Found a new novel! This is a sentinel-guide trope novel, with the male lead being the typical physically strong sentinel and female lead being the mentally strong guide. For now I don't intend to translate it regularly, but just going to edit the MTL for the first 5 chapters, let's just see if I'll continue later.
I've MTL-ed this novel to the end and find it a nice read. It has romance, but the female lead's strength isn't suppressed by the male lead, and the two leads complemented and protected each other by working together, you know? It's nice having a balanced relationship - I really like the overall vibe of this story. Happy reading!
Invasion [1]
"Invasion" was released on November 7, 2022 in Jinjiang Literature City.
It hadn't rained for many days, and the scorching sun hung high in the sky. The bright sunlight shone on the walls made of rammed earth, exposing a thin layer of floating sand to the surface of the earthy-yellow walls. The breeze rolled the powder-like fine sand, which touched the skin of passers-by.
"It smells like a Sentinel's sweat." Roy covered his nose with a silk handkerchief, and walked through the curved arch with his short body, complaining, "It's too dirty here. I hate coming to the Military Control Office."
On the khaki-coloured arches are hung the old plaques of the Military Control Office. Passing under the plaque, a large area of dusty military grounds could be seen. There were a large number of Sentinels coming and going, and something was playing on the electronic screen on one side, with many people gathered around to watch.
Roy walked in along the plank road on the other side, and explained to the person around him, "We just go through the process, and after the formalities are completed, we'll leave. If they make some requests that you don't like, you can ignore them.”
The person behind heard what he said, and hummed lightly as an answer.
It was a very young girl, wearing an exquisite uniform exclusive to the White Tower Guide Academy, an ivory brocade skirt, and a white silk shirt embroidered with gold thread. Layers of lace edges are exposed under the skirt, swaying with the steps forward.
She walked quietly in the sunshine, her lotus face was tender, her body was slender, her skin was like porcelain and jade, like a flower soaked in morning dew. Seeing her appearing on the edge of the military grounds full of flying sand felt very abrupt.
This was a Guide who was carefully cared for and raised in that tall White Tower.
The passing Sentinels seemed suddenly awkward when they saw her.
Pushing each other and talking in a low voice, all kinds of scrutinizing eyes can't help but sneak over. The guy with the loud voice subconsciously lowered his bluffs, because the shirtless soldier quietly pulled off the coat that he hung around his waist because of the hot weather.
There were some fragmentary voices coming over.
"Have you heard? It's her... the Guide."
"The one whose engagement was broken off by her matched Sentinel?"
"Do you think... I have hope... Hehe..."
"Don't be stupid, what level are you, are you a nobleman? There are so few Guides now."
"Can't you think about it... Anyway, no one wants to..."
"..."
Roy felt angry when he heard these words.
"Not wanting such a Guide, Jiang Yangshuo's shit-like guy probably has a brain distortion." He thought this way, and when his eyes fell on Lin Yuan, he couldn't help but sympathize, "Poor little girl, this blow was too great, so she applied for the hard work of exploring the polluted area, right? It’s so pitiful.”
However, the girl named Lin Yuan followed behind, as if she hadn’t heard the gossip around her, and she didn’t notice the look of pity given to her.
She looked calm, with almost no expression on her face, and the focus of her eyes fell on a farther place, as if she was looking at the other side of the military grounds.
Roy followed her gaze.
On the other side of the military grounds, there was a row of eerie iron torture racks. One end of those rough iron frames was buried deep in the soil, and the exposed part was stained with rust, as if stained with blood that could never be washed away.
At this moment, a man was hanging on the torture rack. The prisoner was bare-chested and his hands were tightly bound and hung above his head. He had obviously been hung here for several days.
Half of his face was covered with black blood, making it impossible to see his original appearance clearly. Just judging from the tense muscles, lean body lines and various old injuries all over the skin, it can be seen at a glance that it was a very young Sentinel.
A young but battle-tested Sentinel. Who knew what felony he committed, that he was hanged here for public torture.
Roy knew that public torture were the custom in the barracks.
Sentinels are the toughest fighters, but also the most troublesome group.
They always go in and out of those nightmarish polluted areas, snatch resources from those deformed monsters, and live with their heads on their waistbands.
The overloaded senses and repressed manic emotions, the fate of not being able to survive without counseling or medicine, made those tough guys sometimes become as terrifying as monsters.
Those who become monsters, commit crimes, and do wrong things will be hanged on these racks and publicly executed.
For punishment, it was even more shocking.
