It was a chaotic, brutal, dirty, rotten, ugly time.

Five hundred years after the Big Bang, due to the sudden disappearance of the poisonous gases that diffused in the air, the surviving humans and non-humans hiding in the ground, mountain tops, caves, and various protective structures crawled out one after another, like flies in the garbage heap in the summer, and stood on the barren land crisscrossed by ravines, with open arms and tears streaming down their faces, to receive the gift of sunlight, and then to grow and spread wildly at a speed that would make maggots ashamed, occupying the borderlands, attacking their opponents, and looking for any food that could be put in their mouths.

Earth, once a beautiful and tranquil blue planet, has become a vast devastation, like a mother's hands that cared for its atmosphere before the Big Bang, and the sky is full of hideous fissures, escaping harmful energy from different time and space, gray, white and black, making it look like a giant jellyfish dancing tentacles, and like the false smile of a clown, mocking the greed and stupidity of mankind.

Those familiar with history know that these rifts are the culprits of the destruction of the planet.

It was the cold warships, ferocious beasts, bloodthirsty aliens, and high demon gods that poured out of these rifts that escalated the war of mankind to the level of destruction, directly leading to the great explosion, great destruction, and great catastrophe five hundred years ago.

At the same time, the demon gods disappeared without a trace overnight after the big explosion.

It's like they've never been there.

No one knows why.

Five hundred years later.

The oceans and landmasses of the past have been shattered, and the new earth will be known only to those who have mastered the latest technology.

Mutated undead creatures and new species that emerge from the cracks in space, demonic beasts, roam the land in droves. Having undergone the transformation of poisonous air and rays of destruction, they now possess powerful ** and terrifying powers, and even awaken wisdom. Trying to replace humanity and become the new master of the world.

They can be found in all corners of the world, slaughtering all humans they come across, destroying every city, and cutting off the communication and communication of those who survive.

The human world is divided into thousands of isolated individual forces.

Each faction has its own rules and leaders. The forces that are close to each other will test, annex or cooperate with each other. Those who are far away do not get along with each other. Internally, there is no exception to adopt high-pressure rule.

It's like Black Mist City.

Black Mist is an industrial city that inherited most of the city's plant and machinery before the Big Bang, and has been renovated and repaired over hundreds of years to make some facilities operational. Cars are one of the city's specialties.

The sky of Black Mist City was forever covered with a thick layer of lead mist, as if it had put a hat on the city.

But this hat will not protect the safety of the people living in the city, but will eat away at their health little by little.

Industrial smoke and exhaust fumes are the main components of this "hat", and most of the residents living in Black Mist City have respiratory diseases and do not live longer than fifty years old. But who cares about these, for the poor and low-income people who account for more than ninety percent of the urban population, people are like the food and nourishment of the city, contributing blood and sweat to accelerate the growth of the behemoth of Black Mist City. For most people, living is only adding to their suffering, and death will bring them peace.

But no one wants to give up life easily, death is easy, but living is hard.

People live hard and hard, for the faith in their hearts.

Li Mo is one of them.

On March 9, 113, it was another dry and windless morning in Black Mist City.

Li Mo raised his head and stared in disgust at the lead cloud that was sinking like a water bladder.

He walked on the road leading to St. Mary's Church, his expression numb, his eyes were cold, his body was stiff, and he looked weak.

Except for the difference in clothing and figure, most people in Black Mist City are like this.

Poverty has torn apart their dignity, hunger has terrified them, and repressive rule has made them subservient.

Ever since the construction of the three-meter-thick and fifty-meter-high defensive wall around the city twenty years ago, everyone's fate has been sealed.

The noble will always be noble, and the lowly will always be low.

Black Mist City is windless most of the time, and it is only when the climate outside changes drastically that people can feel a cool wind across their faces, what a pleasant enjoyment. If you are lucky, the black clouds hundreds of meters thick above your head will be torn open, and a large amount of fresh air will pour into Black Mist City along this opening, and at that time, everyone will go out of the house and greedily breathe in the refreshing and cold air. And with great interest, we will discuss what the fresh air tastes like this time, whether it is the smell of green earth, the sweet smell of the forest, or the smell of salty sea breeze.

