Chapter 344.2: Evolved Type... Evolved Type Everywhere!

The next second, Gale's expression suddenly froze.

Noticing Gale's change in expression, Night Ten immediately asked, "What's wrong?"

Gale, adjusting his headphones, furrowed his brow and glanced at the VM screen in front of him, muttering in a deep voice, "Can't connect..."

Frustratingly enough, there was still a slight signal remaining!

“Fuck!" Night Ten grumbled under his breath, ejecting the empty rifle magazine.

They couldn’t count on anyone. The only chance of survival was to give it everything to shoot down all the drones in front of them!

However, at that moment, a drone broke through the barrage of firepower, darting through the broken wall of a skyscraper and charging straight towards Night Ten.

Alarm bells rang in his mind.

Reactively, Night Ten released the empty magazine held in his hand, drawing the squad leader's pistol from his gun belt.

But... Even with the premonition of danger, his actions were a fraction too slow.

The drone, covered in the dark red fungal blanket, rammed into him. Lightning-fast tendrils shot out from under the drone's body, striking viciously toward his face.

Night Ten only had time to catch a glimpse of a shadow flashing before his consciousness plunged into infinite darkness.

Then a light blue notification popped up.

[Disconnected]

At the same time, in another world.

Jiangcheng University, in a dorm room in the boy's dormitory, a sudden eerie cry echoed. "Fuck!"

The gaming buddies playing PUBG Mobile on the adjacent bed were instantly baffled, their fingers on the triggers paused.

What just happened?

Silence enveloped the room.

Sun Qian turned to look at the bed behind, about to ask what had happened when his roommate, Ye Wei, spoke up from his bed. "Sorry, I just died in the game."

Ye Wei, seated on the bed, stared at his helmet, his chest slowly rising and falling.

His roommates exchanged puzzled glances.

Though they didn't know what had occurred, as long as everyone was alright, that was what mattered.

"Oh... That's alright."

"We're fine, but you need to take care of yourself..."

"Indeed, playing an R18 game and shouting so loudly, it's hard for us not to worry about you, buddy."

"..."

These guys!

Ye Wei rolled his eyes and tossed his helmet aside.

He sat up, got down from the bunk bed, then went to the balcony to wash his face. Leaning against the railing, he pulled out his phone and glanced at the small group chat.

"Anyone here?" he sent a message.

No response came even after a while.

Seeing this, Ye Wei breathed a sigh of relief.

It seemed like everyone else was okay. He was the only one who died.

But the fact that he couldn't log in for the next three days left him feeling a bit down.

Darn it.

The withdrawal symptoms are starting already!

Just as Ye Wei was about to close the chat group and check the official website to see if the devs had introduced any new events, a sudden message popped up in the group.

Light: Yes, what happened?

Seeing this abrupt message from Light who hadn't been active in the group chat for a long time, Ye Wei was startled.

What the heck?

Dev?!

"Brother Light?!"

Night Ten: You're still alive??

Suddenly realizing his wording might be a bit off, Ye Wei hastily retracted the message and quickly followed up with another.

Night Ten: Uh, I mean, you actually remembered your account password.

Light: ...

Ye Wei looked a bit embarrassed but tried to lighten the mood by sending a dog-faced emoji.

But the broad-minded Light didn't seem to dwell on this trivial matter and quickly changed the topic.

Light: What's the situation on your end? Engaged with enemies?

Wasn't that an obvious question?

However, since he unexpectedly got the chance to chat with the developer, Ye Wei truthfully replied.

Night Ten: Mhm, we encountered mutants within the third ring not long after we landed. The situation inside is worse than we expected... The situation is terrible on the ground, in the sky, and even underground. The complex transportation system is like a maze. Paper maps and compasses are useless. We have to rely on VM and weak signals to determine our direction.

𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶

- Then there are mutants... Not just Crunchers, Creepers, and Tyrants; there are also many ancient machines active in this area.

Light: Ancient machines?

Night Ten: Like the Evolved Type! For example, the exoframes covered by Slime Mold that appeared in the previous Tide expansion, tanks, autonomous robots, and so on... basically all sorts of bizarre things.

- Oh, and drones! We encountered a large group of them while heading to the crash site. They were densely packed, like locusts!

Light: About the situation with those Evolved Types, can you give me more details?

After a few seconds, he added...

Light: I mainly want to understand the situation from a player's perspective in the new map area.

Though finding it a bit strange, Ye Wei didn't dwell on it and described in detail his encounters within the third ring.

After a while, Light replied.

Light: Mhm, I have a general understanding now.

After all that buildup, Ye Wei immediately followed up with another message.

Night Ten: Brother Light, isn't the difficulty within the third ring too high? Our equipment can't keep up. It's hard to push forward with just a few light weapons.

