Thousands of steps.

In reality, the Battlefield is estimated to have to rest twice halfway.

However, in the game, when he stepped on the last step, he was so relaxed that he didn't even breathe.

Looking at the old man in the golden power armor who was standing in front of the main hall and waiting for him, the battlefield guy looked back at the dense figures and torches that were almost shrunk into a dot under the steps behind him, and couldn't help but sigh lightly in surprise.

At this time, a calm and kind voice floated over.

"My name is Razor."

"I ...... Pangolin," he retracted his gaze from behind him, and the Battlefield looked back at the old man in power armor, and finally couldn't help the curiosity in his heart, and asked, "Can you take the liberty of asking a question?" ”

"My age?"

The old man stared at him with a wise gaze, as if he had read through his thoughts.

The Battlefield nodded and asked dryly.

"How old are you?"

Razor raised his gaze slightly, stared at the tall arch for a moment, and spoke.

"In the 42nd year of the Wasteland Era, we captured the Willant Laboratory, which was affiliated with the War Construction Commission, and obtained all the genetic source codes of the Willant people, marking that we were completely in control of our own destiny and gained the independence and freedom we dreamed of."

"It was also at that time that Marshal Julius personally cut my umbilical cord and carried me out of the broken culture tank...... You can do the math for me. ”

After listening to the old man's words, the battlefield atmosphere group was stunned, and the whole person was stunned.

If he's not mistaken, it's the year 214 of the Wasteland Era.

Other words......

This old guy is 172 years old?!

Although this age is not a matter in the game with a fantasy background, it is to blame that the game is too realistic, so he accidentally used reality as a reference.

"You're surprised?"

"Indeed......" Limiting his surprised expression, the battlefield guy nodded and said with emotion, "You're probably the longest-lived person I've ever met." ”

The old man smiled faintly.

"It's not a skill to live for a long time, there's nothing to show off, not to mention that I'm not the one who has lived the longest."

"Do you mean Lord Marshal?" The Battlefield looked excited, "He's really alive?" ”

The venerable Janissary Commander did not answer his words, but turned around and walked towards the main hall.

The Warfield quickened his pace, chased after the scarlet cloak, and followed the old man into the main hall.

Towering marble columns connect the towering dome to the ground, and magnificent reliefs are engraved on the pillars.

There are no bright red carpets or crosses here.

There are also no electrified lighting tools.

The only ornaments are opalescent marble and a vessel made of pure gold.

Dressed in golden exoskeletons, the Praetorian Guards lit torches embedded in the walls, holding spears that were two people tall to ignite the fire.

Their expressions were solemn and serious, as if they were performing some sacred ceremony.

As the torches lit up, the originally dark hall was also illuminated by the slowly burning flames.

At this moment, the battlefield guys were surprised to find that there were reliefs carved on the walls on both sides of the main hall.

The reliefs are connected like frescoes, full of stories and stretch to the end of the main hall.

He walked to the wall closest to the door and stood still, looking at the relief carved into it.

At the top of the relief, I saw three blazing torches, and three powerful arms were attached to the handles of the torches.

The thick arms were like mountains, tall and unfalling. And the flame that burned in the torch was as hot as the sun, dispelling the shadows on the earth.

“…… This was the period of the Post-War Reconstruction Commission, the 21st year of the Wasteland Era, the beginning of the Willant Project and the beginning of suffering, and at the same time the day of the birth of the Marshal......

Walking to the side of the Battlefield, Razor reached out and touched the mural, his eyes seemed to be caught in memory, and he spoke slowly in a gentle and solemn tone.

"The Wastelanders have had mixed reviews of them, and we've called them the period of the Big Three."

Feeling the weight of history, the battlefield couldn't help but swallow his saliva.

“…… The Big Three refer to the Ministry of Technology, the Ministry of Production and the Ministry of Defense? ”

"Yes."

The old man nodded slowly, and his gold-plated index finger followed the lines of the marble, down the veins of the bruises on his arm, and stopped at the black dots as thin as sand.

