Chapter 789: The Torch at the End of the Road

  Chapter 789 The Torch at the End of the Road

  The battle is over.

  And it ended with a complete victory for the Alliance.

  In the square of Fortress Town, [Name is Hard to Take], who was standing next to the armored vehicle, turned off the visual battlefield guidance system of the tactical goggles, took off his helmet and looked around, and suddenly couldn’t help but sigh.

  ”… Unbelievable.”

  [Destruction], who was standing next to him holding a rifle, looked at him curiously.

  ”What’s unbelievable?”

  ”There were actually more than 20,000 people living here.” [Name is Hard to Take]’s eyes fell on the amusement equipment at the edge of the square, where there were rusty horizontal bars and slides. It can be seen that the people here also had a good time.

  Although life in the wasteland is hard, it is not all hard struggle.

  [Nobita is too poor], who had been silent, curled his lips and said.

  ”Well, there are still millions of people in that small place where I came from.”

  Name is Hard to Take: “Tsk, is there any comparability between reality and wasteland?”

  Destruction laughed and teased.

  ”Haha, should you say that games and reality are a little comparable?”

  Suddenly thinking of something, Name is Hard to Take spoke again.

  ”Come to think of it, according to the realism of this game so far… these 20,000 people should have appeared before, right?”

  Jiemie: “Maybe, what’s the matter?”

  ”Nothing,” Name is hard to take, silent for a while, “I’m just wondering… where did those people go.”

  …

  Fang Chang thought that there would be a tough battle after entering the shelter, but he didn’t expect that he had just arrived at the door, and the other side surrendered directly.

  ”I surrender!”

  Looking at the power armor at the door and the exoskeletons standing behind the power armor, Alzu raised his hands without any hesitation.

  There is no doubt that it was the gang in the monitoring room who opened the door.

  But it doesn’t matter whether the door is opened or not. No one knows how to pry open the door of the shelter better than the Alliance. After all, many of those guys are blue moles.

  Ten thousand thoughts flashed through his mind in an instant, but he finally raised his hands.

  Being captured is not a bad thing.

  Anyway, he has a lot of chips left outside, so there is no need to sacrifice his body for meaningless resistance.

  As soon as Fang Chang saw the gray robe on this guy, he knew that this guy must be of high status and that there must be a chip in his head, so he took out a medical gun and pointed it at him without saying anything.

  This thing has a range of only 20 meters. It can fire hemostatic capsule bullets containing nanorobots, and can also fire anesthetic bullets with anesthetic alkaloids. The official website sells it for 10,000 silver coins. It is one of the flashy imported equipment imported from Ideal City in the early days of the Alliance.

  Since players who can afford this thing usually wear armor, and players who don’t wear armor generally don’t need treatment, the application scenarios of this thing are quite limited. It is only used in small quantities when doing specimen recovery tasks in the Biological Research Institute.

  Not knowing that this thing is a medical gun, Alzu’s face was surprised, and he took a step back and subconsciously raised his right hand.

  ”Wait… I have surrendered–”

  Before he finished speaking, a gunshot rang out, and a stream of heat pierced his arm.

  Before he could come to his senses, a sense of sleepiness crept into his brain, pulling his consciousness into a bottomless quagmire.

  ”You should get some sleep first.”

  After looking at the “suspected VIP target” lying unconscious on the ground, Fang Chang continued to look at the staff member who was sitting on the ground and wet his pants, and said in a joking tone.

  ”If you don’t want to be like him, you’d better cooperate with our work.”

  The staff member nodded nervously.

  ”I, I will definitely cooperate.”

  ”Very good,” Fang Chang nodded and continued in a relaxed tone, very satisfied with the expression on his face, “Introduce yourself, the person next to you, and this underground facility.”

  The man nodded again tremblingly and stammered.

  ”Tomile, my name… this, this person is Alzu, an apostle of the church, but his status is higher than that of ordinary apostles.”

  Fang Chang raised his hand to stop him from speaking.

  ”Can you stand up and talk? I want to listen while walking, instead of waiting at the door.”

  Without bothering to cover up the water stains on the ground and his pants, the staff member hurriedly got up from the ground.

  ”Okay, okay… I can show you around here, please don’t kill me.”

  ”Do you think we are the same as you? Of course, whether you can survive in the end depends on the judge’s judgment and your performance after surrendering.”

  After throwing down this sentence, Fang Chang reached out and tapped his helmet, and contacted the rear command center.

  ”This is Fang Chang, we have successfully suppressed Shelter No. 182… This place should have been transformed into a research facility by the Torch. We captured an apostle who is suspected to be a senior Torch official and a suspected researcher at the door. We did not find the missing residents of Fortress Town.”

