Ian only gave us a moment to take in what was in front of us, and then she began urging us to get out of here.

"The Chosen!" Ian called me so, "You have to trust me. I can't explain it right now, but you'll have to follow me to our organization, and I'll tell you what needs to be done. ”

Her words were full of urgency, and she kept looking around, as if she was worried that something might happen.

"My name is Yoshimitsu." I corrected her salutation, "What are you worried about?" ”

"We are in danger of being discovered from afar by the Guardians, the Chosen One." She was in a hurry and could not argue.

"Keeper?"

"See those huge machines moving?" Ian pointed to the huge steam city, where some tall iron-gray figures haunted the white steam, "Those are the caretakers, and if they are discovered, we are in danger." ”

We looked in the direction Ian was pointing, and sure enough, there were some looming figures walking through the steam, like humanoids with no upper limbs, but obviously much taller than humans, their heads glowing red, and they staggered in strange positions.

"Is this person credible?" Lao Dao saw that we had been talking for a long time, and came up to me and asked me softly.

I nodded, "She's the mysterious person who saved us from the dream, and she's the important clue I've been looking for." ”

The old knife shrugged: "Old rules, in this kind of ghost place, I listen to you." ”

"Hurry up and come with me, Chosen One!" Ian urged us anxiously again.

I no longer hesitated, and let everyone follow Ian - there was a small episode during the period: I was worried that Shen Xiaoke and Du Min would not be able to keep up with everyone, so I proposed that I and Lao Dao carry them on their backs, but Shen Xiaoke saw me coming and hid directly behind Xu Liang, and Du Min took a few steps back directly at Lao Dao, and said with a cold face: "I will go by myself." ”

In the end, it was still up to Kirishima to carry Shen Xiaoke on his back to act together, and Du Min insisted on walking by himself.

Ian led us down the slag hill into a dirty gravel path.

Soon, we were in what looked like a slum, and Ian told us that it was a workers' housing area, known locally as "workers' huts."

It's full of identical cramped, low-slung houses, stacked on top of each other like dirty, tattered boxes, and the black stone-paved streets are so narrow that no thought has been given to design or safety at all, which is very depressing.

I glanced back, although Kirishima Xun was carrying Shen Xiaoke on her back, she had excellent physical strength, and she didn't look tired at all, surprisingly, Du Min, who was only 13 years old, was not much taller than Shen Xiaoke, but she was extremely stubborn, and her footsteps were extremely fast, and she didn't pull down at all.

Ian drove us swiftly through the narrow, dirty alleys, always on the lookout.

"Don't talk to anyone." Ian warned, "But keep an eye on your surroundings and avoid those with mechanical masks, they're overseers who could bring in terrible guards if they spot us." ”

There were very few pedestrians on the streets, and the only one or two people were covered in oil and filth, with extremely tired cheeks and blank eyes.

Ian said that the inhabitants of the region were all slaves of the king - all those who had just entered the kingdom of Tedar were relegated to the slave class, and the vast majority of them toiled to death.

The workers watched us swift by with blank eyes, and Ian's fears were useless, for these men had neither the energy nor the interest to talk to strangers after a great deal of heavy work.

The road here is a maze of twists and turns, and there is a kind of weirdness that can only be found in dreams.

A few times we noticed that Ian had led us into a dead end, but in the blink of an eye, we found ourselves walking in the opposite direction, and if we looked back, there was no entrance behind us.

Without Ian leading the way, our group would probably have spent a lot of time in this maze.

"You see what's weird about this world, right?" Ian sensed that we were observing something strange here, "This is not your world, but that doesn't mean your world is safe - if we don't do something about it, your world will be like this." ”

But after turning the next alleyway, Ian suddenly retreated, and immediately after, three men with mechanical masks appeared in front of us.

"Tickets!" The lead mechanical masked man held out his hand towards Ian.

"These are overseers?" I looked at the men in the black and shiny metal mechanical masks and asked Ian.

