A brave man may not live, but he cannot die

Chapter 125 Well, let’s go to school together
The parrot green coupe was driving on the road. The 16-lane Jianghai Avenue opposite was as spacious as a field. Even if there was an occasional landslide like a meteorite crater, it could be easily bypassed.

It's like escaping in the end of the world. The sun sinks below the horizon, and the city is dominated by the ruins of a civilization that has been in ruins for many years. The wreckage of steel and concrete is filtered with an amber filter by the sunless dusk.

Quinn gripped the steering wheel with one hand, his expression grim. Despite the excellent road conditions, he pushed the speed limit to nearly 150 mph. The silent roar of the motor, unbecoming of this era, swept the city past like a shadow.

Lin sat on him like a well-behaved elementary school student.

And Amemiya Ningning would glance at him from time to time while he was driving, with an indescribable scrutiny in her eyes.

It would have taken thirty minutes to walk, but with Quinn's speeding, it took just over a minute before the collapsed China World Trade Center appeared before their eyes.

He did a beautiful drift, the car crashed through the curb, shattered the already cracked glass entrance, and cut diagonally into the first floor of the China World Mall.

You can no longer drive ahead as collapsed concrete slabs have completely blocked the road leading to the mall. A KFC sign with an old man's logo is sandwiched between the ruins, with its light flickering.

Quinn took one last look at the brand new car interior, opened the door, got out, and carried Lin back onto his shoulders.

"What's next?"

There are eight sets of elevators in China World Trade Center, distributed in a circular pattern in every corner of the mall.

But judging from the scale of the landslide, the interior of the mall should be completely destroyed, and the elevators parked on each floor are likely to have been crushed into scrap metal.

Lin was silent for a while, then her clever little head came up with a solution: "Find it."

".Looking for an elevator?"

"Ah."

Quinn had no choice but to knock on the car door and signal everyone to get out.

Only Megan was hesitant, but under the threat of Quinn's extra-long Japanese sword, she had to come down reluctantly. Although she was determined to commit suicide, she still subconsciously chose to obey when threatened. This made Quinn's impression of her as a "daily person" slightly change.

Was she bullied before? Or was it the memory of "Luo Min" in her body?
After getting off the tram, Seven walked around it, marveling at it.

"Holy crap, this engine has at least 12 cylinders, right? Why is it silent? Did you build this car yourself? What brand is it?"

He asked Amemiya Ningning respectfully.

In his eyes, this long-legged lady has automatically become a highly intelligent inventor teammate of the superhero.

".It's just a car."

Celia ran over to Quinn, put her arm around him, and separated him from Amamiya Ningning. At the same time, she glanced at the Xiaomi car logo and commented, "An Android car, nothing special."

Ningning Amemiya dragged Adolf out and handed him to Seven to carry on his back.

These two people have a good relationship in college, and it does make sense to separate them into different classes. They already walk to and from school together every day - mainly because others can't talk to them, but they have similar interests.

But Seven in the abyss didn't recognize Adolf. When he saw that he had to carry the police on his back, he was extremely reluctant: "No, no, if I carry the police on my back, I will become an accomplice. I can't explain it clearly. You guys better carry it on yourselves. Uh."

The tip of the knife was against his throat, like a cold wind cutting his face. Seven looked at Quinn with a threatening look and broke out in a cold sweat.

"It's quite light." Seven was very clear about the issue of being an accomplice or being a corpse.

"You two." Amamiya Ningning looked at Celia and Quinn's linked hands. "What's your relationship?"

"Me and Quinn?" Celia said, glancing at Quinn's face. "Boyfriend and girlfriend."

When she heard "Quinn", Amamiya Ningning's dark eyes moved slightly.

"She's playing Abyssal Memory?"

This question was directed to Quinn.

"Quinn, what is the Abyss Memory?" Celia asked immediately afterwards.

She originally thought that Quinn and the little loli on his shoulder were suffering from a middle school syndrome.

But when the brilliant mana light burst out in the police reception hall, even the dumbest person could realize that there was something unscientific about these two people.

That's what he said earlier.
"You are already dead"

"Don't you think this world is weird?"

"Of course you don't think so. How can people in dreams have their own thoughts?"

"Gather everyone before the sun comes up, or you will fall to the fourth level."

"Wait, isn't she just a figment of my imagination?"

Celia hugged Quinn's arms a little tighter.

She didn't dare to think about these words, but now everyone was gathered, they were going to take the elevator, they were going to evacuate
What is evacuation? Where do we evacuate to?

The collapsed building, the deserted shopping mall, the devastated city, none of these made Celia feel uncomfortable. Mi Yutong's "cognition" told her that these were all normal and that this was how the world was.

