability, it would be structurally optimal to purge his designation from the roster.”

Otherwise, when they breached the zone, his system would not only be forced to locate Wu Que and secure Mr. D, but would additionally need to dedicate massive processing power to ensure the brat didn’t get casually terminated.

Li Lan arched an eyebrow: “I comprehend your tactical reservations perfectly, but fresh recruits require intense environmental forging. Being led into a live theater by veteran officers constitutes his formal promotional evaluation. While this domain is classified as an S-rank anomaly, its cumulative lethality index remains exceptionally low, making it the absolute textbook environment for field training.”

“If you abandon him within the perimeter of the Base, the logistics network will simply allocate him to another isolated solo deployment, precisely like last time. That trajectory carries a vastly superior risk profile.”

“…” With the argument structured so definitively, further refusal would merely make him look like an entirely cold, unfeeling captain.

Seeing his silent acquiescence, Li Lan reached into her desk drawer to extract a pouch of liquid cat treats, successfully drawing out a feline that had been quietly napping in a darkened recess of the office. The cat’s coat was so profoundly black that as it huddled beneath the framework of a corner chair without emitting a single sound, Shen Wang had entirely failed to register its presence.

“Yi Yi,” Li Lan hoisted the black cat into her arms, pressing its soft paw pads toward Shen Wang in a mocking wave. “This asset also operates as an old acquaintance of yours.”

Shen Wang was thoroughly perplexed: “Is this a supernaturally modified feline I formerly domesticated? Or does it represent the full mimetic projection of a human acquaintance?”

Li Lan idly stroked the crown of Yi Yi’s head: “Neither. It is a specialized spiritual artifact that Wu Que personally deposited into my custody prior to his departure.”

The feline pinned its gaze directly onto Shen Wang’s face, emitting a soft, localized “Meow.” Immediately following the vocalization, a sharp “Boom!” echoed through the room, and the cat’s head instantly transformed into a perfect replica of Shen Wang’s own face.

“……” Shen Wang reached out, firmly planting his palm over the cat’s face as a prominent vein throbbed violently against his temple. Very well, he held absolute clarity regarding exactly whose spiritual essence inhabited this entity.

Wu Que had previously authorized Li Lan to initialize the automated puppet.

Although Li Lan had desperately desired to program the asset with catastrophic, top-tier combat metrics to alleviate the Base’s current staffing deficit, she ultimately conformed to Wu Que’s explicit directives. She had audited the core spiritual consciousness slumbering deep within the artifact.

Had the spiritual consciousness expressed a desire to remain comatose, the item would have simply been transferred to the Base’s permanent archival collection, preserved exclusively to resolve catastrophic emergencies.

Yet, the automated puppet had independently selected to initialize its systems. However, having apparently sustained monumental structural trauma in its historical timeline, its entire catalog of past operational memories had been completely wiped during initialization.

It had chosen to manifest its physical shell as a common black cat.

“An old acquaintance indeed,” Shen Wang observed, watching the cat lazily roll over to expose its underbelly within Li Lan’s embrace. He couldn’t help but conclude that the structural configuration of this vanguard squad was remarkably bizarre.

The two-day preparation interval elapsed with extreme speed. The moment the departure schedule went live, Shen Wang finally crossed paths with the veteran asset of his permanent unit: He Shu.

The young girl sported a razor-sharp, minimalist haircut, her black tactical combat uniform immaculate and functional. Her facial features were locked in an icy presentation that loudly projected an absolute warning against casual approach. Yet, the absolute second her gaze locked onto Shen Wang, her eyes flared with a distinct brightness, her vocal tone softening considerably.

“Captain, you are actually utilizing a feline asset for a live field deployment? Am I authorized to interact with its physical form?”

Perched securely atop Shen Wang’s shoulder, Yi Yi’s head suddenly generated another distinct “Boom!”, instantly morphing into an exact duplicate of He Shu’s face.

“……”

The immediate environment plunged into absolute, dead silence. Shen Wang noted internally that this bizarre facial mimicry likely constituted the entity’s highly unique methodology for executing a standard greeting.

