Epoch of Twilight

"Hope City has been under construction since the early stages of the end of the world. It was first built according to the standards of a city center as a last resort for China. This is the only place suitable for satellite launching in China other than some heavy industry factories and big labs. However, the government did not use Hope City as the new capital. They built another one instead."

Cui Weichuan sighed as he looked at the giant city. "It’s still very important though, as it’s one of the biggest industrial zones of the rehabilitation base. Almost all the military facilities are here, and there are about 3,000,000 people living in the city. I used to live here before I got assigned to the Desert City."

Luo Yuan looked in the distance. It would have been more appropriate to describe it as a scary war device rather than a city.

There were countless cannons inside the seven-by-eight-meter wall made of meat vines. A few of them looked extremely strange. The tubes of those cannons were slim, but their bases were big, so they looked a lot bigger than those around them. There was one every few meters, surrounded by regular cannons.

"What kind of weapon is that?" Luo Yuan asked as he pointed at the strange cannons.

"It’s an electromagnetic cannon invented during the past two years. It’s eight times faster than the speed of sound, and it can travel up to 500 kilometers. One would be enough to kill a level seven mutated beast. It consumes a lot of electricity though, so we don’t use it that often," Cui Weichuan said proudly.

In order to boost military battle spirit, the rehabilitation base would advertise massively every time they invented a new technology. Hence, he knew everything about the weapons as well as his own assets. Level seven was equivalent to green level. Luo Yuan felt slightly uncomfortable as he looked at those scary electromagnetic cannons. He had never fought such a super mutant before.

"What about that one? The one that looks like an airship," Luo Yuan asked again as he pointed at an object floating in the air.

It looked gigantic, and the shadow it cast underneath covered a few streets. However, its surface was colorful and seemed to have many patches.

Cui Weichuan looked at the airship and said, "You’re right, Mr. Luo. That’s an airship."

When he noticed the shocked expression on Luo Yuan’s face, he explained, "It might look fragile, but it’s made of the skin of many different mutated beasts over level 5. It has a very strong defensive power. A normal mutated bird could not cause any damage to it, and it’s big enough to scare away any mutated bird. Also, this kind of A-model airship can transport up to 3,000 tons, which is 20 times more than the capacity of a normal cargo ship."

Luo Yuan was shocked as he listened to his explanation. He could not imagine how many mutated beast skins it must have taken to build such a gigantic airship. Perhaps no less than 5,000 mutated beasts worth of skin.

Based on its capacity, it was equivalent to one-third of the transport capacity of a courier train. What’s more, it was not restricted by terrain or traffic, and it could relocate the entire military base if there was an emergency. Luo Yuan had no idea how many cargo airships they had, but he assumed it wasn’t more than 10. It was not easy to find mutated beasts above level five after all. It would only get more and more difficult to build new airships.

Suddenly, there was someone rushing towards him. "Is this Mr. Luo? Luo Yuan?" he asked.

"I am," Luo Yuan said. He did not find it surprising, as there was a microchip inserted in his battle beasts, and his biodata was recorded there. It was traceable no matter where the battle beasts went.

"I’m sorry, Mr. Luo. According to the policy of battle beast management, your battle beasts are not allowed to enter the city. Could you please follow me to the appropriate department to make some arrangements for them?"

The giant lizard slowly lay down, and the group climbed down one by one.

"That’s Hope City. I’ll just stop here. Take care, everyone!" Luo Yuan said.

"Thank you so much for your help, I’ll always remember it," Cui Weichuan said as he carried a little girl in his arms. "I hope to see you again!"

"You will," Luo Yuan said with a smile.

"Thank you, Uncle Luo and you sisters, for saving our lives. Uncle Luo, will you visit us in the future?" the little girls asked as they heard everyone saying goodbye.

"Sure," Luo Yuan said. However, everyone knew that the possibility of that happening was low. Normal people would all lose their freedom, and none of them could predict the future.

"Good girl, Ningning. You’re such a lovely girl," Huang Jiahui said as she touched the little girl’s face. That little girl reminded her of her own daughter.

Luo Yuan sensed her feelings and held her hand in an effort to comfort her.

Huang Jiahui smiled reluctantly. When she turned around, her eyes were teary. That was something she regretted, but could not help. She always woke up from nightmares. The rest of them expressed their sincere gratitude one by one. They would have died if Luo Yuan had not gone back to rescue them. They had no words to describe how grateful they were.

Luo Yuan shook their hands with a smile for more than 10 minutes. They were all really passionate and could not thank him enough.

Besides the survivors from the earthquake, Yang Zhiqing, Yan Mengjun, and his wife had decided to leave the group. Zhang Wu decided to stay with them and follow Luo Yuan.

The government employees were waiting patiently further up front with uniform smiles on their faces. They knew the status of that man, as the top management had expressed its concern. They had received a call regarding Luo Yuan even before he’d arrived at Hope City.

The call was from a special department. Even the Mayor of Hope City might need to pay his respects to Luo Yuan. They dared not simply entertain him. The battle beasts were scary enough to make them maintain their service quality though.

...

The battle beasts’ new habitat was a natural valley 100 kilometers away with plenty of plants and old trees. It was easy to preserve such a big forest near Hope City.

‘There are 27 battle beasts living here, each of them about 10 kilometers away from the next one. We feed them at a specific time, so they don’t have to worry about finding food. We have conducted a few experiments by luring them with food, but none of them have left their habitat," the government servants explained as they walked beside Luo Yuan.

Luo Yuan nodded. He found that it was not bad there compared to the Desert City. The giant lizard and King Kong would like it.

As he was about to leave, the giant lizard and King Kong seemed to sense something different and looked slightly depressed. Luo Yuan chased them away, but they secretly followed him a few times. Luckily, they could trace the battle beasts with their microchips, otherwise, Luo Yuan would not have known.

The women were all in tears. They would have tried to persuade Luo Yuan to keep them if they had lost their minds. Zhang Wu felt touched as he watched the scene. He felt like getting a battle beast himself. They had ridden on the giant lizard on their way there, but a car drove them to their own residence.

The car ran on electricity, as sources of fuel were scarce those days. Other than the heavy trucks still using diesel, it was really difficult to spot any regular vehicles.

They finally entered Hope City at 9 p.m.

The streets were empty, and there were not many people walking around. They could hardly see any shops. The place looked more like a giant industrial zone than a city. The lamps on both sides of the streets were bright, and they could hear the loud sound of heavy machines.

The car kept moving, but they could only see factories on both sides of the road, nothing else. Many heavy trucks passed by, causing the ground to shake a little. Countless smoke funnels with clouds of smoke gushing out could be seen all along the way.

After all, this was a city of steel and fire meant to produce heavy metal products.

They felt secure as they looked at the big city. They were finally relieved.