Don't Pick Up Wild People on the Roadside (Thirteen)
A peaceful farce ended when Yun Qing came out with a wet head.
Yun Qing was still wearing the same clothes, his hair and clothes were wet, and the B33 made a sharp explosion. After Yun Qing suppressed the other party, he looked at Jiang Yuan with wet eyes and asked the other party if he had any extra new clothes to lend him.
Jiang Yuanshi went into the bedroom closet and rummaged through clothes, asking what was going on while searching.
Yun Qing: "I wanted to test the water temperature first, but then I got soaked."
Jiang Yuanshi found a clean towel and handed it to the other party first, then found a few clothes of decent size and handed them to Yun Qing. Just as Yun Qing was about to enter the bathroom again, Z01's voice came out of nowhere and said, "Host, there is a quick-drying compartment in the corner of your bathroom."
Yun Qing and Jiang Yuanshi didn't answer, and the air was quiet.
Yun Qing: "Jiang Jiang, why don't you answer him?"
Jiang Yuanshi: "Aren't you his host?"
The two looked at each other, and at Yun Qing's strong suggestion, Z01 was forced to add a prefix.
"..." Z01, "Cloud host, I suggest you use the bathroom quick-drying compartment first."
Yun Qing: "But I just want to change into clean clothes, why do I need to dry quickly?"
Z01: "I suggest you change it later because I have a new trip out today."
Yun Qing was shocked: "What time is it? It's late at night."
Z01: "There's no daylight in downtown. It's 7:30 pm now."
Yun Qing showed a speechless expression, and Jiang Yuanshi explained the plan to him.
Jiang Yuanshi: "It's a temporary plan. I plan to go there later. Do you want to go?"
Yun Qing was not as decisive as before, and instead asked, "Can I go too?"
Jiang Yuanshi: "Why not?"
Yun Qing: "Because I can't do anything and can't help, I'll probably be a drag."
Jiang Yuanshi frowned: "Don't tell me B33 told you this."
Yun Qing shook his head. "No, I think so myself. After all, the previous mission was actually successful thanks to B33. And in the past, he was afraid that something might happen to me, so he asked me to find a safe place to stay."
Jiang Yuanshi: "That's unfortunate. This place isn't necessarily safe right now. Maybe Mu Changkong will appear due to the forced plot. And although you can't repair things, you can move things. Weren't you quite strong when you carried Mu Changkong before?"
Yun Qing's eyes lit up: "Are you serious?"
Jiang Yuanshi nodded: "There is no need for me to lie to you, so what are you going to do now?"
"Then wait for me, I can help you move the goods!" Yun Qing returned Jiang Yuan's clothes to him, pulled the towel on his head, and happily went to the bathroom to start studying the quick-drying chamber.
Jiang Yuanshi was a little worried: "Is the quick-drying chamber easy to operate?"
Z01 replied, "Understood. I'll go and help."
Z01 fell silent after he finished speaking. Yun Qing's conversation could be heard from the bathroom, and it sounded like he was discussing something with Z01.
Jiang Yuanshi changed his clothes and picked up the mechanical-related books on the table and started reading. The books were full of Jiang Yuan's notes, and it seemed that he had quite a bit of experience in mechanical modification.
While reading, some of Jiang Yuanshi's doubts were also resolved.
For example, what drives the machines in this world?
The Upper Town was similar to the world he lived in, relying on natural and artificial energy sources such as wind, solar, oil, and batteries. The most special of these was pheromones, but only the pheromones of top-level Alphas and Omegas could drive them.
The lower city area seems barren or extreme. They usually rely on looting the machinery thrown into the garbage dump in the upper city area to find some remaining energy.
Bioelectricity is most common among the modified humans in the Lower City. It simply relies on one's own human cells, but there are limits on its use. Exceeding the limit will consume one's life, which is pure krypton life. However, the people in the Lower City are already miserable.
They are all abandoned people, androids and the most primitive and oldest robots.
After repairing the car, Jiang Yuanshi and Yun Qing pushed the car and followed the system's navigation to the garbage dump.
There is no daytime in the perpetually dark downtown area, and it is difficult to confirm the time without external forces. Over time, people lose their sense of time and easily fall into depression and gradually despair.
The only way to get time is TV, a TV that can only receive one news program, which is broadcast on time at 8 o'clock every night. In order to get time, some people would rather consume electricity and play TV all day. After getting the time, some people take out their own clocks to adjust the time, some write it down by hand, and then use the hourglass they developed to record it every hour until new news appears again.