Lang Xi, having previously suffered intense psychological damage from this exact phenomenon, scrambled forward to deliver a rushed explanation to his teammate.

The ancient capital sat at a monumental geographical distance from the primary continent currently inhabited by civilization. However, the specialized tactical aircraft required a mere three hours to bridge the distance from takeoff to touchdown.

The automated navigation matrix tracked the precise coordinates Shen Wang had initialized, executing a smooth touchdown directly within the geometric center of Xu City the exact location where Wu Que’s emergency distress beacon continued to pulse in a localized rhythm.

Yet, as the exit hatches cycled open, the landscape presenting itself to their eyes consisted exclusively of absolute desolation, dominated by crumbling structural walls and shattered foundations.

“In historical epochs, this coordinate operated as the most prosperous sector of civilization. To think it has degenerated into such an absolute wasteland…” Being an inherently expressive young woman, He Shu surveyed the perimeter, unable to repress a soft, melancholy sigh.

The environment was rapidly transitioning into dusk. The dying rays of the sun cascaded downward like molten gold, painting the skeletal ruins of the ancient capital in a warm, complex tapestry of crimson and deep sepia tones. The collapsed palace walls exposed layers of weathered blue brickwork, the ornate structural brackets choked with heavy accumulations of ancient dust. A fractured bronze bell chimed weakly against the wind from an unstable corner, as wild weeds forced their way through the masonry seams, swaying idly against the breeze.

The ancient streets had long since lost their structural definitions, completely submerged beneath layers of shifting desert sands, leaving only a few fractured remnants of decorative roof tiles nesting within the depressions. The surrounding ecosystem was entirely devoid of biological life signs.

Shen Wang tracked the beacon’s signal through his interface, which indicated the source rested precisely three hundred meters ahead.

“Advance along that vector.” The vanguard advanced toward the northern quadrant, catching sight of several monumental, monolithic statues looming in the distance.

Having endured centuries of severe environmental weathering, the exterior carapaces of the monoliths had scaled away across massive surface areas, exposing the dark gray stone cores nesting within. Several structural segments had cracked and broken away entirely over time, yet the primary configurations of the figures remained faintly discernible.

The central monolith towering vastly above the adjacent structures clearly depicted a female form. The head of the statue was severely scarred by environmental impacts, the eye sockets weathered down into shallow, empty depressions, offering a mere ghost of the artistry that had guided the original sculptor’s chisel.

Regarding the ancient history of the capital, neither Lang Xi nor Shen Wang had absorbed a single data point during Li Lan’s theoretical lecture series.

He Shu, having cleared the advanced historical curriculum a few years prior, retained a functional memory packet. She explained that during the Year 105 of the Pene Calendar the official dawn of humanity’s New Epoch following civilization’s absolute victory over the Demigods, the surviving populaces had engineered this grand commemorative statuary group to immortalize the grand Pioneers.

Subsequently, as the fresh bastions of civilization materialized across the globe, these monuments—alongside the ancient capital itself were systematically erased from collective memory.

Shen Wang remained locked in absolute silence, while Lang Xi permanently retired his characteristic, goofy grin, his posture stiffening into an expression of profound, solemn reverence.

The pale illumination anchoring the horizon was steadily bleeding out, though absolute night had yet to completely claim the grid. This represented that hyper-specific interlude of twilight the hour of the wolf and the dog where the shifting play of light and shadow creates an absolute ambiguity, rendering a system entirely incapable of discerning whether the silhouette approaching is a harmless hound or a predatory wolf.

At that exact coordinate, a blurry silhouette stepped out from the base of the central monument. Strands of long hair drifted through the air as a pristine white dress billowed against the wind. A young maiden held a flickering, swaying lantern in her grip, her fingers slowly tracing the weathered contours of the monument’s base.

The absolute instant the maiden materialized within their visual field, Yi Yi perched atop Shen Wang’s shoulder—entered a state of violent, total gooseflesh, its fur standing completely on end.

Though her facial features remained entirely obscured by the ambient shadows, the reality of a mysterious maiden manifesting at such specific coordinates, at such a highly volatile hour, left zero room for ambiguity regarding her nature.

An ancient capital was the ultimate breeding ground for lingering phantoms.

