Starting from South America, speeding through the world

Chapter 142 Kneel down
The smell of blood had not yet dissipated inside the house.

Miscellaneous items were scattered haphazardly all over the ground.

Zhou Yi put away his pistol and dragged the body to a corner to place it.

Natalie sat on the sofa, turned to the side, and observed him discreetly.

Her breathing was rapid, and her body was still stained with blood, but she felt no fear.

Excitement.

A suppressed, complex excitement.

“You’re amazing,” Natalie said. “Not just amazing like an ordinary person.”

There was no one in the corner of the cell.

"But that fat guy swaggered past, and in the blink of an eye, you appeared there, as if you had just popped out of thin air."

She tilted her head and looked at him, her voice tinged with curiosity: "Don't tell me you're a messenger from Judgment Day?"

"Is this Sodom to you?" Zhou Yi asked.

"Yes and no." Natalie gave a sarcastic smirk.

"The inhabitants of Sodom are merely trying to defile angels; look at this country!"

"The people here won't even spare the devil."

Well, no wonder the system sent me straight to prison.

Zhou Yi sized up the brown-haired woman—her eyes held a mixture of madness and lucidity.

"Congratulations, Natalie, your lucky day has arrived."

He shrugged, pulled a cigarette from his pocket, and lit it with practiced ease.

“Just yesterday, your god appeared to me in a dream and said it was time to end this sinful land.”

Natalie stared at him, her expression freezing for a moment, as if trying to determine whether his words were madness or a joke.

But she quickly laughed.

There is no frivolity.

There was only a strange sense of exhilaration, like a wanderer in the wilderness encountering a long-lost kindred spirit.

"Damn." Natalie wiped her face. "That sounds way crazier than any theory I'd ever thought of."

Zhou Yi ignored her emotions, simply smoking quietly with an indifferent expression.

The silence lasted for a few seconds.

Then Natalie spoke up: "No matter what, please take me with you."

Her tone was unusually serious: "I can be an indispensable help to you."

“Give me a reasonable explanation.” Zhou Yi remained unmoved. “Don’t tell me you actually believe in that religious nonsense.”

"Of course I don't believe in God."

“I am an atheist, I have been since I was a child.”

"But I must say, your appearance—"

Natalie paused, as if savoring the shock of the moment:
"It did make me waver for a moment."

"At that moment, I truly believed that there was some kind of power in this world that I couldn't understand."

"Perhaps it's not God, nor is it fate."

"It is the inherent power of nature itself—chaos, collapse, and the inevitable backlash of uncertainty."

"But whichever it is, it can give you enough strength to achieve your goal."

After a long string of confessions, Natalie took a breath before continuing:
"Coincidentally, I am a journalist."

"A real journalist is not a useless person who huddles in an office writing entertainment gossip."

"Turbulence, chaos, coups, violence. These are all necessities for my survival, like oxygen."

"So I want to see this explosion with my own eyes and record it from the front row."

"In other words, if this country really does die, I want to step over its corpse and write the first obituary."

Zhou Yi frowned and took two steps forward.

“You have hatred in your heart,” he said softly, “an uncontrollable hatred.”

"Tell me before I decide whether you should come along—"

"Where does your hatred come from?"

Natalie suddenly looked up.

The man stood nearby, his face obscured by the swirling smoke.

The dim light cast long shadows.

She was stunned.

Hold your breath, and your body tenses up instinctively.

A faint shiver ran up my spine.

After a long while, Natalie finally came to her senses and gave an awkward laugh.

"."

However, under Zhou Yi's gaze, even that slight smile quickly faded.

Finally, she began to tell her story.

Poker face.

“I was born into a respectable family on the East Coast.”

"My father is a newly elected state legislator, and my mother is a school board member. It's the American Dream."

"Unfortunately, the good times didn't last long."

When I was ten years old, someone forced my older brother.

"A person of high status. A wealthy person."

"Horen understands."

“He didn’t call the police or question the man; he just gathered a few familiar friends.”

"They held a small meeting in the living room and quickly decided on a 'solution'."

"The conclusion is that my brother suffers from severe delusional disorder and has paranoid personality disorder."

"In less than three days, he was sent to a private mental hospital and disappeared from public view."

“My mother, Caitlin Watts, refused to accept it.”

"She tried to go to the media and seek help from the outside world."

"As a result, he was also sent to a mental hospital."

"."

After a long silence, Natalie continued her story.

"Six months later, she escaped from the ward and returned home."

"That day, I was playing video games in my room."

"She walked in, wearing a hospital gown, holding a pistol she'd apparently stolen from somewhere."

"."

There was another long silence at this point.

Natalie's lips trembled slightly, and she finally managed to close her eyes with difficulty.

"She said 'I'm sorry' to me and then put the gun in her mouth."

"Then he pulled the trigger."

"boom."

"."

"A very clichéd plot."

"There's nothing I can do but watch."

"Afterwards, Hollen blocked all news."

"The official explanation given is that it's a depressive episode."

"After that, he continued to run for office and talked about morality and responsibility on television."

"In 2017, the MeToo movement erupted, and the reckoning officially began."

“The bones that were buried in the past are gradually surfacing.”

"Horen knew that relying solely on local power would inevitably lead to trouble sooner or later."

"So he cleverly changed his strategy and became more proactive."

Unfortunately, he succeeded.

"Within a few years, he was elected from the state legislator to the Senate."

"Two or four years later, the situation got out of control, the Constitution was used as a weapon, and the Democratic Party was systematically purged."

"This gave Hollen an opportunity to go further."

"Now, the Republican Party is fragmented and divided into factions, while the Democratic Party has revived."

"It is estimated that in the near future, we will be able to witness Hollen, this bastard, being recorded in history as Secretary of State."

So, do I hate it?

"."

Natalie opened her eyes with a self-deprecating smile, but she keenly caught the fleeting complexity in the man's expression.

That's not pity.

It's not about pity either.

Rather, it was a feeling that was hard to describe.

Behind him, lights poured down, outlining a blurry yet dazzling halo.

The next second, out of some unknown instinct, Natalie slowly knelt down.

"Should I hate it?" she asked softly, her hands clasped together, fingertips interlocked, pressed against her forehead.

Zhou Yi looked down at the woman without saying a word.

"Should I hate it?" Natalie repeated stubbornly.

Zhou Yi still didn't respond, but moved a little closer.

His shadow spread out as he moved, completely engulfing the woman.

"Give me the word: Mercy exists. Should I hate it?"

Natalie asked again, her posture almost pious.

"."

"."

"Close your eyes," Zhou Yi said calmly.

Outside the window, the moon was bright and the stars were few, with a night breeze blowing.

The atmosphere in the room was intense.

(End of this chapter)