Chapter 383.2: Chaotic Roots

"Shelter... There’s no shelter around here." Wu Tao looked at Sisi with a strange gaze. “This is Xiangling Town and this building is the library. Who would build a shelter in a library? Are you sure you’re not mistaken?”

"Ah?! It's not here?" Tail yelped and pulled out the map in surprise, double-checking the coordinates and street number.

Sisi frowned. "That can’t be. We came here based on reliable information."

"Well, I don’t know about that," Wu Tao shook his head. "I’ve lived here almost 30 years since I was a child,” Wu Tao lamented, “It's a pity. A few days ago our mayor packed up and left with a westbound caravan, otherwise, you could have asked him. Maybe he knew something."

"It really isn’t here?!” Sesame Paste revealed a troubled look.

Sisi didn’t wish to stop there. She continued to ask, "Can we take a look inside?"

"You can, but you’ll have to leave your weapons," Wu Tao eyed her assault rifle warily, "We can’t possibly allow you to enter our homes armed."

Sisi didn’t respond, tossing a heavy bag of gold coins onto the wall. "That’s not practical, let’s find another way. Here’s some dinar, we won’t use your food or water, we just need a room to stay the night. We’ll leave at dawn tomorrow, we won’t disturb you."

The money bag, which she had found on a soldier, was obtained as part of their playerly activities of looting bodies.

Although the Army was detestable, as one of the two major currencies of the wasteland, those shiny gold coins were quite appealing.

Staring at the hanging money bag, Wu Tao gulped and exchanged glances with other survivors.

"Should we let them in?"

"It’s just one day, shouldn’t be a problem."

"What are you afraid of, it's just a few girls and at most a single bear."

"Right, that bear! We can’t let that in!"

Wu Tao looked at the group outside.

"No problem. But your pet might scare our residents, it has to stay outside."

"She's not a pet, she’s our partner," Sisi corrected him. "But it’s okay, all of us weren’t planning on coming in anyway."

Speaking, she turned to her companions, switching languages expertly.

"Roshan, Tail, could you wait for us outside? Sesame Paste and I will go in and look around. It might take a little time, but we should be out by 8:00 in the morning."

"I always feel these people aren’t lying," Sesame Paste mumbled, "Could our information be wrong? Maybe Shelter 79 really isn’t here."

"Whether it’s here or not, the last clue points here, according to typical RPG logic, the key to the next dungeon is likely here, let’s go in and see."

Shelters might not have just one entrance. Shelter 404 had a couple. One of them was connected to a subway and the other to the wasteland above.

Maybe the main entrance to Shelter 79 has been closed since the library doors were locked, and the residents left through another exit.

Of course... That was just her guess.

She simply felt that the developers wouldn’t create a meaningless scene.

"Whoa! No problem!" Tail nodded vigorously, patting its chest, "Leave it to Tail!"

Roshan couldn’t help but worry. "If there’s danger, remember to shout for help."

Sisi smiled softly, patting Roshan’s fluffy head. "Don't worry, there won't be any trouble."

...

The reinforced wall to get to the library had no door, just a ladder that could be climbed over for everyone to get inside.

Entering the unfamiliar settlement of survivors, Sesame Paste looked a bit nervous, but seeing the elderly and children in the camp, her mood relaxed slightly.

𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

The presence of the elderly and children at least indicated this wasn’t a marauder’s den or a slaver’s farm. Maybe those people weren’t as open as those in Dawn City, but at least they had a basic moral line.

The two followed Wu Tao’s lead, crossing a parking lot cluttered with household trash and shopping carts, entering the library through the back door.

The library’s space was impressively vast, surrounded by concrete structures like a castle. The central courtyard was 100 meters wide, with a domed roof crisscrossed with steel trusses, previously fitted with large glass panels.

The layout provided ample lighting to the library’s center, where the survivors grew various crops.

Additionally, clotheslines with freshly washed clothes hung from the corridors around the courtyard, and rows of shanties made of corrugated metal or wooden planks were scattered around.

Privacy might be an issue, but the residents didn’t seem to mind much.

Sesame Paste looked around curiously, interested in the people’s way of life here, while the locals curiously eyed her, especially the cat ears on her head.

They’d seen many odd people, but it was their first time seeing someone with ears on top of their head.

Wu Tao, carrying a shotgun, introduced the situation in their settlement to Sisi, including how they had lived for over a century, and what resources their settlement needed.

She had mentioned coming from Clearspring City.

He hadn’t been there, but he’d heard that survivor settlements in big cities were usually wealthier, and they had something called Boulder Town where one could buy anything.

