"City Intelligent Network Control Center", seventeenth floor.

Wearing an exoskeleton and carrying a silver rifle, Qiao Chu returned to the elevator lobby.

He was about to press the button to bring the elevator that had stopped on the sixteenth floor up when he saw the number representing the adjacent elevator jump from "16" to "17".

This meant that in two or three seconds, the door of that elevator would open, and the person inside was highly likely to be an enemy.

Qiao Chu did not hesitate. Within the golden eyes, shielded by goggles, circles of illusory ripples spread.

Almost simultaneously, he saw countless figures appear around him.

These figures were slightly illusory, rushing to the potted plants in the elevator lobby, frantically devouring the withered leaves, shriveled branches, and dry soil.

Qiao Chu did not feel physically hungry, but seemed to be infected by this scene, uncontrollably believing that he was very hungry and had to eat something.

This thought filled his mind, making him unable to think about anything else.

"Hungry Ghost Realm"!

Qiao Chu's hands, covered in black metal bone armor, immediately reached into his pocket, took out a bag of dried beef, and tore it open forcefully.

Then, he frantically stuffed the dark pieces of beef jerky into his mouth, trying to swallow them.

But this beef jerky was as hard as a stone, and it was impossible to eat without softening it with saliva or tearing and grinding it with his teeth.

Qiao Chu was undoubtedly choking, and even felt that he would choke to death here, becoming the most ridiculous special envoy in the history of the research institute.

The instinct for survival and the fact that food had already entered his mouth allowed him to resist the self-perception of hunger to some extent, and he was able to spare some attention to chew.

At this moment, the gray-black metal door of the adjacent elevator opened, and a dark robot wearing a tattered monk's robe and a red kasaya rushed out.

In the machine prosthetic eye on the clean metallic face, a red light blazed, as if rendering a bloody world.

He looked at Qiao Chu, who was wearing military exoskeleton armor, and instead of directly raising his arms to use grenade launchers, laser weapons, and flamethrowers, he took a big step, leaped over, and prepared to stun his opponent with a real iron fist.

While struggling to bite the beef and chew it down, Qiao Chu barely shrunk his body and rolled awkwardly to the side, narrowly avoiding the mechanical monk Jingfa's punch.

In the process, following the strong desire to find food, he reached into his pocket with his right hand again.

This time, he took out not only energy bars but also a deck of playing cards.

At this time, Qiao Chu's eyes were already rolling back from swallowing the beef jerky, and tears were streaming down his face, but this also relieved a little of his hunger, giving him the strength to throw the deck of cards on the ground.

With the sound of the cards falling, Qiao Chu rolled to a position near the stairwell.

Reflected in his eyes was the mechanical monk Jingfa, who quickly turned and pounced again, and those blazing red eyes.

"Go… play… cards…" Qiao Chu said extremely vaguely while swallowing beef jerky and energy bars.

Jingfa, who had just pounced on him, froze.

The mechanical monk's head turned halfway around, looking at the playing cards on the ground.

His eyes flashed red, and his feet uncontrollably stepped over, bending down to pick up the cards one by one.

At this moment, for him, it seemed that nothing was more important than playing cards.

Even if his companions needed rescue, even if danger was imminent, he had to play a game of cards first.

When Jingfa picked up the playing cards, Qiao Chu's self-perceived hunger instantly disappeared, and his whole person returned to normal, only still a little choked.

He could fully imagine what he looked like under the metal helmet at this moment:

Because he was still desperately swallowing food to avoid choking to death, his face was twisted, his eyes were slightly rolled back, and tears and snot were flowing all over his face, and there was nothing about him that could be called handsome.

This made him extremely angry, and he distracted himself to raise his arm, preparing to attack Jingfa with both the grenade launcher and the electromagnetic weapon.

Just then, Jingfa had turned his body around and said in that unique, cold electronic synthesized voice:

"Let's play cards together."

The price he paid was so great, his psychological distortion was so severe that he did not silently and attentively play cards there, but decided to combine the two "hobbies" into one, pulling Qiao Chu along!

While the mechanical monk was speaking, Qiao Chu once again saw countless, slightly blurred figures, and once again strongly believed that he was very hungry and had to eat something.

Fortunately, he still had food in his mouth, and there were still things that had not been finished, which made him not so "hungry" in the initial stage and could spare some attention to do something.

Qiao Chu quickly raised his left hand and covered the visor of his metal helmet.

His whole person suddenly became extremely depressed, even if he thought he was very hungry, he didn't want to eat anything or do anything.

No longer choked, he released his left hand and looked at the mechanical monk who was coming over with playing cards.

That kind of depression seemed to be contagious, and Jingfa suddenly felt that everything had become meaningless, and everything was just an illusionary dream.

In incomprehensible depression, the dark mechanical monk seemed to realize something, suddenly sat down cross-legged, put his hands together, and chanted in a low voice:

"Namo Anuttara-Samyak-Sambodhi, all conditioned dharmas are like dreams, illusions, bubbles, and shadows..."

Qiao Chu then relieved himself, exerted force on his waist and abdomen, and relied on the military exoskeleton to directly leap into the air.

