Chapter 446.1: Where Everything Started

In a vast valley.

Escorted by over 100 fully armed soldiers, a grand New Alliance delegation of hundreds of people marched towards the depths of the valley.

"Up ahead is Origin City! It’s the capital of the Great Rift Valley, our destination for this trip!"

The man who spoke wore a gray exoframe, somewhat resembling the Dragon Cavalry exoframe from the NPC stores, but upon closer inspection, it was entirely different.

His name was Makai, the captain of a nearby patrol team.

Upon hearing that the New Alliance’s delegation included prisoners from the Army, he immediately volunteered to escort and guide them.

Having fought a battle against the Army the year before, most people in the Great Rift Valley viewed the Army unfavorably.

At least, that was certainly the case for these soldiers.

Thus, an enemy of an enemy is a friend!

Sensing the hostile glances, Antonite's eyes were filled with anxiety, his complexion as pale as if it had been painted from the moment the journey began.

On the contrary, Piman, the centurion from Camp 530 who was captured with him, looked utterly calm and composed.

He didn't look like a prisoner, but rather like someone on an outing who was escorted by bodyguards. "Relax, my friend, we've already reached the Great Rift Valley. There’s nothing to fear."

Antonite glanced at him, his voice tense as he spoke, "What do you mean?"

Piman coughed lightly and replied softly, "It means exactly what it says, the most dangerous part of the journey is already behind us."

The ones most hoping for their demise was undoubtedly the Bugra Free State.

After all, if they reached the Great Rift Valley, those merchants and the Army’s trade would surely be disrupted.

But the New Alliance definitely did not want them dead. At most, the Great Rift Valley would imprison them for interrogation, where they would simply answer whatever was asked.

In fact, along the way, they had already encountered five or six waves of attacks.

However, the New Alliance’s soldiers were indeed fierce. Having just fought a battle at Camp 530 and then traveling nearly 1,000 kilometers off-road without resupply, their combat effectiveness was surprisingly unaffected.

"Behave yourselves!" As the prisoners whispered among themselves, a nearby soldier immediately glared at them, then turned to his comrade. "Separate these two guys.”

“Yes!" The soldier carrying a gun nodded and stepped forward, but before he reached them, Piman had already consciously slowed down and walked away from Antonite’s side, heading to the front of the group.

Walking beside Makai was an envoy from the New Alliance, named Wu Huaide.

This gentleman had previously served as the secretary at the New Alliance’s embassy in Boulder Town. After Shu Yu was transferred there, he managed the embassy's work for a while before being recalled to the New Alliance to work in the diplomatic department.

This mission to the Great Rift Valley was his first time representing the New Alliance as an ambassador, and his demeanor and speech were somewhat reserved, though it was not necessarily a bad thing according to the higher ups.

The Great Rift Valley's strength might very well be on par with the Enterprise’s military, and unlike them, it was located in the River Valley province.

Meeting a powerful neighbor right at their doorstep... It was better to adopt a cautious diplomatic stance.

"Before coming here, I thought the Great Rift Valley was just a valley. I didn't expect that my imagination was too conservative." Wu Huaide said, feeling somewhat emotional.

Makai chuckled. "Haha, you're not wrong, it is a valley, but it stretches for hundreds of kilometers. It is a bit larger than it looks."

Is it just a bit larger?

The players around couldn't help but grumble.

It had taken them two days to walk from the north of the River Valley Province over, and another half a day from the edge of the valley to this place.

Not being able to travel quickly was really frustrating!

"By the way, is there a special meaning behind the name 'Origin City'?"

Hearing the envoy’s question, Makai smiled and answered. "There's no special meaning, it's just that it is where everything began."

"Where everything began?" Wu Huaide didn't quite understand and was about to ask in detail when they had already reached their destination.

A giant gate stood before them.

Rather than calling it a gate, it was more like a godly wall embedded in the center of the valley.

Hundreds of people in the black mass of the delegation stood before the giant gate, like ants under a large tree.

Construction Boy looked around, scratching the back of his head, a puzzled expression on his face. "Isn't there a Divine Shield System in the Great Rift Valley? Why can’t I see it?"

