Chapter 50 - Departure

At a glance, the bustling modernity filled his view, distinctly different from the old district—essentially worlds apart.

In some ways, the old district was no longer suitable for this extremely bustling city, and it deserved a major overhaul or reconstruction.

However, Su Mo had always been resistant.

On one hand, whether it was remodeling or rebuilding, it required a huge amount of money—and Su Mo simply didn’t have that much.

Another point was that after the remodeling, both the rent and general living costs in the old district would skyrocket, making it unaffordable for the original tenants.

Frankly speaking, those tenants from the old district were basically the most bottom-tier residents of the city.

Of course, if they were to completely rebuild the urban village, selling it for hundreds of billions would be easy.

But Su Mo didn’t care about the money, nor did he want to go against his grandfather’s wishes.

In his eyes, this old city was the last relic his grandfather had left him.

With that, Su Mo stood still for a long time, looking in the direction of the old district.

After a while, Su Mo headed to the public rail station, prepared to take the railcar to the train station.

Since he had only a thousand in cash, he couldn’t squander any of it and chose the most cost-effective way to reach Imperial City as best as he could.

Soon, Su Mo arrived at the railcar platform.

The platform was extremely crowded with people waiting for the railcar since it was the peak of the morning rush.

Many people, eating fast food like meat buns, filled the air with a mix of distinct odors.

The public light rail soon arrived at the station.

Whoosh!

Everyone pushed their way inside, squeezing Su Mo in along with them.

On the railcar, Su Mo tried to find a relatively spacious corner, only to realize he was being overly optimistic—everywhere was packed.

A fashionably dressed older woman, carrying a luxury bag and exuding a strong scent of perfume, stood right in front of Su Mo, staring at him intently.

Su Mo instinctively turned his head to the side.

“Oh, are you shy?

It’s rare to see such a pure young man these days.

What’s your name, young man?”

The older woman looked at Su Mo and even flirted with her eyes.

Her taste was excellent; the young man had delicate features and was extremely handsome.

Yet, he was only wearing an old-fashioned yellow sweater with no valuable accessories.

One could tell at a glance that he was quite poor, probably easy to win over.

The corner of Su Mo’s mouth twitched slightly; he endured the discomfort and pretended not to hear.

“Stop playing innocent, hear me out.

Young men don’t know the benefits of a rich older woman, and will end up sadly alone when they are old.”

Su Mo’s expression darkened, but he continued to endure.

Unfortunately, the wealthy older woman showed no signs of giving up and seemed even more interested as she leaned closer to Su Mo.

Suddenly, a girl wearing a blue turtleneck uniform, headphones around her neck, holding an ice cream, stepped between them, blocking the older woman.

“Little girl, move aside a bit.”

The older woman replied annoyedly.

The girl acted as if she hadn’t heard, shaking her ice cream back and forth.

It seemed like it might stain clothes any moment, which scared the older woman into stepping back, glaring at the girl in front of her.

“What are you doing?

If it stains my clothes, you won’t be able to afford it.”

“It was you who kept crowding over here.”

The girl replied with a smile.

“You!”

The older woman was so angry that she couldn’t speak.

“Forget it, you’re too ugly, I won’t face you.”

The girl then turned her back, facing Su Mo.

Su Mo couldn’t help but size up the girl in front of him; meanwhile, the girl flashed him a radiant smile.

Su Mo was slightly taken aback.

He suddenly felt that stepping out of his familiar life circle and experiencing the outside world might not be such a bad thing after all.

Sometime later, they finally reached the train station.

After some effort, he boarded a high-speed train to Imperial City.

At that moment, Su Mo let out a long sigh of relief.

Demon City to Imperial City was 1318 kilometers away.

In theory, taking the vacuum maglev train was the fastest, only taking 10 minutes to arrive.

However, because it was too expensive, he booked a normal high-speed train instead.

This car was the first departure and, since Su Mo boarded relatively early, many passengers had not yet arrived, so the seats beside him were all empty.

Staring out of the window, Su Mo felt an inexplicable excitement.

This was his first time traveling far from home, and he was rather thrilled.

He was also curious about what the outside world would be like.

As the departure time drew closer, more and more people boarded the train.

At that moment, a group of young men and women boarded the train,

How could they deceive?

Moreover, they provide room and board; many people want to get in but can’t.

Once we get there, we even have to sign a contract.

I’m telling you, even if we die in the game, there’s still a condolence payment to collect.”

“That’s great.”

“Don’t you see who found the guild?”

It was only then that Su Mo noticed nearly all the passengers in the train were talking about Star Ring.

And many of them were going to Imperial City for training.

It seemed they were all elite players being recruited.

At that moment, Chen Tian and his group walked over and finding a spot, they sat down beside Su Mo.

His companions also settled down nearby.

Suddenly, the quiet atmosphere became somewhat noisy.

Su Mo just glanced over and didn’t say anything.

Just then, Su Mo’s phone vibrated.

He instinctively picked it up and saw notifications popping up from his newly registered WeChat app.

“Notification, would you like to join the Dawn Guild Tenth Legion chat group (183923 members)?”

“Notification, would you like to join Dawn Guild Tenth Legion Group 12 chat (15023 members)?”

“Notification, Lin Zinuo requests to add you as a friend.”

Su Mo was a bit surprised, then tapped a few times, agreeing to all.

As soon as he had agreed, Lin Zinuo’s messages started popping up like bullets.

“Have you departed yet?”

“What time will you arrive?”

As messages kept popping up, Su Mo fell silent, wondering if his decision to join had been too hasty?

It felt like they were chasing his soul, as if they were afraid he’d run away.

He replied, I’ve set off, then he turned his phone to silent mode.

By then, the train had set off, and if on schedule, it would reach Imperial City in three hours.

Su Mo leaned against the window, quietly enjoying the scenery outside.

He watched as the towering buildings faded into the background; soon, the train had left Demon City.

Then, the scenery underwent a drastic change.

The distant buildings started to appear shorter and were not so densely packed anymore.

After a while, fields and forests came into view.

However, most were in a state of desolation.

This was not due to wastage of land and resources but because over seventy percent of the land in this world had been affected by residual radiation from the last war.

Basically, it was unusable; the crops that were forcefully grown, although edible, had severe side effects.

Therefore, most had given up on these heavily contaminated areas.