Max and the Mechanical Army Chapter 3

Three men and one woman got off the high-speed motorcycle.

Among them, three men may have debuted as a group. Their heads were dyed red, green and yellow respectively. Standing together, they looked like a standard set of traffic lights. The woman wore the same outfit as the little girl just now, also wearing a leather jacket over her underwear. It seems that this outfit may be the winter fashion of local female gangsters, which is quite popular.

The four of them fell from the sky and looked like bad citizens, but they stood in a row behind the dilapidated black bar, all of them with their heads drooped and dared not say a word.

Several people pushed each other for a while, and finally, the "traffic light team" worked together to push the only woman among them out.

The female motorcyclist who preferred elegance to warmth withstood the severe winter, but could not withstand the cold face of the gentleman at the back door of the bar. She shivered and said hesitantly: "That man had a strange shielding device on him, and we lost him..."

The man looked at her expressionlessly, which made the female biker sneeze so hard that she almost blew out her lungs.

The little boy, who had just stopped sobbing, was frightened by the brutal sneeze. He sat down on the ground like a frightened bird, and let out a loud cry, and started crying again.

The man holding the cigarette lowered his head, and the little boy looked at him. After a glance, the boy's sobs were stuck in his throat, and he didn't dare to howl.

"Please ask a policeman to come here. Stop queuing up here and come in." A man who stopped a crying child with his eyes picked up the little boy with one hand, turned his head and nodded to the motorcyclists. He caught a glimpse of the embarrassed girl in the corner and said to her, "You too."

The motorcyclists entered in a stream as if they had been pardoned.

The girl got up and hesitated for a moment, but the warm air in the bar quickly broke down her will. She rubbed the scratch on the back of her hand, picked up her luggage, and followed him in.

The bar was decorated in a retro style, with a shabby chic feel. The air was filled with the sweet smell of rum, and jazz music was playing on the bar. It should have been closed by now, and the waiter and bartender were not there. There was only the man who had just opened the door, probably the owner.

"How can a tavern owner be so arrogant?" the girl wondered doubtfully. At this moment, she vaguely felt something moving on the shelf beside the table. At first she thought it was the swaying light, but when she looked closely, she was met with a pair of cold little eyes. She leaned back and was startled. Only then did she see clearly that there was a big green lizard lying there.

"It's okay. This thing is lazy and won't bite." The boss put the little boy on the high stool opposite the girl and asked her, "What do you want to drink?"

The girl came to her senses and said: "Beer."

The boss glanced at her and asked, "How old are you?"

At this time, the girl used the light to see the boss's appearance clearly - the man had black hair and a deep facial contour, but he could still be seen to be of oriental descent. He rolled up his shirt sleeves to his elbows, with his chest open, revealing a solid chest and a well-defined abdomen. He noticed that the girl was looking at him, and then he buttoned up two buttons.

The man had an old scar on his neck, from his Adam's apple down to his shoulder, hidden in his shirt, making him look a little more sinister. He was holding a cigarette, squinting slightly in the smoke, with a little stubble on his chin, and he looked very unkempt, but even though he looked so sloppy, he didn't look frivolous, probably because of his dark gray eyes.

Those eyes were very special, reminding people of a canyon filled with thick fog, deep and cold.

The girl's eyes met his, and she subconsciously looked away and answered briefly: "Fifty."

The boss raised his eyelids and said, "Speak human language."

The girl was a little hooligan who had no one to discipline her. She was fearless, but for some reason, she couldn't hold her head up in front of the bar owner. His gray eyes made her nervous - not the kind of nervousness a woman feels when seeing a handsome man, but the kind of nervousness a truant kid feels when looking at the head teacher, or a late rookie feels when looking at his immediate superior.

So she bowed her head and gave herself a 50% discount: "25."

At this moment, a white light suddenly flashed in front of her eyes. The girl reacted half a beat late and covered her face belatedly: "What are you doing!"

An invisible personal terminal appeared on the boss' wrist. He scanned the girl's body and an identity file immediately floated in the air. He exhaled two streams of smoke from his nose, raised one eyebrow slightly, and read out the girl's name: "Huang... Aria Lin?"

The girl was furious: "Why do you want to see my ID card?"

The boss ignored him and sneered, "Your name is Aria Lin too? That's a good name, it's the same name as the wife of the alliance's secretary-general."

What the hell is the term "wife of the chief secretary of the alliance"? To the little girl from the eighth galaxy, it sounds just like "scientists named the extraterrestrial black hole Pixiu's small intestine" - never heard of it, no idea what it means.

But not everyone can check other people's information at will. She still has this common sense. The girl stared at the man in front of her with full vigilance: "Did I run into a cop?"

The boss ignored her rude words and said, "Born in August of the 259th year of the New Star Calendar, little B@st@ard, just sixteen?"

The girl, who was stiffening her neck, suddenly became three inches shorter when he glanced at her.

The boss reached out his hand and the identity information on his wrist disappeared. A mechanical hand took out a bottle of milk from the freezer of the bar counter, poured two cups, and placed them in front of the girl Huang Aria Lin and the little boy opposite her. Then he touched the head of the big lizard in a very humane way. Unfortunately, the big lizard itself was a cold-blooded animal and didn't care about the other cold claw, so it shrank its head indifferently and crawled away slowly.

