Following Levi into the "Lockheed S600" airship, a young man poked his head out of the driver's seat and said excitedly: "Finally I meet you, Pluto, my name is Fanzhi."
Dou Ming hummed indifferently.
He has met a lot of "admirers" recently, but he still can't figure out what these people are excited about. In his opinion, gangs are just a job. The only difference between him and the workers on the assembly line is that the workers work hard to make money, while he works hard.
"Dou Ming, be more enthusiastic," Levi lit a cigar and bit it in his mouth, "Well, this kid is from uptown."
Hearing the words "Shangcheng District", Dou Ming took a serious look at the young face in front of him.
Fanzhi has fair and flawless skin like a girl, well-trimmed hair, and wears a weird round-neck shirt. She really looks like she fits the characteristics of an uptown person.
"To be precise, it's the upper city area of Zhongjing," Fanzhi quickly added.
Dou Ming asked curiously: "What do you do?"
"In Uptown, I was a film director," Fanzhi leaned his upper body out from the edge of the seat and pulled his collar to reveal the tattoo on his neck. "Now I am a gunner in the Spade Zhongjing branch."
Looking at the "thorns and spades" tattoo, Dou Ming didn't know what to say.
Since the opening ceremony, many people from the upper city came to the lower city. Most of them went to school to become teachers or served in the New Order Joint Committee. He had seen several people, but he did not expect that there would be people from the upper city who would come to serve as the lowest level of the gang. gunman, especially a director.
He also didn’t understand how Fan Zhi knew him. In his understanding, “directing” was a mysterious and noble profession. For example, all the previous directors of “Hans and His Friends” came from the Activision family. The latest season The director is also a big figure around the Twin Gods.
However, he was more concerned about another thing than these problems.
Before he could ask, Levi next to him blew out a puff of smoke and raised his chin at Fanzhi: "Hey, buddy, do you know Tao Yiran?"
"I don't know, she is also from Shangcheng District? I can try to find out who she is..." Fanzhi raised his right hand and waved it twice in the air, suddenly showing embarrassment, "Sorry, before leaving Shangcheng District, I The retinal projector was withdrawn..."
"..."
Dou Ming suddenly lost interest and turned to look out the window.
Realizing that the "idol" was in a low mood, Fanzhi did not dare to ask further questions and huddled back in the driver's seat.
After a moment, the airship lifted straight into the sky, and other airships slowed down to give way.
This Lockheed S600 is also owned by Zhongjing Resources Company. It does not need to follow the guidance of the traffic control system and directly crosses several routes. After reaching the uppermost airspace, it changes direction and flies towards the west gate of the sky.
Levi smoked his cigar silently, and soon the cabin was filled with smoke, and the dim light from the ambient light became dim.
Dou Ming waved his hand to fan the smoke, and asked casually: "Where do you know me from?"
Fanzhi's voice immediately came from the driver's seat:
"At the end of last year, I started preparing a new script. I wanted to write a story that took place in the downtown area, so I participated in many discussion groups, but I couldn't write a satisfactory character. Until two months ago, I participated in a seminar with the theme of " "The ideological changes of people in Xiacheng District during the transitional era." Someone raised a point at that time. He believed that after the opening ceremony, there was no essential change in the organizational form of the gangs, indicating that the violent rule of the Twin Gods over Xiacheng District would not end in a short time. He also gave an example, which is a video. I saw you in that video. "
"What image?"
"The Spade Gunman bloodbathed a manor. When the bodies were being counted afterwards, you walked into the front garden alone and took an apple from the table to eat..."
Hearing this, Levi suddenly choked on the cigarette, then hummed and laughed: "Fk, I've always been curious about why *** hasn't been poisoned to death yet."
Dou Ming smiled and scratched his head.
Others had also mentioned this to him, thinking it was some kind of ritual. In fact, the reason behind it was ridiculous - every time he killed someone, he always felt hungry for no reason, and he could only restrain himself by chewing heavily.
To ease the awkwardness, he changed the topic and asked, "What's it like living uptown?"
