"Today is January 1, 2342 in the old calendar, January 1, 213 in the Wasteland Era. Here is the news of the Alliance today."
"The New Year's Eve event ended successfully. All the settlements in the Alliance held a grand celebration ceremony that night to celebrate the arrival of the new year..."
"The City Hall of Giant Stone City announced that the curfew will be lifted from today, and the blockade of the gates of the giant wall will also be officially lifted from now on. At the same time, the city entry tax levied for the construction of the giant wall will be cancelled, and the height of the giant wall will no longer increase."
"On the other hand, in order to cope with the situation in Qingquan City, In response to the impact of the turmoil, a 200-person volunteer team consisting of teachers, medical staff, biologists and engineers has arrived at the North Airport of Dawn City from Ideal City. "
"In his speech on New Year's Eve, the manager said that improving the living standards of residents will still be the focus of the alliance's work in the new year. At present, the registered population of the alliance has exceeded one million. In addition to the affordable housing and rail transit under construction, the alliance will also add 12 full-time schools and 8 social support facilities..."
"The "Survivor Daily" broadcast reports for you!"
The firewood in the fireplace crackled.
The warm temperature made people drowsy, as if even the clear and melodious voice in the radio and the movement of the wall clock were stretched.
This is Dust Town, located on the edge of the ruins of Jinhe City in Jinchuan Province, 700 to 800 kilometers away from Qingquan City, which is equivalent to the distance from Jiangcheng to Shancheng in reality.
Since Boulder City joined the alliance, the alliance has recently built several new signal stations, and several radio stations including the "Survivor Daily" have added medium wave and short wave signal bands.
Although the radioactive clouds and other special climates in the wasteland will affect electromagnetic wave signals, this interference is not absolute.
Now Jinchuan Province can also hear some voices from the Alliance intermittently.
"That's great."
Listening to the content on the radio, Jingjing's face was a little fascinated.
I heard that as long as you participate in the New Year's Eve event, there will be red envelopes, with the lowest prize being 6 silver coins and the highest being a dragon cavalry power armor.
And it's the kind with no level restrictions!
What a pity...
This event is only available in the Alliance.
There are only three players in the entire Dust Town. Although the locals were dragged by them to hold a sacrificial event, the food used as tribute is only a pitiful few.
He distributed the unfinished tribute to the children in the village. He simply didn't go online last night. He went offline and ordered a takeaway to enjoy.
Sighing, Jingjing looked at the lizard who was huddled by the fireplace and shouted.
"Hey, brother Trash."
The 99th level picker rubbed his butt, changed his position and replied lazily.
"What are you doing?"
I couldn't help but say quietly.
"We have been in this broken place for half a year. How long will we stay here!"
We agreed to go south together.
But the other two guys refused to leave.
Mr. Trash smiled and said.
"Don't worry, the matter of the 'Naguo' has not been resolved yet. We can't just leave those villagers alone, right?"
According to the information on the official website, it can be confirmed that Naguo and Emerald Fruit are the same thing, suspected to come from the South Sea Islands, and flow into various places in the southern part of the Central Continent through the port of the Death Coast.
Jinchuan Province is one of the most affected provinces.
Combined with the predictions on the official website about the next version, Mr. Trash and the Qiangrensunan brothers agreed that there was some kind of conspiracy behind the Naguo.
So they decided to stay.
On the one hand, he observed the situation of the user in the village, and on the other hand, he sent some observed samples back to the biological research institute in the alliance.
At the same time, he monitored the movements of the mutant tribe called "Qi".
However, several months have passed, and neither Naguo nor the mutant tribe has made any new moves. I think Jingjing is feeling a little impatient.
They have not made any progress for several months in a row!
Forget about not continuing to go south, at least form a team and go home to save a file!
Looking at the leisurely Garbage Jun, I think Jingjing couldn't help but complain.
"Are you addicted to being a god?"
Garbage Jun was stunned for a moment, and then laughed.
"Hahaha, how could it be!"
That smile was somewhat fake.
I think Jingjing couldn't help rolling her eyes.
At this time, there was a knock on the door outside, and the sound seemed to come from the floor.
Guessing who the person was, he sighed, got up from the blanket-covered chair, walked over and opened the door.
A fat rat as tall as his knees slipped in from outside, and the cold wind that blew into the room made Junji couldn't help but shrink his neck.
"Something happened."
