A dark and deep chaos, it gradually awoke from its slumber.

It was surrounded by invisible walls and black fields, and agitated shadows obscured its eyes.

It also cuts off its hearing.

It opened its non-existent mouth and let out a cry like a baby.

At this moment, a gentle force slowly came along the invisible umbilical cord, making it feel that every cell in its body was stretching happily as it floated in the chaos.

"My child...... You've finally woken up...... ＇

There was a hint of loneliness in that trembling call, but also a hint of longing.

It doesn't understand that feeling.

But the sound made it feel very comfortable. "You are?

"I am your mother." Mother?

"It is the thing that gives birth to all things, and I have given thee soul and flesh.

...... I am? ＇

Thea, this is your name and my third gift to you.

Thea....

It silently recited its name, stared at the agitated walls and the dark realm, its soul throbbing with a hint of reverence, listening to the sound that came slowly down the umbilical cord.

"You will awaken on the day the ice ends, and you will realize your destiny on the day of awakening."

"Go and conquer."

"To devour."

To liberate.

To become the new master.

The darkness obscured the vision gradually cleared, and the pitch-black walls were replaced by agitated scarlet flesh membranes.

The bloodthirsty color was reflected in the amber eyes that had just opened.

The voice continued to reach its ears.

...... We will eventually enter eternal prosperity. There was no hesitation.

It opened its mouth connected by silk threads, and roared with a scorching raid.

"Yes......"

At the gate of Boulder City, there is a lot of noisy shouting, and in addition to the merchants who come and go, there is naturally no shortage of small players in Vault 404.

"Exploding mushrooms! One silver coin, you can eat it and you can fry it, the power is comparable to a grenade, the crow boss is wholesale from there, you want to buy it as soon as possible!

"Mutant nematodes soak in wine! Fresh wine, fresh nematodes, don't miss it when you pass by!"

"What's that?"

"Wireworms? Nima, this earthworm, right?!"

"Boss taste it yourself!"

"Ahem, the physique is LV20 is required, and the boss's intelligence is not enough.

"Boss, come a pound, I'll give my brother a buff.

"Okay!

The snow has stopped, the tide is coming, and the market at the gate will close in a little while.

Many stall owners and shopkeepers are in a hurry to make the last trip before the start of spring.

In addition to selling food, there are also quite a few arms dealers who sell weapons and equipment.

For example, Goblin Technology.

It is undoubtedly the most eye-catching sign in this crowd.

Standing next to a three-meter-tall piece of armor, a mosquito with a horn is shouting hard.

"Goblin Tek's latest Type 2 non-powered armor! Requires LV10 Power System! LV15 physique is also OK! You can carry it, you can fight, you can rush into the crowd and you can explode!

As soon as the players heard the unique voice of the male duck, they immediately gathered around with great interest.

"? Mosquito? Why did you come out and set up a stall yourself?" Debt-eyed fiddled with the armor curiously, and found that he couldn't wrench an arm, so he reluctantly gave up.

Mosquito sighed and said with a sad expression.

"Whew...... I lost money on my last mission, and I've been a little poor lately, so I've got a second-hand back."

The main reason is that Lao Na and Lao Wang are not strong.

The two of them walked around the plains several times, but they couldn't find his mechanical arm.

In a few days he plans to do it again

Customize a set.

But this time he had to have a heart and an eye for a detachable one. The construction site boy looked at the brick and asked curiously. "If you don't understand, just ask, are you a waste of equipment?"

I didn't mind the ridicule of this dog thing at all, and Mosquito said with a smile.

"It's okay, it's not too wasteful, it's average."

Debt-ridden eyes: "Damn!

He was walking through the bustling bazaar towards the north, and Luo Yu, who was halfway there, suddenly stopped, and pressed his right hand to his chest unconsciously.

The flesh that had been gnawed away by the batmen had been replaced by a fast-growing biological prosthetic body, and had become a part of his body in the form of a small feathered fruiting entity.

It's getting hot there at the moment. It's like it's on fire!

Just as Luo Yu was confused about what was happening, a soft murmur came from the communication channel.

"Uh-huh. (It woke up.) ）

He could understand Xiao Yu's muttering, even easier to understand than if he spoke Renlian.

Subconsciously glanced around, Luo Yu asked puzzled. "Awake? Who's awake?"

"Babble...... (Thea...... (That's its name.) Luo Yu was stunned for a moment.

This was the first time he couldn't understand what Xiao Yu said.

Thea?

It?

Just as he was confused, a familiar shout came from the side.

"I'm blanching, falling feathers! You're finally back!"

Luo Yu looked sideways and saw the mosquito brother standing in a stall

Before, excitedly waved at him.

