Despite Worm's determination to find out the truth behind Dirt Ridge, Turtledove eventually managed to convince her to leave the mine for a while.

"We don't even have a guy around us to take advantage of, what if we run into a Voice Follower or some other more difficult monster later?"

As soon as the worm thought that the turtledove was right, he had to dispel the idea of going deeper, and followed the turtledove out of the pit.

At present, the two of them were only near the entrance of the pit, and had not yet really entered the depths of the labyrinthine pit, so walking back to the relatively wide main mine passage from the fork in the road, it took the turtledove and the bug to retreat to the entrance of the pit.

When passing by the camp, the worm took the previous diary again, she said that she was just borrowing it, and she didn't read it carefully last time, maybe something very important was missed, anyway, after going out, it was to be repaired, and she could take advantage of the time to look at the diary again.

……

Returning to the bottom of the pit, the turtledove found that there were indeed traces of the rebuilding of the ring road, presumably by the people in the camp, who had wanted to be here for a long time, but the road up the ring road had only been repaired two or three times, and they did not know where it had gone.

When they got out of the mine, it was already dark outside, and when they finally climbed up from under the pit, the moon was already hanging in the sky, and it took the two of them another ten minutes to find the modified pickup truck parked outside the ruins of Gray Ridge Town.

Even during the day, the ruins of the town always exude an indescribably strange aura, and passing through it at night is even more terrifying, and the feeling is as good as being in close contact with the Voice Followers in the mines.

Hurriedly filling her belly, Turtledove sat in the driver's seat and took a nap, while Worm lay in the back seat and flipped through the diary, and suddenly, she threw the diary aside and sat up.

"You say...... Where did those two followers come from? ”

The worm put his hands between the two seats in the front row, and the turtledove opened his eyes, looked back at her, and then shook his head, indicating that he couldn't figure it out.

"Do you see the clothes that the Voice Follower is wearing," the worm continued, "Could it be that the people in that camp have become the Sound Followers?" ”

The turtledove was silent.

"You have a word," the worm pushed the turtledove, which had not spoken for a long time, "haven't you thought about this possibility?" ”

Seeing that the turtledove still didn't speak like a dumb man, the little worm simply ignored him, lay back in his seat and began to talk to himself:

"This was once the sphere of influence of the New Empire, and the troops of the New Empire were stationed, but it was destroyed by a strange fire, and the entire Gray Ridge has since become a no-man's land, and after a long time, a group of people tried to settle here, and as a result, they encountered many strange things in the complex mines, and finally all became terrifying followers......"

The worm said his guess, and as a result, he got goosebumps all over his body.

"So what did they encounter in the mine," the little worm crossed Erlang's legs, his fingers kept drawing circles in front of him, "what did they meet......

"But I've heard that those monsters are produced by the influence of radiation, and the nuclear war has passed more than a hundred years now, and in recent decades, I haven't heard of any examples of humans mutating into that kind of monsters, and your guess is very unreliable."

The turtledove finally spoke.

"It's not up to you to decide whether it's reliable or not," Worm poked the turtledove with his finger, "I think it's suspicious anyway, and I'm sure everyone in that camp has become a voice-follower, otherwise how would you explain why the voice-follower is in the mine?" ”

Now that she had spoken of the Voice Followers, Little Worm couldn't help but think back to the wanderers she had met in Poplar Town, and she made a sudden realization, and said to the turtledove:

"Do you remember the wanderers we met before, at the time I was very puzzled, I thought that the wanderers should not appear in a place like Poplar Town, now that I think about it, those wanderers are likely to have walked out from here, and they are also from Gray Ridge."

"The distance between Grey Ridge and Poplar Town is not that close, but it is not that far, and it is entirely possible for a wanderer to wander there...... That makes sense. ”

"Yikes."

The little insect suddenly thought of something, she crossed the passenger seat, reached out and turned off the light in the pickup, and in the dim moonlight she blinked her eyes to look around, and whispered to the turtledove:

"Then we'll have to be careful, it's night, and the Followers are likely to leave the pit and go outside to forage for food."

From the rags on one of the Voice Followers, the worm connected everything she and the turtledove had encountered recently, and made a bold guess about the oddities on this side of Grey Ridge, but unfortunately she didn't have any evidence to prove her guess.

……

It's silent.

It's not that Turtledove can't turn his mind, in fact, his original thoughts are similar to those of the worm, but he is frightened by the worm's speculation, or rather, by the "possible truth".

If it is as the worm guessed, then there must be something in the pit of Grey Ridge that can mutate humans into monsters like Followers and Wanderers, and whatever that thing is, it has a relationship with the New Empire.

It's amazing.

Turtledove doesn't have much impression of the new empire, only staying at the level of "the strength of the new empire is quite strong", he knows that in front of the new empire, it may not be enough to see the extralegal land tied together, so in front of the new empire, what are the two little people who are himself and the little worm.

Maybe the little worm is not a small person, but he is indeed a small person, since he is a small person, once he is involved in such a big conspiracy, the end is often very tragic.

It was clear that the New Empire was hiding an untold conspiracy in Grey Ridge, and Ikaruga even began to imagine that the fire was probably an attempt to cover up the evidence.

The more he thought about it, the more Turtledove felt that it was better not to mix this kind of thing, he was still young, and he didn't want to die yet.

……

"Do you remember when I secretly drugged your lizard meat shortly after we first met, and then left you alone in the desert?"

After a long silence, the little worm suddenly mentioned the matter to the turtledove, - how long had passed, how could the turtledove forget.

"That's because I don't want you to have too much to do with me, and I am implicated, but I didn't expect that the two of us were quite fateful, and then we actually met again."

"I do have a secret that I can't tell you, and both the New Empire and the Wings of Liberty are hunting me down for it. As for me, I'm not an honest person, I like to do things that kill me, for example, this time, I accidentally discovered a conspiracy in the new empire, and I must investigate it to the end. ”

"I wouldn't blame you if you wanted to leave just like that."

The little worm looked at the turtledove and said very seriously.