"I always thought I was just an emotionless killing machine in FPS games, and just a quest expert who liked to rummage through boxes in RPG games."
"Until this morning, I found that a familiar person was missing from the guard team."
"I don't know the name of the guard, I just know that he is probably the oldest one in the guard team."
"Like other nameless NPCs, he lives a regular life, and his daily work only has three things, namely training, standing guard and patrolling. In addition, he has one day off a week, usually on Thursday or Sunday, and every day he will sit by the lake and watch us fishing to kill time."
"I'm not bragging, as a senior angler, I can tell at a glance whether a person is good at fishing. Few people can endure a whole day without catching anything, but he can sit next to us and watch us fishing for a whole afternoon."
"So I asked Mosquito to make a fishing rod for me, and warned him not to add any unnecessary functions to it, and then gave the fishing rod to the old man."
"The old man was very happy and thanked me many times. He wanted to give me silver coins, but when he saw that I didn't take them, he gave me a dagger the next day. At first I thought it was a task item and was quite excited, but later I found out that it was not. It was just an ordinary gift. But even so, this unique feeling is still very interesting."
"Later I taught him how to swing, how to make a nest, and how to make simple traps with bottles to catch leech babies as bait. Sometimes we would take the fish to the warehouse or the market to sell, and sometimes we would roast them to eat."
"I am like Robinson, who knows a little bit of everything. And he is like Friday, not very smart, but very studious, and curious about everything about us."
"Occasionally I would complain to him about some troubles in reality, and he would also talk about his own things, maybe about adventure, maybe about what he wants to do in the future, or something else."
"Even if we don't understand what each other is saying, surprisingly, this does not hinder our communication. And from him, I also learned a lot of interesting words, even if some of them I still don't know what they mean to this day."
"But... everything came to an abrupt end this morning."
"Solemn guards stood in a row at the north gate of Changjiu Farm and fired three shots into the air. I saw a teenager carry his body onto a truck, watched them cremate him, and then took his ashes to the lake, half scattered on the shore and half in the lake."
"Maybe this was his last wish."
"At that moment, I suddenly felt that those NPCs were like living people, not just a cold procedure."
"I never thought that one day I would become friends with the characters in the game, and I never thought that I would feel sad because of an unexpected farewell."
"For a moment, I hoped that it was me who died that night."
"In memory of a fishing friend who will never come back."
"Even if I didn't know his name in the end, I will remember his story, even if I am the only one who remembers it. "
The post is very long.
The building is very high.
Chu Guang rarely saw Shao Cheduzi posting on the forum before, but he only occasionally saw his replies in some posts.
But this time he wrote a lot.
In the subsequent replies, he told his memories of the old man from the perspective of a friend, including some interesting things that happened when fishing.
Although it is not a magnificent story, it is just some simple and unpretentious little things, but those words seem to be alive.
Makabazi: "Touch the fisherman..."
Tail: "Hmm."
Sisi: "Sorry, I couldn't save your friend."
WC Zhenyou Mosquito: "It's sad, it would be great if NPCs could also be resurrected."
Kuangfeng: "Well, but think about it from another perspective. Maybe it is because NPCs only have one life that we feel that the world in the game is so real. What we create is not just a meaningless number, but something that is endowed with soul. "
Ye Shi: "Ah, I know, but I still feel so depressed…"
Lao Bai: "This game is always too real in unnecessary places."
Fang Chang: "It's very similar to the unpredictable life."
Teng Teng: "Ah…"
Ya Ya: "Well, I feel bad. (>﹏)"
Chu Guang was silent for a long time after reading the last line. He typed a lot of words in the reply, but finally deleted it by pressing the backspace key.
He repeated this for a long time.
In the end, only one sentence was left.
Guang: "His name is Jixiang. "
...
The next morning sun rose as usual.
Although many people will never come back, life must go on.
For people living in the wasteland, death is the norm. Those who are not strong enough died two centuries ago, and they can't hold on until now with weak thoughts.
The training of the guard team is going on as usual.
Thirty new faces joined in and went to Changjiu Farm for training.
