Wasteland Echoer

New calendar year 557, September 29.

Cruz Federation, Q Zone of the Extreme Cold Special Zone (Old Extreme Cold Zone), Vasilysk.

In the "Special Office for Military Personnel" on the second floor of the newly built "Administrative Military Office Building" in the center of Vasilysk, Yaroslav sighed softly as he looked at the food that his new subordinate Alexi Vladimir put on the table.

He touched his hair, which had almost completely turned gray in the past two months, and resisted the feeling of stomach acid rising. He picked up the knife and fork and cut into the black, specially made rectangular protein block with glue-like mucus in the gold-rimmed porcelain plate.

Soon, Sofia, who was sitting next to him and wearing the same dark green uniform as him, also cast her eyes on the Iznik plate with historical value made by the craftsmen of the Central Empire in front of her.

There were animal viscera that were only roughly processed and simply cooked. When they were cut with a knife, animal blood with a strong fishy smell splashed out.

Using a fork, she put one of the deep scarlet substances into her mouth, chewed it a few times and swallowed it into her stomach. Then, Sophia turned her eyes to the porcelain bowl in the style of the Flame Empire, which contained several dark red blood clots of poultry, bird intestines marinated with a lot of additives, and poultry necks that were broken from the body and smelled so bad that it would make people cry.

As a lost person, Sophia naturally accepted all these foods without feeling any physical or psychological burden. She ate all the strange and fragrant foods on the plates and porcelain bowls very naturally and smoothly, wiped off the scarlet liquid left at the corners of her mouth with a handkerchief, and quietly sat on the worn-out cloth sofa beside her, staring at the "Ultra-Cold Special Zone-Bersluna Regional Form Map" hanging not far away.

But Yaroslav was far less calm than Sofia. He chewed the hard-to-swallow protein block. Every time he put a small piece into his mouth with a fork, he had to pick up the steel thermos cup beside him and drink a sip of the tea-boiled beverage from the Flame Empire. He also turned up his sleeves from time to time to check the time on the mechanical watch.

About half an hour later, Yaroslav finally finished eating this special protein block with extremely rich nutritional value. Seeing that not too much time had passed, Yaroslav slowly walked to the desk. After sitting down, he looked up and called Alexei, who was still cleaning the table, to come in front of him and said:

"The Bislunai area... I mean the wind wall where the "red waves" frequently occur. Does Commander Vasily also plan to start a war?"

"Yes, Commander-in-Chief." Alexei answered neatly.

"So, does the Federation Council now think that the battle near the "Kushen Ruins" is completely over?" Yaroslav looked at Alexei with a very serious look and asked in the same stern tone.

"Indeed, Commander-in-Chief." Alexei answered again, still very clear and crisp, and his tone was not affected by Yaroslav at all.

Yaroslav and Sofia, who was sitting next to him, understood that Alexei in front of them was just a mouthpiece for Vasily, the supreme leader of the Federation Council and the executive chief of the Cruzde Federation. He was used to replace Oleg, a member of the "Viking Faction" who had committed suicide, as the "Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Northern War" and concurrently as Yaroslav's "secretary" just to make it easier for Vasily to personally micro-manage the war situation.

Alexei, who was once a member of the "Special Mission Lurking Group" directly under the Strategic Group of the Federation Council, was a natural [warrior] and servant. He once personally led the team to break through the energy shield disguise and break into the underground base of the "Wild Tourist Group".

In that battle, he and his team members not only successfully destroyed the entire underground base, but also used strategies to send away a large number of Lost Ones belonging to the "Enlightenment Church" and the "Chaos Group". During the mission in the North, countless Lost Ones and humans died in the "Corona" portable artillery in his hands.

Yaroslav could feel that a loyal warrior like Alexei, who had no thoughts of his own and only knew how to execute orders, could help him deal with complex battle situations and execute the attack orders against the Lost Ones on the one hand; but on the other hand, he was also a human monitor placed by Vasily beside him.

Once Yaroslav revealed any dissatisfaction with the Federation, or complacency about his current achievements and status, Alexei would become a sword of Damocles hanging over Yaroslav's head, ready to "chop his head in half" at any time after receiving Vasily's orders.

Sitting on a simple, almost collapsed wooden chair, Yaroslav lowered his head and thought for a long time before he slowly asked:

"Commander Vasily, you still haven't given up the plan for the 'Universe Energy Evolution Platform'...right?"

"Of course not, Commander-in-Chief." Alexei still had a blank expression on his face, and his words were still without any emotional ups and downs, but unlike the previous two answers, he seemed to say a lot more this time:

"The 'Universe Energy Evolution Platform' is Commander Vasily's only way to completely eliminate the 'heartless people' in the Federation, force the Lost to give up their hostile identities, and instead cooperate with all peace-loving people in the Federation, so as to reach the 'Restart Era'.

"It is true that some members of the 'Independent Armed Forces' and the Lost are spreading conspiracies against the 'Evolution Platform' and Chief Vasily, but they are all conspiracies used by the enemy to confuse people and dispel our will to fight. The enemies are used to operating in the dark. To survive, they cannot adapt to the return of light, let alone watch the human collective move towards a new era full of hope.

"Because, by the 'Restart Era', and even the envisioned 'Fifth Era', which is the 'Star Era', the Lost Ones will lag behind the 'newly created humans' in terms of strength, physical strength, wisdom, etc." ', the enemy is destined to be marginalized, reduced to ragged knees on the street or 'rats' gnawing on filthy rot in the sewers."

