The Fire-Chasing Herrscher Who Destroyed the World

The armored high-rise building, which is hundreds of stories high and is as hidden from the sky as the cliffs in the eastern part of Tianqiong City, is far behind. Mei Yi walks on the road with her cheeks puffed up. The road becomes narrower as they go forward, and the buildings on both sides become more low and dilapidated. , the low night sky is indeed becoming more and more vast, but the darkness without a single star can only be filled by the sparsely arranged red dots on the roof of the building that are shining for some reason.

Even so, or in response to this, only one-third of the windows in a building were dimly lit. Although it was only a small amount of fluorescent light, it just made up for the blank space of the street lights. Coupled with the silver-gray moonlight, the whole world was immersed in turquoise light and shadow.

However, the dim light flowing out from the windows on both sides slanted in the middle of the road, as if dancing with the boring shadow. The light gray shadow was elongated, compressed, rotated, and was quickly thrown behind him, and finally reappeared in front of him. Each reincarnation made one's eyes numb. But soon the shadow gained another shape - thin black lines gradually enveloped the figure, but in fact nothing could be done to save it. The only result was that Mei Yi raised her head in surprise and looked at the tall, erect figure. telephone pole.

The night wind suddenly became strong for a moment, and the wires swayed, but within two or three seconds, silence returned again - this kind of thing that can be called an antique, Meiyi couldn't remember the last time he saw it.

On both sides of the road, the sidewalks downstairs and the alleys between buildings were completely hidden in the darkness. Only the outlines of broken bricks and large bags of garbage could be seen.

"Snapped!"

Mei Yi stumbled and was caught by Mikael.

She seemed to have been stepped on by a small stone. On the road, she saw only a black shadow rolling into a side alley.

"Woof! Woof woof!"

The stone seemed to have hit a wild dog, and two feeble barks sounded in the alley. The dim yellow voice-activated light flashed, and finally fell silent amidst the sound of electric current.

Meiyi silently shook off Mikael's hand, but without taking two steps, perhaps without even realizing it, she gradually moved closer to Mikael until their shoulders touched.

"What's wrong?"

Mikael asked with a pinched voice - although he didn't know why he was so quiet, but involuntarily whispering in a quiet place seems to be an instinctive reaction of human beings.

Anyway, with the hearing of a person who has awakened the stigmata, he will not be able to hear such a close sound.

Mei Yi twisted her neck, looked left and right, pinched Mikael and replied in the same breath:

"There was also breathing sounds behind the unlit windows..."

As soon as the words came out of her mouth, she felt that she was doing something unnecessary. How could Mikael's hearing be weaker than hers, not to mention his observation ability? If even she could find the problem, then Mikael would have discovered it long ago.

But he said nothing, and it was clear that this was what he was trying to show her.

Mei Yi took a deep breath and tried to calm herself down, but the sound of her heartbeat and swallowing was even more obvious than the sound of footsteps in this silent night.

When she realized this, her heartbeat became louder and faster, and the rate of saliva secretion under her tongue began to soar, creating an endless loop.

She began to turn her head more frequently, staring at every dark window with her purple eyes. Sometimes she turned around, but she could no longer see the light from where she came. Only the light gray shadow stretched to the extreme under the turquoise light, and then Turn into ashes.

"Mei, you are a Valkyrie after all. You are not even afraid of Honkaimon. Are you still afraid of the dark?"

Well, this has to be mentioned again, the so-called nature of fear.

The object of most human fears is, ultimately, nothing more than the unknown.

For example, the fear of death is essentially the fear of "what will happen after death." From this point of view, human beings have tried their best to create too many myths about the underworld, hell and heaven, all of which are aimed at overcoming the fear of death.

Correspondingly, Honkaimon is a known thing, while darkness and the countless weird possibilities hidden behind it are unknown. As a Valkyrie, it is normal not to be afraid of Honkaimon but also the dark. Something happened.

What's more... there was really deep and shallow breathing coming out from behind the dark window.

"Okay, don't be afraid. Those rooms where you think there are no lights on, but you can actually hear breathing, maybe you can't afford the electricity bill?"

"...Can you please stop joking?"

"I'm not kidding."

Mikael turned sideways and walked sideways, and even raised his finger to shake his cheek. The same action made Meiyi's eyes twitch.

Before she could react, Mikael held her hand again and pulled her aside.

"Shhh! You'll know it if you see it with your own eyes!"

Mei Yi struggled to stop, just like she had experienced countless times in the past two days. She finally relaxed her body and allowed Mikael to take her downstairs to the nearby apartment.

The door to the first floor of the apartment was closed, and there was no light on the second floor. But as we got closer, the sound of breathing and heartbeat leaking from behind the floor-to-ceiling glass door on the balcony became more and more impossible to ignore.

