16
It was quiet outside, of course, there was usually no sound.
But Ning Gu had a feeling that the current silence was different from usual.
He suddenly felt a little nervous and remembered what Lin Fan had said before.
The car is coming
He pulled the iron gate and shook it twice, but there was no movement. He ran to the window and listened carefully... But the horn was so loud when the car came that it was impossible to miss it.
If he wanted to go to the main city before, it was only because his first trip to the main city was full of chaos and question marks. Now he wanted to go to the main city more urgently because of Lin Fan’s words, "You are a lot like your father."
No one had ever mentioned his parents to him, and if he asked, he would always be met with silence.
Given the relationship between Lin Fan and him, it is impossible for him to say such a thing without any reason.
Under such circumstances, Lin Fan's words were definitely a hint.
It might even be a trap.
Yes, it could be a trap.
Ning Gu didn't trust Lin Fan, and he was wary of anyone who showed goodwill to him for no reason. This was the basic rule of survival in the ghost town.
But even if this is a trap, he has to go to the main city.
The life of travelers is not easy. The difficult living conditions, the natives hiding in the black fog, the fights for supplies, and even a fight that is just too boring can kill them.
Maybe one day, he will disappear.
He just wanted to live a less ignorant life before that day came.
who I am.
Where am I.
What kind of existence am I in this world
The sound of a train whistle came from the black fog and passed over the ghost town.
Ning Gu jumped up almost as soon as he heard it, rushed to the iron gate, and after shaking it hard a few times, the door opened.
Although if the door couldn't be opened, he would definitely stick his head out of the window and curse loudly, inhumanely cursing and verbally beating Lin Fan... But now that the door was really opened, he stood there in a daze for two seconds.
What Lin Fan said was actually the truth.
But he had no time to judge what Lin Fan's intention was. The time from the train whistle to departure was not long. He needed to run all the way from the clock tower. According to his plan that he had made for several days, he also needed to find the Land King on the way and pick up an important thing.
The wind was blowing very hard, but luckily this section of the journey was with the wind, so Ning Gu almost ran at a high speed.
There are much fewer travelers in the shelter. Everyone has left. Although the buses come at an irregular rate, experienced travelers can make a rough guess based on their intuition. Some people can go and wait a day or two in advance.
There are still advantages to having fewer people, as fewer people mean fewer enemies. Although, as Lin Fan said, the guards really had a gap and no one stopped him when he came out, he had made many enemies in the ghost town. He would not come to Shelter No. 3 easily. After all, he was involved in every group fight between the shelters...
"Big butt!" Ning Gu saw a man squatting next to a lantern and smashing things. He ran past him and shouted, "Help me!"
As expected of the ghost town, No. 3 Office still has friends.
"Here it comes!" Big Butt also shouted, jumped up and kicked in his direction with a whirlwind kick.
Ning Gu suddenly felt a huge thrust, and he jumped with force, flying more than ten meters in the air. As soon as he landed, the second wave of thrust followed, and he jumped again, directly jumping over several low houses.
"Tell me or not!" Nail kicked the Land King on the buttocks, "How are we going to get him out? You said to send someone in to replace him, who should we send in? How to replace him? Tell me!"
Hammer's hand on the ground loosened, and the King of the Land took the opportunity to climb up: "You said you have claws, I have to see them first. I have given you a plan, now I need to see your goods..."
The King of Earth didn't finish his words, and his attempt to take the opportunity to move closer to the nail to see if he really had claws in his hands was also unsuccessful.
The sturdy iron door of the house was kicked open with a loud bang.
A man in a black coat rushed in. Before the people in the room could react, the man had pressed the King to the ground and rode on him.
"Ning Gu?" Dingzi let out a shocked, hoarse roar.
This skillful move of knocking someone to the ground and then riding on them and punching them is Ning Gu's signature move. He has experienced it countless times since he was a child.
Ning Gu pinched the king's neck with one hand, turned his head and looked at Dingzi: "Why are you here... Oh, it's quite suitable."
"Huh?" Dingzi was stunned for a moment before reacting and touching the goggles on his face, "It's this red edge..."
"I'll give you three seconds," Ning Gu poked his finger at the king's eyelids, "give me a card."
"What card?" The three people in the room except him asked at the same time.
"An ID card, a blank card that you can write data on," Ning Gu continued to poke the king's eyelids, "I know you have one, give it to me."
"What do you want this for?" The King of Land stared at him in surprise.
