The Fire-Chasing Herrscher Who Destroyed the World

"Lord Mayor, these two are..."

The light in the tower is dim. Although Mikael and Mei have removed the disguises on their facial features and hair color, their dressing styles are different from before. No one will associate them with those two people... right?

To be on the safe side, both Mikael and Mei lowered their heads slightly, maintained mysterious smiles, and handed over the task of communicating with the military and police to Michael.

Michael understood it. In fact, he felt that there was no need to be so cautious. After all, judging from the titles of these guys, they were basically the lowest-level military police. They might only know the names of Mikael and Mei, and they had seen them occasionally. Two photos, but it is almost impossible to recognize them at a glance.

"These two are the two special commissioners from the headquarters."

"Uh, how did they..."

Michael frowned, glanced at the policeman's badge in front of him, and asked:

"Officer Sully, do you have any questions?"

"No, no, no!"

Sally shook his head quickly. Although he was very confused about the behavior of the mayor in bringing the two special commissioners here, he was just a military policeman at the lowest level. Even if it was biased or inconsistent with the interests of most people, he If there is a conflict, that is not something he can comment on.

He even vaguely regretted it - if he had known better, he would not have grabbed this opportunity to attend work.

Sally had been a member of the fire department before the collapse and had participated in many disaster first aids. Naturally, he also understood that before many disasters, there would be various unknown signs.

For example, before an earthquake strikes, pigs will run around, chickens will climb into trees, and the compass may malfunction.

For example, before a mudslide occurs, an unusual smell may appear in the upper river valley.

And now, there is no doubt that he has smelled this unusual smell.

He couldn't understand why the mayor brought two special commissioners here, just like he didn't understand why there was a strange smell in the river valley, why the pigs ran around, why the chickens flew up the trees, the compass...oh, This last one he knew was that the earth's magnetic field was disordered.

But not knowing the specific principle does not mean that he cannot detect the information before the disaster. Thinking of this, he has already retreated in his heart. How about... just follow the normal procedure this time?

As an experienced bureaucrat, Michael could not see the hesitation of the policeman in front of him. He took two steps forward, stood in front of Sally, and lowered his voice to remind:

"Don't think too much. The two special correspondents are just here to watch the show. Or you can just understand it as having fun. Don't be so formal. Aren't you the best at this? Just do whatever you usually do and make them laugh."

The muscles in Officer Sally's cheek twitched slightly, and his intuition told him that this matter must not be that simple.

But if you think about it carefully, the expression "looking for fun" is actually the most normal explanation for the current situation.

At least, the explanation "The Alderman brought two special commissioners to the tower to have fun" is far better than "The Alderman betrayed all his subordinates, colleagues and superiors, and vowed to make the two special commissioners see the dark side of the entire world." "It's reliable.

To be on the safe side, Officer Sally asked again:

"Can we just go as usual?"

"Of course! Just do what you usually do. Don't you still believe in my character?"

Uh... Sally didn't believe it.

After all, in the entire system, letting subordinates take the blame is a basic operation. Paper cannot contain the fire, and what has been done will always leave traces, and that annoying Dr. Mei has repeatedly carried out investigation work. Although most of the problems can be solved, there are always things that cannot be solved and the blame needs to be passed. When giving to subordinates.

Although Michael did have a good reputation among the city officials, Sally didn't think that being a city official would keep his butt clean, so the fact that he was still sitting in this position said everything.

But that’s what Michael said. If what he said was true, then his retreating behavior was undoubtedly a kind of disobedience, and the two special commissioners would also be unhappy.

Thinking about it this way, it is simply a dilemma.

However, no matter how you say it, "the alderman brought two special commissioners to the tower to have fun" is at least a logical explanation. It's more reliable than "the mayor has betrayed everyone".

So, Sally rubbed his face, shook off the hesitation in his heart, saluted Michael and the two special commissioners, and then began to perform his mission.

The deserter's location was on the second floor. Five military policemen took long strides and rushed up the stairs.

Of course they also noticed the blood and minced meat on the ground, but no one asked a question from beginning to end.

Michael silently retreated to Mikael, and none of the three seemed interested in following him.

However, as if fearing that Michael and Mei would misunderstand, Michael also explained specifically:

"Normal evaders generally don't escape into the tower. They really can't stand the work, so they run outside the protective net or to the upper area. That's the two types of people who don't want to enter the tower I mentioned before. road.

"After all, if you run towards the tower, you will most likely be caught, and everyone knows this. So the nature of this behavior is more like college students skipping classes and going back to the dormitory to play games and sleep. I even dare to guarantee that this dormitory collective Skipping work and returning to the tower, he is either sleeping or playing games. For this kind of person, even if he is punished, it can only be said that he deserves it. "

As soon as he finished speaking, heart-wrenching cries echoed in the tower again:

"No! Let me finish this fight! Just ten minutes, just ten minutes! I can't hang up! Give me another chance!"

