Chapter 745 The Last Trump Card (1/2)

Panghuang Swamp, the far north.

The cold wind and snow are like thousands of shuttles, weaving the endless whiteness into the endless flow of the Milky Way.

This is not only the northernmost point of the academy, but also the northernmost point of the entire Central Continent. The temperature is below minus 20 degrees all year round, and even reaches minus 100 degrees at the coldest time.

The extreme climate is a natural barrier, just like the desert surrounding the oasis of Luoxia Province.

Only a few species with thick hair and fat can move in this area.

However, in this bitter cold land that is frozen for thousands of miles, there is one of the most prosperous settlements in the Wandering Swamp.

Its name is Binghai City.

As the name suggests, this settlement is located on the edge of a permanently frozen coast.

The settlement hundreds of meters high is entirely made of alloy, just like a giant ax draped on an iceberg. The metal walls exude a cold light in the wind and snow.

It is said that more than two centuries ago, this place was the seed bank of the People's League. It was not until a century and a half ago that it was transformed into a settlement, home to the first batch of technical personnel who broke away from the post-war reconstruction committee.

Later, when the Science and Technology Committee was established, this place was placed under the management of the Science and Technology Committee.

However, although it is managed by the Science and Technology Committee, because of the special nature of this settlement, the people living here do not have a difficult life.

The howling wind, snow and severe cold are blocked out by the walls of the settlement. Except for the seed area embedded in the iceberg, which can feel the cold of tens of degrees below zero, several other production areas and living areas can even be said to be like four seasons. spring.

Besides, people here don't work too hard.

The most common position is that of a gardener, and the "hardest" job required is nothing more than regularly tending some special crops grown in tropical climate conditions in a hot and sweaty greenhouse, and spending most of the time looking at the monitor. drinking tea with screen.

In addition to the most common gardeners, the most sought-after positions here are undoubtedly the assistants and apprentices recruited by the college's full-fledged researchers.

Different from the current apprentices in the college, the apprentices in Ice Sea City are just a job, usually tied to a specific research project, and are mainly open to young survivors between the ages of 12 and 18 who have excellent higher education examinations.

Although the salary of this position is no different from that of a gardener, for a child who is preparing for the exam every December, it is an excellent opportunity to get in touch with tutors and scientific research work in advance.

As long as these boys and girls act a little smarter and are not stupid enough to offend their bosses, they will be taken care of to some extent.

After all, most of their bosses have also experienced that exam and understand their current situation. While participating in work, they also have to prepare for the exam that determines the fate of their lives.

Usually, just one or two words of advice can save these children several years of detours.

And when they pass the assessment and become real apprentices, a letter of recommendation or just a name on their work resume will allow them to spend their apprenticeships more easily than the children in other areas of the Science and Technology Commission, and even get the approval of a certain mentor. Recognize, skip the rank of prospector, and directly become an honorable researcher.

Even if he takes a step back and fails to become a formal apprentice of the college after taking exams for N years, and has to give up his position to others when he reaches the age of 18, this apprentice from Ice Sea City can usually be promoted in the settlement because of his scientific research experience. Get a good job, or even enter the management of the Science and Technology Committee to start another life.

It is precisely because of the favorable conditions here that any researcher who has some energy and a deep affection for his family will find a way to move his family to this settlement.

Researchers who leave this settlement will take care of their hometown to some extent and help this settlement within their ability.

It is precisely because of this that although the researchers of the college do not directly participate in the management of the gathering place under the Science and Technology Committee, it still gives the settlement of Binghai City a transcendent status, and even formed a name for Binghai City among the students. regional factions.

It's just that because people in the academy are relatively indifferent and interpersonal relationships are weak, factions that rely on blood and geography are not as strong as factions that have direct interests. Therefore, this faction is not very popular and only has influence on some insignificant issues. force.

For example, the special zone jointly established by the alliance and the college.

As far as the college is concerned, this special zone can be built anywhere in the Science and Technology Committee. Anyway, the core interests of most researchers are within the college.

Ever since, this special zone has landed in Binghai City.

It has been half a year since the special zone was launched, and some shelter residents from the alliance have indeed brought many interesting new things to the local area.

Whether it is material or spiritual, their optimism and bravery are something that people here have not seen for a long time.

certainly.

These guys who came from afar did not bring all happy things.

On the apron of the Ice Sea City dome, a long shuttle-shaped aircraft slowly landed and stopped.

A frozen sleep capsule was lifted down and placed on the snowy ground.

Two old men, a man and a woman, stood at the entrance of the tarmac. They were wearing thick cold-proof clothes, clinging to each other, silently staring at the coffin sunk in the snow.

The transparent masks were covered with a layer of white frost, making it impossible to see clearly the expressions on their faces.

