Were You Sentenced Too?

By the time Chu Guang and his entourage arrived at Qingquan City's Third Ecological Protection Park, the fire sparked by the earlier airstrike had gradually died out. Yet the smell of roasted meat lingering in the air refused to dissipate. Ten KV-1 exoskeletons belonging to the Jungle Corps stood guard at the entrance to the facility. Catching sight of the azure power armor striding toward them from the distance, Midnight Chicken Slayer promptly jogged forward, pressed his right fist to his chest, and gave a sharp military salute. "Honorable Administrator, sir! The marauders in the sector have been wiped out! The Third Ecological Protection Park is now under your control!" A look of unshakeable loyalty was plastered across Brother Slayer's face. Players with high role-playing immersion acted like this from time to time—though, of course, some did it purely to farm favorability points and unlock hidden quests. "You did well." Staying firmly in character, Chu Guang offered an approving nod. At that exact moment, a quest-completion notification popped up on the VMs of Midnight Chicken Slayer and his squadmates. [Quest: Raid the Qingquan City Third Ecological Protection Park (Completed)] [Reward: See Battle Settlement Ledger for details] Seeing the reward breakdown on their screens, every single player beamed with pure delight. An average payout of over five hundred silver coins per person! A haul that fat was nothing short of an absolute jackpot. Clearly, grinding levels for the Scientific Expedition Corps in the future was going to be well worth the effort. With the quest wrapped up, Midnight Chicken Slayer led his squad away in high spirits. All hostile combatants in the area had been neutralized, so there was no need to keep two entire corps stationed here on guard duty. Chu Guang, flanked by Yin Fang and Heya, continued forward. They passed down an overgrown street and stepped into the vine-choked ecological park before them. "Is this what zoos looked like back in the Human Alliance era?" Chu Guang surveyed the fully enclosed dome, thinking it looked far more like a sports arena than any zoo he had imagined. Heya was just as curious, though her attention was captivated primarily by the wasteland flora flourishing in the area. It looked completely different from what she had seen through virtual reality gear, and even noticeably distinct from the straight, rugged pines and cypresses in the northern outskirts of Qingquan City. It felt like a glimpse into another world. "Supposedly, tourist facilities inside city limits were all designed like this, while large-scale ecological reserves outside municipal borders were a different story altogether. When the war broke out, the animals here escaped. The monkeys roaming around this area probably descended from the ones kept here." Chu Guang glanced at her in surprise. "Did pre-war monkeys have scales running down their backs too?" "Genetic mutation plus natural selection," Heya explained. "Perhaps monkeys with scales found it easier to survive in this environment. As for how the scales developed in the first place, only they would know." Right then, Yin Fang—who had been staring down at his tablet in silence—suddenly looked up and blurted, "Found it." Chu Guang turned to him. "What did you find?" With an intrigued grin, Yin Fang continued, "Records on this ecological park. I just reconstructed them from a damaged court trial log. In 2113—twelve years before the war broke out—a major incident, or rather a massive scandal, occurred at the Third Ecological Protection Park. It sent shockwaves throughout the entire Human Alliance." Chu Guang's expression turned odd. "What kind of scandal could a zoo possibly stir up?" "An unauthorized experiment that compromised the safety of twenty-three thousand tourists. Twenty researchers and professors involved were expelled by their respective academic institutions, the key figures faced public prosecution, and the entire park was nearly shut down for good..." Yin Fang's index finger swept across the tablet screen as he skimmed through the newly restored files, his tone buzzing with excitement. Chu Guang cared little for petty squabbles from two centuries ago. Yet the moment he caught the word *experiment*, his brow arched with interest. "What was the experiment about?" "It involved the Human Alliance's colonies and the resonance field theory." Yin Fang switched off the tablet and looked ahead eagerly. "It's been over two centuries, and it happened before the war to boot. That's about as much as public