Wasteland Border Inspector

Boom!

Rumble!

Dull thunder rolled in from the distance, flashes of lightning constantly flickering on the horizon, briefly illuminating the pitch-black night sky before swiftly disappearing into the clouds.

Dapo Town, under the cover of night, shed the busyness of daylight and once again fell into peaceful tranquility.

But this tranquility holds entirely different meanings for the different people in the town.

For the patrol team responsible for security and the inspectors who need to actively step out of the town, screen surrounding sources of contamination, and even enter the bottom of the White Water River to contain Immortal Objects.

The Wilderness is incredibly dangerous and deadly.

Every step could lead into an ambush zone of contamination sources, with the possibility of perishing in some inconspicuous corner or falling into bizarre pollution beyond cognition, without the chance to call for help.

But for the residents who only need to operate within a fixed range.

The Wilderness is safe.

All the dangers seem unrelated to them; they work from sunrise, clearing abandoned houses and building temporary facilities, rest at sunset, and return to warm living units to temporarily ease their minds.

They don’t need to directly face the grim Crab-man, nor consider risks beyond cognition.

As long as the sky doesn’t collapse, as long as the inspectors charging forward haven’t fallen, all dangers remain within controllable limits.

At the top of the watchtower, in a small space.

Despite being extremely exhausted, Cheng Ye rarely fell into an extremely deep dream.

In his dream, he was no longer the inspector from Happiness City who had to charge forward, without a Collector, without Extraordinary Ability, just an ordinary person living on an endless ice plain.

As the sky was barely lit, and the sun had yet to pierce through the heavy clouds, he followed a large crowd towards the frozen river to mine a white stone known as "Extreme Cold Ore."

The stone looked like regular white limestone, but if it accidentally touched the skin, it would leave scorching burn marks instantly, causing intense pain.

However, the gun muzzles of overseers were mounted on a high platform nearby, and no one dared to slack off.

Cheng Ye gripped an icy iron pickaxe, striking the frozen ground, even drinking had to be done in the slight moment when the overseer turned away, quickly gulping down a few mouthfuls of icy river water.

Working like this from sunrise to sunset, the cold wind painfully stung his face, his fingers had long lost sensation from the cold, before the overseer finally signaled everyone to stop working and line up to calculate the weight of the mined ore.

Just when it was almost Cheng Ye’s turn, a piercing bright light flashed across the sky above.

The light was so blindingly bright that it made it impossible to open one’s eyes, and immediately, like an omen before a nuclear explosion, he watched helplessly as the silhouettes of people in line ahead of him evaporated instantly in the white light, without leaving a trace of ash.

Though it was a fleeting moment, it seemed to slow down in his vision, every detail of each silhouette disappearing was frighteningly clear.

"Ah, no!"

Just as the white light was about to spread to his front, Cheng Ye suddenly cried out, his body sitting upright involuntarily.

Coinciding with a flash of lightning in the distant sky, the pale light shining through the gaps of the watchtower made him instinctively believe that the white light in his dream had truly followed him, his heart clenched tightly.

Boom!

Until the dull roar of thunder followed closely, rumbling in his ears.

Cheng Ye was stunned for a moment, his stiff body gradually relaxing, his tense nerves slowly eased.

So it was just a dream...

He raised his hand, instinctively wanting to touch the cold sweat on his forehead, but encountered the thick helmet instead.

Pressing the visor’s switch, with a "click," the visor slowly retracted.

Taking several deep breaths of air filled with moisture, then slowly exhaling, repeating several times, finally expelling the suffocating sense of stillness from his mind.

"Is it the influence of spiritual contamination?"

Cheng Ye carefully recalled, the images from the dream still vividly echoing in his mind.

The white ice plain, the chilly Extreme Cold Ore, the fellow workers vaporized by the white light.

Even the scorching sensation from the Extreme Cold Ore touching his skin was incredibly realistic, the mere recollection left his arm subtly itching.

Could it be that the Extraordinary of Antarctica, before dying, turned into a "bomb" and blew everyone around into oblivion?

It’s hard to say.

Since human history was sealed away, even as an inspector, he has no authority to investigate those covered past events.

It seems he’ll only have the opportunity to learn what truly happened during the Extraordinary Era by climbing higher to a more senior position.

Cheng Ye closed his eyes, reliving the sensations and details from the dream again to ensure nothing was missed, then leaned on the wooden railing to stand up.

The watchtower constructed by Sun Dazheng and his team was indeed sturdy, built entirely of hardwood, thirteen meters tall.

The base wooden columns were as thick as the mouth of a bowl, deeply embedded into the ground.

The outer layer used interlocking triple-thick wooden boards, the tower body gradually narrowing as it rose, with horizontal wooden rings set every three meters, distributing weight and allowing for easy climbing up and down.

The lookout platform at the top was surrounded by waist-high wooden railings, reinforced with diagonally braced columns at each corner; from here, one could clearly see several miles of movement.

Even without the mental vigilance of Heart-Protecting Fire, being in this closed yet stable watchtower, such a sense of security allowed him to sleep particularly deeply.

"What time is it?"

Cheng Ye picked up the Defense Communication placed beside him, and when the screen lit up, he was somewhat surprised.

It was just past eleven o’clock.

Calculating, he’d only slept for over four hours, far from enough to replenish the mental energy consumed over days of wandering, though the previous dizziness-inducing fatigue had disappeared.