At the gate of Boulder City.
A man clad in full plate armor stood like a sculpture, his demeanor completely out of place with his surroundings, drawing frequent sidelong glances from passing mercenaries and peddlers.
It was not just because of his 2.5-meter height, but even more so because of that suit of armor encasing him from crown to toe, leaving almost not a single seam exposed. Even the welded steel plate helmet offered only a few mesh-like little pinholes.
Does this guy...
Not even need eyes to watch where he's going?
Two mercenaries queuing at the city gate were idly bragging to pass the time.
"I bet that armor can't take a single burst from me."
"Shh, keep your voice down. That guy might be an Awakened."
"So what if he's an Awakened? More Awakened have died by my hands than deathclaws!" The mercenary didn't flinch in the slightest; the fifty meters outside the city gate also fell under the jurisdiction of the militia.
Not to mention an Awakened.
Even if it were a tank from the Bone Chewer Tribe, so what?
The towed artillery pieces atop the colossal wall were enough to crush any armor.
The companion beside him obviously didn't believe him and scoffed,
"Cut the boasting. Who knows who it was that pissed their pants just hearing a deathclaw's roar."
"Say that again, you bastard!"
Paying no mind to the chatter of those around him, the armored man lingered at the gate for a moment, then walked across the street toward Hotel Distant Winds.
As for this heavily armored man, the waiter standing at the hotel entrance was not particularly surprised. Among the numerous guests he had received, such attire could at most be considered conservative, not even weird.
Not to mention wearing something—even if someone wore nothing at all, he would not say a single word.
"Welcome, sir. Do you need a room?"
A muffled voice drifted out from the armor.
"Is this the northern outskirts?"
"The northern outskirts?"
The waiter froze for an instant, then answered subconsciously,
"This is Boulder City, not some countryside backwater."
The man continued asking,
"How do I get to the northern outskirts?"
Meeting the flash of crimson within the slit of the helmet, the waiter felt his heart skip a beat. Originally planning to brush him off with a few perfunctory words, his Adam's apple bobbed, and he said,
"Follow the road straight ahead onto the elevated highway, then head east. When you see a leaning high-rise, head due north..."
The man nodded without offering a word of thanks, then dragged his cumbersome frame and walked toward the elevated highway.
The man did not seem worried that the person he had asked for directions would deceive him.
The waiter standing at the hotel entrance stared intently at the man's receding back, muttering under his breath,
"Dammit..."
"Why do his eyes look just like a gnawer's?"
***
[The fat sheep have hit the road.]
Edge of the Fourth Ring Road.
Inside an abandoned shop, a man in an animal-hide coat sat before an extinguished brazier, unfolding a crumpled slip of paper in his hands.
He had been fiddling with this slip of paper for quite some time.
His name was Wu Chou, a mercenary, and an Awakened.
In Boulder City, awakening was not particularly rare, but someone who had awakened yet still scraped a living like him was exceedingly rare. Many merchant groups and caravans were eager to recruit Awakened into their ranks, sparing no expense to cultivate them and providing them with the best weapons and equipment.
In the wasteland, only one's fist was the greatest guarantee. Formidable martial power could not only deter petty thieves, but also effectively reduce risk and insurance premiums—two things Boulder City merchants were especially sensitive to.
However, Wu Chou was different from them.
First, he hated living a life restrained by others; second, his reputation was indeed rather terrible.
Because two of his previous employers had died by his hands, causing the broker who arranged the jobs to lose a fortune, few were willing to introduce him to legitimate, aboveboard jobs anymore.
However...
Who cared?
At least he was quite satisfied with his current lifestyle.
Acting as a guard for those cunning, treacherous merchants paid at most 10 chips a day. But if he robbed that weak and arrogant wretch, that number could multiply by a hundred or even a thousand times.
Reputation?
Not even worth wiping one's ass with.
Still, Wu Chou did not consider himself a marauder, even though he knew plenty of marauders and occasionally took jobs from them.
Like right now.
A week ago, a batch of spirit leaves had appeared out of nowhere in Boulder City, and the diluted solution sold at 10 chips a bottle had made quite a few people rich.
Someone had set their sights on this juicy piece of meat and named a price to him.
Capture two blue coats from the northern outskirts, and ignore everything else. Besides the goods they were hauling toward the northern outskirts, he would receive an additional 5,000 chips.
