Sir! Don't close the net!

“I don’t know anything…” Aditi reached out and pinched the corner of her raincoat. “They told me I should move, that I would encounter many terrible things, and that I should not speak, but just hold my breath and stare at those terrible things, and I would be safe.”

"Staring?"

Li Yili was taken aback, then suddenly leaned down to face Aditi, raised her hands and pressed them against Aditi's small face, using her index finger and thumb to frame Aditi's big, watery eyes and pry open Aditi's upper and lower eyelids a little.

"Keep an eye on it... then keep a close eye on it—"

Li Yili raised her hand and lifted Adi up, stuffing her into Rebecca's arms, whose tail was wagging rapidly.

"Is it alright to leave it to you?"

“Of course!” Rebecca nodded vigorously, like a dog that had just received a bone.

"Ha...it's a reality that's really hard to accept."

Abel held his chin and stared into Aditi's eyes for a while before letting out a long sigh.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

The man walked with his hands behind his back through the dark corridor. On both sides of the corridor were culture tubes about the size of a person, with fluorescent green bubbles rising from them, serving as a lighting system to provide a faint light to this seemingly endless corridor.

"puff--"

A dark shadow flickered within the surging fluorescent green liquid and suddenly lunged towards the man. However, the specially made glass blocked this silent attack. The shadow, unaware of the glass's presence, continued to extend its limbs, attempting to capture the passing man.

The man was not startled by the sudden noise; in fact, he walked around to one side of the culture tube with great interest.

If Carly were there, she would most likely have screamed in fright, because the back of the shadowy figure was the Plague Doctor statue.

It was a face resembling an artificially made crow mask.

“It’s really energetic,” the man said, tapping his finger on the glass. The raven mask, which had been clinging to the glass, suddenly twitched a few times and collapsed as if dead, its limbs being washed away by the liquid.

The man nodded in satisfaction, put his hands behind his back, and continued walking forward. After a five-minute stroll, he arrived at a large metal gate.

Although the door is made of metal, it is covered with tiny, wriggling tubes that resemble blood vessels.

"That's really disgusting."

Despite his disgusted expression, the man wore an infatuated look, reaching out to touch the veins on the metal door as if caressing a lover's face. Just as he was about to give it a cheek kiss, a piercing scream came from behind the metal door.

The man's expression changed, and he forcefully pushed open the metal door.

The space inside the door was not a square or rectangular space, but rather like the inside of a heart. The man, whose upper body was embedded in metal and whose arms and spine were connected to tubes that were flowing with fluorescent green liquid, was screaming in agony while clutching the metal machine beneath him.

The piercing wails instilled a strange fear in the man who had seen all sorts of things.

Chapter Fifteen: This is more like something Abel would do.

The swirling smog shrouded the Victorian-era streets in a mysterious hue, while the orange glow emanating from the windows of each house added a touch of humanity to the mystery, making a stroll through the streets feel like a journey through history.

But Li Yili knew very well that he was probably the only one who felt this way. For this world, for the "people" of the wasteland, this place was a symbol of progress.

In reality, what shrouds this street in a hazy veil is not fog, but industrial smog. Walking in it is extremely uncomfortable; taking a few extra breaths might kill you. There is also no human touch to speak of; the residents here keep their doors and windows tightly locked, as if they are afraid someone will break into their homes at night.

If you knock on the door, you might get shot through it.

Li Yili raised her hand to pinch her neck, trying to find Carly's footprints while yawning and scanning the street.

“I thought you would use Jeff’s assets and status to infiltrate the Triassic’s asset circle,” Abel said, walking beside Li Yili and gently rubbing his temple with his index finger. “That’s the one who used the ingenious ideas in your head to gradually advance in the Triassic circle and then overthrow others to swallow up the property and power of other Triassic asset circles.”

"it's out of the question."

Li Yili raised her hand and waved.

Abel paused, but Li Yili showed no sign of stopping. The distance between them suddenly widened considerably, but Abel immediately caught up, turning his head and exclaiming in disbelief.

"Is this the first time I've heard the word 'impossible' from your mouth?"

“I’m just doing what I can do. Those brilliant ideas you’re talking about aren’t mine. I just saw them standing on the shoulders of giants and then used them,” Li Yili raised her hand and waved it. “I can’t come up with anything more brilliant in this field.”

"Is it really because things that can't be done simply can't be done?" Abel sighed with some regret.

