Reboot: Mechanic

The moment when Shi Tian asked if Mary was interested in him, she was completely taken aback.

In an instant, she had to step on the brake, stopping the vehicle abruptly, and glanced at him in shock. 

"What?" She held a disbelieving expression and turned toward him in shock. 

It was clear that she was not expecting such a response from him and that she was completely surprised by the unexpected remark. 

Shi Tian smiled briefly, stuck his tongue out, and leaned back in his seat. "I was just teasing you, Mary. You didn't have to be that shocked." 

Mary facepalmed and sighed exhaustively. 

"Aish, you little-" 

Before she could even continue her sentence, the vehicles behind them started honking repeatedly, clearly irritated and displeased by her sudden braking.

After all, such an action would be mistaken as brake checking and trying to scam the other party of insurance money by causing them to collide their vehicle with hers.

Of course, things such as insurance were completely nonexistent in this era. 

Who the hell would care if you lost your life or damaged your equipment? 

In a world that is ravaged by monsters, damages are easily done to anything, and any insurance company would have been bankrupt by now if they had to constantly pay money to their clients. 

Hence, only a fool would start an insurance company and become a charity organization. 

Starting the vehicle again, Mary glared at Shi Tian and warned, "Don't ever joke like that again. We nearly crashed because of your sudden out-of-context tease." 

Shi Tian smiled innocently and nodded his head.

Though he made sure to leave one last comment regarding his conduct. 

"Well, anyone would have mistaken your behavior as being interested in me. Otherwise, why would you ask so many personal questions?" He defended. 

"Pretend I didn't ask then." Mary was speechless and focused on driving. 

Her attempt at probing had utterly backfired and nearly caused a huge misunderstanding on her end as well. 

With Mary being silent and having no intention of probing any further, Shi Tian inwardly breathed a sigh of relief, being able to escape her probing rather swiftly. 

He didn't dare to answer any of her questions half-heartedly because it would only make the matter worse and terrible for him in the future. 

Instead of speaking a lie, it was best to shift the topic and not have to answer. 

Once a lie was spoken, he would then need to say another lie to cover up the first lie. 

Rinse and repeat. 

There would be no end to such an action. 

Mary was also an intelligent person to understand the meaning behind his previous teasing, which was why she decided to refrain from asking. And with that said, the journey between them was an awkward silence moment until they reached the exit. 

Mary's vehicle was stopped by an inspection guard as they were about to leave Gearits City. 

It was the same for the other vehicles that were ahead of them given that it was a protocol and necessary procedure to understand why they were leaving.

They are now at a special terminal stopping point which wasn't as heavily scrutinized as the other terminal point by the military. 

The inspection guard walked toward Mary's vehicle while holding a firearm and asked, "Name and reason for leaving". 

Asking for the name was a given to check the people in the database to confirm they are the person they claimed to be, and as for the reason for leaving, it was just an extra question without needing to be answered. 

After all, people could have multiple reasons for leaving Gearits City and heading outside to the dangerous wilderness. 

Of course, it was only these two basic questions simply because it was a special terminal stopping point that identification card holders could access. At other terminal stopping points, the guard would be more strict and harsh.

"The name's Michelle and here's my identification card," Mary opened the car window and gave out the identification card.

The inspection guard grabbed it and used a device to scan the card. A few seconds later, the device made a beeping sound and flashed a green light, indicating that everything was correct.

"And you?" The inspection guard returned the identification card to Mary and then glanced at Shi Tian. 

Shi Tian remained calm and retrieved the identification card that Mary had given him earlier. 

"The name's Gavin." He said, giving him the identification card. 

A few seconds later, the inspection guard confirmed that both identities are correct and walked around the vehicle for a moment, seemingly inspecting for anything amiss.

"Okay, the two of you are clear. However, I must remind you to not go too close to the District C and District D zone temporarily. The miasmas that were cleared from the New Region had scattered there, so it's listed as hazardous and unsafe to explore at the moment." The inspection guard moved aside and gave a friendly warning.

Mary nodded her head and smiled at the inspection guard. 

"Thanks for your hard work," She said, stepping on the pedal and exiting Gearits City. 

As they officially exited Gearits City, Mary pointed at the storage compartment next to Shi Tian. 

"Nathan, there's a gas mask in there, so make sure to put it on. The air pollution is going to be hazardous for us to breathe soon once we drive near District A." She instructed. 

Shi Tian nodded his head, opened the storage compartment, and found three gas masks stored in it. 

And for some reason, seeing the gas mask made him recall the final moment of Yolanda and how her gas mask was broken.

'Would she have survived if she had a backup gas mask on her?' Shi Tian wondered silently. Though he shook his head since it was quite impossible regardless if she had a gas mask on or not.

The Tenceloras were beyond her capacity for fighting, and the fact that her injuries were closely similar to the injuries Vanessa received, he was starting to doubt that something had occurred during the time of his retreat. 

'Sigh, let's not think about it for now.' Shi Tian thought, wrapping the gas mask around his neck. Although he was never once affected by the pollution in the atmosphere, it was better to be safe than sorry.