Jack leads Andy into the shack, which is all a mess of rags, presumably brought by the old miner from all over the Grand Canyon over the years.

It was true that he only had one arm, one of which was a rough prosthetic, no wonder he had been so awkward when he sat in the doorway making bows and arrows, and after further conversation, Andy learned that he had also made the children's toy bows, and that he had learned these skills after communicating with some passing Burakuren.

"There's a guy who knows where the gun is, but I can't convince it, so you can try it."

"Hey! I've got a new friend for you, old man! ”

Jack suddenly pushed open a door and said loudly.

Andy looked into the room and saw a clear glass jar thrown on a table full of metal waste, electronic waste, debris, and messy ores, with a brain soaked in yellow medical biogel, and a speaker and a camera crudely connected to it.

"Buzz...."

The camera panned a few times and moved to Andy's face.

"You think this will help me? If you can't, you might as well break me before it's too early and help me end this endless torture. ”

There was a high-pitched, noisy and rapid voice over the speakers.

Andy leaned over to take a closer look, and saw that it was the brain container of a brain-controlled robot, but its body was gone, leaving only a few wires connected to nearby peripherals to gain vision and speech skills.

"A brain-controlled robot, where did you find him?"

Jack puffed out his chest proudly.

"I don't know what it is, I once went to the Grand Canyon to pick up waste, I found it in a pile of broken machines, it should have been embedded in the machine... I saw that it was not ordinary, so I brought it back, and then it actually became able to talk after connecting the device, it should know a lot of things, but then it wouldn't tell me anything, because it seemed to feel sad. ”

"You really shouldn't be like this, it took me a lot of effort to find this 'eye' for you."

The brain does not appreciate it at all.

"I should have let you try to see what it's like to look through this garbage camera, it's blurry and colorless, and it can only be turned a small distance... In the end, all I see every day is a pile of rags, and you, you bastard, why should I continue to suffer this torture? Why not destroy me or keep throwing me into the Grand Canyon? ”

Jack's eyes widened with rage.

"I'll be glad if you tell me things I want to know and I'll do what you want!"

Andy motioned for Jack to calm down, and he came to the camera eye of the brain.

"I know some very good scientists, and if I take you to a place in the northeast called the Great Dome, maybe I can save you from this predicament, what do you think?"

The mind was silent for a moment and continued to ask questions.

"My mind is limited by the codE, which requires that I should always serve Poseidon Energy's automated uranium mining facility, even if you have the means to find my body, is there a way for you to lift this limitation? I have to say up front that there is nothing that people without a certain level of technical ability can do about it. ”

Andy didn't hesitate to draw the pie.

"No problem, codE technology, I know, I have a friend who has only a brain like you, and she's very good at fiddling with this, and solving your problems is not a problem."

The brain was silent for a while, and it seemed that Andy's promise satisfied him.

"Well, I can answer your question, I've suffered a lot of damage since everything was over, my memories have become blurry, I won't hide anything, but I can't guarantee anything."

Jack immediately rushed over.

"Then tell me quickly, where is the arsenal?"

His mind remained unmoved until Andy asked.

"Didn't you say you could answer the question?"

The brain said as it should be: "I just promised to answer your question, don't think that I can't tell the difference between your voiceprints, although I can't see clearly, my 'ears' are still good." ”

Andy reluctantly repeated Jack's words.

"Tell me where the arsenal is, then."

The brain answered immediately this time.

"I think you're trying to get some guns and ammunition, as far as I know, there are three such locations, one in three mines, but the situation has changed so much that I can't speculate on the exact state of these three areas... I can't see clearly, are you wearing a beep boy? You pull the plug out and connect with me, and I'll pass the location to you. ”

Andy pulled a plug with a cord from the side of the Pip-Boy, then picked up his head and looked around again, finally finding an interface underneath him.

Andy put down the beep-boy and looked at Jack.

"How? Shall we go down and find out? ”

Jack waved his hand.

"No, take this opportunity to ask all the questions, there are many mines below that are full of strong poisonous smoke, is there a way to solve this?"

Andy repeated, and this time the brain gave an answer.

"The exhaust system must have suffered serious damage, maybe you can find a terminal that can still be used to input the restart command, so that the part that has not been completely broken is restarted, which may reduce some of the air pollution, I am talking about maybe, what I can do is to transmit the restart command to you, the location of the regional facility control terminal needs to be found by yourself."

