Number9 of the Knockout

Nine woke up.

He was sure he had been unconscious for no more than an hour.

He was no longer lying among the cold corpses and garbage, but for a meticulous soldier, the messy environment was not much different from being in a garbage dump.

This is a strange iron house.The house is not high, but it is still very spacious and long. There are a row of small but very neat windows on the left and right. It looks like the cabin of an old aircraft, with all kinds of messy things piled up inside. Dilapidated, but not like completely unusable.

The place where he is lying now is unexpectedly soft, it is a very long chair, he can't understand why the surface of the chair is covered with a thick soft cushion.

Then he noticed that his wrist was clasped by two metal rings connected in the middle, and was fixed on a support above his head. The clothes on his body were stripped off, and the injured foot and ribs were all firmly bandaged. Also strangely clamped two pieces of wood.In the training camp, the injured soldiers will be soaked in the nutrient solution, and the mechanical doctor will accurately reshape and repair each capillary in a sterile state, so the recovery speed is quite fast.He guessed that this should be a treatment method made by human doctors who have been completely replaced by mechanical technology.

"Snoring..." No. [-] heard the sound of someone snoring while sleeping.

He turned his head and saw in a corner not far from him, a young man in an old gray robe was dozing off with his knees leaning against the corner. Although the ill-fitting robe almost covered the young man inside, nine No. still recognized him, it was the little boy with freckles who had been captured by him once.

Maybe this little guy with freckles is incredibly sensitive. He was awakened by the staring eyes and suddenly opened his eyes, and his eyes met with No. [-]'s.

The horror of No. [-]'s sudden resurrection from the pile of corpses had already scared him enough before, and he was so sleepy that he was in a daze, so the little freckle screamed in fright, and ran away on a rolling crawl. : "Help! Kill someone! Ahhhh..."

Regarding his overreaction, No. [-] just watched silently, until the little guy accidentally stepped on the overlong robe and "thumped, thumped, thumped" and rolled out of the door. There was also a staircase, so there was a constant noise of heavy objects rolling down.

"Aw... oops... hiss...it hurts..." the little freckles moaned outside.After a while, there was the sound of cautious footsteps on the stairs, and a small head poked its head out to look around. Seeing that No. [-] was still lying in place, and his wrists were still firmly handcuffed to the frame, he was relieved and thought to himself That old thing that the boss got from somewhere seems to be quite reliable...

"Jamie, are you fucking sitting here hatching eggs?!"

A big hand grabbed Little Freckle's slender neck and pulled him up.

The stellar light that shot into the iron room through the door was mostly blocked by a figure, and the person who stepped in with long legs appeared in the line of sight of No. [-]. His short orange-red hair seemed to be coated with a layer of vitality by the light, like a A blazing fire.

The one who dragged the little freckles in was a tall young man. He was wearing a tight black vest, revealing broad shoulders and strong arms. The robustness of his peers, when he took off the heavy mask and cloak, he revealed a face with sharp edges and corners, the flying sword eyebrows were full of vigor, and the blue eyes that should have been soft tones were not because of the lack of The hostility that is concealed is sharp.

"Boss, that person is awake!" Little Freckle hurriedly reported to him.

The young man threw away the small freckles with one hand, walked to the edge of the sofa with his long legs, put his hands on his back and pressed his upper body down, and looked playfully at the alliance veteran who was locked on the sofa.

The silver chain around his neck is connected to a cross. Number [-] can now really see this legendary religious symbol. Although the workmanship is rough, a man with a painful face and arms can still be seen on the cross. is fixed on top.No. [-] remembers seeing records about the ancient sect on this home planet in some military materials. In order to better rule the colonial star, the Galactic Cosmic Alliance pursues the doctrine of religious uniqueness. Today, the old church on the colonial star has almost become a There are historical relics, only some remote planets still have some believers.For Soldier Nine, he has nothing to believe in, let alone a god who was also killed by soldiers.

There was a haughty smile on the corner of the young man's mouth, and he glanced at No. [-]'s naked body with the expression of looking at the prey in the trap pit, the broken bones and internal bleeding bruises, and the messy old man. Scar, this man is like an old cloth bag full of patches.

