.In countless parallel universes, there are countless earths, among which there is a very insignificant place. And the story I'm about to tell happened there.
In this world, at the end of the 20th century, a force used absolute force to break down all barriers of ethnicity, national boundaries, and beliefs, making all human beings become subjects before they could react. Anyone who dared to resist was wiped out within two years.
Humanity completed the unification of power on the entire planet in 2000. From this year on, the concept of national boundaries no longer existed on the earth. The original "country" was renamed as "fu" or "county", and only each country The name of the city remained.
A word that had not been mentioned for a long time has returned to the stage of history - emperor.
For better or worse, at least in this universe, the people of Earth are ultimately united not in the form of a Federation, but in the form of an Empire.
In fact, from a long-term perspective, if a group of monkeys, or a group of bugs, or even a group of robots invade from outside the galaxy a few years later, the Earth Empire will definitely have more combat effectiveness than the Earth Federation.
Of course, that doesn't happen in this story yet.
Things will start in December of 2100.
Sakura Mansion is one of the smallest "mansions" in the world. Originally, the empire planned to include it in the Dragon County, but considering its geographical location on the sea, there have been many earthquakes and tsunamis since ancient times, and there is an active volcano on it. , if it is not kept intact, there is a possibility of sinking into the sea one day; and the jurisdiction of Longjun is already very vast, so the upper echelons of the empire finally decided to make Sakura Mansion a separate "mansion".
In the winter of this year, on the streets of Hokkaido, a boy was running wildly and panting, the cold morning air scraping his face like a knife.
He is neither tall nor short, neither fat nor thin. He has a popular face and the glasses lenses on the bridge of his nose are as thick as the bottoms of two beer bottles. Wearing a black school uniform and carrying a shabby schoolbag on both shoulders, there is nothing wrong with him from his sideburns to his style buttons to his trousers. He is a typical good student.
But this good student was late again.
"Oh, Ikeda-kun, you came here sweating profusely today. Okay, sit down quickly." The teacher who said this was named Matsuo. He was a balding middle-aged man, Ikeda's homeroom teacher. It's math.
This is a very good school, and it ranks among the top high schools in Sakura Prefecture. However, it is nothing compared to the academies attended by nobles and royal families.
Because he lived in a relatively remote place, Ikeda had to catch a bus with very few buses every morning in order to go to school on time. Once he missed this bus, Ikeda had to run for about forty minutes to get to school, so although he worked hard, But I always end up being late several times a month due to missing the bus for various reasons.
Matsuo is a snob, and Ikeda is the kind of poor student that he despises very much. He often uses the little mistakes Ikeda makes as an excuse to embarrass him in public. Fortunately, Matsuo seemed to be in a good mood today and did not further humiliate Ikeda for fun, but continued to teach his class.
This also made Ikeda breathe a sigh of relief. He quickly ran to his seat, put away his school bag gently, and took out his textbook.
Because he was late, the first class ended more than ten minutes after Ikeda sat down.
Matsuo didn't talk much and walked out of the classroom as the bell rang. But when he reached the door, he turned his face and looked at Ikeda with an unkind look. Ikeda clearly saw a sneer from the corner of Matsuo's mouth.
"Hey, wet mosquito-repellent incense, I have something to tell you, come to the rooftop." Monitor Miura is a tall, strong, fat man. His family is very rich. I heard that his father is the director of a big hospital, so the snobbish Matsuo will let his academic performance be average. Miura came to be the squad leader.
"Oh, okay..." Ikeda didn't have any reaction to the name "wet mosquito coil" because other boys and even girls in the class usually called him that. The mosquito-repellent incense refers to his ridiculous glasses, and the wet mosquito-repellent incense actually means that it cannot be used, so the nickname is basically equivalent to "trash".
Because this is a high school, there are very few delinquents in the true sense, but bullies like Miura can be found all over the universe. From kindergarten to entering society, this kind of character can be seen everywhere.
Ikeda has always been bullied by Miura. In addition to running errands, he also has to write homework for others. Teachers like Matsuo naturally turn a blind eye.
After arriving on the rooftop, Miura didn't say a word. He beat Ikeda inexplicably. He hit hard and without mercy, but Ikeda just held his head and curled up in a ball during the whole process, showing no sign of anger. There were no signs of fighting back, but he just gritted his teeth and endured it.
Maybe he was used to it. When he first entered the school, he was deliberately beaten by senior students who found trouble. Later, even the senior students also regarded him as the best target for bullying. Ikeda, who is now a sophomore in high school, is just a useless fool in the eyes of the first-year students and is not regarded as a senior at all.
The class bell rang, Miura stopped and turned to leave.
"Why?" Ikeda struggled to say this.
"Ah?" Miura spat and replied nonchalantly: "As for the reason, maybe it's boredom. I haven't beaten anyone in a long time."
