Chapter 516.1: Oh, I'm Just Cursing Them With Something From My Hometown

"Goodbye, brothers. Don’t miss me... Your Grandfather, Pangolin, is going solo for a while."

The Heart of Steel hauled up its anchor and slowly moved eastward under the midday sun.

Countless emotions drifted with the massive whale in the skies that floated through the clouds, and Battlefield Cheerleader raised a hand in farewell to his comrades returning in triumph.

Soon, it would be his turn to return as well. Only, he wasn’t heading to Dawn City. Instead, he was going to go to Triumphant City.

He still didn’t quite understand what tricks Commander Saren of the Eastern Army had pulled, but regardless, they were returning to Triumphant City as victors.

Frankly, Battlefield Cheerleader was still lost in a fog.

The Army had fought a bizarre war, then returned home just as strangely. Apart from giving the Enterprise and the Academy a scare, it wasn’t even clear what those big-nosed guys did.

Well, whatever it was, they were going to call it a win.

He didn’t care about such trivial matters. What truly left him melancholic was something else entirely.

What began as a fleeting, half-joking idea had ended with him crossing the entire desert. Now, he was even headed to the distant West Coast... To Triumphant City, no less.

Fuck it, let’s just call it an early-access experience of the new version. Closed Alpha, closed Beta... Isn’t this what beta testers do?

"What are you talking about?" A pleasant voice came from behind him suddenly.

Knowing who it was, Battlefield Cheerleader smoothly switched to the Federation’s language and replied solemnly, "That’s a curse from my homeland. Misfortune will cling to their ship."

Penny paused, then let out a laugh. "... You’re really funny."

Seeing the silent Pangolin, Penny assumed he was still brooding over what happened at Shelter 0, so she softened her voice to comfort him.

"Governor-general Cohen didn’t blame you for what happened to Wally... It wasn’t your fault. You faithfully completed your mission and brought back the original documents of Project Torch, preventing us from being kept in the dark by the greedy, cunning East Coasters and those sinister swamp trolls."

Battlefield Cheerleader suppressed a smile and answered in a serious voice, "It was my duty."

Penny looked at him with a burning gaze as she spoke again. "Can you do me a little favor?"

"It would be my honor to serve you."

Looking at the sometimes dumb and sometimes gentlemanly Pangolin, Penny couldn't help but smile, though a rare hint of bashfulness soon crept onto her face. "My...

Uh

, father wants to meet you."

"Your father?" Battlefield Cheerleader was momentarily stunned. "Why would he want to meet me?"

"You might not know..." Penny brushed her bangs aside and spoke as casually as she could, "The Triumphant Reports has written quite a lot about your deeds. And, well, many of the pieces sent to the capital were written by me. So, could you please do this for me?"

She didn’t sound entirely natural, but Battlefield Cheerleader didn’t press the matter. He just nodded. After all, he was never good at refusing people, whether in real life or in-game.

He would just call it a triggered side quest.

Seeing the usually blockheaded man nod, Penny beamed happily and gazed up at the wisps of cloud in the sky.

"By the way... Are we really going to stay here for the whole winter?"

"

Mhm

." Battlefield Cheerleader nodded. "We have no airships, and traveling over land is too dangerous... Without sticking with the main group, accidents are very likely."

The Northern Industrial Zone used to be a logistics hub back in the days. Back then, it had the densest transportation network, but that was during the Prosperity Era.

Now, those high-speed lines and underground routes had all been severed, forming a three-dimensional maze alongside the tangled mess of office buildings and warehouses.

Desertification there wasn’t as bad as in the Eastern Industrial Zone, but it was no less dangerous. Trying to avoid it would mean passing through the Wandering Swamp, the Academy’s backyard. It was not a friendly place either.

Just reading the Wasteland Online’s official description, Battlefield Cheerleader didn’t have much confidence in soloing either the Great Desert or the Wandering Swamps. Maybe things would be different when he hit LV50 or LV60.

