Wasteland Echoer

"Wulfya, look, what is that?" Dak asked, pointing to the tall building not far away.

Through the windshield stained with some mottled soil, Dak and Wulfya simultaneously saw a straight, towering building that seemed to grow from the ground.

From the appearance point of view, this is completely different from the "Lin Tower" style of Binglin City and even Xinfeng Town.

Duck stretched out his thumb and made a few simple gestures. Based on the distance, the height of the tower should be about 50 meters.

Its exterior is covered with a layer of glass material that is extremely inconsistent with the architectural styles across the Federation, and the reflected sunlight is very dazzling.

The lightning rod installed on the top is about five or six meters long, and every ten floors, there is a ring-shaped structure like a swimming ring that is enclosed in the tower. I don’t know if it is for reinforcement or just as a great building that transcends the technology of the times. of well-designed decoration.

In the knowledge system and cognitive system of Dak and Wulfya, steam civilization brings the ultimate steel structure, gray and black industrial winds, plus the billowing smoke and dust generated by fossil fuel energy supply, steam engines and small electric power Precise, complex, and powerful machinery that operates under the equipment.

And this kind of very avant-garde architecture, Dak only vaguely remembers it in his distant memories. They should belong to part of the "future" vision of the old empire during its most prosperous and powerful period.

In the middle of the Third Era, some scientists from the Krusted Empire and the Ptoia Empire made predictions that the peak of steam mechanical civilization would be the widespread application of electricity, and its end would be the stars in the universe created by the Creator.

Korov Rurik, the "Future Ministry Scientist" of the old empire, once said: "When the races belonging to the earth gain the power of flight from the dragons, the endless, dark, vast, and mysterious starry sky will become a brand new possibility. Touch the world.”

Briefly, Dak felt that his body was floating and rising uncontrollably, and everything around him began to gradually turn from light to bright darkness, from warmth to comfortable coldness.

The sun quickly disappeared from the sky, and the moon and stars gradually expanded in the field of vision, until everything around them was replaced by a dark gray land with pits on its surface.

Looking down at the only continent without any ocean, Dark felt a novel feeling that transcended time and space, and transcended human technology and eras.

It seems that God does not exist, the Creator does not exist, and the vast universe is not the product of an absolute will. It is just the universe, an absolutely mysterious thing that exists here no matter what.

Gradually, Duck felt his throat being pinched by an invisible pliers, unable to breathe until...

"We're here." Wulfya's rock-heavy voice reached Dak's ears. Accompanied by violent shaking, Dak gasped and woke up from his short nap.

"Huh...huh...are we here...are we here?" Dak clutched his aching chest, wiped the sweat from his forehead with his other hand, and tilted his head to ask.

"It's here, and I'm sure that this place is now completely under the jurisdiction of the Federal Council." Wovya replied in a positive tone:

"I have seen the boy who checked our car when we entered the outer city checkpoint just now. He is the captain of the K-199 Brigade of the Koenig Army. You and I both know that under normal circumstances, the troops from the southern provinces are not transferred to fight in the north. On the one hand, it is because there is a shortage of manpower everywhere, especially excellent military talents.

"On the one hand, the terrain and climate between the north and the south are very different, and the scale and ideas of the battle are different. I heard that guy just said that many brigades from their regiment were urgently transferred here. It is said that they will not go to other provinces for at least five years to fight."

"What does this mean?" Dak didn't turn his head for a moment, turned to look at Wulfya, and asked.

After thinking for a few seconds, Wulfya replied:

"On the surface, it is indeed the implementation of the 'Construction of Important Federal Strongholds' plan, and it is also related to the military build-up mentioned by Moren. But the transfer of legions from other provinces, especially the southern provinces, is either for certain resources. Either it is an important task to build here, or it is to cooperate with the capital army to encircle the "Wuxinren" who have launched many "waves" in the past two years and several Lost Organizations behind them, including those who disobey the Federation, trying to fight against each other. independent armed forces.

"But if legions from other regions, such as those [soldiers] from the three districts in the Far East, are transferred later, it can prove that Vasily is trying to make a desperate move and wants to launch a war that we currently don't know, but the scale and impact It’s a huge military operation.”

After listening to Wulfya's analysis, in addition to secretly admiring his information control and active thinking, Dark suddenly felt an ominous premonition in his heart and blurted out:

"I don't feel right."

"I don't feel right either." Wulfya echoed unexpectedly:

"But I want to hear your opinion first."

After coughing twice, Duck said:

"All-or-nothing military operations never have good results, and at best they result in a miserable victory. Just like the Ptoia nobles who were keen on gambling in the Third Age, they put all their chips in a game with a small probability or a 50% winning rate.

