Originally, Blake had absolutely no interest in becoming a hunter, but after looking up some information online, he realized he really had to consider the idea.

Because, in order to meet the chairman of the Hunter Association, you must be a hunter.

Silver Watch is responsible for maintaining the safety of each central city, so they have branches in every central city. The Hunter Association is different; although hunters are spread all over the world, no one knows where its headquarters is.

There is only one way to meet the chairman of the Hunter Association, and that is to become an official hunter.

The chairman of the Hunter Association only appears when awarding badges to one-star hunters. At other times, if you want to see the chairman, you must become a core member of the Hunter Association to enter and exit its headquarters.

Blake felt like he’d been set up.

That black crystal was extremely solid, and the substance inside seemed to be slowly flowing.

Blake couldn’t figure out what this thing was or what it was for.

However, Henry Sutton made it sound very scary, saying it “concerns the fate of all humanity.”

Blake found it a bit troublesome, but since he had already agreed, he could only go through with it.

Chapter 10: The Seventh District

After leaving the station, an incredibly magnificent metropolis appeared before Blake.

Hanhai City, one of humanity’s twenty-three central cities, with a permanent population of about 180 million.

Surrounding the city is a spherical particle barrier that protects the entire city. The particle barrier, controlled by an AI brain, can distinguish between zombies and wild beasts; any identifiable non-human creature will be kept outside the barrier.

Of course, some powerful wild beasts can break through the barrier and enter the central city, but they are usually intercepted and killed by the heroes of Silver Watch on the outskirts.

The central cities are basically the last human paradises in the world. Their safety is built on the protection of the particle barrier, and constructing the barrier requires energy—the larger it is, the more energy it consumes.

With nearly 200 million people crammed into a super-sized city, this place is truly land worth its weight in gold.

Therefore, in the central area of the city, the buildings get taller and taller, with kilometer-high structures everywhere.

The closer to the center, the safer it is, and the more expensive the land becomes. Land use becomes increasingly extreme.

As for the cost of living here, it has reached an unimaginable level.

The universal currency on Earth is now called the Dawn Coin, a global currency issued after the formation of the world government. When it was first issued, its purchasing power was roughly equivalent to 10 US dollars.

Now, housing prices in the central city are basically above 200,000 per square meter. Even to rent, a standard one-bedroom apartment on the city’s edge costs 9,000 per month.

At such prices, most ordinary people in the central city simply can’t afford to buy; entire families squeeze into low-rent housing, barely having a place to live.

Low-rent housing only provides the most basic living environment, with no consideration for lighting, layout, convenience, and so on.

However, low-rent housing isn’t even the worst living environment.

As mentioned before, the particle barrier is spherical, so people have exploited the underground to the extreme. Using the ground as a baseline, the aboveground and underground worlds are almost mirror images. The entire underground city houses about half as many residents as the aboveground city.

Most of these are the poor, thugs, bandits, thieves, mercenaries, and so on, with no law and order to speak of.

In every district of the central city, there are underground passages leading directly below, but around these passages, there are always many fierce-looking, unidentified people wandering about. Most ordinary residents of the surface city avoid them.

“Stop. Toll.”

A burly man with a scar on his face blocked Blake at the entrance to the underground passage.

Blake smiled. “Toll?”

“One hundred,” the scar-faced man said coldly, reaching out to Blake.

Blake seemed to have heard something very funny and smiled, “Why don’t you just rob me?”

A fierce look appeared on the scar-faced man’s face. “Are you stupid? I am robbing you!”

The scar-faced man’s left hand reached out, trying to grab Blake’s collar.

The smile on Blake’s face vanished instantly. His right hand shot out like lightning, grabbing the man’s wrist and giving it a gentle twist.

“Crack!”

A crisp sound of bone breaking came from the man’s hand. With what seemed like a casual twist, Blake instantly broke his entire left arm!

“Aaahhh…!!”

The man let out a pig-like scream, collapsed to the ground like a dead dog, and rolled around clutching his broken arm.

The people behind the man all surrounded them, but when Blake glanced at them, they all hesitated.

The leader wanted to step forward, but a lackey behind him tugged his sleeve, and he backed off.

Blake squatted down, looked at the scar-faced man rolling on the ground, and extended his right hand. “You said it yourself, one hundred.”

The scar-faced man was on the verge of tears. He fumbled in his chest with his right hand for a while, then pulled out a wad of cash and stuffed it all into Blake’s hand.