"Hey, hey! Hurry up! It’s ti to sing the hymn!"
A loud voice from outside interrupted our conversation with Glick. He stood up happily and said, "Ha, the party has started! Shui Zhu, hurry up, get ready to go out."
The little girl nad Shui Zhu put down the hard food she was half-eating and ran to open the door. She was indeed a child who didn’t like to talk. From the beginning until now, she hid in the farthest corner from us, eating her own food, with cautious eyes watching us strangers. Only Big Sister has managed to chat with her for a bit. We could only learn about this little family from Glick—just out of curiosity. We were very curious about how ordinary siblings like Glick live in this twisted world.
"Glick, where are your parents? Is it just you two siblings at ho?"
Sayaka inadvertently thought of this question because we hadn’t seen any adults in this small family from the start. It’s said today is the town’s day off, and all the adults who usually work at the tal station would be ho resting. Yet, so far, we’ve only seen a little girl who doesn’t talk much—where are Glick’s parents?
"Mom left a long ti ago. When I was five, she got infected while working at the heavy elent fabricator," Glick’s expression was a bit gloomy, but not too sad. It seems he accepted this fact a long ti ago. "Dad hasn’t co ho for two years either, but he’s quite an important figure!"
When Glick ntioned his father who hadn’t been ho for two years, he imdiately wore a proud expression: "He works on a big ship and even went to the ’Little Triangle Island’ at the end of the world on a spaceship. From there, he found a brand-new vector engine! It’s not easy for soone from a small town to work on a big ship. A few months ago, I even got news from him. He’s going to work on a big warship. Just one year of work, and our family will be part of the upper society. But lately, there’s been no news from him. I’ve heard that working on a warship ans you can’t easily contact the outside..."
"Brother, we should go out now."
Shui Zhu’s soft voice interrupted Glick’s sowhat excited storytelling. The slender girl put on a brighter dress; the material looked a bit like plastic fibers, glistening, clearly one of the few best clothes in this small house.
In the circular square, many adults had already gathered. I roughly glanced around and saw about one or two hundred people. This settlent is indeed small, with these couple hundred people being all the adult residents of the town. They all wore dull-colored, worn work clothes, with solid muscles from years of physical labor at the tal station, even the won. They spontaneously ford several circles around the center of the square, keeping a distance from the tal platform with a blood-red triangular emblem. Old Barnard, whom we had briefly t before, stood on that triangle emblem. It seems he is indeed the mayor-like figure of this town, at the very least the most respected elder, and the so-called "hymn celebration" is hosted by him.
A dozen children aged between four or five to twelve or thirteen were running around the outer edge of the circular square, happy as if it were a festival. They shouted and played, occasionally sneaking into the square to weave in and out among the adults, only to be scolded and thrown out of the circle by their respective parents. During the hymn singing, children are not allowed in; they can only play outside.
Qianqian was imdiately intrigued by such a novel and alternative activity, bouncing around outside, trying to get in. Bingdisi was even more proactive than us, leading the Divine Clan Tiaozi Five to occupy the center of the square. The townsfolk there unconsciously cleared a large space, but no one paid attention to the five. Evidently, Monina had already twisted that area with divine power, rendering themselves invisible to the surrounding people.
Qianqian promptly shouted and joined the circle with the Five, dragging along Yakumo Lan and an eager Du Dao Kazuko...
Glick was puzzled by several of us "disappearing" suddenly, as he was also influenced by Monina’s power, but the nature of a child didn’t let him think too much about it. Soon, children around his age ran over, inviting Glick and Shui Zhu to join their activities. Glick didn’t forget to proudly introduce his friends as "guests from the Great City," which had beco his reflexive words upon eting townsfolk. Before Shui Zhu was called away by a girl, she turned and asked Lili with eager anticipation, "Want to play together?"
Lili looked stunned for a mont: "...Huh?"
"Bring this doll..." Shui Zhu shyly pointed at the rcury Lamp snoozing on my shoulder. The latter groggily lifted her head, reacted after a few seconds, and started frantically tugging at my sleeve while trying to pull my head off, incessantly chattering.
Glick’s sister certainly had an astonishing mouth. I was quite worried that her next step would be to invite Pandora and Visca to join the bunch of little girls’ gas, which would undoubtedly trigger a catastrophic end-of-the-world scenario. Nothing could spark more resentnt from Pandora than being mistaken for a peer by a group of ten-year-old girls—how easy is it to be 1.2 ters tall? Even malnourished Shui Zhu is almost as tall as her!
