Ni Ji saw a large mushroom garden with huge snow-white caps and swaying mycelium, pure white and beautiful, standing there in the distance.
The sky was gray, and floc-like spores jumped out from under the cap and drifted away with the wind.
In polluted areas, the more beautiful things are, the more dangerous they are.
This scene brought back some bad memories for Ni Ji. He had lost everything important to him in such a contaminated area full of spores.
There are spores all over the sky, corpses all over the ground, and no one can save me.
Ni Ji stared at the pure white mushrooms, and quietly retreated away silently. His back hit the brick wall at the corner of the street, and it felt cold.
He then realized that he had been sweating a lot on his back without knowing when.
He has traveled to many places and met many people who came in.
Despite everyone's preparations, the battle in the contaminated area was still brutal, with the death rate at an unprecedented high.
Ni Ji ran very fast, almost to the limit of his speed. He saw many dead people along the way and also asked many living people.
No one saw the guide.
When he turned a corner one time, he saw the body of a woman with long black hair lying on the corner of the street.
At that moment he stopped walking and a fear rose in his heart.
Even though I soon found out that it wasn't the person, my heart still felt anxious as if it was on fire.
It felt like there was a fire burning inside the chest, roasting the entire heart there.
Ni Ji leaned his back against the cold wall, took a breath, and the sweat on his forehead flowed down his cheeks.
Calm down, he said to himself, she is actually a very strong person, stronger than me.
But she was also very fragile, with such thin wrists and not much strength in her feet, so she couldn't run fast or jump very far.
Ni Ji looked down at his hands, remembering that slender hand that once held his black gloves.
He now hoped very much that a tentacle would come out at this moment and pat the back of his hand, or wrap around his ankle.
Why did Lin Yuan come here alone
Golden tree contaminated area.
Over the years, no one has ever left and no one has ever survived. It is one of the most dangerous contaminated areas in the world.
Anyone who chooses to come here, no matter what their reason, is a desperate criminal.
In Ni Ji's heart, that beautiful girl as beautiful as the moon deserves to enjoy a carefree life.
Having afternoon tea in the courtyard with flowers and desserts, she was surrounded by many friends.
In fact, he also knew that, although that person looked slender and gentle, she was actually very similar to him. Under that beautiful shell, she was scarred, incomplete, damaged and corroded by something, and could not express her emotions like a normal person.
On the bottom of the sea, every time spirits come into contact with each other.
When he was hugged on that embarrassing night.
The man read himself, and he also saw the beautiful underwater creature that was tiny and a little lonely.
Ni Ji thought that she often didn't take care of herself, and even had a tendency to self-destruct. For her own goals, she didn't know how to protect herself, and would burn herself out without caring about anything else.
Ni Ji can burn out his own sea, but he never wants to see the bright moon in the sky disappear.
He wiped the sweat from his forehead, suppressed all his messy thoughts, turned back into the calm sentry, checked his guns and weapons, and walked forward around the mushroom patch.
Ni Ji met an acquaintance on the street corner here.
Last night in the tavern, we passed each other guide elements and exchanged scythes for information.
Scythe was sitting on the ground by the road, leaning against the wall, smoking a guide cigarette.
Ni Ji walked towards him and stopped far away from him.
He had actually known Scythe for many years. When he first arrived in the North, Scythe was already a well-known sentinel captain in another outpost. He was cautious in style, had strong combat capabilities, and was an experienced veteran.
At this moment, the captain was sitting on the side of the dangerous road, smoking a thin guide cigarette as if no one was around.
A snow-white mushroom grew on his head which was leaning against the wall.
The sticky and white mycelium spread out, covering half of the man's face. The soft webs swayed and slowly eroded his shoulders and body.
"Why are you looking at me like that?" He saw Ni Ji and took down the guide from his hand. "You know, in our line of work, this is a matter of time. I've lived long enough."
"How long can you hold on?" Ni Ji asked him while standing there.
There is no special concern or compassion, just these five words.
Dajian looked at Ni Ji seriously for a while, then suddenly smiled bitterly, "You."
Their acquaintance was very superficial and they had only met each other a few times.
But he immediately understood the meaning of Ni Ji's five short words.
They are sentinels who are on the death line every day, and sometimes they have many similarities.
You can understand each other's thoughts without even having any real interaction.
Ni Ji hoped that he could hold on a little longer, waiting for him to open the escape door. As long as he could get out, he would still have a chance to survive.
"It's symbiosis." Scythe looked at the sentinel in front of him who was much younger than himself, "It won't be that easy to die. There's still a lot of time."
The golden tree contaminated area is like a horrible nightmare. It captures almost all invaders. Most of them are not killed immediately, but the status of humans and animals is reversed, and they are subjected to humiliating and long-term torture.
Almost everyone who stays here for a long time will go crazy.
If someone said he would open the door to the contaminated area, it might not comfort a veteran like Ohsaka.
But Ni Ji might be an accident. He was the strongest person who had entered and exited the contaminated area 381 times and escaped unscathed. In the entire northern outpost, no one actually disobeyed him.
If he could really open the "door" of this contaminated area, many people trapped here would still have a chance to get out alive, as long as they had not collapsed mentally.
"Don't be too anxious." Dajian sat there and said to the younger generation, "You should be cautious, even more cautious. As long as you are still alive, I think there is always hope for everyone."
Ni Ji nodded, said nothing more, turned around and left.
"Wait a moment." Scythe called out to him.
He sat on the ground, holding up the mushroom that used his body as its bed.
"I understand a little bit now." The sickle pointed to his head, "Everything here is someone's dream. You have to find the hidden person. He is the pillar here, that is, the golden tree."
