"Wow..." Elorie exclaimed, "This... this is just too incredible!"

Liu Shuyue’s face also showed a look of shock.

She had never imagined that humans could transform pitch-black underground caves into a habitable home. She initially thought the skyscrapers in Jiang City were already astonishing enough, but she hadn’t expected there to be experts surpassing that.

Chen Xuan gazed at the dazzling city, feeling somewhat lost in thought.

A large city built underground, its technological prowess was self-evident.

Lighting, energy, food, water cycle... nearly all resources essential for life were no longer easily obtainable from nature, and had to be artificially synthesized instead.

In some sense, this equated to a semi-closed artificial ecosystem.

At least Jiang City in 2025 couldn’t accomplish this, even with the combined efforts of the world.

Compared to the desolate cities above, this place was enough to be called the future!

No doubt about it, the secret erosion event Lin Qing mentioned must be referring to today’s events—New Paris City indeed had the potential to boost the development of Dimensional Limit Mechanism technology, and similarly, he might also find a place here to repair the scanning gun.

"You don’t seem that surprised?" Raphael looked at Chen Xuan with interest.

"Not at all, I’m just so amazed that I’m stunned," Chen Xuan shook his head, "This city is at least as big as a district in Paris, right? Such a massive project... how long did it take you to complete it?"

He wasn’t just trying to appease the other.

He truly admired and was curious about this underground city.

"The initial plan wasn’t this grand," the other replied, "It was designed to accommodate five million people, and it was basically completed in fifteen years. The New Paris you see now is the result of several expansions, and construction still hasn’t stopped to this day."

"Does it have something to do with those monsters above?" Elorie asked.

"Yes, but the deadliest threat isn’t the monsters themselves." Raphael shook the mask in his hand, "Didn’t I mention earlier that those exposed to the surface mutate? Those people you saw are actually all local residents."

Chen Xuan had already guessed this, "Could there be something like radiation above ground?"

High-energy particle radiation would only destroy DNA, cause the collapse of life systems at the foundational level, and wouldn’t turn people into more powerful monsters. In other words, Godzilla would never appear.

"Maybe it’s radiation, maybe it’s a force field, or even a wave we can’t describe..." Raphael shrugged, "In any case, our current technology can’t detect it, nor can it defend against it."

"You took off your mask just now!" Elorie suddenly recalled something, looking at the other in surprise, "That... won’t be a problem?"

"Don’t worry, I’m vaccinated, and the safety limit for unprotected exposure is five minutes, showing my face briefly is not an issue."

"Vaccinated? Like a vaccine?"

"I’m not the right person to explain that," Raphael shook his head, saying no more.

When the cable car arrived at the station, a bus was already waiting nearby.

Boarding the bus, Raphael took them to a standalone estate—such an independent villa would be quite rare in the precious underground space.

At the same time, he handed them two portable earphones.

"These are translators, wear them on your ears for real-time translation. But it’s best if you learn some French, as they only help you understand, not speak."

Chen Xuan tried them and discovered they were almost like simultaneous interpreters, and the translation had clear directionality. For instance, when he looked at Raphael, only his voice would come through the earphones, and other conversations wouldn’t be translated.

No need to bother Elorie as a buffer anymore.

"With something this useful, everyone should have one."

"This is a benefit for outsiders; New Parisians have to pay for it," Raphael laughed, "You both can rest here for tonight, and someone will come by tomorrow to learn about your situation."

Seeing that he was addressing Chen Xuan and Liu Shuyue alone, Elorie pointed at herself in surprise, "What about me?"

"You need to come with me separately."

Chen Xuan hadn’t said anything yet, but Liu Shuyue frowned, "Can’t she stay with us?"

"I want to be with them," the Angel quickly expressed her feelings.

Raphael leaned close to the young woman’s ear and whispered a few words, making Elorie’s eyes widen slightly.

"Don’t worry, it’s just a brief separation," he said with a smile, "Although you’re strangers, as long as you’re human, New Paris will surely welcome you."

Elorie changed her mind.

She followed him back to the car, leaving only Chen Xuan and Liu Shuyue in the courtyard.

The house was quite nice, tidy and clean, with three bedrooms alone, and the sheets and quilts were folded neatly.

The light outside was still bright. Chen Xuan took out his phone to check the time; it was already 8:55 PM.

No forced transport occurred.

Perhaps the time here didn’t match Jiang City, but what he had experienced was real Jiang City time.

Of course, this was normal, as Liu Shuyue had been by his side all along. In such cases, the shop would consider him as serving a guest rather than slacking off. But if he were to separate from Liu Shuyue? Chen Xuan hadn’t tested how far the distance needed to be for the effect to kick in, but at least in Zhangwei City and Jiufeng City, when they were busy across half the city, he wouldn’t suddenly return to the shop.

Maybe separating over ten kilometers had an effect, but venturing that far apart in an unfamiliar world was hardly wise.

Chen Xuan lay down on the sofa, letting out a long sigh—honestly, first battling Demons today, then getting inexplicably transported to a new world, chased around by strange-faced people to the point of exhaustion was quite tiring.

He felt his Spiritual Qi was almost depleted.

"We’re being watched," Liu Shuyue said in a low voice, "There are twelve people outside the yard, positioned to see each other, in standard guard positions."

"And there are surely more keeping an eye on us from the shadows," Chen Xuan replied indifferently, not naively believing they’d simply be brought to the city without further action after being rescued, "It’s essentially house arrest, just dressed up nicely."

"Shall we find a chance to leave?"

"No rush, let’s get through tonight first."

Raphael wasn’t wrong; they needed to rest now. While Chen Xuan couldn’t use the scanning gun to gain abilities, he still had the Thousand Thoughts Sword, Celestial Thunder Order, and Decomposition and Re-Fusion on him. Once his Spiritual Qi recovered, he would be combat-capable again, unlike now when he almost had to rely solely on Liu Shuyue to hold the fort.

"They’re willing to help, which shows they have basic goodwill, and isolating people who mutate into Insect People after exposure is a standard precaution. Even though Raphael says that exposure for two hours results in visible changes, who knows if there aren’t exceptions?" Chen Xuan added, "Furthermore, we might not be the important ones. The important one is that girl."

"Elorie?"

"Hmm..." Chen Xuan nodded, "With Second Paris City’s technological capabilities, they should be able to monitor most of the city’s areas, so they probably noticed us shortly after we entered the Champs-Élysées."

In other words, they not only saw them approach the Hive Building, but also witnessed the ensuing battles.

Elorie’s Light Wings when she flew should have also been visible to them.

This was the characteristic of special Ability User "Angel." 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

And Elorie had said before that this was her world, "Angel" was once widely known.

"Compared to an Angel, we might just be ordinary Ability Users, maybe even just extras in Paris City’s eyes."

Liu Shuyue was amused by the term extra, "Then they’ll miss the key store manager."

Knock, knock, knock.

Just then, there was a knock at the door from outside.

Who would be looking for them at this hour?

Curious, Chen Xuan went to the entrance and opened the door, finding that the one knocking was actually a robot. Its design was similar to a typical delivery robot used in hotels, with a stout cylindrical body and a display screen for displaying information and simulating expressions. It had omnidirectional wheels installed below, allowing it to move freely. However, it was equipped with a mechanical arm on top of the cylinder, which was the hand used to knock on the door earlier.

"Hello, I’m the intelligent tour guide A306 assigned to Mr. Chen, code-named Amy!" The cylindrical robot slid into the house on its own accord, "Regarding Second New Paris City, I’ll be the one to introduce you."