Chapter 1873: Ruined City
All the high-rise buildings in the city center are wrapped by this giant vine, and the life energy emitted by these giant vines is connected to each other, forming an invisible energy field. Although this energy field cannot completely block the ice and snow outside, it can block most of the cold, making the area in the city center warmer, forming a natural safe haven.
Logically speaking, this should be the most suitable area for biological survival and habitat in the harsh environment around. There should be a large number of various creatures here to avoid the blizzard, such as the wolf pack before.
However, the reality is that the wolves would rather endure the ravages of the blizzard than enter this relatively comfortable safe haven, and the same is true for other creatures.
In Leo's opinion, the only explanation for this abnormal phenomenon is that these vines densely growing in various high-rise buildings are not vegetarians.
Sure enough, when Leo scanned this area through the mental network, he found that in the basement of each building, the roots of the vines were piled with a large number of bones, some of which were animals and some were humans.
It is not difficult to see from these skeletons that neither animals nor humans had any resistance before death. There were no scars on the bones, and even the clothes worn by humans were not damaged. It felt like they were bewitched by some kind of power.
A picture also emerged in Leo's mind. In the picture, the animals and humans entered the basement of the building by themselves, and then sat next to the roots of the tree, allowing the tentacles of the roots to pierce into their bodies, and then the digestive fluids spit out by the roots melted into absorbable substances little by little, and finally only a skeleton was left.
Although it has been confirmed that these vines are carnivorous plants, and it can also be confirmed that these plants have a certain degree of wisdom, Leo does not intend to eradicate all of these plants. This is not because of the fruits that the vines just gave in a flattering manner, but because the shaman natural power he mastered allowed him to see that these vines do not exist in isolation, but are part of the fragile natural cycle of this world.
Although he was not sure which part of the natural cycle these carnivorous plants belonged to, he was sure that if he destroyed these plants, the fragile natural cycle of this world would inevitably be greatly shaken, which might eventually lead to the collapse of the natural cycle or a natural disaster that affected countless lives.
Leo had no intention of doing anything with these vines, nor did he leave immediately. Instead, he entered the basement of the nearest building and came to the pile of bones. He turned over the bones, picked out the human bones and the clothes they were wearing, and examined them carefully.
It is not difficult to see from these clothes that the deceased had a bad life before his death. The clothes were not only old, but also tattered. There were also some backpacks made of rags and leather in the clothes. Various items that could be regarded as garbage were stored in the backpacks. And there was not only one dead person dressed like this, but all the dead were dressed like this.
So Leo guessed that these people should have come here after the world fell into a disaster, and these vines appeared after the disaster, because among the human corpses under the vines, none of the corpses had complete and decent clothes.
In addition, Leo also saw some handmade gunpowder weapons and bullets next to these corpses. It can be judged from this that this world should not be safe, and the mechanical manufacturing technology of this world has reached the level of the old earth era, because he saw a lot of mechanical cutting, drilling and other craftsmanship traces on these gunpowder weapons.
However, what made him feel sorry was that he did not see any notes or other items that could directly provide a lot of information from these people. Fortunately, he saw a flyer and a photo in the clothes of a corpse.
The content of the flyer was that a caravan called Bilant Merchant Group was recruiting guards and providing food. The salary was three birsos per day, and the location was No. 55, the second business district of Newland.
Although this was just an ordinary recruitment flyer, it revealed a lot of useful information. For example, even if this world was shrouded in disasters, it still had basic commercial activities. This kind of commercial activity was likely to be commercial activities between cities, so this world had at least two or more large cities.
In addition, judging from the fact that food was highlighted on the flyer, the food in this world should be very short, so that providing food every day has become an extremely generous treatment.
This world still retains some currency functions, which means that this world has restored certain government functions after the disaster and can issue currency recognized by the public. Otherwise, the current transactions are barter, and no currency without any credit endorsement will be used at all.
Finally, there is the city called New Rand, and the abandoned city where Leo is now is called Rand. When entering the city, there are some broken notice boards with this name printed on them. Since it is New Rand, the residents there are likely to be built by the survivors of this city. With these skeletons now, it can be judged that the city of New Rand should not be too far from Rand.
Since there is a second business district, there must be a first business district, and the establishment of two business districts in a city is enough to prove that the business in this New Rand city should be very active.
From the flyer, Leo learned about what this world is like, and another photo showed more details more intuitively.
This photo should have been taken in a tavern. It is a group photo of about 30 people. Everyone is wearing old clothes and holding weapons. It looks like an armed team. The 30 people all have normal human appearance, and there are no mutants. The tavern where the 30 people are is a bit dilapidated. You can see some walls repaired by patchwork iron plates. The roof is flashing with some colorful neon lights. Coupled with the dim environment around, the whole photo looks a bit decadent, even if everyone who took the photo has a smile on their face.
Leo did not rush to leave, but stayed in this city for three or four days, looking through all the houses and collecting as much information as possible. Unfortunately, there was too little useful information to find, so he only had a general understanding of this world.
For example, this world is also surrounded by fog. In addition, this world has no oceans or mountains, but there are many lakes and endless plains and grasslands.
Before the disaster, life here was like a fairyland. There were countless aquatic products in the lakes, the plains were full of grain, and a large number of cattle and sheep were grazing on the grasslands. All these made it so that there was never a problem of food shortage here.
