As a crucial transportation gateway, this huge steel platform is busy and crowded. All kinds of mechanical equipment and the fronts and carriages to be assembled are piled up here, even the crooked management on the edge of the platform The staff's tin house also looked precarious as if it was about to be squeezed down. Busy workers are running around among various equipment, preparing for the next departure, or busy repairing the mechanical equipment damaged by the magic radiation, almost no one has time to pay attention to the sudden appearance on the platform Uninvited guests—because a few overseers with sloppy faces are standing on the tower, any lazy behavior can't escape the eyes of these guys. Compared with the meal money earned after work, a group of people in strange clothes who suddenly appear are nothing. What.
Under the leadership of Wendell, Hao Ren and his party crossed the busy and messy platform and walked towards the administrator's iron house not far away. A boiler under maintenance was rumbled not far away, and the pungent smell of engine oil permeated with the sound of steam, making Lily sneeze all the way: this twilight city is for the husky girl It left a very bad first impression, and the pungent smell was a torment for her.
As a last resort, she had to put the life support collar back on - she had taken it off after entering the twilight barrier.
"Two locomotives set off at the same time every ten hours, from here to the quarry in the wilderness," Wendell pointed to those rough steam locomotives, "send a group of numb miners, and bring back a group of half-tired miners. The miners and the newly dug ores were then sent to the big forge to become building materials and repair materials for the city. There are also several such stations in the outer edge area, which are connected to several other stations in the dark wilderness. If you have a chance, you can go and see those mines, you have amazing ancient technologies, I really hope you are willing to share these technologies... Forget it, we will talk about these later."
The caretaker's iron house was as old and dingy as the rest of the platform, and the only thing that set it apart was the striking, red-painted roof of the dark iron house, which made it stand out from the crowd. It stands out against the dreary station buildings. No one came to make trouble along the way, Wendell led the crowd directly to the front of the iron house, and then pushed open the rusted door.
Then came a gruff and angry voice from inside, which had been shut out by the door: "...you oil-stuffed idiots! I want you to check every gear, every bolt, It's EVERY, listen up, EVERY! Instead of taking a nap around the machine and coming back to write me a scrap of 'everything works'! You guys know what it means once a locomotive shuts down in a dark area? That means Seems like it's going to stay there almost forever! Unless I kick you scum out of the barrier and leave you all covered in blisters in the dark to fix those machines! You know some unlucky people ever did that But, now his bones are still hanging out! A bunch of trash..."
There was a "snap" sound from inside the house, as if something had been slapped heavily on the table, and then the rough voice roared again: "Get out of here now! Go check the machines, check the boilers, check every Rivets and shafts! Otherwise, sooner or later, you will be kicked out of the barrier by me!"
There was a sound of panicked footsteps in a hurry, and five or six people in rough overalls ran out of the iron house as if fleeing for their lives, and one of them even almost bumped into Wendell. These locomotive mechanics (supposed to be this position) who had just been reprimanded noticed the stranger standing at the door, but they hardly dared to stop to take a second look, and they fled in a hurry before the sound in the room roared again.
Hao Ren and the others looked at each other, then followed Wendell into the room.
There is a huge desk in the tin room, and the desk is full of messy things, and a stout red-nosed man is "heaped" together with the sundries: he sits curled up on the wide backrest in an indecent position On the chair, scruffy clothes were almost as cluttered as his desk. The red-nosed man put his hands in his arms, biting a small stick in his mouth, and chewed hard as if trying to relieve his hatred: "The new technicians are a bunch of drunks, with no sense of responsibility, nothing compared to... Who let you in?" of? I didn't mean... Wendell?!"
The red-nosed man finally noticed the group of people standing in front of him, and seeing a familiar face among them, he jumped up almost as if frightened, and made a move that didn't match his appearance at all: pinched He pinched his thigh, then grinned in pain.
"Wendel! Old thing! You came back alive?! The ancestors have appeared, is this real? I haven't started drinking today!!"
Wendell greeted this old friend. Although the two people seemed to be more than a generation apart in age, they hugged each other tightly like best friends for many years: "Borken, you have such a loud voice, I can hear your furious voice from outside the door!"
"Nonsense, the sound insulation of this door has always been good!" the red-nosed Borken yelled, he pushed Wendell away, looking up and down as if looking at a rare creature, "You're really back , You really came back, and there is no sore all over your body, and no place is shriveled and necrotic... Could it be that you are really blessed by your ancestors, and you can come back alive twice!"
"Blessed by the ancestors," Wendell smiled gently, and forcefully broke Borken's fingers on his arm. "Be careful, I'm old enough, but I can't stand a few slaps from you."
Borken finally calmed down a little bit from his excitement, and he exhaled: "You are such a desperate old guy, you dare to participate in the Lightseeker twice in a row, I am not as crazy as you when I am drunk... You come back alone ?”
Wendell's eyelids drooped, with a gloomy look on his face: "There are not many people who can return from the night."
"May they rest in peace in the eternal kingdom," Borken randomly gestured a few prayer gestures on his chest. The crumpled and dirty clothes and his casual tone made this prayer sound limited in sincerity, and then he Finally, he turned his attention to Hao Ren and his party, who had been standing beside him for a long time, "What's the matter with these people... Judging by their clothes, how many of them are from the upper city?"
"No," Wendell suddenly laughed mysteriously. He tried his best to control his expression to look serious and mysterious, but the excitement from his heart made his smile more and more obvious. "They came from outside."
"Oh, outside, that's very far away..." Borken waved his hands casually, but he didn't react for a while, but after a while, his movements froze, his eyes opened wider and wider, and several sounds came from his throat With a strange cry, he jumped up suddenly, "It's from outside!"
His voice was almost so loud that it hurt people's ears.
Wendell grabbed Borken's shoulder and pressed it hard: "Hush your voice, you will collapse the entire station. That's right, they came from outside, outside the twilight barrier, outside the Twilight Capital! They came from A Sgard."
"Asgard, Asgard..." Borken repeated several times confusedly, "Oh, I have learned, the ancient kingdom, it is said that the gods ruled there in person... My God, old man, you really Got there?! No, no, it’s definitely not like this, you came to amuse me... Your brain was burned out by the darkness outside, or I was infected by the toxin you carried... "
Wendell patted Borken on the shoulder hard: "This is not like you, when did you become so rigid?"
Borken's face drooped: "Is this true?"
"It's true, and it's not only true, these envoys from Asgard still need your help," Wendell pointed at Hao Ren and his party, "I'm going to take these people to the headquarters of the Lightseekers. Urgent, and the most convenient means of transportation I can find is your locomotive."
Borken rubbed his nose: "Take a ride? That's no problem, but I can only take you to the upper city. The shaft from the upper city to the lower city is not under my control. You have to deal with the people of the Steam Council, but if you are Those bureaucrats are entangled, I guess you and your friends have to go through a lot of procedures. Their identities are too... special."
Lily rolled her eyes when she heard this: "Don't the people in the Steam Council be happy to see that there are other survivors in this world? They will make trouble?"
"It's not making trouble, the people of the Steam Council are human beings, of course they are happy to know that there are other survivable areas outside the Twilight City," Borken spread his hands, "but bureaucrats are bureaucrats, people like us who live in the outer fringes Come and deal with them."
"Let's take us wherever we can," Galazore waved his hand indifferently, "The rest depends on the situation."
(It is said that there will be a Dragon Boat Festival event on June 10th on YY channel 54631703! The time will start at 8:00 pm, everyone who is interested will join in the fun.) (To be continued~^~)