Prologue: If life is only as it first sees

War.

War ruined an era, and war created a new world.

I don't know when the night was no longer completely dark.

In the night, two o'clock deep, dark red glow lit up and slowly drifted in the air.

Everywhere the faint glow of the fire shrouded in, there was a thick, dark green, always putrid stench, and even in almost dull corners, the sewage glowed a dismal green glow, illuminating a small area around it. In contrast to its unbearable filth, lethal radiation is the most dangerous aspect of this almost ubiquitous sewage.

In the pools of sewage that have accumulated, you can't see the rags of its original color and the rusty iron? and the carrion of rotten flesh left by some unknown animal, all kinds of filth floating or sinking. From time to time, a giant rat nearly a meter long would emerge out of nowhere, squeak and scream, rush through the sewage, and disappear into the darkness. The radiation that kills a horse in the prime of life does not seem to have any effect on the rat, but occasionally a few pieces of flesh fall from the rat's belt, and if you look closely, you will see that the meat has long since rotted. From this point of view, it seems that giant rats are not completely immune to radiation.

Hongying floated upwards for several meters, stopping at the top of a sloping steel beam, and glanced around at the world under the dark night. The two points of red reflected nothing but framed buildings, half-collapsed walled houses, and car wreckage scattered everywhere.

The world at night is full of miserable green fluorescence.

Such a place, which was called a ruin fifty years ago, is now called a city.

A blinding fire suddenly lit up at the corner of the street not far away, and frenzied and hysterical shouts mingled together and quickly rushed towards this direction.

Frightened, Hongying quickly spread her four transparent wings and vibrated rapidly and flew towards a high place. A flash of fire happened to shine, and a huge beetle more than a meter long could be seen flying away into the distance.

The man with the torch showed no interest in the beetle, but ran with all his might with the flow of people in front of him, occasionally letting out a beastly roar.

The fire quickly faded away, and the giant beetle disappeared into the darkness again. However, suddenly a strong wind blew, and the giant beetle let out a sharp cry like a needle, and its sharp knuckles could not stop sparking on the masonry and steel bars, and the four wings also flapped desperately, but they were still slowly dragged into the deep darkness.

Its screams were followed by a clattering chewing sound.

In a dark alley, there was a sudden sound of hurried footsteps, and a woman who seemed to be extremely panicked rushed in. As she entered the alley, she suddenly noticed a figure sitting against the wall.

The man was covered in a black blanket all over, his head was lowered, and he couldn't see his face clearly, and from that thin figure, he looked more like a ** year-old child.

The woman gritted her teeth, rushed over in a few big steps, stuffed the swaddling clothes she was holding tightly in her arms into the man's arms, and cried out: "Please, save her!" ”

The fluorescent glow from the puddle of sewage under the wall illuminated the woman's face, and although the light was dim, it could still be seen that it was a very young, beautiful face, no more than twenty or so in appearance, with a delicate snow-white skin rare in this era, enough to make most women jealous and want to cut a few cuts in her face. Her neck was also slender and straight, and from the jaw, a straight curve drew an almost perfect arc, all the way down, and then suddenly erected on her white chest, squeezing out a deep cleavage. The woman's clothes are very thin, and only a few buttons are hastily tied at the front, exposing most of the plump breasts, and two seductive protrusions can be faintly seen on the shirt, surrounded by a small water stain, which should have just been fed to the baby.

After only stopping for less than a second, without waiting for the person to answer, the woman stood up and ran deeper into the alley. After running more than ten meters, she suddenly let out a scream that almost punctured her eardrum. In the slightly noisy night, the screams were heard far away. The frenzied crowd not far away immediately erupted into a shout of excitement or joy, and in less than a minute, torches lit up the alley, and a dozen rags in tattered clothes with cruel and exuberant faces rushed into the alley.

A guy who looked particularly stout waved a wooden stick with several large iron nails in his hand, and kept squeezing the people in front of him with his arms left and right, shouting while chasing: "I will catch that woman later, Lao Tzu will be the first to get on her!" Whoever dares to fight with me, I will smash his head! ”

A lean, middle-aged man behind him let out a loud laugh at a volume disproportionate to his size, and said mockingly, "Come on, Black Duncan!" That woman had slept with a demon, and who knows what she was carrying with her, and you dared to stab her? Aren't you afraid that halfway through the job, your own guy will rot in her first? ”

Black Duncan muttered, "That's not a good idea, I'm more resistant to radiation than you." But his voice was clearly starting to hesitate.

When he hesitated, several people immediately burst into laughter, "Black Duncan, you even dare to go up to a mutant sow, why are you afraid?" Could it be that the guy is rotten, right? But your guy is really out of proportion! ”

Black Duncan roared a few times in annoyance and roared, "I don't care! Whoever thinks you're a big guy will go up, anyway, Lao Tzu won't do it! ”

Suddenly, someone screamed, "Don't let me come, all of you!" Anyway, is already half rotten, and it's worth it to be a fine-skinned woman, and everything is rotten! ”

It was a thin old man who was screaming, with only a dirty cloth wrapped around his body, and he was almost naked. His bony body was covered with rotting sores, and the top of his head was bare, with only a few strands of pale soft hair. Panting all the way, his chest snoring, as if pulling an old-fashioned bellows, he could barely keep up with the troops, but the black creature under his waist was as hard as a short, thin iron rod, standing straight and abrupt on his belly.

The alley was not long, and a dozen thugs rushed out from the other end in the blink of an eye. After the flickering firelight passed, darkness reigned again. The mob, whose whole body was full of violence and lust, saw only the woman's white skin shaking, and did not notice that the shadow in the corner of the wall was a person. In fact, even if the mob saw him, there were people lying around the radioactive sewage like this, waiting to die, and no one cared at all.

Not far from the alley, the shouts of the mob suddenly became louder and louder, mixed with the screams of women that were so terrible that they did not resemble human voices. It wasn't long before the woman's screams suddenly began to whimper, as if they were muffled by something, but the roaring screams of the mob rose higher and higher, and finally drowned out the woman's voice completely.

