After Zhou Jinru left the Timos Manor, he headed north and found the temporary settlement arranged by Russell, which was full of people.
"Ah Guang! Ah Guang!"
In the noisy crowd, someone shouted his name loudly.
As soon as Zhou Jinru parked his bicycle at the door, he was dragged in.
"Aguang?"
This is a well-proportioned young man, thirty to forty years old, wearing gray short-sleeves and with strong arms.
"it's me."
The young man pointed at a woman in the crowd: "Carter told me about you, she interviewed you."
Zhou Jinru suddenly realized that he had met an acquaintance and asked, "Mr. Rogers?"
"Well, do you want to eat something? It will be very cold after the rain."
"No need for now, I drank some wine and don't feel cold."
Rogers patted Zhou Jinru on the shoulder: "Drinking to keep warm is all fake, take it."
He put an energy bar into Zhou Jinru's hand and waved to his wife, indicating that he had found someone.
"It's nice to see you again."
Carter looked excited, introducing her husband: "I told you he was a defender, and you never believed it."
Rogers was doubtful about Carter's description. Now that the client was standing in front of him, he felt tempted.
"I can only believe half of what Carter says. No offense, but the Defenders have been gone for centuries."
Faced with Rogers' doubts, Zhou Jinru agreed very much. If someone told him that you were descended from the stars, he would just think that the person was ill.
"To be honest, I had never heard of the existence of the Defenders before today. I know that there is Taiyue, the Ender, and the Terrans who resist, but I don't know about the Defenders."
Rogers agreed: "I feel the same way as you do."
Carter did not refute, but took a deep look at Zhou Jinru and asked, "I never thought you could come back intact after driving towards that monster. What do you want to do? Is there anything we can do to help you?"
Zhou Jinru smiled bitterly. Mrs. Rogers did not say anything, but she still regarded herself as a defender in her heart. Moreover, in Carter's eyes, his denial turned into hiding his identity in order to perform the mission.
What's this?
Zhou Jinru thinks this is a beautiful misunderstanding, and he doesn't plan to solve it yet. He still has some things to investigate, such as how to end the dream.
"I have some special means. The monster that caused the city fire has been solved."
The fire was extinguished by a heavy rain, which did not stop and was still pouring rainwater on the ground.
Zhou Jinru couldn't explain that when he entered the dreamland again, his body was refreshed to the way it was when he first came in. Even the clothes on his body were the same, except that the original clothes had been thrown away in Dimos Manor.
"Mr. Rogers, do you know that there is chaos happening on the Avenue of Glory right now?"
To be precise, the Colombian Guard has already entered the city, and it is only a matter of time before they find this place.
Zhou Jinru's words did not cause much reaction from Rogers: "Mr. Aguang, I am not a show leader, and the chaos on Brilliant Avenue is just a gang fight, not worth mentioning."
Gang fight?
Carter also said it wasn't a big deal.
Zhou Jinru was shocked. What he saw was clearly the flag of the Guard. Why did it turn into a gang fight in the eyes of the two of them?
"Both of them are not locals. They have only heard about the man-made disaster that made people in the Rust Belt heartbroken, so they regard the Guard as a strange gang."
Zhou Jinru took two steps on the spot and suddenly grabbed Rogers' wrist: "Mr. Rogers, are you interested in coming with me?"
"What do you want to do?"
Rogers was reluctant to go. After all, the man in front of him also destroyed his car. If not for Carter's strong request, he would not pay any attention to him.
"Some things need to be seen with one's own eyes. I always feel that something is not right tonight. Mr. Rogers, regarding your losses, I will compensate you according to the price, every penny."
This is just a polite statement, because all the losses in the dream will be a vague memory after waking up from the dream.
But Rogers was instigated by his wife Carter, and of course he couldn't refuse the compensation. After all, it was his own loss.
"Okay, where are you going?"
Zhou Jinru said calmly: "The control room of Brilliant Avenue."
Rogers glanced at his wife and asked confused: "What are you doing there?"
If it's really a nightmare outside, then the control room is where it all begins.
