newbobooks Chapter 628 Wasteland Era
Chapter 628 Wasteland Era
Chapter 628 Wasteland Era
Tang Zijun and the others were not kept waiting for long.
About half an hour later, a slowly moving black dot came into view on the horizon of the ice field.
The black dot gradually became clearer; it was a large, rugged icebreaker.
The vehicle body was made of thick, rusted steel plates covered with welding marks. The huge tracks rolled over the ice with a dull creak. The exhaust pipe on the roof spewed out thick black diesel smoke with the smell of unburned heavy oil, leaving a dirty trail under the leaden sky. The front of the vehicle was equipped with a huge alloy ice-breaking plow that looked like the fangs of a giant beast, with frozen icicles hanging on it.
The icebreaker stopped a few dozen meters away from the three people, its heavy engine still running, humming softly. The thick bulletproof glass of the driver's cab rolled down, revealing two weathered, inhuman faces.
It's Xiao Yue and Zhang Wei.
Both of them were wearing heavy, oil-stained, and ice-crystal-covered combat suits. When they saw Tang Zijun standing in the wind and snow, Xiao Yue's tired eyes instantly lit up with an uncontrollable light of surprise, and Zhang Wei's rugged face also broke into a big smile as he waved vigorously through the wind and snow.
"Brother Tang, Director Chang, over here!" Xiao Yue's voice came through the howling wind and snow, filled with excitement and a hint of hoarseness.
Tang Zijun stepped forward against the wind and snow, her gaze sweeping over the frostbite marks on their faces and the obvious wear and tear on their combat uniforms. Her tone was filled with familiar concern. "Even though you're using borrowed bodies, don't take it so lightly. Look at these frostbite..."
The wasteland's winds and snow don't care whether you're sentient beings or not.
He walked to the car, reached out and patted the frost-covered, icy armor plates, his brow furrowing slightly. "Didn't Fang Xin provide you with a car that was better insulated?"
Zhang Wei swayed, a lot of bark falling off his body, but he just chuckled and didn't care. "Don't even mention it. Fang Xin is a very busy man now. The Dragon Group has a lot of messes to deal with. It really can't function without him. This old car is already the best in Ash Brickland. It's good enough that it can run, crash, and withstand the impact of radiation beasts. Frostbite is nothing. We can just soak it in some disinfectant when we get back."
He patted his broad chest. "We're in good shape."
Xiao Yue's smile faded, his gaze turned serious. He looked at Chang Lei behind Tang Zijun and Shi Yao, who seemed to blend into the shadows, before finally returning his gaze to Tang Zijun, his voice lowered.
"Brother Tang, although Fang Xin didn't come, he brought us the latest intelligence and support from the highest level. He said... the clues to the mute girl you're looking for point to a very dangerous area deep within Forgotten Canyon. Several of our men have been lost without being able to get deep enough, and..." He paused, his tone heavy. "It's been quite unsettled there lately. The radiated beast hordes have become unusually agitated, and there are eyewitness reports of seeing large, seemingly modified androids."
"Furthermore, there are rumors that traces of the gods of the ages appearing there..."
Upon hearing this, Tang Zijun's eyes instantly sharpened like a knife, and even the cold wind of the wasteland ice field seemed to freeze for a moment.
He nodded slightly. "This timeline shouldn't have epochal gods."
Tang Zijun spoke very carefully. He did not immediately deny the possibility, even though he was very reluctant to believe it. After all, he had personally protected this timeline, and the last being here to be called "God" had been killed by Scáthach.
"We are also considering the veracity of this matter," Zhang Wei said in a deep voice. "The events that occurred in Glory City have spread over this period of time. More and more resistance forces have risen up and destroyed several AI bases in succession, but none of them have been stopped by the Gods of the Epoch. More and more wastelanders believe that the Gods of the Epoch have really disappeared, but at this time, such rumors suddenly appear. It is estimated that they are deliberately spread by people with ulterior motives."
"Putting everything else aside, if the gods of the era really still exist in this world, why don't they show themselves? Besides, the premise of this rumor is very strange. If someone really discovered traces of the gods of the era, would they still be alive?"
"Of course, that's not necessarily true." Xiao Yue voiced the opposing viewpoint, looking at Tang Zijun and saying, "The Gods of the Epochs have failed more than once, whether in the Pocket Universe, the real world, or the City of Glory. The fall of several gods has proven that they are no match for the Wolf Riders. Even if the Gods of the Epochs still exist in this world, I'm afraid they wouldn't dare to show their faces now."
"Okay, that makes sense..." Zhang Wei shrugged.