records could reveal, but we'll find out the rest soon enough." The entrance to Shelter 401 was located right in the park's basement, and the players had already marked its coordinates on their VMs. As for the control room that operated the psychic interference field, it sat on the third floor of the facility. After entering the dome-shaped complex, the group split up. Yin Fang headed for the entrance to Shelter 401. Chu Guang issued a quest assigning Kuang Feng to accompany him and ensure his safety. Additionally, Chu Guang assigned a Hummingbird drone to Yin Fang and instructed Xiao Qi to provide remote support within reason. As for Chu Guang himself, he took Heya straight up to the third floor. The two had barely reached the doorway when angry shouts and curses drifted out from inside. "You bastard! This punch is for my dead kin!" "Enough! Get a grip on yourself... I'm a victim too! You can't pin the people those marauders butchered on my head!" "Hah! A victim? Ptui!" Inside the control room. Two men in their fifties were locked in a messy brawl, hurling incomprehensible curses in the Human Alliance language. The older man in the blue jacket, who still looked relatively sturdy, was likely in the wrong; he stayed entirely on the defensive, nervously darting glances at the players standing nearby as if terrified they might intervene. The other man, clad in tattered rags, threw heavy punches with furious momentum. Unfortunately, he was riddled with ailments and had little strength behind his limbs. A flurry of wild blows failed to leave a single bruise on his opponent, instead leaving him gasping for breath. And the players? Naturally, they were just standing on the sidelines enjoying the show. They couldn't even understand what the two were shouting, so how were they supposed to step in? Kuang Feng had stepped out earlier, leaving Fang Chang as the most fluent speaker of the Human Alliance language present. Even so, his fluency was only impressive compared to the rest of the players—a rough equivalent of middle-school English versus broken street gibberish. Scrambled Eggs with Tomatoes glanced at his teammates with a subtle expression. "Should we pull them apart?" Lao Bai looked to Fang Chang. Fang Chang pondered for a brief moment, then shook his head. "Don't make any sudden moves. What if this triggers a cutscene?" Jieyan nodded in revelation. "Makes sense!" Then let them keep swinging. Neither old guy had much combat power anyway, so there was no danger of anyone dying. Just then, the door to the control room swung open. The moment the power armor appeared at the threshold, the players' eyes lit up in unison. He was here! It really was a cutscene trigger! "Stop!" A booming voice echoed from the doorway, causing the two brawling men to freeze and turn toward the azure power armor. The thin-haired man in tatters clearly recognized the suit of armor Chu Guang was wearing. A spark of emotion stirred within his cloudy eyes, shimmering with tears. "Mr. Seven... is that you?" *Seven?* *Is this old guy from Shelter 117?* Chu Guang's expression turned subtle. He tapped the side of his helmet twice, disengaging the locked faceplate. Catching sight of the youthful face beneath the visor, the old man froze on the spot. "...I am the Administrator of Shelter 404, as well as the Administrator of the New Alliance. You may call me Chu Guang. As for the Seven Willard you speak of, he passed away many years ago." The old man's expression dimmed, his eyes dropping slightly. "Passed away... I suppose that makes sense. It's been so many years." Beside him, the man in the blue jacket caught his breath and muttered under his breath, "New Alliance? That Post-War Reconstruction Committee? Didn't that collapse over a century ago?" Just then, Heya poked her head in from behind Chu Guang. She stared hard at the ragged old man for two seconds before crying out in shock, "Zhao Yuan?!" The old man blinked at Heya, stunned. "You're... Heya?" Neither had expected to run into a fellow resident from the same shelter after twenty long years. Heya nodded vigorously. "It's me! How did you... end up like this?" "Natural aging... I wasn't young twenty years ago, let alone now." The old man's gaze drifted evasively, tinged with a flicker of guilt. Chu Guang glanced at Heya, surprised to see such genuine emotion from her. He had assumed she would loathe the traitors who had ruined her home, yet she proved remarkably magnanimous upon reuniting with one of her former kin. "An acquaintance of yours?" "Yes!" Heya's long white hair swayed gently as she