Land of No Master, this is not a specific region, but a collective term.
It represents areas that are not within the "World Government" territory and have not been fully explored and controlled; it is synonymous with the unknown, mysterious, and dangerous.
The plot timeline of the "Dawn" game spans a long period, covering two eras.
More than a century ago, an unprecedented apocalyptic war swept across the globe. Due to breaks in historical records, no one knows the reason for the war, or even who the warring parties were.
The only thing known to later generations is that the war destroyed the civilization humanity once had, reducing the population to one-fifth of its original size.
Later, with the beginning of civilization reconstruction marking the "Dawn Year," history was divided into the pre-war "Old Era" and the post-war "Dawn Era."
Currently, Su Mo lives in the 152nd year after the reconstruction of civilization, the Dawn 152nd Year.
During the Dawn Era, the emerging humans established the "World Government," rebuilding a splendid civilization with skyscrapers rising from the ground.
But currently, the territory controlled by the World Government only accounts for about 20% of the world's area.
The remaining 80% is the Land of No Master.
The Land of No Master is not governed by the World Government, with many independent armed groups roaming around, as well as exploration teams sent here by various forces.
When humans meet each other here, it is often not very friendly, unlike the cities within the World Government territory where there is order and law.
An exploration team may painstakingly find something in the ruins, only to be killed and looted by another team or an armed group, incidents like these are common.
The humans in the Land of No Master are terrifying, but at least they can be reasoned with.
What's most deadly is encountering the ruthless "beasts."
The origin of the beasts is unknown, some say it's natural evolution, others say it's caused by radiation mutation due to nuclear waste, and some say it's a product of some genetic engineering from the Old Era.
In any case, the beasts are more ferocious than any native wild animal in nature, bloodthirsty, and have an extremely strong hunting instinct.
The vast and sparsely populated Land of No Master can be said to be a paradise for countless beasts.
...
It is now late at night, and the night in the Land of No Master is completely different from the Windy Plain.
In the Windy Plain, at night, you can't see the stars, only the light pollution from the distant horizon caused by city lights, and the night sky is always covered by a muddy light curtain.
But in the Land of No Master, far from industry, you can see the distant starry sky at night, and looking up, you are greeted by the vast Milky Way.
Nuobai drove Su Mo along the broken road, switching the motorcycle to low noise mode and turning off the headlights.
As a "Promoted High Tier" Crimson Rose Blood Code Carrier, she can control IPS stem cells for targeted differentiation, allowing her eyes to generate a large number of rod cells, thus gaining night vision ability, making headlights unnecessary for seeing the road clearly.
Driving toward the direction provided by Su Mo, the scenery ahead kept changing.
The ruins outside Rust Wind Ridge were full of excavation marks, evidently from engineering operations conducted by the Hegemony Company.
The further south they went, the fewer the excavation marks, indicating that few exploration teams dared to venture this far.
Nuobai drove all night until the next sunrise, and the two entered the ruins of a city from the Old Era.
The city had long lost its former bustle and prosperity, with a large number of abandoned vehicles piled together, covered in thick dust, wheels encrusted with rust, car bodies dented and collapsed, resembling abandoned tombstones,
debunked skyscrapers sprawled across the streets, with exposed steel and concrete, broken street lamps, and store signs corroded by wind and rain.
Occasional eerie noises came from broken windows in the wind, as if singing a dirge, telling those who come about the distant and sorrowful history of the Old Era.
This is the most common sight in the Land of No Master, the ruins of the Old Era, the most primitive ruins eroded by time.
Based on memory, Su Mo quickly recognized the direction, pointing to the distant overpass, saying, "Go past that overpass, and you'll see a flat oval-shaped white building, park there."
Nuobai drove across the overpass and indeed saw the building Su Mo had mentioned.
She stopped the car and typed on her phone:
[Are you sure it's here?]
Su Mo: "Yes, this is the place."
He thought to himself: I've achieved a full clearance over a dozen runs, I've been here dozens of times.
Nuobai looked at the unremarkable structure ahead, feeling incredulous.
As a Mercenary, she had taken on commissions requiring entry into the Land of No Master and was familiar with its patterns.
Don't think the Land of No Master is filled with treasures.
Quite the opposite, 99.99% of Old Era ruins have no exploration value, they really are just ruins.
If you're lucky, you might find some unopened canned food, over a hundred years past expiration.
The surface world was destroyed more than a century ago during that apocalyptic war.
Even if something wasn't destroyed, it wouldn't withstand the erosion of years of wind and rain.
Valuable exploration areas are often underground, such as biological laboratories or military research bases.
These areas, which may contain "technology relics," are what exploration teams call "ruins."
But finding ruins is not easy; just finding the entrance can stump most exploration teams.
Even if lucky, or armed with intelligence, finding the ruins entrance doesn't guarantee the presence of technology relics, you might leave empty-handed.
Nuobai couldn't understand why Dr. Chen could accurately locate the ruins and firmly insist it contained gene-encoding proteins, a sophisticated medical drug.
If it's true, wouldn't it be better to sell the intel to her own company for a managerial position?
Thinking of this, she gripped Su Mo's hand again.
Su Mo felt resigned: "We're already here, how could I run?"
Nuobai realized he was right, so she let go of his hand.
Su Mo: "Park the bike in a concealed spot, follow me."
Nuobai hid the bike, and the two entered the flat building.
From the outside, it looked ordinary, but the internal layout was intricate; the entrance immediately revealed long-defunct security devices and strict access checkpoints.
Entering deeper inside, at the end of the corridor was a passage leading underground.
The two entered the passage, as they went further, the ambient temperature dropped, and the long stairway showed many cracks and collapses, as if trampled by some creature.
After a few minutes of descending, the stairway finally disappeared, and the road leveled out.
This underground passage was far from the outside world, with no sunlight penetrating it, extremely dark, only the weak glow from the emergency exit signs along the walls, indicating the basic electrical power was still functioning.
Suddenly, Nuobai tugged at Su Mo.
She took out her phone, setting the screen to its dimmest, and typed a line for Su Mo to see:
[There's a beast]
Su Mo listened carefully...
In the darkness, the steady and heavy breathing of some creature echoed constantly.
With night vision, Nuobai could see clearly; at the end of the corridor ahead was a closed metal isolation door riddled with scratches.
A massive beast lay asleep in front of the door, humanoid in shape but with a pair of fleshy wings on its back, its claws large and menacing, with nails as sharp as swords, likely to have caused the marks on the metal door.
This was the "Bat-winged Demon," a beast that sleeps by day and hunts by night.
The Bat-winged Demon has thick muscles, extremely tough skin, and its wings allow brief flights, rendering it highly agile, and alongside its claws capable of tearing through steel plates, armed squads of fewer than ten would avoid it.
At this moment, the Bat-winged Demon's breathing became rapid.
"Hiss-ho... hiss-ho..."
It's unclear if it was the sound of their footsteps that stimulated its keen hearing, or if it caught a whiff of human scent, but its eyelids twitched ceaselessly, seeming about to wake up.