Chapter 1,263 Chance Encounter

In fact, according to ordinary people's habits, if someone has traveled thousands of miles to find someone, you should go through the process of picking them up after picking them up from the station. It is reasonable to first let the guests from afar take a day and a half to rest. After all, there is a saying: a journey of thousands of miles is tiring. Traveling far away is always a tiring job. So my first plan was to let Anulili rest for a while, but the other party said that she was not tired at all, and she didn't even realize that she had traveled God knows how many "thousands of mountains and rivers". From the world she lives in to the Shadow City, the distance can no longer be measured in terms of distance. It can be said that this is a journey that can be scary in terms of numbers, but in fact, Anulili runs this distance even faster. The total time spent on getting to and from the station is only twenty-two minutes... The empire's teleportation technology has changed a lot of things based on common sense. I feel like I'm simply arranging accommodation for the day for a girl who just left home twenty minutes ago. It's one of the worst things I've ever done.

Since there is no need to rest, it is natural to lead Anulili around directly. Anyway, it is not meal time yet. My daily life has always been divided by meal times. This is easier to use than the schedule. Maybe I am suffering from this. Now that we have just left the Dimension Hub Square, Anulili is still immersed in the magnificent buildings here, so I decided to plan the sightseeing route first and then help her get out.

And at this moment, without me noticing, Anulili struck up a conversation with the small vendors that can be seen everywhere near the hub square. This was my mistake, especially when I noticed Anulili in front of her. When I asked who it was, I felt even more that it was my mistake...

Anulili stopped in front of a stall with a curious face. The stall owner was a rather burly middle-aged man. It was not surprising that he was tall. The strange thing is that the other party is also wearing a black suit that is obviously specially made and enlarged. A burly soldier-like vendor. Vendors dressed in suits as if preparing to attend a United Nations meeting. Such vivid and mismatched costumes are impossible to find anywhere else in the Shadow City.

Anulili was playing with the things on the stall in her hands, which were some shiny accessories: girls are indeed naturally interested in these things. The middle-aged man setting up the stall seized the opportunity to sell his products, and his upright face seemed to have a radiance of justice. It makes people feel that if you don’t believe his sales pitch, you are simply violating your own conscience: “Young lady, you have good taste. This is an amulet made from the mantle crystals on the planet Tuha 3. It was specially opened by the temple priest. The entire It's a rare treasure in the world. The original price is 68,000 yuan. I'll give you a discount of 3.5 yuan and take it, so don't miss this opportunity..."

Facts have proved that if you believe his sales pitch, it will be even more contrary to your own conscience.

At this point in time, Cicaro does not have much to do, but this does not mean that he can push his stall into the commercial restricted area, and it does not mean that he can use things produced by the Fifth Glass Factory to fool people. A girl who is new to the world. Of course, we have to say whether the priests in the temple usually undertake the consecration business. Anyway, my reaction now is to slap that guy on the shoulder: "Hey!"

I thought I reacted quickly enough, but the old bastard still ran out as nimble as ever. The strong wind swept across half of the square, and then a group of people wearing red hoops emerged from the intersection around the Dimensional Hub Square. Chase the elegant and sturdy black figure and disappear at the end of the avenue. My raised right hand froze in the air, and then I turned around and smiled awkwardly at my sister.

"You can never catch a pure agility MT with all the intelligence points." Facing his sister's smiling eyes. I explained to myself this way, and at the same time I was glad that the one who came out today was not Lin Xue, that poisonous girl, otherwise the eldest lady would have followed closely: "Mumu, are you really smarter?"

After being together for more than four years, I am already familiar with that girl's character.

Then I heard my sister say with a smile: "Ajun, are you really smarter?"

Me: "..." This world is cruel sometimes, okay, I admit that my talent points are bullshit.

"That was..." Anulili was still holding a small teardrop-shaped amulet in her hand: produced by the Fifth Glass Factory, claiming to come from the mantle. She didn't know the local customs here in Shadow City, and now she is very He wondered, "I haven't paid yet... Oh, by the way, I don't have your currency either."

"It's okay. The Imperial Ministry system does not use currency, and the currency system of the macro world has nothing to do with you for the time being... Well, that's not the point. Anyway, you don't have to worry about that thing just now. I'm familiar with him, just leave it to me. This gadget is a gift for you."

Anulili nodded in understanding, and Quan regarded this as a special custom of the Shadow City. Then we led her towards the World Tree Temple. If there is any place in the Shadow City that is the most spectacular, then there are two of them. One is the huge ring-shaped structure in the sky of the city, the headquarters of the Military Command. This solemn and huge metal ring is the symbol of the new empire's servant army system, but It belongs to a military zone and is obviously not suitable for showing Anulili around. The other one is the World Tree Temple. Although from the outside it looks like just a tree, it is a tree with a trunk radius that can be measured in kilometers... anything at this size is spectacular.