nodded with excitement. "He and my mentor were both specialists in bionic organs. I had no idea everyone was still alive... By the way—" Heya turned back to the old man, her eyes full of hopeful anticipation. "Where is Kalian? Did my mentor not stay with you?" "She went south... Many followed that fellow named Wang Yi," Zhao Yuan murmured, his eyes burning with anger and regret as he muttered to himself, "Not a single one of those wastelanders is good news. We should have left them to rot! I should have realized that sooner!" Chu Guang studied the old man for a few moments. "Are you with the Church of the Torch?" "The Church of the Torch? You mean the Torch?" The old man paused, then lowered his head and answered softly, "Twenty-odd years ago, I did join the Torch... That was the single greatest regret of my life." It seemed the Torch had not yet developed into a full-fledged religion back then, and this old man had no idea where the companions who parted ways with him had gone or what they had done. Chu Guang nodded pensively. The person standing before him was likely one of the original 'insurgents' from when the Torch was first formed—the very faction whose rebellion had brought about the fall of Shelter 117. Judging by his tattered clothes and weathered face, he had clearly suffered his share of hardships over the past twenty years. Chu Guang turned to the other man, taking in his blue jacket. "And you? Are you also a survivor of Shelter 117?" Before the man could answer, Zhao Yuan glared at him with burning hatred. "He's not from Shelter 117! He's just a dog—a hound kept by those bandits!" "Sun Zewen, from Shelter 401." Ignoring the foul-mouthed old man, the man in the blue jacket cleared his throat and spoke with polite decorum. "Honorable Administrator of Shelter 404 and master of the New Alliance... thank you for lending us a helping hand in our hour of peril." Sneering at his posturing, Zhao Yuan spat coldly, "Mr. Chu Guang, do not be swayed by his honeyed words! He is an outright accomplice to those marauders! Under Human Alliance law, he should be sentenced to at least three hundred years for crimes against humanity, with no eligibility for cryogenic suspension!" As if stung by one of those words, the previously courteous Sun Zewen flared with rage, glaring back at the old man. "I only did it to survive! What did I do wrong?! Who was the one that let those outsiders inside in the first place? Was it me?! And I categorically reject your accusations! Aside from helping them tame a pack of monkeys, I did nothing!" "Did nothing?" Zhao Yuan looked at him with utter contempt. "What about that girl they bestowed upon you? You two are centuries apart in age, yet you actually had the stomach to lay a hand on her!" Sun Zewen's face flushed crimson, then turned a deep shade of purple. Unable to hold his composure any longer, he stammered indignantly, "I... I had no choice! If I hadn't accepted her, did you stop to think about what would have happened to her?! And what do you mean by 'centuries apart'?! You can't count the centuries I spent in cryosleep!" Chu Guang listened with keen amusement to their bickering, piecing together the broad strokes of what had happened. Just then, he caught sight of the mangled corpse crumpled in the corner and turned toward the players. "Who was that?" Scavenger, his tail swishing behind him, eagerly stepped forward. "I took him out! That's Tus!" Though Zhao Yuan couldn't understand Chu Guang's language, he could guess that the Administrator was asking about the corpse, so he chimed in, "He was the chieftain of the bandits here. His hands were drenched in countless lives—a heinous criminal who deserved nothing less than death! Please, do not blame your soldiers." Chu Guang smiled faintly. "Naturally, I won't blame them. In the territory of the New Alliance, our policy toward marauders has always been zero tolerance." Hearing that, Sun Zewen's shoulders trembled slightly. "My lord, I—" Chu Guang turned to look at him. "I believe you acted out of necessity. The laws of the New Alliance do not apply retroactively. I care not for what you did in the past; from the moment I stand before you, I only hope you can once again become a useful contributor to society and civilization." This was the Wasteland Era, a time far more chaotic than any historic turmoil, where humanity had tumbled from the apex of the food chain. Obsessing over past deeds held little practical meaning. Besides, genuine saints were virtually nonexistent on the wasteland. That included Zhao Yuan himself. Chu Guang