Embers Ad Infinitum

Black Marsh Wilderness, in a mountain in the northeast.

Gao Yuan, the leader of the Wildfire Bandits, was nestled in a room with a stove, tightly wrapped in a fur coat, warming himself by the fire and turning sweet potatoes on top of the coals.

"This is such a shitty winter!" He shook his legs and expressed his strong dissatisfaction with the weather.

With the resources he has, he can actually enjoy the benefits of turning on the air conditioner and blowing warm air, but he feels that given the conditions on the mountain, it is not as comfortable as a coal stove.

Gao Yuan, who was very energetic by the cold wind that seeped into the room, couldn't help but think of his experience in going to big cities a few years ago - the place where the top group of people lived in winter was as warm as early summer, and they only had to wear clothes A single garment.

Gao Yuan asked about it at the time and was confused by a series of terms. He only knew that the heat came from hot water burned in large boilers. They flowed along the pipes and flowed to different areas of the room, bringing fairyland-like warmth.

After he returned to this place he called Tongshan, he tried to renovate his residence, but failed miserably. He could only plan to go to a certain city to kidnap a few people who knew how to do it.

At the same time, he also thought that when he got older and was no longer suitable to be a bandit, he would take the accumulated resources, several children and beautiful slave girls to settle in a big power.

That's comfortable and stable.

While Gao Yuan was roasting sweet potatoes, his deputy Chi Qingliu banged on his door.

"Boss, boss!" Chi Qingliu shouted while filming.

Gao Yuan stood up, adjusted his posture, and asked majestically:

"What's up?"

He is now less and less like a bandit leader, and closer to those city lords and governors.

The Wildfire Bandits only went out to rob a few times a year, mainly to plunder the population and enrich the miners, and their focus was entirely on Tongshan.

There are rich copper deposits here!

If it weren't for the remoteness of this place, the harsh environment, and the distance from the major forces, Gao Yuan wouldn't think that a group of bandits like him could dominate the mountain and become the king, and it would almost develop into a small force.

Of course, he himself is an awakened person, and the bandit group later recruited several awakened people. This is also one of the important reasons. Otherwise, even if they are not worried about the expansion of big forces, they will encounter conflicts with other bandit groups.

Every year, when the "rootless" people drive over to transport the copper ore, Gao Yuan is both happy and scared.

He was happy that those copper mines had brought in a lot of resources. What he was afraid of was that some strong man or some large-scale force suddenly became greedy, or learned about the situation in Copper Mountain and made up his mind.

Chi Qingliu, who regarded himself as a military advisor, loudly responded to Gao Yuan’s question:

"Guys found something good!"

"Come in." Gao Yuan looked at Chi Qingliu who opened the door and asked in a deep voice, "What is it?"

Chi Qingliu was a man in his early thirties. He was an awakened person recruited by the Wildfire Bandits after they discovered the copper mine. He had an ordinary appearance and deliberately kept a bush of beard on his chin.

After hearing the boss's question, Chi Qingliu waved to the door:

"Bring it in."

Several robbers took hunting nets and brought in items.

It was a small speaker with a blue background and black surface.

"That's it?" Gao Yuan raised his eyebrows.

Chi Qingliu hurriedly explained:

“This should be a prop for those awakened in the ‘Soul Corridor’.

"After they met, they cried, laughed, sang and danced like crazy. Fortunately, they were woken up by the people next to them in time, so they didn't freeze to death in the snow."

Props involving the awakened person of the "Soul Corridor"... Gao Yuan suddenly became serious.

This is good stuff!

If he hadn't been to a powerful city before and met some nobles and businessmen, he wouldn't even know what a "spiritual corridor" is and what a prop is.

"Where did you find it?" Gao Yuan asked.

One of the robbers smiled:

“Boss, there’s nothing to do in this winter, except eating, sleeping with women, and gambling, which makes people panic.

"We left the mining area today and planned to go to the nearby river to cut through the ice and fish, but someone slipped down the hillside on the way and found this thing in the ruins of a village.

"It was out of control as soon as we encountered it. Thinking of what you said, I thought it should be a good thing."

Gao Yuan nodded:

"Put your things down and you go out first."

He thought for a moment and added:

"Don't worry, if it is really useful, your reward will not be missing."

The robbers happily exited Gao Yuan's room, leaving behind the small speaker wrapped in a net.

After they went away, Chi Qingliu looked at the prop on the ground and said to himself curiously:

"What ability does this thing have..."

