The Mysterious World Under Steampunk

The Changji Peak checkpoint is located on both sides of the exit of the Blade Corridor, and it happens to guard the only passage to Movit Road together with the Changji Peak next to it.

At the earliest, it was just a transit market for people from the polar mountains to trade with outsiders, because people living in the polar mountains at that time didn’t have a good impression of outsiders, and basically didn’t like contact with outsiders. I don't want outsiders to enter the polar mountains, so all trade between the two sides will be carried out in the transit market set up outside the mountains, and the goods after the transaction will be transported back to the tribes and cities in the mountains by the people of the polar mountains.

For the people in the southern city-state of the snowy field at that time, this kind of transit market was also very good. Although they made less money, there was no need to take the risk of entering the mountains to deliver goods. After all, the roads in the polar mountains at that time But it’s not as good as it is now. They are walking on steep mountain roads covered with ice and snow. If you don’t pay attention, you may step on the air and slip down the mountain stream.

However, as the two parties got in touch with each other more, the habit of not liking contact with outsiders also changed accordingly. Even the tribes and villages in the polar mountains began to form their own caravans, so there was no need for such a transit market. Most of the transit markets have been abandoned, and only a few transit markets with special geographical locations, such as Changji Peak, have been preserved and transformed into outposts.

Although the name is a checkpoint, these are actually two small castles, and they can be regarded as a thousand-year-old castle with a long history.

In the beginning, Movit Road sent about 2,000 people to stay in these two small castles to guard the throat, but since there were few wars here, there were no enemies on Movit Road, so there was no need to be wary of anyone, so The number of people stationed here is also decreasing year by year. Up to now, only three people have been stationed here, and most of the time these three people will stay in the outpost located deep in the corridor of the blade, because the wind and snow outside rarely blow here. Come on, it's warmer here too.

Another reason is that the igniter of the beacon tower of the outer outpost had been damaged more than a hundred years ago. This igniter is a very magical item, and it can ignite a raging fire with a simple click. It is said that this It is an artifact used by a fallen god, but unfortunately, the person who mastered the maintenance and repair knowledge of the igniter has long been lost, so this thing is basically scrapped if it is damaged.

It can be said that it was an honor to be sent to these two post assistants at the earliest time. At that time, the nobles on Movit Road would fight for a place, and the soldiers stationed here were also the strongest soldiers. The mountain giant corps is stationed at these two outposts.

However, it is now impossible to garrison these two outposts. Not to mention the nobles, even ordinary civilians would not be willing to come to these two outposts to suffer. Only those criminals who committed crimes will be assigned to Come here to be stationed instead of serving a normal sentence.

The three people stationed here are all criminals on Movit Road. They were charged with theft. According to this charge, they should have been sent to the mine as miners for three years, but they all applied to be stationed at the Changji Peak post in prison. Although it is cold here, at least it is more free than that in the mine. There are not so many restrictions, and there is no need to do heavy work every day, and the most important thing is that they only need to be stationed at the Changji Peak Post for half a year and they have already served their sentences. .

There were no guards on Movit Road, let alone shackles for these people, because they didn't worry about the three criminals escaping at all. After entering the black storm season, running on the snowfield was like committing suicide.

For the three people who applied to be stationed by themselves, it can be said that they regret it to the extreme now. They originally thought that there would be more freedom here and they would not do things, but in fact, even if they were given freedom, they would not be able to move around. The cold far exceeded their expectations.

Because of the geothermal heat around Movit Road, even though it is located in the polar mountains and is blown by the cold wind from the surrounding extremely cold snow-capped mountains all year round, the people living there don’t feel particularly cold .

But now this outpost is different. You must know that this outpost is a thousand-year-old castle. It would be fine if it is repaired every year, but the problem is that this old castle has not been repaired for hundreds of years, and there are broken guards everywhere. There is no difference between staying inside the castle and staying outside the castle. The three people stationed here can only stay in the ignition room of the beacon tower every day, using the heat emitted by the igniter to resist the cold wind coming in from the gaps in the surrounding walls.

