We Never Mistreat Those Who Help Us

The *Wasteland Online* official website. Player Discussion Board. The players active in Hope Town had opened a dedicated thread to pool the intelligence gathered across the settlement, discussing it in a lively flurry of posts. Since the most buzzworthy topics on the forum currently revolved around the newly liberated Boulder City and the impending Tide, this thread did not garner much general attention; it was mostly just a few players from the Burning Corps chatting among themselves. Still, a smaller crowd had its advantages. Everyone stayed focused on strategies and lore, with almost nobody derailing the conversation. Fang Chang: "In Year 44 of the Wasteland Era, the Production Department ratified the Yunjian Province Restoration Act, confiscating all research institutes belonging to the Technical Department within Yunjian Province. Among these was the facility dedicated to the 'Gestalt Lifeform' project." "Because tensions had festered for too long and the negotiations were far too heavy-handed, what was supposed to be a peaceful reorganization devolved into armed conflict. This led to the escape of several experimental subjects with unstable DNA. Some fled inland, while others operated along the coastline... All of this is documented in detail in the archives of the Great Rift Valley's library. If I recall correctly, it was compiled into the official setting codex several months ago." "Here's my reasonable hypothesis: The researchers who fled into the wasteland never abandoned their mission. They traversed mountains and rivers to reach Jinchuan Province. After the Reconstruction Committee disbanded in Year 45 of the Wasteland Era, they arrived at Singularity City and struck a deal with the local residents to continue their Gestalt Lifeform research, turning a portion—or perhaps even the majority—of the survivors into mutants." "And today's Tribe Qi is composed of the descendants of those survivors from a hundred and fifty years ago." After piecing together the intelligence Lao Bai had pried out of the priest, Fang Chang laid out his theory. Hearing it, several players were floored. Ye Shi: "Holy shit... Were the residents of Singularity City out of their minds?!" Dagger of Murder: "Voluntarily turning themselves into mutants... that's wild..." Kuang Feng: "They weren't necessarily crazy. Put yourself in their shoes: imagine you're a billionaire, and standing before you is one—or rather, a whole team of—top-tier scholars with glittering titles. They tell you they're researching technology capable of reversing cellular aging, but evil forces have their sights set on their fledgling research. As long as you give them sanctuary and fund their work, not only you, but all of humanity will benefit from this miraculous breakthrough." Fang Chang: "Your example doesn't even do it justice. The pie promised by the 'Gestalt Lifeform' was infinitely sweeter than mere cellular aging. Besides, the survivors back then had just lost the umbrella of the Reconstruction Committee and were facing brutal survival challenges in the real world... Standing in front of you isn't just a pack of world-renowned scholars; they're martyrs persecuted by 'traitors,' and they probably brought along black boxes. Backing them not only promised material rewards, but it also placed you on the moral high ground. Everyone would support you, even if you took a tiny misstep along the way. (side-eye)" Even though the imbalance between rights and duties and the gap between ideals and reality were the true roots of the crisis, and the Production Department's scheme had merely been an attempt to preempt it, their military intervention in Yunjian Province had undeniably been the match that lit the fuse. In the eyes of most survivors at the time, the members of the Production Department were traitors, and Ideal City had betrayed its own founding ideals. A faction of researchers persecuted by the Production Department, steadfastly committed to their mission, possessed the aura of tragic heroes. With the Reconstruction Committee crumbling around them, whether they arrived at Singularity City or Boulder City, the local populace would have welcomed them with open arms. Those capable of leading people forward in such a desperate age almost always harbored an ember of idealism. Ye Shi: "Yeah, but mutants... clearly aren't that breakthrough! (crying laughing)" Fang Chang: "Not yet, anyway. Don't forget that both mutants and octuple-speed clones were just byproducts of the 'Gestalt Lifeform' project. While the byproduct is flawed, it's still vastly superior to the primitive lifeforms native to this planet. When a surefire investment opportunity lands in your lap, what reason do you have to refuse? (side-eye)" Kuang Feng: "Singularity City actually had a better starting point than Boulder City. Jinhe City had no mutant slime mold and avoided nuclear strikes. While its level of industrialization lagged behind Boulder City's, it faced no acute survival crisis and had plenty of food... I imagine that's why those researchers chose Singularity City as their new stronghold." Lao Bai: "And then, seduced by the promise of the Gestalt Lifeform, some of the residents offered themselves up and became mutants?" Fang Chang: "Judging by what you gleaned from that priest, that's almost certainly what happened. And down the road, likely due to various