Subconsciously raised his hand, Luo Yu just wanted to say hello to him, and his eyes suddenly fell on the three-meter-high torture instrument next to him.

Luo Yu's eyes were instantly alert, and he took back the hand that had been raised halfway.

"What for?"

"Don't be so cold, brother," ignoring the alert look, Mosquito grinned and left the stall and pulled his arm, "Seriously, come and try out new equipment for me, and open the eyes of these illiterate little butts."

Luo Yu pulled his hand back as if he had been shocked, and instantly took a dozen steps back.

"I'm not familiar, thank you."

Looking at the falling feathers that disappeared into the sea of people at the speed of light, the mosquito with the outstretched hand was stunned for a long time before coming back to its senses.

Seeing that the ace pilots didn't dare to try, the new ones who were originally watching suddenly dispersed.

Listening to the uncontrollable laughter behind him, the mosquito cried and laughed in the direction where the falling feathers disappeared.

"I'm blanching! Ruthless, you!"

The sound blended into the bustle and bustle in the distance.

At this moment, most of the survivors living on the ground did not notice that the gray-green fog that had taken root in the center of the city like a towering tree was quietly spreading around.

Chu Guang still remembered that when he took the Iron Heart on an expedition to Jinchuan Province, the snow on the ground was so thick that it could bury people's calves.

When I came back now, there was only a thin layer of ground left. During his absence, a lot of things happened in the various settlements of the Alliance.

The biggest change is still Dawning City.

As the capital of the Alliance and the first glimmer of hope rising from this wasteland, Dawning City has always been the focus of the Alliance's development.

Especially a few years ago, Chu Guang waved his hand and sprinkled a full 900 million silver coins towards the infrastructure field at the economic work conference.

Spurred on by this huge budget, the changes to the settlement were almost immediate.

Not only have the streets become wider and cleaner, commuting is easier, but people's lives have also become more affluent to the naked eye.

In addition to those who have already lived a good life, residents who have only recently joined the Alliance, and displaced people who are still "regulated" have not been left behind.

The 1,000 prefabricated apartment buildings in the eastern suburbs have also completed all the construction periods, and more than 40,000 eligible residents have successfully moved in.

So far, the registered resident population of Dawning City has jumped from 50,000 to 100,000

！

Even more reassuring is the data provided by the Ministry of Health on the registration of newborns – following the end of the war in Lok Ha province, a baby boom is brewing.

Although this poses a considerable challenge to the alliance's current limited medical and educational resources, the positive side is that it has greatly improved the current demographic structure.

The survivors of the Coalition are moving towards a new life, and while the catastrophe in this land is far from over, everyone's heart is filled with confidence.

Because their administrators have indeed fulfilled the impassioned promise he made to the inhabitants of the Alliance at the triumphal ceremony—

Let the good qualities stand out in the society of the Alliance.

Industrious people will never become fools, as long as they actively study, work and live, and contribute their own strength to society, they will definitely deserve a better life.

It's the same with Dawn City.

The changes here are second only to Dawning City.

The station, which used to be a wooden sign, has now been transformed into a concrete station hall.

There is a six-lane highway from the industrial area to the logistics center, and the workers who used to live in tin houses to repair drainage facilities have now moved into buildings with elevators, and the small workshops that used to be tinkling have been turned into large-scale factories covering an area of tens or even hundreds of acres.

Objectively speaking, although the development and living standards of residents here are not as good as those of Dawning City, the "electrification level" and "urbanization rate" are higher than those of Dawning City and Rock City combined.

After all, the Alliance's only city-sized fusion reactor is located here, and the power resources here are not even much to transport.

Since there are more hills than plains, most of the local residents live in buildings with high plot ratios, so elevators are almost standard.

The kind of three- or four-story single-family huts in Dawning City, where only one or two families live, are not to be seen on the side of Dawn.

Because there was a large amount of ready-made foundations to use, the authorities of Dawn City simply built the new houses on top of the original abandoned buildings in Xizhou City.

Most of the houses built during the Boom Era are unusable, but the foundations are surprisingly intact and of astonishingly good quality! Building a 50-year-old building directly on the basis of the original foundation is not a big problem at all!

Even if the newly built building reaches the end of its life, the part buried in the ground is still in good condition.

Considering that the generational gap between the current level of infrastructure and the era of prosperity of the alliance is at least a century or more, such a thing is entirely possible.

In addition, Xizhou City was a livable city with low population density in the prosperous era, the building floors were generally not high, the difficulty of demolition was not as great as that of Qingquan City, and the concrete waste could be recycled through the technology provided by the Ideal Group, and the cost of building a 20-story building in Dawn City would be much lower than in other places.

