Chapter 618: Thriving
Chapter 618: Thriving
In the dark and deep chaos, it gradually woke up from its deep sleep.
Surrounded by invisible walls and black areas, the surging shadows covered its eyes. It
also blocked its hearing.
It opened its non-existent mouth and cried like a baby.
At this time, a gentle force slowly came along the invisible umbilical cord, making it feel that every cell in its body was stretching happily while floating in the chaos.
’My child… you finally woke up…’
The trembling call carried a hint of loneliness and a hint of desire.
It did not understand that feeling.
But that voice made it feel very comfortable.
’Who are you?’
’I am your mother.’
’Mother?’
’It is the thing that breeds everything. I gave you soul and flesh.’
’…I am?’
’Xia, this is your name, and it is also the third gift I gave you. ‘
Xia…
It silently recited its own name, staring at the pulsating wall and the black domain, the throbbing of its soul gradually took on a hint of piety, listening to the voice that slowly came along the umbilical cord.
’You will wake up on the day when the ice ends, and you will understand your destiny on the day you wake up. ‘
’To conquer. ‘
’To devour. ‘
’To liberate. ‘
’To become the new master. ‘
The vision obscured by darkness gradually became clear, and the dark wall was replaced by the pulsating scarlet flesh membrane.
The bloodthirsty color was reflected in the amber eyes that had just opened.
The voice continued to enter its ears.
’…We will eventually enter eternal prosperity. ‘
Without a moment of hesitation.
It opened its mouth connected by silk threads, and the hot attack was accompanied by a slight roar.
”Yes…”
…
At the gate of the Stone City, noisy hawking sounds were heard. In addition to the merchants traveling from north to south, there were also many small players in Shelter 404.
”Exploding mushrooms! One silver coin each, edible and explosive, with the power comparable to grenades, wholesale from Boss Crow, pre-order now!”
”Mutated iron wire worms soaked in wine! Fresh wine, fresh iron wire worms, don’t miss it if you pass by!”
”What is it?”
”Iron wire worms? Ni Ma earthworms?!”
”Boss, try it yourself!”
”Hey, the requirement is LV20 physical system, the boss is an intelligence system, and the physical system is not enough.”
”Boss, give me a pound, I’ll buff my brother.”
”Okay!”
The heavy snow has stopped, the tide is coming, and the market at the gate will be closed in a while.
Many stall owners and shop owners are rushing to do the last business before the spring.
In addition to selling food and daily necessities, there are also many arms dealers selling weapons and equipment.
For example, Goblin Technology.
It is undoubtedly the most eye-catching sign in this crowd.
Standing next to a three-meter-high armor, Mosquito, holding a loudspeaker, was shouting hard.
”The latest type 2 non-powered armor from Goblin Technology! LV10 strength system required! LV15 physical system is also OK! It can carry and fight, and it can explode when rushing into a crowd of people!”
As soon as the players heard the unique duck voice, they immediately surrounded him with interest.
”What the hell? Mosquito? Why did you come out to set up a stall in person?” Debt Big Eyes curiously fiddled with the armor, and found that he couldn’t even move one arm, so he gave up helplessly.
Mosquito sighed and said with a sad face.
”Well… I lost money on the last mission. I’m a bit poor recently. I’m selling a second-hand one to make up for the loss.”
It was mainly because Lao Na and Lao Wang were not good enough.
The two walked around the plains for a few times, but they didn’t find his mechanical arm.
He planned to customize another set in a few days.
But this time he had to be more careful and make a detachable one.
The construction site boy and Brick took a closer look and asked curiously.
”If you don’t understand, just ask. Is your equipment useless?”
Mosquito said with a smile, not minding the dog’s teasing at all.
”It’s okay, it’s okay, not too useless, just average.”
Debt Big Eyes: “Damn!”
Luo Yu, who was walking towards the north through the bustling market, suddenly stopped halfway and pressed his right hand on his chest unconsciously.
The flesh and blood that had been gnawed by the group of bat people before had been replaced by a fast-growing biological prosthesis and became a part of his body in the form of Xiao Yu’s fruiting body.
It was getting hot there at the moment.
It was like it was on fire!
Just as Luo Yu was confused about what was happening, a soft murmur came from the communication channel.
”Eh.”
(It woke up.)
He could understand Xiao Yu’s murmur, and it was even easier to understand than it speaking human language.
Subconsciously looking around, Luo Yu asked puzzledly.
”Awake? Who woke up?”
”Eh…”
(Xia…)
(That’s its name.)
Luo Yu was stunned.
This was the first time he didn’t understand what Xiao Yu said.
Xia?
It?
Just when he was confused, a familiar shout came from the side.
”I’m Chao, Luoyu! You’re finally back!”
