January 6, noon, listed high school.

After talking to the principal, Anson Lu walked towards the teacher's dormitory, and he estimated that everyone had entered the dormitory building.

On the way, Ritsu Ushihara sent a message.

[Urushihara Ritsu: Okay, also, Lorenzo has someone tell you - "The materials you want can be found in two days."] 】

[Anson Lu: Two days, quite fast. 】

Anson Deer and Lorenzo made a bet before the start of the dungeon that if Lorenzo lost, he would have to use official power to help him find an epic material, the 'Thunder Rod'.

Judging from the material explosion rate of the third dungeon, epic materials are no longer so rare.

With the means of the law enforcement team, it is not difficult to call on players around the world to get the 'Thunder Rod'.

This is the key to synthesizing the legendary chess type 'Christmas Sleigh', as long as the Thunder Rod is in hand, Anson Deer is only one 'Deer' chess type, and it will be over after slowly pulling it out!

[Urushihara Law: After all, the law enforcement team is backed by the official, and their influence naturally goes without saying, as long as the bounty information is posted on the Internet, players with this material will appear immediately. 】

[Anson Lu: Okay, by the way, Crow, if you have time, you can help me investigate: the third in the world, what is the origin of that guy called 'Juliu Mena'. 】

[Uruchihara Law: No problem, I'll get back to you later.] 】

"Let's get some sleep first"

Anson Lu thought back to what had happened in the dungeon, and a sense of exhaustion swept over him.

He collapsed on the bed and closed his eyes.

As the evening came, the windows were stretched by the twilight of dusk, and the shadows of the grid shot diagonally into the dormitory like a black cage, looming over the boy's cheeks.

He opened his eyes, and two bubbles of information popped out of the upper right corner of his gaze.

[Urushihara Law: Lorenzo said: The official used the auction to get the 'Gathering Thunder Rod' from a player, and he will transfer the materials to Ling later.] 】

[Urushihara Law: Also. I looked into the information about 'Yulius Mena'. 】

Anson Lu clicked on the friend panel, Qi Yuan sent a lot of information, he squinted his eyes, "Is this the world's number one gambler, how did you have such a wide network?" ”

He looked at the first two lines of the document:

[Juliu Mena, 19 years old, special sequence player, sequence name: "Devouring Hand", ranked third in the world in terms of combat power]

Anson Deer raised an eyebrow, "Devouring Hand, it sounds like a growing sequence again." ”

[He is the leader of the underground mafia "Snow Wolf" in Washington, and did not join the law enforcement team, as for the reason why he did not join the law enforcement team, it has a certain relationship with the purgatory ape 'David Kench' who died in the New York incident. 】

Anson Lu stared at the name 'David Kench' for a moment, resting his hands behind his head and slowly flipping down the information.

Five years ago, on the streets of Chicago, USA.

Dressed in a thin T-shirt and jeans, Yuliuu squatted by the yellowed walls.

With a numb face, he held up a wooden sign in his hand, on which was written in black handwriting with a simple English word - "Help! ”。

Yuliuu is fourteen years old.

He was born in an orphanage and had no surname, only a first name.

One day, he escaped from the orphanage and crossed the mountains to this strange city.

In the United States, passers-by have a good attitude towards underage vagrants - when they pass by the street and casually see Yuliu, holding a sign, they will always give him some meager items on hand.

It was Juliou's first day in Chicago.

Not far from him sat a man in simple clothes and a hat - this homeless man with a beard, like Yuliu, holding up a sign in his hand, waiting for handouts from passers-by.

However, passers-by will always be partial to the child Yuliu, and no one will give a man the slightest kindness.

The homeless man often looked at him when he noticed that Juliu's cup was stuffed with more and more small denominations.

Yulius was uneasy, knowing that he had robbed someone else of his job - even though both were begging, the age of fourteen gave him an infinite advantage.

Soon another passer-by approached Yuliu, who put the milk he had just bought from a fast-food restaurant in front of Yuliu, touched his head, and whispered encouragement:

"Child, you still have a future, hold on."