- I strongly suggest stocking exoframes in the weapon shop!

- There are too many high-level monsters!

The difficulty setting was just too high!

However, it seemed that Light didn't intend to consider his suggestion.

Light: I can't do much about the difficulty. The game content is partly generated by the server automatically, partly added by players. We only manage the server operation and handle rule violations... So... My condolences.

- I have something to attend to, logging off now, talk later.

Automatically generating game content was fine, but what kind of

Ubisoft

behavior was this?

Looking at the screen and Light's messages, Ye Wei's expression showed a mixture of helplessness and confusion.

Regardless of whether he believed it or not, Light didn't intend to further explain or consider his suggestion. After asking what he wanted to know, he simply logged off without a second thought.

He was the only person left in the chat.

Continuing to wait was pointless. Feeling empty and lonely, Ye Wei sighed, closed the group chat window, and opened his browser to visit the forum.

The forum was bustling at this hour.

The general chat subforum was flooded with posts, with new threads almost every second.

Just then, Ye Wei was surprised to find that Light had actually updated an announcement sneakily.

Curious, he clicked on it and was instantly stunned.

[Map Information Update:

Clearspring City Central Area

]

[Map Overview:

The central area of Clearspring City has fallen completely under the erosion of Slime Mold, and a large number of remnants of equipment from the Prosperity Era have been assimilated by the mutated Slime Mold's Fruiting Body, forming the structurally unique Evolved Type...

]

[Recommended Exploration Level:

LV25 and above

]

[Map Tips 1:

Recover remnants of the Evolved Type to exchange for high rewards at the scientific expedition team!

]

[...]

The recommended exploration level and map tips seemed fine. But that section titled ‘Map Overview’...

Why did it look so familiar?

...

Back in the wasteland.

Dawn City, the industrial zone near the Bucky’s Aluminum Factory's train platform.

Workers were busy operating crane equipment, loading disassembled large equipment onto the freight train pallets.

The New Alliance's industrial zone was relocating northward.

The work would occur concurrently with the construction of Daybreak City.

In the future, Dawn City's industrial zone would transition into a light industry base focusing on consumer goods production.

The heavy industries, including steel, weapons, and heavy equipment production, would move to Daybreak City in the north.

After listening to Xiaoyu's explanation, Pai curiously asked, "Why are you guys moving north?"

Xiaoyu sighed in resignation, "Because we're too close to our neighbors."

Pai probed further, "Don't you have a good relationship with them?"

Tapping her chin with her finger, Xiaoyu thought for a moment before replying, "Um... It's not that simple. As Big Brother Chu would say, we're too close to each other, which is dangerous for both sides."

Of course, there were also other factors like being closer to raw material sources and having a larger population up north. But explaining it in detail would be too cumbersome, and Xiaoyu herself didn't fully understand, so she just skipped over those details.

"Okay." Accepting this explanation for now, Pai set aside this unimportant matter and resumed searching around the material piles near the loading area.

Watching her actions, Xiaoyu couldn't help but ask, "What are you looking for?"

"Some materials!"

"Materials?" Xiaoyu raised an eyebrow curiously.

"It's nothing, you don't have to worry. It won't harm you guys!"

Seeing Pai brimming with confidence, Xiaoyu tilted her head in confusion. Though she was curious, she refrained from asking more questions.

"Alright... Can I help you?" Xiaoyu eventually decided to ask again.

“You really want to help? That's great!" Pai's eyes lit up, excitedly gesturing the size of a bottle, "First, I need a bottle of crude oil. Doesn't matter which type... About this much will do!"

For teaching that rude guy a lesson, this material is necessary!

"Crude... Crude oil?" Xiaoyu was momentarily stunned and asked quietly, "Can it be bio-crude oil?"

Pai pondered for a moment, rubbing her chin. "Bio-crude oil... It might be a bit troublesome, but it should work!"

"Anyway, let's start with a bottle and see!"

...

On the other side, south of Dawn City, the nursing home within Linghu Wetland Park.

Just after getting information from Night Ten about the situation in the city center, Chu Guang was planning to continue conceptualizing the unfinished reform plan and the Beta 0.3 version updates.

However, as he stared at the screen with the newly created file folder, contemplating a suitable title, an unexpected call came through.

Seeing that it was the communication request from the New Alliance's Boulder Town Office, Chu Guang temporarily halted his work and answered the call.

Soon, Shu Yu's voice came through from the other end.

"5 minutes ago, people from Boulder Town’s City Hall came to my office."

City Hall?

Chu Guang was slightly surprised. "What do they want?"

Shu Yu continued, "They talked about trade and security issues... The Head of the City Hall wants to have a phone conversation with you."