When Chu Guang and his party arrived at the Third Ecological Protection Park in Qingquan City, the fire caused by the previous air raid had gradually died down.
However, the smell of barbecue in the air lingered for a long time.
The ten KV-1 exoskeletons of the Jungle Corps were standing at the entrance of the building.
Seeing the azure power armor coming from a distance, Midnight Chicken Killer immediately greeted it and saluted with his right fist against his chest.
"Dear Administrator! The predators in the area have been cleared, and the Third Ecological Protection Park is under your control!"
The expression of the chicken killer was loyal.
Players with a strong sense of substitution occasionally do this. Of course, some players do it for goodwill and hidden tasks.
"You did a good job." Chu Guang fulfilled his character setting and nodded approvingly at them.
At the same time, a pop-up window reminding the completion of the task was displayed on the VM of Midnight Chicken Killer and his teammates behind him.
[Mission: Raid Qingquan City Third Ecological Protection Park (Completed)]
[Reward: See the battle settlement list for details]
Seeing the mission rewards displayed in the VM, everyone's face showed a surprised expression.
500+ silver coins per person!
Such a high return can be said to be a bloody profit.
Sure enough, I have to brush up the level of the scientific expedition team in the future.
The mission has been completed, and Midnight Killing Chicken led the team members away happily. The hostile units here have been cleared, and there is no need to leave both corps here to stand guard.
Chu Guang led Yin Fang and He Ya to move forward, through the tree-lined streets, and walked into the vine-wrapped ecological protection park in front of them.
"Do zoos in the Human Union era look like this?" Chu Guang looked at the fully enclosed giant egg in front of him, and always felt that this place was more like a gymnasium than a zoo.
He Ya also looked around curiously, but she was more interested in the wasteland vegetation in this area.
This is completely different from what she saw in the VR device, and even slightly different from the steep pine and cypress trees in the northern suburbs of Qingquan City.
It seems to come from another world.
"It is said that the ones for tourists to see in the city look like this, and the large ecological protection area outside the city looks completely different. After the war broke out, the animals here all ran away, and the monkeys active in this area probably went out from here."
Chu Guang glanced at her in surprise.
"Do monkeys before the war also have scales on their backs?"
He Ya said: "Gene mutation + natural selection, maybe monkeys with scales on their backs are more likely to survive here, as for how the scales come from, only they know."
At this time, Yin Fang, who had been staring at the tablet without saying anything, suddenly looked up and said something.
"Found it."
Chu Guang looked at Yin Fang.
"What did you find?"
Yin Fang continued with an interested expression on his face.
"I just restored the information about this ecological protection park from a damaged court record... In 2113, twelve years before the outbreak of the war, a major event or scandal occurred in the Third Ecological Protection Park of Qingquan City, which shocked the entire human union at the time."
Chu Guang had a strange expression.
"What kind of scandal could a zoo have?"
"An unauthorized experiment involved the life safety of 23,000 tourists. The 20 researchers and professors involved were all expelled from their academic institutions, and the relevant persons in charge were prosecuted. The entire ecological protection park was almost closed..." Yin Fang slid his index finger on the tablet, browsing the newly restored information while talking excitedly.
Chu Guang was not interested in trivial matters from two hundred years ago.
But when he heard about the experiment, he raised his eyebrows with interest.
"What is the content of the experiment?"
"It is related to the colony of the Human Union and the resonance field theory," Yin Fang turned off the tablet and looked ahead excitedly, "It has been more than two hundred years, and it was before the war. There are only so many clues that can be restored from public information, but we will figure it out soon."
The entrance to Shelter No. 401 is in the basement of the Ecological Protection Park, and the players have marked the location of the entrance with VM.
As for the control room of the mind interference field, it is on the third floor of the Ecological Protection Park.
After entering the dome-shaped building, the group split up.
Yin Fang went to the entrance of Shelter No. 401, and Chu Guang issued a task to let Kuangfeng follow him and be responsible for his safety. In addition, Chu Guang also equipped Yin Fang with a hummingbird drone and asked Xiaoqi to support him within his ability.
As for Chu Guang himself, he took Heya straight to the third floor.
As soon as the two arrived at the door, before they entered, they heard the sound of quarreling and cursing from inside.
"You beast! This punch is for my dead compatriots!"
"Enough, calm down... I am also a victim, you can't count all the people killed by the predators on me?!"
"Haha, victim? I'm tui!"
