[Mr. Lieutenant Colonel, our operation in the center of Qingquan City has reached a stalemate, the soldiers fought valiantly, and our enemy suffered heavy losses, but unfortunately, until now we have not been able to get close to the brood. 】

[Although the Prowler tank has excellent mobility and reliable armor, it has to be overhauled every time it returns from duty, and the parts that need to be replaced are simply not found here. 】

[Especially since our equipment has no advantage in the face of the siege of slime fruiting entities, they fall in pieces and rush up in droves······ It's like a tidal wave. Before we kill them all, I'm afraid we ourselves will be dragged down by the logistics that have been pulled down first. 】

[The most worrying thing is those "evolutions"...

··· This is the name given by the technician who followed us into the city center. We found that some slime fruiting bodies have undergone secondary mutations on the basis of mutations, and have even begun to imitate us, evolving structures similar to power armor and exoskeletons, and even eroding our drones and tanks. 】

[This is not my gibberish, I know it sounds ridiculous, but if we continue to treat them as beasts that fight with teeth and claws, or biological weapons that are dropped on the battlefield by the enemy, we will pay a heavy price······ In fact, our casualties are already heavy enough. 】

[Compared with advanced weapons, we need equipment that is easy to maintain and has a sufficient quantity.] Instead of taking valuable equipment and manpower to fill this unsatisfactory front, as is the case now. 】

[Finally, let's have some good news, the wall on the outside of the Boulder Building has been completed, and the brothers in the production department are as reliable as ever, this magnificent project can shelter at least 100,000 people through the most difficult winter. The displaced people from the south do not have to continue to move north, they can be resettled in the western suburbs of Qingquan City, at least our first phase of the goal has been completed. We will take a short break before we start the second phase of the operation. 】

[I heard that the technical department is looking for a way to get rid of slime molds at the genetic level. 】

[I have an idea here, why not use those genes in the gene bank to "produce" a group of super soldiers who are not afraid of death? 】

[Even if they are useless on the battlefield, they can at least help us move something, those androids and robots are too troublesome to maintain, and we may have to configure an extra maintenance company.] 】

[—Telegram from the Front (III), 2150, March, 21st.] 】

Aboard the Iron Heart.

Chu Guang, who was sitting in the captain's room resting, was browsing the official website forum of "Wasteland Online" through the holographic computer.

This information was collected by the players of the Death Corps and synced to the Vault's servers using the Mission's communication radio.

Looking at the information uploaded to the official website by the players, he touched his chin thoughtfully and leaned back in his chair.

"Year 2150······ It should be the 21st year of the Wasteland Era. ”

He was sensitive to numbers, and remembered well that the first year of the Wasteland Era was 2129.

"But in March, I raided the center of Qingquan City... It's hard to think about. ”

Spring is the time of the wave, when the slime fungus variant will multiply at its peak and the density of spores in the air will also peak.

Of course, this is from the perspective of the latecomer.

Perhaps the survivors at the time were not aware of the concept of waves, as the post-war reconstruction committee underestimated the threat of the mutant slime molds, as the telegram suggests.

And······

It was supposed to be nuclear winter at that time? But that's not the point.

What made Chu Guang care more was the last line of the telegram

“.····· A group of soldiers who are not afraid of death, is it the Willants? ”

Seeing this, Chu Guang wondered.

Those big noses are not as afraid of death as they imagined······

Maybe it's because of the players' average awakened people, maybe it's his own attribute panel that is outrageous enough, anyway, he doesn't think those big noses are so strong in combat.

Maybe it's better than the average person. "Xiaoqi."

Soon there was an energetic voice in my ears, and today it was still a rare royal sister voice.

"Yes, master."

After pondering for a moment, Chu Guang spoke.

“.·.··· Retrieving the information collected by the players of the Death Corps, not only the Willants, but also about the Army

All information about regiments, companies, and colleges. "Howler!"

Hearing that energetic answer, Chu Guang waited for a while, and in less than a minute, Xiao Qi quickly completed the retrieval of all the pictures.

It doesn't matter if it's uploaded by the players or saved in their personal albums.

All the information was organized into a text document, and a table of contents was made for him to easily consult.

Although most of the clues collected by the players are bits and pieces, they have accidentally pieced together a lot of information.

Just as he guessed.

The Willant people are indeed a human race created through genetic modification technology.

