Before leaving, Nic walked towards the underground path while Cecilia turned towards the main road, making him confused.
"Hey Nic, why are you going to the center of the city? The exit is this way," Cecilia asked.
Then Cecilia saw Atha and Giselle also following Nic, making her suspicious.
"Don't tell me... YOU GUYS TOOK ANOTHER PATH? HEY EX-MILITARY WOMAN, WHICH WAY DID YOU TAKE, ANSWER ME?" Cecilia said.
"Aaaa... It was just a secret path exclusive to the military... he... he..." Atha answered, trying to divert attention.
"Relax, Cecilia, no need to make a big deal out of it. Do you want to go through the front?" Nic said.
"Uh... yes, my gang and the SHF are there. I hope they didn't fight too badly," Cecilia said.
They immediately climbed the main path out of the Dead City, and when they were on top, sure enough, they had just fought, and all DP members were detained by the SHF while Albert deliberately waited outside instead of going inside.
"Ah Boss, you finally returned safely!" Rya said.
Albert, hearing that, immediately looked up, and Nic was seen jumping down from the top and landing gallantly, looking at all of them.
"Huh... King Raven was inside, it turns out... since when?" Albert said.
"Release them, they did nothing wrong... I'm in a hurry, let's go, Cecilia," Nic said.
Cecilia ordered all DP members to go home.
Then Albert saw Atha and Giselle. "Hey, you two were there too?"
Then Atha explained to Albert what they did and what happened.
"It seems King Raven is going to do something big again... that person is truly unpredictable," Albert said.
---
Nic and Cecilia arrived at the presidential palace, and Atha instructed the guards to summon the President.
Nic was quickly let in and headed to the President's private room.
Nic entered the room and saw only the President himself, who was writing on a pamphlet.
"If you've come here, it seems there's something important you want to say?" the President said.
"That's right, Mr. President. It's about the Dead City that has been isolated... can you tell me everything that happened there to make it turn out like that?" Nic said.
Hearing that, the President was slightly surprised and asked Nic how he knew about the Dead City. Nic then explained why he went there.
"I see... huft, alright, I will tell the story."
The President looked out the window and began to tell the story.
The city was initially named Valkriya City decades ago. Because many great fighters were born in this city, the average person there became military, street fighters, and city guards.
There were two very famous people in this city: Cynthia and Terry.
They were a couple who were very talented in combat. They mastered all fighting techniques and were nicknamed the deadly duo.
But at that time, conditions were chaotic due to the conflict between the Western and the Southern, who were slandering each other because of the actions of the Red Dragon. The South was continuously slandered until the current Southern President, Elgar, was annoyed, especially since his pride was so high and he wanted revenge against the Western.
Even though the Western was not at fault, it was the Red Dragon who was always stirring up trouble, and the Western didn't know that the Red Dragon was doing it.
Until finally, there was a small war, but the Southern lost because Western technology was far more advanced. This made Elgar even more frustrated, but he remembered one thing... his old friend who was both a doctor and a scientist.
They began to discuss a plan to win against the West without adequate technology.
Finally, a crazy idea was created: making drugs that were made in such a way as to look safe but were very dangerous. They tested it on a random citizen in Valkriya because they were known to be strong.
Initially, it worked; they became stronger, and their attacks were abnormal. The mad doctor and Elgar were increasingly happy and continued to develop the drug.
But over time, they thought again that this might still not be enough because the strength was useless if they were shot from a distance. Then the mad doctor thought even crazier to increase the dosage and make the drug even more terrifying.
And this turned into a bad thing because the first test subject immediately went berserk and ran out, rioting like a zombie. Instead of stopping, the mad doctor kept forcing everyone who was made a test subject to consume the drug.
As a result, chaos ensued. Everyone was confused about what happened; they thought there was a strange virus, but it was the mad doctor's doing.
Cynthia and Terry tried to stop it but couldn't because they were uncontrollable and increasingly chaotic.
Cynthia dared to go to President Elgar's location to report this while Terry was guarding their child.
But Cynthia saw President Elgar forcing someone to consume his medicine along with the mad doctor.
When the doctor saw Cynthia, he seemed to see a luxurious, superior specimen for his experiment.
---
"Is Cynthia your wife, Mr. President? What happened to her?" Nic asked.
"That's right, but I don't know her fate after she went to Elgar's place... I'll continue the story," President Terry said.
---
After that, there were riots everywhere. Terry finally collaborated with the military because he already knew what happened. They then went to war with the citizens who had turned into zombies, then surrounded President Elgar location.
At the presidential palace, they found a lot of evidence of experiments, and the peak was Valkriya City because they wanted a strong human army that wouldn't easily fall on the battlefield.
However, President Elgar had already escaped with the mad doctor and the others.
Because Valkriya City was becoming increasingly chaotic and uncontrollable, and many military troops had died, they decided to bomb several areas there and ordered all citizens who were still normal to immediately leave Valkriya City.
Cecilia, who was still small, looked at her father and said, "Where is Mom?" but Terry just shook his head and hugged her.
Atha, who was still very young here, told Terry to hurry because the bomb was about to be detonated. Cecilia refused, saying, "Mom is still there! Save her! Dad, why are you just silent!"
But Atha and the others kept forcing them to leave because no one could be saved there anymore.
Then boom! Valkriya City exploded. After that, the city was barricaded by a large wall.
Because President Elgar disappeared, Terry nominated himself as the new President. He was immediately accepted by many people, then immediately made new regulations, and many agreed with them. He also created gangs to minimize crime. Then Terry made it his mission to kill their old President, Elgar, and the mad doctor.
However, Elgar was finally found, and he was killed directly by Terry with immense anger. But before being killed, the mad doctor said, "THAT CITY WILL DIE, BUT AN INFINITE NEGATIVE AURA WILL EMERGE AND HAUNT THE SOUTHERN FOREVER! IF I DIE, YOU WILL NOT KNOW WHERE THE SOURCE IS AHAHA!!!" After that, he was also killed by Terry.
---
"This is quite a dark history for the South. Those two jerks destroyed Valkriya City, turning it into the Dead City," President Terry said.
But Nic was silent, then said, "Why didn't you look for your wife?" Nic looked at him sharply.
"There were reports she had died during the riots, and also that she had consumed that strange medicine, so I had no other choice."
Nic stood up, not wanting to comment too much. What was certain was that he already knew the point, and he asked permission to go there alone.
"Tell everyone not to follow me in, including the major gangs," Nic said.
"What are you going to do with that city?" President Terry asked.
"Find the negative energy mentioned by that mad doctor."
President Terry sighed. "That's just nonsense to scare people. He was absolutely crazy."
But Nic ignored him and continued to leave, heading back to the Dead City. He met Cecilia outside the palace.
Cecilia wanted to follow, but Nic immediately forced her not to. "Just this once, Cecilia, don't follow me."
Hearing that, Cecilia became gloomy and finally left.
Night arrived. Nic stood in the middle of the Dead City. A terrifying aura surrounded him, but Nic kept absorbing it, and just as the mad doctor said, it was an infinite negative aura.
"Zeta, activate God of Tracker, find the source of this aura."
[ Active, the position of the negative aura source is at a depth of 40 meters below the surface. ]
"Let's see what's down there." Nic said with a sharp stare at the ground.
To be continued...