Chapter 175: Principles, Methods, Conclusions

On the muddy road to Longevity Town.

Sitting in the back of the truck, Yin Fang, who wrapped himself like a dumpling in a fur coat, kept talking all the way. "It's impossible! The Academy's logo? Appearing in a community college in a little-known town? Are you sure you're not joking?"

Chu Guang said with a faint smile. "If I'm joking, I would have sent you here alone."

"..." Yin Fang looked at him speechlessly, not knowing how to respond.

But Chu Guang actually didn't mind chatting with him.

After all, Clearspring City was too out of touch, and he almost always had to rely on rumors combined with his own imagination to find out what happened outside.

Chu Guang was also very curious about why stuff from the Academy would appear in a mediocre college.

According to Yin Fang, it was at least a thousand kilometers to the Wandering Swamp. It was far beyond the sphere of influence of the Academy.

?Although Clearspring City used to be one of the important cities in the southern urban agglomeration of the River Valley Province, that was only in the Prosperity Era.

"Actually, I've always been curious about what kind of organization the Academy is."

Yin Fang shook his head and said, "It will take me days to explain what they are."

"Then you can choose the key points, pick the topics that I'm interested in and talk about them."

Yin Fang was reduced to silence by Chu Guang’s willful style of questioning. His mouth was open, but he didn't know what to say. It was only when he choked slightly from the powerful wind blowing north that he finally came back to his senses.

"How should I put it, the Academy... It's not as mysterious as you outsiders think. It's like a huge library. In fact, until the end of the Prosperity Era, it was just a loose academic organization."

Chu Guang looked at him with interest, and continued, "But your Academy's performance is not at all loose, nor pure, nor like any academic organizations."

"That's true, but as I said it was before, now it's the 211th year of the Wasteland Era."

Two hundred years.

In the history of human civilization, many feudal dynasties couldn't exist for so long, let alone an academic institution.

Yin Fang squinted his eyes, gazing to the southwest and continued. "I also don't know much. I heard that in the early years of the Wasteland Era, the Academy undertook part of the post-war reconstruction work, which was mainly focused on the technical field. It included taking over some experimental facilities, scientific research equipment, and the recovery of damaged data and lost technology."

Chu Guang narrowed his eyes and muttered, "It sounds like a very grand project."

Yin Fang sighed and said, "It is. We still haven't finished this work to this day. The world is changing too quickly, it is said that a long time ago, the influence of the Academy spread throughout the Central Continent, and the delegation of the Academy could go wherever they wanted. But the good times didn't last long, and the places outside the Wandering Swamp are no longer safe for the people from the Academy. Everyone sees us as a group of fat sheep."

Hearing the term, Chu Guang glanced at the guy's right hand involuntarily.

It makes sense. That arm is worth at least 10000R, and that’s probably the price after a massive discount...

Chu Guang felt that he really couldn't blame others, even a person with a good heart like himself was somewhat tempted.

"Speaking of which, what is the Wandering Swamp? How is the place?" Chu Guang asked.

Yin Fang replied briefly, "It’s a vast swamp, the size of a province, where the weather is unpredictable. Mutants there are also going crazy every day. Whatever it is, you won’t like it...”

"I didn't say I want to go, I was just curious," Chu Guang looked forward, patted the roof, and signaled the driver to find a place to park nearby, "We are here, it’s just a little walk from here."

After getting out of the car, Chu Guang pulled out his hammer.

The four players who went with them decisively picked up their weapons, walked in front, and acted as escorts.

The group was made of 2 strength type players and 2 perception type players. The two strength type players were walking in front to clear the way, and two perception type players were following behind to act as the carries. Each of the four had an LD-47 assault rifle, which had sufficient firepower. It felt relatively safe to be traveling with them.

Now that the firepower was sufficient, Chu Guang didn't need to provide any support. He just needed to hold the hammer and activate the shield in time to protect himself and the NPC next to him.

This town was quite deserted.

Due to the blizzard, there were almost no mutants roaming on the streets. After eliminating a few Crunchers hiding in the shadows, the group arrived at the target area on the map smoothly.

