In a dark tunnel.

A dozen Velantes in protective suits flashlights, carefully searching every shadow-covered corner around them, cautiously pushed forward.

There was a suffocating oppression in the air, and there seemed to be a pair of coveting eyes hidden in the darkness...... That is the covetousness of the dead for the living.

Because the space was so quiet that the slightest sound would seem unusual, everyone consciously or unconsciously reduced communication, and only talked to each other when necessary.

It had been an hour since the thousand-strong team led by Favry discovered the tunnel, and it had been a full hour since the exploration team had gone deep into the ruins.

However, until now, they have not explored the end of this tunnel. So much so that many people can't help but wonder if they are spinning in place.

I don't blame them for thinking so.

After all, this tunnel is as long as a black hole.

So much so that the deeper they explored, the stronger the feeling of uneasiness in everyone's hearts became.

It's like staying here for a long time and never being able to get out again......

"...... Where did those guys who dig the pit find this hapless tunnel? ”

"The Devil Knows ......"

"The ruins of a settlement more than 100 years ago...... I wondered what's the point of exploring this? Is there still a living person here? ”

"Enough, shut up!"

At this time, there was no benefit in telling ghost stories other than to scare himself, and the man who had been scolded by the captain stopped talking with a sneer.

The others involuntarily shut their mouths, and the eerie silence regained in the bottomless tunnel.

Finally, it was time for the routine report.

The Willant soldier, who was at the head of the line, took a deep breath and removed the walkie-talkie that hung over his shoulder.

"This is the 'sled'...... Everything is normal below, no suspicious targets have been found for the time being. ”

After a brief rustle of electricity, the voice of the superior was heard in the communication channel.

"Keep searching."

“…… Be! ”

Apparently.

There was no way that the superiors would allow them to come back empty-handed.

Until they find a worthy target, they can only continue their search in this bottomless tunnel.

The captain of the Willantes, who was leading the team, hung up the communication, gestured to his teammates behind him, and then continued to walk towards the depths of the tunnel with the demoralized group.

After passing through a crooked steel bar, the group crossed a half-collapsed ventilation duct, and the space in front of them suddenly became larger.

Seeing that the situation in front of them had finally changed, everyone's faces showed excited expressions, and they all accelerated their pace and continued to move forward, and it didn't take long to come to a small square of about hundreds of square meters.

I saw a square-shaped stone monument standing in the center of the square, and around the stone monument were crooked chairs.

Most of the chairs were empty, though remnants of clothing and several fully weathered skeletons could be seen nearby.

Enduring the discomfort in his heart, the captain of the Willant walked to the stone monument with a flashlight, and followed the light of the flashlight to search around.

"This is the 'sled'...... We found a plaza that was supposed to be a meeting place for local survivors. ”

After a pause, he pointed his flashlight at the stone tablet and found that there were small lines of text engraved on it, so he continued.

"There was a stone monument in the middle of the square, and we found some inscriptions on it, which seemed to be the names of the local residents...... Wait, there seems to be a line of words at the bottom of the stele. ”

Carefully recognising the small handwriting, he said reluctantly.

"'Our world is over, and we will restart a new cycle'...... I don't understand, what kind of strange religion is this? ”

Voices continued to be heard from Command.

"Is there geographic information about this settlement on the stele? Like a name or something? ”

"Didn't find it...... Before confirming the name of the place, I will call it 'Stone Tablet Town'. ”

The captain of the Willant had an interested expression on his face, and with the flashlight in his hand, he went around the back of the stone monument.

Since his attention was all on the stone tablet, he didn't notice his feet at all, until a crunch sound of "creaking" came through the soles of his boots, and he subconsciously lowered his head, only to realize that he had stepped on a human skull.

It was then that he saw a scene that he would never forget.

I saw that in the open space behind the stone monument, dense bones grew like weeds. The head he stepped on was only one of the insignificant, and the human bones were piled up in a small mountain in this not very large space......

It doesn't feel like a settlement at all.

It looks like a cult sacrificial place.

What the hell is going on here?!

Even though he was accustomed to seeing the tragedy of the sea of corpses and bones on the battlefield, he still unconsciously gave birth to a trace of fear of this strange death in his heart.

"......"

Swallowing hard, he couldn't help but take a step back until his shoulder hit the stone tablet behind him.

At this moment, it was not only him, but the other Willant soldiers who followed him into the tunnel also noticed the situation behind the stone tablet, and they all felt the coldness of their hands and feet.

The command on the other end of the communication channel seemed to sense the anomaly of the situation below, and the hurried voice soon came from the headset.

"This is Command, what did you find?"

"Dead Man's ......"

"Dead people?"

"That's right...... There are dead people everywhere here. From behind the stone monuments in the square to the streets suspected of being buried by garbage, there are at least thousands of bones lying here, and the feeling is almost like ......"