Of course, with the corrupt behavior of imperial officials, no matter what kind of felony you committed, as long as you pay enough money or find a strong enough background, you can take it high and let it go lightly*.
Conversely, if it is the kind of poor commoner from a remote watchtower who has nothing, even if he only touches a small part of hundreds of military regulations, he may be hung on this kind of iron frame. He could be repeatedly humiliated, even tortured to death.
Roy then asked Lin Yuan: "What's the matter, do you know him?"
Lin Yuan looked back and shook his head, "I seem to have seen him before, but I don't remember it."
The two walked across the military grounds and walked up the steps of the administrative building.
They saw that the electronic screen next to the torture rack was playing a blurry video.
A strange-looking instrument was connected under the screen. There was a transparent hemisphere of unknown material on the top of the instrument.
From the height where Roy was standing, looking through the sphere, he was horrified to find that there was actually a human brain that had been individually stripped inside the transparent cover.
That piece of human brain was excited by some fine currents from time to time, and even made a slight tremor.
Roy stood on the steps and looked at the trembling human tissue from a distance, feeling that this kind of thing was really scary.
This strange device, called the Cylinder Brain System, was a relic of the past. Its function was to read some memories left in the brain after human beings die.
At this moment, the picture played on the screen. It was the memory of this brain in a vat, the last picture left in the mind of someone before he dies.
Roy actually didn't understand why so many people in this world like to read the memories of the dead. He wasn't interested in that either.
Helplessly, this thing was very popular among the elites of the empire, even though humans today were unable to manufacture such sophisticated instruments.
They sent Sentinels to venture into the tainted area to scour the ruins of the past.
Those people took it and watched such and other death memories, never tired of it.
Various uses have also been developed. So much so that even the Military Control Office can see such a machine here.
Countless Sentinels who joined in the fun were crowding under the screen to watch.
The picture on the screen was blurry and weird. It looked like it was in the polluted area full of monsters. There was a large amount of blood, strange shadows swimming back and forth, filled with sharp and strange cries.
These pictures are different from what you see with your eyes every day. The images are sometimes very bright and clear in color, while others are blurry and chaotic.
This is the perspective of the dead. The most terrifying and impressive things left in the mind of the dead before death are particularly bright and clear in the picture. Otherwise, it will appear blurred.
At this time, in the center of the screen, the face of a Sentinel clearly appeared.
Young, blood-stained, red-eyed, furious.
The sentry looked down condescendingly, holding a gun in his hand, with a gloomy face like a ghost from hell.
He held up the muzzle of the black hole, pointing in the direction of the screen motionless. The screen was shaking constantly, and the gun was in a strong color, pointing firmly in front of his eyes from the beginning to the end.
Intermittent voices came from the background, it was the dead man talking, and the shrill begging for mercy was interspersed with crying in a different tone.
Repeatedly begging, crying, and eagerly chanting words of begging for mercy.
From the first perspective, it sounds very pitiful.
Obviously, the deceased was killed by this Sentinel. And the murderer was now hanging on the rack.
"I'll give it to you, all of it."
"It's worth a lot, so much. Give it all, and spare my life."
"Spare me, let me live."
"Please, please you... Woooo."
The dead man kept raising his hands repeatedly, trembling, holding a fist-sized, amber-shaped crystal.
The stone was radiant and restrained at the same time, and upon closer inspection, it had a breathtaking beauty. There seemed to be a living creature wriggling faintly in the center. He offered this priceless treasure and begged the god of death in front of him to spare his life.
However, the muzzle of the screen facing him was firm and indifferent, slowly approaching, suffocating.
Next, the screen goes black.
After a snowflake-like flower screen, the scene returned to the very beginning.
There was only this short section of the entire video, which was played over and over again.
Crying, weeping, trembling terrified victim.
A cold-blooded, gloomy, murderous murderer.
It was pitch black, slowly approaching, a desperate muzzle.
Despair and death were played back and forth.
The onlookers felt the same, and could not help but mourn for the dead.
A sentry recognized the crystal and gasped, "Is that chrysanthemum jade?"
"Yes, that energy stone is very valuable."
"I've never seen such a large living chrysanthemum jade. How much is it worth?"
"No wonder, those who kill and commit arson can wear a gold belt*. Just for this, he murdered the whole team." For a moment, the onlookers almost exploded.
*This saying came from Cantonese translation of 'Les Miserables' by Su Manshu, who expressed his own dissatisfaction of the society at that time through his translation. The full proverb is 'Those who kill and set fire can wear gold belts, but those who repair bridges and roads die exhausted without corpses.'
