More than a week later, a military green jeep drove across a scorched land.
Collapsed houses and monstrously overgrown deformed plants were everywhere. Only occasionally, strangely shaped beasts and relic hunters using various modes of transportation passed by.
"This area suffered the most damage during the destruction of the Old World." Bai Chen, in the passenger seat, gazed out the window and sighed, "But it was near this area that humanity established the first city of the New Calendar."
In "Pangu Biology" textbooks, it was only mentioned that Initial City was the first city built by humans relying on the ruins of the Old World. It wasn't mentioned that its neighboring area was the most severely damaged. This made Long Yuehong listen attentively, muttering to himself:
"They must have suffered a lot and sacrificed a lot back then..."
But they weren't defeated.
"Yes, no matter what 'Initial City' has become now, the fact that they were able to persevere through the apocalypse and rebuild a civilization belonging to humanity is worthy of our admiration." Jiang Baimian, who was driving, echoed.
Clap clap clap, Shang Jianyao directly applauded.
"What's there to applaud?" Jiang Baimian was slightly exasperated.
Shang Jianyao truthfully replied:
"Your words just now reminded me of the teachers at school."
"Are you allowed to applaud during class?" Jiang Baimian retorted in annoyance.
Shang Jianyao glanced at her profile:
"Besides class, there's also morning assembly."
He had the look of "haven't you ever been to school?"
Jiang Baimian gnashed her teeth and turned her gaze forward.
As the jeep sped along, a river so wide that Long Yuehong exclaimed in amazement appeared before them.
The Red River.
The longest and widest river on the Ashlands.
Its waters didn't look so clean, with patches of green algae and various kinds of garbage floating on the surface from time to time.
And on the other side, there was a dense scattering of low buildings and towering chimneys, spewing grayish-white or rusty-yellow gases upward.
This made the entire sky seem foggy. Even though it wasn't evening yet, the light was quite dim.
A burst of noisy sound came as two dark black helicopters flew through the air.
Further away, drones circled back and forth, surveying the territory.
This made Long Yuehong hold his breath.
This meant that they had arrived at the capital of "Initial City" Initial City.
After leaving Wildgrass City, "Old Task Force," except for stopping at a wanderer settlement in the wilderness to replenish food, spent most of their time traveling through the desolate wilderness.
Although "Initial City" was hailed as the largest force on the Ashlands and had the largest population, it could only actually control small and large settlements, places that could be called cities, the surrounding areas that could be cultivated or had mineral resources, and transportation hubs.
"Initial City" was also out of reach for the wilderness, mountains, forests, swamps, and ruins. Therefore, "Old Task Force" had only encountered several relic hunter teams along the way and had never encountered the regular army of "Initial City."
Now, they were finally about to formally contact this largest force on the Ashlands.
Inside the jeep, besides Shang Jianyao unabashedly showing his excitement, Jiang Baimian and the others also had some expectations, and even Genvava, the intelligent robot, followed the results of the program analysis and made himself look relatively excited.
After driving downstream along the Red River for a while, the rows of chimneys gradually became sparse, and tall buildings made of steel and concrete rose from the ground.
There were also a large number of ordinary buildings in between, which together formed a real city.
Even compared to the No. 1 Ruins of the Swamps, it was not inferior.
"How many people can live here?" Long Yuehong asked in amazement.
"It is said that there are hundreds of thousands or millions of people." Bai Chen couldn't give an exact number because the statistical department of "Initial City" itself couldn't figure it out.
Moreover, there were many hunters and merchants coming and going, and the floating population was the highest on the Ashlands.
As they spoke, "Old Task Force" saw a bridge.
It could accommodate eight cars side by side, connecting the wasteland and mountains on the north bank of the Red River with Initial City on the south bank.
At both ends of this bridge, there was a fully armed regular army stationed, each with about a hundred people.
They wore dark gray helmets and uniforms of the same color, drove multiple machine guns, and used several dark green armored vehicles to build a simple fortification at the bridgehead, leaving only a gap for two ordinary vehicles to pass through.
Every vehicle and every person had to stop when passing through the gap and undergo a fairly strict inspection.
According to the information provided by the company before the team set off, Jiang Baimian knew that light weapons could be brought into the city, while heavy weapons would be confiscated, as would other contraband.
Unfortunately, military exoskeletons were controlled military items.
Of course, "Old Task Force" could also choose to detour and go to the south bank of the Red River from other places, but the other entry channels to Initial City were also guarded by troops, and there were various aircraft monitoring this area in the sky.
Long Yuehong wasn't nervous about this. He just glanced at Shang Jianyao.
With the "Reasoning Clown" around, what place couldn't they sneak into?
The military green jeep continued forward and soon entered the queue channel.
Jiang Baimian stepped on the brakes and looked outside.
