This game is too real.

Chapter 448 One Hundred Years of Solitude
[Mr. Lieutenant Colonel, our operation in the center of Qingquan has reached a stalemate. The soldiers fought bravely and our enemies suffered heavy losses. Unfortunately, until now we still have not been able to get close to the brood. 】

[Although the Prowler tank has excellent maneuverability and reliable armor, it has to be overhauled every time it comes back from work, and the parts that need to be replaced cannot be found here. 】

[In particular, our equipment has no advantage in the face of the siege of the slime mold fruiting bodies. They fall down in pieces and rush up in groups... It's like a wave.Before we kill them all, I'm afraid we ourselves will be dragged down by the logistics of being overwhelmed. 】

[The most worrying thing is those "evolutions"... this is the name given by the technician who followed us into the city center.We found that some slime mold fruiting bodies have undergone secondary mutations on the basis of mutations, and have even begun to imitate us, evolving structures similar to power armor and exoskeletons, and even eroding our drones and tanks. 】

[This is not my gibberish, I know it sounds unbelievable, but if we continue to treat them as beasts that fight with teeth and claws, or biological weapons that the enemy throws into the battlefield, we may pay a heavy price ...the fact is that our casualties were heavy enough. 】

[Compared with advanced weapons, we need equipment that is easy to maintain and has a sufficient quantity.Instead of taking precious equipment and manpower to fill the front that cannot be filled as it is now. 】

[Finally, some good news. The outer wall of the Jushi Building has been completed. The brothers in the production department are as reliable as ever. This magnificent project can shelter at least 10 people through the most difficult winter.The refugees in the south do not have to continue to migrate north, but can be resettled in the western suburbs of Qingquan City. At least our first stage goal has been completed.We will start the second phase of operations immediately after a short rest. 】

[I heard that the technical department is looking for a way to get rid of the slime mold at the genetic level. 】

[I have an idea here, why not use those genes in the gene pool to "produce" a group of super soldiers who are not afraid of death? 】

[Even if they are useless on the battlefield, they can at least help us move some things. Those bionics and robots are too troublesome to maintain. We may have to deploy an extra maintenance company. 】

[——Telegram from the Front (2150), March 3, 21. 】

Aboard the Heart of Iron.

Chu Guang, who was resting in the captain's cabin, was browsing the official website forum of "Wasteland OL" through the holographic computer.

The information was recovered by the players of the Death Corps, and was synchronized to the server of the shelter with the help of the mission's communication radio.

Looking at the information that players took photos and uploaded to the official website, he stroked his chin thoughtfully and leaned back on the chair.

"2150...should be the 21st year of the Wasteland Era."

He is sensitive to numbers and remembers that the first year of the Wasteland Era is 2129.

"But attacking the center of Qingquan City in March...it's too much to think about."

Spring is the period when the tide erupts. At this time, the breeding speed of the mutant slime mold will reach its peak, and the spore density in the air will also reach its peak.

Of course, this is from the perspective of latecomers.

Perhaps the survivors at the time were not aware of the concept of waves, as this telegram shows, the post-war reconstruction committee underestimated the threat of those mutant slime molds.

and……

Was it supposed to be nuclear winter then?
But these are not the main points.

What made Chu Guang more concerned was the last line of the telegram.

"... A group of soldiers who are not afraid of death, do you mean the Willant people?"

Seeing this sentence, Chu Guang was puzzled.

Those big noses are not as fearless as they imagined...

Maybe it's because the players are Awakened, maybe it's because his attribute panel is outrageous enough, anyway, he doesn't think those big noses are so powerful.

It may be stronger than ordinary people.

"Little Qi."

A vigorous voice soon came to my ears, and it is still a rare Yu Jie's voice today.

"Here, master."

After pondering for a moment, Chu Guang spoke.

"...retrieve all the information collected by the players of the Death Corps, not just the Weilantes, I need all the information about the Legion, the company, and the academy."

"Good Le!"

Hearing the energetic answer, Chu Guang waited for a while, and in less than a minute, Xiao Qi quickly completed the retrieval of all the pictures.

Whether it is uploaded by the players or saved in the personal album.

All the information was sorted into a text document, and a table of contents was created for his convenience.

Although the players collected mostly fragmentary clues, they accidentally pieced together a lot of incredible information.

Just as he guessed.

The Willant people are indeed a race created through genetic modification technology.

