Alena staggered and fell backward, her head hitting the belly of a fat man. "Are you alright, madam?" the fat man asked with concern as he helped her up. Once steady, Alena lunged forward again, but a young man, afraid she would get hurt, held her back. The surrounding crowd encircled Ronnie, blocking his path. "Do you all want to die too?" Ronnie roared with a ferocious expression.
Unfortunately, no one could see it behind his mask. The childish voice paired with the brutal tone created an eerie feeling, and a few timid people unconsciously took a step back. Ronnie had removed the tracker Kartikeya had placed on him three days ago and snuck out of the Wolf's Lair. His memories were gradually returning, and he now knew his mission. He had learned from Daechir that there was a broken time machine in Eagle's Nest, and he wanted to repair it to find his sister. The situation changed. Ronnie spat out another stream of fire, clearing a path. Three people were still chasing him from behind. Taking advantage of the darkness, he ducked into a small alley in the town. The three lost their target and, disheartened, went their separate ways. Knowing he was safe, Ronnie took out an egg from his pocket, peeled off the shell, and took a bite. "So delicious, too bad it's the last one."
After finishing the egg, he peeked his small head out of the alley, looked around, chose a direction, and started walking. He also arrived at the entrance by Lake Turkana. Following Daechir's instructions, he quickly found the square iron plate, opened it, and descended the steps. After about four hundred meters, a fork in the road appeared. "Which way to go?" Ronnie muttered to himself. He hadn't asked about such a minor detail and was momentarily stumped. His childish nature took over. He pointed his finger at the two paths and chanted, "Eenie, meenie... minie, moe... Catch a redneck by his toe. If he hollers let him go! Eanie, meanie, minie, moe... My mama told me... to pick the best one,... and you are it!"
His finger finally stopped on the right path. "Alright!" Ronnie unhesitatingly walked down the right-hand passage. After about three hundred meters, the scenery on both sides gradually changed, no longer just bare rock. The sound of dripping, drip, drip, entered his ears. "Strange, why is there the sound of water dripping here?" He hurried towards the sound. Soon, the view opened up, and a damp, dark cave appeared before him. The most surprising thing was a small pool in the cave. The dripping sound was from clear spring water splashing from the rock wall into the pool. This was the end of the road. "Looks like I chose the wrong path," Ronnie thought. He turned back the way he came, returned to the fork, and took the left path. After another two kilometers, a large hall appeared with eighteen paths leading to various places. He chose passage number nine and headed straight for it. He continued until he reached the large stone door with the words "Trespassers Will Be Killed." The character for "killed" had not been put back and was still on the ground. He shouted a string of passwords at the red button, and the stone door slowly opened. He slipped inside. When he saw the graffiti on the corridor wall, he immediately understood. Through the corridor and around a bend was the gold warehouse. The broken time machine and the bodies of Sonita and her mother were still in the corner. Ronnie didn't know these two and was very surprised. Why were there bodies here? They must be a pair of gold thieves. He ignored them and walked straight to the time machine. Seeing how badly damaged it was, he burned with anger. He walked over to Sonita and her mother and kicked them hard several times. "Damn you, causing trouble for me even before you die."
Now, the only thing to do was to find a way to restore the time machine. After a careful inspection, he found that several important components were still intact, which reassured him. He spent an entire afternoon moving all the parts to the laboratory, then exchanged gold for new parts. The repair work lasted for over half a month. A fully functional time machine was once again before him. He first moved it out of Eagle's Nest and placed it on a patch of empty ground. He opened the door, sat down on the circular platform, and then closed the safety cabin. At this moment, Ronnie's heart was pounding. "Sister, wait for me, I'm coming right away." He set the time to 2630 and started the time machine. The disk spun at an extremely high speed, and after one minute and thirty seconds, the machine finally stopped. He opened the safety cabin, got off the time machine, and looked around. The surrounding environment hadn't changed much. He felt his pocket and took out more than twenty gold coins, intending to exchange them for some Star Coins. He picked a direction and started walking. The closest town to Eagle's Nest was Yike Town, about ten kilometers away. He walked to the town. A young woman was walking towards him. Ronnie stopped her and asked, "Ma'am, could you please tell me where the bank is?"
The woman glanced at him contemptuously. "I don't know, and I wouldn't tell you if I did."
