In the ruins beside the camp.
Looking at the signal tower draped in concrete-colored camouflage netting, Chu Guang, riding on Neko's back, was at a loss for words for a moment. Finally, he chuckled wryly.
"...Looks like they spent plenty of time preparing for this plan."
To think they had laid a signal cable all the way in from outside the area affected by the thundercloud storm...
Because the storm had jammed off-field radio signals, the *Heart of Steel* hadn't detected any long-distance communications coming from outside the battlefield at all.
All the radio equipment the Enlightenment Society had used on the battlefield drew their signals from the repeater tower standing right before his eyes.
Standing nearby, Lyu Bei asked in a low voice, "My Lord... should we follow this line and track them down?"
"Pointless. If they were cautious enough to do this, they wouldn't run the line straight to their doorstep... Even if we tracked it down, we'd probably only find a pile of junk or even a trap."
Giving the signal tower a couple more assessing glances, Chu Guang patted Neko's neck. The creature understood him well, letting out a low growl, flicking its tail, and turning around.
"Find some men to dismantle this thing... I'm heading over to the Industrial Building to take a look."
Lyu Bei stood at attention and answered loyally, "Yes, sir!"
...
Although it was a pity they hadn't caught the mastermind behind the scenes, the vast array of high-tech equipment abandoned by the Enlightenment Society remained behind.
One had to admit that the shelters truly held a wealth of good things, and the Enlightenment Society had gathered them all together.
Now, it had all fallen into the Alliance's hands.
According to the logistics department's tally, the greatest haul from this battle was without a doubt a phase cannon.
The contraption was quite massive, resembling a five-meter-long pipeline mounted onto the back of an all-terrain tracked vehicle. Powered by a one-kilogram cold fusion battery, from a distance one might mistake it for a missile carrier from before the Era of Prosperity.
To be capable of taking down two airships converted from frigate cores, this phase cannon had either been stripped from a starship or was something that hadn't yet been installed before the war.
Chu Guang intended to hand it over to the Alliance's research institutions for analysis to see if they could recover any useful technology from it.
He didn't expect Yin Fang and the others to reverse-engineer the antigravity technology—manufacturing that was even harder than understanding the theory.
Still, even if they could only salvage the capacitor technology inside, it would be fantastic; it could be applied to electromagnetic railguns and electric vehicles alike.
Aside from strategic weapons like the phase cannon, there were over two hundred Type 5 "Light Cavalry" police exoskeletons, over two hundred Type 10 "Pledge" exoskeletons originally belonging to the People's Federation Army, sixty rail-accelerated rifles for various purposes, over two hundred caseless assault rifles, basic light weapons, and more.
Adding in the captured anti-armor rocket launchers, grenades, and other military hardware, the gear seized from this single battle was enough to arm half a special operations brigade!
Near the Industrial Building.
With her arms crossed, Frost curled her lip at the stalled mechanical dog not far away.
"I told you those things weren't reliable."
Eclipse's pupils flickered slightly. After a moment, she said, "It was disabled by an EMP."
"An EMP? Heh, I'm not afraid of those."
"Still, your firepower isn't as strong as its, is it?"
"Heh, not necessarily."
Standing beside Xiao Wang's wreckage, Jiang Xuezhou didn't hear the gossiping exchange between the two bionics. Had she heard them, she certainly would have gone over to argue her case.
Glancing down at the tablet in her hand, then toward the tent in the distance, she hesitated for a moment before finally walking over.
The Administrator's log from Shelter 0 and the backup of the original Project Torch documents had already been recovered. Just a moment ago, her mentor had instructed her to report back and recount what had transpired.
After that, her mentor would probably take her back to the Wandering Marsh, archive the recovered data, and attend the Research Department's symposium.
Busy days lay ahead.
The mere thought of the workload waiting for her made her scalp tingle.
Who knew when she would leave the Wandering Marsh again... For all she knew, their next meeting might be on a battlefield.
As a final farewell, she wanted to at least say goodbye to her companions.
Though their time together had been brief, it had been a precious experience for her.
Her gains went far beyond the K-points and merits earned from the mission; she had also found herself again...
...
At that moment, inside the tent.
Ye Shi was colorfully describing to Chu Guang what had taken place in the shelter, handing over Captain Lu's recording along with the captured memory extractor.
"...That's how it went, respected Administrator. I suggest using this memory extractor to thoroughly interrogate this woman."
As he spoke, Ye Shi glared viciously at Zhuang Lan, who was bound hand and foot not far away. That woman had put him through quite a bit of misery.
Looking at the memory extractor, Zhuang Lan's face paled slightly.
She knew better than anyone how terrifying that device was.
