An Engineer from the Enterprise

Inside the mud pit. The stalled lump of iron suddenly jerked as if jolted by an electric shock. Its hands pressed against the ground, but before it could push itself up, a gun barrel was already pressed against the back of its helmet. "Don't move." Xu Shun stared unblinkingly at the figure, ready to fire at any second. "How... to the northern outskirts..." A muffled voice drifted out in broken fragments from beneath the armor, making one wonder whether that was the only phrase he knew. "What on earth is this thing?" Staring at this strange figure covered from head to toe in steel plates, Yu Xiong furrowed his brows. "Is he human?" "No idea." Xu Shun crouched down to examine the person's armor and discovered that the helmet had actually been welded completely shut onto the cuirass. Not only that, but the overlapping joints of the steel breastplate were all riveted tight, secured with a neat row of hexagonal rivets, offering no visible mechanism to unlatch it. That raised a question. How does he take a shit? "It can't come off." Shaking his head, Xu Shun stood up, glanced at his VM, and said, "Better leave it to the Administrator to judge." The Administrator would definitely know what to do. Yu Xiong nodded, called over two guards to watch the guy, and then headed over to the captives. There were four captives in total. Apart from the six who had escaped, a total of fifteen had been killed in the chaotic firefight. Including their leader—the man named Wu Chou. Interrogation revealed that these people were Boulder City mercenaries, though they didn't belong to any formal mercenary corps; they were merely gig-workers who couldn't land respectable jobs under normal circumstances. As for why they couldn't land regular jobs, everyone had their own reasons. Yu Xiong didn't care about that. He simply ordered his men to bind their hands and feet, herd them by the wall to crouch, and wait for the Administrator to deal with them. The situation for the players and the guard team was fairly optimistic. Thanks to timely reinforcements, apart from minor injuries, no one suffered serious harm. Including the fellow who took a bullet to the leg. Luckily, the bullet had passed clean through his leg without hitting bone or severing an artery; the chances of permanent disability were slim. However... With an injury like that, and being an unawakened ordinary person to boot, his days in the mercenary trade were pretty much over. Emerging from the alleyway, Meat Mountain Steamed Bun hung his head in shame, wishing he could find a crack in the ground to crawl into. "S-sorry... The moment the gunfire started, I got scared..." "It's fine, it's fine. No big deal," Sisi patted the giant white bear on the shoulder, consoling him. Tail stroked her chin thoughtfully. "Could it be because something was missing from your back? I felt like Meat Meat was pretty brave back at the ecological testing base." Sisi looked slightly surprised, then thought back carefully and nodded in contemplation. "Hey, that might actually be true." "Don't lose heart, Meat Meat! It was too cramped here to spread our wings. I'll definitely ride you next time!" Meat Meat: "W-wait a second, I feel like something sounds really wrong about that—" Sisi: "Just an illusion." Tail: "Exactly! It's definitely your imagination!" Meat Meat: "???" On the other side, with help from Tengteng and Sesame Paste, Yaya, who had been pinned by a broken wall, finally managed to break free from the pile of ruined concrete. "Dammit..." Prying off the helmet that had wedged against her chestplate, Yaya shook her dizzy head and muttered, "That hit earlier gave me a bad network lag." "Are you really okay?" Tengteng looked worriedly at the deeply dented breastplate and whispered, "Why don't... you go back and save your progress?" "No need, no need! Don't worry, I'm totally fine!" Shaking her scrambled, battered head, Yaya put on what she thought was a reassuring smile and gave a thumbs-up. "Don't worry, Tengteng, I'll definitely deliver you safely!" Tengteng held her forehead in a headache. "How can I not worry with you looking like that..." Yaya: "Eh?! Woman, don't you have a shred of gratitude?" Tengteng subtly shifted her gaze away. "A little bit, maybe." Truth be told... Even though this was an MMORPG, the feeling of being protected wasn't bad at all. Watching the two getting along so well, Sesame Paste piped up in a small voice, "By the way, who was that person who helped us just now?" Yaya blinked. "Oh, right. Now that you mention it, I remember too." Tengteng: "Maybe... it was Boss Xia?" Yaya turned to her