Magic Merchant Racial Anecdote

Keke opened his eyes amidst the familiar shaking. He lay motionless on the creaking old wooden bed, feeling the slight shaking of the ground.

In the cramped room full of scraps, broken music boxes, wind-up old toys, radios with peeling paint...all kinds of metal objects collided with each other, making 'jingling' noises.

'It's an electromagnetic explosion' Keke changed his posture, lying on his side on the dilapidated narrow bed, staring at the pile of scrap metal swinging from side to side and thought.

After a while, the shaking stopped.He skillfully turned over and got out of bed, put on the black boots that had come off the glue and the old coat that was so dirty that it couldn't see its color and obviously didn't fit in the dark, and was ready to start the day's work.

Outside the room is a long and narrow passage that can only accommodate two people, and there is a faint musty smell and rotten earth smell everywhere.

Even though it was 50 meters away underground, the temperature was still very low. Keke froze his hands, closed the rusted iron door forcefully, fumbled to fasten the door firmly with a big lock, and checked twice before falling silent. walked towards the end of the passage.

This is where Keke lives - the last 'paradise' of mankind.It is said to be a "paradise", but in fact it is just an underground living area that barely survives.

I heard from people of the older generation that many, many years ago, human beings lived on the ground. Later, due to an unprecedented war, the ground could no longer be inhabited, and all civilizations disappeared. The remaining human beings only Can hide in the ground and linger on.

In fact, Keke doesn't care much about these past stories. How people live in the "old world" has nothing to do with him. The only thing he cares about is whether he can eat today.

After all, there are countless people who starve to death every day in the "Promised Land", and the rest either wait to die like walking dead every day, or, like Keke, rely on the "equipment" passed down from the previous generation to go to the "upper" to find supplies.

"Hey ~ are you going up today too?" A young man in a dirty dark red overalls and carrying a backpack as huge as Keke chased up from behind the passage, and patted Keke quite familiarly. shoulder, asked briskly.

His hair is the same ginger color as Keke's. To save water and facilitate cleaning, it was cut short. Living underground all year round has made his skin pale and bloodless, but his expression is still happy. , especially compared to the lifeless Koko.

"Yeah." Keke didn't turn to look at him, but simply replied.It seemed that he felt that he was a little too indifferent, so he opened his mouth and added, "The 'electromagnetic explosion' just happened, and it shouldn't happen again today, so I want to go up now." After speaking, he tightened his grip again. Shut up.

The boy on the opposite side seemed to be accustomed to Keke's attitude, and he said carelessly, "Then wait for me, I'll change my coat and go with you." After that, he quickly ran away without waiting for Keke's reply. Went back to get things.

Keke stood silently in the dark passage, staring at the cracked shoes under his feet in a daze.The stale smell floating in the air became stronger, as if to swallow him completely.

"Let's go, while it's still early in the 'above', you can still see something." The boy just now changed into a worn coat that looked thicker and more inconspicuous in color, and ran back thumping.

Keke came back to his senses, nodded silently to the boy, and walked outside first.

Both of them are descendants of "treasure hunters". The so-called "treasure hunters" are a general term for a group of people who use "equipment" to search for supplies on the ground in the paradise. They are actually the so-called "garbage pickers".

Koko's father used to be a 'treasure hunter', and maybe his grandpa was too...but they all died on the 'top', and it is the fate of every 'treasure hunter' to die on the 'top', sooner or later.

Keke and the boy carried heavy backpacks and walked upstairs. They lived on the third floor underground, and they needed to pay a certain amount of supplies for each floor.

He lifted the backpack on his back to his shoulder, carefully took out a small piece of compressed food from the innermost pocket of his jacket, and handed it to the guard on the floor as a toll, and walked out of the ground.

The outside world is as barren as ever, without sunlight, clean water, and plants... except for the remains of the 'old world', there is nothing.

The sky is covered by layers of black clouds, mocking the insignificance and powerlessness of human beings.

The neighborhood has been dug by other 'treasure hunters' for a long time. They walked eastward with ease. They heard that there used to be a big city there. Bring home. ——It’s like a paradise.

Keke had never seen such a scene, nor could he imagine it.The place he saw was just another, bigger dump where it was easier to find food or necessities.

They carried huge backpacks and walked for about 2 hours relying on the filtering equipment inside before finally reaching the edge of the city.

