Embers Ad Infinitum

Chapter 66: Early morning

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"I found something." Shang Jianyao took the long white hair and walked quickly back to the living room area.

In order to make Qiao Chu, Jiang Baimian and the others see it more clearly, he turned the flashlight and pointed it at his hand.

The yellowish beam of light spread out slightly, reflecting Shang Jianyao's gloomy face, so frightened that Long Yuehong almost jumped up and shot him.

"Look at my hand." Shang Jianyao seemed to have expected Long Yuehong's reaction, but only then did he add.

Long Yuehong slowly exhaled, moved his eyes, and looked over.

In the yellowish beam of light, fine dust fluttered, and the white hair swayed gently.

"Where did you find it?" Jiang Baimian asked.

Shang Jianyao pointed to the wall on which the LCD screen was hung:

"On the pillows in this bedroom."

"Only one?" Jiang Baimian asked.

"Theoretically, unless it can devour its companions and evolve itself." Shang Jianyao replied seriously.

"This kind of thing is taught in basic courses now?" Jiang Baimian said casually, as if he was distracted to think about various possibilities.

Bai Chen, who was listening quietly, pulled the old scarf around his neck and said:

"What was left when the old world was destroyed?"

Hair is not so perishable in a similar environment.

"It doesn't make sense to keep only this one." Jiang Baimian expressed his doubts. "And, don't we have a preliminary judgment? This city will have some level of 'maintenance' on a regular basis. This room Some situations in China also confirm this, just like just now, we found traces of rat activity in the restaurant and kitchen, but they left nothing except bite marks and scratches."

"This is more and more terrifying..." Long Yuehong couldn't help muttering.

A city that has long since died is still regularly cleaning up debris and "maintaining" itself!

Without knowing why, this is scarier than a ghost story on a radio show!

"The rats may have been eaten by the active 'unintentional ones' here, and they also need food." Bai Chen said his guess.

Jiang Baimian said "um":

"Possibly. But will the 'mindless' clean up the mice? All they have left is their survival instinct."

"What's impossible? Don't they all still sing?" Shang Jianyao turned off the torch in his hand and said seriously.

"..." Jiang Bai gave him a blank look, "Do you sing with that kind of roar? Besides, even if they still have a certain instinct to clean up the environment, although I haven't seen the 'intentional ones' in other places, but Let them have it first, in short, they should also 'maintain' frequently, rather than doing it after a long period of time, after all, they don't have too much thinking ability and will only act according to their instincts."

Judging by the condition of the streets, buildings and rooms, it has not been maintained for a long time.

According to "reason", Shang Jianyao strives to:

"Humans have a lazy instinct.

"How often do you usually clean your room?"

Jiang Baimian was at a loss for words, looked at Qiao Chu and said:

"I'm just being more casual when I'm on a mission in the wilderness, which is a sign of being gregarious.

"In the company, if I cook by myself, I clean it every day, more than once. If I eat in the cafeteria, I clean it once every three days and once a month."

Since their discussion began, Qiao Chu, who had not spoken, suddenly asked:

"Are you from 'Pangu Biology', or from 'United Industry', 'Orange' Company, or 'Future Intelligence'?"

"We belong to the 'Pangu creatures'." Jiang Baimian answered truthfully.

Qiao Chu touched the silver rifle on his knees, nodded slightly and said:

"Don't talk about that hair, it's not a big deal.

"Eat, rest, and wait for the early morning."

"Okay." Shang Jianyao and the others gave up the discussion, found a seat and sat down, took the purified water in the water bladder, and ate food such as compressed biscuits and energy bars.

After filling his stomach, Jiang Baimian stood up, walked to the window in the restaurant area, and looked at the overgrown lawn below.

She originally planned to express her needs directly, but after looking at Qiao Chu, she became a little embarrassed:

"I, go down and make it easier."

"The toilet here can be solved directly." Shang Jianyao looked eager to try, and seemed to want to share the method he discovered with his companions.

"No need... It will affect the rest." Jiang Baimian declined his kindness.

Sitting on the chair, Qiao Chu opened his eyes as if he was closing his eyes and said:

"You can go to the corner of 601."

Jiang Baimian instinctively shook his head:

"It's better to be careful in such a weird place.

"A heavier odor, if left unburied and in close proximity to itself, is likely to cause unnecessary trouble."

"It doesn't matter." Qiao Chu insisted on his own opinion.

