Embers Ad Infinitum

"I found something." Shang Jianyao took the long white hair and walked quickly back to the living room area.

In order to let Qiao Chu and Jiang Baimian see clearly, he turned the flashlight and shined it on his hand.

The yellowish beam of light spread slightly, making Shang Jianyao's face look so gloomy. Long Yuehong was so frightened that she almost jumped up and shot him.

"Look at my hands." Shang Jianyao seemed to have anticipated Long Yuehong's reaction, but he didn't add it until now.

Long Yuehong exhaled slowly, moved her eyes, and looked over.

In the yellowish light beam, fine dust flew, and white hair swayed slightly.

"Where did you find it?" Jiang Baimian asked.

Shang Jianyao pointed to the wall where the LCD screen was hung:

"On the pillow in this bedroom."

"Only one?" Jiang Baimian asked.

"Theoretically, that's the case, unless it can swallow its companions and evolve itself." Shang Jianyao replied seriously.

"We are learning this kind of thing in basic courses now?" Jiang Baimian said casually, seeming to be distracted by thinking about various possibilities.

Bai Chen, who was listening quietly, pulled the old scarf around his neck and said:

"What was left when the old world was destroyed?"

Hair is less susceptible to decay in similar environments.

"It makes no sense to leave just this one." Jiang Baimian expressed his doubts, "Besides, don't we have a preliminary judgment? This city regularly undergoes some level of 'maintenance'. This room Some situations inside also confirm this, just like just now, we found traces of mouse activity in the restaurant and kitchen, but they left nothing except bite marks and scratches."

"The more I hear this, the more terrifying it becomes..." Long Yuehong couldn't help but muttered.

A city that has been dead for a long time is still regularly cleaning up debris and "maintaining" itself!

Without knowing why, this is scarier than a ghost story on a radio show!

"Perhaps the mice were eaten by the active 'unintentional people' here. They also need food." Bai Chen expressed his guess.

Jiang Baimian said "hmm":

"Possibly. But will the 'Careless' help the rats clean up? All they have left is survival instinct."

"How is this impossible? Can't they all still sing?" Shang Jianyao turned off the flashlight in his hand and said seriously.

"..." Jiang Baimian rolled his eyes at him, "You call that kind of roar singing? Besides, even if they still have a certain instinct to clean up the environment, although I haven't seen it among the 'unintentional ones' elsewhere, But let’s pretend they have it for now. In short, they should ‘maintain’ it frequently instead of doing it after a long period of time. After all, they don’t have much thinking ability and will only act according to instinct.”

Judging from the condition of the streets, buildings and rooms, they have not been maintained for a long time.

Shang Jianyao strives for:

“Human beings have an instinct to be lazy.

"How often do you usually clean your room?"

Jiang Baimian was speechless for a moment, glanced at Qiao Chu and said:

“I am more casual when performing tasks in the wilderness. This is a sign of being gregarious.

"When I'm in the company, if I cook for myself, I clean it every day, more than once. If I eat in the canteen, I clean it once every three days and do a general cleaning once a month."

Qiao Chu, who had been silent since the beginning of their discussion, suddenly asked:

"Are you from Pangea, or from United Industries, Orange Company, or Future Intelligence?"

"We belong to 'Panguage Creatures'." Jiang Baimian answered truthfully.

Qiao Chu touched the silver rifle lying across his knees, nodded slightly and said:

“Don’t talk about that hair, it’s not a big deal.

"Eat, rest, and wait for the early morning."

"Okay." Shang Jianyao and others gave up the discussion, each found a place to sit down, and ate compressed biscuits, energy bars and other foods with the purified water in the water bag.

After filling his stomach, Jiang Baimian stood up, walked to the window of the restaurant area, and looked at the weed-covered lawn below.

She originally planned to tell her needs directly, but after taking a look at Qiao Chu, she became a little embarrassed:

"I'll go down and make myself comfortable."

"The toilet here can be solved directly." Shang Jianyao looked eager to try, as if he wanted to share the method he discovered with his companions.

"No need...it will affect your rest." Jiang Baimian declined his kindness.

Sitting on the chair, Qiao Chu seemed to be resting with his eyes closed and opened his eyes and said:

"You can go to the corner over 601."

Jiang Baimian instinctively shook his head:

“It’s better to be careful in this weird place.

"If a stronger smell is not buried and is closer to you, it is likely to cause unnecessary trouble."

