Alice in the Land of Steam

Chapter 389 Do changes always come suddenly?
The staff member wearing the black uniform of the Traffic Administration Bureau leaned over skillfully and pushed the pull rod that was half a person's height easily. Then the elevator chassis made of steel plates and rivets under their feet trembled violently, like a sleeping giant being awakened, shaking off scattered iron filings and smoke.

Then, it began to rise, along the vertical rails set up in the elevator shaft, gradually moving away from the ground under the circular motion of gears and hinges. The roaring sound of heavy machinery came from the towering steel power towers on both sides, which sounded like a rebellious beast that had been tamed by human power and was releasing its power to the fullest. Sparks occasionally emerged from the bloated and heavy black iron shell, flashing and hitting the connecting steel plates and rivets, making people feel very dangerous and a sense of mechanical shock.

At the top floor of the tower, a huge swing arm shaped like a windmill fan slowly descends as the elevator rises, maintaining the internal balance of the entire device. The relative movement of up and down contains a certain philosophical meaning like a scale.

Densely packed ventilation ducts and exhaust valves continuously spewed out smoke mixed with gray and black particles, which flowed into the empty elevator shaft and instantly turned into a vast ocean.

The Gallide IV elevator was originally an elevator used inside mines and mineshafts and was specially designed for transporting ore. After being converted into a civilian elevator, it is now operated by the Hersend Rail Elevator Company. It has a single load capacity of thousands of people and is a semi-open structure with no walls on the outside, only railings and barbed wire as barriers.

You can imagine being a hundred meters above the ground, squeezed in a semi-open space with a thousand other people, with your feet on rusty steel plates that creak with a little force. The places where the joints are not strong enough have even begun to loosen and fall off. Through the gaps you can see the scene on the ground: rows of brown roofs, narrow main roads, and vehicles and people flowing like ants... Then the staff's confident voice came from the side: "This elevator has been running perfectly for fifty years, and there has never been an accident!"

What about fifty years ago?

Lingge couldn't help but think.

The local residents who had long been accustomed to this mode of transportation were minding their own business, either staring blankly or thinking deeply, so that although the elevator was crowded, there was an atmosphere of indifference and alienation; the foreign tourists who came to travel found it quite fresh and were amazed. Lingge also saw a man who took out a rare film camera and kept taking pictures of the scene outside the barbed wire.

Alice was also among the astonished crowd. She grabbed a spot near the outside of the elevator and now lay on the worn wire mesh, staring at the outside world with her mouth wide open. The power of industry and machinery, only by being in it can you experience the incomparable shock.

Ling Ge wanted to remind her that this was a very dangerous action, but then he changed his mind and thought that she probably wouldn't listen, so he shut his mouth and didn't meddle in other people's business.

This is a typical slum in Harbor. An abandoned container can often house 10-18 people. The furnishings inside are very simple, or rather, they do not need any furnishings. All you need is a torn quilt, an old blanket or even a thick hemp rope to live there until you die. The rent is often only one, half or a quarter of a guinea, which is much cheaper than Renwitin of the same period.

Ling also noticed that when the elevator passed through this "slum", the tourist who was taking pictures with a film camera naturally put down his tool, turned around and talked to his companions. Looking at the casual and frivolous smile on his face, he probably wasn't discussing a serious social issue, and those numb faces naturally couldn't find any traces of their own lives in his precious film.

Although this kind of punishment was abolished long before the modern era, it now seems that only the form has been abolished, while the core still exists. For some people, when they need to curl up as much as possible in a space of less than a few inches to fall asleep, when they have to use a rope as a tool to enter and exit dangerously because their residence is suspended high, and when they can only struggle half asleep and half awake to prevent accidentally falling in their sleep..., another kind of "cage punishment" given to them by modern society is deeply reflected.

The elevator was crowded with people and there were shadows outside. The scenes passing by were all dark and gloomy, like countless gray garbage filling a cold factory: integrated box-type houses built along the cliff, rotten wooden overpasses that were more frightening than rusty steel plates, iron escalators with several steps broken, dim and corrupt low-quality street lights, scaffolding built with scrap iron and steel pipes, and abandoned containers hung with ropes, which occupied a large area of ​​the field of vision. At first glance, they looked like barnacles clinging to the belly of a whale or the surface of a giant ship, forming a dense, ugly, huge and bloated monster.

