Shudi, the former Shudu Special Economic Zone. A huge city towers over the plains of the hinterland. Shudu, before the catastrophe, served as the economic center of the southern part of the eastern country. Originally, the traffic extends in all directions, and there are countless important towns around. There are countless high-end research institutes such as the Institute of Nuclear Physics and the Institute of Aeronautics. The megalopolis, which was once home to nearly 400 million people, is now under a massive siege.

Unlike Ben Thanh, there is only a double-storey inner ring. Due to the huge population base of Shudu, tens of millions of infrastructure personnel and countless large construction machinery were mobilized in the months when the center issued the construction task. In a very short period of time, a wall with a height of tens of meters and a thickness of several meters was built, and a huge distribution of steel fortresses was added to it. Countless covered plus howitzer cannons. The inner side of the city wall is equipped with a manual mechanical and electric combined transmission belt. It is used to quickly transport troops and ammunition.

The inner ring city wall is more exaggerated, carrying forward the tradition of the Shu people who can't defend the city to the death, the inner ring city wall is higher than the first layer, and the inside of the strong top is the battle road, and the built-in active 180 mm cannon has a firing range of up to 40 kilometers. The three-dimensional firepower can ensure that when a battle occurs at the far and near points of the outer city, the inner ring and the outer ring can simultaneously cover and strike at the target. Shu was built into a hedgehog. The thick lead clouds in the sky, the occasional lightning bolt swimming inside, highlight the hideousness of this apocalyptic giant city.

However, under this hideous appearance, what is revealed is endless corruption. The original central city was raised from the ground and rebuilt with tall buildings. The four-fold ring of Shudu, the central city is called the iron ring. There is the place of the highest administrative district and the highest military district. The per capita living area there is staggeringly large. Because it is a rich area that gathers almost the entire Shu region. Almost every home has a private garden villa in the sky. The decoration is different, planted with a variety of pre-apocalyptic exotic flowers and plants, and fluorescent lamps shine. From a distance, it looks like a shuttle between high-rise buildings, and the night sky is full of colorful clouds. It's like paradise with the flickering lights of the buildings.

Compared to the iron ring, the people in the outer ring are like living in another world. Less than 30% of the area of Shudu is squeezed into 70% of the population. It's smoky and full of all kinds of pungent smells. Rusty steel structures are exposed everywhere, and some of them are not even painted with anti-rust paint after they are built, so they are hurriedly delivered. Recently, due to the overload of the reactor, Tiehuan has even issued regulations for the limited time of power supply in residential areas outside the second ring road. The outer ring is a huge industrial area that provides a lot of cheap jobs but also a lot of pollution.

"Hey, the iron ring has issued another power rationing order." Ma Ji watched as his father dragged his tired body open the door and entered the house. "This is the third power rationing. Factories are not working, they are all starting to lay off employees, and it is more difficult to find jobs. ”

Ma Ji, a former high school student in Shudu No. 6 Middle School, a single-parent family, his father was a lathe worker in Factory 402, and his mother died of cancer when he was 6 years old. Since then, his father has not remarried, nor can he afford to remarry. At the time of the pre-cataclysmic relocation, Factory 402 laid off workers on a large scale, triggering a general strike of thousands of people. In the end, the top management of the 402 factory gave the families of the layoffs a so-called comfort payment, and gave the employees who decided to stay paid a 5% increase in the treatment to pass the strike.

His father was fortunate enough to be one of the employees who were not laid off, and moved into the outer ring with Factory 402. And those employees who have been laid off, they still need to scrape together their own savings to buy a ticket to enter the outer ring. But even if you enter the outer ring, you don't have a job, you don't have a house, even if this house is the size of a toilet, you can only live by doing odd jobs and renting a house.

But they are not the most unlucky, there are still most of the people, nowhere to go, they originally lived in Shudu, full of fear of outside legends, they choose to build some simple shacks under the city walls, by picking up garbage in the inner city to survive, (this is very similar to Bincheng) formed a real slum.

However, the good times did not last long, and such a huge power consumption overheated the new nuclear reactor in the second ring area of Shudu several times, so that the inner city of Tiehuan had to issue a power rationing order. The third and fourth rings adopt time-limited power supply and increase electricity tariffs to achieve the purpose of reducing electricity consumption. Of course, the 402 factory is also in the list of power rationing, they have no electricity, production is stagnant, and they have to feed so many workers, which has caused huge pressure on the enterprise. One morning, under a tearful speech by the chairman and general manager, the 402 factory laid off employees again. With this layoff, they have learned to be smart. In order to prevent those who are not willing to go on a joint strike, they take a little bit of layoffs. Over a period of time, those workers found that their co-workers would be fired several at regular intervals. By the time they reacted, Factory 402 had laid off nearly half of its staff.

That's how Ma Ji's father was laid off. Fortunately, although 402 was laid off, the house with a large toilet was not taken back for them. My father got up early and was greedy for night, and while going out to line up every day to do odd jobs, he also had to study and find a way to find a suitable job.

