One hundred and forty-one. They are both young and have each other, who would be extravagant?
They came to the observation port leading to the ruins on the ground.
"There is no exit from the shelter, so you can only go back the way you came."
There was a faint light coming from the depths of the strangely dug cave, as if there was wind blowing from the ground.
Slightly
The sanity counter slowly made a noise.
Pollution permeates the surface everywhere, and shelter residents cannot stay in the shallow layers for too long.
"I'll give it to you." Irene said to Katarina, who was about to take off the sanity counter and dagger.
"Thank you. Ophelia, let's go up first and let the old lovers say a few words." Catalina picked up the back of Psius's neck, stuffed the fluorite between his paws, and crawled back to the ground.
of cave.
Ophelia's charred silhouette remained motionless, not intending to give them any space to be alone together.
"It's time to part again..."
Irene ignored Ophelia's existence and thought of the last time they parted. At that time, Anna was still there, and she still had...oh, she had lost her legs.
“Will you build new gathering places?”
"Why do you ask?"
"You cover yourself up with indifference, but in fact we can all see that you are a good person. Don't tell me that you have no idea about the current bad situation."
Eileen thought Lu Li would say he was not capable enough, but his deep black eyes lowered slightly and he answered: "I just want to find Anna now."
A slightly concerned gaze disappeared due to Lu Li's words.
"Remember to notify me if you find it."
Erin's white palms left the armrest of the wheelchair and waved goodbye to Lu Li.
"I will."
"Wait a minute, I have something to ask you." Erin stopped Lu Li, who was about to duck into the cave: "There is something dirty on the observation port, please wipe it for me when you get out."
It sounds like a pun, but Erin's curved red lips show that she did it on purpose.
Lu Li said nothing and went into the cave with Ophelia who was as warm as a stove.
Lulu pushed Irene to the observation port, a mottled metal iron pipe extending from the top of the cave.
Erin wiped the dust-covered periscope with a handkerchief, and there was only a faint glimmer on the other end of the mirror.
"You seem to be suddenly no longer interested in Lu Li?" Eileen took back her handkerchief and waited for the surface of the mirror to be wiped clean.
"I think we were once the same kind of person. Emotions were just derivatives that dragged down thinking, and only reason was the truth. But now he is no different from anyone else."
"I have the opposite opinion than you."
Eileen narrowed her narrow eyes, seeming to be reminiscing.
"What makes us believe in gods is never his divinity, but the part of his humanity."
"Only the unbelievers can join the Sanctuary."
"It's just a metaphor, you boring woman."
Lulu was silent for a while, and after the rustling sound stopped coming from the cave, she said, "Are you feeling sad?"
"Why do you think so? On the contrary, I am very happy. The crisis in the shelter has been resolved, we have successfully contacted the outside world, and the people we know are still active on the ground."
The other end of the periscope was vaguely translucent, and Erin leaned forward and put one eye in front of the lens.
"I mean Lu Li is still young, but you are already an old woman." Lulu said at this time.
"So you're replying to me that you're a boring woman?"
Through the lenses that became clear after wiping, Erin glimpsed the broken ruins, the distant coastline, and the black ring hanging in the void.
The devastated land looked terrible, but the scenery was still precious.
She looked at the figures leaving the shelter again. They walked out of the ruins and disappeared among the trees of the Quiet Whispering Forest.
…
"What did you just wipe?"
Catalina asked Lu Li as she stepped on the rotten bushes under the buried soil, making a rustling sound.
"periscope."
Lu Li was observing their footprints.
Because the moisture in the offshore makes the forest soil soft, their footprints are obvious, and the time of their disappearance may be measured in months.
But the woods left no trace except their footprints.
No one cares about the Quiet Forest.
Ophelia said that this place is very desolate, nothing exists, no weirdness, and no life. This makes weirdness even less likely to set foot here, thus making the forest a pure land.
In the map provided by the shelter, the outline of the Quiet Forest is a long and narrow oval, like a long loaf of bread extending from the coastline into the land. In the narrow place, you can even see the wilderness on both sides through the trees.
This allowed them to search for the survivors who had left traces here without spending too much effort to get closer to the edge of the deep forest. They saw the collapsed wooden sentry tower behind the canopy and the gathering place surrounded by wooden fences.
Lu Li and others entered the gathering place.
This place has long been abandoned. The collapsed fences and wooden houses silently tell the story of the disasters that have occurred here.
"Can you sense it?"
The diameter of the gathering place is only a hundred meters, but it is not easy to find a "body" in it.
"Not until it wakes up," the merchant replied.
"Isn't there a more time-saving way?" Katarina asked.
There are still two hours before dark. But they need to reserve time for their return and beware of the strange fog coming early. They will have to return to the coastline and return to Andrea in one hour at most.
"The exorcist's approach can wake up the merchant." So the merchant added.
This would save a lot of trouble. Lu Li only had to walk around the gathering place a few times to find the merchant.
If it is at the gathering place.
Lu Li was allowed to walk around the gathering place while Catalina and Pusius explored the remaining wooden houses that had not yet collapsed. Unfortunately, everything inside was unrecognizable from its original appearance.
When Catalina got out of the wooden house, she saw a silhouette crawling out of the open space in the center of the gathering place.
It was buried under the charcoal and embers of the campfire. The black charcoal and dust covered by the soil fell from it. The huge backpack was full of recognition.
The second businessman crawled out of the ground and stood beside the businessman, remaining silent.
"Don't you want to reminisce about old times?" Katerina asked when she came back.
"It's all said and done," the businessman replied.
The hive mind allows them to share a common memory.
"Like me, it lost everything."
No one was surprised by this. When they learned that the businessman was taken away by the residents of the gathering place, they knew that there would be nothing left in the backpack.
They successfully found the second businessman, and before night came, they left Jingyu Forest and returned to the coastline.
When they passed the ruins, they saw that the hole behind the stone statue had been filled in, and the color of the soil was almost the same as the surroundings. In a few days, no one would discover that there was a hole leading to the shelter.
Without stopping at the ruins, we returned to the beach and rowed aboard Andrea. Standing on the creaking old deck, the mountains of meat on the sea were emerging from the sea at this moment.
The mountain of disgusting meat swallows up the mist that breeds weirdness.
The mist that surged toward the land gradually enveloped Andrea, and it became dark outside the captain's room.
As a strange fog enveloped the land, night fell at the same time.
