Chapter 920: Chapter 920: Light Blooming on the Horizon
With Claw’s death, the battle in the abandoned town was over. The looters from the Cannibal Tribe and other factions either died or fled.
Based on the direction those looters fled, the Spring Water Commander roughly deduced their lair to be around the Rocky Mountain City ruins, about a hundred kilometers from No. 10 Settlement Point.
There are many ruins from the Prosperity Epoch to the northeast of Haiya Province. Without a specific target, finding these guys is like finding a needle in a haystack.
Perhaps deploying a few communication satellites into orbit in the future might solve this problem.
In short, after confirming the lair of these looters, a "Viper" transport plane urgently took off from No. 10 Settlement Point, flying at low altitude to the area around the abandoned town, loaded the aircraft with a nuclear bomb with its communication module disabled, and carried nearly ten diehard players towards the Rocky Mountain City area.
Meanwhile, on another front, the looters lying in ambush on the west side of No. 10 Settlement Point were still gazing at the clouds in the sky, unaware that their leader was already gone.
Sitting on the hood of an off-road vehicle, Rui Fu aimed his "new toy" at a bird perched on a tree branch, ready to test his marksmanship. Suddenly, the bird became wary, looking left and right, and flapped its wings to fly away unexpectedly, leaving him clicking his tongue in annoyance as he lowered his gun.
The Bumblebee X-2 assault rifle, produced by Huge Rock Military Industry, manufactured in Wasteland Era 210, was practically a clone of the corporation’s G9 "Black Swan" assault rifle.
I’ve heard from the Southern Legion folks that in the Free State, you can get anything as long as you have money.
And the most crucial part is, they don’t care if the trade is with humans or ghosts, nor do they care where the money comes from.
Although it’s over a thousand kilometers away, if I get the chance, I’d really like to check it out.
Looking at Litt, who was lost in thought beside him, he used a casual tone to start a conversation.
"What do you plan to do after we’re done with this gig?"
Hearing the voice from beside him, Litt yawned out of boredom and replied casually.
"I don’t know, get a couple of bottles of alcohol, find a girl, and continue living as I am."
Hearing such a dreamless answer, the corner of Rui Fu’s mouth couldn’t help but twitch.
"Come on, don’t you have any other thoughts?"
Seeing Litt’s puzzled expression, he patiently continued.
"Listen, my friend, chaos is near... As the Southern Legion says, the entire Alliance will collapse in an instant, the Eastern Provinces will enter an era of our own, opportunities will be everywhere then."
Watching this guy who had been led astray, Litt sneered.
"Come on, did those big-nosed guys implant a prosthetic in you and secretly swap your brain? The Alliance wasn’t even around two centuries ago, and when those blue ground squirrels weren’t here, I didn’t see any opportunities; people just got by."
"How can it be the same?" Rui Fu shook his head, eyes sparkling with ambition, "Those scavengers weren’t as wealthy as they are now. We’ll take over their farms, factories, and research institutes and use that wealth to build a nation for the looters!"
Litt grinned.
"And then who will we loot next?"
Rui Fu was taken aback, scratching his head, and mumbled incoherently.
"I haven’t thought about it yet, but I’ve heard there are colonial lands from the old eras five light-years away."
"Are you going to build a spaceship to get there? Don’t kid yourself, buddy." Litt sneered, dismissing the words as nonsense.
There were people who attempted to build a looters’ nation but all failed.
The reason is simple.
Looters simply don’t need a nation.
When there’s nothing left to loot, they’ll fight each other for the remaining scraps.
He’s seen too many arrogant fools, mostly blinded by newfound power from above.
Looking at the still-unconvinced Rui Fu, Litt paused and advised in a serious tone.
"Believe only half of what those big-nosed guys say, and it’s best if you don’t believe the other half... Also, if you plan to go solo, don’t let One-Eyed know."
"I’m just talking; I didn’t mean it." Rui Fu nervously glanced behind him and laughed awkwardly.
The Cannibal Tribe is the largest looter tribe in Rocky Mountain City. The various chiefs, when placed in a neighboring Yue Ma Province, could be at least a regional overlord.
Because of this, the rules in this group are particularly strict; anyone who dares to have a second thought clearly doesn’t know the meaning of death.
They are with One-Eyed.
That guy’s ruthlessness has been witnessed by all of them.
At this moment, a unfamiliar voice came from behind them.
"Have you ever considered another way of living?"
"Another way of living?" Litt turned around and saw a guy dressed similarly to him, sitting on the back of the car without them noticing, facing away from them.