In the dark alley, the figure wrapped in a black felt blanket suddenly moved, his head lowered and slowly raised, and he took out a swaddling cloth from under the blanket, and the edge of the rag exposed half of his palm, looking at the immature silhouette obviously belonged to an underage child, but the skin was icy and shiny, a little dazzling, and it was out of place with the surroundings. And in the low-hanging blanket, there was a deep blue light, and it was his eyes, silently watching the baby in swaddling clothes.

The baby is neither crying nor making trouble, and a pair of big blue eyes are looking back at the deep blue light. This is a girl, with a straight nose and a skin as crystal clear as the finest cheese, not at all like the babies of this era who are affected by radiation, and have large patches of black, blue, gray and green skin. The small lips also have a rare knife-like line. All in all, she was very pretty, especially for a baby who hadn't been weaned yet.

He blinked, and the blue light on the baby girl's face flickered a few times. Finally, he reached out and opened the tightly wrapped swaddling cloth a little, so that the baby girl could also hear the sounds around her, hear the roars of the mob and gasps, and the occasional outburst of women's screams.

The hands were slender and white, and the slender fingers seemed to be the dawn of the night, and they quietly bloomed for a moment, and then they were withdrawn into the blanket.

The baby girl's head tilted slightly, her ears twitched and trembled, and she took in all the sounds around her, and listened very attentively. Only then did he realize that the upper end of her ear had two tips, which were half as long as the average human ear.

The feast of tyranny and fornication in the distance did not last long, and the mob fell silent with a roar of disappointment. Then a burst of fire rose into the sky, and with the billowing smoke drifting away, there was a foul smell of burnt. The fire was raging, occasionally rushing more than ten meters into the air, and the light of the fire at this time could even dispel the darkness in the alley for a moment.

The middle of the sewage accumulated in the alley was empty, and the child who had been wrapped in a dark blanket was gone.

The sun rises as usual.

The blazing sun struggled to penetrate the thick gray clouds and sprinkle them on the black and yellow earth. Occasionally, a strong wind blows a small gray cloud, allowing the sunlight to shine unhindered, and all sorts of strange animals on the ground scatter in search of shelter, or simply hide in underground caverns to avoid the deadly sunlight. The only one that is not afraid of the sun is a tall plant with pale stems covered with spikes half a meter long. Whenever the sun shines, it twists its branches and stems, receives as much light as possible, and grows wildly at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Bang, bang! Bursts of noisy noise broke the silence of the early morning. An old man in his fifties shouted in a hoarse voice while pounding an empty iron pipe inserted in the ground: "It's work!" Get up for me, bunnies! Let old Hans see how lucky the few guys are left today! ”

More than 100 people jumped up from the ground and ran towards this direction, but at a distance of five meters from the old man, these people automatically stopped, as if there was an invisible boundary there, so that they could not take a single step forward. There were a few people in the crowd who didn't know what was going on, and they were still desperately squeezing forward. Several strong men around immediately scolded: "The newcomer is in the back of the line!" What is squeezing? Before those people could react, they had already received a few heavy punches in the face, and they fell to the ground involuntarily. The people around him immediately punched and kicked each other, showing no mercy. After a while, the strong men threw a few newcomers who were beaten to the outside of the group, and spat out a few mouthfuls of thick phlegm in hatred.

Old Hans had long been accustomed to these atrocities, and only shrugged his shoulders indifferently. He wore a completely dull leather jacket with a coarse cloth shirt made of fine dark red checkered, a pair of jeans with some motor oil sticking to the bottom, and a pair of high-waisted military boots on his feet. Compared to the outcasts around him, who dressed like beggars, old Hans was a king, and he was indeed arrogant like a king. On his chest, a silver badge was pinned with a distant city in the background, and a rumbling tank in the center. In the sun, the badge sparkles and stands out. Hundreds of eyes fell on the badge from time to time, some fear, some envy, and more of it was the greed of the thin wolf.

Faced with hundreds of wild wolves, old Hans was not afraid at all. He stood behind a table welded with angle iron, took out a few cans with illegible labels from the wooden box behind him, threw them heavily on the desk, and shouted at the top of his voice: "Old rules! A hundred kilograms of ore for five cents, the price of food is the same as yesterday, you bunch of rabbits are cheaper, and there are even a few cans today, it's up to you who can take it! Don't squeeze it, come one by one! ”

These people already knew the rules, lined up, and walked to the iron table one by one. Like a butcher picking cattle, old Hans glanced at their physique, skin, and countenance, and casually ordered, "You may, go over there and get something to work!" Or, "You can't!" ”

The homeless man who got permission immediately trotted to the nearby tool pile, picked up the iron pickaxe, put it on his back basket and ran to the mine a few hundred meters away, for fear that if he slowed down the slightest move, he would be regarded as a useless person by old Hans, and say the terrible "You can't do it". Those who already had experience walked without hurrying, and looked as if they were in their own yard, knowing that this work would take a whole day, and it would be unwise to waste their energy on running.

"Why can't I!" A thunderous roar drew everyone's eyes back. A strong black man who was more than 1.9 meters tall and looked like a mountain bear pounded the iron case vigorously and roared at the old Hans.

Old Hans took out a clean handkerchief, slowly wiped the saliva that had been sprayed on his face, pointed to a large ulcer on the black man's chest, and said slowly: "You are sick! If you go down the mines, you'll infect all my mules, and who's going to work for me? ”

"I can work! I want to eat, I have three children to raise! The negro did not listen carefully to what old Hans was saying, but kept roaring, and the iron case rumbled.

Old Hans frowned, and as he straightened his thick beard, he gestured behind him. Hearing a bang, the black man's screams suddenly stopped, and he looked in disbelief at the sudden hole in his chest, his throat hissed, but he could not speak.

Behind old Hans, a bald man pulled the trigger of the double-barreled shotgun in his hand again, and with another loud bang, hundreds of grains of iron sand slammed into the black man's chest, doubling his wound and piercing his broad chest completely. This strong man was wearing a crumpled black suit and several holes, obviously I don't know how many years ago antique goods. Behind old Hans, there were three such strong men.

