厄之子 Son of Ur

作者： David Slagle

我们在祖安的街道上飞奔。路边的管道和彩玻璃全都变成了模糊的残影，仿佛满街满巷的灰霾和雾霭都被肆意涂上了油彩。佐丽在我左边，头发打结，身上披挂着生锈的匕首，但她的笑容却隐隐透出了满面尘垢下动人的美貌。跟在她身后的是白仑克，带着他装满荧光颜料的喷雾器，和他装满鬼主意的头脑。殿后的是屎裤子，任何人见到他都觉得对得起屎裤子这名字。但他是我们的屎裤子，任何时候都对得起自己的裤子。

We were running through the streets of Zaun. The pipes and stained glass were blurred, smeared colors against the Gray, and the fog that hung in every chem-soaked alley. Zori was to my left, all matted hair and rusty knives—her smile was the only sign that she was beautiful beneath the grime. Blenk was behind her, with a spray-philter full of glowing paint and a head dripping with ideas. Scuzz brought up the rear, every bit the kind of lug you’d expect to be called Scuzz. But he was our Scuzz, every scuzzy bit of him.

他高喊一声，将我们帮派的名字送进了翻滚的烟雾中，宣告着这属于我们的夜晚。

He yelled our gang’s name into the billowing smoke, marking the night as ours.

“地沟骑兵！”

“Sump Riders!”

我们狂笑一声，跟着应了一遍。我们年轻，活得尽兴。没什么能阻止我们。除非你能先追上我们，可现在我们还在飞奔。

We laughed, and yelled it too. We were young, we were alive. Nothing could stop us. It would have to catch us first, and we were still running.

这座城市似乎也在驮着我们向前，滑向更深的地方，远离刚刚被我们洗劫一空、倒在血泊中的地沟拾荒者。他的银轮还在我们的口袋中磕磕碰碰。不仅有乐子而且还有油水。我们正在前往黑窄巷，祖安心脏地带的市场。

The city itself seemed to carry us forward as we slid down into its depths, farther and farther from the sump-scrapper we’d just robbed and left bleeding in the gutter. His cogs still jangled in our pockets. More than enough for a bit of fun. We were on our way to the Black Lanes, the market at the heart of Zaun.

“你说他们会把微光酒卖给我们吗？”佐丽问。”捅了那个地沟垃圾以后我得润一润。”

“Think they’ll sell us any shimmerwine?” Zori asked. “Bleedin’ that sumper made me a mite parched.”

白仑克轻蔑地笑了一声。”在窄巷，小孩儿也能买到微光酒——还能买到小孩儿呢。”

Blenk scoffed. “They’d sell shimmer to a child in the Lanes. And then they’d sell the child.”

“你俩闭闭，”屎裤子吼了一声，从后面追到前排。我从没见过他这么紧张，一双眉头正在渐渐紧锁。”没听见不对劲吗？”

“Gob it, both of you,” Scuzz growled, catching up. His face showed a kind of concern that I’d never seen before, a frown slowly forming. “Can’t you hear that?”

我眯起眼望向深邃的黑夜——毕竟耳朵没法眯起来，除非安装了增强体。”我啥也听不见，”我耸耸肩。”连个瘟疫鼠放屁的声都没有”。

I squinted my eyes and peered into the night—since you can’t squint with ears, you ken? Not without a few augments. “I can’t hear nothin’,” I said with a shrug. “Not even a plague rat’s brown cough.”

“所以我说不对劲，”屎裤子低声喃喃。

“That’s what I mean,” Scuzz muttered.

接下来的寂静......压得我们喘不过气，似乎比我们头上灿烂闪耀的皮尔特沃夫更加沉重。

And the silence after… It weighed heavier even than Piltover, glittering above us.

我们拨开浓雾慢慢走进市场，却看到了倾覆的小推车，车轮还在有气无力地转悠。摊位上依然摆满了各种新奇货，但摊主全都不见了。空气中弥漫着一股恶臭，让我想起了刚才的地沟拾荒者——这股味道呛得我眼泪直流，可刚才看他被放血的时候我什么反应都没有。

Pushing slowly into the market through the fog, we found dram-carts overturned, their wheels spinning lazily. Stalls abandoned, still full of exotic wares. There was a stench in the air that reminded me of the sump-scrapper—a stench strong enough to make my eyes water, when even seeing him bleed had not.