But from the silent atmosphere, people around could feel the pervading sadness.

A soldier wearing an exoskeleton stepped through the snow and walked up to the two old men. He tapped his left arm twice with his index finger, unfolded a palm-sized holographic screen on his arm, and gently pushed it towards the two old men. in front of.

"Condolences."

The woman who saw the photo on the holographic screen swayed and seemed to faint.

The husband standing aside put his arm around her shoulders, looked at the soldier and said nothing, just nodded silently.

The three of them only exchanged one sentence.

After the soldier nodded, he turned back to the shuttle-shaped aircraft.

The silver-white fuselage rose slowly, and a faint blue flame burst out from the tail, disappearing into the boundless wind and snow, as if it had never been here...

A dozen residents of Binghai City stood at the entrance to the tarmac, leaning on each other arm in arm, and held a simple funeral for the poor child.

After that, his body will be sent for cremation, part of it will be kept as a memorial, and part of it will be scattered into the snow and wind that is flying in the sky.

Standing by the floor-to-ceiling windows in the settlement, several players wearing exoskeletons cast interesting glances at the apron.

They recognized the soldier's equipment, especially the gas mask embedded in the helmet. There was no doubt that he was a member of Task Force Alpha.

One thing to say, this game is indeed quite realistic. Even the NPCs killed by the plot in the background have their own complete lives.

They only heard about the defeat thousands of kilometers away on the forum, but they didn't expect to see corpses dragged from the front line in the game a few days later.

In other games, this kind of irrelevant NPC would probably just appear in the cutscenes and then be refreshed.

"...I thought the members of Task Force Alpha were poor people who couldn't afford potatoes."

A strength player muttered, with an obviously surprised expression on his face.

The agile player next to him also nodded and said with emotion.

"I didn't expect there were guys from Binghai City."

Having stayed in this settlement for a few days, they still have a good understanding of the local situation.

Even if we use the Ideal City as a reference, the life of the local residents can definitely be regarded as prosperous, but it is just not as good as that of the academy's prospectors and researchers.

Whether the guy is seeking excitement, pursuing a different life and ideals, or simply rebelling against dogma, joining "Alpha" requires courage.

Another intelligence player interjected.

"But at least his relatives can receive the urn, but that may not be the case for others."

The strength player shrugged his shoulders.

"That's the two sides of the world."

While they were talking, a group of people arrived at the exit of the settlement through the elevator and got on the all-terrain crawler vehicle that was waiting there.

Their mission today is to go to the ruins of the nearby city of Molokowa, collect local fruiting body samples, and bring them to researchers from the Alliance Biological Research Institute stationed in Ice Sea City.

There is a dormant mother nest hidden deep in the ruins, somewhere under the subway station. Due to the camouflage effect produced by a large number of spores, existing technical means cannot determine its specific location.

The fruiting bodies produced by the mother nest are also quite distinctive. They are extremely good at camouflage, can blend into the environment, and suddenly attack when prey approaches.

The current long-term goal of the Myxocommunity Special Zone is to find the specific coordinates of the mother's nest and eat it with small feathers. The short- and medium-term goal is to analyze the mother's nest and provide reference data for research projects on variant slime molds in various regions of the Myxocommunity. .

Although it is only a very small job, any large plan is composed of countless such small jobs.

At the same time that the group of people left, a man and a woman stood in front of the floor-to-ceiling window where they had stopped before.

Looking at the dormant warehouse outside the window, Jiang Xuezhou's face was filled with complicated expressions.

She didn't know those parents, let alone the person lying in the dormant cabin.

She just suddenly thought that if she had not been able to come out of Vault 0 that day, but would have died in this wasteland like countless researchers who encountered accidents...

Her heart tightened slightly, she lowered her head for a moment and whispered.

"Hello……"

Seeing Jiang Xuezhou's heavy face, Ye Shi, who was standing next to him, made a helpless expression.

"What's wrong with you?"

Jiang Xuezhou continued in a low voice.

"...I want to go home."

"Go back."

Ye Shi gave her a strange look. Do you need to tell yourself something like this?

Jiang Xuezhou's lips moved, and it was hard for him to speak, but he finally spoke.

"...Can you go back with me?"

She hadn't been back for a long time since she became an apprentice, and she didn't know how to face those familiar and unfamiliar relatives, so she subconsciously wanted to find a trusted partner to go back with her.

Upon hearing that it was such a trivial matter, Ye Shi didn't think much and simply agreed.

"Okay, when?"

Jiang Xuezhou was stunned for a moment.

She just mentioned it casually and didn't even plan a specific time to go back. She didn't expect this stupid man to agree so simply and even ask when to leave.

"...Then...how about tomorrow?"