The captain of the Willant swallowed again, looked around at the devastated mess around him, and said in a hoarse voice.

"It's like hell......"

……

At the same time as the Willant soldiers were exploring into Hell, two orca transport planes that took off and landed vertically slowly landed in the open space near the camp in the refugee camp established by the Alliance a few kilometers away.

There are tens of thousands of survivors stranded in the area, and Haibei City, which is still surrounded by the Heavenly Realm, is obviously not a suitable resettlement site, and it is a big problem for both the delivery of supplies and hygiene.

As a result, the command of the coalition army gave new instructions to the front-line troops, requiring the troops stationed there to move the survivors to the vicinity of the coastline a hundred kilometers away for resettlement.

There were makeshift camps for the Coalition, as well as temporary docks to allow cargo ships to load and unload supplies, more than enough to accommodate 10,000 survivors.

However, since the Alliance's self-developed Overlord transport aircraft must rely on runways to take off and land, the task of transferring refugees can only be entrusted to the enterprise air fleet.

Looking at the group of survivors waiting in front of the tarmac, the pilot sitting in the driver's seat couldn't help but smack his tongue and said to the Alliance soldiers who came over to hand over the work.

"No offense...... Are you guys from hell? ”

People with missing arms and legs abound here, and it is almost impossible to find a complete person.

And that's not all.

Many of them have rotting scars that look twisted and hideous, making it impossible to look at.

"Pretty much, after all, we just crawled out of hell."

The murderous dagger grinned, looked at the fussed pilot and smiled, and said casually in a joke.

"Mutants like to eat alive, and often gnaw half and throw half away, and throw the rest back into the dungeon to raise if they can't finish eating...... These survivors who ate the nago have little to no need to worry about wound infection, and the rotting flesh will grow with the new meat on their body, and eventually become the thing you see. ”

The pilot sitting in the passenger seat retched, and after a long time, he raised his head with a pale face and looked at the murderous dagger standing next to the cockpit in protest.

“…… Enough, don't say it! ”

The description made him feel physically uncomfortable.

The Killer shrugged his shoulders and threw the list of personnel into the cockpit, smiling and patting the pilot on the shoulder.

"There are more than 17,000 targets that need to be transferred, and the prisoners on the side of the Willantes are also going to be handed over to us to deal with...... The task is arduous, in short, it is handed over to you, come on! ”

Seeing the soldier turn away, the two pilots sitting in the cockpit looked at each other and couldn't help but whisper to each other.

"I suspect these people are not mentally normal...... Otherwise, how could they not feel sick at all. ”

"I completely agree with you......"

After explaining what had happened, the Killer Dagger slapped the cockpit canopy and turned to go about something else.

While the company's transport planes were busy transferring survivors to the coastline, two Viper transport planes carrying researchers from the Alliance's scientific expedition team flew over from the direction of the coastline and stopped not far from the killer whale transport plane.

A group of researchers in white coats quickly disembarked from the plane and quickly made their way to the entrance of Vault 20, escorted by a group of heavily armed players.

The entire vault is still under the control of the Alliance's Burning Corps, and the streets are not only replaced with new surveillance equipment, but also drones patrolling the surrounding area 24 hours a day.

Until an examination of the Vault's holdings has been completed, the Vault will not be disclosed to the rest of the Affiliate for the time being.

It was not only Chu Guang who was paying attention to the latest progress of the investigation, but also Fang Chang, who was interested in Vault 20, also paying attention to the latest progress of the scientific expedition.

And while he was waiting for the results of the investigation, Lao Bai, who came back from patrolling outside, brought him unexpected news.

"I have good news and bad news here, which do you want to hear first?"

Hearing this, Fang Chang coughed lightly.

"You start with the important one."

Lao Bai grinned and said.

"Remember the Willantes from before? They've really dug something out of the position we gave up earlier. ”

Fang Chang was stunned for a few seconds when he heard this, and then looked at Lao Bai with a look of disbelief.

"Really?"

Lao Bai nodded and said.

"It's the news that the war guy gave me, it shouldn't be wrong."

Fang Chang then asked.

"And what about the good news?"

Lao Bai said with a grin.

"The one you just heard is good news, and as for the bad news...... Unfortunately, our allies were not very lucky, and they didn't dig up anything but corpses. ”

Fang Chang frowned slightly.

“…… Didn't dig up anything but the corpses? ”

Lao Bai nodded and continued.

"Yes, the passage they dug appears to be the entrance to a settlement, but that settlement has been abandoned for more than a century, and there is nothing but the bodies of local survivors."

Looking at Fang Chang, who was deep in thought, Lao Bai paused and continued.