While the project was initially opposed by the Commission's technical department, the continuing heavy casualties on the front lines and the large amount of unprocessed work forced the Commission's defense department to put pressure on the technical department.

In 2150, the 21st year of the Wasteland Era, the Super Soldier Project called "Project Wilantes" was finally approved under countless pressures from all sides, taking the opportunity of the heavy casualties of "Operation Clear Spring City".

And the Commission's Ministry of Defense, the predecessor of the Legion, is inextricably linked to the chaos of a century and a half ago.

Chu Guang couldn't help but have a trace of curiosity in his heart, followed the clues sorted out by Xiao Qi, and continued to look back.

The 23 pairs of chromosomes of the Willantes are entirely genetically repaired

The material is extracted from an incomplete gene pool called "Willant".

The original birth of a thousand genetic prototypes, indeed

With extraordinary combat effectiveness.

They have an almost beastly fighting instinct while preserving their humanity, and even if they are not systematically trained, they can still defeat more than five well-trained veterans in combat.

But that's where the chicken lies.

Even on the battlefield after the Age of Prosperity, there are still not many opportunities for hand-to-hand combat.

Their strong bodies make them more suitable for dangerous missions with the highest casualty rates, and while their reflexes and athleticism allow them to kill enemies more efficiently, their numbers are too small.

In the end, these super soldiers failed to play much of a role on the battlefield, which led to their further political marginalization.

After several battles against mutant slime molds, the Willant were formed into a separate Rapid Reaction Brigade led by a young commander named Julius to support the regular army in the fight with cheap equipment with relatively low logistical requirements.

And this person's life is also full of legends, he was born almost in the same year as the "Willant Project", and because his father was a senior officer of the 111th Orbital Airborne Division of the People's Federation, he received a militarized education for as long as he can remember.

As an "old human", he almost grew up with those "new humans", and fifteen years later, he stepped on the battlefield against mutant slime molds as a commander with those new humans.

Chu Guang used the search function to search for the name "Julius" and found that in the literature of less than 500,000 words, this seemingly special name unexpectedly appeared hundreds of times in the later text.

“..···· Speaking of which, the marshal of the regiment seems to be called by this name. Chu Guang vaguely remembered hearing Vanus say the name of their marshal.

On the West Coast, however, few people would call that person by his first name, usually by the title of marshal.

"If the marshal of the legion and Julius in the literature are the same person, then this guy has to live for at least one hundred and fifty years!"

Chu Guang smacked his tongue in slight surprise, unable to imagine what it was like.

In "The Stars", an officer who has lived for one hundred and fifty years is thrown into the "patrol fleet" to suppress pirates.

His index finger continued to slide across the holographic screen, and he quickly flipped a page down.

Skipping the lengthy description, the time quickly came to the 41st year of the Wasteland Era.

The Commission's efforts to eradicate slime molds have been difficult, and the endless cold winters have made the lack of resources and low productivity even less so.

Some climatologists have even expressed despair that the planet may not be transforming into a "wasteland planet", but into a "polar planet" with a stronger ecosystem, and that a third of the land will eventually be buried under 240 meters of ice.

That war probably set the world back 18,000 years.

But even so, clear the planet

slime molds are still the primary problem. There are signs that this "complex" organism is more hardy than other carbon-based organisms native to Earth.

If this trouble is not resolved before the situation gets worse, future troubles will exceed all expectations.

So far, the survivors have not discovered the "self-limiting" nature of slime molds, but are simply afraid of those monsters that can't be cleaned by dropping nuclear bombs.

If the survivors at that time knew that in fact, as long as they abandoned the metropolitan area of the People's Union era and retreated to the suburbs with lower building density, they would enter a period of decline after the slime mold swelled to a certain extent, and I am afraid there would not be so much trouble.

Of course, this is from the perspective of a latecomer, and many successful studies on slime molds were discovered in the war against slime molds.

In short, in order to increase the loss of manpower, the Commission's defense department made a further request on the basis of the "Project Willant" - they needed a clone soldier that could "be mass-produced quickly and be effective on the battlefield".

They don't have to be very sensitive, or even have the mind of an anomalous human, but they have to complete the cycle from the assembly line to the battlefield in the shortest possible time.

Compared to the defense department of the 21st year of the Wasteland Era, the defense department of 41 years has obviously gradually gone to the extreme.

The Post-War Reconstruction Committee held a meeting to discuss the relevant legislation, with the participation of the three major ministries of production, defense, and technology.

