Sandan City

Surrounded by massive steel walls, Sandan City stood proud and tall. With a mountain range covering its behind, it served as a strategic position as well.

Soldiers wearing battlesuits could be seen marching on top of its massive towers. Even a few soldiers wore the exoskeleton. It was one of UOPs latest contraptions, it enhanced strength. With its starting price fixed at a hundred thousand zens, it was simply impossible for the average person to acquire. It was even more difficult to obtain its operational license.

"Halt! Do not move an inch farther. Take out your identity cards immediately." A guard barked at two approaching figures.

The duo approaching the city gates were obviously Pain and Bell. They had made it ten minutes earlier than expected.

"Good day sir, my son and I have been living in the wilderness for all our lives. We have no idea of this identity card you are referring to." Bell blatantly lied.

"Oh? more survivors? Follow me." The Guard ordered.

The city guard gave off an extremely wild and oppressive aura. Each city guard had a battlesuit on. This was an advanced version of the normal battledress. Designed with a digital map, an oxygen tank, automated accelerated pistols, homing missiles and various other features, looking for trouble would only lead to absolute decimation.

The guard led them to to an extremely tall building. Regarding their explanation, he was not suspicious at all, survivors came through the gates everyday. All survivors were led to the building they were headed towards. Everything would be clarified there.

An individual could only possess one identity card. Once an identity card is issued to a person, his/her name is immediately logged into the UOP's database. Fortunately, Bell was declared deceased by the UOP. All individuals who were deceased or purported to be deceased, had their information deleted automatically, to free up memory in the database.

"That is the Bureau of Identification, quickly head there to get your information verified. After your identity has been verified and logged in, you will be issued an identity card. If you have no further questions, I shall take my leave. Good luck" The guard pointed towards the 30-storey building.

Bell immediately led Pain into the building. With an extremely curious gaze, Pain took in the sight. The interior of the building was even more awe-insipring than its exterior. The floor was made of black marble, an extremely expensive but durable material.

"What are you drooling all over the place for? this is just Sandan City, I can't begin to imagine how distorted your face would look if you see Frost city. Now, be quick, don't be a bumpkin."

"Oh give me a break Edmund, you may have seen this before, but this is my first time, allow me to enjoy the view without ruining it with your sass, will you?"

Two silhouttes, one tall, one short, bickered as they headed towards the sign that read 'Identity Registration.'

It had taken a while, but they had finally received their newly issued identity card. With Bell's new appearance - thanks to the alteration module unit - no one suspected a thing.

"So this is the identity card? Tsk, just so-so. Which idiot designed this? I could definitely design something more flashy." Bell sneered.

"I agree, they could give up some of the durability to make it a little less bulky. In my view, this card cannot be defaced even if the dawn steel is reduced by twenty percent." Pain nodded in agreement.

"Now we've received our identity cards, what do we do?"

"First, we need to find a place to stay. I was thinking we could head to the Blue Spring Hotel, but it's better if we just bought a house instead." Bell had thought it through, they would be staying here for a few years just to help Pain to get used to society.

It was Pain's first time seeing other humans besides the old fogey. To him, nothing else existed, he was absolutely engrossed in the concept of society. He itched to get his hands on all the forms of strange technological devices that were displayed in the various stalls.

The Enhanced sonic headphones, various versions of quantum devices, vehicles that looked like something from a robot movie, Pain felt this was tech paradise.

Bell kept mentioning how these were 'just the tip of the iceberg' but, he had long since shut everything, including the old fogey out.

'What a nerd, even I don't drool this much.' Bell eyed Pain disgustingly.

More people begun to appear, as the streets gradually became packed with cars that seemed to be levitating on the road.

Due to the war, the magnetic poles were disrupted, causing a significant boost in the attraction and repulsive strengths of magnet fields. Therefore, cars no longer needed fuel to work.

These cars could operate at a minimum of five times the speed of a mechanical one. Every road in the continent was constructed with tar or asphalt. However, beneath the roads, electric current was directed through a coil of wire, to generate a magnetic field around the coil in accordance to the law of electromagnetism.

The same mechanism was used in making the vehicles. Cutting off the electricity from the car, disabled the magnetic field hence, serving as an effective switch system. These vehicles were simply known as Maglev cars.

Pain observed a few of them in action, before hurriedly following Bell. They asked around for a bit before they found a real estate agency.

"Now, let's see which house I, your father, will buy this time." Bell bragged. He had absolute confidence the amount of Zens he had in his possession, was enough to make him one of Vir's wealthiest existences.

Just as they were about to enter into the real estate agency building, a yell was directed towards them.

"Hey, You! Stop! where do you think you're going?"

"Shit! it's a city guard. Have we being discovered?" The duo looked at each other as they stood frozen.