in surprise. "Boss Xia?!" "Well, just a guess." Tengteng pointed toward the nearby street corner. A suit of sky-blue power armor and an agile figure were walking over from the far end of the street, where the setting sun painted everything in gold. Slung across Boss Xia's back was an LD-47s—a "Long Scythe" semi-automatic rifle fitted with a scope. Her cat ears twitched slightly, and Sesame Paste's face lit up with surprise. "The Administrator?" "Yeah." Tengteng nodded, a glimmer of curiosity showing in her eyes. "Looks like a cutscene just triggered." ... Qian Lai, who had previously hidden near the two-headed ox, dusted off his clothes and stepped out from the alley, just in time to run into Chu Guang walking from the west. Surprise showed on Qian Lai's face; he clearly hadn't expected to run into this big shot of the northern outskirts right here. "Administrator... sir?" Chu Guang looked at him and said, "Are you all right?" "I'm fine, all thanks to your subordinates. Otherwise, our losses today would have been far more than just one ox." Qian Lai admitted that he had been hasty before. These people were far from weak. Though they seemed a bit unreliable at first glance, both their perceptiveness and combat prowess were far greater than he had imagined. "You should say that to them." Chu Guang nodded and walked over toward the strange armored man. Beside the armored figure, Xu Shun and two guards stood watch. Even as Chu Guang approached, the armored figure sitting against the wall kept repeating that same phrase like a broken record. "How... to the northern outskirts..." "This is the northern outskirts, and I am the Administrator here," Chu Guang said, looking down at him. "State your business." Responding to those words, the armored man slowly raised his head, clasping his helmet with both hands. Chu Guang caught a glimpse of crimson through the mesh visor. He wasn't sure if it was just his imagination, but those eyes looked somewhat familiar. Right then, with a sharp *clack*, the strange armored man detached the helmet from his cuirass. Getting a clear look at the face, Chu Guang froze momentarily. Standing nearby, Xu Shun and the guards went pale with shock, snapping their rifles up and aiming directly at the rotting head. "It's a Crawler! Sir!" "Wait!" Raising a hand to stop the guards who were ready to shoot, Chu Guang stared at the crimson eyes and the decaying face, a hint of curiosity in his gaze. "Your name?" What a rarity. A mutant slime mold species could speak human words? The rotting face panted softly, no trace of rational thought visible in the crimson irises. Chu Guang felt a slight pang of disappointment. Yet just as he was about to give up on this pointless exercise, that decaying face slowly parted its mouth. "B... Bucky." Seeing this creature speak human tongue, the surrounding guards were stunned. Including Xu Shun. Although there were some mutant species at the outpost that could speak human words, in his understanding, those were products of Vault technology—pets of the blue coats. For a wild mutant—and a slime-mold-type mutant at that—to open its mouth and speak human language was something he had never heard of! "Bucky?" Chu Guang pressed, staring at him. "Your name is Bucky?" The man nodded slowly. "Yes." Chu Guang frowned. That name... Sounded familiar. ... "The analysis results are out." Shelter 404, Floor B3. Medical Lab. Emerging from the laboratory, Heya deftly handed a modified VM screen to Chu Guang, which was filled with a battery of test results, including blood work. As the foremost expert on mutants in the Vault, the only one who had any hope of figuring out what had happened to this "Bucky" fellow was likely this silver-haired SSSR. However, Chu Guang couldn't make heads or tails of what was written on the tablet. "What's his actual condition?" Pretending to look through it for a few seconds, Chu Guang handed the tablet back to Heya. Heya explained patiently. "Mutant slime mold infection, with an erosion rate as high as 67 percent. This condition is extraordinarily rare, because according to my research, the relationship between mutant slime-mold-type species and other organisms ought to be predatory. You remember, don't you? Crawlers are fruiting bodies of slime mold." Chu Guang nodded, signaling that he remembered. "And what about him?" Heya: "Symbiosis." Chu Guang was momentarily taken aback. "...Symbiosis?" Heya sighed, crossing her arms with one hand pressed against her forehead. "I really don't feel like explaining basic science... In short, he's roughly half-human and half-slime mold right now. Initially, the slime