"It seems that Chief Vasily is still as confident as ever. This is why I still follow him." Seeing Alexey raising his right fist high and delivering such a long series of impassioned speeches, Yaro Slavs knew that Vasily would no longer give anyone a chance to object to the question of the "Evolution Platform".

As long as Yaroslav raised any small doubts about the "Evolution Platform Plan", he would be disloyal to Vasily and also disloyal to the Federal Council.

Touching the gun that had been with him for many years on the table, he understood that as a pure human being, a human being who did not have and had never been exposed to any magic power, he could only and must stand firmly by Vasily's side and rely on the Federation. Give him the resources and strength, fully mobilize his courage and wisdom, and reach the end of the "Evolution Platform", a road leading to darkness and purgatory.

At this time, there was a knock on the door. Vasily glanced at the time on the mechanical watch and signaled Sophia to open the special steel door.

Accompanied by the heavy unlocking sound and the harsh metal chirping sound of the door rubbing against the ground, Yaroslav frowned and endured it for a long time before finally breaking away from the brief depression and trance. He looked up and saw a man in a monotonous gray-yellow " A young man wearing a long military cotton coat and an ear-covering fur hat, exuding a strong youthful atmosphere.

That's right, he is Kuka Is, Vasily's chief secretary and director of the ruling group's office. This piece of clothing looks simple on the surface, but is actually extremely cold-resistant and has a complex production process. It not only reveals the temperament of a person close to the center of power, but also highlights his unique identity.

"Commander Yaroslav, am I not too late?" After entering, Kuka skillfully hung his fur hat on the hanger, walked quickly to Yaroslav's desk, and stretched out his right hand.

Faced with the enthusiasm of the "Supreme Secretary", Yaroslav naturally did not dare to neglect. He quickly stood up from his seat, shook hands with Kuka "very enthusiastically", and said:

"It's not too late, it's not too late. It's not easy to go north from Binglin City, right? I heard that Chief Vasily became even busier after holding the 'Crusted People's Assembly'. I'm very worried about his physical condition."

"It doesn't matter." Kuka said with a smile:

"It's just that the war organized by Gnady in the front has never made progress. In the Yunkarov District, especially around Budadi City, our army also suffered a small-scale retreat, which made Chief Vasily very anxious. So. , recently our chief executive hopes that you can find the 'Evolution Platform' near the 'Wind Wall'."

"'Wind Wall'... the nearby 'Evolution Platform'?" Yaroslav was stunned for a second, and then quickly guessed what Kuka meant, and he blurted out:

"Is it possible that there are new results in the research on those strange 'cores'?"

"Of course." Kuka nodded slightly and said:

"You know, Commander-in-Chief Yaroslav, a person's power is often limited. Subject to his education, ability and courage, a scientist sometimes cannot fully display his true strength. Igor's team is indeed He successfully deciphered the code hidden in the "Core of Approximate God", but could only determine an extremely vague position through longitude and latitude.

"And that [Core to the Future] has also been sealed by the 'Evolution Platform Technology Decryption Team' under the committee. After all, the power of this core is too weird, and those 'prisoners' who were arranged to participate in the experiment When the volunteers used the power of this core, without exception, they all lost their bodies and turned into ghostly green souls, which were captured by the space created by the core.

"Therefore, Chief Vasily requested that we must not let the federal [soldiers] suffer the same risk. Those battle-hardened [soldiers] should fight to the death with the Lost on the battlefield, instead of being attacked by these evil spirits. Life is wiped out by extraordinary things.”

"So, Secretary Kuka, what are the latest instructions from Chief Vasily?" Yaroslav asked bluntly.

"Chief Vasily requires you to lead the army to break through the 'Wind Wall' from any direction as soon as possible and enter the ruins of the old empire where the 'Echoers' and 'Plamini' are located. I just said, [The Road to the Future] "Core" is dangerous enough, which also shows that using it to locate the entire 'evolution platform' is a waste of time." Kuka replied:

"Now it seems that the [God-like Core] is indeed the only tool that can accurately locate all the 'Evolution Stages' without consuming too many people. The star represented by this core is 'Tianshu' , it is the name of the original one of the Big Dipper by the Khitan people. As long as we locate the 'Tianshu', and then rely on the evolution platform code-named 'Tianquan' in Choigrad that we have already located, everything will be done. The evolution stage' will be positioned extremely accurately.

"At that time, it will only take a week for armies from all over the country to immediately enter the 'Evolution Platform' and activate the seemingly complex machines inside, ushering in the long-lost sunshine and dispelling the darkness of the wasteland that has lingered over the entire human race for five hundred years. "

Yaroslav was not infected by Kuka’s narcissism in the second half of the sentence, but directly raised his difficulties:

"So, Secretary Kuka, you know that after the battle of 'Brudging Ruins', all my superpowers have been transferred away by Gnaj..."

"I know." Before he could finish speaking, Kuka interrupted Yaroslav, then turned around slowly with his back to him and said:

"I just said that the power of a scientist is always limited, but two scientists with different talents will produce a very wonderful 'chemical reaction'. I have brought you two people, Igor and Ross, with their research on [Core] in different directions, they will tell you where the weak points of the 'Wind Wall' are, and how to use the 'Red Dang' to break through them. They will also help you find the right ones in the ruins of the old empire. direction." (End of chapter)