harbored no illusions about the Torch, but neither did he intend to pursue whatever internal feuds had played out in other shelters. Sun Zewen bowed his head tremulously. "Thank you for your mercy." Resentment still flickered on Zhao Yuan's face, but he held his tongue. These people had saved his life. With things stated so plainly, he could hardly insist that they adopt his personal grievances and sympathize with all the suffering he had endured. Just then, footsteps echoed down the hallway outside. Yin Fang returned from Shelter 401 clutching a tablet, sweeping into the room like a gust of wind. "Incredible! You'll never guess what I found!" Before Chu Guang could even ask, Yin Fang shouted out in exhilaration, "A resonance field! "The very thing I've been hunting for the past six months was right here all along!" Taking a deep breath, he looked at Chu Guang and said with profound excitement, "We've struck gold!" ... It all traced back to more than two centuries ago. Roughly two years before the scandal that nearly shuttered the zoo—around the year 2111—a letter sent from a distant colony, accompanied by biological specimens, caused a massive sensation across the fields of biology and sociology. The original letter was lost to time, but as a professional archaeologist, Yin Fang had pieced together its core message from the surviving fragments. In short, the colony had been plagued by alien life forms, whose relentless organic incursions posed a grave threat to the settlers' survival. At first, the colonists deployed the 'infrasound fences' provided by their homeworld to repel the alien fauna. Over extended use, however, they discovered that these seemingly harmless sonic barriers severely deteriorated the health of the human settlers. Constrained by limited scientific facilities, the colonists appealed to the academic circles back on the homeworld for aid, hoping they could engineer a harmless screening field to keep the alien beasts from harassing the settlement. After securing approval from the relevant Human Alliance authorities, the colonists shipped several extraterrestrial specimens home, marking the first time the Human Alliance homeworld had ever received biological samples from an extra-solar colony. Prior to this, any Alliance biologist wishing to study extrasolar life had to book passage on the monthly colonial transport ships and travel there in person. Because the Human Alliance had only just dipped its toes into the cosmic sea, its mastery over gravitational conduits was rudimentary, and extrasolar colonies remained sparsely developed. As a result, flights out to the colonies were practically one-way tickets; once you went, returning was nearly impossible. One could easily imagine just how priceless those specimens were. The samples and the plea for help from the colony quickly garnered widespread attention across all sectors of the Human Alliance. Research into replacements for the infrasound fence instantly became the hottest academic topic of the day, drawing countless scholars into the fold. "Hold on... Extrasolar colonies?" Listening to Yin Fang's explanation, Chu Guang rubbed the bridge of his nose, feeling a dull headache coming on. "I was under the impression that the Human Alliance's borders only extended to the Kuiper Belt." Heya looked just as bewildered. She had grown up inside a shelter; let alone extrasolar colonies, she had only laid eyes on the open sky a few months ago. Yin Fang explained patiently, "That understanding isn't incorrect either. After all, traveling to an extrasolar colony versus traveling to a colony on Mars or the Moon were two entirely different concepts... Still, that has little bearing on us today. Both are far beyond our reach, and I know barely more about them than you do." Yin Fang cleared his throat softly, steering the conversation back on track. "To continue... the autopsies of those alien life forms proved to be an eye-opener for the academic community. Reliable evidence revealed that over tens of thousands, perhaps even tens of millions of years of evolution, these alien creatures had developed a unique hive-like social structure. Like ants, they divided labor and fulfilled specialized roles, selectively expressing their genes—and even altering their own genetic makeup—to meet the needs of the collective hive. "Astonishing, isn't it? A pack of alien beasts that hadn't even invented the internal combustion engine held the profound secrets of evolution in their grasp. If only I had been born in that golden age..." A trace of envy shone in Yin Fang's