The shining Shoko Toyokawa

Chapter 181: A hopeless world "After Dark"

"What kind of bullshit hero!?"

Outside the harbor, on the blackened supply ship, a soldier with a burned face and bandaged arms gnashed his teeth as he looked at the dignitaries in the distance.

"The Shining Demon was clearly on the verge of death, but you bastards let over 5000 people on the Reagan die with it! Damn politicians!"

Like this soldier, most of the surviving soldiers, especially the mobile suit pilots who knew more, scoffed at the so-called heroes.

Major Chihaya, of course, was aware of this, as it was one of the few times she had even seen her subordinates do this.

The President himself was there, and she wore the Congressional Medal of Honor around her neck.

A golden five-star medal with the Statue of Liberty in the center.

It represents courage, honor and outstanding contribution, and is the highest honor for American soldiers.

But it wasn't Major Chihaya who defeated the Shining Demon. When she boarded the Aurora, the Star of Hope, she wasn't even an American.

According to the correct process, this medal will never be hers.

However, America needs "heroes", so countless soldiers with a strong sense of honor and self-esteem risked their lives but could not get the medal.

Distributed to those who only care about power...

Major Chihaya smiled at the flashlight and spoke sweet words.

What; "Fight for America, fight for the future of mankind,"

To those who were not aware of the situation, this young officer was undoubtedly a living legend and a shining star.

But the pink-haired girl in Major Chihaya's heart only felt that her current self was dirty, hypocritical and disgusting.

The flash of light streaked across the sky, attracting people's attention, but in the end the flash faded away.

What is left behind is the pitiful her, them, and the decaying world.

"Please, please, God!"

The pink-haired girl prayed desperately in her heart, but in the end... nothing happened...

No one attacked America at the last moment, and Major Chihaya did nothing, but was promoted from Major to Lieutenant Colonel and served as the deputy captain of the White Trojan Horse.

A surviving soldier spoke out online to reveal the truth, but was soon discovered to have committed suicide by shooting himself multiple times at home. It was said that the soldier suffered from PTSD and had been taking medication for a long time, and his mental state was not normal.

This was not an isolated case. All soldiers and officers who were determined to stand on the facts were persecuted to varying degrees.

When those who pursue justice are persecuted, Lieutenant Colonel Chihaya receives a gift from the current president.

A credit card that can overdraw her tens of thousands of years' salary,

With her powerful privileges, she soon lived a wonderful life, idling around during the day, or simply handing over her work to others, and hooking up with Lingyuan and the daughters of various families at night.

“I see you?”

"You see me?"

In a Virginia nightclub, the volume of "After Dark" was turned up to a deafening level, and it even made people feel like their chests were resonating with the melody.

“How pleasant? (This feeling)”

“This feeling?

The colorful lights in the disco were flashing, and the whole scene was psychedelic and frenetic.

“The moment?”

"You hold me?"

“I missed you? (But now I’ve lost you)”

19-year-old Lieutenant Colonel Chihaya and her new girlfriend swayed their bodies to the rhythm of the music in the crowd.

By the way, what was her girlfriend's name?

Lieutenant Colonel Chihaya seemed to remember that her name was Sissi, or was it Mary?

“I’m sorry? (I just want you to know that I’m sorry)”

"I've given?"

"What I have?"

“I showed you?”

“I’m growing?”

"The ashes?"

"Fall slowly?

Lieutenant Colonel Chihaya could no longer remember, she only remembered that the kiss between them seemed to taste like mint?

“As the hours pass?”

“I will let you know?”

“That I need to ask?”

In the end, she couldn't even remember the taste of the kiss.

But what does it matter?

She held the other person's face and kissed him without hesitation.

After a few minutes of long kissing, she finally confirmed that it was not strawberry flavor.

Who is the mint one? Oh, it turns out to be the female agent who is secretly protecting her.

…………

"We're swaying?

“To drum beats?

If you ask the lieutenant colonel how many girls he has kissed, it would really stump her, just like a person cannot remember how many pieces of bread he has eaten.

Because it is too easy for her to pick up girls. She only needs to take off her sunglasses to gain their admiration and then make an appointment to have a meal at a high-end restaurant.

Then I would take the more artistic and introverted one to a movie, and then find an opportunity to tell her about my troubles, and make up some excuse like PTSD, telling her that I was a little scared of staying in a hotel on a business trip alone, and hoped that she could be my "roommate" for one night.

Even if the girl's parents are really strict and she can't stay out at night,

But there is a lot of time during the day, and introverted and artistic girls tend to blame themselves.

All they had to do was call him the next day, pretending to be sick or mentally weak, and they would immediately come to take care of the lieutenant colonel. Often, they would have completely devoured him in less than 24 hours.

It’s even easier for extroverts who like to have fun everywhere, just spend money.

Maybe the young girls that Aiyin likes don't care much about money, but a bouquet of roses that costs $100 is not as pretty as a bouquet that costs $1,000.

When it comes to dating, objectively speaking, riding in a Maybach to Michelin is a better experience than taking public transportation to KFC.

