【Shining】Fallen

Enkidu walked around into the alley.

The alleys are a bit dark, and the narrow city is always prone to power outages after dusk, and sewage accumulates in the corners. The old equipment has become more serious in recent years. There is no factory in Strelitzia, and the cleaning robots often break down halfway. The suction port makes a strange sound of "cuckoo".

Enkidu crossed the alley holding a medicine bottle the size of half a palm.He was wearing a white jacket and trousers, and a black cloak wrapped around it, which had been washed a little and was worn out, and the corners were still frayed.There was translucent white smoke lingering low in the alley, he guessed it was some kind of drug, but he didn't care.

The person curled up in the corner secretly peeped at him, and quickly looked away.

Schmut once said that he has a temperament that is very incompatible with Hazama, and he is very eye-catching no matter where he is, especially the most chaotic Strelitzia area in Hazama.Fortunately, he is very strong, so it won't make people worry too much.

After Shammut finished speaking, he narrowed his eyes with a smile. Anyway, the person who should worry about you should be the person who troubles you.

Walking out of the alley, dilapidated houses stand in two vertical rows, separating a long narrow pedestrian road. There are no tall buildings here, and all the houses are 3D printed, and the 3D printing equipment in the narrow room is only in Lily of the Valley There is one in the district, where high-rise buildings are expensive to maintain and are often easily melted away by strong cleaning agents.Strelitzia... No, it should be said that the entire narrow room is filled with sewage stubbornly accumulated in the corners and narrow alleys that appear dim due to power outages from time to time. The sky is the only conspicuous and bright color in the field of vision.

However, it is a pity that the grid cover called "The Net of Hephaestus" densely covers the entire narrow space of a total of six districts from the sky.

The "Net of Hephaestus" is a transparent net made of certain nanomaterials that pass a high-strength current. This material will distort the light when it is electrified. At that time, the light is filtered into a hazy dark white, and the clouds and the sun cannot be seen, and their highest point is only eternal gray.

In order to ensure that no resident in the narrow space can leave the residence without authorization, the highest point of this hemispherical net is about 1000 meters. The high-strength current causes uneven temperature inside and outside the net, unstable air flow, and at the same time, the latest aircraft cannot fly due to interference from radio waves. more than 200 meters from the ground.

Enkidu glanced up at the sky—or, more properly, it could be called a foggy veil—and looked down again. Directly in front of him, Shamut sat at a second-floor window, shaded by a drawn curtain. She caressed her soft little forehead, smiling slightly at him.

He couldn't help but smile back at her.

Enkidu and Shamut's home is located on the second floor of No. 113, Strelitzia Hazama. The first floor is a flower shop.

"you're back!"

The one who took care of the flower shop was seven-year-old Ida, with long white curly hair, big eyes, a little too fat for a child, and a cute girl who looked like a sheep.

She was wearing a flowery skirt that was rare in the Strelitzia district, and the corners of the skirt were embroidered with badly worn white flowers. She held up a crooked flower pot to greet her, and her smiling mouth exposed the gap in her front teeth.

"Sister Shamut is in good spirits today. She sold flowers with me in the morning. How about you? Have you bought the medicine yet?"

Enkidu nodded, and gently stroked the top of her soft hair.

"Thank you, Ida, for your hard work."

Ida rubbed under his palm for a while, then answered cleverly: "Sister Shamut should be cooking food now, are you hungry? Ah, that's right, Mom asked me to tell you that the roof There was a water leak, she covered it with wooden boards, and let you fix it when you have time."

He nodded, said "um", let go of Ida and went upstairs.

Ida shouted behind him: "The street is noisy today, and two houses in the neighboring area have been blown up. It may be dangerous. Brother Enkidu, you and sister, you'd better not go out again!—— That's what my dad said!"

She waited for a while, but before she got an answer, she stuck out her tongue and continued humming to water the flowers.

Enkidu entered the room, and Shamut was cutting vegetables in an apron. Cauliflower was chopped into pieces, cabbage was shredded, carrots were crushed into a puree, and they were all boiled in water to make a paste. Added three spoons of salt (for seasoning), three A spoonful of sugar (for flavor), six spoonfuls of pepper (it is said that it will be more fragrant if you put it in) and a spoonful of vinegar (it is said that eating more is good for your health), and the dinner is complete.

"You're back!" Shamut untied his apron and greeted him, "Come and eat."

Only two bowls of black noodles were placed on the dining table with a broken leg. Enkidu's smile remained unchanged, he picked up the bowl of noodles without changing his expression, and drank them all in one go. He closed his eyes and endured it for a while, until his mouth exploded. After the smell faded, he opened his mouth and said, "The medicine is here."

Shamut raised his head when he heard the words, and a smile appeared on the face that was very similar to Enkidu.

"Thank you for your hard work. In fact, I feel much better recently. Maybe after a while of rest, I can fully recover without taking medicine."

