After Marking the Omega Officer Who Was Pretending to Be an Alpha - Chapter 5

After leaving the Punishment Grounds, Shao Enzhuo walked aimlessly along the bluestone road. Moonlight covered the earth, illuminating the path ahead. The houses around her gradually lit up with orange light.

At that moment, Shao Enzhuo was like a walking corpse.

There was no expression on her face.

Just like that, Shao Enzhuo stepped through the moonlight and passed one unfamiliar old street and alley after another. There were fewer and fewer pedestrians passing by. She stared ahead, walking forward with her heart turned to ashes.

She should have been reviewing for her final exams, yet for some inexplicable reason, she had transmigrated into the apocalyptic world inside a book. She had also witnessed the adjudicators kill the vanguards with her own eyes. Toward her own powerlessness, she felt self-blame, and she also hated the adjudicators’ cruelty.

The vanguard had been right.

Wanting to survive in this apocalyptic world was not a crime.

Nor was it wrong.

But she no longer wanted to think about what kind of world this was. Right now, she only wanted to go back.

She wanted to go home.

Helplessly, she raised her head and looked toward the night sky glittering with stars, then let out a deep sigh. She had to find a way back to her original world, but what exactly should she do to return?

What a troublesome matter.

Wait.

She suddenly noticed a major issue. In the transmigration-into-a-book novels she had read before, almost every protagonist had a system. Then shouldn’t she also have a system?

She abruptly stopped and called out in her heart.

“System.”

However, there was no response.

After realizing this point about the system, Shao Enzhuo called out in her heart several more times. In the end, she even shouted several times at the top of her lungs.

The result was the same.

There was no so-called system responding to her. This time, she was truly disappointed and despairing. Maybe she was not the protagonist of this book. Otherwise, how could she transmigrate into a book without a system?

Without a system, how was she supposed to survive in this world?

Just when she was in despair,

Shao Enzhuo suddenly saw a tall clock tower standing not far ahead in the night. Beside it was a rooftop tightly connected to it. From a distance, it looked to be about ten stories high.

Perhaps…

After making up her mind, she hurriedly ran toward the clock tower.

—

A short while later.

Shao Enzhuo rushed to the rooftop of the clock tower in a panic. Maybe if she died in this world inside the book, she could return to the real world. Wasn’t that how novels usually wrote it? Jumping from the rooftop was a pretty good method.

She ran to the wall around the rooftop and stretched her head out to look down. This height might not necessarily kill her. What if she did not die from the fall, or what if she did not return to the real world?

After a long psychological struggle,

she still did not dare jump.

Why did heaven have to torment her like this? She never should have opened that book, Dawn. In the end, after repeatedly struggling, she finally broke down and shouted toward the distance without caring about anything.

“What kind of world is this?! Why did I transmigrate into this world?! Why don’t I have a system?! Why?! Why am I so unlucky?!”

“System! System, say something to me! System!”

“I can’t stay here for even another moment! What should I do to go back?! Why did the person who transmigrated into the book have to be me?! Is it fun to torture people like this?!”

No matter how many times she shouted, no system responded.

Shao Enzhuo felt both wronged and angry.

In the end, with her heart as good as dead, she lay against the edge of the wall and slowly raised her leg, wanting to climb over it. But the rooftop was so high, and looking down was terrifying. What if she jumped and died but still could not go back?

What exactly should she do…

Just then, a small stone suddenly struck Shao Enzhuo on the back of the head. Shao Enzhuo let out a muffled groan of pain.

“Hiss—”

She frowned from the pain, covered the back of her head, and turned around to look.

She saw a swift and agile figure jump down from the roof of the clock tower and land steadily on the ground. In the night, she could see that this person was dressed in black and wore a pair of black leather boots.

A hat on her head covered half her face.

Although her face could not be seen clearly,

one could tell from her figure that she was a woman.

Shao Enzhuo stared at this woman.

Very mysterious.

She gave off the feeling of being very beautiful.

Judging from her clothes and the cold, oppressive aura around her, this woman was definitely not an ordinary person from the Capital of Hope. But it was also uncertain whether she was from the Hope Organization, since this woman was not wearing a uniform.

She had not expected there to be someone on the roof of the clock tower. Then hadn’t that person heard everything she had shouted just now? She looked at the woman and could not help asking, “You… why did you hit my head?”

The woman walked straight toward the stairwell and tossed out one sentence.

“You can seek death if you want, but not here.”

