dramatic death

There are still 18 minutes until 00:30.

On the main road of the commercial street, in the interior of the shopping mall that cannot be hidden by the stereoscopic projection, the cleaning robots working overtime are busy.They accepted the order to "clean up the scene", huddled in the ruins after the explosion, scanned the remains of severed arms in the rubble and scorched earth with their big red eyes, and then stretched out their small mechanical (arm) pliers to squeeze those sticky Limbs were packed into black bags.

They are responsible for completing tasks that are difficult for humans to complete. Cleaning up the damaged scene has long been a household chore.

But some people don't think so.

The young police officer stood at the end of the line. He was wearing a brand new uniform, and he was staring intently at the robot at work with his bright eyes under the police cap.

He didn't stand up straight like his colleagues around him, and his slender fingers were even stuck in his pockets.The setting sun in early winter has long lost its glory in midsummer. It lazily envelops a row of police caps in front of the mall, but it was discounted by the little policeman and landed on his epaulets.

It was embroidered with a row of neat numbers like the others, and there was still room at the end, and when the sun shone, it revealed some different light faintly.

There seemed to be a leaf embroidered there, and it seemed to be embroidered with a longbow.If someone is willing to study the pattern carefully, they may feel familiar, but the police officers in front of the shopping mall are busy with the temporary training of their superiors, and with the whirlwind sound of the approaching hover car, they have no time to take care of these small abnormalities.

They tensed their backs and watched the falling suspension car. There was a faint sound behind the closed door. With the residual cyclone, Fatty Liang, who had just finished the regular meeting, kicked the door open.

The dark red sunset illuminated the sweat on his forehead.

……

Fatty Liang, whose real name is Liangzhou, started to take charge of the security work around the commercial street three years ago. He basically revolved around offices and dessert houses on a daily basis, and occasionally patrolled the streets to ask people to recognize their faces.

He has never dealt with major incidents other than vandalism and looting, and this is the first time that the police have been dispatched in an emergency. The out-of-control suspension car crashed into a toy store on the first floor of the shopping mall. The sound sounded the death knell of heaven.

It's a toy store for kids, located just below the mall, perfect for the grown-ups to drop off their kids while they're shopping.

At the time of the incident, there were at least 20 children in the store.

Fatty Liang wiped the sweat from his forehead.

When the accident happened in the commercial street, he was still eating donuts under the conference table. The director’s mobile terminal was floating in the air. substitute.

Then the city surveillance suddenly exploded, and there was a roar in the clear picture. Before the people's screams could be heard, the flames soaring into the sky devoured the familiar signboard on the store door.

It took less than ten seconds from the crash to the explosion.

Fatty Liang stood up abruptly in the surveillance video, fastened his crumpled police uniform, and rushed out of the meeting room door without the director's order, holding his police cap.The police car arrived at the gate of the police station at the same time as him. Fatty Liang rolled into the back seat of the car with a carp, the word "drive" still stuck in his throat, and his nose was ashamed when the car door closed suddenly.

After coughing for a while, he realized that there was another uninvited passenger in the car.

It was a young man in a suit.

The name of the young uninvited guest was Xu Jingchen, who claimed to be from the ELF company, and was a small employee with a bright smile.When the commercial street incident happened, he and his team were debugging Hakoniwa online promotional projections. After the explosion, due to staff mistakes, a large number of people were deeply trapped in the virtual images generated by the holographic projections, and even mistakenly believed that the initial explosion was part of the propaganda.

"The current situation is very embarrassing. The temporary shutdown of the projection may cause panic among the masses. At present, all ELF staff are on standby. We will fully cooperate with the police."

Xu Jingchen clicked on the mobile terminal and called up the on-site work screen. On the narrow screen, dozens of technicians were manipulating the terminal on their wrists. It can be seen that maintaining the current events of the holographic projection is not an easy task.

"I'm troubling Officer Liang." Xu Jingchen smiled officially.

Fatty Liang let out a breath slowly.

He seemed relieved a lot, and even took the time to comfort Xu Jingchen, telling him: "The emergency handling of emergencies will be decided by the superiors. An accident like yours is probably just a fine. a guarantee."

"By the way, have you reported your activities in advance?"

"I have reported it," Xu Jingchen nodded with a compensatory smile, "I have reported it a long time ago. We are good citizens who abide by the law."

"Then there should be no problem."

Fatty Liang nodded his head pretending to be calm. He looked confident and steady, but in fact he was so flustered that he couldn't reach the bottom. He panicked like he was on a roller coaster.

He hasn't arrived at the scene yet, and it's hard to see how panic Xu Jingchen's "causing panic" is just from the surveillance.Fatty Liang has seen a lot of monsters and ghosts in the industry for many years. Xu Jingchen's understated words made him think more and more wrong, as if the donuts stuffed in his head were moldy, and a strange sour smell came out with his active thinking.

