Chapter 491: Not the Lowest Limit for Human Beings

The armored high-rise building, which was hundreds of stories high and blocked out the sun like the cliffs in the east of Tianqiong City, was far behind. Meiyi walked on the road with puffed cheeks. The road became narrower and narrower as she went forward. The buildings on both sides became lower and more dilapidated. The low night sky was indeed more vast, but the darkness without a single star could only be filled by the sparsely arranged red dots on the roofs of the buildings that were flashing for some reason.

Even so, or just as it should be, only one-third of the windows in a building were lit with faint lights. Although it was just a little insignificant fluorescent light, it just made up for the gap of street lights. Coupled with the silver-gray moonlight, the whole world was immersed in the green light and shadow.

However, the faint light from the windows on both sides hit the center of the road obliquely, as if dancing with the boring shadow. The light gray shadow was stretched, compressed, and rotated, quickly thrown behind, and finally appeared in front of him again. The reincarnation made people's eyes numb. But soon the shadow took on another shape - a thin black line gradually encircled the figure, but in fact, nothing could be retained. The only result was that Mei looked up in surprise and looked at the tall electric pole.

The night wind suddenly became strong for a moment, and the electric wires swung "humming", but after only two or three seconds, they returned to silence - Mei couldn't remember when she last saw this antique thing.

The sidewalks downstairs and the alleys between the buildings were completely hidden in the darkness, and only the outlines of some broken bricks and large bags of garbage could be seen.

"Pah!"

Mei stumbled and was supported by Mikael.

She seemed to be tripped by a small stone, and only a black shadow was seen rolling into the alley on the side.

"Woof! Woof!"

The stone seemed to have hit a stray dog. Two weak barks rang out in the alley. The dim sound-controlled light flickered, and finally fell silent in the "hissing" sound of the electric current.

Mei silently shook off Mikael's hand, but she didn't take two steps. Perhaps without her realizing it, she gradually moved closer to Mikael until their shoulders touched.

"What's wrong?"

Mikael asked in a pinched voice - although he didn't know why he was speaking so quietly, it seemed that speaking in a quiet place involuntarily in a low voice could be attributed to human instinct.

Anyway, with the hearing of a stigma awakener, it's not that he can't hear such a close sound.

Mei twisted her neck, looked around twice, and replied in the same breath as Mikael:

"There are also breathing sounds behind the unlit window..."

As soon as she said this, she felt that she had done something unnecessary. How could Mikael's hearing be weaker than hers? Not to mention his observation ability. If even she could find the problem, then Mikael would have found it long ago.

But he said nothing. Obviously, this was what he wanted to show her.

Mei took a deep breath. She tried to calm herself down, but the sound of her heartbeat and swallowing saliva was even more obvious than the sound of footsteps in the silent night.

When she realized this, her heartbeat became louder and faster, and the speed of saliva secretion under her tongue began to soar. The dead loop was achieved.

She began to turn her head more frequently, staring at every dark window with her purple eyes. Sometimes she turned back, but she could no longer see the lights she had come from. Only the light gray shadow stretched to the extreme under the turquoise light, and then disappeared.

"Mei, you are a Valkyrie after all. You are not afraid of Honkai Beast, but you are afraid of the dark?"

Well, this has to be mentioned again, the so-called nature of fear.

The object of most human fears, in the final analysis, is nothing more than the unknown.

For example, the fear of death is essentially the fear of "what will happen after death". From this point of view, humans have spent a lot of effort to create too many myths about the underworld, hell and heaven, all for the purpose of overcoming the fear of death.

Correspondingly, Honkai Beast is a known thing, while darkness and the countless strange possibilities hidden behind it are an unknown thing. As a Valkyrie, it is normal for her to be not afraid of Honkai Beast and afraid of the dark.

What's more...behind the dark window, there are really deep and shallow breathing sounds.

"Okay, don't be afraid. Those rooms where you can hear breathing sounds even though the lights are off may also be unable to pay the electricity bill?"

"...Can you stop joking?"

"I'm not joking."

Mikael walked sideways and raised his finger to shake it beside his cheek. This action also made Meiyi's eyes twitch.

Before she could react, she was held by Mikael's hand again and pulled aside.

"Shh! You'll know when you see it with your own eyes!"

Meiyi stopped struggling. Just like she had experienced countless times in the past two days, she finally relaxed her body and let Mikael take her to the downstairs of the apartment building next to her.

The door on the first floor of the apartment was closed, and there was no light on the second floor, but as the distance got closer, the breathing and heartbeats leaking from behind the floor-to-ceiling glass door of the balcony became more and more difficult to ignore.

"Pah!"