Later, a disaster came. As for what kind of disaster it was, there was no mention in the information Leo found, but it was definitely not the blizzard like now, because there was a somewhat blurred picture on the remaining newspaper. The content of the picture was probably a herdsman crying about something. Behind the herdsman, there were a large number of dead livestock lying on the grassland, so the first disaster that destroyed the world order should be related to the large-scale death of livestock.
When looking for information, Leo found two very interesting things. One is that all the information that can be preserved is books made of paper made of some special materials. This type of book is usually a travel guide. There are also some color newspapers. As for other papers, they are all rotten, leaving only some hard covers.
The second interesting thing is that the vines occupying each building will actively produce a dozen fruits and give them to Leo after Leo approaches. These fruits are not very delicious, but they are full of life energy. Although this life energy is useless to Leo, if ordinary people eat it, it should have some unknown effects. Even if it cannot promote the evolution of life to a certain level, it should be able to improve the physical fitness of the eater.
Leo did not eat these fruits, but kept them. Maybe when he came into contact with the civilization of this world, he could use these special fruits to trade with the people of this world.
Just when Leo searched the whole city and found nothing else useful, he was ready to leave here and look for the New Land City. Perhaps it was a coincidence that the blizzard that had been raging for several days gradually weakened at this time, and it seemed that it would stop soon.
However, although the blizzard stopped, the cold wind did not weaken, but increased a lot, which made the temperature colder than the previous blizzard. Such a cold temperature made the giant vines parasitic in the building also begin to curl up, and the exposed vines shrank into the building, and the epidermis began to harden rapidly, and finally formed a layer of shell that looked very similar to stone.
Leo could feel that after these giant vines changed, the life energy on their bodies was all restrained, as if they had entered hibernation.
Although the changes in the giant vines made Leo feel interesting, he did not want to stay and study, but continued his original plan to walk in the direction of the New Land City outside the city.
However, when he just walked to the edge of the city and was about to move towards the suburbs, he saw some movement at the end of the snow in front of him. After he looked carefully, he soon saw clearly that it was a group of people approaching this side quickly.
There were about 40 or 50 people in this group, all riding horses. They were not only equipped with guns, but also equipped with other cold weapons. In addition, they also wore equipment that looked like gas masks in the old earth era, giving people a cold feeling.
This group of people that Leo saw should be just the vanguard. From the snowflakes behind these people, it is not difficult to see that there are more people behind this group of people.
Leo did not think that the appearance of these people was a coincidence. In his opinion, it was more like the people here found the law of giant vines entering hibernation and determined that the giant vines were harmless at the moment, so they rushed to the Rand City that was already occupied by the giant vines with such fanfare.
As for the purpose of these people returning to Rand City, it seems to be very simple, that is, to collect various useful items left in this city before the disaster.
Although in Leo's eyes, all the items in this city are like waste and have no use, in the eyes of people in this world, the value of these items may not be measured by money.
For example, when Leo was searching the whole city, he found some well-preserved plant seeds in a place that should be a biological laboratory. These seeds are still active. They should have been collected by the laboratory staff before the disaster and placed in some special storage containers. Even after so many years, the containers are still intact.
In addition, Leo also found a large number of mechanical parts and some engine engines in a building. These parts and engines are well preserved and can be used at any time.
There are still many things like seeds and parts in the whole city, and Leo has no interest in these things, nor does he know how valuable they are, but for the people in this world, these things may be the most precious things in this world.
Although he saw the people in this world, Leo did not go forward, but retreated to an inconspicuous small house beside the road, watching the team approach, passing through the road in front of him, and then entering the city from where he came. Then he waited for a while and saw a group of about four or five thousand scattered teams, carrying a huge bag, stepping on thick snow, and walking towards the city.
Unlike the well-equipped team before, although these four or five thousand people were all wearing weapons, whether they were gunpowder guns or other cold weapons in their hands, they were very old, and they looked like they had been passed down for several generations.
In addition, their clothes were also tattered and old. Many of them had been patched repeatedly and could barely help the wearers block the cold wind outside. This was completely different from the neat leather windbreakers on the previous pair of horses. They did not wear any device similar to a gas mask. They only had a layer of cloth on their heads, covered their entire heads with hoods, and walked with difficulty with their heads down.
Among these people, there were not only adult men and women, but also elderly people and children. And judging from the groups of people walking, they were divided into at least a dozen groups.
After entering the suburbs near the city, this group of people stopped, and then some people who looked like leaders shouted a few orders to the people gathered behind them, and then these people dispersed in groups of three or five and searched the nearby houses.
In addition, more than a thousand people, led by several other leaders, walked towards the nearest high-rise building. It seemed that these people would not enter the city center like the previous pair of people. They just set their sights on the buildings on the edge of the city to see if they could find useful things from the buildings where the giant vines were parasitic when they entered the dormant period.
Leo followed behind these people without alarming them, and after these people dispersed, he followed the traces left on the snow and caught up with the team that had entered the city center before.
After entering the city center, the pair of people came to a building in the city center as if they had a clear goal. This building happened to be the biological building that Leo had searched before. There was a seed bank in this building, which stored a large number of seeds, including those special plant seeds stored with special devices.