More than an hour later, Chen Xing and A Qiaomu discovered a white tower. There was rubble on the ground at the door, and it could be seen that it was the remains of a gargoyle. The door was open and someone had obviously searched. Climbing up to the top floor, they saw an exquisite wooden box on the ground, exactly like the one where the puzzle had been placed.
"Someone has been here." Ah Qiaomu said something very unworthy.
"Your judgment is very correct." Chen Xing praised.
Perhaps due to slow reaction, or perhaps not smart enough, the other party did not hear the ridicule in the words, and continued to say meaningless words, "The things must have been taken away."
"Yes, the things must have been taken away." Chen Xing agreed.
"You..." Aqiaomu's eyes flickered, as if he was aware of his teasing.
"What's wrong?" Chen Xing asked with a confused look on his face. Of course, this is all an act.
"Nothing." Aqiaomu shook his head, turned around and walked downstairs. His expression was dull.
Chen Xing followed behind, looking at the trembling big butt in front of him, the urge to "penetrate" arose spontaneously.
That must be really cool...
He couldn't help but think about it, but he quickly shook his head to drive the thought out of his mind. This female sandman is too dangerous. Playing with her is playing with fire, so it's better to keep a distance.
"Find a place to rest for a while. I haven't slept in two days." After leaving the tower, Aqiaomu turned around and said.
"Where are the other puzzles?" Chen Xing asked.
"I guess someone else found it. There are twelve yuan in total. We have three of them, that's about it." A Qiaomu said.
Chen Xing did not object anymore. After all, he needed good physical strength to fight. He also hoped that Aqiaomu would attract firepower in front so that he could slowly accumulate energy. Afterwards, the two found a relatively clean house nearby, cleaned it up, and rested inside.
Ah Qiaomu sat down against the wall, with one leg straight and the other bent, with the arm on the same side resting on his thigh. This position is called "female soldier sitting", and most female mercenaries like this position when they are resting.
Chen Xing sat in the standard "male soldier sitting" with his knees crossed and leaning against the wall.
"Are there any military rations? I want tomato-flavored ones." Aqiaomu said.
"Only potato beef and black pepper chicken fillet." Chen Xing said angrily. It's really picky to have the thought to order in a place like this.
"Potato and beef," said Aqiaomu.
Chen Xing took out a self-heating ration from his backpack and handed it over, then asked, "Tell me about the situation here."
A Qiaomu explained the situation to Chen Xing while tearing open the packaging bag and pouring water from a kettle to heat the chemicals inside.
She has been here for more than ten days and is among the first batch to come in. According to her observations these days, this is a city ruled by wizards. They created a large number of mechanical monsters that can be encountered in every corner of the city.
For unknown reasons, the world was destroyed.
There are various indications that after the disaster, the people here did not die immediately, but persisted in the darkness for a long time until the food ran out. Normally, cannibalism would occur in such situations, but that doesn't seem to be the case here. It seemed that the wizards did not give up until the last moment.
The tall tower in the middle is protected by a very powerful magic circle. The people in the battle group installed a lot of C4 explosives but they didn't explode. The power source to maintain the magic circle should be the green light group from the top of the tower.
The spectrum of psychic energy is blue, varying from lighter to darker depending on density. As for the other two forms of psychic energy, life energy is emerald green, turning from emerald green to milky white as the intensity increases, and chaotic magic energy is dark green, turning from dark green to dark red. The color from the center of the green light group is darker, which should be extremely dense chaotic magic energy.
There is a recessed circular puzzle on the gate of the tower, divided into twelve pieces, with eight pieces in the outer circle and four pieces in the inner circle. Aqiaomu accidentally discovered one of the pieces and guessed it might be the key to the tower, so he searched around and found another piece. Later, I met Chen Xing.
"Why are there separate inner and outer circles?" Chen Xing suddenly asked. Such a design means that the eight pieces in the outer circle and the four pieces in the inner circle have different meanings, perhaps due to the different status of the holder, or perhaps due to differences in function. In short, it is a detail worthy of attention.
Aqiaomu shrugged, indicating that he was not sure.
"Take it out and take a look." Chen Xing took out his puzzle piece. The outer end is an eighth arc and the inner end is an inner arc. It is obviously the outer circle of the puzzle. A Qiaomu also took out the puzzle pieces from the outer circle.
"Have you seen anyone from the inner circle?" Chen Xing asked.
"I was the first to discover it, so I didn't tell anyone, but they were not stupid. They quickly discovered the problem and sent people to search everywhere." Aqiaomu replied.
"In other words, you haven't seen any other puzzle pieces?" Chen Xing asked.
"Yes." Aqiaomu replied.
"You rest first, and then we continue to search and see how many towers there are in total." Chen Xing said.
"Okay." Aqiaomu nodded. By this time, the self-heating ration was ready, and she ate it with the hard plastic fork that came with the ration. It didn't take long for her to finish eating, put the garbage in a bag, threw it in the corner, then leaned against the wall and closed her eyes to rest.
