You see, some Anomalies possessed intelligence no less than that of humans.
A thing that large hovering over the city—how could it not draw the attention of the Anomalies?
Gong Yong’s voice crackled through: "How could it possibly not draw their attention!"
"It's just that the Mechanical City had a defensive light barrier that the Anomalies couldn't breach."
"Before any stronger Anomalies could show up, the Mechanical City had already vanished."
So that's how it was…
Everyone fell silent, unsure what to say.
The legendary Oasis, the Sky Whale, and that Mechanical City…
Chen Ye had a feeling—a feeling that the people in those places had known about the apocalypse long before it came.
Maybe Sequence Superpowers had already existed before the end.
Maybe those Anomalies had been corroding the world for ages.
It was just that ordinary people had no idea.
When the apocalypse struck, some bastards had taken the power they'd accumulated before the end and all gone into hiding.
Every place seemed to represent a faction of its own.
Chen Ye had a feeling that he would eventually meet the people from those places.
But when that time came…
No, wait—Chen Ye furrowed his brow slightly, his eyes shifting, then he grabbed the radio.
"Gong Yong, I once knew a mechanic. His sequence rank wasn't even as high as yours, yet he'd already created several Wonders."
"You've only got two Wonders—that's pretty damn underwhelming!"
The person Chen Ye was referring to was Xia Bo, the mechanic he'd never actually met back in Fog City.
Even though he didn't know Xia Bo's sequence level, he was definitely nowhere near Gong Yong's rank.
Gong Yong, who had been basking in the pleasure of instructing everyone, felt his entire mood sour.
But he didn't dare ignore Chen Ye's question, so he picked up the radio and replied with a somewhat dry voice: "I'm just a very ordinary mechanic!"
"The kind you're talking about is probably way more skilled than me!"
"Uh, I'm getting sleepy. I'll take a nap now—you guys keep chatting!"
Gong Yong turned off his radio outright, feeling a wave of social withdrawal.
Seriously, I know I'm not that great, but you don't just put someone on blast like that.
This conversation is impossible.
It was like a martial arts novel where a master takes on disciples—same sect, same cultivation manual.
Some people become the sect's top disciple, while others are just ordinary members.
Clearly, in Fog City, that never-met Xia Bo was a genius among the Mechanic Sequence superhumans.
And Gong Yong was probably just the run-of-the-mill Mechanic Sequence superhuman.
Just then.
A bird with multicolored tail feathers suddenly appeared at the horizon.
It circled in the sky for a long time, as if it had finally spotted the convoy.
Then it dove straight down.
Its target was Chu Che's vehicle.
The bird flew into the window and landed directly on Chu Che's shoulder.
"Dumbass, letter! Dumbass, letter!"
That familiar yet infuriatingly obnoxious voice made Chu Che want to strangle the bird on the spot.
Seriously, was this bird raised by Chen Ye?
How else could its beak be so foul?
Chu Che grumpily untied the letter from the bird's leg.
Before he could flick the bird's head,
the bird with multicolored tail feathers had already flown off.
And as it flew, it kept cursing: "Dumbass! Dumbass! Dumbass!~~~~"
Chu Che was fuming…
At some point, Chen Ye's vehicle had pulled up alongside Chu Che's.
And there was Chen Ye's obnoxious face, grinning at Chu Che.
He snickered, "That bird sure has a human touch!"
"Get lost!"
Chu Che snapped irritably.
His mind seethed with silent curses: Don't let me find out who raised that bird, or I swear I'll get my revenge.
Faced with Chu Che's outburst, Chen Ye didn't get the least bit worked up.
"Squad Leader Chu, is it about the Return to the City Plan?"
"Probably…"
Chu Che answered Chen Ye as he unfolded the letter.
There was a single line of small text written on it:
"New Year's Day, gather at Xi City. Return to the city, rekindle humanity's flame! Don't forget!"
"Hey, Squad Leader Chu, what does it say?"
Chen Ye's voice came through the radio.
Chu Che picked up the radio.
"It's a letter from the Return to the City Plan!"
"New Year's Day, they're hitting Xi City! It's reminding us not to forget!"
Chu Che announced the letter's contents to everyone.
"Xi City? Does anyone know where Xi City is?"
The question came from Ding Dong.
"I know, I know…"
The answer came from the big lug Iron Lion.
"Xi City is a small coastal town! I've been there before. It's famous for seafood and has nice scenery, but it hasn't been developed for tourism yet! Not well known, so not many people know about it!"
Iron Lion's distinctive voice came through the radio.
"Iron Lion's right."
"Xi City is one of the few places in all of Daxia that uses a single character for its city name."
"It's said you can see a beautiful sunset there, but the character for 'sunset' has bad luck connotations, so they changed it to the 'Xi' from 'tide'."
"It's a bit of an off-the-beaten-path tourist destination!"
This time it was Sun Xixi who spoke.
"You've been there?"
Chen Ye asked.
"Mm, I was planning to go!"
Back in her senior year of high school, Xi City had been on Sun Xixi's graduation trip list.
She'd even done a lot of travel research for it.
But she never thought her first time in Xi City would be like this.
"Fewer people, not well known—that means Xi City's permanent population is small. The difficulty probably won't be too high!"
"And it's a coastal city. Obviously, they're planning to escape by sea if things go south, right?"
Gong Yong's voice came through the radio again.
The guy had originally planned to keep his radio off.
But that bird had reminded him of the Return to the City Plan Chen Ye and the others had mentioned earlier.
So he'd turned it back on.
The guy was just socially anxious and timid, but that didn't mean he didn't like to talk.
However, as he grew more familiar with the group,
he started to slowly come out of his shell.
At least in simple discussions like this, he dared to share his opinion.
Maybe one day he'd even dare to trade barbs with Chen Ye face-to-face, just like Little Fish.
After the apocalypse, the bigger the city, the more unimaginable Anomalies gathered there.
The bigger the city, the more terrifying Anomalies lurked within.
Like Shanghai, like the capital…
Even if these international megacities contained unimaginable supplies,
no one dared to set their sights on them.
Maybe even if you gathered all the Supernatural Power in the world, you still couldn't reclaim those cities.
"Tch… Hey kid, weren't you tired?"
Gong Yong's heart trembled, but this time he didn't answer Chen Ye.
Chen Ye wasn't angry either. He just picked up the radio and shared his own thoughts.
"Escape by sea? You've got quite the imagination!"
"If there's this much stuff on land, there's only more and scarier stuff in the sea!"
"But then again, if those guys chose Xi City, they must have their own reasons."
"Squad Leader Chu, are we heading over now or what?"
Chu Che's voice quickly followed.
"Their 'New Year's Day' means the lunar calendar. It's early December now, so we still have some time!"
"We'll gather some supplies first, then head to Xi City!"
That was a reasonable plan.
Gathering supplies meant they might be able to trade for some essentials with other convoys later.
Plus, collecting supplies would earn them some Slaughter Points.
He still had several treasures on him that hadn't been appraised yet.
"Oh, right, Squad Leader Chu, was there no signature on that letter?"
"There wasn't one last time, but there is this time!"
"What does it say?"
"The letter is signed 'the Silent Council'!"
