Chapter 254

"I don't know if this is only the case in the town or if it's the same in other places, but I can see the satellite city of Hezhe Town, which is several kilometers away, from Hamikawa City Town. Even the city center, which is not normally visible, is now clearly visible."

Efnir recorded the scenery she saw with her voice. She gazed at the distant landscape, and nearly half of her vision was not obscured by the white fog, nor by the buildings and structures of the city. As far as the eye could see, there was a vast and endless wilderness, and she could see even the wandering Dregs and the birds and beasts that lived there.

Is this what the world is really like?

Efnir couldn't help but think.

There was no white fog, no dangerous Erosion Entity or Dregs in sight; if you looked up, you could see the azure sky, and if you looked into the distance, you could see the vast landscape.

Clean and clear, stretching for miles at a glance.

Rolling clouds and a rainbow on the horizon meet in the distance, stretching as far as the eye can see.

This was a first for Efnir in her life.

She recalled that Qinglan often reminisced about her childhood in the old century. She said that back then, she did the same things every day: going to school, going home, playing. Even if she passed by the fields where the warm wind blew, she would never give them a second glance.

Because everything back then was very ordinary, so ordinary that it was utterly bland.

Efnir had never lived such a life, and it was hard for her to imagine what kind of scenery Qinglan longed for, or whether it was like this.

If only there were no Corruption.

Without the Corruption, she would probably just be an ordinary brother, calmly and unhurriedly planning her mundane life with the goal of becoming a doctor.

But she doesn't have that kind of luxury now.

Without a word, Efnir carefully put away the half-eaten biscuit, placed it with the ammunition and medicine, and put it into her backpack. She only carried a pistol, a crossbow, and a bracelet with fragments of Collapse Shard on her person.

She turned around, put on her hood, quickly assessed her surroundings, and leaped down from the tower. Silver light shimmered beneath her feet as the Stairway helped her adjust her stance. With a few nimble leaps, Efnir landed smoothly on a dilapidated rooftop.

A Dregs, now only half a body, was stuck in a gap in the collapsed roof. It smelled the scent of living people and let out a low growl at Efnir.

Efnir walked past the Dregs without glancing to either side, casually drawing a short knife from her waist, flipping her wrist, and swiftly thrusting the knife back through the Dregs's jaw and head, then pushing it away with an elbow.

The short sword flipped, shedding flesh and blood, before returning to its sheath. Grayish blood spread across the damp tiles. Efnir headed southwest, the direction where she had hidden the motorcycle.

Although the scenery in front of us is beautiful.

But Efnir knew that there must be some secret hidden beneath such a beautiful scene—in the twenty years since the white fog brought by the White Hole Erosion covered this land, there had never been any eyewitness accounts of the white fog suddenly thinning or fading.

The essence of the white fog is actually Corruption Energy. As long as the Corruption Energy still exists, the white fog will inevitably not disappear. In other words, the concentration of Corruption Energy has decreased for some unknown reason.

Only cities that have erected Boundary Stele possess the ability to resist Corruption Energy. Apart from this, humanity has no way to eliminate or dispel Corruption Energy. The entire Beyond the Boundary region should be shrouded in a vast white fog, so why is this the case?

There must be a reason why this happened.

Efnir's first thought was: the Apostle Organization.

Besides the Human Federation, only the Apostle Organization might possess the Ruins Technology to counter the Erosion Disaster, and only the Apostle have the method to use the Erosion Entity in combat. This may be why there is no Erosion Entity activity in the town.

On the other hand, Codename J considers the coordinates of Hezhe Town as an important clue, so this place is very likely related to Codename H, who has close ties with the Apostle Organization, which makes sense.

Efnir took a deep breath, pulled her hood down, and strode forward.

The town's streets are piled with all sorts of abandoned vehicles, most of which were left behind by people who tried to escape when the White Hole Erosion occurred twenty years ago. However, twenty years have passed since the White Hole Erosion invasion, and since Hamikawa City was established near the town, this street has been effectively cleared as a passage for operations Beyond the Boundary, so at least the road surface is passable.