If Quinn hadn't taken her to see the graves, hadn't stormed into the police station, and hadn't raced in the downtown area, then everything she'd experienced would have been just a routine, day after day. She'd happily been thinking about finding her boyfriend who worked off-campus, planning where to go, maybe even kissing secretly in a dark corner where no one could see.
But everything that happened next was beyond the girl's understanding of the world. Everything became unfamiliar, even Quinn.

He is still himself, some things are the same, but some things are different.

Celia didn't dare to think about what was going to happen next. The fear seemed to seep into her skin, almost to her bones.

Quinn whispered, "Let's go find the elevator."

"Elevator. Where are we going?" Celia's voice was very soft.

"Go where the elevator goes." Quinn rubbed her head, as he sometimes did when she behaved well during tutoring. "Then everything will be back to normal. I promise."

"Okay!" Celia seemed to be encouraged, and her usual sunny and cheerful face returned to her face. "You never lie to me, I trust you! Let's go! I'll take you to the elevator. I know this place well!"

"So, what exactly is this 'elevator'?" Amamiya Nene said pitifully with a bitter face, "Wow, this is just cold shouldering. No one's paying any attention to me? I'm supposed to be the leader of this team."

Celia is very familiar with Guomao.

As a shopping mall designed to rival world-class shopping districts from the start, Guomao boasts some of the highest consumer standards in the region. Several luxury brands and star-rated hotels have direct-operated stores there. As a wealthy woman with a large business, she always chooses Guomao for shopping, and she holds membership cards for various beauty salons and barbershops there.

She led them to the basement level of the mall. The escalator had lost power, but thankfully it didn't collapse. Amamiya Ningning remarked, "This staircase is so strange," as they walked. Whenever she spoke to Quinn, Celia kept silent and listened.

The underground floor of the shopping mall is connected to the subway station. Perhaps because it is deep enough, the underground landslide is not serious, and even many blocks have retained their original appearance.

Snack streets, clothing stores, bookstores, and video stores selling CDs
In later generations, this place became a check-in spot for internet celebrities full of two-dimensional atmosphere. Little girls in cosplay costumes can be seen everywhere, and the shops have become small shops selling anime peripherals. But at this moment, Korean wave is still popular, and picture albums and small cards of Korean boy groups are displayed in front of various stores. Quinn is in the middle of it, with an absurd feeling of traveling through time and space.

Some stalls' sausage grills were spinning, with fresh sausages tumbling down their sides; even though the main lights were off, the mall's billboards and ambient lighting still provided illumination; the mannequins in the clothing store's cabinets were covered in a thick layer of dust, yet a shiny new coat sat on a chair, as if someone had just tried it on.
Even Ningning Amamiya, a person from another world who had never seen these things, could sense the sense of conflict caused by the chaotic operation of the world.

However, including Celia, the four boys and girls who played the role of the abyss were completely unaware of this, and in their eyes, the world remained normal.

"The elevator should be just around the corner!"

"Oops, I remembered it wrong. Sorry, sorry. It should be a little further ahead."

"Huh? How did we get to the subway station? Quinn, that's weird."

"Everyone, please follow me closely. The China World Trade Center is huge and you could get lost if you're not careful."

Twenty minutes later, everyone who had followed Celia for a long journey returned to the escalator where they went downstairs.

"Hey, why are you back?"

Celia glanced at Quinn cautiously. He hadn't said much the entire time.

"How about we go upstairs and look for it? There are many entrances on the first floor. Maybe the elevator at the south or north gate can be used?"

Quinn remained silent, but Lin suddenly spoke:

"The sun is about to come out." The little girl didn't pay much attention to the road. She sat on Quinn's shoulder with her eyes closed to rest, but she was always paying attention to the time.

".Let's go then."

This was the first time Quinn took the initiative to hold Celia's hand after arriving in the abyss.

"Hey, we just came here—we."

Celia's voice suddenly stopped.

At a corner next to the escalator, there is an elevator room with three elevator doors.

Even though the signposts hanging on the ceiling were covered with dust and the road was not very clear, with Quinn's memory, how could he not remember how to get to the basement level?
When Mi Yutong was shopping, it was Quinn who carried the bags for her.

In the dim and dilapidated basement, only the elevator was spotless. The mirror-like elevator door still looked as if it had just been wiped by the cleaning staff, and Celia's silent face could be seen from above.

Seven was the first to go, carrying Adolf on his back and pressing the elevator panel.

As an elevator in the city center business district, the system here is fully imported. It doesn't even have up and down buttons. It is a pure glass touch panel and looks extremely high-end.

But at this time, all three elevators had no power, and the floor display at the top was not lit. No one knew whether there was an elevator behind the three closed doors.

But even if there were, the China World Trade Center had been severed, and the rubble of the collapsed building alone buried an area hundreds of meters long. The steel cables and traction devices used to pull the elevators had long been buried under the masonry. How would the elevators be operated? Where could they go?
"Pizza."

