Nick took a deep breath.
He had never jumped over the gap before.
Naturally, jumping over the gap meant jumping over the 1 to 1.5 kilometers between the city's edge and the outside world.
A very athletic Initial Veteran could accomplish that, but it was extremely risky.
Extractors were allowed to leave the city in this way, but they had to get permission from a city captain before doing so.
However, while jumping out of the city was okay, jumping into the city was forbidden.
The main reason was that, with closed eyes, the Extractor wouldn't be able to properly control their fall, which would result in people dying and houses getting destroyed.
The northern part of the city was nearly as close to the outside world as the southern part, which was the closest.
Ignoring the bridge, the southern part of the city was only about a kilometer away from the outside world.
It used to be more, but the city had already grown quite a bit.
After Nick took a deep breath, he narrowed his eyes and focused on the street in front of him.
SHING!
Nick rapidly accelerated without making any noise.
Then, he jumped, and at the same time, he closed his eyes.
BANG!
Nick shot forward, and a bit of light from his activating Barrier managed to get through his eyelids.
Nick had jumped with a lot of force to make sure that he didn't fall into the Crimson Sea.
Nevertheless, he was still nervous.
Jumping into the unknown was always terrifying.
BANG!
"Keep your eyes closed," Nick heard Carl's voice from in front of him.
Carl had caught Nick, and the two of them were now falling.
BANG!
Carl landed while keeping Nick stable.
"You can open them now," he said before stepping away.
Nick slowly opened his eyes and saw the outside world.
It was brown and lifeless, like always.
Nick took a deep breath.
"Thanks."
Carl didn't answer.
Right now, Carl, Nick, and Mark were in a small valley north of the city.
South of their position was the wall surrounding the Crimson Sea.
Carl kept looking upward.
"You shot out with quite a lot of speed," Mark said from beside Nick with a surprised voice. "You could've flown for another 500 meters, probably."
BANG!
At that moment, a black object shot out of the red curtain.
Carl immediately jumped and intercepted the black object, which was obviously Irwin.
Veterans had a terrifying amount of power, and the speed at which they were jumping out was terrifying.
As a Mid Veteran, Nick could move at speeds of over 500 kph, and if he put everything into a jump, he could even move at nearly 700 kph.
Because of that, it looked like Irwin had been a cannonball.
"Come, stay close," Mark said as he walked towards Carl and Irwin.
Carl motioned forward, and everyone followed.
Nick and Mark ran past Irwin, and Irwin then followed after them.
Nick had only been at the south and the east of the city.
He had not yet been to the west or the north.
However, he knew what was around the city.
Far to the southwest was the iron mine.
Directly to the west was the isolated field with the carbon plants.
The field was called the Carbon Field.
Directly to the west of the Carbon Field was the Land of Desires, which was the reason why the city had decided to place the Carbon Field to the city's west.
The Land of Desires was an area with a width of about two kilometers, which was completely covered in delicious food and drinks.
Huge trees filled with fruit.
Bushes filled with nuts.
Crystal clear waters.
Flowers filled with sweet nectar.
Cooked chickens growing out of the ground.
Cooked meat hanging from trees.
Of course, the Land of Desires was a Specter, and just as expected, eating anything from there would be bad.
If someone ate from the Land of Desires, they would immediately grow addicted.
Without interference, the person would remain inside and gorge themselves to death.
But even if somebody could be pulled away, the withdrawal symptoms were brutal.
Shivers, panic, terror, aggression, heart palpitations, fever, existential dread, suicidal thoughts, and many other things.
If someone ate from the Land of Desires, the chances of their death would be over 60%, and that was assuming that they immediately got medical attention.
The Carbon Fields occupied the area between the city and the Land of Desires.
The reason was, of course, the slimes.
The slimes attacked the Land of Desires just as they attacked the Forests.
The only difference was that the Land of Desires didn't lose any Zephyx.
After all, the Specter was present, and it simply used its natural defenses to fight off the slimes.
This didn't work for the Forests since they were not the Specter.
They were minions or objects of power of the real Specter.
They had limited batteries, which couldn't be refilled.
The Land of Desires created an amazing defense for the Carbon Fields, which left only the north, northeast, south, and southeast open for attacks.
The northwest, west, and southwest didn't need to be defended, and the east was occupied by the Crimson Sea.
What about the north of the city, the place where Nick currently was?
Well…
There wasn't much.
While the other areas around the city had many noticeable Specters, like the Forests, Slimes, Infesters, Corrosive Dust, Desert, and Land of Desires, there was no noticeable Specter to the north of the city.
And that was concerning.
Why were there Specters around every other part of the city while there was no Specter to the north?
Nobody really knew.
Was there a Specter that stopped all other Specters from coming here?
Maybe, but nobody had gone missing in that area over the past 20 years.
Everyone that ran through this area managed to survive without any incident.
Nevertheless, traveling through that area was quite creepy.
In a way, the complete absence of Specters made this place especially creepy.