"My name is Ian, from the City of Ashes. "
Ian and Rayne quickly left the ruins filled with corpses and scorched earth and set foot on the road to Storm City.
Along the way, Rayne's face gradually became grave, as if he was harboring troubles in his heart that were hard to talk about. He was silent for a long time before he finally couldn't help but sigh and turned his head to Ian, "Ian, in fact, after you helped me so much, I still haven't had the chance to tell you what exactly happened in our Storm City."
Ian glanced at him and calmly responded, "I was also about to ask you what exactly is going on in your Storm City, and why are there so many people after you?"
Rayne's eyes became heavy as he slowly explained, "Storm City is different from other cities, this city doesn't have a situation where multiple forces coexist, instead it is ruled by one of the strongest organizations, which is called the 'Storm Council'. The Storm Council is so powerful that the other forces simply cannot compete with it."
Ian nodded thoughtfully, "So they have complete control over the entire city?"
Rayne sighed, "That's right. The Storm Council controls all the resources and power, and all the citizens have to follow their rules. Under their rule, everyone lives without ego, and people's every word and action is restricted, if it's just this, it's not a problem, after all, in this world, it's already good enough to survive.
The most excessive thing is that the Storm Council's leaders and executives, as well as their descendants, can bully the lower class people without any qualms, and they can completely disregard those rules they set."
Ian was silent and speechless, his heart also knew clearly that when a city had an absolute controller, the power in the controller's hands would be out of control, and could be used at will to serve only his own interests, but like in the City of Ashes, where several powers checked and balanced each other.
Although it reduces the oppression of the general public, however, the mutual fights between several forces will likewise affect the general public, take the matter of the mutant beasts attacking the city for example, if not for Ian temporarily uniting the three major forces together at a critical moment, I'm afraid that the City of Ashes won't have a good outcome either.
Living without human rights versus dying in relative freedom, it was hard to say which ending was better.
Rayne continued, "While they are gaining a sense of superiority from the general public, they are also unable to guarantee our safety, because every once in a while, the Storm Council must select outstanding young men to go to the great powers of the upper world to pledge their allegiance in exchange for their shelter."
Ian's gaze flickered slightly, "You know about this too? Were you chosen this time?"
"Listening to your tone, it seems that you also know about this matter, you are the one selected by the City of Ashes, right, no wonder your strength is so strong."
Ian nodded and acknowledged his identity.
Rayne continued to explain to Ian, "I wasn't the chosen one, I didn't know about this news originally, it was Mia who told us, she is the one who was chosen, she is very young, yet she already possesses Luminary level strength."
"Luminary class!" Ian was surprised in his heart, a Luminary class whose age was no more than 25, this world was really hiding crouching tigers.
"She learned about the upper world after she was chosen, and she wasn't willing to just be a tool at the mercy of others, so she refused to go to the upper world to serve those great powers."
"But in that case, if the Storm Council is attended by someone else and ultimately fails, the entire Storm City could be in danger."
"It's fine for now, so the people excluded from Storm City last time managed to survive the relics, so we don't have any pressure in that regard for now." Rayne explained.
"The Storm Council had originally pinned their hopes on her succeeding again so that they could once again receive a huge bounty from the upper world. But after Mia learned about the inner workings of the Upper World and the Selection, she decided to stand up and rebel, and made public the secrets between the Storm Council and the Upper World."
Ian frowned slightly, "She's really brave, but the consequences of doing so can be imagined, the Storm Council would never tolerate such betrayal."
Rayne sighed and nodded, "That's right, the Storm Council initially tried to draw her in, after all, her talent is really rare. But Mia firmly refused, and with her influence she quickly organized a group of people who supported her ideas, and I was one of them."
"That's why you were hunted down?" Ian instantly understood the whole story.
Raine sighed heavily, "Yes. As the forces of resistance continued to grow, the Storm Council finally couldn't stand it and launched a large-scale purge. Although we are quite numerous, we are far from being a match for the council when it comes to overall strength and equipment."
Ian pondered for a moment and asked, "What about the current situation?"
Rayne raised his head and looked into the distance, "Right now most of our resistance members are hiding outside the city, waiting for the right time to counterattack again. I originally traveled to the City of Ashes to ask for help, but when I arrived at the City of Ashes, it seemed that the City of Ashes had just gone through a great battle, and at the same time the leaders of the three major forces were not in the city, so outsiders like me didn't have a chance to enter the city, and I don't know exactly when the leaders will return."
Ian understood, that time just happened to be the time when Ian took Alexander and the others out to explore the ruins, the City of Ashes had just experienced a mutant beast attack, the alien casualties were heavy, the three major Luminary level powerhouses were all out of the city, and a Flare level of unknown origins like Rayne would naturally be denied entry.
"So you could only rush back to Storm City, only to be blocked in the ruins by that Matthews guy?"
Raine said with a bitter smile, "Exactly. I had thought that I was bound to die this time, but luckily I met you, otherwise I was afraid that I would really never be able to return to the Resistance camp again."
Ian patted Rayne's shoulder and comforted, "At least you are still alive now. Since the situation in Storm City is so complicated, you need to be more careful next."
"Ian, you saved my life, I don't know how to repay you, how about this, I'll take you to the Resistance stronghold and I can forge an identification for you, otherwise, you'll be in a lot of trouble as an outsider at this particular time. "
Ian felt that what Rayne said did make sense: "Sure, thank you then."