He couldn't be more familiar with that smell. When he was on duty in a small place, those dead people had been piled on the ground for a long time, and the rotten smell was exactly the same as this one.

But why does Xu Jingchen smell like a dead person?

Fatty Liang wiped his sweat tremblingly.

The central city is no different from those rural towns. This place is full of royal relatives and relatives. You will meet "young masters and young ladies" when you drink afternoon tea, and you may hit the "pillars of the country" if you throw rubbish at random.

After the new era, the laws and regulations are rigorous and strict, and it is impossible for ELF to have no dignitaries behind it for many years.Fatty Liang sorted out the whole thing repeatedly in his mind. From the corner of his eye, he caught sight of the remaining smile on Xu Jingchen's face. Something flashed through his mind. Before he could catch it, it was swept away by the cyclone of the levitating vehicle.

He stared out of the window in a daze, the broad commercial street was in a mess under the red sunset, the broken bricks and rubble had been scorched black by the extinguished flames, the toy store was gloomy, and it was hard to tell which ones were the victims at a glance body.

He hadn't seen him like this for three years.

Fatty Liang held the doorknob, staring straight at the half arm of the cleaning robot stuffed into the bag.He heard the sound of swallowing in his throat, the heating in the suspension car was too high, and it made him dizzy for a while, and he couldn't remember what night and what night.

Until someone pressed his hand, and the car door opened with a "click".

Fatty Liang raised his head, and Xu Jingchen smiled happily. He said, "Officer Liang doesn't wait for anyone. There are still dozens of souls involved in this explosion."

A chill ran up Fatty Liang's back, he let go of the cold handle abruptly as if he had been electrocuted, swallowed while trembling, and kicked the car door open with a "bang bang".

……

Outside the car doors, young police officers lined up with their backs to the charred toy store.

Their faces covered with cold sweat were more or less pale, their eyes were staring at a certain place in mid-air, and they were in a trance, as if they were still immersed in the scorching fire.

The evening sun was like an overturned Bloody Mary. Fatty Liang got off the suspension car, hands behind his back, squinted and walked over to look at the charred billboard above his head—the crumpled lanterns on the sign were burned black, Only half of the toy paratrooper was left for decoration, and when the wind blew, he fell headfirst into the dirty ruins.

With a "snap", he fell apart.

Fatty Liang walked towards the toy store.

The choking smell of smoke still remains in the ruins after the fire. Burnt toys and twisted shelves are buried together, covered with the afterglow of the setting sun, and some subtle metallic colors can be glimpsed.Fatty Liang walked inward on the dark ground, Xu Jingchen followed behind him, and while turning on the flashlight on the terminal, he intermittently stated the results of the investigation.

"According to the surveillance video at the time, there were 29 people in the store at the time of the accident, 16 of whom were children under the age of 12."

"The explosion range of the suspension vehicle affected about five stores. Your subordinates detected some kind of liquid residue in the vehicle. They suspected it was a new type of bomb and claimed to hand it over to their superiors for disposal."

Fatty Liang stopped in front of a collapsed shelf.

He didn't move forward any further, and stared at the hover car that was blown into a piece of scrap iron a few steps away.Xu Jingchen tapped on the mobile terminal on his wrist at the right time, he enlarged a photo, and held it in front of Fatty Liang.

The picture in the photo overlaps with the real scene.

"This is an internal picture taken by a robot. There is only an arm-length column on the driver's seat of the suspension vehicle. After technical restoration, it can be seen that it is a wooden soldier doll."

"Soldier doll?" Fatty Liang stopped wiping his sweaty hands. He turned his head in doubt, but instead of seeing Xu Jingchen, he saw a strange little policeman.

He hadn't seen this kid before, but it wasn't surprising that there were so many police officers in Central City, he couldn't possibly have seen every one of them.

Fatty Liang tried to convince himself, but the little policeman's dark eyes were like a rain flower stone, with a lingering strangeness, which sounded the alarm in his mind.

"What's your name," he asked, "and what's the number?"

The moment the voice fell, something flashed on the little policeman's shoulder strap.

It was a pattern composed of several leaves, shrouded in the dim sunset like a delicate short bow.Fatty had seen this thing before. He remembered that three years ago, at the scene of the school violence incident, there was a teenager who appeared in his office late at night, with the same pattern drawn on the badge.

The teenager killed eleven of his colleagues and took all records of the violence from filing cabinets.

His name is A.

The cold winter wind rushed into the ruins, and Fatty Liang's face was dusty. He wiped his sweat and took two steps back, as if what was coming was not the cold wind, but some terrifying sharp blade.