mold devoured most of his organs, but for some unknown reason, it suddenly decided to let him live. So it evolved into fruiting bodies that mimic organ functions, replacing his original organs." The fruiting bodies evolved by mutant slime mold could mimic the behavior and traits of swallowed organisms, as seen in gnawers, Crawlers, Detonators, and even tyrants. However, after devouring the organs, replacing the originals to form a symbiotic relationship with the host was practically unheard of. Even Xia Yan, who relished urban legends, had never heard of such a thing. Chu Guang rubbed the bridge of his nose. "So that means he only has a brain left?" "Maybe three-quarters of one?" Heya hesitated for a second, then pondered. "The slime mold's infection halted after reaching the cerebellum, while at least half of the spinal cord has already been replaced by fruiting bodies formed by the mold." Chu Guang: "How much longer can he live?" Heya: "No idea. Maybe indefinitely, for all we know." Chu Guang stared. "Live indefinitely?!" Heya nodded. "Mm... Because according to my research, mutant slime mold has no Hayflick limit. Over time, the organs formed by those fruiting bodies may become even more refined and function far better than before. Of course, there's another possibility: once this slime mold 'feels' the host is no longer necessary, it might just eat the rest of the brain too." "Wait a minute," Bucky, sitting beside the scanner bed, slowly raised his steel-covered hand, his voice frail. "Is there any hope for me in this state?" Chu Guang cast a surprised look at the guy. "You're awake?" He had assumed this fellow could only repeat a single phrase. "I injected him with an inhibitor to suppress the activity of the slime mold invading his nervous system," Heya looked at Bucky on the scanner bed and continued, "As for whether there's hope, I don't know how to answer that. If you want to return completely to your original form, that's probably impossible. But if you can accept cybernetic modification, you could have all the mutated organs excised entirely and replaced with bionic prostheses." She herself had done just that. Bionic prostheses not only extended one's lifespan, but they were also far more reliable than a biological body's original organs. But Heya also knew full well that replacing most of one's parts with technology was something not everyone could accept. Chu Guang coughed lightly. "Shelter 404 doesn't have a black box that manufactures bionic organs... Actually, looking at it from another angle, aren't the organs in your body right now a kind of bionic organ too? And one capable of actively evolving, no less." Heya looked at Chu Guang in surprise, thought about it for a moment, and then nodded. "Now that you put it that way, there's some truth to it." A pained expression surfaced on Bucky's face. "This doesn't feel good at all." Chu Guang: "Does it hurt?" Bucky shook his head. "Not that. Far from pain, I've lost all sense of pain entirely. I can't even feel that I'm alive." Chu Guang: "What on earth did you run into?" Bucky remained silent for a moment, then sighed softly. "That's a long story..." It happened in the winter of Waste Era 211. Far away in Ideal City, Bucky had just received his graduation certificate and was planning a graduation trip when he received a letter from an old buddy far away. In the letter, Luo Hua described a wonderful place called Qingquan City, far to the west in the heart of the Mid-Continent. A great bunch of people lived there, hailing from Shelter 404, which had recently opened its blast doors, and had recently become a permanent partner of the Enterprise. Most importantly, that place boasted astonishing cuisine and culture. Those blue coats possessed many cooking methods he had never seen before, capable of turning even unpalatable mutant meat into delectable delicacies. In Bucky's mind, gourmet food was something tied to technology. Wastelanders deserved praise just for cooking their food all the way through; how could people who could barely fill their bellies understand what delicious meant, let alone culture? Even so, the letter piqued Bucky's curiosity. He was nearly rotting with boredom in Ideal City anyway. Life there was orderly and regulated like lines of code on a holographic screen, yet precisely because of that, it lacked the necessary margins of error. And so, egged on by his good friend, he made the central River Valley Province the destination of his "graduation trip," stepping into the western wasteland with the ambition of exploring the unknown. Little did he expect that this journey would be