  After a brief rustling sound of electricity, a steady voice came from the communication channel.

  ”The command center received it. The relevant personnel of the scientific expedition team will arrive at the scene to investigate in two hours. Try to preserve the scene and control the relevant personnel as much as possible.”

  ”Received.”

  After closing the communication, Fang Chang noticed that the staff member who was scared to pee his pants suddenly fell beside Alzu and reached under his gray robe to search.

  ”Hey, what are you doing.”

  Fang Chang pointed the muzzle of the medical gun at him, but saw the latter find a thumb-sized electronic component from Alzu’s body and handed it to him with a flattering smile.

  ”Here, this is for you!”

  This thing looked a bit like a USB flash drive.

  Fang Chang was slightly stunned, and took it from him with interest.

  ”What is this?”

  ”It’s all of this Institute No. 182.”

  Tomiller said quickly.

  ”The information of the Gestalt Lifeform Project, as well as the related research and experimental logs conducted by this institute… Alzu copied everything in this institute onto this hard drive, and then cleared the original data in the server.”

  When he said this, he looked at the soldier in front of him cautiously, his voice with a hint of flattery.

  ”Is this… considered a meritorious service?”

  Fang Chang was amused by his cautious look and replied teasingly.

  ”That depends on what we recover from it. I’m not a judge. The most I can do is to help you hand over the evidence.”

  After a pause, he pointed his gun at the hatch of the buffer room.

  ”Now, I need you to take me to visit this shelter.”

  Whether the data stored in the hard drive is valuable depends on the opinions of the professionals of the scientific expedition team.

  However, the Alliance is still quite reasonable. Generally, it will only impose the maximum penalty on the decision-maker, and will specifically study which of his behaviors are subjectively anti-human and which behaviors are coerced for the executor.

  If it is just a researcher who does not participate in specific decision-making, the death penalty will not be imposed. At most, he will lose his personal freedom and be locked up in Shelter No. 79 for life.

  However, Tomiler misunderstood his meaning and thought that the people of the Alliance thought that this credit was too small. After all, they could find the hard drive by searching him, and there was no need for him to hand it in.

  Seeing that there was only one chance left, Tomiler hurriedly walked in front of Fang Chang and introduced him and the other soldiers behind him to this Shelter No. 182.

  The group had just passed through the buffer hatch and had not yet passed through the square of the shelter when they saw a large group of researchers rushing up through the movable door of the corridor.

  Before Fang Chang could ask what happened, they rushed over with snot and tears, and directly messed up Fang Chang and the other players.

  ”What are you doing?”

  Looking at the researchers who wanted to hug his thighs, Fang Chang stretched out his hand and lifted one of the most emotional guys from the ground.

  A slightly older researcher grabbed his arm excitedly and said in a trembling voice.

  ”Brothers of the Alliance… you are finally here!”

  ”You… have suffered,” Fang Chang coughed lightly, and hurriedly looked at Tomiler next to him and asked, “What is the situation with these people?”

  Not daring to hide anything, Tomiler quickly answered truthfully.

  ”They are researchers sent by Charas, from a company called Beidao Heavy Industry. The tanks and anti-tank guns outside are all designed by them.”

  Upon hearing this, the older researcher panicked.

  ”Don’t say this nonsense, what do you mean they are all designed by us?”

  Several young researchers next to him also shouted.

  ”We were forced to do this by you!”

  ”That’s right! After seeing what happened to the residents of Fortress Town, how dare we say no to you?”

  ”Residents of Fortress Town?” Fang Chang’s heart moved, and he looked at the young researcher and asked, “Are those people still alive?”

  The square at the buffer entrance suddenly became quiet.

  Including Tomiler, whether it was the researchers who originally belonged to this research facility or the researchers who were tied up by Charas, everyone’s expressions became strange, and they seemed unwilling to mention these details.

  Under Fang Chang’s questioning, the young researcher finally stammered and spoke.

  ”…On the fifth underground floor of the shelter, there is a modified biochemical factory. The culture dishes there can transform living people into mutants…I heard that it was the earliest mutant culture equipment.”

  The Adam’s apple of the person who followed Fang Chang moved by chance, and he squeezed out a sentence with difficulty.

  ”In other words…”

  The researcher looked at Tomiler.

  ”They drove some residents to plant Naguo, and some residents were transformed into mutants…”

  Seeing those players looking at him unkindly, Tomiler’s forehead was covered with cold sweat, and he quickly explained stammeringly.