"There are five cities in Shangcheng District. Each city gives people a different feeling..."
Next, Fan Zhi vividly recounted the growth experience of an ordinary uptown person like a migratory bird.
Dou Ming listened silently, trying his best to imagine Tao Yiran's future life. He once imagined that he would appear in those scenes, but he felt out of place.
The airship passed through the west gate of the sky, flew close to the sea at high speed, and finally landed two hours later.
Walking out of the hatch, Dou Ming was a little disappointed. What Levi meant by "going to Zhenjie Fort to see the world" did not mean actually entering Zhenjie Fort, but looking out hundreds of kilometers away.
The place where they landed was a huge artificial floating island. The island was filled with containers, all spray-painted with the logo of "Zhongjing Resources". Various heavy lifting equipment were set up around it, and large and small transport spaceships were constantly rising and landing on various parking platforms. .
There are four transfer yards like this around. Judging from the holographic logos projected in mid-air, they belong to the other four newly established Xi'an subsidiaries, "Fuji Jiaqi Industrial", "United Gulf Coast", and "Metahumanity" Technology", "Activision Trading".
Standing on the edge of the berthing platform, the three of them looked around and saw several rays of starlight in the night sky from all directions into the far end of the sea, and even one ray seemed to be winding from the high-hanging moon.
When a transport ship slowly lifted off from a nearby platform, amidst the strong wind and roar, Dou Ming finally realized that every twinkling star was a huge spaceship.
He was deeply shocked by this scene and his mind went blank.
Fanzhi looked at his side face and suddenly said: "Mr. Pluto, if my guess is correct, Tao Yiran should be a girl, right?"
Dou Ming was stunned for a moment and nodded.
"Can you tell me your story?"
"Why?"
"Because I just saw a character arc in you."
"What is arc light?"
"Everyone will experience some dramatic moments, which are fleeting but life-changing. Maybe you didn't realize it at the time, and it wasn't until many years later that you realized how important those moments were," Fanzhi said quietly, looking up at the night sky.
"Can't understand."
"I don't even understand this. What he means is to fuck Tao Yiran," Levi bit his cigar and gestured around, "Look at this place, it won't be long before we become big shots covering the sky with one hand. .”
"Oh," Dou Ming nodded absently and pointed to the horizon at the end of his field of vision and asked, "You said the spaceship transported things into Zhenjie Fort and then where did it go?"
——————————
"Starting from tomorrow, a large amount of armaments and supplies will be secretly transported here as a strategic reserve."
In the center of the Chawu Realm, on the beach of the isolated island, Mizuno leaned forward and said.
"Oh, we have to fight again."
Messi sighed, held his waist and raised his eyes to look into the distance.
At the end of the field of vision, the three teleportation gates standing in the ocean have taken shape. The bases are majestic and towering, like miracles. Even though they are thousands of miles apart, they still look very oppressive.
Since they must rely on the monkey Zhizhi to lead the way to resist the influence of the black fog, the transport fleets from Yodel civilization and human civilization can only enter and exit the Black Mist Realm at fixed times. They have just arrived and are unloading goods one after another. Dozens of giant transport ships are The ship hovers around the construction site, taking up almost half the sky.
"This is Mr. Li Liang's decision," Mizuno said carefully. "Once Emperor Terranza dies, the two princes will not only compete for the throne, but also the actual control of the alliance. If we stand by and watch, no matter who succeeds in the end, We are all in a very dangerous situation."
"Alas," Massey sighed again.
This time I followed the transport fleet to the Mist Realm, just to see Zhizhi. Unexpectedly, just after passing through the black mist and arriving at this mysterious sea, Mizuno suddenly sent a message that her spaceship set off a step late and failed to catch up with the transport fleet. Zhizhi had no choice but to go out and bring her in again.
It wasn't until they met at the beach that he realized that Mizuno had made a special trip to
He came here to deliver a top-secret message, which contained only one sentence: "The change in Terranza Palace is imminent. Immediately assemble the main force of the Outland Army, use the fleet to support Zar as a cover, secretly march into the Dark Spirit Tide, and assist Zar's advance army. They will be put under Bolsh's command."