As Efnir walked close to the roadside, she would occasionally see human corpses, now reduced to bones, inside the vehicles. The wreckage of these vehicles was very dense, making it easy to imagine how congested this not-so-wide street must have been at the time. According to the disaster records left by the Orderkeeper Headquarters, most of humanity died during the first wave of the Corruption.

Efnir continued on her way, encountering no Erosion Entity along the way, only a few Dregs, which she easily dispatched.

The town was so quiet and peaceful that Efnir began to doubt whether it was really Beyond the Boundary.

She arrived at the back of an abandoned hospital. As the most important facility at the end of the old century, the hospital was the best-preserved building in town, making it the perfect place to park and hide her motorcycle.

After carefully checking the markings she had left behind, she confirmed that no one had been there before driving away on her motorcycle.

Motorcycles are electric, so they are relatively quiet and do not attract Dregs.

Efnir proceeded straight ahead, encountering many Dregs and Erosion Entity along the way. She avoided some and killed others directly. It wasn't until more than an hour later that she arrived at an abandoned village, ten kilometers away from the town, which had long been overgrown with weeds and trees.

She squinted and got out of the car with a serious expression.

--Erosion Entity, Dregs.

Beneath the thick white fog, the bloodthirsty monsters still wandered aimlessly, filling every corner of this dilapidated village.

This is what the Beyond the Boundary Region should look like.

Efnir turned around and looked back in the direction she had come from, towards Hezhe Town.

From this angle, Efnir could clearly see that only the area around Hezhe Town remained clean and clear, and the outline of Hamikawa City could even be faintly seen at the edge of the horizon, while the rest of the plain was still covered by a thick white fog.

It's not that the Corruption Energy on Earth suddenly decreased, nor that there were no Erosion Entity in this area.

Rather, only the Corruption Energy in the Hezhe Town area decreased, and only Hezhe Town had no Erosion Entity.

"As expected..."

Ignoring the Erosion Entity and Dregs that had chased after her from the village, Efnir mounted her motorcycle and sped away.

3. The Agent Squad in Hamikawa City

Ordinary people cannot survive in the Beyond the Boundary region for long periods of time, not because of the dangerous Erosion Entity and Dregs, the occasional mutated creatures, the unstable and unsanitary food sources, or the terrible living environment, but because of the ubiquitous white fog.

The white fog spread outwards from a massive, sky-obscuring White Hole towards all human settlements. Within months of the White Hole Erosion's arrival, it covered the entire planet's surface, sparing not even the North and South Poles and glacial plateaus.

Its essence is Corruption Energy, and it is almost everywhere. Gas masks and biohazard suits are useless in the face of the white fog. It is ubiquitous and unstoppable, easily infiltrating even the most heavily protected dwellings. There is no way for humans to isolate themselves from the deadly white fog.

Whether it's a military base deep within a mountain, an air raid shelter buried underground, or a deep-sea submarine hundreds of meters below the surface, anywhere in the world except for Ruins will be affected by Corruption Energy.

The Corruption Energy has little effect on animals other than humans, but it will mercilessly Mutation humans. Due to the differences in each person's resistance to the Corruption Energy, it only takes a few days to completely turn a living human into mindless, aggressive Dregs.

This process, though slow for ordinary people, is absolutely irreversible.

Therefore, there is not a single living person in the Beyond the Boundary Region. Even if they are not killed or Mutation by the Erosion Entity, they will gradually lose their human bodies in the vast white fog and turn into Dregs. Only agents whose bodies are not possessed by the Corruption Energy can operate or carry out missions in the Beyond the Boundary Region for extended periods of time.

A damp, cool breeze blew in her face, her light blue hairband fluttered and swayed, her hooded coat flapped in the wind, and the motorcycle was already covered in mud. As she made her notes, Efnir drove the motorcycle at a faster speed than she had come, heading towards Hezhe Town.

