Luo Binhan has always been fully alert to buttons. It started after witnessing three-year-old Yu Xiaorong pressing the button of a hair dryer and trying to insert her fingers into the hot air vent. Of course, he strictly stopped it, and he understood the infinite attraction of the button structure to young children. It was as if some creator had given them the key to the door of hell, tempting them to use their deadly talents anytime and anywhere.
He was wary of Yu Xiaorong, but he didn't need to care so much about Luo Jiaotian, because his mother would never leave for a moment. And since boarding the Silence, he has become much less wary of this matter, because no one on the ship seems likely to die from accidentally pressing the button. Who was the last person to press buttons randomly? Yes, none other than Joel Fineman shows that button fetishism doesn't depend on age or status, it can strike anyone, anytime, anywhere.
Now this person is August. On August, which was always forgotten by him like air, before he had time to react to this incident, he felt himself flying again. But this time it's not true. His feet did not leave the ground, but the ground moved forward at a steady speed. At the same time, the light and shadow on the wall were retreating rapidly. That gave him the illusion of flying. At the same time, he also heard various strange noises coming from the tunnel, which sounded like the rotation of shafts, the running of motors, the meshing of gears and the tightening of chains, followed by the long scratching sound of the whistle and metal friction, the elevator, the rolling of beads, An extremely simple piece of music, violent explosions, flowing water...
It all passed by him quickly, as fast as a meteor shower. Every time his hearing picks up something, he sees, smells, and feels more. Many images of machinery or buildings rushed past his eyes, and his nose was filled with the smell of smoke, fire, wine, liquefied gas, burnt plastic... the smell of things beyond what he could summarize. For a few brief minutes they all blended together, creating an experience of extreme chaos. At the same time, Luo Binhan also felt cold, heat, running water, electric current and laser. For a moment, he felt that his body had completely disappeared, penetrated by something unknown to him, and a violent light ball exploded in front of his eyes. It was all so chaotic that he couldn't even tell if he was enjoying it or suffering it, and then the flight through the tunnel slowed down. All sensory disturbances are gone as quickly as they came.
The conveyor belt on the ground slowly rolled forward. The walls of the tunnel were once again covered with worm-like spots of light. When Luo Binhan raised his head, he saw the bright and attractive exit not far away. However, he was unable to scream and rushed out. He could only swear in his heart that he would never tolerate it - from now on, he would turn anyone who pressed the unknown button in front of him into a bald man - then he put his hand on the platform with the button and bent down deeply. waist.
"Mr. Luo, what's wrong?"
"I want to vomit." Luo Binhan said, "What the hell is this? What happened?"
He shook his head wildly several times and finally stood up unsteadily from the platform. At this time, the waiter stretched out the end of his upper limb with fine pincer fingers and put something like a sugar ball into Luo Binhan's hand. Luo Binhan was so frightened by this familiar unfolding that he almost took out his gun and shot Zhou Wenxing's lackey.
"Smell it." The waiter said encouragingly, "We often encounter customers who faint when they first come! I assure you that this is just a normal phenomenon when humans are exposed to modern society. There is nothing to be ashamed of! Come on! , smell it. Of course you can eat it, but it will affect your appetite later. Moderate amount is the best!"
"Appropriate amount?" Luo Binhan complained feebly. He put the thing under his nose and smelled it. It wasn't the mint or fruit he had imagined, it was almost as light as alcohol mixed in water, but it worked. The dizziness caused by overstimulation disappeared immediately. Instead, his mind felt clear, his thinking sharp, and his body as high as an anesthetic. The waiter handed out the same candy balls to others, but only the translucent Upsilon politely declined when it was offered. Luo Binhan glanced sideways at Jing Huang and saw a scene he was particularly familiar with: Jing Huang threw the candy ball into his mouth, crunched it and swallowed it.
"We just passed through the random button tunnel!" the waiter announced happily. "It will randomly intercept a thousand different stimulation methods from our database-but you may not be able to feel them all-all simulating you in a rational world." A world of things you might encounter when you push a button. Yes, a button means 'decision'! My guests! When you are faced with a problem with a machine, don't answer it with vocal organs or pheromones, don't Say the spell, don't open the shell to find the guy hiding inside, don't attack the fool box immediately, usually what you have to do is find a button and press it! There will always be some reaction. Normally it will make The machine executes the next step, but in rare cases it may make a mistake...that is, call security, laser fire, or the facility self-destructs. But that is certainly not your fault. It is obviously the designer's responsibility to let you find this button. !So there’s nothing to worry about!”
"I don't think this is a question of blame." Luo Binhan interjected.
The waiter danced his upper limbs flexibly as if he hadn't heard anything: "Should we do it again? Do another random button tunnel? I can adjust the playback duration and quantity of all effects! But it's best not to repeat it more than twenty times, as it may damage healthy."
Although Momolo and Upsilon were eager to give it a try, and even the baby was giggling and shaking its arms, Luo Binhan resolutely rejected the proposal. He argued that the kind of activity just now was clearly an abuse of infants and young children.
"Hey, it doesn't matter, Mr. Luo. Not to mention this slight sensory stimulation, this child's radiation resistance is four hundred times greater than yours. He should come from a race with a long history of optimization."
