This feeling finally dispelled a bit and he found the strength to follow the flow of the distant crowd, raising his legs to walk through the channel. At the end of the city gate channel was a row of mechanical gates. An Zhe chose the far left and as he walked past, a soft, mechanical female voice was heard. “Please show your ID card and look at the camera.”

The ID card belonging to An Ze was placed on the white light platform at the right end of the gate. Then he looked up at the black camera in front.

“ID3261170514. Name: An Ze. Origin: Outer City 6th District. Departure time: 27 days ago.”

The camera made a slight noise and the white light turned green.

“The face recognition has been passed. Welcome home.”

There was a ding and the floodgates rose. An Zhe walked through. The glare of the morning sun made him squint. Then after 30 seconds, the fuzzy world became clear and a huge grey city appeared before his eyes.

He was in a large area of open land and on the ground, the words ‘buffer zone’ were written in dazzling green paint. In front of his eyes, human creations rose from the ground, tall concrete buildings higher than the highest plants An Zhe had ever seen. They stood there, crowded and stacked as they blocked his view. He looked up and saw the orange sun hidden behind the tallest building. The remaining exposed half was like a drop of dilute blood that would flow down the wall the next moment.

An Zhe turned back. The people who went through the mechanical gates dispersed and then spontaneously gathered together to go in the same direction. An Zhe moved forward and followed them. After taking hundreds of steps, he turned a corner and saw a sign that said ‘rail transit.’ A train stopped on the trace and the body said: Entrance – District 1 – No. 3 Supply Station – District 5 – District 6 – Urban Affairs Office – Exit.

He followed the crowd to a train and found a corner seat in the slightly empty carriage. The front seat contained two strong men who were talking in whispers.

“You came back from Basin 3? You really risked your life this time.”

“Six people died.”

“Okay, are you back?”

“The military is still appraising and deciding but I don’t think I’ll have to go to the wild again until my next life.”

“Ohh.”

“We entered a school in the No. 411 abandoned city. It was full of mutant plants and no one dared enter.” The man smiled. “We went in and pried three hard disks from the library’s reference room. They are priceless and it depends on how much value is in there.”

An Zhe listened quietly. He didn’t understand but he knew the man in front of him was happy, so he was a bit happy. He knew that happy people didn’t mind helping others so he called out, “Sir.”