The door to the rooftop was closed, and Ikeda still fell to the ground. Compared with the bruises on his body, his self-esteem was probably more seriously injured.
Maybe he should cry now, but he couldn't cry anymore.
For students like Ikeda, it seems that the only options are to transfer to another school or "commit suicide."
Unfortunately, he did not have the conditions to transfer to another school, nor did he have the courage to commit suicide.
All he can do is continue this life.
… …
The evening of December 10th.
The school bell rang. For Ikeda, every day in high school life was like a year, and he had to do a lot of housework when he got home, because his father, a gambler and alcoholic, was drunk all day long and usually only did three things: drinking. He showed off his lower limit, beat his son for physical training, and fell asleep drooling.
Ikeda walked through the familiar streets with feeble steps. The whole world seemed extremely gloomy to him, and every moment of his life was like suffering.
As he gradually reached a remote area, Ikeda suddenly stopped, looked at a shop on the roadside, and said to himself: "Was there a bookstore here originally?" He vaguely remembered that it was still an open space when he came in the morning, but Now there is clearly a single-story building with an area of tens of square meters in front of us. The signboard says "books", and there are piles of books behind the window facing the street, making it difficult to see what's going on inside.
Perhaps out of curiosity, or simply because he didn't want to return to his dirty home too early, Ikeda opened the door and went in.
After entering the room, people feel that the space inside seems to be larger than it looks from the outside. The layout of the room is generally in the shape of a cross. In addition to the bookshelves around it, several tables put together in the middle are filled with books. The corners and the floor are full of books. There are also piles of books. There are almost no passages for people to stand and walk in this messy place, and the space is taken up by the piles of books placed randomly.
The unique smell of paper and leather filled the air, and it couldn't be said to be unpleasant. Walking a few steps further in, you can see a desk. There is a man sitting on the sofa chair behind the desk. He looks to be in his twenties or thirties, with messy hair and wearing a black shirt and suit. , with the neckline open and a slovenly look.
Tianyi didn't make any reaction to the customer's visit. He still held a book in one hand and read while holding a spoon in the other hand, slowly stirring a cup of coffee on the table.
"Um... Boss... Excuse me..." Ikeda instinctively wanted to ask where this bookstore came from.
Tianyi didn't let him finish his words at all, and didn't look away from the book in his hand. He just put down his spoon, lazily raised his arm, pointed at the three rows of bookshelves in the corner to his left and said: "You want to read it" The stuff is there."
Ikeda felt that the situation in front of him was indescribably weird, but he still walked towards the rows of bookshelves numbly. He didn't know why he followed Tianyi's words, as if the boss could lead him with a simple sentence. Solve all the doubts in your heart.
When he got there, Ikeda discovered that all the books on this bookshelf had black covers. It was impossible to judge the content just from the appearance, so it didn't matter if he picked up any one. So he casually took down a book from the bookshelf and turned to look at Tianyi. He was still reading and drinking coffee, completely ignoring himself.
"What a weird guy..." Ikeda muttered under his breath and opened the book in his hand.
The first page is a blank piece of paper. Turn to the second page and the title of the book is written in the middle.
It was three words written in a green ink that made people feel uncomfortable - Ikeda Nozomi.
"My name?" Ikeda suddenly got goosebumps all over his body and thought to himself: "Is it a coincidence? A prank? A TV station's prank show?"
He turned back a few pages. Except for the title of the book, the rest of the text was in regular black printing, but the content made Ikeda almost scream out in fright.
"People like dad should just die."
"That bastard Miura, I really want to push him down the stairs."
"I want to be a popular boy like Fujita."
Ikeda quickly flipped through the contents, his face gradually filled with a look of horror and shame. Until he reached about two-thirds of the book, the rest of the content was interrupted, leaving only dozens of blank pages.
And the last two lines were: "Is it a coincidence? A prank? A TV station's embarrassing program?" and "How is that possible?!"
Tianyi finally put down the book in his hand, took a sip of coffee, and then turned to look at Ikeda: "Put the book back, let's negotiate a deal."
Ikeda was trembling and hesitant. His instinctive fear of incomprehensible things and his unwillingness to put down the book filled with his "voice" made him struggle and did not do what Tianyi said for a while.
Tianyi sighed: "Put the book down and come over here, or I will cut you into pieces and feed you to the pigs."
Ikeda compromised. He put the book back on the bookshelf, firmly remembering its location, and then nervously walked towards Tianyi's desk.
Tianyi showed a smile that couldn't be more fake: "Ikeda-kun, feeding pigs is all a joke. Don't mind. The content you just saw is free, but it's just this time." He remembered the book that he had been reading since Ikeda entered the house. The book also had the appearance of being wrapped in a black book cover.
"The title of this book is Miura Kazuya." Tianyi looked very satisfied with Ikeda after hearing this. He continued in a very provocative tone: "As long as you do one thing in exchange, you can Look at what’s inside.”