Although this project was initially opposed by the technical department of the committee, the continuous heavy casualties on the front line and a large amount of unprocessed work forced the defense department of the committee to put pressure on the technical department.

In 2150, the 21st year of the Wasteland Era, taking the heavy casualties of "Operation Qingquan City" as an opportunity, the super soldier project named "Wilant Project" was finally passed despite countless pressures from all sides.

And the Defense Department of the Council, the predecessor of the Legion, a name inextricably linked to the chaos of a century and a half ago.

Chu Guang couldn't help feeling a little curious, followed the clues that Xiao Qi sorted out, and continued to read.

The 23 pairs of chromosomes of the Willant people were completely designed by genetic modification technology, and the material was extracted from an incomplete gene pool called "Wilant".

The original thousand Genogens born at the beginning did have extraordinary fighting power.

On the basis of retaining their humanity, they have a fighting instinct that is close to beasts. Even without systematic training, they can still defeat more than five well-trained veterans in combat.

However, this is where the tastelessness lies.

Even in the battlefield after the era of prosperity, there are still not many opportunities for unarmed combat.

Their strong bodies make them more suitable to participate in dangerous missions with the highest casualty rate. Although their super reflexes and athletic ability allow them to kill the enemy more efficiently, their number is too small.

These super soldiers ultimately failed to play a big role on the battlefield, which also led to their further political marginalization.

After several battles against Mutant slime mold, the Willanters were organized separately into a quick-response brigade, led by a young commander named Julius, using relatively low-logistics Inexpensive equipment supports regular armies in battle.

And the life of this Julius is also full of legends. He was born almost in the same year as the "Willant Project". militarized education.

As an "old human", he almost grew up with those "new humans", and 15 years later, as a commander, he followed those new humans on the battlefield against the mutant slime mold.

Chu Guang searched for the name "Julius" with the search function, and found that in the literature with less than 50 words, this seemingly ordinary name unexpectedly appeared hundreds of times in the following texts.

"...Speaking of which, the marshal of the legion seems to be called by this name too." Chu Guang vaguely remembered hearing Vanus mention their marshal's name.

But on the west coast, very few people would call that person by his first name, and usually use the title Marshal.

"If the Marshal of the legion is the same person as Julius in the literature, then this guy must have lived at least 150 years!"

Chu Guang clicked his tongue in a little surprise, unable to imagine what it was like.

In "Stars", an officer who has lived for 150 years is full of ranks even if he is thrown into the "patrol fleet" to suppress pirates.

The index finger continued to slide on the holographic screen, and he quickly turned down a page.

Skip the lengthy description, and the time soon came to the 41st year of the Wasteland Era.

The committee's campaign against slime mold is having a hard time, and the lack of resources and low productivity are exacerbated by endless winters.

Some climatologists even expressed despair that this planet may not be transforming into a "waste planet", but is evolving into a "polar planet" with a more fragile ecosphere, and one-third of the land will eventually be buried Under a layer of ice 240 meters thick.

That war probably set the world back 8000 years.

Even so, though, getting rid of the slime mold on the planet remains a top priority.Various studies indicate that this "simple" organism is more cold-tolerant than other primitive carbon-based organisms on this planet.

If this trouble cannot be resolved before the situation gets worse, the future trouble will exceed all expectations.

So far, the survivors haven't discovered the "self-limiting" nature of slime mold, but they are simply afraid of monsters that can't be cleared by throwing nuclear bombs.

If the survivors at that time knew that, in fact, as long as they abandon the metropolitan areas of the Renlian era and retreat to the suburbs with lower building density, and wait for the slime mold to expand to a certain extent, they will enter a period of decline, and I am afraid that there will be no troubles. son.

Of course, this is from the perspective of latecomers. Many research results on slime molds were discovered during the war against slime molds.

In short, in order to reduce the loss of manpower, the Committee's Ministry of Defense put forward further requirements on the basis of the "Willant Plan"-they needed a weapon that "can be mass-produced quickly and play a role on the battlefield." clone troopers.

They don't need to be very powerful, or even have normal human minds, but they must complete the cycle from the assembly line to the battlefield in the shortest possible time.

Compared with the defense department in the 21st year of the Wasteland Era, the defense department in the 41st year has obviously gradually gone to extremes.

The Post-war Reconstruction Committee held a meeting to discuss the relevant legislation, and the three major departments of production, defense, and technology all participated in the debate.

This meeting is documented as the "Tripartite Meeting".