If they passed by again, they could bring back some soap and fertilizer, which they could trade for local game or specialty crops.

Though it wasn’t the time for business, he had just become the mayor and had to consider more than just immediate concerns.

He believed the Army would eventually leave the godforsaken place, and then the people there would live as they always had. That was why he accepted the bag of gold coins.

"We’ve been living here since around the 50th year of the Wasteland Era. According to my grandfather, this library is quite old, dating back to the early days of the Federation Era. Why would you think there’s a shelter hidden underneath? There isn’t even a basement."

"It’s fine, even if there’s nothing, it’s just to satisfy our curiosity," Sisi glanced around. "Speaking of which, are the books still here?"

Wu Tao sighed, "Most are gone, but some are well-preserved. Successive mayors followed tradition, keeping the surviving books on the second floor. Though the last mayor ran off, I’ll probably keep up the tradition."

Sisi suddenly became interested. "Can you show me?"

Wu Tao nodded. "No problem, but you can’t take them away or damage them. I’m not joking, if you do something bad to those books, misfortune will quickly find you. It’s happened before."

"I swear on my life," Sisi blinked. "I’ll treat those books as carefully as I treat my own life."

Perhaps touched by her sincerity, Wu Tao was stunned for a few seconds.

Coming back to his senses, he coughed lightly. "That’s a bit of an exaggeration...

"Since you said that, follow me." Wu Tao led them to the second floor and left them there.

Looking at the rows of aluminum bookshelves and the myriad of books, Sesame Paste’s face was filled with hesitation. "Could the clues to Shelter 79 be hidden among these books?"

Sisi shook her head. "I don’t know, but these books are probably the only information that survived from the catastrophe 200 years ago... Maybe we’ll find something."

Casually picking up a book, Sisi flipped through it, but her expression quickly froze.

Although she could use the Federation Language for daily communication and recognize some of its script, she was far from being able to read normally.

Their VM with the camera did have a translation feature, but in offline mode, the amount of text it could translate was quite limited.

Just as she was feeling stuck, a strange voice suddenly floated from behind the bookshelf in front of her. "I don’t understand, why are you so persistently seeking Shelter 79? The locals have told you, there’s no shelter here."

"Besides, it’s a shelter, not a treasure vault, there’s nothing valuable hidden inside, you’ll only be disappointed." The voice was slightly hoarse, like sandpaper rubbing against a wall, startling the both of them.

"Who?!" Sesame Paste nervously gripped her gun.

Sisi’s response was more direct, she dashed behind the bookshelf, but instead of finding the person who spoke, she saw an old-fashioned, crudely made radio.

Surprise flickered in her eyes as she quickly looked around for cameras in the room, but found nothing.

"Stop looking around, I’m not here, and it doesn’t matter whether I am or not," the voice from the radio teased, "You’d better focus on my question. What if I’m the door’s security program? Your suspicious actions just now are enough for me to lock the door."

Sisi walked over to the radio as Sesame Paste stared at her companion nervously. She couldn’t understand what the radio was saying, but the voice gave her a bad feeling.

"Leave it to me..." Sisi gave her a reassuring look and continued speaking to the radio.

"We are here on the administrator’s orders."

"Administrator..." The radio crackled, pondering, then continued, "Are you residents of a shelter?"

"Yes," Sisi nodded, her voice sincere. "We come from Shelter 404 in Clearspring City... Do you have any information about Shelter 79? It’s very important to us."

"Hmm, very important? ... What do you plan to use it for?" The voice in the radio continued to ask.

Sisi spoke earnestly. "If there are people inside, we’ll help them. If they’re gone, we’ll continue their unfinished business. We will revive our civilization."

The voice in the radio chuckled softly, like a nail scratching on a chalkboard. Sesame Paste and Sisi couldn’t help but grind their teeth. .

Sesame Paste stepped back nervously, and Sisi also frowned slightly.

Soon, the laughter turned into a soft sigh. "If you’re thirsting for knowledge, the books beside you are enough for a lifetime of study. If you’re harboring naive ideals of reviving civilization, you really shouldn’t have come here."

Before Sisi could speak, it continued. "Shelter 79 isn’t what you imagine, it was never meant to shelter anyone."

Sisi sensed there was more to its words.

Swallowing hard, she asked earnestly, "What exactly is that place?"

"The root of chaos."

That hoarse voice seemed to sink into ancient memories. But eventually, it all turned into a helpless self-mockery. "At least half the barbarism on this land can be traced back to me."