Chapter 222:
"Security sister, you found me!"
On the quiet and empty street, the little girl's laughter was particularly clear and loud.
Tang Xiao did not speak, because a question was clearly put before him:
It is known that the inner world is the future of the outer world. If the Alita of the outer world is dead, why is the Alita of the inner world still alive?
Alita blinked her dark eyes and found that "Sister Security" did not respond to her, and pouted in disappointment: "But you have caught me! We must continue to play. !"
Tang Xiao pondered for a moment, pressed his knuckles, turned off the flashlight, squatted down and looked at the little girl: "How do you play this game?"
Alita jumped up happily, clapped her hands and giggled and explained: "This game is called hide and seek, we have to hide, you have to come to us. If you find it, even if you win, if you don't find it, it is We win, we can't cheat!"
Tang Xiao: "If I win, what's the reward?"
This question stumped Alita, she blinked and thought for a long time before whispering: "I, I only have a cookie, can I give it to you, okay?"
Afraid that Tang Xiao would not like it, she hurriedly added: "The biscuits are very precious! It takes me a month to eat one piece. Originally there were nine pieces, but now there is only the last piece left. However, I And William will be out of here soon, my lord said, there will be many, many cookies in the new home. Here's a cookie for you, okay?"
Alita took out a crumpled plastic bag from the small pocket of her red dress, which contained a thumb-sized cream cookie.
Tang Xiao did not reach out to take it, but continued to ask: "Where is the new home, why are there so many cookies?"
Alita stuck out her tongue, "Shh, you can't tell other people, this is what the adults told me secretly. I also secretly tell you The new home is far, far away. It's a pity that adults can't go there, only children can go."
The little girl compared her hands to the shape of a trumpet and whispered, "The adults are so sad, I saw some uncles crying secretly, but they didn't tell anyone."
Alita's milky voice fell into her ears, and Tang Xiao's eyes narrowed slightly. Alita's words gradually overlapped with the records left on the diary papers:
[…Only a very small number of people who are immune to radiation can become the seed of hope and continue the lifeblood of mankind. It turns out that the new world was never prepared for us…]
—Only children can enter the new home.
—There are only two children in this town, Alita and William.
—Outside the town is a sprawling, endless apocalyptic world.
Who is the "tinder" mentioned in the log, there is no doubt.
Tang Xiao took the biscuits and asked softly, "Alita, do you remember where your father is?"
The little girl showed a confused expression. She pinched the skirt and shook her head obediently: "I can't remember."
"Alita only remembers that she has been living here, with William..." Alita lowered her head, full of frustration: "Am I stupid?"
I didn't hear an answer, the little girl pursed her lips, and finally didn't cry.
She is a growing child and can't cry all the time.
But it's so sad...why does she feel so lonely, someone has already spoken to her, she can leave soon to go to a new home, why is she still so lonely...
The moment she couldn't help choking, Alita felt her arm being pulled up, she raised her head in surprise, and saw the girl lowered her head and gestured to her: "The game continues, then we should Going to find another friend of yours."
"Okay!" After a few seconds, Alita burst into tears and jumped up and down behind Tang Xiao, her faded and worn skirt swaying in the air.
***
"Can you hear me? Li Hua?"
In the dark space, Han Leilei kept calling in a low voice. He kept rubbing the hemp rope tied to his hands with the sharp point of the back of the chair, and for the first time felt how hard it was to be an ordinary person.
Without the player's ability and strong physical support, they were not only bound by the npc control in the copy, but also thrown into this dark room as punishment for "disturbing the order of the town" .
Instinct told him that this was an extremely harsh punishment, because the eyes of those "security guards" looking at him and Li Hua at that time were no different from looking at dead people.
"Mad, how hard is it to have a good dungeon?" Han Leilei struggled for an unknown amount of time before finally feeling a little loose in his hand. Lost his balance and fell to the ground.
"...my brilliant mind."
Covering his bleeding head, Han Leilei got up in a heartless manner, rubbed the edge of the room and walked out, "Li Hua, where did you throw your horse..."
There is not much space, but Han Leilei feels that he can't reach his head no matter how he walks. I don't know if it is because his head hit the ground, and his head is getting more and more dizzy.
Until his consciousness hung on the last line, his calf was suddenly tripped by a hard edge, and a jig caught the edge, and he didn't stab at it.
…this is?
Touching the wall along the edges and corners, as if touching a secret door switch, Han Leilei gritted his teeth and pushed the switch away with all his strength.
