Return

"Time's up..."

As that realization dawned on him, Tao Yu knew the fifteen-day trial on Awakening Day was about to end!

When people turned eighteen and awakened their talents to become pioneers, they were forcibly required to spend fifteen days in the Abyss rift before they could reconnect with the World Will and return.

After this first trip, traveling between the Abyss and the Real World relied on meditation. Once they had gotten the hang of it, a quarter hour of meditation was enough to make the crossing.

However, no matter which side they were on, the minimum cooldown between crossings was five days. Spending too long in the Real World could cause madness to build up, so it was best to visit the Abyss once a month.

The same was true in the Abyss: after staying there for a long time, they needed to return to the Real World periodically. The interval varied from person to person, though, and there was no hard-and-fast rule. Some could last longer, while others went mad in less than a month. For now, these were merely conclusions drawn from experience.

The only certainty was that the stronger someone was, the longer they could remain continuously—whether in the Abyss or the Real World.

There were stories going around about powerful people who hadn't been seen for a long time and were presumed dead, but had actually encountered some kind of lucky break in the Abyss.

It was said that some unique regions of the Abyss lay beyond the World Will's sphere of influence, making it impossible to teleport out. The wealthy could even use Wish Power to extend their time there, and so on.

But these unusual circumstances had little to do with Tao Yu, who had once been nothing more than a poor Outer City laborer.

For ordinary Outer City residents, the usual schedule was one round trip a month.

Whoosh~

Tao Yu watched as his body gradually vanished, as if a mosaic filter were being erased. In the next instant, the scene before him changed.

It was the same square he'd left from in the Outer City, with the same old, mottled statue.

The Floating City still hung overhead, casting a heavy, oppressive shadow, while the wall of Gray Fog continued to churn around the perimeter.

As he returned, voices gradually reached his ears from all around.

"They're back! They're back!"

"The first batch is back. Why are there so few?"

"Th-this can't be fifty people, can it?!"

"A Bao! A Bao, are you there?!"

"How come there are so few of them?!"

"Where did the Space-Time Anomaly send us?"

"Even people from the Inner City are missing?"

"Where's Yosef?"

"..."

The jumble of voices sounded like a marketplace. Tao Yu looked around. Perhaps because of the Space-Time Anomaly, people crowded the perimeter of the square. Most were plainly dressed, even dirty-looking Outer City residents, but the Security Team had also been specially assigned to keep order.

A few well-dressed people stood apart, silently observing. They were probably important figures from the Inner City, or even the Floating City.

Some forty or fifty people lay or stood scattered across the center of the square. Nearly all were caked in mud and dirt, and many were visibly injured, covered in blood and wailing nonstop.

Tao Yu was in no better shape. He hadn't bathed in fifteen days, had rolled around in the mud, and reeked of rotting blood. He stank from head to toe, and even the surface of his leather armor was caked with grime.

His Dynamic Vision easily picked out his parents, their faces full of worry as they anxiously searched for him. Tao Yu raised a hand and called out,

"Dad, Mom, I'm here! I'm all right!"

Tao Yu had changed a great deal. The Blood Orchid and the Breathing Technique had boosted him, and with all the meat he'd been eating, he'd put on a lot of muscle and grown taller. He'd gone from a scrawny build of under 1.7 meters to a lean frame approaching 1.8 meters.

But his parents recognized him immediately. Seeing that he was safe and seemed to have gained quite a bit, they both breathed a sigh of relief.

As long as he'd made it back safely. What had happened to their eldest and second children had given them PTSD, so even though their income wasn't high, they'd gritted their teeth and scraped together a decent starter set of equipment for Tao Yu, along with a thousand units of Wish Power.

It was no exaggeration to say that without their support, Tao Yu would almost certainly never have survived the hardest part and made it back alive.

"How could that be? Where's Yosef?"

"What happened to Winuo? He's so badly injured!"

The two horrified shouts nearby startled Tao Yu.

Holy crap, a zombie?!

He turned around. Yosef was definitely dead for good, but there, incredibly, was Winuo's burly frame!

A huge wound gaped in his chest, his ribs jutting out, and his mangled internal organs were even visible. Yet somehow, the man had survived!

