Sister Gu, are we here? ”

A light slowly flickered in the darkness.

A voice replied, "Soon." When you get there, you'll have something to eat. ”

The vast and desolate land, the bones everywhere, the threat of death that can lurk everywhere...... On the vast land, young and old, regardless of gender, are exhausted.

The sound of running water rings in my ears. Little by little, the sea rushed over his body and drowned him. He neither cried for help nor struggled, his body sank and sank towards the pale blue light that lit up at the bottom of the sea.

There were not even churning waves in this sea, it was dead and silent, without any waves.

His feet gradually stepped on a soft, soft sand, which should not have the damp texture of the gravel of the seabed. Soft and soft, yet sticky. When he lowered his head, he was confronted by a rotting face peeking out of the sand.

The face was long gone, flesh and bones were bare, and a pair of eyelids were open forever, as if looking at him with a little anger.

In an instant, the sea finally revealed its furious nature, and the water swelled up, overturning him at the bottom of the sea. He tried to swim towards the surface, but the increasingly eager and powerful waves continued to slam him to the bottom of the ocean.

The sand was lifted and wrapped around his body. In the sand, many hands climbed up his legs. The hands were cold and stiff as if they came from a dead man.

Whose nails were sharp, cut through his skin. His body sank deeper and deeper into the quicksand at the bottom of the sea, and was eventually swallowed up by all of it.

Then he woke up in a cold sweat.

The shimmering light of the data stream shone on the boy's face, and melodious and gentle jazz music played in the laboratory. Coming from a style of music from a hundred years ago, the female voice is loose and free, and such music has almost disappeared from the city. It was clearly the most relaxing music, but for some reason it gave him a terrible nightmare.

He rubbed his eyes and put on his glasses. Juri turned up the music softly, "You're awake." ”

"What time is it?"

"7:13 a.m. Central Time."

The boy got up and walked out, "You get on with what you're doing, and we'll work on the data flow group when I get back." ”

"Okay."

He climbed the ladder back to the room. Outside the floor-to-ceiling windows, the sun shines brightly and the sea of clouds churns. He took his glasses off and tucked them back into his pocket, re-illuminating the headphones that had been tucked into his ears. He grabbed his backpack and flying skateboard from the shelf and pressed his hand to the heavy iron doorknob where he was out.

The gentle AI female voice sounded again, "Reviewing the outing pass, good morning 6237." Your work will start in 43 minutes. The weather is nice today, the wind is a little strong, remember to put on your coat. At 5:00 p.m., there will be a lecture by volunteers from the committee in the 3rd and 9th tunnels, so if you are interested, you can go and listen to it. ”

The boy ignored what the AI said and reached out and pushed the door open.

Light poured into the room for a moment. The honeycomb-structured city was revealed to the boy in a flash.

It is a cocoon-like city floating above the clouds, with layers of streets and rooms radiating outward, ringing in circles and stacking on top of each other to form the periphery of a central cone-shaped area. The central part is densely packed like a spider's web from top to bottom, and the synthetic glass is flickering with various promotional slogans and advertisements.

The most striking of these is nothing more than the recurring red letters

"Digital is the belief of everything, and technology is the truth of our lives."

Others such as "Prosthetic Manufacturing, Listening to the Secrets of Evolution in the New Century", "Suzaku System, Your Intimate AI Butler", ...... The colorful characters flickered and flowed like prey in a spider's web, flashing and flowing as the aircraft passed through the tracks, following the traffic.

The boy put on his hood, activated the switch on the flying skateboard, threw it to the ground, watched it hang in the air, and was about to step forward, when suddenly someone grabbed his sleeve from behind.

“6237。”

It's a girl. The boy looked back at her helplessly. 4749 wears her white coveralls as always, her long blonde hair curly in a neat back of her head. She had turquoise eyes, pale skin, and a tall, plump figure, and was of German descent according to the race of the old civilization.

She took out the earphones embedded in her ears and forced them to turn off before she spoke to the teenager, "Did you hear the voice message I sent you?" ”

"I hear you."

"Why don't you message me back?"

"I'm busy." He looked at his boots. The flying skateboard floats in the air, and the high-speed rotating fins make a "buzzing" sound.

4749 was a little displeased: "I'm concerned about you. You can't lock yourself in your room all day and do nothing. Are you really ...... Do you really want to be delegated to the border? ”

"At least for now, I'm not going to let the points go down to that level. I don't want to leave this cottage just yet. ”

"It shouldn't be the hut that keeps you, it's the collective and your work." 4749 approached him and lowered his voice, "Those data storage devices you brought back from the ground messed up your brain. Those 'mobile phones', 'computers', and 'hard drives' were all playthings used to pass the time and pastime in the old civilization, and they were all things that did not conform to scientific principles, which were ridiculous and ridiculous. I really don't understand, how do you toss around those things all day long? ”

"We used to come from the ground, and our ancestors used to spend their days with those playthings, and they used to live well."

