Chapter 344 The ground is full of “evolved bodies”
Over Qingquan City.
A "Dragonfly" transport plane is hovering along the edge of the Fifth Ring Road.
Looking at the endless yellow-green thick fog outside the cabin, I couldn't help but click my tongue because I was not professional, and my eyes were filled with surprise.
The spore cloud gathered in the city center is like a waterfall rolling down from the clouds. From a distance, it looks like a giant tree with lush branches.
The towering trunk devours the earth, and the outstretched branches and leaves invade the sky.
Is there really a weapon that can destroy this thing in reality?
Even if it's a nuclear bomb...
A faint chill crept along his sight. Brother Mantou shook his head, picked up the walkie-talkie hanging on his shoulder and shouted.
"Are you ready?"
Along with the electric sound of fried wheat, Lao Bai's intermittent voice came from the earphones.
"OK."
The signal has begun to fluctuate erratically, and my intuition tells Brother Mantou that without the protection of anti-electromagnetic interference equipment, this is the limit of what the aircraft can approach.
He pulled the lever on the side.
Accompanied by an unstable tremor, the locked door at the tail of the plane slowly lowered, and the restless airflow was swept into the cabin...
"Hatch open"
"Wish ya'll good luck!"
At the same time, Lao Bai, who was standing at the cabin door, gestured to his teammates behind him and stepped out of the cabin door first against the roaring airflow.
The camera zoomed out, and only a few black spots were seen separated from the cabin, speeding towards the center of Qingquan City. Not long after, six parachutes bloomed in the sky above the Third Ring Road.
After landing, everyone quickly gathered in the direction of the airdropped supplies and recovered the ammunition, RPG rocket launchers and other support equipment placed there.
At the same time, on the other side.
Boulder City is located on the edge of the West Third Ring Road. In the radar station located on the giant wall, the operator on duty has discovered the aircraft hovering at the border of the Third Ring Road.
"The UFO is approaching our airspace!" The operator sitting in front of the radar control terminal was the first to spot the red dot on the screen.
However, instead of being nervous, he shouted excitedly.
The radar station was instantly busy.
Most of the staff here feel the same as him at the moment.
It had been too long since they had seen aircraft from other survivor forces appear within the radar warning area.
"Damn, I'm sure! It belongs to those scavengers in the northern suburbs!" An operator cursed excitedly.
"The other party did not respond to our communication!"
"Could it be that they simply don't have the radio equipment to receive the signal?"
"Haha, it's possible!"
While he was talking, the colleague sitting next to him had already operated the air defense system and aimed a rapid-fire cannon at the slow silver "Big Bird".
The computer has calculated the preview circle based on the aircraft's motion parameters.
He only needs to press the fire button, and the big silver bird will turn into a ball of fire.
"The opponent has entered our range!"
"Do you want to fight it down?"
Unlike the excited operators in the radar station, the station manager responsible for managing the radar station looked obviously much more cautious.
"hold on."
The plane did not continue heading towards Boulder City, but quickly turned around and returned towards the northern suburbs of Qingquan City.
The staff operating the weapons looked slightly disappointed.
He has been sitting on the cold bench under his butt for almost ten years, and the air defense system on the giant wall has never been used.
A staff member said angrily.
"This is a provocation to us!"
"It is up to the city lord to decide whether it is a provocation or not," the director of the radar station interrupted, looking at his deputy, "report this incident immediately!"
The deputy standing nearby nodded.
"yes!"
…
South Third Ring Road, Qingquan City.
The five-person Cow Horse Team, which landed safely, successfully reunited near the airdrop box and obtained the weapons placed inside.
However, everyone's expressions are not optimistic.
The situation here is far worse than they imagined.
we can even say……
It was completely beyond their expectation.
The dark red carpet covered almost every building, every viaduct, and every inch of the street.
The ferocious-looking gnawers, as well as slime mold alien species that are even more ferocious than the gnawers, wander aimlessly on the broken streets.
