Wasteland Echoer

Crusted Federation, Binglin Province, outside Xinfeng Town.

The incandescent sun that brought warmth to the earth was obscured by dark clouds, and the snow briefly turned into ice, giving the surrounding gloomy and dim dirt roads a cold atmosphere.

The "Kachi" brand car exclusive to "Wind Mine" drove bumpily on the dirt road. The unusually cold and humid air and the warm interior environment caused the windshield to be covered with a dreamy white mist from time to time, even if the windshield wipers were wiped. It never stops working, but that layer of painful whiteness seems to always be attached to it, lingering.

Since it is still the severe winter season in Crusad, and the air-conditioning formed in the extremely cold zone has moved southward in the past few days, the poor sense of spring that has just sprouted has completely disappeared.

Mirren, who was in the driver's seat, was staring attentively at the sometimes blurry and sometimes clear dirt road outside the white fog, and carefully operated the steering wheel in his hand.

Originally, Xinfeng Town had two roads leading to the outside. One was Highway K-12, which was built at the end of the old empire and during the reign of Ivan XXV. Although the old empire was on the eve of a disaster at that time, its military strength was unprecedentedly strong.

The empire's air force can carry out unscrupulous air attacks on any city in the southern Zine Empire. The more advanced radar technology of the Crusaders allows them to detect hostile targets faster. During the day, the Zine Empire's air force does not even have any chance to take off. Opportunity will turn into a pile of debris.

At that time, the empire continued to fight on the ice sheet with the Eventre Empire in the east, the empire in the south and the center competed for the outlet of the central lake, and the empire in the west almost surrounded Zhnetsk, the capital of the Zine Empire, and used military force to the extreme.

New tanks continue to arrive on the battlefield, rocket launchers named after various exotic flowers and plants continue to kill people, and steam machinery in various places rotates almost endlessly, just to add fire to this machine in the war.

The huge war demands and industrial production have made Ivan XXV's thirst for resources to the extreme. Without oil and steel, the war will be unsustainable, and the empire will soon collapse.

For this reason, when it was discovered that there were huge amounts of oil, natural gas and various industrial resources in the vast frozen extreme cold zone in the north, Ivan XXV built Highway K-12, directly connecting the capital and Xinfeng. The bridgehead before conquering this ice sheet area.

The quality and carrying capacity of this road were strictly regulated from the beginning of its design. Even after more than five hundred years of attacks by the "wave of unintentional people", the current Federation can continue to use it as long as it is simply repaired.

There is another road connecting Xinfeng Town to the outside world, and that is the K-I01 Highway, an important highway planned by Ivan XXV to extend into the Extreme Cold Zone.

The empire at that time hoped that this road would be used as a channel to transport oil, steel and other raw materials from the north to the south. The Extreme Cold Zone is the largest province in the Krusted Empire and the Federation, but it has the sparsest population and the most difficult access.

This K-I01 highway was originally planned to cross ice fields, frozen soil, and rivers all the way to the northernmost industrial city of Magic City. However, it was not completed until the "Wuxin Man" crisis broke out, and it was not until Ivan XXV was killed. Beheading, the oil mined within the jurisdiction of Demonic City was not transported to the capital and the front line.

"Wind Mine"'s "Kachi" brand car is walking on the site of the K-I01 highway. Due to a large-scale "unintentional wave" three years ago, the federal government launched a half-year-long offensive here to remove the " The "unintentional man" and the Lost Man behind the scenes rushed back to the other side of the North Mamouse River.

As a result, the entire road was in a mess, leaving behind potholes that looked like moldy walls when viewed from a high place, and a real doomsday scene around them that looked like the surface of the moon.

The car drove carefully along the road for about fifteen minutes. As the sun completely emerged from the dark clouds, the golden brilliance once again splashed on the almost dark, cold, and humid land. The windshield made people feel difficult and uncomfortable. Only then did the confusing fog slowly disappear, and everything in front of him became transparent and clear again.

After another two or three minutes, the car drove into an abandoned settlement and stopped near an abandoned factory.

Although the environment here is different from the gentle, orderly and energetic environment in Xinfeng Town, it can be regarded as a peaceful place like a "paradise" when "unintentional people" can't take care of it for the time being.

The abandoned settlement located in the plain is not cold, humid, or dark. On the contrary, the gentle sunlight shines directly. Under the clever shielding of the factory ruins, the gold and snowy white form a perfect fit, showing a rare softness. and the beauty of hope.

The larch and sylvestris pine that have sprouted new buds here together with their thick trunks form a picture of new life. They are sparsely distributed throughout the settlement, not crowded, and are not at all like those in the wild that are affected by strange forces. It was so twisted and intricate that it looked like the devil's tentacles.

