Chapter 334 - First City (1/2)

Chapter 334: First City

More than a week later, the military-green jeep drove over a charred piece of land.

Collapsed houses and lush, abnormal vegetation could be seen everywhere. Occasionally, strange beasts and Ruin Hunters—who used all kinds of transportation—passed by.

“This area suffered the most damage when the Old World was destroyed.” In the passenger seat, Bai Chen looked out the window and sighed with emotion. “However, it was near this area that humans established the first city in the New Calendar.”

In Pangu Biology’s textbooks, they only mentioned that First City was the first city built by humans using the Old World ruins. They didn’t mention that its neighboring area was the area with the most damage. This fascinated Long Yuehong as he muttered to himself, “They probably suffered a lot back then and paid a huge price…”

But it was not destroyed.

Jiang Baimian—who was driving—echoed, “Yes. Regardless of what First City has become, they deserve our praise for being able to survive the apocalypse and rebuilding a civilization that belongs to humans.”

Clap! Clap! Clap!

Shang Jianyao clapped.

“What’s there to applaud?” Jiang Baimian was a little peeved.

Shang Jianyao replied truthfully, “Your words reminded me of the teachers in school.”

“Are you allowed to clap in class?” Jiang Baimian replied angrily.

Shang Jianyao glanced at her side profile. “In addition to lessons, there’s also morning assembly.”

He had a look that said, ‘Have you never been to school?’

Jiang Baimian ground her teeth and cast her gaze ahead.

As the jeep drove quickly, a wide river that amazed Long Yuehong appeared in front of them.

Red River—the longest and widest river in the Ashlands.

Its waves didn’t look that clean. From time to time, green seaweed and all kinds of trash floated above it.

On its other side were buildings that weren’t tall. Chimneys stood tall as they spewed grayish-white or rust-yellow gases upward.

This made the entire sky appear foggy. Even though it was not evening yet, the lighting was rather dim.

A commotion sounded as two dark helicopters flew across the sky.

Further away, unmanned drones circled back and forth, patrolling their territory.

Long Yuehong held his breath.

This meant that they had arrived at First City’s capital, First City.

After leaving Weed City, apart from going to a wilderness nomad settlement on the way to replenish their food supplies, the Old Task Force spent most of their time traversing the wilderness.

Although First City was known as the largest faction in the Ashlands and had the largest population, it could only control settlements of various sizes, places that could be called cities, areas around them that could be farmed or had mineral resources, and important transportation routes.

For the wilderness, mountains, forests, swamps, and ruins, they were beyond First City’s reach. Therefore, the Old Task Force had only encountered many Ruin Hunters along the way and had never encountered First City’s official army.

Now, they were finally about to officially make contact with the largest faction in the Ashlands.

In the jeep, apart from Shang Jianyao’s unconcealed excitement, Jiang Baimian and the others more or less revealed a certain level of anticipation. Even Genava—the smart bot—followed his program’s analysis and made himself appear more excited.

After going downstream along the Red River for a while, the forest-like chimneys gradually became sparse. High buildings made of steel and concrete rose from the ground; there were also a large number of ordinary buildings between them. This combined to outline a real city.

It was not much inferior to Swamp Ruin 1.

“How many people can live here?” Long Yuehong asked wistfully.

“It’s said that it can accommodate around a million people.” Bai Chen couldn’t give a precise number because First City’s statistics department didn’t know either. Furthermore, there were many hunters and caravans coming and going here. The flow of people here could be considered the highest in the Ashlands.

As they spoke, the Old Task Force saw a bridge. It could accommodate eight cars traveling side by side, and it connected the wastelands and mountains on Red River’s north bank to First City.

On both ends of the bridge were fully armed regular troops, each with more than 100 people.

They wore dark-gray helmets and uniforms of the same color. They had many machine guns mounted and used a few dark-green armored vehicles to build a simple fortification on the bridge, leaving only an opening for two ordinary vehicles.

Every person in every car had to stop when they passed through the gap and undergo a relatively strict inspection.

According to the information provided by the company before the team set off, Jiang Baimian knew that light weapons could be brought into the city. Heavy weapons were confiscated, as were other contraband items.

Unfortunately, military exoskeletons were a military-controlled item.

Of course, the Old Task Force could also choose to take a detour and head to the Red River’s south river. However, the other entrances to First City were also guarded by troops, and there were also various aircraft monitoring the area from the sky.

Long Yuehong wasn’t nervous about this and only glanced at Shang Jianyao. With Inference Clowning around, what place can’t we enter?

The military-green jeep continued forward and quickly got in line.

Jiang Baimian stepped on the brakes and looked out.

On the charred ground around them, many humans in old clothes were squatting or standing.

Some of them were bona fide Red River people. Their eye sockets were sunken, and their hair was striking. Some had darker brown skin, and their eyes were black; they were lean.