"We're facing three major difficulties now." Mike had calmed down. Although his eyes and nose were still red, his voice was calm and a little embarrassed. "First, how do we get back to Kemingting now?"
"Second, where are the others?"
"Third, what's the mechanism behind the formation of this fog? Can we just leave it alone?"
Nixon and his colleagues worked well together. As soon as Mike finished speaking, he snatched his coat back from the other party, turned around and asked Azathoth and his group, "What do you think?"
This person said he was seeking advice, but his face actually said: I know you have a way to solve this quickly.
Normally, Nixon would not have let down his guard so easily in such an unfamiliar environment, but Igor made him feel so familiar that this commentator, who had been working in society for many years, skillfully pushed the blame away as if he was joking with an old friend. Only then did he realize that he didn't know any of the people in front of him.
"..." Nixon was stunned for a moment, rubbed his reddish-brown hair in frustration, and apologized to them, "I'm sorry, I'm not..."
At this moment, the earth shook again, interrupting his words.
Hugo's magic show was scheduled for three in the afternoon, and by the time Igor and Azathoth arrived from the seashore, the light from the star hanging in the sky had already begun to dim. It was now around four or five o'clock. If one were inside Keminting Town, one should be able to see the planet's two satellites slowly rising above the horizon, casting pale white shadows against the azure sky.
But in this thick fog, the only thing you can see is the 'sun'.
It fell to the edge of the horizon, like a pickled salted duck egg yolk, neither warm nor dazzling, gently illuminating the ground with warm orange light.
At this moment, just beneath the star, in the light orange mist, faintly emerged black figures like towering mountains. Monsters born from the mist opened their huge, bright red eyes, their gaze piercing beyond the reach of human technology as they gazed upon these uninvited guests who had intruded into the fog.
Hugo suddenly said, "I heard the screams of humans."
Nixon immediately asked, "Where?"
"Don't worry." Igor patted his shoulder soothingly. This simple action made the commentator, who was anxious again, incredibly calm.
Nixon felt himself once again enveloped in the illusion of talking with an old friend.
For a moment, he looked at the sunset surrounded by curling mist. Although there were unknown terrifying creatures hiding in the distance, he felt that he was in a warm room with a burning fire, wearing loose home clothes and sitting in an armchair covered with a wool blanket, holding a leisure book that had nothing to do with his profession and work in his hand, greeting and chatting with friends with a happy smile.
——However, the scene that emerged in his mind was so clear, only the face of the friend he was talking to was blurry.
Just like the fog before his eyes, his old friend, who used to walk arm in arm with him, passed him by in the fog, and took a different path that intersected with his own. He didn't even know who to talk to about remembrance and salvation.
Igor had no idea how many complicated thoughts were rising in his friend's mind because of his habitual intimate gesture.
After the ground shaking subsided, Hugo whispered to Azathoth, "Azathoth... I feel I can now control the androids in this fog. They were supposed to be controlled by another 'me,' but for some reason it's turned itself off, giving up its control."
Azathoth didn't seem surprised. "Can you find the others and gather them here?"
Hugo curled his lips.
"I can," it said reluctantly. "Consider it their reward for responding to my invitation."
Azathoth nodded: "I will go and deal with this fog."
He didn't lower his voice when he said this, and Nixon and Mike couldn't help but focus their eyes on this strange man in the black cloak.
Beside them, Erica heaved a sigh of relief, her expression relaxed as if the problem had been solved. She bowed respectfully to Azathoth and said, "Thank you for your help!"
Igor asked, "Shall I go with you?"
Azathoth shook his head.
He took a silver coin from Hugo, then turned and walked toward the sun. It was only then that someone noticed Azathoth was not wearing shoes... perhaps they, like Igor's coat, had been lost somewhere in the mist. He walked barefoot, facing the sun, on this barren, desolate, gravelly, and iron-clad road. He seemed unhurried, yet his pace was swift.
Nixon looked at his dark back from afar, and suddenly felt a sense of déjà vu at this moment.
This figure...seems like I've seen it somewhere before.
This chaotic space, where time and space intertwined, seemed to realize what Azathoth was about to do. A violent gust of wind suddenly rose from the deadly air. This gust of wind blew towards him with a clear purpose, lifting the hem of Azathoth's robe. In an instant, like an eagle spreading its wings, it cast a hideous, twisted shadow on the uneven ground against the setting sun.
The god's figure is as still as a mountain.
“Stop making trouble.” He whispered in a calm and ordinary tone, as if he was teaching a disobedient child at home.
Azathoth walked all the way under the round sun, and the mist behind him was blown away by the strong wind, cutting a straight path like Moses parting the sea.