The most troublesome thing is not only these, but the intricate terrain, which doubles the risk factor here.
The high-rise buildings that penetrate deep into the clouds are connected to each other by tunnels, making this place truly a "steel forest".
When he parachuted down earlier, Ye Shi almost hung on the pedestrian bridge.
Fortunately, he was lucky. The parachute passed between the two broken bridges, and he landed safely and successfully reunited with his teammates.
"Oh my god...it turns out that the city center of Qingquan City looks like this."
On the fiftieth floor of a thousand-meter-high building, Ye Shi, wearing a gas mask, stood next to the damaged wall, holding a telescope and looking in the direction of the crash site.
The crashed W-1 Mosquito glider was stuck on the outer wall of the high-rise building directly opposite them, and the front half of its body was inserted into the wall.
Luo Yu should be inside.
Ye Shi glanced at his feet.
Below him was an abyss with no bottom. The thick spore cloud was like the water in a venom pool, and the area that could be observed was very limited.
Due to the spore cloud that has gathered in the city center, visibility here is less than two hundred meters.
However, in fact, due to countless construction waste and reinforced concrete, the actual visibility is less than half of this number.
This is much more exciting than the waves.
"Have you never explored this place before?" Quit said nervously.
Guangfeng shook his head.
"I haven't heard of anyone coming here."
Fang Chang also said: "There are no tasks here, and there is no way to save files. There is no point even coming here."
You can't go far without bringing high-value equipment. If you bring high-value equipment, you have to consider the risks.
This game does not limit players' specific gameplay, but it also emphasizes that everyone is an adult and needs to be responsible for their own choices.
In fact, earlier, they tried to explore deeper into the Third Ring Road starting from Boulder City.
However, the alien species encountered along the way became more and more powerful, wasting a lot of bullets without any benefit, and finally gave up.
Carefully observing the situation along the way, Ye Shi's face became more and more serious, and he lowered his voice and spoke.
"...There are a lot of evolved bodies here!"
Upon hearing the word evolved body, everyone's expressions immediately became serious.
"Decay Knight?" Lao Bai said solemnly.
Ye Shi shook his head, did not speak, but pointed gently to the concrete elevated building outside the tall building that connected to another building.
I saw the wreckage of cargo drones lying there, roughly a hundred of them at a rough count, along with packages and outer boxes from two hundred years ago.
The dark red shell looks very much like rust, but if you look closely with a telescope, you will find that there is no rust at all attached to the surface of the drones.
But a shocking carpet of bacteria!
"Those things... I can feel that they are alive," After a pause, Ye Shi said in a deep voice, "And I'm afraid they won't be easy to deal with!"
Kuang Feng frowned.
"Are you going to get around them?"
"The situation down there is not much better. Have you forgotten what we saw when we came up?" Lao Bai took out the RPG rocket launcher on his back, inserted a high-explosive grenade, and shot the quitter who was carrying a heavy machine gun.
He made a gesture and said, "We can only give it a try."
It's impossible to go around.
Sneaking in this game is not particularly difficult, especially for those mutant slime molds. In places covered by spore clouds, it's like having enemy-seeking antennas inserted into their heads.
Get a little closer, and it will rush forward with a roar.
The best strategy is to choose a relatively safe path, lure out the monsters in the area and clear them out, and then move on.
Seeing Lao Bai take out the RPG, the other team members also tacitly went to their respective fighting positions, with the weapons in their hands turned on.
"I'm ready."
"I also have Oak here."
"+1"
"..."
Everyone cooperates very well. After all, this is not the first time they have formed a team, and they have already gone through countless battlefields.
Seeing his teammates getting ready one after another, Lao Bai took the lead and pulled the trigger.
Tail flame jet!
A high-explosive grenade hit the middle of the dense group of drones!
As the fire and smoke exploded instantly, large swaths of drones were blown away by the shock wave and fragments of the explosion, and fell downwards.