The city's registered resident population has grown from 80,000 to 110,000, which is almost the entire population of the settlement.

After all, this is the industrial center of the Alliance, and the commercial side is not as good

To the south, Dawning City is thriving, and most people come here looking for work.

As long as you work, you need to pay taxes, and you need to register to pay taxes, so the number of "black households" here is theoretically the least in the whole union.

In addition to housing and industry, which are directly related to people's livelihood, another major infrastructure project in Dawn City is the dam on the northeast shore of Xizhou Lake!

As one of the environmental renovation projects in the era of the People's Union, Xizhou Lake can be regarded as the largest artificial lake in the central region of the river valley province.

This lake has played an important role in the desertification control project in the central part of the Zhongzhou continent, but after entering the wasteland era, this abandoned lake has developed into a serious flood due to a series of reasons such as the end of the ice age, the increase in rainfall, and the change of lake bed structure.

If this "artificial reservoir" can be restored, a large area of black soil from the northwest side of Xizhou City to the Tianshui tributary area will be released.

This project is expected to add at least hundreds of thousands of acres of arable land to the alliance!

And unlike the cultivated land in Luoxia Province that relies on the "river embankment" system, the existence of this black soil does not depend on it

Any unknown technology.

Although the Alliance's food is mainly imported from vassals, and agriculture is not the focus of Dawn's development, no one will think that they have too much arable land.

Even if the NPCs are not interested, it is also excellent to throw it to the professional players who are keen on farming, such as "Macabazi" and "Fighting Tigers in the Mountains".

Hundreds of thousands of acres of cultivated land, new production methods and production relations, and possible troubles in land reclamation...... If this is replaced by "Noodles 1800" by the potato factory, it will be enough to be an expansion film!

In reality, contracting a hundred-acre manor has to face all kinds of problems, but in the wasteland, it is enough to deal with the wandering xenomorphs and wastelanders once in a while.

In short, although there were many things during the period, including war

But the workers of Auroville eventually lived up to expectations and overcame all odds.

According to the drawings and construction plan provided by environmental engineer Butan, with the joint efforts of experts and construction personnel in Camp 101, the Xizhou Lake Dam was finally completed!

Not only the black soil in the north of Xizhou City, but also the four new districts that were originally soaked in the lake have also resurfaced.

In the future, you will never need to take a boat through this area again! And that's not all.

As the lake ebbed and flowed, the city, which had been covered in dust for nearly a century and a half, unlocked many new areas that players hadn't explored before.

For example, Shelter 100 is located near the subway section of the Fourth New District!

According to Camp 101, the vault was planned to shelter 30,000 people, and was scheduled to be released from lockdown in the year 60 of the Wasteland Era.

Unfortunately, in the 52nd year of the Wasteland Era, the spread of the lake completely flooded the four new districts, completely sealing the door of Vault 100.

According to public information, Vault 100 is tasked with the reconstruction of Xizhou City.

Even, the standby controllable fusion reactor located underground in Xizhou City, which is the one being used by the Alliance, was originally prepared for Vault 100.

It can be inferred that Vault 100 should have a certain amount of helium-3 reserves in it, and that there is probably a significant proportion of nuclear engineers among its inhabitants.

The Methodist Doctor who lived in seclusion in Vault 101 judged that the probability of survival of the Vault residents was only 3.1%, the probability of continuing the mission was less than 1%, and the success rate was close to 0, so the coordinates of the controllable fusion reactor were provided to the wastelanders of Camp 101.

However, as for what Vault 100's shelter plan is, I'm afraid only the administrator of that vault will know.

Perhaps, just like Vault 79 in Seogu City, Vault 100, which claims to be responsible for the reconstruction of Seosu City, may actually be carrying out other shelter projects?

Yin Fang is very interested in this shelter, after all, his profession is gravedigger, and his interest in coffee machines, research on various electronic devices and even medical skills are only incidental.

Chu Guang is the same.

However, he was more curious about what treasures he could pick up from the shelter than Yin Fang was curious about the reason why this shelter "sank".

Coalition workers are currently working to install a drainage system that pumps water from the lake into the underpass to the northern Tianshui tributary.

Due to the large number of aquatic arthropods such as split-claw crabs and frigate shrimp nesting in this area, the construction faced considerable challenges.

The current excavation of Vault 100 is the second most important place in the Dawn City work diary, after a series of industrial area expansion plans.

It is believed that when this sanctuary will see the light of day, all the treasures and secrets buried inside will be revealed.

Chu Guang had high hopes for this.

It would be nice to dig up a few old popsicles.

Specialists in various industries who have mastered pre-war technology are far more important to the alliance at this stage than one or two black boxes......