In the control room.
Two old men over fifty years old wrestled with each other, cursing in an incomprehensible language.
The old man who was still strong and wearing a blue coat was probably in the wrong, and he was always on the defensive, and he glanced nervously at the players standing next to him from time to time, as if he was worried that they would attack.
The other old man in tattered clothes, who punched hard, was aggressive, but he had a lot of ailments and no strength in his fists and feet. He didn't see the other side's nose and face bruised after a flurry of punches, but made himself out of breath.
As for the players?
Of course, they stood aside and watched the show.
They didn't even understand what they were saying, so how could they intervene?
Kuangfeng had gone out earlier. The best person here was Fang Chang. However, the so-called good was only relative to other players. The parallel analogy was the level of "junior high school English" versus "bulk English".
Scrambled eggs with tomatoes looked at his teammates with a subtle expression.
"Should we pull them apart?"
Lao Bai looked at Fang Chang.
The latter thought for a moment and shook his head.
"Don't act rashly. What if the plot is triggered?"
Quit smoking nodded suddenly.
"That makes sense!"
Then let them continue to fight.
Anyway, the two old men have little combat power, and there is no need to worry about causing death.
At this moment, the door of the control room opened. Seeing the power armor that appeared at the door, the eyes of several players in the room suddenly lit up.
Here it comes!
The plot really started!
"Stop!"
A loud voice came from the door, causing the two old men who were fighting to stop their hands involuntarily and look at the azure power armor.
Among them, the old man with sparse hair and tattered clothes obviously recognized the equipment on Chu Guang. A trace of excitement appeared in his cloudy pupils, and even tears appeared.
"Mr. Seven... is that you?"
Seven?
Is this old man from Shelter No. 117?
Chu Guang's expression was subtle, and his index finger tapped the side of the helmet twice to unlock the locked mask.
When he saw the young face under the helmet, the old man was stunned on the spot.
"... I am the manager of Shelter No. 404 and the manager of the New Alliance. You can call me Chu Guang. As for the Seven Willard you mentioned, he died many years ago."
The old man's expression dimmed and his eyebrows drooped slightly.
"Dead... yes, it's been so many years."
The old man in a blue coat next to him panted and muttered softly.
"New Alliance? That post-war reconstruction committee? Didn't it fail more than a century ago?"
At this time, Heya suddenly came in from behind Chu Guang, stared at the ragged old man for a few seconds, and suddenly cried out in surprise.
"Zhao Yuan?!"
The old man looked at Heya and was stunned for a moment.
"You are... Heya?"
She didn't expect to see her fellow villagers in the same shelter 20 years later, and nodded excitedly.
"It's me! How did you... become like this?"
"Natural aging... I wasn't young 20 years ago, let alone now," the old man's eyes were a little evasive, and he seemed a little guilty.
Chu Guang glanced at Heya, who rarely showed excitement.
He originally thought that she would hate these traitors who destroyed her homeland, but he didn't expect that she would be unexpectedly open-minded after seeing her compatriots.
"Your acquaintance?"
"Yes!"
Her long white hair swayed gently, and Heya nodded vigorously, saying excitedly, "He and my master are experts in bionic organs. I didn't expect that everyone is still alive... By the way."
Heya looked at the old man and asked expectantly.
"Where is Karen? Isn't my master with you?"
"She went to the south... Many people followed that guy named Wang Yi," the old man named Zhao Yuan said to himself in a low voice with anger and regret in his eyes, "None of those wastelanders are good, they should be left to fend for themselves! I should have recognized this earlier!"
Chu Guang stared at the old man for a while.
"Are you from the Torch Church?"
"Torch Church? Do you mean Torch?" The old man was stunned for a moment, lowered his head and said softly, "I did join Torch more than 20 years ago... This is also the thing I regret most in my life."
It seems that Torch had not yet developed into a religion at that time, and this old man did not know where those companions who parted ways with him went and what they did.
Chu Guang nodded thoughtfully.
The man standing in front of him was probably one of the "rebels" at the beginning of Torch, and it was their behavior that led to the destruction of Shelter No. 117.
Judging from the old man's tattered clothes and weather-beaten face, he has suffered a lot in the past 20 years.
Chu Guang looked at the other old man and looked at the blue coat on him.
"What about you? Are you also a survivor of Shelter No. 117?"
Before the old man spoke, Zhao Yuan on the side stared at him and glared at him.
