Zhou Lin

Although Zhang San's plan was definitely based on rationality and efficiency, in order to meet Shi Sanwen's series of arbitrary needs including "seeing the scenery", the route they finally negotiated was not very comfortable.

The three people coming out of Cairo will go north along the east coast of the Mediterranean, first to Jerusalem, then to Damascus, and then pass through Homs, Aleppo, Adana, Nidai, Aksaray, Ankara, Bolu, Sakarya, and other Middle Eastern cities that most readers of this article have never heard of without looking at a map.

Finally, they will board a special vehicle called the "Orient Express" in Istanbul, including people and cars. What is so special about this thing... I will explain it later; in short, the "Orient Express" is currently the only one that can The federal land transportation line passes through the rebel territory on the Black Sea coast. Taking it, you can go all the way from Istanbul to Paris.

…………

It’s still March 7, late at nine o’clock.

Shi Sanwen's broken trailer finally arrived in Jerusalem.

Along the way, when he passed the gas station several times, Lieba wanted to use legal or illegal means to change them to another car, but Shi Sanwen refused.

The reasons were: first, he didn't want to cause trouble; second, he said he drove the car smoothly.

Knowing that he couldn't argue with him, the hunter could only pretend to casually hum the lyrics "Old car, silent for many years, black smoke comes out when talking" along the way to vent his dissatisfaction.

Anyway, at around nine o'clock, the three of them successfully stayed in a hotel.

Jerusalem, once the holy site of the three major Abrahamic religions, has now become an ordinary, declining city due to the empire's purge of major religious forces at the beginning of the 21st century.

People living in this parallel universe in the 20th century would never have imagined that the originally intractable Palestinian-Israeli conflict and all the religious differences in the world would be resolved in just a short time under the rule of the first "Emperor" of the Wickstock Empire. It was all done in a few months, and the method was simply this - anyone who preached religion again would be executed.

Jerusalem, which has lost its religious aura, is desolate. Because of its special significance in religious history, the empire razed its churches, mosques, and even many well-known monuments (such as the Western Wall, Temple Mount, etc.) (others Most of the local churches have been converted into tourist attractions and museums), and there are countless people who have "sacrificed" these buildings for their faith...

Of course, for people in the 23rd century, these things are already in the old almanac more than two centuries ago.

The vast majority of people born in this era have no special feelings about religion, just like people born in the 21st century feel about slavery; the environment they live in and the knowledge they learn tell them about religion It is just a cultural phenomenon, a derivative that was born in an era when the political system was not mature enough and technology was not developed enough, and partially replaced political functions... Therefore, they basically cannot understand the mentality of religious believers, let alone why some people would do it for Argue, fight, bleed, and die for some fictional stories.

It was during this era that Jerusalem was slowly rebuilt from its ruins. It has expanded from a small city with an urban area of ​​only 126 square kilometers to a small city with a total area of ​​more than 800 square kilometers.

Shi San asked them that they were staying in a motel in the southern part of this small town.

It's night, nine-thirty.

Zhang San opened a single room and had already gone to rest, while Shi Sanwen and Lie Ba shared a double room.

After entering the house, Lieba had just put his suitcase on the bed and was about to change his clothes for bed when he was stopped by Shi Sanwen.

"No need to waste time." Shi Sanwen lay down on his bed, resting his head on his hands and said, "You won't sleep tonight."

"Huh?" Upon hearing this, Hunter Ba's expression changed slightly and he took three steps back towards the corner.

Although Lieba had experienced many moments in his life that made him feel "a little panicked," this moment was undoubtedly the most terrifying.

"You go out for a run now and come back when it gets daylight." Shi Sanwen's next sentence was very unreasonable, but it did make Hunter Ba breathe a sigh of relief.

"Huh?" Hunter Ba asked suspiciously, "Why?"

"Practice has already begun, classmate." Shi San asked, "With your qualifications, I think you can start practicing during the journey."

"What kind of training is running?" Lie Ba asked, "Shouldn't you start with the theoretical knowledge of superpowers?"

