Chapter 298 Testing

Rushed out of the cafeteria of the city hall and came to the open-air parking lot. Dr. Akagi got into the car arranged by the city hall with a heart full of anger. As a guard, Casper naturally wanted to follow, but was stopped by Michael who was holding a pile of canned food.

His subordinates and staff who followed closely took the canned food from him. He shook his hands and looked at Michael who looked impatient, and asked nervously:

"That... Mr. Casper... Excuse me, do you and Dr. Akagi have any special needs for accommodation?"

"Hmm?"

Michael raised his eyebrows in disbelief, "You haven't arranged accommodation for us yet?"

"No, no, no!"

Michael put his hands in front of his chest and shook his head.

"You two have already chosen your place to stay - there is a sanatorium specially opened for the Fire Moth Warriors in the coastal area in the west of the Third New Paradise City, and several villas have been decorated. Although it is a bit far away, the scenery there is very beautiful and the villas are more convenient to live in. I just want to ask if you two have any special requirements, such as what to put in the room."

"That's not the case."

Michael's expression relaxed, and he asked knowingly:

"Why do you want to go so far? Aren't there any hotels in the city?"

I don't know if it was because the question was too wise, Michael was stunned for more than ten seconds, and then he answered with his back teeth:

"You two may not know that now everything is strictly rationed, and there are no hotels anymore!"

"Oh? Why?"

Michael stared at Michael's face for a long time. He knew that he was a little rude, but the man in front of him was inexplicably asking questions, and the questions he asked were so simple that Michael didn't know how to explain them for a while.

No, it's not that he doesn't know how to explain it, but that this question is full of a flavor of asking knowingly, which makes Michael have to wonder if there is a deeper meaning in his words, but he is too dull to taste it.

"Don't think too much."

This seems to be what Michael has said twice in the afternoon. Now he repeats it again. I don't know if it is a catchphrase or a reminder with a deep meaning.

"Well, Dr. Akagi and I belong to the Poison Pupa. We have not been in contact with the outside world for a long time, so we naturally don't know much about the outside world."

"Oh! Oh!"

Although it's a bit far-fetched to say this, at least it can be rounded up.

Besides...

Michael gritted his teeth and warned himself in his heart-"Only this time!"

He turned his head and looked around. His subordinates had already tacitly moved away and formed a circular human wall with a radius of tens of meters around the car.

But he was still worried, and whispered in Mikael's ear:

"Mr. Casper, think about it, what is the hotel used for?"

"Eat and live."

"Yes! That's right! But whether you plan to eat in the hotel or live in the hotel, you need to have two necessities-time and money!"

"Huh?"

"Nowadays, currency has long become waste paper-they have depreciated to the point where they are cheaper than toilet paper, so that people would rather use paper money to wipe their butts! The hard currency in the market now is various canned foods, biscuits and other food, and food coupons that can be exchanged for supplies. But these are things that ordinary people would rather hoard than use... Yes, that's right, we have regressed to a physical economy society!"

"As far as I know, various real estate mortgages, gems, real gold and silver and other precious metals still have certain value."

Mikael's words are not groundless, otherwise Eden would not be a rich woman until now. The real estate she holds is fine, but those gems, gold and silver are not only what Pado wants.

By selling these properties, Eden's personal financial resources also supported the progress of several projects of Mebius and Vivi.

After all, everyone knows that gold cannot be eaten, but everyone also knows that gold can be hidden in troubled times. When the price of gold plummets, there are always people who can't help but buy it, not to mention that these precious metals do have real production needs - there are many special alloys and many equipment that require gold and silver for production.

But...

"Mr. Casper, do you think ordinary people will hold these things?"

"..."

"Speaking of time, even if according to the latest regulations, it is allowed to use corresponding materials to exempt labor, but everyone with a discerning eye knows that this regulation is for those rich people who receive C-level or above materials. Most of the people who need to rely on labor to exchange for D-level materials have to work at least twelve hours a day. Previously, there were almost no holidays. After this regulation was introduced, there was one day off a week. Do you think they are willing to sleep at home and play games, or go out to stay in a hotel at this time?"

After saying these like a string of bullets, Michael felt that he was hot all over, and his face was flushed as expected.

Mikael, who was standing opposite him, looked down at the tip of his shoes without saying a word.

It was only then that the emotion of fear spread from Mikael's heart. He began to search his memory in a hurry, recalling whether he had spoken too loudly just now, and whether he would be heard by others.

As for why he said these things and why he dared to say these things, he could only blame himself for being crazy for a while.

"Is that so..."

Mikael shook his head, patted his shoulder, and said earnestly:

"Don't think too much, let's go. It's getting late. Dr. Akagi has been waiting for us for so long, and I'm afraid he won't be able to wait any longer."

Michael didn't even listen to what he said next. All he could think about now was "Don't think too much."

If I remember correctly, this was the fourth time "Casper" had repeated this sentence in just a few hours.

A writer once said, "If a pistol appears in a story, it must be fired."

Although this is a technique in novels, in reality, even if a gun appears, it does not have to be fired. Otherwise, the world would have been in chaos, and guns would be drawn and fired everywhere. The scene must be more exciting than a fireworks show. .

