The whole nation is trying to survive on the cable car; I'm choosing one of three options at ea

Giants, minotaurs, goblins, mutated beasts... as if they had received the same command, they began to surge out of the ruins and converge towards the city wall.

They surged through the streets like a tide, leaping over collapsed buildings and trampling over the corpses of their companions as they rushed toward the edge of the city wall.

Su Mu saw a giant over ten meters tall, running wildly towards the city wall amidst the monster horde. Every step it took shook the ground, and small monsters blocking its path were crushed into the mud.

Another group of minotaurs followed closely behind, their horns pointing forward like a row of moving battering rams. Goblins rode mutated wild dogs at the forefront, brandishing crude weapons and emitting sharp, indistinct howls.

They rushed to the edge of the city wall and did not stop.

The first wave of monsters crashed directly into the weakening golden curtain, and were bounced back upon contact... not annihilated, but thrown back into the city. But the second and third waves immediately followed.

Su Mu saw a giant rush to the breach in the city wall... where the golden curtain was thinnest... Unlike the previous monsters, it wasn't thrown back, but passed right through. Its body disappeared from the other side of the golden curtain and rushed outside the city wall.

There was a moment of silence on the channel.

"...Did that giant go out? Did it pass through the barrier?"

"It went out to fight those things?!"

"Monsters are defending the city?!"

Su Mu did not speak, but his gaze did not leave the direction of the city wall.

He saw more and more monsters passing through the golden curtain... giants, minotaurs, goblins, mutated beasts... like a ragtag army temporarily conscripted, they charged towards the overwhelming horde of monsters outside the city.

The golden curtain shimmered slightly as they passed through, like some kind of "permission granted" certification. The monsters that were bounced back seemed to have been judged "unqualified" by something.

"They...they are guarding the city," someone finally said.

The panic in the channel subsided somewhat, but it was replaced by a more complex, indescribable tension.

Su Mu recalled the vine he had seen at Ash University before... It devoured a whole area of ​​high-level monsters, using them as nourishment.

He recalled the hordes of monsters that had been driven away, the animals that had escaped from the zoo, and the monsters that had suddenly vanished into the dense forest. Their behavior always followed a certain pattern; he just hadn't connected the dots before.

"The monsters inside the city are fighting the strange creatures outside," he thought to himself. "They're not on the same side."

Just then, the sky split open.

It wasn't the massive, gaping rift that appeared when the Chimera appeared, but rather countless fine streaks of white light descending from the sky... It was as if someone had shattered countless mirrors in the sky, and the fragments fell from the clouds, each carrying a figure.

Su Mu looked up.

The white light fell on the open ground inside the city wall, and dispersed the moment it hit the ground, revealing the people inside.

Su Mu noticed their clothing... clothes that were completely different from those in this world.

Some wore light, metallic armor, others draped in cloaks of unknown material, and still others wielded strangely shaped weapons. Their hairstyles, facial features, and even skin color were distinctly different from those of humans on Earth.

Some people crouched down after landing, holding a scimitar in their hands, and warily scanned their surroundings. Others stood straight, their fists clenched, their gaze fixed on the city wall, their expressions containing a complex mix that Su Mu could understand... fear, hatred, tension, and a certain sense of relief, as if "it's finally here."

As these people appeared, a tall tower rose from the ground, its gray-white stone body rapidly ascending like a tree on fast-forward, growing to the height of a three-story building in less than ten seconds. A white light shone from the top of the tower, like a beacon being lit.

Then, a second, a third, a fourth... dozens of towers rose up simultaneously inside the city walls. Those who descended from the sky rushed to different towers, some guarding the base, others climbing to the top, forming a loose but orderly defensive formation.

They didn't speak, didn't communicate, didn't panic or discuss like the people on the channel. They just stood there, weapons in hand, eyes looking out.

Su Mu saw one of the people... standing on the top of the tower closest to the city wall... he was wearing a gray-white robe and holding a dark red staff in his hand.

His gaze swept over the monsters surging from the city walls, over the strange creatures crashing against the edge of the golden curtain, and then he slowly raised his head to look up at the sky.

He saw the cable car.

Those cable cars hanging high in the sky... gray, red and white, looking like strings of iron boxes hanging on thin lines in the moonlight... flashed past his field of vision.

His expression paused for a moment, his eyes filled with curiosity and a complex scrutiny, as if he were looking at a group of things he had never seen before but vaguely knew about.

Then he looked away.

Su Mu stood by the window, staring at the person for a moment from a distance of several hundred meters... Although the other person couldn't possibly see his face from such a distance, he could feel the weight of that gaze.

"...A copy?" Su Mu murmured the word.

He remembered the cable-exclusive dungeon that was about to open... "Ash City".

If the instance truly replicates a real city, and if these people who fall from the sky are some kind of "instance participants," then his previous guess might be correct.

These people may not be local residents, soldiers, or ordinary survivors. They are another group of trial participants who entered this world through some means, thus gaining access to this "Ash City instance" that has already been replicated.

And the monsters inside the city... those giants, minotaurs, goblins that were originally scattered throughout the city... their role in this instance is that of the defenders of the city.

Driven by some unseen rule, they charged towards the city walls, battling the strange creatures outside. Like NPCs in a game, they acted according to a pre-set program, unconcerned about their own deaths.

Su Mu withdrew his gaze.

He didn't think about it any further.

The information was too scarce; his guesses remained mere speculation until more evidence was available. Moreover, the issues he faced were far more pressing than guessing the origins of these people… The cable car was still circling within the city; they would eventually leave Ash City's perimeter, while the strange creatures outside were launching a frenzied attack.

If the city falls, those things will flood into the city, and the cable cars hanging high in the air won't be much safer than the buildings on the ground.