issues, they phased out the original baseline humans and attached dicks to the mutants, who originally lacked them." Kuang Feng: "I heard the earliest mutants were created without reproductive organs precisely to prevent their DNA from spreading... Putting back what had been cut out shouldn't have been too difficult for those researchers." Jieyan: "But why would they do that...?" Kuang Feng: "Who knows? Maybe the folks of Singularity City lacked vision back then. (side-eye)" Fang Chang: "Actually, it's easy to grasp if you look at it from another angle. Someone promised your grandfather that the Gestalt Lifeform would definitely be perfected within twenty years, elevating everyone into flawless new humans. Your grandfather believed it wholeheartedly. But when you took over his legacy and found yourself growing old enough to become a grandfather yourself, the promise remained unfulfilled." "Meanwhile, a bunch of super-strong eunuchs in the settlement were throwing daily tantrums, screaming that their sacrifices and devotion had been exploited, demanding to be changed back. But neither you nor the scholars you sponsored had the means. After all, the technology was unfinished; nobody had peeked into the future to see how far off the finish line was. All you could do was settle for the next best thing and grant their other demands... like giving them their dicks back." "Everyone kept saying the breakthrough was right around the corner, and after hearing it enough, you believed it too. Once the final puzzle piece was slotted in, everything would be fine." "Then new problems arose. At some point, the settlement saw a generation of mutants who had never lived a single day as humans. They realized they could knock out those frail, stick-thin thinkers with a single punch. They lived far longer, barely ever caught a cold or fell sick, and merely looked a bit unconventional... You can imagine what that meant on the wasteland back then." "Once over ninety-nine percent of the settlement consisted of new-generation mutants and old humans who joined them out of reverence for raw violence, the era of baseline humanity was over." "A handful of radicals might still remember where they came from and where they were headed, carrying on the old blueprint to chase the elusive 'Gestalt Lifeform.' But the vast majority of mutants simply believed they were already the ultimate lifeform. Their priority shifted to carving out living space in this world, reducing baseline humans to cattle in a slaughterhouse." "Some humans would pledge loyalty or collaborate with them in hopes of joining their ranks and securing a chance to survive in the new world." Kuang Feng: "From that standpoint, the mutants' agenda overlaps almost entirely with the Church of the Torch's..." Ye Shi: "No wonder they're in bed together..." Lao Bai: "By the way, Fang Chang, how did your conversation with that caravan captain from Pinecone Wood Farm go?" Fang Chang: "Handled... He agreed to cooperate with our investigation inside the settlement. In exchange, all we need to do is evacuate his family when we pull out." Jieyan: "Nice!" Kidney Fighter: "Badass! As expected of Brother Fang Chang! The most convincing man on the server! (funny)" Fang Chang: "Piss off!" Ye Shi: "Still, why is every single one of these crafty merchants trying to skip town?" Kuang Feng: "Isn't it obvious? Before, they only smelled smoke; now the fire is right at their eyebrows. (side-eye)" ... In the reading room of Shelter 404. Leaning back on the couch, Chu Guang finished reading through the thread and organized the intel gathered by the players on the front line. Just then, the Alliance's Biological Research Institute completed its autopsy of the cybernetic mutant's corpse, and Heya brought the analysis report in person. "The results are in. The mutants in Jinhe City share genetic markers with those in the Qingquan City area... The ones here most likely originated from that cluster." Walking over to sit on the couch opposite Chu Guang, Heya gently flicked her index finger, pushing a pale blue holographic window before him. "Here's the detailed report." Chu Guang tapped the pale blue window with his finger and gave it a cursory glance. The dense columns of data and complex diagrams went far beyond his knowledge, but he trusted Heya's expertise. "What about the ones from the Great Desert?" Heya answered concisely, "Based on the samples sent from Pioneer City... the correlation is extremely low. I'm inclined to believe they belong to divergent branches with different origins." "Divergent branches meaning...?" "Put simply, their forebears were mutants born from different research facilities, each modified independently from baseline templates. I recall the West Coast had its own institutes conducting Gestalt Lifeform research. The Legion's clones are probably byproducts of those facilities." At this, a look of wistful wonder touched Heya's face, and she continued, "Honestly... I'm quite impressed. During that extraordinary period of severe scarcity, those technicians managed to achieve such remarkable breakthroughs using limited equipment." As a singularity technology standing beyond the event horizon of human civilization, the Gestalt Lifeform was a peak academia had continually strove to conquer during the Era of Prosperity without ever reaching the summit. Even with the rich DNA repositories provided by