When the space elevator whooshed out of the thick cloud layer, the little girl pressed her forehead against the frosted observation window. Her breath fogged up a small part of the glass, and her two beautiful red eyes stared at the scenery outside, filled with a rare innocence and surprise.

During the first ten minutes of ascent, the city below the elevator silently shrank. The skyscrapers of the morning were like film strips dipped in transparent development fluid; the streets, landmark buildings, and artificial rivers were all so orderly, constructed like precision machinery to form the full picture of Nest City No. 3.

Or perhaps, Nest City itself is a colossal machine, operated with human dreams, blood, and sweat.

"About to pass through the raincloud layer."

An electronic prompt sounded timely, as the space elevator reached an altitude of ten kilometers.

Terrifying thunderstorms surged beneath Yun You's feet, as cyan electrical eels pierced the dark clouds. Suddenly, the elevator cabin accelerated — gravity caused bizarre wrinkles on human skin. Yun You watched her reflection overlap with the lightning in the clouds.

This was humanity and nature's last mutual gaze under this dome, and simultaneously, ironclad proof of modern humankind's conquest of nature.

About ten minutes later, the stars suddenly descended overhead. It was a somewhat dark cosmos, studded with countless spots of light. But at the same time, the earth below began to burn, as the "twilight line" sped across the ocean at sixteen hundred kilometers per hour.

Finally, in the sky, ninety-seven kilometers above the ground, the enormous black man-made celestial body fully revealed itself.

Nest City No. 3 Floating Island Fortress Prison.

Due to the angle of view being an upward gaze, Yun You could only see its base.

A total of six massive battleship-grade engines were mounted at the bottom of the fortress, constantly spewing pale blue flames, providing floating power to the fortress.

The Floating Island wasn't completely near the Kármán line, so gravity was still effective here. The engines were built to prevent the island from falling.

As for why not build directly in space? It's quite simple; every inch of near-earth space is firmly occupied by giant corporations, with rent per square meter even reaching thousands. If the prison were placed here, the Nest City Council would have to pay the megacorps billions annually.

It's better to put the Floating Island under the Kármán line. Although burning fuel costs quite a lot, the procurement and production departments can create more jobs, and the finance department can save a significant portion of the budget.

Around the Floating Island, various sizes of mechanical artificial satellites hovered like flies around the fortress. They were mostly equipped with large-caliber laser weapons and missile arrays, with personnel responsible for constant 24-hour surveillance of the island.

But as a police officer once said, all satellites and aircraft here serve only one purpose — ensuring that not a single living being escapes the Floating Island.

...

Not long after, the space elevator followed a specific electromagnetic path, entering the island's interior through the central entrance.

And now, Yun You finally saw through the prison wall's one-way glass to discern the structure inside the prison.

The entire three hundred square-kilometer steel land of the Floating Island Fortress was divided into several large areas, each filled with hive-like cages and vast open squares for free activity.

The environments between different areas varied almost completely, with grotesque trees growing in the Primitive Forest; an apparently leisurely beach and sea; factories packed with steel containers and cement pipes... there were even small cities filled with tall buildings.

Yet, they all had one thing in common — they were filled with "people."

Dense crowds of people, like ants, gathering chaotically, moving within the cages.

At first glance, Yun You thought they were working or engaging in some entertainment activity since labor is normal in prisons.

But after scrutinizing for a few moments, the little girl became silent.

Because these people... these "maniacs" weren't working at all; they were unleashing and slaughtering.

In the Primitive Forest, people smeared with camouflage paint clutched short knives, prowling like vipers beneath the flora. As soon as someone passed by, they would spring up and stab! Three swift cuts reduced a living person to a skeleton, flesh and organs meticulously collected, smoked into jerky...

People on the beach and sea, enchanted with excitement, wielded long guns and short cannons, firing at each other, amidst maniacal laughter exploding into shreds by the shells. Life could be forfeited, but the atmosphere had to be lively.

The folks in the factory might have innate ingenuity, fashioning battle vehicles and shabby mechas from scrap iron. Playing cheerful punk music, they ran over opponents, grinding them into paste.

The small city looked the most normal, with maniacs accounting for the smallest proportion of the total population, allowing Yun You to see many decent and honest people...

But at the entrance to the city, Yun You saw a pattern covering at least fifty square meters, outlined with LED lights, revealing the inscription on it.

[Nest City No.3 Floating Island City welcomes you!]

Seems normal, right? But when Yun You zoomed in further, she realized this wasn't built with construction materials at all; it was stacked using human heads...

Cyber Jingguan.

"What madness!"

Yun You couldn't help furrowing her brows.

No matter how much she liked excitement, this ghostly place had exceeded her expectations.

The little girl never imagined such a chaotic hell existed under the beautiful, peaceful stars.

She wasn't afraid of these people, of course, having witnessed even more insane folks and bloodier scenes.

But she really did worry about the "mayor candidate" she needed to rescue.

"Old Jin said this person is genuinely good, also decent and honest... Can such a person survive in this ghostly place?"

Yun You was unsure. A good person without much strength struggling to survive on the Floating Island seemed excessively challenging.

But since she was already here, the little girl naturally had no reason to retreat.

"You have arrived at your detention area. Please exit the cabin once the elevator stabilizes and enter the cell through the gate directly."

The electronic voice resumed, as the space elevator stopped by the entrance to the "Primitive Forest Area."

Peering through the one-way glass, Yun You saw her cell — a treehouse without any locks, commonplace in the Primitive Forest Area.

And just beyond the treehouse...

More than ten knife-wielding thugs were surrounding a mud-covered gray-haired youth, grinning sinisterly, preparing to peel his skin and draw his tendons to make forest-themed smoked meat.

"Oh, lucky me!"

Yun You grinned, clenching her palms slightly, producing crackling bone sounds.

"Running into people right away, now there's a chance to pry out some information."

"Master Zero, are you ready?"

Yun You took a deep breath, swung the big fat fish off her shoulder, gripping it in her hand like holding a hefty baseball bat.

"Next, let's begin our feast!"

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