On the contrary, the straight and tall trees give people the feeling of guardians. In the abandoned place that strangely comes to life in the cold winter, even the devils in hell will feel refreshed and hopeful.

"Wind Mine", who was leaning against the car door and admiring the ephemeral golden world around him, smoked a whole cigarette made of inner-rolled flowers, opened the driver's door, and said to Mirren with a relaxed expression:

"Bring Mr. Igor down."

"Yes, Mr. Wind Mine." Mirren nodded.

Immediately afterwards, he got out of the car, opened the back seat, pulled out Igor, who had been silent all the way, and took off the eye mask he was wearing.

Igor couldn't adapt to the sudden light. After blinking several times with tears in his eyes, he could barely see everything in the golden environment around him.

"This is the laboratory built by your 'Order Society'? In this... abandoned village?" Igor asked with a confused look on his face.

"Of course not." "Feng Mine" explained:

"As a scientist, Mr. Igor, you also know that as an unofficial laboratory, we cannot build it in any city or village where it is easy to detect. The hostile Lost Organizations have been trying to interfere with the Federal Council. Research, for the laboratory, concealment is our highest consideration."

"So, he is not on the surface, but underground?" Igor guessed.

"That's right." "Wind Mine" nodded and said:

"And the only people who can enter are those related to the research. Even the tough boy Luo Nie who was once a robot can't enter. Besides, he and Sophia are both receiving treatment at the 'military hospital' in the town, so they can't come even if they want to. "

As he spoke, he shrugged his shoulders and waved his hands in a gesture customary to the Putua people, showing his helplessness.

Igor rolled his eyes at him angrily, and then asked:

"Has that core...the 'god-like core' been transported? There is also the set of equipment left behind by the old empire. Without experimental subjects and experimental equipment, there is no way I can find the 'evolution' for you and the Federal Council. The location of the station's existence, and there is no way to determine which one of the Big Dipper it represents.

"You must know that it is better to use the 'core' to calculate the location of the 'laboratory' and then find the 'evolution platform' to find the 'core' through existing data and the 'laboratories' left behind by the old empire." 'It's much easier."

Igor paused and said with a speechless expression:

"Besides, this 'god-like core' is still a one-time replica. I can't guarantee that we can achieve a breakthrough within a month."

"Mr. Igor..." "Wind Mine" was not angry at Igor's attitude. On the contrary, with a subtle smile on his face, he put one hand around Igor's neck and whispered:

"The Federal Council has long told me that this 'core' reproduced by Ross, the deputy leader of the 'Northern Ice and Snow Research Team', has an extraordinary property related to magic. Have you heard of it?"

"Well... that's not the case." Igor replied. The feeling of being half choked was very uncomfortable, but before he understood the true attitude of "Wind Mine", he still chose to endure it for the time being.

"The Federal Council released the 'Old Fireworks'. Under the operation of the 'Extraordinary Team' led by Kuka, this sequential monster absorbed the body energy of more than 40,000 people and is now in a very active state." "Wind Mine" explained:

"Although it behaves like an insatiable beast, at least now we have fed it. So, you know, as long as we can find a way to properly use the energy absorbed by the 'fireworks of the past' to ignite the 'near-god core' ', without any calculations from you, our lost ones with magic source power can also find the exact location of the next 'evolution platform' through perception, even the castle near the location of 'Plamini' and the location leading to its body. underground road.

"If I remember correctly, the existing information left by the old empire shows that the 'evolution platform' represented by the 'Core of Approximate Gods' is 'Tianshu'. 'Tianquan' and 'Tianshu' are both confirmed, The remaining 'evolution stage' orientations can be calculated purely by mathematics.

"Mr. Igor, I remember that you were invited to study the 'Old Fireworks' twenty years ago in the capital, right?"

The last sentence of "Wind Mine" was very soft, mixed with his own immense joy and threat to Igor.

Sighing heavily, Igor finally made up his mind to take away "Wind Mine"'s hand and half-rejected:

"I advise you and the Federal Council not to use the power of the 'Old Fireworks'. Although forty thousand people have been sacrificed for it, it is a time bomb and a Pandora's box.

"Indeed, it can absorb power and then release it concentratedly, just like a biological battery. But in fact, it is conscious, constantly injecting energy into it while also cultivating its autonomous consciousness. I did study it twenty years ago , and achieved a breakthrough. But I also saw it swallow up my teacher, Federal Professor Ivanov."

After a pause for a few seconds, Igor choked and continued:

"You know, 'Wind Mine', how desperate it feels to see a person being sucked dry by a mass of energy in front of you, withering, and finally turning into ashes, and you can't take any action to stop it. That It’s a scene I will never forget in my life.”