218 Stronghold (Part 2)

“Leave the Hilda family to me. My blade has not tasted human blood for a long time. The Hilda family must pay the price for ignoring my warning!”

Ning Shi took the key and didn’t refuse. He gestured to Old Li and turned to leave.

He bent his body and lowered his head to avoid the hotel’s surveillance cameras, then left the hotel quietly.

If he were to stay with Old Li, he would only become Old Li’s burden.

Old Li had to spare some energy to protect him, so his combat power was greatly limited.

According to Old Li’s instructions, the best choice was to go to the stronghold to hide from the limelight and upgrade through field combat.

Ning Shi’s footsteps did not stop, and he very quickly arrived at the exit of the inner city.

The inner and outer city of Sword Shield City implemented a policy of easy exit but strict entry. Unlike the customs, there were only robots guarding the exit, and there was no need to verify his identity.

Ning Shi left the inner city very smoothly. Following the guidance of the map in his wristwatch, Ning Shi headed north all the way and came to Exit 3 of Sword Shield City.

This was the first time Ning Shi had come to the edge of Sword Shield City.

A steel wall that was several hundred meters tall and so long that its end couldn’t be seen appeared before their eyes.

This was a wall built to prevent the attacks of radioactive creatures. According to the book, the wall was named Steel Shield.

Steel shield city walls were built on the east, west, and north sides of the city.

Only the south side of Sword Shield City did not need a wall because the Dragon River was more than 300 meters wide.

This was because there were no radiation elements in the Dragon River, nor were there any radioactive creatures.

It was because of the clean water source of the Dragon River that humans were able to build a city here.

The city wall, which was originally meant to resist the radioactive creatures, had now become an obstacle for Ning Shi to go to the stronghold.

There were checkpoints at every entrance and exit of Sword Shield City, and identity checks were required to enter and exit.

Ning Shi couldn’t leave the city after his identity was verified. In this case, his whereabouts would be exposed to the Hilda family, and there would be a lot of trouble in the future.

“The radioactive people must have found a loophole in the city wall’s defense system to have entered Sword Shield City by flying over the city wall. However, I can’t fly, and I don’t know the exact situation of the city wall’s defense system.”

The walls of Sword Shield City were all equipped with extremely advanced alarm detection systems. With Ning Shi’s current physique and ability, he had no problem climbing and crossing the walls, but he could not avoid the alarm system at all.

Once the alarm system was triggered, the city wall guards would determine the threat level. The weapons of the guards on the city wall would automatically attack and kill Ning Shi.

Ning Shi was mixed in with the crowd at Exit 3. For a while, he was in a deadlock and couldn’t think of a good way.

Suddenly, he heard the conversation of two mercenaries beside him.

“Old Wang, how’s your harvest today?”

“Don’t mention it. I just entered the Level 2 forest and encountered a tusked porcupine. If I didn’t spend a lot of money to buy a an alloy combat suit, I would have died today.”

“No way. The tusked porcupines are Level 3 radioactive creatures. They rarely appear in Level 2 forests. How can you be so unlucky?”

“It’s not that I’m unlucky, but the radioactive creatures near Exit 3 have been in a mess recently. Our previous ranking map is no longer useful.

“Don’t come to Exit 3 to hunt for the time being. We’ll come again after the officials update the new ranking map.”

“I was wondering why the death rate has been so high recently. Let’s go to Exit 12. I heard that a group of mud cows came over there. Let’s hurry over. Maybe we can make it in time.

There were some things that Ning Shi didn’t understand in the conversation between the two, so he quickly searched for relevant information on the AI network.

The ranking map was a map drawn by the officials of the Norse Republic to mark the danger levels.

The map divided all the places according to the danger level and terrain. For example, there were Level 1 plains and Level 2 plains. There were also Level 1 forests and Level 2 forests.

The benefit of this was that it was easier for the mercenaries to identify the dangers.

In general, Level 1 radioactive creatures would appear in Level 1 forests or plains, and Level 2 radioactive creatures were rarely seen.

The ranking map was made by biologists based on the habits of the radioactive creatures and the satellite images in the sky. Because the radioactive creatures would constantly move and migrate, their territory of activity would not remain unchanged.

Therefore, the map would be updated every three months to ensure that the map information was as accurate as possible.

As for the mud cow, it was a Level 2 radioactive creature.

The body of the mud cow was huge, and it contained a rich amount of jelly meat. There was also a very small chance that the precious medicinal material, the mud cow bezoar, would appear.

The bezoar of a mud cow could be used to make advanced biopharmaceuticals. It was extremely expensive and was one of the best opportunities for mercenaries to get rich overnight.

Moreover, because of their huge bodies, the mud cows moved relatively slowly. For mercenaries who used long-range hot weapons, they were relatively easy to kill radioactive creatures.

Hence, every time a mud cow herd appeared, thousands of mercenaries would swarm over.

Ning Shi wasn’t interested in the mud cow, but the conversation between the mercenaries gave him inspiration.

He could follow a large number of mercenaries and leave from Exit 12.

When he reached the wilderness, he would then sneak into the stronghold near Exit 3.

In this way, even if the Hilda family knew that Ning Shi had entered the wilderness, it would be difficult to find his whereabouts in the vast wilderness.

Leaving from Exit 12 would minimize the risk of exposing the stronghold. This was the best way to go at the moment.

Thinking of this, Ning Shi immediately took action.