Wu Chou had agreed without a second thought.
To him, these 5,000 chips were virtually free money.
Bribing a gang in the slums to keep watch, he then hired about twenty cannon fodder from the slums, handed them weapons, taught them how to shoot, and promised them a reward of 50 chips each, with the requirement of capturing at least two alive.
50 chips.
To people in the city, that was less than a month's wage, but to survivors subsisting on cold leftovers and scavenging, fifty chips were enough to live comfortably for half a year.
Of course, a team could not rely solely on cannon fodder.
To ensure nothing went wrong, he had also sent four of his men along to assist.
According to plan, they would strike when those people approached the edge of the Fifth Ring Road. If nothing went amiss, there should already be results by now.
Just then, footsteps came from outside the door.
Putting away the slip of paper, Wu Chou looked up at his subordinate standing at the doorway.
"Any news?"
Wu Chou was already prepared to go collect his pay.
Yet to his surprise, the subordinate standing at the door lowered his head, silent.
That heavy expression allowed Wu Chou to vaguely guess something, causing his eyes to narrow slightly.
"They got away?"
Sweat beaded on the man's forehead.
Feeling that viper-like gaze, he braced himself and said,
"Yes..."
Wu Chou bolted up from his chair.
With sweeping strides, he walked to the door, grabbed the man by the collar, slammed him against the doorframe, and glared fixedly into his eyes.
"There were only eight of them, and you fucking took over twenty men to intercept them, and you come back telling me... you let them slip away?"
Feeling that murderous glare, the man's face filled with terror as he blurted out hurriedly,
"Th-this wasn't entirely my fault! There really were only eight of them, but four of them were Awakened! The cannon fodder were completely useless. I emphasized to them countless times to split into two squads and flank from the sides, but all they knew was to charge forward blindly in a mob, and as soon as they took a beating, they scattered and fled like a swarm of hornets..."
He did not even dare mention that in less than fifteen minutes, half of them had been wiped out by the other side, while the targets barely suffered anything beyond a few light scratches.
So much so that he and the other three brothers had not even dared to engage...
"Utter fucking trash!"
They really could not be counted on!
Releasing the collar, Wu Chou spat in disgust, turned around, and picked up the Drone X-2 assault rifle leaning against the chair leg.
"Round up all the boys."
"I'll lead the team myself this time!"
He refused to believe it.
Just a bunch of blue coats—what kind of tricks could they possibly pull?
Right now, Wu Chou was only worried about one thing: what if those blue coats did one deal and crawled back into their underground hole, never coming out again?
If so, god only knew how long he would have to wait to wrap up this deal.
***
South Gate of Ling Lake Wetland Park.
Five players and one bear were escorting the caravan setting out from the outpost base, marching high-spirited toward the depths of Qingquan City.
Although this escort had one extra person and one extra bear compared to last time, walking in the caravan, Qian Duo's eyelids still could not stop twitching.
He did not doubt the combat capabilities of these blue coats; after all, he had witnessed it firsthand several times.
Whether it was the one who shot arrows, or the brute who handled a machine gun like a rifle, or that "mechanical arm," their combat effectiveness was undeniably top-tier.
However...
Those people had sustained minor injuries in the previous battle, and the group accompanying them to Boulder City this time had been replaced by a different batch.
He did not mean any disrespect.
He just felt... they looked like they were on a picnic outing...
"Damn it! That's clearly Tail's bear..."
"Alright, alright, don't be sad," Sisi patted Tail, comforting her. "Once we retrieve the VM later, we'll let you ride it, okay?"
"What the heck? Are you already assuming I'm going to get wiped for free?!" Yaya, riding on the back of the great white bear, protested.
Meat Mountain Steamed Bun: "W-wait a second, why do I feel like I've become a mount?"
Sisi looked aside with a subtle expression.
"I didn't say that."
Walking in the rear row, Tengteng said worriedly,
"Yaya, don't get distracted. You're the scout, keep an eye on the front."
Speaking of which, ever since getting her closed-beta access, she had always played this game as a simulation management game. Every day she was either running Tengteng Cottage or dropping by the home of the sisters Qiu Cao and Qiu Ye.
This was her first time coming to such a dangerous place.
