Chapter 1844: Chapter 1842: Awaiting the East Wind (Stifling Heat After a Rain)
"Alisa Elinita Amiyera reporting!"
Looking at the girl in front of him, Fang Zheng felt a headache and turned to Amamiya Ryōtan beside him.
"Mr. Amamiya, what does this mean?"
"Miss Alisa has just transferred to us at Fenrir today as a new type of Divine Machine User."
Amamiya Ryōtan smiled at Fang Zheng and began to introduce.
"I suppose you know that currently Fenrir’s situation isn’t great, and we don’t have time to train newcomers..."
"So you’re handing her over to me?"
"I think you’ve done very well before, and didn’t you also bring Miss Feli over from Jernie?"
Like hell I brought her over; she clearly followed me on her own.
Fang Zheng glanced at Feli speechlessly, while noticing his gaze, Feli snorted and turned her head away... okay, she’s probably still mad over the instant noodles I made myself last night.
Thinking of this, Fang Zheng looked at the girl in front of him again, he had to admit, this girl named Alisa was quite pretty, with silver-white long hair and a red-black cap. However, what was most eye-catching was her attire. The young lady wore only a sleeveless black leather jacket, the jacket itself was so short it exposed her navel, and through the gaps you could faintly see her curves.
This made Fang Zheng seriously doubt if she was even wearing a bra inside... could it be that this young lady was wearing just a vest?
Alisa’s lower body consisted of a red-black plaid skirt and black over-the-knee boots — what kind of fashion is this? Isn’t it too wild?
"Miss Alisa comes from..."
"She’s Russian."
"Oh..."
A Russian, huh, then this wild dress sense is understandable, even if she were riding a bear underneath, Fang Zheng wouldn’t be surprised.
"Mr. Fang Zheng is a wilderness traveler. He’s on his way north, and I think you’ll gain a lot if you travel with him."
At this point, Amamiya Ryōtan winked at Alisa, and Alisa seemed to want to say something but closed her mouth after hearing Amamiya Ryōtan’s words.
"And there’s one more thing we’d like your help with."
"Oh? What is it?"
"It’s like this, actually, during this period, Fenrir has been hearing some rumors from surrounding gathering places... Do you know about Osta, the City of the Dead?"
"Heard of it."
Upon hearing this, Fang Zheng frowned. He had heard passengers mention it when he took the nomadic bus to Jernie, but it was only rumors at the time.
"Actually, during this time, many people from gathering places have gone there sequentially... frankly, this worries us. Rumor has it that Osta, the City of the Dead, is a place where the dead can live... and those who go there do so to become dead... that way, they can live forever."
"Why does this sound confusing to me?"
Upon hearing this, Misaka Mikoto blinked suspiciously.
"If they’re already dead, how can they live? Isn’t that contradictory?"
"I don’t know the specifics either, but according to rumors, people who die on that land don’t truly die but continue to live."
"So in that case, what’s the difference between being dead and alive?"
This time, Kuroko Shirai also raised her question. If it means not dying, isn’t that effectively living forever?
"I don’t know, either. In any case, this rumor sounds suspicious, and many people from gathering places have gone to that rumored City of the Dead, so I’d like to ask Mr. Fang Zheng, if you’re heading north, could you investigate the situation there?"
For Fenrir, this is a matter of life and death. Why do God Eaters defend these gathering places? It’s to ensure these places can produce more children and thus provide more Divine Machine User candidates. If those people are enticed by the so-called ’undead’ and head to that City of the Dead, Fenrir would be in trouble.
But Fenrir is also ten thousand eight hundred miles away from the rumored location, so it wouldn’t be possible to leave its territory for long, hence they rely on people like Fang Zheng who roam around leisurely.
"No problem."
Upon hearing this, Fang Zheng nodded slightly. After designating players to gather information on other Core Reactors for him, Fang Zheng returned to a sheep-releasing tourist state. At least before the players spread out overwhelmingly, he wouldn’t need to rush and make a fuss.
Since it’s on the way, why not take a look?
"As for the payment, as we discussed earlier, I will send people to deliver the food supplies and materials you need, just be ready to receive them."