"Pop!"

Mikael patted his shoulder lightly, and Mei saw a dim light flash in his eyes. It was probably him winking - stepping on my shoulder.

Mei bit her lips tightly. She wanted to laugh, but considering that Mikael was her "enemy" in a strict sense, she could only try her best to suppress the smile on her lips.

However, the two of them walked here in harmony. Is this really something that should happen to an enemy?

She shook her head quickly and forced herself not to think about it. Mei ignored Mikael, bent her knees slightly, and jumped onto the second-floor balcony.

But there was already a figure standing there.

"Lululu——"

Mikael stuck out his tongue and made a "yeah" gesture to her.

"..."

Mei watched him take out a strong flashlight out of thin air, then suddenly pushed open the glass door behind the balcony, and the blue beam instantly shot into the dark living room.

"Huh?"

The beam shot straight out of the window on the other side of the living room, and vague mumbling came from the darkness, but when the man opened his eyes in a daze, it seemed as if nothing had happened.

Mikael and Mei reappeared on the empty street.

Although it was only a moment, the observation of the Valkyrie was enough to see everything in the house clearly.

It was simply an undecorated house, with gray-white cement on the ground and walls. When the glass door was opened, large pieces of particles even tried to rush out with the air pressure, and quickly flowed back with the cold air outside. The windows must have been built when they were first built, and the reflections were full of plastic. The only furniture was a sleeping bag, a paper box used as a trash can, an induction cooker, a small pot, a long extension cord, and two stools that were obviously brought from nowhere.

Of course, garbage was indispensable. The ground was almost full of plastic packaging bags of bread and instant noodles. Even the air was filled with the smell of braised beef and pickled cabbage, which completely covered the sweaty smell of the man.

The situation seemed to be more... serious than Mikael's light-hearted words "I can't pay the electricity bill."

It can be imagined that this is simply a homeless man who has almost nothing and has occupied a bare house that no one cares about. There is no stove, only a small induction cooker. Considering that there is no sink, whether the only small pot has been used to soak noodles, or whether it has been washed after soaking noodles, will probably become an unsolved mystery that Meiyi will never be able to solve and does not want to solve in her life.

Before this, Meiyi Raiden had imagined countless kinds of "poverty".

After all, it is the age when it is easiest to fantasize about the future, and she certainly fantasized about some completely different possibilities. For example, she did not become a Valkyrie, and the tragedy of Changkong City did not happen. She, Kiana and her father were rescued by Mikael, and then they fled to the end of the world together and settled in the snowfield in Kiana's memory. There is a big wooden house, and Mikael and his father can bring back some prey from the bare woods from time to time, which is enough for them to eat meat for every meal. Kiana went to chop wood early in the morning under the leadership of Mebius, and when it was time for dinner, she, who was the best at cooking, would cook hot meals for the family. The wooden house may leak snow and air, which may happen once every two weeks, but Mikael and his father can always quickly repair the house in various ways at the first time - this is the most difficult life that Raiden Meiyi once imagined.

Compared with the wanderers in front of her, is this better or worse?

It should be worse.

Although the wooden house looks simple, it is fully furnished in the fantasy, even with an oven and a gas stove... Fortunately, there is no range hood in the fantasy. Even if it snows half of the year, there is enough firewood and a fireplace, so as long as you don't go out, it is always warm. No matter how you look at it, it is better than a bare and cold house with nothing but dust and garbage, right?

Of course, if you really want to say what the biggest difference between fantasy and reality is, it is not the various external conditions. This alone is enough to make Meiyi stay away from this kind of life - loneliness.

"Woo-woo-"

"Woo-woo-"

The wind swept across the street quickly, and the wires swung in response, but the sound inevitably made people worry whether the electric poles would be uprooted, or whether the dangling wires would break directly from the middle, and the remaining two pieces would be driven by the wind to hit a crisp lightning five whips.

Unfortunately, none of these happened.

"Huahua!"

Hearing the sound in her hand, Meiyi realized that she was still holding the oil paper bag wrapped in fried crispy meat.

"Give it to me."

Without waiting for Meiyi to answer, Mikael took the oil paper bag from her hand and threw it into the space crack.

Meiyi put her fingers under her nose and sniffed gently. It was spicy and incompatible with the taste of instant noodles.

She sighed silently. She had a lot of things to say, but she didn't know how to organize them into words. Sure enough, it would be better to be silent at this time.

Unfortunately, the person next to her didn't seem to think so.

"Raiden Meiyi, do you know where this is?"

Mikael's voice was a little hoarse, but Meiyi didn't notice it. She glanced at the man curiously. This was a rare easy-to-get-point question.