Even though he is an old guy, he actually has an astonishingly perfect physique.The thick and strong chest muscles, back muscles, and limbs, as if hardened after a long smelting process, belong to a mature male body.Although he is very confident in himself, he has to admit that his undeveloped body, which is between youth and adulthood, is still a bit inferior.

His eyes glanced at the crotch of the old guy. The color depth and majesty of an adult man and the thicker grass. As a male, he can't help but compare the size of a certain part with his peers. Skip, heck, what a fart, when he grows up, it will definitely be bigger than this one!

The unwilling young man flicked No. [-]'s shoulder wound severely burned by the electric dart with obvious malice: "Hey! Uncle! Are you awake?" In fact, this was a completely redundant question, and he didn't intend the other party Will answer, and sat down on a sofa chair opposite the big sofa, "I don't know the purpose of your coming here, but to be honest, we don't welcome outsiders here, and we brought you back purely because we don't want to see you. to a stinking corpse."

He stretched out his long legs, stepped on the sofa under No. [-], and crossed his legs. Jamie took out a tattered small paper box from his pocket, knocked out a cigarette belonging to the contraband of the universe, and handed it to him. past.

Putting the cigarette between the index finger and the fore finger, he dug out a flame welding torch from the pile of debris, lit the cigarette with a short and violent flame, he took a puff and exhaled the smoke skillfully, and looked at him with a trembling face, obviously the other party had already The little freckle, who couldn't move but still didn't dare to approach at all, scratched his somewhat disheveled short orange-red hair irritably: "Damn, except for me, no one of them would dare to take you in, because they are afraid that if you accidentally break your neck. It’s really troublesome, if you want to die quickly, I can directly bury you and your accomplices!!”

Jamie cautiously reminded: "Boss, if you let Sister Emma know about this, she will recite a cosmic month..."

The dick-like young man with a cigarette in his mouth froze straight away, his vicious eyes pierced the freckles, and Jamie's neck shrank in fright, and his whole body was almost shrunk into the gray coat.

"Of course I fucking know! I'd rather go to the mine to dig mud than listen to that old woman read the Bible!" He kicked the sofa quite violently, and stared fiercely at No. 243 lying on it, "Listen to me Alright, uncle! This is Garbage Planet [-]. The people on this planet are all unpopular guys, wanted criminals, fugitives, and rebels who failed in the Alliance battle. They each occupy some territory. So don't hang around, those thugs will never shake hands friendly with a lone Union soldier."

"Yes, yes! Those are unreasonable guys!" Little Freckle echoed vigorously.

"Give me a good look at him!"

After giving the order, the young man with a cigarette put his hands into his trouser pockets and stood up. He was about to take two steps to leave, but suddenly stopped and turned around: "Oh, yes, uncle, I forgot to introduce myself. .My name is Sachs, and I am the boss of this District 29 site."

The person who has been in charge of guarding him is the boy with freckles on his face, but this iron room obviously belongs to the rough young man named Sachs, because the little freckles will leave before night, and Sachs will return to the iron room , and lay down to sleep on an old mattress placed at the back.

Number Nine silently observed the boy who claimed to be the boss.He went out early in the morning every day, and he would come back to sleep almost when the planet turned its back to the star and the night fell and the wind and sand intensified.Sachs always looks very tired when he comes back. Sometimes his mouth or body will have some fight scars. If you are lucky enough to get it moving again, then it will become a member of the new sundries in this iron house.

No. [-] was locked on the sofa all the time. He didn't care if he was naked or not. Shame was never what a soldier needed, but little freckles probably felt that the uncle who guarded a dew bird every day really didn't have eyesight. He knew where to put it, so the next day, he brought an old blanket from somewhere and covered him up.

Little Freckles is also responsible for changing No. [-]'s dressing every day, but he still expresses considerable dissatisfaction with No. [-]'s too strong recovery ability.