The homeless man with his beard could not help but look this way, and he tried to raise some of the wooden signs in his hand, and said to the passer-by:

"Sir, could you please give me a little charity too?"

The passer-by glanced at the homeless man, approached him, poured the cup of coffee he was holding on his head, and said in a cold voice:

"You're an adult, you've got a whole body, and you're not going to work, you're begging here, and if you're going to beg, that's what I can give you."

After saying that, the passers-by left.

Hot black liquid poured over the homeless man's hat, his face flushed and his arms covering his head, coffee running down his arms, soaking his coat.

He took off his coat and set it aside, staring at the sky with a vacant look.

Juliu took a small sip of the milk given to passers-by, looked at this scene in amazement, and began to wonder in his heart: Will this homeless man attack him because he is angry?

However, the homeless man just looked at the cloudy sky and was silent for a long, long time, then turned his head and smiled nonchalantically at Yuliu.

He took off his coffee-stained hat and shook it off vigorously.

"It's okay." The homeless man muttered, "It's okay kid. ”

Yuliuu didn't know how to respond.

For the first time, he looked at the homeless man, who had a muscular body, and even the beard on his face could not hide his resolute features and gentle eyes.

After the homeless man finished taking care of his clothes and hat stained by the coffee, he crouched back in the corner and calmly held up the help card in his hand.

For the rest of the day, Yuliuu stayed on the street, as did the homeless.

It wasn't until near dusk that the homeless man left for a while.

Soon, the homeless man walked slowly towards Yuliu, holding a box of pizza and a bottle of orange juice in both hands, and handed Yuliuu the food in his hand.

"This is what I just got."

Julius stared blankly at the half-left box of pizzas, he reached out and took the two things from the homeless man's hand, nodded to the other, and whispered:

"Thank you."

It was the most heartwarming and satisfying dinner that Juliu ever ate.

Obviously, this homeless man could have changed his position to beg, but he didn't do it.

He just sat beside Juliu all the time, and when he was tired, he hugged his old suitcase and rested with his head down like a pillow.

Juliu often felt as if the man beside him had a story hidden in his eyes—but the man crouched in the corner, not mentioning his past, just quietly holding up the help card in his hand.

The whole night was spent on the streets of Yuliu and the homeless.

That night, Juliu stayed awake all night.

Suddenly, he heard a sudden scream from the homeless man and woke up from his sleep.

The homeless man took off his hat and gasped for air, covering his eyes with his arms.

Juliu didn't dare to say a word, and he looked at the homeless man with trembling, for fear that the man would suddenly go berserk.

"I'm sorry to scare you."

The homeless man leaned his back against the wall, gently adjusting his breathing, his cloudy and empty eyes staring at the dark sky.

"I used to be a soldier, and I was used to seeing life and death on the battlefield, so I would do it every night."

Yuliuu didn't hide his gaze anymore, and he replied softly, "It's okay. ”

"That's good." The homeless man took a sip of the wine in the kettle and said slowly:

"After the war, I was officially judged dead or missing by the United States, so I lost my identity, I lost my wife, I couldn't even find a job."

"Wife?"

"She made a pact with those people, and as long as I didn't exist, then she could get a good sum of money."

"That's okay. It's cruel. ”

Juliu listened quietly, unconsciously pursing his lips.

Obviously, this man is a hero who fights for his country, but he has fallen into such a situation, and it is difficult for Yuliuu not to feel some sympathy.

"The doctor said I had post-war trauma syndrome and that I probably had no future." The homeless man wiped the sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand, and he smiled, and said in a gentle voice:

"But child, you still have a future, we may have chosen the wrong path for a long life, maybe we are not very lucky, but you still have a chance, you have not seen the cruelty of war, so I don't know how precious it is to live ordinarily."

Juliu opened his mouth, but he couldn't speak.

Strands of pale blonde hair obscured the boy's eyes, and he just gritted his teeth.

The dead silence of the night shrouded the two of them for a long time.

In Juliu's mind, he remembered that during the day, the passer-by gave him a bottle of milk, but poured coffee on the homeless man's head, and scolded him for refusing to support himself.

