Chapter 16 Chapter 15 The First Commission
"Yeah!" Hill's eyes suddenly went dark, then brightened up, and he returned to the warehouse he inspected before.
She held the shoes in her hands, and the coldness and hardness of the floor came through the flesh-colored stockings, making her shiver. Behind her, the looming feeling of being watched still came from the direction of the camera in the corner, and that kind of gaze made her feel sick.
This is her familiar environment, and she's back again! Hill lowered her head and quickly checked her body. Except for her slightly disheveled clothes, she was indeed unscathed. He breathed a long sigh of relief and sighed that he was lucky after all, while turning his attention to the crocodile craft artifact that once glowed green.
It was a small ceramic ornament. The crocodile stood on its two short hind legs. Its body was round and chubby, making it look cute and cute. From the outside, no one would associate it with the pink skull and the ancient hall filled with black mist. But things just happened to be so magical. Hill felt that his experience was like a dream.
"No, it's not a dream. Dreams don't take off my shoes." She looked at the little crocodile ornament and raised her hand to wipe away the traces of tears on her cheeks with the heel of her palm. "It scares me to death, but I must overcome it! For myself, I must seize this opportunity! Whether it is the pink skull or Dr. Booker, they are the ladder for me to leave this bad place."
This must be an opportunity and a secret that only belongs to me!
Hill put on her shoes again, straightened her clothes, and pretended as if nothing happened. She quickly ended her inspection of the warehouse, making a plan in her mind, and walked towards the control room. She needed to see the whole thing from another angle and know about other witnesses.
"If it gets spread, it will be troublesome if the company knows about it." Hill frowned and walked down the deserted corridor. The entrance to the control room was at the end of the corridor. She once heard someone say that in order to avoid being caught peeping through the surveillance head, the pervert director removed the surveillance camera in the corridor at the entrance of the surveillance room. There was a blind spot there, a paradise for him to enjoy alone.
Not anymore.
Just in front of her, on the right wall of the hallway, was a fire ax reclining in a fire hose closet.
She pulled out the ax from it in a strange way and held it in her hand, the tip of the ax rubbing against the ground. Click, click, click.
The sound is surprisingly pleasant...
At the same time, in another city, in another research center, Dr. Bukele staggered and knocked over his chair and fell to the ground in embarrassment. Coffee and breakfast boxes were spilled on the floor, making a series of splashing noises, and then turned into a whimper mixed with a smile.
"Haha, oh... Haha, it just hurts a little." The old man grabbed the table with one hand and the ground with the other, and climbed up carefully. After standing up straight, he rubbed his heart, looked around at the room that was empty and belonged only to him, took a breath and said, "Oh, oh, it hurts good, the pain is real."
Dreams are a kind of comfortable numbness, while reality is a garden of thorns called pain. Happiness is just understanding that pain is living and gaining. Dr. Booker never doubted the authenticity of the pink skull. He had moved beyond that question and started thinking about how it happened and what it represented.
He looked at the workbench and reached out to touch the bridge of his nose as usual. Then he realized that he had lost his glasses. Fortunately, when he got closer, he saw that the parchment fragment was still intact, and he breathed a sigh of relief. He lay on his stomach and hugged the parchment, brushing its surface with trembling fingers.
"My, my baby..." He murmured to himself, coughing and then said: "I will be prepared. Even if there is no secret of ascension, I can live for another five thousand years, even if I become a skeleton, I am willing... …”
Different people have different desires and will be driven to do different things. In fact, they are still everyone's own choices. A little later than Hill and Dr. Booker, Zhuang Xuteng quickly returned to "reality" and stood in the middleman Lucy's living room holding a comic book. He stretched his hands forward, and the scream caused by seeing time slow down had just begun.
"ah!"
Gongdao and Lucy turned their heads together, one frowning, the other full of vigilance.
"What's wrong with you?" Ge Gongdao asked, "Why are you yelling?"
"I..." Zhuang Xuteng didn't know how to answer. Just at this moment, footsteps sounded on the stairs outside. So he pointed outside to signal that someone was coming.
"So that's what happened. My ears work very well." Lucy turned to look at the clock and said, "It's probably the person who sent the details of the commission. Just stay here and I'll go take a look."
Lucy walked out briskly and came back soon with a yellow envelope in her hand. She shook the envelope and said to Zhuang Xuteng, "This is your first commission, are you nervous?"
Zhuang Xuteng shook his head and quickly looked away, fearing that Lucy would see his nervousness.
The nervousness came from the previous "dream", and he had not yet fully recovered from the shock of experiencing such an event. By comparing memories, Zhuang Xuteng found that he entered the Stone Pillar Hall, transformed into a skeleton, and talked with doctors and women. These things almost took no time.
If it were more accurate, it actually took a little more than 3 seconds, which explains why Lucy and Brother Dao didn't notice it at all. From their perspective, Zhuang Xuteng had been reading comics. He might have been dazed for a few seconds, and then suddenly shouted. Those two people did not see the suddenly dark sky, nor did they know that the black mist and time slowed down.
