Wasteland Echoer

After executing those [Warriors] who were induced by the "fair employment" of the old "Magician" to serve in the ritual, and who were infected by the burning liquid and mutated into careless people, Wright was recruited by the "Security Team" inspector and the killer of Silver Blade 4. Dun forced himself into the leading military jeep.

The task of dealing with the unintentional people was naturally handed over to other legionnaires. The snatched mechanical chariot that Wright and Feng were riding in was operated and driven by a large soldier who was skilled in driving and followed Keton. The rear of three jeeps.

For the Zine Empire, the difference in professional ranks is not too obvious in some cases. For example, in battle or in the wilderness, when people face life-and-death decisions, no one cares too much about them.

But in a place controlled by the empire where "order" and "law" exist, even if the rank is one higher, they will be respected by the empire [soldiers] below this rank, and can even convey urgent and limited military orders to them. .

Therefore, these legionnaires led by Keton did not embarrass Wright too much and allowed him to hug Feng Feng, who was also suspected of being a lost person, in the back seat of the vehicle, leaning on the mud-stained mottled hands without saying a word. car window, looking at the scenery outside.

The time now is about four o'clock in the afternoon, and the blazing and scorching sunshine gradually disappears behind the clouds that suddenly turn black. The rich water vapor permeates the junction of this desolate loess Gobi and the verdant mountain foot.

Either humming or manic wind and sand temporarily hid the figure here. As the jeep moved along the main road, Wright looked out the window. The rich pasture gradually appeared at the end of the field of vision, and the eagle hovered in the sky. Singing happily.

After seven or eight minutes, as the hills in the distance gradually "pulled in" his relatively large body, a scene of real vitality and everything competing appeared in Wright's field of vision.

"There are still herders here? It's completely different from the camp in Area A." Wright couldn't help but admired.

"Of course, if Camp A is like the knights standing firm in the yellow sand, then Camp B is the real 'Kingdom of Heaven' and 'Paradise'. Sometimes, the human perspective always pays attention to those suffering and bad things. It is easy for us to overlook the happiness that is within our reach." Cotton turned his head poetically and accepted Wright's praise.

"I remember newspapers and information saying that both camps are located in the outskirts of the desert covered with yellow sand. Now it seems that there may be a bias in the information." Wright said, staring at the humans driving cattle-like animals in the distance.

"Originally, the main part of the camp in Area B was still full of yellow sand. Although there is a mountain here, and after climbing over it is the Silent Highlands area, it cannot block the wind and sand. The camp on this side of the mountain is not much different from Area A. But on the other side of the mountain, the northern part of the highland that you enter through the mountain road that connects the inside and outside of the highland is really rich in water and grass and has pleasant scenery. Before the New Year, it was a must-pass for many travelers from the Zine Empire and the Krusted Federation. "Keton smiled, and through the mask, Wright could generally see the contented expression underneath.

"What happened next?" Wright asked curiously.

"About three months ago, it rained strangely and continuously here for more than a month. The abundant water vapor dispersed the yellow sand and Gobi desert. A flash flood brought a lot of sediment, which caused the appearance of sand here. There are a lot of swamps.

I have been to the Lost Swamp, and now it seems that the northern area of ​​Silent Highlands plus here, the landforms and scenery are more and more similar to that there. This is probably not a good sign. "Kton added warily.

"Lost in the swamp is indeed... indeed an ominous situation." Wright murmured to himself, his voice getting weaker and weaker.

After all, after running all the way from the Donusk city ruins on foot, and having just entered the Gray Dream, which consumed a lot of energy, Wright's body had reached the edge of physical exhaustion.

The conversation with the old "magician" just now, and when he took the initiative to execute the unintentional person, it was precisely because of the curiosity in his heart and the resonance of the magic source that it had a certain supporting effect on his spirit, allowing him to still Able to stay awake.

He stared at the cattle animals munching on water and grass in the distance, and at the herdsmen driving their sheep with their long whips. It seemed that all the green surroundings were so beautiful and wonderful that he was intoxicated by them.

His mind gradually broke away from the endless pain and confusion.

The jeep was on the main road, and the bumpy feeling of driving over some potholes couldn't even disturb the sleepiness that was gradually rising in him.

In addition to the fantastic scenes of green and gold intertwined when we first entered the ruins of the city of Donusk, in Sokra shrouded in black domes, and in Chekavsk, which was occasionally covered with smoke and dust and the overall tone was gray, even a temporary retreat In the town of Migov, Wright had never seen a truly paradise-like situation.

Intoxicated in it, immersed in it, silent in it.

Wright felt his body becoming lighter and lighter, and the whole world seemed to become silent.