"He's not from Shelter No. 117, he's just a dog, a dog raised by those robbers!"
"Sun Zewen, from Shelter No. 401," Ignoring the cursing old man, the old man in a blue coat cleared his throat and said politely, "Dear manager of Shelter No. 404, and the master of the New Alliance... Thank you for helping us in times of crisis."
Disdaining the man's pretense, Zhao Yuan sneered.
"Mr. Chu Guang, please don't believe his sweet words, he is clearly an accomplice of the group of predators! According to the laws of the Human Alliance, he should be sentenced to at least 300 years in prison for crimes against humanity, and he should not be frozen dormant."
Seemingly stimulated by a word in this sentence, Sun Zewen, who was polite a second ago, suddenly glared at the old man next to him.
"I just wanted to survive. What did I do wrong?! Who let those outsiders in? Was it me? And I refuse to admit your accusation. I did nothing except helping them tame a group of monkeys."
"Didn't do anything?" Zhao Yuan looked at him with disdain. "Including the girl they gave you as a reward? You are hundreds of years apart. You really had the heart to do that."
Sun Zewen's old face turned red, then purple. He couldn't live in Bengbu anymore. He held it in for a long time and choked.
"I... I couldn't help it! If I didn't accept it, have you ever thought about what would happen to her? And what hundreds of years... You can't count the time I was dormant."
Chu Guang listened to the quarrel between the two with interest. He probably restored the original appearance of the matter. At this time, he noticed the miserable corpse in the corner and asked the players.
"Who is that person?"
Trash King, shaking his tail, stepped forward excitedly.
"I killed him!"
"He is Tus!"
Although he didn't understand what Chu Guang said just now, Zhao Yuan probably guessed that the manager was probably asking about the identity of the dead man, so he continued.
"He is the leader of the bandits here, and he has killed countless people. It can be said that he is extremely evil and deserves to die! Please don't blame your soldiers."
Chu Guang smiled.
"Of course I won't blame them. In the territory of the New Alliance, we have always had a zero-tolerance attitude towards predators."
Hearing this, the old man named Sun Zewen trembled.
"Sir, I--"
Chu Guang looked at him.
"I believe you are helpless. The laws of the New Alliance will not trace back to the past. I don't care what you did before. From the moment I stand here, I hope you can become a useful person to society and civilization again."
Now is the Wasteland Era, an era more chaotic than the troubled times. Humans have even fallen to the top of the food chain. It is meaningless to trace back to the past at this time.
Besides, there are no truly good people in this wasteland.
Including Zhao Yuan himself.
Chu Guang doesn't think those torches are good things, but he doesn't want to pursue what happened in other shelters.
Sun Zewen lowered his head and said tremblingly.
"Thank you for your kindness."
Zhao Yuan's face still had a trace of resentment, but he didn't say anything else.
These people saved his life.
Now that he has said this, he won't force them to understand and sympathize with the suffering he has endured.
At this time, footsteps were heard in the corridor outside the door.
Yin Fang, who returned from Shelter No. 401, held a tablet in his hand and pushed the door open like a gust of wind.
"It's amazing! You can't guess what I found!"
Before Chu Guang asked what he found, Yin Fang shouted excitedly.
"Resonance field!"
"I didn't expect that the thing I was looking for for half a year was actually here!"
Take a deep breath, he looked at Chu Guang and said excitedly.
"We picked up a treasure!"
...
Everything started more than two hundred years ago.
Two years earlier than the scandal that almost closed the zoo, in about 2111, a letter from a distant colony and the samples carried in the letter caused a sensation in the entire biological and sociological community.
The original letter can no longer be found, but as a professional archaeologist, Yin Fang still restored the general meaning of the letter based on limited clues.
In short, the colony was plagued by alien creatures, and the frequent organic activities seriously threatened the safety of the colonists.
At first, the colonists used the "infrasonic fence" prepared by the mother planet to drive away the alien creatures. However, in long-term practice, they found that the seemingly harmless infrasonic fence would cause serious damage to the health of the colonists.
Due to the limited scientific research conditions of the colony, the colonists hope that the academic community of the mother planet can lend a hand to help them develop a harmless shielding field to prevent alien creatures from harassing the colony.
After obtaining the consent of the relevant departments of the Human Union, the colonists sent several samples of extraterrestrial creatures, and this was the first time that the Human Union mother planet accepted biological specimens from the colony.
