The deserted streets are littered with unswept garbage, scrapped vehicles lie on the streets overgrown with weeds, and the mottled metal lampposts make it difficult to tell whether they are rust or blood stains.
Broken shop windows can be seen everywhere here, and the paralyzed android mannequins are still hung with scraps of cloth from the most fashionable styles from two hundred years ago, but not a single figure is visible.
This place has not been bombed by heavy weapons, and the main structures of most buildings are intact.
But in the end it was abandoned.
"...It should be right in front." He held a map in Sesame's hand, compared it with the surrounding buildings, and took the lead in walking in front of the team.
According to the information from the scientific expedition team, the gate of Vault 79 is located at No. 79 Xiangling Street, East District, Ruigu City, where is a municipal library.
As for the specific entrance, there is no specific explanation in the information. It is only mentioned in limited text. Residents who arrive at the evacuation area are asked to follow the arrangements of the manager and enter the shelter under the instructions of the security personnel.
I think this is also for safety reasons.
Walking next to Sesame Paste, Rourou, a broad-bodied man, looked around with his head tilted up and muttered something in a low voice.
"What a pity…"
"What a pity?" Tails, who was riding on her shoulders, tilted his head.
“I always feel that this city is still good, but the people are gone.”
"That's right," Tai's index finger rubbed his chin, thinking, "Why doesn't everyone go back to live after the war is over?"
Sisi thought for a while.
"EMaybe it's because people are gone?"
Rourou:…"
Sesame paste: "Ah...haha."
Although he just repeated Rourou's words, Sisi didn't think it was nonsense.
As she saw after entering the city, it was not the war itself that destroyed the city, but the chaos caused by the war.
The lack of a series of resources including food, water, electricity, fuel, etc. has turned this place into a steel jungle even more cruel than a virgin forest.
Especially in the third year of the war, the planet entered a half-century-long Little Ice Age.
After most people evacuated the city, the alien species quickly took over, building nests in the buildings, walking through the ruins, and hunting in the dark.
A wastelander walking here will never know that when he opens a door, the first thing that comes out is a cockroach that is longer than its legs, or a group of rats that grind their teeth and suck blood.
or-
Something more terrifying.
"Shh..."
The cat ears on the top of his head moved slightly, and Sesame Paste made a silent gesture to signal his companions to be quiet.
Slowly walking to the intersection at the end of the street, she lay down next to the door of an abandoned car and looked at the corner on the left.
For a moment, she held her breath because of the huge thing that came into view.
Death Claw!
Dark green scales covered his body, and his nearly six-meter-tall body lay across the street, with his tail curled up in front of him.
Just looking at the size, this guy is much bigger than the "Niko" at the door of Shelter 404, and his claws are sharper, so he should be of a different species.
The heavy snoring blew the bushes nearby, and the dull snoring sounded like he was asleep.
Looking at the two bloody corpses lying next to the claws, Sesame's expression was slightly stiff.
She wasn't sure whether an RPG shot could really cause effective damage to this guy.
If the sneak attack fails, they may be wiped out in an instant.
She quietly withdrew, returned to her companions, and said nervously.
"It's the Deathclaw blocking the entrance to the library."
Si Si touched his chin and said solemnly.
"No wonder we don't see other alien species around."
Rourou asked nervously.
"Then what should we do?"
"It's okay, there's more than one way anyway," Sisi took out the paper map and stared at it for a while, thinking, "The risk of a frontal breakthrough is too high... Let's go around to the garage behind the library and climb over the wall from there.
Already."
Deathclaw's intuition for crisis is not very high.
She once saw with her own eyes that a Deathclaw that was sleeping one second jumped up and slapped an incoming RPG rocket in the next second.
Well, she shot that rocket.
After that, she and Tails were killed by the death claws that rushed up. This happened several versions ago.
Such an unreasonable creature cannot be measured by common sense.
If it was near Dawn City, they would call for air strikes. Unfortunately, this was Ruigu City, which was far away from the save point and resurrection point.
They have to try to avoid even the slightest risk.
The group changed their direction and walked along the next street to the parking lot behind the Municipal Library.
However, what Sisi didn't expect was that this place was not as deserted as it seemed from the outside. There was actually a settlement of survivors hidden there!
There are two to three hundred households living here, making it a sizable village.
Right under Deathclaw's nose!
"stop!"
Standing on the wall reinforced with steel bars and wooden boards, the man wearing a studded coat whispered to the people outside the wall.