The "scorching sun" he had encountered in his dream in Sokra seemed to reappear above his head.

He felt the warmth that penetrated deep into his soul and penetrated into his bones.

It's like a baby being hugged by its mother, like being intoxicated on the beach of Putoa Federation, like being intoxicated under the warm sun in the winter of Cruzde Federation.

It might have been minutes, it might have been centuries.

Wright found that the surrounding space was filled with an indescribable golden color, and there were countless stars, as if fireflies appeared during the day and were surrounding him.

His body was lifted up by an inexplicable god-like power, and gradually floated into the air.

Above the head is the blazing white sun, and below is the charming green suburban scenery.

As he gradually rose, he saw the low bungalows in the camp in Area B, a few scattered five- or six-story high-rise buildings used for camp offices, and the winding, entangled, lizard-like A common mountain road leading to the northern part of the highlands.

There were even groups of people the size of ants walking around in the middle of the camp.

In an instant, Wright felt that his perception had been raised to a higher level. He heard the thick curses of legionnaires, the clinking of glasses by adventurers from various explorer associations in the tavern, and the transcendent sounds of singing to each other, and even I heard the cries of sales in the humble commercial area.

Suddenly, Wright noticed that the sun above his head seemed to become more concrete, and the light escaping around him seemed to be bound by a ring, unable to extend outward.

The originally illusory sun began to become clearer, and instantly changed from incandescent to jet black, like an obsidian existence.

Everything around him suddenly lost the light of day and turned into pitch black, like a long night sky full of stars.

Before Wright could react, he was surprised when the original sun appeared in front of him and turned into a black mechanical wheel.

Even countless small and wriggling threads quickly grew around it, as well as two dark red tentacles that looked like crocodile tails.

"Tentacle? Tentacle?" Wright whispered, trying to reach out and touch the black roulette wheel.

However, the roulette wheel did not give him any chance to react. Those threads quickly spread and deepened, turning into thousands of squirming slender hairs, which quickly wrapped around Wright's body.

He felt that his legs, arms, abdomen, chest, and even his nose were filled with the smell of decay, sourness, and stench, as if he were in a smelly ditch, an underground sewer full of filth, or even an unintentional person. In the "ocean" of bodies piled up after fighting the Imperial [Soldiers].

The fluff was entangled and gradually became tighter, making him wrapped like a maggot, a pupa in the process of forming a cocoon.

He struggled and squirmed, but the force was getting bigger and stronger. He could even clearly see that two tentacles in the black roulette stretched out straightly, and one penetrated his abdominal cavity. One pierced his chest.

"It hurts, it hurts." Wright whispered helplessly.

He sensed that these fuzz and tentacles might be the product of a painful dream.

He wanted to wake up and struggle out of the sea of ​​suffering.

However, the black roulette wheel brought him tearing, stinging, burning, spasming, and many other indescribable sensations that fell into the category of extreme pain.

He could even feel a sharp small knife being pierced into his solid chest. It wasn't too deep, but the feeling of having his skin cut open and a small piece of flesh taken away was not pleasant.

This feeling did not only exist for a moment, but continued continuously, like a "serial", constantly repeated in his body, leading his spirit to the extreme abyss realm called collapse.

After an unknown amount of time, those dark tentacles and features gradually faded away, and the black wheel gradually turned into a stone slab with the words of the Krusted Empire printed on it.

However, just as Wright stretched out his right hand that was stained with blood and almost turned into bones, ready to touch it, in an instant, a bright incandescent light flashed past, and the stone slab broke straight from the middle and became two parts.

After a burst of mechanical rumbling and the sound of whistles on ships and trains, they turned into a hexagonal "Tomorrow Emblem" with a simple sun pattern engraved on the front, and the old "Magician" just now What was given to him was a "Heart-Searing Prism" that was dim orange-red in color, transparent, with an equilateral triangle on the front, and a small square fiery red area in the middle.

Wright could sense that they did not use any magic power, nor any electricity or external energy, but they actually emitted bright incandescent light.

Looking carefully, the top of the head is still shrouded in a dark shadow, with bursts of ultra-high volt current passing through it from time to time, while the incandescent light below is constantly trying to extend upward, trying to challenge the authority of the darkness.

Right in the middle of Wright's field of vision, a horizontal dividing line formed at the intersection of darkness and light, dividing the two.

And from the dark part, at this moment, the ethereal, low, ferocious words recited in pure Zine Empire language, as if the evil ancient god was roaring:

"Destruction, rebirth, human beings have gone through countless reincarnations. This world is wrapped in the boundless, shadowy and terrible unknown. If you, and the people behind you, try to challenge the darkness and reconstruct the order, you have to abandon a little bit of humanity. part."