This order from Li Liang undoubtedly indicates that the peaceful days are coming to an end...
As soon as his thoughts changed, the old man smiled and said, "Thank you for your hard work, Mizuno, for even making a special trip."
"You have ordered me to tell you all the news about Mr. Li Liang as soon as possible," Mizuno said with a sweet smile, "But the main reason I came here this time is to relax with you."
"Ha, yes, I'm just here for a trip," Messi pulled on his flashy tank top and beach shorts, "How are they? Do they look good?"
Mizuno looked serious: "It's cute."
At this time, Kujo Yui emerged from the simple shack in the distance, waved and shouted: "Mr. Massey, pack it up~"
"Zhi Zhi~" The monkey Zhi Zhi stood on her shoulder and danced.
Messi smiled and said, "Come on, let's go see Li Liang's holiday cabin. I heard he built it himself."
"ちょっとって," Mizuno lifted up her skirt and kicked off her high heels.
Then the two of them walked slowly towards the shack with their bare feet on the sand.
"What have you been busy with lately?" Mesai asked casually.
"Eh? I'm dealing with the daily business of some gangs," Mizuno raised his wrist and touched the bracelet. A small holographic interface popped up, showing the task progress list.
Messi leaned over and flipped the page, and found that there were more than forty work goals for yesterday's day alone, and Mizuno had only completed about one-third, and the rest were marked "unfinished."
The old man wondered: "What is going on?"
"Li Ru felt that the operation efficiency of Xiacheng District was low, so he applied to No. 0 to include all civil servants in Xiacheng District into the overall planning system, including me."
"Will your salary be deducted if you fail to complete the task?"
Mizuno showed an aggrieved expression: "Yes."
"Ha ha ha ha……"
Arriving at the shack, Messi stood in front of the door with his hands behind his back, looking at the words carved on the door with emotion on his face, as if he thought of Li Liang's loneliness and despair when he was trapped here.
However, the old man took a deep breath and said, "The handwriting is really ugly."
"Li Liang... came here for a visit," Mizuno read the words on the door panel, covered his mouth and chuckled.
Zhizhi jumped off Kujo Yui's shoulder, stood in front of the door and pointed at his chest, then with a serious look on his face, he put two fingers of his right hand together and pointed forward twice.
"It said it was Li Liang," Massey translated for the two girls.
"Zhizhi," the monkey began to take off his clothes, then looked left and right with his hands on his hips, and occasionally shook his butt from side to side to show off his male characteristics.
"..."
Phew~
Mizuno suppressed a smile, lowered his head and couldn't bear to look directly.
"Ahem, um, I'm going to go for a while, which way to go, oh, this way," Messi took three steps at a time and slipped into the jungle.
"Zhi Zhi, Zhi Zhi, Zhi Zhi~~"
The monkey continues to show off his power.
"Mizuno かっか," Kujo Yui bowed, "ここで书定みです的で、しばらく出れてbedを Applyく木的叶を意させていただき多す." (Mr. Massey is here tonight Rest here, please allow me to leave temporarily and prepare some leaves for bed)
"わかった." (I got it)
After watching Kujo leave, Mizuno turned around and saw that the monkey had finished his performance and was sitting on the sand, holding a "Hermes Dream" and munching it wildly.
She approached gently, knelt down and sat aside, sizing up this mysterious creature.
Under the sun, Zhizhi was furry all over, and the fur on his head was still mixed with some grains of sand. He was chewing the fruit pulp with an intoxicated look on his face. He noticed her gaze and picked up another fruit from the side and handed it over.
"Thank you," Mizuno caught it with both hands and took a bite.
He found that her expression remained unchanged, Zhizhi had a dull look on her face, and she suddenly pushed the fruit away.
Zi grabbed it and took a big bite, then the facial features were squeezed together and saliva squirted wildly.