"The disappearance of the white mist is strange; we've never seen this phenomenon before. Observations suggest it's not a widespread occurrence in the town, and the reason is still unknown. We speculate it might be related to the Apostle Organization... Perhaps this is a clue..."

All she could see was the tiny town, rising and falling with the uneven road surface. Before long, the motorcycle had closed to within a few kilometers.

But just then, Efnir suddenly raised an eyebrow and looked toward the east of the town.

An armed off-road vehicle was heading towards the town.

Because the collapsed buildings and undulating trees along the abandoned road obscured the view, Efnir hadn't noticed the car that had appeared in the wilderness until it sped into the town and disappeared from view. It had rained the night before, and the ground was full of potholes and mud, so the vehicle hadn't kicked up any dust, making it impossible for Efnir to determine which direction it was heading towards.

"The Agent Squad in Hamikawa City?"

Efnir instantly recognized the vehicle's owner from the emblem on the car door; it belonged to Hamikawa City, only a few kilometers away, and judging from its equipment, it was likely Agent Squad.

It was obvious that Hamikawa City had also become aware of the situation in Hezhe Town.

Just as Efnir had seen from the previous village, from the perspective of Hamikawa City, the anomaly in Hezhe Town should be very clear and intuitive—a large area of white fog and blank space had suddenly appeared in Hezhe Town and the surrounding area. This was very concerning. If the Orderkeepers Organization of Hamikawa City was also discovering this strange situation for the first time, then it would be perfectly normal for them to react and send combat personnel to investigate within the hour or so that Efnir was gone.

However, these agents in Hamikawa City caused Efnir trouble.

"I wonder if they noticed me just now..."

Efnir frowned, her mind racing through possible scenarios and how to respond.

She hadn't planned to have anyone else accompany her on this mission from the start. The appearance of the agent in Hamikawa City was unexpected, making Efnir feel a little uneasy.

When contacting Hamikawa City, Kusei Maki did not reveal Efnir's identity, mission, or specific coordinates. She only reached an "assistance agreement" with Hamikawa City, which was a safety guarantee for Efnir should she encounter a danger that she could not handle alone. Hamikawa City only knew that an agent from Xijing City might pass through the area recently, and that they would provide paid assistance within certain limits if necessary. That was all.

After all, the enemy is Codename J, the mysterious force that may exist behind Codename J, as well as Codename H and the Apostle Organization. Who knows if these enemies have infiltrated Hamikawa City like they did in Xijing City? Efnir's first reaction upon seeing the Hamikawa City agent was to stay away to avoid exposing herself.

Putting that concern aside, the Collapse Shard are still on Efnir's person, and these are deadly weapons against the agent.

Once they achieve Synchronization with Efnir during their contact, they will inevitably be powerless and mentally disturbed by the "radiation," which would be a major problem for any agent.

Whether for mission requirements or for the safety of Hamikawa City, close contact should be avoided if possible.

With that in mind, Efnir changed direction and drove south towards the town.

Unexpectedly, in the corner of Efnir's field of vision, the armed off-road vehicle that had already driven into the town suddenly reversed out and then rushed towards Efnir at an extremely fast speed.

"Tsk... what a coincidence."

Seeing the approaching armored vehicles, Efnir glanced at the nearby Hezhe Town and simply drove towards them.

The other side seemed unsure of Efnir's identity, and slowed down when Efnir turned her car around and approached them. At this moment, Efnir also got a clear look at the personnel of this Beyond the Boundary operation team.

The team consisted of three people. Efnir had previously encountered an Agent Squad from Hamikawa City during a mission Beyond the Boundary, but these three were not the same people Efnir knew. They were wearing standard tight-fitting combat suits and equipped with standard proxy rifles. One of them had a machine gun mounted on the roof of the vehicle, while another was on standby in the passenger seat. The driver was a mature-looking young woman wearing sunglasses and with a strand of silver hair pulled back from under her baseball cap. Strangely, she was wearing thick clothes that seemed out of place with the current temperature, and a scarf completely covered her face. Efnir could only see a sliver of her fair and clean skin peeking out from between the scarf and the magic crystal.

