Era 2137, USA, New York, Solar System Federation Committee Premier Building
Everyone climbed up dizzily from the wreckage.
Wait, were they sure this was wreckage?
Could this intact building be called wreckage?
The Solar System Federation Committee Premier Building had not suffered even the slightest damage. That damned burrowing missile seemed to have had no effect other than stunning them all. Burgred's head was buzzing, and he stood up as if his soul had left his body. Beside him, Joseph was clutching his head and letting out painful groans, though it was obvious Burgred couldn't understand what he was saying. Under these circumstances, hardly anyone could understand what he was saying.
At the same time, inside the Solar System Federation Committee Premier Building, there was no chaos caused by the burrowing bomb. Everyone merely felt a buzzing in their ears and their vision blacked out for a few moments before returning to normal.
"What... what model... of bomb... is this?" Joseph asked intermittently. It was unclear if he was asking the Director or Burgred, but one thing was certain: neither of them could answer him. Not even the manufacturing bureau specializing in equipment for the Solar System Federation Secret Police had ever produced a bomb capable of inducing such vertigo.
That was enough.
Burgred could not take it anymore. He shoved aside the people in front of him and rushed downstairs. He ran toward a small alley in what used to be the slums of Queens. That was where he had played as a child. After the war, the area had been rebuilt and was completely different from his childhood memories. Years ago, his parents had sent him here to avoid the war. They had lived in a tiny underground hole, but when he turned thirteen, he fled back to Germany and joined the army.
However, his parents vanished without a trace, never to be heard from again.
Thinking of this, he broke down and cried loudly.
Suddenly, a sharp pain shot through his chest. His chest had once been pierced by five bullets when he was a child, and recently, the recurrence of the old injury had been causing him significant suffering.
Of course, if not for the superb skills of the doctor who treated him, combined with the gunman's poor aim which failed to hit his heart or lungs, he would have lost his life long ago.
He began to weep bitterly again. Nothing was more heartbreaking than losing one's parents and their trust. Back then, he had risked his life to protect a classmate who was being held at gunpoint, but his parents believed he was disrupting their lives and bringing trouble to the household. It was wartime, after all, and any reckless action could have cost him his life. Because his parents did not understand him, he acted out of spite, ran away, and fled back to Germany to enlist.
Since then, he had never seen his parents again, nor did he ever get the chance to clarify the truth to them, even though he had found evidence in the army sufficient to prove his innocence.
Burgred had completely collapsed. Although he knew very well that he was hallucinating again, he was still deeply trapped in grief and unable to extricate himself. The electronic stun burrowing missile from earlier had triggered a relapse of his persecution mania.
At this moment, Qingxue jumped down from the stairs on the other side of the slums. She knew Burgred's location very well. As a child, she often came here to play with Burgred, and she had also studied here. When Burgred fled back to Germany, she had been the one helping Burgred take care of his parents. That lasted until the day Burgred's father left for work in the morning for the very last shift of his life—he was about to retire—but did not return home by the end of the day. She had predicted something bad would happen. A week later, Burgred's mother passed away from liver cancer. From then on, Burgred had no relatives left in this world.
Although Burgred tried his best to find his father afterward, it was obvious he never had the chance. He naturally assumed that his reckless action back then had exposed his father's identity, leading to his arrest by the American police. He felt incredibly guilty about this.
But Burgred never could have guessed that his father had gone to the place he least wanted to see in his life: The Seventh Base.
Of course, at this time, he only knew that his great-grandfather was a high-ranking Nazi official. He still did not know what his father had done. In his memory, his father had always been a kind man who, due to Burgred's life-risking reckless action, had his identity exposed and was arrested by American police on suspicion of colluding with the Nazis. He had always wanted to explain this clearly to his father, but he could never have anticipated the disaster his father would bring upon him.
Just then, Joseph rushed toward them from the distance. Behind him, laser bullets fired from rows of electronic Gatling heavy machine guns flew past like meteors.