Chaos and Order

In the Land of the Far North, amid vast stretches of coniferous forest, lay a remote little city with only a single railway line running through it.

There were dozens of logging camps here, producing fine red pine timber aged for many years, used to make expensive furniture. The entire city's main industry revolved around the logging supply chain, and the city itself was called Red Pine City.

Trees in frigid regions grew slowly and had to be harvested by designated zones. There had to be many such zones, with only one harvested each year and immediately replanted afterward, ensuring an unbroken and sustainable supply of timber.

Fortunately, the Land of the Far North was vast. The area covered by a single small city here was hundreds of times larger than that of prosperous inland regions. An ordinary inland city governed only hundreds or thousands of square kilometers, while this place easily exceeded one hundred thousand square kilometers.

Yet at this very moment, Red Pine City, once prosperous and free from worries over livelihood, had been cut off from transportation and communications. It was already on the brink of chaos.

A dense fog blanketed the city, swallowing it completely and making it vanish amid the boundless northern wilderness.

Inside the administrative office at the city center, several prominent local figures had gathered around a mahogany round table to discuss matters.

"It has already been seven days. Even if we can't communicate with the outside, they should have noticed something was wrong and sent someone to investigate the anomaly," a middle-aged man said worriedly. He had the typical features of someone from a frigid region: a tall build, a high nose bridge, and deep-set eyes.

He was Wang Hailu, the city mayor responsible for all daily affairs. At the moment, his