When Jingjing heard that something happened, she became excited immediately. Junji, who was lying by the fireplace and warming himself by the fire, was no longer sleepy. He got up and came over.
"What's the matter?!"
"Tell me!"
Seeing the excited expressions of his two companions, he cleared his throat and said mysteriously.
"Haven't I been keeping an eye on Hope Town all this time? A few charlatans came there yesterday."
I think Jingjing was stunned.
"God-like people?"
"Well, they are priests or apostles. I thought there was something wrong with those people, so I followed them and eavesdropped on their conversation. They said a lot of nonsense. In short, the light of the sky fire will soon shine on this land corroded by chaos, all sins will be cleansed, and embracing the glorious evolution will allow you to join the kingdom of God away from all suffering and pain... Then they asked the locals to build a church for their son."
I wanted to ask quietly.
"What does evolution mean..."
This was the only key word he understood.
I shook my head.
"I don't know, maybe it's a Nago. I thought it was brought by mutants at first, but I didn't expect it was the gang in the south..."
As he said that, he stretched out a finger and dipped it in the snow water on his hair, and drew two inverted triangles on the floor.
"This symbol is drawn on their robes."
Junk Jun leaned over to take a look, and his brows gradually frowned.
"Torch?"
Qiang Ren Suo Nan nodded.
"Yes, Torch Church."
Xiang Xiang Jing Jing touched the back of his head and said with some confusion.
"Actually... I don't quite understand why you are keeping such a close eye on the Torch Church. As long as they don't cause trouble, it doesn't matter what they believe in."
It seems that many people in the Alliance also believe in the Great Horned Deer God, and most of the survivors in Luoxia Province also believe in their Sand Sea Spirit.
When there are no laws to restrain people's words and deeds, faith can play a little role.
Although the Torch Project is not a good thing, the Torch Church and it seem to have no connection except that the symbols are very similar.
He is a newcomer in the B test, and he doesn't know much about what happened in the A test.
Qiang Ren Suo Nan glanced at him.
"What if there are mutants among the missionaries?"
Xiang Xiang Jing Jing was stunned.
"Mutants?!"
Don't mutants treat humans as food?
What kind of belief is so bad that it can assimilate all mutants! ?
Jun Lazi said with a grin.
"Even if this didn't happen, we couldn't let them go. I haven't forgotten that during the Bone Chewing Rebellion, the Legion and the Free State provided weapons to the group of plunderers, and they provided the group of plunderers with beliefs and high technology. The earliest batch of neural connection equipment of the Alliance was seized from them."
The entire central part of the Valley Province was almost wiped out by these guys. Many residents of the Alliance are survivors of that catastrophe, and this account will be settled sooner or later.
Qiang Ren Suo Nan frowned and said, "I don't know what they are going to do, but I have a bad feeling... and if the surrounding settlements all believe in that torch, what about the Horned Rat and the Horned Deer God?"
When I heard the first half of the sentence, I thought Jingjing was still thinking seriously, and when I heard the second half, I almost choked on my own saliva.
"... You are just worried about being driven off the altar!"
Junk Jun coughed and ignored his complaints.
"Anyway... it involves the Torch Church, so we can't be careless about this. I'll go to the official website to ask everyone's opinions."
What he really feared was another thing.
Maybe it wasn't the Torch Church that assimilated the mutants, but those lunatics had somehow turned people into mutants in a planned way, and made the land here only suitable for mutants to survive.
Ordinary people and animals who eat Naguo for a long time will have a hallucinogenic effect and enter a state called "trance".
However, for mutants, the effect of Naguo seems to be only the good part. They will become stronger, and their desire to fight and reproduce will be stronger.
The mutant tribes that rely on looting for a living are at most a hundred people in size, while the mutants in the Great Desert have learned to plant, raise and master the social division of labor, and only then have their number increased to more than a thousand.
And here, the mutant tribe called "Qi" has a scale of more than 10,000!
It is impossible to maintain such a large population with primitive breeding methods alone.
His intuition told him that there might be some incredible conspiracy brewing on this land...
Closing his amber eyes, the "Lizard God" of Dust Town hurriedly went offline to the official website.
Jingjing opened his mouth and was about to say something, but a sudden knock on the door interrupted his thoughts.
He walked over and opened the door, only to see the village chief standing at the door, looking nervous.
"Sir, I'm sorry to bother you... There are guests at the entrance of the village."