"Theoretical knowledge, I will talk to you in the car tomorrow." Shi Sanwen replied, "Because I am driving today, I don't want to focus on two things, so I can talk about it tomorrow. He paused, "As for what kind of practice running is, you will know after you listen to the theoretical knowledge."

When Lieba heard this, he was still doubtful: "I... I'm going out for a run now. I'll run all night... without sleeping. I have to attend classes in the car tomorrow? Aren't you afraid that I will die from exhaustion?"

"Can you?" Shi Sanwen asked.

"Hmm..." Hunter Ba hesitated for two seconds, "I don't know."

"What's the longest time you've been without sleep?" Shi Sanwen asked again.

"About forty hours, I can't remember..." Hunter Tyrant replied, "Before I became an ability user, I once worked for two days and one night in a row because of my shift. I felt like I was going to die when I got off work the next day... …But I’ve never felt this kind of fatigue since I gained the superpower.”

"Oh, your foundation is not bad." Shi Sanwen continued, "Then from today on, don't sleep, eat or drink. Just go out for a run every night and rest in the car during the day to listen to lectures."

"What?" Hunter Ba was shocked after hearing this, "It's okay if you don't let him sleep... you still don't eat or drink? Let alone running, even if you sit still, you will die of thirst in about three days, right?"

"No." Shi San asked, "I have seen boxers running hard without eating or drinking to lose weight. When they are really thirsty, they will take a piece of dried shiitake mushroom to stimulate saliva secretion, and then spit out the shiitake mushroom and run. In the end, they couldn't sweat or pee... This continued for two or three days, but they still didn't die." He paused for half a second, "Oh, of course, they can sleep and rest... considering that they are... Ordinary people, you are a person with abilities, so you should increase your intensity."

"So what's the point of doing this?" Lieba's voice rose unknowingly, "Do you want to lose weight?"

"Didn't I tell you that you will understand naturally if you listen to my theory tomorrow?" Shi Sanwen said, taking out a handheld computer from his carry-on luggage, as if he was ready to play.

Lie Ba was unhappy, but he couldn't find a reason to refuse this arrangement for a while. He knew that Shi Sanwen would not let him do this kind of "cultivation" for no reason, and he was not the kind of person who would say " "I won't go unless you make it clear today" was the person who came up with the line, so he went after all.

"By the way..." When he walked to the door and was about to go out, Lieba suddenly thought of something again and asked casually, "Since I don't have to sleep at all, why do you have a single room and a double room? Huh? Wouldn’t it be enough to just open a double room or two single rooms?”

Shi Sanwen didn't even raise his head, and replied tactfully while playing the game: "I don't want to be misunderstood by the front desk that I am gay."

Hunter Ba yelled in his heart: "Are you afraid of being misunderstood just because you are dressed like this?"

But in the end, he didn't say anything out loud. He just said, "Okay... I'll be cruel to you." Then he opened the door and went out.

…………

No words in the middle of the night.

At one o'clock in the morning, Shi Sanwen, who had just slept for less than an hour, suddenly opened his eyes.

If you think that Shi Sanwen is just a strong person relying on his Omega-level abilities, you are totally wrong.

The reason why he became the Inverse Cross's appointed superpower mentor was not because of his innate abilities, but because... in addition to being an Omega-level mutant, he was also a genius and master of using abilities to fight.

At this moment, he will wake up, naturally not to get up to go to the toilet at night - I don't need to tell you that you should know that he can completely empty his bowels and bladder before going to bed if he wishes.

Shi Sanwen woke up because someone triggered the "superpower defense mechanism" he deployed around the room.

The principle of this mechanism is very simple: first, he first searches all the entrances and exits of the entire room (such as under the corridor in front of the door, the area above the door panel, the window edge, the ground outside the window edge, etc.) and the areas opposite to where he sleeps. On the walls in eight directions... very small amounts of shit were first buried.

To what extent is a trace amount? It is probably a level that normal people would not notice even if they eat it.

