Chapter 383 The Root of Chaos

The deserted streets were littered with garbage that no one had cleaned up, scrapped vehicles lay across the weed-covered streets, and the mottled metal lampposts made it hard to tell whether they were rust or blood.

Broken windows can be seen everywhere here, and the paralyzed android models are still wearing the most fashionable pieces of cloth from two hundred years ago, but there is no one to be seen.

This place has never been bombed by heavy weapons, and the main structures of most buildings are intact.

But it was eventually abandoned.

"...It should be in front." Zhimahu held a map in his hand, compared it with the surrounding buildings, and took the lead in walking in front of the team.

According to the information of the scientific expedition team, the gate of Shelter No. 79 is located at No. 79 Xiangling Street, East District, Ruigu City, where there is a municipal library.

As for the specific entrance, there is no specific description in the information, only in the limited text, please follow the arrangements of the administrator when arriving at the evacuation area, and enter the shelter under the instructions of the security personnel.

I think this is also for safety reasons.

Walking beside Zhima Lake, the broad-bodied Rourou looked around and whispered.

"What a pity..."

"What a pity?" Weiwei, who was riding on her shoulder, tilted his head.

"I always feel that this city is still good, but there are no people."

"Yes," Weiwei rubbed his chin with his index finger, thinking, "Why don't people go back to live after the war?"

Sisi thought about it.

"Emmm... Maybe it's because there are no people?"

Rourou: "..."

Zhima Lake: "Ah... Haha."

Although he just repeated Rourou's words, Sisi didn't think it was nonsense.

As she saw after entering the city, it was not the war itself that destroyed the city, but the chaos caused by the war.

The scarcity of a series of resources including food, water, electricity, fuel, etc., made this place a steel jungle that is more cruel than the primeval forest.

Especially in the third year of the war, the planet entered a half-century-long mini-ice age.

When most people evacuated the city, the aliens quickly occupied the place, built nests in buildings, walked through ruins, and hunted in the dark.

The wastelander walking here will never know that when he opens a door, the first thing that comes out is a cockroach longer than his legs, or a group of rats grinding their teeth and sucking blood.

Or——

Something more terrifying.

"Hush..."

The cat ears on the top of the head moved slightly, and Zhimahu made a silent gesture, signaling her companions to be quiet.

She walked to the intersection at the end of the street with her steps down, and she lay down beside the door of a scrap car and looked at the corner on the left.

For a moment, she held her breath because of the giant creature that came into her sight.

Death Claw!

The dark green scales covered the whole body, and the nearly six-meter-tall body lay across the street, with the tail curled in front of the body.

Just looking at the size, this guy is much bigger than the "Nico" at the entrance of Shelter No. 404, and his claws are sharper. It should be a different species.

The heavy breath blew the bushes to the side, and the dull snoring seemed to be asleep.

Looking at the two bloody bodies lying next to the claws, Zhimahu's expression was slightly stiff.

She was not sure whether an RPG could really cause effective damage to this guy.

If the sneak attack failed, they might be wiped out in an instant.

She retreated quietly and returned to her companions, saying nervously.

"It's the death claw... It blocked the entrance of the library."

Sisi touched his chin and said solemnly.

"No wonder there are no other alien species around."

Rou Rou asked nervously.

"Then...what should we do?"

"It's okay, there's more than one way anyway," Sis took out a paper map, stared at it and thought for a while, "The risk of a frontal breakthrough is too high...let's go around to the garage behind the library and climb over the wall from there."

Deathclaw's intuition for crisis is extraordinary.

She had seen with her own eyes that the Deathclaw, who was still sleeping the previous second, jumped up and slapped away the RPG rocket the next second.

Well, that rocket was still fired by her.

After that, she and Tail were killed instantly by the Deathclaw that rushed up, which happened several versions ago.

This kind of unreasonable creature cannot be measured by common sense.

If it was near Dawn City, they would call for an airstrike. Unfortunately, this is Ruigu City, far away from the save point and resurrection point.

They have to try to avoid even the slightest risk.

The group changed the direction of advance and went along the street next door to the parking lot behind the city library.

However, what Sisi didn't expect was that this place was not as uninhabited as it looked from the outside, but actually hid a settlement of survivors!

There were two or three hundred residents living here, which looked like a village of considerable size.

Right under the eyes of the Death Claw!

"Stop!"