"Do not--"

Li Yili paused, raised her hand, and tore apart the thick smog like a sheet of rice paper. Not far away, Carly was panting heavily with her hands on her knees. In front of Carly, a huge factory was shrouded in thick smog.

"Things you're not good at might be overcome through hard work, but you shouldn't be too confident in yourself at crucial moments and put all your hopes on success... This is something I'm quite concerned about, and I should say I'm quite eager to achieve."

Li Yili stood behind Carly, raised her hand and patted Carly's shoulder, leaned down to Carly's face, and smiled slightly, "Since you found this factory so quickly, you wouldn't have done odd jobs here or... committed petty theft, would you?"

Carly's pupils trembled slightly, and she stiffly turned her face away, but even though she avoided eye contact, she still felt a chilling sense of being seen through.

"Keep moving."

Carly felt a tingling numbness travel from the soles of her feet up her thighs to the back of her head, and immediately swung her arms and rushed toward the huge factory in front of her.

"Oh~ oh~ she still has so much energy," Rebecca exclaimed, leaning forward. "Is it really okay for her to be breathing so heavily?"

"It's alright, it's alright," Li Yili waved her hand and looked up. The factory had several extremely large, towering chimneys that seemed to reach into the clouds. The smog there was visibly thicker than the surrounding area, giving people a mysterious feeling of entering a fairyland.

Of course, if you actually go over there and take a couple of breaths, your lungs will probably be full, since that's obviously the source of smog.

“Placing this kind of factory in the Triassic is really quite decisive. If things continue like this, the number of people in the Triassic who contract this strange disease that becomes incurable due to poverty will only increase every year,” Li Yili pinched her nose and raised her head. “But... the wasteland won’t care about the lives of the people in the Triassic anyway.”

"I see. Normally, shouldn't you use this strange illness to your advantage to defeat and take over the power of the Triassic Circle's asset circle?" Abel raised an eyebrow slightly.

"The Church of Steam and Steel isn't some brute who treats the market like a cash cow, nor is it some hypocrite who'll back down gracefully; it's a conglomerate currently usurping power," Li Yili strolled through the smog-shrouded factory gates, glancing left and right before continuing forward. "In the financial..."

"For a group to rise from humble beginnings and fight against conglomerates through underhanded tactics is a pipe dream. I can exploit those strange illnesses, and so can they, and perhaps even better. Besides, the Cult of Steam and Steel has already seized control of the wasteland market. With just a word from him, no matter how much wealth I've accumulated here, it will vanish in an instant. Do you think I'm that stupid?"

"Sir, the Sole Ruler, but you don't seem like the type to recklessly destroy the source. It's more like..."

Li Yili paused, her tattered raincoat, which covered her body, fluttering slowly in the smog. Abel, who had been standing near Li Yili, stopped and turned his head to look at her. A glint of light flashed in Li Yili's left eye.

"What would Abel Z. Morningstar do?"

"Mr. Future Promises, have you lost your mind? If it were Abel Z. Morningstar, he should be forced by the deal between Bishop Azazel and the Church of Steam and Steel to ignore what's happening in the Triassic Circle. No, as an executive candidate, he should be in the wasteland capital Millennium, marveling at the prosperity built on the Triassic, Jurassic, and Belarusian Circles, wondering how such a prosperous and peaceful city could exist in this world."

Li Yili grinned and sneered, then immediately slumped down, raised his hand and swept it across Abel's body, continuing forward. The plague doctor, whom he controlled, followed closely behind Li Yili like the Grim Reaper, carrying a lantern.

The inside of the factory was completely different from the outside; there wasn't a trace of smog. He could clearly hear Carly's footsteps as she ran wildly in a certain direction.

“There’s a reason why Abel Z. Morningstar didn’t do that.”

This time, Abel didn't follow. Instead, he stood there, watching Li Yili's retreating figure with a complicated expression.

Rebecca, holding Aditi, peeked out from the factory gate, hesitated for a moment, then lowered her head, poking her slender nose against Aditi's neck, her mouth slightly open. "Did you see that? That guy started talking to himself again."

Aditi kept a straight face and didn't dare to say a word because she could clearly feel a sharp pain in her neck, as if needles were slicing through it.

Thinking that Aditi was too scared to speak, Rebecca immediately hugged Aditi tightly and comforted her, "Don't be afraid, don't be afraid. This guy just looks a little crazy, but he's actually... barely a good guy."