Some people may find it unbelievable. Could it be that people who eat this stuff won't notice it? Yes, no...as long as the amount is small enough.

For example, the average amount of soil and dust that an adult inadvertently inhales or ingests every day is about 100 mg. Calculating this, you will eat 36,500 mg of soil every year, which is about two-thirds of the mass of an egg. ; This kind of amount is naturally imperceptible to people...

Even a larger amount may not be noticeable; for example, for every glass of natural juice you drink, you have probably eaten three fruit flies; for every bowl of rice, you may have eaten four or five. Rice insect eggs...

In short, the defense net set up by Shi Sanwen would not be discovered unless someone with a sense of smell close to that of a German shepherd dog was encountered.

Then... after finishing the excrement, Shi Sanwen would create a connection between these substances and himself. When those trace amounts of excrement are under a certain degree of pressure or enter the human body environment, he will sense it.

At this moment, Shi Sanwen knew without looking that someone was standing at his door.

Judging from their weight and lung capacity, there were two people coming, and they were both tall and strong adult men.

And these two people are definitely not Zhang San and Lieba, because Shi Sanwen has left "tracking objects" in the intestines of those two people and knows their whereabouts well.

He immediately confirmed the location of his two companions: At this time, Lieba was still quite far away. He was probably afraid that he would be caught on camera or questioned by the police while running at night in the city, so he went to the suburbs; while Zhang Three, still in the single room at the other end of the corridor.

However, just as he was confirming, he suddenly discovered that there were people standing at the door of Zhang San's room, and there were three of them.

"That's not true..." Shi Sanwen thought in his mind, "Could it be the pursuers from Cairo? But what we killed was the security officer. They had to send at least one more security officer-level person to the scene, or let EF and EAS will only launch a search after sending out special operations troops... Besides, Cairo's own defense is already stretched thin, where is the extra combat power available to pursue us?"

While he was thinking, the two people outside the door spoke.

The words were not addressed to him, but to the communication device, and the voice was very low.

"We're in position."

"We are also in position."

"There were three of them when they came. One of them went out and hasn't come back yet. Do you want to wait?"

"No, two are enough. The walking one looks quite strong, but it's really hard to deal with in the house."

"Then... what should I do if the third person comes back and finds that his companion is missing and calls the police?"

"What are you afraid of calling the police? We've succeeded so many times. As long as we don't arrest people in the same place continuously, we'll be fine."

"Yes, and...these three guys this time are not serious people in themselves. They are probably fugitives or something...I went to search their car just now and found an anti-tracking device under the back seat. Or It's a high-end product that can block the visual signals of federal traffic cameras. It can be sold for tens of thousands on the black market."

"Hmph... Now it's done. With this, it will be easier for us to do things in the future."

"Okay, let's capture them first and then talk about it. The 'sacrifice' will be held at noon tomorrow. These two people must be gifts from 'my lord'. They are all God's will... Without further ado, let's do it!"

Shi Sanwen's hearing can reach the same level as a remote monitoring instrument. This... anyone with the ability to control energy to a "subtle" level can do it.

From the conversations between these people, Shi Sanwen heard a lot of useful information: first, the reliable Mr. Zhang San had already silently helped them with the anti-tracking work when they got on the bus; second, , this group of people is definitely not from the Federation, nor is it a resistance organization; thirdly, what this group of people is doing...may be related to religious activities.

Although Shi Sanwen looked about thirty years old on the outside, his actual age was very, very old...old enough that he had experienced the era when religion still existed.

Therefore, he understands some things better than the elders of this era; he knows very well how unreasonable and crazy things people can do under the banner of so-called faith.

Click——

While he was thinking about this, the door to the room had been opened - opened with a key.

He and Zhang San were attacked in the same way almost at the same time: they were suddenly pressed down, their mouths were covered, and a shot of sedative was injected into their necks.

Shi Sanwen could have resisted, but he didn't. He chose to continue pretending to be dead in order to see where these people would take him and... what they would use him for.