Lin finally opened her eyes. Quinn knew that the little loli was planning to come down. When he wanted to hug her, he found that Celia was holding her left hand tightly and would not let go.

He had no choice but to bend down and let Lin turn over by herself.

"The elevator here has no power."

Celia forced a smile and said, "How about we try the other elevator? There are seven elevators anyway, and if that doesn't work, there's the hotel's freight elevator."

No one responded to her, only Amamiya Ningning looked at her with a hint of pity.

This guess may not be correct.

But she seemed to understand why Quinn took special care of this female student.

Lin walked to the glass panel of the elevator and did not try to press the up and down touch points like Seven, but instead placed her wand on it.

"Master Magician, there's no electricity. It's useless even if you press it. Fuck—"

As Seven's eyes suddenly widened, the branch-like wand actually grew branches, and the mottled bark tightly wrapped around the glass panel like tentacles and chains. Then, light emerged -

Like the aurora in the sky descending here, the vibrant green lights up the magic wands and also lights up everyone's eyes.

Celia, Megan, and Seven were all staring at this extraordinary scene. Under the lingering light, the upward triangular arrow on the glass panel actually lit up. About four or five seconds later, there was a "ding" sound from the elevator and the door opened.

No one knows where this strange elevator came from or what pulled it up. The beautiful marble floor reflected golden light, and there was even air conditioning inside. The elevator screen was playing an advertisement for the re-screening of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows".
Lin retracted her wand and swayed. She was about to fall, but Amamiya Ningning quickly stepped forward to catch her and exclaimed, "Why is your body so cold?!"

"I'm hungry." Lin raised her hand and pointed at the elevator: "Go in."

Amamiya Ningning quickly pulled her and Megan in.

Quinn raised the knife, and Seven immediately rushed into the elevator, very honestly.

Finally, he pulled Celia towards the elevator.

However, the girl seemed frozen and unwilling to move.

"Quinn. I don't want to get in the elevator." Tears burst out, and she couldn't say why, but once she got in the elevator, something would be over.

Her shoulders twitched and her voice became choked. She felt helpless like a lost child in the face of all these inexplicable and continuous happenings.

"I, let's go home, okay? Let's go home. I will memorize the words and practice the piano. Please, let's go home——"

Quinn gripped the hilt of the knife tightly in his right hand. In the dim light, the sobbing girl looked almost exactly the same as she did in his memory.

".Pizza."

Lin said weakly in the elevator, "Hurry."

"Shut up!!" Celia suddenly yelled hysterically into the elevator: "Just leave! Why are you taking me with you?! Just leave—"

Quinn pulled his hand away.

He smiled with difficulty: "Now it's time to go home."

After saying that, he gripped the hilt of the knife in reverse, ready to knock the girl out like he had knocked out Adolf.

But she suddenly rushed in, throwing herself into Quinn's arms like a moth to a flame.

"You promised me that we would go to college together, right?"

"You would cover me with a blanket on the plane, rent an apartment with me, go to school and go home with me like we do now, protect me from being approached by foreign boys, play the piano for me every day, and listen to me talk about what happened that day."

"You promised me, Quinn, you promised me."

Quinn rubbed her head with his chin, and there seemed to be a gentle smile in his voice, just like the piano teacher the girl was familiar with.

"Well, let's go to school together."

With a sudden force of her hands, she fell lightly into Quinn's arms.

Holding a knife in one hand and picking up the unconscious Celia by her knees with the other, Quinn walked into the elevator with an expressionless face.

"Let's go." He said simply.

The elevator screen showed they were on the third floor.

The elevator only has buttons from one to five. When the elevator door closed, the buttons did not respond no matter how hard I pressed them.

He looked at the card slot on the side. Did he have to swipe the card to get permission to go up?

Lin poked Quinn and pointed to the elevator's "Emergency Call" button.

Quinn pressed it, and a "beep-beep-beep" call sound rang out. Just as he was wondering who this thing would call, the electronic male voice that was exactly the same as Apple's smart assistant Siri appeared again:

"Elevator service is currently unavailable."

It was standard Chinese. Amamiya Ningning and the others all looked puzzled as they could not understand this language.

However, Lin spoke up: "Identity verification."

Goosebumps suddenly surged up, numb from the tailbone to the scalp. Quinn suppressed the urge to turn back. How could it be possible—

Lin spoke fluent Chinese: "I want to use the elevator."

The electronic emergency call paused for two seconds, and then asked strangely: "What can I get for free 100 draws just by logging in?"

Genshin?

"A British slave ship." Lin answered fluently.

After hearing the answer, the camera installed at the top of the elevator lit up red and began to confirm the face.

"Ding, verification passed—you have permission to use the elevator, brave master."

Lin poked Quinn's stiff back.

She switched back to Tamil, still using that weak, almost exhausted voice: "Pizza. Press 1 to go home."

(End of this chapter)