Ian nodded, his steps kept retreating, and Kirishima held her back: "Don't be afraid, we'll deal with them." ”

The lead overseer's gaze shot at me through the gaps in the mechanical mask.

"No tickets...... his voice was also mechanically dull, and he waved his hand, "Arrest them all!" Flogging! As he spoke, he pulled out a black, dirty leather whip from behind him.

But before his whip could fall from the sky, a sturdy figure rushed in front of him—

"Bang!"

The overseer's whip was thrown out of his hand and thrown into the air, and his body fell backwards.

Then there was another muffled thud, and the other overseer slammed sideways into the wall by the alley, and collapsed to the ground along the wall.

I can see clearly that Shen Tangzhi hugged Shen Xiaoke from Kirishima Fumi's back, and the latter rushed to the front of the overseer with great speed, first flying up and kicking heavily in the overseer's heart, and then the other foot hit the overseer's throat, and the first overseer, Kirishima Fumi, also concocted the same way.

Both overseers clutched their throats tightly in their hands, writhing in pain on the ground.

On the other side, the old knife had already stepped forward and punched the last overseer in the face-

"Bang."

The overseer tilted his neck and turned his face again, apparently not in any pain.

"Hmm—it hurts!" The old knife bent down and hugged his fist, and scolded loudly, "Hold the grass, this guy is wearing a real iron mask on his face!" ”

I secretly said in my heart: Is it possible that you are still a coser of others? Just wearing a colored paper film?

I hurriedly stepped forward and kicked the overseer over, and Kirishima arrived at the same time, and quickly kicked the overseer in the side of the face, knocking him unconscious.

"Huh-" Kirishima flew out with a kick, only to realize that I had also lifted my foot, and quickly apologized, "That, I'm sorry, Mr. Yoshimitsu, I didn't know you too...... You know, it's been a long time since I've had a good deal with people in the real world, and when I get here, I don't have to keep my hands, I kind of can't control myself...... I'm sorry for the inconvenience—"

Seeing that she was accustomed to bowing again, I had to helplessly reach out to her head again: "No need to apologize, this kind of thing ......"

Then I turned around and said, "Ian, let's keep walking." ”

We were able to get three overseers so quickly, obviously surprising the native of the dream world, but after a brief moment of shock, perhaps a hint of encouragement, Ian's face felt a little more confident.

She nodded, "Follow me." "She led us into another alley.

We didn't run into trouble all the way, and soon we reached the heart of the "hut", a small square, with a fountain in the center of the dark tiles, but there was no water in the fountain.

The street twisted and twisted behind us, and it was no longer clear where we were coming.

We saw a few overseers in mechanical masks patrolling the square, but they didn't notice us, and only accused the listless workers of being lazy from time to time, and whipped them as if they were sadistic.

We also saw beggars, who Ian whispered as victims of mechanical accidents, incapacitated and living on handouts from the luckier others.

Scarred skin, amputated limbs, twisted spine are everywhere between them.

Among the victims, there are both old people and children, there are a few weak men with missing arms and legs on the ground closest to us, and there is a woman holding a child next to her, her eyes are blind, and the child in his arms is like a thin monkey, she only has a tattered black shirt, almost **, the child lies on the woman's chest and sucks hard with her mouth, but there is no ** in the mother's shriveled chest......

"Please, give me something to eat......"

Hearing someone passing by, the woman with the child in her arms raised her broken hat in her hand at us and pleaded with a weak voice.

"It's so pitiful, Mr. Yoshimitsu, is there a way to help them?" Kirishima Xun showed a sympathetic expression on his face, and Shen Xiaoke, who was lying on her back, had a crying expression on his small face.

Shen Tangzhi and Lao Dao on the side turned their faces sideways, and they couldn't bear to look at it anymore.

Xu Liang bit his lower lip and looked down at the ground, only Du Min still had an indifferent face.

