Dimensional Codex System: I'm really not a cultist!

Chapter 1827 - 1825: The Depleted World

In the following days, Fang Zheng had quite a leisurely time. Apart from dragging Shihou Souki around, there was nothing else to do. The entire Daihasei Festival went smoothly, just as Fang Zheng had anticipated from start to finish.

Meanwhile, Hainara Kuon did not disappoint Fang Zheng’s expectations either. Her performance throughout the Daihasei Festival was remarkable, and her demeanor during media interviews suited her identity perfectly. This allowed Fang Zheng’s plan to unite the world through the Daihasei Festival to proceed smoothly. At least for now, the first step in changing Academy City’s image in the eyes of outsiders could be considered a success.

For now, the troubles in Academy City seemed to have concluded, so Fang Zheng quickly made preparations. After handing over Academy City to Kurumi, he immediately opened the Teleportation Gate and followed the guide of the Order Coordinates to the next world...

"Alright, let’s see what kind of world this is..."

A flicker of Radiance passed before his eyes, and Fang Zheng cheerfully opened his eyes. In the next moment, what appeared before him was a gaping maw.

Then...

"Phish."

The gaping maw snapped shut, plunging Fang Zheng into Pitch Black darkness.

The massive Creature bit down on Fang Zheng, shaking him vigorously. Meanwhile, hundreds of Creatures surrounded them, swarming toward where the Creature was, as if trying to tear the prey into Fragments...

"Damn!!"

With an enraged roar, crimson flames suddenly erupted, incinerating all the nearby Creatures to Ash. In the burst of flames, Fang Zheng, with an iron-like complexion, walked out of the fire, wiping his face.

Dammit, after time traveling so many times, this was the first time I nearly got eaten right after arriving!

This is really damn unlucky!

Fang Zheng took a deep breath, then looked up and glanced around. All around him were only the charred remains of Creatures. Looking far and wide, all he could see was an endless wasteland with no cities or signs of human presence, appearing like a Deathly Silent world.

"It can’t be that bad."

Seeing this, Fang Zheng frowned. He could feel that this world had a similar vibe to the first coordinate point, which was Katori’s world, almost exhausted. With all the Creatures around, could this also be caused by the Beasts like over there?

However, Fang Zheng did not detect any Chaos Aura like that of Beasts from the corpses. At least from this point, it seemed they were more likely to be products of Order.

It’s just that...

"What should I do now..."

Fang Zheng looked around and scratched his head. There were wastelands in every direction, and he didn’t know where to go.

However, Fang Zheng wasn’t entirely without options.

"Go, Little Ding Dong."

Quickly, Fang Zheng pulled out a few Little Ding Dongs from his item stash and tossed them into the air. Soon, the reconnaissance drones flew high above, starting to survey the surroundings.

"Wasteland, desert, desert, wasteland, desert..."

Looking at the sweeping scenes on his terminal, Fang Zheng was speechless. It was either wasteland or desert here, or the gathering places of those Creatures or their remains. There were no cities, let alone any trace of civilization... What the hell is this place?

Hmm?

Before long, Fang Zheng spotted a shadow on the screen and zoomed in to see what appeared to be a strangely shaped bus... He wondered if there were humans on it.

But in any case... it should be easier to communicate with than these Creatures.

With that thought, Fang Zheng already had a plan.

The bus was headed forward, when suddenly, the driver stared ahead and let out an "eh" sound.

"What’s up? Is there something?"

Hearing the driver’s voice, a man holding a weapon behind him tensed up, while the driver shook his head.

"No, it’s just that there’s someone by the station over there..."

"Someone? But according to the schedule, there’s no city here."

"Regardless, it looks like a living person."

Seeing the man at the station casually raise his right thumb, the driver chuckled.

"Should we stop and have a look?"

"Of course, let’s check out the situation first."

Soon, the bus stopped in front of the station, and the door opened.

"Hey, buddy, what’s going on with you?"

"Ran into a bit of trouble."

Faced with the questions from the people on the bus, Fang Zheng helplessly spread his hands, while secretly relieved in his heart. He had been worried that those piloting these vehicles might not be human. Now it seemed, at least they were human...

"I originally planned to catch the next vehicle here, but I got the timing wrong. When I arrived, it had already left..."

Fang Zheng said half-jokingly, and the people on the vehicle laughed heartily.

"You’re really unlucky, quickly get on board, or it’ll be trouble if those creatures find you."

"Oh, thanks."

Fang Zheng raised his hand to express gratitude, then stood up and climbed into the transport vehicle. Meanwhile, he noticed that both the driver and the person next to him were curiously sizing him up... Did he reveal something?