He held a shotgun in his hand, his eyes fixed on the thick-haired white bear, as well as the ammunition chain and light machine gun carried on the back of the white bear, with nervousness and uneasiness in his expression.
Although there were only three women standing outside the wall.
But he was not naive enough to think that a woman who could tame such a strong beast and walk alone in the wasteland would be a good thing.
"Don't be nervous, we are not hostile." Sis glanced at the shotgun in the man's hand, and then at the iron pipes held by the survivors behind him, without taking it seriously.
After resupplying, she had already put on a new body armor.
That kind of iron tube rifle with bullets that perform Brownian motion has no deterrent effect on her.
"Who are you? A legion? Or a company?" The man standing on the wall looked at her and asked nervously.
"No, we are wastelanders from Qingquan City next door."
The survivors standing behind the man exchanged surprised glances with each other.
"Qingquan City?"
"When I was young I went to... there was a huge stone city where they used plastic pieces as money to buy peppermint-scented soap."
"real or fake?"
"Really! I heard that you can eat three meals a day there!"
"What a good thing!?"
Listening to the whispers of the people behind him, the man stared at Sisi suspiciously, but finally put away his gun and hostility.
"It seems that there are really no women in the legion... No matter who you are, you just have to be different from those guys."
After a pause, the man briefly introduced himself.
"My name is Wu Tao, the hunter from Xiangling Town...and the mayor here."
"What happened here?" Sisi looked at the man and asked.
"A lot has happened. Shouldn't you have come to see the airship to the northwest at this time?"
Sisi nodded.
Don't say you saw it.
They had a fight with someone who came down from the top a few days ago.
"Legion has been here?"
"More than just coming here," Wu Tao curled his lips, "Just the day before yesterday, that group of bandits, more than a hundred of them came, saying that the company's army was burning, killing and looting nearby, and they wanted us to move to their camp to accept their protection.
…Only the devils believe their nonsense.”
"We have lived here for more than a century. Let alone the enterprise, even if the mutants come, we will not go anywhere! Then those villains started setting fire..."
The man cursed.
Sisi frowned and continued to ask.
"and after?"
"Later, that guy showed up"
As he said that, Wu Tao glanced behind him with lingering fear, but his sight was not at the library behind him, but over the eaves of the building.
Si Si knew what he was referring to and said slightly surprised.
"That Deathclaw?"
Wu Tao nodded with a complicated expression.
"Yes, I don't know where it came from, but thanks to that guy, the legion dropped a few corpses and the rest of them ran away.
Si Si: "You are not afraid of that death claw"
"Afraid, of course I'm afraid, but the airship is still there, and we're worried that the legion's people will come back."
Wu Tao sighed and said in a helpless voice, "Seeing it chewing up the corpses, we threw some mutant hyenas and rats at it.
That guy is not picky about food. He just settled in front of the library. We don’t know how long it will stay, but it can be stable for a few days.
None of the people we sent to the legion to inquire about the news came back. It’s hard not to think too much about whether they have encountered some trouble."
Si Si estimated that the legion was probably reluctant to use 400 cannons on that beast. Otherwise, even the Death Claws would not be able to withstand that attack.
A blow from "Anti-Military Weapons".
"Our story is over, it's your turn.
Wu Tao stared at Sisi and continued to ask, "Since you are not a legion, you are not a company, and you are certainly not a businessman... So what do you want to do when you come to us?"
"We are looking for Vault No. 79." Si Si did not hide anything and stated his purpose straightforwardly.
She thought the man in front of her would know something, but she didn't expect that after hearing the word shelter, he only had a blank expression on his face.
That expression was obviously not fake, but a subconscious reaction.
Not only him, but also the several young survivors behind him, their faces looked like they had never heard of it before.
"Shelters... There are no shelters nearby." Wu Tao looked at Sisi with a strange expression, "This is Xiangling Town, and this building is the municipal library. Who would build a shelter in the library? What would you do?
Could it be that you are looking in the wrong place?"
"Eh?! Isn't it here?" Taiwei took out the map in surprise and unfolded it, repeatedly confirming that the coordinates and street numbers were correct.
Sisi frowned slightly.
"It's impossible. We came here because we got reliable information."
"Then I don't know. Anyway, I have lived here since I was a child, and it has been almost thirty years." Wu Tao shook his head and said, "Unfortunately, our mayor packed up his belongings a few days ago and followed the caravan heading west.