She said these words unpreparedly, and it was only then that she suddenly realized something, and her cheeks gradually became hot.

However, what she didn't know was that a certain guy didn't think so much, just an exclamation mark appeared on the NPC's head.

"No problem..."

Looking at Jiang Xuezhou whose face suddenly turned red like an apple, Ye Shi couldn't help but have a strange expression on his face.

This guy has been distracted recently.

Could he have a fever?

...

The front line thousands of kilometers away.

The scorching flames even melted the snow on the blood mountain.

The roar of artillery fire shook the earth, followed by crackling gunfire and the roar of mutants.

As if to avenge the previous shame, the Alpha Task Force re-formulated a more detailed combat plan based on the intelligence collected in the previous battle, and launched a more fierce offensive than before.

This time, it was not just two squadrons of a hundred people that were pushed to the front line, but a full ten squadrons with a total of a thousand people!

The two sides engaged in a fierce exchange of fire in the cave.

Under the cover of the drone attack formation, teams filled the abyss-like cave in an orderly manner. Only some people went in, but no one came out.

Looking at the fierce attack of the Alpha Task Force, General Modlin, who was standing halfway up the Broken Blade Mountain, couldn't help showing a surprised expression on his face.

Including the adjutant standing next to him, his face also showed a hint of disbelief.

"...Are these guys on drugs?" Looking at the direction of the front line, he muttered to himself.

In just three days, those lifeless guys were like a different person.

Although he couldn't see the situation in the cave, he could clearly feel the difference in those guys just by looking at their momentum.

"Maybe you really guessed it right." General Modlin frowned and pressed down the telescope in his hand.

The coalition's highest command disclosed the characteristics of the Alpha protozoa.

If we follow that standard, I'm afraid that only the punishment team and some awakened people with strong physical strength in the entire 310,000-man team can resist the erosion of the red fog.

The action three days ago had shown that the Alpha Task Force was not good at physical strength.

Without changing their equipment, he could only suspect that these guys should have taken some drugs to enhance immunity, or installed some bionic plug-ins that could fight infection.

In addition, there was another thing that caught his attention.

That is, he only saw these people going in waves, but no one came out.

Either they died there at the last moment of the battle, or they should have gained some ability to continue to recover in battle.

Thinking of this, General Modlin's eyes could not help but show a hint of interest, and he could not help but look forward to the outcome of this battle.

Not only General Modlin was watching the battle, but also the commander of the Storm Corps, Commander Quanshui, and the commander of the Death Corps, Edge.

The two also stood on the hillside of Broken Blade Mountain, looking at the battlefield that was so close.

"My God... they are a bunch of ruthless people." With a shocked expression on his face, Edge couldn't help but sigh.

Not counting the clones without complete minds, this was the first time he had seen guys who were as fearless as them in this game.

"Indeed..." Commander Fountain nodded in agreement, holding a telescope and staring at the battle situation on the front line.

In a sense, Torch really met his match this time.

Although the academy's attitude towards the blue jacket was relatively friendly, he still had to complain that these guys were not human beings, and ordinary people were really no match for them.

After three days of inoculation of a thousand biological prostheses, one-third of the Alphas on the front line "changed their jobs" on the spot, from mechanized soldiers to half-biological and half-mechanized warriors.

Although Xiaoyu was still quite cute after watching her for a long time, it didn't seem to be a big deal to change her skin occasionally, but all this was based on the premise of being able to resurrect.

If he couldn't be resurrected, or if he was resurrected, he wouldn't wash off the biological prosthesis, he felt that even in the game, he would probably hesitate to install this thing.

Just as the commanders of the coalition were watching the battle, the beast king standing on the blood mountain also overlooked the entire battlefield.

And that expressionless face also had a hint of obvious surprise.

"What is that?"

He kept muttering, his eyes full of astonishment, unable to believe what he saw from the eyes of those mutants, and even more unable to understand.

He saw with his own eyes that a soldier of the Alpha Task Force was pierced through the chest by a spike thrown by a mutant, and then thrown out fiercely.

The hot blood even spilled on its (his) head, and the hot touch could never be an illusion simulated by holographic technology.

For humans, it was undoubtedly a fatal injury.

However, it (he) had just wiped the blood stuck on the spikes, and saw that the unconscious soldier suddenly twitched, then lay on his side and grabbed the rifle, and shot at it (him) randomly.

Caught off guard, several electromagnetically accelerated projectiles smashed the mutant's chest and brain.

He also lost his perception of the mutant in an instant, and returned to the God's perspective with a blank face.

The brutal fight continued.

These guys wearing gas masks seemed to have found a way to fight the poisonous fog.

And not only that, their recovery ability also became stronger, as if they had become another species overnight.

