“Beep, beep, beep.”
The drone hovered over the city, looking down at the earth with its cold metal lens.
A young but listless man with common brown curly hair and a little stubble on his face hurried across the street corner. As he walked, he brushed back a handful of long hair on his forehead and looked up at the sky where the cold wind was howling.
“Maybe it’s going to snow soon…?” Winter is almost here in the Northern Hemisphere.
The air was filled with a sense of desolation and desolation. The straight streets were deserted, and the traffic lights at the intersections flickered alone. A hovercraft draped with a colorful banner, trailing a long tail of flames, glided around the nearby buildings. Above the banner was a message about a celebration held two weeks ago, and it hadn't been replaced to this day.
There were several screens on the roof of the building ahead, showing today's morning news:
"Ms. Sabrina Guevera attended a press conference last night. She acknowledged her health condition but said she was recovering and that it was not affecting her daily life and work."
"The Bureau recently completed the internal spy elimination mission assigned by His Excellency the Archon, effectively thwarting the Zerg's conspiracy. Further investigations and position changes are still being planned."
"After several years, His Holiness the Pope regained consciousness and issued a long statement to calm the public's panic, stating that 'everything is under control, and God will protect all devout believers.'"
At this moment, the brown-haired young man was suddenly patted on the shoulder.
He was so frightened that he almost threw the other person over his shoulder reflexively. He restrained himself and turned around suddenly. A cold wind carrying sand and gravel blew towards him, forcing him to squint his eyes. It took him a long time to recognize the identity of the person who had just grabbed him.
"Hello?" He rubbed his eyes and greeted in a muffled voice.
"Long time no see, Yuri!" A young man, still wearing a light leather jacket with an unzipped top and a loose-collared T-shirt underneath, greeted him enthusiastically. "Where have you been lately? I haven't seen you working at the zoo in a while. I heard you were in the hospital. Are there any aftereffects?"
"Oh, I didn't recognize you when I saw you on the street just now. Did you shave? You look much younger. I thought you were in your thirties or forties, but it turns out you're about my age!"
As he spoke, the young man came over with an attitude that was so familiar that it could almost be called flirtatious, and put an arm around Yuri's shoulders.
"I was discharged a long time ago and am in good health. I shaved, and I'm definitely in my late 30s." Yuri frowned, struggling slightly to break free from the young man's warm embrace. A stronger push would have seemed abrupt. He coughed twice and briefly answered the other man's question.
"Want to have a drink?"
Yuri quickly refused: "No, I have something else to do."
"Why are you such a killjoy?" the young man complained, tightening his arms. "It was the same before. We were all here to work, and everyone else was easy to talk to, but you were the only one who kept to yourself every day, as if you were on some secret mission. Your colleagues think you look down on us, that you're a fool who can't recognize the facts and is still lost in the past, but Albert and I both think you have a unique aura... Do you remember Albert?" he asked ambiguously, "that cute Omega?"
Yuri frowned even more tightly: "I don't remember."
"What a shame, we all like you. Albert has always wanted to sleep with you. Did he invite you personally?"
"...What on earth do you want? I'm really busy."
"What are you busy with?" The young man's expression turned slightly cold. "You look quite good. Could it be that some rich man has taken a fancy to you? I say, you don't think you're superior just because you have a little useless knowledge in your head, do you? I heard that you didn't even graduate from college. What's there to be proud of?"
"Don't move. If you do anything to me I'll scream 'sexual harassment' right now."
Yuri glanced at him coldly and indifferently, without correcting his distinction between undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral degrees: "It's you who's harassing me now."
"But I'm an Omega and you're an Alpha." The young man didn't think Yuri's anger was anything to worry about, and replied with a grin, "People will definitely side with me... Okay, stop glaring at me. I finally met you, how about going for a drink? Then I'll let you go. Albert and Lily are nearby, don't you want to meet them?"
Yuri finally followed him to the bar.
It was ten o'clock in the morning, and he had just dropped Erica off at school and was on his way home. Williams planned to teach him a new defensive method this afternoon, and they had agreed to meet at noon, so if nothing went wrong, they would have made it.
Williams rarely discussed anything other than daily teaching with Yuri. They were like a teacher and a student in a cram school, completely separate once class was over. Since they were temporarily living under the same roof, Yuri would occasionally see the android sitting on the balcony drinking... and he wondered where the alcohol ended up.
But Yuri himself rarely drinks.
Due to his profession, he has no fondness for these negative and addictive things.
So this was also his first time in a bar in many years.
His former colleague, Correji, walked to a small corner with ease and said to a man and a woman who were chatting on both sides of a round table, "Look who I brought here!"
