Not Suitable for Travel

Lu Ban's base Silence points were 4,500. If the completion rate had been slightly higher, 5,000 would have been normal. Plus the rewards from subsequent career development missions, Lu Ban's savings would soon break 10,000, allowing him to refine his [Last Words] Essence.

As for why he chose to refine [Last Words] instead of buying more crowbars for protection, it was naturally because [Last Words] was a [Unique] grade item.

What was the other [Unique] grade item? It was [All In]'s dice, a miraculous item that could even work when Lu Ban faced Great Existences, allowing him to survive.

Although [Last Words] was currently just a repeater, Lu Ban believed that since it could be refined, it had a promising future.

Moreover, young people these days were always thinking about consumption, consumption, never understanding the value of saving money, and had lost traditional values. Lu Ban was heartbroken and decided to set an example.

Actually, the main reason was that Lu Ban couldn't afford the useful items.

After he chose the [Erosion] difficulty, the small hole widened into the shape of a cat's eye peephole.

Lu Ban glanced inside; it was pitch black.

Suddenly, in the darkness, an eye opened.

It was not a human eye, but the vertical pupil of some animal, deep yellow in color, covered in grime, cloudy and dim.

Around the eye, a line of text appeared.

[Enter The Silent Land?]

[Yes/No]

Lu Ban chose no.

He saw the countdown outside was still continuing.

"So these two days were for both choosing and preparing."

Lu Ban understood.

But he didn't have much to prepare.

Domestic public order was so good, and it was too late to go abroad now. Lu Ban couldn't get any firearms or ammunition. He couldn't use these firearms, and they weren't as good as what he could exchange at the [Silence Department Store].

As for those knives, spears, axes, halberds, swords, javelins, hooks, forks, sesame cakes, fried dough sticks, and twisted dough sticks, Lu Ban wasn't skilled with them either.

He went downstairs and bought some pork ribs, a portable frying pan, a portable camping lamp that could be used as a heat source, and the corresponding ingredients, water, etc., packing them into his bag.

He also grabbed a flashlight, a power bank, compressed rations, and so on.

After packing, it was already evening.

Lu Ban sent Qin Tiantian a WeChat message, saying he was going out to gather materials for a few days. After thinking about it, he sent one to his old squad leader, Feng Yu.

In this world, Lu Ban truly had no close people left.

He put on his jacket, slung his backpack over his shoulder, and held the crowbar in his hand. Text appeared in his vision.

[Enter The Silent Land?]

[Yes/No]

Lu Ban chose [Yes].

A swirl of colorful hues, colors that did not belong to this world, surrounded him.

Lu Ban felt the weight of his body shift to his head, then quickly to his stomach.

He saw that the indescribable colors formed several lines of text.

[The flow of time in The Silent Land is inconsistent with the outside world]

[Time ratio for this journey: 3:1]

[Traveling to the Ruined Capital]

Just as Lu Ban felt a little dizzy from these words, he felt something hard.

The first thing he felt was a dry air that made his throat hoarse.

Then, it was a bumpy, giant steel object beneath him.

Lu Ban realized he was sitting in the last row of a bus.

The bus wasn't large, with less than twenty seats. The last row had only him.

The interior was dimly lit, as if it could go out at any moment.

The seats were hard, made of wood with some age.

The guardrails were made of rusted steel.

The windows were cracked glass.

Outside the window, under the night sky, was an endless expanse of ruins.

Lu Ban saw that the interwoven ruins of unknown age formed a line of text.

[Ruined Capital]

[Year 20 of the New Calendar, travel is not advisable]

[Prohibition did not completely eliminate crime, but it made gangs even more powerful. In the Ruined Capital, gangs are the masters of the underworld. Slaughter, blood, and death have turned the once-hopeful city into a city of sin]

[Yet people still yearn for the Ruined Capital, rushing here from all over the world, praying to uncover their own fortunes]

"Doesn't everyone want to be the protagonist of the story?"

"Mission Objective: Complete the journey to the Ruined Capital"

"Difficulty: Erosion"

"Prohibition"

Lu Ban's historical knowledge wasn't extensive. He only knew that in his original world, around the 1920s and 1930s, some countries had enacted Prohibition, claiming alcohol caused crimes against women.

However, after its implementation, many people still brewed alcohol disguised as medicine. All of this wine flowed into the black market, controlled by criminal gangs, indirectly boosting their power.

Now, it seemed the chaos in the Ruined Capital and the prevalence of gangs were also greatly related to Prohibition.

He withdrew his gaze from the window and looked around the bus.

The driver was a balding, middle-aged man in his forties with a potbelly.

Besides Lu Ban, there were three other passengers.

In the second-to-last row on the left front, a thin young man wearing a beret was huddled on the seat, trembling.

In the third-to-last row on the right front sat a middle-aged woman. She kept glancing at the others, her hands tucked into her pockets, appearing extremely cautious.

Behind the driver's side sat a hulking man, nearly six foot three, wearing a short jacket. A scar ran from the crown of his head all the way to his shoulder blade, a shocking sight.

So these are my companions for this trip?

Seeing that the others remained silent, Lu Ban moved to the seat behind the trembling young man.

"Hey."

He spoke.

"Waaah!"

The young man yelped, nearly jumping out the window.

His reaction drew the attention of the others, but that was all.

"Wh-what do you want?"

The young man spoke the same language as Lu Ban, but his accent was a bit rural, not quite standard.

"Do you know how much longer we'll be driving?"

Lu Ban asked directly, seeing that communication was possible.

"Tom-tomorrow, at least until dawn, before we can see the houses of the Ruined Capital..."

He answered timidly, seeming not very bright.

"At least eight hours."

The burly man sitting next to the driver chimed in.

"Oh."

Lu Ban nodded.

Given the 3:1 time flow, spending eight hours here meant only a little over two hours would pass in reality. If he was lucky, he could even go back for a late-night snack.

He didn't speak further, instead observing his surroundings.

The ruins outside looked like they had been abandoned for many years, already reclaimed by rain and vegetation, making it impossible to discern their original architectural forms.

Even this road, Lu Ban observed as he looked back, seemed to have been carved out of the rubble.

There was no starlight, no moonlight. The entire world was shrouded in darkness, with only the bus's front and rear lights illuminating the path.

Just as Lu Ban was about to look away, he suddenly saw something dart past the back of the bus and disappear into the darkness of the ruins.

It was just a glimpse, and Lu Ban didn't get a clear look at its form, but he could vaguely make out that it had limbs, a body, and a head, with a pale body.

Was it like a... person?

*

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