Southern Wasteland, De Nuo City
The old jeep, stained with dark red blood, trembled as it drove along the vast wasteland road.
A gloomy sky stretched overhead, illuminating the twisted, bizarre black trees on either side of the road. These trees had no leaves at all. Their branches intertwined overhead like roots, forming black clouds suspended above the ground.
The wind swept through those towering black clouds, and faint crisp chimes rang out from deep within the woods, like the shrieks of some animal, or perhaps the singing of a young maiden.
The man in the brown T-shirt rested his hands on the jeep's polished old steering wheel, paying no attention to the sounds in the woods. With a cigar clenched between his teeth, he glanced at the immense city rising ahead and stopped at a three-way intersection.
A bloodstained signpost, seemingly woven from ancient branches, stood at the intersection.
The signpost had only two directions. One pointed straight ahead of the jeep, marked "South Gate," while the other pointed to the front right, marked "East Gate."
Beneath the signpost stood an old Stone Tablet, inscribed in scarlet letters that looked like flowing blood:
[Do Not Touch the Signpost]
The man swept his gaze over the strange signpost and the city looming beyond it.
Then he turned around and looked back in the direction he had come from.
At the edge of his vision, the gray sky that blanketed the entire wasteland like mist seemed to be rapidly darkening, spreading toward him at a visible speed.
The man chuckled, withdrew his gaze, and looked once more at the city ahead. Then he turned the steering wheel, started the vehicle, and drove down the road to the right.
De Nuo City
More and more people were evacuating, the figures outside