He didn’t recognize this guy, but it wasn’t unusual, as people die every day in the tribe, and there are newcomers all the time.
That impeccably articulate manner made him uncomfortable. He figured it was another "civilized person" picked from the prisoners by the chief.
However, the man didn’t mind his indifferent tone and continued with a gentle tone instead.
"That’s right, for instance... getting a job at the dock or picking bricks at a construction site. Of course, if you have a skill, there are more jobs you can do."
As soon as he finished speaking, the two sitting on the hood laughed loudly.
"Don’t joke around, buddy, isn’t that just like those naive fat sheep?"
"Save a lifetime of earnings and get robbed all at once? I’d rather be the one holding the gun."
The man smiled faintly.
"You’re right."
That nonchalant laughter, which didn’t quite fit the others’ rambunctious laughter, made Litt frown. He reached for the rifle placed beside him, watching the man’s back like a vulture.
"Hey, what’s your name?"
"Chu Guang."
Chu Guang...
Such a familiar name.
Litt frowned deeply, and his pupils suddenly widened.
"You, you are..."
Chu Guang jumped down from the back of the vehicle, landing on the ground, and spoke in a casual tone.
"I was just curious about what you’re thinking, and now my curiosity is satisfied."
He glanced back at the two people who looked like they were facing a great enemy, paused, and continued speaking.
"Why don’t you surrender yourself?"
"In your dreams!"
Before he could finish speaking, Litt roared angrily, raised his ready-to-fire gun, and pulled the trigger without hesitation, unleashing a burst of gunfire.
The fierce firepower was enough to tear through several millimeters of steel!
However, the bullets seemed so slow and feeble in Chu Guang’s eyes, like a lagging slide show.
The whole world seemed to slow down.
He simply took a step to the side and easily dodged the blazing trajectories.
His movements didn’t stop, and he then fished out a small-denomination silver coin from his pocket, tossing it casually at the man who had fired at him.
The piercing sonic boom pushed away the thick white mist, whistling past the slow-motion bullets.
Litt didn’t even see what happened, only feeling a blur before his eyes, then his body below the neck lost sensation, and his vision spun up to the sky.
Standing beside him, Rui Fu was the same, staring wide-eyed with his modified electronic eye.
He only vaguely saw a shadow, then Chu Guang seemed to disappear on the spot, and then Litt’s head flew off his shoulders.
A chill ran down his spine, and Rui Fu looked in horror at the man standing not far away, his legs shaking uncontrollably.
"...I...I surrender."
Unable to withstand the fear in his heart, he released his grip on the rifle leaning against the car hood and raised his hands, kneeling on the ground, pleading.
"Please don’t kill me..."
Chu Guang glanced at him, didn’t speak, and then turned his gaze to the body kneeling on the ground.
At this moment, a crisp and pleasant voice drifted into his ears.
"As expected of the master! It seems from the last upgrade, you’ve unlocked some amazing talents."
"It’s got nothing to do with talent."
Chu Guang casually replied.
In fact, he hadn’t even activated his talent, only using forty percent of his strength.
Perhaps Heya was right.
Although he still had 23 pairs of chromosomes, his distance from humans was growing ever larger.
Heavy footsteps came from not far off, and Lu Bei, wearing an exoskeleton, walked briskly over to Chu Guang with a head in hand.
Staring at the bloody head, Rui Fu finally saw the face clearly.
That guy was his boss, One-Eyed!
At the moment he recognized that face, his breath froze completely.
"The enemy units have been cleared. During the battle, we captured a vehicle-mounted anti-aircraft missile and several portable anti-tank rocket launchers."
"Despite our persuasion, the enemy leader refused to surrender and intended to resist desperately but has now been killed."
As he spoke, Lu Bei placed the head on the vehicle deck, placing his right fist on his chest.
The entire operation took less than three minutes from start to finish.
Chu Guang nodded, satisfied with the efficiency of the Guards Corps, and succinctly continued his orders.
"Send the surrendered ones to the POW Camp, and handle the bodies on the spot."
Lu Bei’s expression turned solemn as he received the order.
"Yes!"
Kneeling by the car hood, Rui Fu was utterly terrified, unknowingly wetting his pants.
"Rehabilitate well, strive to become a new person... if you ever get the chance." Chu Guang glanced at him, dropped this line, and turned and left.
Watching the Alliance Manager’s departing figure, Rui Fu felt both terrified and puzzled.
How is this guy here?!
Wasn’t he supposed to be inspecting the forest area to the north?!
Just then, a rumble like distant thunder rolled in from the north.
The sound seemed to come from a far distance, and a faint glow appeared in the sky.
