Arrival

Federated States

This nation, built by pooling the resources of the entire world, is based on the Solar System and comprises Nine Major Cities *.

All immigrants and subsequent generations born here live in concentrated urban areas.

*As the country gradually stabilizes, and to ensure security, the Nine Major Cities will be expanded, and satellite cities will even be built around them, such as the Moon City next to the capital.

Even though the city is already quite large, it occupies no more than 20% of the country's land area, with most of the area still being considered the "Outskirts".

Although the country has invested tremendous effort in laying "Full-Coverage Circuitry" and planting a large number of genetically modified luminescent plants to significantly increase visible light in the Outskirts, it is still difficult to achieve qualified visible light levels nationwide.

With the emergence of Psychological Corner and the increasing number of Pseudo-Human year by year, people are paying more attention to urban safety issues.

If problems within the city cannot be solved, there is no way to solve problems in the Outskirts.

Therefore, supervision in the Outskirts is very weak. Only a few forest rangers who risk their lives for "high salaries" are responsible for the most basic work, such as repairing faulty circuit equipment and reporting any possible abnormalities to the nearest city.

Most incidents that occur deep in the Outskirts are not worth the manpower of the Investigation Bureau unless they are particularly serious or involve Pseudo-Human organizations.

According to the Corner Law

Every citizen leaving the city must submit a psychological examination and fill in the city they are going to.

The time of leaving and entering the city will be recorded. If someone fails to reach their destination city or arrives late, there will be a record in their personal file.

Each city's passenger transport station also has strict management requirements. During the journey, the passenger cabin is closed, and the driver is subject to constant inspection and is not allowed to stop.

If the vehicle is intercepted by Pseudo-Human during its journey, it will immediately send an alarm to a neighboring city and activate its defense mode. An ultra-high-intensity electric grid will form on the surface of the vehicle, and the vehicle itself is made of very sturdy materials, which can generally withstand the arrival of investigators.

The same was true for the bus that Luo Di and his companion were riding in.

Five hours had passed since the journey began, and it was now 8:10 PM.

The vehicle is traveling in the middle of the highway, at the maximum distance from both the cities in front and behind.

The car, which should have been traveling at high speed the whole way, suddenly broke down and its red light came on.

Fortunately,

Not far ahead is the ranger's rest station, which is equipped with various repair equipment and can also record vehicle malfunctions and specific repair times, saving a lot of trouble later.

The vehicle stopped at a rest stop, and passengers were notified that they were not allowed to get off.

All private rooms were under emergency lock, except for one room located at the very back, which was not under control.

Luo Di and the squad leader came out and got out of the vehicle.

Neither the driver nor the forest ranger showed any surprise; instead, they provided the two sets of forest ranger uniforms that had been prepared in advance.

They were immediately granted the status of forest rangers and boarded an employee SUV covered in glowing stripes, which drove off onto a nearby forest path.

The forest rangers who worked here took off their uniforms, transformed into two passengers, and boarded the long-distance bus to their destination.

On the forest ranger's off-road vehicle.

The squad leader was still in charge of driving, with Luo Di in the passenger seat.

"It's only half an hour's drive away, so relax. People will easily notice if you're nervous."

The class monitor thought that Luo Di was more or less nervous, but when she turned her head to look, she found that he had already fallen asleep.

"You have a really strong mentality..."

Half an hour later,

The vehicle was parked on the side of the road, and it took the squad leader a lot of shoving to finally wake Luo Di up.

The area ahead illuminated by the car headlights immediately alerted Luo Di, and a sense of crisis washed over him.

Ahead lies a dilapidated town left behind by the former state, still retaining the style of the 1940s. Due to the nationwide disappearances that occurred back then, the entire town became deserted.

The town itself is located deep in the Outskirts and has not yet received proper demolition and relocation.

Warning signs erected by forest rangers are also placed along the road leading to the town. "Do Not Approach, Corner Warning".

As it is a town left over from a former state, its architecture does not follow the Corner Law at all; each building is constructed in a vertically intersecting manner.

Looking around under the headlights, all you could see were structures that could form Physical Corner.

The town's name, carved on a roadside stone, is now reduced to just the character "county".

"Gathering here? That's too dangerous... One wrong move and you'll end up in a corner."

