Chapter 112 You just want to live, what's wrong with you?
January 6, noon, listed high school.
After Anson Lu finished talking to the principal, he walked towards the teachers' dormitory. He guessed that everyone entered the dungeon in the dormitory building.
On the way, Ritsu Urushihara sent a message.
[Ritsuhara: Okay, and Lorenzo has someone tell you that "the materials you want can be found within two days."]
[Anson Deer: ...Two days, that's pretty fast.]
Anson Lu and Lorenzo made a bet before the start of the copy. If Lorenzo lost, he would have to use official power to help him find an epic material - 'Lightning Rod'.
Judging from the material drop rate of the third copy, epic materials are no longer so rare.
With the means of the law enforcement team, calling on players worldwide, it is not difficult to obtain the "Lightning Rod".
This is the key to synthesizing the legendary chess piece 'Christmas Sleigh'. As long as the Lightning Rod is obtained, Anson Deer is only missing a 'Deer' chess piece. Just slowly pull it out and it will be done!
[Ritsuhara Urushihara: After all, the law enforcement team is backed by the government, so their influence is self-evident. As long as the bounty information is posted online, players with such materials will immediately appear.]
[Anson Deer: Okay, by the way, Crow, when you have time, please help me investigate: the third in the world, the guy named 'Julius Mena', what is his origin. ]
[Ritsuki Urushihara: No problem, I'll get back to you later. ]
"Let's get some sleep first..."
Anson Lu recalled what happened in the copy, and a feeling of exhaustion swept over him.
He fell on the bed and closed his eyes.
Time flies like an arrow. When evening comes, the windows are stretched by the afterglow of dusk. The shadow of the grid is like a black cage, slanting into the dormitory and covering the boy's cheek.
He opened his eyes, and two information bubbles popped up in the upper right corner of his vision.
[Ritsuki Urushihara: Lorenzo said: The official obtained the 'Lightning Rod' from a player through an auction, and he will hand over the material to you later.]
[Ritsuki Urushihara: And... I have found out some information about 'Julius Mena'. ]
Anson Deer opened the friend panel and looked at the pile of information sent by Crow, and couldn't help squinting his eyes.
"Is this the world's number one gambler? How did you manage to have such a wide network of contacts?"
He looked at the first two lines of text.
[Yuliu Mena, 19 years old, special sequence player, sequence name: "Hand of Devourer", ranked third in global combat power]
Anson Lu raised his eyebrows. "Hand of Devouring, it sounds like another growth sequence."
[He is the leader of the Washington underground mafia "Snow Wolf" and has not joined the law enforcement team. The reason for not joining the law enforcement team is related to the death of the Purgatory Ape "David Kench" in the New York incident. ]
Anson Lu stared at the name "David Kench" for a moment, then put his hands behind his head and slowly flipped through the information.
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Five years ago, on the streets of Chicago, USA.
Yuliu, wearing a thin T-shirt and jeans, squatted beside the yellowed wall.
With a numb expression, he raised a wooden sign in his hand. On the sign was written a simple English word in black handwriting - "Help!".
Julius is fourteen years old.
He was born in an orphanage and had no surname, only a first name.
One day, he escaped from the orphanage and crossed mountains and rivers to come to this strange city.
In the United States, passers-by have a good attitude towards underage homeless people - when they pass by this street and accidentally see Julius holding a sign, they always give him some of the meager items they have on hand.
This is Julius' first day in Chicago.
Not far from him, there was a man wearing simple clothes and a hat sitting there - this homeless man with a beard, like Julius, was holding up a sign in his hand, waiting for alms from passers-by.
However, passers-by will always favor the child Yuliu, and no one will show the man any kindness.
The tramp would often glance at him sideways after noticing that more and more small-denomination dollars were stuffed into Yuliu's cup.
Julius felt uneasy, knowing that he was stealing someone else's job - even though both involved begging, his age of fourteen gave him infinite advantages.
Soon, another passerby walked towards Yuliu. He put the milk he had just bought from the fast food restaurant in front of Yuliu, touched his head, and encouraged him softly:
"Child, you still have a future, hold on."