But this is just a mechanical application. Its real meaning should be - there is a strong connection between things. Nothing, no thing, and no sentence will appear without reason.

Whatever appears in front of you, no matter whether it is reasonable or not, must have some meaning. It just depends on whether you can discover it yourself.

So, what is the meaning of the phrase "Don't think too much" that is repeatedly repeated by the man in front of me?

Once this question appeared in my mind, it took root so deeply that I could no longer ignore it, let alone uproot it and dispel it.

With such a muddled mood, he didn't know what he did next. He only knew that when his thoughts returned to normal again, the sound of the waves was constantly washing against his eardrums, and there were black holes all around, and he couldn't see the sea at all. After careful inspection, I found that the car had stopped at the door of a majestic villa with no light coming from it.

Someone tapped him on the shoulder, and he realized that he was actually squeezed into the back seat of the car with two special correspondents.

Turning his head, the scars on "Casper's" face were hidden in the dim light and shadow, with only the pair of exceptionally bright eyes reflecting the light tirelessly.

"It's getting late, so I won't bother you anymore. We can just rest by ourselves. Don't think too much about it."

"Don't think too much, don't think too much, don't think too much, don't think too much..."

Such a simple word, as if it had some kind of magic, began to circulate in his mind, so that he actually sat in the car blankly, watching the two special correspondents decline the others. With help, he walked into the villa and closed the door.

"..."

"Mr. Alderman? Are you okay?"

Also sitting in the car was the unknown driver. His body was upright, but his eyes were looking at Michael wildly through the rearview mirror.

"Mr. Mayor, you don't look good. Do you need to ask the city hall to prepare some medicine?"

"Need not!"

Michael's whole body trembled. He was already tall, and his head hit the roof of the car.

He thought it would be very painful, but he didn't expect it to be anything more than minor. There wasn't even a trace of pain that could be called pain.

After all, the ceiling of the car is different from that of the house, and is covered with a thick layer of cushions.

"Let's go back to the city hall first."

He tried to make his voice sound as normal as possible, then curled up into the corner of the back seat and covered his face with his hands, as if to avoid all the light.

"Mr. Alderman? Are you really okay?"

"It's okay, I just have the old headache. Well, as you know, it's a problem that started in the early years, and medicine can't cure it."

"Then it's still the same as before. How about you find two girls to give you a massage?"

"..."

It was obviously a process that he could no longer get used to, but Michael felt a trace of disgust for no reason.

No, it didn't come out of nowhere, and it wasn't the first time I had this feeling of disgust.

He knew very well that this feeling of disgust had actually always existed in his heart. It was the inevitable rift that would form when a normal person's values ​​conflicted with his own behavior.

However, the pleasure brought by the previous satisfaction of desires was too powerful, and the shadow cast by their huge bodies completely covered up the crack, so that he did not notice it until today.

But why did I notice it today? Why is it today?

After slowly reversing, the driver gently turned the steering wheel, the wheels drew a perfect arc on the ground, turned around and drove away from the villa.

Bright lights were lit in the villa, illuminating the road the car was about to pass. Michael couldn't help but look out through the car window. The rough stone pavement seemed to be painted with a layer of bright paint, and the halo Like a dancing candle, it changes its shape all the time.

But why on the ground...

Only then did he belatedly discover the "white nets" lingering in front of the window.

To be precise, it was the rain that kept intertwining in the dark night, illuminated by the bright light of the villa behind me.

"When did it rain?"

"Huh? Don't you know, Lord Mayor? It was raining when you came out of the city hall."

"oh."

Michael didn't think much and continued to look at the raindrops that were blown away by the wind and then gathered together by the wind.

It's funny to say that these raindrops can't help themselves in mid-air, and only a negligible wind can carry them to distant places.

It's like drifting with the flow of life.

But no matter what, the final outcome of the raindrops is nothing more than falling to the ground, being smashed to pieces on the ground, and then the bodies are merged into the soil through the gaps in the stone slabs, and then undergo the next reincarnation. This is a fate that the rain cannot change.

This process of falling is involuntary, but whether you go with the flow or fight hard, the final result remains the same.

Wait a minute!

He felt a bright light burst out in his mind, and then a needle-like pain came from his scalp. His body curled up more and more, covering his head with both hands, and his ten fingers were deeply embedded in the fluffy golden hair, as if he was deeply trapped in a dark mud, constantly searching in it, trying to salvage something extremely important.

The driver glanced at the rearview mirror and asked again with concern:

"Mr. Alderman, are you okay?"

"I... I'm fine..."

Michael finally found the problem.

"It was raining when we left the city hall?"

"Yes!"

"It was raining when we got on the bus?"

"Uh... should be... right?"

"Is it really raining?"

Michael kept asking questions, making the driver doubt whether his memory was wrong. However, after searching his memory, he nodded again and said:

"Sir, I can be sure that it started raining when we walked out of the city hall."

"Um... did you see me and Mr. Casper talking outside the car?"

"No, it was raining outside, how could you talk to him outside? You got in the car at the beginning. But we were also surprised at the time. You didn't take the other car prepared, nor did you sit in the co-pilot, but squeezed into the back seat with two special agents..."

