"Am I weird?" asked Rick with a frown.

"—you're not weird enough—that's where you're weird. 」

Nick didn't understand it at all. The old man of the tree spirit spoke even more incomprehensibly than the little ballast.

"—You're a man—it's strange to this society, it's a horror. But—when you're in a situation that's weird, even crazy, you're acting abnormally normal. 」

There seemed to be something illogical about the phrase "abnormally normal", but Nick understood it. He scratched the back of his neck and said, "Simply put, it's unsociable. Rick felt the poison balloon tickle his skin. He asked the old man the tree spirit, "Sir, are you the first employee here?" The old man said that he had been here for thirty-five years, and the chief had also said that this place had been in operation for thirty-five years.

"When this place was built—I was there. There were so many places at that time—beautiful. Shijie Mages from all over the world - come to visit and study, they are international models - so many articles are discussing how our country does it - so many officials from other countries ask their own governments to copy our country's experience - every time the big chimney is repainted, there is a competition to decide - it is an honor to be able to leave the picture there, and the artists of the whole country compete -

"At that time—the best mages who could come in and work here—in the name of the builders of this place—Archmage Cha Laguni, Manson Gurrismola Mejik Sayvernon—everyone wanted to follow him—"

The old man was the only one who pronounced the long name very smoothly without the slightest delay.

"-It doesn't matter if you work overtime, everyone volunteered to contribute to the Fourth Incinerator--At that time, there was no Mage Labor Standard Law, and young people worked hard--even on holidays--Now only old bones like me, who should retire, are working hard-"

The old man Zuihou's words reminded Xi Ke. Today was also a holiday for the old dryad, but he was cleaning (although it didn't look like there was a difference before and after cleaning), while Xi Ke, a young man who was supposed to be full of enthusiasm for work, sat around and chatted empty-handed. If it weren't for the old dryad, there would be only one person, and the ratio of working to not working would be one to one, which would be enough to prove that Xi Ke was very unsociable.

Xi Ke moved his neck, and felt that his skin was getting more and more itchy.

"I'm going to take a shower. Rick said. That's no excuse for not working.

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The shower rooms in the dormitory building are in an unusable state. Xiao Gu has found someone to clean up the attached shower room of the heated swimming pool, so the staff use the facilities here for bathing. Rick walked into the building where the heated pool was located and walked along the edge of the pool to the shower. The fourth incinerator is on the verge of collapse, and the swimming pool, which needs more manpower to take care of it, is naturally closed. This pool has not been used for a long, long time. Now it looks like a tropical jungle. A large amount of moss spilled from the tile joints, and a huge plant was entrenched in the middle of the pool, with its thick roots completely covering the bottom of the pool. Its branches grow horizontally, breaking through the floor-to-ceiling windows and growing outdoors, and many of its aerial roots grow into pillar roots after touching the ground. You have to keep your head down when you walk here so that you don't bump into it. On the ground and on the trees are huge pods, and the hard shells can be used as toy knives.

Kick walked by with his head bowed while holding a change of clothes. Every time he comes here, he thinks it's spectacular. This tree is a demon species, and it must absorb the psychic toxins that will cause human emotions to lose control during its growth, and it is not easy to cultivate on the earth. It's incredible that it can grow so big in such a place.

The shower was in perfect condition by the standards of the Silk. Clean, all tiles intact, the water temperature is stable, and there is no problem that the water is not hot enough because the heat energy used to supply the entire heated pool is used to supply a small shower. As for such a trivial matter as faucet embroidery, Xike has never cared.

He took off his clothes and went into the cubicle. Before rinsing his hair, he first saw where the shampoo was placed, and after flushing his head, he reached into the iron basket fixed to the wall to scoop up the shampoo, but only touched the iron frame that should be under the bottle. His hand touched left and right, scooping up in the iron basket, but there was nothing. He pulled his hair back with one hand and looked up at the iron basket.

It was empty, not even the shower gel and soap were gone. Rick looked at the ground, but it didn't fall to the ground.

He had a premonition that he was not haode, and he opened the sliding door and rushed to the front of the locker. When he opened it, his clothes were gone, neither dirty clothes nor clean clothes to be put on, only his silver box with a chain remaining, lying on top of his medicine bag.

And that's not even the worst.

His sacrificial sword was gone.

