The greyish-white main building towered in the center of the building cluster. Standing twelve stories tall, it was square and completely devoid of aesthetic appeal, but its solid, heavy presence made it clear at a glance that it could withstand any impact.
On both sides of the main building was a side wing of the same height, integrated with the main building to form a stable, mountain-shaped structure.
In front of the main building was a wide open space, where several ten-story apartment buildings were neatly arranged.
The spacing between the apartment buildings was very wide, paved with smooth stone paths.
Surrounding the building cluster, a four-meter-high concrete perimeter wall enclosed the entire area. A sentry post stood every few dozen meters along the wall, with faint silhouettes of people visible walking atop it.
And on the snow just outside that perimeter wall—
—lay a dense pack of Rot-Walker corpses.
Those greyish-white bodies piled on top of one another, stretching from the outskirts of Terminal Station deep into the ruins.
Some had already been dragged away by carrion bugs, but even more lay intact on the snow.
Judging by the distribution of the corpses, this area had experienced at least one battle of staggering scale.
Thousands of Rot-Walkers had assaulted a single location simultaneously, yet all of them had been blocked outside that perimeter wall.
Standing beside Han Meng, Liu Ying's expression shifted from indifference to shock, and then from shock to grimness.
“This...”
“Is this really the Panshi City Ruin Zone?”
Bai Shumo's fingers tightened slightly around his wooden staff.
“Is this a vagrant shelter? Who could be so wealthy and powerful to build such a massive shelter in a place like this?”
These same doubts also weighed heavily on Han Meng's mind.
Having struggled to survive for so many years, he had seen countless vagrant settlements.
Most of those settlements consisted of a few tottering, dilapidated buildings where dozens of ragged vagrants huddled together, unable to secure even basic survival.
But the building cluster before them was even more massive and luxurious than the Azure Blade Gang's base in Glory City!
“Just when did this building cluster appear?” Liu Ying's voice came from beside him, laced with clear bewilderment.
Han Meng did not answer, because he did not know either.
The Azure Blade Gang's intelligence network covered an area of several hundred li. Although Panshi City was only a small C-class city, it was a survivor city after all, so the gang had always maintained a basic level of attention on it.
Yet in his memory, there was absolutely no information regarding this building cluster.
It was as if it had appeared out of thin air.
“Look over there,” Bai Shumo's voice came from behind, still unhurried but carrying a trace of sharpness.
Han Meng followed his gaze and saw several soldiers clad in deep blue combat suits patrolling along the top of the outermost perimeter wall of the building cluster.
Their steps were orderly and their movements disciplined; they were clearly formally trained soldiers.
Members of the City Defense Force?
Why would the City Defense Force of Panshi City appear in a shelter inside the Ruin Zone?
His gaze continued to drift, landing above the main entrance of the main building in the center of the building cluster.
A metal plaque hung there, engraved with two characters that gleamed with a faint silver light under the gloomy sky—
Terminal Station.
“Terminal Station...” Han Meng muttered the name under his breath, rapidly searching his mind for any information related to it, but he came up completely empty.
Liu Ying walked over to his side and lowered her voice. “The construction scale of this shelter is not something that could be completed in just a few months.”
“But it definitely wasn't here before.” Bai Shumo's voice was calm, a flicker of deep thought passing through his eyes.
“And for such a massive building cluster to appear in the Ruin Zone of a small C-class city, it would be impossible for us to not receive even a whisper of news.”
Liu Ying had already quickened her pace to the nearest Rot-Walker corpse, crouching down to examine its wounds carefully.
Her fingers lightly traced the edges of the wound, her expression growing colder and colder.
“These are gunshot wounds.” She stood up, patting the dirt off her hands.
“Standard armor-piercing rounds, precise hits to the head. This is not equipment that vagrants could possess.”
“It's the City Defense Force.”
“And at least one fully structured combat unit of the City Defense Force participated in this battle.”
Han Meng pondered for a moment, then spoke up. “Since the City Defense Force has a hand in this shelter...”
“Then the person who took the ring is highly likely inside this Terminal Station.”
Liu Ying and Bai Shumo exchanged a look and nodded simultaneously.
“The Death Tide is here,” Han Meng said, stepping forward as he headed toward the main gates of Terminal Station.
“Let's go inside and see what the situation is.”
At this moment, Su Wan was in Room 102 studying the ring.
She placed the ring in her palm, turning it over and over to examine it.
The band of the ring was very large; even when Su Wan slipped it onto her thumb, it was still a size too big.
Its owner must have been an extremely tall and heavily built man.
With its thick band and matte, unpatterned surface, it looked completely ordinary.
If it weren't for the system's prompt, Su Wan wouldn't even bother picking up a ring like this if it fell on the ground.
Su Wan's attention was drawn to the few lines of blurred text on the inner side of the ring.
“What... does this actually say?”
She asked the system, but the system was also unable to decipher it.
“How do I activate this ring?”
【The host must inject mental power or ability energy into it. The ring will gradually activate based on the intensity and total amount of the injected energy.】
【Once the activation progress reaches 100%, the internal storage space and the items left behind by the original owner can be accessed.】
Su Wan nodded, clenching the ring in her palm, and closed her eyes.
Her Level 4 Mid Stage mental power flowed like a trickling stream, pouring from her palm into the band of the ring.
An extremely faint halo lit up slightly on the surface of the dark silver ring, as if a sleeping beast had been gently touched, slowly parting its eyes.
【Activation Progress: 1%... 2%... 3%...】
Su Wan continuously channeled her mental power, and the progress bar advanced slowly but steadily.
Five minutes passed, then ten minutes.
Fine beads of sweat began to seep from Su Wan's forehead; the speed of her mental power consumption was much faster than she had anticipated.
【Activation Progress: 10%.】
Only ten percent.
The mental power she had injected had already exceeded one-third of her total reserves.
Calculating at this rate, to fully activate this ring, she would need to exhaust at least three times her current total mental power.
With her current strength, it was simply impossible.
“System, based on the current rate of injection, what level of strength is required to fully activate the ring?”
【Calculating... Calculation complete.】
【Extrapolating from the current activation progress and energy consumption ratio, to fully activate the ring, the host must reach at least Level 5 Early Stage.】
Rate on N.U.