They arrived at a community college which looked plain from the outside, and even the area it covered was only slightly larger than the nearby high school.

Standing in front of the laboratory building, Yin Fang glanced up and shook his head. "I don't think the Academy would be interested in such an unimportant place, you probably made a trip for nothing."

Hearing this, Chu Guang smiled lightly. "Since we are already here, does it matter if we came here for nothing? Come on, let’s check it out."

Chu Guang walked in with his players after speaking.

Seeing that he was about to fall behind, Yin Fang had no choice but to follow up and step into the gloomy laboratory building.

There were broken tiles and rubble all over the floor, and there were newly dropped bullet casings on the ground. It seemed that a fierce battle had broken out here more than an hour ago.

Looking at the dead Creeper on the ground, Yin Fang gasped and followed closely involuntarily.

In the Academy's scientific expedition team, barbaric things like fighting were usually done by Level E, Level F, or even androids and drones. What Level D personnel needed were independent analysis ability and excellent thinking abilities.

Even if they needed to master some survival skills, it was still mainly focused on actual survival. For example, basic first aid knowledge.

Yin Fang was quite suspicious of their combat effectiveness, especially seeing how the administrator was holding a mere hammer in his hand. The more he looked at it, the more he felt that Chu Guang was unreliable.

"Can you give me a gun? I can protect myself."

"You are a VIP, just stay behind me and don’t do anything dumb."

"VIP?"

"Tsk, how should I explain it?" Chu Guang grunted without giving it much thought.

While they were talking, the group arrived at the destination.

Spring Water Commander stood in front of Chu Guang in heavy armor as he respectfully placed his right fist on his chest and gave a military salute. "Dear administrator, before you came, we have successfully cleared out the mutants in the area."

"Well done." Chu Guang nodded approvingly, looked at him and said, "Lead the way ahead."

"Yes, sir!"

After receiving the look of affirmation from the administrator, Spring Water Commander happily walked ahead and led the way. Chu Guang instructed two players to guard the entrance, and the other two players followed him and Yin Fang to explore the basement.

The passage was very narrow. However, after entering the basement, the area suddenly became spacious.

Looking at the ten hibernation pods in the basement, Yin Fang was petrified and froze.

When he came back to his senses, he rushed up without saying a word, got to the nearest hibernation pod, and stared at it.

"There's no mistake... The style of this nurturing cabin is exactly the same!" Yin Fang whispered, stroking the dusty hatch with his hand excitedly.

The surrounding players looked at each other, exchanged confused glances, and asked in a low voice.

"What is this doctor doing?"

"I don't know... Maybe he has a special fetish?"

"Got it, the new NPC has a fetish for the nurturing cabin!"

“Damn, you are so smart! I will tell everyone on the forum about this detail. I wonder if mods will stick my post to the top."

"..." Chu Guang was struck speechless by their brainless comments.

Who the hell would stick this kind of post to the top!

After a slight cough, Chu Guang looked at Yin Fang, who was stunned, and asked, "What do you mean exactly the same?"

"It's the same model as the Academy's hibernation pod... This is really unbelievable, why would it appear in River Valley Province?"

With an expression of disbelief on his face, Yin Fang finally left the hibernation pod and looked at Chu Guang and said seriously. "Where is the box? The one with the Academy logo you said."

Chu Guang took the box, which was the quest item in the eyes of the players, and handed it to Yin Fang. "Here... What is this anyway?"

"A black box for storing data!" Yin Fang tapped the surface of the box with his knuckles, gushing with joy, "The outer layer of material can effectively resist neutron rays and electromagnetic pulses generated by nuclear explosions. In addition, inert gas should’ve been injected into it to protect the graphene circuit board... I guess it contains a holographic image or a recording or something. We will know what it is after we open it."

After saying that, Yin Fang didn't wait for Chu Guang’s response, and stretched out the knife from under his right hand and scratched lightly on the surface of the box.

The next moment, something miraculous happened.

At the moment when the surface material was scratched, the layer of black lacquer wrapped around the outside of the box dissipated like the grit that disappeared with the wind, revealing the silver shell underneath.

Yin Fang carefully checked the edge of the box and quickly found an inconspicuous gap and opened the box.

