Embers Ad Infinitum

"Urban Intelligent Network Control Center", 17th floor.

Wearing exoskeleton equipment and carrying a silver rifle, Qiao Chu returned to the elevator hall.

He was about to press the button to let the elevator that had stopped on the sixteenth floor go up when he saw the number representing the elevator next to him jump from "16" to "17".

This means that in two or three seconds, the elevator door will open, and the people inside will most likely be enemies rather than friends.

Qiao Chu did not hesitate, and within the golden eyes blocked by the goggles, circles of real and illusory ripples spread out.

Almost at the same time, he saw countless figures around him.

These slightly unreal figures flocked to the potted plants in the elevator hall, frantically gnawing at the withered leaves, shrunken branches, and dried soil.

Qiao Chu didn't feel physical hunger, but he seemed to be infected by such a scene. He couldn't help but think that he was very hungry and had to eat something.

Such thoughts filled his mind, making it impossible for him to think about anything else.

"The Way of Hungry Ghosts"!

Qiao Chu's hands covered with black metal bones immediately reached into his pockets, took out a bag of dried beef, and tore it open with all his strength.

Then, he frantically stuffed the pieces of black beef jerky into his mouth, trying to swallow it.

But this beef jerky is as hard as a stone. It doesn't need to be soaked with saliva, and it doesn't need to be torn and ground with teeth. It is impossible to eat it.

There was no doubt that Qiao Chu was choked, and he even thought that he would choke to death here, becoming the institute's commissioner with the most ridiculous cause of death.

The instinct of survival and the fact that food had entered his mouth allowed him to resist the self-perception of hunger to a certain extent, and he was able to distract himself from chewing.

At this time, the gray-black metal door of the elevator next to it opened, and a dark-black robot wearing tattered monk robes and red cassocks jumped out.

The red light in the robotic eyes on Jingfa's metal face seemed to render a bloody world.

He looked at Qiao Chu who was wearing a military exoskeleton device. Instead of raising his arms to use grenade launchers, laser weapons and flamethrowers, he took a long step and jumped over, preparing to stun the opponent with a real iron fist.

While Qiao Chu couldn't stop biting the beef, chewing and swallowing it, he reluctantly retracted his body and rolled to the side with difficulty, narrowly avoiding the punch of the mechanical monk Jingfa.

During this process, following his strong desire to find food, he put his right hand into his pocket again.

This time, he took out not only energy bars, but also a stack of playing cards.

At this time, Qiao Chu had swallowed the beef jerky until his eyes turned white and shed tears, but this also relieved his hunger a little, and he had enough energy to throw the stack of playing cards to the ground.

Bang, with the sound of playing cards falling to the ground, Qiao Chu rolled to a position close to the stairwell.

What reflected in his eyes was the mechanical monk Jingfa who quickly turned towards him and rushed towards him again, his eyes glowing red.

"Go... play... cards..." Qiao Chu said three words very vaguely while swallowing beef jerky and energy bars.

Jingfa, who had just rushed to his side, was stunned.

The mechanical monk turned his head half a circle and looked at the playing cards on the ground.

His eyes flashed red, and he walked over uncontrollably, bending down to pick up the cards one by one.

At this moment, nothing seemed more important to him than playing cards.

Even if your companions need rescue, even if the danger is close at hand, you still have to play a game of cards first.

When Jingfa picked up the playing cards, Qiao Chu's supposed hunger disappeared instantly, and his whole body returned to normal, but he was still a little choked.

He could completely imagine what he looked like under the metal helmet at this time:

Because he was still desperately swallowing food to avoid choking to death, his face was twisted, his eyes were slightly white, and his nose was filled with tears and mucus. There was nothing that could be called handsome.

This made him extremely angry, and he raised his arm while distracted, preparing to attack Jingfa with a grenade launcher and electromagnetic weapons at the same time.

At this moment, Jingfa had turned around and said in that unique, cold electronic synthesized voice:

"Let's play cards together."

The price he paid was so high, and his psychological distortion was so severe that instead of playing cards silently and intently, he decided to combine his two "hobbies" into one and drag Qiao Chu along!

While the mechanical monk was speaking, Qiao Chu once again saw countless, slightly blurry figures, and once again felt strongly that he was very hungry and had to eat something.

Fortunately, he still had food in his mouth and had something to eat, which made him not so "hungry" in the initial stage and allowed him to be distracted and do something else.

Qiao Chu quickly raised his left hand and covered the goggles of his metal helmet.

He suddenly became extremely depressed. Even though he thought he was very hungry, he didn't want to eat or do anything.

No longer choked, he let go of his left hand and looked at the mechanical monk who came over with the poker.

That kind of depression seemed to be contagious, and Jingfa suddenly felt that everything was meaningless and everything was just an illusory dream.

In incomprehensible frustration, the dark black mechanical monk seemed to understand something. He suddenly sat down cross-legged, clasped his hands, and whispered:

"Namo Anuttarasamyaksambodhi, all potential dharmas are just like a dream..."

Qiao Chu immediately relaxed, exerted force on his waist and abdomen, and jumped directly into the air with the help of a military exoskeleton device.

