Chapter 38 The Land of Freedom (Part 5) Cheat Codes, A Thrilling Journey Begins...
“Chi You…” Xia Zhu stared blankly at her little sword, then suddenly seemed to remember something, looked up at Feng Mian, her eyes behind her glasses gleaming, “Are there any other families that disappeared into the river of history like Chi You?” Perhaps other families possessed the ability to recover.
Feng Mian paused for a moment. He hadn't thought about it that way before. Although the answer was in his heart, he still tried to search his memory. Perhaps at some point, his mother had mentioned something similar.
Unfortunately, he shook his head slightly, watching those candle-like eyes go out in the shadows.
Xia Zhu wasn't initially obsessed with finding out who she was, but the more people she spent time with, the more she developed feelings of dependence, and the more obvious her longing for family became.
Perhaps it's not family, but rather oneself, the yearning for a complete self.
She doesn't need a clear origin or destination, but she needs to understand herself; only a complete soul can serve as a solid support.
What she wanted was someone to be her absolute support.
Although things aren't too bad now, I always feel like something's missing.
Before Fengmian could say anything more, a huge whooshing sound seemed to sweep over him, followed by a large crater being smashed into the supermarket's food section.
"Another meteor is coming! Run!"
The two quickly rose from the ground and rushed towards the gate, overcoming numerous obstacles. There, their prized mounts and escape vehicles lay. In their frantic dash, they passed the disheveled man, still lying among a pile of bags. A quick glance revealed an expression of utter contentment, the most fulfilling life they had ever known.
These bags were empty, but they could hold his heart that had nowhere else to go.
A new wave of disaster began, with raging fireballs once again aimed at the already lifeless city. The two, bracing against the collapsing rooftops behind them, successfully climbed onto the small electric scooter.
"Alright, we have to do it again." Feng Mian said, starting the car. He had to admit that the little electric car started very quickly, instantly carrying the two of them away from a fiery judgment that came down from the sky.
The wind howled in their ears, and the rain of fire fell like a carnival of slaughter. The two people and their car chased the setting sun again amidst the meteor shower, driving away from this city of death.
The towering buildings teeter on the brink of collapse, and gray smoke rises from the crumbling walls. The setting sun is about to withdraw its last rays of golden light, but the broken screens, billboards, and roadside structures that are receding into the distance light up again after a few flashes.
The neon lights, like a swimming dragon, chased after the speeding electric car. Xia Zhu lifted herself up from the gale, and suddenly the giant screen in the center of a half-collapsed skyscraper in front of her lit up.
On the giant screen, there was a simple line-and-painted animation playing on a scrolling screen.
Under Xia Zhu's incredulous gaze, the red-haired girl on the screen, drawn with scribbled lines, was waving her arms. A string of bubbles appeared from the corner of her smiling mouth, containing crooked and distorted words.
"The First West City, Five-Star Tower".
Following the text were two even more scrawled little figures, one wearing black-rimmed glasses and baring its teeth and claws, and the other with fair skin making faces.
Before she could even see it clearly, the giant screen swept past her side. But this was just one of many. The once-desolate city was now ablaze with lights again. On high-rise buildings, in fast-food restaurants, and in back alleys, on every screen that could play images, a cartoon character with red hair was wildly waving his arms.
As the meteor shattered one, another lit up beside the speeding electric car. Now, the whole world is filled with the signal that someone has broken through the obstacles and lit up millions of lights that should have been extinguished. First West City, Five-Star Tower, that will be their next destination.
It's like a game that's about to end. The protagonist's path has come to an end, but the manipulator, unwilling to wait for death, inputs a string of cheat codes to break the predetermined ending, hoping that they can fight their way out of the predicament and walk towards the dawn again. The apocalypse is an old chapter, and the heroes will surely be reborn in the end.
"It's her! It's Xiaofeng!" Feng Mian's voice sounded incredibly excited. The speed beneath him, which should have already reached its limit, seemed to have increased again. The stolen battery was sizzling as it burned. What did the falling fire meteor matter? It was all just to create an atmosphere of the protagonist running towards hope.
Xia Zhu gripped Feng Mian's clothes tightly; otherwise, she might have been violently thrown behind by the overloaded electric scooter. First West City—she knew where that was.
The map torn from the children's room simply divided the world into four parts: east, west, south, and north. The west had four main cities, and their destination was the first door to knock on in the western region.
So, for the rest of their journey, they relied on stolen batteries to drive from the mountains out of the snow-capped mountains and into the Gobi Desert. They rested and changed their medicine in caves, avoiding shooting stars and all-night rain. Although the distribution here was the same as in the real world, the distance was greatly shortened. Otherwise, according to the original length, it would have been impossible to know when they would have been able to reunite with Feng Feng and the others.
In the past few days, the two of them have also figured out the pattern of the natural disaster. Every evening when the sun sets, a fireball will fall all over the world, lasting for about two or three hours. If they can find a safe shelter during this time, they can temporarily escape the disaster.
A few days ago there were some mountains to cover them, but today the Gobi Desert is flat and there isn't even a large rock. Evening is approaching, and they need to hurry and drive into the city.
The First West City is now within sight, on the horizon.
Xia Zhufengmian hadn't slept for several nights in a row in order to meet up with Feng Feng as soon as possible. After traveling for several days, he looked even worse than the homeless man from that day. After setting foot in the western region, their backpacks were almost full of mineral water, and they only had some dry food to fill their stomachs.