For the record, he had just passed LV30 and entered the fourth stage of his genetic sequence evolution, which meant he had completed his third awakening.

The game only made it easy to level during the first 10 levels. He couldn’t help but suspect that their doggy developer, Light, was intentionally throttling the beta testers’ progression.

At that rate, almost no one would ever reach the legendary LV100.

Penny sighed softly, "I really want to go home soon..."

It was just a casual remark, but it stirred a deep homesickness in someone nearby.

He had heard Old Hooke had bought the warehouse behind Highway Town Hotel, demolished it, and turned it into apartments with a huge courtyard in the center. The trade station, which used to sit on the very edge of Dawn City, had been surrounded by new buildings and was now near the secondary center.

The biggest change was at the train station. Where there had once been open space, rows of concrete buildings stood tall in the latest development.

And the square where they’d once held their victory ceremony had been transformed with lush greenery into a popular spot where residents strolled, socialized, and relaxed. Dawn City’s newly formed Municipal Parks Department was in charge of all public architecture, keeping everything meticulously managed... All thanks, supposedly, to a player from a city planning profession.

Once regional reputation with an NPC settlement exceeded 1,000, players could invest in factories. Those with over 10,000 were granted access to city works, and those above 100,000 could even qualify for the role of mayor.

Battlefield Cheerleader only recently found out that some players were seriously grinding reputation just to live out their dream of becoming a mayor in-game.

Why not just start a new game of Cities: Skylines?

Since the start of the year, Yaya had been regularly posting drone shots of Dawn City on the official forums. Battlefield Cheerleader had seen her posts.

But what he saw in the pictures always felt incomplete, like something was missing.

And now he realized, it was the people.

The NPCs, each with their own behavioral logic, felt alive. Together with the many players from another world, they formed a living society and gave the players’ actions a sense of true meaning.

He realized what he wanted to do.

Damn it...

I want to go home too!

While the Heart of Steel was on its return journey, the official website released a new update.

There was still no news about Beta 0.5 or new test slots, but the update content rivaled the original Beta 0.4.

[New Survivor Settlement, Pioneer City:

Standing atop the ruins of the Federation’s Eastern Industrial Zone, Pioneer City is far from hospitable, but boasts a richer trove of pre-war relics than Dawn City. Brave explorers once walked its paths. Now, new adventurers will follow in their footsteps.

]

[New NPC Corps, Bist Construction Corps 1-4:

Prisoners of war from the Falcon Kingdom refused to return to be beasts of burden for their nobles. They would rather face the blazing sun and desert sands. Even if building a city in the desert is no easy task, their sweat belongs to the land, and they will prove they can thrive without their former masters!

]

[New NPC Corps, Thorn Corps:

Among them are tailors, herders, carpenters, teachers, even scholars. Though the chaos destroyed their old lives, it did not break them. To spread the light of order and save those yet to be saved, they chose to stay and declared war on chaos and savagery, vowing revenge on the Enlightenment Society that robbed them of the past...

]

[New Map, Eastern Industrial Zone:

Once the heart of processing during the Federation Era, the ruins still hides valuable treasures beneath cracked concrete and iron-laced dust. If you find a dormant blue coat, bring them to Pioneer City before the Enlightenment Society does. Recommended Level: LV15+. (Note: Far from revival points. Explore at your own risk.)

]

Tail: Ooooh! The Thorn Sisters?! They’re cunning spellcasters, right?! Sisi, let’s sign up!

Eye Owe Money: Thorn Sisters are fine and all, but isn’t the 11th Interstellar Corps more fitting? Downvote! -1!

Sisi: Tail, it’s time to eat your medicine. Your brain isn’t working well again! We just made it to the south! Heading back would mean traveling thousands of kilometers!

Tail: Ugh, the ship’s too slow... If only we had an airship.

Roshan: That’d probably cost a few hundred billion silver coins...