"You have to try it to know." Gao Yuan recalled the knowledge he heard, "The price should be to drive the people you meet into a state of madness. As long as I'm watching, you won't have any problems."

What do you mean I won't have any problems? Chi Qingliu was stunned for a moment before he understood that the boss meant to let him test the capabilities of that item. After all, ordinary people couldn't use the props.

He secretly took a breath, cursed in his heart, and forced a smile:

"good."

Seeing him walking towards the small speaker with a blue background and black surface, Gao Yuan's heart moved and he said:

"Wait a moment."

"Huh?" Chi Qingliu turned his attention to the boss.

Gao Yuan walked towards him, crossed him, and stayed away from him.

Seeing that the boss left the room and was twenty or thirty meters away from him, shivering in the cold wind, Chi Qingliu asked blankly:

"so far?"

"You can't go wrong with being careful!" Gao Yuan responded loudly, "Don't worry, you won't die if you enter a crazy state. I can wake you up in time!"

Chi Qingliu gritted his teeth, did some mental preparation, and slowly squatted down.

He reached out to the small speaker with a blue background and black surface. Following his understanding of old-world electronic products and the method of using props taught by his boss, he spread his breath over it and pressed the switch.

Suddenly, the loudest voice broke out:

"Come on, be happy, you have a lot of time anyway

"Come on, love, there are a lot of desires anyway..."

This song spread throughout the small half of the mining area, and every bandit who heard it smiled unconsciously, twisted his body, and became happy.

They set their sights on their women or companions, with yearning for love and burning desire in their eyes.

"Come on, let's wander, there are plenty of directions anyway.

"Come on, let's be pretentious, there's a lot of scenery anyway..." (Note 1)

Gao Yuan suddenly had an impulse, turned around and ran out of the mining area.

He wants to wander.

He's going to make a show.

A large number of bandits followed their boss and left the mining area, preparing to wander far away.

The place suddenly became empty, leaving only Chi Qingliu dancing to the music.

boom!

There was a gunshot and Chi Qingliu fell down.

Bai Chen, who was wearing a military exoskeleton device, put away his "Orange" rifle and followed Jiang Baimian, Shang Jianyao and Long Yuehong into the Tongshan mining area.

All four of them wore earplugs, blocking out the singing.

After turning off the small speakers and cleaning up the scene, Jiang Baimian took off his earplugs, looked at Shang Jianyao and said:

“Why make things so troublesome and design so many links?

“With our strength, we can completely ‘visit’ you in an open and honest manner.”

Shang Jianyao smiled, pointed at the small speaker and said:

"As a member of our team, it's his turn to make a contribution this time!"

After he explored the depths of the "soul corridor", he used his own breath to transform his beloved small speaker and turned it into a prop.

Jiang Baimian was speechless.

Long Yuehong looked around and asked the team leader:

"Why do we have to deal with these bandits?"

"To save the miners here!" Shang Jianyao answered first.

Jiang Baimian took a breath and said:

"Come get some supplies."

"We have enough supplies to return to the company. We just need to calculate the usage of high-performance batteries." Bai Chen responded.

Jiang Baimian laughed:

"It's not enough. We are not in a hurry to return to the company."

"Ah?" Long Yuehong's first reaction was that the team leader was going to defect.

However, what Shang Jianyao said was unfounded. He believed that Jiang Baimian would not be so impulsive.

Jiang Baimian pointed to the south and said:

"I plan to visit the ruins of Marsh No. 1 before returning to the company to confirm whether it is Dajiang City and whether it is the last Buddhist holy land.

"The written information collected by Wang Beicheng and others did not clearly indicate the name of the ruins in the old world. We can only find it ourselves."

Moreover, she suspected that the company might have concealed this information, so after hearing what Shang Jianyao said, she made a quick decision and planned to take advantage of this training to explore the ruins of Swamp No. 1 again.

"But we didn't bring much equipment this time." Long Yuehong said hesitantly.

Because it was just training and the focus was on survival in the wild, the "Old Adjustment Team" only applied for a military exoskeleton device and a set of Black Swamp Iron Snake bionic smart armor this time, and Long Yuehong had to admit that she was suffering from equipment disease. Insufficiency phobia.

Jiang Baimian smiled and said:

"That's enough. Each of you has one. He and I won't be using it for the time being."

"Yeah." Bai Chen nodded.

At this time, Shang Jianyao became fascinated:

"Maybe Xiao Chong is hiding back there again."

Note 1: Quoted from "Itch", Huang Ling