At that time, Juliu was still complacent in his heart, but fortunately he was just a child.

But what about this man, why was he treated like this?

"You"

Yuliu curled up in a ball, his voice was a little blurred by the cold, and with tears in his eyes, he said hoarsely:

"You're just"

"I just want to live"

"You just want to live, what's wrong with you?"

When the homeless man heard Juliu's words, his eyes widened slightly, and he stayed where he was for a long time.

He took a sip of the water in the jug and whispered to Juliu:

"Child, only you are willing to admit that I am still alive."

"Someday, everybody will know."

The homeless man closed his eyes and waited silently for the dawn to come, the purgatory-like scene of his dream was like torture to him.

For so many years, he has been struggling to survive in the high-pressure environment brought about by post-war trauma syndrome, and countless sleepless nights have long torn his spirit to the top.

Yuliu's words gave the homeless man the confidence to continue living.

After surviving this difficult journey, one day, maybe he can find his identity and live openly.

For a long time afterward, Juliu wandered with the man.

He could often see that every night, the man would dig out his old ID card from his suitcase.

The man had been carrying the yellowed ID card all along, even though the text and photographs on the ID card were in tattered condition.

However, this was the only proof that he was alive in this world before he went to war—he just wanted someone to admit that he had lived in this world.

Instead, as a corpse in an alley, forgotten by the world.

"What was your previous name, sir?" Juliu asked softly.

"David. Mena. ”

The man said in a daze, two lines of tears flowing from the corners of his eyes for some reason, and Juliu stared at the red-eyed man, remembering his name deeply—David Mena.

Despite being fatherless and motherless, he was born in an orphanage.

But Juliu inherited David Mena's surname after that, changing his name to Julius Mena.

Five years later, in Chicago, in an apartment.

Yuliuu's eyes glazed over, and he came back to his senses, and a news item from December 25 was still broadcasting on his computer.

- "Raging high-risk sequence player: The Infernal Ape, David Kench, has been confirmed to have been killed, and the old chess players have guarded the safety of the people of New York. ”

- "Lorenzo of the law enforcement team promised the people that they would definitely strengthen their defenses and not let the same tragedy happen again. ”

- "No one knows what the hero who killed the Purgatory Ape, the old chess player Anson Lu, came from, and why he was not dragged into the law enforcement team by the Chinese authorities?" ”

Juliu walked to the fridge, pulled out a bottle of cold beer, and sat down limply in front of the computer like a disconnected puppet.

Lift the cap vigorously, "Click." There was a thud on the ground, and the bubbles slowly bubbled up.

Juliu took a sip of his beer, staring blankly at the video on his computer screen.

It was dusk, near the Empire State Building, New York.

A teenager in a hoodie is standing around the pit, his hands in his pockets, looking down at the giant ape in the pit with a blank face.

"Qinghong Wang Shan." His voice fell, and the stone statue beside him raised its scepter and aimed it at the pitch-black ape, and a violent light burst out from above the scepter.

The wind swept by, the young man's hair was lifted high, his cheeks were illuminated by the deep blue light for a moment, and his face was as cold as a tyrant, and there was no wave from beginning to end.

A second later, the ape's head was torn to pieces.

With the cheers of all New Yorkers, the video slowly ended.

"According to the police report, David Kenchi has been tested for multiple symptoms of insanity before, and the Evolution Foundation has long labeled 'Purgatory Ape' as an 'S-Class High-Risk Sequence', so it is not surprising that he will lose control."

The announcer is still introducing information about the news.

In the upper right corner of the picture, there are two photos: one is David Kenchi, who has been deliberately scandalized; The other is a teenager in a hoodie with an indifferent look like an executioner.

Juliu's eyes linger on the vicious photo in the upper right corner, which is clearly a deliberately ugly and spoofed photo, but used by the media to promote his negative news.

Juliu couldn't help but smile, and said in a hoarse voice:

"Now, everyone knows that you once lived, my tramp sir."

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(End of chapter)