Even with specialized training, she had little confidence she could hold out under that peeling interrogation. She would rather confess everything before having that contraption strapped onto her.
The most terrifying aspect wasn't the retrieval of memories; rather, as the process probed deeper, it would gradually awaken the subject inside their dreamscape, weaponizing the fears dredged from the depths of their memories to repeatedly torment them until their mind completely shattered, wringing the last shreds of clues from the fragmented remains.
She didn't even know what she might end up remembering...
Seeing Ye Shi's lingering resentment, Chu Guang nodded and said in a gentle tone, "I'll take your suggestion into consideration. If necessary, I'll do so."
He set the memory extractor on the table beside him.
Just as Chu Guang was about to assign Ye Shi a new task, he noticed someone outside peering hesitantly toward the tent.
The Honor Guard soldiers had already spotted her and stepped forward to question her.
Chu Guang had some impression of her. Although he didn't know her name, he recalled that she seemed to be a Class-D researcher from the Academy. Her hesitant, apprehensive expression suggested she had something to say, yet felt too embarrassed to approach.
Casting a glance at the memory extractor, Chu Guang guessed her purpose, and a faint smile appeared on his face.
Turning back to Ye Shi, he said, "You did well. Good work. Leave the rest to me. Go get some rest."
"Ah, well, I'm not actually that tired... but alright then."
Though a bit disappointed at not receiving a follow-up task, Ye Shi recalled the hidden quest Lao Bai had mentioned to him earlier. Scratching his head, he hurried excitedly toward the door.
With Ye Shi's departure, only Chu Guang, Lyu Bei, and a few Honor Guard soldiers remained in the spacious tent alongside the bound Enlightenment Society operative.
Tucking away his genial smile, Chu Guang looked at her.
"Name?"
The surrounding gazes made Zhuang Lan's skin crawl.
Most of all, before stepping into this tent, the amber eyes of the Deathclaw outside had sized her up, instilling a fear that penetrated deep into her marrow.
Nervously glancing at the memory extractor on the table, she swallowed hard, bowed her head, and spoke in a trembling voice.
"...Zhuang Lan."
Chu Guang stared at her for a moment.
"I don't like wasting time, so you'd better not waste mine either. Answer whatever I ask. If I suspect you're lying, I'll use this."
Chu Guang raised his index finger and tapped on the spectacles on the table.
Those dark eyes stirred a soul-deep fear within her. Zhuang Lan's shoulders trembled involuntarily, and she nodded in fright.
"Use your words."
"Yes!!"
She couldn't understand why, as someone who wasn't even afraid of death, she was terrified to this extent right now.
Could it be a talent granted by awakening?
How could there be such a bizarre ability...
Glancing at the memory extractor on the table, she didn't dare ponder further. She could only keep her head down, not daring to meet his eyes.
"Which shelter are you from?"
"Shelter... Shelter 68..."
"How many of you were there?"
"Two thousand."
Two thousand people.
That was quite a large shelter.
Thinking of the underground city in Shelter 79, Chu Guang wasn't too surprised. He continued, "Where is your Administrator?"
"...Dead."
Chu Guang raised an eyebrow. "Before you joined the Enlightenment Society?"
Zhuang Lan nodded in silence. "Yes."
Chu Guang pressed on. "How did you join the Enlightenment Society?"
"...Wastelanders overran the outpost we built on the surface. Taking advantage of our kindness, they seized our shelter, killed our Administrator, and locked us in cages. Later, people from the Enlightenment Society found us. They rescued everyone who was still alive and executed those wastelanders. They're our kin, so we followed them."
Knowing there was no point in hiding anything, she confessed everything outright.
Her explanation happened to corroborate Chu Guang's suspicions.
The Enlightenment Society expanded by scouring for shelters like Shelter 401 that had been persecuted or even occupied by marauders.
Only, after finding other vaults, instead of guiding those blue jackets to build settlements, they fanned the flames of hatred, directing all animosity toward the Post-War Reconstruction Committee, and even the wasteland as a whole.
There was actually nothing flawed about that narrative logic.
The Post-War Reconstruction Committee had indeed accomplished some things, but they hadn't done everything well, and it was a fact that they had let down the expectations of many wastelanders and survivor settlements.
Yet blaming every failure on the Post-War Reconstruction Committee was no different from blaming all the wasteland's troubles on mutants like a pile of stinking dogshit. It sounded plausible, and plenty of people would buy into it, but think on it a little more and it was utter nonsense.
In truth, Chu Guang was even more curious about another matter.
Namely, whether the Enlightenment Society had actively intervened, or rather accelerated this process.
