Wasteland Echoer

"The Ugly Duckling?" Luo Nie asked curiously. He crossed his legs and sat directly on a dirty tile that was still intact but covered with dust next to the "Metamorphosis" sculpture.

"Actually, this story also has a very interesting name. I think this name will make readers more interested in reading. After all, it is not short. It does not have an obscure title like many novels that no one cares about. Plus A brief introduction to letting yourself go and not knowing what to say,” Melinaer joked.

"Tell me about it?" Luonie said, pulling Sai beside him to sit down together.

However, he did not greet Melinaer. After all, the red cardinal wearing such a luxurious dress must not be willing to associate with dirt.

""The story of a dark duck who was ridiculed and turned into a magnificent white swan, but he chose to take revenge on all the animals that looked down on him and finally sacrificed himself."

"Haha." Luo Nie laughed unkindly, "You speak so fast. With the title of the book, I am even more excited to listen."

"It is rumored that in a farm on the outskirts of the northern province of Putoa, an old female duck was hatching a strange egg one day. The egg was very special. It was whiter and slightly larger than ordinary duck eggs. .”

"She had great longing, imagining that strange eggs could bring extraordinary results. She hoped to hatch a duck that was both 'handsome' and 'intelligent'. No matter what happened, she could escape being cooked and eaten by humans. Its destiny can at least become an ornament or even a plaything."

"But she was wrong. The hatched duck, no, can no longer be called a duck, but a 'little monster'. Its hair is black, with a slight sticky feel of petroleum. The other ducks are white and yellowish. , at most, there are sporadic stains, either due to stains or spots caused by genes. Therefore, it is an alien among aliens."

"Interesting. I'm afraid it's hard for a duck like this to avoid being ostracized. After all, he and the ducks around him don't look like they belong to the same race. It's not uncommon to speculate on a person's character and wisdom based on his appearance and appearance. This practice is not uncommon in the Western Continent, but Often those who are sloppy are geniuses, and those who are sanctimonious are beasts. This reminds me of a proverb from the Empire of Fire." Luo Nie interjected, with a contemptuous smile on his lips, of course, it was directed at the story.

"Tell me about it." Melinaer was not angry at Luo Nie's impolite behavior. Instead, she maintained an elegant posture, including a smile.

"He is not of the same race as me, so his thinking and actions must be different. There is no better choice we can make except destroying them."

"Have you been to the Fire Empire? Or are you also interested in their culture?" Melinaer asked a digression.

"My life has indeed been very long so far," Luo Nie did not answer directly, but opened her sapphire-like eyes melancholy, tilting her head to look at the statue that strangely displayed the splicing and fusion of various species and materials. murmured:

"When the Lord of Machines created me, I felt that I had already spent a very long, confused, painful, lonely, melancholy, doubtful, and empty time. When the glory of the gods faded away and the lights of mankind lasted, I would I saw a world filled with destruction, killing, madness, cruelty, deception, cunning and pain.”

"I have been in contact with humans in this continent for more than a hundred years. I remember that Tuowu II was a handsome young man with great heroic spirit. He vowed to eliminate the unintentional people and save the wasteland world. In his era, the empire The industrial system was rebuilt and developed, basic scientific theories were re-established, occultism was no longer strictly suppressed, aircraft began to reappear, artillery and explosives were promoted for half an era, and even the "Holy Word", which was once banned, was , "The Secret Book" and "The Ancient World of All Things" were reprinted and released."

"He established a monetary system that spread throughout the Western Continent. He was the third emperor, besides the Crusted Empire and the Ptoia Federation, to propose the idea of ​​a gold standard currency and truly implement it completely. Although the current new currency is The style has gone through several iterations, but all previous settings have not been overturned, and there has been no over-issuance. The policy of exchanging 35 new coins for one ounce of gold has always been implemented, although it is really possible to go to Sokra Industrial Bank and Zhinets from other places. There are very few humans, even Lost Ones, in the Imperial Bank.”

"It's a pity that he died in an assassination. He tried to decipher the technology left behind by the Krusted Empire and prepared to re-develop a robot controlled by a single soldier for use in war. Unfortunately, the robot was affected by a mysterious force and was finally penetrated by a mechanical throwing axe. On his head, blood and white-scorched brain tissue flowed all over the floor, and he met the Lord forever without even making a movement of struggle."

