The ever-bright sunlight poured through the glass on the corridor, and a burly figure walked through the corridor that was a little short for him.

Arthur traveled for hours to complete the relevant formalities in order to complete the application for the villagers to enter the city, and after settling his former compatriots, he returned to this skyscraper that soared into the sky - the total number of floors is at least more than 100 floors, this magnificent building that connects heaven and earth is not only the geographical center of the Salvation City, but also the political center, and almost all the city's urban management, public transportation, and government office-related business are concentrated in this skyscraper.

This building is generating a massive amount of data interaction all the time, countless instructions are issued from the building, copied to major departments through different professional lines, each grand goal and task after decomposition, layer by layer will eventually be reduced to zero, specifically refined into each indicator, each day's progress and then distributed to each grassroots clerk, and at the same time according to their feedback information dynamically adjusted to ensure the daily operation of the city.

If the City of Salvation is compared to a living Levitan behemoth, then the Central Building must be the central nervous system that coordinates the normal operation, functioning and even survival of this behemoth.

At this moment, Arthur, who was on the thirty-second floor of the Central Building, crossed the long corridor, and through the window on the left side of the corridor, he could easily overlook most of the central city of Salvation.

High-rise buildings are scattered throughout the city, and the glass curtain wall on the outside of the high-rise buildings shines under the deflection of the morning light in the eternal day hemisphere, and the pedestrians and vehicles in the blocks below flow like blood rushing in the veins.

Compared to the outside, this is simply a dream city.

With this in mind, Arthur turned his head and knocked on the door, and a moment later a calm, somewhat strange voice came from the room.

"Please come in."

Pushing the door in, the furnishings in the room are as monotonous and simple as ever, a man with a square face and a difficult face seems to be sitting in front of a solid wood desk, the desk is full of stacks of papers, and the curtain wall screen behind him is playing dozens of different perspectives of surveillance images, and at the same time, the man's face is hidden in the shadow of the backlight.

"The relevant procedures for entering the city this time have been completed." He pulled out a stack of papers from his bosom and gently placed them on the clerk's desk, "These are relevant documents, please take a look."

The clerk, who was processing the documents, temporarily stopped what he was doing and took the documents, only glanced at the names of the documents, and then asked with some confusion, "Twenty-one people were actually selected?" Why is there one more?"

He also raised his head that had been hanging down when he asked, and the light from the flickering screen behind him dimmed, and the man's appearance gradually became clear.

The clerk has a boxy face...... No, to be exact, it was a twenty-four-inch screen, and a puzzled emoji expression made up of a few simple symbols emerged from the screen, and although the other party did not have any facial features in the strict sense, Arthur could still feel that the other party seemed to be quietly looking at him, waiting for a reasonable answer.

Arthur had explained the situation several times to the staff who handled the relevant documents before he came, so this time he quickly explained the situation succinctly: "Because the lottery targets are underage children, according to the regulations of Salvation City, minors can be accompanied by a guardian to enter the city."

The clerk put the document aside, and at the same time confirmed the truth of his words on the administrative network, looking at Arthur, who was busy until now to report, he couldn't help but click the screen to greet him: "It's hard work, it seems that you have spent a lot of time running for them, I'm afraid there are not many people in the Salvation City who are willing to solve problems for others like you......

"It's okay, it's okay, this level of errands is nothing, and I hope they can move into the city soon." Arthur waved his hand nonchalantly, looking past the clerk to the streetscape that appeared on the screen of the floor-to-ceiling window behind him—people were walking the streets in a relaxed and happy manner, and there were many human-looking automaton machines with a screen, some of them were cleaning the streets, some were posing as shop assistants soliciting customers, and some were walking and laughing with other people.

Looking at this usual scene, Arthur couldn't help but sigh softly,

"After all, it's a great city that surprises you no matter how many times you see it."

"Yes, it is precisely because there are many self-discipline machines that replace daily labor that the residents of Salvation City can live a comfortable life without work, but this also makes basically no one want to work anymore." The screen on the clerk's face turned into a dissatisfied expression, and then he shook his head again, and the expression on the screen returned to the normal emoji, "Forget it, there is no way for this to happen. All in all, Arthur, you've worked hard, and I've heard that human bodies don't work as much as we do, so let's go and get some rest."

"There's no hurry," Arthur waved his hand unconcernedly, "I still have to apply for technology to enter the city."

"Technology into the city?" The clerk's square screen face showed a confused and confused emoji, "I remember the area you were responsible for was Dock Village, right? The inheritance of knowledge there has long been cut off, so why is it that there are suddenly talents who apply for technology to enter the city?"

"It's a long story, they're not local to Wharf Village." Arthur scratched his head, "They're all wanderers who came to Docks from somewhere else......

Then Arthur told the clerk about today's encounter with Wu Ming and others, and after getting a reply from him to approve the application, he left the office with a smile on his face.

"Ordinary baby-faced youth, cute blue-haired girl, and short, silent girl......" Looking at the closed door, the clerk's facial screen gradually flashed a strange red light, and the curtain wall screens behind him were also extinguished one after another, and the electronically synthesized voice with a strong heterogeneous texture echoed in the house for a long time, "Outlander, do you really want to let them in?"

"Letting them in would create unpredictable variables in the current situation......

"But this is an opportunity, a unique opportunity for us."

"Opportunity? Are you sure this is an opportunity and not a trap?"

"What if it weren't? Can you observe a better alternative?"

"No, but my calculations show that there is no more than a 1 percent chance that we alone will be able to defeat them."

He seemed to be talking to himself, and as if he had crossed the distance of space to talk to his compatriots on the same administrative network, and even several voices would come from his speaker at the same time, and the huge office suddenly became like a noisy vegetable market, and as time went by, his self-talk became more and more fragmented and contradictory, until—

"That's enough!"