Looking at the timid Tengteng, Yaya on the bear's back said smugly,
"Heh heh, don't worry, a Perception-type's intuition triggers passively! I've tested it several times already!"
Rourou: "Don't fidget around, I... I mean, the bear's fur is getting tousled by you."
"No problem! I'll fluff it up for you!"
As for the tin can on Yaya, Boss Xia had not had any great ideas either, only able to help them craft a leather saddle fitted over the bear.
Fair was fair, Boss Xia's handiwork was exceptionally solid; this makeshift DIY product was far more user-friendly than the shoddy, unconscionable stuff Mosquito made.
Riding atop Rourou, Yaya resembled a dashing, valiant knight, her three-hundred-kilogram plate armor oozing a sense of security.
Of course, provided she did not open her mouth.
The two caravan guards looked at each other, their gazes turning in unison to the only normal guard.
Kaia swallowed hard.
"Are you sure they can fight?"
Both of his arms were already bandaged up with injuries; he hoped this would not be the final mission of his career.
Xu Shun nodded and said earnestly,
"Of course! I've seen it myself."
Qian Lai gave a light cough.
"To be honest, I have a bad premonition... The bunch we ran into earlier clearly didn't look like ordinary marauders."
Wang Zhong, who had not spoken, nodded.
"Indeed. They looked a lot like cannon fodder gathered just to make up numbers."
Xu Shun frowned in puzzlement.
"Doesn't that just prove they're a motley mob?"
Qian Lai shook his head.
"A motley mob wouldn't take the initiative to open fire on us. They weren't professional marauders, just a bunch of temporary hires. Obviously someone organized them."
This might be hard to understand for someone who had never been to Boulder City, but for those living there, such occurrences were commonplace.
Not only did the militia and mercenary corps recruit from the slums, but marauders did as well. Furthermore, since the gangs there widely operated fencing businesses for marauders, it was very easy for marauders to hire a crew of temporary bandits from there—all it took was advancing them a gun.
If the pay was high enough, they did not even need to hand out weapons; many scavengers could craft pipe weapons themselves. Much like building shacks, it was practically an essential survival skill for them.
Based on Qian Lai's own experience, that raid had seemed more like a probing attack.
The other side lacked sufficient certainty, so they decided to mobilize some cannon fodder first to test their capabilities. It was hard to say how the enemy evaluated their strength, or whether they would abandon the idea of striking against them.
He had advised the boss that resting for a few days before departing would be better.
Yet the boss was eager to convert the spirit leaves into chips; this time, not only had the shipment volume doubled, but he had also handed him a procurement list worth 100,000 chips.
Locomobiles could no longer satisfy the appetite of the master of the northern outskirts; that lord was obsessed with acquiring secondhand machinery from Boulder City, wanting to haul back a bit of everything.
"We can only be extra careful."
Looking toward the graveyard-like city ahead, Qian Lai muttered under his breath.
Hopefully nothing goes wrong...
***
The city strewn with concrete ruins was like a labyrinth. There was more than one route leading from the northern outskirts to Boulder City. Experienced peddlers usually memorized more than ten routes, analyzing which one to take each time based on weather, temperature, intuition, and various other factors.
For hunters in the labyrinth, catching rabbits darting into the ruins was no easy task.
Still, there were always more solutions than problems.
Most marauders would set up an observation post at a vantage point, monitoring one or two visible street blocks, then predicting which route the prey would take based on their movement direction.
High up in a skyscraper within the Fifth Ring Road, a mercenary in a gray overcoat lay prone against a damaged wall, peering through binoculars at the street not far away.
His name was Sha Chi, one of Wu Chou's capable right-hand men, serving primarily as the sniper and scout in the squad.
When he saw the group appearing in his lens, a flicker of surprise flashed in his eyes. He immediately grabbed his walkie-talkie and said excitedly,
"Boss, they're moving!"
After a brief burst of static, Wu Chou's incredulous voice came through the walkie-talkie.
"Are you sure?"
Those people had only crossed the edge of the Fifth Ring Road this morning; not even a day had passed, and they were already hitting the road to Boulder City again.
Didn't these people plan on taking a day off to rest?
