“Future plans?” Hao Ren turned to look at Ulanov—strictly speaking, at the other man's smooth helmet visor. “I really haven't thought about it. I'll take it one step at a time. Once we're through, I'll find a place to settle down.”

Ulanov rumbled in his throat and asked in a low voice, "Where did you learn your combat skills?"

He had originally thought Hao Ren was just a civilian with a few screws loose, a rich man lacking wasteland common sense, but after seeing the other man's combat skills, he became very interested in Hao Ren's background. To have combat power exceeding that of regular soldiers without the enhancement of various biochemical modifications and electronic auxiliary devices was very rare, even in the lawless zone. Feeling the curious gaze from behind the visor, Hao Ren turned his head slightly. "I used to fight. Don't ask the reason."

"A mercenary, too?" Ulanov sized Hao Ren up. "You don't have the air of a regular soldier."

"Sort of," Hao Ren muttered, ending the topic by pretending to smooth the blonde girl's hair beside him. "I don't really want to talk about the past."

Sitting across the aisle, the taciturn Karl suddenly reminded him in a rough voice, "Ulanov, too much talk."

The armored truck traveled across the barren and vast wilderness, and signs of man-made structures finally reappeared ahead. Hao Ren looked through the side window and saw that the roadsides had turned into concrete surfaces, with crooked and incomplete streetlights and telephone poles flashing past from time to time, giving him the feeling of returning to human society. A screen at the front of the car suddenly lit up, showing the scene directly ahead. At the end of the road were vaguely visible rows of factory-like buildings, and between the buildings were many huge chimneys spewing thick smoke. Between the tall buildings were a large number of simple, block-like houses.

The entire complex was shrouded in smog, and smoke and dust rose from above the settlement to the equally gray sky, as if the whole world had been blackened by the factories. Ulanov coughed unconsciously at the sight. "Cough, cough... It's uncomfortable no matter how many times I see it."

"Can your throat still feel smog?" the female mercenary joked. "They've been replaced with plastic ones long ago, right?"

"Vanessa, no one will think you're mute if you don't talk," Ulanov glanced at her through his visor, then turned to Hao Ren. "That's part of the Black Street ahead. The Black Street basically relies on these factories to survive—they provide electricity and products to Zero City, and the coolies in the Black Street use them to exchange for food and life-prolonging drugs. To be honest, this place isn't suitable for rich people like you. You'd better go to Zero City; you don't lack money anyway."

"If you stay in the Black Street, you'll lose your money and your life soon," Vanessa, the uninhibited female mercenary, flirted with Hao Ren in a boisterous manner. "No matter how good you are, you can't defend against the 'rules' of the Black Street. With a simple-minded guy like you, those punks have a million ways to plot against you."

Hao Ren shrugged. It seemed that his image in this woman's eyes was basically the epitome of a rich fool. But he didn't explain anything, just looked at the approaching buildings ahead. "Black Street... isn't it a street?"

"Of course not," Ulanov shook his head. "But many people who come here for the first time misunderstand, and there's nothing we can do about it. The Black Street is a very large settlement, almost the size of a city, but because it was originally expanded from a street, the people here are used to calling it Black Street. Before the Great War, this place was called New洲 City… but not many people remember that name now."

"Only old men remember that stuff, right?" Vanessa stretched her arms and leaned back on the seat, looking up at the roof of the car. "New洲 City, Rift Valley City, 明珠 City... 安卡 New City, you can only see them in history books. And who knows when even 'history books' will disappear? Who cares about that now."

"Zero City and Black Street aren't far," Ulanov said to Hao Ren. "Our garrison is on the edge of Black Street, and we can take you near the checkpoint of Zero City. After that, you'll have to rely on yourself."

Hao Ren didn't answer immediately, pondering his own affairs, but then Nolan's voice suddenly came from the front. "If you have nowhere to go, you can stay with us for now."

"Huh?" Hao Ren looked up at Nolan's back in the driver's seat in confusion. "Are you recruiting me?"

