Chapter 545: Return

Chen Xiaolian returned to his house. The cab stopped before the residential complex and Chen Xiaolian froze momentarily when it did. He did not get off the cab.

Home?

Chen Xiaolian was clear on one thing. There was a ‘problem’ waiting for him at home.

Yu Jiajia.

After Qiao Qiao’s death, the system refreshed the world and erased all traces of Qiao Qiao’s existence within this world. Because of that, in this new world, Yu Jiajia was Chen Xiaolian’s girlfriend.

This setting… … Chen Xiaolian felt there was no way for him to return home under such circumstances. Thinking about the need to face this ‘girlfriend’ of his, he sighed.

“Mister, will you be getting off here?”

Seeing the preoccupied state Chen Xiaolian was in, the driver in front asked.

“Oh.” Chen Xiaolian responded and turned to look at the driver. He then sighed and said, “About that, let’s head somewhere else.”

Next, Chen Xiaolian gave the driver a different address.

The car slowly drove off and left the gate of the residential complex.

Inside the residential complex, a pair of eyes watched the car as it slowly left. Then, the owner of the eyes stepped forward.

Tian Lie stood in the middle of the green space behind the fence, a security guard uniform on him as he watched the car with Chen Xiaolian leave.

He rapidly made his way to the guardhouse and said to the other security guard, “Brother Wang, something came up. I want to ask for a leave of absence for a bit.”

After saying that, he did not bother waiting for the other fellow to reply. Instead, he took off the security guard uniform and ran off through the gate of the residential complex, wearing only a short-sleeved T-shirt over his body.

…

It was two thirty in the afternoon and Chen Xiaolian stood within one of the streets in the city.

Both his hands were inside his pockets as he stood before the gate leading into a mall. Figures walked to and fro around him and cars drove by without end on the street.

A peculiar thought rose within Chen Xiaolian’s mind. If I were to shout “GM” right now, that fellow would probably appear miraculously like before.

It appeared though he had stood before the gate for too long. During that time, Chen Xiaolian had had to reject two fitness membership and one real estate leaflet giver.

As a few girls promoting English training classes were pestering him, someone finally patted him on his shoulder from behind.

“Waited long?”

Roddy stood behind Chen Xiaolian.

Chen Xiaolian breathed a sigh of relief as he turned around to look at Roddy. Then, he smiled.

There was a look of extreme fatigue in his smile and Roddy was able to see the tiredness within Chen Xiaolian’s expression.

Using some money, Roddy then skilfully sent those girls promoting English training classes away. Next, he led Chen Xiaolian with him to a nearby parking lot.

“There was a traffic jam on my way here. There was no other way. Since its daytime, I cannot use our aircraft to fly over.” Roddy laughed, deliberately throwing out a joke. “While you were gone, everything went well back at home. Lun Tai and Bei Tai trained Xia Xiaolei thoroughly, so that little fellow’s improvement has been quick. We also gathered some points to purchase a few melee-type skills for him. Right now, assuming Lun Tai chooses not to go all out, Xia Xiaolei would be able to duke it out with him for quite some time. When you see it, you will surely see him in a new light.

“And then there is Qimu Xi. That little girl seemed to have received some sort of motivation. She would stay in the training room for a long time. Every time she emerged, her body would be filled with wounds. She used to be such a timid little girl, but seeing her eyes now would send shivers down even my spine.”

Roddy drove on the way back and he purposely kept talking to Chen Xiaolian about those matters.

Chen Xiaolian however, remained silent. Eventually, Roddy had nothing else to say and the atmosphere inside the car grew still and somewhat awkward.

Then, Chen Xiaolian sighed. “Why aren’t you asking me where I went this time?”

“… … …” Roddy said nothing.

Chen Xiaolian looked out the window and saw that their car had left the city. He abruptly said in a hushed tone, “Stop the car.”

Roddy stopped the car by the road. They were already at the outskirts area of the city and there were much less cars on the road there. The forest surrounded them on both sides.

After the car stopped by the woods, Chen Xiaolian pushed open the door of the car and got down. Roddy then followed suit.

“Do you have any cigarettes?” Chen Xiaolian raised a brow as he looked at Roddy.

“… yeah.” Roddy pulled out a packet.

“When did you begin carrying cigarettes?”

