In a dry wasteland filled with desert sand, skeletal ruins of skyscraper fossils jutted out of the sand. Scrap metal and waste filled the sand, making the wasteland seem like the treacherous aftermath of an ancient battlefield.
A crew of 7 humanoids trekked through this wasteland.
Above them, the neon skylines had orange clouds on some parts and dark blue clouds on other parts, forming neon storms that hid the distant skies, keeping the world in a state of constant evening-like dimness.
With their black coats fluttering in the dry wind, they supported their black undertaker hats with one hand when the wind got too strong.
And with their backs straight, they trekked through the wasteland.
They moved in a straight line formation. Talia led the line, with Ghostwire following closely behind her, then Rex, then Leon, then Kain, and finally Brick and Daren who held the line at the back.
Tap… tap… tap…
Their footsteps formed a rhythm, ghostly as they trekked while triggering only the slightest sound.
Walking this faintly required a technique. Leon was unfamiliar with it but with his enhanced Ascended physique, he quickly managed to get the hang of it after just 5 minutes into the journey.
Everywhere around them was quiet and desolate except the sharp cutting sound of the dry wind when it accelerated, and the occasional cyclone that came their way.
As they trekked, while staying alert, Leon also paid attention to the scrap metal and resources that were left in this wasteland.
Walking past them left his heart bleeding; he felt like a treasure hunter walking away from a pile of gold.
'I'm beginning to regret my choice,' he sighed. 'Maybe, staying in this wasteland was better afterall'.
'This is literally a treasure trove for me to practice my Construct and Deconstruct abilities'.
'I'm pretty sure I can complete my Ascended Counter to 1000 in a month or two if I'm left to take advantage of all these scrap waste and flex my creative instincts. Maybe even less time,' he smiled. 'But it's not too late, I can always come back'.
In the end, despite the current circumstances of meeting Talia's crew that went better than he expected, he didn't forget his origin.
The vivid image of the underground facility where he woke up was still firmly engraved in his head. And to him, that was still his shelter.
'I'll definitely come back in the future. For now, it's time to explore this world'.
The journey was not fully smooth-sailing though. Afterall, in the end, this was the fringe of the Wastes that was filled with deadly ADE corruption and corrupted Neon Beasts.
About 12 minutes into the trek, Talia suddenly raised her hand and stopped them.
The rest of the crew stopped immediately. They were all experienced; none of them made any sudden movements even as they paused completely in silence.
Despite this being his first time, Leon was also smart enough to stay silent.
Just as he wondered why Talia told them to stop, he noticed the desert sand about 20 meters in front of them squirm suddenly as a long desert snake appeared.
'Huh? We stopped just because of that…?' His thoughts stopped quickly, because from one, a second desert snake appeared, then a third, a fourth, a fifth, a tenth…
"…" Leon was speechless.
'Since when do snakes move in packs? Is this another trait of them being Neon Beasts? I should really find time to properly study a Neon Beast'. He silently reminded himself.
About 2 minutes later, all the desert snakes slithered away without discovering them, and then they continued their journey.
30 minutes into the trek and Leon finally discovered another landmass that was not just a skeletal frame like most of the skyscraper fossils around. This ruin was just like the data vault that he once explored, it was still partially intact.
It was a ruined compound housing a dilapidated mast tower.
At the top of the mast tower, a torn and tattered flag silently fluttered in the wind. Leon could barely discern the image of a bald Eagle in the flag; the Eagle was entirely mechanic, but both its eyes were different.
One of the eyes burned with fire, reflecting blood, and Leon felt that it symbolized war. The other eye was frigid like the depths of an arctic region; Leon felt that it symbolized order.
'Is that…?'
Talia confirmed his guess. "That's the flag of the Federation".
Talia hunched the next moment, and the other members of this crew imitated her actions. They didn't do it randomly. They did it because this ruined building and the dilapidated mast tower was overrun by Neon Beasts!
They roamed inside, hunger and corrupted madness burning in their eyes.
Aerial Neon Beasts hung from different levels of the mast tower, and at its highest level close to the tattered flag, a familiar Vulture perched, coldly observing the world beneath it like a King.