Otherwise, you might know something if you ask him."
"Not really." There was a troubled expression on Sesame's face.
Si Si asked unwillingly.
"Can we go in and have a look?"
"Yes, but you have to leave the weapon," Wu Tao stared at the assault rifle in her hand and said warily, "We can't allow you to enter our house with this thing."
Sisi didn't say anything and threw a bunch of heavy gold coins on the wall.
"That's unrealistic. Let's try another way. This is 1 dinar. We won't use your food and water. We only need a room that can accommodate people. We will leave at dawn tomorrow morning and we will never disturb you.
"
She found this money bag from a legionnaire. It can be said that rummaging through boxes and touching corpses is a fine tradition among players.
Although the Legion is annoying, as one of the two major "currencies" in the wasteland, those golden gold coins are not annoying.
Staring at the money bag hanging on the wall, Wu Tao swallowed and exchanged glances with the other residents behind him.
"Are you going to let them in?"
"Just staying for one day shouldn't be a problem."
"What are you afraid of? It's just three little girls plus one bear at most."
"By the way, that bear! We can't let that guy in."
Wu Tao looked at the people outside the wall.
"No problem. But your pet will scare our residents and it needs to stay outside."
"She is not a pet, she is our partner," Sisi corrected him and continued, "But it doesn't matter, we didn't plan to let everyone in."
As she spoke, she looked at her partner behind her and switched languages skillfully.
"Routou, Awei, can you please wait for us outside? Sesame paste and I will go in and have a look. It may take a little time, but we should be able to come out before eight o'clock tomorrow morning."
"I always feel like those people are lying," Sesame said hesitantly. "Is there something wrong with our intelligence? Maybe Vault 7-9 is really not here."
"Whether it's here or not, the last clue points here. According to the conventions of general RPG games, the key to enter the next instance will most likely be here. Anyway, let's go in and have a look."
Shelters do not necessarily have only one entrance. Shelter 404 has two, one connected to the subway and one connected to the sanatorium in the park.
Perhaps the door to the library of Vault 79 has not been used since it was closed, or the residents may have left through other exits.
Of course, this is just her guess.
She simply felt that the planner would not design a meaningless scene.
"Oh! No problem!" Tai Tai nodded enthusiastically, his chest thumping loudly, "Don't worry, just leave it to Tai Tai!"
Rourou said worriedly.
"If you encounter danger, remember to shout for help."
He smiled and gently touched the furry head.
"Don't worry, nothing will happen."
The reinforced wall has no door, and only a ladder lowered from the wall can be climbed into.
Entering a strange settlement of survivors, Sesame's expression was a little nervous, but after seeing the elderly and children in the camp, he felt a little more relaxed.
There are old people and children, which at least means that this is not a den of predators or a farm of slave traders. Maybe the people here are not as open-minded as Dawn City, but at least they have a basic moral bottom line.
The two followed Wu Tao's footsteps, passed through the parking lot where domestic garbage and supermarket shopping carts were piled, and entered the library through the back door.
The space of the library is quite spacious, surrounded by concrete structures, like a castle. In the center is a 100-meter-wide patio, with steel frames interlaced on the dome, which should be inlaid with large pieces of glass.
The zigzag layout allows ample light in the center of the library, and local residents plant many crops here.
In addition, there are clothes drying lines and freshly washed clothes hung on the corridors around the patio, and rows of shacks made of iron sheets or wooden boards are scattered around.
Although privacy is an issue, the people living here don't seem to care much about it.
Sesame Paste looked left and right curiously, very interested in the way of life of the people here. The residents living here also looked at her curiously, especially the pair of cat ears on her head.
They have seen a lot of weird people.
But this is the first time I’ve seen one with ears on top of the head.
Wu Tao, who was walking in front with a shotgun on his back, introduced the situation here to Sisi on the side, including how they had lived for more than a hundred years and what supplies their settlement needed.
This woman mentioned before that she was from Qingquan City.
Although he has never been there, he heard that survivor settlements in big cities are usually relatively wealthy, and there is also a Boulder City where you can buy everything.
If they pass by there next time, they can bring more soap and fertilizer, and they can exchange them for local game or some specialty crops.
Although now is not the time to discuss business, he is now the mayor here and needs to consider more than just immediate matters.
He believes that sooner or later, the Legion will leave this poor and barren place, and then the people here will live how they want.
This is why he accepted the bag of gold coins.
