As Suzy left the Mountain Town, a sudden system window appeared right in front of her face:
[Danger! There has been an earthquake! Reconsider leaving!]
...What?
Suzy’s heart skipped a bit. An earthquake? But why? How long had she spent in her space anyway?
[Host, I apologize; the notification protocol glitched. You’ve spent a week in your space by the real-world measurements.]
"Say what?! A whole week? How did it turn out like that?!"
[The space closed up the moment I sensed danger to protect you from harm.]
"I can’t believe this... Can I leave now? I need to check on my friends!"
[Host, the thing is...]
According to the System, the area surrounding her original drop point had undergone massive shifts. Although the fissures had closed up, the region remained highly unstable. Since the domain’s coordinates were fixed, leaving meant she would materialize at the exact same spot where she had fallen in.
Knowing nothing about the current ground environment outside, charging out blindly was an immense gamble. With both the System and the domain issuing warnings, Suzy couldn’t help feeling anxious.
[Host, don’t worry too much. I have a solution.]
"What solution?"
Hearing that the System had a way out made Suzy’s heart skip a beat.
She naturally wanted to get back out as soon as possible—after all, Derek, Thomas and the others were still out there, and she was worried sick about them.
[I can activate the Temporary Relocation protocol to teleport you to a nearby safe coordinate. It will consume a fraction of my energy reserves, but it guarantees you won’t step straight into immediate danger upon exiting.]
"Will it affect you?" Suzy blurted out instinctively.
At her question, the System didn’t answer immediately, falling silent for a short moment.
[...It won’t.]
"Are you sure?"
[Positive.]
Suzy hesitated for two seconds before nodding. "Alright, let’s do the relocation."
[Command confirmed.]
[Spatial Relocation Protocol initiated. Scanning for safe coordinate points...]
[Scan complete. Teleporting now—]
The System’s voice grew muffled right as the word "now" fell, and a violent burst of white light flashed across Suzy’s vision.
Immediately following was an unfamiliar, sickening sensation of weightlessness.
By reflex, Suzy squeezed her eyes shut as if the ground had vanished beneath her boots—only for an upward yank to pull her back a second later.
Whoosh—
A sharp gust of wind whistled past her ears, rising to a high pitch before abruptly dropping into total silence.
Following the wind, Suzy felt her boots hit solid ground. The firm texture beneath her feet offered an overwhelming surge of relief.
Opening her eyes, she was greeted by a completely unfamiliar sky—an overcast gray, choked with heavy storm clouds gathering off in the distance like a brewing tempest.
Suzy squinted, surveying her surroundings.
In the distance stood the crumbling outlines of several dilapidated apartment buildings with shattered windows and peeling, weathered walls. The recent earthquake had reduced the area to utter ruin.
Still... why does the architectural style look so strange?
Were there any buildings like this anywhere near Starlight Towers?
Puzzled, Suzy scratched her head and took a few steps forward.
The region had clearly taken a heavy beating from the earthquake. Cracks running across the pavement were clearly visible, though they were small and appeared to have fully knit back together.
To Suzy, however, those lines resembled the gaping maws of hidden demons, capable of snapping open at any moment to swallow anyone whole.
Before long, she arrived at a deserted street.
Glancing left and right, she saw shuttered storefronts on both sides. Due to the recent quakes, half of their signboards hung loosely off their frames. A thick layer of dust coated the asphalt, bearing fresh footprints that suggested someone had passed through not too long ago.
Suzy looked down at her own feet to confirm she was indeed standing on solid ground, making sure she wasn’t hallucinating.
The quake’s impact here was neither catastrophic nor minor—some structures still managed to hold themselves upright.
Yet... the more Suzy looked around, the stranger everything felt. I’ve definitely never been here before.
Did the System teleport me out to the outskirts of A City??
With a head full of question marks, she walked further down the road.
Along the way, she didn’t spot a single soul; the surrounding silence felt dead and heavy.
Soon, a signpost-like object caught her eye up ahead, and she quickened her pace toward it. A few words on the plate were obscured under a thick layer of yellow dust.
Wiping the grime away with her hand, three large words came into view: Industrial Road.
Industrial Road?
Is there an Industrial Road in A City?
Suzy had no recollection of it, though maybe it existed. A City was massive, after all—it wasn’t like she remembered every single street name.
Dusting the dirt off her hands, she let out a sigh and continued scanning her surroundings.
Unfamiliar streets, unfamiliar buildings, and an unfamiliar atmosphere in the air.
Where on earth did the System send me?
"System? System, are you there?" Suzy called out internally.
She waited for a while, but no response came. After calling out several more times in vain, she eventually gave up.
She guessed the teleportation had overdrawn its energy reserves once again.
Sighing inwardly, Suzy realized that if she wanted to get back to Starlight Towers, she would have to rely entirely on herself.
Undeterred, she kept moving forward until a tall structure caught her eye.
Amidst the sea of tilted, precarious buildings, that particular structure stood out remarkably well. Its exterior possessed a grand design, topped with red lettering across the roofline.
Though a few letters had broken off, the first two remained crystal clear to Suzy’s eyes—X City.
X City...
X CITY???
Suzy froze dead in her tracks, staring at those two characters for several long seconds. Her brain felt like a jammed gear that refused to turn.
Wait, wait, wait!
Are you kidding me?!
X City! That’s over a thousand kilometers away from A City!
Didn’t the System say it would drop me off NEARBY??
How is this "nearby"?! This is literally a thousand miles away!
Where did things go wrong... For a moment, Suzy genuinely questioned reality.
No wonder those buildings looked so unfamiliar earlier!
A wave of despair washed over her.
A distance of over a thousand kilometers... Before the apocalypse, a quick flight would have gotten her there in a few hours.
But this was the apocalypse. Even though she had vehicles stashed inside her spatial inventory, driving back on clear roads via highways would still take eleven to fourteen hours minimum.
And... can anyone even use highways right now?
Suzy looked at the battered city leveled by earthquake fissures and the catastrophic road conditions all around her. After an earthquake of this scale, traveling by road was bound to be a nightmare.
Her gut told her it would take at least ten days to half a month just to make it back to A City.
The post-apocalyptic world operated on a completely different set of rules compared to the past.
Suzy let out a deep, heavy sigh and walked a bit further, intending to find a quiet spot to map out her next move.