Gu Ning stumbled sideways as Borg nuzzled against her.
Though Borg was gentle and always careful with her, he was so large that a single breath could have knocked her over.
Borg reached out instinctively to steady her, a pleased rumble vibrating in his throat.
Gu Ning smiled back and gave his ear a playful scratch.
Having gotten to know Borg, she realized that to him, she must be what a kitten is to a human.
Perched on Borg's shoulder, she was carried all the way to one of the external elevators on the city wall.
Borg lifted her from his shoulder and set her down on the elevator platform.
His job was to transport materials, and at the moment, he had no tasks requiring him to go to the upper levels.
Gu Ning waved goodbye to him and pressed the button for the top floor.
As the elevator ascended, level after level of tunnel entrances came into view.
The walls of Zone 19 had no staircases, only openings built every ten meters. Given their depth, it was no exaggeration to call them tunnels.
The outer wall at the end of these tunnels was mounted with numerous automated weapons designed to fight the Mutant Species.
But the Mutant Species were rumored to be clever; many could dodge the automated defenses and slip into Zone 19.
The beasts Gu Ning had encountered in the junkyard when she first arrived in this world had been Mutant Species.
The sounds of gunfire and artillery echoed from near and far—the outer wall's defensive weapons engaging the Mutant Species.
Inside the city wall, on the inner wall now before her, Beastmen dangled from safety ropes. They were repairing damage and installing weaponry on the smooth surface, which offered no foothold aside from scaffolding.
Come the winter's Web-Flood season, the weapons on this inner wall would become critical.
Gu Ning looked down. The ground receded, and even Borg's massive figure shrank until it was just a tiny dot.
Borg didn't leave, standing in the same spot until her elevator reached the top. Only then did he depart.
Gu Ning stepped out of the elevator onto the wide platform atop the city wall.
The Beastmen were still working on building up the wall.
She had seen the construction plans for the fortifications; the wall was to be over a hundred meters high, and it had to be rebuilt annually.
At first, Gu Ning couldn't understand it. The wall's height and thickness were staggering, so why did it need to be rebuilt every year?
That is, until a giant, winged creature—looking less like a bird and more like a dinosaur—flew over the wall and shattered a defensive weapon on the platform with a single swipe of its claws. Then she understood why the wall, despite its thickness, needed constant rebuilding.
Mutant Species like that giant bird could blot out the sun when they spread their wings, and their claws could effortlessly rip chunks of stone from the ramparts.
"Hey, you!"
A Beastman shouted at Gu Ning, shoving a toolbox into her hands.
The toolbox was heavy; Gu Ning nearly dropped it.
"The defenses in Area 81 of Zone D's outer wall were damaged by a Mutant Species. Get down there and fix it."
Gu Ning froze. 'The outer wall?'
She immediately set down the toolbox and pointed toward a nearby section. She was usually assigned to the inner wall and the tunnels.
The Beastman glanced at the nameplate on her chest and shoved her toward the outer wall. "You were a no-show yesterday and late again today. The guys had to cover your work on the inner wall. You're lucky you didn't get a beating. Now hurry up. If we have to cover for you on the outer wall too, you'll be getting a hammer to the head for sure."
The shove sent Gu Ning stumbling. Just as she regained her footing, the Beastman thrust the toolbox back into her hands. Then, with a deft pull on the safety clip at his waist, he latched onto a zipline and leaped down to a section of the inner wall.
Gu Ning stood rooted to the spot, toolbox in hand, ready to curse him out, but he was already gone.
"Don't just stand there in the way! You looking for a beating?"
A Beastman carrying materials shoved Gu Ning out of the way, preventing her from being struck by the steel rebar another worker was carrying.
The platform was a chaotic whirl of busy Beastmen. Clutching the toolbox, Gu Ning dodged through the crowd and had no choice but to head toward her assigned area.
Gu Ning walked to the edge of the rail-less platform and looked down. Her vision swam, and the world nearly went black.
She had only ever peeked outside from the safety of the tunnels in the Lower and Central Districts. A few dozen meters was enough to make her dizzy; a hundred meters was terrifying.
But the height wasn't the most terrifying part. What truly scared her was the seething mass of Mutant Species swarming at the base of the wall.
The Mutant Species were incredibly fast. Before an artillery shell could land, they would scatter like a school of barracudas, meaning the explosions inflicted minimal damage.
They even worked as a team; thick-hided ones would shield their more vulnerable brethren from harm.
Looking down from this height, the Mutant Species swarming below looked like an anthill, making her skin crawl.
She gave a bitter smile. 'Maybe getting hit with that hammer wouldn't have been so bad,' she thought.
Seeing that there were plenty of other Beastmen hanging off the outer wall to install weapons and fortify defenses, Gu Ning took a deep breath and squeezed her trembling hands into fists.
She set the toolbox down, tightened her safety harness, and clipped it to the zipline.
The harness had a device to control her descent on the line. She gripped it tightly, using the rope netting on the outer wall for support as she slid down, inch by inch.
"At that speed, you'll get down there just in time for lunch," a nearby Beastman sneered.
"I think it's less likely to be *eating* lunch and more likely to *be* lunch for the Mutant Species."
"That scrawny thing? Wouldn't even be enough to get caught in those bastards' teeth."
Gu Ning pretended not to hear them. 'Safety first, you idiots!'
Just then, one of the Beastmen deliberately yanked on her line to frighten her.
Gu Ning was sent swinging wildly, scared half to death. In her panic, she instinctively grabbed for the rope above her, releasing her grip on the descent controller.
Instantly, with a sharp ZING of the rope against the cable, Gu Ning began to plummet.
The other Beastmen had no idea she was paralyzed with fear. Watching her plunge, they just assumed the Mixed Breed was showing off after being goaded. Not one of them tried to grab her line.
In the few seconds she was falling, her life started flashing before her eyes. But a surge of adrenaline fueled by her will to live made her fumble desperately with the device at her waist, trying to brake the line.
But when it rains, it pours. Between her frantic yanking and the high-speed friction on the rope, the buckle snapped and went flying.
Gone...
Gone!
In that instant, Gu Ning felt herself just give up, surrendering to the fall.
'Whatever. Just let me be destroyed.'
CLICK! With a sharp snap, her body jerked to a halt in midair. With the brake mechanism broken, the rope had cinched tight, constricting her waist so fiercely she felt her breakfast about to come up.
She dangled, spinning slowly in the air. A Beastman, realizing her equipment had failed, quickly reached out to grab her line and steady her.
Her body slowly spun to face the Beastman. She stared at him for several seconds, then raised her hand. SLAP!
She slapped him hard across the face.
The Beastman was stunned. "I-It wasn't me..."
But he also wasn't the one who had stopped her fall.
Gu Ning followed the other Beastmen's gazes upward and saw a pair of familiar, piercing black eyes.