colonial worlds, progress had been sluggish. One could well imagine the staggering difficulty of such a grand endeavor. Yet during the early days of the Wasteland Era—that most despairing of times—various settlements had managed to preserve enough technical capability to innovate and produce unexpected refinements upon existing achievements. That was no small feat. "Indeed. Setting aside the negative fallout caused by incomplete technology, what they accomplished was genuinely astonishing." Looking at the contemplative Heya, Chu Guang suddenly recalled something and spoke up. "By the way, Alliance forces gathered some interesting leads in the south that might be connected to Shelter 117—" Before he could finish, Heya shot up from the couch, planting both hands on the coffee table. "Where is she?!" Caught completely off guard by her sudden outburst, Chu Guang froze for a second. "She..." "Karen!" Staring intently at him, Heya said with agitation, "My mentor! Where is she?!" "Cough... calm down first." Seeing Heya lean so close her nose almost touched his face, Chu Guang gave a light cough, signaling her to compose herself. Finally realizing her lack of decorum, Heya flushed crimson, sat back down onto the couch, and held a fist to her lips, clearing her throat softly. "Sorry." "It's fine, I understand." After sleeping for nearly twenty years and waking to a world completely transformed, Professor Karen was likely the only family she had left. Based on the information obtained from Shelter 401, the professor was almost certainly alive and had gone south with the Torch. Chu Guang harbored plenty of questions about that as well. Turning toward Xiao Qi, he said, "Xiao Qi, could you brew two cups of black tea?" Xiao Qi pouted, looking a bit disgruntled, but upon hearing Chu Guang's order, she obediently responded, "Right away, Master." Moments later, X-16 walked in with graceful strides, placed two cups of black tea on the table, offered a polite nod, and elegantly retreated from the reading room. Watching Heya regain her composure, Chu Guang spoke in a measured tone. "I don't have concrete news about your mentor yet, but my shelter residents operated in a settlement called Hope Town in Jinchuan Province. They uncovered that twenty years ago, a group of shelter residents visited the settlement and traded medicine for supplies." "That town only has one clinic. The doctor who ran it back then is now the town's priest, and he still remembers them... According to his recollection, those shelter residents stayed in town for a while, purchased large amounts of provisions, and inquired about Singularity City." "Singularity City..." Heya murmured the words under her breath, her eyes clouded with bewilderment. Chu Guang met her gaze. "Did your mentor ever mention that place?" Heya shook her head. "Never..." "I see..." Chu Guang pondered for a moment before continuing. "In that case, I'm inclined to believe they gathered leads about Singularity City on the wasteland, learned about what happened a century and a half ago, and proactively made contact with Tribe Qi." Unless bound by a special mission, most blue jackets were inclined to interact with surface survivors. Those people might have even visited Boulder City, only to leave in disappointment over the arrogant nobility. Singularity City was also one of the settlements outlined in the Reconstruction Committee's blueprints; they had every reason to head further south to try their luck. Heya muttered to herself, "What on earth... is she trying to do?" "I don't know. But according to our findings, twenty years ago happened to be when Tribe Qi first began showing aggressive behavior. I'm inclined to think the residents of Shelter 117 struck some kind of pact with them back then... There probably wasn't a church yet; the Torch was just the Torch." Watching the steam curl up from the teacups and Heya sitting quietly amidst the vapor, Chu Guang sighed softly. "I promised to share any leads on Shelter 117 with you, but I hope you won't bear too heavy a burden over this." "Mhm..." Heya nodded slowly, though the lost look on her face betrayed her turmoil. In her memory, her mentor was a kind, capable, and courageous woman who had been like a mother to her. She tried to comprehend what Professor Karen was doing, but the closer she came to the truth, the more she felt trapped in a dense fog. Collaborating with mutants... What were they after? Hadn't they agreed that once the vault door opened, they would rebuild a beautiful new world on the surface? Heya vaguely remembered her mentor telling her that one day in the future, she would have a long dream. But she didn't need to be afraid—when she woke from that brief slumber and opened her eyes again, a peaceful, flourishing land would await her outside. Looking back now, the crisis that tore Shelter 117 apart had probably already been set in stone by then, and her mentor had decided from the start to leave her behind. "If only... I hadn't fallen asleep back then." Clutching the teacup tightly with both hands, Heya stared down at the shimmering surface of the tea, watching the reflection of her equally glistening eyes. Seeing her lowered lashes, Chu Guang offered a gentle comfort. "Perhaps... but looking at it another way, this might have been the best outcome." He had occasionally thought about it himself. If only he had crossed over a few years