Data Wasteland

After more than an hour, Chen Xing and A Qiaomu found a white tower. There is a gravel on the doorway, you can see the remains of a gargoyle. The door was open, and someone had obviously searched. Going up to the top floor, they saw a delicate wooden box on the ground, exactly the same as the one where the puzzle was placed before.

"Someone has been here." A Qiaomu said something very ill-nourished.

"Your judgment is correct." Chen Xing praised.

Maybe it's slow response, or maybe it's not smart enough, the other party didn't even hear the mockery in the words, and continued to say unnourished words, "Something must have been taken away."

"Yes, things must have been taken away." Chen Xing echoed.

"You..." A Qiaomu's eyes flickered, as if he was aware of his teasing.

"What's the matter?" Chen Xing asked blankly. Of course, this is all pretended.

"Nothing." A Qiaomu shook his head, turned and walked downstairs. The expression was a little vague.

Chen Xing followed behind, looking at the trembling big **** in front, the urge to "penetrate" spontaneously.

That must be cool...

He couldn't help thinking, but quickly shook his head again, driving the idea out of his mind. This female sandman is too dangerous. To play with her is to play with fire. It is better to keep a little distance.

"Find a place to rest for a while, I haven't slept for two days." A Qiaomu said back when he got out of the tower.

"What about the other puzzles?" Chen Xing asked.

"It is estimated that they were found by others, a total of twelve yuan, we have three of them, almost." A Qiaomu said.

Chen Xing did not object anymore. After all, it takes a good physical strength to fight. He also counts on A Qiaomu to attract firepower in front, so that he can slowly accumulate energy. Afterwards, the two found a relatively clean house nearby, cleaned it up, and rested in it.

A Qiaomu sat down against the wall, with one leg straight and the other bent, with the arm on the same side resting on his thigh. This posture is called "female soldier sitting", and most female mercenaries like this posture when they are resting.

Chen Xing is a standard "male soldier sitting" with his knees folded and sitting against the wall.

"Are there any military rations? I want tomato flavor." A Qiaomu said.

"Only potato beef and black pepper chicken fillet." Chen Xing said irritably. It's really picky to have the thought of ordering food in this kind of place.

"Potato beef." A Qiaomu said.

Chen Xing took out a self-heating ration from his backpack, and then asked, "Tell me about the situation here."

A Qiaomu tore open the packaging bag and poured water in with a kettle to let the chemicals inside heat up, while explaining the situation to Chen Xing.

She has been here for more than ten days and is considered the first batch to come in. According to her observations these days, this is a city ruled by wizards. They created a large number of mechanical monsters, which can be encountered in every corner of the city.

For unknown reasons, the world was destroyed.

All signs surface that after the disaster, the people here did not die immediately, but persisted in the dark for a long time until the food ran out. Generally speaking, cannibalism will happen in this case, but it doesn't seem to be here. It seems that the wizards did not give up at the last moment.

The tower in the middle is protected by a very powerful magic circle, and the people in the battle group have loaded a lot of c4 explosives and haven't exploded it. The power source to maintain the magic circle should come from the top of the tower

Green light clusters.

The spectrum of psionic energy is blue, varying from shallow to deep depending on the density. As for the other two forms of psychic energy, life energy is emerald green. As the intensity increases, it turns from emerald green to milky white, while chaos magic energy is dark green, from dark green to dark red. The color from the center of the green light cluster is dark, and it should be a very dense chaotic magic energy.

There is a circular jigsaw recessed in the gate of the tower, which is divided into twelve pieces, eight pieces on the outer circle and four pieces on the inner circle. A Qiaomu found one of them accidentally, guessing that it might be the key to the tower, so he searched around and found the other one. Later, I met Chen Xing.

"Why are they divided into inner and outer circles?" Chen Xing suddenly asked. In this design, the eight pieces of the outer circle and the four pieces of the inner circle have different meanings, perhaps because of the different status of the holder, or perhaps the difference in function. In short, it is a detail worthy of attention.

A Qiaomu shrugged, expressing his unclearness.

"Take it out and take a look." Chen Xing took out his own puzzle. The outer end is an eighth arc, and the inner end is an inner arc, which is obviously a puzzle in the outer circle. A Qiaomu also took it out, which is also a puzzle in the outer circle.

"Have you seen the inner circle?" Chen Xing asked.

"I was the first to find out, so I didn't tell anyone, but they were not stupid. They quickly found the problem and sent people to search everywhere." A Qiaomu replied.

"In other words, haven't you seen other puzzles?" Chen Xing asked.

"Yes." A Qiaomu replied.

"You rest first, and then we continue to look for it to see how many towers there are in total," Chen Xing said.

"Good." A Qiaomu nodded in response. At this time, the self-heating ration was fine, and she ate it with the hard plastic fork that came with the ration. It didn't take long for her to finish eating, put the garbage in the bag, threw it in the corner, and then leaned against the wall and closed her eyes to rest.

