Chapter 285: The Era

The biting cold wind whistled in front of the deathly silent small building, like weeping and complaining.

Zhao Yi’s hand holding the note was trembling uncontrollably. He was like a beast on the verge of collapse, opening his mouth hideously, wanting to roar, but could only make painful whimpering sounds…

His right hand suddenly clenched into a fist, and he slammed all his anger and despair onto the ground with force!

BOOM—!!

A visible wave of air rippled outward, instantly shattering all the frost around, and hideous cracks spread wildly in all directions like a spider web.

Zhao Yi took a deep breath, and several distinct, bizarre voices overlapped, shaking like a volcano:

“……In this city, who is selling coal?! !!”

“The three major chambers of commerce.” After leaving the headquarters, Dr. Yi had been wandering aimlessly on the road. Looking at Zhao Yi, who was about to go on a rampage, he answered slowly, “Right over there at the Century Tower in the center of the city……”

Zhao Yi stumbled to his feet, and a terrifying pressure mixed with chilling murderous intent exploded from this black monster like a tide!

Those eyes flashing with bizarre incantations looked toward a certain direction in Aurora City.

WHOOSH—!!

A thunderous sound exploded, and his figure dragged out an afterimage, instantly disappearing from where he stood.

Shards of frost danced in the air. Dr. Yi still lay on the ground like a corpse, not caring at all what Zhao Yi was going to do… He turned his head slightly, looking at Ling’er, who had fallen beside him, her long eyelashes frozen together by ice and snow.

He looked at this girl, as exquisite as a porcelain doll, and deep guilt and despair appeared in his eyes again… If, if his research could have had some results, perhaps none of this would have happened.

The Aurora Base’s three hundred years of accumulation had led to the current Aurora Realm… And a tiny “pump” had actually become the last straw that destroyed this realm. The science that humanity had once been proud of, the material civilization that it had once thought was enough to rule nature, was simply vulnerable in the face of the truly unknown.

Dr. Yi looked blankly at the sky above. He had stayed at the Aurora Base for more than ten years and hadn’t truly looked up at the sky for a long time… But at this moment, he suddenly felt that looking at the sky from the surface and looking at the concrete slab in the base were actually not much different.

What was the difference between a hollow sky with no hope and a stifling barrier that made it hard to breathe?

Dr. Yi was silent for a long time, then suddenly laughed.

He fumbled to pull out his pistol from his waist, calmly and desperately pressed the muzzle against his temple, and slowly closed his eyes.

“……This fucked-up era.”

BANG—!

A gunshot rang out, and blood bloomed in the abyss of despair, like countless screams being swallowed, falling silent in the world.

……

“Please don’t let anything happen to you guys……”

“It’s enough for me to be the unlucky one, don’t drag my family into this……”

Jian Changsheng sped along the frost-covered road. On both sides of the road, one could see pedestrians who had frozen to death or fainted, or residents who were still struggling to find warmth.

He saw everything, and his heart grew more and more worried, so he could only pray constantly.

A noisy sound came from not far away. Jian Changsheng glanced to the side and saw a dense crowd of figures huddled together on a wide avenue, seemingly fighting over something.

Jian Changsheng hadn’t intended to stop, but just as he was about to look away, several familiar figures appeared in the crowd.

“Uncle?!”

Jian Changsheng’s eyes lit up. He immediately changed direction and rushed into the crowd, grabbing the shoulder of a middle-aged man who was jostling in the crowd.

“Uncle, why are you here?”

“Little Jian?”

The uncle turned around and was stunned to see Jian Changsheng. “Are you here to buy coal too?”

“……Coal?”

Jian Changsheng looked up. The first thing that came into view was a tower with a simple and grand design. This was the tallest building in Aurora City at present, and the road crowded with countless people below it was also one of the core avenues of Aurora City, but it was now blocked solid… Further ahead was the central boiler plant that was no longer operating.

He saw the dense crowd surrounding the boiler plant, with chaotic sounds of fighting and cursing coming from time to time. The people in the front row were holding silver notes, waving them frantically, seemingly waiting in line to buy coal.

Perhaps because too many people were gathered, the temperature here was slightly higher than elsewhere, but even so, the faces of those people were frozen red.

“Buying coal, is it such a big deal?” Jian Changsheng asked, puzzled.

“Don’t you know? The price of coal has skyrocketed… Ordinary families can’t afford it, but to survive, they have to find people to pool their money together to buy and use it. But not everyone cooperates honestly. Snatching coal, snatching money, beating people… It’s total chaos here.”

“Skyrocketed? How expensive can coal be?”

“Fifty thousand, per kilogram.”

“Fifty thousand？？??” Jian Changsheng widened his eyes. “Are they crazy? With coal this expensive, is there really anyone willing to spend money to buy it? They’ve already snatched it, why don’t they just go and snatch the boiler plant??”

The uncle reached out and pointed to the front of the boiler plant. Numerous figures were gathered together, staring like a human wall at everyone who came to trade. Among them were even several Enforcers, their hands resting on the hilts of their guns, their expressions somewhat unfriendly.

And behind them, a squinting man was leaning against the wall by the boiler plant door, his hands still stained with a few streaks of blood, and a faint pressure enveloped the entire open space in front of the boiler plant.

A possessor of the Divine Path?

Seeing this scene, Jian Changsheng’s brows furrowed tighter and tighter.

“Don’t the Enforcers care?”

“Several groups have already come… but in the end, they didn’t do anything, just stood by and watched.” The uncle sighed. “These people are very cunning. Just now, someone incited the crowd to rush in and snatch it together, but before they even reached the door, they were all stunned by that squinting man, and they didn’t have any external injuries. Even if they wanted to charge them with assault, they couldn’t……”

Just as Jian Changsheng was about to say something, the uncle’s figure was pushed forward by the people around him.

“Little Jian! Just wait for me outside, you hear me… Your uncle still has some retirement money, enough to buy a little. Come home with me later, and don’t you dare fall asleep outside……”

Before the uncle could finish speaking, he was pushed into the distance by the crowd. The surrounding noise drowned out his words, and Jian Changsheng behind him couldn’t hear clearly at all.

Jian Changsheng looked at those figures struggling in the tide of the era. In a daze, it was as if threads extended from their bodies, like puppets being manipulated, begging, cursing, trying everything to survive, only to be drained of all their value in the end… And at the end of those threads, gripping their fate, was the greed and ambition of the superiors, which they could not see with their naked eyes.

Jian Changsheng clenched his fists involuntarily. He raised his gaze toward the center of the boiler factory, looking at the chimney that had long since ceased to function.