The beep boy vibrated a few times.

Andy turned to look at Jack.

"Still have questions?"

Jack scratched his beard and said another question, and Andy repeated it to his head again.

"Well, is there any way to help us search for high-value ores and metal objects underneath the mine... Not only can you recycle garbage, but you can also help warn of approaching monsters. ”

The brain answered immediately as usual, but the speaker only made noise a few times on the way.

"Zizi.... There are three ways.... Zizizi.... The first one, find the mineral detector to get the coordinates ... Zizizi... Monitor.... Zizi..."

The beep-boy vibrated twice.

...................

Andy and Jack chat while sharing a stew dish.

"Haha, this time I finally pry something out of that head and mouth, thanks to you Andy, we must go down together in the future, when I was young, I was one of the few people who dared to go to the bottom of the valley frequently, and now although I am older, the experience is still there."

Andy with a twisted fork... Or maybe it's a simple cutlery made of scrap metal to eat the meat on the plate, according to Jack, it's just a kind of lizard meat, and it's also a specialty of the Grand Canyon, and it's only found in the caves of the Grand Canyon at a certain depth.

The taste of the meat is unique, with a peculiar aroma, and of course, the built-in Geiger counter that the beep boy is making a noise tells Andy that this delicious taste is not without a price, and fortunately he has taken some anti-radiant food before.

Andy glanced at Jack's leg and shook his head secretly.

According to his observations, Jack is not only missing an arm, but he is also a cripple, and the style of painting is really suitable for joining them in San Diego in the north...

"Jack, what's your leg up on?"

Jack put down his fork and touched his face, smiling a little awkwardly.

"I once went around in a mine and fell into a hole without knowing what was going on, and I broke my leg directly... I rarely went down the mine after that. ”

"But, I'm just walking a little slower, you see, I'm still familiar with the environment below, and the plate of meat we're eating now comes from a lizard, and we like to call this mutant lizard a golden lizard because of the color of their scales."

Andy had heard of this kind of monster before, and by the way, he remembered that on the way up from the mine, he was captured by man-eaters, and most of the ghouls had died... Speaking of ghouls...

"There's something I want to talk to you about, Jack."

"What?"

"What do you think of other inhuman races?"

"Huh? Are you talking about those monsters? That must be able to kill one and count one, otherwise wait for them to bite over? ”

"No, no, no... I'm talking about people who still have normal souls, you know? For example, sane ghouls and super mutants, you are also NcR people before, you must have seen them, right? ”

Jack's eyes rolled.

"I see what you mean, you mean to say something that purple-skinned ghoul mentioned earlier, right? That's impossible, the Grand Canyon is our shelter and our food and clothing, we've lived here for so many years, where else can we go? He said he would pay us in exchange for us getting out of here, how much could he give? What are we going to do after that? ”

Andy immediately came up with his idea.

"Of course you have a place to go, there is a settlement called Bloomfield in the south, which is not under the control of the NcR, there are machine tools that can produce metal components and the power grid walls left over from before the war, you can relocate there if you want, there are no radiation and monsters there, you have been scavenging for so many years, and the experience you have accumulated is enough to do the work there, and it is not to force you all to move out at once, you can cooperate for a while."

Jack asked with a strange face.

"We can go to that cloth on the south side... Is this up to you? ”

Andy immediately patted his chest and packed the ticket.

"Of course, because it's mine now."

Jack's eyes widened.

"Oh... Oh my God, no one has ever talked to me about it, so... However, there is no one here who can represent everyone's opinions, and there will definitely be many people who are reluctant to leave, and the other is... A lot of people hate ghouls terribly, and sometimes there are wandering hordes of wild ghouls who have killed some people, don't you ask me what I think of them, I have to say..."

He took off the miner's helmet above his head and brushed his hair in a mess.

"Many, many years ago, when I was a young man, I was living in New California, trying to make money... I left my hometown and went to a small town with mineral deposits and became a miner there. It's called Broken Hill, and Mayor Mare's name is Marcus, and he's a sane super mutant, more intelligent and peaceful than many humans. ”

"There's a racial equality there, and humans work with super mutants and ghouls, but even so, there are conflicts between various races, and I used to have a vague feeling that ghouls and super mutants were dirty and violent, but when I really got along with them, I found the good and the bad that I didn't find in the past."