Encountering such a rude woman, Ronnie was too angry to speak. He desperately wanted to spit fire at her but was afraid of causing a public outrage. Suppressing his anger, he walked away without looking back. This time, he didn't ask for directions and just wandered around the town. He finally saw a bank and walked in. There was only one clerk at the counter, a middle-aged woman in her forties. It was probably close to noon, and she looked listless. Ronnie took out the gold coins and placed them on the counter. "Ma'am, how many Star Coins can I get for these?"
"Who told you I was a 'Ma'am'? How rude," the woman said, glaring at him.
What a cursed day, being rebuffed twice in a row. Ronnie couldn't help but say angrily, "Then what should I call you? You old hag." The woman's face changed. She suddenly stood up, came around the counter, and without a word, slapped Ronnie across the face. Smack! The blow hit his left cheek, sending the mask flying off. A chimpanzee-like face was revealed to the woman. She let out a strange cry, bent down to pick up the mask from the floor, and turned to run out the door.
"Stop!" Ronnie immediately gave chase. He was small with short legs and quickly lost sight of her. Without the mask, he could feel his body aging rapidly, his strength fading. By the next day, he was on the verge of death, lying on the bed in a single hotel room. He tried to stand, but his legs gave way. With a crack, he knelt on the floor, seemingly hearing the sound of bones breaking. Three days later, the door was opened, and four male attendants entered. Covering their noses, they carried out the stinking, blackened corpse. Ronnie's body was decaying, but his mind was clear. He didn't dare to cry out, afraid of scaring them and getting a beating or the police called on him. The men went downstairs and threw him into the trunk of a car. A short while later, the car started moving. After more than half an hour, the car finally stopped. Ronnie was lifted out by two men. Before him was a barren wasteland. Ronnie thought they would just dump him there, but the two men continued walking for another three hundred meters to the edge of a cliff. He quickly shouted, "What are you trying to..." but it was too late. His body had already been thrown, followed by a rapid descent. Ronnie instantly felt as if his internal organs were being torn apart. With a loud thud, his head and body separated, his entire skeleton scattering on the ground like a broken rag doll, without a single drop of blood. Ronnie opened his eyes. He was surrounded by jagged rocks and sheer cliffs, as if he were in another world. An unknown number of years passed. Three people descended from the cliff: one man and two women. The man was imposing, dressed as a knight. One of the girls had a short crew cut and a face like a peach blossom. The other was sweet-looking, with two lovely dimples when she smiled. The man spoke to the head, which was almost buried in sand, "General, we've finally found you. Let's go home." The head used its last bit of strength to give a few instructions, then fell silent. More than ten hours later, he was taken to a cave. The girl with the crew cut said, "According to Father's last words, this place will be built into a memorial hall."
One day, a class of children came to visit. One little girl, about eight or nine years old, asked, "Teacher, whose brain is that?"
"That's the brain of a scientist from the New World named Ronnie, from over fifty years ago."
"And what's that on the projection?"
"That's a replay of his brain's memories."
"Why do the faces of two beautiful sisters keep appearing in the film? Are you one of them? You look so much alike."
"..." The little girl waited for a long time but didn't hear an answer from her teacher. Puzzled, she looked up. The teacher's face was already streaked with tears.
One falls, another steps into the breach; life goes on and on — The End.
Author's Note: The ending is an excerpt from the bonus content of City-State Chronicles: The Time Traveler in the Umbrella House. The two books are interconnected but can also be read independently. This novel fills in the details missing from the original story, including the origin of the invisibility cloak, the convoluted experiences of Uwa and Amandine, the connection between the future world and the past, the war between the City-State and the Nine-Star Alliance, the feuds between Alice and the others and the robots, and the final fates of De Silva and Ronnie, making the story's logic more complete and reasonable. The two books together total seven hundred thousand words. From May 18, 2020, to September 12, 2021, it is finally all written. I would like to thank the friends who persevered in reading the entire story. Thank you very much. Additionally, a note: City-State Chronicles is a series of novels, divided into three parts, totaling about one million words. The first part is City-State Chronicles: The Time Traveler in the Umbrella House. This book, City-State Chronicles: Amandine's Invisibility Cloak, is the second part. The third part, City-State Chronicles: Mei and the Great Knight Zhengnan, is still in progress. Please look forward to it.