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"Is it heaven?"
"No, it's the Nether!"
Yang Tao extended his hand to Kanazawa, who hesitated for just a moment before reaching out his own hand.
"The Nether? I want to see it…"
A smile appeared on Kanazawa's face, a smile of apparent relief.
Yang Tao pulled him onto the magic broom with a slight tug, took a deep drag from his cigarette, and refreshed the poison duration on himself.
With a flick of his finger, the cigarette butt, glowing intermittently, landed on the cold concrete ground, exploding into a burst of fireworks.
He said, "Hold on tight. It won't be bumpy, but it will be a bit fast."
"Okay…"
As his words fell, the magic broom shot out like an arrow from a bowstring. Kanazawa tightly gripped the broom beneath him; he was not the broom's controller and could only be considered an attachment to the magic broom, so he would not receive the protection of special energy.
Flying high into the sky, Yang Tao arrived at the second-layer city.
It was equally desolate.
No animals, no sounds.
However, Yang Tao noticed that the streetlights in the second-layer city still had power, though only in a small area.
A building emitting a white light entered his vision. Yang Tao's intuition told him that this must be where the protagonist would pass by.
Controlling the magic broom, he quickly flew towards the building, glancing at the mini-map to find no living creatures inside.
He landed in front of the building.
Kanazawa sat down on the ground, his face pale. Yang Tao smiled and took a bottle of Almond water from his backpack, throwing it to him.
"You'll get used to it. Here, drink some of this Almond water. This stuff can help you relax."
Kanazawa did not complain or show dissatisfaction; instead, he showed an apologetic expression and said, "I'm sorry, I've never experienced this feeling before. It's truly novel."
"Can you tell me what happened to this world?"
Kanazawa looked at him with a strange expression, but quickly recalled the scene of flying in the sky just now: "A war happened, and almost everyone died."
"Even those who survived could only eke out an existence in the crevices of the cities, and more people, seeing no hope, chose suicide."
After a pause, Kanazawa raised the camera hanging on his chest and said with a smile, "If I hadn't wanted to map all parts of this city, I probably would have committed suicide too…"
Yang Tao could easily tell from his words that he was not lying.
'Is he surviving on a thread of belief?'
"Do you know what this place is?"
Kanazawa gently shook his head and said, "I don't know. I wanted to come to this upper layer, but I haven't acted on it yet…"
Yang Tao did not ask any more questions and walked directly into the only glowing building. Inside the building was a vast, empty hall.
The hall's floor was a beautiful artificial lotus pond; the emerald green lotus leaves and pink lotus flowers appeared lifelike under the lights.
However, it was precisely this perfection that made it obvious at a glance that these were all fake. He lightly stepped on the 'water surface' made of glass.
Touching the metal-made duckweed.
Yang Tao felt that everything was full of irony.
In the very center of the hall stood a peculiar statue. It looked nothing like… well, it wasn't entirely unlike a person; at least the statue had human-like eyes and a mouth.
However, its expression looked exactly like an emoji, and specifically the one with the curved eyes.
"It's quite amusing…"
Its body was a round pillar, somewhat like a telephone pole, only its head was bent.
Yang Tao went to the deepest part of this temple.
Here stood several stone tablets covered with text.
At this moment, the sound of a camera shutter came from behind him. Kanazawa was holding his camera, continuously taking pictures of the statue and him.
Noticing his gaze, Kanazawa showed an embarrassed expression and said, "I… I want to record it, though I don't know if anyone will ever see it."
Yang Tao smiled and said, "Then you record."
The text on the stone tablets did not describe much, mainly about resource scarcity, escalating war, and the deployment of various destructive weapons.
Natural and man-made disasters emerged one after another.
A new type of creature appeared, feeding on various weapons: bullets, grenades, shells, and even missiles.
They were elevated to the status of 'gods' by people who hoped for peace.
Yang Tao felt that the information recorded on the stone tablet seemed like a joke.
He turned to look at the stone statue again.
He found it hard to imagine what such a creature truly looked like; it was too abstract. What did this 'god,' which looked more like a male organ than a creature, live on?
The image of this thing wriggling on the ground appeared in his mind, and Yang Tao's previously suppressed mood was greatly relieved.
He turned and walked out of the temple.
"Kanazawa, we should go!"
Kanazawa was startled and quickly took two photos of the stone tablet with his camera, then jogged to catch up with Yang Tao.
He did not ask Yang Tao where he was going.
For him, anywhere was better than staying in the original place.
Yang Tao summoned his staff and patted the spot behind him: "Come on up."
Kanazawa walked forward and sat behind Yang Tao.
"Aren't you curious?"
"Why should I be curious?"
Yang Tao: "..."
"Hold tight, hold on!"
The magic broom flew up again. As the exploration value continuously increased, Yang Tao could adjust his route at any time, ensuring he followed the path the protagonist would explore as closely as possible.
They arrived at an even higher-layer city.
Completely different from the 'prosperity' of the lower layers.
The entire city had completely vanished, literally. There were only I-beams standing upright on the concrete ground.
These I-beams were like trees growing out of the earth.
However, even with the night wind blowing, they had no crowns to sway.
Seeing such a scene, Yang Tao couldn't help but slow down his flying speed. At this moment, the sound of a camera came from behind him again.
[Exploration Value 85.58%]
The sudden jump in exploration value made Yang Tao look down at the concrete 'square' below.
A white dot appeared in his line of sight.
Controlling the magic broom, he descended to the location of the white dot.
"It looks like it's underground…"
The surroundings were still flat concrete ground; the only place where someone might be was underground.
He took a pickaxe from his backpack and gently tapped on the ground. As he tapped, a crisp thudding sound rang out.
And the white dot on the mini-map moved, clearly having heard his tapping sound.
Rumble.
The ground collapsed, and a platform descended, revealing a passage leading underground.
Yang Tao stopped what he was doing and, with Kanazawa, looked at the dimly glowing underground entrance. Soon, the platform slowly rose again, and a young woman in a white lab coat gradually ascended from underground with the platform.
"I didn't expect to see other humans…"
She had the same expression as Kanazawa, as if uninterested in everything.
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