Chapter 271.1: Naturally... Corpses Are Also Recyclable!

Above the streets of the west of the third ring, the night sky was lit up by the flames of incendiary bombs, which could be clearly seen even from several kilometers away.

Tail, Sesame Paste, and Sisi sat by the shattered floor-to-ceiling windows in an abandoned high-rise building, looking down at the blazing flames soaring into the sky from a distance.

Because the concentration of spores would decrease as height increased, they set up camp on the 50th floor.

There were mutants still wandering around in this building. But because there was no incubation room or Hives around, most of the mutants were scattered in various areas of the premises, neither crowding together nor blocking the stairs. Thanks to this, it was not too difficult to get to the 50th floor from the safe passage.

At most, it would just take them more time.

"Whoa! What a huge fire!" Tail’s eyes shone brightly, the flames of the burning fire reflecting in her eyes.

That was much more exciting than watching fireworks!

Sesame Paste wondered out loud, "Is that a war going on... Over there?”

Sisi nodded. "It should be. The Tide appears to be breaking out everywhere, not just in the northern suburbs. It stands to reason that the situation in the west should be more intense."

Sesame Paste clasped her hands together. "Hope everyone will be okay."

Ever since sunset, the sound of explosions had never stopped once.

At first, 4 planes flew across the sky. Shortly after that were rows of blazing fireballs engulfing the streets full of ruins.

What was dispatched after was probably the ground troops.

A fierce battle had erupted between Boulder Town's mercenaries and the Tide in the ruins, and occasional flashes of tracer bullets could be seen from time to time.

Although Roshan also wanted to see the sights with her own eyes, she didn't dare to get too close to the edge of the building as she was afraid of heights. So, she only dared to look at it from a distance.

Yaya and Teng Teng were cooking dinner. A few NPCs beside them were drooling at the sight of the food and swallowing their saliva at the aroma of the meal in an attempt to rein in their hunger.

Besides the guard named Xu Shun this time, there were also 5 new employees recruited from Boulder Town, aged between 16 to 20, including both men and women, who came back with them.

According to the NPC named Shu Yu in the office, the new employees were going to the northern suburbs to receive systematic training.

Many of them left the city for the first time so their hearts were full of apprehension.

But when they took a whiff of the aroma wafting from the pot, all their uneasiness was washed away.

Although there was no great wall to protect them, it didn't seem that bad to have delicious food to enjoy.

After all, in Boulder Town, scrumptious meals like that were beyond their imagination.

"Dinner's ready!"

As soon as Tail heard that dinner was ready, she, who was sitting by the edge of the building watching the explosions a second ago, immediately moved to the cooking pot placed above the small fire. "It smells good!"

The big bear came over as well, taking a look into the pot curiously. "What's for dinner today?"

Yaya, who was holding a spoon in her hand, said with a corner of her lips slightly raised. “Chicken with mushroom stew!"

Teng Teng distributed bowls and eating utensils to everyone. "The conditions are a bit rough here, so we have to make do with whatever we have."

Sesame Paste approached with excitement. "Let me help you too!"

‘Make do’. Xu Shun, who understood their phrase, was speechless. Was that a phrase with another meaning or something?!

But after staying with them for so long, he became used to their high standard of life. He was no longer that surprised.

The group of people sat around the campfire, holding bowls with steaming hot food in their hands, chatting about what they planned to do after returning from Boulder Town.

"I've decided!" Teng Teng described her grand plan to the rest energetically, her eyes full of determination, "When I return to the shelter, I must use my scissors to correct the distorted aesthetics of Boulder Town's NPCs!"

Sisi frowned. "Uh, I think... This may not be your fault."

Lust was human nature, after all.

And it was actually quite normal for other people to have wrong ideas about that kind of clothes if it was out of the cultural context.

Tail was also full of enthusiasm. "Me too! Boulder Town still lacks a mercenary guild! How can an MMORPG like this lack such an important organization?!"

Yaya turned to the next person who hadn’t spoken, "How about you, Sesame Paste?"

Sesame Paste's cat ears twitched slightly. She was a little embarrassed to speak after being called out. However, seeing that everyone was already discussing this subject, she let go of her restraint. "I want to be a delivery driver!"

Sisi asked with a strange expression, "Why?"

Sesame Paste's eyes twinkled like stars in the night sky. "Don't you think it's cool to deliver goods on a motorcycle?"

Is she trying to cosplay

Kino's Journey

?

