The hairstylist prattled on, complaining about his rent being too expensive while grumbling about the narrow escapes he had in missions, wondering how much longer he could survive.
For the vast majority of scavengers, every mission carried the risk of never returning.
Fortunately, the hairstylist was an optimist and quickly changed the subject, attending to Nan Yue and Zhu Xi Ning before including Gu Xiang Kai as well.
Gu Xiang Kai's self-shaved buzz cut was finally transformed into a sharp, refined style, making him look even more stern.
"That will be fifty points for the two ladies' hair and the house call fee. The gentleman's is on the house."
Thus, the once-imposing Gu Xiang Kai became a "buy two, get one free" byproduct, his posture seemingly slouching a bit more.
As Nan Yue and the others headed toward the teleportation point, the people around them watched with envious eyes.
Although the letter city states were a height that those in the lower city states could only dream of reaching, many people found their journey ending there.
It was possible for six months to pass without a single person advancing to a higher city state.
Most people still held admiration for the strong.
Among them, however, Nan Yue felt a sharp, malicious gaze.
"Hmm?"
Nan Yue turned around, but she saw only a surging crowd; no one stood out.
"A-Nan, did you feel it too?"
Zhu Xi Ning wasn't as sharp as Nan Yue, but her intuition was incredibly accurate due to her awakened ability, making her very sensitive to danger and malice.
"It was from that direction, but the person is already gone."
Nan Yue looked where Zhu Xi Ning pointed. There was indeed a small gap in the crowd, but whoever had been watching her from the shadows was no longer there.
But... who could it be?
She hadn't made many enemies along the way.
And that gaze definitely didn't belong to Chi He.
That slimy, dark gaze...
Nan Yue frowned.
"Authentication successful. Team holds a color city state ID card. Please make a selection."
Nan Yue wondered if it was just her imagination, but even the voice seemed gentler.
Zhu Xi Ning leaned in to look. "Ooh... the colors of the rainbow."
The virtual screen displayed seven colors: red, orange, yellow, green, cyan, blue, and violet.
The three whispered for a moment before Nan Yue finally chose green.
Her reasoning was that it looked the healthiest.
Gu Xiang Kai's lip twitched, but he said nothing.
The teleportation was swift, but when the three arrived in the Green City State, they were momentarily stunned.
The reason was that the high walls they had grown used to were gone.
Saying they were gone wasn't quite accurate; the walls were still there, but they had become transparent.
Unlike the letter city states, which used virtual projections on the upper levels and standard high walls below, it seemed the higher city states allowed for more contact with the world's reality.
In the color city states, the high walls were designed to be completely transparent.
And the outside was not what Nan Yue and the others had imagined for so long; instead, it was a thick, viscous blackness.
The blackness was so dense it looked like liquid asphalt, constantly crashing against the transparent high walls.
Looking at it for too long made it seem as if the substance were alive, making one feel nauseous.
"Ugh... what is that?!"
Faced with Zhu Xi Ning's complaint, the sentry on duty explained patiently.
"The color city states are considered high-level city states. Scavengers who make it here should have a deeper understanding of the world."
"Everything outside the high walls is like that. It is the source of the twisted pollution covering the entire world, known as the malice of fear."
"Are they... alive?"
Zhu Xi Ning noticed that the people around them generally avoided looking at the high walls; everyone was shunning those things.
"You can consider them alive."
The guard gave a reassuring smile. "They have no self-awareness, only negative emotions like hunger and slaughter. You can think of them as an aggregate of energy."
"There was a saying in Sharp Blade that these things are energy formed by concentrated malice."
"Because the world was destroyed, too much malice gathered together and began to corrode what remained."
"That is why we must enter the distorted mission worlds to purify them."
The guard's expression was firm, as if he were unaffected by the black mist.
"They can't get in, so don't worry."
The trio's expressions were grim. Although the academy had given them a general overview, no one truly knew the details of what had happened to the world.
They only knew there had been a great catastrophe, and those who survived became scavengers to fight for more living space.
Thus, everyone was a scavenger.
They had no lives of their own, no goals of their own; they were merely parts of the Scavenger Project.
They had all been curious about the world outside the high walls to some extent, but only upon arriving here did Nan Yue and the others realize that the city states they lived in were truly the only footholds left.
No one wanted to find out what would happen if they stepped out into something that inspired such terror just by looking at it.
"Thank you for your service."
The guards stationed here every day were surely the ones most affected. Nan Yue and the others did not hesitate to show their respect.
Only after leaving the vicinity of the high walls did Zhu Xi Ning begin to feel more comfortable, and only then did she notice the prosperity of the high-level city state.
It was vastly different from the city states they had lived in before; the prosperity here was palpable.
The streets were spotless, and towering trees lined the roads. Just as Nan Yue had joked, greenery was everywhere in the Green City State.
The vast expanses of vegetation were relaxing just to look at.
There were no conflicts or contradictions often seen in the lower city states, let alone shouting or brawling. It was peaceful.
The people here possessed a sense of leisure that the lower city states lacked.
No one looked like they were in a rush, and there was none of the anxiety that comes from struggling to survive. Everyone seemed perfectly at ease.
Nan Yue couldn't help but marvel. If they hadn't passed through the previous city states so quickly, and if their memories of those places weren't so fresh, they might not have noticed the change.
She still remembered the exhausted landlady in the digital city state who looked like she was dying every day, yet managed to survive every mission.
There were no people sleeping on the streets because they couldn't afford a hotel. Nan Yue even felt that this place looked remarkably like the city she had glimpsed while at Blooming Media Company.
Bustling, safe, and calm.
Nan Yue even saw people with briefcases catching the bus, and passersby on their phones complaining about the bad luck of having points docked for missing a clock-in.
"What... what's going on?"
Gu Xiang Kai looked bewildered. "Why do they look so much like..."
Zhu Xi Ning also thought of that inhumane mission and agreed with a dry laugh. "It's like they're actually at work..."
Finally, the three found a Cuckoo. It wasn't quite right to say they found one, because information desks were everywhere in this massive city, and the people inside them were Cuckoos.
The one who received them was a red-haired young girl with a bright smile that made people feel an immediate sense of kinship.
Hearing Nan Yue's question, the girl's lips curved into a smile.
"You three must be new to the color city states, right? This is the unique way we relax here."
Rate on N.U.
