Chapter 331 : Ruins City
Over the next few days, Lonis worked together with Elucia.
Although it seemed they had defeated Hofa and Withered Leaf, the cleanup activities for Ruins City were just beginning.
Because this wasn't an abandoned city—in fact, many remnants of the Apocalypse Independent Kingdom still lived here. Ruins City was divided into four areas from top to bottom: the Dome District, Market District, Industrial District, and the most terrifying Exile District.
The Dome District was naturally where Hofa lived on a daily basis. Although a thousand years had passed, the palace and decorations here remained magnificent. From the throne hall at the very top, one could overlook the entire Sea of Ice and Lava.
The Market District was the ordinary area where most of the "strong ones" of the former Apocalypse Independent Kingdom lived. This place had once been overcrowded, scattered with many residences.
But now, most of the residences had been abandoned.
Only ten percent of the rooms were inhabited, and those living inside weren't descendants of the strong, but descendants of the bottom-tier personnel of the Apocalypse Independent Kingdom.
......
"Elucia, this place looks like a ghost town."
"Hmph hmph, that's natural. Although the Apocalypse Independent Kingdom's path could make one stronger, it also had a fatal weakness."
Elucia smiled slightly, walking together with Lonis on this street built on rock.
"What weakness..."
"Mm, their genes underwent extreme changes, making it impossible to reproduce stable offspring. What they gave birth to were either monsters or idiots."
"!"
"Our genes evolved over hundreds of millions of years to reach this stable level. Artificial mutation might achieve powerful strength, but it cannot last long."
"How could this be..."
"Hmph hmph, isn't it ironic? As the years passed, most of those strong ones from back then have already died of old age. And those who survive to this day are actually the most bottom-tier D-Class Personnel."
......
......
Along the way through the Market District, Lonis also saw many stone monuments.
Although they looked somewhat aged, they were still carefully maintained... It seemed Hofa was a very traditional person, at least very nostalgic about the Independent Kingdom.
Ruins City had no shops—all goods were transported by supply elevators from the Industrial District and then distributed uniformly.
So the people of Ruins City didn't need to find jobs and generally inherited their fathers' occupations.
Although this description might not be quite appropriate...
The residents of Ruins City truly didn't have much pressure.
There was plenty of housing, no need to worry about paying rent, and food and safety weren't concerns either... These ordinary people were too weak to even serve in the military, only needing to perform periodic labor.
......
Seeing this scene, Lonis felt somewhat moved:
"I somewhat understand... why the Eight-Tailed Fox said the Apocalypse Independent Kingdom's original intentions were good."
"A society that divides classes by strength has objective rationality. After all, those strong ones were also protecting these weak ones from being plundered by other strong ones, so collecting some protection fees was natural."
"Mm..."
"The elevator's here. Let's go down now."
......
Supporting Elucia, Lonis also entered the elevator. Following the passage downward, they arrived at the Industrial District of Ruins City.
This was the core of Ruins City, and also the starting point of Ruins City back then.
......
But as soon as they stepped out of the elevator, Lonis was already stunned.
"Wh-what is that?!!!"
......
Because this was an incredibly vast underground space.
This should be located inside the foundation of Ruins City. There were no lights, but the lava illuminated the space brilliantly... Light blue ice lava flowed in from pipes on one side and slowly flowed out from the other side.
Standing in the center of the space was a massive machine, like a huge factory covered with metal spirals, with various scaffoldings and many workers constantly moving about, trying to fix something.
......
Seeing Lonis's shocked expression, Elucia cast a curious glance.
"Oh? Lonis, you've never seen this place?"
"How could I have possibly seen this place!"
"Mm, then it seems the dummy little maid died quite early~ This machine is actually also a product of the Previous Era, also known as the Waste Processing Center."
"W-Waste Processing Center!"
"Yes, the era you lived in—wasn't the world population approaching saturation? Already over ten billion people. The huge population brought huge amounts of garbage, and most garbage was processed by compression and burial on-site."
"......"
"And this underground cavern was once the world's largest landfill. And this machine is the crystallization of human technology—the Waste Recycling Device."
"Ah? Elucia means... this entire underground cavern was formed by accumulated human garbage from before?"
"Not entirely, but at least this place was. This waste processor plus the power of the Cold Abyss was the core that supported the development of the original Apocalypse Independent Kingdom."
"!"
"So reasoning from this, the original founders of the Apocalypse Independent Kingdom were probably descendants of garbage collectors, right?"
Learning such knowledge, Lonis was speechless with amazement.
In fact, if each person produced 1.2 kilograms of garbage per day, the whole world would produce 10 million tons per day... And this didn't include industrial and construction waste. For example, when Lonis was still alive, the entire world produced 500 million tons of garbage per year.
If human garbage kept accumulating...
......
"Ruins City actually has such a history..."
"Hmph hmph, so Ruins City didn't become Ruins City because it was abandoned, but because it was ruins from the beginning... Alright, next we're going to the Exile District. Don't keep Princess Sethilu waiting too long."
"Princess Sethilu?"
"Of course, I also know you dummy maid can't protect me. So I already called Princess Sethilu to stand by over there~"
......
......
What kind of place was the Exile District?
If you asked this question to the native residents of Ruins City, they would definitely shiver and kneel in terror.
Because the Exile District was the most terrifying place in the entire city. Even the ruler of Ruins City—Hofa—found this place very troublesome.
In the past, the Apocalypse Independent Kingdom had many strong ones. These strong ones were all genetically modified people, each possessing 6th-7th rank strength, comparable to Rainbow Abyss blessed ones.
But...
Why were the only available generals left in Ruins City now Withered Leaf, Minotaur, and the half-hearted Mortak?
Because those strong ones either died of old age or completely became madmen over time.
Ordinary madmen were already terrifying enough, let alone powerful madmen.
They would destroy heaven and earth, slaughter innocents.
So Hofa could only establish an Exile District, throwing all the insane people in there... And if anyone committed serious crimes, they would also be thrown in there.
Over the years, the Exile District became the most terrifying place in the city.