7: A new life is here, and I'm ready to go!

The Electromagnetic Rifle flashed with a blue-white arc—with a "puff," red and white matter splattered, and Hofft vanished from this world along with his ridiculous nickname.

The sound of a heavy object hitting the ground rang out. Xu Chang, still clutching a battery inside the room, hadn't even reacted yet.

Wait, what?

What just happened?

A familiar voice came from the doorway; it was Xi Hai who had returned.

"Xu Chang, are you alright?"

Seeing Xi Hai appear at the door, Xu Chang finally put down the welding torch and battery he was holding, then let out a long sigh.

He was safe.

Xi Hai stepped over the headless corpse on the floor and walked into the room. Looking at Xu Chang, who was slumped on the ground, along with the welding torch and battery he had just dropped, a trace of imperceptible appreciation flashed in his eyes.

This guy was someone.

Just now, after he had finished packing his things and came out, he saw that Xu Chang was surrounded by four or five people.

He knew immediately that things had gone wrong.

At least Xu Chang hadn't suffered too much at the hands of the person in the room and had even managed to force him out.

Although it looked like he had used a hydrogen battery to threaten mutual destruction, this courage and ability to adapt on the fly exceeded that of most people—at least he didn't play the part of an "incompetent older brother."

As for Xi Hai, he naturally hadn't just been watching.

Rushing in directly wouldn't have resolved the siege and would likely have gotten himself trapped, adding to the difficulty for Xu Chang inside.

So, he had taken out the steel-plate crossbow he had fashioned earlier, preparing to lure the thugs at the door away first.

However, just as Xi Hai fired the first arrow, a Shuttle flew over, performed a drift, and hovered steadily in the sky above him—the Marine Corps coming to pick him up had arrived just in time.

Fully armed Marines fighting thugs was a matter without any suspense.

The four opponents turned into organic fertilizer that could be spread directly on the ground after just one encounter.

"I'm okay, I'm fine... I'm fine."

After calming down a little, Xu Chang stood up and looked at Xi Hai with a complex gaze, as well as the Marines behind him wearing dark green power armor.

"Uh... are these people here to pick you up?"

Xu Chang's words made Xi Hai frown.

He stepped forward, punched Xu Chang on the shoulder, and laughed while scolding, "What do you mean pick me up? They're here to pick us up!"

"Why are you being so polite!"

"Since you've decided to come with me, there's no going back now."

"From now on, we're our own people."

"Get your sister ready, we're leaving!"

Xu Chang's legs were still a bit weak, and he stumbled back a step from the punch, but his eyes grew brighter and brighter.

He felt like he had latched onto an exceptionally thick thigh!

Question: What to do when the boss not only saved my whole family but also treats me particularly well?

The answer is only one—Loyalty!!!!

Xu Chang secretly made up his mind: From now on, as long as it was Xi Hai's order, he would carry it out to the end; as long as it was Xi Hai's will, he would execute it to the end!

Xi Hai's thoughts were his thoughts, and Xi Hai's direction was his direction!

He would not hesitate to sacrifice his life!

"What are you dazing off for? Let's go."

Seeing that the Marines had already begun moving the equipment on Xu Ling's body and preparing to carry her onto the Shuttle, Xi Hai called out to Xu Chang, who was standing there in a daze.

"Oh, oh, coming."

He trotted over and consciously stood half a step behind Xi Hai, and they walked onto the Shuttle one after the other.

All the loading work finished, all the Marines boarded the ship in an orderly fashion, and the hatch slowly closed.

The Shuttle, equipped with anti-gravity modules, slowly floated into mid-air, started its engines, and flew away, trailing a blue arc of light.

Watching the settlement beneath his feet getting smaller and smaller, Xi Hai was filled with emotion.

He had finally left this shitty place with its dirty, chaotic, and poor environment.

In fact, in the lower city districts, scavenging was only a choice for some people. Most people in the lower city districts chose to hand their lives over to the massive factories.

There, machines roared twenty-four hours a day, and the labor slaves worked twenty hours a day—that's right, even if they were guys without consciousness, they still had to be fitted with neural stimulation devices to become the cheapest parts on the production line.

As for installing bionic parts that could operate automatically?

Sorry, you couldn't afford one even if you sold all your organs.

Large quantities of simple, cheap industrial products were produced here, spreading throughout the city along intricate freight tracks.

The people of the lower city districts were actually like cell colonies in tree roots; they were responsible for disposing of the trash from the Upper City District and producing low-level daily necessities for the Upper City District to support those guys living above their heads—though most people in the middle and Upper City Districts were just another level of labor slaves.

But compared to the lowest-level labor slaves who might only see the high dome their whole lives and wouldn't even know what the sky was, they had an added sense of superiority.

Xi Hai fiercely complained about this dross from who knows how many years ago.

Technology was so advanced, so why was manual labor still being used for every crappy job, and why was there a hierarchical system?

What was all that technology for?

Could it be that the tech tree here was skewed? Did they just max out natural science and skip over the humanities?

Look at this Shuttle, a small fusion reactor plus an anti-gravity generator; looking at the manual, this thing could fly to the moon in one go.

If they could already do interstellar travel, how could productivity not be advanced? What were the AIs being used for?

It was truly sick.

Under such "advanced" conditions, they could still develop a wasteland-punk-like society... One could only say that everyone present had contributed their own part to this.

The Shuttle slowly glided into the large freight elevator connecting the lower and Upper City Districts, rose to the surface, and then flew toward the Starport.

After rising to the clouds, Xi Hai looked out the window, wanting to see the full view of this mega-city.

Steel skyscrapers stretched on endlessly until the end of the horizon.

The higher it went, the fewer the buildings; besides the space elevator tower, the highest building was the Municipal Building.

This hellish layout...

Why did it look just like the Hive Cities from the Yellow Skin Demon's place?

(Note: Hive City, a type of massive human city in the Warhammer universe, where resident status is divided by height level, with the lower hives known for being dirty, chaotic, and poor.)

After watching for a while, Xi Hai felt bored.

Although he wasn't familiar with this place, his three months of scavenging had allowed him to see a few books, and within those documents, he had been able to catch a glimpse of this city.

The relationships between people here were like a giant centipede, connected one after another from top to bottom.

Everyone's position was fixed from birth, and they only thought about how to usurp more benefits within their own designated positions.

Everyone who dreamed of changing the world was ultimately submerged and corrupted by this place.

One could only say that the society here was just a pile of bugs stitched together, yet it somehow still ran; that it could operate for so long was truly a miracle.

Thus, Xi Hai moved his head back, leaned against the Shuttle's seat, and began to doze off.

Ten minutes later.

Entering the port.

The group left the borrowed Shuttle and stood on the Starport platform.

Three FG300s were lying quietly before their eyes.

In Xi Hai's eyes, they were as beautiful as works of art.

In the game, the Fugui was just a piece-of-junk small ship that no one would use except beginners, but for Xi Hai at this moment, this was reality.

They, no, she was a 250-meter-long war machine, and she was the beginning of his, Xi Hai's, journey into the cosmos!

(This is an FG300)