I sighed, took off my blazer, and draped it over the woman sitting cross-legged on the ground, covering her body.

"Sorry, we don't have food either." I said with great apologies.

But we really couldn't help any more, we had nothing on us when we passed through the steam gate, except for this suit, and we entered this dream world with a more important goal, and we couldn't even stay here any longer, and the masked overseers would soon find out about us uninvited guests.

The overseers will ask us for a "work ticket" – a dated voucher that proves you've done the heavy lifting for the day.

If we don't hand over the tickets, the builders will think that we are workers who have evaded the work assigned to us – the punishment is public caning and then being brutally dragged back to work.

"We can't help these unfortunate poor people anymore," Ian said, "but you can stop others from becoming like this, if you will." ”

We walked through the entire residential area, past several large and strange steel gates, and a large area of steel buildings appeared in front of us.

Ian beckoned us to hide behind a gear several stories high, and seconds later, a team of overseers patrolled our path, followed by a huge "watchman" with heavy steps.

The Keeper resembles an ugly mechanical monster wrapped in oil and soot, steaming as it walks.

It was about three meters tall, with two steel lower limbs that were over two meters tall but looked sluggish, and the box-like torso had no upper limbs, except for a dozen camera-eyed mechanical parts on top, all of which glowed red, all in working condition.

"This is the factory area, and we have to be more careful when we get here." Ian whispered.

She told us that in the factory area, in addition to the overseers, there are also guards who need extra strength to maintain order or hunt down fugitives

Through the Wardens, these brutal overseers can summon terrifying mechanical monsters - all kinds of animate machines, all depending on their prototypes, and the natives collectively refer to them as "mechanical giants".

Traversing the factory site is dangerous, especially for those who have been registered on the workers' roster – if they are caught by the caretakers with dozens of eyes, they will know directly where they are supposed to work.

That includes Ian, of course, - everyone in the Kingdom of Tydar has their own work to do.

As soon as a worker is found absent from work, a loud alarm will sound, and the surrounding supervisors and guards will quickly surround them.

"Try to hide yourself and don't get spotted, but if you do, run—run as fast as you can!"

Ian showed us where we went, and behind the factory area, which was as dense as countless green worms lying on the ground, a towering black mountain came into view.

"It's a mine, and as long as you hide in any of the mines, those mechanical monsters can't get in. If we accidentally disperse, the workers in the mine will take you to the meeting point. Ian said.

We all nodded in understanding.

The factory precinct is littered with long buildings made of rusty steel and crumbling bricks, some of which are made up of discarded mechanical components such as giant gears and supports.

These cramped, stocky, ugly factories, constantly spewing steam and black soot into the air, seem to be producing a huge number of industrial products that never stops.

Our group carefully followed Ian from factory to factory, and through the open door we could see that there were countless huge machines in the factory, which roared like monsters, steam and soot filled our noses, and our noses were filled with the smell of moisture and burnt.

The factory was full of forcibly enslaved workers, and around each huge machine, there were dozens or hundreds of workers toiling to operate the machine, they were covered in dirt, their hands and faces were covered in soot, and their backs were bent over and sweating under the weight of the harsh conditions and heavy work.

Some of the overseers proudly led the large, clumsy guards back and forth, whipping workers who did not meet their quotas, and anyone who dared to challenge their authority was immediately beaten severely.

Some of the workers discovered Ian and us, and I saw that the eyes of those who had found us immediately lit up with a light of joy—or hope—but they tried to suppress their excitement, pretending not to see anything, and even more earnestly trying to continue their work.

We knew that these workers were covering our movements, but I was ashamed that we had come to this dream world without doing anything - just giving my coat to a poor blind mother, but I understood that such handouts had no real effect.

However, I'm sure we're going to change that, and Ian calling me "The Chosen" has already said something, and now I need to figure out where we stand, and then get down to my usual job:

Correct this ugly and deformed world, and let everything get back on track.