The four of them ran towards the north.
Everything around Nick was just a wasteland.
There were a couple of hills here and there, but that was it.
Brown and beige nothingness everywhere.
After running for around ten kilometers, they turned towards the right, running towards the east.
By now, no bit of human civilization could be seen.
There were no people or cities.
They were just in a dead world.
As they kept running towards the east, Nick sometimes glanced towards the north nervously.
While there was nothing close to the city in the north, that was bound to change as one went further and further away from the city.
And about 15 kilometers away from the city, that happened.
Even though Nick was about five kilometers away from the Forbidden Zone, he still looked towards its direction.
The Forbidden Zone started 15 kilometers to the north of the city and expanded for an unknown distance.
The city did not know what was inside the Forbidden Zone or what it looked like.
They only knew one thing.
Every single person who had ever crossed this line had died.
Even a Hero had vanished once.
Many years ago, one of the city's Heroes thought that they were strong enough to enter the Forbidden Zone.
Sadly, they never returned.
This event was one of the biggest reasons why Kugelblitz managed to come to power since that Hero had been from the biggest Manufacturer before Kugelblitz had attained that title.
The running theory was that a neutral Fallen was living there.
Adversaries often affected gigantic areas, and their influences could be seen in many different places.
Yet, the Forbidden Zone seemed to be a more localized thing, which most likely meant that a Fallen lived there that didn't view humanity as its enemy.
Either way, entering the Forbidden Zone was akin to suicide.
The team kept running towards the east, always staying about five kilometers away from the Forbidden Zone.
After about ten kilometers, Nick looked towards the south.
Right now, they should be about five kilometers to the north of the Desert.
Naturally, since going further towards the north was suicide, the group was leaving towards the east.
The reason as to why they had first traveled so far to the north was to avoid attracting the attention of anyone from the Desert.
The team's goal was the wilderness far to the east of the city, and the best way to get there without getting noticed was to jump over the gap and run eastward while staying close to the Forbidden Zone.
The four of them continued running, and soon, even the Desert was far to the west.
Right now, Nick was over 20 kilometers away from the city, the furthest he had been yet.
While the surrounding ten kilometers of the city were common knowledge, anything further away was kept secret.
Scouting the surroundings took a lot of work, and the Manufacturers didn't want to share their findings with other Manufacturers.
So, while some very noticeable areas were not kept secret, everything else was.
For example, there was one area to the east of the Desert and to the south of Nick's current location.
It was an extensive cave system.
There were many holes and crevices in the ground that led into the earth.
One could find these crevices and caves within an area of four kilometers, and the crevices seemed to be placed in a big X.
Crimson City suspected that at least one Specter had to be in there, but not much was known about the cave system.
Many Manufacturers had looked at it, but they didn't say how far they had gone or what they had found inside.
However, the cave system also wasn't the group's goal.
While it wasn't directly adjacent to the city, the cave system was still too well known, and they were bound to meet other Extractors if they went there.
They had to go further away.
So, they kept on running.
After another ten kilometers, Nick was now over 30 kilometers away from the city.
Now, things were starting to get dangerous.
This was a distance where it was no longer realistic to run to the city to get help if one got attacked.
There were also far fewer Extractors running around out here, which was both a good and a bad thing.
Good because the chances of getting found were lower.
Bad because there were no witnesses around if anything happened.
Nick had officially entered an area that he knew nothing of.
He did not know of any other big landmarks or Specters this far away from the city.
He didn't even know if the Forbidden Zone still extended to there.
In fact, not even the city knew.
Since the Forbidden Zone couldn't be seen, the city couldn't find out if they could go towards the north now or not.
Finding that out required sending someone, which would most likely kill that person.
Even if they used criminals to scout, that wouldn't give them any new information.
After all, if the Forbidden Zone was still there, the criminal died, and if it wasn't, the criminal would just continued walking northward to escape.
In both cases, the city would learn nothing.
Of course, Carl's group was not planning on finding out if the Forbidden Zone extended toward this place or not.
In fact, they were slowly changing their direction towards the southeast instead of the east.
What if the Forbidden Zone curved a bit?
They didn't want to take the chance.
During the past couple of minutes of travel, nobody had said a word, and Nick was just silently following.
However, after traveling for a couple more kilometers towards the southeast, Carl finally said something.
"Want to see something interesting, Nick?" Carl asked. "Take it as a present from Solace to Dark Dream."
Naturally, presents were not really presents.
A present between companies was a show of goodwill and said goodwill was expected to be returned.
Information about the outside world was precious, and Carl naturally wanted to cash in on that.
Nick knew what Carl meant.
"Always," Nick answered.
Solace and Dark Dream worked very closely with each other, and there was no issue in accepting something like that.
In fact, refusing such a gift might even be considered as rude.