Mikael patted her shoulder gently. Meiyi saw a dim light flash in his eyes. It was probably him winking - stepping on my shoulder.

Mei bit the corner of her mouth tightly, obviously unable to hold back her smile, but considering that Mikael was technically her "enemy" after all, she could only try her best to suppress the smile at the corner of her mouth.

However, the two of them have come here in harmony. Is this really what should happen to enemies?

He shook his head quickly, forcing himself not to think about this. Meiyi ignored Mikael, bent her knees slightly, and jumped onto the balcony on the second floor.

But there was already a figure standing there.

"Slightly, slightly -"

Mikael stuck out his tongue and gestured to her.

"..."

Meiyi watched helplessly as he took out a strong flashlight out of thin air, then suddenly pushed open the glass door behind the balcony, and a faint blue beam of light instantly shot into the dark living room.

"ah?"

The beam of light shot straight out from the window on the other side of the living room, and vague murmurs came from the darkness, but when the man opened his eyes in a daze, nothing seemed to happen.

The figures of Mikael and Mei reappeared on the deserted street.

Although it was only for a moment, the Valkyrie's observation ability was enough to see everything in the room clearly.

It was simply an undecorated house. The floor and walls were made of gray cement. The moment the glass door was opened, large amounts of particulate matter tried to pour out along with the air pressure, and then quickly poured back with the cold air outside. The windows must have been built in when they were originally built. Just looking at the reflections makes them look full of plastic. The only things that can be called furniture are a sleeping bag, a cardboard box used as a trash can, an induction cooker, a small pot, a long extension board, and two stools that look like they came from somewhere. .

Of course, garbage is essential. The ground is almost covered with plastic bags of bread and instant noodles. Even the air is filled with the smell of braised beef and Laotan pickled cabbage, which has completely covered up the smell of sweat on the man's body. Lived.

The situation seems to be more... serious than Mikael's airy words of "can't pay the electricity bill."

As you can imagine, this is basically a homeless man with almost nothing stealing a rough house that no one cares about. There is no stove, just a small induction cooker. Considering that there is no sink, whether the only small pot was used to soak the noodles, or whether the noodles were washed after soaking, will probably become an unsolved mystery that Mei Yi will not be able to solve for the rest of her life and does not want to solve.

Before this, Leiden Meiyi had imagined countless kinds of "poverty".

After all, this was the age when it was easiest to fantasize about the future, and of course she had imagined some completely different possibilities. For example, she did not become a Valkyrie, and the tragedy in Changkong City did not happen. She, Kiana, and her father were all rescued by Mikael, and then they escaped together to the end of the world, in the scene in Kiana's memory. They settled in a snowy field with a large wooden house. From time to time, Mikael and his father could bring back some prey from the bare woods, which was enough for them to eat meat for every meal. Kiana went to chop wood under the leadership of Mebius early every morning, and at meal time, she, who was the best at cooking, cooked hot meals for the family. Snow and wind leaks may occur in the wooden house, which happens about once every half a month, but Mikael and his father can always quickly repair the house in various ways as soon as possible - this is what Raiden Meiyi once imagined, that he might spend the most time in the house. A hard life.

Compared with the homeless people we see before us, is this better or worse?

It should be worse.

Although the wooden house looks simple, it is fully furnished in the fantasy, and even has an oven and a gas stove... Fortunately, there is no range hood in the fantasy. Even if it snows half of the year, there is enough firewood and a fireplace. As long as you don't go out, you will always be warm. No matter how you look at it, it's better than a bare, cold, rough house with nothing but dust and garbage, right?

Of course, if we really want to say what is the biggest difference between fantasy and reality, it is not various external conditions. This alone is enough to make Mei Yi flinch from this kind of life - loneliness.

"Woo-"

"Woo-"

The wind swept across the street quickly, and the wires swung in response. However, the sound inevitably made people worry about whether the wire pole would be uprooted, or whether the dangling wire would break directly from it, and the remaining two sections would be broken. Driven by the wind, he fired five lightning whips in a row.

Sadly, none of this happened.

"Whoosh!"

Hearing the sound on her hand, Mei realized that she was still holding the oil paper bag containing the fried crispy pork.

"Give it to me."

Without waiting for Mei Yi to answer, Mikael took the oil paper bag from her hand and threw it into the space rift.

Mei put her finger under her nose and sniffed it. It was spicy and incompatible with the smell of instant noodles.

She sighed silently. She had a lot to say, but she didn't know how to organize it into words. Sure enough, it was better to remain silent at this time.

Unfortunately, the person next to her didn't seem to think so.

"Thunder and Lightning Meiyi, do you know where this is?"