And the misfortune never comes singly is that they found that the igniter seemed to be malfunctioning in the past two days, and the heat suddenly stopped emitting during the two nights. If they hadn't discovered it early, they would have used the only firewood left in the castle to light the fireplace bonfire , they may have been frozen to death by the arctic cold that drilled in during the time when the igniter heat disappeared.

"Sitting here and sighing is not an option, we should think about countermeasures," Mouse Bob put the wood in his hand into the bonfire in the fireplace, and turned his head to look at the pile of remaining wood against the wall. There was not much firewood, and he looked at the spherical igniter not far away, and said solemnly: "We don't know when the igniter will fail again, if it fails next time, and we don't have enough heating Chai Xin, we're probably doomed."

"I also know that now is not the time to sigh, and I know that we are running out of firewood, but the question is how do we get out now?" The cripple Xiao tightened the thin clothes on his body, and pointed to the cold wind blowing. Outside the house, he said: "There is a black storm blowing outside now. If we go out to chop wood, we don't need to wait until the igniter is damaged, we will already freeze to death."

"We can't just wait here, can we?" Mouse Bob glared at the lame Xiao angrily, then turned to look at another person in the room, and asked, "Boss Quinine, what can you do?"

Although Bob the Mouse called Quinine the boss, in fact there was no admiration in his tone, but it was full of contempt and teasing, because the Quinine boss is just a bragging thief, he likes to brag every day that he has established a certain power, It is the leader of hundreds of people.

The other two people in the outpost didn't believe it at all. After all, how many powers there are on Movit Road and who are the leaders of these powers? They, street thieves, are very clear about this. Naturally, they know that this quinine is all bragging. Calling him the boss is more of a joke.

Although he knew that Bob the mouse called him boss by Tao Kan and ridicule, Quining didn't care. The first black storm, based on time, will take at least four or five days, and this wave of black storm will end temporarily, and our current firewood can't last until then, and it should probably be used up tonight , so we must be going outside to chop wood.”

The cripple Xiao stared at the other party dissatisfied, and said, "Were you sleeping just now? You didn't hear what I said. Going out in this situation, it is impossible to resist the wind and snow outside with the cold-proof ability of our current clothes. will freeze to death."

"Of course I know that the clothes on several of us can't resist the cold." Quining didn't care about the disgust shown by the cripple Xiao, and still said his thoughts unhurriedly: "But we put all the clothes on our bodies together. On one person, wouldn’t that be able to withstand the cold outside? At that time, let this person get a little tired and go out to chop firewood, and then change people after cutting for a certain period of time, until there is enough firewood for the winter.”

The cripple Xiao and the mouse Bob were stunned when they heard Quinine's method. They both realized that this method could indeed effectively solve the problem of insufficient clothing to keep out the cold, and the two people who took off their clothes could also stay in the ignition. Next to the igniter, the heat from the igniter was enough to help them resist the cold wind that came in through the cracks in the wall.

"Who will be the first to chop wood?" Bob the mouse had already approved Quinine's idea, and then asked again.

The room became quiet. The reason why the three of them applied to come here was because they couldn't stand the fatigue of the miners. Now, cutting down pine trees on the nearby mountain in the snowstorm is far more difficult than the miners. Only one person can do it, which makes the three lazy people start to hesitate.

"Since you came up with this method, of course you were the first one to go. Do you think it's right, Bob?" The cripple Xiao quickly expressed his proposal, and even pulled Bob the mouse in. Said.

"Yes, I think so too." Mouse Bob quickly echoed.

"Why are you like this?" Quining looked at the two companions angrily, but after seeing the fierce expressions on the faces of the two companions, he became timid again, lowered his head, and dared not say anything more.

In this way, Quinine, who gave the solution, became the first person to go out to chop firewood in the snowstorm.

