Ke-style law enforcement officers

Chapter 616 Fire

I thought that when the timeline reached the point of the Abyss invasion, the existing social order of the original conscious world would collapse in an instant. However, things like the law enforcement system, the royal family or the hierarchy of rules, and the church bell tower standing in the south, all of these things continued in some strange way.

Maybe, I mean maybe.

Perhaps the chaotic order of the abyss is not necessarily a monstrous flood. At least for now, the conscious world has not entered an era of universal madness as predicted.

Who would have thought that law enforcement officers would still be working hard to catch bad guys in the "apocalypse"?
Of course, the main reason is the existence of a wanted poster in the original location.

Moreover, when people discovered that crushing the bounty they "received" (those green crystals) granted them a power that could be stacked indefinitely, they gave this crystalline substance a name—"Dripping Stone".

In addition to common diatomite, there is also diatomite and ancient diatomite.

Milo had no idea who came up with these classification settings, and in any case, no one had ever questioned them.

Nowadays, people's acceptance of new things is ridiculously high. Even "beastification disease" is no longer considered a big problem. That is to say, it is insignificant to others except for those who have undergone beastification, but the beastification itself is still doomed to die.

Due to the existence of that bizarre bounty system, the real world has temporarily become a battlefield where seekers of Chaos Vision clash with heretics.

It cannot be said that Milo was solely responsible for this.

But he deserves at least 80% of the credit.

Simply put, regardless of whether the two sides fighting are draped in silver twilight or wearing tricorn hats, and regardless of who wins or loses, their faith will ultimately be given to Milo.

Before Mego revealed himself, before Geherus descended across the stars, and before the many ancient and ancient deities of the world were awakening, Milo had already put the war of faith plunder on the agenda.

Aside from the well-known "An apple a day keeps the doctor away" and "Plank to attract puppies"—relatively lackluster revisions to the established order—the core order of the conscious world remains largely unchanged.

If this trend continues, it may not be long before all people who do planks will become extinct, for reasons that those who know, know.

...

However, while the main order has not changed much, the people living under that order have undergone dramatic changes.

This is a pungent-smelling disaster that Milo witnessed on the street one morning.

The reason why the smell was so strong was because it was essentially a fire, but the main reason was actually the reaction of people who passed by the fire scene.

That's the famous Rose Restaurant, the place where the old man from the Sherman family was blown up.

Now, every window of this restaurant building, whose exterior is graffiti-covered with the founder's face, is spewing thick smoke and flames.

In this era, formal fire brigades had not yet been established, and the responsibility of firefighting was unevenly distributed among the city guards and law enforcement officers. It is conceivable how lacking these people, who had only received reconnaissance and killing training, were in terms of firefighting and rescue skills and knowledge. As a result, the law enforcement team once spent a lot of money to create a fire suit. It was made entirely of metal and had a device on the head with a 360-degree high-pressure nozzle that sprayed water onto the body. In short, it was a metal can with a built-in water sprayer.

But after it was put into use, people realized how terrifying the high-temperature steam from water coming into contact with fire was. The seemingly impregnable iron can became a steamer for firefighters...

Of course, this is just a useless little bit of extra knowledge.

In the early morning, Milo did not see the enforcement team rushing into the fire wearing metal steamers.

The enforcement team did come, but they were just passing by.

Because members of the Silver Twilight Cottage Club held a ceremony last night on the banks of the Southern Canal, reportedly a ritual performed by the United Mi-Go race, the enforcement team was not informed until early morning and sent men to search the area.

So the fire at the Rose Restaurant was simply ignored.

...

The scene was filled with a harmony that shouldn't exist.

Under the gray dome of early morning, in a corner of the city with its gray-blue hues, the flames on the buildings were particularly glaring, and billowing black smoke had already risen into the sky. Strangely, passersby and law enforcement officers were very calm, and most of them just kept their heads down and hurried on their way, with few people looking up at the raging fire above.

If the restaurant building is indeed completely empty, then one can only marvel at how "the people of this city have incredibly strong hearts."

But that wasn't the case, because according to Milo, there were still people alive in the building, but judging from the fire, they probably wouldn't survive much longer.

Perhaps this is another form of madness. It doesn't necessarily have to be incoherent ramblings, biting, or wild dancing. Extreme calmness and indifference can also be madness.

...