Michael pursed his dry lips, and Michael was right. These guys were just playing games in the dormitory.

Sally walked at the front with his head held high, and four military policemen each walked behind with a deserter. They did not take these four people away, but pulled and dragged them all the way to the stairs on the first floor. .

Several military police handcuffed the deserters face-inward to the railing of the stairs. Sally took out his mobile phone and operated it for a while, then raised it high and started live broadcasting with the front-facing camera.

"Hello, hello! Hahaha, I didn't expect to meet you all again so soon...ah! When you hear the noise downstairs, you know there is something good to watch. Brother, you are in this building!"

The tower gradually became lively. Mikael thought the noise was an illusion at first, but when he looked up, he realized that many of the people who had previously been unwilling to come out to see the situation actually opened their doors and lay on their backs. On the railing, noisily watching the scene on the first floor.

Although due to overtime work, there were only more than 400 people left in the entire tower, and not everyone came out to watch the fun, but with the previous dead silence as a foreshadowing, the sound made by these less than 400 people was really like a landslide. It's like it's cracked, and it makes people's heads hurt.

Mikael and Mei looked at each other and retreated into the passage they came from in tacit agreement, observing the progress of the situation from the shadows.

"It seems that everyone at the scene is very enthusiastic! You must be familiar with the process. This time, four people were arrested, which is enough for everyone to have fun!"

"What is he saying?"

Michael turned to look at Michael.

"This... should be said to be a form of entertainment for everyone, right?"

"How to say?"

"You two...ah, as two of you, I'm afraid you don't have time to pay attention to the entertainment section of the design software. In short, it is to live broadcast the appearance of these work evaders being flogged for everyone to see. Of course, there will be more after that. These will be posted online in the form of videos.”

"Is this entertaining?"

"...I can't say, but at least the audience found it very entertaining."

Mikael nodded in understanding.

That's right, as Michael said before, if a deserter chooses to seek a life outside the protective net or in the upper-class area after leaving his post, there is nothing wrong with it. After all, the former requires courage, and the latter requires freedom.

But escaping to the dormitory to play games and sleep is different.

They obviously did nothing and paid nothing, but they could still get paid for a day's work, as long as they were not discovered.

This is a disservice to everyone but them.

For those who have paid their exemption money to rest in the towers, for those who drag their tired bodies to finish a day's work, for those who carry machetes and pistols and plunge into the dangerous vastness outside the protective net. For people in the wilderness, for those who sold themselves and their descendants' freedom to obtain a life above food and clothing.

This kind of getting something for nothing is the greatest betrayal.

In fact, they are not even as good as the gentlemen in the upper-class areas in this regard. After all, they also have to pay exemption money for their own family and those who have signed employment contracts with them. Although they want to get it with their feet, they must be hiding something, and they often pay less than half of their share, but at least they still paid money.

Therefore, everyone hates such people, and naturally everyone wants to see them tortured.

Besides, in this apocalypse with great mental pressure, everyone has a lot of pressure to release in various forms, and if other factors are not considered, violence is often one of the most effective ways to release stress. Using this method can also channel the violent impulses caused by stress in most people, including the movies with violent labels produced now. Before the collapse, the level of blood and gore would definitely not have been released. from.

"Come on, come on! The first whipping is about to begin! Use barrage to tell me which one to whip first!"

The four people's hands were handcuffed to the stair railing, and they could only twist their lower limbs to struggle, but they still could not stop the military and police from taking off their pants, exposing their buttocks that were already covered with scars.

"Oh! They are all habitual offenders. Why is this dormitory name so familiar? I've been through it several times, right! Then let's start with the one with the most scars... Hahaha, thanks for the popularity of Tower Light! From the right Be the first in line to start fighting? Okay, the boss’s request must be met!”

The corners of Mikael's mouth twitched and he asked:

"This person was working as an anchor before he collapsed, right?"

"Not really."

Michael shook his head quickly, "Because for the first live broadcast, we directly occupied the servers of some live broadcast platforms before the collapse. In order to save costs, the original functional structure has hardly been adjusted, and naturally there will be rewards."

"Snapped!"

It seemed that they had reached an agreement. As soon as Michael finished speaking, there was a crack of whips from the other side, followed by incoherent screams:

"Ah! I was wrong, policeman, I don't dare to be gentle anymore...be gentle ah ah ah!"

Putting aside those noises, Mikael continued to ask:

"Where does the reward money come from?"

"Huh? That's right, Captain Mikael, you must be used to the absolute rationing system, and you haven't even paid attention to some details, right? For example, you have never seen your salary card."