"Then I'm talking about myself." Luo Binhan replied, "I am an infant who optimizes history."
He walked out of the tunnel angrily and entered another closed room through the doorway on the left. There is a rotating luminous table in the room, four human-sized chairs, a slightly smaller children's chair, and finally a baby seat with fixed straps. The walls on all four sides are like glass, silently showing the scene outside: mechanical dolls carrying plates shuttle back and forth, greeting and swaying to the guests in the lobby, and all the tables and corners of the walls are decorated with cherry-sized colorful flowers. The lights change colors moment by moment. There was a song and dance performance with mechanical toy figures on the high platform, but no sound could be heard from inside.
Luo Binhan stared there subconsciously, a little curious about the specific content of the performance outside. At this time, the waiter slid to his side and said to him tenderly: "This is the screen. Screen, screen. Do you want to click on it and try it? Come on, click on it and try it! It will be very interesting!"
"Oh." Luo Binhan said stiffly, sinking his butt firmly into the nearest chair. The waiter encouraged him in every possible way and assured him that the screens here were equipped with more interesting and realistic scenes ("There are also many joysticks for you to play with!"). That almost drove him crazy. Fortunately, the thumb policeman came over from the table and said in a suppressed laugh tone: "Oh, don't worry about this. My friend is here for the first time, I think I'm a little nervous. Can you serve us first? Please give us the most popular family meal this week, and a baby meal. As for the food intake, you can estimate it based on our current situation."
"Can I call up your physical examination data?" the waiter asked.
"Ah, no problem. Allergy and taste structure can be seen. But it may not be valid. Most of us here are ancient laws. When the data is invalid, use the appearance standard judgment mode. Okay, please wait for a while. We will call you if necessary."
The waiter shook towards them, and then its entire upper limbs and torso retracted into the bottom square box, and then slid silently to the corner. It wasn't until it was completely still that Upsilon fell over on the dining table, holding his belly and laughing.
"Ah, I'm sorry, I didn't expect that the Mencheng series would be of this style! Because I have only been to the branches in Central City and Zhisi City before, and I didn't expect that the localization difference here is so big... I have heard of it. Many ancient rules will have an overreaction when they see faces on the screen for the first time. The Lord of the Gate City has also put a lot of effort into popular science education, but I didn’t expect that even Mao Tutun Tun would be assimilated!”
Luo Binhan angrily hit him with his finger. Upsilon pretended to resist with his arms and exaggeratedly shouted "Wow, it's so heavy", which made him unable to take it seriously.
"What's going on?" he asked, "What on earth is this store?"
"It's just an ordinary fast food restaurant, Mr. Luo! Sugar City is actually classified into the tourism industry by us, and Maodudutuntun is one of the largest catering companies in the alliance. Because the branches span too many star levels, localization The differences between the latter branches are also very big. It can be said that there are no decent public services in areas like this that originally belonged to Shepherd, so they will also bear some appropriately. This is their corporate culture. Well, You try opening the drawer under the desk, there should be their brochure there."
Sure enough, Luo Binhan found the promotional brochure that Upsilon mentioned. Different from what he imagined, it was not the kind of "book" that he read on the Silence that could change its contents, but ordinary, most standardized printed materials, neatly divided into many language versions.
"Yeah, because it's for the new Gu Yuelu. Other customers usually choose to watch the screen."
Luo Binhan casually took out a book - the book cover read "Plenty Corner: A Brief Narrative of the Localization Process of "Mao Tummy Tun Tun" Restaurant in the Alliance's Iconic City", and the cover used a very suspicious-looking bright red. This name seems to have nothing to do with corporate culture. He deftly flipped it to the preface and read:
At the beginning of the book, it is necessary to explain the motivation for writing this book.
Why did we choose the service industry for eating as the research object? Why did these four scholars decide to study the localization process of this chain service sales company that carries a distinct imprint of pan-sapien culture and lifestyle in different geographical locations and cultural contexts?
Admittedly, this was not a study initiated by me. It’s not that I discovered it, it’s that I was discovered by it. Since 17529-31-622-581, my regular life partner A'luo Lenia (Hangxuan-Green) and I have been living in the central city and the three unnamed star gate territorial city-states that exist as its affiliated satellite cities. Conduct fieldwork to discover the organizational forms, intergenerational inheritance forms, ancestral views of previous generations, popular religious views, and bizarre traditional customs that have always been focused on by pansophists—our young and energetic new field. culture Research. Once in every central city standard work cycle, we and our hosting friends will go to Kebe City for an entertainment activity with the purpose of relieving tension - listen to several esoteric nine sects held at the White Tower Office in Kebe City popular lectures (mostly from the Pomegranate Hall of the Book of Silence or the Goldleaf Camp of the Living Leaf), and sometimes participated in ecstatic feasts of rejoicing crowds to experience the "ecstasy" considered to be the original source of magic and mystery. ".
One day in the same standard year, we came to the famous upright white tower building as usual, but I found another newly built similar building not far away, and that was the beginning of everything.
"Go somewhere new," I suggested to my loyal and silent Central City pansapien friend. "What's a 'restaurant?'"
