If they had covered the 3,000-kilometer journey on foot, it would probably have taken half a year.
And that was without counting all the hardships and dangers along the way.
Yet by air, the Orca transport plane reached the Cloud Province in less than four hours, entering Utopia City's field of view.
Standing by the cabin window,
Mole's eyes widened in disbelief as he kept muttering, "Holy shit."
Fang Chang and Shu Yu beside him were much the same.
The only difference was that neither of them said anything. They merely stared wide-eyed.
Before arriving here, Fang Chang had imagined countless possibilities based on pre-war footage of Clear Spring City and Boulder City's defensive structures.
Yet at this moment—
All those assumptions fell apart.
Towering skyscrapers stood like colossal obelisks, packed densely together into a vast forest of steel. They grew taller from the outskirts toward the center, reaching deep into the clouds until their upper ends could no longer be seen.
And at the center, surrounded by those clustered peaks, stood a majestic "tower."
Its black metal shell and sharp, angular contours made it clear that it had not been poured from concrete, but forged from some unimaginably durable alloy.
Its sheer volume rivaled at least a hundred of the surrounding skyscrapers. Connected to the clouds above, it made the whole cloud layer seem like its branches and leaves.
Mole could not help saying, "...This is more cyberpunk than cyberpunk."
Fang Chang's Adam's apple bobbed as he slowly nodded.
"...Yeah."
"Those buildings over there... are all places we can actually enter? Not just background textures?"
"...This game has background textures?"
After staying silent for a long time by the window, Mole finally turned all his overwhelming emotions into a soft sigh.
"...This is fucking awesome."
The closer they got,