She is an extremely beautiful woman. Her curly black hair makes her eyes look bright, and her pale and thin face has a unique haggard beauty under the reflection of the sunset. She is always gentle, soft-spoken, and friendly. It is loved by children.

Enkidu looked her up and down, noncommittal.

In the evening, Shammut would habitually turn on the projection TV and listen to commentators who had absolutely nothing to do with them talk about the merits of the next possible policy in an almost mechanical tone, calling on everyone to vote on the passage of the law.

"Everyone is responsible for their own life," the expert said, with a kind of fanatical calm. "We are a democratic planet. Any decision must be voted on. The choice of the majority is always correct."

Shamut was clearing glasses at that time, when there was a sudden explosion not far away, and she almost knocked over the kitchen shelf in fright.After stabilizing the shelf, she poked her head out of the window, seeing the smoke billowing and ashes floating on the window sill, she couldn't help but said worriedly.

"Enkidu, can you help me to see Ida? There was a mess in the next door earlier, it seems that a stranger came... Ida's parents went to buy goods today, you help her close the door earlier, bring Let her come to our house to sleep."

Upon hearing this, Enkidu put down the hammer that was going to repair the roof, opened the door and went downstairs.

As he came downstairs he saw a fat, middle-aged man lifting Ida like a chicken.

The man threatened viciously, "You'd better hand over the money, or—I guess you don't want to taste my fist."

The first floor of this street is mostly shops selling groceries and waste recycling. They haven’t closed yet. Buyers, sellers, and passers-by are used to not caring about this dispute. The homeless man huddled in the corner of the alley looked over here. After taking a look, he yawned and went back to sleep.

Enkidu saw Ida smiling calmly, and her voice was sweet: "Just try it, are you out of your mind if you dare to rob my house? Seeing that I am in a good mood today, you didn't make any moves but just robbed me." For the sake of money, a word of warning, look down, you'd better let go - otherwise, I guess you don't want to have a big hole in your stomach."

She winked playfully.

A miniature laser gun was aimed straight at the burly man's underbelly.

Three seconds later, Ida was carefully put down, and the strong man fled away without saying a word at a speed that did not match his weight.

The little girl curled her lips and skillfully hid the gun back into the holster on her lap.

"Really, this is the third call today. Is that guy from the next area? He's a face I've never seen before..." She looked up and saw Enkidu standing at the stairs, greeting him cheerfully. "Ah! Brother Enkidu! Why are you down here! Do you want to buy flowers?"

Enkidu said: "Shamut asked me to take you to my house to rest."

"Hey?!" Ida became excited, and immediately lowered her head shyly, "Is Sister Shamut worried about me? I'm not a child anymore, oh, I'm so embarrassing...Let's go, let's go I’ll close the door right away! There’s no need to lock it anyway, no one dares to steal from my house, and it’s not that they don’t have eyes… Soon! Brother Enkidu, wait for me! I’ll fix it right away!”

The girl, who was not as big as Enkidu's chest, moved the flower pots into the store, and it was packed "soon" as she said.Ida held a bouquet of white roses in her arms at last, watching him expectantly.

"Do you like white roses? Sister Shamut likes them very much! Will she like them if I take white roses? Can I sleep with her today? I will be very good! Never turn the quilt, don't sleep on the bed and don't snore! OK? Okay, okay~" She tugged on Enkidu's sleeve softly, blinking quickly.

Enkidu laughed: "I can't promise you, I have to ask Shamut about it."

"Woo... Sister Shamut will definitely agree!" Ida puffed up her face and put her hands on her hips in frustration: "But... I hate it! No matter who it is! As long as I act like a baby! No one will admit defeat! Why Enqi Brother Du, you will never waver!"

"because……"

"boom--!"

There was another explosion, this time as if it exploded violently in the ear, even the ground trembled slightly, the air began to fill with the smell of gunpowder smoke and dust, accompanied by screams from far and near, huge flames There was a bang, and the debris was carried by the airflow and hit the head and face.

Enkidu suppressed his smile and frowned slightly, he grabbed Ida's back and protected her behind him, blocking the sharp debris from the explosion.

No. 100, or No. 101, in short, the entire building in front of them collapsed with an astonishing roar amidst the sound of the explosion. Countless people cursed and dodged like ants before an avalanche.

Amidst the flames and screams, a man stepped out.

The first thing I saw was a head of blond hair, bright and untainted, like the purest sun rays.Below is a pair of eyes, bright red and full of some kind of unusually hard color, more beautiful in color than the most expensive ruby.His body was straight and tall, walking on the dark and shabby narrow streets seemed to be walking in a royal palace, with a sense of carelessness and contempt.

This will never be a man who lives in the narrow space--

Enkidu immediately judged that, in fact, this man simply wrote "high-end" and "expensive" on his body. His leather shoes were clean and shiny, without a speck of dust, his figure was standard, and his clothes were of high quality.But all the above factors should have completely disappeared after he stepped into the narrow room.