At first, the Battlefield thought it was just an embellishment of color, but when he got closer, he realized that the black dots were actually creeping people made of miniature carvings.

His eyes widened involuntarily.

No wonder he always heard Fang Chang say that these big noses were born artists and engineers, and it was actually condescending to let them go to war.

The skill of this masonry carving has reached the point of being superb!

"The success of thousands of survivors has made the Post-War Reconstruction Committee a glorious one, just as tens of billions of citizens have made the ......Federation prosperous."

"However, their greatness is also the most overlooked."

"In this way, we unknowingly created a monster, fed it, obeyed it, and finally feared it...... And it has been carried to a path we never imagined. In the end, almost everyone forgets what we should be doing and what we are doing. ”

Looking at the old man who was caught in the memory, the Battlefield's Adam's apple moved.

"I remember...... The Post-War Reconstruction Committee also saved a lot of people. ”

Razor nodded slowly and said softly.

"You're right, if it doesn't save anyone, then why is it called the Post-War Reconstruction Committee and nothing else? It is not to be grateful that the fire will burn, we have to remember those who survived, and we have to remember those who were burned...... This mural is just a history of the Willant people, and I believe that there must be other murals in this world, or something like that, that records a different part of the world. ”

The Battlefield nodded as well.

He remembered that there seemed to be a movie theater in the inner city of Boulder City, where some of the past history and calculus of future possibilities based on what was happening in the present would be shown.

However, the movie theater had been destroyed by the collapse of the building during the Great Transformation of Boulder City.

It's a pity that he didn't go there to see it, but he just heard about it from the NPCs in the game.

Seeing that he didn't continue to speak, Rezer turned his gaze to the relief on the marble wall and continued.

"After the final victory, the Willantes built this House of Glory as a gift to the marshal. And the marshal commanded us...... That is, the Praetorian Guard, his most loyal servant, who carved the history of the Willant people on the wall. ”

"It's not that we don't have more advanced recording technology, but Lord Julius...... Our esteemed marshal said that it is easy to tamper with those illusory lights and shadows, but what is carved in stone will not be easily and completely erased. ”

"Even if someone who came here after us cut off the entire wall, the marks of the beating would still seep deep into the base of the wall."

"Unless the tamperers of it destroy this monument completely, wipe it out of the face of the earth, and build a higher, larger, and grander forgery on the ruins."

With the young guy behind him, Razor continued to walk forward wearing gold power armor.

Following the old man, the battlefield guy stared intently at the reliefs on the wall.

He first witnessed the rise of Triumph City, and witnessed the war between the Willantes and mutants and marauders...... These legendary pasts seemed to have happened somewhere, and the more he looked at them, the more familiar they became.

It wasn't until a moment that he suddenly realized that these things hadn't happened, but had been happening.

For example, the conquest of the city of Avent.

The survivors who occupied the miracles of the era of the Human Union, possessed advanced technology and great wealth, but turned away some of the survivors from the wasteland, are simply carved out of the same mold as the old nobles of Boulder City.

But here's where the divergence lies.

The Willantes, who conquered the city of Avent, did not end up making the same choice as the Alliance.

They put the miserly nobles to death and confiscated the property of the rich, and the poor and poor did not get any benefit in the end...... The Willantes, who conquered the city of Avent, saw them as accomplices and lackeys of the nobility, reducing all alien races to slavery.

They have completely liquidated the survivors of the city, but they have spared only the problem itself.

The casino continued to operate.

And in a series of events that occurred in the following decades, the people of Willant also completely changed from persecuted people to outright persecutors.

The content of the reliefs is becoming more and more shocking, and the milky marble walls are not red in a single red, but the paintings are dripping with blood.

Later, a group of people appeared on the relief.

They had no eyes, no mouths, and even had the bridge of their noses cut off, leaving only one ear.

The battlefield recognized them, and his expression became stunned.

"That's ......"