That was one of his most important assets. The swear words in all the languages of the whole shijie add up, and it is not enough to express his mood at the moment!

He put the silver box around his neck and tied the medicine bag around his waist, and rushed out of the shower, only to find that his broken shoes were gone. He plucked the plants that grew by the pool, tucked them into the belt of the herb bag and turned them into makeshift skirts, saved himself from the weathered naked state, and picked up a pod to use as a weapon.

He's going to kill these guys. He didn't know how the spirit could touch his knife, this powerful magical item usually had a forbidden effect on spirits, and only physical creatures could steal it.

He could feel the breath of the sacrificial knife, it was still nearby, and the thief was still nearby.

Nick closed his eyes and opened his third eye. "See" another side of this shijie in the dark. This was the first time he had seen with his third eye since he came here, and the shijie he saw was far more magnificent than he had expected.

The massive Demon Tree glowed like a fountain of light, and each pillar turned into a pillar of light that stretched upwards. The leaves swirl and glow like small silver signs. Spell energy poured out on the surface of the leaves, turning into specks of light and scattering. Under the Demon Tree and above the head, there were huge swirling vortices of light, and many small points of light were distributed in them, and they rotated, making it look like two galaxies surrounding this place. Such a large vortex of mana could not be found everywhere, and only the one on the head of the Staff of Light headquarters could match it within the range of Xi Ke's knowledge.

Nick turned his head and saw a lot of light swirling in the distance in a six-story egg-shaped area before dissipating, which was supposed to be the main furnace.

He tracked the scent of the sacrificial knife all the way to the outside. He sensed a sneaky figure there. Visually, his size is human, but his breath is strange. Human beings are always thinking about various things, and thoughts arise at any time, so the breath of human beings is always changing rapidly. The man's breath was monotonous, showing that his mind was barely working. He has always maintained the same emotions and thoughts, without change, like a residual consciousness.

Nick looked down and chased outside, slipping on the moss as he grabbed the flower stand and turned the corner, finally seeing the thief. At the moment he suspected that the man might be a ghost, because his head was very strange.

The man was turning his back to Rick and sliding away at full speed. He was a head shorter than Syck. Wear a dish shaped like a plate with the convex side up on your head. There were a lot of wires wrapped around the antenna, and the ends of the wires were open in all directions, and they looked like giant silver sea urchins. The man has thick muscles on his back and wears a canvas jumpsuit. The overalls, with years of fading and several damages, are the kind of looks that the fashion industry now uses a lot of water to polish, but here it just means it's time to throw it away.

Nick knew this man, he was the one Rick had seen in the hallway of the main control room!

The distance between him and him was more than ten meters, and the ground was littered with broken glass, and it was impossible for Nick to catch up with him barefoot. He spat on the pod, chanted a mantra in Soni, "Shock!" and threw it at the man's head with a single move in the manner of throwing a spear!

The pod flew into a gust of wind that blew all the leaves on the ground away, and it also caused Rick's skirt to suffer some kind of crisis, but fortunately it was okay. The pod hits the back of the thief's head hidden under the antenna cap in the same way that the battering ram hits the city gate, making a crisp "buckle" sound.

The pod with the spell knocked the thief man forward. The antenna cap is actually good to wear on the head, but because of the flat relationship, it becomes worn on the back of the head.

Nick dodged the glass on the ground and jumped all the way to the thief man, stomping on his back. The soles of my feet are still soft to the touch.

At this time, the old man with a tree spirit turned from behind another wall, and as soon as he came, he saw that Xi Ke was wearing a leaf skirt, topless and with his legs exposed, stepping on a slightly chubby victim, this time the old man reacted quickly, and within a second he asked, "What's going on?"

"He stole my stuff while I was in the shower!" Rick lowered his foot and ordered the thief, "Get me up and give me my stuff back!"

The thief curled up and shrunk into a ball, adjusted the antenna cap to an angle where it wouldn't get stuck, and rolled over to the old dryad, standing up and hiding behind the old dryad to peek at Xike.

"You-" Nick almost cursed the swear words, gritting his teeth to resist not being rude in front of the old man. He looked closely at the thief man's face and noticed that his expression was strange. The thief's eyes were wide open, wider than when most people were surprised, and he simply opened his eyelids with all his might, and at the same time his pupils were extremely small. His lips were pursed, and his neck stiffened. He's been that way. Neither want to lick your mouth nor turn your neck. His eyes were fixed at the same angle at all, blinking as if they were opening and closing mechanically. A normal person's face would not look so much like a stone carving. If he wanted to diagnose him, he would think that this person should be poisoned by multiple ecstasy drugs combined with inhaling soul eaters.