...What is that?
Rui Fu was stunned.
Not far away, Chu Guang also stopped in his tracks, looking towards the direction of the explosion sound.
"It seems it’s already over."
Following behind him, Lu Bei paused, then smiled and nodded.
"Hmm... it’s already over."
...
As two flickering plasma plumes streaked across the sky, the dazzling light finally descended over Rocky Mountain City.
The deafening roar not only brought down the half-collapsed buildings but also shattered the clouds in the sky.
A burning mushroom cloud rose from the ground, with the spreading shockwave sweeping away those Looters trying desperately to escape.
Even those Looters lucky enough to survive did not meet a good end.
Deadly Gamma Rays easily penetrated the indestructible concrete, leaving invisible yet fatal wounds on their bodies.
Only radiation antidotes could save their lives.
If they could explain how they got their radiation wounds, perhaps they might even buy some at the pharmacy in No. 10 Settlement Point.
But these are all stories for later.
Right now, Rocky Mountain City was in ruins, with horrifying corpses scattered everywhere under the rubble and debris.
Less than one in ten of the surviving Looters remained, and those still enduring were writhing in agony under the radioactive dust.
The routed soldiers fleeing towards Rocky Mountain City hopelessly halted in their tracks.
Facing the approaching Storm Corps, they could no longer muster any will to resist; the equipment that the Southern Legion had supplied them was abandoned on the ground, and they knelt with raised hands in surrender.
Everything was over.
In despair were not only the routed Looters but also Wyatt, the person in charge of the "Guillotine" operation.
Staring at the mushroom cloud that appeared in the opposite direction, his entire face turned ashen gray.
"No..."
He no longer had time to ponder how that nuclear bomb ended up in front of him.
At the same time the mushroom cloud soared into the sky, a group of soldiers in exoskeletons had already reached him.
Seeing the Storm Corps’ emblem and paint, Wyatt’s heart sank. He gritted his teeth and pulled out his sidearm to commit suicide, but before he could release the safety, an unseen hand seized his arm, pinning it to the ground behind him.
"Fire now—" He opened his mouth in a panic to shout but ended up with a mouthful of dirt as his head was pressed down.
The optical camouflage quickly dissipated, and a silhouette straddled him, holding a pistol to the back of his head.
Stunned by the sudden shocking turn of events, the six Vellante Guards standing around were at a loss, not knowing what to do.
Fortunately, the person atop their leader reminded them.
"Drop your weapons, raise your hands, or I’ll blow your leader’s head off."
With one hand pressing the struggling Wyatt who was trying to speak, the person atop him grinned and said.
Facing the ominous guns pointed at them, the six Vellante Guards wisely laid down their weapons, surrendering alongside their earth-eating leader to the Storm Corps.
Meanwhile, dozens of kilometers away in Rocky Mountain City, the shockwave from the nuclear explosion had finally quieted down.
Moving aside the concrete slab pressing on his chest, Wyatt’s deputy, Ogg, endured the excruciating pain of his fractured bones and painstakingly crawled out from beneath the ruins.
The sudden nuclear strike had completely destroyed their stronghold...
The only fortunate thing was that they were destroyed by the aftermath of the nuclear strike.
Clearly, the Alliance was unaware of their exact location; they merely estimated a rough area and then dropped their nuclear weapons back from the aircraft.
Looking at his colleague struggling beneath the nearby ruins, he wore a bitter expression as he hobbled over to help the luckless survivor remove the rubble and debris pressing down on him.
"How do you feel?"
Helping the person sit down by the wall, Ogg handed him an antiseptic injection.
Taking it, he decisively jabbed it into his thigh, taking a deep breath before calming down.
"Cough... What... on earth happened?"
Looking at the operation base reduced to ruins, Ogg chuckled bitterly and said.
"Don’t know, probably shot ourselves in the foot with our own stone..."
Perhaps his superior was right; they couldn’t wait until they were 100% sure before taking action.
But his superior never told him what to do if they lost the gamble...
Thinking carefully, they previously faced either the Civil Official Group or the West Winds Empire, the kind of ineffectual entities that couldn’t be propped up, or even smaller tribes inferior to the West Winds.
With such opponents, indeed, there was no need to consider those troublesome issues.
And now, sure enough, they had suffered greatly.
However, now was not the time for regret.
Before long, the Alliance would undoubtedly search the ruins; they had to evacuate before the Alliance people arrived.
Ogg stood up from the ground and looked at his colleague beside him.
"Can you still move?"
His colleague gave a wry smile, struggling to stand up from the ground while bracing against the wall.
