The green desert

The sun's rays pierced through the gloomy clouds as the birds chirped in excitement. The wind caressed the trees as they swayed left, right.

The sudden rustle of leaves and thumps of footsteps ruined the melancholic artistry the serenity created. Two figures rapidly dashed between the trees as the sun kept rising.

A second glance at the surroundings would cause one to convulse in shock. The soil on which the trees were swaying gracefully, was a desert. Trees? growing in a desert? Absurd! yet, it was exactly what it was; trees growing on a desert.

"The green desert is one of Terra's mysteries, Pain, every sunrise, the desert sand heats up to extremely high temperature levels, decimating all, but the trees."

The man who just spoke was tall and looked to be in his mid-thirties, with looks that automatically made you think of a sharp sword; the elderly man stood erect with thin lips, light skin and a gaze as piercing as the cold winter winds.

"Even this trivial thing can be a mystery? Listen old fogey, it's quite simple to deduce. The trees evolved. I suspect, due to their will to survive, the trees at some point started producing more chloroplasts and meristems, of at least thrice their original sizes and number. Hence, the trees are able to convert at least four times as much light energy, for speedy growth and repair. They may look normal in size, but I can conclude with certainty, their roots are not even in this vicinity. Applying the principles of energy discharge, the high levels of heat is still insufficient to overcome the plants' rapid recovery speed." Pain uttered confidently.

Dr. Bell sighed emotionally. Just like that, another mystery was solved by this kid. The closest he was to an answer, was the plants had developed new cells that allowed them to process heat energy. But, that was highly unlikely. For such a significant level of evolution to occur, it required millions, or even billions of years, of the plants tempering themselves in the heat.

"Quickly! we need to cross this place before the sun rises, or else we're literally toast or roast, whichever way you prefer." Bell said.

"Old man, according to my calculations, we have roughly 15.23 minutes to cross before the sun rises. Judging by our current speed, we should be able to make it within 8.3 minutes, what are you in a rush for?"

"..."

"Fine! I'm itching to see Vir. Its been so long, you wouldn't understand."

It had been an extremely long time since the old scientist had come into contact with others. A sense of urgency was evident in his the large strides he took. He yearned for a proper bed, a proper meal, good wine and music. Life in the wilderness was extremely tiring, but he had endured.

It had only been a few days when Bell successfully transfigured his face. It didn't take too long for him to realize, the high level of stress that was compounded on the facial tissues, after the device's activation, rendered a second transfiguration impossible for any person. It could only be used once, any more uses might rupture the facial tissues.

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Now, the Alteration module unit had given him another chance to enjoy these luxuries. With over a hundred million Zens in savings, recorded in his quantum device, he and pain would live a life of extreme luxury, should they wish. It had to be known that even some of the affluent families, only reported slighty over a million Zens in expenditure, yearly. The scientist was extremely eager to bring Pain to have fun, all over the continent. He would certainly make sure this little brat was overwhelmed by luxury.

He had taken a day and half to completely recover, even with his abnormal recovery speed. While he recovered, he directed Pain to pack the important equipments and necessities. A few clothes, soome food and a lot of water. The backpacks hanging on their shoulders weighed quite a lot.

The two rushed through the sand dunes, while Dr. Dante took his time to go over the basic information concerning Vir; Pain listened intently. With his high brain processing power, he only needed to hear or see something once in order to memorize it. Although they were far away from civilization, he could still borrow Bell's quantum device to search for relevant information. He'd long since memorized every single detail concerning the Last continent belonging to mankind.

Vir, was extremely large, spanning over 1 billion kilometers squared, it accounted for about forty percent of Terra's land mass. Due to the human population greatly decreasing, with roughly ten billion people spread across Vir, there was still a lot of ground to cover.

No single leader existed, rather, a unified ruling body was instituted. The Unified Organization for Preservation leadership consisted of the three kings namely: King Ken Carson, King Howard Shepard and King Alexander Davenport. The kings served as the heads of state for the Finix, Vectar and Troan kingdoms respectively.

The city closest to the sprinting duo, was the Finix Kingdom. Its total number of citizens alone reached hundreds of millions.

The duo, after expending much effort, finally managed to sprint across the desert, before the sun rose completely. Fortunately the desert was not a very large one, otherwise, they would not have been able to go across in such a short amount of time.

"Whew, we made it across. Alright, listen up, we'll do exactly as I outlined a few days ago. In front of others or in public, I shall identify as Edmund Brennan. You, shall also identify as my son Perry Brennan. Additionally, I look to be in my mid thirties, if you insist on calling me 'old man' we will attract unwanted attention and suspicious gazes."

Pain nodded in response. He observed their surroundings silently as 'Edmund' checked their current coordinates. They had traveled for days on foot, the time it would take to construct a transport vehicle was too much for Bell, he just couldn't bear to wait. Even the necessary materials, to construct an extremely basic transport vehicle, were not present. Therefore, Bell and Pain could only drag themselves to Sandan city on foot.

As one of Finix Kingdom's prosperous cities, security was extremely tight, without identity cards, they could not have access to many things. They could only use living in the wilderness as an excuse to obtain identity cards.

Each identity card was produced by the Ministry of Security and Defence.

Designed with dawn steel, it could not be duplicated or forged. Two swords wrapped by a dragon, symbolizing the continent's coat of arms, were engraved on the cards.

The symbols contained the thumbprints of its owners. Identity cards were used to prove its owner's identity and access various perks, granted by the UOP.

"Ok, we're a few hours away. A thirty minute walk to the east and we'll be able to see Sandan City."

The two rushed out again as they sped through the vast plains. Pain couldn't help but ponder on the irony of life. On one side, was a desert with growing trees, directly on the other side was a large expanse of weeds without a single tree. The number of weeds growing on the land, gave no way for larger plants to develop, as they consumed the soil nutrients swiftly. There was always a lot to learn from nature.

The two speeding figures increasingly got farther away. Soon, only two small dots were visible as they slowly disappeared into the distance.