Razor said in a calm tone.

"Clone soldier, since you have been on the battlefield, you should be no stranger."

Of course the Battlefield knows them.

Those guys who grow eight times faster have an average theoretical lifespan of eight years, and the average lifespan on the battlefield is only three years.

During the Battle of Luoxia, the Alliance took the surrendered clone soldiers as prisoners, many of whom are still alive to this day.

They have no reproductive function, they do not have a complete mind, and it is almost impossible for them to integrate into civilized society. How to deal with them more humanely, and whether to count them as human beings, has always been a difficult problem for the Alliance Biological Research Institute and the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Seeing that the young man behind him seemed to be interested in them, Razor stopped in front of the mural about the clones, remembered for a moment and spoke.

"We used our genetic source code to create a group of Willantes who are different from us, and we expect them to charge for us...... However, it proved to be a failed exploration. Sacrifice is not something that can be replaced, and civilization will only move forward if it has paid a sufficient price. ”

Failed in the quest?

The warfielder's face had a complicated expression.

In fact, if you want him to evaluate, those clone cannon fodder are still a bit difficult.

To this day, he remembers that the Trailblazer was cornered by an army of 2,000 clones, and that even a tactical nuclear bomb did not fundamentally change the tide of the war.

It wasn't until the arrival of reinforcements from the alliance that the whole battle was completely ended.

Of course, at that time they didn't have the name of the Alliance, and many things happened later.

"Actually, there's one thing I don't understand...... Why would someone like His Majesty the Marshal approve of such a technique as cloning cannon fodder. ”

Including the massacre of the city of Avant......

The marshal should have been alive at that time, right?

Looking at the young man with confusion written on his face, Razor only smiled faintly.

Thinking about the plight of the predecessors from the standpoint of the future generations can indeed lead to such confusion...... Then I also want to ask you, why do people like you managers use clones as containers? ”

The Battlefield was about to answer, but suddenly realized something, and looked at the old man in golden power armor in astonishment.

Your managers......

This guy sees through his identity?!

Razor glanced at him meaningfully, his cloudy pupils seeming through his soul.

"You're too young to hide it from others, but you can't hide it from me...... Probably more than a hundred years ago, when Marshal Julius had not left us. There was a time when I was dealing with you 'blue gophers' all the time. Pangolin? There's nothing wrong with you calling yourself that, it's the same in my opinion anyway. ”

Seeing that the old man had already seen through his trick, the battlefield guy was silent for a while, and said with a wry smile.

"When did you find out?"

Could it be that a flaw was exposed in Dawning City?

There seems to be someone from the Praetorian Guard there too, like a Quake.

But when dealing with that guy, he was always very careful, and he didn't seem to show any flaws.

“…… No need to guess, I knew who you were and where you came from the moment you entered Triumph City. ”

After a pause, Razor continued.

"But you don't have to be nervous, it doesn't matter to me whether you're a Vault dweller, a visitor from five light years away, or an alien who can't fight with humanity...... You are the one that the Marshal is waiting for, and I have brought you here, and my mission is complete. ”

After speaking, he looked at the reliefs on the wall in front of him, and continued in a casual tone.

"Mr. Julius is not a perfect saint, he has his own feelings, his own desires and ideas, just like your esteemed administrators......"

"He will be angry when he is betrayed, he will be sad when he sees his companions dying continuously, the city of Avent betrayed us, but the inhabitants of the city of Avent are indeed innocent, and he regretted it afterwards, but it has happened, the water that was spilled cannot be taken back into the cup, and many things are not reversed by personal will."

Between the worst and the worst decision, he chose the moment when he thought the damage was less, allowing time to resolve the conflict between the Willantes and the Old Humans, and avoiding the parting of ways between the Willantes and the Willants. And this is also the origin of Triumph City's protection of slaves, and before that, aliens other than the Wilantes were not even able to be commanders, and even living was a luxury. ”

Including the later clone soldiers, he hoped that in this way he would be able to shed less blood on the Willants. However, when he came back to his senses, he suddenly realized that he had only created a new group of Willantes, and had not fundamentally solved the problem. ”

"And the sacrifices paid by the Willant people for this have not diminished, but because of the increase in the war potential, they have been given more wars and shed more blood for them."