Old Hans wiped his face and said to the air in front of the iron table, "And,, your saliva stinks!" "Look at the tone of his voice, as if the black man was still standing at the table.

There were still more than a hundred homeless people who had not entered the mine, and their eyes were much less greedy and more fearful. A few people came over and dragged the body of the black man away, throwing it a few hundred meters away. It won't be long before the rotting wolves and vultures, smelling of blood, will eat his corpse so clean that not a single bone will remain.

The line in front of the iron case quickly shortened, and before dawn most of the displaced people had already descended into the mines, and those who were not selected walked in the direction of the town to see if they could try their luck there.

"There are more and more sick mules, and this month's share is a little enough......" Old Hans muttered, and stood up, straightening his aching back. His lazy waist was only halfway extended, and his movements suddenly stopped, and then he leaned forward with both hands on the iron case, looking at the child in front of him who was just a head taller than the iron case.

The child was wrapped in a blanket so filthy that he could not see his original color, and his face and hands, as long as they were exposed, were tightly wrapped with strips of cloth, and only one left eye was exposed, and he looked at Hans quietly. The child looked no more than eight or nine years old, and he didn't know if he was a man or a woman.

Originally, old Hans would never waste a little effort on such an obviously unqualified outcast, he was not a charity, maybe it was the blood he had just seen made his heart a little soft, maybe it was the worry about the lack of labor this month, maybe it was the child's eyes, anyway, he hesitated for a moment, and even asked, "You also want to work?" ”

The child nodded.

"Alright! But you tell me first, if I'm a man or a woman, right? Old Hans said.

"Male." The child finally spoke. Compared to children of the same age, his voice is slightly low, but it has an indescribable magnetic taste.

"Very well, boy, go over there and get the tools. Like everyone else, dig up a hundred kilograms of ore and get five cents. This is the greatest benefit for you. You can't be dressed like this, you can't have some kind of disease, right? Well, you don't have to worry, at least you don't have a stench on you, old Hans's nose is very smart. Go to work, finish it early, fill your stomach early, and when you can't do it anymore, go to Pete the lame, and he will tell you how much money you have earned and how much you can eat. ”

In the midst of old Hans's nagging, the boy carried an iron pickaxe, which was almost higher than him, and slowly disappeared into the depths of the mine.

It wasn't until his figure disappeared that old Hans shook his head. He suddenly turned his head and asked the strong man in the black suit who was following closely behind, "Am I particularly wordy today?" ”

In front of this somewhat nervous old man, the black suit, which was as strong as a cow, involuntarily took a step back and shook his head quickly, forcefully, and resolutely.

Old Hans laughed dryly and said, "You are very clever, so I made you the head of the guard." But you must always remember that I am the only official agent of the company in this place, and I can let you kill those wild dog-like homeless people at will, and I can also make you a dog tomorrow. And the older people are always a little weird, you just have to do your part, do you understand? ”

"Yes, Mr. Hans."

"You should call me Lord Hans!"

"Understood, Lord Hans!"

Old Hans hummed a tune he had learned out of nowhere, and went into a shack made of tin nails. Even in the town a few kilometers away, this little leaky tin shack can be considered a mansion.

Dusk soon came, and the rotting wolves, who had slept in hunger for a day, let out a long howl and began to wander around ghostly, looking for an opportunity to fill their bellies.

With a creak, old Hans pushed open the iron door of the shack and walked out, squinting at the sinking sunset. After a nap, he felt much better. Not far away, the mine was empty, and the workers had already come out, had finished their rations, and had gone back to their habitats. When the sun sets over the horizon, the intricate tunnels are filled with ferocious gophers more than a meter long, their powerful upper and lower jaws, sharp and strong incisors can easily bite off iron bars two centimeters thick, and no matter how solid the rock is, it is not worth mentioning in front of them. Fortunately, as soon as the sun rises, the ferocious gophers burrow deep underground and fall into a deep sleep, so the miners have at least half a day to dig for the ore.

Almost at the same time as the sun sank completely, a thin figure appeared at the mouth of the pit. The boy staggered out with a basket of ore almost as tall as himself.

Old Hans's eyelids jumped a few times, and he remained silent as he watched as the thin boy dragged the ore on his back over the scales, and then poured it on the hill-like pile, and then walked slowly with the note written by the foreman. The strip of cloth wrapped around the boy's body had been dyed with large patches of red yellow and mixed blue with mineral powder.

Watching the boy approach, old Hans went around to the back of the house. There, against the tin house, a large shed was erected, and Peter, who was missing half a leg, struggled to move his body, which weighed more than 100 kilograms, and shouted, "Boy, come here! ”

The boy walked under the shed and handed the note. Cripple Peter glanced at it, couldn't help whistling, and said, "The boy is not bad! More than a lot of adults. Come on, here's the list, see what you want to exchange. Are you literate? Oh, yes, that's amazing! I only recognize most of the words on this list. Hey, don't look over there, you can't afford to change it right now! Look down from here. ”

Peter used his thick fingers to swipe in the middle of the long list, and the boy looked over the list. His gaze stayed on the "drinking" column, and then looked up again until his view was blocked by Peter's thick fingers.

"This is it." The boy pointed to the list with his fingers wrapped in strips of cloth.

Peter cried out, "Aha! Tertiary drinking water! Boy, you must be a nobleman, I heard that the nobles' bodies are so tender that they can only drink pure water, which is the kind of water that has no impurities at all and does not radiate at all! ”

"This is it." The boy pointed to the list, his voice flat and unfluctuating, making people wonder if it could be a synthetic sound.

Peter shrugged his shoulders, pulled out a can of equally undated drink from a pile of wooden crates behind him, and tossed it to the boy. "Give! Level 3 drinking water, extravagant brat. ”

The boy carefully tucked the can into the blanket and turned to leave, but Peter the Cripple scratched his head, took the fist-sized moldy bread and threw it to the boy: "Boy, mining is hard work, and you can't do without eating. Take this, remember, you owe five cents to Cripple Peter, and tomorrow it will be deducted from your wages! ”

The boy took the bread, tucked it into the blanket with the same care, and bowed deeply to Peter the lame before walking into the darkness.