"Haha... Hahaha!"

The astonishment in his eyes gradually turned into enthusiasm, and he suddenly laughed while looking down at his feet.

"Interesting... It's so interesting!"

Before being infected by the spores of slime mold, actively inoculate the fruiting bodies of benign varieties to gain immunity?

These old guys are not as rigid as he imagined, and they also know how to adapt.

Sure enough, it is interesting to compete with such opponents with ideas.

In addition to getting a batch of organic matter from fighting those Willant people, he can't learn anything.

Looking down at the Alpha Task Force members who were waiting at the foot of the mountain, the Beast King said in a very light voice.

"... I want to understand the secrets of those guys. Can you please eat them?"

That was not a sound transmitted through sound waves, but an exchange of consciousness.

After waiting for about a few minutes, the dull sound like an ancient bell slowly came into his sea of ​​consciousness.

"I think... you'd better not let that guy get close to me."

The Beast King was slightly stunned and frowned slightly.

"Can't eat it?"

The "Lord of Plague" deep in the mountain slowly spoke.

"Generally speaking, we evolve to devour other organisms, and the devouring of other mother nests is just an accident in evolution. That guy is different. Its evolutionary logic is completely opposite to ours. It exists purely to devour other slime molds, and can coexist with the humans who raise it."

"Just like those green-skinned guys who can tolerate my smell and even worship me, you can understand it as... it is a 'mutant' among 'us'."

After a pause, the voice continued.

"I can feel from the disgusting breathing that the guy has devoured at least two of his kind... I already have so many cute children, I don't want to be the next one."

Those believers are its children.

It has never seen such an interesting thing, using cheers and love to tolerate the distortion it has given them, instead of being afraid of its own appearance.

The guy called the Beast King told it that this is the "faith" of humans. They regard themselves as the mother who gave them life, or even as gods!

It likes the title of Lord of Plague very much, and likes the believers who cheer its name even more. It loves them even more than its own fruiting body.

That is why it will feed them with its own flesh and blood, and select the guy with the most devout faith from them as the "prophet" to cultivate the "plague", and then use that guy as a seedbed for producing spores, giving them a stronger "evolution factor".

In a sense, they are its fruiting bodies, at least part of them is like this.

It has high hopes for them, hoping that they can continue to expand the size of the population until they occupy the entire planet, and go to conquer more distant worlds with their faith in themselves.

One day, they will return to their mother, Gaia, instead of themselves, calling their own names.

Perhaps they can also bring a message to Him on their behalf.

The Beast King pondered for a moment and suddenly spoke.

"Then if you can devour it, wouldn't you also be able to obtain... its ability to devour other slime molds?"

He thought of the forest in Baiyue Province, where Naguo was born, and Naguo's weakness was there.

If they could devour the mother nest there, their kingdom of heaven would no longer have any weaknesses.

The Lord of Plague was silent for a moment, and then spoke slowly.

"That's right, but... its body doesn't seem to be here. So far, only its fruiting bodies have appeared. My fruiting bodies can digest them, but that is only physical digestion. If I eat them, I'm afraid I will have indigestion."

"I see... I understand." The Beast King nodded thoughtfully.

This is indeed a problem.

But they can solve it with scientific methods, such as making the samples harmless before feeding them.

Of course.

That's after taking Qingquan City.

"Don't worry about it for now... My children are begging for my help. You should have heard them crying." Looking at the Beast King who seemed to be distracted, the Lord of Plague's voice was a little urgent.

The battle situation on the Blood Mountain was becoming increasingly unfavorable for its children.

Not only its children, but also itself was in danger.

It had a premonition.

If those guys carrying other slime mold fruiting bodies were allowed to enter its nest, something bad would happen.

The Beast King nodded slowly, turned around and looked at the gray sky in the southeast.

That was the direction of the Seaside Province.

Standing on the top of the Blood Mountain, you could even see the gray fog that permeated there, and the prosperous country hidden in the gray fog.

He admitted that those fruiting bodies that were living in people were beyond his expectations.

But if these guys thought they could beat him with one or two unexpected cards, they were underestimating him too much.

They had set foot on this barren and chaotic land many years before these old guys noticed this land.

It took them more than ten years to make the seeds take root, sprout, bloom, and bear abundant fruits.

All the land from Shifeng Mountain to Weifu Wasteland is his domain, and the Kingdom of Heaven has arrived here a long time ago.

These guys just built a few houses on it, captured a few hills, and thought it was their territory.

It has always been his territory.

He would make them remember this profound lesson.

"no need to worry."

The Beast King waved his hand gently, and the red mist wrapping around the mountain seemed to be in a daze for a moment, and then was replaced by the slowly rising gray-green thick mist.

"It's time for fog."