Chapter 3 Unknown World

The nearby people had only given a simple glance before continuing to walk forward. His sudden appearance from the jungle did not alarm anyone.

Though if it were any other time, they would wonder why this person wore such multilayer clothes under this hot sun. But at the moment, their mind was so preoccupied with the thoughts of the incoming beast tide that they didn't have the energy to gossip about others.

Thus, Ceid smoothly entered the moving crowd and moved towards the city.

The crowd continued to walk forward until they reached the city's entrance gate.

From the looks of it, the walls were at least 30 meters in height from the ground. It was like looking at a magnificent structure, ten floors high, encircling the whole city.

Outside the wall, a wide ditches were dug along the entire wall.

Looking at the more than 20-meter-wide ditch, Ceid nodded in approval to this world's base's meticulous design.

This was because Ceid knew that building such a wide ditch would make it more difficult for the enemy to approach the city and keep the corpses from piling up outside the walls. This way, the enemy in the rear could hardly climb up the walls.

Furthermore, if oil and gasoline were poured onto the water surface, they could easily flow and spread over the entire ditch system. This way, the city defenders could quickly burn the piling corpses as well as set up an inferno trap.

The wider the ditch, the better it is to deter beasts with massive builds.

As Ceid took back his gaze, he looked towards the city gate.

It seems to employ a sturdy design typically used in constructing safety vaults. He wasn't sure of the specific design, but it would not surprise him if the gate were built to resist the explosion of a nuclear weapon.

It was unknown what materials were used to build such a massive gate. But from his observation, its capabilities shouldn't be as simple as it seems.

He continued to follow the crowd. As expected, the guards were only there to guide the crowd so that stampedes did not happen. As for checking the identification documents, no one had bothered to ask.

Instead, more personnel were seen to be delegated to preparing the city's defense. Squads after squads of guards were seen climbing the walls while carrying various weapons.

It seems that this crowd was indeed evacuees.

-

The long line of people continued marching towards an open-area park. In a vast expanse of open space, there were shipping containers stacked one after another instead of tents.

These containers were refurbished and refit into small rooms.

Each container was refit to create four rooms where the doors and windows were on one side of the container. This way, a group of the containers was stacked horizontally in pairs on each floor and stacked as high as nine levels.

A pathway corridor was built to connect each group of containers with a central building. The building contained public toilets, baths, canteens, and other necessary facilities.

Four rows of container stacks were affixed to either side of the center structure for optimal efficiency.

As the matter stands, for every 10,000 square feet of space, 576 rooms would be available.

As he saw this scene, Ceid asked himself, If each room could accommodate six people, wouldn't a cluster of containers be able to hold nearly 3500 people?

From a simple glance, Ceid estimated that this plaza may be more than 2km wide. And there were hundreds of clusters built to accommodate the evacuees.

It seems that this area was especially prepared for this kind of situation. Could it accommodate several million people?

And the facilities seemed to be complete. How often do the people evacuate that demands the government to prepare such facilities?

It appears that various calamities frequently befall the people in this world.

Soon, he was guided to a registration counter. The process was simplified. They were only asked for their names, family members, and marital status.

The person in charge was probably only concerned with evacuees' placements. They needed to know how many people were in each group and whether they wanted to stay together.

Since Ceid was alone, he was assigned to a top-floor room in his cluster. As expected, there were three double-decker beds inside. When he entered the room, there were already four people inside. All of them were young men.

And somehow, all of them were Annasi people.

The management was probably concerned about the living habits of each race of people.

For example, it would be problematic if the elven people who were meticulous with tidiness and cleanliness were placed together with some with disorganized and messy lifestyles. (cough...cough...the author wouldn't dare point fingers to avoid a lawsuit.)

The room was quiet. After glancing at Ceid and giving him a courtesy nod, they continued to be busy with their work.

He was still having trouble communicating with the people of this world. Therefore, it would be ideal to have quiet roommates.

After returning the courtesy, he symbolically tidied up his bed and placed the suitcase he used as camouflage inside the wardrobe.

None of his roommates bothered him. He left the room without giving it a second thought after setting his suitcase down.

The entire plaza was bustling with people. Children were accompanying their parents. Some were crying and making noise. Others were timidly looking at strangers all around.

Many older people were resting on various benches in an open space. Robust young people were seen busy volunteering to help the city's management.

Some group of scary people were seen loitering around. However, Ceid doubted they would cause trouble here since the public security officers were seen at every corner of the plaza.

Some people had scars and bulky figures, showcasing their strength. They were probably mercenaries temporarily hired to assist the city's administration. Later, they would most likely go to the city walls, where the action happens.

Some vendors and hawkers were running businesses to cater to the needs of millions of people. A reserved lane was prepared for them to open their business. It could be said that this disaster was not only a tragedy but a blessing for business owners and those with entrepreneurial minds.

While Ceid was checking the items sold along the street, at the same time, he was estimating the value of money in this world.

He had sharp eyes, thanks to the promotion of his cultivation. So he could roughly see the money used by the locals.

Though he didn't know the characters and numbers of this world, typically, the universally accepted system for numbers is the base ten system. Ten unique digits were used to represent respective values.

Unless this world had a weird quirk in its mathematical development, it should use the same numbering system.

Thus, when he walked around, he would take special notice of those who bought one item and those who bought five items. He would take note of the currency denomination used to pay and the balance given to the buyer.

After patronizing several stalls, especially the popular ones, he had roughly determined currency with denominations of one, two, five, ten, and fifty. Interestingly, the number zero was denoted with a diamond shape instead of an oval shape used on Earth.

He also noted that the price of freshly cooked food and ingredients was slightly higher than that of mass-produced food.

By referencing the basic food prices as the basis, he could judge that items like glass, plates, water bottles, towels, napkins, tissues, soap, and so on were slightly cheaper. On the other hand, sophisticated tools and weapons were more expensive.

Of course, these price comparisons were contrasted with the item pricing on Earth.

At the moment, he still has a fully loaded supply in his storage space. Thus, he does not urgently need to buy things. But he knows that eventually, he needs money to survive here.

As Ceid continued to stroll everywhere, he soon reached a remote and desolate corner of the plaza. The place was slightly hidden, and not many people came here.

Seeing the empty bench, he suddenly felt tired after walking around for a long time. So he immediately sat on the bench, looking outwards to the bustling crowd in the distance.

Somehow, since this world's civilization level was similar to Earth's, he felt a sense of familiarity. Unknowingly, feelings of homesickness and missing emerged in his heart.

At the same time, it carried a different flavor. In the distance, he can see a girl from the feline race arguing and gossiping with her friend from the elven tribe. Somewhere in the stalls, a group of little dwarven guys were clamoring and bargaining with a stall owner. A band of rigorous and masculine mercenaries were haughtily walking around.

There were various scenes where myriad races mingled with each other, bringing back memories from the previous world.

This scene of harmony somehow provided a moment of peace and respite for Ceid.

As he was looking at the crowd in a daze, at the same time, he was also cultivating.

He had become accustomed to breathing in Aura Qi and moving it around his body so that it had become second nature to him. He no longer had to enter the state of meditation to practice.

Every breath he inhaled, he would breathe in the surrounding Aura Qi.

Every circulation of Aura Qi within the body repairs his dantian's core and replenishes his Aura Qi accumulation.

As his cultivation was slowly restored, so did his mental consciousness.

Thus, when he was still appreciating the cat woman's voluptuous figure, a voice in his mind awakened him from his daze.

[Ding!]

[Determining Host's mental strength...confirmed]

[Host's mental strength recovered...Minimal operations are now possible.]

[Wyd is now rebooting the system. Standing by.]