Before this, if biologists of the Human Union wanted to study creatures in the alien galaxy, they could only take the immigration flight that only runs once a month to go there in person.
Since the Human Union has just stepped into the starry sea, it is not proficient in the mastery of gravitational channels, and the development level of the extragalactic colonies is low, so the flights to the colonies are basically one-way tickets, and it is difficult to come back after going there.
It is conceivable how precious these samples are.
The samples and help information from the colonies soon attracted widespread attention from all walks of life in the Human Union, and the research on the substitute of the "infrasonic fence" has become a hot topic at the moment, attracting the participation of countless scholars.
"Wait... extrasolar colonies?"
Listening to Yin Fang's narration, Chu Guang rubbed his brow with his index finger and said with a slight headache, "I always thought that the territory of the Human Union only reached the Kuiper Belt."
Heya was also confused.
She grew up in a shelter since she was a child. Let alone extrasolar colonies, it was only a few months ago that she saw the sky.
Yin Fang said patiently.
"This statement is indeed correct. After all, going to extrasolar colonies and going to Mars and the Moon colonies are completely different concepts... But this has nothing to do with us. No matter where it is, it is too far away from us. I don't know much more than you."
Yin Fang coughed lightly and corrected the topic that Chu Guang had led astray.
"Let's continue with the previous topic... The dissection of alien life forms has opened the eyes of the academic community. Reliable evidence shows that these alien life forms have evolved a unique honeycomb social form in tens of thousands or even tens of millions of years of evolution. They will work together like ants, each doing their own job, selectively expressing their genes according to the needs of the group, and even modifying their own genes."
"Is it surprising? A group of aliens who haven't even invented the internal combustion engine have mastered the secrets of evolution. If I were born in that era..."
Yin Fang's eyes were filled with envy, and he continued to talk while looking at the tablet in his hand.
"In short, based on these research results, the research team of the Institute of Biology of Nantianmen University brought out the 'resonance theory' and boldly made a conjecture that those alien life forms are dominated by a unified consciousness."
"In order to prove this conclusion, the head of the research team found a medical company called Silver Hope, and used their resources to connect with the Third Ecological Protection Park of Qingquan City, hoping to use the venue and animals here to study the resonance field."
Chu Guang: "...Did they succeed?"
"More than successful, it was simply too successful," Yin Fang said in admiration, "They were inspired by those alien biological specimens, and proposed the resonance theory based on the resonance theory, and designed a mind interference device - it can output specific information and amplify it exponentially in individuals."
"This kind of information can be as specific as a sentence, or even a complex picture, or it can be a vague dream, or just a pure emotion. The higher the mind, the more specific the information that can be received, but the relatively smaller the impact. The lower the mind, the less information can be received, but the relatively greater the impact."
Chu Guang touched his chin.
"I see."
The intelligence of monkeys is probably between that of humans and hyenas?
They have a certain level of intelligence and can understand simple commands, but their intelligence is not high, so they will be affected by the mind interference device.
The mind interference device designed by Shelter No. 401 is quite similar to the one used by the Torch Church.
However, the latter has probably been improved to a certain extent, turning the "AOE skill" into a point-to-point single-target skill.
"...This device is much more reliable than the infrasonic fence. It not only consumes less energy, has more application scenarios, and has fewer side effects, but also only affects specific life forms, and the frequency is adjustable."
"As long as the surrounding alien creatures continue to output fear, they will consciously stay away from the colony. And when used in the field of agriculture and animal husbandry, it can also make animals reproduce faster."
"However, the company that sponsored them was obviously not satisfied with the current results. They soon set their sights on customers, so the experiment continued, but the subjects changed from animals in the zoo to tourists."
"All signs show that they still succeeded. Although it is difficult for people with higher minds to be directly affected by this device, under the constant stimulation of "buying it", the sales of souvenirs in the ecological protection park hit a record high. Many tourists even paid for a set of smart wearable devices for a product worth less than a bottle of mineral water... This almost subverted the advertising industry."
Chu Guang stared at Yin Fang in amazement.
"Is this okay?"
"People in the Prosperity Era are all monsters... whether they are researchers or merchants," Yin Fang sighed sincerely, "Of course, it is true that the company was fined to bankruptcy in the end. People who treat others as fools usually don't end up well. All the people involved have been prosecuted. It is said that the one with the heaviest sentence has not yet ended his sentence."
Listening beside him, Sun Zewen's blushing face showed a trace of guilt.
