The long night was finally over.

When the distant sky was hazy and white, and the first rays of the morning sun shone on the smoke-filled streets, Bit, who was sitting behind the sandbag wall, finally let go of the burden in his heart and relaxed the shoulders that had been tense all night.

Two hours ago, there had been sporadic gnawers wandering towards their positions, and now the entire position was so silent that not even a single gunshot could be heard.

At the machine-gun fire point not far away, thunderous snoring was gradually heard, and some soldiers who could not stand their fatigue even fell asleep with their eyes open.

This is the first time they have been on the battlefield.

Bit glanced at his right hand in disbelief, and then at the bloody field around him, his heart filled with unspeakable words.

They......

I survived!

It's incredible.

At this moment, there was the creaking sound of boots on the concrete floor behind him.

Bit, who was still in a trance, was suddenly startled in his heart, suddenly sobered up, picked up a stone from the ground and threw it at his comrades not far away, trying to wake up the guy.

Those guys in the regular army were already unpleasant to look at them as guilty people. It would be impossible to say what would happen if the Warlords found them asleep on the ground.

Even if they were shot, no one would sympathize with them.

The stone hit the sleeping brother's head impartially, but the guy was so dead asleep that he didn't wake up, and even snoring even more.

Just as Bit was anxiously about to do something, a hoarse voice came from behind him.

"Let him sleep for a while."

Looking at the warlord who walked to the side of the shooting bunker, Bit's Adam's apple moved, he didn't dare to speak, and expressed his gratitude with his eyes.

The warlord didn't care, took out a box of cigarettes from his coat and shook out two cigarettes, one in his mouth, and the other handed him over.

"Smoke?"

Looking at the cigarettes handed over, Bit was stunned for a while, but he still reached out and subconsciously took it.

"Thank you...... Thank. ”

"You're welcome."

The warlord grinned, reached for a match, lit the cigarette in his mouth, and handed the matchbox to Bit.

Looking at the man whose fingers trembled for a while before striking the match, he set his eyes on the sea of corpses and bones in front of the formation.

Exhaling a puff of green smoke, he stretched the wrinkles between his eyebrows and spoke slowly.

"This year's wave is over."

"This war is our victory, and it is a complete victory, and there will be no more ...... Whether it's a wave or some other mess. ”

Bloodthirsty monsters, tyrannical mutants, man-eating marauders, and gangs that gather at the foot of the walls to do their wrongdoing......

They have banished all the evils born from the wasteland from Clear Springs City, and today's dawn will be a new beginning like never before.

Bit smoked in silence, looking at the smoke that had dispersed, his mind chaotic.

For the past three months, he has either been working in the pit or preparing for this war, and he has no free time to think about the future.

Now that the war is over, he has to seriously think about it - what to do in the future.

At this time, he suddenly realized that he seemed to know nothing, and he had never lived in a normal society for a day, and he did not have the skills to make a living in a normal society.

And......

With this year's wave ending so quickly, will the league really deliver on its promises?

As soon as he thought of this, he couldn't help but panic in his heart, and his fingers holding the cigarette butt couldn't help but tremble.

As if to see through the thoughts in his heart, the warlord grinned and opened the conversation.

"Be glad that you did not run away in the face of the waves, and fought bravely for your fellow citizens behind you, you have proven that you are the part of yourself who you were born to be. Compared to the marauders, you are still saved, and it is worth reaching out to you. ”

After a pause, he continued.

"My superiors asked me to explain two things, about your future."

As soon as Bit heard this, he hurriedly said.

"I'm going to call the guys!"

Reaching out and grabbing Bit, who was about to leave, the warlord continued.

"Don't bother, just tell you to do it, you go and discuss with them in a while, think it through and then make a decision."

"Okay...... Then you can say it. ”

Bit nodded, swallowed nervously, and watched the Overseer listen carefully.

The Warlord continued.

"Your last assignment is to clean up the mountains of corpses piled up in the streets and move them to our designated location before they decompose. This will probably last for a week or so, and then you can leave the camp. ”

"As for where to go after leaving the camp, my superiors have given you two choices, one is to disband on the spot, return the gun to the organization, and go wherever you want in the future, whether you leave the alliance or report to the homeless home. Another option is to join the newly formed Southern Construction Corps and go to Geumcheon Province to clear the wasteland and establish your own homeland. ”

The former may sound a little more relaxed.

Although not a citizen of the Alliance, the Alliance is not as xenophobic as early Boulder. It won't take long to become a citizen of the Union by reporting to a homeless home, learning a trade as a "regulated person", and then going to an industrial zone to find a stable job and get a tax ID number for tax purposes.

This is because he does not have a single skill to make a living.

If he has the skills to make a living, he can even skip the step of going to the homeless house, as long as there is a factory willing to pay him a taxable salary.

But if there is no factory willing to ask for him......

Thinking of this, Bit's heart couldn't help but tighten. If that were the case, he felt that he would take risks again and follow the old path.

Nope-

That's almost a sure thing to happen.

As if he had seen his future, Bit smoked his entire cigarette in silence, calmed down, and looked at the Warseer as he spoke.