In the darkness of the wilderness, dozens of pairs of wolf-like eyes stared at the boy, whispering one after another.

"That kid seems to have done a lot today, why don't we go over and see what he's changed? Maybe it's half a loaf of bread. ”

"I bet he must have a big piece of roasted rat meat in his arms!"

A lazy but murderous voice next to him took over: "Hey! A few rookies over there, don't you know the rules of old Hans? On his turf, no one can grab what he has been gained. ”

The previous voice was obviously not convinced: "Old Hans? What can he manage? I can fight ten of this kind of old man! ”

The lazy man laughed and scolded: "It's up to you? It's not worth licking the ass of old Hans! ”

The person who was scolded as a rookie was still not convinced, and was about to argue, but who knew that the other party suddenly lost his patience, whistled, and shouted: "Boys, chop up this guy who wants to make trouble and feed it to the rotten wolf!" ”

More than a dozen black shadows rose in response and gathered around.

After a brief scream, the wilderness returned to silence. People should seize the time to rest so that they can carry an extra basket of ore out tomorrow.

In the barn, the lame Peter could no longer see the boy, he scratched the head of the few hairs left, and muttered, "Where is this boy going?" If he is eaten by a rotting wolf, my five cents will be wasted. Hey, old Hans, you say my money won't go to waste, right? ”

Old Hans, who had been leaning on the pillar, spread his hands and said, "God knows." ”

Peter the Cripple struggled to his feet and began to gather the food and record list on the counter. His remaining thighs were thick and powerful, enough to support his body of more than a hundred kilograms to jump around the barn without the use of crutches. He picked up the last note handed over by the boy, and was about to throw it away, when he suddenly remembered something, looked at it again, and said to himself: "Level 3 drinking water, I really don't know what he wants this for." The radiation in the pit is much stronger than the sewage outside the town, which is not something that can be solved by drinking some clean water. ”

Old Hans took the note from Peter's hand, glanced at the numbers, crumpled it, and threw it into the fire pit outside the barn.

Old Hans coughed a few times, spat out thick phlegm, and said, "Peter, go back and tell Mad the mad dog that from tomorrow onwards the child will be deducted ten kilograms less per basket." If he can work here for a full month, give him a full amount. ”

"It seems a little out of order," Peter said. ”

"He's raising kids." Old Hans lit a half-baked cigarette and spoke in a dull voice.

Peter looked up in some surprise and said, "What? How old is he, how can he raise a child? ”

Old Hans spat out a smoke ring and said, "Children under the age of three, if they keep drinking water without radiation and eating clean things, yes, they keep eating damn tertiary water and food, then they will not mutate when they grow up." ”

Peter raised his eyebrows and said, "Oh my God! I thought everyone was going to mutate. But how do you know that? ”

Old Hans said calmly: "Because I have also raised children. ”

Peter was taken aback and said, "You've never talked about that." How old is he? He should be twenty years old, God forbid, he must not be as ugly as you. ”

Old Hans smiled and said, "I was poor at that time, and I couldn't find enough clean water and food. He mutated when he was five years old and didn't make it. ”

Peter didn't know what to say for a moment, and was silent for a moment before he said, "Sorry, old fellow, I shouldn't have said that." You know...... Oh, I've never met a woman in my life who could have a baby, and I didn't have a chance to raise one. ”

Old Hans took a heavy drag on his cigarette, looked at the pale green night sky outside the barn, and said, "Man, you never had to tell me this. If it weren't for you, I would have become the food of the rotting wolf, and it would not be my turn to sit in the position of the company's agent. ”

Peter picked up a food box of nearly 50 kilograms, supported it on one leg, jumped more than a meter high, gently placed the food box on the highest shelf, scratched his head again, and said, "I didn't mean to save you." You know that I am a master of the fighting domain, and at that time, the ability to strengthen defense was already a second-order, and that wolf king couldn't bite me to death no matter what. But you're different, a soft bastard like you who can tear off half of your ass in one bite! ”

Old Hans handed Pete the small half of the cigarette in his hand, patted him on the shoulder, and said, "Man, go to bed early, no woman will come here at such a late hour." ”

Peter took a hard puff of his cigarette and held it in his lungs until he couldn't hold it anymore. Old Hans had already returned to the iron house, and heard the sound of a heavy object falling to the ground, indicating that he had thrown himself on the bed. Peter the Cripple dragged out a green-lacquered iron box from under the counter, carefully took out a rotten magazine that could be scattered at any moment, and turned it page by page by the light of the campfire, and his snort grew heavier.

The cover of the magazine suddenly fell off and fell to the ground. The hot and glamorous woman on the cover has become a little blurred due to age, but you can still see the eye-catching "PLAYBOY" on the cover. At the bottom of the cover, a small line indicates the publication date of the magazine: February 1982 issue.

No matter how many new homeless people come in the wilderness, and no matter how many original homeless people disappear geometrically, the sun always rises as usual.

The boy was the same as yesterday, just as people had gone down the mine, and came out of the mine at the moment when the sun had completely sunk, and dug up as much ore as yesterday, and exchanged the same things. The only difference was that the amount of money he owed to Cripple Peter went from five cents to ten.

After a month, perhaps there was enough food to eat, or perhaps the boy's strength had grown, and he had earned more money a day than before, so his account to Peter the Cripple was dwindling day by day.

Life in the wilderness was monotonous and repetitive, and a year passed like this.

In this day and age, it is already a rare happiness to be able to live monotonously and repeatedly. If you don't have to fight for food with rotting wolves, and you can drink water with less radiation, what else can you ask for? As for boredom, it's too extravagant to think about it once in a while.