This is also the second major disagreement encountered by the Post-War Reconstruction Commission since its establishment.

Conflicts that have accumulated for a long time have reached their peak before the meeting, and the open debate meeting is more like a catharsis.

The defense department, which continues to suffer casualties, requires the production and technology departments to provide a "clone soldier who can play a sufficient role on the battlefield" to replace the casualties of the soldiers of the People's Federation.

From the standpoint of the Ministry of Defense, this is a perfectly reasonable request.

After all, their soldiers are not only responsible for maintaining the security and order of the settlement, but also responsible for protecting the technology department's prospectors from entering the ruins to recover the technology of the pre-war civilization.

The war has been over for 41 years, but their war has never ended.According to a generation of 20 years, their sacrifices have even spanned two generations and affected at least four generations.

The technical department, like 20 years ago, still expressed strong opposition, claiming that this would not only bring technical risks such as "DNA pollution", but would also lead to the collapse of civilization.

This concern is not without reason.

The Willant people, who were bred through genetic technology and did not have basic political rights, have become de facto "slave soldiers", and the reverse of history has even reached the feudal slave society that was earlier than the prosperous era.

This line of thinking was wrong from the start, and they clearly had better options.

Such as robots and AI.

However, this proposal was opposed by the production department.

Without the support of a complete industrial chain, the cost of producing a sufficiently reliable robot is not a matter of several or tens of times, but a geometric increase.

The expensive production costs and maintenance costs are not affordable by today's "post-war reconstruction committee".

Unless the expenditure on the various survivor settlements is completely cut off, the survivor settlements, including Boulder City, are left to fend for themselves.

And even so, the cost that can be saved is far from meeting the needs of the defense department for manpower.

What's more, cutting off the budgets of various survivor settlements means that the post-war reconstruction committee will lose a huge manpower pool, which is tantamount to quenching thirst with poison.

In order to appease the Ministry of Technology and the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Production made many compromise proposals.

For example, limited political rights can be given to the Weilante people, such as the release of reproductive rights, etc., and some Weilante people can be properly admitted into the big family of the People's Federation, as long as they can make outstanding achievements on the battlefield.

As for the clones with higher output, there is no need to limit their life to the occupation of cannon fodder, and they can freely enter factories or farmland to engage in resource production.

This kind of high-quality labor is not only needed by the defense sector, but also by the production sector.

This meeting did not discuss any results in the end, but instead laid hidden dangers for the subsequent disintegration of the post-war reconstruction committee.

The year following the end of the Tripartite Conference, in the 2171st year, that is, in the 42nd year of the Wasteland Era, the Weilante Laboratory recovered by the Academy's exploration team on the west coast became the fuse to ignite the powder keg.

The complete gene pool of the Willant people is preserved there, and at the same time, the "singularity" technology that was not completed before the end of the era of prosperity-life cycle adjustable technology is also preserved.

Under the leadership of General Julius, the rapid response brigade composed of Willant people occupied the laboratory and detained all the explorers of the technical department's exploration team.

In the face of strong protests and negotiations from the technical department, the Ministry of Defense only claimed that it was Julius's personal behavior, and was extremely passive in arresting this "out-of-control senior officer", and even "accidentally" gave the occupied experiment The laboratory sent a nuclear fusion battery.

Obviously, they were trying to complete this research, or use some of the sub-technology in this research, to create "an army of clones that can grow eight times faster."

Objectively speaking, the people in the Ministry of Defense have shown quite restraint. After all, they can directly rob, but they still made up a lame reason to pretend.

The committee's control over various departments has declined to the bottom, while the contradiction between the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Technology has reached its peak.

In the 2172nd year, the 43rd year of the Wasteland Era, after several "accidental" accidents, the Technology Department completely lost trust in the Defense Department.

Under the leadership of Dr. "Conclusion", the Minister of Technology at that time and the dean of the college, the Technology Department transferred a large number of core technicians to the northern swamp in the name of exploring large-scale relics, and under the framework of the pre-war academic organization "College", the establishment of Own armed exploration force.

The Ministry of Defense is indifferent to this, and their center of gravity has already shifted to the west of the Great Desert, and Triumph City and most of the military installations on the west coast are actually under the control of that "out-of-control senior officer".

Although the production department of the committee is low-key, it is also not a fuel-efficient lamp.

Even before the trigger of the tripartite meeting, they had been secretly giving priority to the construction of settlements on the east coast by tilting resources and other means.