"Well?"

Mikael touched the stubble on his chin. The last time he thought about the salary card in his memory was when Anti-Entropy merged with the Fire Chaser Moth.

Before this, especially when everyone had just escaped from the fire moth, when the world had not yet regressed to absolute rationing, and the currency value was relatively stable, Velvet almost lost her hair before she bought the rice. The allowances of Kyle, Ellie, and Mebius were withdrawn from their salary cards as the initial operating funds for Anti-Entropy.

If it weren't for nostalgia, Mikael would have thrown away the card. Since others were going against entropy, Fire Chaser Moth wouldn't put any more money in it.

Later, after Anti-Entropy and Fire Chasing Moth merged, Mikael directly handed the card to Ellie for safekeeping, and almost didn't pay attention to it anymore.

Now that Michael mentioned it like this, he actually spent more than three seconds retrieving this memory. He was really ashamed.

"Don't be so surprised. It makes it look like I'm mistreating my subordinates."

May had a rare opportunity to crack a joke.

"The material rationing system you are familiar with was actually not a [remuneration] when it was originally designed, but a [relief method]. But I didn't expect that the currency would depreciate so quickly that the money spent to buy a pound of toilet paper would be replaced by A banknote costs two kilograms, so there’s a joke that toilet paper is more expensive than money.”

"So, that is to say, the money is still being distributed? In addition to receiving material supplies, these people will also receive a certain amount of money as compensation for their work?"

"Yes, but it is not a physical object such as banknotes, but is stored in the salary card that was issued when the unified identity file was established. The salary is paid based on the minimum hourly wage before the collapse. The coalition government has promised:

"Once the Honkai Impact is defeated, new currency will be reissued. The old currency will be converted into the purchasing power of the currency based on the year when the Honkai Impact officially broke out, that is, the year you became the Herrscher. These will be converted into grain within ten years. All currencies in the salary card will be converted into new currencies of equal value.”

"This... it's OK to lie to children... Oh no, people who were children that year have indeed grown up now..."

After all, it has been twelve years...

Mikael meant it as a joke, but Mei said seriously:

"Yes, it is almost impossible to realize it. After defeating Honkai, everything is waiting to be done. It is conceivable that material rationing will continue for a long time... Well, actually, there is no need to think so far. Let's first deal with Honkai. After that, whatever happens after that is fine.”

"Ahem!"

Michael always felt that he heard something he shouldn't have heard. He cleared his throat and continued to explain:

"Although the current currency depreciation is very serious, most of the Internet businesses have been acquired long ago. The recharges for those games, including live broadcasts, are still calculated based on the original exchange rate. To put it bluntly... life and work are already so hard. I encourage everyone Release stress in various ways in the online world.

"And most people know that they should use the money as they should. In the end, Chasing Fire Moth won't be able to cash it in anyway. As for the reward money, it will flow to the accounts of these military policemen, although they may not necessarily think so. The money will be cashed out, but it will not be in vain if it is cheap, and you can also vent your violent tendencies. "

Mikael shook his head. The screams and the nervous laughter of the military police disturbed Mikael.

Perhaps these four deserters should have been punished like this.

Perhaps people in this era enjoy this kind of live broadcast, and it has indeed become one of their few means of entertainment.

But in Mikael's opinion, this is more like a farce.

Of course, he is not qualified to stop such a farce, because his despair is not the same as the despair in the hearts of these ordinary people. He has no right to destroy other people's entertainment methods.

But he could genuinely hate it.

Today can whipping be resumed, but tomorrow can corporal punishment be resumed?

Today you can watch the live broadcast of flogging, but tomorrow you can fight for the flesh and blood of Ling Chi, or grab the blood of the execution and dip it into a steamed bun with human blood?

Because of the collapse of the world, we have lost our humanity. Because of the loss of our humanity, we ourselves, whether mentally or physically, will fall into a deeper collapse.

This is already an endless cycle that cannot be broken out of.

"Let's go."

Mikael wasn't ready to watch anymore.

But the moment he turned around, Officer Sally also put away the playful smile on his face during the live broadcast, and answered the phone with a serious face:

"Wha...what? Okay, I understand! Support immediately."

"Well?"

Mikael glanced back, and faint but unignorable noises and shouts reached his ears through the thick metal door.

And Sally also hurriedly ran towards Mikael and the other three, shouting as he ran:

"Three adults! Something bad has happened, the workers..."

"Calm down, what happened?"

"They... went on strike and marched."

"Ah……"

Mikael let out a long breath, feeling an inexplicable sense of absurdity in his heart——

How many times has this happened?

It's a true prophecy. As long as the counter-entropy takes a vacation, there will be either a strike, a riot, or collapse.