"I bet there's a show going on there."
"I also need to go!"
Carter raised his hand, and the two men refused at the same time: "You are not allowed to go!"
The atmosphere was awkward for a moment. Zhou Jinru took a step back and tried to explain: "I mean there may be danger there. Really, I believe in Rogers' ability, but..."
Carter immediately raised his eyebrows and lashed out: "You are a typical male chauvinist. It is already the tenth century. Women learn knowledge and practice self-defense, not to hide behind men, and I am... I am What?"
At this point, Carter's face showed a puzzled look. He had something to say but couldn't say it. He vaguely felt that he had forgotten something.
"Carter, you stay here and take care of the children whose parents are away. Mr. Aguang and I went to the Brilliant Avenue control room. He seems to be very confident in his ideas."
After Rogers gave his instructions, he and Zhou Jinru left the resettlement site and turned back despite the heavy rain.
When they reached the halfway point, they ran into citizens fleeing back from Brilliant Avenue and almost knocked down their bicycles.
"What happened there? Why are there so many civilians?"
Zhou Jinru looked at Rogers, who looked puzzled, and explained: "I said, there are Colombian guards there, and they are entering the city."
"That's impossible. There's no reason for the Guard to come to Saint-Jacques at this time, and in the middle of the night."
Rogers' resolute attitude aroused a hint of suspicion in Zhou Jinru's heart. According to Ceria, they came to settle in Saint-Aral a few years ago, and they are all retired military officers from Colombia. 58 reading
In the dream, Carter's identity became a reporter. Rogers' occupation was not yet clear to Zhou Jinru.
"When we get to the control room, we may find something else."
When Zhou Jinru said these words, Rogers looked at him with a slight change in his eyes, as if he was recalling something from the past.
Another kilometer further, they saw the first group of guards. Those people were wearing uniforms and holding weapons. They kept moving forward and automatically ignored Zhou Jinru and Rogers.
"Really the Guard?!"
Rogers frowned and stared at the uniforms of the guards, trying to find the answer on them.
"I said……"
As soon as Zhou Jinru opened his mouth, there was a sudden burst of white light in front of his eyes. He closed his eyes subconsciously, rolled sideways from the bicycle to the ground, and protected his face with his hands.
A huge force hit his arm, causing severe pain. Zhou Jinru gritted his teeth. After rolling several times on the spot, he stood upright. What came into view was several guards attacking him like crazy.
"No emotional source, they have no emotional source!"
Zhou Jinru roared in his heart, these people in front of him were just puppets in a dream, they had no bodies in the real world.
Quickly taking off the shield hanging on the horizontal bar of the bicycle, Zhou Jinru only had time to raise his hand to block the oncoming knife, and used the force to retreat continuously.
Rogers next to him had also reacted. Although he didn't know why the guard suddenly attacked Zhou Jinru, he still picked up a weapon for self-defense. Just when he was considering whether to help Zhou Jinru or wait and see, a member of the guard raised his weapon and rushed towards him. Come over.
ah!
Rogers' eyes widened, he held the knife that was coming at him, his face was frightened and angry, he immediately kicked the enemy over, his mind was full of confusion.
How could this happen? Who are they? !
The uniforms worn by the guards were obviously not from this era. Rogers felt as if he had seen something similar somewhere before and blurted out: "They are not from this era!"
Zhou Jinru gritted his teeth and used the rigid shield to get slashed several times. In exchange, he grabbed a standard long knife from one of the enemies.
"Of course they are not from this era!"
Zhou Jinru roared, and the blade of the blade cut through the rain curtain. Without stopping, his body floated between several enemies, like a dancing butterfly. The blade pierced the flesh. In the blink of an eye, three people fell down, and the blood around them was stained red. of water.
Rogers easily defeated the enemy in front of him, and the team was easily cleaned up by them. The two stood in the rain, looking at each other warily.
"Who are you?"
"A desperate man."
Zhou Jinru said casually, helped up the bicycle, hung up the shield again, and prepared to move forward.
