CHAMPION | NCT

o39

C H A P T E R
T H I R T Y - N I N E

The 'going in' at the city this time was a lot easier than the first by so many reasons. Of course, I didn't need to travel at City 127 to arrive at the place.

I barely got any sleep last night, but it was okay. I still brought the goggles, the witchlight, and a gun that's designed to look like a hairbrush. I just need to press the right buttons to activate its gun desiand use it. I tried to do it last night in front of Yuta as a demonstration. It was one of the coolest weapons I've ever seen. Yuta told me he was supposed to discard it since the idea of the design sounded ridiculous, but his mom insisted not to. She was the first wielder of this weapon.

As I took the same path that I did when I came out of the city last time with Jungwoo, I made sure to let the goggles scan the place and add its location in the eyewear's embedded map.

The city was dead cold, but I paid the temperature no mind. Besides, I was wearing Yuta's specialized glove. A very handy gift.

The walls came into view and as I stepped closer into it, it became bigger and bigger - more intimidating. There were oval-shaped, eyeblinding lights in bright neon greens floating around the walls, seemingly looking like an alien's spaceship.

People from the city called them 'Patrol lights', because they guard the city from the darkness. While the city was sprinkled with multicolored lights that flashed like diamonds and shone like stars, the exterior of it was a vast space of darkness. That's how it earned its name: Neo City.

But people from my hometown - Baba, Grandma, and me - we called them 'fireflies'. When I was young, I used to glimpse at the city through the window every night. And they never looked like giant spaceships from far away. They looked like tiny insects glowing in the dark, decorating the sky like Christmas lights. Just like the bugs surrounding Grandma's house.

It took me less than an hour to finally arrive in the entrance to 15th-Balkon Street. The space was narrow and dark: both an advantage and a disadvantage. At least I can ensure that if the President sends a car or a cyborg here - it would be very obvious. Besides, I doubt that idea. And it's not like cars could fit in a space as narrow as this is.

I ignored the foul scent of smoke and rust in the air. The smell of ice melting also travelled to my nose, and the mixture of everything was not exactly unpleasant, but rather disturbing. It reminded that I'm in a place like nothing else.

Teetering, I finally found my way out of the tunnel-like passage. The tiles were dirtied with dusts, dry splattered paint (or wait, is that blood?) and tangled wires that's starting to form random spirals. I carefully avoided them in each steps, not wanting to trip on them or get electrocuted.

The hum of electricity was thick in the air, both low and high pressure. They battled with the current climate, clashing heat against cold. One hour in this kind of place will get you sick.

It was as if there were hot coals beneath my legs, and icecubes entrapped between my spine and blouse. Blisters were birbling across my skin but I brushed those sensations away and just headed to the door that leads to the entrance.

I rested my palm when I arrived at the spheroidical-shaped door. I sucked in a sharp breath before placing four-rhytmical taps on the door, the exact pace as Taeil thought me.