Chapter 346.1: Aviation Fuel is a Big Problem

On the official website forum.

Members of the Bull and Horse Squad who went offline early were chatting in the general chat subforum.

It all started with Night Ten's reply below the official website announcement, which had been unexpectedly seen by an acquaintance. In an attempt to defend himself from being considered a feeder and instead owing it to the excessively challenging map difficulty, he opened a thread in the general chat subforum, describing how perilous the situation was at that time.

Just as Night Ten was narrating how thousands of unmanned drones had surrounded them in the building, and how he fought while retreating to cover his teammates' escape, Gale's ID suddenly appeared in the thread.

Gale: I was just thinking if you would feel bored after being kicked out of the game, but I didn't expect you to be boasting on the official website. (Skeptical look)

Tyrannosaurus Warrior: Hahaha! I knew it was fake!

Little Rebellious: I knew it already! None of these lucky bastards say anything reliable! The replies below the post were flooded with laughter.

Even though most of the people flooding the forum with comments weren't players in the game, it didn't stop them from making a fuss.

These lucky bastards!

Eat my spear!

Night Ten naturally paid no attention to the mockery from cloud gamers. With a flick of his index finger, he changed the display settings to ‘Only view comments from closed beta players’.

It was a new feature developed by Brother Light in the previous versions. The world instantly quieted down.

Night Ten, pretending nothing had happened, continued typing.

Night Ten: Whoa?! Gale? You got kicked out of the game too?

Gale: After we recovered Falling Feather’s VM, we were preparing to return along the original route. However, we encountered a large number of Evolved Types when leaving the building...

Gale briefly described the situation at the time.

As soon as they left the building, a dozen or so bipedal robots parasitized by Slime Mold set their sights on them.

Though the weapons systems of these robots were already broken, the Mutant Slime Mold had endowed them with new weapons... Tentacles.

After that, there were snails using magnetic levitation carriages as shells blocking the road and

Grimer

, uglier than

Zac

, filling the entire alley.

Compared to them, things like Crunchers and Creepers were weak!

Similar to those Slime Mold Version Unmanned Drones, most of the combat modes of Slime Mold mutants could be summarized as the charge attack, close combat, and the tear and bite style.

Some Evolved Types with maternal characteristics could assimilate other creatures into their own units by injecting spores into the bodies of other creatures.

A very small number of mutants relied on corrosive liquids or self-destruction to damage targets, but these types of mutants mostly existed in the form of traps with weak mobility.

Those combat methods might sound primitive, but it was precisely this primitive fighting style that caused tremendous trouble for the team deep within the third ring.

The vitality of Slime Mold mutants itself was outrageously strong, with HP exceeding players.

After merging with high-tech products from the Prosperity Era, those Evolved Types gained powerful hard protection capabilities and extraordinary mobility.

This also meant that each of these Evolved Types was almost like a force warrior, with outrageously strong combat capabilities.

Gale: ... In short, fortunately, we didn't encounter freaks like the Rotten Knight. We immediately rushed to the evacuation point after recovering the mission item.

- But there was still an accident on the way back. The mobility of intelligence type players is indeed a little bit weak...

Mhm

, that's the basic situation.

Compared to Night Ten's exaggerated narrative style, Gale's speech was more reliable. However, concerning the specific cause of his death, Gale just casually passed over it without elaborating.

Falling Feather: Oh no, that's terrible.

Night Ten: What about your robotic arm...

Gale: I asked Ample Time to chop off my arm.

Night Ten: Oh dang!

Although it was a basic operation, being able to say such things calmly was quite impressive in its own way...

At that moment, the ID Quit Smoking suddenly appeared.

Quit Smoking: Holy shit, how did you guys manage to get so many replies in such a short amount of time!

Night Ten: What the heck! Aren't you the Constitution Type? How come you got kicked off the game too?

Quit Smoking: Ah, don't get me started. My stupid curiosity made me touch that corpse. Turns out that thing wasn't completely dead yet. With a whoosh, it leaped at me, and then I'm here!

Gale: ...

Quit Smoking: Ahem, don't worry... Old White and Ample Time should be fine. We weren't far from the evacuation point at that time.

Gale: Ah, I don't ask for much... Just one person alive is enough.

Gale, who was usually reserved, couldn't help but pray for his teammates this time. Things like experience were not important, but equipment must not be dropped. Being thrifty was a common trait among all Wasteland Online players.

It wasn't that players didn't want to mess around, the key was the lack of conditions.

For instance, mass-produced items like the LD 47 assault rifle were fine; if damaged, they just needed to buy a new one. However, some weapons with

[rare]

or even

[special]

prefixes were things no one knew where to buy if they were destroyed!

In the developer’s words, considering the risk of the mission before deciding whether to use valuable equipment was also an important part of the gameplay.

The thread quickly digressed.

Seeing that even the tier 0 team in the server were being thrashed by mutants within the third ring, the players in the thread and cloud gamers began a new debate.

Whether the future of the version lay in genetic enhancement or the rise of mechanical gears...

...

While the discussion in the thread was heating up, the 2 surviving members of the Bull and Horse Squad finally returned to Dawn City under the escort of Sideline Slacking and his rescue squad.

The harvest this time was quite astonishing.