fraught with one mishap after another from the very start... "...My father is a wine merchant. I initially followed a caravan sponsored by my father to western Yunjian Province, and from there I set off on my own. I hired guards, a guide, and a doctor, making every preparation imaginable. I followed the track marks of the Pioneer land fortress, and everything went as smoothly as planned. But when I passed through Yongdong City, something went wrong." "There wasn't a single soul there; it was like a dead city. The survivor settlement that should have been on the map was deserted, and no one knew where everyone went. Out of caution, we planned to withdraw from the city. But right then, we were suddenly ambushed by thousands—maybe tens of thousands—of gnawers." Bucky took a deep breath. "When a gnawer tackled me to the ground, I thought I was dead for sure. But when I woke up, all the gnawers around me were gone... and so were my teammates. I thought it was just a nightmare, until I found a mirror and realized that the true nightmare had only just begun." Bucky's Adam's apple bobbed as he continued. "From then on, I turned into this." Heya and Chu Guang exchanged a glance, unable to hold back. "That's completely bizarre." Chu Guang nodded. "Indeed." Listening to the first half, Chu Guang had already deduced Bucky's identity: he was the engineer friend Luo Hua had promised to introduce from aboard the Pioneer. Yet regarding the latter half of Bucky's story, Chu Guang still harbored some doubts. It wasn't unusual for players to meet an untimely end in the tunnels now and then, but he had never heard of any player being parasitized by a slime-mold-type mutant. Just as Heya said, the first reaction of a slime mold's fruiting body upon capturing prey was to devour it directly, turning it into nutrients to produce spores. This was the first time he had ever heard of someone being turned into "one of their own" by slime mold. Bucky gave a bitter smile and continued with his head down. "Anyway, after that, mutants seemed to lose interest in me. Slime-mold mutants treated me like kin, and as for mutant hyenas, unless they were starving, they wouldn't take a bite out of me. Even when they did, they'd at most chew off one of my hands... or maybe a leg. But none of that mattered, because I couldn't feel pain at all. A lost arm or leg would slowly grow back over a week or two, and come back stronger than before. Eventually the hyenas couldn't even bite through me anymore, and I ended up looking like this." Limb regeneration?! Regenerative limb evolution?! *Holy shit.* That ability is pretty overpowered. After hearing this guy's description, Chu Guang's face was filled with astonishment. He would bet good money that if given the choice, quite a few players would gladly swap "lives" with him. Aside from being hideous, he could barely think of any weaknesses in this "sequence." As long as his brain wasn't destroyed, couldn't he just live forever? "Are you envious?" "Not really..." "No, I can feel it," Bucky shook his head and said with a bitter expression. "You don't understand how this feels at all. Ever since then, I haven't been able to visit a human survivor settlement, and whenever I saw people, I had to steer far clear of them. Nobody believed I was human. Even when I told them it was an accident, they'd chase me away." Chu Guang: "...Then this suit of armor, you couldn't have made it yourself, could you?" Bucky: "I ran into a slaver when I entered River Valley Province." Chu Guang: "A slaver?" "Yeah," Bucky nodded. "He was the only good person along the whole way who showed any interest in me. He said he'd take me to the Wandering Marsh and sell me to the Academy for research. I figured that maybe the Academy could actually figure out what happened to me, and being sold to them didn't sound too bad, so I went along with him." "That man found a blacksmith to forge a suit of steel armor for me, so I could conveniently enter survivor settlements without drawing unwanted attention. But... plans never keep up with changes. His slaves staged a revolt over something and hanged him from a tree." "I had no idea how to get to the Academy, and the slaves didn't know either; they just wanted to go home. I had to walk the rest of the way alone. That was when I suddenly remembered Luo Hua mentioning a place called Shelter 404 in Qingquan City. So I kept walking west, but as I went, my physical condition suddenly began to deteriorate, and my consciousness began to drift... It's hard to describe the feeling, like there was a string stretched taut between my soul and my body." Heya chimed