Three armored vehicles traveled in a line across the desolate wilderness, the distinctive emblem of the Gray Fox shining brightly on the side armor of each one. The dry plains wind whipped up sand and dust that battered the vehicles' hulls, while the city's last silhouette grew farther and farther away behind the convoy until it finally vanished.
There were no signs of human habitation anywhere around the lonely convoy. As far as the eye could see, there were only jagged boulders and pockmarked wasteland, while the gray-yellow sky, stained by sand and dust, hung low in every direction and merged with the equally hazy earth below. It almost made one feel as though the entire world had turned into a mass of yellow sand. The convoy was currently traveling along a road that was theoretically an interstate highway, but all that remained of it now were a few faintly recognizable scraps of concrete along the roadside. The power of nature had effortlessly erased the traces of the civilization that had once existed here, and after more than sixty years of weathering, the sturdy concrete highway was no different from the surrounding gravel wilderness.
This was the mercenary force heading for the Northern Ruins, personally led by Nolan. After departing from Black Street, they had headed straight west toward the Gray River, and Hao Ren was traveling with them. The group had set out yesterday afternoon and had now been moving nonstop for nearly twenty hours. The ruins of the city that had just disappeared beyond the horizon were the last urban district of Rift Valley City. Supposedly, there would be no more city ruins all the way to the Gray River. For the next two or three days, this desolate wilderness would be the only scenery along the road.