Seeing that the swelling had subsided and the splint could be removed, Jamie wrinkled his little freckled nose: "How did you heal so quickly?" He glared at No. 29 with some complaints, " You must know that it is a rare job to be in charge of guarding you, otherwise I would go to the new garbage area with everyone to grab resources." He is quite a talkative child, so even if No. 29 hasn't said a word these days, I can still get a lot of information about this planet from his self-talk, "Our area [-] is a rare and good place, because it is close to the waterway, many spaceships transporting garbage will be lazy and dump their cargo near here. The villains from other districts often come to grab things, if the boss can’t cover us, our group would have been kicked out of the [-]th district..."

There are not many resources, so competition is inevitable.

It's no wonder that Sachs would bring that illegally modified stun gun with him every time he went out.

After finishing the little freckles for him, he finally thought of a very serious problem: "Ah! That's right! You never told us your name! No, it seems that you haven't even said a word What! Could it be that...you are a mute?!" He yelled into the depths of the room as if he had discovered a shocking secret, "Boss! Boss! I found out that he is a mute!"

"Shut up! Jamie! If you keep arguing, I'll sew your mouth shut with old woman Emma's needlework!!" Sachs, who woke up quite angry, looked like a roaring Tyrannosaurus rex, and the little freckle shrank his neck again in fright, as if You can avoid the opponent's sonic attack.

No. [-] was very puzzled by this repeated threat. Every time the little freckle made a continuous loud noise, the young man would use this method to threaten him. No. [-] had never been in contact with needlework. This kind of weapon, so I don't know how much damage this kind of weapon can do to the human body, but according to his speculation, it should be quite terrifying, otherwise he wouldn't be able to successfully make the little freckle live every time he said it. Mouth.

"But he doesn't have a name..." the poor little freckle muttered.

Sachs, who had already been woken up, put down his slender legs and sat on the edge of the mattress, scratching his matted hair, and hummed impatiently: "Don't he have laser tattoos on his arms? Number nine."

No. [-]'s eyelids moved, and the conditioned reflex brought about by this code name still affects him to this day, but this movement was too weak to be noticed by the little freckle.

"Ah? Yes!" The little freckles probably only noticed this now, staring curiously at the clear numbers on the arms thicker than his thighs, "But if it's called number nine...wouldn't it be too strange? "

"Isn't it called Number 9?..." The young man got up to look for a cigarette, but couldn't find the spray gun when he wanted to light it, and answered absent-mindedly while flipping, "Then call it Uncle 9 (Uncle [-])."

+ + + + +

Nine is still chained to the couch while recovering, until the day when the broken thigh is healed enough to remove the boards that held it in place.

Sachs was leaning halfway on the deck, and squatting beside him was the freckled boy who looked like a little mouse, and he seemed to exude a hostile aura that was not easy to provoke.

"Uncle, I think you should have thought it through these days." The orange-red short-haired boy was playing with the stun gun that once brought down No. [-]. This kind of stun gun was once very popular on the home planet and used by law enforcement officers. The electric shock weapon has long been completely eliminated with the development of science and technology.But even in the era of hot weapons, a knife inserted into the heart is still fatal. It does not mean that the method is outdated and the lethality will be weakened.

"This District 29 is my place, and if you want to mess up here, I don't mind putting you down again. But this time when you wake up, there won't be a comfy sofa. You'll find yourself Lying on the desert without any water or food, but you don’t have to worry about dying of thirst or starvation, because before that, you will be roasted to a mummified corpse by the heat radiation within an hour.”

In order to increase the persuasiveness of his boss, Jamie nodded vigorously, almost shaking his head.

No. [-] remained silent, neither nodding nor shaking his head, but his body with relaxed muscles showed that he had no intention of attacking, so Sachs mouthed at Jeminunu, and the little freckle opened his mouth wide in fright and pointed at himself: "I, I go? "

"Don't worry, if he breaks your neck, I will definitely avenge you."

Jamie said with a sad face: "Boss, this is not funny at all..."

"Do I seem to be joking with you?" The stern-faced Sachs had an aura that no one dared to disobey, and he threw a key and smashed it on the head of the cowardly Jamie.