Chen Xing was in charge of the night watch and studied carefully with three pieces of puzzle. A Qiaomu seemed to trust him very much. Not only did he give him his own puzzle, but he didn't have much defensive heart. Soon there was a faint snoring sound, and he fell asleep deeply.

But this is not surprising. If Chen Xing wanted to kill her just now, he would have already killed it. There is no need to wait until now.

So, why does A Qiaomu trust him so much?

There may be two reasons. First, A Qiaomu realized that he could not benefit from this expedition alone, so he took a risk. Anyone who is a mercenary has a gambler in his bones, just like himself, he is also betting now. Second, A Qiaomu saw through his nature. He is a typical "people who do not offend me, I do not offend others, if they do not offend me, I may not repay them" type.

Because for a sane person like him, "revenge" is also a cost, and it has to be calculated. If the cost is too high, or it takes too much effort, then forget it.

To put it bluntly, it is that the mind is not small enough, the heart is not black enough, the moral bottom line is not low enough, and the money in the pocket is not enough. This is also the reason why he became a manager of a small company after many years in his first life, and why he became a small team leader after more than ten years in his second life.

The middle and upper levels of society were born with a golden key. They can get a lot of resources left by their ancestors. They have a solid foundation and a more decent life will not affect development. However, the bottom of the society is different. Unless you have unusual talents, or have very good luck, and meet noble people, it is difficult to develop quickly without basic resources.

There is no tuition for further studies, no capital for doing business, everything depends on both hands, and the speed of development is very slow.

And, in the process of climbing upwards, other bottom layers will try their best to grab other people’s resources and fill their own vacancies.

Or use others as stepping stones to climb higher. This creates a vicious circle. If you want to be in position, you have to be cruel and dark in your hands.

What's even more hateful is that some of the people at the bottom are in the upper ranks, and they immediately put on a cheeky face, with their heads up to the sky, which makes people look sick and have to compete, otherwise they will be scorned and looked down upon.

However, as a human being for three generations, he still couldn't do some things.

Although his parents didn't have much abilities, they were just small workers in ordinary third-tier cities, but they taught him from an early age that he must have a conscience in his life, and he has always followed his parents' teachings for so many years. Even if it is not a good person, I never thought about being a bad person.

After all, in this world, no matter before or after the journey, it is too difficult for a good person to live...

Perhaps A Qiaomu has seen through this point, and will fall asleep peacefully at this moment, without the slightest sense of defense against him.

Of course, there are some advantages to being a bottom line person. As the saying goes, things are gathered together and people are divided into groups. The cruel-hearted people will never have true friends, and even husbands and wives must be on guard against each other, ready to expose each other’s old bottom, and turn their faces away from acknowledgment.

Just imagine, who would be willing to make a friend who might cheat him at any time?

The reason is simple, if he can cheat others today, he can cheat you tomorrow!

By the same token, who would be willing to talk to a ruthless boss, wouldn't he be afraid of being used by the other party and abandoning it?

Who is willing to marry one, or marry such a person, with a wolf and tiger on his side, can he sleep well at night?

So, things always have two sides. You get melons when you grow melons, beans get beans when you grow beans, and you get what you grow. If you want to develop quickly, the foundation will be unstable. At least so far, Chen Xing has not encountered many things that he particularly regrets.

Perhaps this has something to do with his ambition. He has always been a down-to-earth person without too many unrealistic fantasies. Just being forced by the environment, I had to climb up.

The cruelty of society lies in the fact that if you do not climb up, you will be eliminated, trampled by villains, and live better than death.

After sighing for a while, Chen Xing's attention returned to the puzzle in his hand. The carving craftsmanship is very exquisite, the lines are clear, and the pictures are lifelike.

Wizards wearing long robes, holding wooden staffs, thunder and lightning, huge mechanical puppets, creeping people, burning furnaces, dumping molten iron, craftsmen grinding gears, chickens, ducks, geese, and goats running around. , A scene of the magical industrial civilization in the Middle Ages.

The material of the puzzle is neither gold nor iron, nor wood nor stone, and it feels cold to the touch. I don't know what material it is made of. Heavier than steel of the same size, but not as good as Mithril and Adamantite.

"Chachacha..."

Suddenly, there were fine footsteps outside. Chen Xing frowned and stood up. He looked at A Qiaomu who was sleeping, and was considering whether to wake him up, but a young male voice sounded outside.

"It's Kazuki Nakamura from the Jiro group. I want to exchange information with friends inside."

Without hesitating for too long, Chen Xing shouted, "Please speak."

Turning his head to see, A Qiaomu hadn't woken up yet, was he too tired, trusted him too much, or pretended to be.

"Friends inside, we are looking for a black puzzle piece. If you have one, we can buy it at a high price. Our Jiro group's reputation has always been very good, please don't worry." The man calling himself "Nakamura Kazuki" shouted outside. .