This meeting is documented as a "tripartite meeting"

This is also the second major disagreement since the establishment of the Post-War Reconstruction Commission.

The long-standing contradictions reached their peak before the meeting ended, and the meeting of open debate was more like an outlet.

The defense sector, which continues to suffer casualties, has asked the production and technology departments to provide a "clone soldier who can play a sufficient role on the battlefield" to replace the casualties of the soldiers of the People's Union.

From the standpoint of the Ministry of Defense, this is a completely reasonable request.

After all, their soldiers are not only responsible for the danger and maintenance of order in the settlement, but also for protecting the technology department's prospectors entering the ruins to recover the technology of pre-war civilizations.

The war has been going on for 41 years, but their war never began. According to the twenty-year generation, their sacrifice has even spanned two generations, affecting at least four generations.

The technology department, as it did 20 years ago, still expressed strong approval, claiming that it would not only bring technical risks such as "DNA contamination", but also lead to the collapse of civilization.

This concern is not unfounded.

The Willantes, who were bred through genetic technology and did not have basic political rights, have become de facto "slave soldiers", and the wheel of history has even turned back to the slave society of the feudal period, which is much older than the era of prosperity.

This line of thinking was wrong from the start, and they had a better choice.

For example, robots and AI.

However, this proposal was opposed by the Ministry of Production.

Without the support of a perfect industrial chain, production is sufficient

The cost of a reliable enough robot is not a matter of several times or dozens of times, but a geometric increase.

The high cost of production and maintenance is not something that the "post-war reconstruction committee" can afford today.

Unless the cost of the various survivor settlements is completely cut and the survivor settlements, including Boulder, are left to fend for themselves.

And even so, the cost savings are far from meeting the manpower needs of the defense department.

What's more, cutting the budgets of the various survivor settlements means that the post-war reconstruction committee will lose a huge pool of manpower, which is tantamount to drinking water to quench its thirst.

In order to appease the Ministry of Technology and the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Production made a number of compromise proposals.

For example, the Willantes can be given limited political rights, such as liberalizing reproductive rights, etc., and appropriately admit some Willantes into the family of the People's Federation, as long as they can establish outstanding feats on the battlefield.

As for the more productive clones, there is no need to limit their lives to cannon fodder, and they can be allowed to freely enter factories or farmlands to work in resource production.

This quality workforce is needed not only in the defense sector, but also in the production sector.

The meeting did not lead to any results, but rather laid the groundwork for the subsequent collapse of the post-war reconstruction committee.

The year after the Tripartite Council began, in 2171, the 42nd year of the Wasteland Age, the Academy's recovery of the Velante Laboratory became the trigger for igniting the powder keg.

It preserves the gene pool of the Willant people, as well as the "singularity" technology that was not completed before the end of the Age of Prosperity - the life cycle adjustment technology.

The Rapid Reaction Brigade, led by General Julius, was made up of Willantes to occupy the laboratory and seized all the explorers of the Technical Department's exploration team.

In the face of strong protests and representations from the technical department, the Ministry of Defense only claimed that it was the personal act of Julius, and was extremely negative about the arrest of the "out-of-control senior officer", and even "accidentally" sent fusion batteries to the occupied laboratory.

Clearly, they are trying to complete this research, or rather use some of the sub-technologies in this research to create "clone legions that can grow eight times faster".

Objectively speaking, the people in the Ministry of Defense have already shown considerable restraint, after all, it is clear that they can directly rob it openly, but they still make up a lame reason and pretend to be it.

The Commission's control over the departments has fallen to the bottom, while the conflict between the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Technology has reached its peak.

In the year 2172, the 43rd year of the Wasteland Era, after several "accidental" accidents, the Technical Department completely lost trust in the Ministry of Defense.

Under the leadership of the then Minister of Technology and Dean of the Academy, Dr. "Conclusion", the Technical Department transferred a large number of core technical personnel to the northern swamps in the name of exploring large-scale ruins, and prepared its own armed exploration force under the framework of the pre-war academic organization "Academy".

The Ministry of Defense is indifferent to this, their center of gravity is already shifting to the west of the Great Desert, and Triumph City, with most of its military facilities, is actually already there

Under the control of "out-of-control senior officers".

And the committee's production department, although low-key, is also not a fuel-efficient lamp.

Even before the tripartite meeting was triggered, they were secretly prioritizing the construction of settlements on the east coast by tilting resources and other means.

