Wasteland: My items are infinitely upgraded

Faced with Lin Feng's slightly questioning inquiry, Shen Yue sighed softly and stepped forward to pull the curtains of the study room shut.

Without the illumination of the "moonlight," the room filled with bookshelves was plunged into dimness.

Lin Feng's pupils instantly dilated. Lacking experience living in the dark, even after evolving to the mid-stage of Tier 1, he still couldn't adapt to the extremely low-light environment in a short time.

But at that moment, the strange sensation that had been lingering at the back of Lin Feng's mind, like a prickling needle, suddenly disappeared.

It was clearly related to the moonlight filtering in from outside the window.

Called moonlight, but in reality, it was the afterglow of the scorching sun.

Lin Feng vaguely saw a blurry black figure in front of the window slowly walking towards him.

After Shen Yue approached, she took out a kerosene lighter from her pocket, slid the flint, and lit an oil lamp placed on the desk in the study room.

The bright white flame dispelled the darkness.

Forming a gradient halo between the two of them, resisting the thick shadows nearby.

Shen Yue sat down on the chair next to the desk and said,

"There's still some time before the ritual begins. I guess you're not very interested in those boring prayers, so have a seat first."

Lin Feng nodded and sat down next to the oil lamp, asking again:

"Is the ritual really some kind of sacrificial ceremony?"

Shen Yue stared at the flickering flame, not directly answering his question, but instead asking Lin Feng:

"What do you think of life in the Oasis Upper District?"

Lin Feng was taken aback, and without thinking, he spoke his mind:

"Like a paradise on earth, but built on the countless corpses of the wasteland hell..."

Shen Yue nodded and chuckled softly:

"A vivid and apt metaphor, but how can a paradise built from hell be a true paradise?"

"Such a high quality of life, even going to the trouble of arranging the alternation of night and day every day, ensuring that these Upper Citizens have the best physical and mental health..."

"But guess why there are no elderly people on the streets?"

"You should know that the Oasis Upper District has a history of six hundred years. The Evolvers living here are not like the starving and struggling wastelanders who live in the wastelands. Their lifespans are greatly reduced, and they can't live to old age."

After listening to Shen Yue's words, Lin Feng frowned slightly, quickly realizing the hidden problem in the Upper District.

During his travels in the past few hours, he had seen hundreds of Upper Citizens, including children in groups of three or five, vibrant teenagers, and handsome young men and beautiful women.

However, none of them were as good-looking as him.

But as Shen Yue said, he had not seen any elderly people among the Upper Citizens, and even middle-aged people were few and far between.

And as Evolvers, with at least Tier 1 early-stage strength, their lifespans could easily exceed two hundred years. Coupled with a pampered living environment, it was not impossible to live to the four or five hundred years predicted by research back then.

So why were there no elderly people among these Upper Citizens? In a normal one hundred wasteland years, six hundred years would have accumulated an unknown number of three or four hundred-year-olds.

Unless, in order to ensure the overall quality of life, the Upper District had been secretly executing those older members who were no longer energetic.

"So this so-called Moonlit Night Ritual is to deal with the elderly in the Oasis Upper District?"

Lin Feng asked rhetorically, and then continued:

"But what does this have to do with creating the alternation of night and day, and creating a concentrated light fake moon? Could this be a special ritual formed by the Upper District to deal with death?"

Humans have always regarded death as very, very important, especially in Southeast Asia during the Old Earth era, where the custom of "death is the greatest" was popular.

And funerals are often the highest-standard courtesy that a person can receive in their lifetime.

Although the person is gone in the end, the etiquette will not be lacking at all.

If, in the hundreds of years of development, the Upper District had developed such a "grand and elaborate" farewell ritual in order to maintain the population stability of a limited living space, it would not be incomprehensible...

After all, the departing elderly were all put to death.

Moreover, Lin Feng estimated that there would be very few who were willing.

Therefore, this dark ritual was somewhat sacrificial.

Hearing Lin Feng's analysis, Shen Yue smiled and nodded:

"You can think of it that way. The maximum carrying capacity of the Upper District's population cannot exceed two thousand. Any more than that, and the oasis will not be able to support their high quality of life, and it will even begin to decline exponentially."

"So, in order to ensure overall comfort, fixed mandatory elimination is still very necessary."

Just like she used a calm and indifferent expression to say these cruel and elusive remarks.

But this woman was not telling the truth.

Lin Feng remembered the "moonlight" refracted by the convex mirror. This so-called ritual must be related to it.

And Shen Yue had been avoiding this matter the whole time, and deliberately led the topic to the ritual itself, but in the end, she could only give an unconvincing reason.

The lack of logic quickly aroused Lin Feng's vigilance.

He turned his gaze to the flickering flame.

Being in the dark, without the unease like a thorn in his throat, Lin Feng's thinking became clearer:

"You have been guiding me to speak..."

