Mystical Journey

Panda Novel

In the dark green night.

The ground was full of black spikes protruding from the floor. Some of them were humongous metal plates, some were the battleship’s bow, but most of them were strips of broken alloy steel bars. The entire ground was densely covered with a large jungle, erected with steel trees.

Between various metal trees rising from the ground, there was a small path that was the width of an earthworm, stretching and leading towards the distance.

On a small black road, the white motorcade was moving as slow as a snail, driving along the small and winding path.

Hoot…

The engine sounds of the motorcade were extremely low. The yellow lamp post constantly swept across its surroundings, then penetrated its light through the green mist and into the distance.

The motorcade was formed with four white armored cars. At the back of each car, it was equipped with a thick and solid turret. Furthermore, each car was twenty meters long, six meters tall. When you look up at it, it was like a moving beast. But among these giant steel trees, it suddenly seemed extremely small.

In forth car, the space inside was split into blocks of private rooms. Each private room was in a round ball-like shape occupied with two bunk beds that could accommodate four people.

Garen was placed on the third bed, on one of the top bunk; beside him was the car’s window. His head was inclined slightly to the side while it was covered with the blankets. Looking out of the window, he caught the night scenes that were constantly changing, feeling a sense of novelty.

The large land of metal trees outside looked like real giant trees that had its fangs out, claws spread, and limbs extending, giving people a spooky feeling. Staring out at the window, he could make out the nearby remaining signs of the production trademark on the top that was illuminated by a light beam. Yet, when he looked further beyond the distance, he could see darkness.

Three planets in blue, white, and white were suspended in the sky, taking over half of the sky. However, as they intertwined with the moonlight that was shining down, it formed a mysterious green color through the night sky and fog.

Garen looked at the scenery outside his window and felt slightly depressed.

“Is this your first time away?”

The uncle, who was his roommate on the lower bunk, asked while he had his hand behind his head.

“The scenery out there is the radiation belt between cities. The belt of our Mother Planet Federation is considered minimal. At least it doesn’t affect laypeople’s body functions as long as they don’t stay there for long.”

Garen did not make a sound. He only moved his body.

Though the uncle did not mind, so he continued.

“Out there, it’s like living in the deep ends of an ocean — the cold, deep radiation of the poisonous fog is everywhere. Even plants are killed by the distortion of the radiation. Only a few types of microbe spores are still surviving,” he took out a lighter to light his cigarette up and then took a nice puff.

“I have missed this…”

Garen frowned slightly.

“Is it possible for you not to smoke? I hate the smell of smoke.”

“Really? I apologize. I forgot that young look of yours. Hahaha…” The uncle chuckled as he pressed the cigarette bud into the ashtray that was on his bedside table.

“Can you talk about the radiation belt that is in between the cities?” Garen continued to observe the green environment outside and asked in a low voice. “It is indeed my first time out of the city. Before that, I thought that it would be a very nice natural environment. I did not cross my mind that it would be like this…”

“Is it too miserable?” The uncle laughed again, “Young one, you really are very lucky, to have such a hardworking father who fought hard to build you a solid foundation or maybe it was the luck from your ancestors, that allowed you to successfully become a citizen in the Inter-Region. But a lot of other people do not have that fate.” He paused for a bit, as if he was recalling his memories.

“The rest of the Mother Planet Federation places have not been in contact with each other for over tens of years. I’m not quite sure about their situation but I understand our Mother Planet better. Furthermore, I’ve been traveling around this planet for quite a long time now.”

“Oh? Uncle, why don’t you tell me something?” Garen suddenly showed interest. “How can the Inter-Region be such a desolate scene with no signs of life at all?”

“Not all Inter-Regions are like that. Some places are still normal, filled with nature and even though this is the outer part of the Blackboard Region, it is still pretty normal during the day. It only happens to this part of the Region when night falls — the radiation belt would appear. In this Interstellar Era, it has given humans tremendous scientific and technological advancement. We can now move mountains and sea, there’s nothing we can’t do! Even the sun has succumbed to the feet of humanity. However, with such strong scientific technology, it has brought us the same awful destruction. And that is the side effect of technology that is caused by the radiation belt. Our excessive exploitation of the planet’s resources, over-extraction of heat from the planet’s crust, and excessively drawing and consuming stellar heat energy that can benefit the radiation belt have ruined the planet’s ecological cycle. Without enough radiation from the sun and without enough heat energy from the planet, without taking into account the areas that are within scientific technology, other places have slowly become desolated or strange,” the uncle explained fluently and poured out his emotions.

“So that’s the drawbacks of this Interstellar Era?” Garen could understand it very well.

“Yes. Substance Annihilation Energy is one of the last century’s greatest human invention. But who would’ve thought that was the real root cause to the destruction of the environment? At the cost of destroying substances, a tremendous amount of energy was released. This energy is the most basic force that could construct planetary substances. By constantly stimulating the consumption, in the end, the planet substances’ most basic source is consumed just like the ancient nuclear power research. Everybody was ecstatic when they discovered nuclear power — the same as when they discovered fossil fuel and coal! Since the planet is so big, people think that there must be tons of fossil fuel and coal and they will never be able to use it all. The same logic applies here where people think that there are tons of radioactive substances and since the universe is so big anyway, they definitely would not be able to finish it…”

The uncle nagged incessantly in a low voice.