After making a decision, neither Bob the Mouse nor Shaw the Cripple wasted any time. They found an ax for felling trees, and then took off their warm clothes to Quinine, leaving only a piece of underwear for themselves, and curled up When he got to the igniter that was emitting heat, he urged Quinine to chop wood.

After putting on his clothes, Quining immediately felt that his body was much warmer, and the cold wind around him was no longer so terrible. Afterwards, without saying anything, he picked up the ax, opened the door and walked out, closing the door again. At this moment, Quining The timidity and panic on his face disappeared completely, replaced by a disdainful sneer, and his eyes were full of irony.

Afterwards, Quining walked out of the outpost with an axe, went to the nearby hillside, and began to cut down the pine trees full of grease. With four or five axes, he easily chopped down a tree. With the strength he showed just now, he shouldn't be afraid of Mouse Bob and Cripple Xiao at all.

Quining soon cut down enough wood, but instead of dragging the wood down the mountain and back to the outpost, he directly used the cut wood to build a simple small house, and filled the space between the wood with leaves and snow. He then lit a small bonfire in the house, and he sat by the fire, took out a metal jug from his arms, warmed it up by the fire, and drank leisurely. Sipping wine, he had no intention of returning to the outpost.

Just like that, Quinine spent the night abruptly in the woods on the hillside under constant wind and snow.

In the early morning of the second day, he added a little firewood to the bonfire that was about to be extinguished, then stuffed some snow into the wine jug that was empty last night, put it on the fire and boiled it, and then put some pine in it. Fruit peels and lichens, after cooling down slightly, drink them up in one gulp to warm up your body quickly.

After feeling that his body was no longer stiff, he immediately picked up a piece of wood, pinned the ax to his waist, and walked towards the outpost down the mountain.

Soon he returned to the outpost, piled the wood randomly in the yard of the outpost, took out the axe, went to the ignition room of the beacon tower at the top, pushed the door and walked in.

I saw that the igniter in the room was still operating normally, emitting heat continuously, but the bonfire in the fireplace had been extinguished, and the cripple Xiao and the mouse Bob sat on the ground naked, and the only clothes on their bodies were bare. Shredded and discarded aside, the whole person was completely frozen.

Seeing this scene, Quining showed a smile on his face, and then he cleaned up the two corpses, casually threw them in the snow outside the door, then returned to the yard of the outpost, and chopped the trees he had just carried into pieces. Fragments of different sizes are then transported to the ignition room and stacked neatly.

Afterwards, he went to the hillside a few more times, carried the logs he cut yesterday back to the outpost one by one, and chopped them into firewood until he felt that it was almost enough.

After that, he went to the cellar to get some food, took another pot, returned to the ignition room, and began to prepare today's food.

Just as he put the cut food into the pot of boiling snow water, covered the lid, and waited for the food to be cooked, he suddenly heard the sound of long-haired beasts coming from outside, and the sound of the sound Also getting closer.

Quining opened the door with a puzzled expression, walked to the side, leaned on the wall and looked down, and saw at the entrance of the Blade's Edge Mountain Road, an adult long-haired beast was carrying goods around the front post, walking heavily. walking towards this side.

At this moment, Quining was very surprised, because anyone who lived on the snow field knew that when the black storm appeared, they should hide and stop walking around on the snow field, but now this long-haired beast obviously destroyed this According to the rules, this scene made Quining think of a possibility.

That is, there was a caravan walking on the snow field and happened to encounter a black storm, and it was swallowed by the black storm before it could escape. Others haven't been so lucky.

Thinking of this, Quining looked at the heavy cargo on the back of the long-haired beast again, and had a bold idea in his heart, followed him immediately back to the ignition room, and planted the flag representing Movitt Road on the beacon tower. Then he turned back, took out a bottle from his pocket, poured the powder in the bottle into the cooking pot of food and stirred it a few times to see The powder was completely integrated into the food, and a satisfied smile appeared on his face.