And history demonstrated with absolute consistency that when a phantom’s lingering obsession becomes too profound, it systematically mutates into a supernatural anomaly.

Yet, Shen Wang failed to detect a single trace of active homicidal intent radiating from her immediate field; instead, his systems registered an immensely powerful wave of agonizing longing.

“Target identified as a live anomaly. Captain, do we initialize immediate termination protocols?” He Shu smoothly extracted her sidearm from her tactical utility belt, instantly injecting her concentrated mental energy into the firing mechanism, locking the muzzle directly onto the maiden’s silhouette.

“Hold your fire.” Shen Wang gestured for her to lower the weapon. They had only just breached the perimeter of the ancient capital; the environmental variables remained entirely unmapped.

The maiden slowly rotated her torso, her gaze appearing to lock with absolute precision onto Shen Wang’s physical coordinates. Witnessing the movement, He Shu’s arms which had begun to lower instantly snapped back into a rigid firing posture.

The maiden initiated a slow, rhythmic advance toward their position, a low, rhythmic murmur escaping her lips: “So hungry… fresh entities have breached the grid…”

“All of you shall step forward to operate as my nutritional fuel…”

She hoisted the lantern, executing a light swaying motion. The internal flame instantly underwent a violent chemical shift, transitioning from a warm hue into a sinister, glowing green, before deepening into a cold blue. Watching the entity close the distance with absolute certainty, He Shu gritted her teeth and compressed the firing mechanism.

A sharp gunshot shattered the absolute, dead silence of the ancient capital.

The high-velocity projectile punched directly through the maiden’s forehead, yet it appeared to be cleanly absorbed by her mass, yielding zero structural degradation.

“How can this be…” He Shu’s brows locked into a tight, strained knot. That was no ordinary kinetic round; the weapon had been heavily saturated with her specialized mental energy, engineered specifically to incinerate even incorporeal, non-physical anomalies upon impact.

“The lantern houses the primary structural anomaly,” Shen Wang commanded, his voice dropping into a low baritone as ribbons of his specialized puppet threads instantly deployed from his grip. He pivoted his torso, shouting toward his rookie teammate: “Lang Xi! Execute a spatial displacement on my coordinates!”

“Understood, Boss!” Operating under the instantaneous spatial enhancement of Lang Xi’s dimensional capability, Shen Wang vanished from his coordinate, initializing a frame-perfect translocation directly before the maiden’s face. Even at this extreme proximity, her facial features remained entirely illegible. The puppet threads lashed outward, binding securely around the framework of the lantern in her grip. The moment contact was established; the maiden appeared to enter a state of absolute fury. She violently agitated the lantern, causing the green flames to erupt outward, generating a mirror-like ring of pure, radiant energy that expanded to swallow Shen Wang whole.

Even as he executed emergency evasive maneuvers, Shen Wang refused to disengage his puppet threads. Under the violent tug-of-war tracking between the two entities, the lantern experienced another sharp agitation. The green fire was instantly snuffed out, replaced by a sudden, brilliant eruption of gold-pink flames—

At that exact microsecond, absolute night claimed the grid. The instant the gold-pink flames erupted, the entire landscape of the ancient capital underwent a catastrophic, hyper-accelerated structural transformation. The crumbling walls and shattered foundations dissolved into thin air, replaced by a dense array of green-gray holographic silhouettes.

Fractured beams of brilliant, prismatic light cascaded down from unknown coordinates, illuminating the arid sand-choked earth. Green shoots erupted from the soil, visible to the naked eye, growing with terrifying velocity…

The ruins were executing a total rebirth; flora was proliferating at a frantic, chaotic speed.

An absolute kaleidoscope of surreal imagery spun violently across Shen Wang’s visual cortex, as the synthesized voice of his internal System chimed with an analytical notification:

[Warning: You have successfully breached an S-Rank Illusion-Synthesis Cocoon Domain.]

[Analytical Assessment: Operatives are strictly mandated to complete the historical progression in absolute alignment with the specific identities allocated by the illusion matrix. Absolute prohibition against breaking character (OOC is strictly penalized).]

Huh?