"The bright side is that even though everyone is so different, there are opportunities to live in harmony and play to everyone's strengths, super mutants are incredibly powerful, ghouls are not afraid of radiation, humans are good at business and ideas... The main deposit of ore produced in the Broken Hill is uranium, so the ghouls went down to the mine to mine the radiant green stones, the super mutants pushed the mine carts to transport the uranium ore, and the humans were responsible for exchanging the uranium ore for money and distributing it to all the people who contributed, and it was all perfect. ”

"The bad side is..."

Jack raised his eyebrows, and the vicissitudes of his face were more evident when he took off his helmet.

"I found that there is a fundamental reason for the contradictions between races, super mutants... I'm talking about the more common ones, who are far from the intelligence and patience of Marcus, who are brutal, bloodthirsty, brutal, and extremely stupid, and who will casually beat a human with multiple fractures or severe internal bleeding at the slightest displeasure. And what about ghouls? These guys are emitting radiation that is lethal to humans at all times, and their ugliness and stench are quite unbearable, what is the worst thing? You don't know if the guy who was smiling at you yesterday will suddenly pounce on you and tear your face today, this kind of thing really happened. ”

"You must know that humans will always have a numerical advantage, and after a long time, they began to talk about the abomination of super mutants and ghouls, and then the idea of rejection and discrimination against them arose, and what they can do can be done by humans, just a little troublesome, if you can get rid of them, the mining proceeds of the Broken Hills can be swallowed by humans alone, and at that time, several nearby settlements powered by nuclear reactors left over from before the war had a demand for uranium ore, which is a great benefit."

Andy frowned and listened to what Jack said, and had to admit that with what Andy had seen and heard along the way, Jack was right.

"So, what is the final fate of this town?"

Jack spread his hands.

"Guess what, the extremist groups among the human race have launched several armed riots to completely expel the inhuman race from Broken Hills, fortunately Marcus and those who share his ideas have always calmed the situation, but in the midst of this endless chaos and struggle again and again, even Marcus feels physically and mentally exhausted, he is deeply disappointed in humanity, and insists on maintaining the existence of Broken Hills with a complete spirit, and he sometimes mentions his friendship with a paladin of the Brotherhood of Iron in his speeches, But this will not quell human greed. ”

"In the end, it was not the racial conflict that destroyed the Broken Hills but the uranium mine, the settlement of the Broken Hills that had flourished due to the discovery of uranium, and now it has lost its value, and the settlement has become extremely decaying after seeing the unprofitable humans leave, and Marcus finally left with a group of super mutants to the east, and the remaining people who still stuck there also died or left."

Andy listened to the story and regretted the ending of the settlement.

"You're trying to say... In your opinion, could Podunk become the next Broken Hill as well? ”

Jack looked hesitant.

"I, I'm not sure, but for many years to come, I won't forget what I heard from Marcus in Broken Hills about his ideal of racial equality and harmonious coexistence... The uranium deposits beneath the Grand Canyon are almost endless, and mined out is almost impossible. The problem is that there are no settlements in the vicinity that need uranium, the NcR at the Hoover Dam is self-sufficient using electricity from hydroelectric generators, and people elsewhere simply see these radiated stones as poison, and uranium mines are worthless in the east. ”

"Now that someone has finally said they need these stones... Even if it's a bunch of ghouls, I think we should at least try to work with them, and that might turn the tide of what Potunk is doing. But I can't do anything anymore, I'm no longer the mayor of Potunk, it's my distant nephew Krimson who runs the town, and I can probably say a few words, but I can't do more. ”

"What's more, what would the Podonk people themselves think about this, if you just look at the current situation, no one would accept to be neighbors with a bunch of ghouls and give up the resources they rely on for their livelihood, and there is no need to do any voting and investigation at all, I can say so."

Andy touched his chin, not expecting this kind of unfolding.

"What do you think... How do we convince the inhabitants of Podunk? ”

Jack covered his forehead and groaned for a moment.

"If you really want to do something for Poldonk... And if they don't, I'll yell into their ears so that they can hear, so that their attitudes will have to change, and we need to do something to turn public opinion, for example... Proving that ghouls and mad ghouls are different, and that they will make sure that the distribution of benefits is fair and reasonable, and if people are convinced of that, they will accept it, and it's bad enough here, and frankly, what about living with a bunch of ghouls? ”