"The human part?" Wright muttered to himself doubtfully.

"Abandon reason."

"Abandon your humanity."

"Let confusion and cruelty accompany your body."

“Concentrating all sin and evil.”

"Become the god of the new world!"

"Become... a... god of the new world? A sequential god?" Wright responded, shaking his head, trying to stay "awake" in the nightmare.

However, before the voice behind the dark part could respond, he heard a shocking explosion.

Endless fiery red light and billowing heat waves completely enveloped him, and the tearing and burning sensations filled his consciousness, making his vision go black and he suddenly lost all his ability to perceive...

…

"Brother Wright, brother Wright."

Feng's young boy's voice appeared in his ears, and he felt someone shaking him.

He struggled hard to get up from his half-asleep state. Finally, after a noisy tinnitus, he quickly regained all his senses, gasped for air, and opened his eyes that felt confused and hazy.

"Where is this?" Wright looked around in a daze.

I don’t know how long I had the nightmare just now, but now I am obviously not in the military jeep, but in a not spacious room similar to an office.

"Mr. Kerton just said that we are in the 'Strategic Command Branch Office' of the Military Station in Area B. You were so asleep just now that we couldn't wake you up, so the big brothers carried it on your back. I came here because of you." Feng responded immediately.

"So, we've entered the camp, that's good, that's good." Wright let out a long sigh of relief.

He patted his chest with lingering fear, then picked up his right hand, took off the gloves he had been wearing, and looked at it carefully.

Fortunately, except for some dark red substances stained by the battle and some parts covered with black dirt and scars, there was no difference from before.

It's just that... the dream just now was too weird, and it felt inexplicably real.

Could it be that you are giving me a kind of guidance? It is dangerous to touch the "Daughter of Tool Yuan", and to use its power, even to explore the secrets of my own body, does the mystery of my own journey require abandoning my humanity?

so funny!

Wright shook his head vigorously, trying to wake himself up.

Then, he stood up directly from the off-white sofa with grid stripes and a slightly dirty dark tone, and looked around the office environment.

"It seems that the people who work here are very simple." Wright couldn't help but praise, feeling a surge of respect in his heart.

Although the "Strategic Command" of the military station is a vital department in any city, town, or camp area, there are not many gorgeous furnishings in this small area.

Instead, there were only two old and broken wooden desks, painted with a layer of peeling, cheap green paint.

There are many yellow document bags stacked on top, and many documents and papers are piled messily in various corners of the table.

There was an uncapped dark green pen placed near some documents on one of the tables. It seemed that the chief here had something to do and was temporarily out of town.

There is a cabinet on the left and right sides of the room in front of the white-painted walls. On the left is a semi-open iron cabinet filled with various standard weapons, and on the right is a file cabinet modified with bookshelf and glass.

In addition, not counting the sofa near the old wooden door painted with red paint, there are only windows composed of steel frames with bright bullet-proof glass.

Wright looked out and found that the sky outside had been shrouded in darkness, and it was now night.

Except for the commercial district on the distant street, which was still brightly lit, the entire camp in Area B was completely enveloped in a relatively silent atmosphere.

Just as Wright was about to open his sleeves and check the exact time displayed on the old watch, a sound of pushing the door came from behind him.

Turning around and looking around, Keton took off his mask, revealing a messy swamp-like face filled with all kinds of messy wounds, like mud, weeds, shrubs and animal bodies. He was solemnly holding Wright's khaki military uniform in both hands. Backpack said with respect:

"This is your backpack, right? I'm sorry, sir, we checked your resident card and membership card. Because you are a member of the Sugla Guards, we helped you apply for temporary battle registration. Now you belong to 'Silence' The advent of the 'Combatant Members of the Sokra Guards' in the Northern War Zone."

"Oh, okay, then I will save you the trouble of registering myself, thank you." Wright said with a professional fake smile and took the backpack.

"In view of your status, tomorrow we will arrange for you to meet with the mid-level officers of the Sugra Guard stationed here. Tonight you and your brother will live in the bedroom next to the office. It is a bit simple, don't mind." Keton respected The ground "notified":

"Oh, by the way, we don't have the energy to check your brother's identity. If you need to register, it is recommended that you go to the office building next to you. Also, it is already eleven o'clock, and you will definitely not be able to have dinner, but there will be one tomorrow morning. A mid-level officer will treat me to a treat, but supplies are in short supply right now, and the food...is mainly meat."

After finishing speaking, Keton showed an evocative expression and walked quickly out of the office room.