This is like in a certain movie called The Richest Man in Hong City, Xia Zhu doesn't like money, but every detail that touches Xia Zhu requires money.

Lieutenant Colonel Chihaya has nothing but a lot of money.

So I just enjoyed myself all day long.

She thought she would soon get tired of the life of a rich person and find being rich really painful.

But the happiness of rich people is beyond the imagination of others!

Especially for Lieutenant Colonel Chihaya, a tax thief from the privileged class,

When you get tired of picking up girls, try something more exciting, like...

Skydiving, or wingsuit flying,

If playing these games doesn't feel exciting anymore, and my face doesn't blush, and my heart doesn't beat fast, then there are even more exciting things -

Single-person high-altitude high-speed flying wing, with a physical body speed of 300 kilometers per hour, experience the feeling of free flying.

However, this activity was stopped while Lieutenant Colonel Chihaya was still in ground training.

That's right, America certainly wouldn't pay her to die, she is still just a 'part' of Gundam.

The reason she is being indulged now is simply because the parts are temporarily useless.

To be more precise, they were afraid of her boarding the Gundam.

After practicing horse riding for a few days and quickly getting bored,

The lieutenant colonel returned to the high-rise hotel in Virginia. It was already late at night.

The day before Christmas, Christmas Eve, 2025 is coming, and snowflakes are falling in the city of steel and concrete.

The weather forecast shows that it will snow heavily, and tomorrow will probably be a white Christmas.

The Chihaya family doesn't have any special feelings about Christmas. They just sometimes buy a mini Christmas tree, or eat some fried chicken with red and white strawberry cream cake on the same day. They just want to be a little "Western" like most people in District 11.

But even for such a simple Christmas, there would be no one to spend it with the pink-haired girl...

She looked down at the brightly lit city, and a sense of loneliness came over her. She finally made up her mind.

She turned on the speakers in the room and played "After Dark"

Then he unpacked the "good stuff" that someone had brought him. It was a few vacuum-packed "stamps."

The lieutenant colonel tore open a piece of packaging, pinched the corner for safety, and examined it carefully.

It looks like an ordinary stamp, but it has the magic to make people forget their pain.

After a good 'enjoyment',

She...like many wealthy people, has come to this point,

'Stamps' are the 'tickets' to forget the pain and step into the dream world.

“I see you?”

"You see me?"

Throughout history, people in Europe sometimes contracted a disease that would cause patients to suffer from severe pain, such as ulcers on their hands and feet, or mental disorder, convulsions, and paralysis.

People at that time could not find the cause, let alone a cure. They called this disease, which was as painful as a burning flame, "holy fire" and regarded it as a punishment from God.

But God does not exist. The real culprit is a fungus called ergot.

After ergot infects rye, it will parasitize on the wheat ears and grow black sclerotia.

It is this substance called ergot that brings down "holy fire" on those who eat rye.

Ergot contains a variety of toxic ingredients. Sometimes the harm caused by the sacred fire is even greater than many epidemics. It was not until the 17th century that people discovered that the "sacred fire" was directly related to ergot.

After that, as rye was separated from the staple food industry and productivity and technology advanced, people finally got rid of the entanglement of the "sacred fire".

But the story of humans and ergot does not end there. In 1938, chemists extracted a substance from ergot.

Its name is lysergic acid diethylamide, abbreviated as LSD.

During World War II, it was first tested by the CIA as a truth serum, but it was later discovered that due to its strong hallucinogenic properties, the interrogated subjects spoke, but all their words were nonsense.

They also used it as an anti-interrogation drug. Once their own agents were in danger of being captured, they would take LSD and tell nonsense to confuse the enemy.

It is not known whether agents used this drug to resist interrogation, but in the 60s, ordinary American civilians used it to great effect. By 1965, it is roughly estimated that 400 million Americans had taken LSD, most of whom were college and high school students.

At that time, America was mired in the South Vietnam War, and the world situation was becoming increasingly tense.

A few years ago, the Red Alliance's super nuclear bomb Big Ivan exploded on Novaya Zemlya.

Only three years have passed since the Guci Crisis, which threatened to destroy the world.

America's generation of young people grew up in an environment where the world and their own lives could be destroyed at any time, with two superpowers competing against each other.

Many of them no longer have the memory of uniting to "save the world" like the older generation. After the war, America was materially prosperous. These young people, who felt they might die tomorrow, no longer took on so-called responsibilities and implemented the concept of enjoying life in the moment.

Americans called them hippies.

The important 'food' of the hippies was LSD, which could produce 'sweet dreams'.

Although LSD was banned in the United States in 1966, it still circulates on the black market in various countries today.

The "stamp" in the Lieutenant Colonel's hand is a "ticket" to the dream world, but also a death warrant to fall into the abyss.

The world she saw at that moment was like the world seen by many young Americans in the 60s.

The silent and corrupt world is beyond salvation. All organizations and glory are meaningless. Only a moment of joy is the truth.