215: Chapter 215: Area S (One more update) 215: Chapter 215: Area S (One more update) The next morning.
Su Ming, wearing a loose T-shirt, gray jeans, and white sneakers, walked out of the school gate.
He headed toward the street ahead and quickly arrived at the street’s waiting area, where clean and tidy hover cars were parked.
Su Ming opened a hover car and sat down in the passenger seat.
“Where would you like to go, sir?”
A middle-aged male driver, who appeared quite talkative, asked him with a smile.
“To Zone S.”
Su Ming simply told the driver.
Upon hearing Su Ming’s words, the driver hesitated, then uncertainly replied,
“Zone S?”
“Yes, is there a problem?”
“I won’t go; I don’t go to that place.”
“Why?”
Su Ming looked very surprised at the driver in front of him; he had never expected to be refused a ride.
“Zone S is a confidential restricted area.
Just approaching it, you’d get interrogated.
Moreover, it’s easy to enter but hard to leave!
I’d earn very little from your fare, and going there would mean getting interrogated.
If anything went wrong during the process, I wouldn’t be able to handle it.”
“Is Zone S really that strict?”
“Shh, don’t just blurt out ‘Zone S’.
Even mentioning the name too often can draw attention!
Then you might be directly taken away for questioning.
Last time, we had a fool in the car who couldn’t stop complaining about Zone S.
The next day, officials showed up and took him away for a few days to a ‘little dark room’.
We thought he had been kidnapped.”
The driver explained with palpable fear.
“So how do I get there?”
“You can drive yourself, or go to the rail station.
There’s a direct train to Zone S there.
You can take it to just outside Zone S and then walk.
As for me, I’m not taking this job.”
“Alright, sorry to bother you.”
Su Ming reluctantly opened the car door and got out.
At that moment, the driver didn’t look back; he stepped on the accelerator and drove off.
Su Ming watched the hover car leave and let out a resigned sigh, then walked towards the nearby rail station.
Moments later, Su Ming arrived at the ticket hall of the rail station.
The hall was bustling with young men and women.
Su Ming walked in front of an automated ticket machine, turned on the screen, and began the process to buy a ticket to Zone S.
However, despite searching the screen thoroughly, he couldn’t find any train going to Zone S and was unable to purchase a ticket.
He looked around the ticket hall and then walked toward counter number three.
Soon, he was in front of the counter, where a sweet-looking young woman in a red and blue uniform asked him with a smile,
“Sir, which destination ticket would you like to buy?”
“Zone S, it’s not available on the machine.”
Su Ming directly told the young woman.
Upon hearing Su Ming’s words, the woman’s face showed a hint of unease, then she quickly said,
“Alright, just a moment!”
With that, the woman turned and walked away.
In a few minutes, a greasy-looking man with a beer belly, wearing a white shirt and a suit, approached.
He looked at Su Ming very warily and asked,
“Sir, you want to buy a ticket to Zone S?”
“Yes.”
Su Ming responded very affirmatively.
“May I ask who you are, please?”
The man’s gaze grew even more suspicious, and his hand had already moved below the counter, touching a concealed alarm button.
“I am a student at Imperial Court Academy.
Here is my student ID.”
Su Ming pulled out his student card and handed it over.
The male supervisor took it, glanced at the student card, then observed Su Ming’s appearance carefully.
His expression eased significantly, then he handed the student card back to Su Ming and spoke.
“I see you’re a first-year student, what are you doing in Area S?
That’s not a place one just goes to casually.”
“I need to go to Area S for some matters,” Su Ming replied tactfully.
“Alright.”
The male supervisor hesitated for a moment, then operated the ticket machine, and soon, a red ticket popped out.
He handed the ticket to Su Ming and said, “Take this ticket, go through the manual passage, and someone will guide you to Platform 0!”
“Thank you.”
Su Ming took the ticket and left.
A few minutes later, Su Ming successfully arrived at Platform 0.
The entire platform was deserted, not a single figure in sight, and he stood there alone.
Just then, a rail train approached from afar and stopped steadily in front of Su Ming.
When the train doors opened, Su Ming walked straight in.
He turned around and scanned the compartment; all the seats were empty, and he saw no one else.
Su Ming randomly chose a seat and sat down, taking a deep breath.
He hadn’t even reached Xi Guang Laboratory yet, and he was just starting out, but he already felt a palpable pressure.
Ding ding~
The train doors slowly closed and then the train began moving towards the distance.
….
At the entrance to Area S of Starlight City.
Su Ming walked out of the rail station exit.
The moment he stepped out, a spherical floating mechanical device shaped like an eye drifted over and its electronic eye scanned him.
The internal electronic screen displayed a series of prompts.
“Identity recognition successful.”
“Su Ming, first-year student of Imperial Court Academy…”
The mechanical sphere then flew away.
Su Ming watched the departing mechanical sphere, somewhat surprised.
Although Starlight City was bustling, the use of intelligent devices was still very rare.
It was unexpected to see them commonly used here; it was either very bold or very confident.
But Su Ming didn’t dwell on it; instead, he looked up towards the entrance to Area S.
He walked towards the entrance and quickly arrived there.
A middle-aged man, his face covered in weathered wrinkles and dressed in a Second Generation Exoskeleton Armor·Rock Steel, stopped Su Ming with a stern voice.
“Sir, Area S is a special restricted zone, you cannot enter without specific permissions and a pass.”
“Will this work?”
Su Ming took out the invitation and handed it over.
The man in front of him twitched his eyelid upon seeing the invitation, immediately took it, opened it, and verified.
Following that, he handed the invitation back to Su Ming with both hands.
“Please!”
“Thank you.”
Su Ming took the invitation and walked inside.
Before long, Su Ming had successfully passed through several checkpoints to enter Area S.
As he entered the area, several white circular buildings came into view.
These buildings were irregularly situated within Area S and interconnected with each other.
The building materials used were very special, with surfaces covered in honeycomb-like pores.
Clang!
Clang!
Loud noises gradually getting closer echoed,
Su Ming turned towards the sound to see a Third Generation Mecha·Green Wings, accompanied by five Second Generation Mecha·Iron Guard passing by.
They glanced at Su Ming, then continued walking past him directly.
Su Ming was also secretly stunned; Imperial Court Academy was already considered rich and powerful, even so, that Third Generation Mecha was treated like a precious commodity, generally hidden away.