  ”I… I didn’t participate in this matter… This is the project team in charge of Alzu who is conducting related research. I am only responsible for the daily operation of this research facility…”

  ”What a bunch of beasts.” I couldn’t help but curse.

  Ignoring Tomiler’s explanation, Fang Chang looked at the researchers of Beidao and said.

  ”I have a general understanding of the situation. I will arrange for someone to send you home later.”

  Looking at the happy faces, he paused and continued.

  ”As for whether you were coerced or joined here voluntarily for some reason of your own, we will also arrange special personnel to investigate. Please rest assured that we will not wrongly accuse a good person, but we will never let a bad person go. I hope you understand this.”

  Hearing this, everyone quickly expressed their opinions.

  ”Please rest assured, we will definitely cooperate with the investigation!”

  ”Our families can testify for us!”

  ”As long as we can get out of this damn place as soon as possible… no matter what!”

  Fang Chang nodded, arranged for someone to register their identities, and then ordered Tomiler to take him and his party to continue walking deeper into the shelter.

  The staff of the scientific expedition team will take over here, and they, the players, don’t need to worry too much.

  Before evacuating from here, he wanted to see what kind of hell the 5th underground floor was like…

  …

  The captain’s room of the Iron Heart.

  After several hours of waiting, Chu Guang, who was commanding far away on the northern line, finally received good news from the southern line.

  In the light blue holographic image, Lao Bai reported to him excitedly.

  ”… Dear Administrator, our army has successfully controlled the Death Coast and cleared the mutant nests along the coast and the strategic facilities controlled by the Torch Church!”

  ”At present, the enemy’s defensive forces have been destroyed by our mechanized forces and air forces, and the remaining remnants are retreating to the Heavenly Kingdom far away from the coastline.”

  ”Not only that, we have also established defensive positions and temporary docks at the landing point of the Death Coast. Soon this will become our bridgehead for transporting military supplies and personnel from the French Fries Port to the front line!”

  ”Very good!” Chu Guang nodded approvingly, looking at Lao Bai standing in the holographic image and continued, “Maintain the current rhythm and continue to expand our advantage on the southern front! Don’t give our enemies any chance to counterattack!”

  Lao Bai knocked his right fist on the breastplate and said excitedly.

  ”Yes!”

  At this stage of the war, everyone saw the dawn of victory.

  After the communication ended, Chu Guang extended his index finger to turn off the holographic screen and leaned back in his chair.

  Looking at Chu Guang, who was in a good mood, Xiao Qi, who was sitting on the pen holder, said happily.

  ”Congratulations, Master. We have finally made progress on the southern front. If we continue to develop at this pace, it will not be long before the war ends.”

  Chu Guang smiled faintly upon hearing Xiao Qi’s voice, picked up the teacup on the table and took a sip.

  ”I said a long time ago that from the moment the Torch stood against the civilized world, their ultimate failure was doomed… at most it was a matter of time.”

  Although it may sound a bit pretentious to say this, the outcome of this war was not too suspenseful from the beginning. At most, the question of how to deal with the aftermath gave him a headache for a while.

  Not only him, but even the academy had no good solution. The researcher of the Wandering Swamp even suggested that he use fire.

  Even Heya felt that burning was the simplest and most direct way.

  However, these seemingly unsolvable problems have found new solutions as his little players are active in areas such as the Baiyue Strait and the southern seas.

  Although the Torch implanted the aggressive genes held by the Qingquan City mother nest into the Naguo, giving them the ability to devour other lives, in the end they still could not resist the fusion of the original strains with themselves.

  At present, the B-type strain has been proven to have an inhibitory effect on the Naguo strain. Xiaoyu, who has fused the B-type strain and the Shifeng Mountain mother nest, has obtained the ability to “graft” the synthetic B-type strain and its ability to inhibit pheromones. It is only a matter of time before the Torch’s “heaven” is disintegrated.

  Now the Torch itself, as the primary contradiction, is no longer a concern. How to establish a new order after the war is gradually becoming a more urgent topic to be discussed at the Sticky Community Conference.

  Chu Guang could sense that not only the Weyland people who had benefited from the Perfect Lifeform Project a long time ago, but also the academy and even the enterprises were full of interest in the biotechnology mastered by the Torch Church.

  If the “spoils” were not evenly divided, another war might start, but if some technologies were allowed to spread, it might also cause huge trouble.

  He might have to talk to the top leaders of the academy about this matter.

  In addition, it was not only about balancing the order after the war

  and how to continue to maintain the unity of the slime community, but also about continuing to move forward with the survivors who had finally united. It was also a big challenge for the alliance.