"You are a minor, why are you meddling in other people's business?" the boss said. "Why are you not going home in the middle of the night, hanging around here with a face drawn on your face? Where are the adults at home? Is there no one to take care of you?"

"What's wrong with Sixteen? How can I bother you? I'm from Black Hole," the girl slammed the table in a cowardly manner, "Why are you talking so much nonsense? I want beer, can't I just pay for it?"

As soon as the words fell, even the music at the bar paused, and everyone's eyes were strangely focused on the girl. The red-haired biker in the "Traffic Light Group" spit out the wine in his mouth and coughed loudly. The green-haired man next to him raised his sleeves tremblingly, wiped his sprayed face, turned his head and asked: "What do you say you are?"

As we all know, the barely established democratic government in the Eighth Galaxy is like a disposable lunch box. By analogy, the governments of the various planets are no better than toilet paper, and the police stations are mostly just road signs. No one takes them seriously. Since the government has no say, someone has to have the final say. Over time, this has led to a situation where gangs are rampant. There are many gangs in the Eighth Galaxy, each with its own territory, and they are the "invisible government" of the major planets.

The "invisible government" entrenched on Beijing's Beta Star is called "Black Hole". Its source of income is protection fees, and it occasionally engages in murder and arson business.

There is a mysterious ruler in the Black Hole named Lin. It is unknown whether it is "Lin" or "Lynn". Anyway, they all call him "Fourth Brother". There are many different opinions about the origin of Fourth Brother. Some say he is a wanted criminal, while others say he is an interstellar pirate who came ashore. In just a few years, this person has become famous in the "Black Hole". He first became the confidant of the previous head of the family, and then became the current head of the family.

How did the fourth brother climb to the top of the food chain? There are many legends full of conspiracy and bloodshed circulating among the people. It is not known whether they are true or not. Anyway, such stories have a huge market in the Eighth Galaxy and are suitable for people of all ages.

All the little hooligans and little girls on Beijing's β star want to be the next Fourth Brother. Their yearning for the "black hole" is as devout as the yearning of the powerful children in Voto for the Ulan College.

The young girl Huang Aria Lin said shamelessly: "Black hole, haven't you heard of black holes on Beijing Star?"

The female motorcyclist heard her nonsense, and then looked at the girl's childish face that could not be covered up by heavy makeup, and laughed: "Brother Four is so poor that he even employs child laborers?"

The girl raised her eyebrows and was about to retort, but before she could open her mouth to spit out a stream of foul smells, she saw the boss wipe his hands and told the robot beside him: "Call Lu Bixing."

The robot made an "OK" gesture and said in a tablet voice: "Calling Principal Lu---"

The girl was shocked: "You..."

"How do I know which school you are from?" The boss asked for her, then answered his own question, "All the minors pretending to be black holes in the entire 8th galaxy are students of that grandson."

As soon as he finished speaking, the mechanical arm trembled and the call from "that grandson" was connected.

The mechanical hand's cold electronic sound suddenly changed into a man's voice. A deep and gentle voice flowed out from the palm of the mechanical hand: "It's rare. Why did you think of me?"

The boss replied briefly: "Come over here and find the lost and found."

"Hmm?" Principal Lu asked with a smile, "What did I lose?"

He spoke lazily, like singing, but his pronunciation was clear, with a nasal tone at the end, making him seem particularly affectionate. He didn't sound like a serious principal.

"A naughty kid named Huang Aria Lin, check if she is from your school."

The robot arm paused, and then the voice of the "Midnight Program Host" immediately became three octaves more serious, and switched to the "News Broadcast" mode at the speed of light: "What's wrong? Where are you?"

Before the boss could answer, a small silver sword suddenly flashed from the wrist of the robot. The boss's eyes fixed, and he immediately stood up and put on a coat. At the same time, he said to the robot: "In the 'broken tavern', stop talking nonsense, hurry up and take the person away."

After saying that, he ended the call without further ado. He stretched out his hand, and the mechanical arm behind the bar immediately fell off its base, automatically shrank, and buckled onto the boss' arm like an armband - like a well-trained live parrot!

The young girl Huang Aria Lin grew up in a remote mountain area of   the Eighth Galaxy. She had never seen the world and was stunned for a moment.

The boss said, "Penny, you guys stay at home," and hurried out the back door.

As soon as he left, he heard a "ding dong" sound, and a sleepy middle-aged man in police uniform poked his head in. He smiled politely at the monster-like motorcyclists and said, "Why? I heard there are some trivial matters that need my attention."

"That one," the female biker named Penny raised her chin to the little boy in the corner, "a lost child, you can take him away."

"Okay, okay, no problem, don't worry, Miss Penny," the policeman, who was like a younger brother, warmly took the little boy away, patted the child's back in a professional manner, and quickly coaxed the frightened little boy to be obedient. Then, he looked around with a sly look and asked with a smile, "Well...was Fourth Brother here just now?"

The bad girl Huang Aria Lin had to hold back a yawn and her jaw was almost dislocated.

Penny gave her a half-smile.

"Unfortunately," she pulled the toothpick out of her mouth, pointed to the back door that was not closed tightly, and said, "Just left."