The sky overhead was a mirror.
Its reflective surface showed the sea instead of real sky.
Two suns were visible in that sky. They looked like eyes—
I quickly looked away.
"Co on We don’t want to stand here all day," Saintess Cosette said.
She started walking. Saint Dexter moved in behind , and Saint Maverick stayed at my side.
The trees looked normal.
There were coconut trees, mixed with other types.
What stood out wasn’t what was there.
It was what wasn’t.
There were no insects, no birds, and no small animals darting through the undergrowth.
The island was silent except for our footsteps and the faint sound of wind moving through leaves.
"..."
Far in the distance, the mountains lood closer.
One side of each mountain was made of countless glasses fused together.
Through the glass, I could see moving images.
Scenes, like countless videos played at the sa ti. Different worlds, different places, different skies, all layered next to each other.
Saint Maverick noticed where I was looking.
"Those surfaces are gateways to sub-domains. If you make physical contact with a random mountain, you will be drawn inside. I advise caution."
"Understood. I’ll keep my hands to myself," I said with a chuckle.
"Recomndation acknowledged. Warning: accidental contact probability increases in low-visibility environnts."
Saintess Cosette snorted. "You don’t need to narrate everything."
"Correction. Directive: provide relevant safety information."
We kept walking.
It took close to an hour before we reached the mountain was our destination.
It was pitch black.
The glass face on this one didn’t show bright skies or forests. It showed a desert.
In the scenes playing across the surface, broken cyborgs wandered through sand and ruins.
Most of them moved slowly, eyes dull, like sothing inside them had shut off.
They acted like how one would expect "zombies". Groaning, lifeless gaze, unsteady steps,
A massive city stood in the background, shrouded in thick black pollution that rolled through its streets like fog.
The cyborgs were poorly made.
So had one oversized arm and one thin, fragile-looking limb.
Others had heads shaped like balloons, or torsos that didn’t quite line up with their legs.
It looked less like a production line and more like a workshop where soone had been experinting without caring how many parts they wasted.
’They’ve killed a lot of people to make this many,’ I thought.
The technological level of Earth was low. That ant the chanics had learned by trial and error. On living subjects.
"This mountain leads to our headquarters. It is called the [World of Innovation]," Saint Maverick said.
He placed his hand against the glass.
The surface rippled, and he was sucked inside.
Saintess Cosette followed, stepping in without hesitation.
"Co on. We shouldn’t stay outside too long," Saint Dexter said.
I touched the mountain.
The world folded.
For a mont, there was no up or down, no sound, no sense of space. Then everything snapped back into place.
I blinked.
The sky above was blue, but it was choked with flying sand and streaks of black smoke.
Wind cut across the ground, carrying grit that stung against my face.
We were standing at the edge of a massive city.
Behind us stretched an endless desert.
In front of us rose walls that looked old and heavy, layered with tal, stone, and different alloys.
They were tall enough that I couldn’t see the top from where I stood.
A screech cut through the air.
I looked up.
High above, moving through the sand and smoke, was a creature with a long, segnted body and thousands of legs that rippled as it flew.
Its shell was hard and glossy, reflecting what little light made it through the clouds.
The sound it made was sharp and grating, like tal scraping against tal.
’That’s a Nightmare Desert Centipede. It’s almost four hundred ters long. Seems like it’s about to beco an adult,’ I thought.
Saintess Cosette clicked her tongue, seeing the creature.
She’d already spit out her gum, the wind making it useless.
"These things again. One of the Rank 5 Saints is going to have to deal with that."
Saint Maverick didn’t even look up. "It is being monitored. Intervention will occur if it approaches the City periter."
We started walking toward the walls.
They were dozens of ters away, but the scale of the place made distance hard to judge.
Everything here felt bigger than it should have been.
As we walked, Saint Maverick spoke.
"Now, I will explain the structure of [The City].
"This is the primary—and the only—population center of the World of Innovation.
"Its total area is comparable to the landmass of Russia. The estimated population is approximately five billion.
"The City is divided into twenty-six Sectors, designated Sector A through Sector Z.
"Each Sector is governed by a Corporation. These Corporations possess unique technologies that allow them to maintain control and operate independently.
"Sector A, B, and C are the dominant authorities. They exert influence over the remaining Sectors and oversee large-scale policy, resource distribution, and inter-sector relations," he explained.
Cosette walked a few steps ahead, hands clasped behind her head. "In other words, they make the rules. They are the kings of this place"
Saint Maverick nodded, and added, "When a Corporation successfully creates a Saint or Saintess, that individual remains under the authority of that Corporation for a period of ten years.
"After this term concludes, authority transfers to the top three Sectors. From that point forward, only Sectors A, B, and C may issue direct commands.
"The other Corporations may contract their services, but only at significant cost," he said.
Saintess Cosette glanced back at . "He is explaining this to you, since you would be operated upon soon to beco a Saint. So, you need to choose a Corporation who would do the operation on you," Saintess Cosette said from the side.
"I will recomnd P Corp. They have the highest success with the operations," Saint Dexter said from the side.
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