Ember Gun

   Chapter 603

  At the corner of the night at night, the dim lights fell, and the atmosphere in the tavern was very calm, with only strong alcohol reverberating in the meantime.

This is a newly opened tavern, probably because there is not much publicity, and due to the remote location, there are few guests in the tavern, and there is no talking. After getting enough rest, he walked into the wind and rain.

  Lorenzo sat on the edge of the bar, with a sword bag full of spiked swords hung aside, revealing a cold corner, which made those who noticed him feel terrified.

  It seems that I didn’t do anything today, but I feel like I’ve experienced a lot of things.

  Lorenzo stared at the wine in the glass, his face reflected on the surface of the deep sky.

   After drinking it all, Lorenzo didn't feel much drunk. The physique of the demon hunter made this numbness only last for a short time, and he couldn't even completely indulge himself.

   "You look troubled."

  The bartender leaned in. Now there are no customers, and he is very leisurely.

   "It's okay, but I always feel something is wrong, just like losing myself at the time."

  Lorenzo responded lazily, raised his head, and gestured to the bartender to smile.

   "The new store is not bad, Hercules."

   "I think it's not bad, although it's a bit remote, but at least it's far from Xiacheng." Hercules akimbo, looking at his new store contentedly.

   "Xiacheng is a mixed bag, it's easy to make money, but there are many things. Those guys fight in the tavern from time to time, and sometimes they die. It's really annoying."

   Feeling the harmony in the tavern, soft songs are being played slowly on the phonograph, and Hercules is enjoying the peaceful beauty.

   "Where is the old store?" Lorenzo asked.

   "Sold to someone else."

Hercule said, picking up several wine bottles and pouring them back and forth. The wines of different colors were mixed together and packed in a glass, with fine bubbles constantly floating on the top. The color was dark green, just like some kind of monster's saliva. .

After doing all this, Herculi pushed the glass towards Lorenzo, and Lorenzo glanced at him. Although he didn't want to, he still accepted the glass for the sake of Herculi's deduction." Reckless".

   "So Mr. Holmes came here, not just to rub me a few drinks, right?"

  Herkery inquired, it was also at this time that the sound of fine footsteps sounded, very slight, but could not escape Lorenzo's ears.

  Poirot took off and jumped onto the bar. Lorenzo tried to reach out to grab it, but it jumped again and jumped onto Hercule's head.

   made a squeaking noise, as if laughing at Lorenzo.

   "Dead mouse."

  Lorenzo cursed secretly, then looked at Hercule, and said uncertainly.

   "I always feel... I seem to have forgotten something."

   "Memory Palace, I taught you." Hercule said.

  It is a magical palace with countless corridors and doors. The bookshelves in the room are full of books, recording all the things in life in detail, waiting for the owner of the palace to check it out.

  Lorenzo, with the help of Herculi, retrieved the lost memories.

   "No, it’s a bit different. I encountered antimeme at the end of the world. At the time, I was also trying to use the memory palace to avoid these..."

  Lorenzo's words gradually lowered, thinking of the illusory scene in his mind.

The glorious palace was constantly collapsing and breaking down under the influence of antimemetic. Lorenzo ran along the path of memory. He found the room related to Frocky Wilgderson, but the walls there were blank. , The door to advance has long been wiped out.

   "Antimeme can erase even the memory palace, it is a complete erasure."

  Lorenzo’s words contained a little bit of fear. This power did not have a hideous entity, nor could it bring painful torture, but its deceitful nature was enough to make anyone awake at night.

"Just like you, Hercules, if you are erased, my memories related to you will disappear, and things that can confirm your existence will also be distorted, just like an author with a swipe of a pen in the book One of the characters is completely eliminated."

  Herkeley's face became cold. From these short sentences, he could already know the terrible power of this power, but the main thing was Lorenzo's reaction.

"At first I thought I was not affected by antimemetics, but the longer I lived in the old town, the more I could feel the slightest difference. It seems...my life is not like this, I seem to be missing something, but I can't remember."