The homeless man with a beard couldn't help but look over here. He tried to raise the wooden sign in his hand a little higher and said to the passerby:
"Sir, can you please give me some alms too?"
The passerby looked at the homeless man, walked up to him, poured the cup of coffee in his hand on his head, and said in a cold voice:
"You are an adult, you have a complete body, but you don't go to work and you beg here. If you want to beg, this is what I can give you."
Having said that, the passerby left.
The boiling black liquid splashed on the tramp's hat. He flushed and covered his head with his arms. The coffee flowed down his arms and soaked his coat.
He took off his coat, put it aside, and looked up at the sky with empty eyes.
Julius took small sips of the milk given by the passers-by and stared at the scene in a daze. He began to wonder: Would this homeless man attack him out of anger and humiliation?
However, the tramp just looked at the turbid sky in silence for a long time, then turned his head and gave Yuliu an indifferent smile.
He took off his hat that was stained black by coffee and shook off the coffee liquid on it.
"It's okay." The tramp murmured, "It's okay...child."
Yuliu didn't know how to respond.
It was the first time he took a good look at the homeless man. He had a strong body, and even the beard on his face could not hide his strong features and gentle eyes.
After the homeless man cleaned up his clothes and hat that were stained by coffee, he squatted back in the corner and calmly raised the help sign in his hand.
For the next day, Yuliu stayed on the street, and so did the homeless man.
It was not until nearly dusk that the tramp left for a short while.
Soon, the homeless man walked slowly towards Yuliu with a box of pizza and a bottle of orange juice in his hands and handed the food to Yuliu.
“This is what I just asked for.”
Yuliu stared blankly at the half-empty pizza. He reached out and took the two things from the homeless man. He nodded to him and said softly:
"Thanks."
That was the most careful and satisfying dinner that Julius had ever eaten.
Obviously, the homeless man could have changed his location and begged somewhere else, but he didn't.
He just sat next to Yuliu, and when he was tired, he hugged the old suitcase and lowered his head to rest as if he was hugging a pillow.
Yuliu often felt that there seemed to be stories hidden in the eyes of the man next to him - but the man just squatted in the corner, not mentioning his past, just quietly holding the help sign in his hand.
Julius and the homeless man spent the entire night on the streets.
That night, Yuliu did not sleep all night.
Suddenly, he heard the homeless man scream and wake up from his sleep.
The tramp took off his hat, gasped heavily, and covered his eyes with his arms.
Julius didn't dare to say a word. He looked at the homeless man out of the corner of his eye with trepidation, fearing that this man would suddenly go crazy.
"I'm sorry I scared you..."
The homeless man leaned against the wall, gently adjusting his breathing, his cloudy and empty eyes looking up at the dark sky.
"I used to be a soldier. I've seen life and death on the battlefield, so every night I would..."
Yuliu no longer concealed his gaze, and he replied softly: "It's okay."
"That's good." The tramp took a sip of the wine in the kettle and said slowly:
"After the war, I was declared dead or missing by the US government. I lost my identity, my wife, and even couldn't find a job."
"wife?"
"She signed a contract with those people. As long as I don't exist, she can get a lot of money."
"That's...too cruel."
Yuliu listened quietly, unconsciously pursing his lips.
Obviously, this man was a hero who fought for his country, but he fell into such a situation. It was hard for Yuliu not to feel some sympathy.
"The doctor said I have post-traumatic stress syndrome. I may have no future..." The homeless man wiped the sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand. He smiled and said in a gentle voice:
"But child, you still have a future. Life is long... We may have chosen the wrong path, and we may not be very lucky, but you still have a chance. You have not seen the cruelty of war, so you don't know how precious it is to live an ordinary life."
Yuliu opened his mouth, but no words came out.
Light blond hair shaded the boy's eyes, and he simply gritted his teeth.
The dead silence of the night shrouded the two of them for a long time.
In Yuliu's mind, he recalled that during the day, the passerby gave him a bottle of milk, but poured coffee on the homeless man's head and scolded him for not being able to support himself.
