Meteor Fall Master in the 'Starry Abyss'
Chapter 44 - 034. Wandering in the Forbidden Zone (Part 2)

Chapter 44: 034. Wandering in the Forbidden Zone (Part 2)

Yellow sand swept across the ground, while frost and snow stretched to the sky.

The off-road modified vehicle which originally looked rugged and ferocious now appeared as docile and quiet as a ragdoll cat amidst the harsh winds and sandstorms of the Outer World.

Nomi expertly drove the vehicle; in the Outer World, there were no traffic rules, and you could travel hundreds of kilometers without encountering a living soul. Rather than driving cautiously, she relied on the performance of the vehicle, flooring the gas pedal to forcefully break through the layers of frosty sand.

Li Aozi replaced supplies with fuel in the vehicle to increase its weight and prevent it from being blown away by strong winds.

Rolling over was not a concern on the frigid, solidified sand of the Outer World. The vehicle had a suspension system, and according to Li Aozi’s years of experience, it would not roll over on this type of land—but it would likely be lifted into the air during a storm if it wasn’t heavy enough.

Since goods took up space inside the vehicle, it made more sense to replace them with fuel to add weight. The remaining fuel drums could also be used for barter or even transformed into incendiary bombs if they weren’t needed for fuel.

Driving in the Outer World, unless within a convoy, one generally couldn’t use headlights in order to avoid drawing the attention of bandits and mutated beasts.

However, Nomi had good vision, which was almost as keen as that of a wild beast. As a member of the Rose Army’s Guerrilla Team, she must have received specialized training.

The combination of sand and ice created mire pits that made driving highly fuel-consuming.

Li Aozi once heard a joke from a Mechanic Player: the Four Nations’ tanks lacked horsepower and couldn’t move through the mushy soil of the Outer World, often leading to paralyzation and forcing the development of new types of armored vehicles to cope with rapid marches in the Outer World.

That’s how Mecha and powered exoskeletons came into being.

Later, because human-shaped Mecha were not very cost-effective due to their small defensive area and low efficacy and were prone to rolling over, their chassis were lowered more and more.

And since this made the head of the humanoid Mecha too conspicuous of a target, it was easy to take a hit. Thus, the cockpit was moved from the head to the chest, and eventually, they just replaced the head with monitors altogether.

Later, they found that human-like legs weren’t as effective as air cushions and simply increased the contact area to create an air cushion ship-like structure.

The resulting creation was essentially a tank with arms, standing on air cushions, pompously dubbed Mobile Armor.

Though it was far less attractive, it indeed proved capable of replacing tanks in maneuvering through the Outer World.

After some wars among the Four Nations, they realized this machine could only replace tanks, and infantry armored vehicles still couldn’t tackle the snow fields and had to remain paralyzed.

This led to the comedic situation where Mobile Armor charged ahead, the infantry lagged behind due to their slow pace, and their own armored units got blown to bits by enemy anti-tank groups.

Eventually, they readopted the air cushion ship for infantry use.

However, the armor of the air cushion ships wasn’t sufficient, and they got targeted by the enemy’s artillery.

So, they equipped the air cushion ships with artillery and more armor, but then there wasn’t enough power, and they had to enlarge the fuel tanks. Once they enlarged the fuel tanks, there was no longer enough space for many infantry; it could only fit 4 people.

The end result was infantry chasing after tanks, and tanks chasing after Mobile Armor in a charge—a bizarre sight indeed.

Of course, these were just jokes among Mechanics, a bunch of nerdy engineers who often came up with heavy industry humor, including jokes about robot pregnancies and whether the father should be C++ or Java, or calling a romance scam that cost 8000 an application of social engineering—giving Li Aozi the impression that the average forum moderator was an imbecile.

Li Aozi sat in the passenger seat, resting his feet on the dashboard, his eyes half-closed as his thoughts drifted.

The Outer World was boring.