  Just as Chu Guang was thinking about what to do next, the Tribunal Punishment Team that retreated from the Fortress Town finally withdrew to the territory of the Kingdom of Heaven.

  The thick gray fog was a natural camouflage, and the Naguo mycelium that penetrated into the soil was enough to block the advance of the Alliance landing troops.

  But the hunter knew very well that this was not foolproof.

  Since the Alliance was able to use artificially modified variant slime molds to erode the territory of the Kingdom of Heaven on the northern line, there was no reason why it could not do the same on the southern line.

  At present, the alliance has established a temporary dock on the Hainan line, and those soldiers wearing exoskeletons will continuously land behind them.

  There is not much time left for them.

  Leaving his subordinates at the logistics base, the hunter went to the shelter where the Son of God was alone, and reported to the Son of God that Alzu’s body was captured and the fall of Shelter No. 182.

  After hearing the report from his confidant, the Son of God, who was sitting on the chair, was silent for a while, and slowly spoke.

  ”I know, you go down first.”

  The hunter was slightly stunned.

  He thought that the Son of God would give him a new task, but he didn’t expect that the last thing he waited for was such a simple sentence.

  He didn’t get up and leave, and couldn’t help asking.

  ”You… don’t you need me to do anything?”

  He still has 22 brothers under him, and he can continue to fight!

  Not only him.

  Or the other people in the Tribunal, and the Knights loyal to the Torch… They still have the strength to fight! The church just lost a beach, they haven’t given up yet!

  However, he sensed a hint of giving up in the voice of the Holy Son – as if they were powerless and no one could save their kingdom of heaven!

  He had dedicated his life to the ideal of the kingdom of heaven descending on earth, and he could not accept such an ending anyway!

  Looking at the hunter with fire in his eyes, the Holy Son knew what he was thinking, so he said gently.

  ”My child, I know you can still fight, but at this stage of the war, the victory or defeat can no longer be reversed by the victory or defeat of one or two battles.”

  ”The kingdom of heaven in Haiya Province has a fatal flaw, which allowed the remnants of the old era to find a way to crack it… This is indeed our mistake.”

  ”In theory, even if they reach out to Baiyue Province and find the original strain of Naguo, as long as we find a way to repair the genetic defects of Naguo before them, we can make their cards ineffective. Unfortunately, we are one step slower in the end.”

  Luo Qian, who was conducting experiments in Jinhe City, was actually close to the edge of victory.

  However, just before the kingdom of heaven completely descended on Jinhe City, the alliance suddenly interrupted their plan.

  To this day, he still finds that incident incredible.

  The most aggressive hive in the wasteland is right above their heads, and those people haven’t even solved the troubles above their heads, but they have freed up their hands to send reinforcements to people they have never met.

  He had to admit that the manager of Shelter 404 was indeed a visionary leader, at least more courageous than the manager he had seen before.

  But then again, if Seven Willard was really that kind of person, Shelter 117 might not necessarily fall apart.

  Looking at the Son of God, whose thoughts seemed to drift away, the hunter couldn’t help but speak.

  ”Are we just going to sit and wait for death?”

  Retracting his thoughts, the Son of God looked at him with interest and said.

  ”Why do you think we are sitting and waiting for death?”

  The hunter said with his head down.

  ”The coalition forces of the Sticky Community are constantly squeezing our living space… If this trend continues, we have no chance of winning.”

  This is not just his opinion, many of his soldiers also think so – they are going further and further on a road that is doomed to fail.

  Looking at his confidant who was bowing his head, the Son of God thought for a while and continued.

  ”If you are talking about the Kingdom of Heaven in the Sea End Province, its collapse is indeed difficult to save, but this does not mean that we have lost.”

  ”But if you are talking about our ideals, it is too early to talk about victory and failure now.”

  The Kingdom of Heaven in the Sea End Province can only be regarded as a failed attempt, which does not prove that their ideal of ascending to a higher life form is wrong.

  The hunter suddenly raised his head and looked at the Son of God sitting in front of him with a burning look, and a glimmer of hope gradually appeared in his eyes.

  ”…You have other trump cards, right?”

  He knew it!

  They won’t lose so easily!

  Looking at the eyes that were like a drowning man seeing a life-saving straw, the corners of the Son of God’s mouth couldn’t help but pull up a smile.

  Trump card…

  can that thing be called a trump card?

  But that could be considered a helpless retreat… even though he had never thought that he would need it one day.

  His eyes fell on the wall clock on the conference room wall, and at that moment he remembered a lot of things – especially the old people in Shelter 117.

  The pioneers have already set off.

  It’s almost time for him to set off too…

  (End of this chapter)