Night Ten: Be confident. Remove probably. Our administrator won’t sell it for that cheap.

Sesame Paste: Ahahaha... That’s way too much.

Sideline Slacking: Do you guys think leaving defense to local survivors would work?

Ample Time: From the Falcon Kingdom to Honey Badger Kingdom, there are too many places needing garrisons. The New Alliance’s standing army is stretched thin, but we do have plenty of exoskeletons, bulletproof gear, and guns left. If the locals are willing to protect themselves, I say we let them.

Escaping Mole: +1. From an economic point of view, recruiting locally is way better than stationing New Alliance troops. Besides, there probably won’t be large-scale conflict there anytime soon. And for small skirmishes... Haven’t we left people behind?

Irene: We can always lure in newbies to help... Hehehe

Spring Water Commander: Still, let’s be real... That’s the Federation Era’s processing center. Even by probability alone, the good loot there probably beats Clearspring City by a few times, it’s not a bad idea to...

Darkest: Damn! Now I’m kinda regretting not staying to back up our damn Pangolin!

Eye Owe Money: Hahahaha!

Compared to the newly added NPC corps, most players were clearly more intrigued by the ruins of the Eastern Industrial Zone.

No one knew what was buried beneath the concrete wasteland.

If someone dug up a working exoframe, they would instantly shoot to become the same level as the T0 players!

There was only one problem, distance...

The Great Desert was just too far from Dawn City.

Without renting a transport plane from the Enterprise, one had to take a train from Dawn City to Falling Leaf City, then switch to a truck and travel northwest through the Honey Badger Kingdom to Bist Town, circle the southern edge of Oasis No.2, and only then enter the Great Desert.

Just one trip could take half a month.

Once the New Alliance finished laying tracks to the Honey Badger Kingdom, things might speed up. Otherwise, they would need to invent faster, longer-range transport.

While players chatted wildly on the forum about the new map, Chu Guang stood at the bridge’s window, staring at the distant horizon.

Perched on his shoulder, Little Seven swung its legs and shouted excitedly while pointing happily at the mountains and forests up ahead.

"Master, that’s the River Valley Province! We’re finally going home!"

Signal in the desert had been spotty. Little Seven had been disconnecting all day long. Once they returned to River Valley, its headache would be over.

Chu Guang squinted at the horizon, and a smile involuntarily crept across his face. "Yeah."

He hadn’t returned in a long while. He missed those people. And he believed the residents of Dawn City surely missed him too.

Having dumped some armor and left supplies at Pioneer City, the Heart of Steel’s return trip was significantly faster, averaging a cruise speed of 80 km/h.

It wasn’t as fast as a plane, but they still managed nearly 2,000 kilometers a day. Crossing from the Great Desert to the River Valley Province would take less than two days.

In the mutated wasteland, airships were truly an excellent long-range transport, even without rare anti-gravity systems.

The only downside was hydrogen being dangerous, and helium being hard to procure.

"Up ahead is our Falling Leaf City," the acting captain beside Chu Guang said energetically, eyes fixed on the settlement beside Lucky Valley Municipality.

Rows of buildings encircled the train station like stars around a moon. Warehouses were stacked with crops from the Sunset Province and industrial goods bound for the desert.

Originally, the New Alliance had built the settlement to house wastelanders gathered by the military. Once the expeditionary force officially moved into Sunset Province, the area also became a frontline logistics hub, attracting traders from the Camelback Kingdom and Boulder City, as well as refugees fleeing the war.

Now that the war had ended, the prosperity of this place had not faded. On the contrary, it had risen another level thanks to increased commercial trade.

In the future, this survivor settlement would continue to exist as a trade hub linking Sunset Province and River Valley Province.

Chu Guang held great expectations for the future of this settlement.

Compared to Dawn City and Daybreak City, Falling Leaf City had access to broader plains and wasn't hindered by the massive ruins surrounding Clear Spring City. It would also be easier to reach Brocade River Province from Falling Leaf City.