Congratulations, You've Become an NPC

Chapter 43 In order for the light to shine, it must first be extinguished. Wingdings: ♦︎♦︎⬧︎♦︎◆︎⌧︎♦︎♦︎□︎❍︎

Darkness is short-lived,

But this brief darkness is extremely profound.

It is much deeper than the night before dawn.

However, after enduring this darkness, there is light ahead.

Arno climbed out of the sewer,

His body was covered with rust and dirt from pipes, and he smelled foul.

His clothes were all soaked, like a water ghost crawling out of the water.

Behind him, Kusuo and the young man climbed up one after another.

Like Arno, their bodies were also covered in dirt.

Arno was a little curious about why Kusuo was not dirty before, and how he did it.

Then he saw it.

I saw Kusuo stripping off his whole body, and then turning his clothes and pants inside out.

It was full of dried mud and rust.

Kusuo ignored Arno's gaze and shook his clothes very skillfully.

Dried mud and rust began to fall from the clothes, and then Kuso patted them with his hands to remove the remaining dust before putting them on.

The young people on the side were not curious about this, as if they were used to it.

Likewise, he took off his clothes, shook them off, and put them on inside out.

The clothes of the poor are not beautiful. They have neither patterns nor high and low collars. They are just barely covering the body.

They put it on backwards, and they looked the same as when Arno saw them putting it on frontward.

In other words, maybe even they themselves don’t know what is right and what is wrong.

"..."

After changing their clothes, Kusuo and the young man turned their attention to Arno.

Arno admired their way of changing clothes for the poor, but also felt a little helpless.

In order not to arouse suspicion, he had to imitate them and wear his clothes inside out.

The cold and slippery sludge mixed with rust scraped against the skin, as if being cut by a piece of ice sharpened into a sharp knife, which was very uncomfortable.

This is the first time that Arnold has experienced the same feeling as the poor.

And, it's the only time.

"Then let me lead the way."

"The other party is already waiting for us."

Kusuo waited until Arno had changed his clothes, then walked forward, followed closely by the young man.

Taking this opportunity, Arnold followed them and began to look at the surrounding environment.

Compared with the dirty alley before, the air in this place is barely fresh.

At least it won't make you want to vomit.

It is surrounded by walls of high-rise buildings, probably corporate buildings or high-end apartments.

Looking up, I saw that the top of the wall was covered with vines. Looking at the sky from here, I could only see the spider webs intertwined between the buildings.

"This building looks like it hasn't been maintained for a long time. Is there no one in it?"

Arno knew he had asked a stupid question as soon as he opened his mouth.

Since this is a land where poor people can live, there is naturally no one in the surrounding buildings.

Otherwise, in the eyes of ordinary people, these beggars who have made no contribution to society would have been expelled long ago and would not be able to stay here for a long time.

"This area was originally planned as a new business district, and the building was built for this purpose."

“However, after the building was completed, due to unknown reasons, no companies settled here and no one used it.”

"The open space under our feet was originally intended to be a green forest park between corporate buildings, but it was abandoned before it was even built."

Cuso heard Arno's words and answered in detail.

Of course, I heard all this from the person who communicated with him before.

After hearing this, Arno raised his eyebrows.

There must be something hidden behind such a large area being left unused.

It may be money and power transactions, it may be corruption.

This depends on the owner of this corporate colony.

"No wonder this is considered a rendezvous point."

"The surrounding buildings can accommodate quite a lot of people."

In the event of a rebellion, this open space can be used as a base to hide soldiers in the building.

Even if they were defeated, the empty space sandwiched between the buildings would still have time to breathe.

“Good choice of location.”

"It's just too naive."

The idea of ​​​​the rebels was based on the premise that the empire would engage in street fighting, and the basis was nothing more than the fact that there were civilians around this area.

But according to Arno's understanding of the high-ranking people in the empire,

As long as there is a rebellion, they will carry out all-out bombing as soon as possible.

Even if you kill all the civilians in the area, no one will care.

Because these are all for the survival of the empire and the stable life of more civilians.

"Everything is a necessary sacrifice."

When faced with doubts, they will most likely just say so.

Of course, if there are players involved, the results will be unpredictable.

This area, Arnold speculated, was probably part of the "plot".

"arrive."

At this moment, Kusuo interrupted Arno's thoughts.

Arno stopped thinking about those messy things and looked around.

Not far away is still the wall of the building, but there is also a considerable space for movement in the open space below.

There were dozens of tents set up on it, colorful but also shabby.

If I had to describe it,

That is quite consistent with the atmosphere given by the word "poor".

"This is the local chief, Jim Lane."

Kusuo walked up to a man who had just emerged from the tent and introduced him to Arno.

"This is my friend Lane Hart Cullison."

"The young man next to you is Huck Tria."

Later, Kuso introduced Arno and others to Jim.

"Hello, we welcome our colleagues."

Jim looked at Arnold, stretched out his hand to him, and showed a hearty smile.

Huck shuddered at this.

Mainly because Jim is middle-aged, with a full beard and a rather fierce appearance.

When he smiles, it doesn't feel like he's saying hello, but that he wants to kill someone.

"Hello, thank you very much for your acceptance. We will act in accordance with the rules here."

Arno nodded and took Jim's hand.

"That's good."

"Then you can choose an open space for yourselves. Whether it's a tent or sleeping in the open air, it's up to you."

Jim said carelessly, "Anyway, we only have so much freedom here that we can never use it up."

It must be said that for a poor man, Jim has quite a leadership temperament.

Among special groups of people, the leader must have something special.

For the poor, optimism and cheerfulness are enough to become a ray of light in their dark lives.

It's a pity that Arnold didn't come here just to see the light.

But to hold this light with both hands and prevent its light from leaking out.

He wanted to use this light for himself.

Do whatever it takes to do this.

Even if it makes this light extinguished for a short time.