18 Feb 2017

Dominion’s End V2C10: Next Stop, Luo’an

by | posted in: Dominions End | 38

Dominion’s End Volume 2: Aberrant City

Original novel in Chinese by: 御 我 (Yu Wo)

Chapter 10: Next stop, Luo’an—translated by Elkin (proofread by Arcedemius & EvlNabiki; C/E edited by lucathia)

“Huh?” I was stunned by his question. I hadn’t a clue why Jiang Xiaotian was asking about this, but I replied honestly nonetheless, “Yeah, I’ve killed before.”

Jiang Xiaotian glanced over me with a somewhat conflicted expression, then nodded and said, “Then never mind. I was originally thinking to give you some practice.”

Whoa, suddenly I feel like I’ve just saved a bunch of innocent lives. I wiped away my cold sweat. As expected of the Ice Emperor who’d lived through ten years of the apocalypse: he no longer put much value on human life. Although I was much the same, I hadn’t reached the stage where I could kill a person just to polish my skills. This was probably because I’d stayed in the safety of the colonies for too long in the later stages of the apocalypse.

But before that, I had killed my fair share of people too, particularly after my mom died and Xia Zhengu started collecting women like they were goods. The me at that time couldn’t care less about human lives, either.

“Let’s go?” I ventured the question, wanting to get Jiang Xiaotian away from these people as soon as possible and prevent the Jiang family from becoming responsible for the extinction of all mankind.

“Okay…” Jian Xiaotian’s tone of voice suddenly changed as he asked, “Shuyu, are those Hummers behind the minibuses?”

What?! I immediately looked. He was right. They’d been blocked by the minibuses, so I hadn’t spotted them until now. More importantly, those Hummers weren’t the civilian models, but military Humvees in camouflage colors!

“Dàgē, can I run away?” I asked in all seriousness.

Jiang Xiaotian gave me a look and said slowly, “You leave, you don’t run away. If you want to run away, then I won’t let you leave.”

The whole business about “running away” versus “leaving” baffled the hell out of me. Whatever it was, we had to go. My energy levels were almost zero, so this wasn’t a good time to cross paths with the military or mercenaries.

“Okay, let’s leave.”

When I saw the cars approaching the intersection we were at, I quickly wheeled around the motorcycle to go. But we hadn’t even gone ten meters when we heard a voice coming from a megaphone,

“Stop the motorcycle right now or we will shoot!”

Continued

31 Jan 2017

Dominion’s End V2C9: Jiang Xiaorong

by | posted in: Dominions End | 25

Dominion’s End Volume 2: Aberrant City

Original novel in Chinese by: 御 我 (Yu Wo)

Chapter 9: Jiang Xiaorong—translated by Elkin (proofread by Arcedemius & EvlNabiki; C/E edited by lucathia)

I exited the house and dumped the pile of supplies on the motorcycle. When I looked back I saw the little face, which had been stuck in a gloomy expression for the better half of the day, watching me with a grim expression.

“Shuyu, you’re lying to me, aren’t you?” Without waiting for me to respond, he analyzed what I had said, “Even with a healing ability, I wouldn’t be someone under protection. If you say this is the fourth month into the apocalypse, guns are still useful, and even without guns, I’d be able to fight with a knife.”

I grinned and chuckled, “Of course. Dàgē, you really believed me? Don’t worry, even when Dàgē’s ability is healing, it’s still awesome. There were quite a few times when I wondered whether or not your ability truly is healing.”

He kept his eyes fixed on me, a faint smile crossing his face, and he remarked, “I’d forgotten you were this kind of person. I only remembered you were very protective of family.”

My smile froze. Are you suspecting me or just reminiscing? Make it clear, Dàgē, I’m really nervous now!

But even if I was nervous, it wasn’t to the same extent as earlier on when I’d rather be strangled to death. I want to live together with Dàgē, Xiaomèi, Uncle, and Auntie in the apocalypse. I am Jiang Shuyu!

“Is Shujun all right? Has she gotten used to the apocalypse?”

I nodded, replying, “Everyone’s holding up quite well. If not for that little accident, we’d probably still be at home, with a basement full of supplies, shooting aberrants with guns, eating crystals, and training our special abilities.”

Continued

31 Dec 2016

Dominion’s End V2C8: The Many Tales of the Town

by | posted in: Dominions End | 39

Dominion’s End Volume 2: Aberrant City

Original novel in Chinese by: 御 我 (Yu Wo)

Chapter 8: The Many Tales of the Town—translated by Elkin (proofread by Arcedemius & EvlNabiki; C/E edited by lucathia)

As I drove, I kept turning to look at the passenger seat. A three year-old kid was wearing a seat belt, head slumped to one side in slumber and lips in a slight pout. He was super adorable. It was hard to believe that this was Dàgē, the Dàgē who had become the Ice Emperor!