On the surrounding scorched land, there were quite a few humans squatting or standing, wearing old clothes.
Some were of the standard Red River race, with sunken eye sockets and striking hair color, while others had darker brown skin, black eyes, and were thin and tough.
The latter was a branch of the Ashlanders who migrated to the Red River basin, called the Redbankers.
In "Initial City," they mostly had citizenship.
Seeing that Jiang Baimian had lowered the car window, a Redbanker who was at most one meter and sixty-five stood up and walked towards "Old Task Force."
He had naturally curly black hair, and his dark brown face had a flattering smile:
"Gentlemen, do you need any help?"
He spoke in pure Red River language.
Pure meant the Initial City accent.
Jiang Baimian raised her eyebrows and didn't answer.
The Redbanker looked around, lowered his voice, and said:
"I have a way to get you into the city without being inspected, but I need you to give me some reward."
He made a gesture of counting banknotes with his index finger and thumb.
Jiang Baimian thought for a moment and turned back to exchange glances with Bai Chen and the others.
Then, she said to the guy outside the car window in Red River language:
"What's your name?"
"Jia Di." The Redbanker answered with a smile.
"How much do you need?" Jiang Baimian continued to ask.
"50 Ore." Jia Di quoted a number, "It's very cheap."
Jiang Baimian pretended to be thinking and said after a few seconds:
"How should we do it?"
Jia Di's smile became more obvious:
"You follow me and wait somewhere else for a while."
Jiang Baimian turned the steering wheel and let the jeep follow this "guide" and slowly drove towards a ruin on the bank of the Red River.
There weren't many people here, and it seemed very quiet.
Jia Di pointed to a roadside room that was still relatively intact:
"You sit and wait for a while. I'll discuss with the guards when to enter the city."
There were tables, chairs, benches, and other items in that room.
Jiang Baimian glanced at both sides of the room and opened the car door as if it didn't matter.
Jia Di piled on a sincere smile and watched the members of "Old Task Force" come down one by one.
When Genvava's silver-black tall body came into his view, his expression changed instantly.
At this time, Jiang Baimian pointed to the roadside room and said:
"You can let your companions come out."
Jia Di tried hard to squeeze out a smile:
"What are you talking about? I don't understand what you mean."
As soon as he finished speaking, Long Yuehong had opened the trunk, carried the man-portable rocket launcher, and aimed it in the direction Jiang Baimian was pointing.
After a brief silence, four or five people came out from there, all Redbankers with dark brown skin, holding slightly old assault rifles and submachine guns.
"You guys are very enthusiastic." Shang Jianyao said with a smile.
Jia Di forcefully explained:
"This is just a little protection for our own safety."
Shang Jianyao walked over, taking advantage of his height, stretched out his hands, and started to massage Jia Di's shoulders, and asked in a very friendly tone:
"Is it comfortable? Do you want me to use more strength?"
This made the corners of Jiang Baimian and the others twitch slightly. They didn't know what was wrong with this guy again, or what old-world entertainment materials he had watched recently.
Jia Di inexplicably felt fear and couldn't control himself anymore, shouting loudly:
"Put down the guns, put down all the guns!"
Those Redbankers slowly bent down, put down the guns in their hands, and raised their hands.
Shang Jianyao continued to massage Jia Di's shoulders, and asked in a gentle voice:
"If we don't enter this ruin, what are you planning to do?"
"Just, just help you bribe those guards and let them simply check your car." Jia Di replied tremblingly.
Shang Jianyao asked again with a smile:
"How many people have you robbed like this usually?"
"No, not many. Most people don't fall for it and don't come over." Jia Di said with a sad face.
At this time, Jiang Baimian opened her mouth and asked:
"How many Ore does it take to bribe the guards?"
"20 to 30 is enough." Jia Di replied in fear.
Shang Jianyao's face changed drastically, and he kicked the guy down, took out the gun from his waist:
"You asked us for 50.
"You greedy merchant!"
Seeing the dark muzzle of the gun aiming at him, Jia Di almost couldn't control his bladder and peed his pants.
"We, we only rob, we don't hurt people." He quickly shouted for redress.
Shang Jianyao suddenly smiled again, pulled him up, and patted the dust off his body:
"Don't be afraid, we are very kind, but we still have some questions we want to ask you."
Watching this, Jiang Baimian couldn't help but raise her hand to cover her face.
This guy is such a drama queen!
Jia Di glanced at his companions who were being watched by the robot and tried to smile:
"Please speak."
"Is it easy to bribe the guards here?" Jiang Baimian "helped" Shang Jianyao ask.
Jia Di nodded quickly:
"As long as it's not a big problem, they prefer Ore.
"Anyway, if they find any contraband, the higher-ups will benefit, but Ore is real for ordinary citizens like them."
ps: I said yesterday that there will only be one update today.