[Light Cut] Dwelling Skin

Chapter 11

"Be nice to me, Onikiri." Minamoto Raimitsu used to say, "It would be good for both of us if we could get along peacefully like before, let's see, if you charge the police I hid the emulator, caused physical torture and harm to you, and then they believed your words, what will happen? Okay, I will go to jail, and my reputation will be ruined, but what will you do? ——A public A fugitive emulator that cannot be discarded? You will be taken to the control center by those people, and they will use various tests to analyze the degree of harm, and finally they will be frozen, brainwashed, or treated humanely with a bullet. This is what you must In this world, only I can truly protect you."

He said it repeatedly, maybe even he himself couldn't tell whether these words were meant for Guiqie, or for himself.

"I won't let you stay here forever." Yuan Laiguang's tone sounded as if he was coaxing a child, "After I avoid the limelight, I will find a way to take you out of here and go to another city, for you Sign up for a new identity and we can start a new life there."

"Then remember to bring all my toys with you." Onikiri said, he turned his side to Minamoto Raiko, sat on the sofa, arched his knees, opened a page of the book, and the shackles on his wrists jingled , and did not look at him.

"Because, really," Minamoto said again, "it's pointless to be here."

"It doesn't matter where you stay." Onikiri said, still not looking up.

Minamoto Raimitsu's hand on his shoulder tightened, and his fingers hurt him, but ghosts knew that he could continue to maintain this annoying irony—as long as he didn't really stab Minamoto Raimitsu Where it hurts, he won't hurt himself.

He asked Minamoto to go out.

"If I don't see the sun again, I will die." He told Yuan Laiguang.

Minamoto Raimitsu refused at first, and they stalemate for a long time, until Onikiri became weaker and weaker, and symptoms of auditory and visual hallucinations appeared, and finally Minamoto Raimitsu surrendered in frustration, and walked over to release Onikiri's handcuffs.

"I'll be with you," Minamoto said.

"That would be too eye-catching." Onikiri said sarcastically, "I'm afraid we will be discovered before we go far."

Unexpectedly, Minamoto Raimitsu didn't hold back, he gave in again, and even brought Onikiri the right size shoes and helped him put them on, he couldn't stand up very well, so Minamoto Raimitsu used his arms Picking him up, as easily as a polio patient, I walked up the basement stairs until I reached the patio, put him down, and opened the door to the house.

The long-lost sunshine and noise flooded into his brain like a tide.

The brilliant blue sky and white clouds burned his eyes so much that tears flowed from his eyes, and he could barely open them.

In his growing vision he saw a boy squatting in an open yard, playing a game of catch with his Scotch collie; At the corner of the street, someone bent down and put a coin into the vending machine, and took out a bottle of Coke that was smoking white.

Onikiri took a while to get used to these familiar sights.

Beside him, the tiles and walls were wet, dripping water, the air was hot and humid, sticky and irritating, as if it had just experienced a heavy rain, which was completely different from the constant temperature basement. Originally, he hated such mildewy weather; but At this moment, even facing such weather was enough to make his legs tremble and his blood rush with excitement.

"Be careful on the road." Yuan Laiguang told him, touched his cheek gently, and said in his ear, "Remember to come back."

He took a few steps and stepped on the ground without any sense of reality, as if he was still not used to the sudden freedom. After walking a few tens of meters, he looked back and saw that the gate had been closed, Minamoto Raimitsu had disappeared, and he was standing alone at the corner of the street. , for the first time felt a strange daze.

—for a split second he wanted to run, run as far as he could, away from that dark basement, but the tracker was on his wrist, clasped tight, disguised like a watch, covered Heavy bruises from handcuffs.

In terms of the consequences of running away rashly, he agreed with Minamoto Raimitsu's inference. Although that kind of persuasion sounds very despicable, it is still effective.

He started to walk around, wearing a long-sleeved sportswear, hat and mask, and lowered his head as much as possible, pretending to be a member of the crowd allergic to ultraviolet rays. Before leaving, Minamoto Raimitsu agreed with him on the time and scope of the walk It is not surprising that he is allowed to move freely within a few small blocks within three kilometers - the white mice in the laboratory can run around as long as they do not cross the border.

Walking out of the villa area, he passed a supermarket, a dessert shop, a coffee shop, and a small garden in sequence. It was the afternoon when the temperature was the highest, and almost no one was walking around in the block, and everyone was indoors to enjoy the cool. When he passed an ice cream shop, His footsteps froze, and the tin lattice in the window was filled with colorful and exquisite ice cream. In the past, he and Minamoto Raimiko used to stand outside this store to buy ice cream. The three balls of cream that melt into a puddle if not eaten quickly.

Maybe he stayed too long, the shop owner noticed him, stretched out his head, and asked sleepily:

"Want ice cream?"

Onikiri suddenly came back to his senses - from the reflection in the glass, he saw his expression immersed in memories, he quickly turned his eyes back, shook his head, the shop owner sat back on the chair, and looked at him suspiciously :

"You look familiar."

He pulled off his mask and walked away expressionlessly, praying that he would not show any clues.

Walking out of this block is a park. In the center of the park, some trees and small patches of greenery are sparsely distributed. They are carefully protected by electrified anti-theft fences, like delicate flowers in a greenhouse.Those pre-war green belts are now occupied by a large number of stone statues and fitness facilities-the designers hope that people who come for a walk will divert their interest to these things.

