Sir! Don't close the net!

They didn't rob the jewelry store, nor did they intend to commit burglary, yet they were met with indifference and treated like criminals. On the contrary, those who actually robbed the jewelry store and committed burglary enjoyed preferential treatment from a special group.

On the way back to the small outpost, Lorne couldn't help but complain, "Damn it, did they really think those bastards Ryan would go buy the bread themselves?! If I'd known it would turn out like this, I would have..."

After much hesitation, Lorne finally swallowed back his suggestion to "let's go burglary too."

Sitch reached out and hooked his arm around Lorne's shoulder, then shook him vigorously.

Back at the cabin, Sitch and Lorne saw Sherry leaning against the wall with her arms crossed, looking very angry.

Lorne and Sitch exchanged a glance, then shoved each other for a while before Sitch rubbed his hands together and chuckled as he approached Sherry. "Don't be angry, we were also chased away by those awful shop owners."

"Yes, yes, now most of the shops in the entire San Die circle have put up [their signs]."

"There's a sign that says 'No Homelessness,'" Lorne nodded repeatedly.

"Huh?" Shirley was stunned. "They really put up that kind of sign!?"

"Huh? You don't know? Then what are you angry about?"

Lorne and Sitch were also full of question marks.

“Carly is going to give a speech,” Sherry sighed deeply, rubbing her forehead.

"Huh?!" Lorne and Sitch both widened their eyes simultaneously. "What lecture?!"

“What else could it be? Something about us homeless people,” Shirley grinned.

Lorne swallowed hard, raising his right hand with trembling hands. "Ka, Carly is, is trying to explain to the residents of the Triassic Circle, no, don't generalize about us homeless people, right?"

Sitch immediately realized the seriousness of the problem and raised his hand with trembling hands, "What those bastards, Ryan, did was simply a crime, and it has nothing to do with whether they are homeless or not. Homeless is not the same as criminal. Ka, Carly will emphasize this, right?"

What do you think?!

Shirley suddenly raised her voice.

"If she really wanted to do that, would I be stuck here unable to leave!?"

"How could this happen?! What on earth is that Carly thinking?!" Lorne wailed, clutching his head.

Sitch also wanted to clutch his head and wail, but he was quick-witted and noticed Sherry's question: "Am I going to be stuck here and unable to leave?"

Sickey swallowed hard, and just as he turned his head slightly, the wooden door they had opened slammed shut.

Chapter 42 She saw it too, she saw even more.

The somber atmosphere, like grains of sand flowing through an hourglass, silently filled the outdated clothing store. Annie felt the surrounding space becoming increasingly unfamiliar, and even breathing began to become difficult.

Her attention gradually slipped away from the book in her hands, and her posture changed from sitting sideways to sitting with her back completely to Li Yili. Even so, she could still feel Li Yili's eyes, and they were no longer staring at her, but gradually turning downwards.

Anne gradually became restless, but the heavy atmosphere made her body stiff as a statue, unable to move even her fingers.

Just as Anne was about to speak, the door to the clothing store was pushed open, and before the person in the store had fully appeared, Rebecca's loud voice boomed in.

"Something's happened! Something terrible has happened!" Rebecca burst in, panting. Aditi, whom Rebecca was carrying, was covered in dirt and looked like she had been dragged all the way here.

Li Yili looked at Rebecca, slightly turned her body, and rested her chin on her left hand. "What serious thing could happen? All the shops in San Die Quan have put up signs saying 'Homeless people are not allowed.'"

“No, this is indeed a troublesome matter,” Anne breathed a sigh of relief and put the book on the table. “This is in my second prediction, and the fact that this prediction has come true means that the even worse and more troublesome things that I predicted will also come true.”

Rebecca glanced at Annie, her lips trembled, and she quickly leaned close to Li Yili's ear. Just as she was about to speak, Li Yili raised her hand and pressed it against Rebecca's face, pushing her away. "We're open and honest, there's no need for us to whisper."

Rebecca swallowed hard. "Yes, there are people marching and giving speeches on the roadside."

Anne raised an eyebrow.