Quitting, who set up a machine gun not far away, also immediately pulled the trigger, unleashing ferocious firepower toward the area ahead.
The fired 10mm bullets formed an orange-yellow rain of fire in the air, wildly harvesting the swarm of drones that were stirred into the air.
"Holy shit... can this thing really fly?" Fang Chang opened fire with a rifle, a trace of surprise appeared in his eyes.
In two hundred years, unless it is nuclear powered, no matter how durable the chemical energy battery is, it will not last this long!
Apparently those mutant slime molds replaced the battery on the drone and became a new power source, driving the propeller in a strange way, and even evolved part of the carpet into the propeller itself.
but
In the face of absolute firepower, these are nothing. The drones flying out against the billowing smoke, large areas were harvested by bullets.
Everything seems to be going well.
However, at this moment, a change suddenly occurred!
Not all of the drones that were knocked down by high-explosive grenades fell to the ground and broke into pieces. Some of the surviving little guys flew up again unsteadily.
At the same time, more and more drones floated out from the viaduct and even the building opposite, and even began to outflank both sides.
The cattle and horse team standing behind the bunker immediately fell into a hard fight.
"Holy crap! Isn't this too much?" He emptied a whole drum, quit smoking, cursed, and immediately changed the magazine.
At this time, Guangfeng, who was holding the trigger and pouring out firepower, suddenly spoke.
"Is there a possibility?"
Fang Chang: "What do you want to say?"
"The mimicry ability of the mutant slime mold not only imitates individual drones, but the drone group itself..." After a pause, Guangfeng continued, "To put it simply, it is not a certain express package that attacks us, but a single express package that attacks us.
A whole express locker."
Ye Shi was shocked.
"Damn it! Don't be so talkative!"
"It's not just a crow's mouth. As long as we find the 'drone hive' that dominates these little guys, we should be able to make them lose their organization..."
Seeing that the machine gun that had quit smoking resumed its firepower, Guangfeng took out the drone with the IED strapped to it in his backpack and prepared to control it to fly to the opposite building.
The VM opens.
Neural access devices are worn on the head.
However, at this moment, Guangfeng's expression suddenly froze.
Noticing the change in his expression, Ye Shi asked quickly.
"what's the situation?"
Guangfeng, who was holding the headphones, frowned, glanced at the VM screen in front of him, and said in a deep voice.
"Cannot connect..."
Damn it.
There is obviously still some signal left!
"%￥#@!"
Ye Shi cursed and knocked off the empty magazine on his rifle.
No one can count on it now.
If you want to survive, you can only do your best to shoot down all the drones in front of you!
However, at this moment, a drone suddenly broke through the fire net, passed through the broken wall on the side of the building, and rushed towards Ye Shi.
Warning signs suddenly arise in my heart!
Ye Shi reflexively released the magazine in his hand and pulled out the Shifu Long Pistol inserted in the gun belt.
However
Even though he was warned of the danger in advance, his hands were still a step too slow.
The drone covered with dark red fungus slammed into him, and the tentacles extending from the bottom of the fuselage popped out as fast as lightning, and yanked towards his face.
Ye Shi only had time to see a black shadow flash, and then his consciousness fell into boundless darkness.
A light blue pop-up window appears.
【Disconnect】
At the same time, another world.
At Jiangcheng University, in a certain dormitory of the boys' dormitory, a sudden ghostly scream suddenly sounded.
"Blank!"
Hearing the noise coming from the bed, the beasts who were sitting down to eat chicken were stunned on the spot and stopped holding their guns.
what's going on?
There was silence in the bedroom.
Sun Qian turned his head and looked at the bed behind him. Just as he was about to ask what happened, Brother Awei's voice floated over from the bed.
"Sauri... something happened just now."
Ye Wei was sitting on the bed, staring at the helmet in his hand, his chest rising and falling slowly.
The three roommates looked at each other.
Although I don’t know what happened, I hope everything is fine.