"And what makes him even more painful is that he considers himself a sinner to the people of Willant and to all mankind, and to the chagrin of the stupidity of his decisions, and to resemble the self-proclaimed clever Lowell in the Far East."

"He wanted to end the Wasteland Age, but he made himself and his children a part of the Wasteland Age. Yet even so, his subordinates continued to worship him, and more and more, even to the point of recognizing him as a god...... Including me. ”

The old man lowered his eyebrows slightly, then opened his eyes again.

"I saw it all, both in his joy and in his pain, after all, he always carried me with him."

He once asked me if I regretted it, but to this day, my answer is the same...... I will never regret my loyalty to him. ”

"As the adult himself said, no one can go through life without making mistakes, and there has never been a perfect saint in this world. He can anticipate many things and solve many problems, but there will eventually be a quagmire lurking in front of all of us that he did not expect......"

"But there's nothing to be afraid of, we're not even afraid of death, let alone a fall?"

"As he himself once said, as long as we record history honestly and face it with integrity and undisguisedness, the Weylants are a hopeful people, and sooner or later we will be able to come out of our own quagmire."

As he said this, Razor had a calm expression on his face.

The Adam's apple of the Battlefield Atmosphere group moved, and he swallowed softly.

The ordinary tone seemed to be eloquent, but it seemed to unfold a thick epic in front of him.

It's impossible to say that there isn't a touch in my heart......

As for where the marshal is, he actually already has the answer in his mind.

"So...... Marshal Julius, in fact, is long gone, right? ”

In fact, he had a premonition.

"The all-powerful Marshal in the hearts of the Willant is actually just an ordinary person born in the 21st year of the Wasteland Era, not even an Awakened One. Years of conquest have left him with so many incurable hidden diseases that he has to wear power armor with life-sustaining devices to stay alive in the end, and he will wake up in pain almost every night......"

"The last time I had dinner with him was in the 100th year of the Wasteland Era, at a dinner party celebrating victory. He probably wanted to wait until it was dark before leaving, but in the end he couldn't hold it anymore at dusk, hurriedly left his last words, and walked alone into the deepest part of the Glory Temple. ”

"We didn't know it was a last word at the time, although I had a little hunch...... After all, since a long time ago, he has been handing over the power in his hands little by little, and preparing for what will happen after he leaves. ”

This time, Razor finally answered his question head-on, and set his eyes on the end of the marble relief—the blank space that had not yet been carved into the relief.

"The history of the future will be written by the descendants themselves, and we have engraved the events after his departure on the wall in accordance with his last wishes, and waited for the arrival of 'that man' in accordance with his will."

“…… But there's one more thing I don't understand," the Battlefield Atmosphere Team took a step forward and couldn't help but ask, "why did he hide his death?" ”

Razor didn't answer, instead looking at the door at the end of the marble relief.

"He's right in front, you just ask him how it's okay."

The battlefield guy was stunned for a few seconds, but when he saw the key and flashlight handed by the old man, he still reached out and took it.

Walking up to the heavy iron door, he inserted the key and turned the keyhole.

With a tooth-aching creak, the rusty iron door finally opened.

To his surprise, he was greeted not by a splendid palace, but by a modest room.

The décor was so monotonous that if it weren't for the bed, he wouldn't have imagined that this was the living place of Marshal Julius, who was admired by everyone, but more like a storage cabinet.

The dust on his face made the Battlefield frown involuntarily.

There is no electricity here, and naturally there is no such thing as a dormant chamber.

As for Julius's body, the loyal Praetorian Guards would certainly not allow him to rot here, presumably cremated or placed in a coffin that would not rot.