in. "That was probably when the slime mold began invading your nervous system. In a bit, I can perform a minor surgical procedure on you to stop the mold from spreading further into your nerves." "Thank you," Bucky took a deep breath, his eyes looking pleadingly at Chu Guang. "After that, all I could remember was the northern outskirts of Qingquan City, and I kept walking until I got here... That's the whole story. I don't know what to do anymore. Can you help me?" "Of course I will help you. Your friend Luo Hua is a friend of mine, and he's helped me a great deal. What's more, this happened to you on your way here, so there's no way I can just leave you to your fate." Chu Guang then turned to Heya. "Aside from replacing his organs with bionics, is there any way to restore him to his original self?" Bionic organs were far too expensive. Replacing an eye or a limb was manageable, but replacing an entire system from blood vessels to skin—hardly any wealthy elites in Ideal City could afford such an expense. Many of those things were non-renewable resources, just like nuclear fusion; the gap between "being able to use it" and "being able to build it" spanned more than a single dimension. Heya shook her head. "His immune system has been completely replaced by the slime mold's fruiting bodies. Strictly speaking, it's not that he accepted the slime mold, but that the slime mold permitted him to retain his brain and control a body that has already mutated. Rather than replacing his organs with bionics, I'd actually recommend swapping out the body entirely... How about putting his brain into a culture tank first?" Bucky clutched his head in agony. "I'd rather just die..." Heya's eyes lit up, and just as she was about to prod him further, Chu Guang saw through her intentions and coughed lightly, cutting off the words practically on the tip of her tongue. "I don't think switching to a mechanical body is necessarily any more optimistic than the current situation. For now, live here for a while. In your state, you don't have anywhere else to go anyway." Pausing, Chu Guang continued. "By the way, you mentioned a graduation trip earlier... What was your major again?" Bucky: "Materials engineer." Chu Guang said with delight, "Materials engineer? Specifically? What did you study?" A nuanced look appeared on Bucky's face. "Carbon nanomaterials... But you'd better not get your hopes up regarding my professional competence. I probably know more about wine and fine food." He had slacked his way through his degree. Such a thing wasn't uncommon in Ideal City, especially for someone like him who never planned to work in that field to begin with, so he didn't have to worry about being exposed. Bucky had originally intended to go home after his trip to inherit his father's red wine business and expand into markets outside Yunjian Province. But now, forget going back—he didn't even dare let his father know he had turned into this monstrosity. He was certain his old man wouldn't waste good money buying him a cybernetic body incapable of producing offspring; his father would choose to have another child without a second thought. "It doesn't matter. Everyone starts off inexperienced before getting the hang of things. All you lack is a little experience, and I happen to be able to offer you an internship," Chu Guang patted his shoulder enthusiastically. "As for wine, don't worry. We don't just have grape wine here; there are far more interesting things... Speaking of which, can you still drink wine in this state?" "Of course I can, my taste buds are still functioning normally..." Bucky said softly, feeling somewhat guilty. "What do you plan to have me do?" Chu Guang didn't answer right away. He tapped a button on his VM, and before long, footsteps sounded from outside as Yin Fang walked in. "What did you call me for? I'm busy." Standing in the doorway, Yin Fang wore an obvious expression of impatience. Lately, his players had retrieved a good deal of valuable data from the ruins, and he had been constantly analyzing the valuable clues within. When he got busy, he even ate his meals in the lab. Having gone some time without bathing, his hair was disheveled and his beard unkempt. Chu Guang didn't mind that, however. "Allow me to introduce a new employee. This is Bucky. While... his appearance might be a bit frightening, he's a good man." Yin Fang stared at Bucky for a moment. "A Crawler?" A bitter look appeared on Bucky's face. "It was an accident... Do I really look that much like a Crawler?" Yin Fang nodded with an odd expression. "A little." Seeing Bucky sink into gloom, Chu Guang cleared