Chapter 892: Chapter 889: "White Snow in the City (Part 2)
Twelve locations, each station symbolizes the myriad life stories of the city’s residents.
Bit by bit collecting this information, Su Ming’an gradually sensed that an unknown iceberg seemed to be hiding beneath the sea, ready to unleash a turbulent tsunami at any moment. It could erupt suddenly and drown everything.
...
The third last station, Dao Ya First High School. Su Ming’an encountered the class teacher, Xia Jiawen.
Xia Jiawen was all dressed up today, in a suit and leather shoes, holding flowers, wearing golden glasses, standing at the school gate waiting for someone.
"Su, skipping class for charity, I see." Xia Jiawen noticed the bread in Su Ming’an’s hand: "You do well, and I’ll pretend to forget you never ask for leave."
Su Ming’an’s gaze fixated on the rose in Xia Jiawen’s arms.
"Shh." Xia Jiawen promptly waved his hand: "Today is an important day for me, don’t spill the beans and ruin my plans."
Su Ming’an glanced inside the school gate, besides the students playing ball, there stood a tall female teacher, seemingly the one Xia Jiawen fancied, waiting with a rose at the gate.
"Mr. Xia..." Su Ming’an began to speak.
"Go, go, don’t stand here being a third wheel." Xia Jiawen waved his hand repeatedly.
Su Ming’an coughed, leaving with Li Mingyue, but he wouldn’t remind Xia Jiawen that a suit shouldn’t be paired with shorts for a confession.
"——You haven’t attended classes these days, I’ve compiled the cultural knowledge you missed into electronic documents and sent them to you, remember to check them, don’t fall behind in your studies!"
Xia Jiawen’s voice came from behind.
Su Ming’an waved his hand and continued walking forward.
...
[TE7·Perfect Completion Progress: 25%]
...
The second last station, inside an abandoned library, Su Ming’an met a blonde young merchant flipping through books.
The blonde merchant, unlike other residents, didn’t beg for food but stood quietly aside. When Su Ming’an approached, the blonde merchant spoke.
"Hey, are you a clergy?" The slender blonde merchant asked, carrying a bag.
"Do you need something?" Su Ming’an responded.
"Oh, you really are. I’ve always envied clergy like you, who can do anything openly under the pretext of ’serving the deity’." The blonde merchant said.
"Do you have something to discuss?" Su Ming’an repeated.
"No, nothing. I’m a merchant, just wondering if you need to buy items. My complaints don’t affect our deal, do they?" The blonde merchant said.
"What do you have?" Su Ming’an inquired.
"Letters, photos, books, diaries, all in paper form. Unlike other merchants, I only enjoy collecting textual items from ruins, these texts describe the last attachments of the deceased, who might have had beautiful memories before starving, I don’t want these items to wither away." The blonde merchant said.
"Sounds noble, but you’re just selling other people’s relics for money." Su Ming’an said.
"Haha." The blonde merchant chuckled, wearing a mask covering half of his face, revealing a pair of bright blue eyes, with a cheerful smile hinting at an attractive lower face: "So, clergy, are you trading with me? Any food, water, medical supplies can be exchanged, maybe the diary in my backpack holds information you need?"
Su Ming’an listened to the blonde merchant’s tone, feeling cautious: "Are you a deity?"
He had already started a wager with a deity, and any key figure he met could be the deity. The blonde merchant in front of him might not count as a key figure, but certainly more so than those older people he met before.
"Deity?" The blonde merchant smiled unchanged: "Are you pointing out that I’m a deity?"
...
A blood-red notice popped out at this moment, with extremely frightening effects.
[Do you confirm the blonde merchant in front of you as "Deity"?]
[Once identified, it cannot be changed.]
...
"No, I didn’t mean that." Su Ming’an shook his head.
The whole process spanned ten days, no rush in direct identification, perhaps a more likely deity had yet to appear.
"I’ll take all your items." Su Ming’an said.
The other party sold information. Even if Su Ming’an didn’t buy, the players encountering this merchant later would probably still purchase.