Sha Chi said at once,
"I'm certain... Coming from that direction, they could only be from the wetland park! Nine people in total. Besides the two-headed oxen carrying cargo, there's also a white bear, likely their pet. They're heading toward Street 1101, probably intending to cut through the commercial complex there."
"This bunch is different from the ones we ran into earlier—those four Awakened aren't in the group!"
Hearing this, a gleam of excitement flashed in Wu Chou's eyes.
The commercial complex on Street 1101—that half-collapsed mall was a prime spot for robbery. Especially with those four Awakened absent from the team, it was tremendous good news for him.
The only pity was that time was too tight; having not anticipated they would take that route, they had not had time to set an ambush in advance.
No matter!
Their numbers were double the enemy's!
Wu Chou made an immediate decision:
"Flank around to their west side and support us from the rooftops! Listen for my gunshot!"
"Copy that!"
Excitement showed on Sha Chi's face.
Putting down the walkie-talkie, he was just about to pack up the binoculars and pick up the sniper rifle on the floor. Right at that moment, however, he suddenly noticed the suit of armor riding on the bear looking straight in his direction.
The movement gave him such a violent jolt that the binoculars almost slipped from his grip, and he hurriedly ducked behind the nearby cover.
A coincidence?
Didn't seem like it...
The motion was far too deliberate.
Realizing something, Sha Chi's expression shifted slightly.
The one riding the bear was eight or nine tenths likely an Awakened!
***
"Why do I feel like something's watching me?" Looking back at the high-rises behind them, Yaya, encased like a tin can, knitted her brows.
"Where?"
Tail quickly raised the binoculars hanging around her neck and looked in the direction of Yaya's gaze, but saw nothing except layers upon layers of ruins.
There were too many buildings there.
Every window could conceal eyes.
Just as the caravan NPC had said, if it were one person it might be fine, but with a whole caravan, entering here left zero secrets.
"Level 12 Perception-type, calculated to have around 18 to 19 points in Perception," Sisi, cradling her submachine gun, nudged the brim of her steel helmet and murmured, "Can't ignore that."
"Can't you pin down the position?" Tengteng looked at Yaya and asked.
Yaya said helplessly,
"I just have relatively high Perception, it's not like I'm running hacks."
Unfortunately, it was too far.
If it were closer, her innate talent might come in handy.
The group herded the two-headed oxen forward.
More and more ruins and buildings surrounded them, debris of cars and billboards strewn everywhere, along with severed halves of buildings lying across the street.
Everywhere offered cover to conceal themselves, and everyone's nerves gradually tightened.
Less than two hundred meters remained until the ruins of the commercial complex. Looking at the half-collapsed ruins in the distance, Qian Lai, walking in the center of the caravan, signaled everyone to halt and exchanged a few words with Xu Shun, who carried a rifle on his back.
Xu Shun nodded with a grave expression and walked over to the players.
"Past that ruin ahead, 1.2 kilometers further west is our camping spot. To be safe, we need to send someone ahead to scout. Uh, maybe I should go—"
"Leave scouting to Tail! Tail is an Agility-type!" Tail raised her hand eagerly, the safety on her Scythe assault rifle already clicked off.
Beside her, Sesame Paste also took a step forward, gripping the PU-9 in her hands, and said nervously,
"I-I'm also an Agility-type, I can go with you!"
Right then, however, Yaya, perched on the bear's back, suddenly spoke up:
"Do we have to go through here?"
Xu Shun, staring at the subtitles, paused slightly, his expression instantly turning solemn.
"Did you discover something?"
Yaya nodded silently, staring intently at the ruins two hundred meters ahead, muttering in a low voice,
"It's a bit blurry at this distance... but there's no mistaking it."
"Someone is over—"
Before her sentence finished, a gunshot suddenly rang out from amid the distant skyscrapers.
Hearing the gunshot, everyone was startled and immediately retreated behind nearby cover to take shelter. Soon, however, they realized no one was hit; the bullet had not even landed anywhere near them.
"Another group?!"
"The gunshot came from the high-rises due west of us!"
"There's another group here?"
"Probably!"
"Whoever the hell it is, get the oxen in!" Qian Lai shoved Kaia in a panic, urging, "Hurry!"
That was cargo worth over a hundred thousand chips!
If it were lost, the boss would definitely kill him!
"Dammit!"
Kaia gritted his teeth.