"It doesn't matter." Qiao Chu insisted.

Jiang Baimian didn't want to refute and chose to obey.

Bai Chen stood up and said:

"I will go with you."

"It just so happens that we help each other guard." Jiang Baimian nodded gently and smiled, "Even if you don't want to go, I have to pull you there."

Long Yuehong crossed her thighs, looked at Shang Jianyao and said:

"Let's go together later?"

"Okay." Shang Jianyao responded with some regret, "Since Qiao Chu said it doesn't matter, we can make it easier. For example, stand on the railing, open the window, and face directly outside..."

"Stop!" Long Yuehong stopped his jumping thoughts, or sudden whims.

After such an episode, Long Yuehong and Bai Chen each occupied one end of the sofa, curled up, and prepared to rest. Qiao Chu was still sitting on the chair with his eyes closed, not knowing whether he was recuperating or already asleep.

Shang Jianyao sat cross-legged on the railing in front of the floor-to-ceiling window, looking in the direction of the tunnel, monitoring the movements in the dark city. Jiang Baimian walked back and forth in the living room without a grenade gun and an "Ice Moss" pistol, always paying attention. Check whether there are any abnormalities in the person sleeping.

After a few minutes, a scream filled with fear rang out somewhere in the city.

In this unusually quiet night, in this dead forest-like ruins of the city, the screams spread far away, making Long Yuehong, who was still asleep, feel his scalp numb and tremble with fear.

Immediately afterwards, banging gunshots rang out one after another.

Bang bang bang bang, this series of movements was like firecrackers, which quickly burned out and fell silent.

After a while, Shang Jianyao saw a figure jumping out of a nearby alley through the faint starlight.

The figure was hunched and moved more like an ape than a human.

He was wearing some clothes in a mess and tied with some cloth, and he quickly approached the building where Shang Jianyao and others were.

Then, he ran towards the other end along the street full of yellowing leaves, climbing to high places skillfully from time to time, and jumping down again.

Seeing such a scene, Shang Jianyao felt that even if he had undergone genetic modification and received systematic training, it would be difficult to complete similar actions. After all, the main direction of improvement was not in this area.

At this time, the clouds in the sky moved and a little moonlight leaked down, allowing Shang Jianyao to barely see the figure clearly.

This should be a male, with lots of black hair, messy and dirty, but not too long, not even reaching his shoulders.

As if aware of Shang Jianyao's gaze, the figure suddenly turned his head and looked upstairs.

Shang Jianyao's eyes suddenly reflected a blank face.

"The careless one".

This is an "unintentional person", a "unintentional person" in the prime of life.

Shang Jianyao did not dodge, he opened his eyes and looked at the "unintentional person" quietly from a long distance away.

Finally, the "unintentional one" retracted his gaze, continued towards the shadow of the tall building in the distance, and disappeared there.

A smile gradually appeared on Shang Jianyao's face, as if he had won some decisive victory.

Suddenly, he saw another figure.

This figure also had a hunched body, and his speed was much slower than the "Heartless One" just now.

Shang Jianyao glanced around and saw a wrinkled, dry face and a messy long white hair.

The figure flashed past and entered the alley on the left - this was the blind spot in Shang Jianyao's sight.

In the next two hours or so, Shang Jianyao saw several more "unintentional people". Jiang Baimian also noticed this and expressed doubts about the number of "unintentional people" here.

Afterwards, Bai Chen and Long Yuehong woke up and took over their duties.

By the time Shang Jianyao was woken up from his dream by Long Yuehong, Qiao Chu had already left his chair and stood in front of the floor-to-ceiling window.

"It's almost early morning." Qiao Chu said calmly.

He immediately withdrew his gaze from the dark ruins of the city, his cold eyes and gentle voice commanded:

"Help me put on the exoskeleton."

Not long after, with the help of Jiang Baimian and Bai Chen, he put on the military exoskeleton device and activated the system.

After picking up the silver rifle, Qiao Chu, whose body was covered with a black metal frame, walked to the floor-to-ceiling window, pointed at a building a few blocks away and said:

"That's our destination."

Shang Jianyao and others looked in the direction he pointed and saw a building that was not a short distance away from all the surrounding buildings.

It appears to have a large attached courtyard.

At this moment, it was standing quietly in the dark ruins of the city, with no light shining inside, as if it had died long ago.

A few seconds later, Qiao Chu turned around, walked toward the door, and said in a deep voice:

"Set off!"

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