83 Dark Zone Stalker: Escape from Valenkov

A Fire Meteor fell from the dome, Flana piloted her spaceship down rapidly, with intersecting anti-aircraft fire following closely behind. Just as they passed by the Murdock Tower, Li Aoz grabbed Nikita's shoulder, activated the Space-time Ripple, and jumped onto the spaceship.

"Holy crap!"

Nikita's feet had barely touched the aisle of the spaceship when he was instantly pulled to the ground by the G-force. Li Aoz grabbed him casually, and the Gravity Field opened up, putting him in a state of weightlessness and levitation, which brought him back to his senses.

"Go through the Ordu Stargate and head straight to Fire Wolf Star; they won't be able to catch you."

"Hey employer, this goes beyond what's supposed to be our service!"

Flana pulled up the nose of her plane to the limit and shot straight toward the atmosphere, with lasers and missiles chasing her from behind, prompting her to complain.

"I'll give you extra money."

"Okay, boss."

Without wasting any words, Li Aoz had Nikita put the hostage down and then immediately jumped away with her. The advanced spacecraft piloted by Flana was far beyond the reach of these mercenaries, so he had nothing to worry about.

Before Nikita could recover, he was pulled into Space-time Ripple by Li Aoz, and in the blink of an eye, he was facing the entire city and began to freefall.

"Holy shit! Holy shit! Holy shit!"

Nikita shouted in a panic:

"Look where you're teleporting to!?"

"Don't panic, you won't die from the fall."

As soon as Li Aoz finished speaking, a fighter jet flew past them, but thanks to Flana drawing aggro, the pilot didn't notice them at all.

Enveloped by gravity, Li Aoz carried the trembling Nikita to a smooth landing from several thousand meters in the air, without even kicking up a speck of dust. Nikita almost collapsed as soon as his feet touched the ground; his body, having just escaped from a weightless environment, felt as if all the blood in his body was about to be squeezed out from the soles of his feet.

Fortunately, he was Zeta-rank warrior in his youth. Although poverty and old age had taken their toll on his body, his physical abilities were still far superior to those of ordinary people, preventing him from collapsing completely.

"Thank you for coming with me, Nikita."

Li Aoz patted the veteran on the shoulder and casually transferred 3,000 Ammonium Gold to him.

Nikita wanted to yell at the kid for his disastrous actions, but the transfer notification silenced him.

"I'm going to find Julian. Things won't be peaceful for a while, so be careful."

After finishing his sentence, Li Aoz thought for a moment and then said, "Do you want to leave here? Valenkov is probably going to become very 'lively' in the future..."

"I'm not leaving."

Nikita gave a wry smile.

"You've seen my daughter's condition. She can't withstand the rigors of space travel. Thank you for your kindness, Lioz."

This is just an excuse.

Li Aoz knew that Nikita was deeply attached to his homeland and reluctant to leave. This is true of elderly people all over the universe; the older they get, the more they want to return to their birthplace—perhaps it's some kind of innate attachment to one's homeland.

Of course, the more important fact is that Nikita cannot afford the cost of living and seeking medical treatment in Narrative-level Civilization.

Three thousand Ammonium Gold wasn't much, but hope immediately shone in Nikita's eyes.

Although he knew that Valenkov's fate was unchangeable, for some reason, Li Aoz had some of his own ideas.

Perhaps it's because of the recently concluded White Wolf Ending of "Remember Them" that Li Aoz has been feeling a bit uneasy.

He wouldn't say that if he could do it all over again, he would definitely do this or that; that's unrealistic.

There's no going back in life, and for Li Aoz, this isn't a game; there's no chance to start over.

Now, I'm almost done with the task, and I've already taken the most important reward. I should be able to leave now.

Li Aoz stood there, his headless body gazing into the distance beneath the purple sky.

He murdered the leader of this group and is now trying to smear him and discredit him.

However, if Kalmetz hadn't died, the country would have only gotten worse.

Even in the best Angel Ending, only 300,000 people can be saved.

To be honest, Li Aoz had no connection with this group of people, and he had no acquaintances or friends here.

But at that moment, a strong sense of doubt suddenly arose in him.

Should I leave?

If he wants to leave, no one can stop him. He will soon be promoted to Delta-rank and become a [Astral Echoer]. With two Sequence Aura and the Bloodfiend Style fully mastered, even Zeta-rank wouldn't be able to kill him.

"Nikita, I want to ask you a question," Li Aoz suddenly said.

"Is there money to be made?" Nikita quickly stretched out his hand, rubbing his fingers together as if frantically hinting at something.

"It depends on your performance."

"I'll do anything as long as you're willing to give me Ammonium Gold."

Nikita said:

What do you want to ask?