Spring Water Commander couldn't help but glanced at Battlefield Cheerleader and whispered, "Why didn't it react that way when I touched it?"

"Well duh," Before Battlefield Cheerleader spoke, Darkest interjected, “It is a mission item, so of course it needs to be triggered by a mission NPC."

The two of them were stunned.

It made sense, and they couldn't refute it at all.

With just a little distraction, the blue light had gathered and formed a holographic out of thin air in the room.

Chu Guang and the players didn't have much reaction, but Yin Fang, who was standing in the room, opened his eyes wide in shock; so much so that his eyes looked like they could fall out of their sockets at any time.

"Principles?!"

"Principles?" Looking at Yin Fang, who was muttering something to himself, Chu Guang asked suspiciously, "What’s that?"

"Principles, Methods, Conclusions... The three Doctors who rebuilt the Academy after the war. Their statues are still standing at the entrance of the Academy." Yin Fang swallowed, his eyes full of disbelief. But he still continued, "This is the Doctor of Principles. The laser rifle of the Academy is named after him. I’m positive that this is him, and it's what he looked like when he was young. But why does his relic appear here? This is not like what it recorded in the archives of the Academy at all... I don't understand."

"..."

Coincidentally, Chu Guang also wanted to say that he also did not understand. But just as he was about to say that, the holographic image standing in mid-air spoke.

"We’ve come out of the pods. Everything is normal."

"It's the second year of the Wasteland Era, and battalion commander Zhao Weisheng of the 111th Orbital Airborne Division is in charge of reporting to us. As planned, we've successfully regrouped with the army. Although we were late... Fortunately, they did not give up and waited loyally for us here for two years."

"According to the plan, our next step is to go to the northern Great Rift Valley, where the energy storage of the central region is located. That place has enough metallic hydrogen for us to rebuild the central region twice. Currently, the Great Rift Valley is controlled by the 111th Orbital Airborne Division.”

"According to the intelligence provided by Commander Zhao, the post-war reconstruction committee has already started work, and all we have to do now is to report there, join others, perform our respective duties, and start rebuilding."

"The only trouble now is that the 4th battalion that is going to escort us unexpectedly took in more than 1,000 residents who failed to take refuge in time, so that our supplies may be running out. In addition, because of the poor road conditions and weather, we can only travel on foot."

"Not just that, Commander Zhao also wants to take the survivors with him. To be honest, they are a burden and only add variables to the plan. I can't evaluate whether his kindness is correct or not, because if I were to think from his position, I'd probably make the same decision."

"Anyway, it's certain that this is how we are going to start. There are tons of things we need to do, and we have no time to waste. What bothers me, however, is that I always feel things will not go very smoothly... Is the war really over? To be honest, I'm at a loss."

"My esteemed mentor taught me to be prepared for any situation, and things won't always go as well as we expected."

The man in the hologram looked at the sky, then looked straight ahead, and forced an optimistic smile on his expressionless face.

"Hey, listen, you who picked up this video."

"If you're living in the prosperous utopia and breathing the fragrance of peace in the air right now, please take this to the museum for me. It's a precious piece of information. Maybe you will find my name in the museum, and I'm sure the museum will give you a lot of money in return. But if they don't give it to you, you can also choose to drop the box in front of them, Haha."

The man smiled heartily, and a trace of loneliness suddenly appeared on his face.

"But if that’s not the case, and we're living in a miserable world, then it proves that... We are likely to fail."

"I'm sorry, both for my mentor, and for those who trusted me, and gave me the opportunity to come to the future, this is the only thing I can do for you."

"Please take this video and go to the northern suburbs of Clearspring City to find Shelter 117. It should be under the Flower Garden Street subway station. I don't know the exact location, you may have to look for it."

"The administrator there is my old acquaintance. I've asked him to keep a suitcase that contained some very useful things for me. If we really are living in a huge mess, I probably won't have a chance to pick it up. You can go there and check it out. After my old friend sees this video, he will definitely give it to you."

"Remember the password to the case, ‘x1179’."

"If you enter it wrong three times in a row, you'll have nothing."