Leon blinked many times to get used to the sight of glaring metal beneath the sunlight. It was everywhere and of every type. Iron doors. Silver window panes. Bronze buildings were kept together by cast iron studs and struts.

  Free-floating around the streets were colorful digital images. They moved through the mill of people to try and bring their attention to products being advertised, or ran up and down the walls with intricate patterns. He suspected they would rearrange into another image or scenery when viewing through a device.

  Most of the bricks and mortar were nestled in between giant boulder crops, dusty lanes, roads, and back alleys. One thing that puzzled him was the sign of rust stains on some of the walls.

  "Has it rained here?" He voiced his puzzlement aloud.

  "Rising damp from the underground caches," Wolf naturally answered to put the man out of his misery. It was the first words Leon had said after they left the infirmary and entered the outskirts of Scarf City's urban streets. So, words worthy of an answer.

  Leon nodded and returned to his silent observations.

  They stopped at the start of the first main street, which was crowded with people and life.

  "Stick these on and don't take them off." Lucy shoved a pair of dark-tinted visor glasses before Leon.

  "Thank you." He sighed with relief when he donned the glasses that made the glare bearable.

  "Stay close to us. Needless to say, don't remove your hat or coat: you look local. If someone asks you a question, you let me do the talking." She added.

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  Indeed, when Leon glanced around, most people were wearing similar fedora hats, neck scarfs, jeans or shorts, boots, and weathered overcoats. Guns were holstered at hips. Gloves covered hands. He noticed some of the people, similarly dressed to Lucy and Wolf, had carried swords, guns, or various range weapons on their backs. Everyone was wearing dark tinted or full chrome visor glasses.

  She faced him, wearing her own dark-tinted visor glasses. "Also, you try to run or cause any problems, you get this."

  She clicked her fingers three times, which sent a nasty jolt of a static shock to his wrists. It was so nasty, that the shock traveled up to his nape and nearly shorted his semantic storage chip.

  "Understood, clearly." Leon huffed when the pain stopped.

  "Glad we can be friends." Lucy heartily patted his back.

  "I'm activating yah visor CPU. Yah be able to navigate the area from yah display screen." Wolf's voice entered Leon's ears via the visor.

  Leon nodded and felt grateful for the aid.

  The visor view was a much more appealing viewpoint of the streets compared to what was reality. The floor was pristine cobblestone. Buildings of white, clean marble were nestled between sweet-smelling blossom trees and evergreen elms. The colors of the world were crisp and inviting. People appeared interesting and attractive.

  If he hadn't known better, he would believe what he was seeing to be authentic; even smelling, as the visor also utilized pressure points and sensory triggers to make the scenery smell and feel real.

  "Far cry from reality." He mumbled to himself.

  Wolf chuckled. "What isn't, lad. That's virtual reality for yah."

  Leon nodded and connected to the FTP link of the CPU system, for an offline copy of the visor navigation file. He hoped he wouldn't be running out of storage anytime soon, but he was originally purposed for sieges, so he had been fitted with a thousand terabyte capacity. Fortunately, the file size was small, so he still had plenty.

  He followed Wolf and Lucy's lead into the rowdiness of the bustling crowds.