Clearly, they haven't come to a satisfactory conclusion either.
The group boarded the vehicle, making the rugged carriage cramped. Once everyone was buckled in, Tang Zijun continued, "Leaving aside the rumors about the gods of the era, how has things been here while I was away?"
Upon hearing this, Zhang Wei immediately perked up.
"The second phase of the Ash Bulwark expansion is complete, and the underground deep farm is up and running. Although the potatoes grown there smell like machine oil, at least no one will starve. There's a saying that goes, 'Infrastructure is the lifeblood of the wasteland.'"
"When I was online before, I saw netizens say that we have the genes for farming and infrastructure construction. I didn't believe it at the time. Hey, now it seems that we are actually quite capable. Let me tell you, Brother Tang, you will definitely be shocked when you go back this time. Our place is completely different every day."
Xiao Yue, standing to the side, leaned against the cold interior wall of the armor, a gas mask hanging around his neck. "Infrastructure is fundamental, but in this wasteland... people's hearts are more chaotic than a radiation cloud."
"How so?" Chang Lei raised an eyebrow.
"The news of the fall of the City of Glory... spread like wildfire. At first, no one believed it, who dared to believe it? But later, the temple went completely dark, the signal tower of the gods of the era was gone, and even those fanatical believers who had gone mad and modified their bodies either took their own lives or became complete walking corpses—"
He paused, his fingers unconsciously tracing lines between several marked points on the map, as if outlining invisible cracks. "Now, even the dumbest scavengers in the wasteland understand the sky pressing down on them," the Gods of the Era... are gone.
The only sounds in the carriage were the roar of the engine and the screeching of the tracks crushing the ice.
"And then?" Chang Lei's voice drifted from the shadows, hoarse and metallic. His eyes were closed, as if sensing the cold pulse of this purely material world, a chilling smile playing on his lips. "A sheepfold without sheepdogs?"
"It's a pack of wolves unleashed." Xiao Yue's voice grew even colder as he jabbed his finger hard at several red dots on the map.
"Up north, in Anvil City, those guys with their 'Torch of Freedom' signs were shouting their slogans louder than anyone else, talking about building some kind of atheistic new order," he sneered. "And what happened?" "They turned around and seized the largest water treatment plant in the Rust Belt, throwing all the men, women, and children working there into a high-radiation zone like livestock, under the guise of... purifying souls poisoned by God."
Zhang Wei spat on the cold metal floor and continued, "The Western Fortress of the Dead is even crazier. It used to be the madhouse of the Steel Gospel. Their iron god is gone, and these lunatics seem to have had their last ounce of strength pulled out. They're burning any piece of paper with writing on it, arresting people, tying them to abandoned anti-aircraft turrets as live targets to practice their marksmanship, shouting things like 'Flesh and blood are weak, steel ascends to heaven.'"
"And those rats in the wasteland." Xiao Yue pointed to several chaotic areas marked with black skulls on the map. "The Gear Mafia and the Plutonium Brotherhood, who used to only dare to gnaw on bones in the sewers of the ruins, have all come out now, fighting for territory, stealing water purification chips, and even taking people who can still breathe to work as laborers. Now even abandoned shipping containers have become strategic locations. Yesterday they were neighbors, today they're fighting tooth and nail over a can of expired antibiotics."
His voice carried a deep, bone-deep weariness: "Negotiations, rules—these things are useless in the wasteland. Now it's all about the size of the gun barrels. Everyone's frantically building weapons, recruiting people, and seizing territory." He gazed out the car window at the leaden sky, which seemed to threaten to crush everything. "The wasteland right now is a giant powder keg, crammed full of madmen..."
Ambitious people and desperate people... are just waiting for a spark.
Zhang Wei sighed heavily. "The Dragon Group is now the last wet rag blocking this powder keg. We have to prevent the keg from exploding and sending everyone to their deaths, and we also have to watch out for those mutated beasts crawling out from under the keg and biting people..."
"There's an arms race going on everywhere right now, and our diplomatic efforts aren't going to be very effective." He looked at Tang Zijun, his eyes filled with complex emotions. "And the girl you're looking for... just happens to be in Forgotten Valley. That place is even more chaotic now, with several groups of people heading there, all trying to find clues about the gods of the era..."
Silence enveloped the carriage once more, with only the stubborn roar of the icebreaker and the sobbing of the ice field.
It is said that when a whale falls, all things are born. The abnormal development that the gods of the era brought to this world will inevitably change because of their demise. And when the gods of the era, who have been pressing down on everyone, disappear, countless ambitious people will inevitably emerge from the darkness.
>