Though reason told him he shouldn't do it, he braced himself, ducked low, and dashed out.
"Hey, don't go! We're not even sure if that shot was meant for us!"
Sisi shouted at him, but the NPC clearly didn't understand what she was babbling about.
Standing at the alley exit with rifle leveled, Tail suddenly gave a sentimental sigh.
"Maybe this is life."
Poor working stiff.
This game was always bizarrely realistic in the weirdest places.
"Never mind that for now, what do we do?" Meat Mountain Steamed Bun said nervously. "There really are people in that ruin ahead?"
Yaya, riding on her back, nodded, a heavy voice drifting from within the armor.
"And quite a lot of them! Wait, they're coming out of the ruins, looking like they're heading straight toward us!"
Though blurry, she could see figures moving!
Tengteng looked up nervously.
"Are they marauders?"
"Well, I feel like under these circumstances, it doesn't even matter whether they are or not," Sisi pushed the brim of her helmet, analyzing, "Even assuming they could prove good intentions, we'd still have to make them lay down their weapons first."
"Don't be scared, Tail is here!" Tail cheerfully chambered a round in her rifle and pressed against the cover. "Si, time to go!"
Summoning half of her usual energy, Sisi also racked the slide of her submachine gun.
"Yeah! Time to go! Oh right, A-Wei, don't charge too fast in a bit. We'll flank from the side... They probably want to surround us, so we need to punch our way out before that."
"Okey-doke!"
Can't let the rookies behind look down on them!
Just as Tail and Sisi braced themselves for contact, Kaia was herding the last ox into the side alley.
From the commercial complex directly across the street, a machine gun suddenly mounted on a window frame.
Without giving any reaction time, tongues of flame erupted above the bipod, spraying dense rounds that tore wildly across the ruins.
The two-headed ox was killed on the spot.
Caught completely off guard, the caravan guard herding the ox took a bullet to his thigh as well.
"Fuck!"
Shot in the leg, cold sweat poured down Kaia from the pain. He immediately went prone, pressing flat against a mound of concrete rubble on the street.
Bullets struck right in front of his cover, kicking up dust a meter high. Spattering gravel pelted his face, making his heart hammer in terror, yet he dared not budge an inch.
"Dammit, I'm pinned down!"
"Someone help me out!"
"Stay down and don't move!"
The other caravan guard, Wang Zhong, acted decisively, pulling a smoke grenade and tossing it over.
Dense smoke soon billowed across the street.
Yet the gunfire did not stop; three-round bursts continued hammering in Kaia's direction, seemingly intent on pinning him dead where he lay.
Daring not move recklessly, Kaia pressed his ear hard against the ground. His expression abruptly changed, and he shouted,
"They're closing in on us!"
"Direction?"
"What other fucking direction could it be! Right from those ruins ahead! At least ten, no, maybe twenty!"
Even as he shouted, the twenty mercenaries had already split into two teams, pressing toward the alley two hundred meters away.
Personally leading the team, Wu Chou wore a scowl of rage, his rifle chambered as he cursed and spat.
"Dammit, that stupid idiot! I told him to wait for my shot! Why the hell did he open fire on his own!"
He had gone through immense effort to beat this group to the punch and reach the ruins of the commercial complex first.
What should have been settled by putting a gun to their heads had now devolved into a head-on clash.
Fine.
The other side had at least one Awakened, plus a bear with a steel plate slung over its chest?
While he did not think those people were a match for him, he hated adding extra variables to his plan.
Just then, another gunshot echoed from afar.
A piercing whistling sound came from overhead, and the machine gun suppressing the street with burst fire instantly went silent.
Wu Chou's heart skipped a beat, immediately realizing what had happened, and he shouted at the top of his lungs,
"Sniper!"
"Scatter and take cover! Watch the building due west!"
***
"Two."
On the twentieth floor of a ruined skyscraper.
Lying prone by a glassless floor-to-ceiling window, Ye Shi took a deep breath. With his bandaged right hand, he pulled the bolt, ejecting a scorching shell casing from the chamber.
This sniper rifle had been scavenged from a Boulder City mercenary and had been in his hands for a while.
The original scope mount had been replaced with a thermal imager.
This beauty had cost him 2,400 silver coins won in an auction on the official website. It supported 6x zoom; any heat signature exposed outside cover had nowhere to hide before this gadget.
