Embers Ad Infinitum

Under the illumination of widely spaced street lights, Long Yuehong walked slowly along the street, observing whether there were any elderly local residents.

In the process, he was inevitably attracted by the dazzling array of goods at each stall, and was very interested in the strange things found in the ruins of different cities.

After walking forward for a while, Long Yuehong stopped in front of a stall.

There are many jade, jade, and diamond jewelry here.

He felt that his mother didn't have anything similar, so he thought about getting one or two for her.

——Inside "Pangu Biology", the accessories of ordinary employees are mainly silk flowers and hairpins. Necklaces, earrings, rings, brooches, and silk scarves are either the ones that have been passed down for generations, or the employees of the "Security Department" go out to "pick up garbage." "The ones picked up are rare and not easy to get.

Long Yuehong squatted down, picked up a dazzling-looking diamond necklace, and looked at it carefully for a while.

He was unable to tell whether this looked good on women, so he could only consider it from another angle:

Gold and silver jewelry are more practical. Even if you exchange them back and your mother doesn't like them, you can still use them as equivalent items.

——During the trip, Long Yuehong and Shang Jianyao learned some economic concepts from Jiang Baimian.

"Why are there no gold jewelry?" Long Yuehong took the diamond necklace, scanned it around, and asked doubtfully.

The stall owner, a gray man with a full beard, replied angrily:

"There is a lot of gold and silver collected by the caravans, but they still need to be sold?"

Yes, these are items with industrial uses and can also be used as currency... After Long Yuehong was relieved, she put down the diamond necklace.

He felt that the stall owner's attitude was not very good and he did not want to trade items with him.

As soon as he stood up, the stall owner also stood up and shouted:

“Outlander, don’t you know our Tarnan rules?

“Pick up something you’ve seen, you must buy it!

"You've already touched it with your hands, why do others want it?"

Long Yuehong was surprised and a little scared. She was about to explain that she didn't know about this situation. From the corner of her eye, she saw a man who seemed to be a local resident playing with a set of white porcelain dishes at the next stall and then putting it away. He turned back and left slowly.

During this process, no one stopped him, and no one forced him to buy it.

Long Yuehong, who had a lot of experience in the field, suddenly came to his senses and pulled up the corners of his clothes, revealing the pistol on his armed belt.

The stall owner smiled disdainfully:

"Want to grab it directly?

"I think you don't know how powerful the robot guards are!"

Of course Long Yuehong remembered the law that "Tarnan prohibits private fights", and what he did just now was just to express an attitude.

He looked up at the surveillance camera on a nearby streetlight and asked the stall owner:

"You want to hit me?

"This seems to be a private fight."

The stall owner smiled:

"The robot guards won't care about private fights without weapons."

While he was talking, the owners of the two stalls next to him also stood up to bolster his momentum.

"So that's it." Long Yuehong got the answer he wanted and looked like he suddenly realized it.

As soon as he finished speaking, he took a step forward, instead of retreating, and rushed forward.

When he and Bai Chen were operating in Wild Grass City before, he received corresponding instruction:

Faced with similar situations, never show weakness. Even if the opponent has fierce firepower and can really kill you, he still has to bluff.

Of course, if the enemy doesn't accept this trick at all, there is an old saying:

"He who knows the current affairs is a hero."

Almost a minute later, Long Yuehong patted her clothes, looked down at the stall owner and his two companions who fell on the ground, and said "confused":

"It's really strange. Why doesn't it count as a private fight if you don't use weapons?"

The stall owner and his two companions huddled up in a ball, holding their stomachs, groaning in pain, unable to answer.

Frankly speaking, if the three of them really fought together, Long Yuehong's fists might not be able to fight against six hands. After all, he couldn't cause death, but he unexpectedly attacked first and had a time lag. After the stall owner and his companions reacted, He quickly eliminated the main target before, and then took advantage of the weakness of the other two who were concerned about the stall's goods and were timid, and easily defeated them.

Seeing that the surrounding pedestrians and other stall owners did not interfere in this matter, Long Yuehong gained a deeper understanding of the rules of survival on the dust:

In today's world where order has not been fully established, having a strong fist is the last word.

He felt a little more confident and stepped forward.

As he walked, he saw a familiar figure:

Shang Jianyao stood in the middle of the street, looking left, right, and forward. He seemed very hesitant, as if he couldn't make up his mind about something important.

Hey, he will also have this kind of time? Long Yuehong was curious and had the idea to go up and ask.

