Endless Debt

Wandering Cross Road·Spider Web Bar.

Colorful lights are projected from above along with the irritable music, reflecting the dim interior into all kinds of strange appearances. Combined with the drunken and flushed faces of the guests, the place is like a lost dream.

Some people were indulgent in alcohol, singing and dancing, and some were whispering and talking about conspiracies in the dark. People's figures were distorted into ferocious shapes by the lights, and projected on the walls, reflecting the bright and weird graffiti on the walls.

There is a strong smell of alcohol lingering in the air, and there are other unidentifiable smells, like engine oil full of impurities, sour rot from rotting flesh and blood, and a little bit of fresh blood...

Vika stood behind the bar, quietly wiping the wine glass in his hand. He had long been accustomed to this psychedelic scene, and performed his work expressionlessly. Among the carnival crowd, he seemed to be the only sober one. The presence.

The two men squeezed through the crowd and sat in front of the bar. They raised their hands to signal to Vika. Vika nodded and served them two glasses of wine.

"Vika, I found a good thing recently."

After drinking all the wine in the glass, the man's face turned slightly red and he said to Vika mysteriously.

"Jero, what a good thing."

Vika didn't like these drunk guys, but chatting with customers was part of the job.

"A Mammon coin, a new, never-before-seen Mammon coin."

Jero carefully took out a handkerchief from his pocket, spread it on the table, and then opened it, and the golden light bloomed little by little.

I saw a Mammon coin placed in the dirty handkerchief. It was spotless, not even scratched, as if it had just been taken out of the mint.

The most surprising thing is that the pattern on this Mammon coin is different from all previous patterns.

Things like this often happen in Wandering Road. Whenever there is an urban legend that is sung by people, a Mammon coin will appear to represent it, and the appearance of this coin now undoubtedly represents one thing.

A new legend emerged.

"I know you are a professional, Vika," Jero smiled, "Can you tell anything from this coin?"

Vika is not only the bartender of the Spider Web Bar, but also the actual controller here. Coupled with the absolutely peaceful nature of the Spider Web Bar, Vika is very prestigious in Wandering Cross Road.

Everyone wants to please Weika in exchange for the convenience on the wandering road. The best way to please Weika is undoubtedly to collect Mammon coins for him, but to be precise, it is to collect different Mammon coins.

For Wika, collecting different Mammon coins is like collecting stamps. For some rare and rare Mammon coins, Wika doesn't mind paying a lot of money.

"I think I should be the first person to find this coin. Now I may not be able to find the second one in this wandering road."

Jero chuckled. There are also differences between Mammon coins. Some Mammon coins are very common and some are very rare. This Mammon coin that even Jerro himself could not recognize is undoubtedly the rarest one. kind.

Some people speculate that the scarcity of Mammon coins is linked to the popularity of urban legends. The more people know a legend, the more Mammon coins represent the legend, and vice versa.

Vika picked up the coin in the handkerchief, stared at the pattern on it, and then asked.

"Where did you get the coin? Tell the truth."

"Well...it's a bit of a coincidence."

Jero thought for a while, and when he saw Vika's sharp eyes, he realized that if he still wanted to hang out here, it was best to tell the truth.

"I found it in a public phone booth. It was stuck in the coin return slot. It looked like someone had forgotten it."

Vika didn't respond, looking thoughtful.

"Tell me, what kind of church symbol is this?" Jero continued to chatter, "This symbol looks like a cane."

Vika stroked the surface of the coin. As Jero said, it did look like a church symbol and a staff.

The lower part of the pattern is a cross symbol. At the top of the cross is a circular symbol, and the top of the circular symbol is connected to a semicircle symbol.

The symbols were connected together and turned into this strange and incomprehensible appearance.

"Mercury..." Vika whispered.

"What?" Jero heard what Vika was saying, and his face lit up with joy, "I knew you could recognize it."

"This is not a church symbol, nor is it a cane. This is an alchemical symbol. It represents one of the seven major metals in alchemy, mercury, or mercury."

Vika became interested in the coin. He looked at the details of the coin repeatedly and continued to explain to Jero.

"Alchemists believe that mercury is a very strange metal that transcends solid and liquid states, transcends earth and heaven, and transcends life and death."

"Like something... unkillable.\

,"Another man said. He came with Jero, but had been drinking beside him. He didn't speak until now. His voice was low, as if he was telling some ancient story.

"Some kind of unkillable, strange metal." Vika nodded at the man, confirming his suspicion.

"Alchemists also regard it as a symbol of poisonous snakes. The specific origin is unclear, but it can be known from church myths that people first lived in paradise on earth, but were tempted by poisonous snakes and ate the fruit of wisdom. So he was exiled..."

As Vika spoke, another pattern emerged in his mind, a poisonous snake entwining the fruit of wisdom.

"So in the eyes of some alchemists, they regard poisonous snakes as cunning, greedy, and pursuers of truth, all in order to swallow the fruit of wisdom."