"Didn't we talk in the car?"

"No."

Michael didn't ask any more questions, nor did he respond at all, but just shrank his body into the darkness again.

I understand, everything is clear.

In his memory, it didn't rain when everyone got in the car, and he and "Casper" stood outside the car and communicated for a long time-this is indeed a memory rooted in his mind, and it will never be wrong.

But in the driver's memory, it was clearly raining at the beginning, and he and "Casper" didn't communicate at all, and sat directly in the car.

Why do different people have completely opposite memories at the same time and place?

The answer is obvious -

I have heard that there are a large number of psychic perception fusion warriors in the Fire Moth Chaser. Lloydgel also said before that this kind of psychic perception ability has little effect on dealing with unconscious Honkai beasts, but it is extremely terrifying against humans themselves, and can completely change a person's thinking without anyone noticing.

So, since psychic perception fusion warriors are so useful against humans themselves, how could the poison pupa, which was originally set up to deal with humans themselves, not have psychic perception fusion warriors?

"Heh..."

He should have thought of this earlier.

But... is it his own consciousness that is disturbed, or the consciousness of others?

Is he talking to himself directly through consciousness, or is the conversation between the two real, and he used mental power to block others?

It seems that there is no need to dwell on this.

Because whether that exchange happened in reality or in consciousness, it really happened.

"Don't think too much, don't think too much, don't think too much, don't think too much..."

This damn curse revived at some point and continued to chatter in his ears. But he couldn't resist it, because the more people whispered this in his ears, the more he couldn't control his thoughts and traced back along the line of memory.

Yes, with long golden hair and green eyes, he was indeed from the Lichtenstein family.

But because he was an illegitimate child, he had been living in the slums since he could remember. He didn't know who his father was, nor who his mother was. He was abandoned when he was just born. His parents left him only a blanket, nothing else.

Now the memory of those miserable days is blurred. He only remembers that he was adopted by an old man. When he was about eight years old, he was spotted by a rich man and taken away from the slums.

Regarding this, he still had some fragments in his mind, a young man talking to the old man who adopted him, and a van parked at the entrance of their shack, with the side door wide open, showing the bottomless darkness inside without reservation.

He heard his "adoptive father" arguing with the man, but when the other party took out a stack of papers, he instantly smiled.

Then he was taken into the car.

But the car was not heading to a more relaxed life, but to hell.

What else could an eight-year-old child be used for after being bought? What's more, he was really cute.

Because of his long golden hair and green eyes, he was deliberately packaged as a male business of the Lichtenstein family, and was also half-forced to learn many aristocratic etiquette to perform realistically.

What's more ironic is that after a few years, he got the opportunity to serve a master of the Lichtenstein family because of this "fake identity".

He also took this opportunity to be taken back to the Lichtenstein family and became the exclusive servant of the master.

I thought that compared to the painful life before, this time would at least be easier.

At least he would have no worries about food and clothing, and at least he only had to serve one person.

Moreover, although his position was low and his work was dirty, perhaps because he was good-looking, his fellow servants, whether uncles, aunts, brothers or sisters, were all nice to him.

But the most unacceptable thing happened - as he grew older, he began to find with horror that he looked more and more like his master, until almost all the servants could see it.

At first, his father was unwilling to believe it until he took him to do a paternity test with the thought that "it won't cost a piece of meat anyway".

The answer was obvious, but it was still not the end of the pain - when he returned home, he found that all the servants who knew him had been dismissed. At that time, he was close to adulthood and knew the family's style of doing things. How could he not understand the truth behind the so-called "dismissal"?

"..."

Even though nearly twenty years have passed, he still can't keep his breath steady when thinking about these things.

So, a year ago, under the operation of his guilty father and of course his own ability, he successfully promoted to municipal official, and with complicated thoughts, he went home to report the good news as usual, but found that the luxurious family hall in the past had become a pool of blood, and the elders who were the main managers of the family were slaughtered, stepping on the blue forget-me-nots soaked in blood...

It's better to say that it's a relief than sadness.

But what did such a past bring him?

This is a question he used to think about every night, but now he has forgotten it for nearly ten years.

He dared not say that he had experienced the real bottom of society. After all, he only stayed in the slums until he was eight years old. Although he lived a dirty life later, he was well-fed and well-clothed.

If possible, he would also like to be a pure villain like those colleagues, instead of embezzling a batch of materials and donating half of them according to his conscience, constantly suffering from inner torture, and being scolded for being both a good and a bad person.

By the way, "Casper" saw all these in the past, right?

Michael finally understood why he would subconsciously dodge every time the two of them were about to look at each other.

Because the other party's eyes with spiritual abilities can completely see through him, all his past, all his entanglements, and all his disguises are clear in front of the other party.

And it is precisely because of seeing the things that were covered up in his heart that "Casper" would constantly induce him to say those words that would be regarded as betrayal by his colleagues.

Although that is just the truth known to everyone.

Forget it...

Those words...

I've said them all...

Michael sat up straight and reached out to hold the handrail on the roof, "Turn around."

"Huh? Sir, what did you say?"

"Turn around!"