Chapter 187 Second-hand World
"Bang!"
Su Xia fell heavily to the ground, falling about ten meters.
The sewer here is designed to be quite spacious, with a gray-black oval roof that stretches as far as you can see from the front to the back. There is not much odor in the air, and it seems that the ventilation system is still functioning normally.
Su Xia took out a flashlight, pressed the switch, and brought a bright light to the dark place.
And Ma Zhu finally figured it out.
"Sir, just go a little further. We are just one of the entrances and exits."
"Well, continue to lead the way."
Su Xia adjusted the flashlight to maximum brightness.
The two men walked one in front and one behind in this huge sewer, and their footsteps echoed far away.
Su Xia noticed that there were no signs of water erosion on the ground of this sewer, nor on the walls on both sides, proving that it had never been put into use before. Moreover, the reinforced concrete layer was extremely thick, no less than that of today's air-raid shelters.
Not far away, we saw poor people lying and sleeping on both sides of the sewer.
They were covered with tattered and dirty quilts, and the blankets beneath them were as dirty as the ground, but they were sleeping soundly and didn't notice anyone walking by them.
“Snoring…Snoring…”
The snoring sounds came one after another, amplified by the empty space of the sewer, like a group of giants.
The deeper you go into this underground area, the more people you see lying on the ground casually sleeping.
Gradually, some small houses appeared.
Like those on the ground, these houses are low and narrow, built simply with the most basic materials such as iron sheets, wooden boards, asbestos tiles, etc. The key parts are tied up with plastic ropes or wires to ensure that they will not fall apart. The length, width and height are only about two or three meters, leaving enough passage for others to pass through.
There is electricity underground as well, and scattered wires are fixed to the curved concrete walls, like black blood vessels growing out of a sewer.
There was still faint light in many of the houses, and through the cracks, one could see the poor people working inside.
Some people are sewing clothes, some are sorting out discarded mechanical products, and some are making simple food.
The deeper you go, the more lights appear.
This huge underground sewer space actually has the prototype of a small world and can achieve internal circulation to a certain extent.
After walking for half an hour, Su Xia actually passed by a fairly large shopping mall.
The underground shopping mall is very special. It directly occupies the entire semi-cylindrical space and is more than 20 meters long. People coming and going need to pass through it. Under the dim chandeliers, many things that are very common on the ground are placed on the metal shelves.
"My Lord, that is sugar water, which can be bought here."
While walking through the mall, Ma Zhu pointed to a shelf in a corner, which was filled with small black glass bottles the size of thumbs.
Su Xia glanced around and a prompt appeared in front of her.
[Addictive ingredients have been detected, which can cause users to fall into short-term happiness and hallucinations. Long-term use can damage the brain, cause failure of internal organs such as the heart, lungs, and kidneys, and cause irreversible and fatal damage to the body. It is recommended to destroy it on the spot]
This kind of stuff is banned in the world above ground, but is sold openly in the underground world.
The price is not cheap, the most common one is in the double digits, and ordinary wage earners in the city who have to support their families may not be able to afford it.
On both sides outside the mall, there were many poor people lying down, drinking the sugary drink with straws.
They were wearing simple clothes, and some had not even eaten for several days, saving their money to buy this thing. They were skinny and hungry, with only a thin layer of skin left. They curled up with their eyes closed, twitching or unconsciously uttering all kinds of strange mutterings.
[You have triggered the mission "Flower of Life", do you want to accept it? ]
Before meeting Wu Gui's family, Su Xia triggered a mission.
The world is huge, and walking around can always trigger various tasks, but this task is quite special.
[Mission: Flower of Life]
[Description: Flowers of life cannot bloom on the barren and dry soil]
[This slum is controlled by a drug called "sugar water", and most people's lives are gradually withering away in false fantasies. Please find the source of this drug and destroy it in one fell swoop.]
[This task has no time limit]
[Mission requirements: Kill all the masterminds behind the scenes, and don't let anyone go]
[Quest Reward: Purification Potion]
[Note: This potion has no level limit and can be made by first-level pharmacist apprentices. It can help creatures addicted to drugs break free from control and regain new life.]
After seeing the task description, Su Xia sighed.
This thing can't be completely destroyed even on Earth.
Some countries have even begun to legalize it, but how is that possible on this decaying planet?
Unless everything is destroyed, everything is overthrown, and a new order is established with an unprecedented change, it will completely perish under the new order.
[Task Tip 1: The Wu Gui family member you are looking for is the one who is part of the Tangshui delivery]
Seeing this prompt, Su Xia's eyes fixed.
This was something he had never expected.
Does he want him to kill Wu Gui's family personally?
"We can only take it one step at a time ."
Su Xia sighed and continued to move forward, looking for Wu Gui's family in this vast underground world.
