It was crazy how Waython Hollow city (civilization) was way worse than the wastelands.

Tatehan had come here hoping to live a normal life. To exist like a normal human being, maybe something close to what he'd had back on Earth before finding himself on Mars. A place to sleep, food to eat and people to talk to. Simplicity.

But he'd been shocked to see the exact opposite.

The wastelands had been a place filled with monsters where humans rarely ventured. It was dangerous, deadly, even, but it was… predictable at least.

You knew the rules. Stay alert, don't make noise, kill or be killed. All that stuff.

Any human who went to the wastelands did so for a reason. Usually a damn good one.

They were after cores, valuable ones. The kind that could change your life, upgrade your gear, or save someone you loved.

Kael had been one of those people.

He'd lived dangerously close to the Hexapod Mauler's territory, studying it, fighting it and failing over and over but never giving up. The reason was so he could get the bio-neutral core.

For Kael, it had been simple: get the core or don't go back. Going home empty-handed and watching his daughter die was never an option.

Riven was another example.

Tatehan had met her stranded in shadow goblin territory, battered and low on supplies. The reason she'd come to the wastelands? She'd been hunting for a really valuable core. Tatehan later found out it was the Crystalline Serpent she'd been searching for. She'd actually planned to face that thing, somehow defeat it, and walk away with its core.

That... that sounded ridiculous. Impossible, even.

For someone who'd gotten stranded because she couldn't defeat a pack of shadow goblins: creatures she needed to kill just to power her motorcycle, what made her think she could take down something as large and deadly as the Crystalline Serpent?

Tatehan had analyzed the serpent once and he knew it as a high-tier threat. Even with all the abilities he had, all his combat experience and tactical instincts, defeating that thing would have been a serious challenge.

And Riven had gone out there planning to fight it solo and come back alive with its core?

Crazy stuff!

But that was the wastelands for you. Dangerous, yes. Deadly, absolutely. But at least it made sense. The threats were clear and the goals were straightforward. You knew what you were getting into.

Here? In Waython Hollow? In civilization?

It was chaos.

And not the kind you could predict or prepare for.

Here, people died constantly. Not because they ventured into monster territory looking for treasure. Not because they made a tactical mistake or underestimated a threat either.

They died because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Because they were buying groceries when a pack of shadow goblins tore through the market. Because they were walking their kids to school when a Behemoth smashed through a building.

Innocent people. Families. Children, mothers and fathers.

Tatehan had seen their faces, he had seen the bodies scattered across the plaza. Seen the grief in the eyes of the survivors.

It was sickening.

Sigh.

But at least he wasn't lonely.

Back at the spaceship, isolated in the wastelands, he'd been alone. The only voices he'd heard were his own thoughts and the monotonous narration of that old history radio device, droning on about Earth's fall, the Space Dragon Wars, the colonization of Mars…

He'd talked to the ceiling too, an act he did occasionally when talking to the Spaceship's AI.

So…Waython Hollow was better in that aspect. There were people here, he engaged in conversations at least.

But everyone was just as shocked as he was. They Just as overwhelmed by the violence, the destruction and the wrongness of it all.

None of them had expected this.

And it was all because of one man.

The Obscuron.

A man so sick with power and dominance that the very thought of him made Tatehan's blood boil.

He remembered the first history he'd heard on that radio device. It had been right after he'd woken up on the spaceship, disoriented and terrified, trying to make sense of where he was and what had happened to him.

The device had narrated the fall of Earth. The Space Dragon Wars and the colonization of Mars. And then, about a day later, it had mentioned him.

Nathan!

The man who would become the Obscuron.

At the time, the story had felt distant and abstract. Something that had happened in the past, something although Tatehan worried about, didn't think too much about it after the 'moment'

But now?

Now it was hitting way too close to home.

Tatehan could still hear the words in his head, narrated in that clinical tone:

"[Years later, the Awakening Institute fell into chaos. Some humans with darker abilities formed a rebellion and fought against the good side. The Awakening Institute was reduced to debris, and the rebels seized control of the western regions of Mars. Their leader, drunk with power, now seeks anything to maintain it.]"

Tatehan clenched his fists. He hadn't expected it to escalate this fast.

When he'd first arrived on Mars—what, a few weeks ago? Over two months if he counted the time he'd spent alone in the coma—he'd assumed the Obscuron's campaign for total control was still years away. Something future Tatehan would have to deal with. Not now Tatehan.

But he'd been wrong.

The Obscuron wasn't waiting. He was instead moving aggressively and ruthlessly.

Another line from the radio broadcast echoed in Tatehan's mind, colder and sharper than the rest:

"[He knows where the Red Dragon spaceship is, and he is keen on finding it. For now, it lies in an isolated zone filled with dumb monsters. But soon, he might find it.]"

Tatehan felt a chill run down his spine.

The Red Dragon Spaceship, his spaceship.

The Obscuron knew about it. Or at least, he knew it existed somewhere on Mars. And if he found it...

Tatehan didn't even want to think about what would happen if the Obscuron got his hands on that kind of technology. The Red Dragon Spaceship wasn't just a ship. It was a weapon, a fortress and a tool of unimaginable power.

In the wrong hands, it could obliterate entire cities.

Thank Goodness he'd moved it.

Tatehan exhaled slowly, his mind racing.

When he'd first arrived on Mars, the spaceship had been sitting in the wastelands, half-buried and damaged but still intact. If the Obscuron's forces had swept through that area looking for it...

And now, thinking about it, they had swept through.

The creatures that attacked Waython Hollow: the shadow goblins, the iron-jaw scavengers and the Boulder-back Behemoths, they'd all come from the wastelands.

Which meant the Obscuron had raided the wastelands already!

He'd sent teams out there. Maybe soldiers or drones. Definitely high-tech scanning equipment capable of detecting energy signatures, power sources and anything valuable.

With that kind of tech, they could have found the Red Dragon Spaceship.

Easily.

If Tatehan hadn't moved it, if he hadn't stored the spaceship in his inventory just days before this attack, it would be in the Obscuron's hands right now.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.