Most of them came from the refugee camp and signed up voluntarily.
Perhaps it was because they were inspired by those heroic deeds, or maybe it was just because of the steaming barbecue that made them feel that they had found their own home in this wasteland.
They didn't want to live a wandering life again.
There was no way to escape, so they decided to take up arms and defend the order and peace here with their own hands.
At the door of the sanatorium.
A fat rat came out of the door, stretched out his body in the snow covered with the morning sun, and spoke in human language.
"MMP! I'm finally alive! "
This is the only advantage that the rat man has.
Others need three days to survive, but he only needs one day of OB to be online.
The Elf King Fugui, who happened to have just come online and walked out of the sanatorium, looked at this guy unexpectedly and asked curiously.
"When did you die?"
Qiangrensuannan: "When else could I die? That night! I didn't even have a gun, but it was shot right under my nose, so I had to bite the bullet."
At this point, Qiangrensuannan sighed.
"Hey, I get angry when I think of this, MMPD, I just saw a gun and was about to rush up to pick it up, and then I was caught by a hyena. "
Elf King Fugui: "Ah, this..."
Mutated hyena.
Is this the most common monster in the wasteland?
Although it is slightly stronger than the gnawer, it is not much stronger. Because of its keen sense of smell and good night vision, many predators like to raise it. It is basically a species that novices can easily deal with. He can't even beat a hyena, so he usually recommends deleting the account.
But...
I heard that hyenas belong to the feline suborder?
There is nothing wrong with blood suppression.
The cat ears on the top of the head moved slightly, and Aoao Zhima looked at the fat mouse with sympathy.
"That's too miserable..."
It's embarrassing to say.
She didn't notice what he died of.
On the other side of the square, Tail, carrying a rifle, also just came out of the sanatorium.
But compared with yesterday's full of energy, his expression seemed a little depressed.
Seeing her worries at a glance, Sis said comfortingly.
"Don't worry, Weiba has tried very hard. Although it's a pity, there's nothing we can do about it. If you want to scold, just scold the planner for setting the difficulty too high."
"Well, I'm fine. I just think it would be better if I was stronger... But then again, aren't you afraid that you will be targeted by the planner for saying such things in the game?"
Rumors circulated on the forum, don't ridicule the planner in the game or forum, otherwise you will be killed at best or die on the spot.
Although it's metaphysics, sometimes you have to believe it.
Sisi immediately lowered his head, put his hands together, and reflected sincerely.
"Sorry, planner, I was wrong. Please forgive a girl who speaks without thinking for saying something without thinking."
"Huh!" Weiba looked at her in surprise, "You gave in too quickly, didn't you? "
At this time, the two happened to pass by the guard post of the outpost.
Weili subconsciously looked over there and suddenly stopped.
Sisi also stopped and cast an inquiring look at her.
"What's wrong?"
"Look over there."
Weili pointed in the direction of the guard post.
Sisi looked in the direction she pointed, and saw that next to the public notice board, there was a wall that had been built at some point.
Was it built yesterday?
Sisi showed a surprised expression on her face.
She had never noticed it before.
There were nails nailed to the wall, and some iron plates were hung on the nails.
"What's hanging on the wall?"
"Hmm... There are a total of 25. Are the names written on them? It's probably a soldier's card or something like that. "
So it's a memorial wall.
This design is quite wasteland style.
Is this an Easter egg from the production team?
Sis suddenly found that Tail seemed to be in a better mood than before.
"Let's go, Sis," Tail, who had regained his spirit, said with full energy, "In order to be promoted to the first echelon as soon as possible, there is no time to waste! The guys at the outpost are still waiting for Tail to protect them!"
Sis couldn't help but smile.
As expected.
Tail is still cuter when he is jumping around.
Although she thinks that everyone probably doesn't expect them to help.
"Oh!"
"In order to get the MVP next time, we have to work hard. "
…
North of Elm District.
An abandoned town sits on the edge of the forest, and even the howling north wind cannot blow away the bloody smell that settles there.
There used to be more than a hundred survivors living here, living a basically isolated life.
