"The date of the newspaper is... This is the newspaper from the first month of this year. The destination is correct, this is the Green Lake area. It is most likely not the Michaela Blast Furnace City, but the Green Lake City."
Without leaving in a hurry, Shade narrowed his eyes slightly and used the thaumaturgy [Echo of Blood] to look around, and then observed very fresh blood stains. Searching along the blood stains, he found a place separated by red bricks where pigs, sheep, and chicken were placed.
:
"It's not a tavern. Even if the tavern sells food, it won't be so well prepared. It looks like it's the storage room of a restaurant or hotel, and it's not small. The ingredients and drinks are not very high-end, not the kind of aristocratic club or high-end that requires a reservation.
It’s a restaurant; but it’s very clean and the ingredients are put away in categories, which shows that the business here is very good.”
He concluded in his mind that he used the [Red Butterfly Illusion] to disguise himself, and then walked towards the exit of the underground storage room. There were stone steps connecting the upper part of the basement, but the door connecting the upper part was not a vertical door like the basement of Shade's house, but
It's a trapdoor embedded in the ground.
Shade pushed the door and found that it was not locked, so he opened a gap. Looking out from the gap, he saw that outside was a storage room on the ground. Bacon and peppers were hung on the walls, and there were many things on the shelves.
On the dinner plate, wine glass, and in the corner were a bag of soybeans and a mountain of potatoes.
The room was not very large, there were no windows, and the door was closed. Shade then came to the ground through the trap door, and leaned against the door to listen to the sounds outside, confirming that the door was the restaurant or hotel.
kitchen.
"It looks like it is indeed a hotel."
It's now around 9:30 in the morning. If it were a restaurant, there wouldn't even be a fire at this time.
The chefs who were busy were all ordinary people, so Shade walked out of the storage room generously, and no one could find him. However, Shade did not enter the front of the hotel through the kitchen door, but connected to the small room from the kitchen.
Leave at the back door of the alley.
The kitchen of a restaurant or hotel will have a back door for throwing garbage, no matter which city it is in.
"This time the door is actually inside the hotel, so it's not convenient to move around at any time. The business here is very good, and it's impossible for me to buy the entire hotel directly."
Shade thought to himself.
When we came to the narrow alley, we saw a series of low-rise buildings. There was gray mist floating in the air. The mist was mixed with the smell of rotten food residues, forming an extremely disgusting smell. A wanted poster was posted on the wall.
The old newspapers in Hemo Lake have turned yellow, and the obscene graphics graffitied by someone unknown are also covered by various dirt. The brass steam pipe is fixed to the ground with a keyhole. The entire pipe is located on the central axis of the alley, and is not far from the hotel.
Not far from the back door, pipes buried in garbage were leaking.
The water vapor mixed with the rancid smell made the environment here even more unbearable.
The wild dog, which looked like it had ringworm, was startled by Shade's appearance and fled in panic from the garbage pile outside the door. The barking of the dog startled a large group of crows pecking on the ground in the alley, and the birds flew into the mist.
The gray sky was filled with chilling screams.
Gloomy, dull, and dilapidated, this was Shade's first impression of this city:
"Although I have long heard that the development situation of Green Lake City is not very good, it is... it is also possible that this is a slum."
The narrow alley even has a curved arc. You can see the forks in the alley on the left, and you don't know where the end leads. Not far to the right, the houses on both sides are connected by a covered bridge. You can see across the covered bridge.
After reaching the tower, it seems that the street is further away.
"Go left to the maze-like city alleys, and to the right is the main street."
He summarized the current situation, but did not move immediately. Instead, he reached out and knocked on the lid of the metal trash can next to him.
There were not many places on the lid that could be considered "clean". Shade had to avoid dried phlegm and animal feces before he dared to put his fingers down:
"Is anyone home?"
He didn't get any response, so he opened the lid of the trash can. He looked inside and saw a boy wearing a gray short-sleeved shirt in the early spring weather, holding a spotted puppy in his arms, curled up in the trash can.
, timidly looked at Shade who was approaching,
There was also a strong smell in the bucket. A worn quilt and some newspapers were placed under his body. Before the boy spoke timidly, the weak black and white spotted puppy barked fiercely at Shade.
A few sounds.
Shade ignored the dog, but looked at the boy for a moment, and waved to him as the latter became more and more frightened:
"Come out and ask you some questions. I'll give you food."
