Lin Sanjiu quietly peeked over the edge of the landing pad, her eyes scanning left and right.
Her entire body hung suspended off the edge, giving her a clear view of the underbellies of various flying crafts. Some resembled small hot air balloons, hovering just inches above the ground. Others looked like steel boxes perched on spider-like metal legs. One particular ship was performing a dance, its belly extending several black cylindrical appendages that rhythmically tapped the ground to the faint beat of music coming from the ship's rear. It had been dancing for who knows how long and showed no signs of stopping.
"It's got better rhythm than I do," Lin Sanjiu muttered. She waited patiently until she was sure no one was nearby before silently flipping onto the platform.
She hadn't managed to buy a disguise mask. To be fair, any generic product she could find would likely be useless against Shark Nexus's detection. But Lin Sanjiu knew her most distinctive feature and, fortunately, she had a way to change it.
1
As she walked toward the landing pad's office, her body seemed to melt like an ice cream exposed to sunlight. She shrank shorter and shorter. By the time she had paid and returned to her ship with a staff member, her hips appeared misaligned—as if her waist had been broken and reattached incorrectly, causing a noticeable bulge.
[How to Render]'s ability to manipulate light and shadow was remarkable. She now appeared a full head shorter than the average person, like a chopstick distorted in a bowl of water.
1
The staff member remained unphased. He must have seen plenty of strange-looking posthumans. Without a second glance, he unlocked Lin Sanjiu's craft and lazily walked away, counting the payment again on his way back.
As Lin Sanjiu climbed into the triangular flying craft, the vessel came to life with a soft hum. Lights and screens flickered on, illuminating the narrow and familiar cabin.
"Welcome home," Silas said gently, just like he did on the Exodus.
Lin Sanjiu slumped into the pilot's seat, listening to the door close behind her with a hiss, and let out a long sigh of relief.
"That trip nearly killed me," she muttered, pulling up the flight path from her arrival.
The transparent canopy in front of the seat also served as a large screen, now divided into sections glowing with a soft blue hue: flight logs, the route map, system diagnostics, and projections of the views to the sides and rear of the craft.
"Look at the ship Yu Yuan found for you. It's obviously not cheap," Mrs. Manas chimed in. "And you threw him off the ship."
"I'm going to find them now, aren't I?" Lin Sanjiu replied sheepishly. "Silas, run a pre-flight check. Then let's follow our arrival route and head to the nearest human settlement."
Under Silas's supervision, everything proceeded quickly and smoothly. Soon, the craft was reversing into the departure corridor. The runway stretched straight into the blue sky, and behind them, the sign indicating available docking spaces increased by one.
Lin Sanjiu's eyes swept the rear-view screen and immediately noticed the staff member again. This time, he wasn't sauntering lazily. He was rushing toward her craft, and beside him, an unfamiliar posthuman with a wild mop of hair was gesturing frantically.
The staff member raised his hand and pointed directly at Lin Sanjiu's craft.
"Silas," she said, laughing, "Let's go!"
As the craft soared forward with a rush of wind, the man with the nest-like hair suddenly accelerated, his feet blurring in motion. He was fast, no doubt, but compared to the flying vehicle, it was futile. Lin Sanjiu barely had time to glance at the screen and catch the expression on his face—which clearly screamed "Oh no, she's getting away!"—before his image slipped out of view, replaced by a stretch of clear blue sky.
"We finally shook those hounds off!" she shouted, raising a hand for a celebratory high-five, only to realize there was no one beside her.
1
For the first few minutes, Lin Sanjiu kept the craft at full speed. In just a few blinks, she left the CBD district far behind, until it was no longer visible. The vehicle Yu Yuan had given her was incredibly high-performance. Even in Cloudwalk Heights, where flying vehicles were the primary means of transportation, few could match its capabilities.
After nearly ten minutes of continuous flight, she finally began to relax. Unless there was an invisible ship moving at the same speed—one that could evade both radar and the naked eye—there was no chance anyone was tailing her. Ṛ𝒶₦𝐎𝖇Ɛṥ
"Once we land," she told Mrs. Manas, "remind me to check the craft for any tracking devices."
"Didn't that nest-head fail to catch up?"
"I spent the night in the sky travel pod. He had plenty of time to call for reinforcements and intercept me at both the messaging system and the landing pad. It's not strange that he found the pad, but it is odd he was so late." As Lin Sanjiu spoke, the hazy silhouette of another human settlement began to take shape ahead—a massive, rugged, dark structure, its uneven edges rising and falling, standing solitary and distinct in the pale blue mist.
"There's one possibility I can't ignore," Lin Sanjiu said, craning her neck to get a better look. "Maybe he was here last night already. This place... really is different."
The CBD district was a network of airy, connected commercial buildings—orderly, bright, and free. In contrast, this place resembled a giant, timeworn fortress. Though still standing, it seemed to have grown more somber and mute as it approached its inevitable decline.
"What is this place?" Lin Sanjiu's question went unanswered. The map Yu Yuan had saved wasn't in this small craft, and even Silas didn't recognize the settlement.
As she flew closer, even the grand, fortress-like impression faded. The entire structure was made of concentric rings of walls, spiraling upward. The design wasn't intentional; it was a consequence of haphazard construction. When the lower levels filled up with corridor-like spaces, more walls were erected on top, growing upward like ivy. These uneven, crooked "floors" varied in width and looked dubiously stable.
Between the walls, sparse wooden planks formed walkways, cloth sheets hung like makeshift hammocks, and some sections had cement flooring. However, each level was fragmented by gaps of darkness, allowing a sliver of sunlight to reach the lower floors. Many walls lacked proper windows; bricks had simply been knocked out to create makeshift openings.
Dilapidated and faded advertisements and signs protruded from the walls, many so torn they hung limply, flapping weakly in the wind. From a distance, Lin Sanjiu could barely make out the largest sign: "Residential/Item Collateral Loans."
"If I land the craft here, it's definitely getting stolen," she muttered.
As Lin Sanjiu hesitated about landing, the vehicle continued its approach. Among the tattered signs, one caught her eye. It was a large, clean, and brand-new advertisement: "Beacon-Wolf Signal Registration Office."