Advent

Allen didn't expect that he would see the projection of his youth performance again many years later.

He was hanging out at a thrift store at the end of Celebration Avenue.Since a few days ago, his smart home system has been alerting him that the ventilation unit is out of order.Allen climbed into the pipe and took a look. There was no problem with the electrical system, but the bearings of the fan blades had cracks.Of course, Allen could choose to call someone to come to repair his ventilation pipe, but after he glanced at his account, the shabby numbers on it made him dismiss the idea.

Well, that's why Allen turned up at the thrift store, and if he could find used bearings there, it would save him a fortune.He was rummaging through the dusty and oily junk piles in the hardware district for the parts he wanted, and accidentally knocked down a metal box.

Then, the projection ball rolled out.

The switch flipped when it hit the ground, and a beam of light instantly illuminated the gloomy storefront.

The image of a slender and thin boy slowly gathered into shape in the faintly flickering beams of light. His body was only covered with a white gauze robe, revealing his slender arms and calves. Every inch of his skin was as white as if it were transparent.On his wrists and ankles are huge flowers made of gold. The petals of those artificial golden flowers are as thin as onion wings, and can even tremble slightly with the flow of air.

Large and large gemstones: emeralds, pearls, tourmalines, rubies, hung on the boy's collarbone and chest in layers.

However, the most eye-catching thing has never been the incomparably luxurious jewelry and gold, but the boy himself.

He sat obediently in the huge birdcage, with his head raised, revealing an extraordinarily delicate and coquettish face, so beautiful, so intimidating, but there was a weak emptiness in his eyes, making people wish they could pinch him directly In the palm of my hand, I grind out thick honey juice bit by bit...

"Please lock me up, a birdcage forged of gold and silver..."

"Please love me, carve flowers out of diamonds, weave silk threads out of moonlight..."

"Burning my heart with flames, my soul will become a white star..."

The pitch-changing singing voice was mixed with the piercing electric sound, and the boy's image slowly circled in the light beam.

"God, what did you do?!"

With a yell, a man rushed over and grabbed the projection ball on the ground.

The singing voice and the illusory image disappeared in an instant. The man carefully placed the projection ball in his palm, and then looked closely for a long time to check whether there was any other damage.

"Sorry, I didn't notice—"

It wasn't until this time that Alan came back to his senses.

He apologized to the man, but his voice was in a trance.

"I'm a second-hand store here, not a 'vent park', if everyone is as rough as you are, my store will be finished--

The man was still wearing a dirty uniform with the words "Rove's second-hand store leasing and pawn buying and selling one-stop service" embroidered on his chest. He was the owner of the store.

He muttered cursing and acted as if everything was really Allen's fault—at which point he reflexively forgot that he never checked himself back (some even from Picked up from the dump).

And if Allen hadn't accidentally knocked over the metal box today, that projection ball might have been cleared out by him at a low price of one or two star coins.

Of course, it is impossible for him to let go of his "new discovery" now.

He held his breath and turned on the projection ball again, and the boy's image appeared again accompanied by the ethereal singing.

Allen couldn't help but look at the strange and familiar image a few more times...

"Crack-"

As if aware of Alan's sight, the second-hand shopkeeper turned off the projection ball in his hand vigilantly, then turned his head and glared at Alan.In his opinion, this young man looked somewhat strange.He is wrapped in a very boring and dull dark high-necked jacket, which makes it almost impossible to see his true figure, and he also wears an old-fashioned faux cloth brim hat that seems to have come from 30 years ago. Underneath is the same old and ugly wide frame. Those glasses almost completely cover the upper half of his face, and the remaining half of his face is hidden behind the raised high collar.

That's why, when Alan walks into the thrift store and asks him where the bearings are, he doesn't even bother to talk to the sleazy.

"You should be glad that this thing didn't break down, otherwise you can't afford such a good thing."

The shopkeeper licked his dry lips as he spoke.

He had tried his best to restrain himself, but he still couldn't hide his extreme excitement in his words and deeds.

"Kraken" projection ball! !

And it's a video record with sound record!

The shopkeeper was almost trembling with excitement just thinking of the price at which this thing could be sold.It's just that the customer who found the projection ball in front of him was still there, and the shopkeeper could only try his best to suppress his elation—who knows if that person would realize something and try to blackmail him from him?

I have opened a second-hand store in a ghost place like the metropolitan area for a long time, and the owner has seen too many scoundrels and blackmailers.