Jiang Baimian didn't want to refute and chose to obey.

Bai Chen followed and stood up:

"I will go with you."

"Just in time to help and alert each other." Jiang Baimian nodded lightly and smiled, "Even if you don't want to go, I have to pull you there."

Long Yuehong pinched her thighs, looked at Shang Jianyao and said:

"Will we go together later?"

"Okay." Shang Jianyao responded with a bit of regret, "Since Qiao Chu said it doesn't matter, we can make it easier. For example, stand on the railing, open the window, and face the outside directly..."

"Stop!" Long Yuehong stopped his jumping thoughts, or sudden whims.

After such an episode, Long Yuehong and Bai Chen each occupied one end of the sofa, curled up, ready to rest, Qiao Chu was still sitting on that chair with his eyes closed, not sure if he was resting or was already asleep.

Shang Jianyao sat cross-legged on the railing in front of the floor-to-ceiling window, looking at the direction of the tunnel, monitoring the movement in the dark city. Jiang Baimian did not carry a grenade gun, but held an "icemoss" pistol, walking back and forth in the living room, always paying attention Whether there is any abnormality in the person who is sleeping.

After a few minutes, a scream full of fear rang somewhere in the city.

In this unusually quiet night, in this dead forest-like city ruins, the screams spread far and wide, making Long Yuehong, who was still asleep, feel her scalp numb and tremble.

Immediately afterwards, bang gunshots sounded one after another.

Bang bang bang bang, this series of movements were like firecrackers, and they quickly ignited and returned to silence.

After a while, Shang Jianyao saw a figure jumping out of a nearby alley by the faint starlight.

The figure is hunched over, more like an ape than a human being.

He was wearing some clothes in a mess and tied some fabrics, and quickly approached the building where Shang Jianyao and others were.

Then, he ran to the other side along the side of the street full of yellow leaves, and from time to time he climbed to high places skillfully, and then jumped down lightly.

Seeing such a scene, Shang Jianyao felt that even if he had done genetic improvement and received systematic training, it would be difficult to complete similar actions. After all, the main direction of improvement was not in this area.

At this time, the high-altitude clouds moved, and the moonlight leaked a little, allowing Shang Jianyao to barely see the figure clearly.

This should be a male, with a lot of black hair, messy and dirty, but not too long to reach his shoulders.

Seemingly aware of Shang Jianyao's gaze, the figure suddenly turned his head and looked upstairs.

A blank face suddenly appeared in Shang Jian Yao's eyes.

"Heartless".

This is an "unintentional person", a "mindless person" in his prime.

Shang Jianyao didn't dodge, opened his eyes, and looked at the "unintentional person" at a long distance.

Finally, the "unintentional person" withdrew his gaze, continued to move towards the shadow of the tall buildings in the distance, and disappeared there.

A smile gradually appeared on Shang Jianyao's face, as if he had won some decisive victory.

Suddenly, he saw another figure.

This figure is also hunched over, and the speed is much slower than that of the "unintentional person" just now.

Shang Jianyao glanced at it, saw a wrinkled and wrinkled face, and saw a long mess of white hair.

This figure flashed by and got into the alley on the left - this was the blind spot of Shang Jianyao's sight.

In the next two or so hours, Shang Jianyao saw several "unintentional people" again. Jiang Baimian also noticed this and expressed doubts about the number of "unintentional" people here.

After that, Bai Chen and Long Yuehong woke up and took over their duties.

When Shang Jianyao was woken up by Long Yuehong from his dream, Qiao Chu had already left his chair and stood in front of the floor-to-ceiling window.

"It's almost early morning." Qiao Chu said calmly.

He immediately retracted his gaze from the dark ruins of the city, and indifferently commanded in a gentle voice:

"Help me put on the exoskeleton."

Before long, with the help of Jiang Baimian and Bai Chen, he put on the military exoskeleton device and activated the system.

After taking the silver rifle, Qiao Chu, whose body was covered with a black metal skeleton, walked to the floor-to-ceiling window and pointed to a building a few blocks away:

"Our destination is there."

Shang Jianyao and others looked in the direction he pointed, and saw a building that was not a short distance from all the surrounding buildings.

It also appears to have a large courtyard attached to it.

At this moment, it is standing quietly in the dark ruins of the city, and there is no light inside, as if it has long since died.

A few seconds later, Qiao Chu turned around, walked towards the door, and said in a deep voice:

"Set off!"