And more importantly, the avenue from the Dimensional Hub Square to the Temple of the World Tree passes through the most prosperous area of ​​Shadow City. Not only does the street view have great views, there are many wonderful items from various worlds, and it also passes through several settlements of different races. . This means that along the way we can let Anulili see what the coming of all nations is, what the capital of all worlds is, and what a Megatron is coming from the south with two kilograms of Pikachu in his hand. Ultraman came with a Master Ball look on his face...

Leaving the Dimensional Hub Square and walking away from the military zone, the scene along the way will become more and more prosperous: although the Hub Square can also be said to be crowded with people, it is adjacent to the fortress after all, so it cannot be as lively as the business district. of. Anulili followed me and my elder sister closely like a little animal that came outside for the first time. This capable and mature girl now came to a place where she felt at a loss, and she also showed such a sense of bewilderment. appearance. But this did not dispel her curiosity. After a little adapting to this unexperienced environment, Anulili began to happily ask my sister and me about the strange things we saw along the way. In fact, to be honest, I don’t recognize many things in the Shadow City... God knows what kind of things they were brought from which world, by which race. So I could only pick up things I knew and introduce them to her.

"I have never seen a place like this..." Anulili watched in amazement as a group of short races with light blue skin ran past. She took a cautious half step back. To prevent being hit, "It's so prosperous...so big...so many different races live together. You don't even know how many races there are here, do you?"

"Well, indeed. The scale of the macro world is too big," I scratched my head. "The racial composition of the Shadow City changes every day. Sometimes there are only two or three people sent to the Shadow City from a world. And they may stay here. You will go back in less than a day, so you can see new faces here every day. Only one-third of the city's population is permanent, and the rest are floating people."

Anulili didn’t know much about the macro world, so I briefly introduced to her the unprecedented scale of the civilian network established by this new empire. When she knew that this was an infinite expansion, the number of races involved was larger than theirs. When the population of the system was still large, she didn't close her mouth for a long time, and then looked around with a look of disbelief on her face: "God... how big is the empire?"

"Bigger than any behemoth you could imagine," I said proudly. Because everything in front of me was witnessed by myself and built up bit by bit. "Even the light capital world is not as simple as what you see. The shadow city you see, and even the planet above the shadow city, are just a 'block' of the capital world. Outside of this space, there is Ah Vallon and Celestial City, as well as a native planet called the Mother Continent, each place is larger than Shadow City, these are the neighborhoods of the capital world. I will take you to Avalon later to see, every time there are guests I want to take them there, it’s the most beautiful place I’ve ever seen.”

Anulili seemed to have almost forgotten the purpose of coming here (in fact, she really didn't know what she was here to do). She had been completely attracted by this place that could be described as a miracle. The capital of a huge cross-world civilization like the Empire is full of places that ordinary people find incredible and even difficult to understand. Many people have lived in the Shadow City for three or four years, but they have yet to fully understand this city: the speed of its development Even faster than you understand it.

"I feel like a primitive person entering civilized society for the first time," Anulili said suddenly a little frustrated, while mentioning her long dress that may have been carefully selected but still a little shabby: I guess I was in the war. In the post-war world, it is impossible for a "leader" like her to find better clothes. She has always been wearing a uniform, but today she changed into a long skirt. It is obvious that she also attaches great importance to this visit to the capital of the empire to "see the world" My experience was, “I don’t understand anything, and I’m shocked by everything I see.”

She is just an ordinary girl who is only seventeen or eighteen years old.

I patted Anulili on the shoulder. Somehow, I admired this girl inexplicably. Perhaps the only explanation is that I saw in her the shadow of my sister back then: strong and immature, carrying a heavy burden. Despite the heavy burden, she gritted her teeth and persevered to the end. Under her mature and strong appearance, deep down she was still an ordinary girl who also hoped to live an ordinary and safe life. This was so similar to my sister back then. It was just me back then. Ignorant and ignorant, I calmly enjoyed the peaceful life that my sister brought me. Only today can I realize how much of a burden this is for a teenage child.

"Do you feel like a local girl?" I smiled and said to Anulili, "Or do you feel that you come from a backward civilization and feel a little uneasy? Don't worry, no one here cares about this. You see, the macro world gathers here Visitors from countless civilizations, not all of which are so civilized and prosperous. Here, no one cares about the origins of the people walking by, and no one cares whether your mother race has occupied its own universe. Here Not only is Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, but the empire is also an insurmountable peak. Under this premise, all other races will not fight here: even if they may beat their brains out elsewhere, but in the shadow City, every race is indeed equal.”

"...a very strange way of 'equality'." Anulili was very smart, so after thinking for a while, she said this with a weird smile.

