Bustling with life, or lifelessness.
Either way, the City-section was incomparable to the Starting Point, like black and white exhibiting its stark contrast.
The Starting point had dilapidated buildings whereas the City-section had a colorful, newly whitewashed appearance to it. A supermarket there, a pedestrian lane, traffic lights, buildings with big glassy windows, everything just screams of a city. It came as a surprise to the group since they were in a mock battle. They thought that a few hours had already passed, why does the city look completely brand-new?
There was only one possibility and that is, no one fought in this area.
"This is a different world, right?" Scar quipped as he purposefully wore a drunken expression on his face. "Welcome to... metrocit... "
"Ssh!" Red hissed at him, following his actions with a glance in all directions.
"Do you feel it too? Yeah, someone's watching us." Gadge forewarned everyone. Something in his mind was nagging him about the watchers and he just knew he had to listen to it.
Like, who doesn't listen to their minds?
Red nodded in acquiescence as he darted his irises to different sides of his eyes. "This is where they are in regards to my position and a representation of the clock." He signaled.
Just as he thought, Blond was the only one to get his unclear clues. "Two-o-clock and eleven-o-clock. Got it." Blond quickly responded.
Red was spot-on. In regards to their position, there were really reflections of lights from two lenses coming out from the top of the buildings. Had Red and Gadge not pointed it out, they wouldn't have noticed.
"No sign of an ambush but let's keep our guards up. If they tried to drive us out of here, let's peacefully exit to the Forest-section." Red advised, motioning for everyone to follow him as he trailed behind Cat.
The vibrant place had the same atmosphere as the other sections of the Inside. To put it in simple terms, it reeked of danger. Regardless, the group pressed on, brushing aside the imperilment that gave them goosebumps.
Here and there, faint sounds of people scurrying could be heard as they trudged towards the middle of the City-section.
"This is really weird." Scar shivered, thinking that someone's been observing them for quite some time now.
"Ssh." Blond responded as they followed Cat's lead. "Cat, are we almost there?"
"N-no... not yet." She whispered.
When they turned into a corner, they noticed a couple of bear traps scattered on the street. Red gestured at everyone to stop. "Something isn't right here," Red mumbled as he inspected the bear traps.
The bear traps weren't anything new. In fact, it looked like they'd been placed there for a long time now. As to why no one triggered them yet, Red could only assume the worst-case scenario. "I know this is obvious... but... " Red began speaking as he wore a worried expression on his face.
"Yes, it's a trap alright. We might have missed something." Blond clicked his tongue. "That Jarxen, I knew he was a musclehead but to think that he forgot to warn us about this... as a block owner, he should be ashamed of himself."
The rest of the group gaped at Red and Blond, as if they were aliens speaking an unknown language. Just like before, they started speaking 'in tongues' again and no one could understand them.
"Why? What's happening?" Freckles was the first to break the silence as she lightly tapped Blond on the shoulder. "Is there something wrong?"
Blond and Red just looked at them with a grave look on their visage. It's as if the world crumbled down and they were the only one to know about it.
"Run!" Blond and Red exclaimed as they led the way while avoiding the bear traps scattered on the street.
.....
Meanwhile, Fujimoto and Julia were staring at Jarxen as if he did something awfully wrong. It was quite a sight since Jarxen was the strongest one out of the three but he was the one that looked like the weakest at that moment.
Jarxen clutched his head as he held his screams off. He badly wanted to shout but he knew that it would just further his embarrassment. In the end, he cowered on his seat while stealing glances on the live footage of the Elite Conquest.
"What an idiot." Fujimoto clicked his tongue, averting his gaze from Jarxen.
"You're really stupid, you know that?" Julia sighed in disappointment.
"What?! It's not like I was the only one who forgot about it!" Jarxen tried to defend himself but it was all just useless banter. After all, he was the only one that forgot to warn his own block about the City-section.
"YES! You're the only one who forgot about it." Fujimoto responded, rubbing salt in Jarxen's wounds. "Seriously, you've been a block owner for years, how could you forget that?"
"He probably forgot about it when his block avoided the 'fall' when they opened the staircase towards the Inside. What a rookie mistake, Jarxen. Very disappointing." Julia sighed once again.
"Shut up." Jarxen sulked. "URGHHH~! I just hope they'll get out of there alive."
"That would be a far-fetched miracle." Fujimoto gave him the cold hard truth. "No one has gotten out of there alive and since then, no one ventured into that section. Well, some of the workers did go there but they only stayed on the outskirts of the City-section. Meanwhile, your block just had to go into the heart of the city. If they ever escape that place, then they'd be the first ones in history. Do you think they could do that?
"All we could do is hope that they do. Otherwise, it would be such a waste." Julia wished. "This is entirely your fault, Jarxen. If all of them dies, then the blame's on you."
"I know... you don't have to rub it in." Jarxen exhaled a lungful of air. He was feeling rather disappointed at himself.
The City-section had a long-running history that could be traced back on the first Elite Conquest. Since then, no one risked going there. That's because the City-section was overrun by countless humanoids and to top it all off, each and every humanoid were near outclass level since they were all connected to an advanced server humanoid. In simple terms, it was the most dangerous section of the Inside with a ninety-nine percent mortality rate. For some reason, Jarxen completely forgot about it and in turn, didn't warn his block about it. Now that it was being shown at the live footage that Block-16 was going deeper and deeper into the city, Jarxen couldn't do anything but sulk as his stomach churned from his nervousness. On a slim, less-than-one-percent chance that his block would survive, Jarxen held on with his hope. Deep inside his mind, however, he knew that optimism could only go so far.
"Why are you so stupid, Jarxen!" Jarxen berated himself as he forced himself to watch the Elite Conquest. "Hang in there, Red." He muttered.
Julia and Fujimoto skeptically looked at Jarxen as he spoke, not because he was labeling himself stupid, but because it was the first time he ever called a worker using his preferred nickname.
"Hang in there." Jarxen repeated.
....
"That musclehead. I'm going to give him a good punch in the gut when we get out of here." Red said as they continued running.
"He shouldn't have forgotten about it. Now, what do we do? Do you have any alternatives, Red?" Blond asked. Although he had a few strategies in mind, he couldn't voice it out since most of them would involve halting their run. It had only been a minute and they were already running out of options.
"Isn't that obvious? We just have to outrun them! Hah~" Scar sighed. Unlike everyone, he was not used to running. That's because he's the defensive type of guy who would stop in a moment's notice to hold off the enemy or enemies.
"Yeah right. Humanoids that could run for five hundred years, we would have died more than four times before we could outrun them." Gadge cut him off with a touch of harsh sarcasm. "The best we could do is get to the Forest-section."
"But that's too far from here! We won't make it!" Curl was already gasping for air as they ran.
Their concentration was raised to the maximum as they waltzed their way through the array of bear traps that littered the streets. Meanwhile, the hundreds of humanoids chasing them were falling one by one as they stepped on the traps, putting a break from their momentum and making them topple over each other.
"Red... this is not looking good. Any plans?" Blond clicked his tongue. His mind was already so focused on running that he had no time to devise any more plans.
"We'll die at this rate," Blond muttered, as he saw the humanoids slowly catch up to them