Enough! Even though on the inside, I was a thirty five year-old woman who had never had kids before, it was no excuse to gawk at the child all the time. I needed to find a map, not play around with children!

Jin Feng had given me a map of Zhongguan City and the surrounding suburbs, but what I needed was a map of a wider region. Otherwise, if I could drive to Luo’an City just by knowing that it was in the east, I’d start suspecting whether I was actually a GPS instead.

Originally, Dàgē had probably left some maps behind. The basement hadn’t been completely empty. There had been a few boxes left there, with supplies probably meant for me. Unfortunately, the ice tornado had been brutal and had wiped the whole house off the map, to say nothing of what it could do to a few boxes. There wasn’t even a speck of dust left of them.

So my current mission is to locate a map and food. I glanced again at Xiaotian. And hunt for crystals to feed the child, too.

I’d already reached the edge of the map, so I didn’t know which road to take anymore. My only option was to continue heading east. However, this was risky, not to mention the skies were darkening. We were better off looking for somewhere to stay the night.

Continued

30 Nov 2016

Dominion’s End V2C7: Dàgē, Dàgē

by | posted in: Dominions End | 50

Dominion’s End Volume 2: Aberrant City

Original novel in Chinese by: 御 我 (Yu Wo)

Chapter 7: Dàgē, Dàgē—translated by Elkin (proofread by Arcedemius & EvlNabiki; C/E edited by lucathia)

Traveling at night really was much more taxing than during the day. Along the way, I once again started accumulating a ton of evolution crystals, to the point where I had almost made up for the crystals that had been spent on that group.

I rushed onwards the entire night, and en route, I kept having to pause to fight or zig-zag quickly through streets in order to throw off large groups of aberrants who were on my tail. It really was dead tiring, but at least I made good progress. I’d originally estimated that I’d arrive home in the evening, but it wasn’t even ten in the morning when I caught sight of the district where our home was located.

The exhaustion, however, was nothing in comparison to my longing for my family. If anything, my pace picked up when I saw our district. Starving as I was, not having had breakfast, I still didn’t bother to stop for a bite. The faster I reached home, the sooner Shujun could prepare breakfast for me. No one likes rations! Even if those rations were prepared by Jin Feng, they can’t compete with Shujun’s home cooked meals!

I passed through a few more streets, so excited that I was practically skipping every step of the way. Then, finally, I spotted some familiar road signs. I just had to go two more steps, look left, and I’d be home sweet home!

One step, two steps, look left!

A cluster of huge ice crystals stood not far away, right where the house had once stood.

Continued

31 Oct 2016

Dominion’s End V2C6: City of Aberrants

by | posted in: Dominions End | 46

Dominion’s End Volume 2: Aberrant City

Original novel in Chinese by: 御 我 (Yu Wo)

Chapter 6: City of Aberrants—translated by Elkin (proofread by Arcedemius & Trespasserby; C/E edited by lucathia)

I leaned against the utility pole, tipping the bloodstained evolution crystal in my hand into the hip flask. The palm-sized hip flask looked like it was made of silver, a beautifully wrought piece of art, and there was even the name “Feng” engraved on the bottom in ancient Chinese. I had no idea what possessed Jin Feng to put a small hip flask in my backpack. Did she want to give me some liquid courage?

Anyway, once I drained the alcohol inside in one gulp, the hip flask became the perfect container for holding evolution crystals. By now, the only use I had for these tierless crystals was for healing, so after popping back a few crystals to heal up, I saved up the rest to give the others when I returned.

But I really wasn’t planning on accumulating so many. I just wanted to get home ASAP!

Technically, if I could directly run home, I’d probably reach home after running non-stop for a day and a night. But I couldn’t travel in a straight line, and there were so many aberrants in the city that my skin crawled. Although I hadn’t yet run into more tier one aberrants, a bunch of tierless aberrants could still mob someone to death!

This was the third day after leaving Jin Feng’s. I really missed the days when someone would spoon feed me. Jiggling the hip flask caused the contents to rattle softly. It was a rich harvest, with crystals everywhere to be found in this city. This only made me warier of danger. Judging from the looks of things, I’d been extremely lucky to rise to tier one so early in the suburbs. There was just no comparing the dangers in the city to those found in the suburbs.

Continued