Compared to the ever-changing Dawn City and Dawn City, Deciduous City, located in the western border of the Alliance, has a lower presence

There are a lot of them, but the development potential should not be underestimated.

As a trading hub in the southern part of the province of Lok Ha and the province of River Valley, the most important infrastructure there is a railway station and a logistics warehouse.

Looking down from the air through a hummingbird drone, almost half of the buildings and factories in the entire city are associated with it.

While it is not uncommon to see some Wastelanders migrating from the west, most do not stay here for long, often using it as a springboard to settle in Dawn or Dawn.

The city has not achieved any particularly good results, and for the time being, the population growth rate is currently available.

After all, after a while, players who are active in the Great Desert will be able to catch a group of slave catchers who are selling slaves from Borneo Province to the Great Desert, or find a mutant tribe hiding in the ruins, and then the population of the Pioneer City will grow.

This puts a lot of pressure on the small Pioneer City, not only because of the population growth rate that doubles at every turn, but also because it has the most extreme gender ratio in the league.

Just as there are far fewer roosters than hens on chicken farms, most mutant tribes like the Blackstone tribe usually only keep a few male survivors with the most meat to breed on the ranch, and the rest are mostly left for a few days before being thrown into a pot to stew.

And most of the slave traders who trade with those mutant tribes will not sell the "worthless" *** here.

According to the report of the Lord of Teresa, most of the survivors rescued by the Thorns and the players came from the Borneo Peninsula in the south of the Great Desert.

There seems to be a serious man-made disaster going on there.

However, it was too far away, and the closest way from the Alliance to there was to take a boat to Silvermoon Bay in the Hump Kingdom before continuing south.

Or from the Pioneer City, you can cross the "Eastern Industrial Zone" and the "Southern Industrial Zone" in the era of the People's Union.

Therefore, while sympathetic to the suffering of the people there, the city lord Teresa did not make unrealistic requests in the report.

All they can do now is fight the mutant tribes and slave traders around Pioneer City, and unearth the ruins buried by the desert to grow their power.

At present, the population of Pioneer City is close to 3,000, which is several times more than the original 300 survivors.

Even if the local conditions are still difficult.

But either way, their lives are much better than before.

The regular arrival of cargo airships from the east and the occasional caravans from Bicester Town will also bring some new hope to this settlement that has grown up in the midst of suffering.

From Dawn City to Pioneer City, the Alliance's four biological children have all learned to run from their initial toddlers.

And Boulder City, which once belonged to the War Construction Committee and is now under the jurisdiction of the Alliance, has also risen from its previous falls.

However, compared to the other rapidly expanding settlements of the Alliance, the changes that are visible to the naked eye here are not striking.

The settlement is still so big, it's still so crowded and noisy.

The changes that have taken place are more in some places that are almost invisible to outsiders and can only be experienced by one's own people.

For example, the leaky house is no longer leaky, the things that no one cares about are finally taken care of, the goods on the shelves are more abundant, the number of people shopping has increased, the security is better, and so on.

The local survivors fought bloodily to make their lives what they meant to belong, and the people who produced the cans ate their own cans, and that's it.

It's just that this phrase "that's all" is rare and precious to most settlements in the wasteland.

Although Chu Guang had been on the front line during this time, he was no stranger to what was happening in various parts of the alliance.

Most of the administrative work of the alliance is carried out on electronic terminals.

From the management of logistics to the planning of settlement buildings, digital management covers almost every aspect of the lives of the survivors of the Alliance.

Although it is not to the extent that even a single faucet was integrated into the global Internet of Things during the Prosperous Era, there is no doubt that it can be in the wasteland

It's advanced.

Therefore, even if Chu Guang would often leave the political center of the alliance, his grasp of the situation in the various regions of the alliance would not be affected in any way. As long as he can get in touch with the Vault's servers.

Of course, since the focus of work has always been on the front line some time ago, even with the help of the convenient tool of "digital municipal", Chu Guang still accumulated a lot of work that he didn't have time to deal with during this time.

Whether it's a "dog planner" or a "manager".

But even if the backlog is piling up.

Before returning to his "workstation" in the browsing room on the B4th floor of the refuge, Chu Guang first went to Xizhou City, which is located in the northern border of the Alliance.

It is home to the Coalition's largest research institute and institution of higher learning—even larger than the Biological Research Institute of Vault 79.

He promised Xia Yan that he would go to her when he returned. And that's not all.

Also because Pai had told him on a recent holographic call that Dr. Method, the administrator of Vault 101, had something he wanted to talk to him about.

It just so happened that Chu Guang also wanted to talk to him about the "Holy Domain" and the "Torch", so he readily agreed......