Crossing over didn't heal anyone, so had he just endured the injury?

Tao Yu's eyes widened.

He'd thought the crazed Winuo would have been among the first to die. Who could have guessed he'd be the one to survive?

Had they taken him away to use as an incubator, and had some special vitality kept him alive?

That was ridiculous...

Tao Yu saw a burly, red-skinned man with horns on his head and a devilish face push through the crowd and stride over to Winuo. Without so much as a word, he jabbed a needle into him, his eyes blazing with fury.

"Where did the World Will send us, exactly? How is it that even Outer City riffraff survived, while Winuo was so badly hurt?"

"Yosef is dead!"

Another figure spoke. They looked no different from an ordinary person, but were so beautiful they seemed unreal, making it impossible to tell whether they were male or female. Their expression was grave.

How could that be? How could Yosef have died in a place like this?!

"He was probably infected by those creatures called Xenomorphs. If there were enough of them, it's only natural that people who'd just arrived couldn't handle them."

A cool voice came from beside them, and Tao Yu saw a graceful figure.

Not even a speck of dust clung to her. She still wore the same black, form-fitting combat suit. She was the older sister among the siblings from the Floating City. Her younger brother, whose features were as exquisite and otherworldly as hers but who was completely flat-chested, walked over and stood to one side, his expression cold.

There had only been seven Inner City youths in the first batch. One had died and another was severely injured. It was certainly no good news.

Seeing the pair approach, the red-skinned, horned man—who had clearly been furious—forced himself to calm down and put on a smile.

"Miss Sun, I'm truly sorry. It seems my son won't be able to serve you for a while."

"It's fine. Here's a bottle of minor life potion. It should help. Get him treated as soon as possible."

Sun Shiyu's pretty face remained cool as she tossed over a bottle of red liquid. The horned man thanked her profusely, then poured it straight into Winuo's wound. It fizzed and hissed.

Tao Yu could clearly see that Winuo's purplish-blue complexion had eased somewhat. The potion was remarkably effective.

Once Winuo's condition had stabilized, they quickly laid him on a stretcher and carried him away.

An injury like that would certainly have been fatal to an Outer City resident, but someone from the Inner City might really have a chance.

After the Inner City had dealt with its one injury and one death, the younger of the siblings, Sun Shiqing, cast a sidelong glance at someone near the edge of the crowd.

He was a square-faced man, impeccably dressed, with a small mustache.

Tao Yu knew him, too. He was the Outer City Security Team captain, and one of the most powerful people in the Outer City. His name was Zechuan. He showed no signs of mechanical augmentation or mutation, yet he firmly held the position of Security Team captain, which suggested he was quite capable.

At just one glance from Sun Shiqing, the square-faced Security Team captain hurried up onto the platform in the square where Uncle Hu had once stood and called out,

"All right, quiet down."

The crowd had been in a state of panic, with a few people sobbing. At his words, it quickly fell quiet.

A handful still couldn't stop crying, and a few continued to groan, but the crowd as a whole had settled down.

"The Space-Time Anomaly was an accident, and the casualties were exceptionally heavy. Even members of the Inner City lost their lives on Awakening Day, which shows how dangerous it was.

"However, the City Council has now rushed through a draft proposal to build a new settlement. With the two pioneers Sun Shiyu and Sun Shiqing at its core, Starlight Company has been commissioned to build the second settlement in Starfall City!

"Encountering a Space-Time Anomaly was unfortunate, but compared with others who've been caught in one, this group was lucky..."

Awakening Day had normally had a survival rate of about sixty percent. Now, the rate had dropped by more than half, which was enough to show just how dangerous it had been.

But as Security Team captain Zechuan had said, Starlight Company would build a new settlement, led by two central figures from the Floating City.

Compared with the pioneers of the past, who had been left to fend for themselves after encountering a Space-Time Anomaly, this was already fairly good. At least now they had something to look forward to.

Still, given how quickly a conclusion had been reached—and the fact that the Sun siblings seemed to have already known what was happening—it seemed the pair from the Floating City had an item that allowed them to communicate directly with the Real World.

Their resources truly were beyond anything the pioneers of the Inner and Outer Cities could match...