"Barely..."
The two of them hobbled out of the ruins and finally stepped onto the jagged stone-laden street.
And at that moment, the two, supporting each other, saw a Viper transport plane parked on the street.
Ogg felt a chill in his heart, while the colleague he was supporting reached for his sidearm.
Looking at the only two remaining survivors, the Spring Water Commander shouted to them.
"Surrender, you’ve already lost."
Ogg was silent for a while.
Finally, he held down his colleague’s hand as it gripped the gun and shook his head at the bewildered expression on the latter’s face.
"It’s over..."
...
On the other side, far away in the Grand Canyon, an old man sitting in an empty conference room sighed softly as he looked south.
"Yet another one..."
Indeed, the older people get, the duller their sense of time.
The nuclear bomb in Luo Xia Province seems like it happened just yesterday, and now another mushroom cloud from a nuclear explosion has risen over the distant horizon.
Although he couldn’t see it from where he sat, the Gamma Ray monitoring devices in the Grand Canyon wouldn’t lie.
Sitting at the long meeting table in the Obsidian Carved City was another tall man.
Unlike the grey-haired old man, he looked much younger, and his eyes shone with a more intelligent gleam.
"Same old words, tisk tisk, it seems your language skills really have deteriorated."
The old man gave him a slightly displeased look.
"Your tongue is still as sharp as ever."
The tall man chuckled, showing no sign of being bothered by the displeased attitude.
"I’ll take it as a compliment."
Yet, can eternal life that never changes truly be called eternal?
The old man had reservations about this.
In his view, the old friend before him had long since died.
However, instead of arguing over boring issues with this annoying guy as he usually did, he subtly changed the subject.
"You seem to be in a good mood."
"Of course," said the tall man, squinting as he gazed out the floor-to-ceiling window with a smile, "our long-held wish is about to be fulfilled. The fire of civilization will be carried forward by us... Amazing, after you’ve messed up all the things, we have a chance to start anew."
"The Alliance agreed to help you build a Starship?"
"Yes."
The old man nodded.
"A generous young man... But what about your branch of the Technology Committee? Are you taking them with you, or leaving them to fend for themselves in the Wandering Swamp?"
He used a probing tone when he said this.
After all, based on his understanding of "Conclusion," this guy would never reveal his plans.
However, contrary to the old man’s expectations, the guy straightforwardly disclosed his arrangement.
"We will take the children worth saving. As for those we can’t take, I’ve already thought of a way out for them. I will entrust them and the Technology Committee to the Alliance."
The old man showed a surprised expression.
"... You’re serious?"
Conclusion said casually.
"If nothing unexpected happens, yes, but if something unexpected does, that’s another matter."
The old man was silent for a long time, then sighed with deep emotion.
"It’s hard to believe... I remember someone once regarded the technology of the Prosperity Epoch as the root of all chaos, believing it was the unchecked abuse of technology that led to nearly two centuries of the Wasteland Era."
Knowing he was the "someone" mentioned, the tall man chuckled and said.
"My thoughts haven’t changed at all, still the same as before. But I also said our containment of technology is to use them in the right place... And now, we believe the time is ripe."
"Even if we bring the achievements of the Prosperity Epoch to light, the fruits of past wisdom, their genius creativity won’t be used by gain-seeking degenerates to oppress the descendants of the United Human, or maintain the established interests of the Wasteland Era rulers over this land, or any other twisted desires."
The old man nodded, seemingly agreeing with his rhetoric, or perhaps only agreeing with part of his lengthy argument.
But in any case, they had reached a consensus on one matter.
"Perhaps, perhaps you’re right, and I hope you’re right..."
He stood up from the chair, walked around the long table made of obsidian, and moved to the floor-to-ceiling window in the conference room.
It wasn’t a real window but a panoramic imaging system reflected on the wall.
However, the desolate land was real.
And the survivors struggling on that land were real too.
"Some problems must be solved... they can’t be delayed any longer."
The tall man sitting at the meeting table rarely put away his playful expression, stood respectfully, and nodded slightly towards the one-time Chief of the War Construction Committee, now the Chief of the Great Rift Valley.
"A wise decision, we’ve been waiting for this day too long, but fortunately, it has finally come to us..."
As the words fell, the pale blue light particles scattered from the meeting table.
A moment later, the door of the conference room opened, and a recording officer wearing a silver robe walked in.
"Chief, you called me?"
The old man facing away from the recording officer slowly nodded.
"Help me write a few letters, and wipe this table for me."
"A century and a half, it’s about time we made ourselves useful."