It wasn’t until he got on the vehicle that Fang Zheng realized why other people were staring at him. From the inside, this transport vehicle was quite advanced, with seating arrangements resembling those of an airplane cabin. At the moment, passengers were each seated, but they all appeared to be travel-worn.

In contrast, Fang Zheng looked quite different. He was wearing a black trench coat over a suit and tie, resembling an overseas investor mingling with migrant workers entering the city—no wonder others were curious about his outfit.

Nevertheless, Fang Zheng wasn’t intimidated; he smiled and greeted everyone. Then, as arranged by the driver, he found an empty seat and sat down. Shortly after, a young man nearby curiously leaned over and asked Fang Zheng a question.

"Hey there, which city are you from?"

"A rather distant place, I’m actually not familiar with the situation around here..."

"It’s evident; people here don’t dress like you when going out."

"Hehe..."

Fang Zheng responded with a chuckle, then glanced around.

"Is the situation different here?"

"Oh, I don’t know what’s happening where you’re from, but over here..."

The young man seemed to trust Fang Zheng, and with just a few words, Fang Zheng understood the situation of this world.

Just as Fang Zheng imagined, the world’s lands were already exhausted, infested with creatures. However, humanity wasn’t entirely on the brink of extinction. On the contrary, they possessed a special existence—Mobile Cities.

As the name suggests, Mobile Cities are cities that can move. According to Fang Zheng, the principle is akin to the land-walking version of the Chinese Federation’s Macross, fitting an entire large-scaled city into a mobile mechanical setup, thus moving the entire city forward to avoid the creatures ravaging the lands.

How these creatures appeared is unknown, but with their emergence came land exhaustion, forcing people to leave their homes and rely on this method to survive. Naturally, in this world, there are also entities capable of dealing with the creatures.

According to the young man, each Mobile City has its own ace to handle these creatures. Due to different languages and customs, the term for "ace" varies in different regions. For instance, the Chrome Shelled Regios they are headed to has warriors called "Martial Artists" capable of using weapons crafted from a metal called "Alchemical Steel" to eliminate these creatures.

In the Far Eastern Region, there’s another Mobile City named Fenrir, with beings known as "Divine Machine Users," possessing power beyond ordinary imagination.

Moreover, according to the young man, there’s even a Mobile City of the dead named "Osta," where the "Tomb Guardians" residing there are also formidable forces against these creatures.

These cities, to evade creatures, travel along fixed routes year-round, while these transport vehicles are responsible for carrying passengers between various Mobile Cities. Even in such a world, commercial trade, interactions, and personnel exchanges still exist.

This explains the reason behind these "stations," as Mobile Cities themselves don’t produce much. They need to periodically stop to conduct maintenance and gather resources, with population transport and circulation happening mainly during these periods. Over time, this tradition of "stations" has formed.

Given the fixed routes.

"Hey, I just hope we can smoothly reach Regios."

The young man, evidently a chatterbox, peeked out the window watching the scenery while chatting with Fang Zheng.

"Do you mean those creatures? Can’t you avoid them?"

Fang Zheng was quite curious. He had observed the transport vehicle earlier, noticing it had virtually no defensive armament. According to the creatures Fang Zheng encountered before, if they were to meet, this clunker would basically be doomed.

"Most of the time, those creatures don’t appear here. These roads have been in use for many years, naturally keeping away from creature nests. But small groups are unpredictable... I heard a transport vehicle was attacked by those creatures shortly after departing recently..."

"Ah, I heard that too."

As this topic was brought up, others joined in.

"It seems that city was attacked by contaminated beasts while at a stop; it was such bad luck. I wonder how their evacuation went..."

"According to my friend, their city was ultimately preserved..."

"Look, we’ve reached Regios!"

At that moment, a voice came from the front. The crowd immediately stopped talking, raised their heads, and looked forward, and Fang Zheng followed suit. Sure enough, soon he saw the silhouette of that colossal city in the distance.

Though still somewhat distant and hard to make out, Fang Zheng discerned that, like the migrant fortress, the entire city was built on a giant steel disc base, with a roof resembling a circular dome made of something presumably similar to glass. If anything was different, it was that they didn’t have the clamshell-like opening and closing shell of the Mobile Fortress. Beneath this steel city were enormous wheels resembling tank treads.

This seemed to be the movement method of the Mobile Cities.

With the city now in sight, everyone breathed a sigh of relief; even though they hadn’t encountered any creatures en route, they were anxious all the way. But now it was fine; once inside the city, the creature threat would diminish.

Of course, assuming they make it safely.

"Boom!!"

As the transport vehicle sped onward, suddenly in front of it, the ground erupted with a blast. Abruptly, several creatures resembling giant beetles, roughly the same size as heavy tanks, burst from underground, blocking the transport’s path!