"Oh...that sounds really disturbing."

Jero was stunned for a moment, but then a smile appeared on his face. He rubbed his hands and pointed at Vika.

"Your account is settled."

Vika understood what Jero meant, so he directly put the coin away and put it into his pocket.

Jero almost burst into laughter, but then his joy was replaced by curiosity, and he tentatively asked Vika.

"Now that the coin appears, which legend does it represent?"

"I have no idea."

Vika shook his head simply. He spent most of his time in the bar, and the disturbances from the outside world had nothing to do with him.

"I know about a strange thing that happened recently," the man on the side said again, "Have you ever heard of the story of evil spirits?"

"Evil spirit?" Jero looked confused, "What are you talking about? Will, what is an evil spirit?"

"Haven't you heard? This is a legend that emerged after a stormy night. Many gangs were exterminated that night. The newspaper said that they were caused by fighting with each other...Is this possible? They have been in peace for so long, and suddenly In a matter of seconds, everyone was killed, and there was not even a winner."

Will drank calmly, trying to numb his nerves. Looking back on these stories now, it was like a bloody nightmare.

“Fortunately, one unlucky guy survived, a kid named White, and I learned these stories from him.

What actually happened that night was that a monster called the Evil Spirit came in. White and the others tried to fight back, swung their knives at it, and fired at it. The firepower was enough to kill a person thousands of times, but The weird thing is that the evil spirit bleeds, but it doesn't die. "

Will imitated White's tone, frightened and desperate.

"Only the flickering gunfire and the wails echoing in the darkness could be seen. White could only see the ferocious figure clearly through the brief fireworks, and then with heavy breathing, his teammates one after another Die, be pierced by a sharp blade, crushed by a hammer..."

Will put down his wine glass and looked directly at Jero with his cloudy eyes.

"Think about it, Jero, think about a scene like that. Without any warning, the nightmare comes suddenly. You don't know the purpose of the other party, and you can't see the appearance of the other party. The only thing that is clear is that people are coming one after another. Dying one by one, you try to resist, but in vain, as if when it comes, all you can do is pray and repent.”

"Is it fake?" Jero was confused by Will's words, and he firmly doubted, "If the evil spirit is really so scary, how did White survive?"

"That's what's interesting about the evil spirit," Will said, smiling, showing his scorched teeth. "It's a selective evil spirit, not an indiscriminate bloodthirsty beast."

"White said that the reason he survived was because the evil spirit told him, 'He's not on the list.' So... what list was it?"

"The list of evildoers."

Suddenly, Vika, who was listening to the conversation, spoke. He lowered his head and continued to wipe the wine glass in his hand, recalling in his mind what he saw and heard in Norm's clinic.

A vague figure gradually became clear in his mind, and Vika remembered what he said when he first came to the Spider Web Bar.

Become a legend.

"Yes, a list of evildoers." Will raised his glass to Vika, and then looked at Jero, whose expression was gradually turning pale. "The reason why White is not dead is because he was still a child. He was shot just a few days after joining the gang. There was no blood on his hands. If there was blood on his hands, I'm afraid White would have died that night."

"No, no, no, Will, this is impossible. How can you know such details? The so-called White is just a story you made up!" Jero's voice became louder, trying to reject his words.

"Because White is my nephew, I have to thank the evil spirit. It brought a great mental impact to White. After seeing the corpse and blood, the child became a lot more honest and never mentioned joining. It’s a gang thing.”

Will's eyes were fixed on Jero, and he deliberately lowered his voice and asked.

"This can be a fact or a story, but why did you react so violently, Jero? Could it be that you did something wrong and are you afraid of evil spirits targeting you?"

"This has nothing to do with you." Jero stood up directly. He glanced at Will fiercely, "See you tomorrow, Will."

"I also hope to see you again tomorrow! Jero! Be careful, the evil spirit is staring at you?"

Jero quickened his pace to leave, trying hard to put Will's laughter out of his mind. He walked on the damp and dark streets, and the street scene with hesitant forks in the road was always so twisted and weird.

The cold invaded his body and winter was coming. While wrapping his clothes tightly, he took a cigarette and lit it.

"Damn stories," Gerald muttered. "Damn coin collecting."

The composition of the Wandering Fork Road is complex. Many people do not live here. Most of them live in the more livable Qiu Shang Town and around the Great Rift. For this reason, these people do not believe in tyrants, let alone the Mammon Coin. Legend has it.

Jero is one of the disbelievers. He collects these coins just to use them as currency for this damn wandering road.

"There are no evil spirits, it's just the crazy words of these people."

Jero whispered repeatedly and walked towards the end of the road, but he did not notice at all that on the weirdly crooked building behind him, a vague figure had been crouching there for a long time.

The man was dressed in a dark coat, with an evil mask on his face. His blue eyes reflected Jero's back. He slowly opened his coat and took out a mottled claw hammer from his pocket.