When Jack Roman woke up, his back was burning with pain from the desert heat.
His last memory was that he put on the exoskeleton armor and led the Brotherhood's ground exploration troops to approach the ruins as ordered. Then a storm hit them. At that time, they were like sailors who encountered a storm and a tsunami. He could only watch as he was swallowed up by the storm.
When Jack woke up again, he found himself lying here.
The exoskeleton armor protected them, but at this moment it also turned into broken parts.
The team members he led were missing, and all communication equipment had lost communication.
The only good news was that Jack discovered a village in the distance. His strong desire to survive made him struggle to get up from the sand. It took him most of his life to join the brotherhood with his viciousness and ruthlessness. The senior officials must not die in the desert in such an unexplained way.
The death crab that removes **, the artifact that removes **.
He didn't know which neutral inn the village in the distance belonged to, but Jack believed that as long as he was near the oasis, there would be no one who didn't know the reputation of the Brotherhood, and he could easily promise the villagers something they couldn't imagine. huge sum of money.
Thinking of this, Jack pushed aside the parts of the broken exoskeleton armor and walked step by step towards the village.
And this time, most of the day passed.
When his mood changed from excitement to despair, and he even doubted whether the village was what people call a mirage, the smoke and lights finally appeared in front of him.
The strange aroma wafts in the village, which is the most fatal attraction for Jack who has been hungry all day.
He stumbled into the village, and the first thing he saw was a small shop called "Laoxu Shengjian", which seemed to be the only shop in the town.
The store is very busy. Villagers who have been busy for a day gather here, order some steaming pancakes, bring their handmade special drinks, and sit at the simple wooden table to talk and pass the time.
You can see this scene at any border station in the oasis, but this scene gave Jack goosebumps all over his body.
Since arriving in the village, my heart has been filled with a strange and terrifying feeling.
He always felt that he had seen these villagers somewhere, but when he thought about it carefully, he couldn't remember.
Hunger finally took over.
Jack decided not to think too much. He sat down at the seat closest to the boss. The overly simple menu made him frown. If he hadn't encountered such a sudden disaster, he would never come to such a simple place to eat.
The Brotherhood opened numerous luxury restaurants in Rila and spent big bucks to bring top chefs from all over to the oasis capital.
In addition to the kidnapping, extortion, extortion and human organ trafficking industries, the Brotherhood has also begun to promote "high-end consumption" in recent years. For example, places like the Golden Stone Casino were opened specifically for dignitaries from the Oasis and other allied countries.
Unlike those "refugees", as long as you have a prominent status, you can experience any coveted service in Lira - regardless of whether it complies with the laws of the allied countries.
The owner of the shop is a middle-aged man who looks happy and happy. Everyone in the village happily calls him Laoxu, which is probably where the name "Laoxu Shengjian" comes from.
"Boss, where is this place?"
A table of fried fish was served, and the aroma of the food made Jack feel less unhappy.
"Sandstone Town."
"Sandstone Town?"
Jack bit into the golden and crispy fried skin, and the full gravy immediately spread on the tip of his tongue. The taste of the food was much more delicious than he imagined, even as good as the dim sum he tasted at the high-end restaurant owned by the Brotherhood. .
He muttered the name of the town.
He had never heard of this place name before, "How far is it from Root City?"
"far away."
This wasn't the answer Jack wanted to hear.
When he asked questions, he often expected to get a complete plan, such as what kind of transportation was needed to start from Shashi Town, and how long it would take to reach Root City.
Perhaps it was the disaster and the strange atmosphere in the village that made Jack's temper calmer, so that he would not burst out and press the boss's head on the table.
“What do I need to do to get back there?”
"Guest, you can't go back."
Jack stopped chewing, wiped off the grease on his hands, and looked directly at the busy middle-aged man with unkind eyes. The atmosphere suddenly became tense.
He was waiting for a reasonable explanation from the other party.
Otherwise, the "pig pen" of the Brotherhood will always welcome such healthy people. With the boss's skills, he will not be reduced to being dismantled into human organs.
The boss was calm and said, "Guest, since you mentioned Root City, you must have heard of the disappearance case that made a lot of noise some time ago, right?"
"Have you been to Root City?"
Jack didn't answer the question.
Of course he knows what the missing persons cases are in various cities in the oasis.
