Indescribable cyberpunk

There is a big gap between the buildings in Watson District and Heywood District. There are no large residential buildings like small communities. Most of the ground areas are various shops gathered together. The billboards of each shop alone are all different. It occupies a large space on both sides of the street.

Some of them are like the canned meats stacked up in the shopping mall. They are not neat and uniform, but have a somewhat messy aesthetic.

You can still see some aerial plank roads at a height of more than ten meters, which made Zhu Jue involuntarily think of the scenes he saw everywhere in the Ebony District of Yecheng. However, the plank roads here are not simple, but rather a rather complex one made of bricks and tiles. Some European-style corridors may have a higher style if there is no outer steel frame.

The elevator door opened to both sides. Zhu Jue looked at the positioning coordinates on his phone and stepped out.

Facing the store was an on-floor canteen. There was an old man with gray hair sitting on a lounge chair inside the window. Behind him was a half-year-old child wearing VR glasses. He was turning his body from time to time and holding a colorful toy gun in his hand. , making a beeping sound from time to time.

"Hello, bring me a bottle of soda. I want it cold."

Standing in front of the window, Zhu Jue glanced at the situation in the corridor while speaking.

Compared to the cramped space on the street just now, the situation inside the building was similar to the shopping malls Zhu Jue had seen in his previous life, with various shops lined up on both sides.

"8 yuan."

The soda the old man handed over was in a coffee-colored glass bottle. At first glance, it was a relatively high-end soda in his store.

He's a guy who knows how to do business.

Zhu Jue took his mobile phone and swiped it on the machine outside the counter. His eyes accidentally glanced at the wooden frame behind the counter, and his eyes froze. It was a shotgun and it didn't look like a fake.

I didn’t ask much. There were also gang problems in Dawn City. In a place where there was a black market underground, it didn’t seem like it was a big deal for these shops on the ground to stock weapons.

While drinking a soda, I walked to the right side of the floor. Not long after walking, I saw the antique store at the end of the floor, whose facade decoration was obviously different from the surrounding shops.

"Old era antique store. Nice name."

After looking at the sign hanging outside the door, Zhu Jue opened the door directly and went in.

fragrant!

This was Zhu Jue's first reaction to the smell he smelled after entering the door.

This is a scent similar to lavender, but different. Zhu Jue has no research on this aspect. He just subconsciously looks for the source of the scent and also observes the layout of the antique store.

I have to say, it’s quite stylish.

The interior decoration does not look like an antique store in this kind of lower-middle-class business district building, whether it is the exquisite knight armor, the ceramics filling the shelves, or the freehand Chinese ink paintings hanging on the wall. Abstract oil painting.

Zhu Jue's eyes finally stopped at the incense burner on the counter on the left side of the antique shop in the old era. It had blue porcelain as the base and a brass-colored peony pattern as the cover. There was still some white mist with a special fragrance curling up from it.

The only strange thing is that the counter of this antique store is on the left side of the room, instead of facing the door like other shops. The right side is made of glass as a wall, completely built to look like when Zhu Jue came. The layout is the same as the cafes I saw on the road.

"anyone there?"

Zhu Jue looked at the counter and shouted, and soon a middle-aged man came out from behind a door next to the counter.

His light blond short hair, a pair of retro gold-rimmed glasses, and the brown plaid vest lined with a white shirt all make him look like he doesn't belong to this era.

"I am the store manager from the old days. How can I help you?"

The middle-aged man glanced at Zhu Jue's clothes and asked with a smile on his face.

"I have a few things that I would like you to help me identify."

First he took out three coins of different materials from his pocket, patted them directly on the counter, and then said,

"Can you tell me what era these coins are from?"

"Of course. These three coins of yours are a bit unusual."

The store manager picked up the gold coins, first turned on the scanner on the workbench to check, then turned on the computer next to him, and started to compare the data. Halfway through the operation, he turned around and took away the remaining two coins, and said smoothly.

"Anything to say?"

Zhu Jue didn't understand the function of those instruments, so he could only nodded in agreement and asked.

"I have never seen these three coins in your hand before, and there are no similar matching objects on the ancient cultural relics data network."

Turning around again, this time the store manager also brought the lamp on the workbench and used the light to introduce Zhu Jue.

"Their workmanship is very rough. You can see that the edges are not rounded, but uneven. This is obviously a sign of poor model pressing technology. So I initially concluded that it should be a product of the Middle Ages. When coins were made in that era, They are often printed with some portraits or various artifacts, so although there are no comparable coin specimens on the ancient cultural relics website, I can still determine that they are coins from the medieval period. If you want to sell them, I can offer you 20,000 federal coins. Come and buy.”

"I'm not planning on selling them."