It's not like no one has been here, at least Captain Razor, who is in charge of keeping the keys and keeping the secrets, must have come in.

The Battlefield turned on the flashlight and looked around, and was suddenly surprised to find that between the bookshelves in the third and fourth rows, there was a gold-colored power armor.

"Good fellow...... The real quest reward is hidden here!? ”

The Battlefield muttered to himself in surprise, stepped over the thick dust on the floor, and walked in front of the power armor.

This is supposed to be the one that Julius wore through, and the armor covered in it should be real gold.

Even after a full century of baptism, there is not a trace of rust on it.

He reached out and touched the armor, only to see the helmet's eyepiece glow and the power element inside the armor restart.

And just then, a deep voice floated out of the helmet......

"You're here?"

"?"

Startled by the sudden sound, the Battlefield unconsciously took a step back.

But he soon found out that it was a pre-recorded voice.

"I told Razor that if the last wall is used up and what I feared doesn't happen, then everything we've done is right, and it's time to find a place to bury me."

"But since you're here...... What seemed the last thing I wanted, but I was so sure it would happen, happened. ”

"It's not a smart decision to pretend you're alive, but I couldn't have done anything better under the circumstances."

"The Legion's mission is not just to save the Willantes, we are also on a mission to clean up the mess for the Legion. I've tried to make the Legion normal a little bit before I'm gone, but unfortunately I'm running out of time...... And if I die, the legion will fall apart, and chaos will consume all that we have left in this world. ”

"I know the Legion is a beast, but it's better than the man-eating marauders, mutant tribes, or mutant slime molds that can't be called civilized at all. Perhaps one day we will be killed by other survivors who have united, or replaced by more advanced and civilized productive forces and relations of production, like the overthrown War Construction Commission...... But this day is by no means now. ”

"Winter is over, but chaos and savagery are not yet ...... If we die early, a better era will not come. We will go through cannibalism towards a future worse and more savage than the Stone Age, and metamorphose into real beasts. ”

"I tried to use technology to prolong my life and lived for another 20 years, but the problem was not solved, and my children became more dependent on me. And the power that is ready to move and the ambition that comes with it are also quietly inflated. ”

"I've considered the hibernation pod, but that's not a good idea either, because my death is a necessity for the Willant community. An immortal leader will not bring a brighter future to his children, but will only turn them into cold and hard stones in their longing and admiration. ”

"Besides, I can't do anything while I'm dormant, and I can't deter those who are ready to move. And when I wake up from my hibernation, I come back from the dead and bring new troubles. ”

"Since this is the case, then I can only be wronged to be a 'living dead' for a while."

"The people of Willant will remain steadfast in the name of loyalty until the final winter. We will be invincible in the face of a more brutal existence than us. And the only person who can defeat us must be a more civilized, more progressive, and more historically inevitable existence than us. ”

"There will be a man who will come here from a land we have not conquered, free us from the mission that is becoming a burden and the loyalty that is being held hostage, and take us and all the other suffering survivors into a new era."

"I guess when that moment comes, we won't be so vast that we won't be able to encompass five hundred habitable galaxies. That being the case, it's not a big deal to fall before learning to walk...... And that's what we owe to the other survivors. ”

"The people of Willant should be part of the world, not the enemy of the world. I'm sure you're standing here, and you'll understand what I'm talking about. ”

"See this power armor? Now it's yours. ”

"Put it on, get out of here, and tell my loyal lads that the Legion has brought them to the dawn after the long night, and that its historical mission is over! Now they themselves are the sun, and the torches in their hands are the whiteness of the sky! ”

"Tell them again that their dear Marshal Julius died at the age of seventy-nine, and died in the twilight before nightfall. He fell asleep with a smile on his face, perhaps with regrets, but not regrets. There is no need to miss him, he was everywhere, never left, and has long since become everyone who lives in this land! ”

"True to your heart, to all the Willantes, to all the survivors who suffer—"

"That is, loyalty to me!"

(End of chapter)