然后我们看到了满地尸体。许多尸体身上都戴着炼金男爵的徽章。他们全都被撕成了碎块，散落在染得通红的石子地面上。

And there were bodies here, too. Many of them were wearing a chem-baron’s emblem. They’d been torn to pieces, the cobbles red beneath them.

一场屠杀。

It was a massacre.

“这活儿够脏的呀，哈？”白仑克一边轻松地笑着，一边搜起了死人的口袋，小心地摘开零碎的肉块。”看来我们赶上大减价了。”

“Nasty bit of work, eh?” Blenk grinned, rooting through one of the dead men’s pockets, carefully picking away giblets of flesh. “Guess that means we’re gettin’ a discount.”

佐丽却一个劲儿地发抖。”有人......在那边，”她轻声说道，指向空场另一侧，一根管子正在喷出一团新鲜的炼金云雾。那里就是恶臭的源头。味道越来越浓烈，冲击着我的所有感官，甚至让我的耳朵也跟着轰鸣。”是......个人？”

Zori only shuddered. “There’s someone… in there,” she whispered, pointing into a cloud of raw chemtech that was spewing from a pipe in the clearing beyond. It was the source of the stench that was only growing stronger, crushing my senses, somehow making my ears hum. “It’s… It’s a man.”

“不是......”我顺着她的视线看向绿色的帷幕，轻声说道。”不完全是......”

“That’s not a man,” I murmured, following her gaze into the growing green veil. “Not anymore…”

一个巨大的身子，机械腿上带着许多枪口，粗暴地接在躯干的肉身上，就像机械工把两根管子焊在了一起。单是看着眼前这一幕就让我仿佛被烫了一下，只想抱头鼠窜。它一只手举起一个明显小很多的人影。那个人在炼金云雾中艰难地呛咳、徒劳地扭动着。那怪物嘲弄着他，话音就像是机械的摩擦声，让我的肚子也跟着翻江倒海，感觉随时都要屎尿齐出。

It was a hulking shape, with mechanical legs and many guns, fused savagely to its flesh the way a mechanician would fuse two pipes. Burning and searing. Just looking at it made me wince. In one hand, it held a much smaller figure aloft. A man, choking in the chemtech cloud. As he writhed, the monster taunted him, its voice a mechanical buzz vibrating deep in my gut, threatening to loose the bowels within.

“这就是你要的，”这声音难以辨别。它一边咕哝，一边将那人的脸粗暴地按进了管道的裂口中，炼金云雾包围了他们。”吸进去。接纳它。”

“This is what you want,” it almost cooed, cruelly forcing the man’s face into a rent in the pipe, the chemtech gas gushing out around them. “Breathe it. Make it yours.”

那个人继续挣扎着，双腿在空中乱踢，力道却越来越弱。直到最后，只有他的机械增强手臂依然在抽搐，反复地执行着他脑中最后的绝望指令。

But the man only writhed, kicking uselessly, growing weaker and weaker—until finally, only his augmented arm still jittered, echoing his last, desperate thoughts. Even after they ceased.

黄铜的光泽迎面一闪，那具尸体砸中了我。炼金男爵，只有这个身份的人才用的起最新款增强模组。这应该是猩红男爵。地上七零八落的尸体也都是他的人。

And with that flash of brass, it hit me. The dangling corpse, he was a chem-baron, the only kind of person who could afford newfangled kit. Baron Crimson, or somesuch. These were his men, scattered around us.

曾经是他的人。可现在......

Were his men. And now…

“我们得走了，”我艰难地喘了一口气，目光撇下眼前的惨状，转身搜寻我背后的朋友们。但我看不见他们。雾气从管子里滚滚涌出，剧毒的绿色云雾让我越来越喘不上......喘......气......

“We have to get out of here,” I gasped, turning from the carnage to my friends behind me. But I couldn’t see them. The gas from the pipe, it was spreading, a toxic green cloud making it harder to breathe… Harder to… to…

快逃。我们必须逃。

Run. We had to run.

我可以听到佐丽、白仑克和屎裤子慌乱的脚步声和咳嗽声就在附近。我伸出手想抓住任何人、任何东西和我一起逃。但周围只有身体坠地的闷响，还有喷雾器罐子在石子路面上的滚动声。

I could hear Zori, Blenk and Scuzz panicking and coughing somewhere nearby. I reached out into the swirl for anyone, anything, to pull along with me as I made my escape. But there was only the sound of a body slumping softly to the ground, a spray-philter rattling across the cobbles.