At first, there was a rookie among the homeless who wanted to beat the boy, but the strips of cloth he wrapped around his body scared them. In this era, there were at least dozens of diseases that could be strongly contagious and incurable, and all of them had a common feature, which was decay. Many people were secretly speculating about what had rotted under the strips of cloth, and betting on how many days he would live. However, when the deadline set by the most daring gambler had passed, four rookies who were bold enough and ignorant enough followed the boy away in the night. Three of them were never seen again, and the one who came back was following the boy away. Early the next morning, the homeless people found the man hanging from a wooden pole outside Old Hans's house, and the bodyguard in a black suit fired ten rounds at him with the double-shot shotgun, and he still had no breath. When it comes to torturing people, the black suit is clearly quite talented.

From then on, the old birds among the outcasts knew not to hit the boy.

Three years have passed.

The boy had dug up four times as much ore as he had at the beginning, but the amount of food he needed to change was also increasing, so he never had any savings. The wrinkles on Old Hans's face deepened, and the pages of the '83 Playboy edition that Cripple Peter treasured went from fifteen to eleven.

By the fifth year, less and less ore could be mined in the pit, and the simple happiness of the wilderness had come to an end.

One evening, when he had received food and water from Peter the Cripple again, old Hans stopped him. The boy at the beginning, and now the boy followed the old Hans into the iron house. The room was full of clutter, but there was a bed in it, a real bed with futon and pillows. Such a bed was enough to distinguish old Hans from everyone. The boy didn't look at the bed more, but kept looking at a hand-drawn map hanging on the wall. The map was crudely drawn, with large blank spaces and bold danger markings in red pen in some places.

"We're here." Old Hans pointed to the map, then west, until the circle marked Scarlet Danger stopped, and said, "This place is a nest of fire-breathing ants." These one-meter-long creatures are very difficult to deal with, they don't really breathe fire, but you have to be careful that the acid they spew is even worse than fire. The most annoying thing is that these guys are always out in groups. But they also have good things on them, their front claws are harder than steel, but they are half the lighter, so they can be sold in many places, and the price is not bad, because few people dare to hunt fire-breathing ants. In the middle of their hind legs, there is a small piece of meat that has no radiation and no toxins, but the portion is too small. ”

The boy looked at the map quietly, as if he wanted to engrave every stroke on it in his heart. The only exposed eye was a deep blue, and there were faint gray lines around the pupils, crystal clear, like a piece of the finest jade. After all these years, old Hans found that for the first time in his eyes, he saw the eyes of his teenager clearly.

Old Hans cleared his throat and pointed to the south end of the fire-breathing ant's nest, where there was only a W, and I don't know what it meant.

"There's a cave here, and there's a pool of sinkholes, and there's a big mutated leech there. If you feed it with your own blood, it will expel excess water from its body. The water contained only a slight amount of radiation, not much, barely enough for a five-year-old child. ”

"The fire-breathing ant's nest is about a hundred kilometers away from here, and you may have to walk for days. Tomorrow the mine will be closed, and you don't have to come here. Old Hans waved his hand, and the boy quietly left the iron house. Before leaving the door, the boy looked at old Hans and said thank you softly.

The boy's voice was as soft as the wind, and there was a mysterious magnetism. If it had been placed in a previous era, it might have the potential to become a superstar.

The next morning, the sun drove the roaming rotting wolves back to their lairs, but it also brought with it howling winds and fist-sized gravel. To the west of the mine, there is the endless Gobi Desert, where the fiery red rocks are blown by the wind and sand into stone pillars full of holes. As far as the eye can see, you can only see a few low, sharp thorns, and the branches and leaves contain highly poisonous sand wattles. Rock scorpions and giant bellied black bees are deadly threats, but the greatest danger is the absence of water, not even radiation-filled sewage.

When the rock scorpions hid in the crevices of the rocks to hide from the sun, the teenager appeared on the edge of the Gobi. He wrapped himself tightly in a black blanket, and in his bandaged hands he held a small child, who was also draped in a black blanket.

In the compound eyes of the rock scorpion, two figures, one large and one small, held hands and slowly walked towards the depths of the Gobi. Suddenly, a gust of wind blew, and the blanket on the child's head was lifted, and a long gray hair like silk satin spilled out, shining with a thousand dazzling brilliance under the reflection of the sun.

The boy stopped, carefully tied her long hair, put a blanket on her again, and then took her hand and continued to walk deeper into the Gobi.

After walking like this for a whole week, they finally found the cave that old Hans was talking about, and also found the mutated leech. The boy set the girl up in the hole and went alone to the nest of the fire-breathing ants in the darkness of the night.

It wasn't until dusk on the third day that the boy struggled to come back. The little girl sat quietly at the entrance of the cave waiting for him to return, and she didn't know how long she had been sitting.

On this night, the little girl frowned, and with her snow-white teeth, she tore at the blue and white fire-breathing ant flesh that was as tough as a piece of rubber. The ant meat was tough and fishy, but she tried to chew each piece of meat carefully, swallowing it, and even licking the juice on her fingers.

In the depths of the cave, the boy hid in the darkness, cleaning the wounds crisscrossed his body little by little, and the bones were visible.

The mutated leeche, which had sucked up the blood, lazily crawled out of the porcelain bowl, silently slid into the shimmering blue sewage pool, dived into the depths of the pool, and left half a bowl of clear water in the porcelain bowl.

It takes three days for a teenager to go to a fire-breathing ant nest. So the life of the boy, the girl and the leech is repeated over and over again in a cycle of three days.

Three years later, the leech died.

No matter what changes, the sun will always rise.

The boy and the girl stood side by side at the mouth of the cave, and the strong wind blew their tattered blankets, tearing a piece of wool from them from time to time.

"We've got to go to the settlement." The boy's voice is always so gentle and calm, and the vague magnetism is deeper and broader.

The girl was now up to the boy's chest, and she leaned over him, wrapped the blanket around him, and whispered, "I'm afraid." ”

"Don't be afraid, I'll protect you." The young man's voice was firm, revealing unwavering determination, but only he knew how much faith he could.

