Along the way.
Seraphina Sullivan sat on the back of Nelly Nash’s aggressively modified motorcycle, the roar of its engine deafening.
They weaved through the gaps between the mountains of trash at breakneck speed.
Nelly Nash was clearly an unstoppable chatterbox.
Neither her helmet nor her special-made mask could dampen her enthusiasm for a chat.
She shouted to be heard over the wind:
"Hey, friend! Your moves aren’t half bad. So why are you heading to the Forest of Verdure all by yourself?"
"The roads around here aren’t safe! Besides Junk Monsters, you’ve got reckless thugs on the loose now and then. Going it alone is a huge disadvantage!"
Seraphina gave Nelly’s questions vague, noncommittal answers, glossing over most of the details.
She didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. She never would have guessed that beneath Nelly Nash’s cool, untamable biker-warrior exterior was the soul of a motormouth.
Despite Nelly’s chattiness, her driving skills were impeccable, and her familiarity with the complex terrain was astonishing.
With her and her modified bike, the trip to the Forest of Verdure was much faster.
Seraphina had expected an arduous, lengthy trek. But thanks to the bike’s powerful engine and Nelly’s expert navigation, it took them just over three hours before the landscape ahead began to change dramatically.
The mountains of trash grew more sparse, and the ground became considerably more level.
After Nelly executed a sharp drift past one last hill made of discarded tires, the legendary Forest of Verdure finally appeared before Seraphina’s eyes.
However, the sight before her was completely different from the "forest" she had imagined, and it sent a shock through her heart!
Seraphina had expected to see a lush, green jungle, stubbornly growing amidst the ruins.
Or, at the very least, some kind of retrofitted biodome.
But what greeted her eyes was a sprawling complex of buildings, mechanical and futuristic in style.
Several black metal towers soared into the clouds, piercing the dusky yellow sky like sharp swords.
Eerie blue lines of energy flowed across their surfaces, and transparent tube-like bridges connected them to one another.
Below the towers lay a grid of low-rise buildings constructed from some kind of synthetic material, all giving off a cold, hard metallic sheen.
It looked more like a futuristic, cutting-edge outpost built on the edge of an ocean of junk, rather than a "forest."
Still, one piece of good news was immediately apparent.
The junk in this area had been thoroughly cleared away, a stark contrast to the mountainous piles outside. The air even seemed a lot cleaner.
The stench wasn’t as overpowering as before, either.
When Seraphina and Nelly arrived at the base of the towers.
The area near the entrance was bustling with a crowd of people in all sorts of strange outfits and mismatched gear.
Clearly, these were all people who had come to take the test to become a Purification Envoy.
Many of them, like Nelly Nash, had flamboyant styles and carried an even wider variety of weapons.
Of course, there were also quiet, reserved individuals like Seraphina.
But Seraphina’s attention was soon drawn to another small group.
’Those people... how should I put it?’
’Their eyes looked a bit too... "clueless."’
They looked around with a curiosity and bewilderment that was completely out of place. Some of them didn’t even have a trace of the tension or sense of danger they should have had on their faces.
’Players...’
The word surfaced in Seraphina’s mind instantly.

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