Even as night drew near, the commercial district was still packed with people, showing no sign of thinning out in the slightest.

On both sides of the bustling, lively streets stood all kinds of shops and the air itself seemed filled with a vast, surging vitality.

This was a quality absent from the uniform high-rise buildings of the upper hive and from the dense factories of the lower city.

Unlike the elite meritocracy obsession of upper-hive citizens and unlike the numb struggle for survival of the lower city, the people living in the commercial district between the two carried a special light in their eyes.

Vitality.

Li Chen curved his lips in nostalgia. If there was any place in this Hive City—so full of memories he would rather forget—where he had genuinely left behind good impressions before meeting Bai Wei, it would definitely be the central commercial district.

Watching passersby hurry along as if heading straight toward some goal without hesitation, Li Chen couldn’t help recalling when he had first arrived in the commercial district, just like them, pressing forward bravely, intoxicated by his lofty ideals.

Thinking about it now, it was almost laughable. Back then, his dear little sister had only just advanced to a fourth-tier martial artist, a two-star mercenary. He had spent a great deal of effort getting the mercenary group officially registered and their headquarters was nothing more than a ramshackle wooden shack built in the shantytown…

‘Heh, that little wooden shack was something I picked up bit by bit from recycling jobs.’

Glancing at the massive factories nearby, constantly rumbling and belching white steam, Li Chen’s lips lifted slightly as memories of those striving days surfaced.

Unlike other newcomers from the lower city who had just moved to the commercial district and were desperate to wash away their ‘tainted’ origins, he had chosen a path that could save a great deal of money, believing himself to have keen insight.

Although, admittedly, even his own dear little sister couldn’t stand how foolish he looked.

* * *

“Elder Brother, c-could you stop going to the recycling station?”

At that time, Lin Caining was not yet the future legendary mercenary full of ambition and renown. She was merely a newly advanced fourth-tier, two-star mercenary with some fame in a small circle.

Inside the dilapidated shack, Li Chen was carefully painting the walls by hand.

“Oh? Why?”

Applying his favorite color to the wall, Li Chen turned with a faint smile toward Lin Caining, who stood behind him with her arms crossed, looking utterly serious.

“Could it be, Caining, that you think your brother going to the recycling station to do work like people from the lower city or even the lower slums is embarrassing?”

Putting on a teary-eyed expression, Li Chen teased his earnest and slightly adorable little sister, even though he knew exactly what she was thinking.

“I-I don’t think that at all.”

…

Sure enough, despite being no longer young and having spent years struggling through the lower hive and lower city, Caining would always become flustered and awkward when facing Li Chen, completely losing the composure befitting her ‘genius’ reputation.

The girl’s face flushed red as she looked at Li Chen, her bright eyes filled with heartache and reluctance.

“Elder Brother, I-I’m already a four-star mercenary and we’ve even formed a mercenary group. You’re our captain now, how can you lower yourself to do this kind of work?”

As if recalling something, Lin Caining glared resentfully out the window.

“Those vile women actually dared, dared to say you’d fallen so low that you had to go to a recycling station and that you might as well sell yourself to them! How despicable.”

Anger flickered in the girl’s eyes.

“Just wait, Elder Brother. As long as I keep breaking through to higher tiers, I’ll make them pay for what they said today! Elder Brother, I’ll protect you. No one will ever be allowed to separate us!”

Lin Caining took a deep breath, staring at Li Chen with eyes already shimmering with tears.

“So before that happens, Elder Brother, please don’t hurt yourself like this anymore, okay?”

‘Uh, I don’t really have a fetish for working at the recycling station.’

Seeing his sister on the verge of crying, Li Chen’s heart began pounding uneasily. If there was one thing he truly couldn’t handle despite surviving from the lower hive to the commercial district with ease, it was his sister’s tears.

Still…

“We need money.”

Li Chen scratched his head in frustration.

“If we don’t finish the procedures with the Mercenary Guild properly, taking commissions privately can get us wanted by the Public Security Bureau.”

In the Hive City, every commission contract had to be authorized by the Mercenary Guild and taxed at a fixed rate to be legally binding. Otherwise, it was illegal and in serious cases one could even be hunted by the Public Security Bureau.

In places like the lower city or lower hive—lands the City Hall didn’t care about—no one might bother with such details.