The boy brought four carefully selected forelimbs of fire-breathing ants. Old Hans said that this thing should be sold for a good price in the settlement, and a good price means food and clean water. The experience in the pit told him that he should not bring too many things that can be sold at a good price, otherwise he will be in trouble.

The boy walked ahead, and the girl took him by the corner of his coat, and the two of them walked together towards the desolate and desperate front.

Yorkston is a settlement that has only developed in the last decade, and there are already five or six hundred people living here for a long time, bars, hotels, restaurants, grocery stores and clinics have opened one after another, and there is even a sheriff in charge of maintaining order. The sheriff's power comes from the Uzi submachine gun he always carries on his back. Compared to the bottles, iron bars, machetes, and even homemade powder guns that were common in the surrounding area, the sheriff's submachine gun was obviously more convincing. Therefore, there is a basic order in the town of Yorkston, at least you can't kill people casually here, and if you kill someone, you have to have a valid reason.

A reason approved by the sheriff is a valid reason.

On this day, a real big man came to Yorkston Town, and some people of status went to meet them outside the town. Those who didn't qualify to go were talking excitedly about the big man, even though they didn't even know if he was a man or a woman. In this way, no one paid special attention to the teenagers who entered the town.

The town's butcher, who also ran the only inn, was glad to open a room for the boy and girl, and offered a free dinner. Of course, if you want low-radiation quality, a fire-breathing ant blade is not enough.

The boy told the girl to rest in her room, and then took the rest of the fire-breathing ant blade out of the hotel. I've heard that this stuff can be sold at a better price at the grocery store. Before leaving the door, the boy carefully arranged an inconspicuous mechanism on the door.

From the butcher's already somewhat unnatural smile, the boy had a premonition that trouble might come, but he didn't expect it to come so quickly. Just after crossing an intersection, the boy was stopped by two people, and they knew from the square-headed wooden stick in their hands that they had bad intentions.

"Hi boy! I heard you have a fire-breathing ant blade for sale, and we want to talk to you! ”

The boy hesitated, but followed the three into a secluded alley, and then into a large house that was still intact. In the center of the room sat a big man, who seemed to be the leader, and the three people behind him blocked the door intentionally or unintentionally.

The leader was obviously satisfied with the attitude of the young man who always lowered his head: "Boy! You can call me a viper. I heard you have a fire-breathing ant blade, that's good, no matter how many you have, I'll ask for it. Here's your pay! ”

The boy looked at a piece of black bread that was as hard as a stone and slowly bent down to pick it up, while placing the three fire-breathing ant blades on his back on the ground. Although the bread was hard enough for a long time, the radiation was not high, and the girl had grown up enough to withstand the radiation of this procedure.

When he stood up straight, he found that the three people behind him did not mean to open the door, and the hand holding the wooden stick was obviously straining.

The viper also stood up, pulled out a hand-made single-barreled gunpowder short gun from his waist, and said with a cruel smile: "You are very good at Taoism and know the times, you should have been let go of this deal." It's a pity that the butcher reported that you also brought a fine-skinned chick, so there is no way to do it. Actually, I'm not the leader, I'm just the second, the leader is called Black Bear, and now I'm probably lying on that chick and making it hard! There's no way, the boss is about to catch up with the mutants, but he prefers to play with children. Alright, boy, it's time to send you on your way! I hope that by the time I rush over, that chick hasn't died yet! ”

At this moment, the young man was hiding in his ears under the bandage, and suddenly heard a faint dripping sound. It was the sound of the metal piece he was holding on the door being broken and rubbed, and this kind of sound wave with tens of thousands of frequencies was not at all audible to ordinary people's ears.

He looked up, and although his face was hidden in the shadow of the blanket, his only left eye lit up, like a green flame!

"You ......," the viper screamed, and the cry stopped abruptly, and then the room rang out with the loud sound of gunpowder guns. The sound of gunfire shattered the only piece of glass intact, and the pungent smell of gunpowder quickly filled the air.

The young man wrapped in a black blanket appeared like a ghost at the door of the butcher's inn.

The inn's haphazardly nailed door was ajar, and the thick smell of blood could be smelled from a long distance. Inside the inn, there was an unusual silence, faintly, as if a small voice was sobbing.

The boy paused at the door before entering the inn, leaving a trail of blood behind him.

The butcher stayed at the door of the boy's room, his eyes wide to the limit, and the extreme fear fixed on his face. All he had left was a head, and his body was missing.

The door of the room was empty, and blood poured out from under the door like a spring, so much that it made people's hearts palpitate.

The boy stood in the blood, and the feeling on his skin told him that the blood was still hot. He gently pushed open the hidden door, and then was silent.

The girl sat in the center of the room with her head hidden behind her knees, sobbing softly. The black blanket that had always been wrapped around his body was thrown in the corner of the room, and the rough wooden bed collapsed completely. The girl wore a dress of rough workmanship but very clean, and the exposed skin, whether it was the arms or the half of the calves, was so white and soft that it was maddeningly soft. Although she is still young, even in the old days, it is possible to turn the men of the entire city into beasts.

The room has become hell.

There was human flesh and limbs scattered everywhere, there was almost no place to stay, some living organs were even wriggling, and the walls were completely stained black and red by the splatters of blood. Blood continued to pour out of the fragments of the limbs, accumulating in puddles several centimeters deep on the ground. I don't know if the butcher's body is here, I don't know which piece of meat belongs to the black bear, and I don't know if it's three or four people lying here. Everything is chopped up and mixed together.

The girl sat like this, in the middle of a hell of flesh and blood.

Her long, beautiful pale gray hair fell like a waterfall like a piece of silk, and the ends of it were soaked in blood. Beside the girl, a huge one-meter-long square-bladed bone chopping knife was stuck in the ground, with a notch on the blade and many small pieces of flesh hanging from it. Only when dealing with a rampaging ironclad bear whose bones are as hard as a rock will the butcher use this square-bladed bone cleaver made of stainless steel.

Hearing the door knock, the girl looked up and saw the boy. She immediately smiled like a rainbow, and the tears still hanging from the corners of her eyes shone like two brilliant diamonds in the sunlight shining through the window.

