Embers Ad Infinitum

After listening to Gnawa's answer, Shang Jianyao suddenly raised his right hand holding the "Berserker" assault rifle and whispered a Buddhist chant:

"Namo Anuttarasamyaksambodhi."

"What do you mean?" Gennava asked sincerely.

He knew that this was a Buddhist mantra, but he didn't know why Shang Jianyao used this place.

Shang Jianyao sighed and said:

"Maybe it was the ripples we caused last time that caused all the 'unintentional ones' here to die."

Gnawa, who was holding the chameleon's head, moved his metal neck up and down:

"There is a certain probability."

Shang Jianyao immediately pointed his gun at the dilapidated apartment in front of him and said:

"go in."

Based on the detailed information provided by Gitis, he and Gnawa quickly found Esther's home in Cornimis.

It is located on the top floor of the apartment and is connected by two houses. The living room is extremely spacious, but there are only a few single sofas, a coffee table with leather edges piled with sundries, and some cabinets on the wall. , there are all kinds of toys scattered everywhere on the ground.

This includes a lot of building blocks.

Some of them have been piled up into fortresses, some have turned into animals, and some have not yet been completed, and the corresponding components can be seen around them.

Dust accumulates everywhere here, visible to the naked eye.

Gnawa looked at it for a while with red light in his eyes before saying:

"There is no hospitality function here. It has become a children's playground."

It can be seen that this was the original subjective wish of Esther or his mistress.

They didn't think about entertaining guests at home, and they didn't even want to put up more sofas.

"They should love those two children very much..." Shang Jianyao suddenly said this.

Gennava thought of his daughter and fell silent for a moment.

In silence, his eyes scanned every corner of the living room, and finally landed on a photo frame placed on the coffee table.

There are two children in that photo. The older one is a boy, four or five years old, slightly fat, with blond hair combed into an adult-like three-quarter length. He has an awkward and disgusted look on his face, and he seems reluctant to be photographed. The younger one is It was a girl, only one or two years old, with blond hair tied into pigtails, blue eyes that were clear and ignorant, and a carefree, sweet smile.

Compared with other ruins, many things here, which have been destroyed for more than ten years and no ruin hunters dare to enter, are still quite intact, as if they were sealed in place by time.

Gennava stared at it for a long time before saying:

"The occupants should have never returned."

"Why do you say that?" Shang Jianyao suddenly turned his head and asked.

"First, there are no traces of biological activity here. Second, when the disaster breaks out, everyone in the city should have become 'careless people.'" Gnawa explained dutifully.

Shang Jianyao shook his head and said seriously:

"The 'unintentional' also know how to go home."

Gnawa did not refute, but just followed this logic and analyzed it:

"There are no traces of 'unintentional persons' in the living room, unless they entered and exited directly through the windows of several bedrooms."

"Just check it and you'll know." Shang Jianyao walked into the living room with the "Berserker" assault rifle and headed towards the rooms in the depths.

Every scene he and Gnawa saw had a quiet but desolate feeling, as if the owners really never came back.

Looking at the big bed protected by the fence and the toy bear on the big bed, Shang Jianyao was silent for a long time.

Gennava stared at it for a while before saying:

"They should have been walking or playing outside at the time, not at home..."

Judging from the fact that many vehicles collided with each other on various roads in Cornimis, it seems that the disaster broke out during the day.

The last judgment made by Shang Jianyao and Gnawa was that when the residents of Konimis first became "unintentional people", they could not calm down and committed large-scale killings among themselves.

Shang Jianyao said nothing, walked to the bed, picked up the toy bear and the diamond necklace from the nearby cabinet, and stuffed them into the empty backpack behind Gnawa.

Then, he walked back to the living room, found a box of building blocks, broke the fort into small pieces, and put them inside.

Again, this ended up in Gnawa's backpack.

After completing these things, Shang Jianyao looked around and said in surprise:

"We didn't encounter any accidents!"

He looked like he was laughing at his fate but his lack of wisdom and his enemy's lack of plans.

"It's normal." Gennava analyzed, "This is not an area that overlaps with the 'New World', and there are no 'unintentional' activities. Esther is not a particularly powerful person who involves many hidden characters. Let's come What he picked up from his home were just a few ordinary items, so it would be strange to encounter an accident."

"It's boring." Shang Jianyao looked disappointed.

He immediately used the communication system embedded in the military exoskeleton device to tell Jiang Baimian that Esther's last wish mission had been completed.

"Don't be careless. You must be absolutely cautious in the future." Jiang Baimian specially warned after hearing this.