However, just a month ago, a group of looters arrived here and completely turned this isolated town into a hell on earth.
Some people could not stand the torture and were hung on the wall after being slaughtered, while a few survived and became their slaves.
The looters occupied their homes, took away their food for the winter, and transformed their houses into fortresses, placing wooden shelters on the streets and windows, digging trenches, and building simple fortifications.
This is not something looters would do.
Even if they had slaves to use, few people knew how to dig trenches and foxholes and where to dig them.
Building a position is a very sophisticated knowledge. For the predators who are used to small-scale raids and rushing in and out, this is a skill that is not used at all in normal times.
All this is thanks to their staff officer, the man named Bernie.
As the former centurion of the legion, his understanding and application of light infantry tactics can be said to have reached the level of perfection.
After all, no one who can survive the bombardment of the Great Rift Valley is an ordinary person.
Not only building positions.
Including the defense deployment from inside to outside, as well as the patrol route of the patrol team, are all planned by this staff officer himself.
It is precisely because of this that when Yang Er, covered in snow, stumbled out of the woods, he was immediately discovered by the predators who were patrolling with dogs.
"Don't shoot!"
"Don't shoot! I'm one of us!"
Seeing the two raider sentinels aiming at him, Yang Er immediately dropped his gun on the snow and raised his hands in a hurry.
"One of us?"
The raider walking in front raised his gun and looked him up and down with a suspicious expression.
"Whose account are you under? Who is your boss?"
Yang Er said immediately without even having time to catch his breath.
"Gray Wolf! I'm a scout under Gray Wolf's account... Please take me to see the captain, I have something important to report!"
The two raiders exchanged glances and felt that he didn't seem to be lying, so they took him to the sentry post on the edge of the town, searched him there, and sent someone to report the situation to the captain.
After learning the news, the captain agreed to meet him.
Soon, Yang Er was taken there.
As soon as he entered the room and saw the man sitting on the chair, he immediately knelt on the ground, his forehead pressed tightly against the floor, trembling and not daring to say a word.
Lion Fang, who was sitting on the chair, leaned lazily and looked down at him, speaking slowly.
"You lost?"
Yang Er swallowed his saliva and said with his head down.
"Yes, sir."
Bernie, who was sitting next to Lion Fang, looked at him and said.
"Tell me what happened the night before last."
Not daring to hide it, Yang Er immediately whispered.
"... After making all the preparations, we launched a surprise attack on Changjiu Farm under the command of Gray Wolf. However, the resistance of those survivors was more tenacious than we thought. We once captured their walls, but soon more and more reinforcements came, and we were eventually outnumbered."
Yang Er described what happened at that time in detail.
Including their fierce battle with the defenders at the north gate, including the rubber tracks of the local survivors, including the amazingly powerful "rapid-fire cannon".
"Quadruple anti-aircraft guns, and high-explosive shells..." Bernie, who was standing next to Lion Fang, listened carefully to the scout's statement. After thinking for a long time, he said solemnly, "These survivors are not easy to deal with."
Especially installing rubber tracks on the truck, which was an operation he had never expected. What made him even more confused was where did these people get so much rubber?
Lion Fang's expression was indifferent.
After all, he didn't expect Gray Wolf to take down the survivor's base.
Looking at the scout kneeling on the ground, he continued.
"Where's Gray Wolf?"
With his head pressed tightly against the floor, Yang Er said tremblingly.
"I don't know... Gray Wolf, he said he would stay to cover the rear."
Cover the rear?
This sentence successfully made Lion Fang laugh.
It's really a euphemism.
But it doesn't matter. Anyway, that guy is also a useless chess piece. It's not bad to use the lives of some foreigners to test the strength of the survivors in the northern suburbs of Qingquan City.
And it can also stimulate the cunning snake to take the first step.
It can be said that it kills two birds with one stone... Oh no, it kills three birds with one stone.
"Go away."
Hearing those three words, Yang Er felt as if a mountain had been removed from his shoulders. He breathed a sigh of relief in his heart, and he didn't realize that his back was soaked with sweat.
"Thank you, sir!"