"Ah, big client! I love you to bits!" The blonde merchant tried to give Su Ming’an a strong hug, but Su Ming’an dodged. Dust fell rustling from the bookshelves on both sides, the heavy book spines rolled on the ground. The merchant seemed to want another hug, Su Ming’an punched him directly in the chin.
"Your punch is really soft." The blonde merchant stepped back half a step, not angry: "Alright then, let’s start the transaction directly."
He took off his backpack, filled with snowflake-like scraps of paper, photo albums, diaries, letters. All these were textual items left by others.
...
[Pay "two Blue Level or above equipment" to exchange for the blonde merchant’s items.]
...
Su Ming’an took out two Blue Level items from his backpack, he had gathered quite a few Blue and Green Level quality equipment from a long battle in the Ninth World Dawn War. After the deal was over, he walked out of the library carrying his backpack.
The blonde merchant stood inside the library, staring at Su Ming’an’s back, his gaze slightly flickering.
...
[TE7·Perfect Completion Progress: 30%]
...
The final stop was the central square of the city.
As Li Mingyue arrived, the emaciated people immediately surrounded him. The white pigeons in the square flapped away with a "flutter", soaring over the ancient bell tower and old trees.
Su Ming’an sat by the fountain, sifting through the items in his backpack, checking if there was any useful information.
He pulled out paper items one by one:
A beautiful wedding photo, with a date from years ago written on the back, the groom and bride on it smiled happily, nothing particularly informative.
A handwritten poster, likely once stuck to the street side, reading ["A beautiful girl can be exchanged for four loaves of bread"], with a trade address and number below.
A letter seemingly bombed, its surface pitch black, with scribbled handwriting: ["Xiao Yong, your father’s illness has improved a lot recently, your grandma’s noodle-making skills have been passed down, now the whole family is very happy, waiting for you to come home. Come back soon, okay?"]
A postcard depicting a roller coaster, torn half, stained with blood: ["Mom, where are you? Why didn’t you come back after going out for food yesterday, you come back every day. Mom, I hear bad people knocking, they seem to be coming in..."]
Su Ming’an looked for a while, these were all relics abandoned in the ruins. As he was about to finish sifting through the items in the backpack, he finally found something related to him.
...
A piece of paper torn to bits:
[The white morning glory flower signifies the birth of a miracle, the blessing of the world will be eternally inscribed on your soul. I bless you—life full of light, health, and endless peace. For all of eternity, life after life.]
Life after life, life after life.
Eternal life, eternal life.
Please let me find you, please let me wait for you.
The white bird will guide me, the black bird will remember me. I also wish to become a bird, praying for the day the highest Word Spirit is established, praying for the day a miracle is born!
—Oh Deity, please grant us forgiveness.
(Sketch: A matchstick figure holding a long sword, piercing a bird with elongated tail feathers)
...
This note is written in an elegant script. The writer is likely a zealot of the Deity. Because it mentioned "morning glory," Su Ming’an noticed this note.
...This sketch is quite interesting, depicting a person killing a bird. What does it symbolize?
Su Ming’an thought for a moment, packed his backpack, and sat by the fountain, the sound of water gushing behind him. Li Mingyue was still distributing relief supplies and didn’t comment when she saw Su Ming’an slacking off.
People came and went, as the speaker in the square broadcasted the daily news:
"Recently, the number of people jumping to their deaths has been increasing, and the Holy Alliance Army strongly condemns this behavior. Human life belongs to the Deity; ending it prematurely through suicide is a great disrespect to Destiny, and it’s not conducive to the spread of positive societal emotions, which violates Kingdom laws. Please cherish life and refuse suicide; life will become increasingly fulfilling..."
Suicide?
Su Ming’an thought about it. Indeed, along the way, he heard a lot of news about people jumping to their deaths; recently, there were particularly many suicides. Perhaps people couldn’t accept the apocalypse and couldn’t continue to live.
The broadcast continued to play soothing music: "Please cherish life, live positively. Believe that life will become increasingly beautiful..."
"Bang!"
A loud noise sounded, and Su Ming’an turned his head to see another distribution point on the other side of the square, but it was distributing tobacco.
"—No money to buy any tobacco, get lost!"
A skinny old man was pushed to the ground, scratching his ears and neck like a person deprived of their fix: "Give me tobacco, give me tobacco... I beg you, I beg you..."
