“We… in danger… deal… second half of training method… come quick….” Red Moon’s message was not very long, but its meaning was very simple and precise.
“They” evidently meant Clint, and his younger brother Lon. The three of them were in danger, which clearly meant that they had come across some trouble in the radiation belt.
Garen rubbed his chin as he thought about it. He allowed the Mech’s quantum computer to calculate the distance that the signal was coming from.
“If he came to the radiation belt without a hazmat suit, then he’d really be in trouble. Baylon, that kid…” He was worried that if Baylon really was infected by the radiation, and became a radiation person, no matter how small a radiation mark he had, he would still be forever ostracized from all the Regions.
Radiation disease was incurable, that was a fact acknowledged by all the regions, without exception.
Soon, the computer had calculated the distance.
‘The signal came from a distance of: 235 kilometers, 23 degrees to the North-West.’
‘Warning, warning, insufficient reserves in energy furnace, the battery must be changed now. Power remaining 4%.’
“I’ll go charge my battery first, otherwise I won’t be able to move after several kilometers.”
Garen heaved a long breath, and quickly put on a sealed hazmat suit. Actually, even if he did not suit up, no radiation would be able to infect him, because as a Peacock larva, he was already the largest source of radiation. Nobody could block the cold radiation he emitted, it could even affect their hearts. But he still had to be aware of his identity on the surface.
Inside the Mech, he held a short staff in his hand. It was the Staff of Ultimate Yin. Taking it with him, Garen was slowly sent out of the cockpit, forming a separate cabin on his own. And then the outer door to the Mech opened slowly.
Pfft!
There was a spray of white gas that emanated everywhere.
Wearing a hazmat suit, Garen slowly jumped forward, and landed lightly on the soil beside the cliff.
The other three people also walked out of their respective Mechs in their suits. They were all wrapped up in thick black clothes as though it was winter, but unlike winter clothing, they also had to wear a transparent glass helmet over their heads. The helmet was completely transparent, so unless they looked at it closely, no one would notice that they were wearing something like that. It was extremely well-hidden.
Other than that, not a single patch of their skin was exposed. It was all covered tightly, with black gloves on their hands. They even had a Blackboard pattern on the back of the hands, it looked like an eye.
Anda walked at the very front, looking at the Flying Batoid City beneath them.
“I’ve contacted the City Master already, someone needs to stand watch over the base when we’re charging batteries. The radiation people will send someone here specifically for this, we just need to pay with two bottles of Level One water. Everyone else can go explore and play around. Who’s willing to stay behind?”
“I’ll do it.” Aves raised his hand. “I can only look and not play anyway, if I get all riled up, I’ll still have to finish it off myself. What a pain. I’m not going.”
“Fine.”
The other three, Anda, Linda, and Garen, all climbed down the right side of the cliff. There was a flight of ninety-degree stairs there, covered with moss. Evidently, they were used often.
The three of them walked down the stairs for several minutes, and soon enough they came across a stone door to a guard station. There was a black person carrying a gun on his back, standing guard there.
“It’s the three sires!” The black man snapped a salute at the three of them. Their salute was really strange their right hand pressed against their forehead at a ninety-degree angle. Their accent was just a little flatter than the people inside the regions, their tongue did not curl at all.
Anda nodded, leading Linda and Garen inside.
As they continued down the mountain path, they saw more and more man-made buildings, with railing that was painted blue. Occasionally they would come across radiation people, all of them carrying large baskets on their backs, but who knew what they had come out here to pick.
Garen peeked into one of their baskets, and found that it was full of plant roots and green grass, and there was the occasionally useful herb as well.
All the radioactive people who saw them along the way, whether they were dressed simply or luxuriously, all scattered to the sides in fearful respect, allowing the three of them to pass.
A woman carrying a child even clapped her hand to her child’s mouth tightly. No matter how hard the one-year-old child cried, she refused to let go, but some sound still escaped. Anda heard it, and glanced over with a frown.
With a bang, the woman actually knocked out her own child mercilessly, and fell to her knees, dragging the child with her, her head lowered. She dared not say a single thing, and just kept kowtowing on the ground.
“These are radiation people.” Anda’s tone was mild, but it had a hint of contempt. “Forget Inner Courtyard elites like us, they can’t even provoke the regular Outer Courtyard students.”
“Over here, our position is even scarier than the emperor,” Linda said with a sigh. It clearly was not her first time here either.
“What about the ruler here?” Garen asked.
“Just a fatty who sits around waiting to die, he can’t even get up, he’s over four hundred pounds in weight,” Anda said contemptuously. “According to the rules, the rulers here must also bow and show their respect to us when they meet us, but these parasites are at the top, so of course they don’t want to do that in front of so many people. That’s why they find reasons to avoid meeting us, and get their subordinates to greet us instead. It’s a very common thing here, as long as they treat people like us well, they don’t have anything to worry about. Over here, people are worth the least, the most valuable things here are clean food and water, nothing else can match up to these two.”
The three of them walked into the farmlands of the Flying Batoid City beneath them. The green farms surrounded the whole city, but rather than the regular paddy or wheat, they were filled with a strange plant. It had a green stem like paddy, but on top it was a fat, squirming green maggot. The maggot was curled up, tightly hugging the tip of the plant, swaying and swinging in the breeze.
Soon enough, a radiation man with a strong body greeted them up front, getting on his knees and bowing in front of them in the middle of the path between the crops.