"I'll choose the latter."

It seems to have guessed that he would choose this way.

The warlord smiled, threw the cigarette butt on the ground and stomped on it, and reached out and patted the young man on the shoulder.

"No matter what you choose, cherish your hard-won freedom, this is what you exchanged for your life, don't go in again."

"Next time, I won't be so lucky."

……

The price of victory was dearly.

The punishment battalion was reduced by 40 percent, and when it went to the front, it was more than 5,000 people, and after one night, only more than 3,000 people were left alive.

It's not just a correctional camp.

The First Corps and the Militia also suffered a lot of casualties, but they were not as exaggerated as cannon fodder.

And not to mention the players.

As the vanguard of the Alliance, they have always been present in the most dangerous places, rushing to the forefront at all times.

In total, nearly 20,000 players participated in the brutal battles on the battlefield, and even less than half survived.

For every survivor of Clear Springs, it was destined to be a sleepless night.

However, in contrast to the heavy sacrifice, their victory was infinitely glorious.

After two centuries of depravity, the survivors of the United have finally overcome the wave that was once considered invincible!

This is a difficulty that neither the Post-War Reconstruction Committee, nor even the ancient People's Federation, has ever really overcome!

They achieved this impossible miracle with both hands!

After hearing the good news from the front, everyone's faces were full of excitement, whether it was the residents of Boulder City, or the residents of Dawning City, or Fallen Leaf City and Dawn City.

People fired guns into the sky, drank wine, or hugged and celebrated, venting the joy of victory in cheers and shouts.

When the dawn dispelled the gloom, almost everyone was cheering for the hard-won victory!

And not even just people!

Even the spore cloud that permeated the ruins had a lightness that it had never felt before.

Less than five kilometers from the Great Wall, on the edge of the Second Ring Road, a half-collapsed hospital is where a thousand-strong team of the Boulder City militia is stationed.

At this moment, the hospital's underground parking lot is filled with scarlet slime molds.

There is an incubation room for the mass production of spores and fruiting bodies.

It is from here that a large number of gnawers and creepers set out, flocking like waves to the defense line of human civilization.

Normally, if we want to end this annual wave, we must completely destroy these distorted hatcheries.

But this year is different from previous years.

The brood in the center of the city has long since been taken down by the feathers, and the DNA associated with the invasion has stopped transcribing, and there will be no new nibbles or creepers coming out of the hatchery.

And this is the best proof that in addition to the decrease in spore concentration, the end of the wave.

Looking at the rolling sea of pale red, the adjutant wearing a heavy exoskeleton couldn't help but speak.

"It's a scary thing to look at."

In recent decades, charging towards the hatchery has been the job of mercenaries.

Although he had been a member of the militia for a few years, it was the first time he had seen a living hatchery outside of a photograph or hologram.

He wasn't the only one.

The same was true of the officers of the other militia regiments, almost every one of them with unease written on their faces.

"Is it really okay to keep this guy?"

"What if one day it starts hatching those gnawers again?"

"I always feel like it wants to eat me!"

The crowd exchanged glances and whispered in whispers.

Listening to the exchange of words among the officers under his command, Joey, the commander of the militia regiment, coughed vigorously, interrupting the more and more outrageous rumors that were spreading among the people.

Looking at the quiet crowd, he paused and said.

"According to the administrator, he intends to designate an 'ecological reserve' near Vault 401 and relocate the incubators and fruiting bodies in the urban area. There are relatively few survivors in the eastern district of Qingquan City, and most of them live with dangerous xenomorphs, which can be used as a pilot. ”

I've never heard such a strange word, the adjutant asked, stunned.

"Ecological Reserve...... What is it? ”

It wasn't a rare word two hundred years ago, but it was definitely a concept ahead of its time in the wasteland.

"Probably ...... A settlement where slime molds and people live in harmony? ”

Joey didn't really know much about it, so he could only try to understand it while trying to explain it to his confused comrades.

"For example, people live in mushrooms."

Obviously, his one-sided understanding, far from explaining everyone's doubts, has the opposite effect.

An officer was stunned for a long time, then came back to his senses and shook his head with a wry smile and said.

"It's weird."

The other officer was the same, looking at the scarlet sea not far away, swallowing and nodding in understanding.

“…… I'm never going to stay with that thing, don't even think about it. ”

Joey shrugged.

"What are you talking about, the ecological reserve is currently only open to shelter residents, and you have to apply if you want to go in and see it...... I don't think it really matters, as long as they don't plant mushrooms on the giant wall, it's good enough to be able to curb the annual wave, or you have a better way. ”

The officer coughed embarrassedly.

"Of course, I unconditionally agree with the manager's decision......"

"Me too."

Joey nodded, turned his gaze to the scarlet flora that was fading a little, and slowly continued.

"We've tried everything we can, whether it's fire or chemicals...... Even if their plan seems a little ridiculous, they can only give it a try. ”

His view is actually more optimistic.

It's not that it's because of the blind trust in the managers themselves, but that biotechnology is indeed the strength of the alliance, and the adults will definitely consult experts in the relevant fields when making decisions.