Yet the man selling tobacco had no compassion and kicked him away, telling him to get lost and not to impede his business.
Bypassers avoided the agonized old man. Even those adorned in gold and silver didn’t offer assistance.
Most people wore thin, worn-out clothing, passing by like refugees, hunched and unable to even meet basic needs, their eyes long devoid of light. Some coughed with large swellings on their bodies. Some lay by the roadside, gazing at the coins in their begging bowl, immersed in the dreamlike state created by tobacco, drooling.
"Hehehe, so happy, so joyful..."
They rolled on the ground, embracing their broken bodies, showing blissful smiles in the happiness of their spirit.
Happiness is an obligation; it must be observed.
Joy is an obligation; one must smile.
"Haha, hahahaha, so happy, so joyful..." Rubbing like maggots, the residents, despite being on the brink of starvation, wore wide smiles.
Even though it’s an endless hell of cold and hunger, with human-twisted maggots crawling everywhere, people seemed to be living in paradise, chatting and laughing with no one daring to shed tears.
Su Ming’an watched such a scene, feeling increasingly chilled.
"We are committed to improving people’s lives, ensuring the lives of urban residents behind the frontlines of dispelling the Black Mist. Believe that life will become increasingly joyful..." the upbeat female voice from the speaker continuously urged, cheerful music resonating in the human world, like the most fitting melody.
The most fitting melody for hell.
Su Ming’an couldn’t help but think—this truly resembled a group of deaf-mutes who cover their ears and close their eyes, unable to see or hear anything except the concept of "happiness."
For the future of the human race, humans themselves have "metamorphosed" into deaf and mute monsters.
Beside him, Li Mingyue finally finished distributing all the relief supplies and walked toward Su Ming’an.
"It’s all distributed, let’s go back," Li Mingyue said.
"..." Su Ming’an remained silent.
"Never seen such a scene?" Li Mingyue observed his expression.
"...Never."
"The broader the view, the more these things are overlooked. War seems only to be billions or tens of billions of casualties, but calculating down to each person, it’s like a vast universe. In the eyes of ordinary people, every family is a universe unto itself. Even a decrease ’1’ in their view is an equivalent to the collapse of the universe." Li Mingyue said.
"..."
"Wensheng. Don’t take too many mind-stabilizing drugs, don’t overuse similar abilities. Otherwise, you will become like those madmen on the ground." Li Mingyue sighed.
"..."
"Did you hear? Just say ’mm’ if you understood."
"..."
"Forget it, let’s go."
"..."
Su Ming’an got up and moved forward, his steps suddenly pausing.
A little girl, looking about eight or nine, rolled to his feet, maintaining a giggling smile, with her limbs twisted unnaturally, drooling as she laughed:
"Hehehe... happiness, happiness..."
"Mom... where is mom... mom took so many pills, mom disappeared..."
Bloodshot eyes covered her pupils where the clarity and innocence of her age had long vanished, leaving only the murky yellowish haze of an old woman and the mental fantasies caused by tobacco.
A few white doves perched on her head, seemingly puzzled if the two pupils were eyes or food, why they showed such strange colors. They pecked her coarse face, as if trying to determine if she was human or some kind of maggot.
In the sky, several black vultures circled, waiting for something.
Su Ming’an wanted to touch her, but the little girl suddenly sprang up like a severed kite, hopping and bouncing into the crowd, soon disappearing without a trace. The vultures followed her and the crowd, like obedient pets awaiting to feast on tasty carcasses.
Su Ming’an’s hand retracted midway, leaving only the speaker’s call for "happiness" in his ears.
His gaze dimmed, and he said nothing.
"Let’s go," Li Mingyue’s voice was low, repeating again.
"Swish—"
White doves flapped their wings, and the Bell Tower rang out with an aged chime. The pure white wings blocked the sky, even obscuring the sunlight.
A bishop in a white robe walked in front, and a young man in a white robe walked behind, casting a long overlapping shadow.
The white doves sang songs of happiness above them, their pure white feathers like the snow of spring.
...
[TE1·Perfect Completion Progress: 40%]
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