Qing Chen was standing on the landing pad. The turbojet of the floating car next to him stirred up a noisy wind.
Suddenly, in the distance…
A high-speed train dashed across the sky. From its reflections in the dense windows, it looked similar to a white pegasus.
Much to one's amazement, it threaded through the city’s densely compacted buildings with ease.
Not so in between the small gaps in buildings, but rather through the buildings themselves. They were hollowed out like tunnels for the train to pass through.
For this reason, the city became more mysterious.
"Since you can leave at any time, why did you choose to stay in Prison 18?" asked Qing Chen suddenly.
"Maybe because the prison is less chaotic than here? You'll find out soon enough." Li Shutong replied, avoiding a direct answer.
After the waiter turned to lead the way, Qing Chen asked again in a low voice, "It's one in the morning right now. Are you sure the restaurant is still open?"
Li Shutong looked at him and said, "The true life of this eternally shining city has just begun."
"Don't people need to sleep? Don't they need to work the next day?" Qing Chen asked, puzzled.
"Previously, the Qing Corporation discovered a unique effect of its neuron connection technology: it can mimic nerve bands outside the brain to help one enter deep sleep. For the people here, sleeping two or three hours a day is sufficient," said Li Shutong.
"Does this have any side effects?" asked Qing Chen again.
"Of course," said Li Shutong, "After using this technology for a month, you wouldn’t be able to fall asleep even when you wanted to"
"That's seems quite miserable," exclaimed Qing Chen. Although he worked hard, he still enjoyed the occasional times when he slept in.
Li Shutong said to Qing Chen, "Technology is a double-edged sword, and no one knows whether it will bring blessings or disasters to mankind. For example, the Li Corporation once developed a GMO technology that could create fast-growing trees, corn, and soybean, but thirty years later, large tracts of land were unable to be planted on anymore. The Kashima Corporation was originally the most advanced in stock-breeding, yet after modifying the animals' genetics, they found that their livestock were unable to reproduce for more than three generations."
While people continued to enjoy the fruits of science and technology, they were constantly suffering from the backlash of wisdom.
Li Shutong continued, "While people do get to sleep much less, productivity doesn't improve by much, and thus, causes many to feel spiritually empty."
Of course, Qing Chen felt that the Outer World hadn’t received such fierce drawbacks yet compared to the Inner World, perhaps because they were not as dependent on technology as the Inner World.
At this time, Qing Chen looked down and saw a large, flowery boat flying in between the skyscrapers. The boat was well decorated with lights and flowers, but it still gave off a terrifying sensation.
Qing Chen couldn't even make sense of even a bit of the pattern carved on the boat.
Li Shutong followed his glance and said, "Don’t look at it, that's Mechanical Cult's cruise ship. Every second of liquid oxygen that it uses comes from the blood and sweat of its believers."
As they spoke, Li Shutong had no expression on his face.
The two of them sat in the exquisite and luxurious dining room. A well-dressed waiter brought a braised pork dish and placed it in front of Li Shutong.
There was only one pair of chopsticks prepared.
"Where's mine?" Qing Chen was confused.
"You can't eat with that mask on," said Li Shutong while picking up a piece of meat with his chopsticks as if that was quite obvious.
After a while, Li Shutong looked up and smirked, “Are you hungry?“
”A little," said Qing Chen.
Li Shutong called for the waiter, "Get the boy a bowl of fried soybean paste noodles."
"Yes, Mr. Li," said the waiter politely.
… Although it was the first time that someone ordered fried soybean paste noodles in the Sunlight Pavilion Restaurant.
As the noodles were served, Li Shutong ordered everyone to leave and said to Qing Chen, "Now, take off your mask and eat the noodles."
Qing Chen looked out the windows while he mixed the noodles.
This was one of the tallest buildings in City 18. Taking a look around, only two buildings could rival it in height.
"Those are Qing Corporation and Li Corporation buildings," said Li Shutong, as if reading his mind.
Qing Chen looked down. There were countless bridges connecting the massive buildings. The city was like a galaxy, and the neon lights were the stars in the galaxy.
Every once in a while, a floating car would fly past, and its turbine jet was like a meteor passing by.
At a certain moment, Qing Chen felt that sitting on the 88th floor was like being almost in reach to heaven, a distant and magnificent feeling.
"Is this the most beautiful scenery in the city?" asked Qing Chen.
"The Eternal Tower was built on top of six buildings, and it was because of these six buildings as the foundation that you can see the beauty and reach the height right now. If you don't consider the graffiti, urine stains, sewage, and crime happening right below, then you can consider this as the most beautiful scenery," said Li Shutong, "Today you saw the beauty of this city. If we ever have the chance, next time I shall bring you to see the ugly."
As he was talking, Li Shutong pointed toward one side, "There are binoculars next to the windows for guests to view the city while enjoying their meals. You can take a look."
Qing Chen walked to the set of binoculars.
He could see the steam of vehicles on the road, and the passing crowd next to the streets.
A person spraying painting on the walls with a trendy style, the white smoke dispersing from the barbeque stand, and the wine bar flags waving in the wind.
Suddenly, he saw two black helicopters slowly landing on the plaza platform, and a group of twenty special forces jumped down and ran toward the Eternal Tower in a tactical formation.
There were two mechanical dogs running quickly beside them.
These people were armed with live ammunition, and they carried weapons that Qing Chen couldn‘t name.
Obviously, they came for Uncle Li.
Qing Chen looked back at Li Shutong, and the teacher smiled calmly, "Eat first."
"Yes," Qing Chen went back to eating noodles.
This time, it was Li Shutong's turn to be curious, "Aren't you scared?"
"If a teacher would let a student die the first time he took the student out for a trip, the teacher would be too incompetent," said Qing Chen.
Li Shutong's loud laughter could be heard from far away.
He was starting to like Qing Chen more and more.
Meanwhile, the twenty armed special forces were split into two groups with one taking the elevator for the 87th floor and the other climbing up the emergency exit stairs.
Outside the Eternal Tower, two armed Black Kites-01 helicopters took off again towards the sky.
They started circling around the 70th floor of the Eternal Tower and were ready to fire at a moment's notice.
More than a dozen armed helicopters and floating ships had just taken off in a temporary military base farther away.
Even further away, Qing Corporation's heavy floating ship "Land Scouter" was loaded with solid fuel tanks.
Everything was like a giant net, gradually tightening.
Just as the net was about to close, the commander's calm voice sounded in their communication channel, "Stop. Check and report the status of mechanical limbs."
After this order, everyone went silent and briefly closed their communication systems.
After making sure that his voice wouldn't be heard back in the commanding center, he said, "Mr. Chen said that if we want to make it out alive today, no shots could be fired. Remember, don't drag others into this."
"Squad leader, I don't understand," someone said.
The squad leader answered, "You will later. Do not shoot.I Repeat, do not shoot."
But before they could reconnect their communication devices, a black figure silently landed among them.