"Zhizhi~zhizhi~zhi..."
"It's really sour," Mizuno smiled.
"Zhizhi~zhizhi..."
After a few minutes, Zhizhi finally had enough scolding and turned away angrily.
Looking at its small back, Mizuno said softly: "Even during the time when I was the head brother of Yakuza, I personally took care of the business of Ichiban Street and trained countless girls, I still felt that the commission of meat was a It was a cruel thing. Kujo Yui, who grew up in such an environment, should have been like other girls at the bottom of the Fuji, greedy, lazy, and full of lies. But since she came to Mr. Massey, she seemed to have become a different person. .”
Zhizhi didn't seem to hear it and just played with the sand as if nothing had happened.
"My people have been secretly monitoring her every move, but found nothing unusual. Three months ago, I seconded a priest from the Scholomance College and set up a trap to make her believe that someone was going to assassinate Mr. Massey. The priest said "There was a moment when I felt the power of the cunning god in her." Mizuno lowered his gaze, "So, you transformed Kujo Yui, right?"
The surroundings suddenly became silent.
Shui Ye's head jumped and he looked up.
At some point, Zhizhi turned around, crossed his arms, tilted his head, and looked at her with interest.
"Why did you choose Kujo Yui?"
"What is the purpose?"
"Does Mr. Li Liang know about this?"
Faced with repeated questions, Monkey's expression did not change at all, and he still had a playful smile on his face.
"There are two more things..." Mizuno's eyes burned, "What exactly is that highly contagious abnormal sense of smell? According to Zero's calculations, at least 60% of the population is currently infected. Those of us around Li Liang There are no exceptions for people.”
"Where does the mysterious cave in Mexico City lead to? It is called the Bridge of Time in the Natural Sect's classics. Does it have anything to do with the Time Observer?"
After hearing these two questions, the monkey's expression finally changed. It held its chin with both hands, frowned and flattened its mouth, looking sad.
"You don't even know," Mizuno lowered his head and murmured, "...I've always had a bad feeling lately."
Suddenly, Mesai's voice came from the jungle: "Wow... this place is so magical. No matter where you go, you can walk back to the beach."
Mizuno hurriedly put on a smile and stood up. From the corner of his eye, he saw Zhizhi lying on his back, sleeping unconsciously. It seemed that everything that had just happened was just an illusion.
——————————
Baja Mexico, "Room One" base.
"Potter."
"Why."
"Here you come, potter."
"Well, let's take a look."
"Good evening, Mr. Tao."
"Hey, good evening."
Tao Chong walked along the wide passage to the depths of the base. It was time to get off work. Along the way, the engineers walking out greeted him warmly, and he responded to them all with a smile on his face.
After passing through three identity verification gates and entering the core area, the passage finally became quiet.
He stopped and looked around.
This secret base, codenamed "Room 1," was built specifically to protect the mysterious cave. Its internal space is even larger than the large warehouses in the western mines.
It is equipped with Xi'an's most advanced detection equipment, and a scientific research team of forty people is stationed here. In addition, he and Yao Zhengping, two "consultants" from the Natural Sect, have been working hard to figure out the internal situation of the mysterious cave for half a year. , but still found nothing.
Several times he thought he had found a breakthrough in the classics, but he was only disappointed every time.
Dragging his tired pace, Tao Chong walked down slowly. The original soil slope was repaired and turned into steps, which made it easier to walk. He climbed down the steps and soon came to the cave.
Only then did he realize that there was a person sitting in the shed set up next to the cave.
"Old Yao
? You haven't left yet? "
Every time he saw Yao Zhengping, Tao Chong felt awkward. After all, he was the one who "betrayed" the leader in the first place.
"Well," the lights were not turned on in the shed, and Yao Zhengping stared at the cave not far away with no expression on his face.
Tao Chong was a little at a loss and didn't know what to talk about next.
Fortunately, Yao Zhengping spoke up and eased the embarrassment: "How is that believer?"
