He is the leader of the Tantric sect in Chagdu.

"Is that all?"

The ritualistic killings felt utterly unreal. Eileen heard Veltin give a soft "hmm," and looking at the two bullets reduced to dust, she felt a chill run down her spine—murdering mortals at such a distance, with almost no consequences…

No wonder the image of Tantric Buddhism has been demonized into something taboo; this is truly a bit too extreme. Imagine a world where multiple Death Notes exist; Tantric practitioners are already very close to that kind of existence. Once they abandon their bottom line, they can wantonly kill and plunder ordinary people.

Fortunately, the ritual still requires a catalyst, which is the only limitation. Otherwise, the influence of those cult fanatics would have grown infinitely. Even with the Foundation's current intervention in all mysticism, this nest built on a bloated structure might have fallen apart due to out-of-control supernatural forces.

Damn it, I wish I could destroy the cult! I, Ellen, am mortal enemies with the cultists!

After mentally chanting a couple of slogans to stay immersed in their characters, no one dared to disturb the group of five after this little incident. After a sudden, intense braking that felt like 5g, the train finally arrived at its destination.

With the sound of the hydraulic rod releasing air, the car door slowly opened.

Stepping out of the carriage, Eileen shivered: "Ugh—it's so cold..."

The puddles at our feet had long since frozen into murky ice, and the indoor temperature in this godforsaken place was at least below zero!

"No maintainers will come to repair the life support equipment here—we don't even have enough electricity for the outskirts, and all resources have to be traded, fought for with our lives, just to make life less comfortable for the insects..."

However, it's colder here than it was a while ago. No wonder there have been more "technicians" kidnapped from various parts of the city in the suburbs in recent years. They also want to repair those "purifiers" that are about to die.

However, without the involvement of think tanks and the assistance of self-regulatory units, this is destined to be in vain.

Listening to the heavy "breathing" that seemed to come from the other side of the world, and the ubiquitous vibrations, Virtin's expression was complicated.

Those bloated mechanical structures mounted on the edge of the dome are giant air purifiers, breathing in radiation and toxic particles while incidentally regulating the temperature; they are the kidneys of the suburbs. The survival of this deformed behemoth depends on these organs, but they are about to break down…

When that day comes, extreme cold and deadly poison will completely engulf this place, and no one will survive until the autonomous machines build an iron curtain to isolate it, dismantle the dome from the distant suburbs, and completely remove this rotten world from its bloated "nest".

That was the true end of the world in the far suburbs.

The girl didn't know whether she should be happy or not. She knew very well that even if this "outer suburb" was destroyed, there would be another "outer suburb" that would begin to grow in some dark corner of the nest.

Some things cannot be eradicated simply by killing them.

"We've given this place many names, and even more titles and meanings—it's the tumor of the lower city, the passage connecting to the bottom nest, the end of the rotten cycle, the cave where sin and death settle..." Virtin wrapped his oversized trench coat tighter, pressing one hand against his top hat to prevent the omnipresent strange wind from blowing it away.

"We've never been stingy with our malice toward it."

Sherlock continued speaking, lighting a cigarette and exhaling a puff of white smoke into the cold air, which was quickly stained gray-black by the smoke and dissipated into the distance.

"Welcome to the 'Outskirts', newbie."

...

The giant steel python behind us stepped onto the misty road in the distance, the billowing smoke obscuring almost the entire dome.

This is a world built on a garbage dump. The charred black color is the background color of the suburbs. Countless decaying ruins are like tilted building blocks on a sand table. Dense ruins are randomly piled up at the end of the dark sky, making the whole land seem cramped and narrow.

Lin carefully avoided the scattered bone fragments of unknown origin under her feet. She had been the most excited person on the journey, but after finally seeing the scenery in the distance, even she couldn't help but feel a little depressed: "No matter how you look at it, this place is too exaggerated..."

"How did those people here, those guys, survive?"

Eileen couldn't deny that once he stepped out of the station area, which was still barely indoors, he finally caught a glimpse of the entire suburbs.

The overturned skyscrapers have become nests of copper moss and vines, and the thick, foul-smelling sewage flows in the crisscrossing ditches. The black smoke drifting in the sky is like abandoned salt pillars standing on the earth. Everything seems to have turned from prosperity to destruction in an instant, just like the apocalypse after the extinction of mankind.

"I always feel like someone is watching us..."

Behind the ruins, several old-fashioned multi-purpose vans were parked, and many silhouettes of varying shapes appeared in the darkness, turning into humanoid silhouettes and casting subtle glances in this direction—

Is this some kind of welcome gift?