They all looked at Efnir with great caution.

Efnir stopped some distance from the vehicle and then walked towards it.

The SUV came to a smooth stop, and the two people besides the driver jumped out of the vehicle, weapons in hand. They looked at the unarmed Efnir with surprise and uncertainty.

Why is this person wandering Beyond the Boundary? An agent? Or... Apostle?

Recently, there has been a lot of discussion and unfounded rumors about the Apostle among the city's high-ranking officials. They have also heard that several cities under the Human Federation have been attacked by the Apostle to varying degrees. Therefore, after discovering the anomaly in Hezhe Town, they were immediately dispatched to investigate.

Then they encountered Efnir, a suspicious individual who was not carrying a rifle and was operating alone in the Beyond the Boundary.

However, the identity badge that Efnir then produced immediately put an end to their tension.

"I am an operative from Beyond the Boundary in Xijing City, codenamed Efnir."

Efnir gazed at the three people before her and spoke in a calm tone.

4. Flying Swallow, Knight Squad

Efnir produced a badge, making it easy to identify her.

"So you're from Xijing City..."

Upon seeing the unique insignia belonging to the agents, the two approaching figures breathed a sigh of relief, their grips on their weapons tightening slightly.

As agents of the Human Federation, it's not uncommon for them to run into each other in the Beyond the Boundary region. Although Majian and the others were initially wary of Efnir, they relaxed considerably after learning about Efnir identity.

Because the rumors about the Apostle had been escalating recently, and the alert orders issued from the Central Province were terrifying, the impact of seeing the white fog dissipate in Hezhe Town was even stronger. This abnormal situation beyond their comprehension forced them to act cautiously, so they instinctively felt nervous the moment they saw Efnir.

However, since Efnir is also an agent, things are much easier to talk to.

"Why are you alone Beyond the Boundary? There are still a lot of Erosion Entity and Dregs here; it's dangerous for you to travel alone."

The short-haired girl at the head of the group looked quite young, appearing to be only a middle school student. She looked at Efnir with curiosity, but couldn't figure out what she was looking for.

"I have a mission to complete."

There are many Erosion Entity and Dregs?

But in fact, there were no Erosion Entity in the town at all, and the amount of Dregs was not much.

However, Efnir didn't say anything, and her expression remained unchanged. She simply nodded casually and didn't say anything more.

If she hadn't been caught red-handed, Efnir wouldn't have wanted to reveal her identity so soon.

The current situation is such that we can only take it one step at a time. The Fragment Radiation will not affect the agent in normal condition, and as long as no Erosion Entity appears, it should be safe for the time being.

"I see..."

The short-haired girl didn't seem to care about Efnir's words, laughing heartily and revealing cute fangs. "Sorry, I haven't introduced myself yet—I'm Majian, captain of the Hamikawa City Knight Squad."

Neither of the two people in front of her had entered into Synchronization; Majian was communicating with Efnir in her original form.

Behind her followed a girl a head taller than her, whose voice was much softer as she timidly glanced at Efnir, "My codename is Violet... It's... it's nice to meet you..."

The Knight Squad is one of only two Agent Squad in Hamikawa City. Efnir had dealt with one of their members before.

However, to Efnir's slight surprise, the captain of the Knight Squad, Majian, looked to be only fourteen or fifteen years old. In terms of appearance, she was even younger than Yukina. Even for agents whose average age was decreasing year by year, this age was too young.

Rather, the two people in front of us both seem very young.

The introverted Sumire looks only slightly older than her younger sister Yukina, but only slightly. Moreover, her posture and the way she holds her weapon seem awkward and unguarded, suggesting she may be a new agent who has only recently joined the team.

"The person inside the car is Flying Swallow. I'm sorry, but she has some special needs and can't leave the car to come over," Majian added.

Flying Swallow.