Little Freckles had no choice but to accept the key obediently, approached No. [-] tremblingly, inserted the key into the keyhole, and muttered while twisting: "Uncle, because I have taken care of you for so many days, Don't choke my neck... I almost broke my nose when I was slapped by you last time..." He wanted to finish it quickly, but this pair of handcuffs was already an antique, and the keyhole was full of Rust, no matter how hard he twisted it, he couldn't unscrew it.

Seeing that his movements were extremely slow, the bad-tempered Sachs over there yelled at him impatiently: "Are you ready?!"

"Ah──" His hands trembled in fright, "Snap!" There was a crisp sound, this time it was all right, the key that was not very strong was broken by him directly, and a part of the key was left in the keyhole ...

Sachs was silent.

"I, I didn't do it on purpose..." Afraid of being beaten up by the boss, the clumsy Jamie looked like he was about to cry.

Number [-], who was lying on the sofa, suddenly moved. The two arms that had been held high above his head suddenly exerted strength. The muscle fibers under the skin were tightened like steel bars, instantly revealing a powerful explosive force. The chains on his body were forcibly torn immediately, and when he saw his freed hands, he swung his wrists left and right, and the seemingly solid old antiques were completely scrapped.

Jamie stared at this scene with wide eyes in disbelief, are you kidding?Why did you break free so easily, then why were you so honest before? !Thinking that when he was jumping and jumping around No. [-], his neck might be broken no less than a hundred times by the big hands that forcibly broke free from the chains. Poor Jamie's legs were so frightened that his legs went weak.

Sachs half-closed his soft sky-blue eyeballs, but he didn't shoot the electric darts in order to subdue the opponent.

"It's really interesting. Uncle, you are much more interesting than those idiot alliance soldiers who only know how to rush forward with their heads smashed!"

Nine does not deny this.

In the case of disparity between the enemy and ourselves, if there is no order until the death of the battle, then it is meaningless to resist to the end.Preserving life, obeying the environment, restoring combat effectiveness, and continuing to complete the mission are what a soldier should do.

"Okay!" Ignoring Jamie's frightened expression on his face that was about to faint, Sachs found a set of large protective clothing from among the piles of clothes, and threw it at No. [-], "Today's weather is fine, we How about going out for a walk?"

No. [-] put the handcuffs twisted by him on the table beside him, and put on the protective clothing, although it was a bit narrow, especially the chest muscles and back muscles, which were completely stretched very tight.

It was the first time he was allowed to step out here, he was not in a hurry, every step was very steady.

The so-called good weather is basically the wind and sand that covers the sky and the sun. The strong wind is blowing and whistling at the bottom of the atmosphere, mixed with tons of sand and dust, and it almost becomes a layer of thick clouds that cover the light of the stars, leaving the ground in a dark place. In the dark shadows, it has played a role in blocking radiation, so that humans on the ground do not need to wear protective clothing and masks.

In the wind and sand, he saw the so-called Area 29.

In fact, this place is also a landfill, with miscellaneous wastes all around, aircrafts with rocket ejectors removed, old trucks without tires, all kinds of mechanical transportation tools that have become backward and abandoned due to the advancement of technology , were pushed here and placed together. When they formed a certain scale, they were connected together like a city wall, effectively defending against the blowing of sandstorms.

Curious faces appeared from the car windows or doors, including elderly people and young children, obviously they were the residents living in these cars or aircraft.The interior of the carriage or aircraft is very narrow, and it is not used for living at all, but for living on this kind of resource-poor garbage planet, there is no more resource-efficient, sturdy and practical residence than this.

As the boss, Sachs lived in a flying tool that was once popular on the surface of the home planet—a large civilian air transport aircraft with a passenger capacity of 150 people. After removing the rows of seats, the vacant space is quite spacious. residence.

Watching the faces of No. [-] from behind the window with guarded expressions, just like what Sachs said, the residents here do not welcome strangers, especially a man of unknown origin, not only because he is so big and strong that he is scary , and because on this planet with a barren environment, one more person means an extra portion of consumption, so you have to cut an extra portion of the cake that is already only a little bit big, and your own portion will be relatively less .