"Father Suan mentioned the real reason why Oasis Town is docked in front of the Scorching Sun Forbidden Zone. I haven't joined the Oasis and become an Upper Citizen, so I'm not qualified to know yet."

"I know that some things are indeed difficult to say directly due to regulations."

"But I hope you can tell me the truth, instead of deliberately leading me in the wrong direction."

Shen Yue sighed softly. As expected, newcomers who could be valued by important figures were not easy to fool.

After adjusting her mentality, she slowly said:

"This is actually to protect you. Sometimes knowing too much is not a good thing."

"Of course, if you already know something about the Scorching Sun Forbidden Zone behind us, then it's okay to tell you the truth. According to Lord Suan's meaning, some things he can't say due to his identity..."

"But I can."

Lin Feng narrowed his eyes, and the flickering flame reflected light and shadow in his pupils:

"I once saw inscriptions left by prehistoric survivors in a ruin, and I know that there is some kind of strange curse in the Scorching Sun Forbidden Zone that can cause people to spontaneously combust."

"So, without exception, all the survivors swallowed by the Scorching Sun Forbidden Zone died, even if they returned to the shelter..."

"That's what I'm most worried about. If the Upper District of Oasis Town was established to conduct some kind of experiment, wouldn't I be jumping into a fire pit by becoming an Upper Citizen?!"

Looking at Lin Feng's righteous and serious appearance, Shen Yue couldn't help but chuckle, and then said:

"It's not as dark as you think. The so-called Moonlit Night Ritual is a very great thing."

"And the vast majority of the Upper Citizens of the Oasis voluntarily participate after learning the truth."

Lin Feng didn't quite believe it:

"Voluntarily die? Who would give up this comfortable life and be bewitched and brainwashed to die generously?"

As soon as he finished speaking, Lin Feng's mind made a "pop" sound, as if he had grasped a forgotten key point, and he quickly reacted:

"Could it be that the spontaneous combustion curse of the Scorching Sun Forbidden Zone requires sacrificing an Upper Citizen every half month to resolve its arrival?"

Shen Yue stared at the man in front of her, smiling meaningfully:

"Not bad, you're very close to the truth. But the curse of the Scorching Sun cannot affect too far outside the forbidden zone. As long as Oasis Town stays more than twenty kilometers away from it, there won't be much of a problem."

“So, the sacrifice isn't to dissolve the curse.”

Saying this, Shen Yue lowered her voice and said unhurriedly:

“The reason we choose to stay on the edge of the forbidden zone, repeatedly walking a tightrope, is to reduce the casualties caused by the curse for all human survivors.”

Lin Feng became even more confused. How could this remote and insignificant place like Oasis Town affect all of humanity?

Could it be that it has countless connections with the Holy City thousands of kilometers away…

Seeing that Lin Feng couldn't understand, Shen Yue took out a lollipop from her pocket, unwrapped the candy coating, and began to rotate it in front of the oil lamp flame:

“Our planet rotates, you know. The three suns divide the surface of the earth equally. The Intense Sun Forbidden Zone doesn't affect Oasis Town because the energy of the curse has dissipated in the previous twenty-six thousand kilometers…”

“But the life forms cursed by the forbidden zone can condense the core of Intense Sun energy. They will always wander on the wasteland, like a small Intense Sun, forming a long-term forbidden zone of life in the area it covers.”

“Different forces have different names for them. In the Holy Spring Church, they are called Yang Fiends, meaning the remnants left by the Intense Sun.”

“Yang Fiends will hinder the advance of human settlements. And the most troublesome thing is that they only awaken from the core when the source of life is concentrated and close, but the scope of impact can cover from a few kilometers to hundreds of kilometers…”

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“Because Yang Fiends are like landmines, impossible to guard against, they caused great losses to surviving human civilization in those years. Each time a Yang Fiend erupted, only powerful evolvers could escape, and all other humans turned to ashes, becoming the fuel for the Yang Fiend to continue its existence.”

Saying this, Shen Yue put the lollipop, whose surface was already charred, into her mouth, sucking its sweetness.

After the man in front of her recovered from the shock and digested the truth she had told, she added:

“Yang Fiends are the remnants of the Intense Sun Forbidden Zone, and like the Intense Sun, they use brain mental fluctuations as a fuse and burn the source of life as food. At the same time, their birth is also related to the enrichment of the source, especially pure source without impurities…”

“You're saying that besides the migrating convoys, where else is the source most concentrated in this wasteland?”

Lin Feng took a deep breath and quickly reacted:

“Buried underground, the un-opened shelters!”

Shen Yue nodded:

“That's right. The appearance of shelters is random, not just in safe areas outside the Intense Sun Forbidden Zone.”

“Because they have never been exposed to sunlight, as long as the survivors who wake up in the shelter do not open the door, they will not be discovered by the Yang Fiends. But after so many years, the life support system of the shelter has long been scrapped.”