It was exactly the same type of Vulture that attacked them during the siege, but this guy was bigger, and its presence was heavier.
Undoubtedly, it was E Rank.
"Let's circle round". Talia instructed calmly.
They did just that, carefully circling around the ruin and escaping the detection of the E Rank Vulture that perched at the top of the mast tower.
Then, they continued the trek.
For the next 1 hour, with Talia leading the way, they ate kilometers of distance while avoiding most Neon Beasts. For the ones they couldn't avoid, with Talia leading the fight, they made short work of the Neon Beasts.
Only now that they worked together did the others truly realize the change in the crew. An addition of a single E Rank Ascended more than quadrupled the collective might of the crew.
Talia alone was a monster in battle, but with the others supporting her, especially Daren, they became an unstoppable force of nature.
Before, by cooperating and pooling their strengths together, they could injure E Rank Neon Beasts and escape, but killing one was still a stretch.
Now though, they could easily kill an E Rank Neon Beast with the right conditions.
After this additional 1 hour of trekking, they finally passed the boundary where civilization ends, or betterstill where civilization began.
Sometime ago, Leon lied about his circumstances to Talia, deliberately guiding the conversation and telling her that he woke up inside a car fossil.
Well, Leon finally saw real cars.
The cars were abandoned and were now just fossils. They were part of convoys that were clearly eaten by nanite corrosion.
Past this boundary, it was no longer a wasteland. The scraps and waste were left behind them, and in the desert sand, a little bit of vegetation and desert trees finally appeared, showing that life survived here.
Leon saw rusted skeletal billboards by the side of a pathway that was barely discernable in the desert sand.
Past this point, the desert slowly receded as they finally started walking on solid ground. The type of Neon Beasts also changed as they started encountering a weird type of Neon Beast that was like a Lich.
They were feline with four limbs, but they were formed entirely of metallic bone growths. Red flames burned in the place where eyes should be.
With Talia's Data Lash, she damaged the beasts' souls, leaving them stunned for the crew to easily take apart.
As they progressed, Leon also keenly noticed that the environmental instability and gravity shift had became milder. The temperature spikes also became milder; Leon finally felt that this was an inhabitable world.
'A normal human can most likely survive in this atmosphere, unlike where we're coming from. It's not fully safe though'.
He looked back, and all he could see was dust and desert sand that obscured the skyscraper fossils and the gigantic wasteland that was hidden inside.
They've left the fringe of the Wastes.
"Let's continue," Talia led the way forward.
5 minutes later, just when Leon thought the true dangers were behind them, he was shocked as the ground beneath them suddenly shook like an earthquake was imminent.
And then, from the ground emerged a beast, another E Rank Neon Beast!
This time, it was a Neon Beast that Leon had never seen before, it was a Glassback Sandwyrm. This beast was more than 10 meters long, and it had reflective thick brown scales that covered its whole body.
This guy was not an easy kill like the others despite Talia's presence. This was because its reflective scales could actually scatter light into laser-like beams!
Kain got injured in the sudden sneak attack, and Talia had to make use of her magnetic coil and uplink discs before she could heavily injure the Neon Beast.
They couldn't kill it; it burrowed into the ground and escaped after suffering injuries.
After that, they became even more careful.
A few more minutes later, they followed a fractured, half-buried highway where they encountered another group of Neon Beasts, Brutefang Hyenas.
Most of them were just F Rank Beasts, but they hunted in packs, and their alpha was an especially annoying existence. Their alpha was an E Rank.
Despite the crew's strength, the Brutefang Hyenas with over 20 of them in the pack managed to harass the crew, draining their endurance even more.
The Brutefang Hyenas lost, losing more than half of the pack during the assault. They didn't manage to injure any of their enemies due to Talia's presence, but they managed to wear them down even more, leaving them tired.
Also, by now, the sky finally started changing, leaving a state of perpetual evening as the neon skyline slowly receded and gave way to darkness.
Night was approaching.
Talia made a decision as they arrived before a rocky plateau.
"Let's camp here for the night".