It is in this context that the ideal city was born.

Not only that, but they even joined forces with the administrators of Vault 6 and the then captain of the colony ship to promote the "enterprise" plan, set up a regional "Supreme Council", and proposed a general line of "industrial salvation".

Perhaps in the eyes of the then Minister of Production, the colonists who ran the colony ship aground on the surface in order to save their home planet, and the residents of Vault 6 who bravely opened the door to save more survivors, were more trustworthy than the red-faced "colleagues" who fought at the negotiating table.

Although idealists rarely produce immediate results that are visible to the naked eye, every advance of civilization is inseparable from the exploration of idealists.

They decided to take the place of the Commission and become explorers of a new era.

In the year 2173, the 44th year of the Wasteland Era, the second fuse incident occurred, and the Ministry of Production had a premonition that the collapse of the post-war reconstruction committee was inevitable, so it unilaterally announced the "Cloud Province Reconstruction Act" through the full-fledged Ideal City.

The bill stipulates that the four strategic defense zones of Shanhai, Archipelago, Neihu and River Estuary in Yunjian Province, the three metropolitan areas of Beiyun, Shangyun and Xiayun, and the two industrial zones of No. 1 and No. 2 will be jointly owned by all the survivors of Yunjian Province.

This may sound like a very peaceful initiative, and it makes sense.

But in reality, there is an ulterior plan.

On the night of the bill's enactment, more than a dozen armed forces, in the name of the enterprise, set out from the city of ideals and quickly took over all the research institutes of the Commission's technical department on the East Coast, as well as the relics of the pre-war civilization under development.

Fierce firefighting broke out between the two sides in some of the research facilities.

The armed forces of the academy have been established for a relatively short period of time and are not strong in combat, but due to the investment of a large number of high-tech equipment and AI-controlled war weapons, it still causes a lot of trouble for the troops of the enterprise.

Although the company still failed in the end, it also led to the destruction of many research facilities.

For example, the experimental facility engaged in the research of the singularity technology, the "Completed Lifeform", was reduced to ashes in that conflict.

This result not only led to the complete loss of the original of the "Completed Lifeform" technology, but also caused some of the DNA-unstable subjects to flee to the wasteland, some to move along the coastline, and some to migrate in the direction of the Great Desert.

And these test subjects who wandered into the wasteland were later mutants.

Although the conflict was in the name of the enterprise and the ideal city, and there was no participation of the production department, the researchers of the technical department were not stupid.

Taking this incident as an opportunity, Dr. Conclusion immediately announced the dissolution of the technical department, not only taking over all the survivor settlements of the Wandering Swamp in the name of the Academy, but also permanently cutting off all technical support outside of the Wandering Swamp, and even deleting the database in the Great Rift Valley.

Especially the part about the coordinates of the remains of the pre-war civilization.

At this point, the legion, the enterprise, and the academy have stepped onto the stage of history.

And the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Production, and the Ministry of Technology who have completed the "transfer of assets". threw away the burden of history one after another and happily announced its dissolution.

The Post-War Reconstruction Committee, which had lost three important departments and had been in operation for 44 years, was now in name only, unable to support survivors' settlements everywhere.

By the year 2174, the 45th year of the Wasteland Age.

Faced with an empty conference table, the Post-War Reconstruction Commission finally reached its final step – its formal dissolution.

From now on, the settlements will no longer be subject to the interim constitution established by the Commission and will no longer be subject to the Council's administration.

On the other hand, each settlement needs to find its own way out and solve its own survival problems in the never-ending cold winter and the infestation of xenomorphs.

In the final statement, the chief of the committee still expressed the hope that the management of the settlements would not forget their mission and try their best to help their compatriots.

No one knew about it at the time.

Five years after the dissolution of the Post-War Reconstruction Commission, there were signs of a recovery in the atmosphere.

The long nuclear winter has come to an end in astonishment, and declining species have re-emerged on the land.

At this point, the Legions, Academies, and Corporations entered a period of development, and the Wasteland Age also entered the "Age of Shelter" that lasted for half a century.

As the climate reaches the preset standard for starting dormancy, the shelter opens its doors one after another, and the old popsicles who come out of the shelter also step on the stage of this wasteland one after another.

Although the plan deviated from the expected course from the start, most of the Vaults did not find the defunct Post-War Reconstruction Committee, nor did they manage to keep things as orderly on the surface as they were inside the Vaults.