"Hey...it's a small problem, it doesn't matter."
"We don't care, but you should pay attention to your health..."
"Indeed, when you shout so loudly while playing games, it's hard for the brothers not to worry about you."
Ye Wei: "..."
MMP!
These bastards!
Ye Wei rolled his eyes and threw the helmet on the pillow.
He stood up and used the ladder to get out of bed. He went to the balcony to wash his face, leaned against the guardrail, took out his cell phone, and glanced at the small group.
"Is anyone there?" he sent a message.
After a while no one responded.
Seeing this, Ye Wei breathed a sigh of relief.
It seems that everyone is fine, only I accidentally gave it away.
But when he thought that he wouldn't be able to get in for the next three days, he felt depressed.
Good guy.
The withdrawal reaction has begun!
Just when Ye Wei was about to close the Q group and go to the official website to see what new jobs the idiots had done, a message suddenly popped up in the group.
A Guang: "Yes, what happened?"
Ye Shi was shocked when he saw the ID that was suddenly faked.
Damn it?
Dog planning!
"Brother Guang?!"
"you are still alive??"
Suddenly realizing that there seemed to be something wrong with the way he asked, Ye Wei quickly withdrew the message and typed at the speed of light to add the following sentence.
"Uh, I mean you actually remembered your account password."
Aguang: "..."
Ye Wei's expression was a little awkward, and he sent a dog head to lighten the atmosphere.
However, the broad-minded Brother Guang did not care about such a trivial matter and quickly changed the subject on his own initiative.
A Guang: "What's the situation over there? Are you in contact with the enemy?"
Isn’t this asking knowingly?
However, it was rare for him to chat with the dog planner, so Ye Wei still answered truthfully.
"Well, we hit the alien species not long after we landed. The situation inside the Third Ring Road was worse than we expected. On the ground, in the sky, and underground... the intricate traffic was like a maze, paper maps and compasses
It is of no use at all, and we finally have to rely on VM and weak signals to determine the location."
"Then there are the alien species...it's not just eaters, crawlers and tyrants here, there are also a large number of ancient machines operating in this area."
A Guang: "Ancient machine?"
Ye Wei then typed.
"It's the evolved form! For example, the power armor wrapped in slime mold that appeared in the previous wave of expansion packs, tanks, self-propelled robots, etc... Anyway, they are all weird things."
"By the way, there are drones! We encountered a large swarm on the way to the crash site, densely packed like locusts!"
A Guang: "Can you explain to me in detail about those evolved bodies?"
After a few seconds, he added another sentence.
"I mainly want to know what the situation is like on the new map from the player's perspective."
Although he felt a little strange, Ye Wei didn't think much about it. He picked up the screen of his mobile phone and described to A Guang in detail what he had experienced in the Third Ring Road.
After a while, Aguang replied.
"Well, I probably understand."
After laying the groundwork for a long time, Ye Wei then typed.
"Brother Guang, is the difficulty within the third ring line too high? If the equipment cannot keep up, it will be difficult to push forward with just a few light weapons."
"Strongly recommend that weapon stores stock power armor!"
There are too many high-level monsters!
This level design is simply unreasonable!
However
A Guang didn't seem to intend to adopt his suggestion.
"There is nothing I can do about the difficulty. Part of the game content is generated independently by the server, and part of it is actively added by players. We are only responsible for maintaining server operation and handling violations... Sorry."
"I have something to do here, so I'll leave now and talk later."
Automatically generating game content is okay.
What kind of Ubisoft behavior is this?
Looking at the two lines of messages on the screen, Ye Wei had a helpless expression on his face.
Regardless of whether he believed it or not, Aguang had no intention of continuing to explain to him. After asking what he wanted to ask, he went offline without mercy.
I am the only one left in the group.
There was no point in continuing to watch. The lonely and empty Ye Wei sighed, closed the group chat window, opened the browser and logged into the forum.
The forum is quite lively at this point.