Luoyu looked sideways, and saw Brother Mosquito standing in front of a stall, waving at him excitedly. Subconsciously
raising his hand, Luoyu was about to say hello to him, but his eyes suddenly fell on the three-meter-high torture device next to him.
Luoyu’s eyes were instantly alert, and he retracted his half-raised hand.
”What for?”
”Don’t be so cold, brother.” Not caring about the alert look, Mosquito smiled and left the stall and pulled his arm, “Seriously, come and help me try out the new equipment and open the eyes of these ignorant little butts.”
Luo Yu pulled his hand back as if he had been electrocuted, and instantly stepped back more than ten steps.
”I’m not familiar with it, thank you.”
Looking at Luo Yu who disappeared in the crowd at the speed of light, Mosquito, who stretched out his hand, was stunned for a long time before he came back to his senses.
Seeing that the dead pilots did not dare to try, the newbies who were watching suddenly dispersed.
Hearing the laughter behind him, Mosquito shouted in the direction where Luo Yu disappeared, laughing and crying.
”I’m so cruel! You are so ruthless!”
The voice blended into the bustle and noise in the distance.
At this moment, most of the survivors living on the ground did not notice that the gray-green fog that was rooted in the city center like a towering tree was spreading silently around…
…
Chu Guang still remembered that when he took the Iron Heart to the expedition to Jinchuan Province, the snow on the ground was so thick that it could bury people’s calves.
Now when he came back, there was only a thin layer of snow on the ground.
During his absence, many things happened in various settlements of the alliance.
The biggest change was still in Dawn City.
As the capital of the alliance and the first ray of hope rising from this wasteland, Dawn City has always been the focus of the alliance’s development.
Especially before the New Year, Chu Guang waved his hand and spent a full 900 million silver coins on the infrastructure field at the economic work conference.
Stimulated by this huge budget, the changes brought to this settlement were almost immediate.
Not only did the streets become wider and cleaner, commuting became more convenient, but people’s lives also became visibly more affluent.
In addition to those who have already lived a good life, residents who have just joined the alliance and refugees who are still “supervised” have not been left behind.
One thousand prefabricated apartment buildings in the eastern suburbs have also completed all construction periods, and more than 40,000 households that meet the resettlement conditions have successfully moved in.
So far, the registered permanent population of Dawn City has jumped from 50,000 earlier to 100,000! What is
even more gratifying is the newborn population registration data provided by the Ministry of Health-following the end of the war in Luoxia Province, a baby boom is brewing.
Although this has brought considerable challenges to the alliance’s current limited medical and educational resources, the positive side is that it has greatly improved the current population structure.
The survivors of the Alliance are moving towards a new life. Although the disaster on this land is far from over, everyone is full of confidence.
Because their manager has indeed fulfilled the impassioned promise he made to the residents of the Alliance at the triumphal ceremony –
to make good qualities stand out in the society of the Alliance.
Hardworking people will never become fools. As long as they actively study, work and live, and contribute their own strength to society, they will definitely deserve a better life.
The same is true for Dawn City.
The changes here are second only to Dawn City.
The train station, which originally had only a wooden sign, has now become a station hall built of concrete.
There is a six-lane highway from the industrial zone to the logistics center. The workers who once lived in iron houses to repair drainage facilities have now moved into buildings with elevators. The small workshops that used to be noisy have also become large factories covering dozens or even hundreds of acres.
Objectively speaking, although the development and living standards of residents here are not as good as those of Dawn City, the “electrification level” and “urbanization rate” are higher than those of Dawn City and Boulder City combined.
After all, the only city-level fusion reactor in the alliance is located here, and the electricity resources here are not even worth the transportation cost.
Since there are more hills than plains, most local residents live in buildings with a high floor area ratio, so elevators are almost standard.
The three- or four-story single-family houses in Dawn City, which only house one or two families, are not seen in Dawn City.
Because there are a lot of ready-made foundations to use, the Dawn City authorities simply built new houses on the abandoned buildings in Xizhou City.
Although most of the houses built in the Prosperous Era are no longer usable, the foundations are unexpectedly intact and the quality is amazing! It is not a big problem to build a building with a service life of 50 years directly on the original foundation! It
is even possible that the newly built building will still be good when it reaches the scrap age.
Considering that the generation gap between the current infrastructure level of the alliance and the Prosperous Era is at least more than a century, this kind of thing is entirely possible.
In addition, Xizhou City is a livable city with low population density in the prosperous era. The buildings are generally not high, and the demolition is not as difficult as that in Qingquan City. Concrete waste can also be recycled through the technology provided by Ideal Group. The cost of building a 20-story building in Liming City will be much lower than in other places.
At present, the registered permanent population of Liming City has increased from 80,000 to 110,000, and this is almost the entire population of this settlement.