Luo Nie paused for a moment, his eyes losing focus and staring straight at the flying dust in the air. A heavy memory suddenly unsealed in his mind.

Those dusts were very much like a wave of "unintentional people" in the early New Yuan period of the Zine Empire. His mind echoed with the roars of men, the shrill screams of frightened women, the cries of children, and a man from Yanhuo. The federal businessman, because he upheld the "tao" they admired in his heart, did not care about his own life at the critical moment when the city fell, but handed the gun and grenades to a man to protect him and his The woman and her two children retreated, but after she was bitten, she huddled in the corner of the magnificent residence, waiting for her fate to come.

Thinking of this, Luo pinched his nose and felt a long-lost soreness, and his eyes began to become alive. He blinked his eyes and even noticed some inexplicable liquid flowing out of the corners of his eyes, but it only reached as far as his nostrils. It stopped abruptly.

Luo Nie's thoughts that were sometimes sober and sometimes chaotic didn't make Luo Nie realize that this was a human emotion. He just wiped away the foreign-body-like liquid, raised his head, looked at the graceful Melinaer, and continued said:

"Although I have never been to the Fire Empire, people in the Western Continent, miserable human beings struggling in pain and hope, all yearn for it. Almost everyone looking for salvation will hold a copy of "Morlock" travel journal, After all, we all know that the Fire Empire successfully blocked the virus, protected half of its territory, and built a world full of order and hope."

"During the largest wave of 'unintentional people' in the empire, I did meet a businessman of the Flame Federation who was still alive and about to die. He struggled to tell many anecdotes, including many about their culture and religion. Content. I knew that the reason why he did not die immediately was because the virus was transforming his body and his reason was melting, but I did not read regret in his dark eyes. In the end, he smiled and his whole body convulsed. , trembling, after his eyes and heart turned red, I used the 'Light of Mechanical Spirit' to penetrate his relatively fragile neck."

"That sounds really distressing," Melinare commented:

"It seems that you have experienced a lot of joys and sorrows in the human world, human emotions, and you can even feel some unspeakable existences. You should have touched the 'wisdom', but you just lack a little [enlightenment]. This kind of Products related to 'divinity'."

Luo Nie looked at Melinaer, nodded slightly, and said nothing.

"I heard about you. That abominable [Hunter] Atwood has actually suffered retribution from the gods. You probably don't understand the conditions for us lost people to contact the gods. If nothing else, the most important and core thing is The point is: the heart cannot be full of sin, there must be a weak goodwill left. Even if your hands are stained with blood, you must at least repent to the gods."

"We are born with original sin and need to be redeemed by gods. Although many 'reformers' during the Third Era did not agree with the ancient doctrines, to this day, we who live in this sad era must have Original sin. The realm of human existence is called purgatory, but this world, in reality, is hell. Speaking of original sin, Melinaer turned her head and looked in the direction of the open giant door with a sad face, staring at the light The dark intertwined areas looked like curtains spliced ​​together, and he continued:

"Like the ugly duck in the fairy tale."

"I'm sorry, I just interrupted your fairy tale. I just...wanted to talk about something so much. I wanted to express as much as possible before the 'Replacement Eye' completely wiped out the human part of me. The day before yesterday Several witch doctors have also said that behaving like humans as much as possible and living in a human way can delay the process of turning into machines, broken metal, or even monsters that only know how to kill." Luo Nie expressed. Apologized.

"Then let's continue that fairy tale. Since I want to tell it, I must have found some kind of revelation. I hope you will listen carefully." Melinaer coughed twice, cleared her throat, turned her head, and looked at it with a smile. Sai and Luo Nie said:

"I just mentioned that the mother duck hatched a black 'little monster'. It was indeed marginalized by the ducks and even most of the animals on the farm, including hens, cows, big yellow dogs, fold-eared cats, and brown-haired cats. Horses and even doves mock.”

"Because in addition to its appearance being somewhat similar to that of a duck, he also has half a slender and smooth tail that looks like a devil, and a pair of slightly angular wings that were developed in one day. In addition, his eyes One is purple and the other is green, scattering strange light at night."

"Animals called it an 'ominous thing' and 'the incarnation of the devil.' As a result, it felt inferior and lost, and its inner longing for a beautiful world and a leisurely life was gradually erased. Until one day, it was trampled by a tall horse. Being bitten by a folded-eared cat, barked by a big yellow dog, and coupled with an unquenchable hunger, he chose to escape from the farm that made him suffer."