The narrow room is the refuge of the exiles, the sewage is lying horizontally, and there is a certain smell made of dust, drugs, rot, etc. all year round.At the same time, since most people can only eat cheap food high in sugar, obesity can be seen everywhere, and even homeless people on the street have loose flesh on their waists.His clothes——should be snatched away in various ways as soon as he enters the narrow room, and in the end he can only go to the trash can to search for tatters, and this often fails. The narrow room is extremely short of materials and has strict waste regulations Recycling standards, therefore, are usually new people in the narrow strip streaking around for a while, until they find a hand-to-mouth job and squeeze money for renting clothes through their teeth.

The pain of life makes it difficult for the residents of the narrow space to have a good temper. Girls like Ida, whose parents are better off, have enough food and clothing, and Shamut, who doesn't know how to maintain her temperament, are extremely rare examples. Most people are irritable. , irritability, abusive language, preoccupation.And this blond man, to put it bluntly, has a calmness that can only be cultivated by money and status.What's more, there is a protective shield on his body - a defense system that automatically isolates all harmful weapons, filters poisonous gas, and purifies dust. Enkidu has heard its price in advertisements a few years ago, and he can probably buy it. Half a planet, and now, looking at this model, it is obviously the latest model, and I can't imagine how much the price has reached.

The blond man was like a huge black hole, drawing everyone's attention completely, and he was used to it, and even felt impatient, which made his handsome face a little sharp.

The fire was gradually extinguished, and he walked slowly in the absolute silence of the crowd, the heels of his shoes tapping on the stone bricks.People hid in the shadows, not daring to say a word to him, vigilant, greedy and malicious, countless eyes full of complicated emotions were gathered on him, and the man crushed him with a natural arrogance like a king visiting his territory all in sight.For a moment, the whole street could only hear the sound of his footsteps.

The blond man glanced casually, looking at the gray sky for a while, and the silent crowd for a while, his gaze passed over Enkidu inadvertently, and then moved away quickly.

"A boring place, a boring world," he said to himself indifferently, with a tone of extreme disappointment, "this place is just a ravine that is so small that it can't even accommodate desire...even the value of taking a walk nothing."

Like the arbiter of the highest trial, he delivered his evaluation coldly with a lofty attitude.

That kind of extreme arrogance is taken for granted, as if the world will really change its trajectory because of his perception.

No one dared to block his way, no one dared to speak out, they watched him gradually leave like this, until after a while, when he was completely out of sight, the whispers sounded.

"Is it him? Since this morning..."

"More than that, it should have been yesterday..."

"...I heard that they came in from the Lily of the Valley area, walking around as if they had no purpose...Zifangcao area and Wooden Pen area also..."

"Those explosions?"

"Once someone provoked him, he threw a miniature bomb..."

"Where are the rich people... come to see if the lives of our untouchables are miserable enough to satisfy them?"

"Shhhhhh! What if I hear a vote is being held..."

"What the hell happened..."

Enkidu let go of Ida, and the latter wandered into the crowd with wide-open eyes and echoed "ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!"

He looked in the direction the blond man left. The figure entered the narrow street, as if the sun had entered darkness, and now, the sun had disappeared.

It took a while for him to come back to his senses, and after Ida finished gossip to her heart's content, he took her by the hand and went upstairs.

"Sister Shammut! Sister Shammut!" Upon entering the door, Ida couldn't wait to share with Shammut, "I'm telling you! I just had a nice little brother! Did you see it? You know him What is he here for? Hehe, although I don’t know his purpose, I know what he has done these days! Just now, that little brother..."

Ida happily talked about the explosion with Shamut as if talking about a rare event in a narrow room. Enkidu left the living room, looked at the sky, and found a hair tie to tie his long hair before going to repair the roof.

The turned-on projection TV was playing a certain soap opera, the background sound suddenly paused for a few seconds, and then the host of Star TV, the official planet TV station, appeared in front of the screen.

"The following is an urgent news break for everyone..."

At the same time, millions of projectors on planet α-162 all interrupted the program and played the same message.

On the screen, the calm middle-aged host kept smiling and announced in the same voice as any previous news.

"At 32:162 this afternoon, scientists observed that the α-100 planet's energy is about to run out, and there are still [-] days before the planet stops functioning. The government is focusing on emergency measures..."

At this moment, the entire planet fell into dead silence, and only the smooth voice of the host became the only gear in operation.

"...In order to ensure the safety of people's lives and properties, the number of existing interstellar navigation ships is insufficient. It is planned to use a referendum to eliminate the list of immigrants. Please don't panic. The government is doing its best to solve the current..."

Too absurd news could not react when it was conveyed to the brain. Countless people looked blank, looked at the people around them and thought, "Am I just dreaming?"

After a while, like the silence on the eve of the explosion, Ida turned her head stiffly and asked tremblingly in disbelief.

"Just now...he said...what?"

Enkidu looked at her as he tied his hair with a hair tie.

"He said," Enkidu repeated calmly, "that there are one hundred days until the end of the world."

As this sentence fell to the ground, there was a huge hysterical scream from the entire planet outside the window.