"Go to Rose Camp. Ni Ji."
***
"To the rose garden."
Lin Yuan was looking at the map in her hand. The sentry told her to go to the rose garden, the rose garden at night.
"There is a person there. If we find him, we may be able to solve all of this." The sentry closed his eyes a little sadly. "When I was in the most pain, I saw a person and a tree several times. The golden roots of the tree controlled everything in this world like a spider web."
Lin Yuan looked around and found that there seemed to be only one place related to roses on the map.
She moved towards that place carefully.
The Golden Tree contaminated area was more difficult for Lin Yuan than any other contaminated area he had ever visited.
There are many strange animals wandering around here. Those animals are unnaturally strong and their purpose is to capture and abuse humans.
The most troublesome thing is that they are neither human nor real animals.
At least Lin Yuan's tentacles couldn't detect the emotions of living creatures from them.
Walking in a world without emotions is like walking in darkness for Lin Yuan.
Not being able to "see", "perceive" and "touch" in advance is like being blindfolded and surrendering your weapons.
Dangerous monsters could pounce on her from the darkness at any time. The only lucky thing was that she couldn't see them, but most of the time the monsters couldn't see her either.
Lin Yuan walked very carefully, but inevitably got hurt. She stopped to bandage her face and arms, bandaged the wounds, took a breath, and looked up at the "Rose Garden" in front of her.
Originally, Lin Yuan thought that the so-called rose garden would be a flower garden, a plantation or something like that.
When she got closer, she realized that she had completely misunderstood.
The "rose" here has another layer of worldly meaning that is not so good.
The old steel gate is surrounded by high walls. Inside the gate is a long street littered with all kinds of paper scraps, and there are messy lanterns hanging in front of the houses on both sides...
This is a very bad place.
Lin Yuan recalled the time in the Military Control Office when the wronged Ni Ji was tied to the rack and put on trial.
The judge at the time said with a malicious laugh, "With a face like this, he should be sentenced to serve in the Rose Camp and die for his country."
All the sentries watching the scene burst into laughter, their voices twisted in excitement, they said insulting words and shouted for attention.
Each major outpost has its own sentry organization, and there are many military camps in the empire.
The First Barracks, the Second Barracks, the Royal Guards... There used to be an army stationed in this town.
But no real military camp is named after flowers.
Rose Camp.
Before standing in front of this iron gate, Lin Yuan had no real idea of what this place was like.
It was not until she came here and looked up to see the mottled words hanging on the iron gate that she suddenly realized how deep and despicable the malice those people had towards Ni Ji was at that time.
Sometimes the evil between humans is not necessarily less serious than that between monsters.
When Lin Yuan entered the contaminated area, it was the "daytime" period in the contaminated area.
There were no clouds or sun in the sky. No one knew where the light came from. It was a grayish white, like a fake screen.
After hiding here and there and wandering around for a long time, all I saw were empty streets and the abandoned "Rose Garden".
When Lin Yuan stood in front of the gate of the rose garden, the sky suddenly became dark as if a curtain was pulled by someone, and a huge waning moon rose in the night sky.
The incomplete silver crescent moon is huge.
It was silvery white, cold, and shattered into a half-arc that was like a hook, but it was so large that it almost cut through the entire dark night sky.
"Night" comes with the rise of the silver moon.
Streetlights lit up the deserted streets, and the dark houses on both sides of the road lit up one by one.
In the daytime, the sound of talking could be heard in the quiet house.
Countless figures appeared in those lighted windows. Someone was reading in the attic, a family of three was eating by the window, an old man was watching TV with a cat in his arms, a young man was brushing his teeth by the window...
As if it had never been polluted, the town's bustle, laughter and warmth are still the same as before.
Of course, the pain and filth remain the same as before.
The iron gate of the rose garden lit up with colorful lights, and rows of red lanterns in front of the houses inside lit up.
Cheerful laughter, music, and soft singing were heard. The sound began to become noisy, and the figures coming and going through the dilapidated iron gate gradually became clearer.
Those people walked among the bustling and noisy lights and shadows.
Everyone who comes here is laughing. This is a place to have fun and relieve worries.
In this world of dim lights, except for the rose garden which was strangely lively, the road outside the gate was still empty.
Every household on both sides of the street had their doors and windows tightly shut. Lights were on in the windows, and the shadows on the windows continued their lives. It seemed that no one dared to open the door to take a look at the outside world.
A long line of minotaurs holding long knives appeared at the street corner. Compared to the "daytime", at night they wore neat uniforms, their eyes shone like red lights, and they walked from the street corner holding sharp knives like law enforcement guards.
At night, they were able to ignore the tentacles' shielding. The leading minotaur was only slightly stunned, and then he saw Lin Yuan standing alone in the middle of the street. He made an angry sound and led the team to rush towards Lin Yuan.
Lin Yuan acted decisively and squeezed into the rose garden with colorful lights and into the bustling crowd.
She squeezed her way through the crowded crowd, smelled the scent of these people, and felt all kinds of human emotions.
She didn't know whether these "guests" coming and going were human or mutants. But at least for now, their emotions, behaviors, clothes and appearance were similar to hers.
It seems like the guests have always lived here and visit this place every night.
Just treat them as human beings.
Lin Yuan blended into the "crowd" in the rose garden.
The minotaurs also squeezed in. Holding long knives, they pushed through the bustling crowd, looking for the trace of Lin Yuan, the outsider, with red eyes.
As Lin Yuan ran inside, some of them began to confuse Lin Yuan with other people, their movements began to slow down, and the distance between them and Lin Yuan gradually widened.
(End of this chapter)