It is against this background that Ideal City was born.

Not only that, they even joined forces with the manager of No. 6 Vault and the then captain of the colonial ship to jointly promote the "Enterprise" plan, set up a regional "Supreme Council", and proposed the general line of "Industrial Salvation" .

Perhaps in the opinion of the Minister of Production at that time, the colonists who stranded the colony ship on the surface in order to save the mother planet, and the residents of No. 6 Vault who bravely opened the door to save more survivors, compared The red-faced "colleagues" who are fighting at the negotiating table are more trustworthy.

Although idealists seldom achieve immediate results visible to the naked eye, every advancement of civilization is inseparable from the exploration of idealists.

They decided to replace the committee and become explorers of a new age.

In the 2173rd year, the 44th year of the wasteland era, the second fuse incident occurred. The production department had a premonition that the disintegration of the post-war reconstruction committee was inevitable, so it unilaterally announced the "cloud province" through the already full-fledged Ideal City. Recovery Act".

The bill stipulates that the four strategic defense areas of mountains and seas, archipelagos, inner lakes, and estuaries in Yunjian Province, the three metropolitan areas of Beiyun, Shangyun, and Xiayun, and the two industrial zones No. [-] and No. [-], all pre-war civilizations The ruins are jointly owned by all the survivor settlements in the province of Clouds.

This sounds like a very modest initiative, and it makes sense.

But in fact, there is no conspiracy.

On the night when the bill was promulgated, more than a dozen armed forces set out from Ideal City in the name of the enterprise, and quickly took over all the research institutes of the committee's technical department on the east coast, as well as the relics of pre-war civilizations under development.

A fierce exchange of fire broke out between the two sides in some research facilities.

The academy's armed forces took a relatively short period of time to prepare and were not strong in combat effectiveness. However, due to the large investment in high-tech equipment and war weapons controlled by AI, it still caused a lot of trouble for the enterprise's troops.

Although the enterprise still won the victory in the end, it also caused the destruction of many research facilities.

For example, the experimental facilities engaged in the research of singularity technology-"Gestalt life body" were reduced to ashes in that conflict.

This result not only led to the complete loss of the original technology of the "Gestalt life form", but also caused some experimental subjects with unstable DNA to flee to the wasteland, some moved along the coastline, and some migrated towards the desert.

And these experimental subjects living in the wasteland are the later mutants.

Although this conflict was in the name of the company and the ideal city, without the participation of the production department, the researchers in the technology department were not stupid.

Taking this incident as an opportunity, Dr. Conclusion immediately announced the disbandment of the technical department. Not only did he take over all the survivor settlements in the Wandering Swamp in the name of the academy, but he also permanently cut off all technical support outside the Wandering Swamp, and even deleted Databases in the Great Rift.

Especially the part about the coordinates of the relics of the pre-war civilization.

So far, legions, enterprises, and colleges have stepped onto the stage of history.

And completed the "asset transfer" of the Ministry of Defense, Production, and Technology.Then they dropped the burden of history one after another, and happily announced their dissolution.

After losing three important departments, the Post-War Reconstruction Committee, which has been in operation for 44 years, has survived in name only, unable to support survivor settlements everywhere.

It is the 2174th year, which is the 45th year of the Wasteland Era.

Facing the empty conference table, the Post-War Reconstruction Committee has finally reached the final step—officially announcing its dissolution.

From now on, the settlements no longer need to abide by the interim constitution formulated by the committee, and no longer need to be managed by the committee.

On the contrary, each settlement needs to find its own way out, and solve its own survival problems in the never-ending cold winter and the infestation of alien species.

In the final statement, the chief of the committee still expressed the hope that the management of the settlements would not forget their mission and try to help the compatriots around them as much as possible.

No one knew at the time.

Just five years after the disbandment of the Post-War Reconstruction Commission, the atmosphere began to show signs of recovery.

The long nuclear winter has also come to an end in people's surprised eyes, and the declining species have repopulated on this land.

So far, legions, colleges, and enterprises have successively entered the development period, and the wasteland era has also entered the half-century-long "sanctuary era" from the "committee era".

As the climate reached the preset standard for ending dormancy, the shelters opened their doors one after another, and the old popsicles who came out of the shelters also set foot on this stage that had become a wasteland.

Although the plan deviated from the expected track from the beginning, most of the shelters neither found the disbanded post-war reconstruction committee, nor did they manage things on the surface as well as they did inside the shelter.

