Chapter 20. Lodging
Before the Global System Apocalypse, Tokyo had been the heartbeat of Japan—alive with LED billboards flashing non-stop, street performers on every corner, and tourists flooding the districts like rivers of color and noise.
Now, everything had changed.
Half the skyscrapers stood as skeletal ruins, their once-glass windows shattered and jagged like broken teeth. The roads were cratered, proof of the battles that had raged through. Blood stained everything, and dead bodies lay scattered across the streets, blood everywhere like it was painted.
And then, there was the wall.
A towering concrete wall at least thirty feet high stretched farther than the eye could see. It wrapped around what used to be a commercial zone. From his position, Shin could make out the broken shapes of a shopping mall and a few apartment complexes behind it, all sealed off like a military bunker.
That wall hadn't been there before.
No government on Earth could've built something that massive overnight... unless it was the System's doing.
So this was what they meant by "Safe Zones." A new kind of luxury gated community.
Shin walked toward it calmly, unlike everyone else who sprinted in panic to reach the safety within. Strangely, no one was attacking each other. Everyone was too focused on getting inside.
After a long walk, he reached the gates. They were massive—but unguarded.
He stepped through.