Jingjing frowned and asked.
"Guests? What guests?"
It's winter now, and there are almost no wandering merchants outside. For safety reasons, some merchants go straight to their destinations. If it's not that their supplies are running out, they will not approach those settlements that don't look very wealthy.
The village chief lowered his eyebrows and said respectfully.
"That guy claims to be the servant of the Son of God, and he's full of nonsense. He insists that we are blinded by barbarism and wants to save us from suffering..."
The old man clenched his fists and cursed indignantly.
"I told them that we have our own beliefs. We don't need their fallacies, let alone their fruits!"
Jingjing and the fat rat behind her met each other.
Good guy!
It's spread here?
This speed is too fast!
...
Official website of "Wasteland OL".
The forum is still as joyful and lively as ever.
[Event Announcement: New Year's Eve Event Ended Successfully!
The results of the selection of the Boulder City Division: the most popular food among players is "Cream Leech Mushroom Soup", the most popular food among wastelanders is "Marshmallows", and the most popular food among managers is "Corn Fried Beef Patties"! ]
[Update: Added "Mercenary Guild" system]
[Description: Some of the commissions of the Merchant Guild have been transplanted to the Mercenary Guild. Now players can register as mercenaries and accept tasks through VM. ]
Tail: "Woo woo woo, Mercenary Guild! My Mercenary Guild! It was obviously me who thought of it first! QAQ"
Quit Smoking: "Haha! It's confirmed that A Guang copied the forum! (smirk)"
Sisi: "Pat your head, Awei, don't cry, we can make one outside the alliance."
Ghost: "Oh oh oh! Our cotton candy was selected!"
Feng Qing: "Great, the limited title is unlocked! Hehe, happy!"
Ye Shi: "Damn it, why is it sweets again! It seems to be sweets last year! Do these wastelanders like to eat candy so much! (Crazy)"
Tomato Scrambled Eggs: "That's right! Why is our oil-braised warship shrimp not good! It's so delicious! T.T"
Ye Shi: "The most abominable thing is that Fang Chang's wife only gave us 8 points!"
Fang Chang: "You guys... you have to look at faces, choose a group of pretty girls as judges, and blame them for liking sweets. (side eye)"
Last night, he dragged Dolly to visit his brothers' stall, and ordered a big pot of shrimps to show his respect.
As a result, because it was too oily, Dolly didn't eat two bites, and finally all the shrimps she peeled went into his stomach.
The full score is 10 points, and 8 points is actually not a small number.
However, since the final score of the event is not a simple average or cumulative score, but is calculated according to a specific formula, the "good review rate" and the number of judges attracted are both very important weight values. It is obviously difficult to win the award with only a high score.
Although the oil-smoked throttle warship shrimp did attract many customers, it couldn't stand the cotton candy floating all over the street last night.
But that thing doesn't take up the stomach, even if you are full, you can still have a few bites.
With so many buffs stacked, the outcome seems to have been determined from the beginning...
Ye Shi: "Hiss... so careless!"
Lao Bai: "Hahaha, I get it. Next time, choose a few from my drinking buddies! Make some snacks or something! (smirk)"
Teng Teng: "Ah, but having said that, it's so healing to see Xiaoyu happily soaking in marshmallows. (@´ㅂ`@)"
Ya Ya: "Yeah~"
Ye Shi: "!
! I vote for Xiaoyu!"
WC Zhenyou Mosquito: "Woo woo woo, damn, I want to raise one too!"
Tail: "@Light, police uncle, that's the guy! (｀∀´)Ψ"
WC Zhenyou Mosquito : "Fuck! I just talked nonsense! (horrified)"
Yin Lena: "Make a backup, bro. (funny)"
WC really has mosquitoes: "%￥#@!"
Garbage Picker Level 99: "Big news! There seems to be some movement in the expansion pack in the south!"
Fang Chang: "What's the movement?"
Garbage Picker Level 99: "Several apostles of the Torch Church came to Dust Town to preach! They have already reached out to a place only 800 kilometers away from us!"
Canyon Fleeing Mole: "Where is Dust Town..."
Garbage Picker Level 99: "Uh, it's the place I told you about before, hehe."
Debt Eyes: "Oh, that's yours A village. (Funny)"
Construction site boy and brick: "Oh, I thought it was a big deal. (Funny)"
Garbage picker level 99: "Damn! I'm talking about serious things!"