Rebecca exerted so much force that Aditi's pupils trembled even more violently.

Chapter Sixteen: To Whom Am I Crying for Help?

The San Die Quan Food Processing Plant is the largest food distributor in San Die Quan. It can be said that about 70% of the residents of San Die Quan consume food from the San Die Quan Food Processing Plant. Due to the war and plague outside the wasteland, foreign trade, although not stopped, has been greatly affected, so the proportion is still rising.

However, under these circumstances, the San Die Quan Food Processing Plant announced the cancellation of night shifts and implemented a very humane 9-to-5 system.

Many people are happy, as no one likes having to work overtime without pay, but quite a few have also noticed or experienced the pressure brought about by this 9-to-5 system.

Food can only be sold as a commodity if there are people processing it. If the factories don't operate at night, the amount of food sold will be greatly reduced. And since the Triassic Circle is the most densely populated area in the wasteland, food prices begin to rise.

For the wealthy in the Triple Circle, this is a good thing. They don't care how many people can eat their fill; they only care about whether their own pockets will bulge. In fact, the more people go hungry, the stronger their sense of superiority becomes.

Faced with this situation, the homeless have few options.

They can either continue begging or resort to petty theft.

The former has completely lost its soul, while the latter walks on a tightrope.

Carly didn't make a choice; she simply belonged to the latter group.

She was too young, accustomed to the bleak reality, yet a voice of resentment always murmured within her. She would beg, but she would never kneel on the ground and beg bitterly like those homeless people who had become completely numb, nor would she lean against the street like a corpse waiting for others to throw money at her.

She would pat the other person's shoulder forcefully like a delinquent girl, and if the other person had something she needed, she would laugh without malice and take the thing from their hand, then beg in a hushed tone.

If she's lucky, the other person might even give her some extra things; if she's unlucky, they'll just grumble and chase after her for a few steps, and that's it.

She always succeeds.

Because she always knew the limits of her actions, she always targeted those middle-class wage earners. She mostly took small change, or a piece of bread that she had just opened and eaten a bite or two of, or a piece of bread that she hadn't even touched yet. If she knew the guards, she could even use the excuse of doing odd jobs to secretly steal food from such processing plants.

However, this is a very dangerous behavior. When people get used to a certain behavior and get benefits and satisfaction from it, they will become confident. Confidence will erase the sense of crisis, and the behavior of waving the bottom line to gain benefits is itself a gamble.

She overlooked one thing: her victory wasn't due to her superior skills, but simply because her opponent had only lost some change and bread. No one is willing to make a big fuss over such a small thing. The fact that the game never officially started, without giving her opponent any sense of defeat, was the biggest reason she was able to protect herself.

And she not only misjudged herself

They have not only lacked the ability to win, but they have also entered into a dangerous gamble that cannot be ended simply by getting beaten up.

The silence of the corridor was broken by hurried footsteps and panting.

"Ha-ha-help, help me—"

Carly didn't know who she was calling for help from.

The law enforcement agency of the Triassic Circle: [Plague]?

Even the most naive and innocent person wouldn't cry for help from that eerie raven-masked man. He's not someone to be redeemed; he's an executioner through and through. Besides, the raven-masked man explicitly stated that they were nothing but trash in his eyes.

Li Yili?

Although Li Yili would do things to hurt her from beginning to end, she was more afraid of Li Yili, whose motives were unclear and whose thoughts were completely unfathomable, than those masked people who clearly stated that they wanted to kill her. Just being face to face with Li Yili made her feel terrified.

Just a single murmur was enough to drive her to the brink of madness.

Should I ask myself for help?

Think about it carefully...

At that time, Li Yili lifted the manhole cover, observed for a moment, and then closed it. She neither asked for anything nor demanded anything from them. It was she who took the initiative to lift the manhole cover and stand in Li Yili's field of vision to communicate with her.

If she were given another chance, she would definitely choose to hide in the sewer and completely erase Li Yili's existence from her memory.

Unfortunately, there are no "what ifs" in this world.

"boom--"

Carly slipped and fell heavily to the ground.

"it is good--"

Carly braced herself with her hands on the ground, raising her head instinctively wanting to cry out in pain, but...

She met the gaze of something in the darkness, as if countless black lines were falling straight down on her. Her voice was abruptly suppressed, and the burning, stinging pain spreading from her wound was swallowed up by the spreading chill.