However, they still injected a shot in the arm into the declining world for a short time, and used the knowledge of the Age of Prosperity and mysterious black boxes and other objects to help some of the wastelanders survive the bright age of the initial loss of the Reconstruction Committee.

To Chu Guang's surprise, these unknown secrets were placed on the shelves of the Great Rift Valley Lounge for people to read at will.

What he didn't expect was that the old neighbor to the north of the alliance turned out to be the predecessor of the Post-War Reconstruction Committee!

"No······ I can't say that I didn't expect it at all. ”

Chu Guang carefully recalled the hologram left by Doctor Principle that he had seen with Yin Fang before, and connected the clues collected by the Death Corps with it.

“．····· In the second year of the Wasteland Era, Dr. Principle, who had awakened after a two-year delay, was escorted by Battalion Commander Zhao Weisheng of the 111th Orbital Airborne Division to the Great Rift Valley with more than 1,000 survivors who had not been planned to join the comrades of the Post-War Reconstruction Committee. ”

"According to the description in the hologram, the Great Rift Valley was already under the control of the 111th Orbital Airborne Division at that time······ In other words, the predecessor of the corps was actually the 111th Orbital Airborne Division deployed in the province of River Valley? ”

And also saved one of the three founders of the academy?

Looking at these materials recovered by the players, as well as the past hundred years, Chu Guang couldn't help but have mixed feelings in his heart for a while.

When Vault 404 was closed, so much was going on outside······

And at this moment, he finally understood Dr. Method's feelings, why that guy ran to Vault 101 and shut himself up.

If you are stabbed twice in the back by your teammates in a row, I am afraid that my mentality will not be very good, especially if the second knife is completely inexplicable.

However, from the standpoint of the disbanded Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Production, of course, they also have their own reasons -

Lao Tzu bleed and sweated to help you open the ruins, let you not do any clone technology, Lao Tzu will come by himself, anyway, you will definitely split up in the future, since it is an expected high probability event, then why can't the person who did it first be me? ”

Looking at the last page in the hologram, Chu Guang couldn't help but think of his alliance.

Both he and the alliance are young, but he will always grow old one day, and there is a limit to people's abilities after all, and he can't keep up with the changes of the times forever.

The player's world is also moving forward, and even thanks to the technical support of the Vault, they will progress faster than in the anomaly, and even enter the era of prosperity quickly.

At that point,

Wasteland Online will face new challenges.

“..···· In any case, the Coalition will not follow in the footsteps of the 'Commission'. ”

With a silent recitation, Chu Guang stretched out his index finger and slashed in the air, closing the window suspended in front of him.

He always had a strong sense of déjà vu.

I seem to have said something similar.

And at this moment, a light blue pop-up window suddenly flashed in front of his eyes without warning.

[Urgent mission triggered!] 】

[Note: The Morphology Field Device detects a normal individual, triggers the "flag6" judgment, and the player ID: "Falling Feather" login permission is temporarily frozen.] 】

[Requirements: This task has been noted as the highest priority, the coordinates have been updated to the Vault server map file, please collect the normal instance as soon as possible, anesthetize it and place it on the conveyor belt on the B1 floor.] 】

【Reward: Unlock B6 Floor】

This mission pop-up window hadn't appeared for a long time, and it suddenly popped up, and Chu Guang almost didn't recognize it.

And when he saw the task reward, he was even more stunned.

Level B6? And so on······

Isn't the B5 floor unlocked yet? How did you skip it directly?

But what made him more concerned was the description of the urgent mission.

“······ Normal individual?! "What's that?

Chu Guang was stunned for a few seconds, then came back to his senses and immediately reopened the holographic computer and commanded his hateful little assistant.

"Xiaoqi, immediately synchronize the latest received coordinates on the shelter server to my holographic computer." Xiaoqi: "Roger!" ”

The coordinates soon appeared on the map.

It is located in the southern part of the province of Luoxia, in the location of the Valley of Loss.

Seeing this coordinate, Chu Guang was even more confused.

He vividly remembered that a nuclear bomb had been blown up there only a few hours earlier.

Even if a player dies and has to come over to try what it's like to be bombed by a nuclear bomb, they won't survive a nuclear bomb, right?

Can this game still be opened?

And just when Chu Guang was wondering what was going on, a miserable wail had already emerged on the official website forum.

"Blanch!"

"I'm counting, why don't the countdown to the resurrection go!!"