Ma Ji's school status has not been cancelled, but 6 is no longer there. At present, there are only two schools in Shudu, the 1st Ring Private Comprehensive College, which implements one-stop contracted teaching from school age to university. And the entrance fee of the Second Ring Comprehensive College is frighteningly high. Ma Ji's father was faced with high tuition fees and could not do anything, so Ma Ji dropped out of school.

Ma Ji, since he dropped out of school, has become a muddy person. mixed in the outer ring market, and did bad things with a group of hooligans. Hearing his father's complaints, Ma Ji became a nameless fire.

"Useless old thing." Ma Ji got up and sifted to his bed and lay down on the bed. Bringing his headphones and playing pre-apocalyptic songs, he didn't want to listen to those unnecessary complaints.

Ma Ji's father did not speak, but went to the kitchen in silence and poured out half of the shriveled rice bag. Half a bowl of rice grains was sparsely filled. He added a small half pot of water and boiled a pot of porridge.

Looking at Ma Ji lying on the bed, he sighed, opened the door and went out again.

Ma Ji fell asleep listening to a song in bed, and suddenly woke up from the bed and pulled off his headphones.

"Knock knock!" There was a sharp knock on the rusty, thin tin door. A girl's voice came.

"Ma Ji! Horse season! Come out! Something went wrong!! Ma Ji opened the door impatiently, and the girl in front of him was a girl who liked to follow him when he was in the market.

"It's you... Go ahead... What's the matter?? Ma Ji opened the door and turned to sit down on a stool.

"Your father... Something happened to your dad。。。。。。 ”

Outer ring, garbage disposal station. In the heavy rain, Ma Ji stood in front of a corpse, helpless.

My father was already a cold corpse. On weekdays, the honest father who was scolded by him for being a "wreck" was lying in a pile of debris, dragging a torn half-cut cloth bag in his hand. A bloody hole in the chest, blood... It has long been drained. Blood and water are mixed into the mud, and they can't tell each other anymore.

"A group of thugs, snatching your dad's bag, your dad desperately resisted, one of the green hairs took out a dagger and gave your dad a knife.." A garbage picker next to him said. He knew Ma Ji, and Ma Ji's father came to pick up garbage and was bumped into by Ma Ji, which was ridiculed by several of them for a long time, and Ma Ji and his father had a bad relationship from this.

Ma Ji trembled and lifted his father up, very lightly. He never thought that his father, who was so tall, was now so light that he could carry it effortlessly. Carrying his father on his back, he stood in the black rain like ink. He couldn't say a word. Ma Ji carried his father's corpse on his back and stayed in place, with no master of the six gods. He found that without the embarrassed father in his eyes, an inexplicable panic suddenly filled his chest, speechless and choked, standing at the fork in the road, he had nowhere to go.

Ma Ji carried his father back to the house and placed him on the bed he had been lying on before. Looking at his father's bloodless face. "Useless old thing。。。。。" These were the last words he said to his father. Putting down his father, the knots in the black rain suddenly dispersed, and Ma Ji's feet were soft and "poofed", kneeling in front of the bed. He opened his mouth and cried bitterly, and his nose and tears flowed sideways. He kept pounding his chest.

"Dad! I'm sorry!! I'm sorry!! You forgive me!! Forgive me!! You beat me and scolded me! Don't ignore me!! ”

The little girl standing behind couldn't help but come over and pull him, "Ma Ji, don't be like this, your father he... Already. ”

"Fuck off! Not your dad, you certainly don't have heartache. Xu Jia, get out. Don't look for me again! Ma Ji roared.

The girl named Xu Jia pursed her lips aggrievedly, her eyes flashed with tears, and finally she gritted her teeth and turned her head and rushed out of Ma Ji's room. Boom! A bang. The door was slammed shut.

Silence returned to the room, and Ma Ji collapsed in front of his father's body as if he had been drained of all his strength. Endless remorse. Endless hatred wells up.

Why, why, why? Ma Ji seemed to be questioning the murderer in his heart, and he seemed to be questioning himself.

No one noticed, Ma Ji lost his mind, the empty room, the air suddenly seemed to ripple, the light bulbs were shaking, the floor was shaking, and the whole steel room made a "squeak" sound as if it was overwhelmed. Fear, hatred, confusion... At the same time, Ma Ji's body seemed to be suddenly burdened with a thousand gold, and in the end, he rolled his eyes and fainted.

When he woke up again, it was already the early hours of the next morning. Tremblingly, he began to sort out his father's body, and when he opened the half-rag bag that his father was holding tightly in his hand, a slip slipped out of it... The slip fluttered lightly, swirled in the air, and landed calmly. Ma Ji picked it up, and it was a crumpled slip with a pinched corner. The paper is obviously good, and it is conceivable that this slip was not torn when Ma Daddy was struggling.

It is written proudly: "X Green Light Project" is written in the Chinese dialect of the Eastern, Haiguo, and even Snow Country: Recruitment letter for human experiment volunteers of the project... Then in the middle are dense options and blank forms. The final payment reads: The immediate family members of the recruits who meet the conditions will be stationed in the family area of the 3rd Ring Laboratory and enjoy the corresponding treatment. The third ring adjacent to the iron ring is known as the most mysterious area, where the scientific research institutions of the entire Shu region gather. It is closed to the outside world, there is no direct entrance, and you need to go through a number of security checks through the outside of the iron ring.