Both sides tacitly avoided mentioning the issue of Fenrir’s core reactor. In fact, when Fang Zheng offered to pay, Amamiya Ryōtan immediately knew that they had already investigated their own core reactor. However, Amamiya Ryōtan wasn’t surprised at all, as he knew that the girl with twin tails in their group possessed spatial movement abilities. If it were her, entering any secret space inside Fenrir would be a breeze. Now that Fang Zheng proposed compensation and there was no issue with the core reactor, Amamiya Ryōtan was naturally happy to play dumb.
After all, in this world, might makes right. Amamiya Ryōtan acknowledged that in all of Fenrir, there was no one who could compare to Fang Zheng, let alone the fact that he had enormous backing capable of easily offering tens of thousands of tons of supplies. Since the other party hadn’t crossed any serious lines or harmed Fenrir, Amamiya Ryōtan naturally wouldn’t foolishly fall out with Fang Zheng.
"But I really didn’t expect your actions to be so fast."
"Hehe, it’s mainly because we have plenty of manpower."
At this point, Fang Zheng chuckled softly.
"Besides, they’re almost here."
".......?"
In this world, sometimes just one battle can destroy a city.
For the people of Jernie, this was their first encounter, facing the contaminated beasts.
"Woo——— woo——!"
Urgent sirens echoed throughout the city, and those who had once leisurely strolled the streets were no longer calm, their faces grave and expressions flustered as they scattered and fled into shelters. Meanwhile, at the outskirts, students who had been attending academy classes were now fully armed, gripping their weapons while nervously and anxiously keeping watch on the external threat.
"I really didn’t expect something like this would happen."
Standing on a tall tower, Kalian tightly clenched his fists as he watched the swarming, locust-like sea of contaminated beasts in the distance. Generally, a mobile city would avoid forward threats while advancing, but they were unlucky this time, accidentally stepping into the underground hive of contaminated beasts. To make matters worse, the invasive move by the mobile city Jernie had caused its external power system to be ensnared by the contaminated beasts, rendering it completely immobile.
Now, the contaminated beasts within the hive had awakened and began their assault on Academy City, and all they could do was fight a desperate battle.
But... what are the odds of success?
Even Kalian couldn’t be sure. Although the Academy City Alliance was responsible for training martial artists, Academy City lagged behind the formal, large-scale mobile cities in terms of combat power. Generally speaking, the martial artists of Academy City would receive training here and after graduation, go to various large cities for jobs or to enlist. However, even so, generally, it would take a long time to accumulate experience – provided they don’t die beforehand.
And this was Jernie’s first time facing a real contaminated beast attack; in such a situation, how much could these inexperienced students really achieve?
With this in mind, Kalian sighed deeply. With Feli not in Jernie, it might actually be a good thing. At least, if Jernie were breached...
Kalian shook his head and reached out to take the communication device that Fang Zheng had left him out of his pocket.
Should I use this? Or should I assess the situation first?
Meanwhile, outside on the platform, the fully-armed blonde woman glared fiercely at the sky filled with what seemed to be an endless swarm of contaminated beasts.
"So this is... a contaminated beast..."
The blonde woman clenched the alchemical steel in her hand tightly, staring at the creatures before her. The contaminated beasts above, resembling insects, and those on the ground, squirming like worms up the pillars, were all utterly repulsive. She could even feel the intense desire emanating from the contaminated beasts.
Consume, consume everything! Devour it all!
I won’t let you succeed!
The blonde woman raised the alchemical steel in her hand.
This city, I will protect it!
With that in mind, the blonde woman unhesitatingly issued her command.
"Shooting units, open fire!!"
As commanded by the blonde woman, the soldiers in the rear, wielding rocket launchers, immediately pulled the triggers against the aerial swarm of contaminated beasts. Amidst the sounds of explosions, pillars of fire erupted from the contaminated beasts, yet their attacks seemed completely ineffective. The rockets, capable of penetrating armored vehicles, struck the outer shells of the contaminated beasts, barely making a dent.
At this moment, the contaminated beasts on the ground had reached the soldiers’ position.
"Attack!!"
With an angry roar, the blonde woman charged ahead.
