1. Exotic Realm, Foreign Land

As the saying goes, daytime thoughts lead to nighttime dreams.

Perhaps homesick, Lu Li entered that familiar dream again...

In the departure hall, his father excitedly held up two plane tickets, shouting,

"Son, your father is taking you to a country like paradise! The air is even sweet there, you will receive the best education and live the best life..."

His father's mouth moved continuously as he outlined the exciting future he had envisioned.

Lu Li looked on, bewildered and fearful, not at all eager to leave his childhood homeland.

But a 12-year-old child, without consciousness or the courage to resist his father's plans.

Boarding the plane in a daze, he ascended 30,000 feet, and as his homeland grew increasingly distant, it became a blurry speck.

Suddenly, Lu Li realized—he could never go back!

Regret and panic filled his chest, so uncomfortable it felt like he was being torn apart...

Just then, the "buzz, buzz, buzz" of a vibrating phone disrupted the dream.

In a basement converted into a dim rental room, Lu Li abruptly opened his eyes and slowly sat up.

The young man had sharp brows and bright eyes, quite handsome, though his expression was slightly dazed, as if still struggling to break free from the dream.

"Five years have flown by, huh..."

This dream was more like a memory, a memory Lu Li was reluctant to revisit.

In that era, countless people were firm believers that the moon was rounder overseas and desperately wanted to emigrate, only to discover upon arrival that the world was not as wonderful as imagined.

Reluctant to dwell on the past, Lu Li shook his head to clear his thoughts and took out his phone to unlock it.

On the cracked outer screen, there was a message from school:

[In light of the current tense situation, Tijuana City High School will cease classes effective immediately...]

Seeing this message didn't surprise Lu Li.

"As expected, they've suspended classes. In this country, no one dares to ignore the threat of the drug lord."

The country he was in was called "Moxico," one of the most dangerous countries in the world, rife with drugs, crime, and violence, and overrun by drug lords.

After the current president took office, combating drug crime became the top priority, sparking a massive anti-drug campaign.

The drug lords, unwilling to show weakness, issued death threats to government departments, including police and schools.

Faced with armed drug trafficking organizations with people and guns, it was inevitable for schools to suspend classes, but for Lu Li, this was actually a good thing.

"I've self-studied the high school curriculum of Xia Country; their so-called 'happy education' here isn't worth learning. Now I have time to take care of my father in the hospital."

In the faint light from his phone, Lu Li quickly dressed and reached under his pillow for a strange object.

An artificial socket, metal joints, a connector pipe... It was a prosthetic limb! A crudely made prosthetic lower leg!

Lu Li rolled up the empty right leg of his pants, revealing a knee that had long since disappeared.

He skillfully strapped the prosthetic limb on, pushed himself to stand up with both hands, and stepped out the door.

