Under the guidance of the monkey-faced eagle, Russell and Ringo arrived at their destination without flying for too long.

It was an ordinary-looking residential area, not too far from here.

As far as the distance on the map alone is concerned, it is only less than four kilometers.

The difference is that the place where Chen Gong originally lived was on the top floor of a high-rise building, with a small single-family villa filled with sunlight.

The location given by the monkey-faced eagle is closer to the ground - specifically, the second floor.

Russell got off the float vehicle and subconsciously raised his head to look at the sky.

Although it was close to noon, there was almost no sunlight to be seen. Dark tall buildings rose from the ground, like giant swords, standing straight on the ground, giving people an undeniable chilling atmosphere.

The glimmers of light emerging from the gaps are more like wounds cut out of the night sky, oozing out the blood of light that should not appear in the dark night.

It was clearly daytime, but there were lights all around.

Not just the first floor of the ground floor, but every floor and every household.

In a corner that was as dark as the bottom of an abyss, it was noisy and crowded, like a busy city.

It is said to be a residential area, but it is more like a large shopping mall. Each shop has its door open to the outside. It does not occupy a large area, and there are no very tasteful signboards. Instead, it highlights a flash - various flashes.

Signboards with different frequencies are fixed at the entrances of these shops.

Due to lack of space, some signboards are even inserted directly in the middle of two stores. The signboard is divided into two horizontally, with "Meatballs in Sour Soup↑" written on the top and "Foot Bath Massage→" on the bottom.

Interspersed among the shops, those with closed doors are houses where civilians live.

In fact, those shops are usually divided into two. On this side is the shop, and the cashier or kitchen door curtain is lowered. On the other side of the door curtain is the living space, which can be directly connected from the shop.

Living room, even bedroom.

"Most of these stores are not businessmen who specialize in business. Instead, about 64% of families choose to open at least one store to earn extra money by relying on their own skills.

The voice of the monkey-faced eagle sounded in Russell's mind: "Because for them, life has no hope. They can only rely on this method to increase income and reduce expenditure, and save living expenses."

If there were no store, the living space might be a little more spacious.

But that kind of spaciousness doesn't mean much.

When choosing between "a spacious living environment" and "a very stable income", the former becomes a luxury.

"Different from Happy Island... Happy Island has a special 'correctness' on the surface, and that is the 'happiness system'. In order to maintain the power of her Holy Order, Chairman Sai Lun devotes herself to making residents

Feel 'happiness'. The 'Happiness System', which was born based on the judgment criteria of the power of the Holy Order, quantifies the happiness of the entire island in real time.

“And unemployment is an obvious form of ‘unhappiness’.

"Because of this, people will be assigned to meaningless jobs. Companies are not allowed to lay off any employees unless necessary and for good reasons.

"But on Tongshen Island, this is absolutely impossible to receive preferential treatment - in order to reduce human resource costs, repeatedly firing employees whose internship period is about to expire is a fairly routine operation on Tongshen Island. The other side of the job is that you may be unemployed at any time.

, that is, you can 'find a job' at any time. However, the job found through this method will definitely be tiring and the income will be meager.

"In other words, with the hard work of a large number of top scientists, Tongshen Island does not need a 'middle level'. Because they do not need their own talent training mechanism, Tongshen Island's university is also the most advanced among the seven islands.

Bad.

"If you need any talents, you can directly poach people from other empty islands at a large price to immigrate. The poached scholars will naturally fill up this technology tree from top to bottom and bring new jobs. People from here

, if you cannot become a top talent, you can only become a "hard worker" as a consumable.

"This is why Tongshen Island is dotted with factories and individual shops - those who are unwilling to work, or are worried that they may be fired at any time, need a stable shop as a source of income.

"For them, maintaining their own business is more important than working hard."

The monkey-faced eagle's synthesized voice does not convey any emotion, but rather resembles a dull, emotional radio host reciting a press release with an expressionless face.

"It's surprising, Lord Hero."

"You must have never seen people living together in such a harmonious manner."