Those sharp blades pierced his skin, pierced his blood vessels, and sucked the warm blood little by little, as if telling him silently.

This is a trap.

Liangzhou swallowed, he saw the little police officer blink his eyes, his pupils were stained with the color of the setting sun.

As if he was going to reply to Fatty Liang's question just now, he tilted his head and paused for a while before uttering innocently: "Wow."

Xu Jingchen suddenly laughed out loud.

His laughter instantly dispersed the stagnant air, Fatty Liang looked away in shock, and found that the man was smiling, looking with interest at the place where they came.

He said: "Officer Liang, look, if the soldier doll in the driver's seat hadn't been buried in the fire, wouldn't it look exactly like it?"

Fatty Liang turned his head.

The dark store door is like an old picture frame, loosely surrounding the obscure sunset.The cold winter wind quietly swept away the floating ash on the ground, and the air was also mixed with the sound of the cleaning robot machinery. There was a small sound coming from under the soil, like the "clicking" of gears meshing.

Something crawled out from under the ruins, and stepped on the scorched ground with stiff steps.

Its small wooden boots stepped on the bright red sunset, step by step into the dark toy store.Fatty Liang watched it climb up the collapsed shelf, took steps mechanically, and walked to a place no more than five meters away from him.

It was a soldier doll that looked expensive.

"Are you, coming, participating in the game?"

The doll raised its head, revealing its artificially drawn eyes from under its pitch-black tall hat. Its voice was very thin, and its words were slow but clear, like a child who just learned to speak.

"Are you here to participate in the game?"

Fatty Liang took half a step back.

In the evening, the setting sun was like fire, and the remaining thick smoke seemed to wake up the hot flames on the ruins.Fatty Liang was panting heavily and sweating profusely. He watched the exquisite soldier doll approaching him step by step with stiff steps. Every crisp sound of joint engagement seemed to crush his bones.

He stepped back, his legs were trembling and his heart was beating wildly, every cell in his body screamed and fled.However, before he turned around, a hand touched his sweaty shoulder, and the biting cold penetrated his bones from under the other's fingers, causing him to let out an embarrassing scream.

"what!!!"

Fatty Liang turned his head suddenly, and Xu Jingchen stood behind him, with a bright smile still on Qingjun's face.

"What game?" Xu Jingchen asked.

"What, a game." The soldier doll stopped, stood three meters away from them, and repeated blankly with those dark eyes open.

"That's right," Xu Jingchen asked, "What game did you let us participate in?"

"Join," repeated the soldier doll, "Join, game."

Xu Jingchen suddenly laughed out loud.

He is like a playful big child, leaning forward and backward with a smile on the shoulder of the fat man in the dark ruins.The cleaning robots were still working dutifully. Fatty Liang watched them use their small mechanical arms to pull out the corpses under the shelves. Those scorched victims were mutilated and hideous. They slept in Xu Jingchen's laughter, as if they were doing A wild dream.

"What game?" Fatty Liang heard Xu Jingchen ask, "Could it be Little Garden?"

"Crate, court," repeated the soldier doll.

"Box, court," Xu Jingchen also imitated its tone, repeating slowly, "Box court online."

Fatty Liang suddenly felt that something was wrong.

His sixth sense sounded the alarm in his mind, prompting him to turn his head to prevent Xu Jingchen from repeating the word "Xiaoting".But it was too late, the sluggish soldier playing idol was turned on, it trembled and let out a sharp and piercing laugh, its dark eyes stared at Liangzhou from bottom to top, like a crazy hunter locked on its prey .

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA"

It didn't utter any more words, and its high-pitched laughter kept piercing Fatty Liang's eardrums.

Fatty Liang swayed his legs and could barely support his fat body. He grabbed Xu Jingchen's arm and shouted, "Bomb! It's a bomb!" However, the young man with a bright smile seemed to have found a novel toy and stood there , with the color of the setting sun dancing in her eyes.

Suddenly everything came to a screeching halt.

All the sounds seemed to be locked in an airtight box, and there was nothing on the ruins except for the choking smoke.Fatty Liang trembled and fell to the ground. He looked at the quiet soldier doll in front of him, and tears suddenly rushed to soak the skirt of his clothes.

He felt aggrieved, fearful and apprehensive, he thought for three years, I had obviously left that place for three years, why didn't he let me go.

Yet the fine soldier figure doesn't care what he's thinking.It stood quietly in the twilight, silent for a moment, and suddenly the artificially carved head "clicked" and fell into the bright red sunset.

Viscous blood gushes out of its bare neck, like carrying thousands of restless worms, scrambling to rush upwards, forming a group of strange numbers.

96:57:23

……

There are still 18 minutes before 00:12.