To save the world, I quickly made an excuse for Glick to take his sister to enjoy ti with the naughty kids, leaving behind Lili, who had already sunk into resentnt, and the still furious rcury Lamp gnawing at my scalp. The 1.09-ter-tall Archbishop grumbled unhappily, being the spiritual pillar for billions of believers, just now invited by a group of naughty kids, was undoubtedly an utter humiliation for her. The little girl muttered through gritted teeth for a while, then suddenly stood up with unstoppable montum: "No way! In this form, it’s just too detrintal to action! Sister Sandora, help adjust; I’m going to transform!"
We all understood what Lili ant by transforming. Every now and then, she would transform into a lady, a girl, or a mature woman to wander outside, but it was just a disguise; inside, she was still the 1.09 ter tall self. Sandora helped disrupt the surrounding people’s perception a bit, and Lili then transford in a flash of green light into a long-haired beauty of 1.70 ters, with floral patterns and carried a facial expression pack copied from Jaina, then skipped over...
To find those little girls for hopscotch.
Us: "..."
Dare I ask, does it have any aning to grow over sixty centiters tall and then play hopscotch with those kids?
"Haha! What an idiot!"
rcury Lamp almost fainted from laughter on my shoulder, and then another flash of light occurred beside . Before I could react, a tall girl, about 1.7 ters, erged from behind the black shadow that had unknowingly enveloped everyone’s view. She even had a slightly grown-up face of Pandora—Pandogosla erged.
"Let’s go find Lili!"
From the mouth of the fused "Pandogosla" ca the dual voices of the Pandora Sisters, overlapping. The 1.7-ter tall Shorty looked at the also 1.7-ter tall Fake Lolita after the transformation, with an icy gaze. Big Sister quickly reminded, "Make sure to hurry back, you can only rge for five minutes..."
"It’s ten minutes now!"
The dual Shorties looked at their own body with pride and then stepped towards Lilina. However, after only taking two steps, they returned, pecking my face with a speed that surpassed sound, and then left swiftly...
Normally, Pandora and Visca rubbing against was quite normal, but for them to do so after rging was truly unexpected. So I was stunned for a few seconds. And in those few seconds, what was rcury Lamp doing?
She resolutely went berserk...
Having a Lilina transform into an elegant elder sister in front of her wasn’t much, and even the little doll still had the interest to mock the Fake Lolita Priestess’s malicious attempts to act cute. But seeing the most steel-hearted Shorty in the family also becoming a 1.7-ter tall fused entity was different. Looking at her unshakable 92.3 cm body, the doll girl with a temper started to go mad, cursing and biting my head. I had to hurriedly coax her, "Little Light, be good, no need to envy them. Rember you still have a form over a hundred ters tall?"
rcury Lamp thought for a mont and agreed, but her second thought was, "But aren’t there also over twenty thousand that are half a ter tall?!"
Everyone: "..."
The everyday life of the naughty kid is simply maddeningly chaotic.
At this ti, the town gathering of this peculiar town was about to begin. The participants were all the adults of the town. They gathered in a circle with the mayor at the center. Elder Bernard was speaking with an up-and-down tone, holding an old data terminal, whose faint glow cast a bluish light on his face. It was evening when we first arrived here, but now it is already night. This was the first night we experienced in this Ruins World, and like everything else in this space, the night was artificial: the large fusion reactors arranged in the sky were gradually dimming to the point where it was easy to see the tal rings that generated strong magnetic fields around them with the naked eye. The surrounding light dimd along with them, and the streetlights in the town turned on at the right ti. The brightest light of all was in this circular small square, where a few light poles around it emitted a low humming sound and the luminous crystals on top beca increasingly dazzling, making it appear as bright as day.
A few sturdy n carried out a sound system, which looked like a large resonance system used for broadcasting on a spaceship bridge. However, it had been crudely modified to connect to Elder Bernard’s data terminal with a ss of cables (it seed the network function of that terminal was broken?). This object, once used for bridge communication, now could only emit music at insufficient volu and off-key, sounding hoarse and unpleasant, not forming a lody. Yet, the townspeople sang along with this accompanint, full of joy:
"...Praise the ancient gods, creators of this world, praise the ancient gods, grant us endless wealth, they left everything for us, so that we are always well-fed and clothed... They built the world with beautiful resources, everything is inexhaustible, they irrigated the universe with boundless energy, ensuring we have no fear of darkness..."
A chorus of over a hundred muscular tallic construction workers, accompanied by music that was off-key from the first note, and lyrics that were tongue-twisting and without rhythm, made for a hymn whose pleasantness could be imagined. But everyone was deeply engrossed, truly singing in gratitude to praise this "beautiful" world. Sandora and I exchanged awkward glances, feeling rather out of place amidst this cacophonous choir...
