The female warrior moved quickly, taking just a few strides to reach He Ao and his companion, glancing at He Ao and softly saying, "Hello." He Ao also nodded at her. Hearing He Ao’s accent, she paused slightly, but said nothing. Instead, she lowered her head and looked at the blonde girl, asking quickly, "What are you doing here?" The blonde girl looked up at the female warrior, paused for a moment, and said softly, "I came here to visit a friend, she’s ill and took leave." Hearing her answer, the female warrior paused again, then pulled two green, thumb-sized bottles from her pocket and handed them to the blonde girl, speaking quickly, "Put this under your nose and breathe in; it can help relieve the shock you experienced today and stabilize your mind." The blonde girl looked at the female warrior and took the two green bottles. At this time, the female warrior shifted her gaze to the blonde girl, "Don’t wander around during rest time." The blonde girl nodded, "I understand." "There is a Variant incident nearby; we need to rush there immediately. If you have any questions, you can go to the Ordinance Department and find the warrior on duty." Then the female warrior lifted her head, glanced at He Ao and the blonde girl, and quickly said, "Recently, there have been many Variant incidents, try not to wander around." Immediately after, without saying much, she turned and walked briskly towards a nearby vehicle waiting for her teammates. The blonde girl watched her departing figure, silently nodding. "What is the Ordinance Department?" As she watched the female warrior approach the vehicle and swiftly jump in, He Ao suddenly asked. Hearing this question, the previously somewhat tense blonde girl suddenly widened her eyes in surprise, turned to He Ao, and asked, "You don’t know what the Ordinance Department is?" She gestured somewhat incoherently with her palms, "The Ordinance Department is specifically for eliminating Variants," Then she paused, glancing at the people who had already boarded the vehicle preparing to leave, "They are very powerful!" "Do they only take care of eliminating Variants?" He Ao turned back, looking at the blonde girl beside him, and asked, "Are they responsible for investigating the origins of the Variants?" From the reaction of the female warrior’s teammates, it seemed they were surprised by the female warrior’s quick approach, indicating that they usually wouldn’t deal with ordinary people they meet on the road. And the female warrior’s fast speech and hurried actions also proved that she indeed had no time to arrange for the care of ’bystanders’. Now it was the blonde girl’s turn to be stunned, scratching her head, "Does the Ordinance Department handle that?" "Are there other official agencies in this city responsible for dealing with Variants?" "It doesn’t seem like there are." The blonde girl recalled for a moment, then shook her head. He Ao turned away, looking at the people starting the car and leaving. Not investigating the origins of Variants but only cleaning them up likely has only two reasons: either they do not care about the origins of these Variants, or they are very clear about the origins and do not need to investigate. However, these basic executors responsible for clearing out monsters probably do not have access to deeper information. It seems necessary to visit this official agency and ask their leaders. At this moment, a soft question came from beside He Ao. He Ao redirected his gaze, looking at the blonde girl beside him. At this moment, the blonde girl was handing one of the two green bottles to He Ao, softly saying, "Variants are so dangerous, you may not know them, but you should know they are dangerous, yet you still came over, thank you for wanting to help me." Then she paused, "But in the future, try not to do such dangerous things, we ordinary people can’t fight against that Variant." "Why were you so close to that Variant then?" He Ao casually asked. The blonde girl slightly opened her mouth, but her words stopped midway. "Because she is your friend?" The blonde girl paused slightly, her head lifted with a hint of surprise as she looked at He Ao. After a brief pause, she reached into her pocket and pulled out two silver-paper-wrapped strips, "She’s sick and took a leave of absence, I came to bring her some food." "Do you have a good relationship?" "Yeah, Galin and I both work at the food factory, we both are responsible for collecting the paste and putting it on the conveyor belt, we often chat while working, and she is my best friend," The voice of the blonde girl lowered slightly, "She’s been telling me since a few days ago that she’s very tired and hasn’t rested well for many days." She paused for a moment, then continued, "She has already taken two days off, taking a day off means losing two days’ pay, I was afraid she had nothing to eat so I brought some food to see her." She lowered her head and glanced at the