"Sky City."

"..."

Mikael curled his lips in silence.

"Mei, do you remember the test-taking skills I taught you when I was a teacher at St. Freya?"

"What?"

"When you find that there is a seemingly very simple easy-to-get-point question on the test paper in addition to the first two questions, what should you do?"

"..."

Meiyi pursed her lips and didn't want to answer, but at least she gave the answer in her heart - she should re-examine the question and do it again to make sure that she didn't understand the question wrongly.

"Pfft——"

Mikael's sneer was particularly harsh at night, but he quickly covered his mouth to suppress his voice to prevent the laughter from spreading too far in the dark night.

“Where did you learn the word ghetto?”

"It doesn't sound good, but isn't it?"

Mikael shook his head.

"How about you being Miss Mei Raiden? You really don't know anything about the slums."

The muscles of Meiyi's left cheek rose upward and twitched, as if she had narrowed her eyes. Of course, such irony made her uncomfortable, but she had never been to a real slum, so she had watched TV at least, right?

"Are the slums even more dilapidated than here? Like those shantytowns in the news?"

"Eh?"

Mikael groaned, slowly raised his head, and didn't answer for about half a minute.

Half a minute later, he suddenly stopped, but before Mei Yi could stop, he started walking again.

It could be seen that he was also mulling over his words in his mind.

"Eh!"

Mikael pondered deeply, and the surroundings were so quiet that only his footsteps and breathing were left. Mei Yi couldn't help but start thinking wildly again, and was kicked again accidentally, but this time, before Mikael could take action, she... He stabilized his body with the body control he had developed over the years.

"There are more steps at the back, so be careful."

When Mei Yi wasn't paying attention, Mikael silently withdrew his hand. At first, his two arms were hanging naturally by his sides, and they swayed back and forth with his steps, but something felt awkward, so he simply put his hands behind his back like an old man.

The right hand held the wrist of the left hand, and after a while it changed to holding the index and middle fingers of the left hand together. This time it finally felt comfortable.

"In terms of the literal meaning, your understanding is correct. A place where poor people live in harsh living conditions. This is probably the simplest and unambiguous explanation of slums. But if you want to say that this is a slum, that's more or less true. Exaggerated. What we just saw is almost the worst situation we can see here. His life is much better than the real slums I have seen, although instant noodles and instant bread are lacking. Nutrient, but the caloric intake is completely sufficient. In the slums I have been to, if the instant noodles and bread on the ground were used as general equivalents, they would probably be enough for two girls like you."

The sound of Mei Yi swallowing was covered by the wind, but she didn't intend to make a sound.

"This is really not a slum, and the reason is very simple. It is relatively safe here, and the order of human civilization still exists. Did you notice that person's body? If he was really in a slum, there wouldn't be anything on his body It's almost impossible to get hurt. It's even more impossible to sleep in such a rough room without any protection. Don't think that because the guy looks like he has nothing, you won't be targeted. He thinks he has nothing, and in a real slum, he can be considered a 'well-off'. Besides, sometimes you need a reason to find a target, beat him up, or even kill him directly. Does this kind of thing never need a reason? , No matter where you are, you only need atonement. Obviously, it is better to expect someone to judge this kind of behavior in the slums, but it is different here.”

Mikael stretched out his index finger and pointed to the roof of the building. Although his fingertip was pointing to a large area, Mei guessed that he was pointing to the flashing red dots.

"Camera?"

"Well, although the number is smaller, and due to the installation location, there are many blind spots in the field of vision, but you can't think that they don't exist. Believe it or not, there is a police officer sitting in front of his work station with a cup of coffee in his hand, staring at us I have already said all the greetings I can about my whereabouts."

"...Speak as if you have seen it with your own eyes."

Mikael shrugged his shoulders and skipped the sudden intrusion.

"Actually, it's fine here during the day. There will be normal vendors and even public transportation. Like the homeless man just now, he will get up at sunrise, buy two steamed buns from downstairs, and take a bus converted from a van. , beyond the real slums in the outer reaches, to work in factories in the suburbs.

"That's okay..."

"Yes, so this place is not as bad as you imagine... In short, this place is definitely not the lower limit of human society as you imagined."

Meiyi nodded thoughtfully.

"Huh? Then why didn't the mother of the boy before let him come here?"

"Well……"

Mikael rubbed the stubble on his chin and smiled sheepishly.

"Well...as I said just now, there are a lot of blind spots for those cameras! After all, this is not a paradise, but a place with a lower limit than normal human society, so it is not that safe, especially for misunderstandings. For strangers who come here - if you don’t believe it, you can go to the third alley behind you and take a look.”