"We have been living here probably since the fiftieth year of the Waste Age. I heard from my grandfather that this library is quite old. It can even be traced back to the early days of the People's Union. Why do you think there might be something hidden underneath?
A shelter? There's not even a basement here.
"It's okay, it doesn't matter even if you don't have it, we just want to satisfy our curiosity." Si Si looked around, "By the way, are the collection of books here still there?"
Wu Tao said.
"Most of them are gone, but some are well preserved. Successive mayors followed the instructions of their ancestors and kept the surviving books on the bookshelves on the second floor of the library.
Although the previous mayor ran away, I will probably stick to it."
Sisi suddenly became interested.
"Can you take me to see it?"
Wu Tao nodded.
"No problem, but the premise is that you can't take them away, let alone damage them. I'm not kidding, if you do something bad to those books, bad luck will soon find you. Similar things have happened to you before.
."
"I can swear on my life," Sisi said with a wink, "I will cherish those books as much as I cherish my life."
Perhaps he was moved by her sincerity, Wu Tao was stunned for a few seconds on the spot.
After coming back to his senses, he coughed lightly and said.
"There's no need to be so exaggerated...
"Since you said so, then come with me."
Wu Tao took the two to the second floor and left them here.
Looking at the rows of aluminum alloy bookshelves and the dazzling collection of books, Sesame Pasty had a hesitant expression on his face.
"Are the clues to Vault 79 hidden in these books?"
Sisi shook his head.
"I don't know, but these books are probably the only information that has survived from the disaster two centuries ago... Maybe we can find something."
Sisi took down a book and flipped through it in his hand, but his expression soon froze.
Although she can already communicate in daily communication using unskilled Renlian and can also recognize some characters in Renlian, she is far from being able to read normally.
The camera does have a simultaneous translation function.
But offline, the amount of text that can be translated is quite limited.
Just when she felt in trouble, a strange voice suddenly floated from behind the bookshelf in front of her.
"I don't understand why you are so persistent in looking for Vault No. 79? The residents here have already told you that the shelter is not here."
"Besides, it's a shelter, not a vault, and there aren't any valuable treasures hidden in it. Even if you go there, you'll be in vain."
The voice was hoarse, like sandpaper rubbing against the wall, which startled the two people in the room.
"Who?" Sesame paste nervously held the gun.
Sisi's reaction was more direct, and he ducked behind the bookshelf. However, he did not see the person who made the sound. He only saw a retro-looking radio with rough workmanship.
With a trace of surprise in her eyes, she quickly glanced left and right, looking for the camera in the room, but saw nothing.
"Stop looking around, I'm not here, and it doesn't matter whether I'm here or not." The man on the radio smiled evilly and continued in a joking tone, "It's better for you to focus on my problem.
, what if I am the security program of the gate? Your suspicious reaction just now is enough for me to lock the gate."
Si" walked to Sisi's side and noticed the radio on the table. Zhimao glanced at his partner next to him nervously.
She couldn't understand what the radio was saying at all.
But the sound gave her a bad feeling.
"give it to me…"
Giving her a reassuring look, Sisi looked at the radio and continued.
"We are here on the orders of Mr. Manager."
"Manager." The radio rustled and he continued thoughtfully, "Are you residents of the shelter?"
"Yes." Sisi nodded and said in a sincere voice, "We are from Vault 404 in Qingquan City... Do you know any news about Vault 79? This is very important to us."
"Hmm, it's very important... What are you going to use it for?" the radio said in a glib tone.
Sisi said seriously.
"If the people inside are still there, we will help them. If they are no longer here, we will continue their unfinished work of reviving our civilization."
A chuckle came from the radio, like fingernails breaking on a blackboard, making your teeth ache.
Sesame Paste took a step back nervously, and Si Si frowned slightly.
But it didn't take long.
The laughter turned into a sigh.
"If what you are longing for is knowledge, the collection of books around you is enough for you to study for a lifetime. If you hold the idea of reviving civilization.
Naive ideal, you really shouldn’t be here.”
Before Sisi could speak, it continued.
"Vault 79 is not the kind of place you imagined. It was not designed to shelter anyone from the beginning."
Sis felt as if there was something behind the words.
After swallowing, she asked seriously.
"Where...is that place?"
"It's a source of confusion."
That hoarse voice seemed to be buried in distant memories.
But in the end it all turned into a helpless self-mockery.
"At least half of the savages in this land can trace their origins from me."