When Chu Guang and his party arrived at Clearspring City Third Ecological Protection Park, the fire caused by the previous air raid had gradually extinguished.

However, the burned smell that permeated the air could not go away for a long time.

10 KV-1 exoskeletons from the Jungle Corps stood at the entrance of the building.

Seeing the azure blue exoframe coming from a distance, Midnight Pubg immediately stepped forward, and made a military salute with his right fist on his chest.

"Dear administrator, the marauders in the area have been eliminated, and the Third Ecological Protection Park is now under your control!" Midnight Pubg reported with a respectful expression.

Players who felt a strong sense of immersion would occasionally do what he did. Of course, some players mainly did it for favorability and hidden missions.

"You guys did a good job." Chu Guang watched them and nodded approvingly, fulfilling the duty of his character.

At the same time, the reminder pop-up window for the completion of the mission was displayed on their VMs.

[Mission:

Raid Clearspring City Third Ecological Protection Park (Complete)

]

[Reward:

See the battle settlement list for details.

]

Seeing the mission rewards displayed in the VM, everyone had expressions of surprise on their faces.

The income of the mission was more than 500 silver coins per person!

Such a high return could be considered a huge profit.

Sure enough, the level of the scientific research skill must be increased in the future.

That was what everyone thought.

The mission was completed, and Midnight Pubg left happily with his team members. The hostile units in the area had been cleared, so there was no need to keep both corps here to stand guard.

Chu Guang took Yin Fang and Hyrja to continue forward, through the tree-filled street, and into the ecological protection park entwined with vines.

"Did zoos in the federation era all look like this?" Chu Guang looked at the fully enclosed dome in front of him, feeling that it was more like a stadium than a zoo.

Hyrja also looked around curiously, but she was more interested in the vegetation in this area.

This was completely different from what she saw from the VR device, and even slightly different from the steep pine and cypress trees in the northern suburbs of Clearspring City.

It was as if it was another world.

"It was said that the places for tourists to visit in the urban area looked like this, only the large ecological protection areas outside the urban area were different. After the war broke out, the animals here escaped, and that was where the apes active in the area came from.

Chu Guang glanced at her in surprise. "The apes before the war also had scales on their backs?"

Hyrja explained, "It should be a result of genetic mutation and natural selection. Maybe apes with scales on their backs are more likely to survive here. As for how they got the scales in the first place… They should be the only ones who know."

Yin Fang, who had been staring at the tablet without speaking, suddenly raised his head and yelled, "Found it."

Chu Guang looked at Yin Fang. "What did you find?"

Yin Fang continued with a curious expression, "About the information about this ecological protection park, I just restored it from a damaged court record... In 2113, 12 years before the outbreak of the war, an incident occurred in Clearspring City Third Ecological Protection Park. This big incident or scandal caused a sensation in the Federation at that time."

Chu Guang had a strange expression on his face. "What scandal can a zoo have?"

"An unauthorized experiment involved the safety of 23,000 tourists. The 20 researchers and professors involved were expelled from their academic institutions, and the relevant people in charge were prosecuted. The ecological protection park was almost closed because of it..." Sliding his index finger on the tablet, Yin Fang spoke with excitement as he browsed the restored material.

Chu Guang was not interested in the scandal that happened 200 years ago.

However, he was interested in the experiment that occured. "What is the experiment they carried out?”

"It’s related to the Federation’s colonies and the Resonance Field theory." Yin Fang turned off the tablet and looked at the park with excitement, "It’s been more than 200 years, not to mention that it was before the war… This is all I can recover from the public information, but we’ll figure out what it exactly was soon."

The entrance of Shelter 401 was in the basement of the ecological protection park, and the players had already marked the location of the entrance with their VM.

As for the control room of the Mind Interference Field, it was on the third floor of the ecological protection park.

After entering the dome-shaped building, the group split up.

Yin Fang went to the entrance of Shelter 401 while Chu Guang issued a mission to Gale, instructing him to follow and protect the scientist. In addition, Chu Guang also assigned a hummingbird drone to Yin Fang, and asked Little Seven to support him to the best of its abilities.

With that, Chu Guang grabbed Hyrja and brought her to the third floor with him.

As soon as they arrived, they heard the sound of arguing and cursing from inside before they could enter.

"You bastard! This punch is for my compatriots who died for me!"

"That’s enough, calm down... I’m also a victim, you can’t blame me for the people killed by marauders!"

"Hehe, victim?

Ptui

!"

Inside the control room, two old men wrestled together, cursing and swearing at each other.

The old man with a rather sturdy body and wearing a blue coat was probably in the wrong. He was defending himself while glancing nervously at the players standing next to him from time to time, as if he was worried about them making a move.

And the other old man dressed in rags was punching aggressively, but he was obviously very weak. Not only did he not injure the other but he even became breathless after a round of punching.

As for the players… Naturally, they were standing at the side while watching the amazing cutscene before them.

They couldn’t even understand what they were saying, so how could they intervene?

Gale went out earlier, and the next person who was good at the language of the Federation of People was Ample Time, but he was only better when compared to other players so it didn’t matter too much either.

Tomato Eggs looked at his teammates with a strange expression while mumbling, "Shall we pull them away?"

Old White looked at Ample Time.