Standing on the wall reinforced with steel bars and wooden boards, the man in the studded jacket shouted at the people outside the wall in a low voice.

He held a shotgun in his hand, staring at the thick-haired white bear, the ammunition belt and light machine gun on the white bear's back, and his expression was full of tension and uneasiness.

Although there were only three women standing outside the wall.

But he would not naively think that a woman who could tame such a strong beast and walk alone in the wasteland would be a good person.

"Don't be nervous, we have no hostility." Sisi glanced at the shotgun in the man's hand, and then glanced at the iron pipes in the hands of the survivors behind him, not taking it seriously.

After resupplying, she has changed into a new bulletproof vest.

The iron pipe rifle with Brownian motion bullets has no deterrent effect on her.

"Who are you? Legion? Or enterprise?" The man standing on the wall looked at her and asked nervously.

"None, we are wastelanders from the neighboring Qingquan City."

The survivors standing behind the man exchanged surprised glances with each other.

"Qingquan City?"

"I went there when I was young... There is a giant stone city there, they use plastic sheets as money, and they can buy mint-scented soap."

"Is it true?"

"Really! I heard that you can eat three meals a day working there!"

"Is there such a good thing!?"

Listening to the whispers of the people behind him, the man stared at Sisi suspiciously, but finally put away the muzzle and hostility.

"It seems that the Legion really doesn't have women... No matter who you are, at least you are not those guys."

After a pause, the man made a simple self-introduction.

"My name is Wu Tao, the hunter of Xiangling Town... and the mayor here."

"What happened here?" Sis looked at the man and asked.

"A lot of things happened. You really shouldn't have come at this time... Did you see the airship in the northwest?"

Sis nodded.

Not to mention seeing it.

They had a fight with the people who came down from it a few days ago.

"Has the Legion been here?"

"More than that," Wu Tao curled his lips, "Just the day before yesterday, that group of robbers came, more than a hundred people, saying that the army of the enterprise was burning, killing and looting nearby, and asked us to move to their camp to accept their protection... No one would believe their nonsense."

"We have lived here for more than a century. Let alone the enterprise, even if the mutants came, we would not go anywhere! Then the villains started to set fire..."

The man cursed.

Sisi frowned and continued to ask.

"What happened next?"

"Later, that guy showed up..."

As he spoke, Wu Tao glanced behind him with lingering feelings, but his sight was not at the library behind him, but over the eaves of the building.

Sisi knew what he was referring to and was slightly surprised.

"That Death Claw?"

Wu Tao nodded with a complicated expression.

"Yes, although we don't know where it came from, thanks to that guy, the Legion left behind several corpses and the rest of the people ran away."

Sis: "Aren't you afraid of that Death Claw..."

"Of course I am afraid, but the airship is still there, and we are worried that the Legion's people will come back."

Wu Tao sighed and said helplessly, "Watching it chew up those corpses, we threw some mutant hyenas and rats to it. That guy is not picky about food, and he stayed at the door of the library... We don't know how long it will stay, but we can live as long as we can. None of the people we sent to the Legion to inquire about the news came back, and it's hard not to think that they have encountered some trouble."

Sis estimated that the Legion was probably reluctant to use the 400mm gun on the beast. Otherwise, even the Death Claw would not be able to withstand the attack of the "anti-military weapon".

"We have finished our story, it's your turn."

Wu Tao stared at Sisi and continued to ask, "Since you are not a legion, nor a company, and even less a businessman... So what do you want to do here?"

"We are looking for Shelter No. 79." Sisi did not hide anything and directly explained his purpose.

She thought the man in front of her would know something, but she didn't expect that after hearing the word shelter, there was only a blank expression on his face.

That expression was obviously not pretended, but a subconscious reaction.

Not only him, but also several young survivors behind him, their faces looked like they had never heard of it.

"Shelter... There is no shelter nearby." Wu Tao looked at Sisi with a strange look on his face, "This is Xiangling Town, and this building is the municipal library. Who would build a shelter in the library? Did you find the wrong place?"

"Eh?! Isn't it here?" Wei took out the map in surprise and unfolded it, repeatedly confirming that there was no problem with the coordinates and street number.

Sisi frowned slightly.

"It's impossible... We came here only after receiving reliable information."

"Then I don't know. Anyway, I have lived here since I was a child, and it has been almost 30 years," Wu Tao shook his head and said, "It's a pity that our mayor packed up his belongings a few days ago and followed the caravan heading west. Otherwise, you might know something if you ask him."