"They are assessing whether the profits they can gain from selling us outweigh the risks of attacking us."

Wilting, who was walking at the front, sneered, his gaze sweeping over the surroundings with a chilling intensity: "Those men are called coyotes... They usually roam around railroads and border crossings, ambushing newcomers."

"Technicians will have various factions willing to pay high prices to buy high-value individuals such as women and children, and there will also be people who specialize in recycling them... People who are not particularly special can also be used as consumables or as reserve organs."

Just like Lin said before, but hearing about it and witnessing it with your own eyes are two different things.

"They all look so young... and they're all so tall. Are all the people here this tall?"

Sherlock stubbed out his cigarette and casually replied, "Young because most people don't live past 30. High? The human modification level here averages over 60%, while in the lower city it's only 15%. Just compare them and you'll see that there aren't many original legs in there."

The way of life for people in the suburbs is really like that of a roaming coyote, obtaining the nutrients to survive by tearing apart the flesh of others.

"Only in this way..." Veltin sighed softly, looking at the humming giant machines in the distance, "The outskirts no longer have a complete industrial chain. Some of the old sites that still retain the ability to produce complex industrial products have been occupied by workshops in the alleys. The deeply polluted land can no longer grow plants... So, those trains that lead to the various districts of the lower city have become the blood vessels of this dying behemoth, supplying it with life force from the outside."

A world without foundations, and destined to have no future.

"No wonder... I always heard someone say that people who buy houses in the suburbs are either idiots or bad guys."

Without even knowing who she was criticizing, Eileen felt her glasses were fogged up by the smoke: "This godforsaken place actually has real estate; no wonder it's the pillar industry of humanity..."

Shaking her head, Ellen glanced at the dark shadows in the distance. Only a few minutes had passed, and the "wolf pack" that had been surrounding them had thinned out considerably. She couldn't help but wonder, "They're just letting us go like that? We looked so easy to bully."

"Coyotes are very intelligent animals, and in the context of the suburbs, this is never a derogatory term."

"If it were just Sherlock and me here, we'd most likely be attacked—because I'm very good-looking, a high-value commodity, and Sherlock doesn't look like he's very strong," Wilting said in a deep voice.

The girl seemed completely unfazed by being told she was pretty: "But with the three of you included, things are a little different..."

She glanced at the three people following behind her, including Elaine, and smirked, "You guys look like you're on a trip to the outskirts... No wonder the coyotes ran away in fear with a group like this. It's too outrageous and unusual; anyone with a sound mind wouldn't dare mess with you."

Wow, is this what they call "the weirder, the stronger"?

After learning about the general situation in the suburbs from Wilting, Lin was the first to sense that the casual conversation was getting out of hand: "So... what are we going to do now?"

"What we're doing doesn't actually have a specific goal. I just want to come to the outskirts to find traces of a secret cult, to confirm their deactivation and death, and incidentally to put an end to that nightmare born of light. This isn't urgent."

"So, we can go to the place mentioned in the will and get our hands on the inheritance..."

Wilting suddenly stopped and looked up at the dome: beneath the increasingly dense darkness, some kind of module seemed to be undergoing complex and slow transformations. Strange structures whose full appearance could not be seen moved on the dome, casting deep and heavy black outlines like giant beasts, and emitting an incessant roar like background noise.

It's those giant air purifiers, exhausted and constantly running, emitting a faint vibration in their energy-saving mode—

"Tonight is 'Sewage Discharge Day,' isn't it?"

She murmured, quickening her pace slightly, "Let's put the search for the inheritance on hold for now. We need to find a place to hide first..."

"I have a suggestion—"

Eileen raised a hand and waved it above her head: "How about we go eat first?"

"?"

Are you coming to eat in the suburbs?

A big question mark rose above Wilting's head, and he couldn't help but guess at the deeper meaning: "You're looking for a place to gather intelligence? Actually, you don't need to. I have an internal think tank here—"

No, I didn't think that much about it.

Eileen awkwardly lowered her hand, staring at the time—2 a.m.—and silently felt saddened.

From the early morning insight, to the encounter with moths during the day, and then to the escape at night...

Having not eaten for almost a whole day, and with half of the instant noodles Nie had knocked over, Ellen felt her vision blurring and her limbs going weak.

Therefore, the main characters in shonen manga are still impossible to imitate. The kind of hot-blooded male protagonist who ignores physical needs and relies solely on courage to pursue his dreams, and can always unleash his best performance, is also a remarkable ability...

Eileen was weak and listless.

"Boss, I'm really hungry..."