"If sothing happens, we have each other to rely on, and if nothing happens... then we can treat it as a business trip, after all, the salary won't be affected."
Upon hearing this, Tian En was clearly a bit surprised, but quickly understood and nodded with a smile.
"Thank you."
Tian En knew all too well how strong Yun You was, having been beaten by her before.
With her by the side, the sense of security couldn't be compared to acting alone,
"No need to thank , after all, Mokaka is my friend too."
Yun You waved her hand casually and said, "Get ready, we can leave now."
"Okay!"
Tian En nodded lightly and turned around to pack up.
Watching her busy back, Yun You scratched her head helplessly.
She originally thought that once the Floating Island matter was settled, Mokaka would no longer be in danger.
Who knew that one wave hadn't ended when another rose.
She could only hope that those attempting to harm Mokaka would behave, otherwise...
Her eyes flickered, and a pair of silver crescent moon marks appeared in her pupils.
Otherwise, she could only test out... her newly developed ultimate skill on those guys...
...
Ten minutes later, the two reunited at the company entrance and got into an autonomous small hovercar.
Actually, Yun You, to be safe, planned to call Old Jin and her senior brother along.
But for so reason, Old Jin and Jiang Wuji were both completely out of reach, not responding to ssages or answering voice calls, no one knew what they were up to.
Helpless, Yun You had to abandon this plan and simply left a ssage for them with her action plan.
She even considered taking Yuanbao, but after careful thought, she realized that Yuanbao was truly not skilled in combat, so she decided against it.
So, the two of them traveled towards the distant Steel Forest Area in the car.
...
Nest City No. 3, the 17th unauthorized area, is known as the abandoned old city "Steel Forest."
From afar, it looked like a series of tall, dark silhouettes standing on the horizon, only upon closer inspection could one see that they were actually magnificent skyscrapers. Together, they ford a massive urban cluster.
Towering hundreds of ters high, the buildings and towers leaned against each other. The glass curtain walls had peeled off into scale-like remnants, exposing the rebar fras covered with radiation moss.
The faded holographic ads flickered and twitched in the building cracks, with the logo of the once-dominant "Chief Air Group" of Nest City No. 3 still lingering above.
Amid the crossroads stood an imposing statue of a corporate leader, which was once a bit taller than the tallest building in the old city, but now only half of its head remained, subrged in an acid rain pit, with the water reflecting the remnants of neon glows.
The cracked asphalt road was filled with countless craters, resembling the surface of the Moon. In the water accumulated at the bottoms of the pits floated fluorescent green mutant algae, perhaps the only organisms that could survive in a high-radiation environnt.
A rusty vending machine lay on its side at the edge of a crater, its shattered display still looping a 2047 beverage ad, while the electric female voice's static echoed eerily between the buildings.
No figures were in sight, nor was there a trace of life, only an occasional roar from the depths of the ground—sounds of geothermal generators by smugglers gnawing at the city.
Parallel claw marks remained on so office building curtain walls, with faded biological scales embedded deep within. It was obvious that this city no longer belonged to humans, and the mutant creatures that once could only thrive in the wild had now taken over, thriving amidst the remnants of civilization.
Sitting in the hovercar, Yun You recalled so introductions about the Steel Forest she had seen earlier.
When the war initially broke out, Biotechnology, as the "Challenger," was still restrained, wanting to defeat the old overlord Chief Airline of Nest City No. 3 on the front battlefield.
But who knew the latter did not play by the rules, planning hundreds of assassinations in succession, nearly wiping out all high-ranking officials of Biotechnology at the ti.
In anger, Biotechnology detonated nuclear bombs in the old city area of Nest City and continuously deployed weapons known as "Fury of the Celestial God," crazily striking at the city.
But how could cities built of reinforced concrete be so fragile? Building structures naturally had strong defenses against nuclear weapons. A nuclear weapon with a blast radius enough to cover hundreds of kiloters in the wilderness could only destroy a single block in the city, with inefficiency that was unacceptable.
Thus, Biotechnology simply used "dirty bombs," with almost a retaliatory mindset, carrying out nearly a hundred bombings of the city.
And so, the now-renowned Steel Forest Area was birthed.
Dirty bombs couldn't destroy the city's structure, but their emitted high-energy particle radiation deeply polluted the land, turning the entire city into a dead city.
To this day, the Steel Forest still harbors a large number of radiation sources visible to the naked eye.
Yun You could even distinctly feel that when she stepped onto this land, the organs in her body began to tremble, as if alard, and the portable Geiger counter she carried was already emitting a crackly noise.
Fortunately, the Apprentice Death God had a strong physique, and as long as she didn't directly touch the radiation source or handle nuclear fuel with bare hands, the harm from high-energy particles to her body was almost negligible.
It's just...
She could withstand it, but the car couldn't.
"Excess radiation detected, vehicle battery pack nearing critical status, vehicle shutting down for safety."
"Screech—"
After a teeth-gnashing sound, the hovercar reluctantly ca to a stop.
The second-hand hovercar that Yun You had spent hundreds of thousands on ultimately couldn't hold up, refusing to move an inch further no matter how the little girl fiddled with it.
"Uh... how about we get off here."
Watching Yun You fiddling with the car, Tian En scratched her head awkwardly.
"We're at the flight path area. If nothing goes wrong, the trauma team's hovercar will pass by here in ten minutes..."
"We can just wait."
Hearing this, Yun You paused her car repairs, thinking it seed reasonable.
So, the two got out of the car, then leaned against it, quietly observing the surrounding environnt.
Honestly, this Steel Forest wasn't entirely devoid of humans.
Under a nearby overpass, a few armored hovercrafts were parked. Their chassis were lined with anti-radiation lead plates, and around them were so modified equipnt, such as laser cutters and industrial gas welders. Although no one could be seen, there were chanical guards, suggesting it was a small vehicle repair workshop, providing service to the smugglers.
On so building corners, gang codes were engraved using hot lt guns: concentric circles representing smuggling routes, a triangle notch indicating sniper positions, and a wavy line in radioactive paint marking mutant creature nests.
At certain points, graffiti abruptly stopped, leaving jagged nano-knife marks on the wall, the aning unknown, but Yun You guessed it was an ergency warning during a surprise attack, with the angle of the interrupted marks indicating the approach direction and armant level.
Underfoot, so craters were newly ford, with blackened powder burn marks remaining.
Radiation was a deadly poison to ordinary people but a natural barrier for gang mbers and smugglers. After all, radiation might take ten years or longer to kill them, but a bullet from a cop's gun could send them to Hell in an instant.
Sotis, life in the Nest City was like this, everything was about interests and costs. When the interests were great enough and the costs low enough, even a crater created by a nuclear bomb could beco a sweet ho for soone.
So gang mbers had clearly noticed Yun You and Tian En but did not approach to provoke them.
Those who could survive in the Steel Forest were not idiots. They understood what the tri-phase imprint on the two ant—it could bring them death and misfortune.
Thus, both sides temporarily remained peaceful, as ti slowly ticked by...
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