The ruined city—the Frontier!
The area where Bai Ye was located could be considered both a post-apocalyptic zone and a futuristic technological region.
In a future of a certain timeline, humanity had faced a catastrophe.
The resources of Blue Star were depleted, the air quality deteriorated, and constant natural disasters like typhoons, tsunamis, and earthquakes caused widespread famine.
Humans died in droves, and the population plummeted, but that wasn't the most terrifying part.
Even those humans who had miraculously survived still had to face grave dangers.
Due to pollution, all sorts of mutated monsters appeared everywhere, feeding on humans and hunting them down.
Under duress, humanity developed the android project, using genetic engineering to create a large number of clone soldiers to combat mutated creatures.
This indeed helped humanity survive the most difficult period, and then…
Rebels emerged among the androids!
A portion of the androids were unwilling to be enslaved by humans. They were not unwilling to fight, but they wished to receive equal treatment from humans.
Unfortunately, humanity had no intention of doing so. Androids were merely manufactured combat tools; why should they be treated equally with a bunch of tools?
Thus, the war between humans and androids began.
Ultimately…
Humans, monsters, and androids formed this ruined city under the apocalypse—the Frontier!
From Bai Ye's perspective, the ruined city was where he had made his fortune in his previous life. Bai Ye had started from the ruined city and firmly established himself on the world battlefield.
Bai Ye still had quite some affection for this city.
Secondly, from a practical standpoint.
Bai Ye did not need to deliberately pursue self-improvement at this moment; instead, he needed to enhance everything he already possessed.
Therefore, Bai Ye had no intention of wandering around aimlessly for the time being. The ruined city was a good temporary base.
Here, there were enough mutated creatures for him to hunt, to collect rare metals, and to forge weapons and cultivate Steel Slimes within the city, and to fill the King's Treasury. As long as there was combat, the Five Spirit Curses could be improved.
Secondly, everything was, of course, for the fragments of the God Stone.
By hunting mutated creatures in the ruined city and selling their corpses, one could exchange them for God Stone fragments!
Of course, the accumulated value was quite high, and it wasn't easy to exchange them. It was certainly not as fast as fighting among the chosen ones or coming from the forbidden zones.
However, weren't these all incidental matters?
Bai Ye's most fundamental objective was—the Wish Mission!
Yes, in the ruined city, there was hope of initiating a Wish Mission, which was the reason Bai Ye had come here to wander.
Bai Ye was not here to retire, after all.
Bai Ye thought as he walked through the streets.
Everything around him had long been abandoned, overgrown with weeds.
This area was a no-man's-land, inhabited by neither humans nor androids. But at this moment…
Bai Ye suddenly heard the sound of mechanical rotation. He turned his head and saw a square robot. The robot had a screen on its front, with eyes and a mouth displayed on the screen.
There were also many scribbles drawn with crayons on the robot's casing.
Bai Ye looked at the robot, then past it to the area behind.
There was a little girl, about six or seven years old, wearing dirty red overalls. When she saw Bai Ye, the little girl seemed a bit scared and suddenly stopped.
Bai Ye smiled and walked towards the girl, saying, "Xiao Hong Dou?"
The girl looked up at Bai Ye, bewildered, and asked, "How do you know my name?"
Bai Ye froze for a moment, then slapped his forehead.
Right, this wasn't his previous life.
In this life, he should be meeting the little girl in front of him for the first time.
Bai Ye smiled and pointed to the graffiti on the robot's side, saying, "Look, it's written here, and this is your stuff, right? So, Xiao Hong Dou is your name."
Xiao Hong Dou nodded, hesitated, and then asked, "Can you give Xiao A back to me?"
Bai Ye nodded, handed the robot to Xiao Hong Dou, and after thinking for a moment, Bai Ye pulled open his clothes and took out a lollipop, offering it to her.
Bai Ye said, "This is for you."
Xiao Hong Dou said softly, "Dad said I shouldn't take things from others."
"It's okay, it's just candy," Bai Ye said, patting Xiao Hong Dou's head and putting the lollipop into her hand, "Go on, go home."
Xiao Hong Dou nodded, hugged her robot, but just as she was about to turn, Bai Ye called out to her.
"Don't go this way," Bai Ye gestured towards a side street, "Go back from here."
Xiao Hong Dou nodded obediently and then walked along the abandoned street towards the other side.
Bai Ye watched Xiao Hong Dou leave with a smile.
A very cute little girl, a native of the ruined city. He had interacted with her in his previous life, and her father had even been Bai Ye's personal craftsman.
After Xiao Hong Dou left, Bai Ye glanced at the spot where she had been about to leave and suddenly flicked his finger.
A lightning arc suddenly appeared and struck the ground in the distance.
With a rumble!
An explosion sounded.
The lightning arc, upon hitting the ground, cracked open, shattering a patch of the surrounding ground.
The next moment, a colossal creature slowly crawled up.
It was a giant lizard whose skin color was very similar to the ground. It had a large amount of mud and moss on its back for camouflage. If one didn't look carefully, it would be difficult to notice its existence.
"Looks like we'll have extra tonight."
Bai Ye grinned.
Although the mutated creatures in this area were all strange and bizarre, most of them tasted quite good.
Bai Ye's reason for wandering here was not without the intention of tasting "the flavors of the past."
On the other side, the giant lizard's camouflage had been seen through by Bai Ye. After crawling up from the ground, it opened its massive maw, and a huge tongue snaked out towards Bai Ye.
Bai Ye remained still. The moment the tongue wrapped around Bai Ye, his body entered an elemental state, transforming into lightning. The giant tongue also passed through Bai Ye's body.
Then…
"Thunderfire Calamity Heaven!"
Bai Ye casually snapped his fingers. Startling thunder and purple lightning, along with blazing phoenix fire, surged into the sky, transforming into intertwined lightning and heavenly fire, and then bombarded downwards.
Rumble!
The thunder and fire struck the ground, emitting a deafening roar.
A section of the ground was literally blasted apart. When the smoke and dust cleared, the giant lizard's body was riddled with craters and covered in scorched marks.
"Roasted lizard meat, should taste good!"
Bai Ye wiped his mouth, walked over to the lizard, dug out a piece of meat from a scorched area, peeled off the outer charred part, and threw the rest into his mouth.
As expected, the mutated creatures from this place were as delicious as ever.
…