strip in her hand, then raised her head and looked towards the end of the street where the Variant had disappeared, "When I opened the door... she had already turned into this." Then, the girl shrugged her nose, a slight smile appeared on her face as she turned to He Ao, changing the subject, "I haven’t asked your name yet, I’m Riley." He Ao glanced at her, nodding gently as he spoke. "Hao... Yi, your name syllables sound different from everyone else’s," Riley scratched her head, looking at He Ao, "And your accent is a bit Northern District-like, yet you ran all the way to the Southern District." "Do people from the Northern District speak like me?" He Ao looked at Riley, asking slowly. "It seems about the same," Riley nodded lightly, seemingly recalling a bit, "But I’ve seen few people from the Northern District, so I’m not sure, I know more about the Southern District." "Have you lived here for a long time?" He Ao continued along her remarks. "Since I can remember, I’ve been in the Southern District," Riley thought a bit, slowly spoke, "I first wandered the streets, then my sister adopted me, and later I went to the factory." "Do you know where the Ordinance Department is located?" He Ao raised his head, looking around the scenery. "That’s in the center of the city," Riley looked toward the opposite side of the street, raising her finger, "Over there, it’s a long walk, but we can take a bus there, I’ll take you to the stop." He Ao glanced at the little girl beside him, nodding gently, "Thank you." Riley chuckled, "After all, you came here to save me, my sister always said that one should be grateful." Saying so, she began leading the way. "Has it always been your sister teaching you?" He Ao glanced around the desolate street, asking in a muted tone, "Is there a school here?" "School, what is that?" Riley blinked, turning to look back at He Ao with some confusion. "An institution specifically for educating and nurturing children," He Ao calmly replied, "If children here don’t go to school, what do they do?" Riley stated as a natural assumption, "Children have jobs for children, adults have jobs for adults, each person’s salary can only buy enough food for themselves, so everyone must work to have food to eat," she paused for a moment, "However, some adults will squeeze out a bit of food for children, initially my sister did just that, then I started working too, and she didn’t have to go hungry anymore." "Your sister is very good to you." "Hehe," Riley chuckled, "She’s really sharp-tongued but soft-hearted. At first, she didn’t want me to go to work but when I asked her, ’If I don’t work, what should I do?’ she couldn’t come up with an answer. She just felt that I shouldn’t go to work, but I went anyway." "Is everyone in this city grown up here?" He Ao asked softly as he looked at the swaying gas street lamps by the street. Riley seemed uncertain, "I never asked in detail, but it seems that no one mentioned it," she paused slightly, as if remembering something, "It seems that some people around here suddenly disappear one day. The rooms become empty and then strangers like you move in." "So, there are no people living around here?" He Ao raised his head and looked around, "Our way here seemed entirely empty." "The people nearby do live here." Riley quickly spoke, "It’s just that most of them work at the nearby fiber factory, it’s their working hours now. Most public buses don’t operate near here as well, they’ll come back after work. But everyone goes back to their homes to sleep and won’t wander around here." While talking, Riley stood next to a black iron sign, she turned her head to He Ao, "There’s a bus route here that goes directly to the Ordinance Department." She paused for a moment, "But this bus comes quite infrequently, a few hours apart," She leaned against the signpost, poking her head out and looking toward the deep end of the road, "But looking at the time, it should arrive soon." Next to the signpost was a swaying gas street lamp. Under the pale light, He Ao could clearly see the golden-haired girl’s looks; she wore simple khaki work clothes with a tinge of disordered freckles on her face. Her skin was covered with a light dusting of powder, but you could still vaguely see her pale skin underneath. More precisely, her almost transparent, fair skin. Riley’s slightly surprised shout drew He Ao’s attention. He Ao too lifted his gaze towards the end of the road. An old, tan-colored vehicle was slowly approaching. To be honest, this ’public bus’ was not quite what He Ao had imagined a bus would look like. It resembled a tan iron box with ventilation holes on either side, no glass windows, and two stiff iron wheels on each side. In front of this iron box, there was a connection to some sort of gas engine structure, the engine directly connected to two driving wheels, topped with a huge gas bag. From a distance, this vehicle resembled less of a car and more of a sort of carriage, only the horses pulling the carts were replaced with a gas engine. The driver, dressed in tan clothes, sitting between the iron box and engine, controlled the driving wheels through a special shaft structure. As he saw the two waiting at the sign, he slowly stopped the vehicle. Riley reached into her pocket, pulling out four round iron pieces. He Ao’s gaze also fell on those round iron pieces. It seemed they were some kind of flattened beer bottle caps, made into ’iron pieces.’ While he was watching, Riley threw the pieces into an iron box next to the driver, "We’re going to the Ordinance Department." The driver glanced down at the iron pieces in the box, lifted his hand, and through a certain pull rope, slowly opened the sliding door of the iron carriage. Riley immediately turned around, waving her hand to gesture He Ao to board. He Ao walked up to the vehicle and then noticed a spiral staircase at the rear leading to the roof of the car, so he climbed up the stairs and reached the ’second floor’ of the bus. The position on the roof was enclosed with railings and on both sides, iron bench seats about thirty centimeters wide were fixed. Creating an ’open-top’ second floor. No one was here now, He Ao chose a forward seat to sit down. At that time, Riley also followed behind him, ascending to the ’second floor.’ He Ao raised his head to look at her. "I was actually thinking of going to the Ordinance Department myself," Riley scratched her head. "Are you worried I won’t find the way?" He Ao glanced at her and smiled. The blonde girl’s face turned red, then she forcibly straightened her face and seriously said, "My sister taught me to finish what I start." He Ao glanced at the now slightly nervous girl, shook his head with a smile, and did not continue to ask. As both of them got on the vehicle, accompanied by a tremor, the driver started the engine. The old vehicle bumped along on the stone-paved road. Soon, He Ao’s figure began to sway slightly with the trembling of the vehicle. This classical yet mechanical vehicle had almost no shock absorption, passing the bumpiness of the road directly to the passengers’ seats. Strictly speaking, it had almost no comfort. The blonde girl seemed already accustomed to the bumpiness; she raised her gaze and looked at the surrounding silent city. A slight noise arose in the darkness, He Ao also raised his gaze, looking towards a secluded alley on the side. Within his field of view, at the dark end of the alley, a twisted, bloated monster was quietly chewing on something. Beside it were several scattered grey-brown garments. An invisible sword light flashed through the night, crushing the monster’s vitality. Following that, an invisible link hung upon a yellow crystal, the twisted monster rapidly decayed and vanished. In the corner of He Ao’s coat pocket, the group of immersed ashes slowly floated up, circled around the yellow crystal, then became quiet again. "Did you hear something just now?" At this moment, Riley seemed to have heard something, she looked around. "Did you hear anything?" He Ao looked at her, asking with interest. "It seemed like there was a sound, but it’s gone now," Riley shook her head, "Maybe I heard wrong." The vehicle gradually moved forward along the road, the invisible sword light also roamed in the darkness. After He Ao dealt with the third attacking ’Variant,’ the vehicle finally entered deeper into the city, the roaring sounds also shook in He Ao’s ears. He Ao raised his head and looked around, all around his field of view were large dark buildings; intense sounds emanated from these buildings. "Is this the ’factory’?" He Ao turned his head toward Riley. Riley nodded, she pointed to a black building in the distance and said, "That’s the food factory where I work," Then her finger kept moving, "This one is a spinning factory, this one is a fiber factory, this one is a cement factory, this one is... I forgot," She waved her hand, "Anyway, this area is all factories, everyone works here." "This place feels a bit oppressive." He Ao raised his head, an orange-gray glow flashed in his eyes, looking around. Inside those dark buildings, strands of twisted pollution were slowly spreading out. This pollution, invisible and intangible, permeated every inch of space around and slowly spread toward the residential area outside. Riley also glanced around; she propped up her cheek and sighed lightly. The ’bus’ carried the two, continuing toward the center of the entire city. He Ao carefully observed each factory building. At that moment, Riley also rubbed her cheeks, soothing some emotions. She raised her head, looked forward, then immediately raised her hand, pointing to the end of her field of view. "Look, we’re almost there! That’s the Ordinance Department!" He Ao raised his head, looking in the direction pointed out by Riley. A huge, somewhat new stone-carved ’K’ letter appeared in his field of