Considering that this world was actually the remnants of one of Visca’s destructive wars, an unexplainable sensation washed over us beyond just awkwardness.
At this mont, the hymn reached its final verses, which imdiately caught the attention of , Sandora, and even Big Sister:
"...Treasure of the world found everywhere, boundless legacy of the Divine Envoy, we have glorious machines, able to draw clean water and sacred food, but all of this is a gift, we should abide by the teachings... cannot leave the world, cannot leave the holand, cannot leave the universe, beyond the border of the God is endless darkness and destruction, we enjoy heaven under the protection of the barrier, but deviating from the teachings will bring calamity! Leaving the Three Stars will bring hardship, leaving the Ruins Ring will bring misery, leaving the Storm Ocean will bring utter destruction!
Praise the God!"
This rhythm-less and disjointed hymn ended with a round of praising the gods. Big Sister leaned over, whispering to , "It seems in this world, exploring beyond those ruinous zones is prohibited."
"And it is prohibited as a form of religious force, in such a social system, religious power is likely the most effective binding force." A clear, lodious, yet slightly unfamiliar voice rang in my ear. I turned my head to see that the elegant version of Lilina had sohow approached without noticing and was now casually draped over my back. Instantly, the warm touch sent chills up my spine—mainly because Sandora’s subtly intense gaze pressurized massively. Without a word, I tapped Lilina on her head, reverting her to the 1.09-ter original form: though soft jade and tender aroma are a pleasure, it depends on whose softness it is. This bizarre girl Lilina was definitely not the ideal welfare officer. They say won are made of water, but I have ten thousand reasons to prove that Lilina is actually made of King Water—trust her, and you’re waiting to be dissolved with your bones!
"Tch, Big Chief really doesn’t appreciate subtleties. People offer such a touching body to you and you don’t want it," Lilina rubbed the bump on her head, casting a seductive white-eye from her pitiful height of 1.09 ters, and only straightened up under Sandora’s increasingly charismatic gaze. "This is easy to see, isn’t it? The Three Stars refer to the three largest Ruins Planets in the central area of this space, the Ruins Ring refers to those various-sized spaceship wrecks and accumulated floating islands and satellites in space, and as for the Storm Ocean, undoubtedly the area where the flagship is currently anchored, that 0.3 light-years thick Ghost Energy Enrichnt Belt. Exploration and mining of the Ruins Planets and Ruins Ring are allowed, but venturing from the Ruins Ring to the Storm Ocean warrants warnings, and delving deeper into the Storm Ocean or even attempting to pass through is cursed by the local church as leading to dismbernt, which is quite significant."
"But in the log we retrieved from the Eternal Mother Ship that crashed on Mars, there are many coordinates within the Ghost Energy Enrichnt Belt," Sandora touched her chin, appearing deep in thought, "which ans that ship is quite exceptional itself."
"I’ve connected the dots now," Big Sister recalled sothing, prompting us, "Rember that video in the flight log? It ntioned the ship was under attack by so fanatics."
"Possibly the religious forces of this world intercepting pioneers trying to leave this universe," I realized, "which explains why that spaceship was shot down."
"But that doesn’t an much to us, does it," Sandora shrugged, playfully twirling a strand of gold hair around her finger, "I’m not concerned with why the ship was downed; I only want to understand the creation of this world, and who Visca was fighting at that ti here... Looking at the scale of this universe’s wreckage, many spaceship fragnts even ford several planets; it’s very likely Visca lost half her Destruction Army here back then. Such a large-scale battle couldn’t just be a simple skirmish... and the barrier isolating this space from the Void is also perplexing. The Old Empire Era surely didn’t possess such technology, at least none I’ve heard of. The war that broke out here 720,000 years ago not only destroyed a universe but left behind a web-like structure that remains unexplained. It’s really intriguing. Besides, what’s with the native inhabitants of this universe, why are they found among the debris of the Destruction Army and worshipping Visca’s relics? Could they be a vassal race of an Old Empire emperor, or even Visca’s vassal race? Each of these questions is increasingly fascinating."
Sandora’s words garnered our unanimous agreent. Indeed, the longer we stay in this Ruins World, gaining a deeper understanding of its "post-apocalyptic life," the more our curiosity is piqued. What Sandora ntioned is only a small part of what intrigues us. However, the reliable intel is still scarce at the mont. It might take so ti to unravel the truth from 720,000 years ago...(To be continued. If you enjoy this work, please visit Qidian (qidian) to cast your recomndation vote and monthly vote. Your support is my greatest motivation.)
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