As he spoke, he took a step back and took out the bread and a few sugar cubes in the paper bag from his pocket at an angle that was not clearly visible in the bucket. The reason why he didn't give him any money was because Shade didn't know if the boy had any.
A safe way to turn money into food.
I don't know if it was because of Shade's amazing affinity, or because the temptation of food was just too great. The boy, whose limbs were as thin as a match, first threw the puppy out of the trash can, and then climbed out with great effort.
However, he did not dare to approach Shade. Instead, he picked up his companion and leaned against the trash can, staring intently at the bag of bread that Shade was holding.
"I feel bad all of a sudden."
The stranger sighed softly and asked:
"First test whether you can speak - where are you? City name, street name. What is your name and how old are you?"
The boy pursed his chapped lips and waited for five or six seconds before saying:
"This is Green Lake City. I can't read, but others say this is Worm Alley. This is behind the Green Lake Hotel, and the street outside is Owl Street. My name is John, and I am thirteen years old."
But his height only looks like that of five or six years old, which is a symptom of severe malnutrition.
"Little John?"
Shade nodded, and then rummaged through his memory about the map of Green Lake City. While thinking, he took out a piece of white bread from the paper bag and threw it to the boy. After the boy put down the puppy and caught the bread in a panic,
First he tore off a small piece and threw it to the thin puppy, and then he wolfed it down.
"Do you have water? I have other questions. Don't choke yourself to death."
Shade added. The boy nodded quickly, climbed back into the trash can and found a wooden cup - it looked exactly like the ones in the hotel warehouse. Then he ran back dozens of steps, bent down and pushed the ground aside.
Garbage, exposed the imperceptible faucet and received a glass of water.
Most of the external faucets in this alley have special purposes. The boy occupied the trash can here largely because of this faucet.
After the boy finished eating the piece of bread, Shade, who was waiting patiently, continued to ask:
"Have you always lived here?"
"Yes."
It was still a very short answer. Shade also understood that the other party lived on the garbage thrown out by the hotel, so he gave the boy another piece of bread.
"Green Lake Hotel, how is business this spring?"
"It's very good. Business is better than in winter. They throw away more kitchen garbage recently. I even found a fried fish that I only ate two bites of yesterday."
"Very good. So, has anything strange happened around here recently? For example, there are strange noises at night, or the garbage thrown out of the hotel is strange."
In fact, he had already asked about what he wanted to know, so he continued to ask questions, just because since he still had bread in his hand, he naturally had an excuse to give it away.
The boy thought for a while, shook his head, and looked at Shade with the new bread. He didn't know whether he should return the bread because he didn't answer the question. Of course Shade would not do this, and he put the remaining bread in the bag.
The white bread and the sugar cubes were all given to the boy.
Both the boy and the puppy looked a little scared, and Shade didn't say anything. He put the paper bag on the ground, waved his hand and walked towards the right side of the alley.
Not only in the alley, but after walking through the alley and arriving on Owl Street, the city still looked hazy and hazy. But compared to that alley, at least the street finally showed the scene of a big border city.
As far as the eye can see, there are continuous low-rise two- or three-story old buildings. The large tile roofs look like some kind of ringworm in the thin sunlight. Several tall buildings can be seen in the distance, and the last one is
The most eye-catching thing is the church tower. Farther away, a solitary chimney sprays black smoke into the sky, like an old man who is about to die, refusing to admit defeat and wanting to take a few more breaths.
Just looking at the street scene, the development here is not comparable to most cities that outsiders have visited in this world, or even the "Eternal Night City" on a rainy night.
"Here, it's like I'm going to die in this gray fog."
Owl Street is a street in the downtown area of Green Lake City. The library, city hall, chamber of commerce and important functional buildings in the city are all here. Going further east, it connects Green Lake and crosses the Duin River and Duin River in the Green Lake area from north to south.
On the east coast is the train station of Green Lake City, followed by large slums.
And the Green Lake Hotel, since it is named after the city, is naturally the largest hotel in the area.
Shade walked towards the main entrance of the hotel while looking at the street scene in the fog. Judging from the appearance, the Green Lake Hotel covers an area larger than the "Three Cats Hotel" in Tobesk and the "Plenty of Land Hotel" in Randall Valley.
It is large and occupies about one-third of the entire east side of Owl Street. The hotel has three floors in total, with small square windows with curtains drawn. From the street, it looks densely packed. After looking at it for a long time, it even feels like this hotel is a bit weird.
Considering that he would be active here for many days in the future, Shade entered the Green Lake Hotel from the main entrance, planning to rent a room as his mailing address.