"Ah?" Sun Jack's mouth hung open as he gazed, utterly shocked, at the extremely absurd scene before him. "Is this... is this even possible?"
In such a life-and-death crisis, can it really be resolved just with money?
Song 6, smiling broadly, gave himself a thumbs-up. "Bro, now you know why I'm so hell-bent on making money? Because money really can buy life!"
"Then... why didn't they use it?" Sun Jack turned around and pointed to the ruins behind him, where the fragmented bodies of mercenaries lay, and asked.
"Because they didn't have money."
"So you should die if you don't have money?"
"Right, you should die if you don't have money."
"You should die if you don't have money?"
"Yep, you should die if you don't have money."
"Fuck."
Watching the mercenaries in the rubble dying like ants, Sun Jack gained a new understanding of this world.
"Let's hurry up, I only bought us three minutes."
With the time bought by Song 6's money, at the moment the sky lit up with a red glow once more, their feet finally landed on the rotting trash.
The three almost collapsed on the trash heap, watching everything in the distance.
Spaceships descended from the Spacecraft Carrier one by one, beginning to organize the battlefield in an orderly manner.
"No matter what, we finally managed to escape." Sun Jack lowered his head and spat out another mouthful of bloody spit, taking deep, heavy breaths.
"Look, my family, this is what the companies are doing," Song 6 said as he turned the live stream back on, as if he had become a war correspondent at that moment.
"This is the company?" Sun Jack muttered to himself as he watched, gaining a whole new understanding of the term "company."
No matter what had happened in this world, Sun Jack now deeply understood that this world was completely different from the one he had lived in before.
"Jack, your body temperature is rising; you are highly infected. We have to find a doctor," Tapai said, ready to help Sun Jack over the mountain of trash.
Song 6, however, stopped him. "Bro, it's over seventy miles from here to Metropolis. If you walk him there, he'll be a stinking corpse by the time you arrive. I've already called the treatment center; they'll be sending a ship right away."
"Then why didn't you call them while we were inside?" Sun Jack asked weakly, tilting his head as his vision began to blur.
"What did you say? We were fighting back there. In that situation, do you think the treatment center would take the job? People run treatment centers to make money, not to save lives or help the wounded. They certainly won't do business at a loss."
"Fuck." Hearing this, Sun Jack felt a complete despair toward this world.
Soon, a red laser beamed down from the sky, outlining a square area in front of them, followed by a white ship with a red cross cut precisely through the clouds and landed there.
Then, two doctors in white coats, accompanied by four tall, white robots, quickly approached them.
"The area is secure; we can begin the rescue." The robot split open and quickly transformed into a mechanical stretcher, its soft limbs swiftly yet gently lifting Song 6 and Sun Jack onto the stretcher.
Groggy, Sun Jack felt something pierce his forearm. "User 10314C1 is secure, connecting to biological signals, life detection panel activated, epinephrine injected, dopamine 70 milligrams, norepinephrine 110, blood fibrinogen 800...."
As the cold voice continued to ring out, Sun Jack, who should have been gradually losing consciousness, began to regain his senses slowly.
Lying on the bed, Sun Jack looked down at his opened abdomen, only to see the crab-leg-like mechanical arms working quickly and precisely to disinfect every ghastly wound on his body, not missing an inch.
After the cleaning was finished, stitching began rapidly and even the seams were as dense as a zipper, the surgery as delicate as embroidery.
During all this, he felt no pain at all, as though it was someone else's flesh.
Sun Jack was once again shocked by the technology of this world; such severe injuries were treated as easily as a common cold.
He had thought that these severe wounds, compounded by the acid rain, would almost certainly be fatal; yet to be revived was so unexpectedly simple.
"How is it? Cool, huh? I got us the deluxe package, bro."
Lying next to Sun Jack and enjoying the same treatment, Song 6PUS, from nowhere, produced an electronic cigarette and began to puff away, his shriveled head seemingly back to normal.
"So? I'm not completely useless now, am I?" He seemed quite concerned about the complaints Sun Jack had made earlier.
"Where are we heading now?" Sun Jack inquired, looking around the sleek, snow-white interior of the medical ship.
Song 6PUS flicked his dreadlocks, "Of course, to the Metropolis. What, did you really want to cross the nuclear radiation zone and head to Gomorrah?"
Noting the expression on Sun Jack's face, Song 6PUS asked in surprise, "Seems you're not a local? Where are you guys from?"
"No comment," Sun Jack curtly rejected the question. Without understanding the situation, making up stories would only lead to more loopholes.
"Hahaha, no matter, regardless of where you're from, you still saved my life. In our line of work, it's the principle that counts. Once we get to the Metropolis, I'll treat you right."
With that, Song 6PUS raised his electronic cigarette and tapped a button on the wall. With a "whoosh," the wall to their left turned transparent.
The rain was still falling outside, but the ground was clear of trash, replaced instead by a forest of concrete ruins and broken walls.
This scene, along with the rainy weather, darkened everything, presenting a vista reminiscent of the end of the world.
The desolation outside contrasted sharply with the clean and tidy interior of the hover car.
Without need for explanation, Sun Jack knew these were remnants of the world before the AI crisis; no one had repaired them, they had been abandoned and forgotten, just like him and Tapai.
About to truly engage with this new world, Sun Jack began to feel uncertain again. He gestured lightly to Tapai at his side, who moved closer so they could whisper.
"Search for me what this Metropolis is like, is it safe for us to go there with our current undocumented status."
As Tapai nodded gently, ellipses began to appear repeatedly on his screen.
"The Metropolis has a permanent population of 30 million, with a large inflow and outflow, containing all sorts of people. According to my calculations, there is a small probability of attracting other powers' attention."
"Are you sure? With that outfit of yours, won't you attract attention?" Sun Jack looked at Tapai's steel body with great skepticism.