The two looked disheveled and exhausted, as if they were on their way to a sacred place to seek enlightenment. As if things weren't going to go wrong, the white dragon horse and the electric scooter finally succumbed to the pressure and died a glorious death.
Braving the scorching sun that was moving westward, they decided to walk into the city.
The vast Gobi Desert was like an old roll of raw Xuan paper, with only yellow sand and withered, gnarled camel thorns as the sole embellishments in its desolation. If it weren't for the steel building with a red five-pointed star standing before them under the setting sun, the two would have been tormented by this endless loneliness and unable to take another step.
"Is this the Five-Star Tower that Xiao Feng mentioned?" Feng Mian's throat was practically hoarse. He was usually reluctant to speak, but the tower rose from the ground amidst a sea of yellow sand. He was afraid he was hallucinating and seeing things wrong, so he asked Xia Zhu, who was already in a state of malfunction, for confirmation.
Although the tower is located far from the main urban area in view, the steel building without any openings on all four sides does indeed exist.
The high temperature caused air to fluctuate, and the dazzling red star seemed to melt in the air currents.
With the last drop of water gone, the two men, like fleeing refugees, helped each other across the border.
When they reached the gate of the tower compound, Feng Mian and Xia Zhu almost burst into tears. Feng Mian's mental defenses finally collapsed, as he kept imagining how hard his little sister had worked these past few days.
They traveled thousands of miles to find a safe place to stay and conveyed a message of hope to them amidst the disaster.
The two looked at each other in silence, tears streaming down their faces. However, Feng Mian's tears left grayish-black marks on his face and revealed his fair skin underneath. Seeing his comical appearance, Xia Zhu couldn't help but laugh out loud.
But she herself wasn't much better off; when she smiled, she revealed a row of white teeth, like the cover of a toothpaste tube.
The two were grinning at each other, and before they could even say anything joking, a group of men in black suddenly rushed out from inside the compound and seized them without a word. Exhausted, Xia Zhu and Feng Mian could only be carried into the Five Star Building by the men in black, their heads spinning.
Xia Zhu turned her head with difficulty and saw her tattered backpack left outside the gate. She called out weakly, "My bag...my bag..."
Fortunately, one of the men in black heard her plea, returned to the spot, and picked up her bag. Xia Zhu could finally hang her head and let them drag her along.
This place is practically impenetrable; no wonder it survived the natural disaster. The entire building seems to have been specifically constructed for this impact, with steel forming a seamless whole from the inside out. Xia Zhu lowered his head, looking at the floor so smooth it reflected his disheveled appearance, unable to find a single gap. It was as if the entire building was constructed from a single piece of celestial iron.
The man in black carried the two for a long time before finally letting go in a large hall. Without any support, Xia Zhu and Feng Mian knelt down on the ground.
The two men, their faces pressed to the ground, exchanged a brief glance for a few seconds.
It is roughly:
"What's going on?"
"I don't know."
"It feels like we've been dragged into court by lowly soldiers, and now we're about to face a boss looking down on us?"
"I don't know."
"Should we run?"
"My bag is still in their hands."
Feng Mian sighed, and just as he straightened up by supporting himself with his hands, a red cannonball rushed towards them with lightning speed.
"Brother! Ah Zhu!"
The red cannonball transformed into a small red whirlwind, slamming into the two men, with one arm firmly locking their throats.
"I knew you guys would come!!"
Feng Feng's face was covered in tears and snot. He hugged the two of them and then quickly pulled away.
"You don't smell too good. It seems you've had a tough journey."
She pushed the two travel-worn heads a little further away.
The men in black sent a representative forward to respond.
"Miss, the person has been brought here, we'll be going down now."
"Go down, go down." Feng Feng waved his hand casually.
Miss? ? ?
Feng Mian was quite shocked by the earthquake in her pupils. What kind of melodramatic script was she playing? It turned out that she was the only one among them who was a purely enthusiastic citizen.
"Let me take you guys to take a bath and have something good to eat first. A new wave of fire meteors is coming soon." Feng Feng waved behind her, and they then saw that Ying Ya had been standing behind her all along. When Miss Feng Feng spoke, the loyal bodyguard and butler silently stepped forward and extended his one intact arm to support Feng Mian.
He wanted to refuse, but his legs were too unsteady, so he could only grit his teeth and let Ying Ya support him.
This place resembled a secure base, with mountains of supplies and a group of men in black walking back and forth in an orderly fashion, seemingly on patrol.
Xia Zhu breathed a sigh of relief. Seeing how obedient they were to Feng Feng, she felt at ease and took a hot bath, washing away all her fatigue. Only then did she feel hungry, as if she could eat a whole cow.
"So what have you been through these past few days?" Xia Zhu and Feng Mian washed up, and the four of them sat down around the dining table again. He was very curious about what script Feng Feng had brought.
"Oh dear, I'm actually quite confused too." Feng Feng chuckled, scratching his head. Even the most luxurious life couldn't change the honest and simple heart of a man.
Sure enough, another wave of fireballs struck, but the steel fortress could withstand the rapid onslaught for several hours. The people sitting at the dining table exchanged their experiences after entering the dream for several days, eating the fresh food on their plates. Water was no longer scarce.
The sounds of impact and explosion were isolated by layers of protection, like a brightly lit banquet, with guests dining and dazzling fireworks lit up outdoors, seemingly only lacking a musician to play an elegant piece.
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