"No..." Zhimahu showed an embarrassed expression on his face.

Sisi asked without giving up.

"Can we go in and take a look?"

"Yes, but you have to leave your weapons behind," Wu Tao stared at the assault rifle in her hand and said vigilantly, "We can't allow you to bring this thing into our house."

Sisi didn't say anything and threw a bunch of heavy gold coins on the wall.

"That's unrealistic. Let's try another way. Here are 100 dinars. We won't use your food and water. We just need a room where people can live. We will leave at dawn tomorrow morning and will never disturb you."

This money bag was found by her from the soldiers of the Legion. Rummaging boxes and touching corpses can be said to be a fine tradition of players.

Although the Legion is annoying, as one of the two major "currencies" in the wasteland, those golden coins are not annoying.

Staring at the money bag hanging on the wall, Wu Tao swallowed his saliva and exchanged glances with other residents behind him.

"Do you want to let them in?"

"Just stay for one day... there shouldn't be any problem."

"What are you afraid of? Just three little girls... at most plus a bear."

"By the way, that bear! Don't let that guy in."

Wu Tao looked at the people outside the wall.

"No problem... but your pet will scare our residents, it has to stay outside."

"She is not a pet, she is our partner," Sis corrected him and continued, "but it doesn't matter, we didn't plan to let everyone in."

As she said, she looked at her partner behind her and switched languages ​​skillfully.

"Rou Rou, A Wei, can you please wait for us outside? Zhimahu and I will go in and take a look. It may take a little time, but we should be able to come out before 8 o'clock tomorrow morning."

"I always feel that those people don't seem to be lying," Zhimahu hesitated, "Could it be that there is something wrong with our intelligence? Maybe Shelter No. 79 is really not here."

"Whether it is here or not, the last clue points to this place. According to the convention of general RPG games, the key to enter the next copy is likely to be here. Anyway, let's go in and take a look."

The shelter may not have only one entrance. Shelter No. 404 has two, one connected to the subway and the other connected to the sanatorium in the park.

Maybe the door of Shelter No. 79 in the library has not been used since it was closed, and the residents may have left from other exits.

Of course, this is just her guess.

She simply thinks that the planner should not design a meaningless scene.

"Oh! No problem!" Tail nodded enthusiastically, patting his chest, "Don't worry, leave it to Tail!"

Rou Rou said worriedly.

"If you are in danger, remember to shout for help."

Sisi smiled and gently touched the furry head.

"Don't worry, it will be fine."

...

The reinforced wall has no door, and only a ladder lowered from the wall can be climbed in.

Entering the strange survivor settlement, Zhimahu's expression was a little nervous, but after seeing the old people and children in the camp, his mood relaxed a little.

The presence of old people and children at least shows that this is not a predator's nest or a slave trader's farm. Maybe the people here are not as open as those in Shuguang City, but at least they have a basic moral bottom line.

The two followed Wu Tao's footsteps, passed through the parking lot piled with domestic garbage and supermarket shopping carts, and entered the library from the back door.

The library is quite spacious, with concrete structures on all sides, like a castle. In the center is a 100-meter-wide patio, with steel frames interlaced on the dome, which should have been inlaid with large pieces of glass.

The U-shaped layout allows sufficient light in the center of the library, and local residents grow a lot of crops here.

In addition, clotheslines and freshly washed clothes are hung on the corridors around the patio, and rows of shacks made of iron sheds or wooden boards are distributed around.

Although privacy is a problem, people living here don't seem to care much.

Zhimahu looked around curiously, and was quite interested in the lifestyle of the people here. The residents living here also looked at her curiously, especially the pair of cat ears on her head.

They have seen many weird people.

But it is the first time to see ears growing on the top of the head.

Wu Tao, who was walking in front with a shotgun on his back, introduced the situation here to Sisi beside him. Including how they have lived for more than a hundred years and what materials their settlement needs.

The woman mentioned before that she was from Qingquan City.

Although he had never been there, he heard that the survivor settlements in big cities were usually richer, and there was also a boulder city where everything could be bought.

If they passed by there next time, they could bring more soap and fertilizer, which they could exchange with local game or some specialty crops.

Although now was not the time to talk business, he was now the mayor here and needed to consider more than just the current affairs.

He believed that the Legion would leave this poor place sooner or later, and the people here would live their lives as they wished.