his throat lightly. "Don't judge a book by its cover... Besides, this gentleman here is a D-rank prospector from the Academy. Weren't you looking for the Academy all along? He's from the Academy, though that's in the past." "Hello, Mr. Bucky," Yin Fang gave due courtesy, extending his right hand—a bionic prosthesis manufactured by the Academy. "What's your area of expertise?" "Brewing, and... I know a bit about materials," Bucky slowly raised his clumsy steel arm, awkwardly shaking hands with him, and cautiously added, "Just a little, though." Yin Fang's eyes lit up. "Materials? Excellent!" Chu Guang looked at him. "Did you make a new discovery?" "Of course! It's regarding some Mid-Continent Aerospace data. Certain datasets concerning external aerospace equipment need restoration, and I just happen to need an expert in materials science. This will drastically accelerate my progress." Yin Fang looked happily at Bucky. "Can I rely on your professional expertise?" Bucky really wanted to say no, since he didn't even trust his own skills, but seeing those expectant eyes, he couldn't bring himself to say it. Ever since he had turned into this hideous monstrosity, every person he met had wanted him to scram as far away as possible. This was the very first time someone didn't mind his face and even said they needed his help... Nodding, Bucky said cautiously. "While I'd say brewing and doing business suit me better, well... I can give it a try." "Wonderful!" Chu Guang patted the fellow's shoulder in delight. "Don't worry, you'll have plenty of time. Aside from work, you can certainly try out anything else that interests you. Meanwhile, we will do our utmost to find a way to turn you back." Bucky smiled bitterly. "I hope so." He had originally intended for Shelter 404 to be the starting point of his journey. Now, however, it seemed his graduation trip had come to an early end... The Academy, the Enterprise, the Legion, plus the old popsicles of the Vault... Shelter 404's NPC roster was growing larger and larger. Just as Chu Guang was settling this friend who had come from afar, the ten Iron Horse 60 locomobiles purchased from Boulder City finally arrived at the outpost's industrial zone. Eight of them were sent to the No. 81 Steel Mill, while the remaining two went to Goblin Technology. According to the assigned quest. The No. 81 Steel Mill needed to modify four of them within two weeks into heavy-duty tractors capable of providing sixty horsepower, and pair them with a set of towed four-row subsoiling seeders. In addition, two units would be used for the irrigation canals on the north shore of Ling Lake, and another two for the mechanized mill required by the granary. Looking at the compact, tightly designed machine before him, Lone Wolf, who happened to be helping out at the No. 81 Steel Mill, showed a look of surprise. "This is a locomobile?" Brother Toilet Cable and Brother Levin glanced at each other, looking at him in confusion. "Is there a problem with it?" Lone Wolf shook his head. "Nothing... I just think it's quite rare." Locomobiles consumed massive quantities of timber and were largely phased out by the 1970s, remaining in use only in a handful of rural and remote regions. In his memory, common models typically delivered between eight and twelve horsepower, rarely exceeding twenty, let alone a sixty-horsepower beast on par with a fuel-powered engine. Still... This did feel very post-apocalyptic. "This thing probably guzzles quite a bit of wood." Brother Levin chuckled. "Doesn't matter. What we lack least around here is timber. There's wood everywhere inside and outside the city ruins, and we chopped down tons during land reclamation. This will burn through some of it nicely!" Brother Toilet Cable chimed in, "That's right! Besides, we've also been researching internal combustion engines lately." Lone Wolf was surprised. "There's petroleum here?" Brother Levin: "According to the lore, there's a crop that can produce petroleum." Brother Toilet Cable: "Yep! Even though we haven't planted it, the Administrator said he could help us go borrow some from our neighbors!" Borrowing some, huh? Lone Wolf looked at the locomobile. "Can I dismantle it to study?" Brother Levin said readily, "Go right ahead! We were planning to take it apart and study its internal structure anyway." "Yeah!" Brother Toilet Cable nodded excitedly. "The Administrator said we can take it apart, as long as we can put it back together!" A spark of excitement lit up Lone Wolf's eyes. He was genuinely curious. Just how authentic could the developers of this epoch-making MMORPG get with their details?