  Lorenzo said to himself, his expression slightly pained.

  He has forgotten something, it is very important, extremely important, but Lorenzo can't remember it anyway.

   "Are you sure you are not affected by antimeme?" Hercule asked.

   "I...I am not affected."

  Lorenzo hesitated for a moment, and then became firm. At the end of the world, he has been injecting a large amount of Florund's medicine. In order to avoid forgetting anything, he is always vigilant.

  Recalling the past again, the picture is flying in front of my eyes.

   "Could it be you who made yourself forget these?" Hercules doubted.

  "Myself...make myself forget this?"

  Listening to Hercule's words, Lorenzo's expression was slightly ecstatic.

   "Yeah, I don't know what happened to you, but it's very possible, isn't it? And it's not the first time you have done this."

  Herkley wiped the glasses, cleaned them, and hung them on the cup holder above.

   "Those dim memories are deliberately forgotten by you, sealed behind the gate, maybe the same thing you forgot this time is the same."

   "Then there should be traces of it in the memory palace."

   Lorenzo said, but he suddenly realized the problem halfway through.

  Looking at his funny expression, Hercule smiled. With regard to memory, Hercule is more familiar with this thing than anyone, and under that past experience, he can easily remember his every day.

   "Look, it might be like this. You used antimemetics to make yourself forget something."

  Lorenzo was silent for a while, his eyes tightened slightly, and his thoughts flew.

   "So... why should I forget this?"

  ……

  It is often said that after you know enough about Old Dunling, you will realize that Old Dunling is an extremely bloated city. It is not only a complex system wrapped in this city, but also because of its huge and complex construction.

The most troublesome thing in this city is not the endless water vapor, but the steam pipes all over the ground. With the vigorous construction of the mechanical courtyard, the pillars of the furnace are like the roots of trees that are deeply rooted in the ground. It continues to spread around, filling the land with machinery and steel.

With the blessing of the years, the design of the Pillar of the Forge has been iterated from generation to generation, personnel replacement, mechanical expansion, and the old underground world has completely turned into another huge and dark labyrinth, which is filled with rats and poisonous insects. Even Pump of Perpetual Motion has no confidence to say that he fully understands this inverted underground city.

  The water of the Thames River was dumped into the pillar of the furnace, and the rising fireworks released a large amount of steam, which rushed in the pipes, driving all kinds of machinery.

Among the entrenched steel roots, the perpetual pump is located in the middle section of the pillar of the furnace, below it, which is the deepest part of the pillar of the furnace, where there is a high-temperature furnace, and the burnt residue is dumped in this darkness. In, forgotten.

  There is no need, almost no one will come here, in fact, there is no way to reach this deep place directly.

Under the cooperation of the Pump of Perpetual Motion and the Academy of Machinery, the functions of the Pillar of the Furnace were distinguished many years ago. The upper section near the surface will control all the operations of the Pillar of the Furnace, while the lower section of the Pillar of the Furnace only needs to be from time to time. It’s just fine to inspect and maintain it on the spot, and there is no need for personnel to be stationed at all.

   Therefore, the perpetual pump is the deepest point that can be reached. Below it is just a burning sea of ​​fire, providing continuous power for the old Dunling.

  Driven by these reasons, most people have forgotten that there is such a dark place in the cleansing organization, and no one will think about what the root of the pillar of the furnace is.

But now, the depths of what is regarded as wasteland residue are filled with dazzling white light. It illuminates the huge underground building. On top of it, there are complicated pipelines and constant roars. .

The man in black raised his head and looked at the dark red light source above his head. That is the pillar of the furnace. Behind the heavy metal is a roaring sea of ​​fire. With the roar, hot steam overflows in the cracks of the pipe, on the cold metal. Cool on the top, leaving slightly cool drops of water.