Is he really a defender? It doesn't look like it at all, and the Defenders only appear in legends, and all of them were sacrificed in the battle with the Terminators.
Rogers wiped his face, got on his bicycle, and followed silently.
Zhou Jinru was walking in front, but he had been observing Rogers behind him with his talent. He found that this man was wavering. He was doubting and guessing. Uncertainty occupied his heart.
In order to avoid the guards who entered the city, Zhou Jinru and Rogers chose to proceed from the path, all the way to the control room of Brilliant Avenue. Fortunately, they did not encounter any more enemies on the path.
Zhou Jinru let out a long breath and was already standing in front of the door. He just had to open the door and take a look. He remembered that there was a relevant description in the city museum:
The day the Guard arrived at Saint-Aral, the city's citizens compromised and allowed them to destroy the control room.
Now it has been confirmed by Rogers that these guards are not from this era. In other words, the people or things appearing in the dream have undergone certain changes, such as the scene of Guan Gong fighting Qin Qiong in the chaotic era.
"I'm warning you, if you're going to do anything illegal, I'm going to stop you."
Faced with Rogers' threat, Zhou Jinru ignored it, threw his bicycle on the side of the road, and walked towards the underground passage leading to the control room.
"What is the origin of nightmares? When everything is irreversible? When all efforts are shattered? None. It is when you clearly have the ability to save everything, but choose to give up and choose another path of no return. The pain, regret, and self-blame, It’s enough to destroy a person’s spirit.”
Zhou Jinru recited these words silently, walked into the dark basement, turned the flashlight on his chest, and cast a weak light into the darkness.
No matter how hard it rained outside, it didn't affect this place. On the road leading to the control room, there was dry, vaguely flowing air. Zhou Jinru walked in front, and Rogers followed behind. It took the two of them a few minutes to reach the end of the road. At the end, you stand in front of a locked door.
"Do you have any idea?"
Zhou Jinru asked.
Rogers' face was hidden in the darkness, and he shook his head slightly: "I have no idea. This is my first time here."
"I trust you."
Zhou Jinru faced the door and turned his back to the exit. Suddenly, countless lights shone in, illuminating the dark environment.
The doctor from Rhode Island turned around and came face to face with Rogers, who looked complicated. He smiled and said, "Do you remember?"
"Well, how did you know?"
Zhou Jinru sighed: "A normal Colombian would not choose to settle in the Rust Belt, and it is still in Sant Jaral. When I came in from Tenant State, there was a hundred miles of no-man's land outside. I saw a few silly roe deer at most, but Everyone with some ability is fleeing the rust belt, and you and Carter are both retired military officers. You are not afraid of hardships and dangers. When you come here, I wonder if you two have anything to do with this place. To be honest, I admit that there is. It was a gamble, and now it seems that I won.”
"My grandfather was involved in destroying this control room. I heard him talk about it before. He was there."
Zhou Jinru looked over and saw that among the hundreds of guards surrounding them, it was impossible to tell who was who. They were shouting warnings to them, asking them to leave quickly.
"I'm lucky. If it weren't for a Colombian like you, who has a well-established talent here, they would have already taken action."
Rogers smiled bitterly and shook his head, turned around, faced the bright light shining on him, and said softly: "This is the beginning of suffering. Believe me, this is by no means the source of suffering, because the source is us."
He raised the knife in his hand and rushed towards the guard.
In an instant, the light of the sword drifted away, like falling snow, and like water slurry bursting out of a silver vase!
"So strong!"
Zhou Jinru exclaimed in amazement. He didn't expect Rogers' sword skills to be so strong. He could kill hundreds of guardsmen with one sword and move them back.
He stood there without moving, watching all this happen.
The St. Aral people gave up resistance at the beginning, so even if they fight head-on now, they are still defeated miserably in front of the guards.
When the Guards destroyed the control room, even Superman standing here now, the control room was not spared.
"Rogers, you are the person I brought here. You are definitely not a variable. What is a variable?"
At this moment, there was a clicking sound of unlocking in his ears, and Zhou Jinru's body froze because the door of the control room behind him opened.