"Oh, alas, there is nothing valuable. It is still the motto of the Holy Son. The people sent by Sonoya did not understand it and thought it was new information." Tao Chong shook his head, "So I stayed for a day and came back, but I already told the believer, If you think of anything again, come to the base and find us."
"Um...is your daughter back?"
"No, it was supposed to be a two-month summer vacation, but she was selected to join the training unit, but she didn't come back. Yesterday she said she would come back. I couldn't contact her this morning, so I called the school, and the instructor there said she couldn't come back. Yes, the reason is kept secret.”
"Ho ho," Yao Zhengping sneered, "It's probably going to be a war."
"No way, the opening ceremony only ended a few months ago, who are you fighting with?"
"Do you still remember Via's last words before committing suicide? The Creator will announce the final judgment to the entire world. All sinners will live in despair and illness worse than death, and loyal believers will be reborn in the eternal land..."
[In view of the general environment,
"Here we go again..." Tao Chong shook his head, "Old Yao, that's enough. You said it yourself. This kind of doomsday prophecy has long been out of the public eye. No one believes it. Li Liang also knows Wea's last words. Do you think he believes it? , how can you know more than him?"
"Ho ho, just watch..."
"Ten thousand steps back, even if something happens..." Tao Chong took a few hard breaths, "It's never my daughter's turn to go to the battlefield. She has inspiration, and she is a student of the Scholomance Academy."
"That's so naive. From the day you sent her to Zhenjie Fort, her identity was that of a soldier."
"No!" Tao Chong suddenly stood up, then sat down slowly, murmuring, "No, I can't let her go..."
Standing up again, he woke up his bracelet and dialed a number, put on his headphones, and said after a moment:
"Mr. Lawrence, excuse me, I would like to trouble you to help me ask where my daughter is now...Lawrence, you must tell me, otherwise I will fucking stop...Whoever you want to find...if you I can’t answer. I’m looking for Sonoya, I’m looking for K, I’m looking for Mr. Li Liang... Yes, I’m crazy, you can figure it out!”
After hanging up the communication, Tao Chong gasped for air, his voice sounding like a broken bellows.
Even Lawrence kept the real reason for his daughter's loss of contact secret. Maybe it was as Yao Zhengping said... war is coming.
After staying in the base for such a long time, the coordination system in the bracelet reminded him of the mission goals countless times every day, but the research progress was almost zero. The invisible pressure already made him overwhelmed. His daughter's safety was like the straw that broke the camel's back. .
Tao Chong sat there in despair, never waiting for Lawrence's call back. When he came to his senses, he was the only one left in the shed, and Yao Zhengping had left at some point.
Swallowing, he slowly walked to the entrance of the cave, stretched out his hand, and touched the darkness that seemed to be substantial.
A thought flashed through my mind like lightning——
If I walk in and come out immediately, even if I only see something insignificant, Lawrence will have to inform Sonoya and even Li Liang of this news. Then, when the time comes, I can say that I am not feeling well and want to My daughter asked for leave to accompany me...
The more Tao Chong thought about it, the more he felt that this was an excellent opportunity. Those who were sent in before could not come out alive, but he was different. He was a believer in the Natural Sect, and this cave was the promised land mentioned by the Son. He wanted to come and go in. It'll be fine soon.
Thinking of this, he happily ran to the warehouse and brought a set of bulky protective clothing.
This engineering prototype is the latest research result of the base's scientific research team. Its protective performance exceeds that of military-grade aviation extravehicular suits, and it has been specifically improved based on the currently monitored environment inside the cave.
Someone gave a detailed introduction at the last meeting. Tao Chong was deeply impressed. He quickly finished putting on the protective clothing and started the offline system of the protective clothing.
Walking step by step to the entrance of the cave, he suddenly remembered something, staggered back to the shed, picked up a pencil from the table, and wrote on the whiteboard:
"I'll go into the cave to investigate, don't worry, Tao Chong, 3028/10/17, 20:35."
Putting down his pen, Tao Chong returned to the entrance of the cave, looked back, and took a deep breath.
Then, take one step forward.