Wu Gui's parents were involved in a gang dispute in their early years. The enemy broke into their home and chopped his parents into pieces in front of Wu Gui, who was only five years old. The enemy then used a meat grinder to grind the meat into pieces and fed the sows on the pig farm.
Later, Wu Gui lived with his cousin who was twenty years older than him.
The two brothers depended on each other and lived hard in this dark place.
Su Xia recalled that Wu Gui often said before his death: "My cousin and his family haven't moved out yet. Maybe the money I sent back is not enough. I will save some money to give them to them..."
This time, Su Xia also brought a lot of money, and even planned to find a decent job for Wu Gui's cousin in the city by using his identity as a pharmacist, but a sudden side quest disrupted his plans.
In this way, he walked and searched in the densely packed buildings with sewer pipes, enduring all kinds of strange smells, and another half an hour passed.
Ma Zhu's physical condition was very poor and he could no longer hold on after walking for such a long time.
His face was as pale as paper, and he pleaded cautiously: "Sir, can we... go to the market next door to eat something first?"
"Oh? There's a market underground?"
Su Xia nodded and motioned for him to lead the way: "Come on, take me to see it."
“Yes, yes…”
Ma Zhu breathed a sigh of relief and took Su Xia into a lower side road.
He was less than 1.6 meters tall, just the right height to walk in.
But Su Xia had to lower his head, bend slightly, and walk a long way in this fork in the road.
After walking out of the fork in the road, the view in front of us brightened up and a small market with bright lights appeared in front of us.
It was already past ten o'clock in the evening, but there were still many people coming and going in the market, and food, clothes, daily necessities, etc. were displayed on the stalls.
This area seemed to be the intersection of several large pipelines. The space was large enough to accommodate more than thirty stalls.
Ma Zhu walked to a food stall, swallowed his saliva, took out a wrinkled three yuan and fifty cents from his pocket, handed it to the stall owner, and said, "Give me a plate of fried rice, with more meat."
"Okay, wait a minute!"
The stall owner took the money and started working quickly.
Hearing the price, Su Xia was a little surprised and asked, "Is the food underground so cheap?"
"this……"
The stall owner also looked at Su Xia in surprise and found that Su Xia was fair and tender, wearing expensive clothes and an exquisite mechanical watch.
You can tell at first glance that he is a young man from a wealthy family. No wonder he doesn't understand the prices here.
But what are these people doing underground?
Even if they wanted to find slaves, they wouldn't come here in person. The slave traders who came underground were just middlemen.
Ma Zhu smiled awkwardly and explained, "Sir, the food here is mostly second-hand and worthless."
"Second-hand? From a garbage dump?"
"Yes."
Ma Zhu pointed inside the stall and asked Su Xia to look.
In the stall, there were several large transparent plastic bags containing a lot of miscellaneous cooked meats.
"All this meat is found in the garbage dump. Every day at five o'clock, the city's garbage trucks start dumping garbage on the garbage mountain outside. At this time, we will rush in to pick out the good stuff..."
"Many rich people in the city don't finish their food. Sometimes you can even find whole chicken legs and steaks. Many people just take a few bites and throw them away. They are all meat. As long as they are washed and re-cooked to sterilize, they can be eaten..."
Generally speaking, the meat in those large transparent plastic bags was all dug out from the garbage dump and was meat that had been stained by other people’s saliva.
The processing process is very disgusting, but it is edible after all, and children need it most when they are growing.
In addition to food, other things here, such as clothes, daily necessities, etc., are basically second-hand.
Every place has its own way of survival.
Here in this slum, as long as it can be used and eaten, that's enough.
Many people here pin their hopes of improving their lives on the next generation, so they try their best to have children, and the poorer they are, the more children they have. Su Xia saw many children and pregnant women along the way. Many of the pregnant women should still be in junior high school. The increasing number of people has led to a rise in the prices of second-hand items.
According to Ma Zhu, this kind of fried rice used to cost only 2.8 yuan.
After all, the meat is stained with saliva, the oil is fished out of the gutter, the rice is expired, and the cost is pitifully low.
The various foods sold in this stall are less than a quarter of the price outside.
"No matter what it is, as long as it is fried in oil, it will taste delicious."
Ma Zhu held the plate, squatted beside the stall, and began to eat ravenously, with a look of enjoyment on his face.
When he was addicted to sugar water before, he had no appetite for a long time. Today, he was cured by Su Xia's injection of medicine and his appetite returned.
But Su Xia really had no appetite, and felt a little nauseous when she saw those big bags of cooked meat.
He had a hard life since he was a child, but not to this extent. The government provided a lot of subsidies to his family, even waived his tuition fees, allowing him to receive a good education and eat normal meat.
