adbindia Chapter 302 - 292: Zhou Capital
Chapter 302 - 292: Zhou Capital
After flying for half the day, they arrived at sunset as a mist began to rise.
A collective gasp rose from the passengers inside the cabin.
The Zhou Capital skyline emerged in the twilight.
Gu Ming’s eyes widened. During the national competition, he hadn’t gone to the city center; instead, he had passed through the Golden-Eyed Dragon Gate directly to the Eight-star Dao Field.
He had been to the Capital as a child, but had only passed through, never lingering in its opulent, bustling districts. His memories were faint.
His impression of the Capital was simply: big, big, and still big.
As the Flying Humpback Whale drew closer, rows of glass-walled skyscrapers pierced the clouds below.
Megastructures forged from steel and Runes towered in the misty sunset.
Four Sky Dome Residences, resembling colossal mechanical trees, stood at the city’s four corners, each towering over four thousand meters high.
Their layered, openwork design was created for giant Pet Beasts hundreds of meters long, serving as habitats for the massive creatures that ferried people.
Gu Ming listened to a tour guide in the cabin explain that Zhou Capital had four such "airports," each owned by a different company.
The eastern airport was the Royal Airport. The southern one, where they were landing, was a common hub for Flying Giant Whales and Dragon Pets.
To the far north stood another Sky Dome Residence, this one used by giant Mechanical Pets.
Gu Ming gazed north and saw shimmering Energy Rails extending from the tower, recharging descending mechanical leviathans.
Mechanical Pets were mostly Magnetic Element Pet Beasts. They were so advanced that the average civilian had no exposure to them. Gu Ming knew little about them himself, having only seen a dozen or so types in the wild during his childhood.
The Sky Dome Residence to the west was considerably shorter, constructed from Basalt and Magic Tree Material.
The inner walls of the tower-like building were riddled with grooves, allowing Rock Armor Beasts and Space Pythons to climb and rest.
Its base connected directly to an underground Spirit Vein and housed a massive Spirit Gathering Array. This western Sky Dome Residence also served as a hub for the Capital’s underground transit system.
The Flying Humpback Whale gently descended, landing on the tenth floor of the southern Sky Dome Residence, still over a thousand meters above the ground.
To get down from here, one could either pay a hefty fee for a short-range Teleportation Array, a smaller fee for an elevator, or take the free, spiraling staircase.
As it was Gu Ming’s first time here, everything was a novelty, and he was in no hurry to reach the ground.
He wasn’t set on taking the elevator or the teleporter. After a brief word with Lu You, she nodded, and they started down the tower’s staircase together.
Gu Ming made his way down the spiraling stairs, treating it as an opportunity to take in the Capital’s sights.
The tower was a kilometer tall, with the staircase spiraling around its outer wall. Looking down gave one the dizzying sensation of being a thousand meters in the air.
The walkway swayed noticeably, and every gust of wind was terrifying, making it feel as if you could be swept off the stairs at any moment.
The railings were also quite low. After descending just a hundred meters, Gu Ming felt like he was engaged in some extreme mountaineering.
But Gu Ming felt it was completely worth it.
He watched as swarms of hovering Flying Pets weaved between the skyscrapers. Their numbers were so immense, a dense and sprawling mass, that they often caused "traffic jams" in the sky.
Such a sight would be impossible in Lanqi City, which simply didn’t have that many Flying Pets in the air.
But here in the Capital, it was a different story.
Traffic jams on the ground were one thing, but traffic jams in the sky? It showed just how enormous the population of Flying Pets was. It also reflected how primitive the era’s three-dimensional transit network still was, lacking any form of AI coordination.
’Logically, this shouldn’t be happening,’ Gu Ming thought. ’Considering the potential of Magnetic Element Mechanical Pets, there’s still so much room for growth.’
He continued down the stairs, his eyes scanning the neon billboards plastered on the skyscrapers. They played highlights from the Beastmaster collegiate league or advertised the release of new Pet Beast medications.
In the distance, he could also see low, dense clusters of buildings. Their construction materials were far cruder than those in the new districts, making them look like shantytowns left behind by the times. The number of Pet Beasts in the sky above them was nearly eighty percent lower than in other areas.
