Endless Debt

The Freeport is still brightly lit in the middle of the night. The searchlights are like swords made of light, ruthlessly sweeping across the sea. The ships push the waves into the harbor. Interlaced robotic arms build a steel jungle, and heavy containers stand in rows. Together, they pile up into a tall tower.

Workers walked through it, directing forklifts to move goods. From a distance, they looked like ants crawling over miniature models.

Ants, everyone is an ant, at the bottom of the food chain.

Hult realized this a long time ago. Freeport is a factory that works around the clock. Ships arrive and leave every moment. They are full of goods, like blood flowing through the heart, and they will Oxygen is transported to various organs in the body.

Looking at the shining light from a distance, and the faint lights hidden on the endless dark sea, each light represents a big ship.

Like worker bees and queen bees, worker ants and queen ants, and...

There was a pain like a knife in his mind. He picked up the wine bottle and drank the alcohol in large gulps. In addition to medicine and blood, alcohol was also a good painkiller, allowing Helt to escape from the real world for a short time.

"I'm sorry, you've seen what I'm like now. I really can't find a suitable place to entertain friends."

Hurt put down the bottle, looking apologetic.

"It's nothing, I don't care about this kind of thing."

Lebius looked around. It was an abandoned building, but it was in a good location and could directly see the busy dock.

Boluogo remained silent behind Lebius. Since the meeting, Boluogo had been observing Hert.

This is an extremely embarrassed guy, with a lingering fishy smell and blood on his body. His eyes are slightly sunken, the whites of his eyes are bloodshot, and his cheeks are covered with stubble, full of decadence and morbidity. He is holding the everlasting gun in his arms. The weird long knife on his body still had traces of blood flowing slowly.

Boluogo's instinct warned him that this was a dangerous guy.

Lebius walked to Hert and sat on the steps with him. Bologo stood silently in the shadows, always alert.

Hurt asked, "How long has it been since we last met, Lebius?"

Lebius replied, "Almost ten years."

"It's been ten years?"

Helt didn't expect that so long had passed. Since the hallucination, his perception of time had become dull. In his impression, he seemed to have just met Lebius a few months ago.

"It's so long..."

Helt whispered, took out a cigarette from his pocket and lit it. In front of Helt, cigarette ashes and several cigarette butts had already accumulated on the ground.

Lebius frowned. During the short conversation, Hert had smoked several cigarettes, one after another.

Obviously, Hert had been living in this state of life for a while, and Lebius guessed that Hert's lungs must be full of tar.

"What has happened in these years? Helt," Lebius asked, "how did you become like this."

Lebius was a little sad. He still remembered the young man standing on the bow of the ship, roaring at the storm. At that time, Hert exuded endless vitality, and even the mountains could not stop his conquest.

But now Helt looks like a drug-addicted homeless man. If he hadn't noticed the aura of decay on Helt's body, Lebius would have even thought that Helt had turned into a demon.

Fortunately he wasn't, and Lebius didn't have many friends left alive.

"I spent a lot of effort to find you," Lebius sighed. "I couldn't believe it when they talked about your current situation..."

"Haha, there's nothing I can't believe. People change. Some people get better as they live, and some people get worse as they live. I was a compromise. When I was approaching the peak, I fell."

Hert asked about Lebius, "It's you, Lebius, you look pretty good, I'm very happy."

"I heard what they said about the secret war. Since then, you have been hiding in the Bureau of Order and have never shown your face again... There are many rumors about you. Some people say that you were seriously injured. Although you were rescued, you were not able to show up anymore. You have become disabled, and some people say that you have actually retired and settled in Fengyuan Highlands."

Hurt was silent for a moment, "I thought I would never see you again."

"But now that you see me, how do you feel?"

"It feels like a dead person suddenly appears in front of you... I'm very happy."

Helt was serious. He had not been this happy for a long time. Even the pain in his mind and the rustling of the rats had eased a lot. For this reason, he took another sip of wine.

"As soon as I saw you, all the memories that I had almost forgotten came to mind." Helt excitedly held the long knife in front of him. "Do you still remember that fish we met when we went out to sea? Oh my God. , it’s that big.”

"Yes, I remember that the fish was so big that it shook like an angry bull. I was almost dragged into the sea by it. At this time, you took off your clothes and jumped in. With a diving knife, you fiercely Give it a few strokes.”

Hurt thought fondly, "It's a pity that it ran away."

The chat between the two was silent for a moment, and they were immersed in the beauty of the past together.

Boluogo stood behind and looked at the backs of the two of them. Lebius usually had a serious look, but in front of Hert, he became soft in a rare way.

No one is born like this. Everyone has experienced something and has become who they are today little by little.

Lebius took a deep breath and hesitated in his tone, "I heard something about you."

Before arriving at Freeport, Lebius made a plan, and Hert was an important part of it. However, Lebius lost the news of Hert many years ago.

When approaching the free port, the Bureau of Order finally investigated Helt's current situation, and Uriel conveyed it to Lebius.

Lebius couldn't believe the news, "What have you done, Helt."

"You violated the oath of the people of Xitao," Lebius turned sideways and his tone became serious. "You also married a woman on land and even had a daughter."

Helt laughed loudly after hearing this. After laughing for a while, his expression became a little lonely.

"I'm sorry, I'm a breaker of promises and broke my oath."

"No, I don't care about the damn oath you Xitao people made. I always feel that someone should tear your oath to pieces so that your destiny can be liberated from the sea."

Lebius spoke with anger, "What I'm angry about is...are you married? You have a daughter, and I didn't know about these things until I was about to arrive at Freeport!"

"Sorry, I'm sorry."

Hert said sincerely that the arrival of Lebius gave him a certain amount of comfort. He had not felt this way for a long time.

"This is an unblessed marriage," Lebius asked, "Is it worth it?"

"I think it's worth it."

"That's good."

Lebius then asked, "Who is she?"

Helt said softly, "An ordinary person. I came back from the sea that day and saw her in the crowd at the dock... Just like fate, I fell in love with her at first sight, and she did the same. What happened next Just let nature take its course.”

"They're not in the Freeport, are they?"

Lebius looked at Helt's embarrassed appearance again. It would be too bad if his loved ones saw it.

"They were not used to life in a free port, and to avoid the hostility within the company, I sent them to live inland."

Helt turned to talking about himself, "As for me, as you can see, I broke my oath and was punished. Now I can only live here, hunting demons and cleaning up the garbage in the shadows."

Lebius knew what a glorious past Hert had and looked away, not wanting to look at Hert again, "What a cruel punishment."

"It's nothing, I feel very lucky, Lebius."

Hurt's eyes sparkled, "I found something worth loving far more than the sea, and that's enough."

"According to the time limit of atonement, I will soon be able to pay off my debts and be completely free. By then I will no longer owe the people of Xitao anything and can live with them."

Lebius said calmly, "Your brother must be very disappointed in this."

"Don't mention him."

Hert's tone became colder, as if Lebius had mentioned a certain taboo.

Boluogo could sense that the atmosphere between the two had changed. The beautiful reminiscences were over, and it was time to talk about some real topics.

"A guy I thought was dead suddenly appeared in front of me..."

Helt wiped the long knife in his hand, and the coldness of the metal penetrated deep into his bones. His temperament changed. He was no longer the dejected loser, but a navigator with the anger of the tide.

A glimmer of light floated in Helt's eyes, and he used his peripheral vision to spy on the man beside him.

"Lebius, why are you here?"