Chapter 1183 Kizaru's Future Journey 14 - First Encounter with the Underground World
The sky curtain releases Zoro's memories, that is, after the end of the Reversal City incident, and then flashes back to a section about the future of Admiral Kizaru, preparing to gradually reveal the true strength of Admiral Mo Yu.
In the sky screen, Kizaru follows the two young men, and the three of them enter the tunnel together to experience the underground world of the empire.
As local college students, Gwen and Barry have always been warned by their teachers and professors not to enter the unknown underground world through underground tunnels without permission.
Although there is a physical barrier between the ground and the underground, for normal people in the upper class, the underground world is simply hell.
Even though Barry had checked the online guide in advance, after entering the abandoned underground tunnel, the three of them walked in the dark for an hour. During this time, they did not see any signs and could only move forward by relying on the steering wheel.
“There is light ahead, we should be on the right path.” In order to avoid trouble and fearing that there might be hidden cameras in the dark tunnel, the three did not demonstrate their abilities.
Walking out of the narrow tunnel, the underground world before your eyes suddenly unfolds like an absurd and strange picture.
As far as the eye can see, there is a huge space that has been completely hollowed out, as if a giant hole has been dug out deep in the earth.
There is no bright electric lighting like in modern civilization here, but instead there are piles of burning fires.
The flickering firelight danced in the darkness, dim and flickering, dyeing everything around it with a layer of distorted color.
The firelight illuminated the thick smoke in the air, making the entire underground world appear even more hazy and chaotic.
There is a problem with the fuel used. Burning wood is a luxury in the underworld, and only the superior people in the underworld are qualified to waste it.
A pungent stench hit me in the face like a tide. It was a disgusting mixture of garbage, sewage and all kinds of rotten things.
Dilapidated shanty towns can be seen everywhere, with simple buildings leaning to one side and built haphazardly with worn wooden boards and rusty iron sheets.
These huts are like old men who have lost their vitality due to the years and hardships. They are crumbling in this dark underground world. They are a place for the lowest class of people to shelter from wind and rain, and they are accompanied by insects and rats all year round.
In the shadow of the fire, some figures could be vaguely seen swaying. They were thin, their faces were full of fatigue and numbness, and their eyes revealed helplessness and despair towards life.
Children played in the sewage-filled streets, their bodies covered in dirt, and occasionally a skinny dog would run between the sheds, barking weakly.
This hollowed-out underground world is a forgotten corner of the empire, struggling in darkness and stench, waiting for the light that may never come.
Both Barry and Gwen were shocked by the scene that was performed. They were two college students who enjoyed a privileged life. Even though Barry had a miserable life, he did not live a life of drinking dirty water and sleeping with rats.
"The underground world is more cruel than I thought. Is there no one to take care of it?"
Barry is still a college student and has not left the ivory tower. He has a naive view on many things. If the Empire wanted to control this place, it would have done it long ago. Why wait until now?
Gwen's senses are more sensitive than the two men beside her. Even the air in the underground world is different from that in the aboveground world. The simple conclusion is that it is poisonous!
"The heavy metal content in the air here exceeds the standard. I suspect that the empire's sewage system is connected to the underground world. The waste of the upper class is unimaginable to us."
Gwen's family background is much better than Barry's. She knows the character of the rich people around her. The things they waste every day can allow the lower-class people living underground to barely maintain enough food and clothing for several months.
The gap between the ground and the underground is like heaven and earth, but this situation is not something that a girl like her can change. Gwen can only take care of herself and rescue her best friend.
When Kizaru saw the scene underground, he did not react as much as the two young men. In his opinion, the underground world of the empire could allow the lower class people to barely survive, which was far beyond his expectations.
As an ancient man living in the pirate era, Borsalino had seen too many cruel stories. The classical countries did not treat people as human beings at all. People were not even consumables but were equivalent to livestock.
Even if the lower-class people in the underground are ignored by the empire, they still have a foothold, but the power vacuum left behind will always attract some evildoers to fill it.
Kizaru followed the two young men, walking on the road full of unknown garbage. The three of them were not dressed gorgeously, but still did not fit in with the lower-class people around them.
The temperament and smell he exuded were different from those of the lower-class people in the empire, and he attracted strange looks from those around him.
For people living under the sun, coming underground for some reason is sometimes not a good thing. The arrival of the three people even attracted hateful looks.
The empire's tax collectors will not go deep underground, but that does not mean that the underground world does not have to pay taxes. As long as the gangs that rule the underground world are caught and the gang bosses are forced to pay taxes, the tax problem can be easily solved.
The configuration of a middle-aged man and two young men led the lower-class people to misunderstand that Kizaru Gwen and Barry were the imperial tax collectors with small supporting roles, who came to ask for money from the gangs that ruled this place.
The gangs are not saviors. If the empire collects one cent of tax from the gang bosses, the gang bosses will collect ten cents from the lower-class people.
After all, the wool comes from the sheep. Living under the rule of the Holy Roman Empire, the only inevitable things are death and taxes. No one born into this world can escape these two things.
The lower class people didn't dare to talk to the upper class people easily. A group of skinny children were very interested in the upper class people and liked their clean clothes.
However, he was quickly pulled back by his own parents and was warned not to cause trouble or to have any contact with upper-class people, as misfortune would most likely occur.
Moreover, this place is not the entire underground world. The deeper you go, the worse the underground world becomes. The empire does not have the ability to count how many people there are in the underground world.
Even powerful gangs cannot rule the entire underground world. The red soil continent may be hollowed out, and no one can calculate how large the underground world is.
The arrival of the three outsiders quickly attracted the attention of the gangsters. The tall middle-aged man who wore sunglasses the whole time and was accompanied by a young man with a childish face were not official personnel of the empire in the eyes of the gangsters.
“Could it be someone from the upper class who strayed into this place by mistake?
"Go and ask who they are. They are strangers who come to the underground and don't look like they are here to buy goods. If they don't have any background, chase them away."
A woman wearing clown makeup, her eyes were sharp and fierce, and the exaggerated red smile at the corners of her mouth seemed to hide endless calculations, unable to conceal her own crazy temperament.
A group of men wearing the same clown makeup surrounded her tightly. Their laughter was low and weird, echoing in the silent air.
These men have different body shapes, some are tall and strong, some are thin and flexible, but they all have a fierce aura and are all the women's minions.
The woman raised her hand and gently tidied up her messy red and blue ponytails. Her movements were filled with unquestionable majesty, "Stop them, the underworld belongs to the Joker Gang!"
Character Notes: Harley Quinn