He didn't dare to stay here for a second longer, and he turned around and left in a hurry.
The door closed.
Lion Fang looked at the staff officer sitting next to him and said in a nonchalant tone.
"I didn't expect that they were all wiped out."
Bernie looked at him strangely.
"I thought you did it on purpose."
Lion Fang shook his head gently.
"You misunderstood. I didn't think of letting him die outside. I just wanted to take this opportunity to knock this dishonest guy. Unexpectedly, this guy was so stubborn that he actually lost more than 150 people and himself there."
Bernie said.
"Then what is the signal gun you gave him?" Lion Fang said with a smile. "Of course it's for Black Snake." Bernie was silent for a while. For some reason, he suddenly thought of General Kraus, whose life and death were unknown, and the grand expedition that ended in failure. Maybe they were also abandoned pawns. Who knows? Those big guys never told them everything, at most they would only tell them what to do now. Including now. He still didn't understand why his superior chose to join a group of natives. The people in the Great Rift Valley did not kill them all, and they did have a chance to go home. "If Gray Wolf is captured, he will tell those people all our intelligence, which is not a good thing." Lion Fang said with a faint smile. "I know, but what does it matter? We are much stronger than them. Even if we see each other's cards, we have a better chance of winning. Now the only suspense is how long they can hold out against the attack of Black Snake. We must choose a perfect time to enter the battlefield, not too early, not too late... What do you think, my friend?"
Bernie thought for a while and shook his head.
"I don't know, but it may not be easy for Black Snake to win."
Lion Fang said disapprovingly.
"Just relying on that machine gun?"
Bernie continued.
"It's not a problem with a certain piece of equipment, but the survivors in the northern suburbs obviously have industrial capabilities and have been preparing for this war for a whole winter. And we have very limited intelligence, and we know nothing about their logistics. If this war drags on too long, it may not be a good thing for us."
However, if they can take down this survivor settlement, the benefits they can get from it will also be huge.
A survivor base with industrial capabilities is much richer than those agricultural communities.
The warehouses of the several strongholds they robbed before were so poor that only some yams and green wheat were left. If they could capture the northern suburbs of Qingquan City, their chances of attacking Boulder City would be much higher.
Lion Fang touched his chin.
"Then how do you think we should end this war as soon as possible?"
Bernie said.
"The best option is to act together with the friendly forces in the southern suburbs of Tianshui City."
"That's impossible," Lion Fang waved his hand and interrupted him, "I know that guy too well, he will definitely not cooperate with us."
Bernie smiled bitterly.
Noticing the expression on the staff officer's face, Lion Fang smiled and comforted him.
"Don't worry, this hard bone may be a little hard to chew, but it's just a little bit. We have an absolute advantage in both equipment and manpower. Even a mouthful of spit from each person can drown them."
"As long as our friendly forces take action and contain their frontal forces, I will immediately take my brothers out, unexpectedly appear on their flanks, and cooperate with our friendly forces to annihilate them in one fell swoop!"
"Don't you think this plan is perfect?"
And we can also allocate some manpower to capture their strongholds before Black Snake.
When that cunning and greedy guy sees his flag flying above Changjiu Farm, he will definitely be furious.
When he thought of this, Lion Fang couldn't help showing a happy expression on his face.
Looking at this overly optimistic centurion, Bernie sighed softly in his heart.
"You're right."
"This may be a very good plan."
If everything can really go as planned, it would be great.
It is a full 20 kilometers away from Changjiu Farm, and it is not easy to walk in the snowy area. There are forests and ruins in between. The team may be very long and consume a lot of physical strength.
Assuming that the black snake really fell into their trap and decided to take action before the end of winter and launch a lightning-fast offensive, then this 20 kilometers of snow may become the biggest variable in this battle.
Can they really kill those people's flanks like a god-like soldier when the battle is the most intense?
This is not as simple as drawing on a map.
At this moment, footsteps were heard outside the door, and a predator walked in quickly.
The man had an excited expression on his face.
After entering the house, he knelt on one knee and said in an excited tone.
"My lord!"
"The snake finally got out of its nest!"