In the silence of the empty room, the clerk interrupted his fragmented contradictions, and he was silent for a long time, until the screens behind him lit up one by one, and the stiff and mechanical electronic synthesized sound reverberated through the vast office again.

"Execute the order and get ready."

…………

Early the next morning, outside the city, the dock village.

Nemo got up early in the morning and came to the docks.

Tick, tick.

Tick-tock, continuous and rhythmic dripping sound rings in his ears, the water mark in the upside-down plastic bottle has dropped by two standard lines, although the white-haired boy stands straight, but from his mouth that wants to open and stop from time to time and a little hazy look at the water in the plastic bottle dripping can be seen, this guy is obviously about to fall asleep.

Nemo didn't get up early in the morning to run to the dock to blow the cold wind to watch the sunrise over the sea, and after the tidal lock, all the observable natural sights on the planet, including the alternation of day and night, were completely a thing of the past - the new generation born after the tide lock could no longer understand the scenery that people could see everywhere in the old days, and those who were lucky enough to see the alternation of day and night and live to this day have almost forgotten the scenery that they were accustomed to when they were young after spending half their lives in the wasteland.

Whether it is the sun rising in the east and setting in the west shining on the earth, the sunset that is enough to ignite most of the sky; The moon shining in the deep night sky, and the stars shining like jewels on the black curtain, have all become records preserved in the documents of the old era and stories in the memories of the elderly.

Just after the water in the plastic bottle leaked for the third time, a distant roar came from the sea

Nemo, who had been half-asleep, suddenly woke up, and in a short time, the ships looming on the sea level had already avoided the large and small half-submerged ruins to the dock and docked steadily.

The tall Arthur walked up to the dock, and he looked at Nemo alone, with some confusion, and couldn't help but ask.

"Why are you the only one? What about those people yesterday?"

"Uh...... It may be a bit sudden...... Nemo was also stunned when asked, he immediately thought of the embarrassment of yesterday's lie being exposed, and after that, the gang actually slipped away, leaving only a sentence for him, and after hesitating for a moment, he gritted his teeth and decided to repeat these words to Arthur, "They asked me to bring you a message, saying that the Persona Belt has been updated and the event has been opened, and a new version has been transmitted, and I want to go back to open up the wasteland, and I will definitely ...... next time."

"Quack?"

…………

At the same time, at sea.

Zhao Jida stood on the bow of the boat and looked at the distance at the sea level, her inorganic gray pupils constantly adjusting the focus, while Wu Ming paddled the oars comfortably, breaking the reflection of the waves on the water again and again, and causing ripples and ripples that spread really ......

The bored blue-haired girl was lying on the side of the boat, her green eyes motionless as she watched the tiny schools of fish swimming on the surface of the water and the repetitive shattering waves, intently concentrating.

Ignoring the half-ruined buildings around them, most of which were submerged in the sea, their rowing group looked like they were out on an outing.

"Administrator, we're almost at our predetermined location."

After drifting on the sea for an unknown amount of time, the puppet girl suddenly spoke.

"Big brother, aren't we going into the city with Nemo?" Elizabeth asked.

"Nope." Wu Ming shook his head, "Our gang is more dazzling wherever they go, and they will always cause all kinds of big things inexplicably, if there is really a problem in Salvation City, acting with us will hurt him."

Zhao Xida, who was standing at the bow of the ship and navigating, didn't reply: "Administrator, please don't evade responsibility so lightly, last time it was you and Elizabeth who messed around to cause a big incident, until now we have no way of knowing who spread the improved memetic virus among the bone people, and we don't even know if it was the group of outsiders who spread the virus."

"At that time, who would have thought that there was still a group of ghosts hiding to steal the meme virus and use it for practical use......" Wu Ming waved his hand with a hippie smile: "Ah, and isn't there still Le Pen?" Even if there is another large-scale spread, the special nature of Le Pen can easily control the spread of the memetic virus."

Zhao Xida sighed lightly and turned her head: "Manager, have you thought about it? Is it possible that those outlanders have the same ability to jump worlds as you do?"

The smile on Wu Ming's face suddenly froze, as if after realizing the seriousness of the matter, the smile began to fade gradually: "......"

The puppet girl standing on the bow of the boat asked again with a blank face, "What do you think would happen if they dropped this memetic virus into the real world?"

"When the time comes, if you report the aftermath of Night City to the Director, will she believe your nonsense?"

"What do you think the director will do about this?"

The three questions that hit the soul made Wu Ming's face no longer tight, and the latter, who seemed to see the gloomy future, couldn't help but wail: "Quack! Lao Zhao save me!"

Zhao Jida avoided it: "Managers, please pay attention to a little image!"

Elizabeth watched the fighting on the boat and inadvertently smiled innocently.

"What are you laughing at?" Zhao Jida asked while holding Wu Ming's head.

"Because the usual big brother is back?" Elizabeth tilted her head inexplicably, "After all, before waking up, the eldest brother always felt a little scary, but now he has changed back to his original appearance."

"Really?" Wu Ming let go of the hand that was hugging Zhao Xida's thigh, and quipped a little disapprehantly, "Maybe the external conscience and external rationality scattered around the world have been officially restored to the original state?"

Elizabeth pointed at herself, her eyes lit up, "Huh? Am I external rationality?

！」

"No, you're just an outward conscience." Zhao Jida shook her head expressionlessly, "It's just an Elizabeth."

"Hey! What do you mean, doll?"

Seeing that the two enemies began to quarrel again, time passed quietly between the three of them, and the boat was also driven and pulled by the current, and finally, came to the destination of their group-

It was a huge ocean vortex.

"Hey, is this the entrance to Salvation City? It's quite innovative."