After all, this is an industrial center of the alliance. The business is not as prosperous as the Dawn City in the south. Most people come here to find a job.
As long as you work, you need to pay taxes, and you need to register to pay taxes. Therefore, the number of “illegal households” here is theoretically the least in the entire alliance.
In addition to housing and industries that are directly related to people’s livelihood, another major infrastructure project in Liming City is the dam on the northeast shore of Xizhou Lake!
As one of the environmental renovation projects in the era of the Human Alliance, Xizhou Lake can be regarded as the largest artificial lake in the central region of the Valley Province.
This lake played an important role in the desertification control project in the central region of Zhongzhou. However, after entering the Wasteland Era, this abandoned lake developed into a serious flood due to a series of reasons such as the end of the ice age, increased rainfall, and changes in the lakebed structure.
If this “artificial reservoir” can be repaired, a large area of black soil from the northwest side of Xizhou City to the Tianshui tributary will be able to be released.
This project is expected to add at least hundreds of thousands of acres of arable land to the alliance!
And unlike the arable land in Luoxia Province that relies on the “river embankment” system to maintain, the existence of this black land does not need to rely on any unknown technology.
Although the alliance’s food is mainly imported from vassal states and agriculture is not the focus of Dawn City’s development, no one will complain that their arable land resources are too much. Even
if the NPCs are not interested in planting, it is also great to throw it to “Makabazi” and “Bored Tiger Fighting” and other professional players who are keen on farming to develop.
Hundreds of thousands of acres of arable land, brand-new production methods and relations, and the troubles that may be encountered in the process of land reclamation… If this were replaced by the potato giant “Mian 1800”, it would be enough to be released as an expansion pack!
In reality, contracting a manor of hundreds of acres will face various problems, but in the wasteland, it is enough to occasionally deal with the wandering aliens and wastelanders.
In short, although they have experienced many things including war, the workers of Dawn City finally lived up to expectations and overcame all difficulties.
According to the drawings and construction plans provided by environmental engineer Butan, with the joint efforts of experts and construction workers in Camp 101, the Xizhou Lake Dam was finally completed!
Not only the black land in the north of Xizhou City, but also the Sixin District, which was originally soaked in the lake, has resurfaced.
In the future, you will no longer need to take a boat to cross this area!
And more than that.
As the lake recedes, this city that has been sealed by the lake for nearly a century and a half has unlocked many new areas that players have not explored before.
For example, Shelter No. 100, located near the subway section of the Sixin District!
According to the information provided by Camp No. 101, the shelter is planned to shelter 30,000 people and was originally scheduled to be unblocked in the 60th year of the Wasteland Era.
Unfortunately, in the 52nd year of the Wasteland Era, the spreading lake water submerged the entire Sixin District and completely sealed the door of Shelter No. 100.
According to public information, the task of Shelter No. 100 is the reconstruction of Xizhou City.
Even the backup controlled fusion reactor located underground in Xizhou City, which is the one the Alliance is using, was originally prepared for Shelter No. 100.
From this, it can be inferred that there should be a certain amount of helium-3 resource reserves in Shelter No. 100, and there are probably a considerable proportion of nuclear engineers among the residents.
Dr. Method, who lives in seclusion in Shelter No. 101, judged that the survival probability of the residents of the shelter is only 3.1%, the probability of continuing to perform the mission is less than 1%, and the success rate is close to 0. Therefore, the coordinates of the controlled fusion reactor were provided to the wastelanders in Camp No. 101.
However, as to what the shelter plan of Shelter No. 100 is, I am afraid that only the manager of the shelter will know.
Maybe just like Shelter No. 79 in Ruigu City, Shelter No. 100, which claims to be responsible for the reconstruction of Xizhou City, may actually be carrying out other shelter projects?
Yin Fang is very interested in this shelter. After all, his profession is to dig graves, and his interest in coffee machines, research on various electronic devices and even medical skills are just incidental.
Chu Guang is the same.
However, compared with Yin Fang’s curiosity about the reason why this shelter “sunk”, he is more curious about what treasures he can pick up from it.
At present, the construction workers of the alliance are trying to install a drainage system to pump out the lake water that has been poured into the underground passage and discharge it to the Tianshui tributary in the north.
The construction faces considerable challenges due to the large number of aquatic arthropods such as cracked crabs and warship shrimps that nest in this area.
At present, the excavation of Shelter No. 100 ranks second in the work log of Dawn City, second only to a series of industrial zone expansion plans.
I believe that when this shelter sees the light of day again, all the treasures and secrets buried inside will also see the light of day.
Chu Guang has high hopes for this.
It would be even better if a few old popsicles could be dug out.