Li Mo had never seen a forest, nor had he seen the sea, but the soil was seen every day, but its breath was not green at all, no different from the air he breathed every day, it was all mixed with the stench of engine oil and exhaust gas, which was too much.

When he was a child, he also longed for the forest and the sea, fantasizing about their appearance, and later, from other people's words and pictures, he knew what the forest and the sea looked like, but he was not excited or happy.

The appearance of the forest, the smell of the sea, these things don't matter anymore.

The important thing is a stable job, which will keep him from starvation.

Working twelve hours a day in the workshop, he was in no mood to pay attention to the nothing. They can't solve a hungry stomach, they can't replace a house, and they can't make him like the rulers of this city, who don't have to do anything, and sleep comfortably in bed every day.

He had long known that, except for the cooler temperature, the fresh air coming in from the outside was no different from the air he normally breathed, and it was still the smell of turbid engine oil and exhaust fumes.

The reason why people are happy to speculate and talk is just to find some fun in the boring life, and guessing the smell of fresh air is one of the few pleasures they have pitifully.

He never participates in such discussions.

This self-deluding talk made him feel like a fool.

What's more, Angel's existence, as long as she looks at her, will make Li Mo feel happy every day.

He didn't need any other way to increase his courage to live, and he didn't want anything else to take Angel's place in his heart.

It's about fifteen minutes from the factory to St. Mary's Church, where Angel is located, three blocks and around a huge bronze sculpture called The Founder.

The city changes every day, and it seems like every day.

The stinking garbage on both sides of the street, the roar of machinery coming from all directions, and the indifferent pedestrians hurrying away with their heads bowed make up a picture that has remained unchanged for many years.

But today the situation is a bit peculiar, in the northern section of a street called Bekan, a crowd of people are talking about something.

Li Mo approached, and the salty smell in the air had already made him understand that someone was dead.

It's the smell of blood.

Black Mist City dies every day, and many people die. In the dark alleys, the houses in disrepair, the noisy factories, and even the endless flow of streets, one or two corpses can be seen at any time. Unless instructed by the Dominator, most deaths are inconclusive.

Death is as normal as breathing.

But this time there were a lot of deaths.

Bloodstained corpses littered the intersection, garbage piled up like a hill of hair-numbing, and next to the pile of corpses, a truck dump truck was dumping new corpses.

Most of the dead were men and women, young and old, and most of them were shot and killed, and a few were tortured to death.

Blatantly throwing corpses, and there are so many corpses, there is only one kind of person who dares to do this, and that is the seven dominator families of Black Mist City.

In this city, whoever they want to die, they have to die, and they can kill as many people as they want. Because the whole city is theirs.

When the tall and solid defensive wall was built with the efforts of the people of the city, they took the lives of everyone in the city. The defensive wall not only protects against the undead and monsters, but also prevents the people of the city from escaping. If you don't like Black Mist City and don't want to live here, then I'm sorry, please die here.

This is a truth that people only later understood. It's a pity that it's too late.

Dominators use facts to show others how precious foresight is.

In the crowd watching the excitement, Li Mo found an acquaintance, the smoker Billy.

This guy never leaves his cigarette, and you can smell the inferior tobacco on him from afar. In this city, cigarettes are a luxury, and even the most inferior cigarettes cannot afford to be smoked by poor people like us. Billy is idle and has no job, and he can afford to smoke cigarettes, thanks to his wife, Mihir.

Mihir is not the daughter of a rich family, she just looks good. Her handsome appearance brought her a brief moment of joy as an adult.

But she ended up choosing Billy the Smoker, a clever and unearned thug.

The sweet life of the two lasted only three months, and endless quarrels and fights ensued. On their first wedding anniversary, Billy sells Mihir to Chandler, a skinner, who runs a brothel.

The money Mihil makes from picking up customers is divided equally between Billy and Chandler.

The cruelty of life is always inadvertently terrifying.

Mihir's tragedy also made Li Mo understand one thing, choice is more important than hard work.

