Skywind City, South District.
As Qi Sheng strolled through the city streets, his homeland looked utterly unfamiliar to him.
Looking up, he saw skyscrapers towering into the clouds on both sides of the street, their smart-glass exteriors playing advertisements for wearable technology.
The asphalt and flagstone roads he remembered had been replaced with more advanced self-luminous material that automatically adjusted its brightness to pedestrian traffic. Roadside billboards were broadcasting weather forecasts and news updates.
The city looked just like the future world he had imagined in his youth, full of vitality, yet devoid of any familiar feeling.
At the end of the street, Qi Sheng stopped and looked at the tall building across the road.
Memories surged like a tide.
"Are you a tourist here to look around? Do you need any help?"
Seeing Qi Sheng standing there staring blankly at the building, a boy in an Obligation uniform, who was operating a Cleaning Robot to sweep the street, approached curiously and greeted him.
After a brief silence, Qi Sheng smiled and nodded in response.
"Yes, I'm here on vacation. I don't need any help, thank you."
The boy's greeting left Qi Sheng feeling wistful.
This city no longer held any friends or relatives he knew. The traces of his existence had long since been erased by the changing times, leaving only untended gravestones.
Just then, Guide's teasing voice rang out in his mind:
[Tsk, tsk. The saddest thing in life isn't children who see you without recognizing you, smiling as they ask where this visitor has come from. Nor is it a ruined gate with a rusty lock long unopened, a gray-brick path covered in dry moss, and nameless weeds overrunning the garden. It's discovering that the traces of your era have already been erased, revisiting old haunts only