“So they become the source of the birth of Yang Fiends.”

“And they are what we need to be most wary of.”

“Moreover, once they appear, they will leave a large base number of Intense Sun cores, triggering a fiend disaster that affects thousands of miles, causing hundreds of thousands of humans along the way to spontaneously combust and turn to ashes.”

After speaking, Shen Yue closed her eyes, crossed her hands below her chest, and leaned back in the chair to rest.

Lin Feng swallowed.

It turned out that the danger of this new world was more bizarre and terrifying than he had imagined.

Moreover, according to Shen Yue, going forward is not a safe place either, but is more dangerous than Oasis Town, which is at the very end.

If he accidentally strayed into the forbidden zone of the remaining Yang Fiends, wouldn't it be the same as entering the Intense Sun-covered area, with the risk of spontaneously combusting and dying at any time?

But thinking of this, Lin Feng immediately rejected the idea.

Because if it were so dangerous, there wouldn't be so many big cities ahead. Chen Shanshan had said that the big cities had as many as hundreds of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands of residents…

Among them, there are countless evolvers.

They must have ways to solve or avoid Yang Fiends.

Analyzing this, Lin Feng looked at the flickering lights, and his pupils suddenly shrank…

The earth rotates, and although the Oasis warship is滞留 at the end of the safe zone…

This is also the starting point of the Intense Sun Forbidden Zone!

So its existence must be closely related to avoiding the subsequent impact of the Intense Sun Forbidden Zone!

Connecting the Holy Spring Day every fifteen days, and the mysterious ceremony held while waiting for the Intense Sun Forbidden Zone to approach, a shocking idea emerged in Lin Feng's mind:

The entire existence of Oasis Town is to observe the Intense Sun storms that occur within the Intense Sun Forbidden Zone, and then lock in the locations where Yang Fiends may be born.

Then, this valuable and life-saving important information is passed on to the Holy City ahead, or even further afield, to the vanguard of humanity.

In order to ensure the safety of the forward route!

After drawing the conclusion, Lin Feng suddenly recalled the warnings and exhortations left by the first human pioneers six thousand years ago on the top of Mount Lao two days ago.

That human researcher, when he decided to sacrifice himself, told the city lord to pay attention to the Intense Sun Forbidden Zone at all times.

Worried that one day, there would be beings born inside that could leave the Intense Sun Forbidden Zone and act in the safe zone.

Now it seems that the Yang Fiend is its evolutionary achievement.

For the migrating humans in the safe zone, the appearance of Yang Fiends is enough to trigger an extinction disaster.

At the same time, he also mentioned at the end that one should not stare at the Intense Sun Forbidden Zone for too long, otherwise the curse of spontaneous combustion will follow like a shadow, engraved into the brain tissue through the lens of the eyeball…

Turning the observer into burning firewood!

At this moment, Lin Feng suddenly raised his head and looked at Shen Yue, who was resting with her eyes closed:

“That so-called moon, the moonlit night ritual, isn't it letting the sacrificed observe the Intense Sun Forbidden Zone thousands of miles away through a convex lens!”

Hearing Lin Feng's words that touched the truth, Shen Yue slowly opened her eyes and looked at him:

“You said that. But it's true.”

Then, she pulled out half of the lollipop from her mouth and stared at it, muttering to herself:

“The upper citizens who are carefully raised in the upper district are only to better complete the mission of observation.”

“Their spiritual world is very rich, and they have a strong attraction to the curse and Yang Fiends of the forbidden zone.”

“But don't worry, as long as you can advance to the late stage of the first order, you will be more valuable than being firewood, and naturally you will not become a sacrifice…”

“Late-stage evolvers can hold important positions in Oasis, such as the manager of the Moon Garden, and the heads of other departments on the warship. You can imagine how comfortable the days will be in the future.”

Hearing her words, Lin Feng remembered the reward order from Oasis that he saw in the guild.

An upper citizen needs a new guitar.

Perhaps it is also to train them into qualified human telescopes.

Shen Yue put the lollipop in her mouth:

“This is safer and more comfortable than risking death to fight desperately in the dangerous wasteland.”

“Besides, don't think that Oasis Town is poor, but there is a lot of profit. Each pilgrimage convoy will send back excess supplies.”

“Accumulating for a hundred years, there is even a chance to evolve to the second order. Wouldn't it be more comfortable to be an Oasis Council executive than to be a wasteland hunter?”

Lin Feng narrowed his eyes and understood the other party's intention.

It turned out that she was still trying to persuade herself to stay in Oasis Town for Su An and Bishop.

When writing this chapter, my mind was full of Dark Souls' kindling and Fujimoto Tree's Fire Punch.

Ah, what a desperate world of eternal day.

Fortunately, there is still a glimmer of darkness that can be寄宿 next to Chen Shanshan.