"But it's also very strange to talk about that settlement, according to the Willant people who went down to explore the ruins, it seems that the entire settlement was buried in an instant."

"A large number of survivors' bodies were gathered in the square at the entrance to the settlement, and there was no sign of resistance at the scene...... The survivors seemed to accept their fate, engraved their names on the stone tablet, and wrote the prophecy of the end at the end, and finally calmly welcomed the final death. ”

"The whole ruins smell of evil from head to toe, and what's even worse is that I heard from the battlefield that there is something wrong with the spirit of the Willant soldiers who came back from below. They seemed to be frightened by something, and they became suspicious...... It stands to reason that this is very abnormal, they are all battle-hardened warriors, and they will not be frightened by a few corpses. ”

Fang Chang nodded in agreement, and after thinking for a moment, he suddenly opened his mouth and proposed a possibility.

"Could it be a telepathic interference device or some kind of bacteria?"

Lao Bai shook his head and said.

"That's not clear. Actually, I was thinking that I could find a few 'wounded' from the legion to come and cooperate with us, but the problem now is ...... We obtained the information through irregular channels, and they didn't take the initiative to explain it, and it was not easy for us to open up. ”

Fang Chang said with a sigh.

"Indeed...... However, according to the clues unearthed by the Wilantes, some of the conclusions of the scientific expedition can be corroborated. ”

Lao Bai's heart moved, and he asked in surprise.

"The results of the scientific expedition have been obtained?"

Fang Chang nodded and spoke slowly.

"According to the scientific expedition's investigation, the administrator's log of Vault 20 should have been artificially deleted, and after the results of some disastrous experiment."

Lao Bai frowned and asked.

"Disastrous experimental results?"

Fang Chang nodded and continued.

"Vault 20's primary research direction is outer space development, and based on the two technical ideas they designed for 'return to space', they considered two scenarios in the twenty years after the Wasteland Era 51 years."

"The first plan is to use limited resources to build an orbitless space elevator, and honestly retrace the road that the People's Union has walked step by step. The other set of solutions is to find a different way to launch the mind to the space equipment of the human Internet of Beings who are still working in outer space, so as to complete the rescue from the outside in...... This can be regarded as a disguised corner overtaking. ”

"According to the conclusions of the scientific expedition, it is highly likely that Vault 20 was abandoned from the technical feasibility stage after the first plan was conceived, and all the chips were placed on the second plan from the beginning...... We couldn't find any specific experimental plans for the first set of schemes on the Vault's servers, and for that reason, they didn't try it in the first place. ”

Lao Bai frowned.

"That's what I mean...... Is that trackless space elevator plan not working? ”

"Not really," Fang Chang shook his head, "How can you say that something that hasn't been tried doesn't work?" If that thing really wasn't a technology that could not be implemented in principle, it wouldn't have been a plan in this vault. ”

Lao Bai asked puzzled.

"Then why did they just give up?"

Fang Chang recalled the statement he had just heard from the NPC for a moment and continued.

"The opinion of the scientific expedition is...... At the time, the residents of Vault 20 determined that the first plan would require more materials and time than they could afford, and that it would take them fifty years or more if they were forced to move forward. ”

Lao Bai said thoughtfully.

"Fifty years...... That doesn't sound unacceptable. ”

"It seemed to us so, but it seemed too long to them at the time...... In fact, from their point of view, it is not difficult to think that if it takes such a long time to return to outer space, if they want to restore the territory of the heyday of the Human Federation, they don't know when it will go. ”

After a pause, Fang Chang continued.

The scientific expedition team speculated that due to various factors, they most likely directly chose the second plan as the direction of their efforts...... All hope is placed on the thought projection technology that seems to be cheaper, but there are more uncertainties. ”

Lao Bai couldn't help but ask.

"And what about them...... It worked? ”

Fang Chang sighed softly.

"Didn't I say that the administrator log was deleted after the results of a disastrous experiment......"

After a pause, he continued.

"We don't know what they did in the 21 years between Wasteland Age 51 and 72, but if the corpses dug up by the Willant were left behind, the results of that experiment speak for themselves...... The eagerness of the inhabitants of Vault 20 led to ultimately catastrophic consequences, to the point that the entire experiment turned into a desperate mass suicide. ”

Listening to this cruel inference, Lao Bai's Adam's apple moved up and down, and finally shook his head, only holding back a sentence.

"It's crazy......"

Fang Chang nodded, and said after a moment of silence.

"Indeed, it was another group of madmen, they belonged to a different era than Torch, but the madness of the two was exactly the same."

"So much so that it's hard not to wonder if the torch was inspired by the experience of Vault 20 to do so many things out of the ordinary......"

-

(Thanks to the leader of the "Book Friends 20230621171246491" for his reward!! ）

I feel like I'm getting better, a little bit better than before......

(End of chapter)