This was within her expectations. Although it happened too quickly, considering the actions of the wasteland royal family and nobles, as well as the news that Earl Wilson was coming to the Triassic Circle, it was normal for people to hold a demonstration and declare their opinions now. She just couldn't understand why she had to tell Li Yili about this in secret.

Unless, of course, the people organizing the march and the speech are connected to this man in the yellow raincoat.

"Oh, and then?" Li Yili flicked her fingers.

“The one organizing the parade and speeches… is Carly,” Rebecca said, glancing quickly at Annie.

Carly?

Annie blinked and looked at Li Yili, but Li Yili didn't show any panic. She even tilted her head, as if she didn't recognize the Carly that Rebecca was talking about.

"So...?" Li Yili spread her hands.

Rebecca grunted, unsure how to continue the conversation.

Thinking about it carefully, this is not surprising at all. After all, they had just left when Carly set the processing plant on fire. Compared to this, the march and speech were really child's play.

But Carly still remembers how Carly trembled in the sewer tunnel. She didn't think Carly was the kind of person who would burn down the factory or give a speech, but Carly did all of those things.

Rebecca's remaining conscience kept reminding her that Li Yili was primarily responsible for things getting to this point.

“It’s just that, shouldn’t we, or something, try to stop them?” Rebecca rubbed her hands together, looking a little embarrassed. If it were only one or two people involved, she would forget about it in two or three days at most, but now Carly’s attitude was that she wanted to drag the entire Triple Circle into it!

She wasn't so audacious as to point at the group of homeless people looting a jewelry store in the street and laugh, saying, "See? This was led out by my master. Isn't that awesome?"

"How do we stop it? Kill Carly in the street?" Li Yili yawned with her hands behind her head. "That will only make everyone remember Carly and what Carly wanted to do, and everything will seem more reasonable."

“I, I didn’t say I was going to… kill Carly,” Rebecca laughed awkwardly. “I just, I just wanted to take her down and give her a light tap on the back of the head to erase her memories of the past few days.”

“They’ll just change who’s hosting the parade and giving the speech,” Li Yili rolled her eyes. “What will you do then?”

“That had nothing to do with us then,” Rebecca said confidently, hands on her hips.

Li Yili tilted her head back and let out a long breath.

"It has nothing to do with us now. You and Carly aren't that close. She just showed us the way. You don't even know how old Carly is, what she likes to eat, or what she hates to eat."

"You're just having trouble accepting the other person's multifaceted nature right now."

Li Yili paused for a moment, then pointed her finger at the bell and bent it slightly.

"Can you accept the aunt who usually gives you an extra piece of bread joining the group that beats up homeless people with a rolling pin?"

“Auntie would never do that! She’s a good person,” Rebecca called out.

Li Yili tilted her head to the side, "But that auntie hung a sign on the door that says 'Homeless people are not allowed,' right?"

"Gulp—that, that was just to fit the atmosphere!" Rebecca glanced away, but immediately straightened her back and patted her chest. "I'm not even a homeless person, I'm an illegal immigrant with no job or identity, and she still gave me an extra piece of bread!"

“That’s true in terms of identity, but do you think you look like someone who’s illegally entered the country without proper documentation?” Li Yili rolled her eyes.

Although the clothes were all outdated, Rebecca had a great figure, and the combination of the outdated clothes actually gave off a new trendy vibe. Of course, most importantly, Rebecca's every move exuded confidence and nonchalance that didn't seem to be from the Triassic. Even if Rebecca said that she was an undocumented immigrant, no one would believe her.

"Doesn't it look like it?" Rebecca tilted her head.

“Of course, the most important thing is that whether you want to or not, it’s already too late,” Li Yili raised her finger and waved it from side to side. “By the time you ran back to ask me if I should do anything, things had already happened, and Carly is probably already on stage giving a passionate speech.”

"You're kidding!"

Rebecca's eyes widened, and she grabbed Aditi's hand and rushed out.

The narrow shop door creaked shut, and the clothing store fell into the same deathly silence as before. But this time, Annie did not let the atmosphere remain frozen.