Research by biopharmaceutical companies requires a large number of "volunteers". The Brotherhood provides them with residents' information, and the biopharmaceutical company will select drug subjects based on their information.
As for the whereabouts of the "volunteers"...
He could only say that any success requires numerous failures. After the experiment failed, the "volunteers" were sent to the desert.
"If you also open such a small store, you will understand that people like us hear countless news from people's discussions every day. For example, a regular customer in our store has a daughter. He once Zhou Zhang went to great lengths to send his daughter to school elsewhere, and after graduation, his daughter finally returned to the city and was reunited with her family."
As he said that, the boss fumbled for something in the inner pocket of his clothes and pushed Jack across from him.
With the dim light in the shop, Jack saw that it was a photo.
This is a group photo.
The young girl the boss was talking about stood with her father, smiling brightly.
When he saw the photo, Jack's creepy feeling became even more intense.
He had seen the girl in the photo, not long ago.
She was sent to Lira by members of the Skeleton Gang. According to the Brotherhood's procedures, she was finally packaged and sent to an auction, where she was spotted by a wealthy foreign businessman and bought at a high price.
Things like this happen every day, and if her story stops there, Jack probably won't be too impressed.
What really left him with a memory of the girl in the photo was that she escaped from the hands of a wealthy businessman through some unknown means, but she had bad luck and was betrayed by someone when she was smuggled out of Lira, and was eventually sent back. Arrived at the "pig pen".
The wealthy businessman was furious at this and preferred to hand over the disobedient commodity to the Brotherhood.
In the end, biopharmaceutical companies gave everyone a satisfactory solution.
The last time Jack saw the girl, he could no longer recognize her original appearance. She was just like other volunteers who had been injected with failed experimental drugs. Her face and body were cracked, and she could only crawl like a crab in the isolation room. I'm afraid that her father, who loved her most, would not recognize her when he saw her appearance at that time.
The wealthy businessman was very satisfied with the result.
Researchers from the biopharmaceutical company showed him the same photo. Behind the photo was a record of the girl's entire experience after being kidnapped by the Skeleton Gang.
Each failed test subject becomes unrecognizable, with photographs serving to remind researchers of their pre-change identities.
"You made the right decision not to continue being a detective."
After a long silence, Jack spoke.
The oasis never needs detectives. For people living in border cities, confusion can help them live more safely.
What happened to the girl in the photo is only a small probability event. If you want to blame it, you can only blame her for returning to Root City at the wrong time.
"That regular customer hadn't been in the store for a while. Then I saw his name on the news. I didn't know who told him that the Skeleton Gang had taken away his daughter, so he impulsively came to ask for help. Ask for an explanation."
Naturally, the Skeleton Gang did not give the father an explanation.
Instead, the bodies were left haphazardly abandoned on street corners.
Jack heard that the boss's tone seemed a little regretful.
This is also a true portrayal of Lao Xu's heart. This regret comes not only from the tragedy he witnessed, but also from the fact that Song Lan let Scarface die too lightly. He only had time to smash his knees with a gun.
"If I were you, I wouldn't always take these things to heart."
Jack said.
This was indeed a tragedy, but it could not make any guilt arise in his heart.
From the moment they join the fraternity, they tune out these emotions.
And he didn't want to waste time on meaningless remembrance of the past. He wanted to return to the oasis and report their findings to the leader.
"Udra-Nibulus".
He remembered the words carved on the stone door. Its existence was different from any previous archaeological remains, which meant that perhaps the artifact was real.
Re-deploying for the harsh climate, as long as you can break through the storm, you can reach the ancient country hidden behind the stone gate.
In comparison, the changes in someone's family in Root City are not worth mentioning at all.
"Lao Xu, two portions of fried rice. Dad will be here soon."
The lively and energetic voice interrupted Jack's thoughts, but it also made the fear in his heart reach its peak.
The girl in a plain dress sat next to him and said something to the boss with a bright smile.
Strictly speaking, this is the first time Jack and the girl in the photo have met.
Now she has returned to the lively and lovely appearance in the photo, and is no longer in the state of being sealed in an isolation room, deformed beyond recognition, and crawling on the ground like a crab.
And it was not difficult to tell from the tone of her voice just now that her father, who died at the hands of the Skeleton Gang, seemed to have come back to life.
