"You really can't retract your wings?" Cen Yu asked, looking at He Yuxing who was lying on the back seat.

"No." He Yuxing was also a little embarrassed.

After he crawled into the carriage, he realized that his wings made it difficult for him to sit in the passenger seat... Even in the back seat, he could only barely lie down, and when he sat, his wings would only touch the back of the seat.

Looking at the restless He Yuxing, Cen Yu suddenly thought of a question—

"Show me what's behind you."

Although He Yuxing did not understand Cen Yu's intention, she still obediently took off her cloak and turned her back to Cen Yu, revealing her wings.

“As expected…” Cen Yu muttered.

The back of the clothes he brought was completely ripped open, and white wings emerged from the holes... Perhaps sensing Cen Yu's gaze, the wings fluttered slightly, as if slightly uneasy—

“You’re shedding fur,” Cen Yu said, opening the car window.

"..." He Yuxing was silent for a few seconds, "These wings are a bit out of control."

He put the cape back on and sat awkwardly in the back seat of the off-road vehicle.

The vehicle was brought by the group inside the tower. Cen Yu rummaged through the remaining supplies and put them in the vehicle along with the canned food and water he had prepared earlier.

He and the buyer in Zone 1 had a pre-arranged code: when they reached the edge of the digital zone, he would notify the buyer.

However, Cen Yu felt he didn't have that chance.

After encountering the main character, his ulterior motives were exposed, and he had no chance to send He Yuxing to District One.

...

The post-apocalyptic world, though described as a wasteland, is actually mostly abandoned and collapsed buildings and rampant vegetation.

To prevent people from accidentally entering dungeons, some dungeons that have been discovered are marked by hunters or wanderers.

By avoiding these dungeons and the occasional mutants, they can successfully reach the digital zone.

When they passed an abandoned city, Cen Yu stopped the car. They needed to rest, so he took out a can of food and water and threw it to He Yuxing before getting out of the car.

That abandoned city is called—

Yuncheng.

Once you enter the area of ​​Cloud City, countless clouds begin to appear overhead.

Cloud City became a Level 1 mutation zone many years ago. Things that die in Cloud City eventually become clouds in the sky, until one day they fall from the sky and kill the next person who accidentally enters the city.

Cen Yu just watched Yuncheng and the clouds in the sky from afar.

One kilometer from Yuncheng, there are many yellow and red warning signs, telling all passersby that this is a Level 1 mutation zone and they should not approach.

The clouds that are near Cloud City will only gather above Cloud City and will not go far away.

Cen Yu took out a cigarette from his pocket—a homemade tobacco product—and lit it with a match. He then stared at Yuncheng, a kilometer away.

“I’ve been having the same dream,” Cen Yu said. “In the dream, there are always buildings collapsing.”

“I stood there and watched everything around me fall down.”

"At first I thought it was an earthquake, but then I thought it was impossible. If it were an earthquake, I would have run away, but I just stood there and watched the building collapse."

Cen Yu looked up and saw signs on the highway.

Besides indicating that Cloud City is just ahead, another sign points to the "Tower of Babel".

"The Tower of Babel?" Cen Yu looked up at the sign. "Where?"

He Yuxing opened the back seat and came to Cen Yu's side. He looked up at the tattered sign and asked, "Is this the name of the tower?"

"...So unlucky?" Cen Yu muttered.

The novel doesn't mention the name of the tower, but it seems that it was called a tower when it was first built.

Unlike the Tower of Babel, this "Tower of Babel" in the apocalypse is an underground structure and seems unlikely to collapse.

"Perhaps it's because the digital zone also has another name: Eden?" He Yuxing guessed.

Compared to the wilderness and the desolate zone, the digital zone is a true paradise, with clean water, an endless supply of food, clean air, and everything you could imagine that existed before the apocalypse.

The water in the wilderness is all purified water, so theoretically it won't kill anyone, but that's only in theory.

The canned goods were also produced from the scraps that those people in the digital zone didn't want.

Of course, there are food processing plants in the wilderness that produce cheap canned goods—but like the missing corpses in the tower, nobody knows what the raw materials for those cans are—so people prefer to buy things produced in the digital zone.

He finished his cigarette quickly and glanced at Yuncheng, which had become a mutated zone.

The original work doesn't mention where they met the protagonist's hunter team; it only says that it was near a mutated area.

Cen Yu decided to trust the power of the plot and wait for the other party to appear on their own.

...

It was already 2 p.m. when we arrived at the museum.

Cen Yu looked at the abandoned natural history museum in front of him, opened the car door and got out.

Before the apocalypse, this place must have been a very popular spot, covering a huge area with many supporting facilities around it... Cen Yu also saw some familiar fast food restaurants and beverage shops, but after the apocalypse, this place has become ruins.

Weeds grew everywhere, and only the word "Nature" remained on the main body of the exhibition hall; the other three words were nowhere to be seen.

The windowpanes were also shattered, and there were traces of the hunter team's presence on the ground from their previous visit.

After getting out of the back seat, He Yuxing looked up at the museum in front of her...

"Xiao Yu." He came to Cen Yu's side. "Is there any danger inside?"

"I don't know," Cen Yu said, tilting his head to look at He Yuxing. "If you're scared, we don't have to go in."

He Yuxing thought for a moment, then shook his head.

Cen Yu turned her head and looked at the museum in front of her again... and finally stepped inside.

...

Upon entering the main hall, Cen Yu saw the enormous blue whale specimen.

It's hard to describe the shock of this thing suddenly appearing before my eyes... There was only this one exhibit in the spacious main hall.

The treated specimens were specially arranged to resemble their position in the sea. People after the apocalypse have naturally never seen the ocean or whales. The murals on the exhibition walls have also become dilapidated, leaving only the whale specimens in front of us as a remnant of memories from before the apocalypse.

He Yuxing looked up at the huge specimen in front of him.

Cen Yu was also watching.

Everything before him was 90% similar to his dream. He turned to look at He Yuxing beside him, whose expression had become more lively.

"There's someone there."

He Yuxing followed Cen Yu's gaze toward the honeydew melon.

They discovered several people standing in the corridor on the second floor of the exhibition hall, one of whom had a gun pointed directly at them.

"Hands up, put down your weapons."

The person on the second floor said.

"...and take off the hooded cape."