Every time young people see these hanging abandoned containers and the confused people living in them, a cruel punishment called "cage punishment" will naturally come to mind. It was invented in the Middle Ages, when people would imprison extremely heinous criminals in a cage that was barely big enough for them to stand, and hang them in the open air, leaving them to endure wind and rain, and eventually die of thirst and starvation until they dried up into a skeleton, warning other members of society with such naked cruelty.

This is human nature and hard to blame...right?

The young man silently withdrew his gaze.

About ten minutes later, accompanied by a crisp click of gears, the elevator platform stopped steadily at the terminal. The high-frequency piston movement inside gradually became smooth. The balance and stability device pushed the heavy lever out and embedded it inside the docking device, so that the elevator platform was temporarily combined with the terminal platform into a complete fixed structure. Then the staff pushed the pull rod to release the safety lock of the elevator door, allowing passengers to leave the platform and step onto the ground of the middle area of ​​​​Qiyu Port. The middle area, located 362 meters above the ground, is the commercial and residential area of ​​​​the city. From here, humans will experience the feeling of living in the sky. As for the lower area, although there are also many suspended structures, most of the main bodies are still built on flat ground, such as the port area and the Rutal Steam Engine Factory.

Leaving the terminal, there is a small circular square, which is very lively with people coming and going. The greening here has improved slightly, the streets and buildings are more reasonably planned, and it is obvious that the spirit of the residents is more upbeat and positive. The residents in the lower-class area are mostly tired workers, numb coolies, crude sailors, and even poor people who have no hope in life. At least the residents in the middle-class area do not need to worry about tomorrow's food and clothing, so there are naturally differences between the two sides, and this difference can be seen with the naked eye.

The image of residents often reflects the image of the urban area, which is an irrefutable view in modern urban theory.

The narrow channel effect causes strong winds and gusts in the canyon where the Port of Rain is located. In order to block the dust blown down by the wind erosion of the mountain, the shops and workshops along the street are hung with gray and black curtains, as if to correspond to the gray tones of the city itself. The streets are crowded with people, food and fruits from the Andrich Plain, fashion accessories from the capital Elfaran, exquisite utensils and customs from overseas, and of course various precision instruments produced by local factories: table clocks, pendulum clocks, clockwork dolls and other small gadgets.

Alice strolled around the shops with great interest, occasionally turning back to call Saint Shallia to come and see, which puzzled the shopkeepers and the pedestrians around, who thought they had met a strange maid who "liked to talk to the air". Saint Shallia always responded with a smile, and at the same time, considerately reminded her to watch her feet carefully and not to be tripped by a piece of iron sheet that was raised or a rivet that was not nailed tight.

They really looked like tourists, except Lingge. The young man paid no attention to the bustling scene around him, and raised his head frequently, looking through the huge steel base across his head and the rusty iron townhouses, the densely arranged gray and black pipes, and the maze-like spiral staircases that looked like postmodern artworks... and saw the upper area higher up. The huge elevator rose and fell, and the dark crowd of people surged and receded like the tide.

The city's sun was still high above the city, its blazing brightness too dazzling to look directly at. The pitch-black steel church stood majestically in the light, its silent gears and towers revealing an eerie majesty.

The headquarters of the Inquisition, the Temple of Judgment.

To describe it in terms of the common perception of the world, this is the end point of all evil and sin, the final chapter of baptism and judgment, and the glorious temple of justice and power.

In Ling'er's eyes, it was a huge dragon whose majestic face gradually emerged from the fog, an ancient giant resting on the mountain ridges, or the largest and most ancient sperm whale in the deep sea. While cruising and walking, it inadvertently crushed billions of ants under it.

I hope they won't notice this trip.

The young man sighed quietly in his heart, then slowly withdrew his gaze.

At this moment, his vision suddenly fell into darkness.

What followed was a terrifying and shocking explosion.

boom--! ! !
The whole city seemed to begin to tremble.

　Give me some meow
　　
　
(End of this chapter)