Roddy forced out a laugh and said, “Something frustrating happened recently, so I smoked to deal with it.”

Chen Xiaolian said nothing. The two of them pulled a cigarette out from the packet each and stood beside the car as they puffed.

After finishing off the one cigarette, Chen Xiaolian finally spoke in a whisper, “In the last instance dungeon, Qiao Qiao chose to sacrifice herself. There is no need for you all to blame yourselves. You most certainly should not try to take full responsibility for it.”

After he said that, Roddy’s body flinched and his eyes turned red.

He raised his head and looked into Chen Xiaolian’s eyes. “Truth is, everyone… …”

Chen Xiaolian said nothing. He just silently smothered the tip of the cigarette.

“Everyone is blaming themselves a lot,” Roddy whispered. “We know. All this while, it has always been you giving your all to carry this guild forward. Whenever the most dangerous situation arose, you would charge out to the fore. You are the one bearing the burden of the most difficult circumstances, again and again!

“As for us… … our strength is lagging behind. On many occasions, we had to depend on you and you had to suffer terribly for it.

“We really hate ourselves. Why can’t we be stronger? If only we were stronger, maybe, back in Jerusalem… … Qiao Qiao would not have to die!”

Chen Xiaolian said nothing. Instead, he quietly pulled out another cigarette from the cigarette packet.

After lighting it up, he took a puff and said in a whisper, “Those words… you all have held it in for a long time, haven’t you?”

“Yes!” Roddy nodded his head and continued, “Everyone is blaming themselves. Thus, everyone have been practically torturing themselves, putting themselves on the edge of life and death as they trained themselves.”

Chen Xiaolian sighed. He said, “The responsibility for Qiao Qiao’s death does not fall solely on you fellows.”

“… … …”

“The responsibility falls on me as well. At the end of the day, I am the Guild Leader. Qiao Qiao is our guild member. The death of a guild member can only be attributed to me, a Guild Leader who failed to do his best.” Chen Xiaolian clenched his fists tightly.

Roddy too, clenched his fists.

Chen Xiaolian inhaled deeply before turning to face Roddy. “You are hesitant to ask me where I went for the past few days and what I was doing, right? You believe my disappearance must have something to do with Qiao Qiao. I will tell you now. I went to Zero City.”

Roddy said nothing.

After so many years of friendship, he could tell that Chen Xiaolian was not finished.

As expected, after a pause, Chen Xiaolian continued, “Many things happened in Zero City. It is safe to say that I bore witness to a huge change – mm, I will wait until we are back in the base and everyone is together before telling you the details. However, the one thing I want to tell you now is, maybe… … I may have found a way to resurrect Qiao Qiao!”

Resurrect! Qiao Qiao!

Those words slammed fiercely into Roddy’s ears and he flinched violently.

“You, what you just said, is it true? We… … we are Irregularities. Isn’t it impossible for us to be resurrected?” Roddy stuttered, somewhat incoherently. “That resurrection you said, could it be… … a refresh? Back to a normal human without the previous memories?”

“No, this resurrection I am talking about may very well be the real deal!”

…

At the same time, in another area of the city, a car lined up before a tollgate on the freeway to enter the city.

Inside, Thunderflame was in the driver’s seat while Fatty sat on the front passenger seat.

In the back seat was a stalwart looking man whose eyes were closed.

As Thunderflame was driving, she would occasionally give Fatty a glance.

Fatty was tinkering with a certain device in his hands. The display part of the device flashed with symbols and data. However, Fatty was unable to stop himself from turning back to look at the stalwart man seated behind.

“Don’t be distracted and just focus on your task,” said Thunderflame coolly. “Do not worry, I had only used a medicinal substance to knock your father unconscious. He will not be suffering from any wounds.”

“You, the thing you used… … could it be the same thing they gave Qiao Yifeng back then?”

“Don’t worry, I have no intention to wake up your father – at least not for the time being,” said Thunderflame as she shook her head. “You had best focus on finding our objective as soon as possible.”

“When we made contact that time, my device had recorded the other party’s signal. It came from this city… … I would never make a mistake on this! I am a genius in the field of electronics! My device has intercepted the origin of the signal. No mistake about it, it is this city. However… … if you want to pinpoint the exact location of it within this city, that will be too difficult.” Fatty revealed a distressed face. “I am an electronics genius, not an Electronics God.”

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