The boy sighed, carefully finding a place to settle among the limbs on the ground, and walked towards the girl.

The girl didn't care so much, she jumped up and threw herself into his arms, kicking and spilling blood all the way. The boy stroked her long gray hair, which was still soft and warm, and despite the blood, no beads of blood could rest on it.

"I'm afraid!" The girl said softly. Her little hands clutched the bandages on the boy's body, and even pulled him so painfully that the boy knew that she was really scared, but she didn't know how to comfort him.

Settlements always mean trouble, but in the wilderness, it's increasingly difficult to find food. The most scarce thing is clean water. In this era, the first thing that everyone faces every day is survival. In the face of survival, there is no tolerance, there is no sharing. Anyone, in the eyes of others, can mean clean food and water.

Outside the hotel, there was a sudden noise of people, and someone shouted: "The outsider has killed someone!" The butcher is dead! I see they're still inside! ”

The crowd shouted louder and louder, and the sound of metal striking could be heard from time to time, and by the sound of it, dozens of people surrounded the four-room inn. The boy patted the girl lightly, and silently took out a carefully collected fire-breathing ant blade from under the black blanket. The blade was cut in half, leaving only the sharpest tip, each of which shone with a faint blue glow, and the grip was carefully sharpened and tightly wrapped around a coarse cloth band. In terms of power, this thing is already comparable to the military daggers of the old era.

The boy clenched his blade and waited quietly for the crowd to break through the door. The girl stopped crying, and her beautiful blue eyes flashed around the room, and then fell on the square-bladed bone cleaver, and she stretched out her little hand to grab it. She's pretty comfortable with it.

With an outstretched left hand, the boy pulled the girl back, not allowing her to touch the knife. He blocked the girl behind him and looked quietly at the door and window. Although the windows are nailed with wooden strips, there is no guarantee that no one will rush in from here.

"Quiet!" The sheriff's majestic voice sounded outside the inn, and the noise immediately became quieter, showing the sheriff's authority, though not enough: "Let me see what is going on!" Damn, it smells so heavy of blood, how many people died in it? ”

With a bang, the door of the inn was kicked open by the sheriff, and the crowd immediately screamed, and then there was an uproar, and the sheriff's Uzi had already pulled the bolt of the gun.

At this moment, a cold and murderous voice suddenly sounded outside: "Get out of here!" Make way for Madame! ”

The boy immediately heard several screams and the sound of heavy objects falling to the ground, apparently there was no time for anyone to get out of the way. But the tumult that was still raging outside had completely disappeared, and the mob, even the sheriff, were silent, and no one dared to make a noise, let alone any opposition.

Then, in the roar, smoke and dust rose everywhere, and the courtyard walls, walls, gates, and roofs of the inn were torn apart. With a snort, a hand wearing dark black leather gloves slammed into the thin iron sheet that was used as a wall, and when he held and pulled, the whole iron sheet was torn off by him and thrown more than ten meters away. It was a tall, handsome, arrogant, and cold young man, with short blond hair standing on end like a burning flame. He wore a half-body armor made of silver-gray alloy to protect vital parts such as the chest, back of the heart, and lower abdomen. Beneath the armor was a dark black uniform with dark gold stripes, and the long leather boots on his feet were polished and shiny, out of place with the dirt around them. It was this person just now, who had been demolished all the way from a street more than a dozen meters away in a few minutes with his bare hands, and opened a five-meter-wide road in the block where houses had been built indiscriminately.

The boy, the girl, and the hell in the room are revealed to everyone.

The girl looked up and looked at the crowd around her with some blankness, it was the first time she had seen so many people gathered together. She instinctively sensed a hint of danger, and tried to reach out to grab the square-bladed bone cutting knife, but the boy grabbed it tightly.

The moment he saw the girl's face, the noisy crowd suddenly fell silent, and even the arrogant blonde samurai's expression was a little frozen.

The sound of everyone's breathing echoed clearly in the boy's ears, visibly getting heavier and heavier. So he sighed, looked up, and looked behind the blonde samurai.

At the other end of the road, which had only been opened for a few minutes, a horse-drawn carriage was parked. It is an old eighteenth-century troika with an ancient and elegant body in black and gold, and the bronze headlights are polished and shiny. It was driven by four tall horses, and it was rare that all four horses had the same snow-white fur, without a trace of variegation.

No one in the whole town of Yorkston would recognize these as four thoroughbreds, but it didn't matter, whatever they were, they were already far beyond the limits of their imagination.

In front of and behind the carriage stood eight heavily armed samurai, wearing alloy armor identical to that of the blond youth. The difference was that the blonde youth was empty-handed, while the sixteen samurai were armed with heavy firepower. Compared to the four Minimi heavy machine guns, Sheriff Uzi was a toy.

Four attendants took rolls of scarlet carpet from the wagons behind them, and paved them down the road from under the troika to the boys and girls.

The room was a hell of flesh and blood, and the scarlet carpet lay down, and immediately sank in half-congealed blood. The waiters did not hesitate to layer the carpet, which was obviously ridiculously expensive, one by one, until the blood was five centimeters high, ensuring that the blood would never rush onto the carpet.

The four waiters, whether they wore black tuxedos, snow-white shirts, or neatly ironed bow ties, should not belong to this era. In Yorkston, even the most respectable people resemble the beggars of yesteryear. The sheriff's jeans have a big hole in it, but because it is not torn on the buttocks, it is already a first-class outfit that represents status. And because of the preciousness of the water, the people of the town never bathe.

Unlike the others, the boy looked at the feet of the attendants. They gracefully stepped on the broken limbs with high bleeding water, as light as butterflies, and the muscles on the limbs, which were already visibly soft, only sank slightly, and took on the weight of the waiter. By the time they had carpeted themselves and exited the house, only the soles of the eight shiny black leather shoes had been stained with blood. Seeing this, the young man's dark blue pupils contracted slightly.