The speed at which the news in the Gossip section refreshes the screen is dizzying. Almost every time it is refreshed, the posts on the home page change completely.
At this moment, Ye Wei was suddenly surprised to find that Aguang secretly updated an announcement while he wasn't paying attention?
Out of curiosity, he went in and took a look, and he was stunned on the spot.
[Map information update: Qingquan City Center]
[Map Overview: The central area of Qingquan has been completely destroyed by the erosion of slime mold. A large number of equipment left over from the Prosperity Era have been assimilated by the fruiting bodies of the mutant slime mold, forming an evolutionary body with a special structure...]
[Recommended exploration level: LV.25 or above]
[Map Tip 1: Recycle the remains of the evolved body and exchange them for high rewards in the scientific expedition group!]
【……】
There’s nothing wrong with recommending exploration levels and map tips.
Just the "Map Overview" column...
Why does he look so familiar??
…
Wasteland world.
Shuguang City Industrial Zone, the train platform near Bach Aluminum Factory.
The staff are busy operating crane equipment to load some large equipment that has been dismantled into parts onto the pallets of freight trains.
The industrial areas of the New Alliance are moving north.
This work will be carried out simultaneously with the construction of Dawn City.
By then, Shuguang City's industrial zone will be transformed into a light industrial base focusing on the production of consumer goods.
Heavy industries, including steel, weapons, and heavy equipment production, will be transferred to Dawn City in the north.
After listening to Xiaoyu's introduction, Pai asked curiously.
"Why are you moving north?"
Xiaoyu said helplessly.
"Because it's so close to our neighbors."
Pai asked inquiringly.
"Do you have a bad relationship with them?"
Putting her index finger on her chin, she thought seriously for a while and answered.
"Well... I can't say whether it's good or not. In Brother Chu's words, we are too close to them and are dangerous to each other."
Of course, there are also a series of factors such as the fact that the north is closer to the origin of raw materials and has a larger population. However, it is too troublesome to explain in detail. Xiaoyu himself has only a partial understanding of it, so he simply omits it.
"All right."
Tentatively accepting this statement, Pai put this inconsequential matter aside for the time being and continued to search near the stockpile area.
Xiaoyu looked at her movements and asked curiously.
"What are you looking for?"
“Some ingredients!”
"raw material?"
"It's nothing, you don't have to worry about it, it won't hurt you anyway!"
Looking at Pai who looked confident, Xiaoyu tilted his head in confusion. Although he was still curious, he didn't ask any more questions in the end.
"Okay...can I help you?"
"Really? That's great!" Pai's eyes lit up and he excitedly gestured to the size of a cup with his hand, "First of all, I need a bottle of crude oil, the type doesn't matter...this amount is probably enough!"
To teach that rude guy a profound lesson.
This is necessary material!
"Crude oil?" Xiaoyu was stunned for a moment and asked in a low voice, "Can biomass crude oil be used?"
Pai touched his chin and thought for a while.
"Biomass crude oil...it's a bit troublesome, but it's okay!"
"Anyway, let's get a bottle and take a look first!"
…
the other side.
South of Shuguang City, the sanatorium in Linghu Wetland Park.
Having just learned about the situation in the city center from Ye Shi, Chu Guangzheng planned to continue to conceive of the unfinished reform plan and the update content of the Beta0.3 version.
However, just as he was staring at the newly created folder on the screen, thinking about a more appropriate title, an unexpected phone call suddenly came to him.
Seeing that the communication request came from the "New Alliance Office in Boulder City", Chu Guang temporarily stopped what he was doing and pressed the connect button.
Soon, Shuyu's voice came from the other end of the phone.
"Five minutes ago, someone from the Boulder City Hall came to my place."
Someone from City Hall?
A hint of surprise appeared in Chu Guang's eyes.
"What did they say?"
Shuyu continued.
"On trade and security issues..."
"The director of City Hall would like to speak with you on the phone."