"Give it to me!" Ning Gu didn't have time to explain more, nor did he have time to slowly negotiate with the King of Land, and he didn't even have time to find something to force an exchange.
"Feather." After being surprised, the land king returned to his businessman nature, and the nature of an old cunning businessman.
Feathers, which were once flesh and blood from extinct animals, were not worth the same as the main city ID cards. Although ID cards were not easy to get, they were essential for life in the main city. People who could no longer survive, did not want to live, were forced to die, and were lost and could no longer use their ID cards would eventually have a small portion of their ID cards flow into the Lost Valley, becoming a hot commodity that would never run out of stock.
The King of Land has the identity card in his hand. Those who go to the main city and don't plan to come back will exchange it from him. As for whether the data can be modified from the bats and used in the end, that is another matter.
"Give it to me!" Ning Gu punched the Earth King on the forehead, "I'll give you a leg hair!"
With this roar, the strong wind outside suddenly rushed into the house, overturning a table, and all kinds of messy debris and small gadgets were rolled up, creating a chaos.
"Give it to him." Nail suddenly spoke.
Even the land king was shocked by this sentence. He opened his mouth halfway and didn't even have time to cry out in pain.
"What the hell are you talking about!" Ning Gu turned around and yelled at him.
"It's too late," said the nail, "I can still find it!"
Ning Gu still held the King of Land's neck tightly, but he didn't turn his head back and kept staring at the nail.
"Give it to him," said Nail.
"Give it to him." Hammer added, "If you don't leave today, you'll never be able to leave again."
Ning Gu gritted his teeth, slowly pulled the feather out from the secret pocket on the inside of his boots, and placed it in the King of Earth's hand.
The King of Earth held the feather tightly in his hand and carefully put it into his underwear pocket.
"Cut!" Dingzi rushed to the side of the King of the Earth and yelled at him, his neck turning red.
The King of the Earth struggled to bend one leg, pulled open his trouser leg, and then pulled open a small bag tied to his calf. He pinched a corner of the card from the bag with his fingers and looked at Ning Gu: "You are crazy."
Ning Gu took the card, glanced at the nail, and rushed out the door.
Nail jumped up and ran after him.
Ning Gu didn't say how he came out of the bell tower or what he was going to do, but Dingzi already understood.
From the day he met Ning Gu, he knew that this day would come. On the surface, he seemed to be a tyrant who fought all over the ghost town and had no rivals, just to kill time. But deep down, he always had an unsettling curiosity and countless questions that would make people despair after hearing them.
He knew since he was a child that Ning Gu would one day leave the ghost town without looking back.
Perhaps only he who grew up with him would know that this was the only idea that Ning Gu had never mentioned but was his most determined one.
"Can we really find it?" Ning Gu asked while running and shouting.
"Yes!" Nail answered in a hoarse voice.
"Keep it!" Ning Gu shouted.
"Come back and get it!" Nail shouted.
"I'll come back to get it!" Ning Gu turned around and looked at him.
"Don't look back, it will slow down your speed!" Dingzi waved his arm at him.
"Don't follow me," Ning Gu shouted, "Don't let the captain know that you knew I was going to the main city!"
"I don't understand!" Nail didn't stop and kept running and shouting.
"Don't follow me," Ning Gu shouted again, "People who don't know would think you are my wife! You are so reluctant to leave."
"Get out!" Nail stopped and cursed.
"Save the feather for me—" Ning Gu shouted.
"Yeah." Dingzi responded and raised his hand to wipe away his tears.
When I looked up again, Ning Gu had disappeared in the tear-blurred gale and black fog.
The leader stood in the center of Tongue Bay, looking silently in the direction of the shelter.
The wind around was swirling with black fog and gradually rising, like a long and narrow barrel, bringing with it a sense of suffocation and oppression.
Grayish-white shadows appeared and disappeared in the black fog, and tiny sounds were heard from time to time, like fallen leaves being crushed by bare feet, or like someone breaking bones.
The sound was almost inaudible in the strong wind, but the sound of the chain dragging on the ground was much clearer.
As the sound of chains slowly approached from behind, he tilted his head: "This is your only chance."
"I don't need this opportunity," someone in the thick fog behind him answered with labored breathing, "The collapse and destruction are irreversible. Once it starts, it is irreversible and there is no turning back."
"I don't need to look back," the captain said, "I just need to move forward."
The man in the thick fog laughed, coughing and laughing non-stop, his voice so hoarse that it seemed to have a hole in it: "Do you think those people in the main city can't find Qi Hang? Do you think that a Qi Hang... no, a fragment of Qi Hang can change anything..."