As he went on, Garen could not hear him clearly anymore. Instead, the two sleeping women opposite from them were snoring louder and louder.

They were two fat women. By the looks of it, it seemed like they were in their thirties or forties. They both wore a gold necklace and they snored repeatedly as they slept on their bed.

Outside the window, the faint engine sound of the motorcade could be heard.

“Kid, after leaving Blackboard Region, where do you plan to go? You look like you’re either from Blackboard Region or a citizen from the Inner Region,” the uncle at the bottom bunk asked softly. “Anyway, since the both of them opposite from us are still here and I can’t sleep, why don’t let’s chat for a bit?”

“I’m going to the Polar Region.” Garen changed into a set of normal clothes when he got onto the car — a black t-shirt and grey long pants. He did not look like he would attract attention. More so, he looked like a young worker from a poor family.

“The standard of living in Polar Region is a little higher than Blackboard Region’s pricing. Even the salary is a little higher. It’ll be much harder working there but at least you’ll get to save some money, so it’s not bad.” The uncle seemed like an expert in this area.

“Is that so? How’s the situation there?” Garen casually asked. He had planned to go there quietly first. Whether it’s after solving the territorial issues or carrying out his own plan within legal parameters, it all had to be extremely concealed. So, in order to get rid of those who were keeping track of his actions behind his back, he took a long time to succeed. However, even then, he did not know whether that would work at all.

“Polar Region is built from an Empire. Different nobility’s territorial has different rules. Since Blackboard Region is an Alliance, the citizens are treated very well and you can definitely find a good living there. Though the quality of education there isn’t the best. So such as you, a citizen from a strong region would be a better talent compared to their own people. There are more positions that you can hold…”

The uncle was talking incessantly again.

Garen answered him from time to time. From Blackboard Region, he took a train to the border of Masiro City, then he took another train to Ice City. Finally, he found the transit motorcade that crosses the border without being noticed and it did not travel on the same tracks as the official motorcade. Garen chose this kind of transit motorcade that seemed like the smuggle people across borders to travel towards the Polar Region.

Only then could he stop and limit his course of action from being known to others.

Yet along this journey, he fully acknowledged the number of people, among the citizens, who practiced Willpower.

Basically, there was one out of ten of them in Blackboard Region. By the borders of Ice City, he could identify one out of twenty or thirty people. The majority of the remaining ones were normal people who did not have Willpower. After all, not everyone liked the fighting lifestyle of a Mech Pilot. A lot of people wanted a balanced and simple life.

However, after they were out of the city, he could barely see people who were Willpower practitioners. One day when he was on the train, he could sense a group of Mercenaries who had a certain level of fighting and shooting skills, but he could not see Willpower among any of them. On this aspect, it was obvious that the Academy’s management of their Training Method was very strict.

When the internet mentioned that there were thousands of Willpower practitioners on this planet, he sometimes doubted how they could calculate that. But when he thought expensive the Training Method was, it suddenly all made sense.

It must be that the Willpower practitioners were all gathered in very few places.

As Garen listened to the uncle’s dull rambling, he slowly slipped into a dream state.

Without knowing how long it had been.

Bang!

A loud, deafening sound suddenly rang out and woke Garen up from his sleep.

He forced his eyes open and his muscles were unusually tensed, prepared to be alert of his surroundings.

“What’s wrong? What happened?”

Travelers from the other rooms were asking as well.

“The sky is not bright yet! What is the problem? Why did the car stop?” Somebody scolded.

The uncle on the lower bunk scratched his head when he woke up. The two fat ladies on the opposite side seemed to have hit their bodies as they sat up crying in pain.

“It’s the Solemn Fire! Tsk tsk, it is beautiful! Quickly, take a picture!” As if the uncle suddenly realized something.

Garen quickly followed his vision and realized it was happening outside the window. Then, he looked out the window.

In the green night scene outside and between countless steel trees, he could see a strip of pale yellow flame burning vertically out of thin air in the distance and floated into mid-air like a pupil dilating vertically in the night. Looking at it carefully, those with good vision could see the flames jumping up and down.

“What is that?” It was the first time Garen saw this scenery.

“That’s called the Solemn Fire, but nobody knows why! Anyway, it is said that some scholars have studied it before. Other than a pile of technical terms, the main effect is to induce the natural phenomena of the poisonous fog from the radiation, similar to the wildfire produced by the phosphorus combustion. Traveling tourists would see it as a sign of safety for the journey. It represents good luck and safe journey.”

Very quickly, or maybe the drivers stopped to take pictures of the Solemn Fire, the motorcade slowly moved forwards once again.

“There were many Solemn Fires here a few years ago. It’s lesser now; it’s quite rare to see it and it feels great,” the uncle crossed his legs.

“Solemn Fire, huh?”

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