Zhu Jue, who came back from Yecheng, was not short of money. These coins could be stored by the wild boar with such care, maybe they had some special function, and naturally they could not be sold here.

But when he reached out to take back the coins, he was pressed down by the antique shop manager.

Zhu Jue frowned slightly and looked up at the antique store manager, who just looked back with a smile.

The setting sun was setting, and the afterglow had spread from behind the floor-to-ceiling windows to in front of the counter.

There is a person in the afterglow, his face is calm, and his whole body is like a layer of orange-red gauze.

There was a person behind the counter, and the incandescent light from his chin to his forehead reflected a strange layered look.

"Sir, the price can be discussed later. If you think 20,000 federal coins are not enough, just quote another price. I believe you want to sell these coins, otherwise why would they be stained with oil and dust."

Perhaps noticing that the atmosphere was starting to become stiff and awkward, the store manager let go of his hand first, with a relaxed smile on his face.

Almost all of the three coins Zhu Jue specially selected were stained because he wanted to use the equipment at the antique store to detect them. Before, he only had suspicions, but now his suspicions were confirmed by the words of the antique store manager.

Is it possible that a wild boar or rat might have stained these coins with oil and dust while doing something?

"Oil stains and dust. I'm happy with it. Do you have any objections?"

Zhu Jue said this quite rudely and put the three coins back into his pocket.

"Of course I have no objection. Just now you said you wanted to have a few things appraised. I wonder what else?"

The store manager was not angry at the customer's refusal and continued to smile.

When Zhu Jue took out the prayer coupon, the store manager's expression was inevitably a little disappointed. He thought this customer could come up with something good, but he still put on a pair of mechanical glasses to check the coupon.

"With all due respect, this is not a valuable item, just an ordinary prayer ticket."

This crude paper coupon obviously did not arouse the interest of the antique store manager, so he shrugged and gave the answer.

"What's the use? I mean in its day."

The seemingly innocuous prayer coupon was actually the most curious thing to Zhu Jue. It was stored so preciously, and Zhu Jue didn't believe it if he said it had no meaning.

"As it says on this ticket, it is a prayer ticket for the Church of Uzzah. With it, you can go to this church to pray. I mean a more in-depth prayer that allows you to contact higher-status clergy."

"Thank you, I understand, and there is one last thing."

Zhu Jue originally only planned to appraise these two things, but seeing that the antique store manager seemed to know a lot of things, he thought about it and took out the silver pot in his arms.

It wasn't the two he got in another dimension, but the silver pot in the novice gift bag that he had already drank up.

"Where did you get it!"

When he saw the silver pot for the first time, the store manager's breath suddenly became a little thicker, and even the tone of his inquiry changed.

"Is it important?"

Zhu Jue, who noticed this, did not answer directly, but asked rhetorically.

"I'm just curious. After all, this kind of silver pot is rare."

The store manager pushed up the glasses on the bridge of his nose with some embarrassment, rubbed the silver pot with his thumb, suddenly looked up at Zhu Jue and continued,

"It may take some time to identify it. You can go and sit there for a while first. The view of the setting sun passing through the corner tower of the cross block in front is very good. I also have good tea here. I’ll make you a drink right now.”

At this time, the store manager was somehow not in a hurry to make an appraisal, and raised his hand to guide Zhu Jue to the other side by the window.

"No, I'm used to drinking ice-cold soda. It makes me happy."

Zhu Jue seemed to feel tired. He raised the bottle of soda in his hand, followed the store manager's movements and turned around, heading towards the window.

There was only one wicker chair here, facing the floor-to-ceiling window, as if it was placed to enjoy the scenery the store manager said. Zhu Jue reached out and put his hand on the back of the chair, only to find that it was fixed to the ground.

"interesting."

He sat straight into the wicker chair, placed the bottle on the table next to him, and slowly turned the angle.

At this time, most of the setting sun had set on the tall buildings in the distance, and only the remaining light fell below the store manager's nose.

A weird smile suddenly appeared at the corner of his mouth.

Pressing the button behind the counter with his left hand, he reached out to the base of the incense burner on the counter with his right hand. With just a slight touch, a small hole opened in the middle of the blue porcelain incense burner.

It happened to be opposite where the wicker chair was.

Phew~ding~

Two sounds.

The former is a sharp sound breaking through the air, but the latter is a crisp collision sound.

The store manager's smile faded.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk, manager, your store is probably a bit dark."

Zhu Jue took back the glass bottle and looked at the steel needle that had penetrated more than half of the bottle. The glistening water on it proved that it was obviously filled with ingredients. He stood up from the wicker chair and turned around and asked,

"I have a glass bottle with a hidden weapon in my hand. Isn't it cool?"