"This is..." Roland looked at Garcia.
"It"s a lift," she proudly responded. "Wait a moment, soon you"ll be able to see."
No long after she had finished talking, the light outside of the window turned from red to green and then the curtains were automatically lifted, revealing the view outside.
Roland immediately understood the reason for her pride. The bus was parked on a huge iron plate, surrounded by yellow and black warning signs painted on concrete walls with five or six metal orbits embedded in, which continuously issued a gear grinding sound.
They were traveling down a tunnel with each descending level marked by dazzling spotlights and huge number signs. Within a few minutes, they had descended more than 100 meters, but the numbers were still growing.
Seeing the continuously rotating orange alert lights in the outer edge of the iron plate, which was like a scene from a sci-fi movie, he suddenly felt that as compared to this sophisticated way of entering, his way to get into Third Border City was way too backward, which was still reliant on hemp ropes and steam engines.
His respect for an organization that could construct something like that was instantly increased by a few levels.
Without substantial economic and political power in the background, a bunch of martialists would never be able to construct something like that.
No wonder Garcia was so proud of it.
Even those strange tempered wild Awakened were stunned by the scene. They started discussing in the bus while looking out of the window, as if they wanted to explore how deep the place was actually hidden.
"This was actually a good move," Roland thought. The closed curtains before were probably meant to keep new people from knowing the specific location of the headquarters, but after entering the ground there was no such need anymore, so they could let everyone admire this spectacular project, which could also pose as proof of the a.s.sociation"s power.
He was curious to see if Ling who was following them could find a chance to infiltrate.
When the number became 235, the iron plate finally stopped descending and many holes appeared on the wall. Then, the bus moved again and headed into one of them.
The trip was very short this time as they soon reached their destination.
Roland followed Garcia out of the bus and discovered that there was a wide underground square in front of him, being illuminated with dense headlights, almost as bright as daylight. If not for the previous part of the trip, it would have been hard to believe that he was deep underground. A sculpture was erected in the center of the square. At first glance, it looked like a big hand holding an irregular polyhedron. There were also several buses parked next to the statue. It seemed that they were not the only newcomers.
"Are these people from other cities?" Roland pointed at the crowd around the sculpture.
Garcia nodded in agreement, "the a.s.sociation owns many divisions, but it"s only two Headquarters. In order to get into contact with the Erosion, one must come to these two places."
He was briefly stunned, "The erosion from the outside world... Can it be seen directly from here?"
Not only it can be seen, but you can also touch it—though you would never want to do that." Garcia rolled her eyes. "Did you think that we"re just a cult which asks people to fight the evil? The purpose of visiting the headquarters is to show newcomers the real danger that the world is facing. Some things, unless seen by your own eyes, are impossible to believe them—disaster is close at hand."
Just then, the lights above them suddenly dimmed down and darkness suddenly came from all directions, making everyone"s vision to focus on a small area in the center of the square. As though a curtain was opened on stage, two bright beams of light fell from the dome, one s.h.i.+ning on the sculpture and the other s.h.i.+ning on a black dressed lady.
She was standing on a platform at one side of the square, looked around thirty years old, wearing a cla.s.sic Martial Arts garment with her long black hair tied up on her head. One of her eyes seemed to have been damaged and was covered by an eye patch. The Force of Nature in the Dream World was not limited to gender, and it did not have the kind of effect that the magic power had in affecting the appearance. She looked no different than an ordinary person, not too tall, but with more of an imposing manner.
The woman waved at everyone and then said loudly, "Dear Awakened ones, good afternoon. I am Lan, Chief Disciple of the Rock"s defender. Welcome to Prism City!"
"Prism... did she mean the polyhedron on the sculpture? " Roland thought and heard whispers coming from the wild martialists, who appeared to be quite dissatisfied with her words.
Before he could ask Garcia, Lan continued, "Of course, welcoming the new students was the responsibility of Defenders, but unfortunately, Sky City encountered some problems so my master and the other three defenders all left two days ago. In order to avoid wasting time, I"ll be the one to welcome you all."
"I know that some of you awoke many years ago and can"t be treated as real newcomers. However, the situation has changed drastically. Since you"re willing to come here, it means you"ve approved the ability of the a.s.sociation and you should naturally put all the past temporarily behind you. Combating the Fallen Evil should be your priority now. The a.s.sociation doesn"t care about your past ident.i.ty and status, but only your future performance—the more critical the crisis is, the more the awakened should be united. If you don"t accept the practice of the a.s.sociation you"re still free to leave right now! "
While she was talking, the black dressed woman made a waving gesture, but no one in the square moved, and even the noisy discussions quieted down.
"This Chief Disciple is quite adept," Roland smirked. With the increase of the Fallen Evil, the endangered wild Awakened had no choice but to apply to join the a.s.sociation. No matter who they were before, they could only follow this option now. The woman was aware of that, so deliberately acted as if giving them a choice, but in reality, gave them no choice at all.
Strength was an important criterion when persuading an opponent. Being the Martialist a.s.sociation that could protect others, demonstrating their own strength would be the most effective way in this case.
Garcia looked at Roland with a perplexed expression for a while and said softly, "She"s my master."
"What?" He was stunned. "Your master?"
"She"s the senior that I mentioned the other day," Garcia sighed. "Unless you have to, try not to be around her too much. My master doesn"t like irresponsible and not punctual people."
"Oh, so that was the case," Roland thought.
"Since you"ve all made your choice, then the a.s.sociation welcomes any new blood." Lan gazed upon the square and nodded with satisfaction. "I"m not going to say much. Nothing is more impressive than personally experiencing it. Now, please come with me and see for yourselves the imminent crisis of the world—you"ll soon realize that the Battle of Divine Will isn"t far away from us! "