Epoch of Twilight

After waiting for about a minute, the lift door pinged open.

Compared to Desert City which was layered with soil, Hope City had a rock stratum instead. Nonetheless, when Luo Yuan walked out of the lift and looked around, he was shocked to see that the rock stratum had been emptied, leaving a very large room with about a 10.56-meter-high ceiling supported by numerous huge stone pillars of five to six meters each.

The pillars were arranged in an orderly fashion like an army of soldiers, where its ends could not be seen.

Those stone pillars were coarse, unpolished, with pointed corners, which made it rather rough and sharp. Besides, each stone pillar was in a shape of a square, with a length of about forty to fifty meters on each side. At that moment, Luo Yuan felt that he was walking in an area occupied by the giants.

Although it was yet to be utilized, the water and electricity supplies had been laid out completely. With a dim light above his head, he saw a huge barrack nearby. It was conspicuous because it was the only building in the basement.

The barrack was built according to the location of the stone pillars and covered an area of more than ten thousand square meters. As the group walked rather quickly, they soon entered through the door, which had been set ablaze with light. Lou Yuan was surprised to see that it did not look like a training room, but a playground with dinosaurs, except for a small corner where machines that seemed to be used for training were placed. This was because models of dinosaurs could be seen everywhere.

Some models were roughly carved, with only a recognizable silhouette, while some were lifelike and vivid. Nevertheless, all the models were extremely huge, as if they were an exact 1:1 replica of the real thing.

Before Luo Yuan could inquire, Li Dong had started to explain, "These models aren’t just toys, but were made by our logisticians from the data regarding the target of each mission we received. They come in the form of images, pictures, and even satellite footage. With these, we can not only simulate its natural environment but also analyze its weaknesses, for us to better replicate a battle in formulating a plan."

This was the advantage of having sufficient information about the opponent, as it helped them gain the upper hand in their battles. Seeing that the whole area was full of fifty to sixty models, Luo Yuan asked with curiosity, "Have those missions been accomplished?"

"Well, these models were actually the missions that we are yet to finish. Amidst these models, as most are not located within the reconstruction Area, and despite carrying a certain degree of threat, it had no urgency to be completed.

Furthermore, some had appeared only once and then disappeared without a trace," Li Dong replied.

Luo Yuan nodded. At the same time, he was attracted by a large mutated beast’s model. The model was unique and mysteriously aesthetic, as it was meticulously sculptured.

It was extraordinary and stood out from the rest even though it was found amongst the models of other mutated beasts.

It was put on jagged rocks of grotesque shapes, and its long and beautiful S-shaped neck looked down at Luo Yuan.

Its pointy mouth had slightly exposed buck teeth, while its sharp and narrow cheeks were covered with warts and bone spurs, like daggers, grown out from its lower jaw. This made it looked extremely ferocious and violent, hence, terrifying, although it was only a model. What surprised Luo Yuan was that it even had a pair of bat-like wings.

"What kind of beast is it?" Luo Yuan asked.

Li Dong stayed silent before he replied in a low voice, "It is the only highly dangerous beast we have here, and it is called a ‘Giant Dragon’, with about a level seven in strength. Four months ago, our team estimated its strength incorrectly, and sieged once but lost terribly. Six members of our team went but only two came back. One was the crazy Mr. Wang, and the other was our current team leader. That mission almost wiped out the whole team of Li Jian at Hope City. Xie Junhui and I then joined the team after that.

"This mission had been taken over by the headquarters at New Capital City, but the model is still being placed here to teach the team a lesson, and also as a source of motivation."

"Has this mission been completed?" asked Luo Yuan.

"Maybe not, because the location of the beast remains uncertain. Normally, it will loiter around the forest near to Wei Guo City, without a fixed territory. However, we’d have to contact New Capital City for more details."

Luo Yuan was looking at the powerful model, which was suitable for him to level up. Since he now had one point added to his Will, he could no longer predict how strong he was, but he knew that level 6 beasts were not able to harm him.

If he could meet the beetle that emitted microwaves once again in Desert City’s train station, they would not have to deal with this dire and fatal situation. He could manipulate his Will to perfectly combat its microwave radiation.

Furthermore, the stronger Will did not directly enhance his defense, but also his attack and speed. Besides, it had an immediate effect on his aura too. Previously, he could only harm light blue creatures, but now, even blue level creatures could not escape his wrath.