Her tone was icy, but her voice was extremely pleasant to hear.

So many things had happened today. Shao Enzhuo felt wronged, angry, despairing, and helpless. Her intuition told her that this mysterious woman in front of her definitely knew the things she wanted to know.

She looked at the woman’s tall, slender back. After hesitating for a moment, she asked, “Are you someone from the Hope Organization?”

“Are you a vanguard, or an adjudicator?”

The woman ignored her and continued walking toward the stairwell.

Seeing that the woman was not paying attention to her, Shao Enzhuo wanted to try another way to draw the woman’s attention.

“Have you ever killed anyone?”

The woman still ignored her.

“Today, I personally saw adjudicators publicly kill two vanguards at the Punishment Grounds.” Shao Enzhuo no longer cared about anything. In any case, she did not know anyone in this world. She pressed her lips together and, unwilling to give up, asked loudly, “Can you tell me why adjudicators have to kill vanguards who are also human, who are also their companions? Can you tell me?”

The woman finally stopped walking. Shao Enzhuo looked at the woman’s tall, thin back, waiting expectantly for her answer.

After a moment of silence,

the woman, with her back to Shao Enzhuo, let out a voice that was still extremely cold and devoid of warmth. It was unclear whether she was mocking this world, or mocking Shao Enzhuo for thinking that even if she could not endure it and sought death, anything would change.

“This world is just like this. Death cannot change anything.”

After saying that, she left and disappeared through the entrance of the stairwell.

This world is just like this…

Shao Enzhuo could not understand at all what “this world is just like this” meant. Did everyone think it was only natural? It seemed the woman really thought she wanted to die, which was why she had said that death could not change anything.

She indeed did not want to change anything.

She only wanted to go back.

—

The night gradually deepened.

In the end, Shao Enzhuo still did not choose to jump from the rooftop of the clock tower. Although she hated this world and wanted to transmigrate back, she would not trample on her own life or the life of the original Shao Enzhuo from the book. Carrying the bamboo basket, she wandered alone through the alleys. The Shao Enzhuo in the original book should have had her own home.

But how was she supposed to find her home?

And where should she go now?

The surroundings were completely quiet.

Physically and mentally exhausted, Shao Enzhuo decided to casually find somewhere to rest tonight. Even if she had to sleep on the street tonight, she would accept it. Tomorrow, she would think of a way to find her home.

While looking for a place to rest in the old streets and alleys,

Shao Enzhuo suddenly heard what seemed to be someone calling her name. She thought she was hallucinating. But when she stopped and listened carefully, the voice calling her name came closer and closer. It sounded like an old grandmother was looking for her.

“Zhuozhuo! Zhuozhuo!”

Shao Enzhuo ran toward the direction of the voice.

The old grandmother’s voice became clearer and clearer. After passing the corner of a small alley, she saw an old grandmother with simple, plain clothes and a head full of white hair appear in her line of sight.

Shao Enzhuo stopped where she was.

The moment the old grandmother saw Shao Enzhuo, she ran forward excitedly and grabbed Shao Enzhuo’s hand. Her face was full of worry as she looked at Shao Enzhuo and asked, “Zhuozhuo, where did you go? Why didn’t you come home when it’s already so late? Grandma was worried about you and went to your Uncle Li’s house to look for you. Your Uncle Li said you left after taking the vegetables. Grandma searched for you all night. I thought something might have happened to you. Now that I see you’re fine, Grandma can finally feel relieved.”

This should be the original Shao Enzhuo’s grandmother, right?

Shao Enzhuo thought this to herself.

The old grandmother’s rough palm, full of calluses, gently patted the back of Shao Enzhuo’s hand. “You haven’t come home for so long. You must be hungry, right?”

Shao Enzhuo really was hungry, so she nodded.

“Grandma has been waiting for you at home.” The old grandmother took the bamboo basket from Shao Enzhuo’s hand, then held Shao Enzhuo’s hand and turned to walk back. “The porridge and steamed buns at home are still warm.”

Shao Enzhuo obediently followed beside the old grandmother.

—

Who knew how long had passed.

Shao Enzhuo followed the old grandmother through the alleys, turning this way and that, and finally returned to the residence. It was a simple house built out of wood. Outside the house, a small courtyard was surrounded by a circle of fencing. Some vegetables, flowers, and plants were planted in the courtyard.

There was also a well and a tree.

With a creak,

the old grandmother reached out and pushed open the door, then walked inside.

Shao Enzhuo followed behind her.

