Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
African region, Lusaka base city.
Since the Cataclysm, the Lusaka base city was like any other base city in the world. However, half a year ago, the place had become an international hotspot.
Zambia, a landlocked country in Africa, was instantly turned into an important commercial hub in the region with the appearance of a permanent Spatial Rift there. Trainers of all shapes and sizes began converging on Zambia from every corner of the African region. After all, beyond a Spatial Rift laid a whole new world of resources just waiting to be exploited for profit. This attracted a lot of attention inside and outside of the continent.
Housing prices in the Lusaka base city jumped up exponentially overnight, making it impossible for younger people to buy a house there.
Given the economic significance of the Spatial Rift, there was no way the Lusaka base city would be able to keep it all to itself. The New World Development Union was established in an attempt to regulate the exploitation of the Spatial Rift.
Zambia, Kokang, Zimbabwe, and Angola were the main constituents of the union. Its other members included large-scale security companies and military contractors, such as the Falcon, Crimson Leopard, and Nine-headed Lion groups.
Out of the four constituent countries, Kokang was the most influential. It lay north of Zambia, with Zimbabwe to the southeast and Angola to the west.
These three countries had already laid claim to large swathes of land in Zambia.
Since the appearance of the Spatial Rift, Zambia had experienced considerable economic growth. Every day, large groups of monster trainers would enter Zambia to investigate what lay beyond the Spatial Rift. These trainers had ventured as far as 300 miles into the unknown on the other side of the rift.
Every day, large numbers of extraterrestrial monsters were carried out from the Spatial Rift to be sold worldwide. Some of them were used as guinea pigs in laboratories, while others were taken in to be trained as familiars. For some reason, these extraterrestrial monsters saw more demand than their terrestrial counterparts. An extraterrestrial monster would be sold at five times the price of a terrestrial monster at the same level and grade. Even still, people just couldn’t get enough of them. The demand for them soon outweighed their supply.
The sale of these creatures was also subject to something called an “international tax.”
These extraterrestrial creatures had to go through a rigorous procedure, including a thorough sterilization stage, before they were allowed to enter this world. The procedure required a lot of money and manpower. Only those directly involved in it would know just how much money and manpower were required to bring these creatures into this world…
The Spatial Rift in the Lusaka base city had grown considerably since its appearance. It was now at least 13 feet wide and 32 feet tall. It looked like a huge door on the outside.
Most normal-sized familiars wouldn’t find it difficult to pass through the Spatial Rift.
On the other side of the rift lay the desolate remains of what had once been a city.
It was evident that an intelligent species had once lived there. Most of the buildings in the abandoned city had been left in a state of disrepair. Now, after the New World Development Union ordered the repair of the city, the place looked much better than before. Forts were even built around the city walls to fortify its defenses.
“Boss, we’ve just discovered a new building that hadn’t been touched. There’s something inside. I think you should take a look at it.” A monster trainer was training his familiar in the plains, where a streak of black and white was chasing after a group of black-and-white streaks in front of it.
“Hm?” A dark-skinned man took down his sunglasses and turned to his subordinate.
“Black King,” said the man, calling his familiar back.
The black-and-white streaks collided with each other for a moment before pulling away from each other. They were a couple of six-foot-tall black wolverines. One of them, a wolverine with a particularly streamlined body, impatiently licked its claws and swept back the fur on its head with them.
It then walked back towards the man with the sunglasses without a sound, ignoring everything else around it.
Upon entering the Spatial Rift, they found themselves in the middle of a seemingly empty city. The place was painted in shades of yellow and gray, the walls and roofs of the buildings overgrown with all kinds of plants. Even though some of the buildings had caved in, no one had bothered to repair them. The only sign indicating any manner of repair had ever taken place here was a distinct lack of weeds on the ground.
Some of the roofs and walls were adorned with winged sculptures and elegant carvings, respectively. These all supported the idea that a civilized species had once called this place home.
One could also see a figure or two flitting through the buildings, scavenging for anything of value.
In the ruins of an extraterrestrial city, there was still a chance that something valuable could turn up.
When the Spatial Rift was first discovered, a lot of people had gone through it to see what was on the other side. A craze had gripped everyone at that time. Hundreds of thousands of people flooded through the rift to explore every inch of the ancient alien city. The furor had died down ever since, as every valuable object in the ruins of the city had long been taken. Even those that couldn’t be removed from the ruins had been destroyed during the exploration craze.
After rounding a few corners, the group of trainers finally arrived at a building, which somewhat resembled a European church from the Middle Ages. It had a roof that tapered to a pointed end. There had once been a huge, wooden door at the front of the building, but it had been taken down long before. A stainless steel door now stood in its place.
When they entered the building, a musty smell assaulted their nostrils. Patches of mold covered the walls around them.
They went up to the third floor, where a wooden table stood in the middle of the room. Intricate letterings were carved onto its surface. There were also concentric circles on it.
In the middle of the circles was a marking that showed a city. Other markings indicating mountains and rivers were around it, along with symbols emphasizing certain parts of the intricate map and more lettering carved around them.
“Has no one tried to decipher what these letters mean?” asked the dark-skinned man. He frowned at the jumble of letters on the table.
“Well, we showed them to a couple of linguists. Most of them said that these letters don’t appear to be of terrestrial origin… However, one of them said that they seem to resemble an Atlantean language.”
“Atlantean?”
“Yeah, as in the Island of Atlas.”
“I don’t care if it’s your mother’s island. I just want to know if anyone has already deciphered these letters!”
“Sorry, boss. I don’t think there’s anyone on earth who can read them. We’ve tried looking for someone who could at least give us a hint, but so far… nada.”
The dark-skinned man put his sunglasses back on and began tracing a finger across the table’s surface, carefully feeling its smoothness. Suddenly, his finger came to a halt at something.
“What’s that?”
The dark-skinned man was pointing at what appeared to be the layout of a building. It was neatly sketched out on the table, with a few more lines crisscrossing its interior. It didn’t look like a natural formation.
“Oh, yeah, this was what I was going to tell you about, boss. It seems to be another city.”
“Another… city,” repeated the dark-skinned man. “How far is it from here?”
“The closest mountain range is around 300 miles from here. There are two mountain ranges drawn here. We figured out that the other city must be at least 600 miles from here,” said his subordinate excitedly. “We’ve already picked all the ruins in a 300-mile range from here clean, which means that we only need to extend our search radius another 300 miles.”
The dark-skinned man furrowed his brows, deep in thought.
After a while, he said, “Let’s go back and discuss this further with the others. See if it’s possible to reach the other city from here.”
