Chapter 145.2: Suicide Bomber and Unexpected Death

Makka Pakka stared at the scene before him and gasped, "Holy freaking shit... Have you ever played

The Last of Us

?"

Escaping Mole replied, "I gotta say that this is more shocking than that."

Midnight Pubg couldn’t help but add, "The Last of Us 2077 Edition?"

Elf Wang chimed in from the side, "

Mhm

, it does give me that kind of feeling."

The Pioneer expedition team had a clear goal. With the help of Zhao Sheep, they quickly followed a rugged alley to the marked area on the map.

From the few blurry words on the sign hanging at the door of the office building, Chu Guang could barely make out that the first floor of the office building was a bank. Suddenly feeling curious as to whether gold could still be found in the vault in the bank, he secretly used VM to send a side mission to the four players.

[Side Mission:

Find the Bank Vault

]

[Reward:

10 silver coins

]

"We’re here." Comparing his field of vision with the image he had, Lu Yang tapped the side of his helmet with his index finger, and then looked at Chu Guang next to him. "According to our calculated information, the carbon dioxide trap should be somewhere between the 20th and 30th floors of this building."

Chu Guang couldn’t help but ask, "How are you going to get up there?"

"We can get to the 20th floor from the emergency exit. And then we can start searching from there floor by floor. If we are lucky, we should be able to find what we need."

"Is there no way to scout from the outside? I have a drone."

"It's not that simple, we’re not looking for an air conditioner," a marine next to him interjected with a smile, "You will understand what I mean when you see it."

"He’s right." Lu Yang nodded, looking at Chu Guang then asked, "Do you want to come with us? Or you can wait for us here."

"Then I'll wait for you... By the way, can you help us clear the mutants on the first floor if it is convenient? We want to see if there are any building blueprints or something like that."

"No problem, but I don't think you need to get your hopes up." Captain Lu Yang smiled and gestured towards his teammates beside him.

The big box behind the mechanical dog unfolded, sending out two ferocious-looking quadrotor drones with gun barrels attached. Followed by three exoframes and two light infantrymen, they walked straight into the building at the same time.

Intensive gunshots rang through the air and the orange-yellow ballistics almost lit up the hall on the first floor. The Crunchers wandering in the ruins were torn to shreds before they could even react.

It was totally a one-sided slaughter!

The 4 players looked envious. Looking at the iron-barreled rifles in their hands, they no longer felt that their weapons were great.

"Those drones are so strong."

"Yeah, killing those Crunchers is nothing to them."

"I really want to get a set as well."

Listening to the conversation of the four players, Chu Guang smiled knowingly.

You’re not the only one! I want it as well.

Just bear with it for now.

If you work hard, maybe after two version updates, you'll have everything.

...

Chu Guang found that the marines on the Pioneer were not only strong in street fighting, but also strong in clearing out buildings.

Of course, a large part of the reason was their equipment.

An exoskeleton could suppress the recoil of a gun, and the exoframe might have aim assist. Plus the firepower support from the drones, Chu Guang felt that if he was fighting them all together, it was unlikely that he would win the fight.

However, even with such strong firepower, it still took them almost a day to advance from the 20th floor to the 30th floor.

The mutants in the fifth-ring weren't just Crunchers.

They were attacked by Creepers starting from the 20th floor.

In addition, there was a mutant called the Suicide Bomber which had spore-filled tumors on its back. It was usually stationary like a plant, and its vision and hearing were average. However, once they were disturbed, they would immediately rush over to self-destruct.

If a player’s constitution was lower than 10 points, there was a high probability of them getting poisoned, stunned, or even corrupted by Slime Mold if they inhaled these spores. Even if a player’s constitution was above 10 points, it was not advisable to inhale too much. After all, there was a limit to everything.

Of course, they would be fine if they wore gas masks. As long as they were not hit by the self-destruction directly, they would still be alright.

Meanwhile, Chu Guang's players found a facility that looked like a vault in the deepest part of the lobby on the first floor.

However, the alloy door had been opened, and there was a pile of banknotes that no one seemed to be interested in; not a shadow of gold could be seen.

It could be seen that in the early years of the Wasteland Era, precious metals such as gold were still relatively valuable. It was not until later that everyone found out it was not edible, and it was not considered rare at all, that it was gradually marginalized.

After failing to find anything valuable, the players wandered around in the lobby. They were somewhat unwilling to give up. Chu Guang, on the other hand, found a safe place to sit and waited quietly for the battle upstairs to end.

After waiting from noon to 3:00 in the afternoon, Lu Yang finally came downstairs with his men.

Sadly, the carbon dioxide trap they were looking for couldn’t be found in this building. The air purification system in the building also had spare fusion cells, but neither the model nor the size matched the kind of fuel rods they needed.