"Zero City is safer, but it may not be suitable for you," Nolan said calmly. "You'll have to give up all your property in exchange for a few years of 'citizenship,' and then you can only rely on being a beast of burden for the city committee to survive. That place is indeed safe, but there's nothing else besides safety. I don't think someone like you... would like that kind of life, otherwise you wouldn't have run away from the comfortable natural person city-state."

After discovering that Hao Ren was actually a fighter, the mercenary leader had the intention of recruiting him. This was a normal reaction, especially when her team was in urgent need of new members. However, although Hao Ren wanted to investigate the situation in this world, he didn't intend to join any group to restrict his actions, so he politely declined, "Forget it, I'm not interested in being a soldier."

"Oh, is that so?" Nolan said casually, and then said nothing more.

"But I really have nowhere to go for the time being," Hao Ren thought for a while, feeling that he needed a place to stay at least. "Can I stay with you temporarily? Of course, I'll pay."

When he said this, he was still thinking that the mercenaries might not be willing to let people into their garrison, but he didn't expect Nolan to agree so readily. "It's no problem to stay for a few days, and I don't need your money—you saved my life, just consider it a reward."

Hao Ren was a little surprised. "Is the place you stay in a military garrison? Don't you need to check the identity information of outsiders?"

Nolan raised her hand and waved it near the front window of the car. "Do you want to live here?"

"Of course."

"Do you want to kill me?"

"Why would I want to kill you?"

"The check is complete."

Hao Ren: "..."

"What else do you think I need to check?" Nolan's voice was still calm, but this time it was a little teasing. "Fill out a stack of identity forms? Check your documents? Look for your criminal record in the citizen system? Save it, forget that stuff. This is the lawless zone. There are plenty of people banding together to survive. No one cares what you used to do, as long as you don't plan to stab me in the back—even temporarily."

Hao Ren was stunned, and realized that his foothold in this world had been settled so quickly, it was a little unreal.

Nolan didn't speak any more, just continued to drive in peace. Soon, the armored truck arrived at the checkpoint of the Black Street, and after passing through several sentry posts, it arrived in front of an old barracks.

Hao Ren picked up the data terminal (in corpse state) next to him, followed the mercenaries out of the car, and coughed as soon as he came out because of the dirty air around him: the air quality in this place was even worse than the previous city ruins, as if the entire Black Street was wrapped in a cloud of smoke and dust. After coughing, he smacked his lips and actually felt that the air in this place was quite chewy...

There were scattered soldiers walking around in the open space between the barracks, and the Gray Fox emblem was painted on the outer walls of some buildings with inferior paint. This was the garrison of Nolan's small unit. Although there were sentry posts around the camp, it still didn't show any of the tense and serious atmosphere of a "military stronghold." It was more like an armed refugee camp than a military base.

When combat is no longer a distant thing, but becomes the daily life of everyone, the resulting scene is probably like this.

Two mercenaries who looked like commanders came forward to greet Nolan. Nolan talked to them casually for a few words, mentioning the ambush they encountered today and the losses, and then asked people to drag out Heaton's body. "Dry him out and hang him at the intersection outside. Spray the Gray Fox mark so it's visible. I don't want any more guys bought by the Rangers—even if they defect to other mercenary groups, defecting to the Rangers is the stupidest thing they could do."

The two officers immediately ordered the soldiers to get to work. Before Heaton's body was pushed away, Nolan bent down and said regretfully to the traitor, whose face had been blown away, "What a pity, you used to be a poet, but now you've become like this..."

Hao Ren was startled by the ruthless nature of Nolan, who was so young, but then he wondered, "There are still poets in this day and age?"

Ulanov explained in a muffled voice, "The boss occasionally says some inexplicable things—Heaton grew up in the slums, how would he know how to write poetry?"

Hao Ren said "oh." Nolan also happened to turn around. "Okay, everyone go back to rest. You... Hao Ren, right? Go with Ulanov. There's a room next to his, it used to be Heaton's, now it's yours."

Hao Ren nodded and turned to leave, but Ulanov couldn't help but say, "I don't mind having another person in the next room, but... it's different with another corpse."

Hao Ren: "..."

He looked down at his arms. The data terminal, which had become a corpse, was still lifeless, without the slightest sign of recovery.

Of course, from a biological point of view, "she" certainly couldn't move in this state.