Personnel from the crematorium came to the house. There is no place to bury the dead in Shu. If all the bodies were unclaimed, they were cremated and dumped with garbage in the outer city. If there is a body of a family member, the family can collect the ashes after the cremation is completed.

Ma Ji did not go to the cremation site, and when the workers carried his father's body away, Ma Ji knelt on the ground and kowtowed to his father's body three times. He looked at the sky and was distracted, if he hadn't scolded his father. If he didn't dislike his father for picking up garbage. If he were a little more useful and could earn food ... Too much regret ...

He didn't have the face to send his father, he thought he had killed his father. recalled that when he came to the Shudu Ring City, he suddenly found himself such a bastard, so unbearable, and thought of his father's lonely back who tried his best to support his family. He only felt a fever on his face, like an invisible slap in the face, and he didn't even dare to look at his father again.

He pinched the form filled out in his hand and looked at the last option on the form: "Once the volunteer is admitted, his life will be entrusted to the X-Green Light Project, do I or my family have any objections?" Yes/No

This form is actually a deed of sale, selling everything you have in exchange for a better life for your family. Ma Ji understands that if it weren't for yesterday's events, his father would have betrayed him in exchange for everything he had.

Ma Ji slowly, ate the porridge cooked by his father yesterday, and licked the bowl clean until there was no grain of rice left. Then he picked up the form and was silent for a long time, and in the column of immediate family, he filled in a name: Xu Jia

The volunteer recruitment vehicle was not far away, and Ma Ji passed by the house of a relative where Xu Jia was staying, and he froze into the crack of the door. Then, without looking back, he walked straight towards the recruitment vehicle.

The X-Green Light Project, a human modification project developed by Shu and the nanotechnology of the Central Research Institute, is similar to Wang Bei's Gene Warrior Project, but different. It is a thorough human implant technology. Wang Bei was very disdainful of this, believing that this crude technology could not be called science at all. Moreover, there is another feature of the X-green light project: in the experimental stage, due to the rejection and incompatibility of the human body to nanomachines, the mortality rate is extremely high, of course, the overall X-green light project does not involve human body modification, but the envisaged human implantation, modify the structure of the human body's internal organs and joints, so that it can better withstand it, so as to carry another set of related technologies - 'X-20 modification' ergonomic individual armor.

This set of armor was originally based on the exoskeleton armor project used as an auxiliary power. However, the power and energy system requirements required for exoskeleton armor are too demanding. As a result, the final product is not only clumsy, but also huge. This completely violated the concept of a 'single soldier' system, so much so that later through the combination of the immature nanotechnology of the Central Committee, through the implantation of important weight-bearing joints and the auxiliary implantation of vital organs in the human body: such as the heart. The flexibility of human joints is used to replace the overly clumsy joint system of the exoskeleton. Direct neural connectivity via microcurrent chips, and of course with on-board artificial intelligence, makes everything seem possible.

However, the problem of joint implantation is good, although rejection is still present, but fatal cases are rare. However, the pressurized internal circulatory system for internal organs is much more complex, and the auxiliary support system of the spine is also progressing slowly. So these scientific engineers came up with a new idea. A set of ergonomic scaffolds is implanted, the external and internal inlays are combined, and then a microcrystalline chip is implanted in the appropriate area of the brain through brain shell surgery, and the energy problem is solved through the external socket, and the energy body is embedded into the outer armor.

In this way, as long as someone can tolerate the rejection reaction of stent embedding and brain microcrystalline implantation, the X-green light program is approaching maturity. It's just that the disadvantage is that in this way, the individual armor is almost a cage for life, and there is no possibility of being able to remove it for a long time.

In this way, it seems that the X-20 has become easier, and in the future, it is only necessary to work on improving the outer armor, and the soldiers can be continuously replaced and upgraded.

The high-level leaders of Tiehuan finally accepted this plan, for the simple reason that Shu has been known as the land of abundance since ancient times, and the huge plains surrounded by the ring mountain range are rich in products. Dense population brought prosperity to Shu, but in the last days, everything was reversed. The population of a large number of surrounding towns gradually turned into a wave of corpses. Under the sky that did not have time to be covered by the lead cloud, X Gamma ruthlessly gave birth to one dead ground after another. There is only rage and devouring, and there is hardly any room for human existence.

Six successive waves of expatriate development teams have been wiped out, not only losing a large number of transport convoys, weapons and equipment, but also finding nothing. Although the fortress walls have not yet been subjected to a large number of impacts, the city's industry and commerce are inseparable from the transfusion of basic resources and minerals. The stagnation of industry, without the support of basic industry, the source of food production in the second ring area has also been affected, prices have begun to skyrocket, and more hungry people in the outer ring have begun to storm the fortress gates of the second ring road. Even if the central area of Shudu is brightly colored, it seems lifeless, as if this huge fortress is disintegrating itself and going to extinction.