Ethereal Ascendance: A Journey of Transformation(Vol 5)

Vol 5/ Chapter 77: Lockdown for Disease Control

"Wow, such a big car for regular folks to use! And the view is really nice," Adrian said, full of curiosity on his first bus ride. He'd been in cars before, but never in a big vehicle like this.

It was afternoon, not many passengers. Adrian kept moving seats excitedly, looking all around.

Outside, the streets were busy. Cars flowed between tall buildings, people walking everywhere. You'd never see a city like this in the other world.

"What do you think of this world? If you really like it, why don't we just stay here?" I suddenly had a bold idea and quickly asked him.

Earth is way safer overall. No monsters, no endless wars. With our abilities, surviving here would be a piece of cake!

"Uh, that's not impossible..." Adrian was stunned. He'd never thought of this new path before, so he didn't react right away.

"But it's such a big decision. I need to think about it more," he said after a moment, looking worried. Probably thinking of things he'd miss. He quickly apologized and changed his answer.

"No worries. We still have a long time before the one-month deadline. Let's talk after you decide," I nodded, feeling a bit disappointed inside. But I expected this. Moving between worlds is a huge deal, so it's natural for Adrian to have doubts.

We kept going, but the good times didn't last!

After passing several stops, I noticed this familiar bus route had suddenly turned off onto a side road, away from where it usually went. I couldn't help asking:

"Driver! What's going on? Aren't we supposed to go through Science Academy Street? Why are we suddenly going a different way?"

I used to take this bus often. Even after a few months, they shouldn't change the route so much.

"Didn't you see the notice? We had to change the route! They suddenly announced military traffic control ahead, including Science Academy Street. No vehicles allowed in or out. Most streets and stops inside the Second Ring Road are blocked. We have to go around!"

Hearing the driver's frustrated answer, Adrian and I couldn't help looking at each other.

Anyone would know something fishy was going on with such big controls suddenly put in place. Considering the Aurora Entertainment was in a similar situation, the reason might be related to the other world!

We had to check it out! We got off at the next stop, went to a quiet place with no people, and turned invisible again.

Invisible, we could fly freely. But we didn't rush straight into the restricted area. We went back to the original route first, and soon came to a heavily guarded checkpoint.

"Military control area ahead. Vehicles and pedestrians without passes prohibited!"

We saw a warning sign first. There were several layers of roadblocks in the middle of the road at the edge of the controlled area. Behind them, we could see armed H-country soldiers patrolling. Good thing they couldn't see us.

We easily passed the checkpoint, but surprisingly found lots more obstacles on the other side too. It was like they were trying hard to keep people inside from rushing out.

Could there be some kind of riot inside the controlled area? I thought that at first, but what we actually saw as we went further was totally different from what I imagined.

This road was the same size as the ones outside. Soon there were all kinds of shops on both sides again. A few were even still open! The only difference from outside was there were way fewer people because of the controls. It was really quiet.