Chen Xing was responsible for keeping vigil, holding three puzzle pieces and studying them carefully. Aqiaomu seemed to have great trust in him. Not only did he give him his puzzle piece, but he also showed little defensiveness. Soon he was snoring slightly and fell into a deep sleep.
But this is not surprising. If Chen Xing wanted to kill her just now, he would have killed her already. There is no need to wait until now.
So why does Aqiaomu trust him so much?
There may be two reasons. First, Aqiaomu realized that he could not benefit from this expedition alone, so he took the risk. Anyone who works as a mercenary has gambling in their bones, just like he himself is gambling now. Second, Aqiaomu saw through his true nature. He is a typical "I will not offend others unless they offend me, and I may not repay if someone offends me" type.
Because for a rational person like him, "revenge" also requires cost and calculation. If the cost is too high or it takes too much effort, forget it.
To put it bluntly, they are not small-minded enough, their hearts are not black enough, their moral bottom line is not low enough, and they don’t have enough money in their pockets. This is also the reason why he worked for many years before becoming a manager of a small company in his first life, and why he worked for more than ten years before becoming a team leader in his second life.
The middle and upper levels of society are born with a golden key. They have access to many resources left by their ancestors. They have a solid foundation and can be decent people without affecting their development. But the bottom class of society is different. Unless they are extremely talented or very lucky and meet noble people, it will be difficult to develop rapidly in the absence of basic resources.
There are no tuition fees for further studies, and no capital for doing business. Everything depends on hands, and the speed of development is very slow.
Moreover, in the process of climbing up, other people at the bottom will try their best to snatch the resources of others to fill their own vacancies, or use others as stepping stones to climb higher. This creates a vicious cycle. If you want to rise to the top, you have to be ruthless and dark-handed.
What's even more detestable is that when some people at the bottom come to power, they immediately act like villains and raise their heads to the sky, which makes people look disgusting and have to compete, otherwise they will be looked down upon and looked down upon to death.
However, even though he has been a human being for three lifetimes, there are still some things he cannot do.
Although his parents were not very talented and were just small workers in ordinary third-tier cities, they taught him since he was a child that he must have a conscience and do things he can and cannot do. Therefore, he has been following his parents' teachings for so many years. Even if he is not a good person, he never wants to be a bad person.
After all, in this world, no matter before or after time travel, it is too difficult for good people to live...
Perhaps Ah Qiaomu saw through this and fell asleep peacefully at this moment, without any precaution against him.
Of course, there are some benefits to being a person with a bottom line. As the saying goes, birds of a feather flock together, and cruel people will never have true friends. Even couples must be wary of each other, ready to expose each other's background and turn against each other at any time.
Just think about it, who would want to make a friend who might trick them at any time?
The reason is simple, if he can deceive others today, he can deceive you tomorrow!
By the same token, who would want to be with a ruthless and unjust boss? Aren't they afraid of being abandoned after being used by the other party?
Who wants to marry a person, or marry a person like this, who can still sleep well at night with a wolf and tiger by his side?
So, there are always two sides to everything. If you sow melons, you will reap melons; if you sow beans, you will reap beans; if you sow, you will reap the fruits. If you want to develop rapidly, your foundation will be unstable. At least until now, Chen Xing has not encountered many things that made him particularly regretful.
Perhaps this has something to do with his ambition. He has always been a down-to-earth person without too many unrealistic fantasies. I was just forced by the environment to have no choice but to climb up.
The cruelty of society is that if you don't climb up, you will be eliminated, trampled on by villains, and your life will be worse than death.
After sighing for a while, Chen Xing's attention returned to the puzzle in his hand. The carving process is very delicate, the lines are clear, and the picture is lifelike.
There are wizards wearing robes and holding wooden staffs, surrounded by thunder and lightning, huge mechanical puppets, people prostrate in worship, as well as burning furnaces, pouring molten iron, craftsmen polishing gears, chickens, ducks, geese and goats running around , a scene of magical industrial civilization in the Middle Ages.
The material of the puzzle is neither gold nor iron, neither wood nor stone. It feels cold to the touch. I don’t know what material it is made of. Heavier than similarly sized steel, but not as much as mithril or adamantine.
"Chachacha..."
Suddenly, there were soft footsteps outside. Chen Xing frowned and stood up. He looked at Ah Qiaomu, who was sleeping soundly, and was considering whether to wake him up, when a young male's voice sounded outside.
"This is Kazuki Nakamura from Jiro's group. I would like to exchange information with my friends inside."
Chen Xing shouted loudly without hesitation for too long, "Please speak."
Turning around, he saw that Ah Qiaomu hadn't woken up yet. Was it because he was too tired, trusted him too much, or was pretending.
"Friends inside, we are looking for a black puzzle piece. If you have it, we can buy it at a high price. The reputation of our Jiro group has always been very good, please don't worry." A man who called himself "Nakamura Kazuki" shouted outside .