An ominous thought came to Jack's mind, and he finally understood where the familiar feeling when he came to the town came from.
As one of the top leaders of the fraternity, he needs to maintain long-term contact with biopharmaceutical companies. In addition to keeping track of the real-time progress of the research, he will occasionally look through the photos and identity information of the "volunteers" on a whim, but not all It would have left too deep an impact on him like the girl in the photo.
The remaining "volunteers" may be outsiders to the coalition government or locals.
Just like the people in the small town, even if they meet each other, they can only give him a superficial sense of familiarity.
However, there is no resurrection after death.
It is absolutely impossible for them to see those undead souls who have been dead for a long time.
unless……
He didn't actually survive the storm.
Oasis people have also discussed where people go after death.
Most local people believe in the God of Life and believe that when their lives come to an end, their souls and consciousness will return to the embrace of the God of Life, a place without pain and sorrow.
Jake Roman has always scoffed at this.
In his view, death is the end of everything, and soul and consciousness are just ways for people to seek solace.
The atmosphere in the store was still lively, and his arrival did not attract much attention. The sounds he heard were close at hand, but seemed out of reach, and everything became illusory in his eyes.
Jack heard a crackling sound, the sound of oil jumping on the fire.
The aroma of fried food penetrated into his nose, and everything they were experiencing at the moment seemed extremely real.
The village at night, and the villagers gathering together to chat after a busy day, is a warm scene from any angle.
But Jack's face was twisted with fear, and his instinct made him step back, wanting to leave this ominous place as soon as possible.
In panic, he stepped on the foot of the chair, lost his center of gravity and fell backwards.
The muffled sound he made finally made people's eyes stay on him. Jack looked at him one by one. There was no hatred or anger in people's eyes. They were calm and curious.
"Stay away from me, you evil spirits!"
Jack struggled to get up from the ground, pain becoming his only companion, and it seemed to be the only evidence that he was still alive at this moment.
The girl looked at Jack who suddenly lost his composure and collapsed with concern, and reached out her hand to help him up.
The friendly gesture was rebuffed, and Jack roughly slapped the girl's hand away.
"Go away, I don't belong here, I want to go back to the oasis!"
"Please rest assured, guest, you are not dead."
"Nothingness" said, "But you are right, you do not belong here. There is no place for you in this village."
The vibrations under his feet made Jack even more panicked. He tried to get up several times, but found that he was sinking deeper and deeper. There seemed to be some movement below that was dragging him, making it impossible for him to get up.
When half of his body was embedded in the ground, he finally saw the huge thing hidden underground.
That's the Death Crab.
But why are there death crabs lurking beneath the village?
His body, which had been transformed several times, was unable to resist the power of the Death Crab, and he could only watch as he sank deeper and deeper.
"It's been a long day... Mr. Jack Roman, you're the last one."
Before his head fell into the ground, Jack heard the boss muttering to himself, "Welcome to 'Udra-Nibulus'."
Thanks to book friend 20210301106568379252 for the 300 starting coins!
Small theater its two hundred and seventy-one:
Thursday, a certain day, a certain year, a certain month, in the morning
This was the longest vacation Lu Xiang had ever experienced. It was already past eleven o'clock, but she was still lying in bed, enjoying the warm afternoon sunshine.
The fragrance that spread from the living room to the bedroom was exciting. She stroked her increasingly bulging belly, feeling particularly comfortable.
Since she decided to raise a little silly bird, Song Lan has obviously become much more diligent. She even took the initiative to study nutrition books, and her daily meals are satisfactory.
She lay on the soft pillow, closing her eyes and imagining today's sumptuous lunch.
If you ignore laziness, you will find that this stupid bird actually has many advantages. She also hopes that her child can inherit Song Lan's mantle, so that she can also enjoy delicious food when Song Lan is not at home...
Thinking of this, Lu Xiang suddenly opened his eyes.
His expression also became tense.
In the last conversation, she hoped that the child would follow her, because she really didn't want to see a few heads lying on the sofa every time she came home from work. After spending a long time with Song Lan, Yelu had been Completely corrupted, the archbishop's former angel of death has now completely become an angel sitting at home.
But then, she had to face a serious problem.
What if...
What should she do if her child's cooking talent also fails?
