Chapter 43 While the Investigation is in Progress
"Okay, now that we're done, let's start the investigation. Pen %Fun %Pavilion www.biquge.info"
After saying this, the alien went into action again, he picked up the camera equipment, looked around, and he chose a direction and started to move forward. As he moved forward, he spoke, "I mentioned earlier that the number of unemployed and beggars on the space station has suddenly increased a lot over a period of time, and as for why, I don't know the specific reason yet. After a pause, he continued, "However, I got information from a certain source about a settlement of unemployed people, and asked me to try to see if I could blend in with them. ”
After walking for a long time, he returned to the "bustling" street before, and now the place has returned to the way it was when Zhou Xin first saw it, there are few people in the cold, and the bustling crowd that appeared at the meal time has all disappeared, leaving only a few clerks sitting at the counter as lazily as before. At first, Zhou Xin was curious about why the alien had returned to this place, but he didn't explain much, and instead went straight into an inconspicuous alley on the side of the street. Not long after entering the alley, he took out his clothes from the backpack containing the food and began to change, and after a while, he changed his clothes.
Zhou Xin saw that the style that the alien was wearing now after the change was not much different from the previous one, the only obvious difference was that the suit he was wearing now was obviously much more worn out than before, and there were several less obvious patches on the edges of the clothes. Zhou Xin looked at him again with doubts, he didn't know what the reason for this alien was to do this.
The alien stuffed the clothes back into his backpack after putting on his shabby clothes, then he looked at himself carefully, then reached out and tugged at the corner of his clothes, and then he explained, "Changing clothes will allow me to better blend in with the unemployed, and besides, it is said that the group seems to be a bit repulsive to outsiders, maybe I should hide the camera." As he spoke, the screen began to move, and then it became waist-high, and the camera was blocked from view by an object from time to time, and it seemed that he hung the camera equipment on his waist and then covered it with his clothes.
"Alright, let's go." After all this was done, the alien began to walk down the alley again, and as he walked, he suddenly remembered something, and then he whispered, "Oh, by the way, it seems that I haven't introduced myself yet, my name is Jane Boonckley, I am a sociologist by profession, you can call me Jane." The alien gave a brief introduction to himself, and then he pulled out a soft sheet from the pocket of his worn jacket, which appeared to be the paper used by the civilization to record information, but it was not as white as paper, and his surface was grayish-yellow with irregular smudges. At this moment, there was a fork in the road in front of Jane, and he unfolded the sheet, looked at it for a while, and then chose the road on the left. Through the camera on Jane's waist, Zhou Xin vaguely saw that a simple road map seemed to be drawn on the thin sheet, in addition to the road map, there were a few lines of small print on it, but due to the angle, Zhou Xin couldn't see what those lines of small words were written.
After pulling out the sheet, Jane walked through the narrow alley for a long time, at first there was a bright light in the alley, but as he continued down the alley, the light became dimer and dimer, and finally he reached out to the point where he could not reach out to his fingers, and then he finally reached for the backpack behind him again, and after pulling out a glow stick-like lighting object from it, Jane began to move forward again.
As he progressed, Jane encountered several forks in the road similar to the one he had encountered at the beginning, but each time he was able to quickly pick a path forward from the sheet he was holding. Not only did he fork the road, but he also came across two isolation doors that were supposed to be used to separate the different cabins. The careful Zhou Xin found that the switch on the isolation door seemed to have been broken by someone, Jane pushed it lightly, and the door opened suddenly, and there was a harsh metal friction sound.
Jane had walked for nearly ten minutes from the time he entered the alley, during which time he encountered five forks in the road, two isolation gates, and even climbed a flight of stairs up before finally stopping in front of the third isolation door.
Stopping in front of the door, Jane whispered, "It's finally here, one of those people's gathering points should be here, phew, if no one gives me this road map, I really won't be able to find it." After standing in front of the door for a few seconds, he added, "I hope that the person gave me the right way to open the door, otherwise I would have to run for nothing, and there might even be danger." After saying this, Zhou Xin heard the sound of deep breathing, and then Jane took a few steps forward, originally Zhou Xin thought that he would open the hatch directly, but he didn't expect that this door was actually locked. Jane walked to the door and knocked heavily three times, but after a while, there was no response from behind the door.
However, Jane didn't seem to be in a hurry, he waited at the door for about a minute and knocked on the door three more times, this time he knocked on the door very lightly, in stark contrast to the previous three times, however, to Zhou Xin's puzzlement, his knock on the door this time still did not get a response from the door. After a while, just when Zhou Xin thought that there was no one inside, and he was mistaken, Jane knocked three times again, and just a few seconds after these three knocks, a deep voice finally came from behind the door, "Who?" ”
"Unemployed." Jane's answer was just four words.
"Who told you about this place?" The voice behind the door asked.
Jane's answer slightly surprised Zhou Xin, "No one, I found it myself." ”
After Jane answered, the voice behind the door did not respond, and the atmosphere fell silent all of a sudden. After about five minutes, just when Zhou Xin began to wonder if he had answered wrong, there was finally a sound behind the door. If you listen closely, you can faintly hear dense and scattered footsteps coming from behind the door, and it wasn't long before the footsteps followed by a slight metal knock on the door. Then, after hearing a "click", a crack appeared in the hatch, and an orange light shot out of the gap, and suddenly a corner of the alley lit up.