"And somehow, I remembered the military operation of the southern Zine Empire in the Silent Highlands thirty years ago, which seemed to be called the 'Silence's Coming' campaign."

"Your analysis is not unreasonable." Wulfya nodded and said:

"Back then, the crown prince of the Zine Empire, Ivante, was the 'noble' you said had all the chips. In order to attack the three main churches of the lost, he used a series of wonderful, clever and covert means to mobilize the army to The decisive battleground.

"And he attacked at three points at the same time, and even achieved perfect cooperation between the air force, the ground army and the superpower team, completely destroying the foundation of the existence of the three major churches. He even reproduced the Federal Council and failed to perfect it. The 'Electromagnetic Pulse Rifle' and the 'Almost Magical Fire of Punishment' were produced, as well as other small weapons.

"It's a pity that he failed at the last moment. He may have known that the divine domain of the 'Daughter of Tool Yuan', a god created by the old empire, was there, but he was confident that the power of technology could suppress the mysterious and extraordinary and defeat everything.

"But I didn't expect the powerful power that the young man known as the 'Echoer' would possess after he killed the 'Daughter of the Mechanical Element'."

"Wulfya." Dark interrupted:

"The 'Echoer' I saw in the Gray Dream told me this. He said that he defeated the gods by relying on the 'Touch of Darkness' inherited from the power of the red magic source, and killed the emperor with his own hands. Prince Ivant.

"I...I never dared to believe this, but from your mouth today, I have to seriously consider its authenticity."

"The credibility of this matter is very high." Wulfya said seriously:

"This incident is recorded in detail in the manuscript of the 'Church of Hope'. Moreover, it was not necessarily the 'Echoers' who actually killed Ivant in the end, but the 'Fire of Punishment' that was programmed to destroy in advance. . The official records of the Zine Empire stated that Ivant was afraid of being arrested by the Lost after losing the war, so he had pre-set the plan to launch the 'Fire of Punishment' bombardment when he encountered extreme life threats, and die with the enemy.

"But in fact, the manuscript written by the top cardinal of the Church of Hope mentioned that after the explosion, Ivant left a carbonized skeleton, and the 'Echoer' may have turned into a giant... Dragon, taking advantage of the darkness to fly north.

"It is precisely because of this that I have never doubted the existence of the 'Echoer', and I dare to believe that it may exist under the frozen realm somewhere in the extreme cold zone. Well, Dark..." Wulfya He patted Dak on the shoulder and continued:

"Just now a young man who used to work for Molun told me that the Federal Council asked us to live in the tower you and I just saw for a few days. That tower is indeed a venue left by the old empire for some scientific experiments about the universe. It's called 'Hongtai'. But it's quite ironic to say that as soon as the wanted order was lifted, a new appointment order was issued to both of us."

"So, do you want to accept it? A new appointment from the Federation?" Dak felt a little entangled in his heart and looked at Wulfya with a slightly blank look.

After a second or two, Wulfya sighed and replied:

"It's better to accept it. As the saying goes, it's better to use each other than to be hostile. If we use the common saying of the Khitanris people, it is that 'huge trees can provide considerable shade for shielding the sun and enjoying the coolness'."

After driving the "Rock" car for a few minutes toward the military road outside the town of Kanosk, Wovya and Wright entered a military parking lot where many pickup trucks and mechanical combat vehicles were parked.

After receiving the special passes, the two people briefly talked with the surrounding federal [soldiers], then walked straight out of the military parking lot and arrived at the old city of Kanosk, which seemed very deserted and slightly desolate.

After all, the shortest way to reach the tower is through the Old and New Towns.

When the two people carrying guns and military backpacks entered the old city, they felt that everything around them felt the same as on the road in the desolate extreme cold zone.

Dusty dirt roads, withered trees, low and dilapidated houses, and a rare small material sales point.

Walking on the streets, in addition to the occasional heavily armed federal patrol [soldiers], there are also many human beings with shabby clothes and dull eyes, wandering in the streets and alleys like "careless people", and conflicts from time to time. Superhumans fighting each other.

However, when they saw Dak and Wulfya, who were also well-equipped and looked like standard Crusaders, walking by, they were like small animals seeing ferocious beasts, with a sudden light of fear in their eyes and trembling. Run away.

Even the superpowers stopped fighting briefly and stepped aside obediently, for fear of offending the army.

The feeling here is completely opposite to that of Binglin City. It is lifeless and filled with the atmosphere of chaos and death. Just when the two were about to leave this "land of death", they even saw humans who had fallen to the ground due to hunger and could no longer stand up, as well as several reddish remains that had been eaten by wild beasts until only scattered skeletons were left. .

However, in the depressing atmosphere, they still arrived at the foot of the tall tower building called "Hongtai".