Mikael's voice was hoarse, but Mei didn't notice. She glanced at the man strangely, this was a rare question to get points.

"Sky City."

"..."

Mikael curled his lips speechlessly.

"Mei, do you still remember the test-taking skills I taught you when I was a teacher at St. Freya?"

"What?"

"What should you do when you find that in addition to the first two questions on the test paper, there is a seemingly very simple scoring question?"

"..."

Meiyi pursed her lips and didn't want to answer, but at least she gave the answer in her heart - she should re-examine the question and do it again to make sure that she didn't understand the question wrongly.

"Pfft——"

Mikael's sneer was particularly harsh at night, but he quickly covered his mouth to suppress his voice to prevent the laughter from spreading too far in the dark night.

“Where did you learn the word ghetto?”

"It doesn't sound good, but isn't it?"

Mikael shook his head.

"How about you being Miss Mei Raiden? You really don't know anything about the slums."

The muscles of Meiyi's left cheek bulged upward, twitching, as if she had narrowed her eyes. Such irony certainly made her uncomfortable, but she had never been to a real slum, so she had watched TV at least, right?

"Are the slums even more dilapidated than here? Like those shantytowns in the news?"

"Huh?"

Mikael groaned, slowly raised his head, and didn't answer for about half a minute.

Half a minute later, he suddenly stopped, but before Mei Yi could stop, he started walking again.

It could be seen that he was also mulling over his words in his mind.

"Eh!"

Mikael pondered deeply, and the surroundings were so quiet that only his footsteps and breathing were left. Mei Yi couldn't help but start thinking wildly again, and was kicked again accidentally, but this time, before Mikael could take action, she... He stabilized his body with the body control he had developed over the years.

"There are more steps at the back, so be careful."

When Mei Yi wasn't paying attention, Mikael silently withdrew his hand. At first, his two arms were hanging naturally by his sides, and they swayed back and forth with his footsteps, but something felt awkward, so he simply put his hands behind his back like an old man.

The right hand held the wrist of the left hand, and after a while it changed to holding the index and middle fingers of the left hand together. This time it finally felt comfortable.

"In terms of the literal meaning, your understanding is correct. A group of poor people gather in a place with poor living conditions. This is probably the simplest and unambiguous explanation of slums. But if you want to say that this is a slum, that's more or less true. Exaggerated. What we just saw is almost the worst we can see here. His Life is much better than in the real slums I have seen. Although instant noodles and quick bread are lacking in nutrients, their caloric intake is completely sufficient. If noodles and bread are generally equivalent, they are probably enough to exchange for two girls like you."

The sound of Mei Yi swallowing was covered by the wind, but she didn't intend to make a sound.

"This is really not a slum, and the reason is very simple. It is relatively safe here, and the order of human civilization still exists. Did you notice that person's body? If he was really in a slum, he wouldn't have any... It's almost impossible to get injured. It's even more impossible to sleep in such a rough room without any protection. Don't think that the guy looks like he has nothing at all. He will be targeted. You think he has nothing, but in a real slum, he can be considered a 'well-off'. Besides, sometimes, do you need a reason to find a target, beat him up, or even kill him directly? This kind of thing never needs a reason, no matter where it is, it only needs atonement. Obviously, it is better to expect someone to judge this kind of behavior in the slums, but it is different here.”

Mikael stretched out his index finger and pointed to the roof of the building. Although his fingertip was pointing to a large area, Mei guessed that he was pointing to the flashing red dots.

"Camera?"

"Well, although the number is smaller, and due to the installation location, there are many blind spots in the field of vision, but you can't think that they don't exist. Believe it or not, there is a police officer sitting in front of his work station with a cup of coffee in his hand, staring at us "

"...Speak as if you have seen it with your own eyes."

Mikael shrugged his shoulders and skipped the sudden intrusion.

"Actually, it's fine here during the day. There will be normal vendors and even public transportation. Like the homeless man just now, he will get up at sunrise, buy two steamed buns from downstairs, and take a bus converted from a van. , beyond the real slums in the outer reaches, to work in factories in the suburbs.

"That's okay..."

"Yes, so this place is not as bad as you imagine... In short, this place is definitely not the lower limit of human society as you imagined."

Meiyi nodded thoughtfully.

"Huh? Then why didn't the mother of the boy before let him come here?"

"Well..."

Mikael rubbed the stubble on his chin and smiled sheepishly.

"Well... as I said just now, there are a lot of blind spots for those cameras! After all, this is not a paradise, but a place with a lower limit than normal human society, so it is not that safe, especially for misunderstandings. For strangers who come here - if you don’t believe it, you can go to the third alley behind you and take a look.”