The privacy in the downtown area seemed to be not very good. Jiang Yuanshi was walking on the street, watching the lights in the houses turn on and seeing every move clearly through the windows.
It's 8 o'clock in the evening and the news has just started.
The houses in the Lower Town are very sophisticated, and almost every household has a TV. Jiang Yuanshi watched some news along the way, which were mostly about the development of the Upper Town, future decisions of the Upper Town, major breakthroughs, high-tech advertisements, and food that had never been seen in the Lower Town.
Isn't that a kind of cruelty?
Jiang Yuanshi felt that this was done intentionally by the Upper City District. The signal was not good, so they could only receive one channel, and it happened to be the same one. The more beautiful the Upper City District appeared, the more desolate the Lower City District seemed.
Let them see the beauty, but it is out of reach.
The more this happens, the more desperate it becomes, and the more likely it is to revolt. Almost every few years there is an organized large-scale riot in the lower town, just to break the barrier between the upper and lower town, paying countless blood, but only getting failure in return.
In the end, they were driven back to the downtown area and were unable to leave.
They arrived at the garbage dump. After B33 checked the surroundings, he said there were no other living things and scanned the available machinery. At the same time, Z01 at Yunqing's place was also done simultaneously.
The two of them divided the work, Yun Qing was responsible for some scattered small parts, while Jiang Yuanshi went to dismantle the abandoned robots.
Jiang Yuanshi pressed the button of his belt and handed Yun Qing a pair of tool gloves.
Yun Qing: "Then what are you going to do?"
"I don't need it. It takes a good feel to dismantle things." After saying this, Jiang Yuanshi climbed up the garbage mountain not far away and started rummaging through the garbage.
Yun Qing held the slightly worn, frayed gloves and murmured, "I haven't had time to say thank you yet."
Z01: "You can show your gratitude through work."
"That makes sense!" Yun Qing put on his gloves, patted his chest, and started working. "I have to say you're quite talkative sometimes, but you always come up with something out of the blue. Isn't Jiang Jiang startled by you?"
Z01: "...Probably not."
Yun Qing: "As expected of him, he has a big heart."
Z01 didn't answer, but said, "You're missing a part. It's on the left."
Yun Qing: "Oh, thank you."
On the other side, Jiang Yuanshi was quickly dismantling the lower leg of a headless robot. After finishing, he quickly ran to the other side of the mountain to dig out garbage, digging a large hole. While he was working hard, B33 said, "Qingqing and the others seem to be having a good chat."
Jiang Yuanshi lowered his head and dug a hole: "How did you find out?"
B33: "Qingqing looks very happy. I rarely see him like this during missions."
"He said you never took him with you before."
"Yes, because this environment is very dangerous. I don't want anything to happen to him. He should be in a safe place."
"Although you mean well, the system and the host are in a cooperative relationship. It's easy for you to take on all the work, but the prerequisite is whether the other party wants you to do so. If you do all the work, what else can you ask them to do? At least find some work for them. He seems to have a strong sense of self-esteem, so maybe he hopes I can help him."
As Jiang Yuanshi was digging, he was blocked by a huge iron cover. It looked very much like the chest cover of a robot in a book. After confirming it, he picked up an iron rod that had turned out from the side, poked it in, and pried it open. The iron cover opened, revealing a crystal blue-green liquid. "What is this?"
B33 finished testing and replied, "It's energy liquid. It can be used as a power source for robots. It's a rare energy source. It comes from Shangcheng District, Jiang Jiang."
Jiang Yuanshi lowered the lid to block the light source: "Thank you, please don't call me Jiang Jiang."
"But Qingqing calls you that, can't I?"
Jiang Yuanshi: "No, it's fine if he just calls you that, but you're just calling it to please Yun Qing. Of all the names you can call her, you chose one that would make both of us uncomfortable."
B33 was curious: "How did you figure that out?"
"I heard it. You emphasized your tone when you called that name." Jiang Yuanshi picked and chose, and found a few new-looking cube-shaped candy tins. "Can this kind of tin be used to hold energy liquid?"
B33: "Yes, but the duration is short. The energy liquid is corrosive, and the items stored in it require special metal materials."
Jiang Yuanshi clicked his tongue, put the candy box aside, and started digging around the edge of the iron sheet containing the energy liquid. Fortunately, the iron thing containing the energy liquid was not too big, half the size of a square-headed TV in the house. Jiang Yuanshi cut off the surrounding connecting wires and tied them up with circles of electric wire.