"...Is this thing expensive?"

Sure enough, the next second the shopkeeper heard the weirdly dressed guy asking in a low voice.

This made the owner's nerves stretched to the extreme.

"Heh - it doesn't matter if it's expensive or not! Anyway, it's my goods!"

The owner suddenly raised his voice and yelled.

How could it not be expensive?

In the heart of the shopkeeper, another voice was whispering.

It might not be that expensive...

They always called him "The Siren" because his charm was like those unpredictable and dangerous sea monsters on the Martian route... so terrifying, but completely irresistible.

He used to be such a dazzling existence in the solar system, a star and a demon in everyone's mind.

He is so beautiful, so illusory, and his singing voice is so beautiful that it seems that the ancient devil has pulled something out of the heart of the succubus bit by bit. Just hearing his humming can make people slowly fall into madness and in the dream.

In those years when he was most famous, his face and crooning were recorded in tens of millions of image projection spheres, stored in the star core of the luxury vacation planet of the rich and powerful, or taken by adventurers They are taken to the space gap tens of millions of light-years away from the earth...

Even though the owner himself has slightly protruding hair and gray beard now, he can still remember how famous the "sea monster" was back then.If it hadn't been for the terrible accident that completely ruined the singing career of "Sraken" and even his entire life, I am afraid that the singing voice floating on the street will still be the soul-stirring croon of "Sraken".

You know, even now many years later, there are still people who are obsessed with the short-lived superstar "Kraken".

An original projection ball like this is probably more expensive than all the second-hand garbage in his entire shop combined.

——It’s just that these things, of course, it’s impossible for the owner to tell the shabby guest in front of him who is dressed in weird and out of fashion.

Of course, in order to prevent this customer from being troublesome, the second-hand shop owner cunningly changed the subject while avoiding the other party's questioning.

"You said you wanted a fan bearing, didn't you—"

Before the man could speak, he moved his body and rummaged through the shelves behind him.

"No, this is your five-star coin—I'm going to close early today, and I don't have time to chat with you."

As the shopkeeper said, he touched the projection ball in his pocket intentionally or unintentionally. Of course, on the surface, he still pretended to be open and natural.

Allen held the second-hand bearing in his hand and was silent for a moment, then sighed.

"Ok."

he said in a low voice.

Then, like what the shopkeeper hoped to see most, he quietly took what he wanted and started to check out.

Everything went well, except that when the last step of payment was to confirm the iris, the owner accidentally raised his head and met the eyes of the shabby-dressed weird guest.

In order to verify the irises, the man had removed the extraordinarily bulky glasses from his face.

Under the cover of the brim of the hat and the collar, the only eye exposed...

Those eyes are so beautiful that it is a bit trance-like.

The shopkeeper was stunned for a moment, until the guest called him in a low voice, and then suddenly recovered.

After paying the bill, the customer took his things and left immediately.

This was what the second-hand store owner wanted to see the most, but he sat in his seat in a daze until the man left for a long time.

It seems that there is something...somewhere he has overlooked...

The shopkeeper thought uneasy, and repeatedly took out the "gold mine" he dug today, and checked the projection ball again and again.

There is nothing wrong with the projection ball.

The shopkeeper opened it several times, and the beautiful singing voice and figure of the "Siren" were still circling vaguely in the beam of light.

So why does it feel wrong?

Just when he met the face of the "Kraken" for the nth time, a brilliant light suddenly flashed in the shopkeeper's mind.

Eye……

Eye? !

He jumped up suddenly, moved his clumsy and huge body and rushed out of his dilapidated shop door, looking towards the end of the street.

"...I must have made a mistake."

Until this time, he still couldn't help muttering to himself, trying to comfort himself.

But his heartbeat was beating faster and faster uncontrollably.

Those eyes... who could miss those eyes?

Even after many years, the once frail and slender boy is now a tired and pale youth, but...but those terrifying eyes...haven't reduced any temptation at all.

It's just that when the shopkeeper thought of this and went out, it had been a while since Allen left.

No matter how he looked around, the only thing he could see was the crowded streets and the dim sunlight cast by the artificial atmosphere of the metropolitan area.

The weird young man who once appeared in his second-hand shop and took away an old bearing with a five-star coin was like the "sea monster" who suddenly disappeared in front of people many years ago, like a dream, and never appeared again.