It was said that a whole team of Sentinels entered the polluted area. In the end, everyone in the team, including the accompanying researchers appointed by the Kingdom, died inside.
The only one alive was a young and powerful captain.
Originally, no one knew what happened. After all, it was also very common for groups to be destroyed in polluted areas.
It was just a coincidence that other search personnel entered there at that time, and near the exit, they found the researcher's body that had been shot dead.
They brought back the brain of the dead researcher, and only managed to expose the villain's crimes.
In fact, there were many such things.
A polluted area was a completely closed area from the outside world. Once inside, it is difficult for outsiders to know what happened and what to do inside.
That kind of closed and terrifying area is often like a real area. Before entering, everyone was human. After entering, in the twisted and dark world, some people became monsters.
"A whole team of brothers were killed, it's too cruel." An old Sentinel gritted his teeth. He was a veteran who had also led a team and had seen the death of countless brothers. He couldn't bear to see such a thing.
Another person in the crowd spat, "I was defeated by this guy in the past. I was still very convinced and thought he was a good character. The blade of the ice field, the sword of the empire. I admire him very much. Now, I only blame myself for being blind."
"What blade of the ice field? Damn!"
"I never thought he was easy (to deal with) before. It's just that he is stronger and higher-level, and his personality is very arrogant and disgusting. Look, in the polluted area, he is a despicable villain who does such a dirty job."
"I say, Interrogator, the evidence is solid, there is nothing more to interrogate. Sentence him to death and let him apologize with death."
The more the Sentinels scolded, the more furious they became. As a soldier who was born and died on the battlefield, what they hated the most was this kind of person who stabbed his brother in the back.
"In my opinion, the death penalty is too cheap for him." The sergeant in charge of the torture interrogation leaned on his side and announced to everyone while leaning against the table where the torture equipment was placed.
He interrogated the prisoner for several days, using all available means on him. But this person is a stubborn stubble, no matter how hard he tried, he still didn't pry out the matter that his boss asked him to ask.
He was holding back his anger.
At this moment, the surrounding sentries were excited, and it was time to vent their anger, so he said with a sly smile, "I think such a sinner should be punished to serve in the Rose Camp. Let him sacrifice his life for the country and apologize until death."
The Sentinel's barracks had various numbers, but there wasn't a single place called Rose Camp.
It's just that everyone at the scene knew tacitly what kind of place it was referring to.
The onlookers burst out laughing, and many of them blew their whistles.
The favorite topics in the barracks are pornographic and dirty topics. Not to mention adding such humiliation to a strong man who was beyond their reach in the past.
"From now on, the blade of the ice field will be renamed the flower of the ice field." It was a female Sentinel who spoke. She was tall, her strong shoulders moved, and her eyes began to look at the prisoner unscrupulously.
"Don't worry, the brothers will take care of you." This was another strong Sentinel with knotted muscles and thick arms. He once lost to that prisoner in the Sentinel school competition, and now seeing his opponent in trouble, he could wantonly humiliate him, and immediately jumped higher than anyone else.
Just when he was about to utter nonsense without any scruples, he suddenly felt a chill all over his body.
An inexplicable feeling of horror welled up in my heart.
It felt as if the whole person was suddenly pressed on the coldest and darkest seabed, bearing a tremendous force.
In the distance, in the blue depths, there seems to be a huge and terrifying whale floating slowly, looking over from afar.
At that glance, the overwhelming coercion came over, like a prey stared at by a natural enemy, which made him feel uncontrollably afraid, his bones were weak, his legs could hardly stand, and he wanted to kneel down.
The muscular and strong Sentinel was pale, sweating profusely, and gritted his teeth hard so he didn't kneel down in public.
He raised his head tremblingly, just as his gaze bumped into the fallen prisoner on the rack who raised his eyelids and cast a cold glance down.
That gaze penetrated the blood curtain that covered his face, like the blood-stained blade, cold and sharp.
It was not at all like someone who has been tied to the rack and tortured for many days.
This... was this the coercion of a senior Sentinel?
How could he be suppressed like this, what level has he reached now?
The Sentinel felt guilty, even though he couldn't believe it, he finally cowered and quietly withdrew from the crowd, no longer daring to hide in the crowd and say those insulting words.
Already away from the grounds, Lin Yuan, who was walking up the steps, suddenly seemed to hear something and turned around.
It seemed that she heard the familiar sound of waves.
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