The captain said nothing and walked into the thick fog ahead.
There was a burst of broken noise behind me, like endless chattering, mixed with the sound of metal colliding, but the chaos soon subsided, and no other sound could be heard except the strong wind.
"Get in position." Lian Chuan squatted on the roof of a half-collapsed building, staring ahead.
Less than fifty meters away from him was one of the possible passages chosen by the bats for the travelers to enter the main city, the one closest to the Lost Valley.
No one knows whether Ning Gu will come or where he will come from.
The relationship between the Traveler and the main city is always a check and balance. Every time they can predict several passages, the Traveler will always have another passage that they cannot discover.
Lian Chuan chose to wait near the Lost Valley first, and Lei Yu asked him privately why.
"Are we trying to avoid entering the Valley of the Lost Way?"
"I can only prove that I am irreplaceable if I live."
The eight groups of the cleaning team have been spread out, and Ning Gu's information has been conveyed to every team member. As long as he appears, Lian Chuan will immediately get the coordinates.
What remains is the mission content which sounds simple, capturing the traveler Ning Gu.
Ning Gu, a traveler who was shot twice and escaped twice.
There was a brief beep from the intercom, and the boss who was squatting on the roof of the opposite building immediately lowered his body and prepared to attack.
Lian Chuan raised his head slightly, aiming and observing without the help of any equipment. When speed was needed, all equipment except the exoskeleton would be a hindrance.
A thin metallic reflection flashed in the black fog in the distance, and Lian Chuan held on to the edge of the roof with his hands. It was a careless bat.
This passage is half right. Bats will lead travelers into the main city through an abandoned sewer pipe under the ruins. Lucky travelers can hide directly in the Lost Valley.
The first figure appeared at the edge of the black fog. He did not move forward immediately. Instead, he looked around vigilantly before suddenly rushing out.
At the same time, a gust of wind suddenly blew up in front of him, blowing up sand and debris on the ground, and his vision suddenly became chaotic.
Under such cover, more than a dozen dark shadows poured out from the pipe mouth, constantly using their abilities to lift up the ground, sweep down the broken roof, and hold up the defense.
His defensive ability was obviously not as good as Li Xiang's, but he still interfered with the instrument's scanning. At this time, the only thing he could rely on was his naked eyes which he had carried with him for more than 20 years.
"Traveler observed at Exit CH2 of Lost Valley." Lian Chuan reported.
"Traveler spotted at B2 in zone D." Feedback from the compass also came through the intercom.
Among the eight groups, only these two that were waiting for the coordinates had travelers, the rest were empty.
"Reinforce according to the plan." Long Biao said.
A blurry black shadow running quickly towards the exit of the Lost Valley attracted Lian Chuan's attention. Although entering the Lost Valley was the first choice, given the unified style of travelers who were unbridled, reckless and looking for death as a thrill, this person who went straight to avoid the topic seemed particularly unique.
A second later, Lian Chuan confirmed that this person was Ning Gu.
"Found the target," Lian Chuan said as he jumped down from the roof. The moment he landed, he kicked his feet on the ground and rushed forward. "Begin interception and capture."
When Ning Gu saw clearly that someone was rushing towards him in the opposite direction, he was still more than ten meters away from the entrance of Lost Valley. He obtained this information after beating and scolding three people in the car.
The only part of the main city he knew a little about was the Lost Valley, which was the only relatively safe place for him.
Unexpectedly, I ran into a hyena before I could even see what the entrance looked like.
The hyena that had this speed and the ability to ignore defense and appear within two meters before anyone could react could only be Lian Chuan.
Ning Gu felt that none of the travelers running with him even saw Lian Chuan, but he was already grabbed by the arm by Lian Chuan and then thrown into the entrance of the Lost Valley, which he thought he would never reach.
This entrance was different from the one that Hammer had brought him through before. There were no steps, but a ramp leading downwards. After falling in, he didn't even have a chance to stand up. Lian Chuan had followed him in and kicked him. He rolled all the way to the end of the ramp very swiftly and stopped only after hitting the wall of the cave.
He still couldn't see clearly how Lian Chuan got here. He only saw two blue halos drawn by Lian Chuan's weapon in the darkness.
Then his collar tightened, and he was lifted up and pressed against the wall, with Lian Chuan's thumb pressing on his throat.
"You will die if you move." Lian Chuan said.