The joint dance of frost and sandstorm may seem magnificent and beautiful at first glance, but actually traveling through it just felt monotonous and dull.

This epic scene of ice and fire, while celebrated by poets, was deeply resented and loathed as suffering by the people of the Outer World.

There was no vitality in the Outer World.

Miss Qiu Ran in the back seat peered curiously at the scenery outside. The sky was dark; she could only see the lightning flickering between the red and black clouds.

"So there’s no sun outside..."

She said with regret.

Li Aozi’s hunch was nearly correct; Qiu Ran was a Frost Plated person, albeit of a lower origin than Li Aozi himself.

As she explained, she had always lived in a remote scrap metal recycling station in the countryside and had never entered a city for over a decade. If it weren’t for being diagnosed as an Infected by accident and exiled to a Shelter for treatment, she would have never seen the true vastness of the world.

"Of course not, country bumpkin!"

Nomi humphed,

"Hundreds of years ago, the atmosphere was enveloped by that red and black Ersha, blocking out the sun. The people of the Four Nations rely on nuclear fusion technology to sustain small artificial suns that generate Walden particles. The barriers composed of Lattice particles then block the storms and frost of the Outer World—although I don’t quite understand the terminology either. But basically, there’s a nuclear fusion reactor beneath every town in the Four Nations."

"You don’t know about Walden?"

Li Aozi glanced at Nomi: "We learned in technical school that Doctor Walden was an old era nuclear physicist. His Walden hemisphere technology changed the dynamics of war, allowing for the miniaturization of nuclear fusion which could be deployed on armored units, ultimately transforming the dynamics of war."

"Not to mention, underneath the Shelter is also a small reactor, which can operate on just a few uranium fuel rods."

"What a bore! I never went to school. But one day sooner or later, we will kick the nuts of the Four Nations! All those reactors will eventually be ours!"

Nomi impatiently slapped the steering wheel,

"If it weren’t for the Four Nations’ blockade, even without the sun, humanity could still survive."

Curious, Qiu Ran asked, "Isn’t the Outer World lacking energy resources? Without the sun, doesn’t that mean survival is practically impossible?"

"So how do you explain the existence of the White Fang Guild and those trash, and how the settlements survive?"

Nomi said irritably.

"Hmm... I don’t know," Qiu Ran leaned on the window, continuing to observe the distant scenery.

"No, it’s not that the Outer World is completely devoid of resources."

Li Aozi thought for a moment and then said:

"But having resources doesn’t mean having the capability to exploit them—oil has always been present underground, yet it wasn’t discovered as a resource until long after we entered the Industrial Era. In fact, the Outer World is much larger than the territories of the Four Nations, making up 70% of the Azure Star’s surface area."

It took him some time to explain this to Qiu Ran:

Because the heat from the sun was blocked and absorbed by the dark red Ersha clouds, the earth couldn’t absorb and reflect the heat, therefore the temperature was generally lower than the clouds high in the sky.

The difference in temperature between heaven and earth created massive winds of despair, which in turn carried away the ground’s moisture. Without the necessary sunlight, plants could only die, and as a result, the originally firm soil completely lost its basis for wind prevention and sand fixation, leading to rapid soil erosion.

So much snowfall, yet unable to melt due to the cold temperatures—even if you dug through the sand, underneath was just the chilling earth.

They were solidified and frozen solid by the cold, only diamond drill bits could penetrate them for excavation and construction.

Even if humans carved out rivers and reservoirs, without sunlight and warmth, how could aquatic ecosystems be cultivated? How could farmland be tilled? How could people be fed?

Without a population, it’s impossible to have enough productivity to develop industry, and without industry, it’s impossible to mine the underground resources.

Only in very few areas, where advanced geothermal energy is combined with shelter from the wind and prevention of soil loss—such as areas backed by high mountains and river valleys or surrounding volcanoes—is it possible for large populations to gather.