Eye Owe Money glanced at him like he was an idiot. "Do you also carry an umbrella on a sunny day?"

Construction Boy was stunned. "What do you mean?"

"It means that the thing is only deployed during wartime... They don’t usually activate it, I guess...” Sideline Slacking interjected. He turned to look at the gate that was slowly beginning to open.

When the gate was halfway open, all the players present showed expressions of surprise and even shock.

Rows of concrete houses were situated on the slopes on both sides, with a long strip of glass curtain wall at the top, embedded in the mountain. It was apparently hiding a different world inside, but it was completely invisible from the outside.

In the middle of the valley, a series of steel-reinforced bridges and corridors crisscrossed, with elevators on both sides connecting the upper and lower levels.

That wasn’t all that was shocking. Rather, the abyss in the center of the rift that was too deep for anyone to see the bottom was what caught their attention.

On both sides of the abyss, the mountainsides were also embedded with square concrete buildings, forming a massive complex of buildings.

Only at noon was sunlight able to shine down below. From the middle of the mountain slopes, street lamps on both sides of the road were lit day and night.

It was a city buried in the crater, and below it lay trillions of tons of hydrogen, oxygen, chlorine, and various mineral elements produced by the electrolysis of seawater, preserved in solid form.

What surprised Sideline Slacking was not the background setting of the game, but the architectural layout.

After a long silence, he couldn't help but make a comment. "Aren't they afraid of landslides?"

Even if there were no landslides, the rift was just like a natural river.

Not to mention they even built such a big gate... The whole thing was just like a man-made reservoir.

Kakarot raised his eyebrows with a strange expression on his face. "Maybe they have superior technology."

The technological content in the Great Rift Valley seemed inferior to Ideal City, but one shouldn't judge by appearances alone.

Along the way, they had seen at least a hundred exoframes and various models of exoskeletons.

At least in terms of combat power, no one dared to underestimate them.

Those people were in no way inferior to the Army, not to the Enterprise.

A man in a brown robe stood at the entrance of the giant gate, nodding slightly in respect. "Welcome to Origin City, I am Yang Wei, the secretary of the Chairman of the Great Rift Valley, responsible for external affairs."

"New Alliance Envoy, Wu Huaide," Wu Huaide stepped forward and shook hands with the man in the brown robe, expressing his sincerity in the negotiations. "Our visit this time is mainly about matters related to the Sunset Province."

Yang Wei nodded, indicating his understanding. "I have already reported your matters to the Chairman, please move to the lounge to wait for a while, and he will meet you in person shortly."

"Thank you."

"You're welcome, please follow me." After he spoke, Yang Wei then turned to look at Makai standing next to Wu Huaide. "I'll take care of the guests, you take the prisoners from the Army where they need to go.”

Makai grinned. "Alright!"

The prisoner handover was quickly completed. Piman didn’t resist, following the guards who came to retrieve him calmly. Antonite did the same.

Although he bore a look of resentment, he was smart enough to know that behaving now would spare him some hardship.

Of the Death Corps’ players who successfully made it over, more than 300 remained. Naturally, since they were soldiers anyway, they couldn’t all attend the meeting with the Great Rift Valley’s leader.

That would be neither reasonable nor proper.

Following the administrator's instructions, Wu Huaide selected a few players with the highest contribution points to follow the secretary to the lounge.

The rest followed Captain Makai to a temporary accommodation prepared by the Great Rift Valley for the New Alliance to rest.

It was getting late outside, and it was time to log off.

Although it was regrettable not to see the next part of the plot, with the existence of the official forum, they wouldn't miss any critical information.

Command was temporarily handed over to Kakarot, and the group followed Yang Wei into an elevator, arriving at the top floor.

The structure there was completely different from below, with wide halls and long corridors all made of alloy, resembling the space capsules suspended in high orbit seen in sci-fi movies.

Through the floor-to-ceiling windows along one side of the corridor, one could directly overlook the depths of the valley.

As they passed through the corridor, Construction Boy suddenly spoke up. "I think I understand now."

"Huh? What are you thinking about now?" Eye Owe Money glanced at him with a raised eyebrow.