At this moment, he saw clearly the situation on the street:

On the right, a group of people gathered around, doing strange dances following the drumbeats in the stereo, and from time to time they shouted "Praise to you, the door to the new world" in unison;

On the left, another group of people gathered around the half-height wooden platform, singing loudly sentences such as "The world is an illusion, a dream" and "The mirage is supreme, the broken mirror remains forever", bringing out an ethereal and sacred feeling;

In the front right, an iron pot is standing, exuding a rich aroma. The chicken wings wrapped in powder are gradually turning into a light golden color. In front of the iron pot, there is a very thin pillar, and a woman is standing on the pillar with one foot. At the top, his arms are fully opened, showing off his symmetry and balance.

When she looked back, Long Yuehong already understood what Shang Jianyao was struggling with:

There are three different sects here. Dancing, singing and fried chicken wings make him unable to choose!

This is really a crucial crossroads in Shang Jianyao's life... A line from a radio drama suddenly flashed in Long Yuehong's mind.

In fact, if these three families were not so close together, he felt that Shang Jianyao would definitely "want them all."

At the same time, he also initially confirmed who the three sects were:

One is the "Melting Pot Sect" they just met, the other is the "Glory Scale" mentioned by Felin, the leader of the "Rootless" business group, and the other is probably a sect that believes in the "Broken Mirror" that holds the New Year's Eve in November.

Tarnan is so lively... Long Yuehong decided not to care about Shang Jianyao and continued her "adventure".

Although he is also a little greedy for fried chicken wings, he is not someone who would sell out his faith for the Holy Communion.

Passing by the serious and hesitant Shang Jianyao, Long Yuehong walked forward for dozens of meters.

As soon as he glanced around, he saw an old lady sitting at the entrance of the alley.

The old lady was wrapped in a thick dark red cotton-padded jacket, with a wicker chair underneath her. Her hair was graying, and she was obviously not young.

There was no stall in front of her, and she seemed to simply come out to enjoy the excitement.

Seeing that the other party was a gray native, Long Yuehong plucked up the courage, approached him, and politely shouted:

"Mother-in-law, can I ask you something?"

The old lady raised her head and opened her mouth:

" # %\u0026^*\u0026*"

Long Yuehong was at a loss when she heard this.

It was only then that he discovered that some dialects of the Gray Tu language might be more difficult to understand than the Honghe language.

This is how to do? Just when Long Yuehong backed down and was about to leave politely, the old lady calmly took out a palm-sized black electronic product from her pocket, pressed a button, and repeated her previous words.

Then, the black object made an electronic synthesized sound:

"The young man is very polite. What do you want to ask?"

Long Yuehong briefly forgot her mission and blurted out:

"What's this?"

He has confirmed that the other party understands his native language.

After the old lady chirped again, the black electronic product made a sound again:

"This is a 'translator' made in the old world, repaired by Mechanical Heaven.

"Last time, a caravan gave me a bunch of cans in exchange for my food, vegetables and livestock. I also got it. It's very useful."

"Indeed." Long Yuehong gradually understood the words of Shifang Trading Company Means:

There is nothing strange about Tarnan, except that there are many robots, electronic products, and mechanical products.

While thinking about whether to tell the team leader and get one or two spares, Long Yuehong asked instead:

"Mother-in-law, are you a local?"

"Yes." The old lady used the "translator" to communicate with Long Yuehong, "I am in the third year of the New Year. It has been more than forty years ago, and I have children. Hey, when I stayed It was a wise decision to come down. None of my friends in the southern region survived to my age. They were either killed by bandits, encountered war, plague, famine, or were a little older, etc. The disease comes."

Long Yuehong praised the venue and got down to the topic:

"Mother-in-law, you have been in Tarnan for so many years. Do you know what the 'Mechanical Paradise' wants most?"

The old lady recalled saying:

"They want a lot, but they have never gotten it, have not made it, or do not exist at all, such as 'nuclear power miniaturization technology', 'ultra-high performance battery technology', and old-world controllable nuclear fusion. The key information for research, the construction of the oil pipeline from the Linhai Alliance to Tarnan, and the repair of more railway lines between the two places, well, they seem to be quite lacking in various minerals."

"..." Long Yuehong's expression stiffened upon hearing this.

Not to mention mineral resources and infrastructure, if the "old investigation team" can obtain or produce the previous requirements, they can directly enter the process of "saving the world".

After a few seconds, Long Yuehong asked reluctantly:

"Is there nothing else they want in particular?"

The old lady thought for a while before saying:

"Yes.

"When I first came to Tarnan, the Mechanical Paradise was offering a reward for a man named Maximian, a Red River man, and he seemed to be some kind of scientist.

"This reward has been posted for many years. I don't know whether I found it or gave up. There is no further information."

Maximian... Long Yuehong wrote down the name and asked:

"Do you remember the features of that man?"

The old lady replied without hesitation:

"I don't remember. I didn't take this task at all. I just heard it mentioned."

Long Yuehong asked:

"Then who takes it?"

"The old immortal took it over." The old lady said with a smile, "The current president of the guild, old man Gu Bogu."