After eating and drinking, the endless exhaustion invaded Mallory again.
He fell into a deep sleep as soon as his body collapsed.
Even if the helicopter sent him to the sea of fire, there was no one who could stop him from having a good sleep at this moment.
At least, it was warm here.
And not thirsty and not hungry.
...
Mallory didn't know how long he had slept.
Maybe a few hours?
Or maybe more.
When he woke up again, the helicopter's hatch was open.
Outside ... was flat land.
After eating bread and cookies and drinking a drink, his body had strength.
Mallory climbed down from the helicopter's cabin and stood on the flat ground below.
Concrete ground.
The helicopter dropped Mallory and then flew straight up high and left.
After a few steps on the flat ground, Mallory wondered if he was dreaming.
The feet are light, as if walking in a fantasy world.
Finally back on the ground?
The question is, where is this place?
There is no snow or rain here, and the temperature is moderate, about twenty degrees, which feels very comfortable.
After looking around, Mallory was soon convinced of one thing.
It was either on the beach or on an island.
Where he stood was the helipad, behind him was the beach and the water, and in front of him was an area of buildings.
There was no doubt that he would first have to enter that building to figure out where he had been sent.
Although Mallory was wearing only a set of smelly pajamas and hadn't brushed his teeth or washed his face in days, it was not the time to be concerned about his image.
Let's go check it out.
If we can find someone, everything should come to light.
...
"Is there someone?"
Mallory came out onto the street and shouted a few times into the empty street.
No one responded.
Next to the entrance to the street was a restaurant.
The signboard just said the word restaurant.
Although there was no money in his pajama pocket, Mallory walked inside when he saw the restaurant.
The bread and cookies he had eaten in the helicopter had long been digested by his hungry stomach.
Now he was still hungry.
A clock hung on the wall of the restaurant, showing the time of 10:03 am.
If that time was accurate, Mallory figured the helicopter had been in the air for maybe three or four hours.
It could have been shorter.
Next to the clock there is an LCD screen.
The LCD screen shows a countdown, an hour and fifty-seven minutes.
It looked like the countdown ended at exactly 12:00 noon.
"What's with the countdown? Is it the time the restaurant opens?"
"Isn't twelve noon a little too late to open again?"
"Even less likely to be the time the restaurant closes, right?"
The entire restaurant was empty.
At least Mallory didn't see a single person after a long look around.
"Is anyone there?"
"Can I order?"
Although Mallory was wearing only a set of pajamas and had no money on him, he was forced by hunger to cheekily try to get a meal on credit first.
No one responded.
Mallory took a closer look around the restaurant.
The restaurant had a vending port and a machine next to the vending port.
It's not self-service, is it?
Mallory walked over to it.
Sure enough, it was a vending machine.
On the display was a menu.
There was a lot of food in the menu.
There were Hamburger, sandwich, congee, rice, various noodles, fritters, marinated eggs and other home-cooked breakfasts.
You can also eat rice to order food, there are home-cooked stir-fry, roast chicken and duck, pork feet, braised pork, lobster, hairy crab, and even a variety of mountain and seafood.
Mallory's mouth watered, and his stomach rumbled indisputably.
These foods are not purchased with money.
Instead, it requires a membership card, which is redeemed by the points in the membership card.
The machine in front of you can apply for a membership card.
After performing face recognition, the machine actually filled out Mallory's name automatically.
But this is not very unusual, as PayPal has this function for a long time, so maybe the restaurant is connected to those systems.
This is not the time to think about such things.
The membership card is a white card with no words on it.
Once the membership card is issued, Mallory can redeem the points from the membership card account for food.
Unfortunately, Mallory didn't have a single point in his membership card account.
I don't know where the points come from.
Do you redeem them for cash?
After researching for a while, Mallory found out that his membership card account has a function similar to a cash advance.
He could advance 100 points to his account.
Although he was hungry and wanted to eat a big meal of roast chicken and duck, Mallory finally resisted.
The more tempting the food is, the more points it costs.
And his stomach, which had been hungry for several days, should not eat too much greasy food at this time.
In the end, Mallory only advanced five points.
The five points were exchanged for a bowl of hot noodles, a sandwich, a bowl of congee, three Hamburgers and a small plate of pickles.
After confirming the redemption, the conveyor belt at the food vending counter brought out the food.
Mallory tried to look inside through the food vending port, but found that it was too dark to see anything inside.
Although it was hard to see where the food came from, the food was indeed hot and did not smell bad.
Even just these hot dry noodles, Hamburgersandwich and so on, to the current Mallory is the supreme delicacy.
Eating Hamburger with a big mouthful of pickles is the ultimate treat.
All the food goes down.
I was so full.
Mallory wanted to eat more, but held back.
The overeating at this time will destroy his badly damaged and fragile stomach and his weak body.
It's better to take it easy.
"Thank you for the food, I'll be sure to find a way to pay the bill later." Mallory called out into the restaurant a few times.
Although no one may hear, but the attitude of keeping one's word should be expressed clearly.
After eating and drinking his fill, Mallory returned to the street.
There was a clothing store next to the restaurant.
Next to the clothing store is a bathing center.
After looking at his smelly and dirty pajamas that he hadn't changed in days, Mallory quickly entered the clothing store.
As in the restaurant, there is no clerk in the clothing store, only vending machines.
As in the restaurant, there is a wall clock on the wall of the clothing store, as well as a countdown on the LCD screen.
It looks like something big is going to happen here at 12:00 noon?
What will it be?
Let's buy clothes first.
Most importantly, buy a pair of socks and a pair of shoes.
These days at the top of Stonehenge, he could be barefoot all the time.
There were also cheap and expensive clothes in the clothing store.
Mallory didn't have many points in his account, so he chose the cheapest set of clothes, a promotional set, dress pants plus shoes and socks, and only consumed twelve points in total.
Counting the points from the meal, Mallory now has a total of seventeen points on credit.
After choosing the clothes and shoes and socks, Mallory did not immediately change into the clothes and shoes and socks, but entered the adjacent bathing center.