Old White: "Brother Garbage, your settlement is near Jinhe City, right?"
Garbage picker level 99: "Yes! Right there!"
Old White: "Okay, we have a mission to go to Jinhe City in two days, and take a look at what's going on there. (Grinning)"
Edge paddling: "Damn! What mission?"
Old White: "Recycle nuclear fuel. (Grinning)"
Edge paddling: "Awesome!
!"
Funnel commander: "I'm so jealous! T.T"
Old White : "Hey, please take care of the supplies!"
Garbage Picker Level 99: "Haha, don't worry! We lack everything here, but not food! By the way, bring us a few bags of seeds and fertilizers. There haven't been caravans here for a long time!"
Ye Shi: "Damn, you are helping the poor there!"
Garbage Picker Level 99: "What do you mean by poverty alleviation? This is called helping the alliance expand its territory!"
Elf King Fugui: "Isn't it being a charlatan? (Funny)"
Garbage Picker Level 99: "Hey, that's all bragging, don't take it seriously..."
Yin Lena: "Why did I hear that there are even statues of gods. (Funny)"
...
The office of the administrator in the City Hall of Giant Stone City.
Just as the players were discussing on the official website, a survey report from the Guards Corps was held in Chu Guang's hand.
Long before the snow fell, he asked Lu Bei to withdraw a team of 100 people from the Guards Corps and go to Jinchuan Province in the south to collect information about "Naguo".
At that time, Naguo first appeared at the celebration of the alliance.
Although Heya told him that the thing was not as scary as he imagined, he still smelled a hint of conspiracy from it.
The results of the investigation of the Guards and the discussion of players on the forum just confirmed his previous speculation.
"It seems that not only viruses and bacteria... even the Torch Church, mutants, and southern slave owners, these three unrelated garbage, are mixed together by this little fruit."
After reading the report in his hand to the end, Chu Guang couldn't help but click his tongue.
According to the investigation results of the Guards, the sphere of influence of the Torch Church and the planting range of Naguo are highly overlapped!
This is obviously not a coincidence!
Those believers took advantage of the fact that the slave owners in Jinchuan Province lost the food market in the south of the Valley Province, secretly promoted the economic crop called "Naguo", and then exported the belief of the Torch to those survivors who were completely dependent on Naguo.
As for why the survivors were so obedient, the clue the Guards found was that the Torch Church had an antidote called "holy water".
As we all know, most people and animals will become more and more docile after eating Naguo for a long time, and will enter a hallucinogenic state called "fugue" from time to time.
The specific manifestation is that they lose their response to all external stimuli and immerse themselves in a happy fantasy until death, and will not resist even if they are preyed on.
Just like the iron wire worm to the mantis.
Considering the characteristics of Naguo, people or animals who enter the "fugue" state will become Naguo in another sense, and continue to pass on the "seeds" along the food chain.
Only mutants and death claws, which are powerful species born in the laboratory, can be exempted from Naguo capture to a certain extent.
The holy water developed by the Torch Church can wake people up from the "fugue" state and live soberly in a happy fantasy.
At first, some slave owners only let their slaves eat Naguo to make them docile and obedient. Later, after experiencing the "benefits" of Naguo, the slave owners began to eat it themselves, and finally willingly offered their loyalty to the Torch Church, which controlled the holy water.
And the Torch Church did more than that.
On the one hand, they played the role of shepherds, educating the survivors' settlements and turning the people there into sheep in the sheepfold.
At the same time, they used the lambs in the sheepfold to bribe the mutants in Jinchuan Province.
No matter how much the addicts who entered the "fugue" state would not go bad, they were not only the most delicious delicacy for the brutal mutants, but also the best seedbed for reproduction.
This was also the clue found by the Guards during the investigation.
Originally, the slave owners in Jinchuan Province could fight the mutants on equal terms with the weapons produced in the southern part of the Valley Province.
However, after being infected with Naguo, the survivor settlements that originally had the upper hand almost immediately lost their combat capabilities and were quickly incorporated into the sphere of influence of the Torch Church.
At the same time, mutants rarely invaded the survivor settlements that were incorporated into the sphere of influence of the Torch Church, and even if they invaded briefly, they would withdraw quickly.
This undoubtedly shows that the Torch Church and the mutants in Jinchuan Province should have reached some kind of tacit understanding, or even a contract.
After reading the report on Naguo, Chu Guang immediately looked at another investigation report on the Torch Church.