An elderly butler walked up to the carriage, slowly but gracefully opened the door, and then spread a snow-white square scarf on his arm and raised it flat.

Inside the door, a hand stretched out, as elegant, delicate and slender as an orchid, on the butler's arm. On the ring worn by the middle finger, the deep sapphire, the size of a quail's egg, made almost everyone look straight. The only thing that makes people feel a little abrupt are those slender nails that are five centimeters long. The nails are impeccable, but they are decorated with black and red patterns that make people shudder.

Out of the carriage was a woman dressed in the costumes of an old-fashioned medieval court. Her hair was held high and tied in a bun with a goldenrod and rose pattern. She looked to be in her twenties, her light gray eyes with typical aristocratic indifference, and her skin was so delicate that it seemed to be ready to be blown by the wind at any moment. From every point of view, she meets even the most demanding standards of classical beauty.

As soon as the woman got out of the carriage, the residents of Yorkston Town suddenly forgot about their neighbor who was still lying at their feet after being shot and killed, and with a bang, you pushed me and squeezed, trying to come forward and see more clearly. Most of the people here have never seen a woman with smooth skin in their lives, let alone the old-fashioned dresses and jewels that would make the eyes of the ladies of the old era red with jealousy.

Almost everything around this woman is so out of place in this era, to be exact, extravagant beyond the reach of people's imagination.

The excited and excited crowd pushed and shoved, and squeezed towards the carriage step by step. As long as there is a group, even the most cowardly people will have inexplicable courage, not to mention that in this era, the difference between man and beast has blurred.

Just when people's emotions were about to get out of control, one of the guards suddenly raised the muzzle of the gun, and the muzzle of the Minimi gun suddenly spewed out a hot stream of fire, and in the rainstorm of gunfire, hundreds of bullets easily tore apart the flesh in front of them, cutting an abrupt hole in the crowded human wall!

It wasn't until the entire chain of bullets was wiped out that the guards lowered the already hot heavy machine gun, and there was no expression on Mu Ran's face, as if he had just shot not a dozen people, but just a dozen animals. To the ears of all the townspeople of Yorkston, the click of the guards changing chains was so clear and cold. The sheriff swallowed hard and quietly hid his Uzi behind him.

The woman did not glance at the scene of the massacre at all, and from the moment she got out of the carriage, she had been staring at the girl. She gracefully raised her hand, pointed at the girl with her black and red fingertips, and said, "I want this girl." ”

Her tone was unquestionable and could not be disobeyed, both to the young man and to the butler's orders. The butler bowed slightly and said, "Yes, ma'am." ”

The boy understood that this was an order, and there was absolutely no room for negotiation. From the moment the woman got out of the car, he kept his head down and didn't look at her at all. However, his body trembled uncontrollably, and with every step the woman took closer, his trembling intensified.

The old butler, with his arm as an armrest, followed her step by step, but he walked respectfully and cautiously beyond the carpet. Although he walked through the bloodied ruins, the old butler's leather shoes were spotless, and unlike the waiters, the soles of his shoes were clean. In fact, every step he took never really touched the ground.

The woman walked up to the young man, stretched out her hand and pulled the girl from behind him to herself, leaned over slightly, looked carefully at the girl's incomparably delicate face, and only exhaled for a long time before she exhaled and praised: "What beautiful eyes." ”

From birth, girls are excessively pretty. As she grew older, her beauty grew. Perhaps because of her age, the girl did not know fear, but looked back at the woman with some curiosity.

From beginning to end, the boy stood with his head down, not moving, allowing the woman to pull the girl away. Although he was wrapped in a thick blanket, the tremor of his body could not be concealed.

The woman looked at the young man in some surprise, nodded and said, "It's actually me that you are afraid of, not my subordinates, very good!" You seem to be a smart kid who knows what to choose. What kind of choice do you think I will give you? ”

The boy was silent for a moment before he said, "I live, she is yours." Or I'm dead, and she's still yours. ”

The woman was even more surprised, but not because of the boy's answer, but because of his voice. Her tone softened a little and asked, "Sue me by your name." ”

“…… Sue. ”

The boy was silent for a moment before he spoke. He needed to control the tremors of his body in order to keep his voice steady.

The woman smiled slightly, "Okay, Sue." My full name is Angelina. Fragrance. Lana Xhis. I took this girl away, you can't protect her now, only with me can she give full play to her talent. Remember my name, and if one day you are strong enough to come to me. Okay, now, show me your face. ”

She leaned forward and lifted the young man's jaw with the long nail of her left index finger, the two faces less than ten centimeters apart, and the mysterious aroma of her breath even completely enveloped his face. Then, with two more fingernails, she slowly pulled the bandages around the boy's face down. These bandages look very dirty, but strangely don't smell at all.

The sharp edges of the black and red nails slowly slid across his skin.

The old butler standing beside him lowered his head and looked only at the tips of his leather shoes. The guards all turned their backs to this side, their weapons pointed at the onlookers. The swarthy muzzles of the guns made the Yorkston townsfolk smarter, and they knew that it wasn't enough to keep their heads down, they had to turn around to survive.

In the extreme silence, the sense of time becomes a problem. It seemed like only a moment had passed, and it seemed like a long time had passed.

At some point, Angelina had already pulled the young man's bandage back up, and said with a smile: "I'm looking forward to the day when you come to me!" ”

With that, Angelina pulled the girl towards the carriage, and behind her, the crisp, high-pitched, unbridled, and ambiguous laughter shook off the carpet as red as blood.

The girl did not cry, nor did she make the slightest gesture of resistance, but looked back and forth until the door of the carriage blocked her dark blue eyes.

On the carriage window, Angelina suddenly lifted the curtain, revealing half of her face full of classical beauty, and said to the young man: "In this era, the most difficult thing is to live with dignity. Hopefully, you didn't choose this worst path. ”

It wasn't until the troika had completely moved away from Yorkston that the boy slowly raised his lowered head.

At this moment, he didn't know the true meaning of the name Lanaxis. I don't know what the Spider Empress of the Blood Council means to this era.