The house was very dark,

and there was no one else inside.

Moonlight shone into the house through the doorway.

The old grandmother walked inside and placed the bamboo basket on the stove. Then she picked up the matches on the stove and lit the kerosene lamp sitting on the wooden table. The light instantly illuminated the dark room.

Shao Enzhuo looked around, examining the interior of the house.

She happened to see herself in the mirror. She had not expected that she and the original Shao Enzhuo from the book not only shared the same name, but even looked exactly alike. Was this the fate of transmigrating into a book?

Sigh…

She moved her gaze away and continued examining the room.

The air was filled with the fragrance of grass and wood. Miscellaneous items and firewood were piled separately in the corners of the walls, arranged very neatly. Although the furnishings inside the house were simple and old, everything had been cleaned especially well, giving people a very comfortable feeling.

“Zhuozhuo, where did you go today after you picked up the vegetables from your Uncle Li’s place?”

The old grandmother turned and walked toward the stove.

Shao Enzhuo looked at the old grandmother’s figure and did not know how to answer. “Grandma, I…”

The old grandmother lifted the lid covering the steamer. Steam dispersed into the air like a thin mist. She took steamed buns out of the steamer and placed them on a plate, then ladled two bowls of vegetable porridge from the pot beside it. Seeing Shao Enzhuo standing still in place, she asked, “What’s wrong, Zhuozhuo?”

“Grandma,” Shao Enzhuo did not know how to explain that she was not the Shao Enzhuo from the book, but she intended to accept the identity of Shao Enzhuo. “There’s something I want to tell you.”

“What is it?” The old grandmother carried two bowls of porridge over to the wooden table and put them down. “Don’t just stand there. Hurry over and sit down to eat. Tonight, I only cooked porridge and steamed buns. I originally wanted to stir-fry a bowl of potatoes too, but you didn’t come back for so long, and there were no potatoes at home, so Grandma didn’t cook them.”

After saying that, she walked toward the stove.

Shao Enzhuo suddenly remembered the few potatoes in the bamboo basket. She walked to the table and sat down. “Sorry, Grandma…”

The old grandmother carried the steamed buns and a small dish of pickled vegetables from the stove back to the wooden table and sat down. She sensed that Shao Enzhuo seemed to have something on her mind and asked, “Zhuozhuo, do you have something troubling you?”

Shao Enzhuo nodded. “It’s just… Grandma, I had a dream today, and when I woke up, I forgot many things.”

The old grandmother asked, “What did you forget?”

“I forgot almost everything about this place.” Shao Enzhuo looked at the old grandmother, guilty yet calm. “Grandma, I only remember who I am. I even… forgot your name…”

The old grandmother froze for a moment. “Is that so?”

Shao Enzhuo said, “Mm.”

The old grandmother said, “Zhuozhuo, then you…”

“I heard you calling my name just now, so I thought you might be my grandma.” Shao Enzhuo scratched her head embarrassedly. “I don’t remember anything about this place anymore. Grandma, please help me. Maybe I’ll remember very soon.”

“Alright, silly child. Then you must remember this. Grandma’s name is Shao Lanzhi.” Shao Lanzhi smiled dotingly. The traces left by time at the corners of her eyes were clearly visible. She did not doubt what Shao Enzhuo said. “Eat first. We’ll talk after eating.”

Shao Enzhuo nodded. “Okay.”

—

Late at night.

Shao Enzhuo lay on her back with her eyes open on a small, clean, tidy wooden bed. Shao Lanzhi was sleeping on the small wooden bed beside her. Shao Enzhuo stared at the roof with a heavy expression and could not fall asleep for a long time.

During dinner,

she had learned some things about the Shao Enzhuo in the book from Shao Lanzhi. In the book, she was currently seventeen years old. Her parents had both passed away when she was very young. All these years, she had lived with Shao Lanzhi, and the grandmother and granddaughter had depended on each other for survival.

There was also an extremely important and suffocating piece of information—

Shao Lanzhi told her that everyone was born a Beta.

When Betas reached eighteen, they would differentiate into either Alphas or Omegas. If they had not differentiated, then they were only Betas. Right now, she was a Beta who had not yet differentiated.

She was not very clear on the differences between Alpha, Omega, and Beta, but Shao Lanzhi told her that she would turn eighteen in a little over a month and differentiate into an Alpha. Once she differentiated into an Alpha, she would have to join the Hope Organization.

And that meant…

She was destined to join that Hope Organization she despised.