白仑克。一个念头差点儿打垮了我——白仑克已经没了。

Blenk. I stumbled as the truth hit me. He was gone.

这还不是最糟糕的。

And the worst was still to come.

那个怪物支撑起庞大的身躯迈出云雾，一条披着铁甲的巨腿踩在我旁边，接下来是另一条腿、然后又一条——流淌着炼金物质的软管暴露在外，突出的枪口依然冒着烟，和周围的尸体一样热气腾腾。

The monster pushed itself through the cloud, a massive, armored leg slamming down beside me, and then another, and another—all revealed chemtech-filled tubing, and protruding gun muzzles that smoked with the very same heat still smoldering in the bodies around us.

我嗓子眼里一阵反酸，就像这空气一样苦涩。我要死在这儿了。

I could taste it at the back of my throat, a truth as bitter as the acrid air. I was going to die here.

那个怪物抓着我的脖领子，将我拎到和他目光平齐。那是一张恐怖的脸，因为那是张人脸，也是他比全身上下最接近人类的部分了。他的毒气面具泛着幽光，泵着不掺空气的炼金物质，而他的眼睛不知为何泛着更明亮的光。若有所思。当他看出我的恐惧时，那双眼睛似乎微笑起来。

The monster grabbed me by my ragged scruff, lifting me close enough to see its face. It was a visage of terror, all the more horrifying because it was human. More human than the rest of him, at least. His tox-mask glowed as it vented pure alchemy, but his eyes were somehow even brighter. Intelligent. Almost seeming to smile as they took my fear in.

“祖安之子。你叫什么名字？”他咆哮者说道，将我贴的更近了一些 。他的口音很重，但我听不出来自哪里。他说出的每一个字都在轰炸着我的毅力。每一个字都灌满了憎恨的力量。

“A son of Zaun. What is your name?” he growled as he brought me closer. His accent was sharp, but I couldn’t place it. His words battered my resolve, each one hitting with the force of his hate.

我一句整话都说不出来。

I couldn’t even stammer an answer.

他狂笑起来。”那个男爵，你认识他吧？和许多人一样，他想要统治这座城市，把无数人打入深渊，挖掘这......”他猛吸一口气，搅起了气旋。”......这悲惨的痛苦。现在他已经不存在了，杀死他的正是赋予他无上权力的东西。但是你，你这只臭耗子，在这肮脏污浊的家园里，反而活了下来。那么，你来说说，谁更强大？谁才有资格活下去？”

He laughed. “The baron, you recognize him? Like many, he tried to rule this city, casting countless people into the depths, to mine this…” He breathed in deeply as the gases swirled. “…this misery. Now he is no more, killed by that which gave him power over others. It is you, the gutter rat, at home in the squalor, who survives. So, tell me, which of you is stronger? Which of you deserves to live?”

突然，我摔向地面，砸在了我朋友们的身上。他们颤抖着，咳嗽着，就像刚才那位男爵一样。屎裤子正在口吐白沫。而佐丽......我含住泪闭上眼，不愿看到她的下场。

Suddenly, I was falling back to the ground, landing on top of my friends. They were shuddering, choking as the chem-baron had. Scuzz, his mouth was foaming. And Zori… I closed my eyes against the tears before I could see what had happened to her.

“滚吧，”那只怪兽说。”告诉这座城你是怎么活下来的，男爵是怎么死的。你是我的见证人，千千万万里的头一个。”

“Run,” the monster said. “Tell the city how you survived and a baron did not. You will be my witness. The first of many.”

我犹豫了一下。

I hesitated.

“滚！”他怒吼一声。随后我看到了佐丽，她正在啜泣，用最后一丝力气伸出手求救。我不希望这一幕成为她在我心中的最终回忆。我希望记住的是她的微笑。哪怕是现在。

“Run!” he bellowed. I saw Zori then, sobbing, reaching out for help with the last of her strength. I didn’t want this to be the way I would remember her. I wanted to remember her smile. I still do.

但我又开始飞奔了，在祖安的街道上飞奔。

But I was running again, through the streets of Zaun.

你能想象那种感受吗？肺里像着了火，上气不接下气。我突然意识到，我的尖叫其实正是它要我传出去的口信。

And can you imagine how it felt to realize, with burning lungs and heaving breaths, that my screams were the message I was to bear?

我活了下来。我的朋友们却没有。

I was alive. My friends were not.

我有资格活下去。

I was worthy.