"Don't say anymore..."
These data are stored in the deepest part of the server of Shelter No. 401. He has never told anyone about it, and he doesn't know how this guy dug these things out.
Chu Guang looked at the guy in front of him in surprise.
"You have also been sentenced?"
Damn.
Talent!
It was the first time he saw the old popsicle from the Human Alliance era.
Responding to Chu Guang's surprised eyes, Sun Zewen said with a wry smile.
"I am just a small researcher... The main responsible person was indeed sentenced to a heavy sentence, but it is not to the point of being settled on our heads."
Yin Fang looked at him with interest and said.
"You even got a ticket to Shelter 401."
Sun Zewen was silent for a moment and nodded.
"Yes, I don't deny that my survival is somewhat related to the research I am engaged in. After all, technology itself is innocent. It can help fellow colonists get rid of the invasion of alien creatures. It's just a pity... this new thing that has just been born has been used in the wrong place by the wrong people."
"I agree with you. Technology itself is neither right nor wrong. It is the people who use it that need to be supervised." Chu Guang nodded approvingly and continued after a pause.
"Now it's not just the distant world, but the land under our feet is suffering from the invasion of alien species. The New Alliance needs your technology. I hope you can use your technology to do something more meaningful."
With this thing, the prevention and control of alien species no longer needs to rely on walls, and farmlands, pastures and villages near the settlements no longer have to worry about the harassment of alien species.
However, this technology is not without risks.
Once the frequency is adjusted to the range adapted to the human brain, it is equivalent to opening Pandora's box.
Although the influence of spiritual resonance on higher mental life forms is limited, continuous emotional input is still equivalent to brainwashing.
And this influence is indiscriminate.
Thinking that the Torch Church also possesses similar technology, Chu Guang can't help but be secretly alert.
He is a person with a bottom line.
But it is hard to say whether others have it.
He must take over the legacy of Shelter No. 401, not only to deal with aliens and waves, but also to research countermeasures.
"Of course, respected Mr. Administrator..." Sun Zewen lowered his eyebrows and bowed, "It is my honor to serve the great new alliance."
To be honest, he doesn't care about these at all.
The world has become like this, and the knowledge in his head is useful to anyone. At least the man in front of him looks much better than those predators.
Zhao Yuan, who was standing aside, didn't speak the whole time.
He looked at Sun Zewen, who decisively surrendered to the new master, and then looked at Chu Guang wearing the former administrator's equipment, and suddenly spoke.
"You said the same thing to that person."
Chu Guang saw that he was talking to him and looked at him curiously.
"Which person?"
"Wang Yi... the boy we rescued from the wasteland. We raised him up. Because of him, he split twice. Maybe we shouldn't have opened the door that day." Regret flashed in his turbid pupils, and the old man lowered his head.
Chu Guang remembered this name.
This name was the beginning of the disintegration of Shelter No. 117, and it was also the leader of the Torch Church more than a decade later - his believers called him "the Son of God".
Since contacting the Pioneer, Chu Guang has been trying his best to collect intelligence on the major forces in the wasteland and identify useful clues.
"I've been wanting to ask you since just now. After you came out of Shelter No. 117, did you stay here for a while?"
"Shelter No. 401 extended an olive branch to us. Their mind interference device can drive away alien species within a three-kilometer range. We originally planned to establish a base here, and then take over the old stubborn people in Shelter No. 117 and slap them in the face with a beautiful new home... But that Wang Yi, he thought we should continue to go south to find the specimen of that alien life form."
Zhao Yuan's Adam's apple moved, and he said in a heavy tone.
"We parted ways again... There were only three people left except me, and the rest followed that Wang Yi to the south. I even suspect that they were all brainwashed by that resonance field and mind interference device."
"Don't spit blood, the resonance field doesn't have this function," Sun Zewen, who had defected to his new employer, was much tougher than before, looking at the old man and sneered, "Have you never looked for the reason in yourself? For example, it's too easy to be deceived?"
Zhao Yuan was angry again.
"Who do you think is easy to fool!"
Seeing that the two were about to quarrel again, Chu Guang was about to step out to stop them.
However, at this moment, Heya suddenly whispered.
"Karen... my master is still alive."
The anger in his pupils was gradually replaced by guilt, and the old man slowly lowered his head and said in silence for a long time.
"I don't know..."
"But she is like you, and can live a long time under normal circumstances."
"If nothing unexpected happens, she should still be here."