But for the siblings who had advanced into the commercial district and were setting their sights on the upper hive, this would be fatal.

Everyone knew that the words upper-hive citizens loved most were ‘credibility’ and ‘respectability.’

A former ‘wanted criminal,’ a ‘black mercenary,’ or even someone from the ‘underground world’?

With such a stain, even if Lin Caining later advanced to the ninth tier by sheer talent, the upper hive would never open its doors to her.

“I know, I know.”

Lin Caining froze as if struck by lightning. Her previously fierce posture stiffened and she murmured in confusion with her youthful face.

“But… but I can’t bear to see you like this, Elder Brother… I-I understand now!”

Bang.

Lin Caining slammed the table and sprang to her feet, staring straight at Li Chen.

“Starting tomorrow, I’ll take over the recycling station work!”

Looking at the girl’s resolute expression, like a martyr heading calmly to execution, Li Chen shook his head in amusement.

“No need, little Caining. You just stay home and focus on cultivating martial arts. Leave the rest to me, your brother.”

He reached out and gently stroked her softly scented hair.

“After all, you’re going to be the future trump card of our Judicators and isn’t it only natural for an elder brother to help his little sister?”

“But… but…”

Lin Caining widened her eyes, clearly wanting to say more.

Yet Li Chen had already set down the paintbrush, put on his worn protective clothing and prepared to head to the recycling station.

“Elder Brother…”

Just as Li Chen was about to step out of the shack, Lin Caining suddenly called out.

“I promise you, Elder Brother, one day in the future I’ll become a top-tier martial artist. When that happens, you won’t have to live like this anymore, or even risk your life doing work people laugh at.”

Well, recycling station work was indeed dangerous—radiation, viruses of all kinds.

But for Li Chen, who before transmigration had maxed out his resistance stats, that level of contamination was no burden at all.

“Pfft.”

Hearing his sister’s vow, Li Chen laughed.

“Alright. I believe you.”

…

At the time, Li Chen truly believed words that sounded like pure fantasy to anyone else.

The pinnacle of martial arts?

A so-called ‘genius’ from the lower hive?

Don’t make people laugh.

Even daughters of consortium families, blessed with singularity technology, vast resources and inherited divine techniques, wouldn’t dare make such a promise.

Yet Li Chen believed in his dear little sister.

‘Because she was a bona fide female lead.’

But Li Chen was wrong.

Not about misjudging his sister’s potential, but about something else entirely.

“Elder Brother, I hope you can withdraw from our mercenary group. The other members all agree with my decision.”

Li Chen stared blankly at Lin Caining, who had just broken through to the ninth tier and was already rumored to be courted by major upper-hive consortia as a rising star of tomorrow.

“May I ask why?”

They were still in that same wooden shack, but unlike before when it had been ignored, it was now the headquarters of a newly minted five-star legendary mercenary group, crowded inside and out with people.

Even so, one corner of the shack still belonged only to Li Chen and his sister.

“You’re too weak.”

Lin Caining said nothing more, turning away and leaving behind a solitary silhouette.

‘Weak…’

The sister of the past would never have despised him.

But people change.

Those game heroines were not flat, lifeless illustrations bound to scripts and character settings like in the games he had played before transmigrating.

They were living people, with their own joys and sorrows, their own thoughts.

‘So maybe separating from them was a kind of blessing for both sides?’

No more mutual torment, no more emotional tug-of-war—just forgetting each other in the rivers and lakes of the world.

The Li Chen of the past would have felt regret, anger, confusion, incomprehension.

But now…

* * *

Pat.

“What’s wrong, Xiao Chen?”

That incomparably familiar face—one he would never tire of no matter how many times he saw it—looked at him with concern.

“Coming to the shantytown made you recall something unpleasant, didn’t it? I’m sorry, Xiao Chen…”

Bai Wei lowered her head guiltily.

“I just wanted to understand more about your past. I didn’t expect it to hurt you like this.”

As she spoke, Bai Wei seemed to realize something and began rubbing her palms together anxiously.

“But… Xiao Chen, I’m really jealous of that woman.”

Tears welled in Bai Wei’s eyes as she looked at Li Chen.

“I’ve only been with you for a little over a year, while that ungrateful, shameless bad woman occupied you for so many years.”

Looking at Xiao Wei’s indignant expression, the fleeting memories that had just surfaced in Li Chen’s mind vanished completely.