Before, he had always suspected that there was a connection between the Torch Church and the Enlightenment Society, but to his surprise, the results of the Guards Corps' investigation pointed in the opposite direction.
The core of the Torch Plan is to destroy the world first and then create the world, and finally achieve nirvana rebirth in the sense of civilization.
The teachings of the Torch Church are in line with the unfinished Torch Plan. They also agree that the world should be destroyed once, but the specific route is completely different from the Enlightenment Society.
What they want to build is not a new world ruled by the pre-war elites, but to use biological technology to allow humans to complete the transformation from cocoon to butterfly in the sense of species - that is, to use the civilization heritage of the old humans to hatch the cocoon of the new humans! They do not have efficient neutron killing technology, nor do they expect to remove all species on the surface with one click. Their real purpose is to use their best biological technology in a long and slow process to make this land suitable for the survival of "the life forms they define themselves". They promised the believers that all the survivors who suffered or bore sins in the old world will receive eternal blessings in the new world. In layman's terms, as long as the believers work diligently and contribute to the plan of the Torch Church, they can become great "perfect life forms" in the new world. The so-called perfect life form is the root of the Weyland people, the eight-fold growth clones and the mutants - the singularity technology that was not completed in the pre-war era. This is undoubtedly a crazy plan. If the Enlightenment is a terrorism against the post-war order and the old civilization, then the Torch Church is a terrorism against the old humans in the sense of species.
In the teachings of the Torch Church, mutants are explained as "intermediate products on the road to perfect life forms".
Those vulgar and barbaric green gorillas are not perfect, both in terms of aesthetics and civilization. However, in the teachings of the Torch Church, mutants who are more adapted to the wasteland than the old humans are still superior to the old humans and have a higher "starting point" than the old humans.
So they will use biological technology to turn some devout believers into noble mutants, giving them unparalleled strong bodies and privileges that are superior to ordinary human believers - that is, those docile lambs!
However, the high-level people in the Torch Church will not take the initiative to become mutants.
They are still waiting for a more perfect container.
And those middle-level church members who have become mutants are also waiting for better containers, ready to transform into a new life form at any time.
"...There is no doubt that the Torch Church is the most pressing problem at the moment, far more pressing than those criminals in the north."
After reading the report to the end, Chu Guang made a concise evaluation.
"I think so too," Lu Bei, who was standing next to him, nodded and continued in a deep voice, "But there is one thing that makes me a little concerned. The nuclear fuel given to us by the academy is just in Jinhe City, and the mutant tribe called "Qi" is also there... I suspect that those cunning researchers intend to use us as guns."
Although it was obvious, Chu Guang still unexpectedly looked at the young man for a second time and smiled approvingly.
"Yes, I am very pleased that you can see this."
Lu Bei smiled embarrassedly.
"It's all your advice..."
Chu Guang smiled indifferently and looked at the map hanging on the wall. His sight passed over the Free State and the Great Rift Valley and fell on the Wandering Swamp in the north.
"Many of us have the impression that the academy is a bunch of nerds, but in fact, those guys are not stupid at all, but very cunning."
"They may have more tricks than the legion and the enterprise combined, and they are good at disguise. In order to make us willingly take the bait, they will deliberately pretend that we have picked up an advantage. When we were fighting fiercely with the legion in Luoxia Province, they had probably already set their sights on our south."
Lv Bei frowned.
"Sure enough..."
Chu Guang nodded.
"This is an open conspiracy. Even if we know that they are using us, at present we can only go in the direction they envision."
That's one thousand cubic meters of liquid helium-3!
A full 127 tons of nuclear fusion fuel!
Whether it's for the alliance's power armor or for the fusion reactor in Xizhou City, he must get these energies!
Even if he helps the academy do work again, this rich energy is more than enough as a reward.
Moreover, the Torch Church is about to reach out to Jinhe City. If the Alliance does not take any action, the nuclear fuel may fall into the hands of the Torch Church.
Moving his eyes away from the map, Chu Guang slowly spoke.
"Xiao Qi."
An energetic voice came from his ear.
"Here, Master."
Without any hesitation, Chu Guang immediately gave the order.
"Notify the Burning Corps and ask them to gather at least a hundred-man team in Boulder City and set off for Jinhe City, Jinchuan Province within three days!"
The voice that responded to him also did not hesitate.
"Received!"