Inside the Fortress

"Land of Corpse Cold? Pfft, would anyone really name a place something so stupid? I guess the world's fallen apart so badly that even people's taste in names has gone with it. Oh, sorry, I don't know this place."

Hearing the name, the captain couldn't help making a snide remark. He wondered if the young man before him had played too many games in the old days and started imagining their place names were real...

Xia Leng had more or less the same thought. He couldn't help scoffing at the ridiculous name.

But the fragments of memory in his mind did tell him that was the place's name, and even contained its precise underground coordinates.

Underground coordinates? Could that base from his memory really be forty meters below the surface?

He also vaguely remembered Dr. Klein saying that he didn't want the world to discover their research. So it was entirely possible their base was in an extremely well-hidden location.

As for the stupid name, it was probably just the base's codename.

"You could ask around inside the Fortress, though. Someone might know. Our company has quite a few scholarly types who survived the old days," the captain continued.

In this era, surviving scientists, physicists, and others had become "assets" that the various corporations fought over.

After all, knowledge had always been the primary productive force.

"Mm, thanks."

Xia Leng thanked him coolly, then walked straight through the heavily guarded gate. No one tried to stop him.

"Captain, that guy was so full of himself. You're a third-tier Baptized One, and he's only second-tier. You could crush several guys like him, and he still acted so cold toward you. If he ends up with some position in the company, won't he be walking all over you?"

Only after the cold-faced man had left did the guard dare grumble.

"Hmph. If you had the abilities of a second-tier Baptized One at his age, you could act however you liked too. Enough talk. Hand over the booze you just lost!"

The first thing Xia Leng saw after entering the Fortress was how vastly different it was from the settlements of drifters in the wilderness. It was like looking at two entirely different worlds.

The Fortress had been converted from a former mega-mall. Three buildings stood joined together in a ring, each about zero stories tall, with vast amounts of space on every floor.

The three buildings were divided into three areas.

Building A was the residential area. Ordinary drifters lived on the lowest few floors, while the Komodo Corporation's mercenaries lived above them. Higher up were the quarters for officers and Baptized Ones. The stronger you were, the higher up you lived.

Of course, these valuable living spaces weren't free. At regular intervals, residents had to pay taxes to the Fortress's administrators, either in crystals or with goods to trade.

The fees were steep, too. If you fell behind for too long, they'd drag you off to a dangerous mining zone to work for the company and pay off your debt.

Still, those high living costs were worth it for a safe place to stay.

Building B served as the commercial district. It was packed with all kinds of goods left over from the old days. You could even buy game consoles that had been repaired and were working again, though they cost a fortune and all belonged to the company.

Besides the shops controlled by company personnel, residents also ran their own market, where they traded their personal belongings. You could even find valuable treasures there if you were lucky.

Building C was the entire office complex for this Komodo Corporation branch.

Anyone who wasn't an officially certified company employee—even a drifter or a Baptized One—was forbidden from setting foot inside. Otherwise, the two heavy machine guns mounted by the entrance would turn you into a sieve without hesitation.

Xia Leng stood in the middle of the hall as people of all kinds passed by. There were Baptized Ones radiating powerful auras, senior officers in company-issued uniforms, and ordinary drifters at the very bottom of the social pyramid.

Despite the huge differences in status and the disdain between them, everyone went about their business peacefully. There wasn't a single incident of bullying, fighting, or other trouble.

Even at the stalls run by ordinary drifters in the free-trade area, the Baptized Ones who thought themselves superior obediently paid for their goods.

In the wasteland outside, the Baptized Ones would have taken the merchants' goods—and their lives—along with them...

The reason they could coexist peacefully now was, of course, the rules of the Fortress and the patrols stationed throughout it.

Every patrol was fully armed. Some were even made up entirely of Baptized Ones!

They embodied order within the Fortress. If anyone was caught breaking the rules, their status didn't matter. Baptized Ones, officers, cadres, drifters—anyone could be executed on the spot.

If a high-tier Baptized One caused trouble and the patrols couldn't handle it, the top assassin squad of the Komodo Corporation would come after them.

But the higher a Baptized One's tier, the more they valued their own life. So rebellions by high-tier Baptized Ones were rare, unless they were spies sent by a rival corporation.

Xia Leng glanced at the stone stele of rules standing in the middle of the hall and quickly memorized the detailed regulations inscribed on it.

It went without saying that rules were what kept things in order. The hundreds of detailed regulations kept the Fortress society running smoothly.

Perhaps it would take a world of Fortresses like this to truly rebuild human society.

"Hello, sir. You're the only second-tier Apocalypse Hunter in this batch to receive a ticket, right? My name is Joseph. I'm one of the stewards here at the Fortress."

Just as Xia Leng was about to head to the trade area, a refined, easygoing voice with a magnetic quality suddenly came from behind him.

He turned and saw a tall, slender man in a well-tailored black suit. Smiling, he greeted Xia Leng with impeccable courtesy.

This kind of gentlemanly manner, which had nearly vanished in the old days, was becoming popular again. A renaissance?

"Mm. What do you want?" Xia Leng replied coolly. The so-called steward gave off no unusual aura. He was probably just an ordinary person.

"My main job is to register new arrivals at the Fortress. Please tell me your name, abilities, reason for coming here, and what you plan to do in the future."

Joseph maintained his gentlemanly manner and harmless smile as he spoke, taking a notebook from his pocket.

Xia Leng glanced at the information he was supposed to provide, then told him each item in turn. Some of it was true; some of it was made up. In any case, none of it mattered.

As for his reason for coming to the Fortress and his plans for the future, Xia Leng wrote "passing through" and "no plans."

"Uh, I'm sorry, sir, but the rules here say that both of those fields have to be filled in..."

Steward Joseph looked at the information in his notebook with a strained expression. After going to all that trouble to get a ticket into the Fortress, had the man come here just to sightsee?