But because No. 29 has been staying with Sachs all the time, no one dares to raise objections. Residents living in District [-] know that Sachs is not a good-tempered boss, and when he decides, opponents must have a harder fist than him.

Sachs habitually put his hands in both trouser pockets, with a cigarette in his mouth, completely ignoring those prying eyes, and walked directly into the depths of the house.No. [-] followed behind him, maintaining a distance of two steps neither fast nor slow.As for Jamie, he was completely impatient and ran to the front.

The wind and sand seemed to be getting bigger and bigger, reducing the visibility on the ground. They almost reached the end before seeing the wooden house standing among the rubbish and scrap iron.Yes, it's not the reconstruction of those old cars and broken aircraft, but a real house built with wood.A cross was nailed to the door of the house, and an old woman in a black robe who looked about 60 years old stood at the door.

She is gray-haired, with deep wrinkles on her face and hands, but she is in good spirits.

"Sister Emma!" Jamie ran over happily.

"Hey! Little Jamie!" The old woman smiled and patted his little head. "You came just in time. Dinner is ready."

Jamie looked at her expectantly: "Great, what's for dinner tonight? Potatoes? Tomatoes?"

"You greedy little thing." The old woman let him in with a loving smile, and frowned when she turned her head to see Sachs, "Sachs! How many times have I told you not to smoke that bad thing that creates diseases, you Want to turn your lungs black?!"

"It's annoying! Even if my internal organs are all black, it's none of your business." Although Sachs had an undisciplined face, he still obediently spit out the half-burned cigarette in his mouth and stomped on it. Extinguish, then poked the direction of No. [-] with your fore finger, "I brought this guy here, you can eat it raw or dip it in sauce, it's up to you." After speaking, he lifted his leg and walked inside.

"What are you talking about! This child is real!" The old woman was very helpless, but her eyes were more tolerant, and she looked at No. [-] apologetically, "Don't worry, Sachs just loves to be awkward. Hello, I am Sister Emma. Come in, child, don't stand outside! Everyone is waiting for you!"

When they were talking, No. [-] had already looked at the dilapidated wooden house without any trace. It didn't look like there was any military structure, and there were no firepower points for ambush on the outer walls and roof. So what was it used for?Warehouses for storing armaments?But the target is too obvious to be appropriate.

Although he had doubts about the purpose of this building, he could only silently walk in behind Sister Emma.

The heavy door was closed behind him, and after isolating the howling wind and sand outside, the soft light instantly covered No. [-]'s line of sight.The orange light makes people feel like they are in another world, a peaceful and comfortable world.There weren't any weapons or war supplies he imagined here, just a long wooden dining table, and a group of children had already been lined up there.Both of them were staring at each other, they didn't hide their curiosity about strangers at all, and they put an empty plate in front of everyone.

Sachs has sat in the uppermost position on the left.

Sister Emma asked Number [-] to sit on the empty seat opposite Sachs, where an empty plate and an iron spoon were also placed.

She carried a large pot, with hot white smoke coming out of it, and the fragrance overflowing from it. The nun took a large spoon, and scooped a large spoonful of viscous, mixed with some red crumbs into the empty bowl in front of each child. Soft lumps of grain.

"Wow! It's stewed potatoes with carrots!"

Jamie couldn't bear it long ago, grabbed the spoon and wanted to eat, but Sister Emma knocked on the head quickly: "My little Jamie, have you forgotten something?"

Sachs, next to him, threw a big white eye of "What an idiot" at Jamie. He crossed his hands on his forehead and closed his eyes first. Seeing this, the other children quickly followed suit.

"Thank you Lord for giving us food and keeping us alive." After saying that, he crossed himself in the void of his chest, "Amen." It's not very pious, but when a rough young man quiets down and prays to the gods of nothingness , even that fiery orange-red hard hair became soft because of lowering her head at this moment.

The children also followed him and said: "Amen." Then they each picked up their spoons and scrambled to pick up the food on the plate.