Experts in various industries who master pre-war technology are far more important to the alliance at this stage than one or two black boxes…
Compared with the ever-changing Dawn City and Dawn City, the Fallen Leaf City located in the western border of the alliance has a lower sense of presence, but its development potential should not be underestimated.
As a trade hub between Luoxia Province and the southern part of River Valley Province, the most important infrastructure there is the railway station and logistics warehouse.
Looking down from the air through the hummingbird drone, more than half of the buildings and factories in the entire city are related to it.
Although some wastelanders migrating from the west can often be seen here, most people will not stay here for a long time, and often use this place as a springboard to settle in Dawn City or Dawn City.
Pioneer City does not have any particularly beautiful results. The only thing that can be shown for the time being is the population growth rate.
After all, after a period of time, players active in the Great Desert can catch a group of slave-hunting teams that sell slaves from the Borneo Province to the Great Desert, or find a mutant tribe hidden in the ruins, and then the population of Pioneer City will grow.
This has brought a lot of pressure to the small-scale Pioneer City, not only because of the population growth rate that doubles at any time, but also because it has the most extreme gender ratio in the entire alliance. Just
like there are far fewer roosters than hens in a chicken farm, most mutant tribes like the Blackrock Tribe usually only keep a few male survivors with the most meat in the pasture for breeding, and the rest will basically be thrown into the pot and stewed after a few days.
Most of the slave traders who trade with the mutant tribes will not sell “worthless” male slaves here.
According to the report of City Lord Theresa, most of the survivors rescued by the Thorn Corps and the players are from the Borneo Peninsula south of the Great Desert.
There seems to be a serious human disaster there.
But it is too far away. The nearest way to get there from the Alliance is to take a boat to Silver Moon Bay in the Hump Kingdom and then continue south.
Or start from Pioneer City and cross the “Eastern Industrial Zone” and “Southern Industrial Zone” in the Human Union era.
Therefore, although sympathizing with the suffering of the people there, City Lord Theresa did not make unrealistic requests in the report.
All they can do at this moment is to fight against the mutant tribes and slave traders near Pioneer City, and excavate the ruins buried by the desert to strengthen their own strength…
At present, the population of Pioneer City has reached nearly 3,000, which has increased several times compared to the initial 300 survivors.
Even if the local conditions are still difficult.
But in any case, their lives are much better than before.
Freight airships that regularly come from the east and caravans that come from Bicester Town from time to time also bring some new hope to this settlement that has grown in misery.
From Dawn City to Pioneer City, the four biological children of the Alliance have gradually learned to run from their initial toddling steps.
And the Boulder City, which once belonged to the War Construction Committee and is now under the jurisdiction of the Alliance, has also climbed up from its previous fall.
However, compared with other settlements in the Alliance that are expanding with each passing day, the changes that have occurred here are not amazing.
This settlement is still as big, crowded and noisy.
The changes that have taken place are more in places that are almost invisible to outsiders and can only be felt by the people themselves.
For example, the leaky house is no longer leaky, and no one cares about things that are finally taken care of by someone, the goods on the shelves are richer, there are more people shopping, and the public security is better, etc.
The local survivors have finally made their lives what they should be through bloody struggles, allowing the canned food producers to eat the canned food they produce, and that’s all.
However, this sentence “that’s all” is rare and precious to most of the settlements in the wasteland.
Although Chu Guang has been on the front line during this period, he is not unfamiliar with what is happening in various parts of the alliance.
Most of the administrative work of the alliance is carried out on electronic terminals.
From the management of logistics to the planning of settlement buildings, digital management covers almost every aspect of the lives of the survivors of the alliance.
Although it is not as advanced as the prosperous era, where even a single faucet is integrated into the global Internet of Things, it is undoubtedly advanced in the wasteland.
Therefore, even if Chu Guang often leaves the political center of the alliance, his grasp of the situation in various regions of the alliance will not be affected.
As long as he can contact the server of the shelter.
Of course, since the focus of work has been on the front line in the past period of time, even with the help of the convenient tool “Digital Municipal Administration”, Chu Guang has accumulated a lot of work that has not been completed in time during this period.
Both “dog planning” work and “manager” work are available.
However, even if the backlog of work is piled up like a mountain.
Before returning to his “workstation” in the browsing room on the B4 floor of the shelter, Chu Guang still went to Xizhou City in the northern border of the alliance.
There is the largest research institute and higher education institution in the alliance at present – even larger than the Biological Research Institute of Shelter No. 79.
He promised Xia Yan that he would visit her when he returned.
More than that.
Also because Pai told him in a recent holographic call that Dr. Method, the manager of Shelter 101, wanted to talk to him about something.
Chu Guang also wanted to talk to him about the “Sanctuary” and the “Torch”, so he readily agreed…
(End of this chapter)