“It seems I’m not the only one blessed by Mr. Yellow Raincoat,” Anne said with her fingers crossed in front of her and a slight smile. “The one who burned down the Triple Ring, the food processing plant of the Cult of Steam and Steel, was this Miss Carly, right?”

“Yes, that’s right,” Li Yili nodded quite readily.

"She...saw it too, right?"

“She saw…more than you can imagine,” Li Yili said, holding up a finger to her lips. “Little Miss Anne, you are lucky that you didn’t see it, but you know more.”

Chapter 43 Seeking True Living

I must be going crazy.

Looking down at the homeless people huddled together below, Carly's lips twitched slightly. Just a month ago, she was whistling and swaying on the street, shoving pedestrians in a tone that wasn't annoying.

To be honest, she didn't dislike the residents of the San Die Quan neighborhood. Not all of them were scoundrels, and not all of them would deliberately discriminate against homeless people; their own lives weren't that comfortable.

But standing here, Carly realized this clearly.

She has to go to [the residents who hate the Tri-Circle].

Because the wasteland has never had its own faith, everything in the wasteland is built on a barren land. They have no self-contained culture, no history where they can find a sense of belonging and pride, and they just cobble together a population.

Wasteland is like a high-rise building without a foundation. If you don't build it up with all your might, it will collapse and become a wasteland once again.

We must have our own unique characteristics and our own history, even if those characteristics can only be described as foolish, we must continue to have them.

On this desolate land, the belief in and adherence to a certain action is more important than anything else; it is the last pillar of their civilization, the last rational being.

As homeless people, they have no firm beliefs or actions to follow, they can't find a sense of belonging, they can't find the meaning of existence, they just wander around numbly and aimlessly. They are even worse than wild animals, but they are not wild animals after all. After realizing this situation, they begin to stir and seek true "living".

Carly witnessed the truth about the Triple Circle, and even the entire wasteland: they were truly meaningless raw materials, not even comparable to beasts.

Their world is a gray blur, and they need color, no matter how strange, they want to bring it out.

"Homeless people are also residents of the wasteland!"

"A homeless person's life matters too!"

"We don't not work because we don't want to! We can't!"

"The problem isn't with us! It's with the system itself! We shouldn't be discriminated against! We deserve a place to live!"

"We want to live! We want food! Why must we always give in and tolerate this!"

"We should be held responsible!"

With each shout from Carly, the eyes of the crowded homeless people lit up, and more and more homeless people gathered around. Even when her voice cracked, Carly still shouted with all her might, while the expressions of the residents of the three-tiered circle present gradually became serious.

Benefits are always given up; it is precisely because there is something to control that power is so fascinating.

These homeless people want to work, but where will the jobs come from? These homeless people want houses, but from whom will the houses be taken?

No, no, no, these "trivial matters" are no longer important. What's important is that these guys actually shouted these things out loud!

Social civilization is a process of selection. Those with ability and the will to strive are selected layer by layer, from the Millennium to the Cretaceous, to the Jurassic, and then to the Triassic, confirming the hierarchical relationships before further development.

Every homeless person is not innocent; they all have their reasons for becoming homeless. How can they take it for granted that everyone else should abide by the rules that have allowed them to survive until now? It's as absurd as a mouse demanding that nature be responsible for a cat being stronger than a mouse and able to hunt mice.

In the upscale restaurant less than fifty meters from Carly, Nemo put down his knife and fork, picked up his red wine and elegantly swirled the glass. He glanced sideways, his eyes reflecting the growing number of homeless people outside the floor-to-ceiling windows. With a slight upturn of his lips, he handed the glass to the side, and the butler waiting nearby immediately bowed and took it.

“This homeless woman is much more capable than we expected,” the butler said softly. “I always thought she would at most lead other homeless people to commit robberies, but I never imagined that she could say things that even madmen wouldn’t say so openly.”

“Whether she’s crazy or not is none of my business,” Nemo waved his hand. “But…she’s definitely more capable than I thought. With them like this, Count Wilson Parr’s operations will go much more smoothly, and then…”

Nemo paused, narrowed his eyes, and sneered.

"The Cult of Steam and Steel should also have a proper meeting to figure out how to solve this problem."

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.