eyes as he glanced back down at his tablet. "In any case, drawing upon those findings, a research group from Nantianmen University's Institute of Biology brought forth the 'resonance theory' and boldly hypothesized that those alien life forms were governed by a singular, unified consciousness. "To prove this hypothesis, the head of the project reached out to a medical enterprise named Silver Hope. Leveraging their resources, they forged ties with Qingquan City's Third Ecological Protection Park, intending to utilize the facility's grounds and animals to study resonance fields." Chu Guang asked, "...Did they succeed?" "More than succeed—it was a resounding triumph," Yin Fang praised. "Drawing inspiration from those alien specimens, they formulated the oscillation theory on the foundation of resonance theory and engineered a psychic interference device—capable of broadcasting specific messages and amplifying them exponentially within an individual. "These messages could be as explicit as a spoken sentence or complex imagery, or as vague as a dream, or even just a burst of raw emotion. The higher the target's cognitive faculty, the more detailed the information they could receive, but the less influence it exerted over them. Conversely, the lower their cognitive faculty, the less information they could grasp, but the greater the device's influence over them." Chu Guang stroked his chin. "I see." A monkey's cognitive capacity likely fell somewhere between a human's and a hyena's. They possessed enough intellect to understand rudimentary commands, yet not enough to resist the device, leaving them susceptible to psychic interference. The psychic interference apparatus designed by Shelter 401 bore striking similarities to the device employed by the Church of the Torch. The latter had likely refined the technology, converting an area-of-effect broadcast into a targeted, single-entity application. "...Such a device was infinitely more reliable than an infrasound fence. It consumed less energy, offered broader applications, carried fewer side effects, and could be tuned to affect only specific life forms. "By continuously broadcasting feelings of terror toward surrounding alien beasts, they could compel them to instinctively stay clear of the colony. When applied to agriculture and animal husbandry, it could even accelerate animal breeding cycles. "However, the corporation sponsoring the research clearly wasn't content with modest gains. They soon set their sights on consumers. The experiment pressed onward, but the subjects shifted from the zoo's animals to visiting tourists. "All indications show that they succeeded once again. While higher-intelligence humans could hardly be directly controlled by such a device, under the constant sub-perceptual urge of 'Buy it,' souvenir sales at the ecological park shattered historical records. Many tourists even paid the price of a full smart wearable rig for a cheap trinket worth less than a bottle of water... It practically revolutionized the advertising industry." Chu Guang stared at Yin Fang, dumbfounded. "They pulled that off?" "The people of the Prosperity Era were monsters—researchers and merchants alike," Yin Fang marveled from the bottom of his heart. "Of course, the company was ultimately fined into bankruptcy. Those who treat others like fools rarely meet a pleasant end. Everyone involved faced public prosecution, and word has it that the mastermind received a sentence so long that it hasn't even expired to this day." Listening all the while, Sun Zewen's flushed face took on a deeper shade of shame. "Please... stop..." Those files had been buried in the deepest vaults of Shelter 401's server. He had never breathed a word of them to anyone, and he had no idea how this fellow had managed to dig them up. Chu Guang turned to look at the man in utter astonishment. "Were you sentenced too?" *Holy crap.* *What a talent!