Under the low sky, one can see the center of the city in the distance at a glance. There is a towering building that has collapsed halfway, which proves the brilliant achievements of the 'Old World'.

Keke turned a blind eye to the sights he was used to seeing since he was a child, but silently gestured to the boy who came with him, then lowered his head and began to search for supplies intently.

He stepped cautiously across the cracked concrete road, and stooped to search for any detail in the ruins of the collapsed building.

His father once taught him when he was alive that there is a kind of box in the "Old World", which is specially used to store food. It is usually as tall as a person and square. There are biscuits to eat, sweets and, with luck, drinking water in clear bottles.

Almost all the water in the 'Paradise' comes from the polluted deep groundwater, which can only be barely used after layers of purification, but the purification machines are getting older and older. If relevant replacement parts can be found... Keke is on the verge of collapse. Repeated inspections in the building.

But today is obviously not his lucky day, 2 hours passed, still nothing.

Unknowingly, the sky became darker than before. Keke sensed the change in temperature, and looked up vigilantly around. The coming of darkness made the temperature, which was already close to zero, even lower. ——Looks like I have to go back today.

Thinking this way, he turned his head to find the boy who came with him, but at that moment, he felt the familiar vibration engraved in his bones. ——It’s an electromagnetic explosion!

Before he had time to think about it, Keke yelled at the boy through his mask, and instinctively hid in the depths of the semi-collapsed building closest to him.

Before he could close his eyes completely, a white light flashed in front of his eyes, tinnitus filled his eardrums, and he lost consciousness instantly.

I don't know how long it took, Keke woke up from the coma.He opened his eyes with difficulty, but there was darkness in front of him, and he couldn't hear any sound in his ears. Keke tried to move his fingers, but couldn't move.

'Am I dying?Same as dad. ’ he thought dully in his heart, not so afraid, but felt unprecedentedly relaxed.He simply closed his eyes, lying motionless on the cold concrete floor, quietly waiting for death to come.

At this time, the lost hearing gradually recovered.

He vaguely heard a burst of music, ding ding dong dong accompanied by vibrations.Keke opened his eyes again, and stared blankly at the place where the music was playing. There was something in the darkness that was emitting a faint white warm light. After a while, it disappeared, like a beautiful illusion.

Keke stared intently at the darkness, was it...an illusion?

The darkness responded to him, and a white light came back on. Although it only stayed for a short time, it was enough to rekindle hope for Keke who thought he was blind and deaf.He gathered all his strength, turned over, and climbed all the way to the place where the music just started.

He pushed aside the stones with his bare hands, and found a small black box the size of a palm. '——嗡~' There was another vibrating sound, and the box lit up. Keke looked over carefully, and it was full of words unique to the 'old world', as if someone was trying to pass through this small box. The machine said something to the people here.

Keke touched those words as if bewitched, and the picture disappeared, replaced by exquisite small squares, neatly arranged on a very beautiful painting, it was a picture that he dared not even dream of. The beautiful landscape painting that has passed, the blue water surface and the golden sunlight gather together, and spread to the horizon with the morning glow.

As if he had completely forgotten about dizziness, pain and fatigue, he clicked those little cubes one by one with great enjoyment.There are all kinds of beautiful scenery in it, and a lot of pictures recording a group of people who seem to be living happily, as well as those words that seem to tell something.

In the end, he clicked into a small box with strange symbols, and a burst of ethereal and melodious music suddenly came out of the box, and the gentle female voice echoed in the ruins.

The strange language seems to be recalling, and it seems to be calling...

Keke climbed up without saying a word amidst the singing, he picked up the 'equipment' that was fortunately still usable, and staggered out of the building with the faint light on the black box.

It was dead silent outside.Keke continued to walk forward in a daze, and finally found the boy who came with him in the ruins.He fell to the ground with his back on his back, blood was all over his thick coat, and his 'equipment' was also damaged.

Koko knelt beside him and touched his neck—it was so cold.

"It's nothing, I'm just a little luckier than him," Keke thought to himself, he didn't hesitate any longer, and searched all the useful items from the boy, including the old thick coat, and carried it With heavy steps, he walked in the direction of the 'paradise'.

Behind him, darkness engulfed his companion's body, and the singing spread all the way.At this moment, he still didn't know that a world he had never seen before was about to unfold before his eyes.

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