"But it’s different for the Four Nations. After the war that ended all wars in the old days, people realized that aside from war, everything had come to an end. Smaller nations perished, while the Four Nations became the absolute behemoths of the Azure Star."

Li Aozi changed the subject:

"The histories of the Four Nations record that they had a multitude of nuclear power plants, marine resources, and wind power stations before the Ersha cloud engulfed the world. Their industrial facilities were advanced, their agricultural resources robust, and their military might was at the pinnacle of the world. Even with a smaller population, relying on nuclear energy naturally drew a large influx of people."

To prevent another world war over energy competition, the Four Nations calmed down this time.

They placed the bulk of their energy control into the hands of the GTB created by the Four Nations Union, the Global Trade Bank.

Citizens of the Four Nations could easily obtain energy loans from the GTB to develop and expand new cities in the Outer World. They were able to erect artificial suns and hemispherical barriers.

But for other small nations and autonomous city-states of the Outer World, there would be "a bit" of difficulty.

The bank could use various pretexts to stall the energy loan applications of smaller nations, forcing them to buy exorbitantly priced oil, natural gas, electricity, and iron ore from the Four Nations.

Li Aozi recounted a nation he originated from in his past life—Arlanca Kingdom.

Arlanca was a suzerain of the Red Arrow Empire; the two nations’ languages and economies were interlinked, but their ethnicities were not quite the same, a result of the Red Arrow Empire’s cultural and economic colonization.

Sitting atop a pile of uranium mines, the small nation of Arlanca had no choice but to sell it to the neighboring Red Arrow Empire at a low price of 200 Derby per ton in exchange for political, national defense, and electrical support—In fact, the Empire could have simply taken it by force, but they preferred to give a little money, and that truly, I could cry.

Li Aozi did not speak sarcastically here, because the Arlanca Kingdom truly was the luckiest small nation, backed by the Red Arrow Empire, they had Gundams if needed, and for resources, flattering the Emperor was hugely profitable.

Arlanca, with an attitude akin to that of a fawning lackey, became the envy of the surrounding small nations, able to punch above their weight.

At the same time, the motto of the neighboring Sky Ring was "leave the land, not the people," a situation not quite suitable for children, which Li Aozi dared not elaborate on.

With the capital provided by the GTB, the population could grow, the economy could develop, which in turn spawned various enterprises, factories, and service industries, improving the living standards of the people and encouraging further population growth.

However, the growing population also brought pressures of employment, survival, and environment.

To spur development and shift conflicts, their gaze turned to the vast expanses of the Outer World.

Thus, the people of the Four Nations, unconcerned by the winds and dust storms, explored outward. Bathed in sunlight and energy, they could build factories, manage vast farms, and extract the mineral wealth of the Outer World, causing even more severe damage to the mountains and soil.

The exploitation of mineral reserves largely damaged the geological environment as well, and in the incessant, ruthless mechanical construction, the lands already suffering serious erosion became even more frail and vulnerable.

The people of the Outer World could only watch helplessly as their homes were carried away by the winds.

Li Aozi described this with an understated tone.

And beneath the splendor and prosperity of each hemispherical city, were buried the countless bones of the Outer World’s people.

But the Four Nations weren’t entirely heartless or solely plundering.

"Dammit!"

Nomi suddenly cursed, and right before that, she had slammed on the brakes three times, bringing the car to a steady stop. Li Aozi immediately pulled up his scarf and jumped out of the car.

No sooner had he opened the car door than a weird, pungent smell assailed him, despite the barrier of the scarf.

Li Aozi frowned, holding onto the car door, his thoughts surging.

"What happened..." Qiu Ran got out of the car groggily, shielded his eyes with his hands, and peeked through the gap towards the front.

Confronted with what lay before them, they almost didn’t dare to breathe.

Some 800 meters away, they saw a lake with steaming water, against a backdrop of dark red and ghastly white, shimmering faintly with orange-red glimmers.