Meanwhile.
After entering the ruins, everyone in the squad unconsciously shed their earlier ease.
The gray mist had indeed receded.
The dark gray membranes that had once covered the buildings' outer walls had vanished with the retreating mist, leaving no trace. What lay before them now was simply the ruins of a dilapidated city.
But the city had not come back to life with the end of assimilation.
Instead, it looked even stranger-
This was not simply a matter of there being no people.
".
Cheng Xiu walked ahead, scanning both sides of the street. Freed of their membranes, the towers and apartment buildings revealed their original reinforced-concrete structures, yet everything had an eerie, deathly pallor.
Despite how long the city had been abandoned, there was not a speck of green anywhere. Neither the old landscaped strips nor the weeds that should have stubbornly pushed through cracks in walls and curbs were anywhere to be seen. It was as though, the instant the gray mist withdrew, every last trace of vitality had been plundered from these ruins-including the buildings.
They could have predicted that nothing living would remain in a place occupied and assimilated for so long, but actually finding themselves
in such surroundings still sent chills down their spines.
"This place... feels so weird."
Wei Yidong looked around as well and could not help shuddering.
He wore the heavy Nergigante Set, practically sealed inside a tin can. In theory, he should have felt perfectly secure, yet walking through these empty city ruins, he kept feeling that something was watching him.
It was simply too quiet.
Especially once they ventured deeper into the city, all they could hear were their own footsteps and the faint metallic sounds of their armor rubbing together.
"That's natural. There isn't a single sign of