No. [-] silently watched their actions, guessing that it is the rule here to do this before eating, and was about to repeat it, but was stopped by Emma with a smile: "Only those who believe in him, the voice will reach God." ears."

Number Nine then looked at Sachs, believing in God?

Sachs seemed to notice his gaze, and with a spoon and food in his mouth, he said bluntly and impolitely: "I trust whoever gives me food, as long as I can survive."

"Bad boy!" Sister Emma didn't know what Sachs said to provoke God. She suddenly noticed that No. [-] was just staring at the food in front of her and didn't intend to eat it. She couldn't help asking him, "What's wrong? Is it not to your taste?"

"Don't you like potatoes? Then don't waste them, let me help you!" Upon hearing this, Jamie immediately reached out to grab the food in front of No. [-], but Sachs was faster than him and knocked on him with a spoon. On the back of the hand, the little freckle felt that the bones were almost broken, and immediately withdrew his hand screaming, not daring to think about the plate in front of No. [-] again.

Nine stared at the plate of sticky lumps. Is this food?

Sachs over there had already ate most of the plate, looked up at number nine who was still silent, and guessed something, he raised the spoon in his hand and shook it in front of number nine, and then put it in the bowl He took a spoonful, put it into his mouth, chewed, and then deliberately raised his head slightly so that the other party could see the sliding of his Adam's apple when he swallowed the food.

Seeing this, Jamie finally understood: "Could it be that grandma doesn't know how to eat?!"

The other kids were also very curious, and some kids who thought this big guy looked scary at first didn't flinch anymore, because this big guy who looked tall and burly couldn't even hold a spoon, he was dumber than them !

Sachs continued to eat: "That's because we are probably the only ones in the universe who eat potatoes."

Sister Emma glared at the duplicity brat, "The gods have given humans food with various flavors. What a great gift that is. Those fools who eat food that even tastes like synthetic additives don't know the real food. tasty."

In the food storage rooms of the colonial residents’ homes, there are no longer bags of potatoes or cereal crops, but jars of compound nutrients. Synthetic nutrients are cheap to manufacture and contain highly concentrated nutrients that are very easy for the human body to absorb. .For immigrants who migrated to the universe, they have too many things to do. Whether it is developing planetary minerals, building colonies, or conducting military expansion, planting crops is considered a waste of resources.People in the colonies no longer need to use their stomachs to digest hard food, they only need to eat synthetic food.

In fact, during No. [-]'s recuperation period, Sachs gave him nutrients in order to allow him to recover faster.

Sister Emma picked up the spoon in front of No. [-] and stuffed it into his hand: "Try it, I think you will like this backward food!"

No. [-] imitated the action of Sachs, scooped food from the bowl, and then put it into his mouth. During the process, because he scooped too many potatoes, he dripped the thick juice on the table.He opened his mouth wide and ate as much as he could in one bite. The stewed starch lump was very soft, and all parts of his taste buds were greatly stimulated, which made him tremble for a moment.

He didn't know how to express it, but as a soldier, he shouldn't have more feelings, but even a soldier who has undergone rigorous training, the perception of beautiful things in human instinct has not been cut off, let alone that The taste that once conquered countless human beings on the mother star has been forgotten by the people who immigrated to outer space.There was an extremely tangled distortion in the steel-hard facial lines, of course, it seemed that the deformation of the face was only caused by the movement of the upper and lower jaws when the teeth chewed food.

Sachs glanced at the clumsy old guy who made a mess like a baby's first meal: "Uncle, you are stupid!" A blow to the back of the head fell on this young man, who was usually domineering 29 The district boss didn't care to laugh at No. [-], covered his head and roared angrily, "Hey! Old woman, do you want to knock out my brains?!"

"I don't want that kind of disgusting thing." Sister Emma ignored him, and turned her head to look at No. [-] and the group of wolf-eating children at the table, just like every mother would feel when she saw her child eating happily Satisfied, "Don't worry, children, eat slowly, yesterday's harvest is very rich, today everyone can eat big mouthfuls, eat full!"

"Wow, that's great!" The children cheered, shaking their cheeks and purring until they licked their plates.