The Righteous Player(s) Chapter 116: Is this a dream or reality?
When Annan and Ingrid reached the innermost part of the alley, they finally reached a quiet enough place.
He smiled and waved to Justus in the barbecue restaurant across the street, indicating that they could see him. Then the voice message sent by Professor Gray was played.
That’s a lot of advice:
"You guys come back as soon as possible, don't wait too long, and pay attention to safety.
"I just received news that the previous generation of Storm Daughter in the Principality of Winter completed self-sacrifice today, but the next Storm Daughter is the aunt of Grand Duke Ivan. She is not young anymore and needs to use rituals It takes a period of adjustment with the potion before he can succeed. The Duke of Winter decided to arrange the specific ceremony time twelve days later.
"Without the suppression of the Storm Tower in the past two weeks, various forms of celestial disturbances may occur around the world. ...For example, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, earthquakes, etc. Undersea tunnels in the deep underground layer may occur Collapse, earthquakes may also occur in urban areas, causing the bottom layer to collapse and crack, or the sky dome and subway lanes to collapse.
"——You'd better come back quickly, otherwise you may encounter something bad, such as the sky dome or the driveway collapsing. It will be safer after returning to the Gray Tower."
...That's it.
Annan suddenly realized.
It turns out to be here——
He already understands.
Annan never considered the issue of earthquakes from the beginning. Because even if there were, they would probably be intercepted by the underground city... So it is normal that there are no records of earthquakes in the above-ground world.
Earthquakes are not impossible underground.
In other words, because the depth of underground cities is not too deep... even shallow earthquakes will occur beneath them.
The successful establishment of the underground city is probably predicated on the existence of the Storm Tower.
If the earthquake cannot be completely suppressed, it will be impossible to successfully build cities and tunnels underground.
I am afraid that even if a small section of the tunnel is built, it will collapse in the event of a small earthquake - not to mention the fragile undersea tunnel.
It turns out that they have acquiesced that there will be no earthquakes in the underground world...
For the first time, Annan could clearly realize the necessity of the existence of the Wizard Tower.
The mission of the other wizard towers cannot be clearly seen by Annan for the time being...
But the Storm Tower can directly suppress natural disasters. This is of great significance to the five major countries.
I am afraid that in the next twelve days, other countries will have begun to organize evacuation.
Annan glanced at Ingrid.
...In that case, are you about to die now?
Of course, Annan was embarrassed to say this out loud.
At first, Annan thought Ingrid died from the lava intrusion in the "Black Gold Field". That's why "Professor Wolf" launched revenge against the Principality of Winter... But when "Frederick" said that he didn't know the reason for the formation of the Cinder Barrens, Justus was not surprised and would be nice to him. A cheerful explanation.
If Ingrid really died in the Black Gold Fields, but "Frederick" forgot about it - Justus would probably not explain it at all, but would beat him up.
At the same time, Justice was able to think of Ingrid's death from the "black gold field" to the "coal barren"...
This shows that Ingrid probably did not die in the lava backflow incident.
Now that I think about it, it’s normal. There is no reason for Ingrid, a young girl, to wander around in the gold mine field on the exploration level.
According to rationality, in order to avoid casualties caused by earthquakes, wise men should choose to close all cities and gather all people in evacuation sites, or directly call on residents to leave the underground world and wait for twelve days on the ground.
But they didn't.
Because after all, there are only twelve days... In these short twelve days, there may not be any natural disasters. For example, a tsunami, a volcanic eruption, or an earthquake—if they had to evacuate for twelve days and then move back in, the cost would be too high.
Leave aside the cost of food and accommodation, as well as lost wages and property lost during the chaotic evacuation process. And with them all gathered together, the underground city, which originally had a serious lack of legal control, became even more difficult to manage.
Each city has different laws, and people naturally have different habits. Normally it's fine, but if you evacuate in a concentrated manner, conflicts and contradictions will inevitably occur.
So in the end, the wise men not only failed to issue an evacuation order.
Instead, the information was completely covered up.
Since Annan did not know about this matter, the final loss may indeed be small.
Only the "Spotted Bone Forest" should have become the "Bone-eating Forest", and there should only be one earthquake in the past twelve days.
——The earthquake that killed Ingrid.
That is, here, now, now.
In that case...
Then Professor Gray’s true identity is probably—
Annan and Ingrid looked at each other.
Not waiting for Annan to say anything.
He suddenly felt a violent shaking under his feet.
His pupils tightened instantly.
Under Annan's gaze.
The "Spotted Bone Forest" in the distance suddenly began to disintegrate from top to bottom.
It was like countless tall pillars piled up with Coke cans, all of which suddenly collapsed one by one; it was also like a super-large domino.
Like black and yellow mountains and seas frozen in the void, they roared like landslides and tsunamis, and then collapsed suddenly.
——It was an extremely spectacular scene.
Ingrid looked a little lost in thought.
And Annan turned around.
By chance, she saw that the building beside her suddenly swayed and fell towards her.
At that moment... the world in front of Annan suddenly became dim and slow.
Justus looked at him from the barbecue restaurant across the street, with an expression gradually becoming frightened.
He stretched out his hands to the two of them——
"Careful!"
Annan shouted loudly and hugged Ingrid.
He took her and ran in the extremely narrow alley. Both of their skins were scratched by the stone wall... But even so, they only ran from the innermost side to a position close to the exit.
Looking at the slower and slower, dim yellow world becoming gradually abstract~IndoMTL.com~ like an oil painting.
Annan felt that his spine was so hot that it was almost hot.
His strong intuition told him that danger was approaching.
Then——
He pushed Ingrid down under him without thinking.
Annan himself opened his arms, one on the left and the other on the right, like a solid umbrella.
In Justus' horrified gaze, "Frederick"'s figure was submerged by the tilting and slowly falling tall building.
It is different from "historically".
Ingrid, who was supposed to be buried at the end of the alley, survived under the dome supported by "Frederick".
Like all residents of underground cities...
On the verge of death, Annan did not lose this memory and woke up from the nightmare.
The world in front of him became dim and dry.
And gradually becomes dim.
The whole world stands still here.
Only Annan’s mind is running fast——
At the same time, he felt the rusty smell of his back being bombarded by boulders and the blood overflowing from his throat... as well as the smell of the "Dragon Sleep Mixture" coming towards him in the strong wind.
Ah.
Annan responded.
——This is a choice.
Stand still...to resist this inevitable death for Ingrid?
Or do you move to the side...to avoid the throwing ax thrown by Justus?
Is it the original "future", Frederick's prophetic dream?
Or is it the "past" of childhood, the obsession of childhood that Frederick recalled before his death?
"Did you dream... or did you wake up from a dream?"
Professor Gray's voice sounded very clearly in Annan's ears.
——In the end, which side is reality?
Which side is the dream?