* This was the first time he had ever laid eyes on an actual human popsicle from the Human Alliance era. Meeting Chu Guang's astonished gaze, Sun Zewen offered a bitter smile. "I was merely a low-ranking researcher... The principal culprits were indeed handed harsh sentences, but the purge never extended down to someone like me." Yin Fang looked at him with keen intrigue. "You even scored a ticket into Shelter 401." Sun Zewen fell silent for a moment, then nodded. "Yes. I won't deny that my survival is partly thanks to the research I conducted. After all, technology itself is blameless; it was meant to free our colonial kin from the menace of alien predators. It is merely a tragedy that... a nascent discovery was wielded by the wrong people in the wrong place." "I agree with that sentiment. Technology carries neither virtue nor vice; what requires oversight is the person wielding it." Chu Guang nodded approvingly, pausing before continuing, "Now, it is not just distant worlds that suffer, but the very soil beneath our feet that is plagued by mutants. The New Alliance requires your expertise. I hope you can put your knowledge toward something far more meaningful." With this technology, repelling mutants would no longer depend solely on perimeter walls, and the farmlands, ranches, and villages around the settlement would no longer have to live in fear of mutant raids. Yet the technology was not without its perils. Once tuned to frequencies matching the human brain, it was tantamount to opening Pandora's box. While psychic resonance held limited direct sway over higher cognitive beings, a relentless bombardment of emotional input remained virtually indistinguishable from brainwashing. Moreover, the broadcast was entirely indiscriminate. Recalling that the Church of the Torch possessed similar capabilities, Chu Guang felt a sudden surge of vigilance. He possessed a baseline of principles. Whether others did was another question entirely. He had to secure the legacy of Shelter 401—not merely to combat mutants and the Tide, but to develop viable countermeasures against psychic interference. "Of course, honorable Administrator..." Sun Zewen bowed respectfully, keeping his eyes lowered. "It would be my utmost honor to serve the great New Alliance." To tell the truth, he cared little for ideology. The world had already collapsed into ruin; the knowledge in his head was of equal use no matter who took it. At the very least, the man standing before him appeared vastly preferable to those ruthless marauders. Standing off to the side, Zhao Yuan had remained silent throughout the exchange. He watched Sun Zewen promptly pledge allegiance to a new master, then shifted his gaze to Chu Guang, clad in the former Administrator's gear, and suddenly spoke up. "You sound just like that man did." Realizing Zhao Yuan was speaking to him, Chu Guang cast him an inquisitive look. "Which man?" "Wang Yi... the boy we rescued from the wasteland. We raised him into a man, yet our shelter fractured twice because of him. Perhaps we never should have opened our doors that day." Lingering remorse shimmered within the old man's cloudy eyes as he lowered his head. Chu Guang remembered that name. It marked the genesis of Shelter 117's collapse, and more than a decade later, that same individual became the supreme leader of the Church of the Torch—revered by his followers as the 'Holy Son.' Ever since establishing contact with the Pioneer land fortress, Chu Guang had been exhaustively gathering intelligence on the various major factions across the wasteland, sifting through every useful clue. "I've been meaning to ask: after coming out of Shelter 117, did you stay here for a time?" "Shelter 401 extended an olive branch to us. Their psychic interference device could ward off mutants within a three-kilometer radius. Our original plan was to establish an outpost here, and then bring the old stubborn fools from Shelter 117 over to show them our splendid new home... But that Wang Yi insisted we push further south to track down that alien biological specimen." Zhao Yuan's Adam's apple bobbed as he spoke with a heavy voice. "Our paths diverged once more... Aside from myself, only three others chose to stay behind. Everyone else followed Wang Yi to the south. I even suspect... that they were all brainwashed by that resonance field or psychic device of theirs." "Watch your slander! The resonance field has no such capability!" Now backed by a new employer, Sun Zewen had found his spine again, sneering at the old man. "Have you ever considered looking for the fault within yourselves? Perhaps you were simply too gullible?" Zhao Yuan's temper flared once more. "Who are you calling gullible?!" Seeing the two about to tear into each other again, Chu Guang felt a headache coming on and prepared to step in to stop them. Just then, Heya murmured softly under her breath, "Kalian... my mentor is still alive." The fury in Zhao Yuan's eyes gradually softened into guilt. He bowed his head slowly, remaining silent for a long moment before answering, "I cannot say for certain... "However, like you, she is capable of living a very long life under normal circumstances. "Barring any accidents... she should still be out there."