Not only did the Bull and Horse Squad bring back the missing pilot's VM and samples of the third ring’s Mutant Slime Mold organism from Clearspring City, but they also brought back a large number of records and remains of the Evolved Types!

Especially the latter.

Not only could it enrich the Wasteland Online official website's lore, allowing cloud gamers to get more information, but it also provided a vast amount of research material for the scientific expedition team.

Those remnants of Evolved Types were like living fossils.

They recorded the forms and working methods of high-tech products from the Prosperity Era using their bodies.

For the New Alliance, which relied on archaeological research for scientific advancement, the assistance was undoubtedly enormous!

Since Yin Fang was repairing fuel rods in West Continent City and temporarily couldn't return, Chu Guang temporarily sent these samples to the medical laboratory, handing them over to Hyrja for research.

Meanwhile, Yin Fang was tasked with analyzing the data from the pilot's VM. Chu Guang always felt that Falling Feather’s crash was too suspicious. Especially based on the pilot's description on the forum, it confirmed his speculation. That glider didn't crash due to an accident.

It was downed by something...

Not waiting for a long time, Yin Fang quickly finished analyzing the data.

In the communication channel, he spoke up. "You’re right, your little plane was indeed shot down, and it was done by something like an EMP."

EMP?! On that wooden glider?

Chu Guang's expression was filled with astonishment.

Logically speaking, the structure of that plane, which was made by Mosquito, was so simple that it couldn't get simpler. Except for the battery and a few slightly technical gauges, there were almost zero other electronic components.

It was well-known that without electromagnetic pulse protection, the smaller the electronic device, the stronger the impact of the electromagnetic pulse.

For that thick and brick-like old-fashioned mobile phone or the old radio, the effect of the electromagnetic pulse was actually limited, let alone the wooden plane designed by Mosquito.

"Are you sure you didn't make a mistake?"

"I am certain, absolutely certain. If I make a mistake even with the data written in the black box, then I've wasted over 20 years for nothing." After a pause, Yin Fang continued, "Although it sounds strange, according to the traces of the data from the VM, the time of encountering the electromagnetic pulse almost coincided with the time of a strong impact."

"A reasonable deduction suggests that the electromagnetic pulse caused the malfunction of the VM's signal positioning component. Due to low environmental visibility, the pilot lost their sense of direction, ultimately resulting in the crash."

"... That sounds plausible." Chu Guang's face showed a hint of seriousness. If the cause of the crash was an EMP attack, then there were only 2 possibilities left. Either it was an Evolved Type within the third ring, or Boulder Town's rocket. The second possibility was very slim.

After all, using an electromagnetic pulse weapon against modern equipment was like using a nuclear bomb for fireworks.

And it might not even work.

But if it was an Evolved Type...

Chu Guang couldn't imagine how those Mutant Slime Mold managed to do it.

Seeing Chu Guang remaining silent, Yin Fang continued with his thoughts. "... To be honest, I'm starting to admire those annoying Slime Mold more and more. Whether it's the parasite on Bucky or the exoframes and tanks appearing in the Tide, the learning and adaptability demonstrated by those Slime Mold even makes me feel like..."

Pausing for a moment, Yin Fang seemed to be contemplating the right words to use. Chu Guang probably guessed what he wanted to say but still asked, "Like what?"

"Like... It’s like they are more suitable for this planet than us." After a brief pause, Yin Fang continued with uncertainty. "Haven't you noticed? While we are doing archaeology, they are also doing archaeology too. Although in a vastly different method from us, they are in fact drawing nourishment from our ancestors."

"The first generation of the Evolved Types still needed external objects to enhance themselves. Like the Rotten Knight we encountered before, its strength came from the armor it was wrapped in. Although a bit tricky to deal with, the quantity of exoframes is limited, killing one means one less Rotten Knight to deal with."

"However, by the time of the second generation, they no longer needed external objects but could evolve their own imitation version of the exoframe and reproduce on a large scale... You should know what I mean."

Chu Guang pondered. "Are you talking about the Tyrant?"

That was a name that would send shivers down the spines of countless wastelanders.

In a one-on-one situation, even an ability user would find it challenging to fight a Tyrant. Ordinary 7mm bullets were ineffective against it, and at medium to long range, only large-caliber guns such as a Lance or a Kontos could be used to deal with it. At close range, there were almost no particularly effective means.

On the communication channel, Yin Fang nodded. "Exactly!"

According to the previous research in the medical laboratory, the Tyrant could be seen as a creature consisting of 2 fruiting bodies.

The inner fruiting body resembled an incompletely developed Cruncher, while the outer fruiting body possessed self-healing function and keratin armor.

Although the imitation by the Slime Mold was quite crude, many similarities could prove that Tyrant evolved based on the Rotten Knight.

"... A Tyrant is the most typical example. Between the Rotten Knight and Tyrant, we can find connections to behavioral science, sociology, and biology simultaneously."

"The massive Hive has evolved tens of thousands of Evolved Types and uses this to realize social division of labor. Although their imitation of us is crude, it's only for now. Historical experience tells us that the development of anything moves slowly, but will eventually mature."

"I dare not even assume what it will be like a century later, and what the third generation of Evolved Types will be like."

"Different from mutant humans who have given up being human, they are becoming us, assimilating into us, and trying to replace us."

Yin Fang sighed softly, "This is the most chilling part..."

...