When wrapping it, he saw laser-engraved fonts on the edge of the iron box: M****6069. The font after the M was worn out and could not be seen clearly. It seemed to be a string code. Jiang Yuanshi took a look at it and smeared some dust on it, and the number was completely invisible.
After putting the small items into his storage belt, he picked up the iron box tightly wrapped with wires and slid down from the top of the garbage pile.
Yun Qing also found a lot of things. He placed the iron box at the bottom of the cart, and then he put small parts in to cover the iron box, and then piled some broken limbs on top.
Jiang Yuanshi looked up at the sparse lights on the iron fence of the garbage dump. The sky above the garbage dump was still dark and there was nothing.
But can such a garbage dump really be piled up artificially?
Without time to think, he and Yun Qing quickly evacuated the garbage dump.
The lights in the garbage dump flickered and then returned to normal.
Walking at night is indeed scary, but fortunately there is still news coming from the residents' homes. Listening to the time, it is almost 9 o'clock.
The two of them hurried home, and the journey was surprisingly safe.
The two returned home breathless.
Yun Qing was dirty and tired, sitting on the ground: "I'm so tired, these things are much heavier than the scumbag. Hey, Jiang Jiang, what are you doing?"
Jiang Yuanshi pressed the shoe cabinet against the door and replied, "I feel comforted."
Yun Qing understood: "Yeah, the lower city doesn't look safe. Besides, we were so safe all the way here. It's terrifying. According to the routine, we'll be surrounded and arrested in the next second."
Jiang Yuanshi sighed, "This is such a vivid scene. Maybe someone will come through the window soon... No, this is a high-tech era. Maybe the smart devices in my house will be controlled soon."
Yun Qing exclaimed, "Wow!" "That's the end."
Jiang Yuanshi: "Yeah, it's over, but it will be over sooner or later if we do nothing."
Yun Qing nodded: "That makes sense. Now that I'm here."
It doesn't sound like a sense of crisis at all, but rather like a double act.
B33 and Z01 fell silent.
They sorted out their things and placed them in the open space in the living room. As Jiang Yuanshi was walking around, he suddenly remembered something very important that he had forgotten. He asked, "Yunqing, how did you get to the Lower City? Can people from the Upper City enter and exit the Lower City freely?"
"Huh? Of course not. I sneaked out and found a scalper." Yun Qing answered while busy putting the parts away.
"Scalpers?" Who would go into the downtown area for no reason? There were actually scalpers.
"Yeah, scalpers, I was surprised, right? They said the cost of living in the Upper Town is so high that some ordinary people can't afford it, so they want to apply for a job in the company and come to the Lower Town to find specific items. The key is that you have to spend money to get a job. I don't know what good things there are in the Lower Town. Anyway, after you find something, you wait for a designated time to go to a designated place to exchange it for money. But you can't leave until you meet the required amount, otherwise you have to stay in the Lower Town until the next mission starts."
As Yun Qing was speaking, he suddenly thought of something and took a deep breath. He said quietly but quickly, "Oh no! If you hadn't mentioned it, I would have forgotten that I have to work, otherwise I won't be able to go back!"
Jiang Yuanshi was stunned. He subconsciously said, "Won't your position be automatically refreshed when it's your turn to appear?"
"Ah? Oh, right..." Yun Qing was also stunned, but then she realized, "No, they put a chip in me, which can locate me and detect my vital signs. If I'm not dead, then the scalper quietly told me that those who didn't go back have become idiots."
Jiang Yuanshi: "Z01 is not blocked?"
Fang's head suddenly lit up, and Z01 replied, "It's blocked and changing paths in real time."
"Ah!" Yun Qing screamed.
"Bang!" The mechanical head in Jiang Yuanshi's hand fell to the ground and rolled around.
Both of them were startled and looked at Fang's head.
Z01: "...I'm sorry."
Jiang Yuanshi calmed down and asked, "There's a company in Shangcheng District? What is that?"
Yun Qing: "Don't you know? That's the company that controls all of Planet A's technology, from bionic humans to food, snacks, and other daily necessities. They're super capitalists, and they're the only ones with the right to enter the downtown area."
"Is that so... then does it have a name?"
"Yes, yes. It's easy to remember because it's super disgusting." Yun Qing said disdainfully, "Everyone who hears it will find it ironic. It's called Mercy."
Mercy, kindness, compassion.
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