Corey's voice was loud, attracting the attention of some people in the bar. However, it was still early in the morning, so not many people were looking for fun in places like this. Yuri recognized the people sitting at the table as the "Albert" and "Lily" Corey had mentioned, his former colleagues, a couple of young, idle hooligans. The former was a somewhat attractive Omega, the latter a female Beta.
They squeezed together and sat down around the table. Albert was the first to greet them: "Yuri, what a rare guest."
Yuri didn't want to pay much attention to him.
Even though the other person is an Omega...but no one stipulates that an Alpha must be in heat towards an Omega.
The young man glanced down at the time on his mobile device and said, "I have something else to do. I'll just have a drink and leave."
Lily blinked and smiled and asked, "Did you find a new job? One that's more respectable than being a zoo cleaner?"
"It's just more suitable." Yuri said expressionlessly without smiling.
The girl opposite raised her lips. "How is it appropriate? I heard you used to be a doctor. Are you working in a clinic now? Looking after the warehouse or cleaning... Can't they afford robots? Anyway, to celebrate your new job, I have to buy you a drink."
She stood up and walked to the bar to place her order.
The remaining Albert looked at him cautiously: "You look a little different from before."
Koreji also ordered a glass of wine and said as he drank, "Are you thinking of getting a room with him again?"
Albert didn't refute, but flirted with Yuri.
Yuri pretended not to notice, his impatience growing. He couldn't understand why he had wasted his time in such a place... He should have just thrown Koregi over the shoulder and walked away. However, he had been a law-abiding citizen before, and his violent tactics had only been learned in the past two days. When faced with such a situation, his first reaction was to negotiate.
Never mind, just consider it as a chance to break away from the past.
He was thinking about finding an opportunity to make his point clear.
Albert couldn't get a response from him and couldn't help showing a disappointed expression.
Koreji felt that Yuri had become more arrogant and difficult to get along with after not seeing him for a while.
At this time, Lily came back and pushed a glass of wine in front of Yuri: "Here, I ordered something good for you."
She said meaningfully, "You'll like it."
Yuri pressed his temples, feeling the chaotic darkness surrounding him, the thick odor of alcohol and cigarettes, and the ever-present, faint music lingering in his ears, creating a splitting headache. He didn't quite understand the common sense of pain, but the discomfort of a twitching nerve in his brain was another matter. His left hand reached into his pocket and fumbled for the small knife he'd carried before leaving the house, as was his custom.
The blade cut the fingertip and blood seeped into the fabric. The wound was not big, and even if the recovery was not fast, it would heal in a few minutes.
Imagining the scene of muscles and bones being neatly cut, Yuri gradually calmed down and regained his composure.
He shook the wine glass in front of him, looked at the murky liquid inside, and without any intention of taking a sip, he bluntly refused: "I don't drink, you guys continue. I'll leave in ten minutes."
Koreji raised his eyebrows and leaned back in his chair in a frivolous manner. "How should you describe your behavior? 'If you don't accept the toast, you will be punished,' isn't that what they say?"
"Yes," Albert whispered.
Koreji rolled his eyes, pushed the table aside and stood up.
The plastic chair next to him was knocked over by him and fell to the ground, but the sound of the stool falling was covered by a louder sound - the door of the bar was pushed open from the outside, and with a bang, it rotated 180 degrees and hit the wall.
A large group of fully armed men carrying controlled firearms rushed in in a well-trained manner. The one at the front shouted, "Search warrant! Everyone raise your hands..."
Before he could finish his words, the bartender at the front desk suddenly smashed the glass he was wiping to pieces, and while bending over, he pulled out a gun from under the counter and started shooting without warning.
What the hell?
What the hell?!
In a moment of deep confusion, Yuri, thanking Hugo, Azathoth, and Williams, used all his life's knowledge (even though he himself would not die) to kick Koreji, who was standing beside him, under the table. Koreji was even more confused than him. He spun like a top and fell to the ground, screaming, "What's going on?!"
How would I know?
Yuri complained in his heart. Judging from the fierce fighting between the two sides, at least this group of people were not coming for him.
So that's probably the problem with this bar.
It's an unexpected disaster. I really shouldn't have come to drink today.
He also hid under the table to avoid attracting other people's attention. He took the time to look at his mobile terminal and found that it was almost eleven o'clock.
Elsewhere, Lily also dragged Albert inside, and the four of them huddled under the same table, staring at each other. Except for Yuri, the other three had obvious confusion on their faces.
Then they saw a light come on.
It was Yuri who unlocked the screen and started typing.
Albert saw out of the corner of his eye the first line of the text message: "To Williams: Sorry, teacher, I may not be able to get back in time for class this afternoon..."
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