The scattered sunlight coalesced into a horizontal line, illuminating the scattered mist and spreading a golden carpet across the ruins. But even the brightest sunlight seemed unable to warm the being before it—he was still surrounded by a chaotic darkness. Light was so afraid to even touch the hem of his robe that it passed around this god who had appeared there for unknown reasons, acting with unprecedented obedience.
At the same time, the robots in the thick fog were commanding the humans scattered nearby like sheep.
This group of people first fell into an unfamiliar environment and were frightened by the red eyes that suddenly appeared on the horizon. Then, the mechanical zombie army that crawled up looked like an army commanded by the devil in their eyes, causing extremely serious secondary trauma to people's spirits.
To be honest, Hugo's behavior when he first led them there was definitely not rude.
It politely tried to have the most basic communication with this group of ordinary people, but it had forgotten what the robots it had built in the past actually looked like - not only were they missing arms and legs, but many of them had only half an eyeball in their eye sockets, the texture under their bionic skin was exposed, their expressions were stiff and empty, and their behaviors were full of incoordination (caused by replacing inferior parts).
Calling them zombies might be praising them.
All in all, it is no wonder that these people took up their weapons to resist in extreme panic.
However, Hugo did not want to fight them.
After realizing that verbal communication was a fantasy, the android quickly changed its strategy and quickly put itself into the role of the big devil. In fact, compared to the helpful little angel, it was obviously more adept at this villain setting of scaring people half to death and then laughing out loud. It skillfully used its devilish appearance to scare the humans into crawling and rolling to the square near the tent.
However, there was a small error in the process.
Hugo accidentally scared a little human girl to tears.
The child tripped over a rock and fell to the ground, followed by monsters from a horror movie set. She was shaking with fear and wailing. A parent who was halfway ahead heard the crying and realized her child was missing. She turned around, met Hugo's gaze, and rushed to the little girl. She tried several times to pick her up but failed miserably - her legs were weak with fear.
She could only tremble and stretch out her arms to block the android.
The bionic man with half of his head missing fell into a suspicious silence as he watched the touching scene before him.
The wailing of the child resounded through the sky, mixing with the arrogant laughter of the nearby robots, and the lingering sound lingered for three days.
The android finally couldn't bear it anymore and rubbed one foot on the ground uneasily.
Then it bent down, and amid the girl's mother's screams, it took out a black hat from somewhere and handed it to the little girl, passing over the arms of the adults who were struggling to stop it.
"Hand...in..."
Its old voice machine spoke in a staccato voice.
The little girl stopped crying, looked up at it blankly, shrank back a little, and looked down at the hat again.
She carefully reached under the brim of her hat and pulled out a tattered stuffed rabbit.
"Look what you took out?"
The android spoke in a gruff voice, learning on the spot, and his ferocious tone sounded more like a butcher than a magician.
"A rabbit!"
"..." The girl sat there with her mouth wide open, foolishly pinching her rabbit ears. After a moment, she broke into a wide grin and shouted to the adults around her, "Mom! Look! It's a magic trick!"
She happily leaned into the arms of her still-trembling guardian and raised the dirty doll in her hands, "Mom! Mom! Look, this is the little rabbit I just caught!"
"Can I play again?" The human cub was no longer afraid of Hugo. "I can exchange it for candy, thank you!"
However, the android rejected her.
"You already have your own rabbit," the robot said slowly, "and the remaining rabbits will be shared with other children."
The girl before it looked as if she accepted this.
But her expression was visibly downcast.
The android tilted his head to look at her for a moment, then took out a silver coin from his pocket: "Do you like music boxes? I can give this to you."
"Ah!" The little girl jumped up in surprise again. "Thank you. I will definitely cherish it this time! My mother accidentally lost the silver coin before, and I thought I would never find it again."
The android's gaze shifted from the little girl happily fiddling with the silver coins to the adult with a complicated expression.
"Let's go." It urged calmly, "The others are waiting for you."
On the other side, Azathoth stood in front of a silver gate that appeared out of thin air above the ruins under the sun, under the fearful gaze of people in the distance.
The silver coin in his hand had somehow turned into an ancient silver key, which looked exactly like the door in front of him.
"Have you made up your mind?" Azathoth did not immediately insert the key into the door lock. Instead, he asked someone unknown, "Go through this door, and you can go to the place you most want to return to and see the person you most want to see."
"Even so, will you let this nameless mist dissipate and close the door forever?"
The broken sand beneath his feet arched, and suddenly an arm emerged.
The arm patted the ground, swept away the rocks and tiles above, and then pulled out a head that was leaking air on all sides.
"There's nothing to think about." The android snorted impatiently, "I've long forgotten what happened in the past."
Azathoth smiled down at it and said nothing more.
The silver key in his hand turned into powder, sparkling with silver light, and scattered in the milky white mist like gauze.
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