Based on his own observations and judgment, most survivor settlements held a relatively neutral attitude toward shelter residents.
Ordinary wastelanders neither worshipped nor despised the blue jackets. They didn't care who had abandoned whom two centuries ago, whose ancestors owed whose, or why the war had been fought back then. Most people had long forgotten the Era of Prosperity and the People's Federation, focusing solely on getting through their day-to-day lives.
Even Xiao Yu's family, seeing him in pitiful condition back then, had squeezed out some of their meager rations to give him a meal, teaching him which scrap could be traded for money with merchants.
Leaving aside shelters targeted by marauders, most shelters under normal circumstances—so long as they maintained basic vigilance, limited contact, and neutral-or-better cooperation—could eventually develop into a "Shelter 101 model"... Truly extreme situations like the "Shelter 401 model" were actually rare.
Chu Guang leaned toward believing that the Enlightenment Society had taken active steps to accelerate the deterioration of relations between shelters and nearby survivors.
For instance, deliberately leaking shelter locations to nearby marauder camps or mutant nests, or bribing wavering wastelanders to betray the blue jackets they were cooperating with...
Chu Guang found it hard to believe that an organization dedicated to destroying the world would show any restraint in the means to achieve its ends, sparing shelters and Administrators unwilling to cooperate with them.
Once those uncooperative shelters fell, the Enlightenment Society could appear as saviors descending into the abyss to rescue the survivors, indoctrinate them with the dogma that the entire wasteland was their enemy, and easily reap a large batch of loyal, devoted disciples.
During his conversation with Guixu, Chu Guang had clearly sensed that while the Enlightenment Society's upper echelon and lower disciples shared a unified goal, their stances were actually different.
The former aimed purely to create a dream world entirely dominated by elites.
The latter mostly didn't care who dominated the new world; they were simply driven by sheer despair over reality.
"Have you met that guy named Guixu?"
Zhuang Lan remained silent for a long time.
"...No."
Chu Guang continued, "You haven't even seen him. Why do you believe everything he says is true?"
Zhuang Lan went quiet for a long while before speaking slowly, "I don't care if he concealed anything. That doesn't matter to me. All I know is what those wastelanders did to—"
"And then you did the exact same things to others?"
"I... I didn't! I was just talking—"
"You claim you didn't, but those 'kin' of yours haven't held back on a single atrocity."
Looking at Zhuang Lan, whose face had flushed red in defense, Chu Guang gestured with his chin toward the camp outside and cut straight to the point.
"Look at those tents. The people living inside them are all victims of your atrocities. Are you trying to say that because you weren't the one who tied them up, it has nothing to do with you?"
Seeing Zhuang Lan fall silent, Chu Guang continued, "I don't expect to evoke sympathy from someone cold-blooded, but I am curious about one thing. Do you really believe your home—Shelter 68—was destroyed by wastelanders?"
"Of course! I saw them with my own eyes—"
Staring at the certain Zhuang Lan, Chu Guang recalled something he had read in a forum discussion thread on the official website and continued in a calm voice, "You saw them chop off your parents' heads, saw them lock you in cages, and saw the Enlightenment Society save you. Every single one of you tells this exact same story, including the prisoners we captured on the battlefield... Haven't you ever wondered, even once, if this might be too much of a coincidence?"
"How did those wastelanders turn traitor? When and how did the Enlightenment Society discover you? How did your Administrator die? Where is his operational log? Wastelanders wouldn't be interested in something like that... Have you ever checked his Administrator's log? Can you answer any of these doubts?"
Zhuang Lan froze.
"I..."
Chu Guang looked at her and continued unhurriedly, "You don't know. You believe whatever they tell you, and do whatever they order you to do. And even on a near-suicidal mission like this, that Guixu didn't even have the guts to meet you face-to-face, did he?"
Looking at Zhuang Lan, who had turned pale and speechless, Chu Guang's face suddenly showed a look of interest.
"Let's make a bet."
"A bet...?" Zhuang Lan stared blankly at him. "A bet on what?"
"Your freedom," Chu Guang said. "The Administrator's log of Shelter 68. There should be a backup of that inside the shelter, and even if it was destroyed, there are ways to recover it. That thing can answer the confusion in your heart, and it happens to satisfy my curiosity. Find it for me."
Zhuang Lan looked at him in shock.
"You plan to let me go?!"
"Merely lending you your freedom for now," Chu Guang said calmly. "If the Enlightenment Society had no hand in the disaster at Shelter 68, you're free. If the clues in the log match my speculation, you will return. Remember to bring it to me."
Every shelter's Administrator's log was a vital record. Recovering them whenever possible after a shelter ceased operations was every Administrator's duty.