By the time Gu Ming reached the fifth floor, four or five hundred meters from the ground, his view became clearer. He could see many raggedly dressed Beastmasters, their faces sallow and gaunt, setting up street stalls with their Pet Beasts in the narrow alleyways below.
The customers frequenting that area were also plainly dressed, not at all like the wealthy.
Their Pet Beasts weren’t the noble creatures Gu Ming had imagined, either. Instead, they were Basic Type Pet Beasts like Little Cyan Snakes, Bitter Bears, and Big Foolish Dogs.
Without a doubt, that was the Capital’s impoverished district.
Gu Ming followed the staircase around to the other side of the tower, where a kaleidoscope of colored lights shattered the night.
The sun had completely set by now, and the neon glow of Zhou Capital painted the sky in a riot of color. Lights were everywhere.
Over the old district in the background, however, the lights were far dimmer, and there were almost no breathtaking buildings to be seen.
By the time Gu Ming reached the ground, he had gotten a general overview of the Capital’s landscape.
It was a place where fantasy and modernity, poverty and wealth, all intertwined. The stark contrast left him with a strong cyberpunk impression.
Gu Ming glanced at the time. It was just past 7:00 PM, and he wasn’t hungry yet. He turned to Lu You and said,
"Let’s go to the school and register now."
The university had arranged a villa for them—special treatment for the national champion.
Other students either lived off-campus or in single rooms in the dormitories.
Their dorms had been expanded with Spatial Arrays and were quite comfortable, but it was still a significant step down from the detached villa reserved for the champion.
’Better to save money where you can,’ he thought. Since Gu Ming had a good place to stay, there was no need for him and Lu You to get a local hotel.
Still, as they passed a hotel, Gu Ming instinctively pulled out his phone and looked up local accommodation prices for an average Beastmaster.
A standard room at a regular inn: 10,000 a night.
This price was for Zero-star to Two-star Beastmasters.
A three-star hotel, for a standard room, cost 50,000 a night. The hotel’s Star Level corresponded to the Beastmaster’s Star Level.
A Four-star Beastmaster would stay in a four-star hotel, a Five-star in a five-star, and so on, with prices rising accordingly.
The reason for this direct link between hotel and Beastmaster Star Levels was that Four- and Five-star Pet Beasts had extremely strict requirements for their Cultivation environments.
A five-star hotel, for example, had every room equipped with a large Spatial Array and a highly concentrated Spirit Gathering Array, capable of precisely gathering Spiritual Qi of an Attribute specified by the Beastmaster.
This not only enhanced the Pet Beast’s comfort but was also equivalent to installing a miniature Dao Field of the corresponding Star Level directly within the hotel room.
The operating costs for such hotels were already exorbitant, and with their location in the Capital—where every inch of land is worth gold—the prices were even higher.
Even far from the city center, prices didn’t drop significantly.
After all, short-distance travel was effortless for a Beastmaster. Most High-star Beastmasters could hail a Pet Beast ride-share and cover ten kilometers in under a minute.
Distance had little effect on the price. Only locations near the Imperial Palace or top-tier universities saw price variations due to their unique status.
"So expensive. It’s definitely better to just stay at the university," Gu Ming said, shaking his head at the prices.
Lu You, who was walking behind him, nodded in agreement. Spending 50,000 for one night was a total rip-off. She didn’t want to waste money either; even splitting the cost would be a major loss.
「A short while later.」
The two arrived at the university and found Teacher Huang in the admissions office to process their registration.
It was then that Lu You learned the university’s housing arrangement for them was different from what she had imagined.
The detached villa was for the national champion.
It had a master bedroom, a guest bedroom, a large combat training room, and an Enlightenment Room.
As an assistant to the national champion’s team, Lu You had the option to stay in the guest bedroom of the Zhuangyuan Villa.
If she preferred to live alone, the university could also arrange a free room for her in the dormitories.
However, that would mean she wouldn’t have access to the villa’s built-in, top-tier Spirit Gathering Array and various high-end training equipment—unless, of course, Gu Ming let her in to use them every day.