With the current unity of the Alliance, the experts of the Alliance have absolutely no reason to fool him, and will probably give really suitable advice by touching their conscience.

Since so many people don't think it's a big problem from their own professional point of view, Joey feels that this ecological reserve can still be looked forward to.

They have nothing to lose anyway.

The worst outcome would be to continue the two-century-old wave.

And if they do, they will open up a path that has never been seen before, and it may be an opportunity to end the entire wasteland......

At this moment, a soldier came from a distance and stood in front of Joey and gave a military salute.

"Report! A group of merchants are approaching our checkpoint, and their elected representative would like to meet with you to discuss the removal of the carcasses of slime fruiting entities. ”

Normally, during the duration of the wave, merchants would come to the front line to wholesale corpses, which is also an old tradition in the area of Qingquan City.

Although the fruiting body of slime molds cannot be eaten directly, they belong to the category of organisms and can recover a little bit of nutrients to a greater or lesser extent.

Whether it's processed into fertilizer or made into nutritional paste, it is an excellent raw material.

If left unattended for a long time, neither by the eaters nor by the hatchery to recycle them, these corpses can quickly become a breeding ground for bacteria to multiply, and in severe cases, it may even cause a large-scale plague.

As a result, Boulder usually packs these corpses for the merchant to dispose of, and collects some chips as an advantage.

But this year is different from previous years.

Before the wave began, the Boulder militia had received instructions from the Vault that slime fruiting entities seized by the Coalition would no longer be packaged for private disposal in the form of a franchise, but would be recovered and disposed of by the Coalition authorities.

Not surprisingly, the remains of those fruiting bodies will be sent to the newly established ecological reserve to be decomposed and used as construction materials.

Looking at the soldier who gave the order, Joey gave the order succinctly.

"Tell the traders that the remnants of the fruiting entity in this area have been taken over by the Coalition authorities, and that the Coalition has a better use. If they are interested in taking on the work, they can contact the logistics office, but if they are interested in the idea of those fruiting bodies and evolutions, they should give up as soon as possible. ”

The soldier gave a military salute, turned and returned to the checkpoint at the entrance of the garrison, repeating the commander's words to the merchants gathered at the gate.

After listening to the soldier's words, the faces of the merchants were full of astonishment, you look at me, I look at you exchanging glances.

Better use?

What else could it do other than make a paste and fertilizer?

Almost everyone was gone.

……

The traders from the wasteland scratched their ears and cheeks and couldn't guess what the esteemed manager was up to.

Just when everyone was confused, the official website of "Wasteland Online", which was far away in another world, suddenly updated an announcement.

[Wasteland OL Closed Beta Server Beta0.6 Version Update Announcement! ] 】

[Major Update:

1. The eligibility for the closed beta has been increased from 30,000 to 50,000!

2. The blockade of the second ring road area of Qingquan City has been lifted, and a large number of proven relics that have not yet been recovered have been added, and relevant tasks can be obtained from the scientific research team.

3. Added the "South Gate II" galaxy and Gaia World to the game world! (Note: Although the map has been made, the passage to the map is still under development, and players can also explore the way to it on their own, so stay tuned for more content!) ）

4. Added "Fruiting Body Cultivation" system!

5. Shelter B7 floor will open soon.

6. Fix a small number of bugs.

……

】

[Introduction to the "Fruiting Body Cultivation" System:

The brood in the center of Qingquan City has been occupied by us, and the hatchery rooms in the whole city are currently under our control!

However, to Xiao Yu's distress, it had never controlled so many fruiting entities, and these fruiting entities designed for killing would show hostility towards other organisms like beasts if they were not careful.

In order to avoid the waste of resources, and for everyone's little feathers, Vault 404 is now recruiting a group of volunteers!

It requires an intelligence attribute of 10 or above, or a biomimetic chip implanted to enhance the brain's computing power!

Eligible players can apply for the "Control System" biological prosthetic modification surgery through the VM terminal in the game, and the application is successful! The Vault will arrange for a biological prosthetic implant after the player is offline.

Once the operation is successful, the player will be able to establish a conscious connection between the "control system" biological prosthetic and the specific fruiting entity, directing their actions as if they were a drone through a neural connection device.

The adoption cost of regular fruiting entities is 100~10000 credits, including nibbles, creepers, butchers, tyrants, and more.

In addition to regular subentities, players can also apply to adopt more powerful evolutions, including "Decay Knights", by preparing their own crafting materials and paying more!

Or even DIY as per personal preference, if the gene pool allows!

The shelter system will calculate the cost of customization based on a variety of factors, such as the function of the evolutionary, the amount of organic matter required for production, and the time of incubation.

It is important to note that the number of sub-entities that a player can manipulate at the same time is related to intelligence attributes, so please refer to the researchers' advice on how to do it.

If the fruiting entity gets out of control, all the losses and consequences caused will be borne by the adopter himself!

】

Less than half a minute after the announcement was made -

The whole forum was boiling in an instant!

——

(Thanks to the two leaders of "Makabakamo" for their tips!! Happy New Year, brothers! ）

(End of chapter)