"If, I mean, if," Li Aoz paused for a moment before continuing, "If you had greater strength and vision than others, and there happened to be something you could make better of, but couldn't completely solve—would you still do it?"

"Um, let me think about that—is this related to your family?"

"No. The people here would probably hate me."

"Do you need to accomplish this to gain some kind of achievement? Like fame, status, or money?"

"We might lose money."

"Are you a person with a conscience and morals?"

"I wouldn't say that. My bottom line is rather low, and I'm quite flexible."

"Then I'm curious, why do you still think that way?"

"I have no idea."

Li Aoz gently thumped his chest and replied, "But I always feel really uncomfortable. I have the ability to change something, but I don't do it, and that makes me really uncomfortable."

His mind was elsewhere, but a strong surge of emotion suddenly welled up inside him.

[Hmm? Did you forget to take your Truth Drug today? No wonder you feel so strange.]

Li Aoz suddenly realized.

He acted so quickly that he didn't adjust to the interstellar time difference and forgot to take his medicine.

Nikita looked at Li Aoz, pondered for a moment, and seemed to have figured something out. He then patted the headless man on the shoulder:

"You seem a little lost. How about this, I'll take you somewhere."

Li Aoz was about to retrieve the medicine and feed it to his own head in the distorted spacetime, he hesitated slightly upon hearing Nikita's words.

Half an hour later, Li Aoz and Nikita reached the top of a small hill. They walked the entire way, climbing up the soft soil and vegetation. The pale purple sky gradually descended, and in the distance to the east, fragmented clouds appeared, covering the stars in the gray sky for a moment.

Li Aoz looked around and said, "It looks like just an ordinary hill."

"Of course, it's just an ordinary hilltop."

Nikita walked to the edge of the cliff, bent down and sat down, feeling the cold wind blowing in his face. He beckoned to Li Aoz to sit down beside him, then took out his water bottle from his pocket, took a sip, and gazed at the distant horizon.

After that, neither of them spoke. They just sat quietly for a while, enjoying the evening breeze, seemingly looking at something.

"Valenkov is a warrior nation, or rather, he was forced to become a warrior nation."

Nikita was the first to break the silence:

"I was born in a military camp. My mother was a chaplain who accompanied the army. I never met my father when I was little. They said he was an excellent soldier and a great hero. I never understood what kind of hero a scoundrel who ignored his mother and me could be."

"Then when I was six years old, his body returned, wrapped in Valenkov's Trident Skull Flag, along with two children of different races."

"Those two children were the orphans of his comrades, whose parents had both died on the front lines. Even during the most difficult time of the battle, he insisted on using his own salary to support his comrades' children and bring them back to their hometown."

"When others asked my father, 'You have your own children, why don't you send more money to your Li Ren instead of supporting these two burdens yourself? You shouldn't waste money on children who aren't your own,' my father would always say to them:"

"'It's not a matter of whether I should or shouldn't do it; I was able to do it, so I did it.'"

"My father won many wars, but most of the time he appeared as an aggressor and butcher. Only this time did they not achieve any military merit, but they brought back an honor more precious than medals—life."

Nikita lit a cigarette and instinctively offered one to Li Aoz, Li Aoz it away.

"I quit smoking a long time ago, and besides, I can't smoke anymore."

"Both tobacco and alcohol are bad things, but people always need to find some spiritual sustenance and anesthetics."

Nikita took a drag of his cigarette, exhaled a smoke ring, and continued, "Like other Vanlenkov Alien, I trained in combat, weapon handling, and tactical coordination from a young age. Because of my father's deeds, I also received a lot of attention, so I trained harder than anyone else from a young age."

"Among my peers, I was the first to complete a near -Orbital Assault, the first to have a bio-engineered limb implanted, the first to become a superhuman, and the first to become a fleet commander. I was so outstanding that the principal took a liking to me and betrothed his daughter to me. How lucky I was! We were loving and happy, and soon we had a child."

When Nikita reminisced about the past, especially when talking about his wife and marriage, he suddenly looked decades younger, as if he had transformed into a young and vigorous man.

"Actually, I don't like fighting, nor do I like being number one. But it's not a question of whether I should do it or not, but whether I can do it—my father's motto always inspires me to keep moving forward."

"It's not that I wanted to be number one, but that I could be number one, so I did it."

Li Aoz chuckled.

"You do have a very special father."

Nikita flicked away the Mars from his cigarette and continued, "I have a very good friend who asked me to give up my spot in the training camp because it's really important to him. He needs that spot to become a member of the commando team so he can earn three times the salary to support his mother's surgery."

"He was so emotional, his voice trembling with tears, that I felt incredibly soft-hearted—so I simply rejected him."

"I knew the commando missions were extremely dangerous with a very high mortality rate. He didn't have the ability to survive until payday. In the end, his mother could only receive a death notice with a pension."

"And so, I lost my best friend."