Speaking of which, there were quite a lot of performance artists in Wasteland Online. Since this game doesn't sell skins, all players are making their outfits themselves. Such a conservative hobby is quite rare in the game.

Nodding thoughtfully, Sisi suggested, "How about equipping a 12mm revolver as well?"

Seeing that she was a like-minded fellow, Sesame Paste smiled shyly, and opened the bag she was carrying, which contained a silver revolver. "Hey-hey, I’ve actually bought it already."

However, although the revolver looked cool, it had too much recoil.

Most of the time, she still used PU-9 a little more than the revolver.

"Delivering goods on a motorcycle..." Tail muttered to herself while eating, seemingly trying to figure out what kind of delivery driver they were talking about. "Oh, I get it!" Her eyes suddenly lit up, and she said excitedly, "Is it a food delivery driver? Mhm! In that case, it's indeed very awesome."

It was awesome, especially when they were hungry!

Teng Teng's eyes twitched slightly. "I don't think we're talking about the same thing."

...

Players could still eat hot food, but the mercenaries fighting against mutants in the west of the third ring were not so lucky.

The gunfire continued until the next morning. From the razed square to the nearby collapsed buildings, to the shopping streets that were 10 meters deep underground, every inch of the ground was flowing with sticky blood.

Some of which belonged to mutants, and some belonged to the mercenaries.

Sporadic fighting was still going on despite all that chaos.

But as the sun rose, it was clear that the battle was coming to an end.

Coming out of the ruins with a rifle in hand, Tommy took off the blood-stained gas mask and threw it away. He had a new one, but chose to not wear it right away.

The Hive that had spread to their area had been destroyed. Although the surrounding area was filled with a gray-green haze, inhaling a small amount of it would not cause any serious problems.

He had spent the whole night in the cramped tunnel. All he wanted to do was to take a huge deep breath of fresh air outside. Even if the air was mixed with sand.

At this time, another mercenary wearing an exoskeleton and holding a broken Drone assault rifle in his hand cursed, as he walked over from the ruins opposite. "God damn it... The shit ass pay isn’t even enough for me to repair all these broken equipment. What is that in your hand?"

His name was Virgil, and like Tommy, he was a mercenary who was active within Boulder Town.

The Tide broke out suddenly a week ago. Because of that, mercenaries became much in demand overnight, and the militias who had always looked down on them also began to take them seriously.

After all, with such a big crisis as the Tide, they couldn't completely rely on those cannon fodders at the gate. If they really wanted to deal with those mutants, they still had to rely on these experienced experts.

"LD-47, Sickle assault rifle, something made by scavengers in the northern suburbs. It is powerful, cheap, and easy to maintain. I happened to see it when I went to the northern suburbs to deliver goods last time, so I picked one up," Tommy glanced at the old pal in front of him, and asked casually, "How about your casualties?"

Virgil said, "5 rookies died, and the others are fine. Only an unlucky one lost a leg to a Creeper."

Tommy clicked his tongue. "That's really tragic."

Virgil shrugged. "It's already a blessing that he’s still alive."

In the mercenary business, losing an arm and leg were common occurrences.

If they saved enough money, they could change to a mechanical prosthesis. If they couldn't afford it, they could still use an exoskeleton. If they couldn't even afford an exoskeleton, then they could only retire early.

As for rookies? They were not considered mercenaries.

Those who only learned how to switch off the safety switch on their guns were nothing but cannon fodder thrown to the frontlines.

Only after surviving more than 3 battles would they be officially accepted as mercenaries. But before that, no one would even want to remember their names.

After all, memorizing them was useless, and no one was sure whether those names would be used 2 days later.

Things like that were all too common.

Tommy glanced at the tall building not far behind, which was the temporary headquarters of the militia.

The 2 exoframes stood motionless at the front entrance since the beginning of the Tide. It made people wonder whether those 2 big ass iron blocks could still move.

"It would’ve been better if they helped," said Tommy.

Virgil chuckled. "You wish. That thing is too expensive to repair, and the nobles in the inner city are not willing to let black blood stain their armor, let alone risk their lives."

𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺

Every T-10 was a treasure left over from the pre-war era. Even after two centuries, their combat effectiveness was still strong. The only flaw was that they were too few in number.

Right now, the Boulder Town militia seemed to use them as mascots.

What puzzled Tommy was the reason those exoframes were deployed to the battle if they weren’t going to fight.

Supervising the fight?

Is that necessary?