earlier. Looking up at the devastated wasteland, he often felt that by the time he opened his eyes, far too many irreversible tragedies had already run their course. Yet he would also wonder: even if he had awakened sooner, would things have truly played out differently? It might have ended up even worse. "You're right..." Brushing the corner of her eye with her sleeve, Heya offered a bright smile once more. "If only I could talk to her face to face." Chu Guang gave an earnest nod. "You'll have the chance." ... Night deepened over the urban ruins of Jinhe City. Standing on the rooftop of an abandoned skyscraper, Gaan gazed silently northward, his caterpillar-thick brows furrowing into a tight knot. Oge had set out in the morning. By all accounts, he should have returned by now. Yet all was silent to the north, devoid of any commotion. An uneasy premonition crept into his heart. Just then, a mutant sentry came huffing up the stairwell, dropping to one knee ten paces behind him. "No word from Oge. Dust Town is a wreck." "They threw a feast there. Human bones, discarded weapons, and more than two hundred corpses of our brothers." *Two hundred?* A look of shock crossed Gaan's face as he turned his burly frame to look at the sentry kneeling on the ground. "Are you certain? That many?" The sentry nodded like a pestle grinding grain. "Yes, many brothers died... Oh, and I found a shell casing this big." With that, the sentry reached behind his back, retrieved a shell casing he had scavenged from the battlefield, and held it out respectfully. Gaan reached out to take the thick casing, pinched it between two fingers, and brought it close to his nose, his brows drawing even tighter. Just then, an aged voice drifted from the stairwell. "That is not a weapon of the 'Iron Tower.' It was designed specifically to kill us." Gaan glanced toward the stairwell and saw a hunched silhouette standing there. It was High Priest Qi Gomo, the only elder on the secularist faction's side whom he respected. Unlike those stubborn, pedantic old fossils, Gomo was one of the few who genuinely cared for the tribe. Seeing Gaan look over, the old mutant spoke in a deliberate rasp. "They belong to the Alliance. There can be no mistake." "They came prepared. The ones stationed at Hope Town are likely just an outpost. With no news from the men you sent, their chances are bleak." A cruel smirk touched the corner of Gaan's lips. As if venting his rage, he crushed the casing between his fingertips into a twisted lump of scrap and hurled it to the ground. "No matter who they are, anyone who dares cross us will regret ever drawing breath!" Gomo gave a slow nod, saying respectfully, "I believe you possess the strength to see it done. However, to be prudent, we had best confer with our allies." "The people in the north have devised troublesome tools against us; we must equip our warriors with sturdier weapons in turn." With a flicker of wariness in his eyes, Gaan nodded slowly. "Mhm, it is indeed a nuisance." Though he was packed with muscle from head to toe, the muscle had not spread to his brain. The humans to the north had already engineered dedicated weapons to counter them; they needed to forge thicker armor in response. Those folks calling themselves the Torch happened to be experts in that field. If they didn't want their grand design to crumble, they had better come up with a solution. ... The following morning. The roadblocks outside Hope Town's gates had been dismantled, and a line of fully loaded trucks was parked out front. Around twenty heavily armed combatants stood to the side, ready to depart. Half of these warriors were clones of Yu in exoskeletons, led by Luo Yu. The other half were players from the Burning Corps, led by Brother Fang Chang. The remaining players had accompanied Lao Bai back to the military base on the provincial border on standby. According to the NPC named Wu Wenzhou, bringing too large an escort would invite suspicion. After all, the cargo aboard the six trucks was worth only around a million silver coins combined; what kind of operation could justify hiring such an extravagant mercenary company? Aside from the clones of Yu, who couldn't conveniently take off their exoskeletons, Fang Chang and the other players had handed their exoskeletons to Lao Bai and the others to haul back to the military base. "...Don't forget our deal." Stepping up beside Fang Chang, Wu Wenzhou's eyes darted about as he issued a tense, hushed reminder. Yesterday's mutants had frightened him out of his wits. Now, he finally understood why his boss was so desperate to pull out of that farm. Fang Chang gave him a reassuring look, a bright smile on his face. "Rest easy. We never mistreat those who help us." "Of course I believe you... Honestly, if only you guys would expand your territory all the way here, we wouldn't have to leave our homes and head up north." Leaving those words behind, Wu Wenzhou turned and climbed back into his truck, grabbed the radio hanging from the console, and shouted, "Roll out!" The engines roared to life. Climbing onto the truck, Ye Shi sat down beside Luo Yu, then suddenly glanced toward the nearby woods. Noticing his movement, Luo Yu asked in confusion, "What's up?" "...Nothing." Tearing his eyes away from the forest, Ye Shi muttered, "Just felt like someone was watching us." Still, he sensed no malice. Probably just a town NPC...