But they, who are out of tune with this era, still gave this declining world a shot in the arm in a short time, and used the knowledge of the prosperous era and the mysterious black box to help some wastelanders survive. The dark ages that initially lost the Reconstruction Commission.

To Chu Guang's surprise, these little-known secrets were just placed on the bookshelf in the Great Rift Valley lounge for people to browse at will.

What he didn't expect was that the old neighbor to the north of the alliance was once the headquarters of the post-war reconstruction committee.

"No... I can't say that I didn't expect it at all."

Chu Guang carefully recalled the holographic image left by Dr. Li that he had seen with Yin Fang before, and connected the clues collected by the Death Corps with it.

"...In the second year of the Wasteland Era, Dr. Principle, whose awakening was delayed for two years, was escorted by Battalion Commander Zhao Weisheng of the 2th Orbital Airborne Division, and together with more than a thousand survivors who were not planned, went to the Great Rift Valley to fight against the war. Comrades from the post-reconstruction committee meet."

"According to the description in the holographic image, the Great Rift Valley was already under the control of the 111th Orbital Airborne Division at that time... In other words, the predecessor of the Legion was actually the 111th Orbital Airborne Division deployed in the River Valley Province?"

And also saved one of the three founders of the academy? !
Looking at the materials recovered by the players and the events of the past century, Chu Guang couldn't help but feel mixed feelings for a while.

When Vault 404 was closed, so many things happened outside...

And at this moment, he finally understood Dr. Method's mood, why did that guy go to Vault 101 and shut himself up.

If I were stabbed twice in the back by my teammates, I'm afraid my mentality would not be very good, especially if the second stabbing was completely inexplicable.

But from the standpoint of the defunct Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Production, of course they also have their own reasons——

"I'll help you open the ruins with blood and sweat, and I won't let you even order human cloning technology, so I will do it myself!" '

'Anyway, you will definitely split up in the future. Since it is an expected high probability event, why can't I be the one who did it first? '

Looking at the last page in the holographic image, Chu Guang couldn't help but think of his alliance.

Both he and the league are very young, but he will grow old one day, and there is a limit to human ability, and he cannot keep up with the changes of the times forever.

The player's world is also moving forward, and even because of the technical support of the shelter, they will progress faster than normal, and even enter the era of prosperity ahead of schedule.

At that time, "Wasteland OL" will face new challenges.

"...In any case, the league will not follow in the footsteps of the 'committee'."

After muttering softly, Chu Guang stretched out his index finger and swiped in the air, closing the window floating in front of him.

He always has a strong sense of déjà vu.

I seem to have said something similar.

And at this moment, a light blue pop-up window suddenly appeared in front of his eyes without warning.

[Emergency mission triggered! 】

[Explanation: The morphological field device detects an abnormal individual, triggers the "flag6" judgment, and the login authority of player ID: "Luoyu" is temporarily frozen. 】

[Requirement: This task has been noted as the highest priority, and the coordinates have been updated to the map file of the shelter server. The manager is requested to recover the abnormal individual as soon as possible, and anesthetize it and place it on the B1 floor conveyor belt. 】

[Task Reward: Unlock B6 Floor]

It has been a long time since this task pop-up window appeared, and Chu Guang almost didn't recognize it when it popped up suddenly.

And when he saw the task reward, he was even more stunned.

B6 floor?
and many more……

Isn't the B5 floor still unlocked?
Why did you just skip it?
But what made him more concerned was the description of the urgent mission.

"... Abnormal individual?!"

What the hell?

Chu Guang was stunned for a few seconds, then turned on the holographic computer again when he came back to his senses, and gave instructions to his cute little assistant.

"Xiao Qi, immediately synchronize the latest coordinates received on the refuge server to my holographic computer."

Xiao Qi: "Got it!"

The coordinates quickly appeared on the map.

Just in the south of Luoxia Province, where the Lost Valley is located.

Seeing this coordinate, Chu Guang was even more confused.

He clearly remembered that a nuclear bomb had just exploded there a few hours ago.

Even if there are some players who want to go over to try what it feels like to be bombed by a nuclear bomb, they won't be able to survive a nuclear bomb, right?
Can this game still be played?
And just when Chu Guang was wondering what happened, there was a miserable wail on the official website forum.

"Zhuo!"

"I'm counting, why isn't the countdown to resurrection gone!!!"

(Thanks to the leader of "11 of 11" for the reward!!!)

(End of this chapter)