Cheek asked the old dryad, "Do you know this thief who sneaked in from nowhere?"

"He's an employee here. The old man said fluently.

"Huh?" Rick tilted his head, "Aren't there only three employees?"

"That's right. The old man of the tree spirit glanced at Xi Ke, and then at the thief man, "Plus the strange head, it's three people." 」

What is that ballast?

Rick was starting to feel cold, and not only because he was standing bare-chested and with wet hair in the winter outdoors. He remembered many doubts about Xiao Ballast: when he saw Xiao Ballast, he felt like a ghost who had gone out of time. Look at the old dryad, the reflective strips of his reflective vest are cracked, the weird head, the poor sour look who can't afford to buy new pants, and himself, if not when he wears leaves naked, is not much better.

Only Xiao Zhen was dressed in a beautiful robe, and no matter how you look at it, it is impossible to be an employee of this era here—only when the Fourth Incinerator was just opened, such a mage was not surprised. The more he thought about it, the more suspicious he felt. Could it be that Xiao Zhen is the ghost of an employee who has worked here in the past, because he is still obsessed with this place, so he stays to guard this place? Trying to retrieve something is a common reason for ghosts to linger in the world!

"Anyway," Rick rubbed his hand against the skin of his arm to raise the temperature a bit, "give me back my stuff!"

The monster-headed thief shook his head as he clutched Rick's bag in his arms. When a normal person shakes his head, his head will turn, but his eyes will turn in the opposite direction of his head, so that his gaze is fixed on the same point, so that he will not get dizzy. When he shook his head, his eyes didn't move, causing his gaze to move with him, which looked very weird. He said in a rigid tone that seemed to be synthesized speech, "The weird head doesn't return. You are the Queen's enemy. 」

Tick picks up the pod, swings it like a knife, and threatens the monster-headed thief in a low voice, "This time I'll knock your head off your neck!"

"Weird head, give the stuff back—give him back. The old man said slowly to the strange-headed thief, and although his tone was serious, it took too much time.

The weird thief kept shaking his head, a normal person should have fainted a long time ago.

"Give me back!" Rick yelled. His anger instantly connected with the sacrificial knife, which emitted electricity, and the monster threw the bag to the ground with a wail. Xi Ke took three steps to pick up the bag, first took out the sacrificial knife to make sure it was okay, and then began to put on his shoes. The cold wind blew, and Rick shivered. He hurriedly put on his coat and changed it into a leaf skirt and shoes, paired with a nude jacket, which looked more like a perverted dress than before.

The monster head ran backwards and quickly. Rick didn't want to chase after him.

The old man said to the old dryad, "Strange head—weird brain, please—don't bother with him—"

Rick's brow was not soothed by the old man's explanation. He treats people fairly, as long as it hinders him, he doesn't care whether the other party is sane or not, and gives equal treatment to everyone.

The old man continued, "—he had accidentally fallen into the pit when he was working—probably because he had inhaled too much exhaust at that time—and he had been like this ever since—"

Xi Ke narrowed his eyes. He felt colder and colder. His hair was dripping and wetting his coat. Without saying a word, he turned around and went back to take a shower.

He went back to the shower and sneezed several times when he came into contact with the hot water. He found bath supplies like shampoo back on the shelves. This part is the hand of the spirit. He stuffed the sacrificial knife in a herb bag, wrapped the silver box around it, and hung it on the door. There should be no way for the thief to do so. Whoever wants to steal it, let the demons eat him.

Xi Ke pondered as he took a bath. He suspects that he may be affected by the trace amount of exhaust fumes in the air, so that the flaw will appear to give the thief a chance to attack. He thought of the giant wild Demon Tree in the pool. The air in this place is likely to contain a lot of psychic toxins.

He thought about the question again. Wanted to find another explanation. He reassured himself that Xiao Zhen might be a volunteer, but this statement was disproved by him before he could even last three seconds. Even if Xiao Zhen is really a rich volunteer who still comes to spurn people, he can't explain that the old man Weishenme tree spirit didn't count Xiao Zhen's hands, and insisted that there were only three human cogs here.