Not far from the park is a library. Ordinary citizens are no longer allowed to enter and leave here at will, for fear of damaging precious paper books and materials.

Human beings are still trying their best to preserve the traces of the past. What they really hate is the history that they created by themselves.

When Onikiri walked across a stone arch bridge, a man of his appearance and age walked along the red brick floor and walked side by side with him.

"Hi," he said, "it's a nice day, isn't it?"

Onikiri hated the stranger's sudden accusation at this moment, and was afraid of revealing his clues, so he nodded perfunctorily, trying to shake him off with a cold face.

However, that person seemed to be clueless, no matter how Onikiri accelerated his pace, he always followed closely—at a distance of almost five meters, he never missed a step.

They walked without saying a word, one behind the other, like shepherd dogs chasing a single sheep.

Suspicion and fear fermented in Onikiri's heart, and almost reached the peak, making him confused: Who is this, a stalker, or a plainclothes policeman?Maybe this person has noticed himself from the beginning, maybe he shouldn't have stepped out of the house like this at all.

——One thing Minato Raikou may not know is that Onikiri is actually more afraid of the police than he is.

In front of a print shop, he stopped and stared at the empty storefront. With the decline of the printing industry, the print shop that used to be crowded with people has closed down. All he saw were scattered and dilapidated chairs, and glass Then he looked away, no longer staring at the rubbish, but at the face reflected on the glass, the people behind him were staring at him calmly, through the dusty Glass, they finally met each other's eyes.

For a moment, Onikiri couldn't look away, even though the man looked empty-handed and didn't carry any weapon, he still felt the tense and dangerous air-even though there was no one else around.

Finally the man spoke.

"You're a humanoid," he said, in a low voice that was almost a whisper. "I'm your kind."

Onikiri could beat him, run away, scold him for being crazy—he could tell those words to the person on the other end of the tracker, to show his loyalty and unyielding, to show that he would never be fooled easily, but he remained motionless, Not a word.

"Here, you can speak boldly," the man said, "the school is holding an exam, and to prevent those students from cheating, the nearby signals are filtered, no matter what you say," he pointed to the ghost Cut off the tracker on his wrist, and lowered his voice, "No one on the other end will know."

Onikiri turned his head.

"I am," he said.

He didn't know whether this choice was correct—but he could see the other party let out a long sigh of relief, as if the two secret agents finally took off their disguise and faced each other honestly.

"I saw you on TV, so I recognized you at a glance." The other party said, "There is a natural sense of similarity between human beings."

"Is it safe here?" Onikiri asked in a low voice.

"I think we're safe for the time being, but hurry up," he said. "We're here for a walk, that's all. Come on, get up and let those people see you."

Not far away, a man in uniform appeared from the guard room, yawned, and looked at them from time to time, so they walked around again, careful not to get too far away from the signal isolation area, ghost Che's heart was beating too fast, as if it was about to jump out of his throat, and he tried his best to control his tone:

"Where did you serve?"

"I don't serve anywhere," said the man. "A few of us have taken our liberty from them."

"Us?" Onikiri said, since he said so, it means that there are other Sims in this world who yearn for freedom.

"You don't think it's just the two of us?"

Of course Onikiri didn’t think so, he thought of the TV news about those simulated people fleeing, and suddenly a thought came to his mind, this person might be a secret agent, a policeman disguised as a simulated human, specially arranged to lure them, these traitors, to take the bait , but he was unwilling to believe this conjecture. Once hope rose in his heart, it would be like a thirsty traveler in the desert finding a spring.

"We need to help each other," the man continued. "We'd love to have you join us if you want."

"Where are you going?"

“There is a large unrepaired void beyond the city’s borders, where some old pre-war towns still remain,” he said. “Those abandoned places that humans have abandoned can be used by us.”

Onikiri still has countless questions to ask the person in front of him, such as whether he has seen the appearance of his gene provider himself, whether he will dream about the past of that person-but there is not much time left for the two of them, Soon the school exams will be over, when the signal will be reopened and the tracker will once again be able to locate his every move.

"You have to find a way to leave the place where you live." The simulated person warned him, "At three o'clock tomorrow night, wait for me under the first street light, my companion will pick you up there, and we will arrange the next thing .”

"...I will." Guiqie replied.

He was amazed by his sudden hesitation, which was a once-in-a-lifetime, life-saving opportunity.

So he repeated it again:

"I will."

At the intersection, Onikiri bid farewell to the emulator, and he returned along the original road. The sky seemed darker than when he first came, and the clouds were also stained with faint ink, which was a sign before the heavy rain.

At the entrance of a familiar block, he stopped abruptly—the sound of something crawling in front of him was getting closer and closer, and soon he saw the unnatural crawling of the thing shining with silver light. The legs moved extremely fast, and the compound eyes on the head flickered.

He was cold all over, and his footsteps seemed to be rooted, motionless.He was found by the police after all.

But it didn't come at its own pace—it followed a running beggar, tripped him with its forelegs, and he fell to the ground, still clutching a bag of cheap bread, which it carried with it. The front legs of the electric current hit his body, and he fainted immediately, his limbs were still twitching, and the slices of bread scattered all over the ground; Wandering, all this happens in a split second.

With the rumbling thunder and the downpour, it seemed as if the curtain had fallen in an instant, celebrating the perfect success of the performance in the few seconds just now.

Onikiri breathed a sigh of relief, luckily he wasn't here to catch him.

He didn't know he could make such a vile exclamation.