"It is indeed a very strange 'equality'," my sister nodded slowly. "Many visitors of his race will also have fights when they first come to Shadow City. They may even have feuds or something like that. But when they find out that they have bloody things that have been fought for for more than ten generations, When the value here is no more than two steamed buns, you can't fight anymore. The sense of superiority of certain races is also eliminated in this way. When they first came here, they felt that they were better than the 'primitive races' in the macro world. More civilized. More advanced. It wasn’t until I lived there for a few days that I realized that all of them were primitive people. No matter how advanced they were, that is, they had advanced from making stone tools to neolithic tools...how could this continue to be superior?"

If a billboard falls and hits ten people, nine of them may have saved the world, and the remaining one may be an Imperial soldier. No one can be awesome. That's the truth. Admittedly, this is not true equality, unity and friendship for all, but that ideal state is unlikely to occur. Shadow City maintains a peaceful environment based on tacit understanding and collective compromise. This is already theoretically possible. The best mode.

At this time. We heard a low "rumbling" sound coming from the alley not far away, as if something heavy was rolling over. This sound gave me a sense of sight, and soon, this sense of sight was confirmed: a huge metal ball was rolling out from the corner of the street in front, rushing straight towards our direction.

I thought this was Fina, the retired little queen, pushing the cold Biberu out for a walk again, but...

I took a look when the big ball came out just now, and there was no one behind it.

And the big ball was making a rumbling cry as loud as its rolling movement: "Avoid ahead! Avoid ahead! Ahead..."

"boom!"

This huge metal ball hit a section of isolation bar on the road. You all know the building materials of Shadow City. Crazy battleships and gold were used for things like the isolation bar, so the isolation bar didn't move at all. That one looked like The metal ball, which weighed a ton, flew up. In a series of bangs, it made a row of big holes on the road, and then finally stopped reluctantly in front of my sister and me: the reason why it stopped reluctantly was because I subconsciously kicked him before he stopped.

"...This is..." Anulili had been frightened since before, and she asked in shock at this time, while she jumped to the side several times without realizing it. A normal person wouldn't be able to calm down when seeing a metal ball bigger than themselves rushing toward them in an unsteady manner. Her reaction now was quite normal.

"Um, an old friend..." I stepped forward and knocked on the smooth, mirror-like shell of the metal ball. "Bibulu, are you okay?"

The metal ball gave a muffled reply, and the voice sounded a little off-key: "It's generally fine. Your Majesty, can you help me turn it over? I have something on my head and feet now..."

I quickly pushed Bibulu's body with my sister and rolled over on the spot. After struggling for a long time, I found the two words "up" and "front" marked on the other person's body. Those two words must be Fina's handwriting, but Biberu rolled all the way, and the words were almost worn away.

"Huh... It feels so good to be here. I'm already a little dizzy, and the No. 3 balance pivot makes me want to vomit." Biberu's body swayed slightly, "I'm sorry, Your Majesty, for letting you see such a rude side... I should just stay at home, going out shopping is really a stupid mistake..."

"Are you catching a cold again?" I squinted at this round iron-ball prime minister. I didn't know whether he was possessed by a degenerate god or something. He usually worked for the Civilization Community and only came to see him three days a month. He is a retired queen, but basically every time he has something going on in the past three days. For example, a cold, fever, indigestion, etc. Based on the current situation that he can't float, he should have a cold.

"I went to the orbital station last night to blow in the fresh plasma wind. I'm in a bit of a situation right now," Biberu said awkwardly, and then he floated up unsteadily, maintaining a height of half a meter for a few seconds before landing with a thud. , "Actually, I can still fly, but it's very unstable, and I just fainted..."

At this time, I finally saw Fina running out of the corner of the street in front of me. Since the queen abdicated, she has been living a leisurely life in the capital of the empire, enjoying the treatment of a retired officer. Look at that The way she ran over in a hurry, I could no longer see the lifeless and stiff feeling she had when she was sitting on the Iron Throne.

"I finally caught up with you, Biberu," Fina happily saw her prime minister parked on the side of the road, patted her chest with relief, and then greeted us, "Hello, friend, we meet again!"

Then we learned that Biberu was indeed with Fina when he went out, but Fina left to buy a drink: she didn't pay attention and parked Biberu on a slope.

Then there was nothing more. Bibulu rolled for several minutes and just stopped.

"Friend, what is this?"

Fina noticed Anulili who was following us. The latter's unfamiliar style of clothing and the expression on her face that was most common for people who came to Shadow City for the first time made her very curious, so I smiled and made a gesture to both parties. introduce.

Anulili was surprised when she heard that the girl in front of her, who looked a little dull and not very stable, was actually an abdicated queen.

"Are you a visiting guest..." Fina thought for a moment and suddenly invited Anulili, "Then come and see Monument Square."