"What you said... people who didn't know better would have thought you were a native resident of Tongshen Island."

Russell just chuckled and responded in a low voice: "Strictly speaking, you have never lived here for even a day."

"That's not necessarily the case, Lord Hero..."

The monkey-faced eagle said calmly.

Russell passed the meatball shop amidst the whispers of the monkey-faced eagle.

After swiping the card on the door with the prosthetic body, the door was opened smoothly.

The people coming and going from the second floor did not pay attention to Russell. On the contrary, the people lying on the railings on the third, fourth, and fifth floors drinking, or the gangsters laughing and playing, pointed at Russell with contemptuous expressions.

.

But after Russell entered the door, he only saw darkness.

Ringo followed Russell, squeezed in, and closed the door.

Russell didn't need to turn on the lights in the room. Just from the neon light leaking from the window and the light spilling out when the door opened, he could see a figure sitting in the hall.

She was sitting upright in a wheelchair, wearing a jacket with loose sleeves.

At this moment, she was holding a gun and calmly pointing it at Russell.

The silhouette of the figure looked petite, with long straight black hair hanging down against the cool neon lights.

And the dim yellow calm eyes are like two bright lights in the night.

The shadows cast during the day were cast on her cheeks, blocking most of her expressions.

Russell watched her open her mouth slightly, her small and delicate lips slightly parted, and a cold and childish voice came:

"——How can you be sure that I have not lived here for even a day?"

The voice of the monkey-faced eagle in Russell's mind overlapped with the crisp voice of the girl in front of him.

Russell looked at everything in front of him calmly.

His emerald green pupils have turned into vertical pupils, and the night vision talent from his spiritual relatives is taking effect.

Ringo felt a slight crisis, and the pink light in his pupils suddenly lit up.

Unlike Russell, she has no night vision.

"I'm going to turn on the light, Mr. Ultramarine."

She lowered her voice and said softly: "Please pay attention and don't get blinded."

Then, she fumbled to turn on the light in the room.

The girl holding the gun did not move the gun, but still pointed it at Russell's heart, motionless.

When Ringo turned on the light, his spine suddenly felt numb——

Not only because of the gun, but also because she saw that there was more than one person in the room.

Strictly speaking, this place is "full of people."

Not seven or eight, but twenty or thirty.

Except for the girl who opened her eyes, everyone else had their eyes closed.

They were either men or women, as if they were dead. They were also like a doll shop that had been smashed. The dolls were scattered all over the place, giving off a gloomy atmosphere. An overcrowded atmosphere.

, and makes this place look like a warehouse.

Including the girl in the wheelchair, all the "dolls" looked to be no more than twelve or thirteen years old.

What they have in common is that except for the girl in the wheelchair who has long, smooth black hair, the others all have white hair.

Russell could clearly recognize that the prosthetics they used were relatively cheap - except for the long, straight black girl, who had a rather expensive prosthetic.

"How...should I call you?"

Russell said calmly: "Monkey-faced eagle? Or...

"——Naraku-7?"

"You can indeed understand all this smoothly."

The monkey-faced eagle program in Russell's mind stopped talking.

The person who replied was the expressionless black-haired girl in front of Russell.

She also calmly made a voice as clear as a wind chime: "This is probably the difference in 'performance'.

"Your talents and talents really amaze me. But some things cannot be solved by 'talent'."

"Naraku-7" has a petite figure and wears a junior high school uniform. His eyes flash with a dim yellow light similar to Russell's.

That kind of stable and dazzling fire is the glow of spiritual energy.

"Those people must be your kindred."

Russell's eyes did not waver at all, but always looked at Naraku-7.

It wasn't that she was worried about the gun in her hand - with Russell's reaction speed, at this distance, he could definitely eject and start the moment he pulled the trigger.

He believed that the "monkey-faced eagle", who was also born on Happy Island and had turned into an electronic ghost before arriving at Tongshen Island, would be able to understand what Russell did on the airship back then.
To be continued...