After the sun's harsh glare subsided, the trio continued their journey by car.
Lingxi remained at the wheel, as the road ahead was fraught with unknown dangers.
Xiaoxiao, though she had been practicing for some time, suppressed her urge to try driving.
...
"Big Brother, there are zombies over there!"
As they passed a grassy hillside, Xiaoxiao's voice rang out.
"Hm? Zombies?!"
Hearing this, Ye Feng, who had been engrossed in a manual detailing the design and use of C4 explosives, immediately looked up.
"Lingxi, stop the car~"
Without waiting for the Humvee to come to a halt, Ye Feng eagerly pulled open the car door, drew his Tang knife, and charged towards the zombies.
Ye Feng was quite pleased at the moment, as he hadn't earned any usable points for days.
...
For the next three days, Ye Feng managed to kill zombies daily.
Of course, aside from the afternoon of the first day, Ye Feng didn't deliberately stop to hunt zombies. He focused on clearing out those in his path and along the roadside.
While he valued usable points, he didn't want to proceed too slowly and miss their arrival at Desperate City.
To Ye Feng's surprise, the [Shop] refreshed with an electromagnetic pulse bomb every day for these three days.
Although a bit pricey at 500 survival coins, Ye Feng bought them, just in case.
...
On the fourth day,
In the morning,
"Big Brother, since yesterday, there have been many modern buildings along the way, as well as abandoned cars, RVs, and the like – traces of human life," kanδん
"Are we close to Desperate City?"
Based on the intelligence they had gathered, Desperate City was only within a general area on their map, so Xiaoxiao was a little uncertain.
"Mm!~ We should be!"
Ye Feng nodded.
According to what Old Man Qi the Immortal had said, Desperate City was once a very prosperous modern metropolis.
And major cities naturally had developed road or rail networks, or even airports nearby.
What lay before them now was clearly an elevated highway!
Although at a glance, many sections of the elevated highway were broken, blocked by various scrapped cars, and overgrown with vines and plants.
"Hm?"
Suddenly, Ye Feng's expression changed.
A shadow flew overhead, prompting Ye Feng to quickly look up.
"A bird? Flying so fast?"
"No, that's... a Pterodactyl?"
Upon clearly seeing the shadow flying above, Ye Feng was astonished.
It was actually a dinosaur, or more precisely, a Pterodactyl!
"That direction... is this Pterodactyl also flying towards Desperate City?"
Ye Feng frowned, lost in thought.
...
At noon,
"Big Brother, is that Desperate City over there?"
"It's... such a vast city, the outer walls stretch as far as the eye can see... And the buildings are so tall, the one in the very center seems to be in the clouds..."
As the Hummer climbed a slope, Xiaoxiao exclaimed in amazement upon seeing the scene before them.
"This..."
Ye Feng was also slightly taken aback by the sight of the large cluster of buildings before them.
Since arriving in the Afterglow world, the structures Ye Feng had encountered were mostly made of wood and brick-concrete, with very few of reinforced concrete.
The cluster of buildings before them was entirely characteristic of a modern metropolis.
After eating lunch, resting, and organizing their supplies, Ye Feng, Xiaoxiao, and Lingxi set off towards the cluster of buildings.
...
Around three in the afternoon,
The trio, in their Hummer, arrived outside the wall of the modern metropolis.
"Damn, this wall must be at least 50 meters high!"
From a distance, it hadn't seemed so imposing. Now, standing at the base of the wall, Ye Feng felt it was ridiculously tall.
"Big Brother, a lot of people arrived before us!"
At this moment, Xiaoxiao's voice sounded out.
Ye Feng surveyed the scene and was quite surprised.
Outside the towering city wall, about two meters away, many off-road vehicles were parked.
Next to almost every off-road vehicle was some kind of tent.
A large number of adventurers were living and cooking there, or chatting with each other, occasionally glancing at the towering city wall.
Some of the adventurers wore expressions of worry, some of anticipation, and some of blankness.
"Lingxi, stop the car~"
After driving along the outer perimeter of the massive city wall for a while without finding an entrance, Ye Feng decided to get out and see what was going on.
"Mr. Ye?"
At this moment, a male voice, not entirely unfamiliar to Ye Feng, called out.
"Is that you?"
Ye Feng was also a little surprised.
The speaker was someone he had met only a few days ago – Li Bao, the leader of the Cheetah Exploration Team.
He was currently bruised and battered, with multiple injuries, and his left pinky finger was gone, bandaged up.
"You... you're quite badly injured~ Are you alright~"
After a moment's thought, Ye Feng greeted him somewhat awkwardly.
"Mr. Ye is too kind, my strength is ordinary, not comparable to powerful explorers like Mr. Ye!"
"To reach the great wall of Desperate City and only sustain these injuries is already a blessing in disguise!"
As he spoke, Li Bao looked towards the location of his convoy, his expression somber.
When they set off from the Firefly Outpost, they had a full 10 four-wheel-drive off-road vehicles, 30 off-road motorcycles, and over 200 people.
Yet, less than 50 had reached the outer wall of Desperate City.
Aware of how dangerous and difficult the journey had been, Li Bao was even more impressed by Ye Feng, who was unharmed!
He also felt even more fortunate that he had stopped his subordinates from harassing Ye Feng earlier, otherwise...
"By the way, Li Bao, since you've all arrived here, why aren't you going in?"
Glancing around the area again, Ye Feng asked with some confusion.
"Mr.... Mr. Ye, you don't know?"
Li Bao looked at Ye Feng with astonishment.
"Know what?"
Ye Feng frowned slightly.
"Mr. Ye, it's like this!"
Seeing this, Li Bao immediately changed his tone, "Desperate City is quite special. It's surrounded by tightly sealed, tall city walls, with no gates or anything."
"Not only is the wall 50 meters high, but the bricks used are not ordinary stones; they are extremely hard!"
"Even .38 caliber bullets can only scratch the surface, and grappling hooks with ropes cannot penetrate and hook onto anything."
"So, there's only one way to enter Desperate City: climb the 50-meter wall and go over."
Li Bao explained quickly.
"And, the wall of Desperate City can't be climbed at any time~ It requires the right opportunity!"
"Climbing at the wrong time is a dead end~"
He paused, and Li Bao added again.
"This seemingly ordinary wall is so outlandish?"
Ye Feng turned to look at the earthy brown wall, somewhat bewildered.
"Oh oh~..."
At that moment, a crow flew overhead from above Ye Feng and the others, about to hit the wall of Desperate City.
When the crow was still half a meter from the wall, the air suddenly distorted, and the crow instantly fell.
However, its front half was gone, leaving only the rear half of its legs.
"Hiss~!"
Ye Feng couldn't help but gasp.
...