Hao Ren saw a gray shadow flash by in his peripheral vision. He lunged forward and gave chase.
Nolan was quick like a cheetah galloping in the gallery, constantly vigilant as she observed her surroundings. It looked like she was also avoiding the wandering soldiers there. Hao Ren almost lost her after going around two corners. But there was no way a normal human could outrun a superhuman like him. When they turned into a straight passage, he saw that Nolan was not far ahead. He called out, “Nolan!”
Nolan was running with all her might. Hao Ren could care less to conceal himself and think slowly in this situation. He had Steel Membrane Shield; even if Nolan were as ruthless as Carl was the small-caliber rifle would not do him much harm.
Nolan stopped in her step when she heard the call, but it was not a hesitation. Her long gray hair swept crossed the air in an arc shape as she turned. She made use of the inertia and ducked, immediately revealing the rocket-propelled grenade on her back and aiming at Hao Ren.
Hao Ren was shocked.
What small-caliber rifle? The girl was running around with a freaking RPG on her back!
“Things always go not as I thought,” Hao Ren almost went banana as he waved his hand to signal the MDT not to come out. He looked at the gray-haired girl and said, “Nolan, don’t shoot. It’s me, Hao Ren! Oh, you too have…”
He noticed Nolan’s attire had also changed. She was no more in her Gray Fox’s mercenary uniform but a light gray military outfit, unlike the marines nor the guards of this facility. Maybe a third force. Anyway, the change of costume only meant one thing: Nolan had been reset too.
Did she remember what happened before this? Or was she like Carl completely becoming another person?
Hao Ren frowned and waited for Nolan’s reaction. If he had guessed it right, this girl should be able to retain all the memories of every change in this world; this was how she got her unusual skills and experience.
Nolan looked at Hao Ren, somewhat surprised. When the world once again changed, she had prepared to fight against everyone around her. But the reaction of the man in front of her seemed to indicate that he still remembered her. Her brows knit together, but she did not put down her weapon. “You remember who I am?”
“Nolan, nicknamed Gray Fox, the boss of the Gray Fox mercenary group,” Hao Ren smiled. “It’s you who brought me here.”
Nolan put her weapon down slightly. “Do you remember who you are?”
“Hao Ren, a guy wandering in the wasteland, a brick-throwing expert,” Hao Ren replied. He knew that Nolan had put her guard down. “We met in Broken Valley.”
Nolan frowned and asked, “And what?”
Hao Ren stunned. Seeing Nolan’s serious expression, he forced a smile. Grabbing his hair, he said, “Do you want me to say I’m a necrophile?”
There was an inappreciable smile flashed across Nolan’s face and immediately replaced by surprise and excitement. For the first time, Hao Ren saw the girl had many animations on her face. Nolan walked toward Hao Ren; she did not bother to hide her surprise. “You remembered the last reincarnation?”
“It’s reincarnation,” Hao Ren said, letting out a sigh. He sank into a deeper confusion after knowing the truth. “Looks like you know everything. What is the world all about?”
“First time?” Nolan asked, sizing up Hao Ren. “If you have experienced it as many times as I did, you shouldn’t have asked this question.”
Hao Ren knew he would not be able to explain it without creating more complications. So he merely waved his hand and said, “It’s complicated. I am also confused; I can’t answer your question, why not you tell me about it? Well, if I guess it right, we are now the only ‘partners’ in this world.”
Nolan nodded. Just when she was about to say something, the voice of the MDT came from behind. “Buddy! Since you two have sorted it out, why didn’t you call me out?”
Hao Ren turned around his head. The blonde, who was only a block of brick, was staggering towards him. Nolan froze. “She… Is she live? And she remembers everything?”
Hao Ren realized that the MDT was the hardest part of the explanation.
He scratched his head and gave an ambiguous reply. “Sort of. Anyway, she’s alive now, and she knows about you. But don’t ask how she knows, I’m just as clueless as you.”
“What happened to her legs?” Nolan noticed the limping pace of the MDT. “Is she injured?”
Hao Ren’s face was emotionless. “An aftereffect of cerebral thrombosis.”
Nolan looked at Hao Ren, feeling weird. “You two are misfortunate… She was dead, and you went mad in the last life. Now she has a cerebral thrombosis in this life…”
Hao Ren almost went banana. “Yeah, whatever! I carried a dead girl on my back and was a necrophile all my previous life. Now I still have to take care of a cerebral thrombus babbler in this life. And my PDA has transcended. People think I’m a lunatic no matter where I go. Can we not talk about this anymore? Are you done yet?”
Hao Ren’s sudden outburst stunned Nolan. She began to figure that Hao Ren had not recovered from his insanity. Perhaps he had inherited the same madness together with his last living memory after the ‘reincarnation.’
After serving more than a year, Hao Ren had finally reached the same level of God where most clergymen could only dream, sharing the glory with his own God as stubborn neurotics.
Fortunately, Nolan could not read his mind.
“Let’s find a safe place first,” Nolan put the thought aside and motioned Hao Ren to follow her. “Here, we couldn’t how is our friend, how is our enemy. Our priority is to stay alive. Otherwise, we would have to wait for the next ‘reincarnation.'”
“You run around with this thing all this while?” Hao Ren looked grotesquely at Nolan’s bazooka. Though the technology in this world was more advanced than the earth and the bazooka was lighter and compact, this weapon did not seem very portable no matter what. “Don’t you feel cumbersome?”
“I can’t help it. It is the thing I got when I opened my eyes,” Nolan said. “I have been looking around for opportunity and see if I could grab a weapon from a stray soldier, but it has not been very smooth. But, I have great strength, carrying this weapon doesn’t affect my mobility and it is better than nothing.”
Hao Ren looked down at his hand. He was carrying a light assault rifle before this, but it was gone after Ulyanov disappeared. He thought for a moment and then reached into his dimensional pocket for the short silver wand and gave it to Nolan. “Take this.”
Nolan stared blankly at the ‘magic’ Hao Ren had performed. “How could this…”
Hao Ren had his considerations. After discovering the strange changes of this world, he felt that he need not hide his supernatural power anymore. People would be reset. The only one who could escape the rebooting was Nolan. But it seemed she had no fewer secrets than he did. Most importantly, they needed a safe place now. What was more was that if he could create awe and fear in Nolan, things might be more natural later on.
Of course, there was an important reason: He must make sure Nolan survived; after all, she was the only one witnessing everything that had happened.
“You don’t have to know how it got it. Everyone has secrets. You need to know that I’m on your side,” Hao Ren said. He then taught Nolan how to use the Aerymian weapon that he brought out from the arsenal in Aerym. He was used to plasma spear and psionic gun combo, so he had never used the wand. “This thing is called Sentinel Wand. Hold this section, where you can off the safety. This end is the barrel; the red button is the trigger, black button is energy shield, point the side with pattern forward, just like that…”
Nolan tried to memorize the strange usage of the wand. She held the wand level in front of her, pressed the black button; an elegantly arcing, patterned, oval-shaped green shield was activated and shielding half of her body.
Nolan’s jaw dropped to the ground.
“You can’t turn the shield and the fire mechanisms on at the same time. Technological limitation,” Hao Ren said. “But at least it’s better than running around with a bazooka.”
Nolan’s jaw was still on the ground.