Aside from a slight limp in his walk, he was practically indistinguishable from anyone else, evidently he had adapted to the artificial limb.

~~~~~~~~~~

In stark contrast to the gloomy basement, the outside was bathed in brilliant sunlight.

Lu Li raised his hand to shield his eyes while he adjusted to the light, then an exotic scene unfolded before him.

Short, chaotic houses and shanties, tall palm trees, passersby dressed in cheap clothing, most with amber eyes and brown skin.

A few neighbors greeted him in Fran Language, "¡Hola" (Hello)

Lu Li responded in Fran Language, while dodging a group of scruffy children kicking a soccer ball around.

Such backwardness was a far cry from the "paradise" described by his father, and even inferior to the county town of his homeland.

Lu Li knew this was not the land his father yearned for.

His father's actual goal was the neighboring country to the north of Moxico—the Star Alliance Country.

Known as the first powerful nation of the Blue Star, hailed as the beacon of democracy, it was a place many yearned to immigrate to.

Many "unscrupulous agencies" exploited this sentiment, claiming it would be incredibly easy to migrate from Moxico to the Star Alliance Country since they were neighboring countries.

Deceiving many into renouncing their original nationality and relocating to this impoverished, chaotic hellhole to fend for themselves.

Lu Li's father was one such victim, who under continuous frustration and dismay had succumbed to illness, developing stomach cancer.

Now that the cancer had metastasized, all Lu Li could do was to be there as much as possible in his father's final days.

He sighed and set out toward the Tijuana City General Hospital.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Living in the country with the highest murder rate in the world, Lu Li always stuck to main roads when venturing outside, at least it offered a semblance of safety.

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The road was anything but tranquil today, as one military vehicle after another drove past, bearing soldiers loaded with guns and ammunition.

Among them was a "Bull" armored vehicle, a steel beast weighing a dozen tons that rumbled by, quite imposing.

Lu Li quickly stepped aside to the edge of a snack shop, just in time to overhear the patrons discussing:

"The new mayor is a staunch drug crackdown advocate; he arrested Benjamin's son as soon as he took office!"

"The only son! Benjamin will surely go berserk..."

Benjamin was the local drug lord, and it looked like there was going to be a big scene.

Lu Li wasn't interested in such matters. As a struggling survivor, he had no leisure to concern himself with these issues.

At the moment, he was being stimulated by the aroma of chicken wraps, constantly salivating.

He had been out since early morning without breakfast, but with limited funds, Lu Li decided to save the money for this meal.

"After all, missing one meal won't make much difference."

He was about to leave this tempting place when a weak voice rose from behind him:

"Brother, buy a bouquet, will you?"

He turned to see a girl about fourteen or fifteen years old, carrying a basket of flowers, her face full of pleading.

Lu Li frowned. These cheap wildflowers were sold to tourists, and he lived nearby, passing by and seeing the girl several times.

Her approaching him... could only mean she was at her wit's end.

Selling flowers was a performance-based job. With the recent drug crackdown, tourists were scarce, and failing to meet her quota meant she would go hungry, or even be severely beaten.

Lu Li sighed, pulling out a few bills: "3 pesos, will you sell?"

That was the equivalent of one Xia Country dollar, just enough to buy a chicken wrap, and also the limit of Lu Li's charity.

The girl's eyes lit up, nodding repeatedly: "Selling, selling, thank you!"

She handed over the biggest and brightest "Dali Flower," which Mexico people considered a symbol of generosity and splendor.

Lu Li held it in his hand, thinking: It wouldn't be too bad to place it in front of his father's sickbed to lift his spirits.

The youth put the fresh flower to his nose to take a whiff, but before he could catch the scent, a disturbance suddenly erupted from afar!

He saw the Government Army soldiers who had just passed by running back, throwing away their weapons and equipment as they fled.

Even the formidable "Bull" armored vehicle was in utter disarray, unable to turn around in time and forced to reverse out desperately, toppling numerous stalls in its wake.

Then, Lu Li saw the culprit that caused all this—a "M1A1" main battle tank, slowly emerging at the street corner!

It was the same model as the tanks used by the Star Alliance army, but its body was painted with a chilling emblem: a viper passing through the eye socket of a skull.

Lu Li's pupils constricted—this was the drug lord's emblem! A tank belonging to the drug lord!

At that moment, the tank adjusted its barrel, aiming at the "Bull" armored vehicle.

Coincidentally, the armored vehicle had moved up right in front of Lu Li, less than 20 meters away!

Seeing the dark barrel of the tank aiming this way, Lu Li's hair stood on end and his heart thudded violently!

When one experiences a life-and-death emergency, the brain goes into overdrive, thoughts accelerate, and time seems to slow down.

At that moment, everything around Lu Li seemed to slow down, even the screams of the crowd were drawn out.

Without a second thought, he dived forward, pressing down the flower-selling girl with him onto the ground.

The next second, a deafening explosion sounded as the tank fired, blowing up the armored vehicle!

The armored vehicle turned into a fiery ball, soaring into the air, the shock wave hurling various debris in all directions.

Even the smallest pebble had the power to penetrate the human body, and countless bystanders were instantly flung about like blood-soaked rag dolls.

Although Lu Li had hit the ground in time, the explosion was too close, and he was still stunned, losing his hearing and sight.

Lying on the ground, he fell into a strange silence, with only blurred vision in front of him.

For a moment, it was as if he had returned to his hometown, sitting in a classroom filled with nothing but the sound of turning pages…

Sadly, the warm illusion was quickly shattered.

His hearing returned first, with a tidal wave of tinnitus engulfing him. Lu Li could hear his own labored breathing and the piercing cries of the crowd.

His vision slowly came back, bringing the burning, smoking armored vehicle and the crimson-covered ground strewn with limbs and body parts into view.

Lu Li coughed out a petal mixed with gunpowder smoke and, dragging the stunned girl, crawled into the safety of the snack shop.

Just as they hid, they heard the vibration of the tank's treads crushing the ground.

Huddled behind the thick walls, which gave a false sense of security.

His head still buzzing, Lu Li's thoughts drifted, and he suddenly thought of his classmates from his hometown, whom he hadn't seen for a long time.

"They must be taking their college entrance exams by now…"

The tank roared past, followed by the uniform footsteps of the drug lord's guard, pressing onward.

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