In addition, with the ability to fly now, his battles had changed from one fought in two dimensions to one fought in three dimensions. In other words, his battles would become more diverse and he would definitely had the upper hand over the beasts which were incapable of flying.

...

As both of them were talking and walking, they soon reached the training area. Although there were more models available, there were also many machines of various sizes arranged in an orderly manner. With just a glance, Luo Yuan already knew the number of machines available.

There were 15 machines. Taking account of the number of people in the team - eight people, now nine, including Luo Yuan - it was definitely more than enough.

Comparing to the ordinary training machines prior to the apocalypse, these machines appeared to be strange and rugged. Luo Yuan did not even know what some of the machines were for, until he listened to Li Dong’s introductions.

For example, there was a machine which looked like an industrial free forging hammer, which was actually used to train physical strength. There was also a machine that could automatically launch low-speed bullets for dodging training, a huge rolling ball to train the stabilization of the body and other odd things. Nonetheless, the machine that caught Luo Yuan’s eye was the robot-like weight training machine.

Seeing that Luo Yuan turned to glance at that machine from time to time, Minister Ren said with humor, "The introduction of this machine that Mr. Li made was rather inaccurate. I am quite familiar with this machine, to be honest. It is the latest product of our Military Research Institute, called the exoskeleton body armor. It is two meters high and about one ton heavy. Through the Total-Contact Photoelectric Sensing Device, muscular movements of the operator could be immediately sensed and reacted to. However, it is temporarily not usable as the study of its high-performance batteries were unsuccessful. Moreover, this product is currently only semi-finished."

Luo Yuan was shocked that technology in the Reconstruction Area was being developed at a tremendous speed over the past few years, under the pressure of human extinction. Various disruptive innovations and technologies had boomed.

If the exoskeleton body armor could be used by every soldier, humans would turn the tables and stand firm even if men could not carry out effective counter attacks. Meanwhile, the Reconstruction Area would no longer rely heavily on evolved people.

Anyway, both Li Dong and Xie Junhui had no reaction towards Minister Ren’s disclosure. After all, the popularization of this thing would not affect these strong evolved people at all.

"They are at the gymnasium in front!" Li Dong said.

...

The two of them were seen fighting against each other, one was holding a saber while the other was holding a sword.

The saber was thick and heavy, while the sword was wide and big. Light weaponry and even long rifles were useless against large sized mutated beasts.

Luo Yuan realized that these evolved people who could stand out among the other evolved people consisting of about 100,000 were definitely outstanding. Regardless of their evolved abilities, their physical constitution was as good as Luo Yuan’s, half a year ago.

From the fight, the Physique of the two were at about 14 points and one of their Strength could be stronger than Luo Yuan’s.

With each moment the saber and sword hit against each other, it would produce an ear-piercing sound. As it was a practice amongst the team members, they used only wooden weapons. Nonetheless, the unknown level of wood appeared to be very strong as they were not broken, no matter how hard they collided into each other.

Luo Yuan found the fight boring and uninteresting, though it was considered exciting and capable of shocking ordinary men.

The reason why was not due to Luo Yuan’s high Agility that made their actions seem slow in his eyes. Instead, it was because of their obvious flaws, that the rhythm of the fight seemed to be awkward and lagging behind.

"I want to stop, I want to stop already!" As they saw what was happening, Fang Peibing jumped out of the circle and walked over, after he wiped away his sweat with a towel.

Xu Qianshen was rather indifferent, as he simply nodded towards the crowd, and walked into the nearby bathroom.

Though Fang Peibing appeared to be relatively tanned and thin, he was not weak at all. His stripes of muscles were entangled together like a steel cable, squirming like a snake while he was walking, giving off a capable and vigorous vibe. He scanned through them and jokingly said, "All of you are here, my, my... it’s so rare to see Minister Ren here too. Eh, who’s this?"

"He is Luo Yuan, our new team member, and this is Fang Peibing, who we have spoken of before," Ling Dong immediately introduced.

Fang Peibing was slightly surprised to see the politeness of Ling Dong and Xie Junhui. He neither expressed a welcoming not unwelcoming look, but sized up Luo Yuan. When he saw Luo Yuan holding onto his Zhanmadao, he expressed a wry smile and said, "Oh, you are using a saber too, mind giving it a shot on me?"