It seems that only I know the secret of this "spiritual journey". Zhuang Xuteng thought about it and felt that this sentence was not right. Hill and Dr. Buckler were also participants, and of course there was the instigator, the pink skeleton shadow follower.
"Logically, those two people would not tell the company about this, and I did not reveal my appearance, and my voice was slightly different from usual, so they could not find me." Zhuang Xuteng sighed softly, only to feel that things were getting more and more complicated. "I wanted to sell the shadow follower, but this possibility is getting lower and lower. If the pink skeleton told the truth, my life is really relying on it, then I will not be able to get rid of it for a while."
What's more troublesome is that Zhuang Xuteng has to use the shadow follower to feed it and help it recover its strength. He was already financially tight, so how could he have the money to buy a shadow follower? Besides, how many shadow followers would it take to raise the pink skeleton? With the same money, can I treat my body?
Oh, that's right, if I have money, I can treat my body first, and then I can get rid of the pink skeleton, right? After I am healthy, I can sell it, and the money I get can cover the cost of treatment! This plan seems feasible!
It is known that the pink skull can drag people into a strange space. According to Dr. Booker, that space is in the demigod world behind the shadow world, and behind the wall of sighs that no one can pass through. It sounds very powerful. Moreover, the pink skull can absorb other shadow servants and directly destroy the shadow servant device. No matter who it is, they will be willing to pay a high price...
Wait, it can absorb shadows and destroy the shadow servant device? Zhuang Xuteng finally thought of something other than "selling money". He is now a mercenary. In the process of completing the commissioned tasks, it is very likely to encounter various shadow servant devices. Isn't the pink skull their nemesis?
Not being able to buy a shadow servant device does not mean that you can't touch a shadow servant device! It is impossible to spend money to buy a shadow servant to feed it, but there is a chance to pick it up for free!
This idea made Zhuang Xuteng a little excited for a while, but he was soon beaten back to his original state by a more realistic problem: after becoming a mercenary, the shadow slave he is most likely to encounter is a gun. The first problem he has to solve is not how to touch the shadow slave, but how not to be killed by the ghost energy bullet!
No, I have to be low-key. The ability of the pink skull is not equal to my ability. Being a mercenary is to make money, not to sell your life, and not to fight foolishly.
"Zhuang, put down the comic book first and come to discuss the content of the commission!"
Lucy was calling him, and Zhuang Xuteng quickly retracted his thoughts. He rolled up the comic book and stuffed it into his trouser pocket. Anyway, there is no wallet. The biggest advantage of work pants is that the pockets are large and strong, which is very convenient for hiding things.
Although she came to discuss the details of the commission, Lucy did not show him the contents of the envelope. As a middleman, Lucy first read it to determine whether it met the previous commission profile. After that, she directly handed the commission letter with a map to Ge Gongdao, then lit a cigarette, leaned back on the sofa, and waited for the mercenary's opinion.
Engineer Ge waved his hand and asked Zhuang Xuteng to go with him. The client asked them to investigate a construction site that was currently suspended, find out the environment inside, and see if there were any signs of gang activities. The standard for completing the task was to draw a map, mark suspicious points, and list possible personnel activities.
At first glance, the task was very simple, but an address caught the attention of Zhuang and Ge.
"Industrial East District, No. 32 Power Plant Road... This is the construction site next to the 21st Magic Crystal Factory."
Zhuang Xuteng was a worker at the 21st Magic Crystal Factory. He went to work there every day, so of course he knew the construction site next door. That place used to be a bolt factory. Due to the recession, it has been closed for more than a year. I heard that it was given to someone else to pay off the debt. There was no new construction or renovation there. There were some noises of cutting and disassembly all day long. Everyone said that someone was dismantling old machines and factory buildings inside, preparing to sell them as junk.
Several workers that Zhuang Xuteng knew had discussed going there to steal some scrap and sell them for money, but they never really took action. The neighbors seemed to have noticed something and built a high wall around the factory area with barbed wire on top, not letting anyone in and blocking the prying eyes of the Magic Crystal Factory.
However, the place was demolished for more than half a year, and there was no movement more than three months ago. Everyone guessed that they had demolished it, but the wall and barbed wire were still erected there, and the gate was closed, and no one knew what the actual situation was.
After that, the 21st Magic Crystal Factory stopped operating and dismissed all employees. The workers who originally wanted to steal things from the next door began to instigate to go back and steal from the Magic Crystal Factory as part of their revenge. Other workers who heard the news stopped their actions. Everyone was afraid that if the matter got out of hand, the Magic Crystal Factory would not give compensation. Later... many of Zhuang Xuteng's workers died on the night of 623.
"We accepted this commission!" Engineer Ge said in a loud voice, which scared Zhuang Xuteng. He stuffed the commission letter over and asked Zhuang Xuteng to remember it carefully. "After reading and remembering, give it to Lucy, and then ask her to register the mercenary information for you."
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