Mosaic City, located along China's coast, is quite large city sometimes called the Crossroads Between Nations due to its diverse population. While it was once a large tourist spot, the city was placed under a blockade as the military appeared claiming there was a radiation leak. The true hazard, however, is much more sinister.
It took a few more days after Pyxis's last foray into the outer circle before she was ready to go out again. It wasn't due to any personal issues. She was feeling better than every, actually. But tending to and just plain spending time with Alisa ended up taking up most of her time. But now that Alisa was up and about again, Pyxis could freely go out and explore the shadowlands as well. She'd deal with fighting as it came, but first, she went on another salvage run. And despite not going anywhere new (there wasn't much of anywhere new to go anyway), she still managed a decent haul.
Pyxis was bored. Completely and utterly bored. Seriously, it was almost like there was nothing left to do in the shadowlands. Fighting shadows was easier than ever, and nothing big had shown up since the slime demon. Not that she expected anything of that caliber outside of the full moon, but she had to wonder if a stratum guardian or something that attracted even the blonde lady's attention was too much to ask for. Maybe she just needed more games in the meantime. So, instead of worrying about fighting things, Pyxis just dedicated another day to a salvage run. She didn't get the best haul out of it, but it was good enough for her purposes.
The best that could be said for the current state of affairs was that another full moon was coming soon. Pyxis wouldn't exactly say she was prepared, but she was as prepared as she was going to get. Getting into more fights at the moment was a bit like grinding when everything was ten or twenty levels below the character. It only went so far. So instead, she just went on more salvage runs. This time she'd brought back parts stripped off of a car that would probably never drive again. Possibly because someone else had already made off with several engine parts. Pyxis had just taken what was left.
To the surprise of most likely no one, there hadn't been a lot of salvageable material at the bottom of the massive pit. Actually, it looked more like someone had melted most of everything down there into slag. All that was left was shadow remains and the what was left of discarded weapons. Pyxis had at least, found a few interesting things coming back, so the trip was not a complete waste. Even so, it was a far cry from what she'd managed to bring in on her better weeks. She had to take the scenic route just to be sure she filled up her bag.
And again, there was only so much Pyxis could bring back from her shadow-wasting trips. The pit had nothing of value, save for what was left behind by the shadows themselves or other Users. The latter seemed to be becoming fewer and farther between lately though, so it was only shadow remains that were worth selling. Taking the scenic route back to find more salvageable goods was still effective, but 'the scenic route' was becoming longer and going more out of the way each time. Sooner or later she'd be doing a whole loop around the ruins just to find enough to fill up a bag.