Perhaps most ironically, the person who could hear the wails and screams from inside the building most clearly was now seriously contemplating the relationship between sanity, fear, and madness. Milo was so engrossed in this seemingly meaningless contemplation that he momentarily "forgot" what the wails themselves represented.

Moreover, at the very time when rain was most needed, the light rain in the early morning stopped at an inopportune moment.

Standing with Milo on the roadside to take shelter from the rain was a man carrying a briefcase. He stretched out his hand and found that the rain had stopped. Looking down at the time on his watch, he realized that he had probably missed his early shift. So he lit a cigarette and decided to enjoy a little more of this decadent time.

Did you hear any prayers?

The man stared at the building billowing black smoke in the distance and asked Milo, who was standing not far away, a strange question.

Milo didn't look at the man. He listened attentively for a moment, then shook his head and said, "No, there really isn't."

"That's really weird."

The man exhaled a puff of smoke into the humid air and said in a very polite tone, "May I ask you a question, sir?"

“Tell me about it,” Milo said.

The man cleared his throat and began, "They say the human body contains over 70% water, so why not use people to put out fires?" "That's good, that's good."

Milo had to admit that even he was amused by this living devil in front of him.

However, the man didn't laugh. Instead, he looked at Milo with an expression that said, "What are you laughing at? I'm asking seriously," and even had a hint of anticipation for Milo's answer in his eyes.

After chuckling twice, Milo began to realize something was wrong:
"So this isn't a joke, right?"

"That's truly unbelievable."

...

……

The man had almost finished two-thirds of his cigarette when he suddenly remembered that Milo next to him had been breathing in fresh air, so he quickly offered him a cigarette.

"Oh, how rude of me, do you smoke?"

Milo waved his hand and said, "I don't know, thanks..."

Before he could even finish saying "thank you," he was already on the verge of it.

Milo felt as if he had been hit hard by a speeding car.

No, at his level, cars definitely can't crash into him.

Anyway, I got slammed hard against the wall behind me.

Moreover, it wasn't a car that hit him; it was a familiar figure.

The whole process was very... concise and powerful.

When Milo noticed that she had appeared in his field of vision.

Those fists had already smashed into his chest.

"What the hell are you staring at?!"

The other party uttered those words viciously, then led his men across the street, smashed open the glass door of the Rose Restaurant, and rushed into the burning building.

...

According to the character's established personality, this decisive and daring person who dares to fight Milo is usually Rebecca.

But as mentioned earlier, the order has changed, the rules have changed. The truth is, Rebecca has also been busy with the bounty for the Dripping Stone recently. She probably, perhaps, or maybe she is vaguely aware that there is some inseparable relationship between the bounty order and Milo. Or perhaps, this is the kind of lifestyle she has always dreamed of. Maybe in her mind, this is the kind of work that Milo, Nero and the others used to do.

To get back to the point, it was actually Enid who shoved Milo aggressively, cursed him, and then rushed into the fire.

Sometimes it's just that magical. A completely ordinary person collided violently with an Ancient of Shadow level, even causing the Ancient to fall into a moment of disorientation.

Milo sensed Enid's anger.

How should I describe it... it's probably a feeling mixed with disappointment, or rather, more of a sense of bewilderment.

Or, it could be considered a questioning.

She questioned Milo about why he stood by and watched the fire from across the street, and where his calmness came from.

In short, this is not pure anger; its composition is somewhat complex.

Strangely, upon sensing the complex emotions conveyed by the other person, the first thought that popped into Milo's mind—a line intended to refute the other person but which he didn't have time to utter—was—

“But they didn’t pray to me.”

However, Milo soon realized how absurd his self-justification was.

He turned his head sharply to look at the spot where the stranger had been standing, but the man who had offered him a cigarette not long before was nowhere to be seen.

Looking around, the pedestrians coming and going in the gray streets and alleys were all wearing similar black coats and carrying briefcases, making it impossible to tell which one was him.

Milo frowned deeply.

He had a terrible feeling, as if he had been disgusted by something. It wasn't because of Enid's attitude; on the contrary, he was glad that Enid had yelled at him.

……

Boom!
But soon, the explosions coming from the Rose Restaurant brought Milo's chaotic thoughts back to reality.

Shortly afterward, the fire in the restaurant building went out without warning.

Nobody knows how the fire was extinguished, and most likely nobody cares.

And that sentence, "They didn't pray to me."

This was the first time Milo had felt such lingering fear since becoming one of the Shadow Old Ones.

(End of this chapter)