That was why he accepted the bag of gold coins.

"We have lived here since the fiftieth year of the Wasteland Era. My grandfather said that this library is quite old, and can even be traced back to the early days of the Human Union... Why do you think there might be a shelter hidden under here? There is not even a basement here."

"It's okay, even if there is none, it doesn't matter. Just treat it as satisfying our curiosity," Sisi looked around, "By the way, are the books here still there?"

Wu Tao said.

"Most of them are gone, but some are well preserved. The mayors followed the ancestral teachings and kept the surviving books on the bookshelf on the second floor of the collection hall. Although the previous mayor ran away, I will probably insist on it."

Sisi suddenly became interested.

"Can you take me to see it?"

Wu Tao nodded.

"No problem, but the premise is that you can't take them away, let alone damage them. I'm not kidding. If you do something bad to those books, bad luck will find you soon... Similar things have happened before."

"I can swear on my life," Sisi said with a blink, "I will cherish those books as much as I cherish my life."

Perhaps moved by her sincerity, Wu Tao was stunned for a few seconds on the spot.

Coming back to his senses, he coughed lightly and said.

"Don't be so exaggerated..."

"Since you said so, then follow me."

...

Wu Tao took the two to the second floor and left them there.

Looking at the rows of aluminum bookshelves and the dazzling array of books, Zhimahu's face was full of hesitation.

"Will the clues to Shelter No. 79 be hidden in these books?"

Sisi shook her head.

"I don't know, but these books are probably the only information that has survived the disaster two centuries ago... maybe we can find something."

Sisi took a book and flipped through it, but her expression soon froze.

Although she can communicate in unskilled human language and recognize human language text, she is far from being able to read normally.

The camera does have a simultaneous translation function.

But in offline mode, the amount of text that can be translated is quite limited.

Just when she felt troubled, a strange voice suddenly floated from behind the bookshelf in front of her.

"I don't understand why you are so persistent in looking for the No. 79 shelter. The residents here have already told you that the shelter is not here."

"Besides, it is a shelter, not a vault. There is no valuable treasure hidden in it. Even if you go there, you will be disappointed."

The voice was a little hoarse, just like sandpaper rubbing against the wall, which scared the two people in the room.

"Who?" Zhimahu nervously held the gun.

Sisi's reaction was more direct. She dodged behind the bookshelf, but she didn't see the person who made the sound. She only saw a retro radio with rough workmanship.

With a hint of surprise in her eyes, she quickly looked around, looking for the camera in the room, but saw nothing.

"Don't look around, I'm not here, and it doesn't matter whether I'm here or not." The man on the radio laughed with a wicked smile, and continued in a joking tone, "You'd better focus on my problem. What if I'm the security procedure of the gate? Your suspicious reaction just now is enough for me to lock the gate."

"Si..." Walking to Sisi's side, Zhimahu noticed the radio on the table and glanced at his partner nervously.

She didn't understand what the radio was saying at all.

But the voice gave her a bad feeling.

"Leave it to me..."

Giving her a reassuring look, Sisi looked at the radio and continued.

"We are here on the orders of Mr. Manager."

"Manager..." The radio rustled and continued thoughtfully, "Are you residents of the shelter?"

"Yes." Sis nodded and said sincerely, "We are from Shelter No. 404 in Qingquan City... May I ask if you know the news about Shelter No. 79? This is very important to us."

"Yeah, very important... What do you plan to do with it?" The radio said slickly.

Sis said seriously.

"If the people inside are still there, we will help them. If they are no longer there, we will continue their unfinished business... revive our civilization."

A chuckle came from the radio, just like a nail breaking on a blackboard, making people's teeth ache.

Zhimahu took a step back nervously, and Sis frowned slightly.

But it didn't take long.

The chuckle turned into a sigh.

"If what you crave is knowledge, the books around you are enough for you to study for a lifetime. If you hold such a naive ideal as reviving civilization, you really shouldn't come here."

Before Sisi could speak, it continued.

"Shelter 79 is not the place you imagine. It was not intended to shelter anyone from the beginning."

Sisi felt that it seemed to have some hidden meaning in its words.

Swallowing a mouthful of saliva, she asked seriously.

"Where is that place?"

"It is the source of chaos."

The hoarse voice seemed to be immersed in long-lost memories.

But in the end, it turned into a helpless self-mockery.

"At least half of the barbarism on this land can be traced back to me."