They weren’t erased.

Rather, they could no longer reach his soul or stir his heart.

Because now, at his side, was someone far more important—someone who would never betray him.

“Sigh, wasn’t someone just saying on the call earlier that she’d go home and ‘deal with me’?”

Li Chen clicked his tongue and casually patted Bai Wei on the head.

“And you call yourself a key official of the Public Security Bureau, you silly girl?”

“W-what do you mean by that?”

Bai Wei snorted, her high nose twitching as she puffed out her cheeks and shouted stubbornly.

“Anyway, from now on I absolutely, absolutely won’t let those bad women hurt you again! If any of them show up in front of you, I’ll beat them up hard.”

Clenching her small fists, Bai Wei declared confidently.

“After all, I’m an upper-hive honorary citizen now~”

Pfft.

Looking at Bai Wei’s impassioned expression, Li Chen felt both amused and heartbroken.

‘This silly girl. Soft-hearted as she was, she always pretended to be strong. But then again, this was a world ruled by women. I’ll just indulge my fiancée’s pride, then.’

Li Chen leaned close to Bai Wei’s ear.

“Alright, alright, Xiao Wei. I’ll rely on my dear fiancée to protect me from now on.”

As they walked, Li Chen glanced at his slightly sulky fiancée. A thought stirred in his heart and he suddenly stopped.

“Maybe you’re not the person who occupies the most memories in my life, but… From now on, we’ll create more memories together. When the day comes that I leave this world, most of my life will belong to you.”

He gazed at Bai Wei with deep affection.

“…”

Looking at Li Chen’s face, faintly tinged with an otherworldly aura under the reflection of the evening clouds, Bai Wei couldn’t help but become entranced.

Then, unable to contain herself, she turned her head eagerly and whispered excitedly.

“You’re right, Xiao Chen. We still have plenty of time to create more memories, like… taking care of those blind idiots behind you together? Hmm, I remember you said they’re from the Schufestan family?”

Facing the elite forces dispatched by an upper-hive consortium, Bai Wei showed not the slightest fear—only a peculiar excitement.

‘Xiao Chen really likes fighting. Then let me dedicate this most perfect battle to him.’

* * *

Meanwhile, at Dream Auction House.

Beside the main hall entrance.

“Reporting, Director Kate. The target you marked has just entered the shantytown. Our surveillance personnel are in position. Shall we begin the operation?”

An armed guard reported to the woman with fiery red hair, then hesitated slightly before asking,

“However, according to the team’s reports, there’s a sixth-tier martial artist beside the target. She seems to be his fiancée from the Public Security Bureau…”

“So what?”

Kate asked disdainfully.

“A mere sixth tier. As the Schufestan personal guard, do we really need to shrink back from an unknown nobody like that?”

“But the old madam instructed us to leave the main force behind to investigate the murder…”

“Hmph.”

Kate let out a cold laugh.

“What investigation? It’s just a show for those two consortia. We’ll grab a few scapegoats to close the case. Of course, the main responsibility has to be pushed onto a terrorist organization. I think that Utopia thing is a perfect fit.”

“B-but…”

The Schufestan guard seemed to recall something. Taking a deep breath, she stepped closer and handed Kate a document.

“Actually, the old madam also has a confidential order she wants me to relay to you verbally.”

‘Verbal? From the old madam?’

Kate looked at her in surprise, the calm on her face instantly replaced by seriousness.

The personal guard was a force that only the head of the Schufestan Consortium—the old madam, nicknamed the Mother Wolf of the Hive City—could command. They were the embodiment of her will.

“It concerns a consigned item in the storage room. The original plan was for the old madam to retrieve it secretly during the official auction, but now something unexpected has happened…”

Kate flipped through the file, still unable to make sense of it.

‘Wasn’t it just an ordinary biological sample? Granted, it was ancient and left behind by a pre-civilization era, but at most it would interest paleobiologists or serve as a decorative curiosity for cultured upper-hive elites. It was valuable, sure, but did it really warrant the old madam’s attention?’

Something was definitely off.

After some thought, Kate decided to report to the old madam in person.

Beep beep.

‘Hm?’

[Your call cannot be connected. No signal source detected…]

‘No signal? But that was the Schufestan Consortium headquarters in the uppermost hive, where SkyNet coverage was supposed to be the strongest.’