Streams of white air spurted out, pushing him sideways into the stairwell.

After landing, Qiao Chu raised his arm and pointed the grenade launcher at the mechanical monk wearing tattered monk robes and red cassocks.

Jingfa was still reciting the scriptures in a low voice, as if he had achieved great enlightenment.

After looking at the loaded grenade, Qiao Chu realized that it was not the type with high explosive performance, and he felt a little hesitant.

——Because the default enemies were "higher heartless" and aberrant creatures, not robots, he did not change the grenades before taking action.

As for this kind of grenade, one or two rounds probably won't be able to destroy the mechanical monk.

This will actually help the other party get out of their depressed state. The same goes for electromagnetic weapons.

It may not be too late to replace the grenade on the spot. Qiao Chu cannot make the already frustrated people even more frustrated and continue to be frustrated. Once he fails to grasp the moment when the mechanical monk's frustration ends and adds a new round of control, the situation will become very bad.

After thinking for two seconds, Qiao Chu pursed his lips and decided to give up this opportunity.

He ran back to the stairs, held down the handrail, jumped down, and landed firmly on the next floor.

In this way, Qiao Chu used the ability of the exoskeleton device to jump from floor to floor in the stair cavity. He soon left the seventeenth floor and went straight to the bottom floor.

At this time, the mechanical monk Jingfa finished his chanting and raised his head again.

On his black metal face, the mechanical prosthetic eyes glowed blood-red again.

The next second, Jingfa jumped directly into the stairwell from sitting cross-legged with a posture that surpassed the human body structure.

He imitated Qiao Chu's method, holding down the handrail, turning over and jumping down.

…………

After hearing Du Heng's words, Jiang Baimian did not hesitate and turned to Shang Jianyao and others:

"We'll leave immediately."

After giving the instructions, she nodded to Du Heng:

"careful.

"Hope to see you again."

Du Heng smiled and said:

"By then, I hope you will have enough important news, intelligence or information to trade."

He glanced at Shang Jianyao again:

"It is not a good thing to work hard to improve your awakened ability. The price can never be compensated. You should measure it yourself."

Before Shang Jianyao could respond, Du Heng stood up, hunched over, and rushed towards the place where Xiao Chong disappeared in the shadow of the trees.

"Let's go." Jiang Baimian withdrew his gaze.

Shang Jianyao nodded, straightened up, holding the "Berserker" assault rifle, trotting and hanging at the back of the team according to the previous tactical formation.

Soon they reached the side fence.

Long Yuehong, who was in charge of the left side, quickly glanced outside and suddenly met a pair of cloudy, bloodshot eyes.

"Unintentional"... Long Yuehong was startled, instinctively raised the assault rifle and took a step to the side.

On the street outside, lights shined on the tops of long metal poles, each illuminating an area.

As far as Long Yuehong knew, these should be street lamps from the old world. At this time, at least half of them were still working normally.

The "unintentional person" was standing under the street lamp diagonally in front, wrapped in a shriveled blue jacket, wearing a wide-brimmed hat of the same color, holding a broom and an iron dustpan.

There were some wrinkles on his face and his skin was very rough. There was no light of wisdom in his eyes. He just stared blankly at Long Yuehong and others, showing no sign of attacking.

This scene made Long Yuehong a little surprised, and he stopped trying to pull the trigger.

The "unintentional person" quickly lowered his head and swept up the accumulated fallen leaves on the roadside.

Seeing this scene, Bai Chen and others suddenly had some inexplicable guesses.

"Get out first." Jiang Baimian quickly came to his senses and quickly climbed over the metal fence.

Long Yuehong, Bai Chen, and Shang Jianyao, under the cover of their companions, left the "City Intelligent Network Control Center" and returned to the streets outside.

"He is cleaning the fallen leaves..." Long Yuehong couldn't help but look at the "unintentional person" who had no "hunting" tendency.

Jiang Baimian raised his head and looked across:

"Look there."

Following the direction her chin pointed, Shang Jianyao and others saw a tall building.

At the base of the tall building are the houses located on the street, with several glass windows on each floor letting in bright light.

Those radiances seemed to form a halo around them, making Long Yuehong feel a little warm inexplicably.

Among them, there are many figures moving behind some windows on the lower floors.

Some of them seemed to be holding babies, pacing back and forth by the window, some were holding rags and carefully wiping the glass, and some were sitting on the sofa by the window, holding something unknown, staring blankly at the opposite wall. LCD screen on...

The ones Jiang Baimian and Shang Jianyao could barely see clearly were all wearing old and messy clothes, with clumsy movements and sluggish eyes. They were obviously "unintentional people."

On the LCD screen that the "unintentional person" was looking at, there were colorful pictures, including scenery, characters, text, and boxes, but the whole thing remained motionless without any changes.

But this does not prevent the "unintentional person" from watching very intently.

Jiang Baimian was silent for two seconds and said in a complicated tone:

“It is these ‘unintentional people’ who regularly ‘maintain’ this city…

"Whenever the lights come on, they become like normal people..."

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