The latter thought for a moment and shook his head. "Don’t act rashly, what if this triggers the plot?"

Quit Smoking suddenly nodded. "It makes sense!"

In the end, the players decided to let the two old men keep fighting.

Anyway, neither of the them had much fighting power. The players weren’t afraid they would kill each other either.

At this moment, the door of the control room opened. Looking at the exoframe that appeared at the door, the eyes of several players in the room lit up.

Here it is! The plot really started!

"Stop!" A loud voice came from the door, making the two old men who were fighting each other involuntarily stop their hands and look at the blue exoframe.

Among them, the old man with thinning hair and tattered clothes obviously recognized the equipment Chu Guang was wearing. There was a trace of excitement in his cloudy pupils, and even tears.

"Mr. Seven… Is that you?"

Seven? This old man is from Shelter 117?

With a subtle expression, Chu Guang tapped his index finger twice on the side of the helmet to unlock the locked visor.

Seeing the young face in the helmet, the old man froze instantly. "... I am the administrator of Shelter 404, and also the administrator of the New Alliance. You can call me Chu Guang. As for Seven Villard, he passed away many years ago."

The old man’s expression darkened, and he lowered his eyebrows slightly. "Passed away… That’s right, it’s been so many years."

The old man in the blue coat next to him was panting heavily while muttering something in a low voice.

"The New Alliance? That post-war reconstruction committee? Didn’t it die more than a century ago?"

At this time, Hyrja suddenly came in from behind Chu Guang, stared at the ragged old man intently, and suddenly gasped in shock, "Zhao Yuan?!"

The old man stared blankly at Hyrja. "Are you… Hyrja?"

Not expecting to see the resident from the same shelter 20 years later, Hyrja nodded in excitement. "It’s me! How… did you become like this?"

"Natural aging... I was not young 20 years ago, let alone now," as if he felt guilty, the old man looked away slightly, trying to avoid eye contact.

Chu Guang took a look at Hyrja who rarely showed emotion.

He originally thought that she would hate those traitors who destroyed her homeland, but he didn’t expect her to be unexpectedly forgiving after seeing her compatriots.

"Your acquaintance?"

"

Mhm

!"

The long white hair shook slightly, Hyrja nodded vigorously, and said excitedly, "He and my master are both experts in the study of bionic organs. I didn’t expect that everyone will still be alive… oh right."

Hyrja looked at the old man and asked expectantly. "Where’s Caren? Isn my master not with you?"

"She went to the south... A lot of people followed that guy named Wang Yi," the old man named Zhao Yuan said to himself with anger and remorse in his eyes, "None of those wastelanders were good. They should’ve been left to fend for themselves! I should have recognized this earlier!"

Chu Guang stared at the old man for a while. "Are you from the Church of Torch?"

"Torch Church? Do you mean Torch?" The old man was stunned for a moment, lowered his head and said softly, "I joined Torch more than 20 years ago... That is also what I regret the most in my life…"

It seemed that Torch hadn’t developed into a religion at that time, and the old man didn’t know where the companions who parted ways with him went and what they did.

Chu Guang nodded thoughtfully.

The person standing in front of him was probably one of the rebels at the beginning of Torch’s founding, and it was their actions that led to the destruction of Shelter 117.

Judging from the old man’s tattered clothes and weather-beaten face, he must have suffered a lot in the past 20 years.

Chu Guang looked at the other old man, and looked at the blue coat on his body.

"What about you? Also a survivor of Shelter 117?"

𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

Before the old man could speak, Zhao Yuan glared at him while spitting, "He’s not from Shelter 117, he’s just a dog, a dog raised by those robbers!"

"I am Sun Zewen, from Shelter 401," the old man in the blue coat cleared his throat and said politely, ignoring the cursing old man, "Dear administrator of Shelter 404 and the ruler of the New Alliance... Thank you for reaching out to us in times of crisis.”

Seeing his sycophantic posturing, Zhao Yuan said with a sneer, "Mr. Chu Guang, please don’t listen to his crap. He is clearly an accomplice of that group of marauders! According to the law of the Federation, he should be sentenced to at least 300 years in prison for crimes against humanity, and he cannot go into cryosleep while serving his sentence."

As if triggered by a certain word, Sun Zewen, who was polite a second ago, suddenly glared at the old man next to him in a rage. "I just wanted to survive! What’s wrong with that?! Was it me who let those outsiders in? Also I refuse to admit your accusation. Apart from helping them tame a bunch of monkeys, I didn’t do anything."

"Didn’t do anything?" Zhao Yuan gave him a contemptuous look, "What about the girl they rewarded you with? You are hundreds of years older than her. How can you even do that?"

Sun Zewen’s old face turned red instantly, and his expression changed quickly a few times; he was unable to refute for a while. But eventually, he still couldn’t hold back and argued, "I... I had no choice! If I don’t accept it, have you thought about what would happen to her? And what do you mean hundreds of years old... You can’t count the time when I was in cryosleep."

Chu Guang listened to the quarrel between the two with great interest, roughly understanding what was going on. At this moment, he suddenly noticed the miserable corpse in the corner, so he looked at the players and asked, "Who is that person?"

Garbage, wagging his tail, took a step forward excitedly. "I killed him! He’s Tuss!"