Streams of white air spurted out, pushing him sideways into the stairwell.

After landing, Qiao Chu raised his arm and aimed the grenade launcher at the mechanical monk wearing a tattered monk's robe and a red kasaya.

Jingfa was still chanting scriptures in a low voice, as if he had attained great enlightenment.

Looking at the loaded grenade, Qiao Chu found that it was not the kind with high-explosive performance, and he hesitated a little in his heart.

——Because the predetermined enemies were "Higher Mindless Ones" and distorted creatures, not robots, so he did not replace the grenades before the action.

And this kind of grenade, one or two shots are estimated to be unable to destroy the mechanical monk.

This would instead help the other party get rid of the depressed state. Similarly, electromagnetic weapons would also.

Replacing the grenades on the spot may not be in time. Qiao Chu cannot make the already depressed person even more depressed or always depressed. Once he does not grasp the moment when the mechanical monk's depression just ends and makes up for a new round of control, the situation will become very bad.

After considering for two seconds, Qiao Chu pursed his lips and decided to give up this opportunity.

He turned back and ran to the stairs, pressed the handrail, jumped down, and landed firmly on the next floor.

In this way, Qiao Chu used the ability of the exoskeleton to leap down one floor after another in the stairwell, quickly moving away from the seventeenth floor and heading straight to the bottom floor.

At this time, the mechanical monk Jingfa finished chanting and raised his head again.

On his black metallic face, the mechanical prosthetic eye emitted blood-red light again.

The next second, Jingfa leaped directly into the stairwell from a cross-legged position in a posture that surpassed the human body structure.

He imitated Qiao Chu's method, pressed the handrail, and flipped down.

…………

Hearing Du Heng's words, Jiang Bai Mian did not hesitate, turned her head and said to Shang Jian Yao and others:

"We leave immediately."

After instructing, she nodded to Du Heng:

"Be careful.

"Hope to see you again."

Du Heng smiled and said:

"At that time, I hope you have important news, intelligence, or information to trade."

He looked at Shang Jian Yao again:

"Trying to improve your Awakened abilities is not a good thing. The price is irreversible. Weigh it yourself."

Without waiting for Shang Jian Yao to respond, Du Heng stood up, crouched down, and darted into the shadows of the trees towards the position where Xiao Chong disappeared.

"Let's go." Jiang Bai Mian withdrew her gaze.

Shang Jian Yao nodded, straightened his body, and carried the "Berserker" assault rifle, jogging at the rear of the team in the previous tactical formation.

Soon, they reached the side fence.

Long Yue Hong, who was in charge of the left side, quickly glanced outside and suddenly met a pair of turbid, bloodshot eyes.

"Mindless One"... Long Yue Hong was startled, instinctively raised his assault rifle, and took a step to the side.

Outside on the street, at the top of metal rods, lights shone, each illuminating an area.

As far as Long Yue Hong knew, these should be streetlights from the Old World, and at least half of them were still working normally at this time.

The "Mindless One" was standing under the streetlight diagonally in front, wrapped in a shriveled blue jacket, wearing a wide-brimmed hat of the same color, holding a broom and an iron dustpan.

His face had some wrinkles, his skin was very rough, and there was no light of wisdom in his eyes, only staring blankly at Long Yue Hong and the others, without showing any signs of attacking.

This scene surprised Long Yue Hong and interrupted his attempt to pull the trigger.

The "Mindless One" quickly lowered his head and began sweeping the fallen leaves accumulated on the roadside.

Seeing this scene, Bai Chen and others suddenly had some inexplicable guesses.

"Let's get out first." Jiang Bai Mian quickly regained her senses and quickly climbed over the metal fence.

Long Yue Hong, Bai Chen, and Shang Jian Yao left the "City Intelligent Network Control Center" under the cover of their companions and returned to the street outside.

"He's sweeping fallen leaves..." Long Yue Hong couldn't help but look at the "Mindless One" who had no "hunting" tendencies.

Jiang Bai Mian raised her head and glanced at the opposite side:

"Look there."

Following the direction she pointed with her chin, Shang Jian Yao and others saw a tall building.

The bottom of the tall building was a row of houses on the street, and several glass windows on each floor above were emitting bright light.

Those rays seemed to form a halo around them, making Long Yue Hong feel somewhat warm for no reason.

Among them, behind some of the windows on the lower floors, there were many figures moving.

Some of them seemed to be holding babies, pacing back and forth by the window, some were holding rags, wiping the glass carefully, some were sitting on the sofa by the window, holding something, staring blankly at the LCD screen on the opposite wall…

Those that Jiang Bai Mian and Shang Jian Yao could barely see clearly were all wearing old and messy clothes, with stiff movements and sluggish eyes, and were obviously "Mindless Ones".

On the LCD screen that the "Mindless One" was looking at, the picture was colorful, with scenery, people, text, and boxes, but the whole thing was fixed and did not change.

But this did not prevent the "Mindless One" from watching very intently.

Jiang Bai Mian was silent for two seconds and said in a complicated tone:

"It's these 'Mindless Ones' who are periodically 'maintaining' this city…

"Whenever the lights come on, they become like normal people…"

ps: Asking for recommendation tickets~