“Representing the City Master, Vendant is here to greet the arrival of my three lords.” There were four people behind him, all of them seemed to be teenagers. The two men were handsome and strong, the two women beautiful and pure. They were all subtly dressed to look pretty and sexy.
“Follow the old rules,” said Anda nonchalantly. “Garen, you choose, of the two girls, which do you prefer? These should be the best the city has to offer.”
Garen was speechless, glancing at the two girls behind the man Vendant. Although they were beautiful, while he was dressed in his hazmat suit, he could only watch and touch, so what was the point?
“These people will only act as a guide and warm your bed, we might have to rest here for the night, and leave again tomorrow,” Anda explained simply.
“Then I’ll choose this one.” Garen casually pointed at the long-haired girl who looked purer. She had pitch-black hair falling over her shoulders, like an Asian, with large black eyes, fair skin, and neatly-trimmed bangs in front of her forehead. Her lips were a very decent pink color. Her body was curved in all the right places as well, wearing black skin-tight clothes that looked slightly like a swimsuit. It was very thin, and could not cover any of the sensitive parts of her body. Especially her long slender fair legs, her clothes made her seem as though she was merely wearing underwear, so even if the girl kept trying to pull her clothes to cover the area between her legs, it was still useless. The overly tight clothes made her completely unable to cover the extra parts of her body.
Hearing that Garen choose her, her face instantly blushed with a clear red hue, and she lowered her head in a way that invited pity.
The other was a blonde girl who was also extremely pretty. Not a single radiation mark could be found on her body, but she wore a slave’s collar around her neck, to elicit a man’s urge to conquer her.
Kneeling on the ground, Vendant heaved a sigh of relief. They had hurriedly found these four slaves from the radiation people around here when they heard that important people were the Regions were coming. The slaves were all superior breeds that had less than 10% radiation marks on them, although they were still pretty, they were nevertheless slightly less presentable than the carefully selected ones from before. He was also terrified that the guests would be dissatisfied, plus there were so few of them, so he was even more panicked, but thankfully it seemed that this group was more easygoing.
“Then I’ll take the other one.” Anda pointed at the other blonde girl, he was evidently used to this process.
Linda chose a young boy who looked very shy, he was very handsome, and looked just like a girl.
The last boy was slightly disappointed as Vendant sent someone to lead him away.
“It’s a bit rushed this time, and the stock you chose isn’t that great, but we won’t blame you. We’re just here to rest for one night, and we’ll be leaving tomorrow, so hurry and arrange a place for us to rest,” Anda instructed.
Vendant lowered his head and agreed to everything. “Yes, yes.”
The three boys and girls behind Garen’s group were all slightly shocked, after all Vendant was the City Master’s close follower, so he had always been wild and irrepressible in the city. But in front of these three masters, he was just slightly better than a dog.
Walking into Flying Batoid City, Garen finally experienced the true wilderness, chaos, and rot of the radiation belt.
The buildings were white, or black, and the city walls were made of ancient cement, some places dyed with dark red blood stains that no one bothered to clean. It was unnaturally busy on the streets, with radiation people walking their mutated dogs everywhere. Some were huge, tall brutes who were more than three meters tall, but there were also dwarfs who were so small and thin they looked like children. Some had an extra arm on their backs, some had rotting noses, so their whole face was completely flat.
There were all sorts of radiation people, and according to Vendant’s introduction, these people’s various mutations caused their bodies to change in different ways.
Wherever the three of them passed, all of the radiation people were forcefully pushed aside by the soldiers, opening up a wide path. Quickly, the three of them got onto the car that was arranged for previously, it was the most broken-down model that was already out of production in the Regions, but here, it was evidently the highest form of indulgence.
In the radiation belt, the only ones who could afford to use batteries and enjoy life were all nobles among nobles, the VIPs among VIPs.
Garen was arranged in a car with the girl who seemed to be sixteen or seventeen. She was clearly very nervous, but she was also extremely curious, and was unnaturally excited to be sitting in this car.
“You were born in the radiation belt?” asked Garen casually, as he looked at the crowds in the streets outside the window.
“Y-Yes, sir.”
“What’s your name?”
“Little Bitch, sir…”
“A terrible name.” Garen was exasperated, why that of all names?
“Sir… In Flying Batoid City, only the nobles can give themselves names. If we normal civilians want to live, the higher-ups will give us names…” Little Bitch replied, looking depressed. “And we’re lucky, compared to the meat people…”
She was indeed pretty, but in Flying Batoid City, there were meat people even prettier than her.
“What are meat people?” Garen’s curiosity was slightly piqued.
“People who are reared in pens, they constantly mate in the pens, perfecting their genes like dog pedigrees. Once the mutations caused by the inbreeding are removed, they are made to grow faster using hormones. The pretty ones with good quality are sent out as slaves, the ones with poor quality are made into pigs for meat, and killed for food…” explained Little Bitch in a low voice.
Garen was shocked for a moment as well.
That was treating humans inhumanly, they were even more like livestock than actual beasts.
“In the radiation belt, what is law?” he suddenly asked out of the blue.
Little Bitch blinked in confusion, she did not understand what he was trying to ask.
Garen sighed, and said no more. Leaning his back on the leather seats, he crossed his legs and began to rest.
As the car drove on, Garen did not look at the demonic streets of Flying Batoid City anymore, and he only opened his eyes slowly when they reached their accommodation.
Getting out of the car, Garen saw a large white manor in front of him, surrounded by tall walls. As soon as they went past the gate, there was a large round four-tiered fountain, dark red water sprayed from the tip and flowed down the sides, the blood-like color piercing to the eye.