And there wasn’t much power left in the battery. There was only 8% of its reserves left.

Lu Yang's heart was a little heavy, but he was not discouraged.

In fact, he didn't hold out much hope that he would be able to find it on the first day. Anyway, he was now familiar with the surrounding terrain, which was not a bad thing for him.

Although he vaguely guessed the result, Chu Guang still asked, "How is the situation?"

"Not great, but my intuition tells me that we should be able to find it around this area." Lu Yang sighed and looked at Chu Guang apologetically.

"I'm sorry that you have to wait for us for so long, but we got nothing. By the way, we found this battery upstairs, although it almost ran out of its power... You can have a look and see if you still need it."

Of course, I need it.

Chu Guang smiled and took over the battery decisively.

"It's okay. Since I already promised you, I will definitely help you find it."

Well, that way, I will also be able to get more free stuff from you.

If they could find good shit like that every time, Chu Guang would only wish that they could come here more often.

Just when Lu Yang was about to say his thanks, a shrill roar suddenly came from the side of the hall at this moment.

Suicide Bomber!

Lu Yang was startled, he turned around and wanted to help, but he was still a step too late.

Boom!

The sound of explosion rang through the air before any one of them could react.

The group of people quickly ran over and rushed into the archive room where the explosion sounded.

The room was in a mess. All the cabinets had been blasted open, without leaving a single one behind.

In front of the last standing cabinet, a shelter resident had fallen on the ground, his body was bloody and twisted, and his face was completely gone.

The atmosphere was deadly quiet.

No one expected that there would be casualties at this time.

Holding a light machine gun in his hand, the face of the exoskeleton-clad marine was full of horror under the helmet.

"Suicide Bomber... Fuck!"

"How is it possible?! I’ve cleaned this area already!"

Looking at the bloody corpse on the ground and the cabinet with its door blown off, Lu Yang's Adam's apple bobbed.

"Obviously, it was hidden in the cabinet... The moment the cabinet door was opened, it exploded."

There was another moment of dead silence.

Guilt was written on everyone's faces, especially Captain Lu Yang.

Turning to look at Chu Guang, he lowered his head slightly and said in a heavy tone, "Sorry... I promised you that I would keep your people safe."

Chu Guang did not speak, falling into a long silence.

After a while, he sighed softly, his expression a little tired.

"People will eventually die. The moment he came out of the shelter, he was ready to give his life and loyalty to rebuilding our civilization. But, I still didn't expect... that it would be him."

Lu Yang tried to speak, "He... "

“He was a very cheerful and optimistic young man. He just got married last month." Chu Guang looked to the side with a melancholic expression. "I promised his wife that I would bring him back safely."

The marines looked at each other and then fell completely silent.

Lu Yang frowned and felt even guiltier. "... Can I see her once? I will apologize to her in person."

"In what capacity? I believe that she will not want to see you. Your apology won't make her feel any better, it will only make her feel even more sad. Besides, the one who made the promise to her is me, and this matter in the end needs to be handled personally... This is the fate of an administrator, you should be able to understand."

"I can understand. I’ve also made promises to the families of my people. I promised to let them go home with victory and honor..." Putting his hand on Chu Guang's shoulder, Lu Yang was silent for a moment before he continued, "Although I know that doing this is not enough to make up for our mistakes, at least please let us pay his pension. At the very least, I hope his family can have a better life."

Chu Guang remained silent.

It would be too inappropriate to suddenly specify a number, and it would also spoil the atmosphere a little.

He knew very well that even if he didn't say anything, this captain who was a man of his word would definitely contact his logistics department chief and ask Li De to discuss the pension with him.

When the time came, as long as he didn't make excessive demands, it should all be negotiable.

For example, money.

Or another example was if they could open a few more trading varieties to them.

Chu Guang was very clear that it was not realistic to buy their production materials, but it was always okay to use their modular workshop to help themselves build a few easy-to-use machine tools, right?

They obviously had the capability for it. It was just a little bit troublesome for them.

Or better yet, they could send an engineer over and help him build two production lines.

He would not ask too much. If the two big commodities, cement and steel, could be easily produced, at least 60% of his problems would be solved.

No, I have to think about it more carefully later after I get back.

At the moment, I should spend time thinking about sad things.

Looking at the heavy-hearted administrator and the silent NPCs around, the three players covered in dust next to them looked at each other.

"What are they grieving for?"

"Isn’t it just three days of respawning cooldown? Besides, it's not the first time Makka Pakka has died. The last time was much worse than this time. At least, he died with his body intact this time. Uh, apart from his face."

“But then again... With three days of CD, I'm afraid that he will miss the next rotation for the new players to try the new expansion gameplay."

"Dang! Now that you say it, I suddenly feel sorry for him as well."