At that time, Yuliu was still complacent in his heart, fortunately he was just a child.
But what about this man? Why is he treated like this?
"you……"
Yuliu curled up into a ball, his voice a little blurred by the cold, tears in his eyes, he said hoarsely:
"You just..."
"I just want to live..."
"You just want to live, what's wrong with you?"
When the tramp heard Yuliu's words, he opened his eyes slightly and stayed there for a long time.
He took a sip of the water in the pot and whispered to Julian:
"Child, you are the only one who is willing to admit that I am still alive."
"One day, everyone will know."
The tramp closed his eyes and waited quietly for the dawn. The purgatory-like scene in his dream was like torture to him.
For so many years, he had been struggling under the high-pressure environment brought about by post-traumatic stress syndrome. Countless sleepless nights had already torn his spirit to the extreme.
Yuliu's words gave the homeless man the confidence to continue living.
After enduring this difficult journey, one day, perhaps he will be able to regain his identity and live honestly.
For a long time afterwards, Julius wandered with the man.
He often saw the man taking out his old ID card from his suitcase every night.
The man always carried this yellowed ID card, even though the words and photos on it were already worn out.
However, this was the only proof that he lived in this world before joining the war - he just hoped that someone could acknowledge that he once lived in this world.
Instead, he was forgotten by the world as a corpse lying in the alley.
"Sir, what was your previous name?" Yuliu asked softly.
"David... Mena."
The man spoke in a daze, tears streaming down his eyes for some reason. Yuliu stared at the man with red eyes and remembered his name deeply - David Mena.
Although he was born in an orphanage without a father or a mother.
But Julius later inherited David Mena's surname and changed his name to Julius Mena.
…………
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Five years later, in an apartment in Chicago.
Yuliu's eyes were blank, but he quickly came to his senses and saw that the computer was still reporting a news story from December 25th.
——"The runaway high-risk player: David Kench, the Ape of Purgatory, has been confirmed to have been killed. The former chess player has protected the personal safety of the people of New York."
——"Lorenzo from the law enforcement team promised the people that they would strengthen the defense line and prevent the same tragedy from happening again."
——"No one knows the origins of the hero who killed the Purgatory Ape, the former chess player Anson Lu, and why he was not recruited into the law enforcement team by the Chinese authorities?"
Yuliu walked to the refrigerator, took out a bottle of cold beer, and sat down in front of the computer weakly like a puppet with its strings cut.
I opened the bottle cap with force, and with a "click" sound, bubbles slowly emerged.
Yuliu took a sip of beer and looked at the video on the computer screen with empty eyes.
It was dusk in New York, near the Empire State Building.
A young boy in a hoodie was standing near the pit, his hands in his pockets, looking down at the giant ape in the pit with an expressionless face.
"Blue Rainbow King Flash..." As his voice fell, the stone statue beside him raised the scepter, aimed at the giant black ape, and a violent light shot out from above the scepter.
A strong wind swept past, lifting the boy's hair high. His cheeks were illuminated by the deep blue light for a moment. His face was as cold as a tyrant, and there was no ripple from beginning to end.
Just one second later, the giant ape's head was torn into pieces.
Accompanied by the cheers of the people of New York, the story of "Dragon Quest" slowly came to an end.
"According to the police report, David Kench had already been diagnosed with multiple symptoms of mental disorder. The Evolution Foundation had also long ago labeled the 'Ape of Purgatory' as an 'S-level high-risk sequence'. It is not surprising that he would lose control."
The announcer is still introducing the relevant information of this news.
In the upper right corner of the picture, there are two photos: one is a deliberately vilified David Kench; the other is a young man wearing a hoodie with an expression as cold as an executioner.
Yuliu's gaze stayed on the vicious photo in the upper right corner. It was clearly a deliberately ugly and funny photo, but the media used it to publicize his negative news.
He couldn't help laughing and said in a hoarse voice:
"Now, everyone knows that you have lived, my Mr. Tramp."
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