Sun Jack was awakened by the system's alarm in a half-asleep state. "Your journey is about to end, you are about to arrive at... Varanasi."
Sun Jack forced himself awake, stood up, and said to AA beside him, "Let's go, this is not our final destination. It's still too close to Metropolis, which is not safe. After we change our money here, we'll tidy up a bit and continue our journey."
The two followed the crowd down the intercity spaceship via a corridor, finally seeing the appearance of this new city Varanasi through transparent glass.
The enormous steel dome, resembling the ribs of a giant beast, was inverted into the black snow pile. Its surface was covered with honeycomb-like cooling holes, and spider web-like corridor systems floated between the domes, piercing into the lead-gray clouds.
The entire Varanasi, like a bizarre metal forest under the scour of acid rain, filled every space in Sun Jack's view.
This place was clearly different from Metropolis; the biggest difference was that Metropolis had acid rain, whereas here it was black snow, or something similar to black snow.
The entire metal city seemed alive, occasionally spewing out white steam or short-lived fire columns, and the black snow falling from the sky vaporized into acid mist in the exhaust of industrial waste heat, condensing on the metal surface to form a dull, sickly oil-slick rainbow.
"It looks like some kind of industrial city," Sun Jack said, opening the system's search bar.
As the AI narrated, Sun Jack realized his assumption was correct: Varanasi was a satellite industrial city built to provide energy and goods for other big cities, functioning similar to Metropolis's Tarton Industrial Area.
The difference being one was built around the city, while the other was planned separately as an industrial city. As Sun Jack stepped out of the dock, he immediately understood why the entire city was separated.
"Cough...cough, cough." The moment they were exposed to the air of Varanasi, with a strong metallic smell and an itch that felt like feathers scraping through their throats, the two couldn't help but cough.
As the respiratory system alarms kept going off, their coughing intensified. The air pollution in Varanasi was nearly visible to the naked eye.
"This way!" Sun Jack, feeling uncomfortable, dragged the continuously coughing AA towards a nearby vending machine. After pawning half of his lungs, two air purifier masks dropped from the bottom exit.
When Sun Jack covered his mouth and nose with the blue transparent mask and took a deep breath, the itch in his throat finally stopped.
Clearly, the city had taken this into account, providing air purification equipment for every new passenger, albeit at a slightly high price.
"Are you okay?" Sun Jack looked down at AA, who shook his head slightly, frowning, rubbing the back of his hand scratched by the black snow until it turned red.
Sun Jack looked up at the sky, noticing that when the black snow fell on his face, instead of feeling cold, it brought a burning sting, his skin visibly starting to become allergic, red, and itchy. Compared to snow, it seemed more like some black foam formed by wastewater from the Steel Forest.
"Damn, this place is polluted so severely, even worse than Metropolis," Sun Jack said and then led AA towards the steel city nearby, where at least there was no black snow.
When they got under the "tree shade" formed by various pipes, the ground began to get muddy, and the snow from above significantly lessened.
Sun Jack took AA to a convenience store at the foot of a tree nearby, ordering two cups of instant noodles, costing him two of his fingers loaned.
They sat on chairs by the window, watching the snow through the glass, waiting for the noodles to be ready. With the glass doors insulating from the outside, the world finally seemed quiet at this moment.
Looking at AA, who had been frowning from the beginning, Sun Jack confortingly said, "Don't worry, we won't stay in this lousy place long. Once the chips are sold, we'll leave by ship immediately."
"Boss, then what?"
"What?"
"Then where do we go?"
"Didn't I say? Your role overlapped with the new role's delete setting, you're in danger now, we need to get as far away from Metropolis as possible."
"But we are already far from Metropolis, I checked, this place is no longer in the Holy Grail's territory. Since we've left the danger behind, where should we go next?"
This question momentarily stumped Sun Jack, a trace of confusion appeared in his eyes. His goal was to protect AA's main body as much as possible, but he hadn't thought about the next step.
"Boss, I think I shouldn't have fled initially. If I leave, the clone AA left behind would be so pitiful." AA stared blankly at the steaming instant noodles in front of him.
"Don't overthink; the clone's existence is to serve the main body. The clone AA's purpose is to take risks for you, aside from that, its existence has no value."
Hearing this, AA lowered his head, unable to hold back sobs, with an inexplicable grievance on his face.
Sun Jack patted AA's shoulder, "Don't cry, I know you like yourself, but this is a necessary sacrifice, eat the noodles, they're about to get mushy."
After saying that, Sun Jack opened the instant noodles and started to devour them ravenously; although it was synthetic food, the taste was surprisingly good.
After Sun Jack finished the soup, his stomach felt warm and comfortable, and his spirits improved significantly.
"Ding-dong," the store's door opened, and the two returned to the snow.
"Boss, I just checked online about Varanasi, and found several places where chip purchase prices are higher. I've sent the addresses to you."
"Let me see." As Sun Jack received the information from AA and opened his neural system to check, he suddenly felt his scalp tighten.
As he came to a sudden stop, AA bumped into him. "Watch out, there's a situation!"
He reached into his coat, gripping the newly bought automatic rifle. "Let's go, follow quickly!"
Sun Jack began leading AA through the Steel Forest, occasionally cutting through crowds and machines, trying to shake off the feeling of being tracked.
Though Sun Jack was agile, clearly they knew the city far better than he did. Wherever he hid, they could follow.
When Sun Jack looked up and saw two tracking drones overhead, he realized he couldn't rely on hiding to escape this crisis.
Footsteps sounded behind him. As Sun Jack gripped his gun tightly and turned around, he saw the people tracking him were closing in.
They varied in appearance, and the only similarity between them was the black Subcutaneous Armor, normally buried beneath skin, had replaced their original skin, exposed outside.
Seeing the blue-patterned headscarves on their heads, Sun Jack judged that these people appeared to belong to the same gang.
Realizing he couldn't hide anymore, Sun Jack stopped trying, coldly eyeing the group before him.
"What? Did I stir up Brother Ni's nest?"