After opening a crack, the hatch stopped. After a few seconds, suddenly a loud voice came from behind the door, and the loud voice was followed by an angry voice, "This damn door!" What's going on! Atlas translated.
With this curse, more noisy sounds began to be heard from behind the door, accompanied by the sound of metal tapping. After a while, the noise continued, but the knocking stopped, and then, Zhou Xin heard the familiar sound of the door opening, but this time the crack in the door stopped again after widening to a width of about twenty centimeters.
It didn't take long for the light coming out of the crack in the door to be blocked by a dark shadow, and it seemed that there was someone standing in front of the door, and then the voice that asked the previous question sounded again, "Who told you about this place?" ”
This time Jane's answer was different, "It was Jodson who introduced me, and he told me there was a settlement here." Then, there was a rustling sound, as if he was digging something, and the camera approached the door. After a while, the voice said, "That's right, it's Jodson's handwriting, come in, what's your name." With that, the hatch opened wider, and following the open door, Jane stepped in.
"Jane Boonkerry, once a small clerk." Jane introduced herself.
"Why are you here?"
"I'm tired of my previous work life, and it seems interesting to hear Jodson say it's here, so I wanted to come and check it out."
The moment I entered the door, the screen lit up, and I couldn't see anything. But just a second later, the camera adjusted the light, and the scene inside finally appeared in front of Zhou Xin.
Due to the angle, only the lower bodies of a few people appeared in the lens, Zhou Xin didn't know what they looked like, and after a few steps forward, Jane walked in front of those people.
"Is it a newcomer?" A shrill voice rang out, and then in front of the camera, a man left.
"Newcomer again? Boring. Another voice rang out, but this one was unremarkable, sounding very ordinary, and another person on the screen turned away.
Then, the people standing in front of Jane expressed their disinterest in his arrival, and some even left without saying a word, and in the end, only one person remained in front of Jane.
"Hey, why did I stay again." The person in front of him spoke, and when he said this, Zhou Xin heard it at once, this is the person who just asked who Jane was behind the door.
"Who called you a good person, we're all lazy, so I'll leave it to you." A word came from afar.
"Forget it, I'm too lazy to bother with you." The man in front of Jane sighed, and then said to him, "Your name is Jane Boonkerry, right?" ”
"Yes, you can call me Jane."
"Well, Jane, my name is Joe Derain, and like you, I used to be a small clerk." The person in front of Jane introduced himself, "As for the others, you can get to know them yourself in the future." Coughing twice, he continued, "Okay, every few days a new person comes here and someone leaves from time to time, and I don't have the patience to explain so much to every new person, so you have to listen to the rest of the words, I'll just say it once." At this point he paused again, as if to confirm that Jane was listening carefully, and after a few seconds, he spoke again.
"Listen, newcomer, the only rule you have to follow in this place is to stay good and not be nosy, everyone who comes here has their own reasons, and what they want to tell you is their own business, but they are not allowed to ask others about it. Since Jodson introduced you here, you can come and go as you want, but remember one thing. Speaking of this, Joe's tone became stern, even a little threatening, "Don't spread anything about this place, otherwise you will offend not only a few of us, but most of the people in this space city." ”
After saying this, his tone relaxed again, "Okay, this is the advice of an old man who has been here for three years, and nothing else. Now I'll take you to where you live, and my task will be completed, young man, come with me. ”
Then, the picture began to move, Qiao walked in front to lead the way, and several people appeared in the camera along the way, but Zhou Xin didn't hear any greetings, even Qiao who led the way didn't say a word, and the only thing that could be heard in the video was the footsteps of two people.
After advancing a few dozen meters, Joe opened another hatch, and after entering the hatch, they came to a slightly smaller cabin. After walking a few steps in the cabin, he led Jane to a small door.
"This is where you live." Joe said, "The owner of this room just left a few days ago, although it hasn't been cleaned up yet, but it's relatively tidy, you can go in and have a look." With that, he pushed the hatch open.
At this time, the scene suddenly shifted to the ground, and Jane was supposed to be bending down to enter the cabin. When the camera returned to its normal perspective, Zhou Xin saw a small cabin appear in front of the camera.
The cabin was only about two meters wide and no more than five meters long, and there was nothing else in it, including a bed and a set of tables and chairs.
Before Jane could speak, Qiao opened his mouth first and said, "Don't look at this small place, everyone here lives in the same place, there is no difference, all other things here need to be brought by themselves." With that, Joe turned straight to the hatch, "Okay, I've done what I need to do, and you can take care of the rest." After taking two steps out of the door, he turned back again, "Oh, by the way, you already know about food, it starts on time at noon every day and lasts for forty minutes, if you miss it, then you will only be hungry for the whole day." After hearing Jane's confirmed answer, he really didn't look back this time, and left the place directly.
After seeing Joe leave, Jane returned to his room, where he placed the camera on the table, and his round face appeared on the screen again.
"Okay, the first step has been successful, now it's a matter of finding a way to interview some of the people here." Jane spoke......