Paired with his Perception ability, it was practically a god-tier weapon.
Without hesitation, seeing that the mercenaries had spotted his presence, Ye Shi immediately swung his barrel and fired another shot at the marauders scattering into the ruins.
This time it struck a chest.
The fallen man did not die immediately, but wailed, pleading for help from his teammates.
Ye Shi quickly cycled the bolt. Instead of rushing to finish him off, he fixed his gaze on the adjacent cover, waiting for someone to take the bait.
However, he waited until the man drew his last breath, and not a single soul came out to help.
"Three..."
Ye Shi glanced at the VM tossed beside him. Two green dots had already fanned out from the alley, while the remaining four green dots guarded the caravan, staying with the NPCs.
"Must be Tail and the others."
Those two were veteran players; they'd certainly know what to do in this situation.
"So annoying... can't hit anything from here."
Ye Shi muttered, slung the sniper rifle onto his back, drew his submachine gun, stepped over the corridor littered with gnawer corpses, moved to the emergency stairwell, and hurried downstairs.
Parked downstairs was a Hell's Breath.
Although vehicles could hardly navigate the city's road conditions, a two-wheeled motorcycle was always handier than a four-wheeled vehicle.
A tractor-like chugging noise sounded.
Ye Shi quickly fired up the engine, speeding along a pre-planned route as fast as possible to circle around to the south side of the battlefield.
Here stood an office tower of over a hundred stories—a landmark he and his teammates had explored previously. Ye Shi even remembered finding quite a few office supplies and printer paper there.
The gnawers below the twentieth floor had mostly been cleared out. Even if new mutants had spread upward over the past two months, they would not pose much trouble.
Distant gunfire rattled continuously.
Ye Shi could vaguely hear the sound of PU-9 bursts. The engagement distance was within fifty meters; the firefight had clearly reached a fever pitch!
Anxious, he killed the engine, tossed the motorcycle by the roadside, scrambled up the half-collapsed concrete wall to the second floor in three bounds, dashed into the emergency stairwell, and reached the twentieth-floor office area.
Smashing open a floor-to-ceiling window with his rifle butt, Ye Shi lay prone on the floor, set up his sniper rifle again, and aimed across half a street at the battlefield.
Regulating his breathing rhythm, he was just about to squeeze the trigger when an alarm suddenly sounded in his heart. Grabbing the freshly mounted sniper rifle, he dove away from the window.
Almost at the exact same instant, a rocket darted through the window, slamming squarely into the ceiling not far beside him and exploding into a ball of flame.
The blast's heatwave swept out as large chunks of concrete rubble rained down from the ceiling. Fortunately, Ye Shi had dodged in time and was not injured.
"Motherfucker!"
How the hell did these sons of bitches spot him?!
Looking down, the marauders below had detached five men to fan out and close in on his position.
Hurriedly setting up his sniper rifle again, Ye Shi cursed internally, knowing things were turning bad.
A distance of less than 500 meters—if he went downstairs now, he'd run straight into them!
Ye Shi hastily pulled the trigger. Unfortunately, with so much cover on the street, the marauders, having already pegged his location, did not expose much of themselves and easily dodged the shot.
Ye Shi frantically cycled the bolt, muttering under his breath:
"Holy crap, I barely got my hands on this gear and haven't even warmed it up yet. Don't do this to me!"
Come on, Brother Guang.
Five against one is a bit dishonorable, don't you think?
Show some mercy!
Whether or not game planner A-Guang heard his prayers, just as Ye Shi was flusteredly trying to keep firing, an unexpected development suddenly occurred.
A figure completely encased in steel appeared at the center of the battlefield, no one knowing when he had arrived.
The gunfire from both sides noticeably stalled. Whether caravan guards or marauders, everyone was left utterly baffled by this guy.
Hiding behind cover, Tail's eyes sparkled.
"Si! That armor is so badass!"
Way cooler than Yaya's!
Sisi's expression turned grave.
"...A-Wei, don't let your guard down. He might not be here to help us."
Blind to the atmosphere around him, the person standing at the center of the battlefield glanced left and right, then remained silent for a moment.
From beneath the armor, a ghostly voice suddenly drifted out:
"How do I get to the northern outskirts?"
Chapter 257