Going east along Jitai Avenue, the surrounding buildings gradually became sparse and dilapidated. After passing through a disrepaired asphalt road and breaking into a valley where weeds grew wildly, the convoy finally left City No. 18.
The crack in the sky had only appeared for half a year, and the roads on the edge of the city were almost completely destroyed.
In fact, as early as more than ten years ago, as the population further decreased, large areas of no-man's land appeared. These tributary roads, which were like the ends of blood vessels, were no longer maintained by anyone and began to become overgrown with weeds.
Human society has begun to experience serious polarization.
Areas like City 18, which were classified as key urban centers by the federation, began to absorb populations from their surrounding areas.
In the beginning, only young people from suburbs and towns went to the city to work, leaving the elderly and children behind. During the holidays, people who work in the cities will return to their birthplaces, bringing a brief resurgence of life to these gradually quiet villages.
But as time goes by, the left-behind elderly people slowly pass away, and the young people who go to work in the city take their children with them, and they return to their hometowns less and less frequently.
One day, you find that when you return to your hometown, you rarely see some familiar people and things.
Erya next door married in another city, and her best friend Fatty Zhang bought a house in the city... The pomegranate tree in front of the door was so ripe that it fell to the ground and rotted, and no one picked it anymore.
You smoked your last cigarette at the door and turned around to lock the rusty door.
In this way, in those fringe cities and villages, thousands of lights were extinguished one by one, weeds grew on familiar roads, and the neighboring houses finally collapsed in the heavy rain one day due to disrepair.
One village after another disappeared from the satellite map.
…
And with the crack appearing in the sky half a year ago, the emergence of realm masters and spiritual monsters has made this phenomenon more serious.
Even many remote villages have been completely occupied by mutated spiritual monsters and realm owners.
This time out of the city, in addition to sending Bai Ye to follow the team, the Special Affairs Bureau also sent an additional ten-man special team as standard.
A modified black off-road vehicle opened the way, followed closely by two dark green personnel carriers.
Each troop carrier, together with the driver, totaled five special elite soldiers, and the trunk of the vehicle was filled with their equipment.
In the off-road vehicle ahead, Bai Ye drove, Ana Shen sat in the passenger seat.
Far away from the pollution of human cities, the surrounding vegetation is lush and green, showing a wild growth.
The hot air blowing in through the window was accompanied by the strong smell of wild grass.
The narrow crack stretched across the sky, emitting a blue-purple light like a monster's eyes. When it met the sunlight, the surrounding light showed a faint distortion.
Being far away from the center of human civilization and returning to the silent wilderness, this feeling of loneliness without protection makes people subconsciously tense their nerves.
Ana Shen didn't seem to care about this.
He played with the metal helmet with both hands. The black mist seemed to be alive, emerging from Ana Shen's hands, constantly rolling in and out of the metal helmet, immersed in his own world.
"Leaving the city, satellite maps cannot lock the target and can provide us with not much help."
In order to prevent himself from getting sleepy while driving on the endless road, Bai Ye tried to chat with Ana Shen.
"How accurately can you track it?"
Ana Shen stopped what he was doing, raised his head and closed his eyes.
It seems that he is using his psychic powers to search and capture the marks left by himself, but in fact he is silently talking to the clown in his heart.
"Leave this main road, enter the mountains, and walk all the way east."
After saying that, Ana Shen opened his eyes: "Give me the satellite map, and I will mark the target's location in real time."
Bai Ye gave Ana Shen the positioning device on the car: "Are you sure you can mark the real-time location?"
This is a white crystal ball, made into the shape of the earth, containing a map of the world.
Ana Shen took the crystal ball, connected it to his AP bracelet, and then entered the coordinates. A red dot immediately lit up on the crystal ball.
Changes in the crystal ball are also reflected in vehicle navigation in real time.
Under the influence of assisted driving, the off-road vehicle turned left directly off the main road and ran wildly towards the mountains and forests in the northeast.
"The positive direction is..."
Ana Shen said while operating the AP bracelet: "In the northeast three hundred and seventy kilometers away from here, the target is temporarily parked there."
"Northeast...three hundred and seventy kilometers..."
As Bai Ye spoke, he called up a bird's-eye view of Ana Shen's marked location from the satellite map.
"This place was a village and town under the jurisdiction of City No. 19. There was no one there more than ten years ago..."
"Are you sure you're here?"
Dark mist rolled in Ana Shen's eyes, and she nodded: "OK."
In a city that was abandoned more than ten years ago, various equipment and facilities should be fairly well preserved. Especially those buildings with good quality are enough to become the stronghold of the Saint-President Institute of Biology.
After all, after the nuclear test a few years ago, the Institute of Biological Studies in Saint-President was on the federal blacklist, so hiding in these ghost towns is not out of place.
After Shen Yan gave a definite answer, Bai Ye didn't waste any more words. He directly took control of the car from the AI and drove out at full speed.
The off-road vehicle roared like a beast and instantly opened the distance between it and the two troop carriers behind it.
The drivers of the two troop carriers had a sullen look on their faces. They adjusted their speed slowly and clung to the back of the off-road vehicle.
Although Bai Ye and Ana Shen had the same idea, they both believed that there should be a stronghold of Saint-President in that abandoned ghost town, and the other party should stay there for a while.
But this is just speculation, no one can be sure how long the other party will stay there.
Moreover, there is no guarantee that the mark left by Ana Shen will be discovered and clear.
Even if they never discovered it, if they changed planes in that town, their group would not be able to continue chasing him.
The safest way is to approach the target as quickly as possible during the time they stay. It is best to rush there before other changes occur!
"Sit tight."
Under Bai Ye's control, the off-road vehicle continued to speed up crazily. Even in the rugged mountains and forests, the black metal beast was still as nimble as a leopard.
In addition to Bai Ye's superb driving skills, her awakening body also greatly improved her reaction speed.
Two hours after leaving the city, they had traveled more than 200 kilometers through the mountains and forests, passing through more than a dozen towns and villages.
In the past, all human buildings were submerged under green vegetation.
Just when Bai Ye had been concentrating on driving for more than two hours and felt his energy began to decline, the black mist in Ana Shen's hand surged out of the car, condensed into the shape of a snake in mid-air, and stretched forward.
The car stopped on a hill.
Ana Shen and Bai Ye looked through the car window and saw a green mountain city at the foot of the mountain.
"Familiar smell..."
Ana Shen took a deep breath with an exaggerated smile on his face: "I found it."