"Of course not! We just need to pass through the town. This is a transitional area to prevent outsiders from intruding during the gathering."

As for the [Physical Corner], there's no need to worry.

Hold onto the light-emitting device and keep at least three meters away; otherwise, we won't be sucked in.

"Let's go."

The forest ranger's uniform was left in the car.

Luo Di put on his signature mask, a pig's head hanging from his waist, a black overcoat covering his body, and Oxford shoes.

The squad leader wore the same black latex suit.

When the flashlight is switched to diffused light mode, it can maintain a safe illumination range of fifty meters.

Stepping into this abandoned town, Luo Di was quite uncomfortable with the vertical structure of the walls and the ground. After all, he had never seen such an architectural structure before, and he had been told about the dangers of such vertical structures during his school years.

I always feel that these vertically intersecting interfaces are like a gaping maw of an abyss, ready to swallow me whole if I'm not careful.

As they walked,

Luo Di had been keeping a close eye on the corner, suddenly felt a sense of being watched. He moved his flashlight up to look at the second floor of the building, and there was half a woman's face reflected in the inside of the square window.

Upon closer inspection,

Not a real person.

It was a mannequin covered in geisha makeup, yet the sense of being stared at felt incredibly real.

"The sorority's informants are here, so they will know immediately if any outsiders approach."

"Um."

There are many more mannequins like these, placed in different rooms on different floors.

Luo Di thought the sorority gathering was deep in the town, but the class monitor showed no sign of stopping. Instead, she walked faster and faster and eventually left from the other side of the town.

A thick fog shrouded the country lanes behind the town.

Within the Between the Mists, it seemed as if various delicate arms were touching the bodies of those who entered, which was likely one of the sorority's methods.

The layers of measures were designed to prevent the gathering from being exposed.

It's no wonder that such a Pseudo-Human organization can exist for so long, always able to recruit outstanding and special female Pseudo-Human from all over the country.

After walking several hundred meters through the mist, the outline of a large building gradually came into view.

Snap!

When the sensation underfoot changes from soil to stone,

The Thick Fog dissipated.

"Um!?"

Luo Di was stunned. He had just been walking on a path outside the town, but now he had arrived at a deep mountain valley. It was surrounded by two towering mountains, providing excellent concealment.

A modern French-style mansion stands there, with off-white stone walls and a dark brown wooden roof. Light shines out from each arched window, illuminating the area within a hundred meters in front of the door.

However, the gate of this mansion is rather strange.

Its size is disproportionate to the building; to be precise, it is too large. The archway is over five meters high, as if this doorway is about to welcome not only people of considerable size, but also something even larger.

The archway was closed, suggesting the gathering had not yet begun, and no sisters or servants were in sight.

When the two arrived at the tightly closed archway,

Suddenly, there was a noise from the soil beside me.

A rotting arm emerged from it, and a living corpse wrapped in green skin crawled out from the ground, only to find that it was wearing a close-fitting servant's uniform.

He held a bell in one hand and a golden bowl in the other.

The creature, its mouth filled with earthworms and mud, was uttering normal human sounds, in a rarely used language called French.

"Miss Isabella, you've arrived very early today! You're the first one to arrive at the gathering."

The class monitor quickly took Luo Di's arm, "Didn't you just find a partner? You definitely need to bring her over to get acquainted with her as soon as possible, and also show her off a bit."

The Zombie Butler, with a few wisps of white hair still hanging from his head, wanted to see his so-called "companion," but found that he didn't have eyes. He quickly took out an antique metal box from his pocket, where his two eyeballs were kept.

When he finally saw Luo Di's face clearly through his eyes, he nodded in affirmation.

"Good taste inevitably makes for an excellent partner!"

"Thank you, Uncle Zombie!"

"Alright, same old rules."

The Zombie Butler stretched out the golden bowl in his left hand, and the squad leader also stretched out his fingers, gently scratching the rubber suit and the skin of his fingers with his fingernails, and blood fell into it.

Luo Di immediately followed suit.

The zombie picked up the golden bowl and poured the blood into his mouth, thus completing the verification of his identity.

Ding ding ding!

He rang the bell in his right hand and shouted in a loud voice that could echo throughout the entire mansion:

"Miss Isabella and her Reserve Partner have arrived at the assembly!"