"Not bad, isn't it? Do you want to go to the ground? ”

"What's wrong with the ground?"

4749's voice rose slightly, becoming more shrill, "There is only garbage rebuilt from the ruins!" That group of people traded with us by killing to get prosthetics. These are no longer pure people, and their viciousness is unimaginable. ”

She seemed to see the impatience between the young man's eyebrows, and looked at him very incomprehensibly, "6237, why do you always want to go to the ground?" Isn't that enough for you? If it weren't for my brother, you would have died on the way back. If you really like it, don't come back in the first place. You know, you know there's life here that's perfect and irreplaceable, but look at what you're doing now? ”

"Is it perfect?" He took off his hood and sneered with a bit of disappointment in his eyes, "Everyone is just a string of small numbers, and you call this perfect?" ”

"Are the names from those old civilization stories you're obsessed with? Names are nothing more than tools for them to maintain their patriarchal authority. No name is liberating for all newborns, and no parent allows us to be freer than anyone else. ”

6237 is crazy at times and it makes 4749 feel incredible, how can anyone live in heaven but long to go back to hell? This is unreasonable, it shouldn't have happened, and if it weren't for the fact that the three of them had grown up together all this time, she would never have wasted so much tongue to come here to dissuade him.

"You still miss those authoritative identities that you can have without studying or being assessed. The Commission has long since revealed the shortcomings of this ignorant tradition that has stifled development and that the mistakes of one generation have been passed on to the next. ”

4749 attempts to make eye contact with 6237, but the boy turns his face to the side, staring indifferently at the intricate passages and the flying machines that are constantly moving into them. She was born before him, and she watched him grow into what he is today. Obviously, he was the smartest of them all, and he showed a different talent in technology as early as his early education.

However, an accident has kept him obsessed with the stupidest things all these years. 4749 thought that maybe she should have stopped her brother's madness, she shouldn't have let her brother take 6237 to the ground. Not only did that adventure cost 6247 his life, but after he returned, he didn't even pass the first-class exam.

Originally, he was supposed to live in a comfortable, spacious, and bright Grade A area on the upper floor, using the most advanced electronic equipment, designing new energy products, updating the high-tech equipment needed by the Federation, writing one beautiful and logical code after another under the first rule, creating more intelligent AI programs, and creating a home assistant greater than Suzaku. His casual words may be praised by others, and the data he writes down will be copied.

He doesn't have to work hard, his points grow exponentially, and he can stay in this paradise without any worries no matter what he does.

Instead of living in a nest that couldn't be smaller, using old equipment, earning pitiful points by putting together prosthetics in factories all day long, and getting paid for daily hard work may even seem like a luxury to go to the store to buy a glass of honey water.

"Everybody has numbers, everybody has their own role to play – we're luckier than too many people in the sky." Her voice trembled slightly because of enthusiasm and faith, and she repeated to him with great sincerity a truth that everyone in this world believes in, "Numbers are all beliefs, and technology is the truth of our lives." ”

"As for the rest, it's just the ideological garbage born of overcapacity," she said. Why can't you understand it? 6237, how can you be willing to degenerate into what you are now? ”

6237 pulled her arm out of her palm, "Since you have no doubt about this, have you ever thought about one thing, in this world, this world built on 'numbers' and 'technology', no one has brothers and sisters. ”

"What are you talking about? All of us are brothers and sisters. ”

"Yes, all of us are brothers and sisters, but only you and 724 are the real 'brothers and sisters'." After he said this, he saw that 4749's face showed anger, "How can you say such a thing to me?!" I just get along with 724 like all my brothers and sisters! We are not related by blood. ”

"Say whatever you want. I'm going to the factory. If you are really so worried about your points and future life, stay away from me, and the province will eventually be affected by me. The boy finished speaking, stepped on his skateboard, jumped towards the edge, and disappeared between the layers of intricate tracks in an instant.

4749 looked angrily at his departing back and turned the headphones back on, "Dial 6237." ”

The AI female voice responded, "I'm sorry, 6237 refused to answer. Do you have a voicemail? ”

Select Message. 6237, the committee is about to start a new selection period. You'd better go and listen to the sermon in the afternoon. Do you want to spend your whole life assembling prostheses in a factory? ”

When the teenager received the voice message from 4749, he had already clocked in and entered the assembly line.

The vast factory is snow-white. The crystallized organs are transported forward on an assembly line. Different types of limbs, arms, thighs, feet...... As well as facial features to separate each part. Factory employees in dark cyan jumpsuits slowly converge into a dark blue river in the white workshop.

Each one has a number on the back that represents their name. They have different skin tones, different heights, different ages. The digital time is projected on the walls of the factory, and it is 7:57 at the moment. Workers are heading to their jobs after receiving their tools.

As 4749 says, everyone has a number, and everyone has their own role in their position.

6237 looked in both directions.

Everyone had a blank and bored smile on their face - they lived happily ever after that.