Shang Jianyao agreed very quickly.

Then, he and Gnawa headed from the current street to the luxury apartment marked on the map.

Not long after, the area shrouded in fog and seemingly always in darkness appeared in front of them.

Shang Jianyao and Gnawa were familiar with the road, turned on their own flashlights, walked around the places with lights, and moved closer to their destination step by step.

The deeper they go, the wider the range they have to circle around to avoid being sensed by the powerful people in the "New World" projection.

After all, there is no guarantee that they are acquaintances, friendly people like Flora and Barnard.

Flora and Barnard were the first two "New World" powerhouses that Shang Jianyao and Gnawa encountered in the overlapping place.

They were chatting in a lit cafe.

Of course, the cafe belongs to the projection of the "new world". In reality, it is just an empty room filled with garbage.

While walking around again, Gennava looked at the corpses on the street and in the road. He glanced sideways at Shang Jianyao, who was keeping a certain distance from him to avoid being thrown away by a pot, and said:

“The strategy we have now is working well and should get us where we need to be.

"But after that, it will be very difficult to go around and find tricks. Aren't you worried that the 'Angel of Life' necklace will no longer be able to protect you? Just like the last time we met the man in the library projection."

Shang Jianyao looked forward through the mask of the military exoskeleton device and said with a smile:

“Since fate has arranged for us to come all the way here, I think we will definitely turn bad luck into something good and gain something.

"Relax a little when you can, wouldn't you?"

"But when fate has achieved its purpose and no longer favors us, things will be completely different." Gennava reminded in a slightly synthetic voice, "Dabai once said that when the mountains fall, the walls collapse. Only you can always rely on yourself.”

Shang Jianyao scoffed:

"If you try to let a person live on his own for the rest of his life, he will die when he is still a baby!"

"You can argue with Dabai." Gnawa said that this was not what he said.

Shang Jianyao laughed and said instead:

"If fate really doesn't favor us anymore, that should be the end of the story."

His tone gradually became serious and serious.

"Aren't you afraid that the story will have a tragic ending?" Gnawa's eyes flashed red twice.

Shang Jianyao turned his head, looked at Gennava, and said with a smile:

"I will work hard to get the ending I want, whether it is good or tragic. This is my ideal. I have done so much just to have the opportunity to make choices for my ideal."

After saying that, he slapped the "Berserker" assault rifle on his left chest and said solemnly:

"For all mankind!"

Before Gennava could respond, Shang Jianyao asked eagerly:

"How about it, am I becoming more and more like a real Salvation Army?"

He acts like a child who expects praise and is afraid of criticism.

"..." Gnawa almost didn't turn this corner, almost causing a bug.

Being honest, he finally moved his metal neck up and down:

"Yes."

Shang Jian Yao suddenly became so happy that Gennava didn't know for a moment whether he was acting just now or if he was telling the truth.

The two walked forward for a while, and then encountered a street with lights shining through the fog.

There seemed to be one roadside stall after another.

Shang Jianyao's eyes were straightened as he looked at it, and it was with great difficulty that he looked back and said to Gnawa:

"It's going to take a block this time."

"Yes." The result of Gnawa's analysis is also the same.

After walking around for a few minutes, Shang Jianyao suddenly said:

"Why are there lights in the 'New World' projection?

“We came in at different times twice.

"Why can't there be a pitch-black 'New World' projection that quietly overlaps with the dark and foggy streets? That way, we wouldn't be able to notice it in advance and choose to take a detour!"

Gnawa had to admit, it was a good question.

He quickly analyzed it for a while and said:

"Perhaps the projection of the 'New World' in Cornimis is related to the strong men of the 'New World'. At least we encounter humans every time."

What he means is that the strong ones increase the power of the corresponding area, causing that part of the "new world" to overlap with Cornimis.

Gnawa then added:

"And those strong people can only live in places with lights in the 'New World'?"

"Interesting." Shang Jianyao slapped his chest with the "Berserker" assault rifle.

He looked like this guess suited him well.

At this time, Gnawa determined the current location and compared it with the map.

He immediately said in a slightly synthetic voice:

"You should be able to see the luxurious apartment where the 'Zhi Suizi' lives if you go around this block."

"Looking forward to it!" Shang Jianyao said without concealment.

After walking for another ten or twenty minutes, the two finally successfully bypassed the dangerous area they had designated.

What appeared in front of them was a high-rise apartment building standing a hundred meters away.

It stood quietly in the darkness, shrouded in a faint mist, with yellowish or pure white lights shining through every room on every floor.