The inside of the secret door is like a long and narrow pipe half a meter wide, and the temperature inside is extremely low. The hunch made Han Leilei vaguely aware that this pipe was connected to the outside world, and it might be the only exit in the entire dark room.
He clawed at the secret door to prevent it from closing automatically.
Just as he was about to leave, something stopped Han Leilei's leg, and he kicked without thinking: "Don't stop me from looking for someone..."
"...You, step on the horse, see clearly." Instead, the kicked object grabbed him harder and made a gnashing human voice: "Look who I am!"
Han Leilei was really taken aback, he was confused for two seconds before he became excited: "Li Hua, so you are here, I thought it was a ghost... Are you frozen to death?"
Li Hua sighed, knowing that the other party had lost consciousness and started talking nonsense. He used the opponent's strength to get up, "You just stepped on me at least ten feet, but thank you very much."
He had just fainted under the secret door, but was abruptly woken up by Han Leilei.
The two young men in their twenties staggered like old men, and they helped each other climb into the pipe, and then they felt a little bit of sanity.
Although the inside of the pipe may not be a safe place, it is obviously much less dangerous to them than the room just now.
"Let's see if we can climb out from here. If it doesn't work, we can only use the last resort."
Li Hua bit his lip and used pain to stay awake.
Han Leilei also agreed by default. The "last resort" they were referring to was to use the emergency data flow that System Luo Er gave them before they came in, to forcibly break the copy rules, and contact Tang Xiao and others.
In this way, the dungeon is likely to have a more serious rebound, and may even be detected by the alliance field.
If it wasn't for the last resort, and the premonition of danger was approaching the extreme, the two would never choose to play their trump cards.
Crawling forward along the cold, unknown metal wall, just halfway through, Han Leilei began to talk nonsense again: "Don't put it under my feet, what if you break your leg? …”
Li Hua turned his head speechlessly: "I'm on the top right of you."
The direction of Han Leilei's muttering happened to be the lower left.
Han Leilei: “…”
His eyes slowly returned from being out of focus, and then widened, "Then now, the person below me is—"
He touched down and felt the cold plastic bag and the body that had begun to stiffen under the bag.
Li Hua: "It's a corpse."
"Fuck!!"
Even if you are a seasoned veteran player, and suddenly learn that there is a corpse under him, it is difficult to keep calm.
Han Leilei subconsciously wanted to run forward, but no matter how hard he climbed, the touch under his hands and feet were all soft, and even the cool texture of the plastic bag was exactly the same.
Li Hua: "It's all corpses."
"Shut up, I understand!" Han Leilei collapsed, and he stopped to gasp for breath, "Is this a morgue?"
Li Hua breathed steadily and touched the plastic film bag containing the corpse. "To be precise, it should be a pipe specially used to dispose of discarded corpses."
"It can also be understood as a garbage storage channel."
It seems that the "normal" of this town is only the surface, how can there be a normal town that would refrigerate so many corpses in pipes?
After observing for a few seconds, Li Hua realized that things were more serious than he thought: "These corpses are all the same person."
Han Leilei raised his head: "What?"
At this moment, the two of them do not have a flashlight and can only identify the environment with the help of touch. Li Hua guided Han Leilei to touch the corpse's head, "Whether it's the head, shoulders, or other physical features are exactly the same."
The same person cannot die so many times, it can only be cloned.
Han Leilei endured the discomfort and touched it, and immediately frowned: "I'm still a child."
A little boy who is only a few years old, has been copied countless copies of the body and lost his breath, lying coldly in the abandoned pipe. Just imagining this scene is already chilling.
Before the two had time to find out more details, a subtle sound came from outside the pipe, followed by a percussion, accompanied by a vague conversation.
"There is someone inside? It's impossible to escape here."
"Just in case, go in and check..."
It was the security guard who caught them before!
Han Leilei and Li Hua held their breath and continued to climb forward without saying a word, trying to find another exit in the pipeline.
Finally, before there was light behind them, they found a gap that could be opened, and with a hit, the metal wall cracked open, and the two of them and a bag of corpses fell down at the same time—
"Come here, security sister, I found it!"
Alita jumped her feet excitedly and pulled Tang Xiao over, "William likes to hide here, he must be inside!"
Looking at the metal wall in front of him, Tang Xiao opened the door outside, and the next moment, a little boy fell and fell straight into Tang Xiao's arms.
It was William…and was out of breath.