Monster Dismantling Company

Chapter 73 Lei Ze

Raize. We've arrived.

"Is Leize really that close?!" Even though he had seen the map, Li Lin was still amazed by the sheer size of Leize once he actually entered its area—because the train hadn't gone far from Jiangbei before it entered Leize's territory.

After all, Razer's range is just too large.

Raize is not an isolated area, but a complex of abnormal environments that have spread to a vast area east of Hangu Pass after the Beast Plague.

This region extends from the East China Sea in the east to the Haihe River in the north and the Huaihe River in the south, encompassing the entire Yellow River basin and its floodplains.

Although the origin of Razer's explosion was the [Dragon Thor], not a real dragon, in some ways, Thor's impact on humanity is greater than that of many real dragons. This is because Thor directly struck one of the most important regions on Earth—the Central Plains, the importance of which is self-evident.

The United Government did not evade this issue. In fact, since its inception, various attempts to purify Raize have never ceased. The United Government's headquarters, Guanzhong, is located right next to Raize; it's visible from the doorstep.

As the second capital of the coalition government, Jin Gang State is directly within the sphere of influence of Raize. While the Grand Canal project, initiated in recent years, is not the largest to date, it may be the most effective. If successful, the Grand Canal will serve as a model project for the coalition government's global territorial recapture.

but...

This was Li Lin's first time visiting Leize. The scene outside the window didn't seem to require any intervention.

Outside the car window, there was an endless expanse of green leaves.

Unlike the barren, miasma-ridden wastelands near Ningzhou, the land of Leize is teeming with life.

The area is covered with trees and abundant with plants.

A gentle mist drifts slowly across the ground. Between puddles and river branches, the azure sky is reflected in the water, and white clouds drift on the surface. Waterfowl frolic in the cloud reflections, while deer wade through the reeds, feeding on the duckweed. White dew falls on the reeds, condensing into glistening autumn frost.

This is completely different from the wasteland surrounding Ningzhou. The land around Ningzhou is devoid of life; cities are buried deep in silt. In that wilderness, wild boars can be seen everywhere, rooting in the soil, and clumps of weeds.

And here, it was practically the scene described in the Book of Songs, the scene of the ancient Three Dynasties—a vast expanse of heaven and earth, literally a vibrant scene of all things thriving. Swallows, herons, rhinoceroses, white cranes, water buffalo... all living beings shared this fertile land with humankind. There were even...

"Wow!!!" Li Lin suddenly noticed, "What's that! What's that! Big ears, long nose, round head...so cute! Could this be the legendary...elephant?"

"Wow..." Lin Zhiqing exclaimed, "This is my first time seeing an elephant too. They're really huge! But...aren't they enormous?"

The elephants were far away, and their proportions were indistinguishable from that distance. But Lin Zhiqing felt that the elephants were different in size from those in the book. They seemed to be two or three times the size of real elephants.

Upon closer inspection, it wasn't just the elephants. The waterfowl and elk we just saw also seemed to be much larger than the animals we were used to.

"Can we touch those elephants?" Li Lin asked, turning around. "Is there anywhere we can touch them?"

"Huh? Is it really that cute?"

"Don't you think it's incredibly cute? Those ears, that nose, it's like a long-nosed wild boar!"

Lin Zhiqing blinked, looking at Li Lin with a slightly strange expression, because his sense of cuteness seemed a bit odd—but she quickly understood. It seemed that ever since she met Li Lin, he had always liked strange and unusual things, which actually struck a chord with Lin Zhiqing. Li Lin liked strange and unusual things, and that was exactly the kind of Li Lin she liked.

Perhaps it was just her imagination. She even felt that Li Lin's eyes seemed to light up when he was interested in something. This didn't seem to be an illusion; she could even occasionally notice that Li Lin was particularly curious when he wore his glasses.

"Ah~~ I would be so happy if I could touch an elephant today." He looked at the giant beast roaming on the horizon in the distance. "By the way, I've heard of something called a zoo—does Jin Gang State have a zoo? Can you see elephants there?"

Lin Zhiqing tilted her head: "There's no way there could be a zoo in Leize. Otherwise, look how nice the environment is outside, this place should have become a paradise long ago, right? Instead of being like this where you can't even see a soul."

"Oh right, I completely forgot to ask. The biggest problem in our miasma-ridden wasteland is the pervasive stench and the diseases caused by the miasma. What about here?"

"The problem here is..."

Before the words were finished, the Silver Dragon's broadcast rang out:

"An obstacle has appeared ahead of the train. All passengers, please prepare for an impact. Repeat, please hold on tight and prepare for an impact."

The broadcast announced twice that the Silver Dragon had reduced its speed to 200 kilometers per hour, but did not slow down further. It was clear that although the obstacles were blocking the road, the Silver Dragon express train could simply run over them.

As the train slowed down, a low-frequency buzzing sound rang out from the front of the train. It sounded like an air raid siren, but it carried a dangerous undertone—the sound came from above the front of the train, where the thermal laser cannon, which was powered by the core of the Silver Dragon, operated.

After a brief period of charging, the buzzing sound suddenly turned high-pitched, and a dazzling beam of light burst forth from the front of the car. Colorful particles overflowed from the point of the beam's eruption, enveloping the entire car body, dancing outside the windows like aurora sprites.

As the train continued forward, it suddenly shuddered. With a sharp, metallic tearing sound, the train rolled over the spot where it had just been struck. A few seconds later, the embers of the obstacle appeared outside Li Lin's window: a tree.

The tree had been lying across the road, looking like an ordinary tree. But even after being bombarded by the train's beam of light, the train's cannon, powerful enough to pierce through monsters, failed to remove the entire tree from the tracks with a single shot. Instead, the train's clearing device smashed away the remaining tree fragments, as if it were ordinary wooden stakes.

The flying debris, along with the still-burning ashes, was sent hurtling to the roadside. Fragments of tree trunk struck the car window, producing a sharp, metallic scraping sound, like metal scraping against a blackboard.

"Is this the sound wood should make?" Li Lin asked in surprise. "What kind of wood is this?"

These logs are as hard as steel plates—and if ordinary-looking vegetation is as hard as steel plates, then the elk and waterfowl that were just moving through the grass must not be ordinary creatures at all.