Even if it contained only a single punctuation mark, it held recovery value.
These were all precious sociological experiences.
Chu Guang had likewise recovered the logs and related proposals for Project Torch stored in Shelter 0.
"Aren't you worried I'll run away?" Zhuang Lan took a deep breath, asking in disbelief.
Chu Guang smiled faintly.
"Your expression tells me you will. But if you have even an ounce of brains left, you'll realize how foolish that would be."
"The enemy who truly killed your parents didn't just deceive you; they deceived the kin you cherish most."
"Find that thing for me. This is your only chance at redemption."
"The Post-War Reconstruction Committee and its three sons may not care about you, but we will."
...
Watching the figure disappear outside the camp entrance, Lyu Bei hesitated for a moment and whispered, "My Lord, is it really wise to let her go?"
He didn't doubt the Administrator's decision; he merely doubted whether that cunning operative would honor such a non-binding promise.
Unlike the worried Lyu Bei, Chu Guang didn't care much. He replied casually, "If she finds something, maybe she can help us dismantle the Enlightenment Society from the inside. At worst, she can help us locate their headquarters."
Find nothing?
Impossible.
Chu Guang didn't believe for a second that a petty person like her could resist the temptation of taking shortcuts.
If he guessed wrong, then he was wrong—it didn't matter.
A minor pawn, one more or one less didn't affect the big picture.
Pausing, Chu Guang continued, "Of course, if she doesn't investigate at all and returns completely unscathed, what would you think if you were the upper echelon of the Enlightenment Society?"
Lyu Bei thought for a moment and scratched his head. "If I were an Enlightenment Society boss... But My Lord, I don't have that kind of vision."
Looking at this disappointing young fellow, Chu Guang shook his head and rebuked him sternly, "Believing that those in high positions must have three heads and six arms is slave mentality! People are just people, how many times have I told you!"
Young Lyu Bei's mind was sharp after all. Scowled at by Chu Guang, he immediately caught on.
"Suspicion! They'd suspect why she returned alive!"
Chu Guang nodded approvingly. "Smart."
That guy named Guixu, in particular, gave him the impression of an embodiment of arrogance and conceit.
He might have some substance, but not much; theory outweighed practice for him, and a subconscious inferiority complex paired with urgency made him eager to prove his power, even boasting and flaunting it right in front of his enemies.
In contrast, the Legion's Marshal, the Academy's Doctor Conclusion, and even the City Lord of Boulder City preferred to keep themselves hidden.
Those old monsters, who knew how many years they had lived, never revealed how many cards they held, and their thoughts were far harder to fathom.
"Still... will she be fine on her own?" Lyu Bei asked Chu Guang in confusion.
Chu Guang said nonchalantly, "That's her own problem. I never pinned all my hopes on an offhand idea anyway."
The people who killed the crew of the *Pioneer* had already died in the nuclear blast. This woman had nothing to do with that incident, nor had she handled that data. The Legion wasn't his ally, so he had no obligation to avenge the Wilantes, and killing her served no purpose.
And if she were locked up for reform through labor alongside other prisoners of war, the Legion would tirelessly use that excuse to pressure him for extradition. If it happened once, it would happen again—sheer trouble.
If Cohen wanted to avenge his confidant, he could go hunt her down himself, which would happen to make the Legion, being closer to the Great Desert, keep an eye on the Enlightenment Society's movements for the Alliance.
At this point, Chu Guang paused for a moment.
"Right, notify Captain Adria in a bit. Tell him the Enlightenment Society agent who murdered Vali escaped, and let them handle it as they see fit."
Resting his right fist against his chest, Lyu Bei looked at the Administrator with admiration. "Yes, My Lord!"
"Go on."
Smiling as he watched the young man disappear out the entrance, Chu Guang turned his gaze to the memory extractor on the table.
He had heard this gadget was eerie enough—not only could it wring out a person's memories, it could even help someone recall things they themselves had forgotten.
Right after exiting the shelter, Battlefield Guy had secretly put it on to test it out. Unfortunately, it was useless on players, so he posted a thread and gave up pondering it.
Naturally, it couldn't possibly work.
A clone's brain was like a blank sheet of paper, merely a signal repeater with a buffer at most; it didn't store long-term memories in itself. As for the players' memories, they were stored in their own brains—brains located in another world.
Suddenly, a thought surfaced in Chu Guang's mind.
If he put it on, what would he see?
The thing he feared most deep in his memories...?
Thinking this, Chu Guang's hand had already settled on the spectacles. Yet after only a few seconds, he shook his head and dismissed the notion.
An inexplicable sense of déjà vu warned him that doing so would lead to no good...
Chapter 512