Pasha seemed a bit silent on the way back.
Upon reaching the camp, she turned to Su Ziyu and said, "I'll get you some bullets tomorrow."
"By the way."
"Try not to wander around at night lately."
This was the second time Pasha warned Su Ziyu not to wander off, but she didn't mention the reason.
"Thanks." Su Ziyu smiled.
A group of Scavengers had just returned outside the gate, their expressions appeared somewhat sorrowful and numb, with many of them carrying blood, and five or six injured people lying on the vehicle being helped down. A boy roughly fifteen or sixteen years old had lost his arm, with half of his body covered in blood, his consciousness already a bit blurred.
Pasha stood there for a while, suddenly sighed, shook her head, and pulled Su Ziyu away.
"If there were enough medicine, they wouldn't have to face these dangers." Pasha's voice was somewhat deep, as if suppressing something, she said slowly, "The income earned by ordinary people from labor is not enough to buy expensive Antiradiation Potions. They have to take risks, only then can they earn enough money."
"Either work tirelessly in the factory, or become a Scavenger and risk their lives outside."
"We have no more choices."
The resources brought back by the Scavengers are all acquired by the Financial Tycoons' Influence, with good luck one might strike it big, with bad luck they end up like these people here.
Radiation has completely changed this world.
This is an unsolvable problem, everyone has an urgent need for medicine, but the power of the Tycoons who inherited the Old World's legacy is too enormous, there's no organization that can directly confront them. In this Wasteland Era, they hold almost all control over the pharmaceutical resources, determining how much medicine can be distributed each year.
Su Ziyu remained silent.
On one hand, he sympathized with the people of this era, on the other, he knew this had nothing to do with him.
He was just a passerby in this world.
The Hourglass of Time selected him, bringing him across various worlds, surely for some special mission, yet the information has been lost. Currently, he's merely struggling for survival, wanting to return home, living even more dangerously than these people, because the woman from Atlantis told him, regardless of his will, the Hourglass of Time would lead him to seek out those "Indescribable horrors."
Su Ziyu wasn't sure if he could survive the next encounter with those horrors.
Others seemed numb while looking at these suffering Scavengers, maybe they had already grown accustomed to it. A middle-aged man who appeared to be a leader was pleading with a fat man he saw yesterday for something, but the fat man's face was expressionless, completely unlike the person he seemed when facing old Bill yesterday.
The middle-aged man was shouting hoarsely, a vein bulging on his forehead, his eyes full of bloodshot lines, as if suppressing some emotion, struggling to restrain something, pleading, begging, imploring, but ultimately the fat man merely smoked his cigar without expression, then turned away coldly.
"FUCK!"
The leading middle-aged man even placed his hand on his waist, but in the end, it was as if all strength drained from him, helplessly letting his hand drop, he wiped his eyes, then turned to say something to others, apparently asking them to offer some money to treat the injured.
Some people left.
Those uninjured, and some showed reluctance, painstakingly took out something, only a little money, mostly Old World's luxuries, like watches, rings, necklaces, the leading middle-aged man irritably tugged at his hair, Su Ziyu even saw him pull out a strip of bloody scalp.
"Let's go." Pasha's voice seemed to float.
Su Ziyu followed silently behind.
Nightfall quickly descended upon the camp, outside everything became noisy again.
Some black people emerged from various corners, wandering the night streets, casting unfriendly glances at others.
Pasha had already gone back.
Back behind the walls.
Su Ziyu wasn't really inclined to return to the inn now, uncertain of what to do, yet he indeed felt no sleepiness. About half an hour later, while silently observing, he heard a sound, it was several black people conversing in low voices, standing at the alley's edge, then entering a dark alley.
"Another one. Take it away." The speaking black man seemed quite old, his voice somewhat hoarse.
They carried a person out of the alley, then lifted him, turning left and right into the camp's large garbage heap. Su Ziyu didn't know what they intended, but his curiosity led him to follow them. These black people dumped the person near the garbage, then left.
The person lay motionless in the trash, uncertain if already dead.
Su Ziyu suddenly recalled a term he heard near the inn during the day, "Cleaner Fish," intuition told him these black people might be the ones referred to.
He saw some people emerge from behind the large garbage heap.
With the faint light, Su Ziyu saw their appearance, shuddering involuntarily.
Are those humans?
Their faces were horribly disfigured, with many blisters and scars on their bodies' surfaces, their bodies showing obvious deformities, skin looking disfigured with burn-like scars, some even with tumors covered in keratin, resembling humanoid monsters, but clearly human, as they conversed using human language.
"Can this one be saved?" A rough, hoarse voice rang out.
"There's no saving it. Dispose of it." Another voice replied, seeming to be a woman.
Then these evidently deformed individuals dragged the person on the ground away, they seemed to rarely communicate, silently entering the large garbage mountain.
There's actually life there!
Su Ziyu never asked Pasha one question, which was, what happened to those severely deformed people born due to radiation pollution? What happened to those who mutated due to radiation pollution later in life?
This question he couldn't utter.
But perhaps he found the answer.
The night wind was a bit cold.
Su Ziyu silently pulled out a pack of cigarettes, given to him by Pasha during the day, he hadn't opened it before. His fingers slightly trembling, Su Ziyu opened it, taking out one, lighting it in the darkness, deeply inhaling. He inhaled once, then tossed the cigarette to the ground, stomped it out, and turned to leave.
This is Polaris.
The central base led by Freelancers, attempting to break the Tycoons' monopoly over pharmaceuticals, rebuild a free and equal civilized society.
But here, Su Ziyu saw neither freedom nor equality, nor did he see a civilized society.
Not even a hint.
He only saw darkness, profound darkness, surface-order masked darkness, perhaps Pasha was right, this is a barbaric era.
Civilization has indeed departed.
.........