Chapter 504.2: Survivors!

Some were using rewards from the expansion pack to buy land and become farmers. Others had stayed behind to help garrison troops fight marauders and run errands.

Wasteland Online never dictated how players had to play. The handbook simply listed what was forbidden and the consequences of breaking rules.

Outside of the major world-line events, most of the time, players were free to explore the game world however they liked.

Whether it was using real-world knowledge to boost wastelanders’ productivity or just fooling around with relationships, there was freedom.

In fact, for most players, aside from the main quests’ huge rewards, it was the unexpected side missions and odd mechanics that were the real fun, not carefully scripted paths.

Still, when Chu Guang used his account to post the latest main story update, it caught massive attention.

Within a minute, the post had over a thousand replies.

Quit Smoking: Enlightenment Society??? What even is that?

Tail: Ooooh! Smells like conspiracy. (@~v@)

Sisi: Ooh ooh! New DLC... Wait, is it gonna go further west? Noooo! We bet everything on the south! (°a°ll)

Tail: ?

Garbage: Hiss... isn’t that the symbol from the Torch Church? It was on those early NPC collars that controlled mutants, right?

Eye Owe Money: Gotta say, this symbol is ugly. Did doggy Light draw it himself with a pencil? (lol)

Construction Boy: @Escaping Mole Give us a review.

Escaping Mole: A rough yet bold aesthetic. Crude, but full of detail. Every line shows technical mastery. It’s a certified banger!

Eye Owe Money: ???

Quit Smoking: Hahahaha! Such a suck-up!

Irene: No wonder you’re unemployed. (lol)

Night Ten: Brother Light, someone says you have small PP energy!

Escaping Mole: FUCK YOU I DIDN’T FUCKING SAY THAT!

Sisi: By the way, wasn’t the founder of the Torch Church, the self-proclaimed Saint, a shelter resident too?

Teng Teng: Hmm... The lore said he was a wastelander adopted by a shelter, but grew up there.

Yaya: HUH?!?! What if he’s also part of the Enlightenment Society?

Escaping Mole: Doesn’t matter if he is. The Enlightenment Society seems more like a regional faction. The Torch Church participated in the Army’s Grand Expedition and the War against the Bonechewer Clan... These guys? They just snuffed out the Pioneer. What a joke.

Night Ten: Hey, aren’t the most badass bosses always hiding in the shadows? ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Gale: That’s a myth... Weak ones need schemes. The real powerhouses come at you head-on. (¬_¬)

Ample Time: Okay, two questions. One: Why would a group aiming to reboot civilization stop the Enterprise from reaching Shelter 0? Two: What’s the connection between the Torch Church in the south and the Enlightenment Society in the center of the continent?

Night Ten: Hehe, I bet Brother Light hasn’t even figured out the plot yet. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Ample Time: You’re underestimating him. I think it’s all part of a grand plan... But what even is Shelter 0?

Teng Teng: Uhh... A really big shelter?

Ample Time: How big? Like, how many black boxes and exoframes would it take to restore the world?

Gale: You know... now that you mention it, I feel like the Academy, Enterprise, and Army might all be hiding key intelligence. Even our allies at the Enterprise wouldn’t have shared everything.

Ample Time: That’s inevitable. My gut tells me, we might’ve been thinking about this all wrong from the start.

Night Ten: Whaddya mean? (¬_¬")

Ample Time: When a computer crashes, we usually try one of three things: wait for it to respond, end the current process, or reboot the whole system.

- Most shelters were built around the first method, preserving people, resources, energy, knowledge, tools, basically the building blocks of civilization, until the time is right to rebuild. It’s a gentle approach, though different shelters applied it differently.

- But Shelter 0 was always a myth. There were no records from the Enterprise, Academy, or Army. It’s not even clear it was ever finished...

- So here’s a reckless guess. Maybe Shelter 0’s core purpose is fundamentally different from the others.

Yaya: Ah, you mean... that might not actually be a shelter at all?

Ample Time: Don’t mind me, I’m just throwing out a conspiracy theory based on what we know about the Enlightenment Society. That place might not be as wonderful as the rumors say. (¬_¬)

Truly living up to his reputation as the forum’s most insightful reader of Chu Guang’s mind, Ample Time’s theory quickly sparked new debate.

Some players leaned toward the idea that this was just another gimmick cooked up by the doggy developers. Others thought it wasn’t that complicated.

As for the cloud gamers, they couldn’t care less, they just wanted to know when helmet production would ramp up again.

They had already missed out on a grand expedition.

Seeing all the hopes and dreams the developers were peddling, many pre-registered players who hadn’t entered the game yet felt completely deflated.

Some even hoped the developer team would slow down updates during the Beta test phase, possibly a first in gaming history...

Old White: Anyway, let’s stop getting off track, when are you coming back? There’s new content. (≖⩊≖)

Ample Time: Ahem, soon. Probably within a few days... Don’t worry, I’ll definitely be back before you guys.

Battlefield Cheerleader: Damn! Are you guys secretly cozying up to the developers again?!

Old White: No way. Speaking of which, you better come back soon too. (≖⩊≖)

Battlefield Cheerleader: What’s that got to do with me?

Old White: Nothing much. Just relaying a message. You’ll find out if it does matter when you get back.

Battlefield Cheerleader: ...?

...

The next day.

At the base of an abandoned industrial building,

A few large dogs with grayish-yellow skin and forearm-length fangs prowled over the rubble-strewn steps, sniffing the air for prey, unaware that death was quietly closing in.

One of them suddenly raised its head as it scanned the surroundings.

But before it could growl, several sharp gunshots rang out, piercing the heads of all the beasts.

There was a rustling in the sandbushes. The noise sent small animals fleeing, and several exoskeleton clad soldiers emerged from the shadows nearby.

Su Ming tapped his helmet with his index finger, glanced at the drone circling above, then scanned the area and spoke clearly. "Five targets down. Image data recovered... building entrance secured, no further threats... Damn it, don’t make me come up with another name."

According to intel from Yi Hai, an unknown third party was eyeing Shelter 0... However, Su Ming suspected it might just be another trick by the Wislanders.

Those guys weren’t lacking in high-tech gear, just in quantity.

Otherwise, how could they explain how the Pioneer ended up getting tracked by the Wislanders and surrounded?

As for this Enlightenment Society...

It could very well be a fabricated story by the Wislanders to get close to the Pioneer. What’s crazy is that Captain Lu Yang actually believed it.

If it were him, he would never trust some random stranger on the wasteland.

"Why not upload it to Endpoint Cloud and let the netizens vote?"

"Great idea. When’s the next time we’re sending a Migratory Bird back?"

"Tomorrow, I think."

"Shit..." Su Ming muttered a curse, opened the stabilizer on his combat recorder, and prepared to capture some fun clips for his social media account.