"What's going on?" he asked, pulling his trench coat tight and squeezing over to Billy's side.

"I heard that it was a rebel. Billy looked back and saw that it was Li Mo, showed a twisted smile of excitement, quickly shifted his gaze to the corpse, and sighed in a low voice, "I guess there's another cart of corpses being transported." ”

Li Mo didn't answer, and he was extremely disdainful of this guy in his heart. But in this city, where there is no worst, only worse, no one is much more noble than the other.

And the word rebel has revealed a lot.

He forgot when he started to hear the rebels.

They belong to a very secretive underground force, not only in the Black Mist City, but also in the surrounding cities of Poison Wolf, Fore and Encas, with the purpose of overthrowing the existing forces and establishing a fair new world.

Especially in the past few years, they have assassinated several people from the Dominator family with status in Black Mist City, and of course, they have also been brutally suppressed, and many people have died.

"These are all rebels?" Li Mo asked with a frown when he saw the body of a little girl in the corpse pile.

"How could it be. "The rebels are estimated to be only a few, and the rest are their family and friends." ”

"It's bad luck. Li Mo sighed and asked again, "I'm going to church, do you want to go together?"

"You go first, I'll see later, and I'll go over at noon." Billy waved his hand.

Li Mo squeezed out the crowd of onlookers and continued to rush to the church.

He and Billy were parishioners of St. Mary's Church, and that was how they met. On weekdays, they would talk to each other when they met, but if Billy died, he would never be sad. Believing him dead, Billy thought the same thing.

Staying in the city for a long time, people will breed a feeling called disgust in their hearts, disgust with work, disgust with colleagues, and even disgust with survival. Even if you have friends who talk and laugh when you meet, you are disgusted with each other in your heart.

Fortunately, Li Mo has Angel, and it is a ray of warm sunshine shining into his dark and moldy heart.

It is the motivation for him to survive.

St. Mary's Church is a Gothic church with an area of only 300 square meters. The masonry concrete structure features double-pointed stone towers with layers of windows open on the roof and gables.

When Li Mo arrived, a memorial mass was being held inside, which meant that another parishioner had died.

His gaze immediately fell on Angel, who was standing quietly behind Father Merkes. She was dressed in a nun's dress, her head was slightly lowered, her comb-like eyelashes fluttered gently with the sadness in her heart, and the delicate and tall bridge of her nose was carved from ivory, crystal clear and dazzling.

As if feeling his gaze, Angel opened her star-like charming eyes and looked in his direction, Li Mo's mind instantly fell into those clear and clean eyes.

Love makes you lose yourself.

Li Mo didn't know if this was love.

At least, in his mind, love is a luxury. It's something that poor people like them can't have in their lifetime.

At Angel's beckoning, he quietly walked behind the others, listened to the priest's mass, and then followed the faithful who attended the ceremony to say goodbye to the deceased.

It wasn't until Li Mo walked up to the dead man and saw his face that he realized that the dead man was actually the old beggar Cole, the only person he knew who had lived past sixty years old.

For as long as he can remember, Cole has been a beggar. He spent his days lying under the statue of the Founder, stretching out a greasy blouse, and gazing pitifully and humbly at every pedestrian who walked past him.

But his selfish and indifferent personality has long been integrated into the bone marrow of the residents of Black Mist City, and how many things can he beg, starvation and freezing are the norm. Even so, he was reluctant to go to work. After so many years, his contemporaries have died, but he is alive and well, and after the opening of the Mary's Church, he is alive and well. Last year, the parishioners celebrated his 60th birthday here.

Unexpectedly, the old Cole, who seemed to live forever, also died.

Lee looked at Cole innocently, trying to keep his appearance in mind. His legs were as thin as bamboo poles, his chest was shriveled and dive like a basin, and his face was neat and clean like never before, it should have been cleaned by Angel for him, and no one else would be as serious and compassionate as her, but would only wipe it a few times.

He looked at the familiar and unfamiliar face and thought to himself that this was what Cole looked like, his true face hidden under a humble and flattering smile.

Now, he will no longer sell his dignity to fill his stomach.

He finally died.