This is the deepest part of the Pillar of the Furnace, but it is different from the dark wasteland that people are familiar with. There is a huge building complex that is not inferior to the pump of perpetual motion. The man in black looks under the high platform and can see the armed silence Soldiers, they marched silently, and were sent to the ground by a lift amidst the piercing noise.

  It was a secret passage to the surface of the old Dunling, and even the inside of the cleaning agency was not aware of the existence of these secret passages.

  The man in black stretched out his hand, picked up a cigarette, and lit it.

  Smoking is not a pleasant thing for him. His body is deformed. Under the stimulation of tobacco, he can only feel a piercing pain, but he still inhales stubbornly, letting the pain make himself sober.

  "A new round of antimemetic influence is ready and ready to be launched."

  The broadcast echoed in the underground world, the mechanical twisting could be heard, and there was another roar in the furnace.

  "Start delivery."

Carriers carrying antimemetic information are placed in the furnace. They will be wrapped with the rising steam, turning them into new carriers, overflowing the streets of the old town, rising into the cumulus clouds and turning into cold rain. Falling down, continue to baptize the city.

  No one knows what they don’t know yet. This is the case with the elimination of institutions, and the same is true for the builders of the country.

  In this forgotten darkness, they affected the old Dunling’s cognition, and kept secrets that could not be revealed for the time being.

  There was a sound of footsteps, and the man in black turned around, only to see another guy wearing a silver mask appeared in front of him.

  From the appearance, this should be a woman, but her whole body is wrapped in a robe, and under the robe, there is a metal of the same material as the mask, which seems to be a close-fitting armor, which completely protects her.

"how is the progress?"

  The woman asked, her voice was cold, without the slightest emotion.

"All the preparations have been completed, the records of the sweepers have been completely erased, and the list of personnel has been destroyed. Coupled with the antimemetic influence that has been carried out since the establishment of the sweepers department, no one is aware of our existence. Even Mr. Holmes."

  Humanity in black, as the most mysterious department in the cleansing organization, he is very confident about this.

  "Don't underestimate him, I guess Mr. Holmes has already noticed the strangeness. If he delays for a while, he might find us." The woman said.

  The man in black thought for a while. He felt that Lorenzo was indeed possible to do such a thing, but he was not worried about what women were worried about.

   "Don't worry, the actors are already in place, and the curtain will rise."

   "Is that so..." The woman groaned, and she turned to look at the man in black, and a faint light of fire was rolling in the darkness under the mask.

   "You have traces of erosion, and many people here have such traces."

   "Yes," the man in black said frankly, "Among the scavengers, people like us are called the dead."

   "It doesn't sound like a good title."

   "Just get used to it," the man in black looked down at the underground world, "Anyone who can appear here is ready."

   "Go to death?"

  "Not only to die, but to obey the regulations, absolutely obey, even if someone survives, before leaving the scavenger department, he will be affected by antimemetics and forget everything related to this."

   "No one knows," the woman was wearing a mask. The silver mask was covered with delicate patterns. No one could see her expression. "It sounds really sad."

  The man in black smiled, he didn't feel sad about it, and then said his name.

   "Galahad."

   "Sounds like a code name," the woman hesitated for a moment, but did not refuse, "Watson."

   "It sounds like you, what's your name?" Galahad asked.

   "It will be forgotten after all. This kind of thing is not important, and so are you, right?"

  Galahad did not deny or answer. Watson stood with him and watched the scavengers moving at full speed. In the distance, heavy footsteps echoed, as if a giant was marching in the dark.

  Galahad’s emotions have not been mobilized like this for a long time, and he is a little hard to keep calm, exclaiming.

   "We have been detached from the story, free of the ‘author’’s pen."

   Galahad continued.

   "We will be dispatched at critical moments to change the direction of the whole story, just like the most abrupt turning point in the story."

   Listening to what he said, Watson seemed to be thinking of something, a smile rang out under the mask, she said.

   "It's like a mechanical descent."

  Galahad nodded in agreement, he repeated.

  "Mechanical descent."

  (End of this chapter)