The burst of red and white, along with the soldier's indifferent tone, lingered in his mind for a long time.
It wasn't until he realized the ground beneath his feet had turned into metal-plated tiles that Wang Yanfei snapped back to reality.
—He had already entered the city gate.
He turned around. The massive black metal gate loomed over ten meters high, like a giant beast ready to swallow anyone whole. Everything noisy and alive outside was cut off, leaving behind only numb silence.
Wang Yanfei let out a long breath.
"Hah… finally, I can breathe a little."
He adjusted the strap of his backpack and forced the previous scene out of his mind.
"Thinking too much won't help… better think about what to do next."
But the moment he took two steps forward, an overwhelming stench rushed straight into his face.
"…What the hell is that smell?"
It was like an abandoned sewer left to rot for years, suffocating and foul enough to choke a person.
Alvina poked half her head out from his collar and sniffed the air. "Hmm—sulfides mixed with decomposed proteins. A very… lively scent."
"Thanks, I didn't need the science lesson."
He quietly pushed her head back down.
But he couldn't laugh anymore.
Because he realized the people walking back and forth around him showed almost no reaction to the smell—as if this was simply how the air normally smelled.
His heart tightened. Instinctively, he dropped all joking thoughts and began to seriously survey his surroundings.
Both sides of the entrance were lined with crumbling residential buildings.
Large sections of outer walls had fallen off, steel bars poked out like exposed bones, windows were either shattered or nailed shut with wooden planks, and patches of wall skin peeled away like rotting scabs.
So shabby—yet placed blatantly at the very face of the city.
"This is… the scenery inside the city?"
He couldn't tell whether he felt out of place, or simply that something was fundamentally wrong.
Under normal circumstances, a place like this should be demolished or at least hidden from sight.No one would put an eyesore like this right at the city's first impression point.
Unless the people in charge thought "the uglier, the more aesthetic."
The only thing remotely decent was the main road under his feet pressed flat, without potholes, barely passable as "clean."
He also noticed something else: the cameras here were everywhere.
Almost every twenty meters, a black dome camera clung to a broken wall. Some rotated, some stared fixedly at intersections, and others swept along the main road like searchlights.
"…"
A chill ran through his heart.
The skin he wore on the mountain. The extreme, obsessive ID checks outside the walls. And now this absurd density of surveillance.
Pieces of information rapidly assembled in his mind into a very unpleasant suspicion:
This city might already be crawling with "skins."
And now, he was one of them.
Cold sweat instantly broke out along his back.His gaze toward the surrounding pedestrians grew increasingly cautious.
"How many of these people… are also 'skins'?"
He must not draw attention. Absolutely not.
He immediately lowered his head, stopped looking around, and quickened his pace down the main road.
But he failed to notice a camera on the left side of the street was fixed entirely on him.
———
Right now, the most important thing for him was figuring out how to fit into this skin's identity.
But he had no idea where this so-called "Engineer Benjamin" lived, where he worked, whether he had family or what the consequences would be if he got exposed.
So all he could do was observe as much as possible, listen carefully, and piece together who he was supposed to be from the reactions of people around him.
His most immediate priority was simply surviving in this strange city.
Preferably by using this identity—rather than hiding in someone else's skin forever.
As he walked, absorbed in thought, he followed the main road deeper inside.
At some point, he realized the overwhelming stench had faded.
He paused, then finally noticed the ground beneath him had changed—now paved with neat stone bricks. And ahead, beyond a dividing wall, lay an old residential district.
Just a wall apart, yet the two sides felt like completely different worlds.
"...Is this where I live?"
The thought surfaced naturally.
At least he was supposed to be an engineer.Surely they wouldn't dump him next to a trash heap outside the wall.
He cautiously walked in.
Plenty of people lived here. There were people at the entrances, by the windows, walking along the paths—but almost all of them wore cold, hurried expressions.
Still, whenever they noticed "Engineer Benjamin" passing by, they would instinctively pause and nod slightly.
Wang Yanfei didn't dare respond, afraid of giving himself away. He could only walk straight ahead.
Now and then, a few bicycles jingled past, the mix of chains and bells carrying a whiff of an older era.
Wang Yanfei loosened slightly.
At least… this part of the city felt human.
He looked toward the deepest part of the residential area.
At the far end stood a pure white wall.
Thick, seamless, and so tall its top blurred out of sight, blocking everything behind it completely.
Just as he stared at that white wall in a daze, footsteps slowly approached from the alley.
"Engineer Benjamin?"
His entire body tensed. He turned around almost reflexively.
Three men approached—uniform blue outfits, a gear-and-wing emblem on their chests, yellow-cased pistols at their waists. Judging by their appearance, they were this city's enforcers.
As soon as they appeared, nearby residents instinctively stepped aside, as if afraid of being involved.
—Crap. They're onto me?
The thought barely formed when the middle-aged leader smiled politely and nodded at him.
"You're back, sir. Don't be nervous—it's just a routine check."
He reached out his hand. "Things have been tight lately. Thank you for your understanding."
Wang Yanfei: "…"
He didn't dare speak too much. He tightened his expression, trying to look like an overworked office drone.
His hand slid to his waist, taking out the blue ID card.
"Just returned."
The man in blue accepted it with both hands, glanced at it, then wiped it against his sleeve before respectfully handing it back.
"Thank you for your hard work. The area outside has been chaotic lately, hasn't it?We've been getting reports these past two days—seems the Restart Society is acting up again."
Restart Society?
A completely unfamiliar name.
But sticking his nose into that topic was the last thing he should do, so he just muttered:
"Yeah… heard something."
The leader seemed used to Benjamin's sparse speech. He continued casually:
"And is your work going smoothly? Didn't the engineering line have a new batch of tests scheduled?"
Wang Yanfei's mind buzzed.
—Damn, that's too specific.
But then he realized: Given that tone, this was probably another test. And the real Benjamin likely wasn't the sharing type.
So he replied with a flat expression:
"…Is there any reason I need to report that to you?"
He added a hint of impatience.
The air froze.
All three enforcers immediately looked terrified.
"Our mistake. Sorry."
"The system reported an abnormality in your status, so we had to confirm."
"These glitches have been common recently. Please don't take it to heart."
The more respectful they acted, the colder Wang Yanfei felt.
If even a figure this important,an engineer these enforcers didn't dare offend had become nothing but a skin…
How many people in this city were actually "real"?
The leader hesitated, then gently asked:
"Right, sir—where are you headed next? We need it for our log."
Wang Yanfei: "…"
Seriously? Again?
His internal alarms blared. This question might as well have the words "You're suspicious" written on it.
As he paused, the enforcers exchanged glances. Their smiles didn't fade, but two of their hands had quietly drifted toward their yellow-cased pistols.
The tension rose sharply.
At that moment—
patter, patter, patter—
Light running footsteps echoed from the alley.
Then a crisp child's voice rang out:
"Daddy! You came to pick me up?"