The instant those words left his mouth, the eyes of the players crowded around him lit up at once.
Hot damn!
A quest just triggered!
"We were just waiting on you to say the word, brother!" Lao Bai grinned and clapped him on the shoulder. "Spill it. What kind of mess did you get yourself into?"
"Those people... have gone completely mad... There's no reasoning with them at all... It has to be that mental interference device! Yes... and those blue-skinned monsters!"
The man rambled incoherently, seemingly trying to convey a massive amount of information. Yet the surrounding players only stared blankly in bewilderment. Even Lao Bai couldn't help wondering if his Human Alliance language had gotten rusty.
"Don't panic just yet... Take it slow. What on earth happened?"
Huang Guangwei swallowed hard, staring ravenously at the meat roasting over the fire.
"Could... could you give me something to eat? I haven't... eaten anything in three days."
"Let's get some food into him first." Seeing the man's pathetic state, Lao Bai didn't have the heart to press him further. He glanced over at Killing Dagger. "Brother Dagger, get him something to eat."
Someone who was starving shouldn't immediately gorge on meat, as breaking down proteins and fats requires an initial expenditure of energy. But since this guy had already eaten a steamed bun, it probably wouldn't hurt too much.
"On it."
Killing Dagger nodded, walked over to the folding table by the bar, and brought over an unfinished platter of fries and fried fish, along with a freshly sliced piece of roasted meat.
Seeing the food arrive, the man didn't act picky in the slightest. He grabbed a fistful of fries and shoved them straight into his mouth. His ravenous, crude manner of eating made even Yiren, the tavern owner, scratch his head and mutter in bewilderment.
"Did this NPC lose his sense of taste?"
Did he not know whether those fries tasted good or not?
After wolfing down the food for a while, the man let out a loud belch. Leaning back against the palm tree with a distended belly, he panted softly. Half-squinting in a daze of sated exhaustion, his eyelids gradually drooped—until right before everyone's eyes, he actually began to snore.
The gathered players were completely dumbfounded.
They had waited so long just for this guy to speak, and now, after gorging himself to bursting, he just fell asleep?!
The nerve of this guy!
Several of them picked up twigs from the ground and poked at him.
"Damn it!"
"Are you kidding us?!"
"You're the one asking for help, so say something!"
Startled by the surrounding racket and the barrage of pokes, Huang Guangwei snapped awake with a jolt. Realizing he had actually dozed off in public, embarrassment washed over him, and he scratched the back of his head sheepishly.
"S-Sorry about that... I get so sleepy right after eating, I almost forgot."
Lao Bai was speechless.
Killing Dagger was speechless.
Midnight Chicken Slaughter was speechless.
Could you be any more unreliable?!
Just then, Fang Chang finally hurried over. At a glance, he spotted the man lying beneath the palm tree, and then turned his gaze toward the submersible resting on the shore.
Instead of rushing to question the man, he called over several Strength-type players he knew, clapped them on the shoulders, and pointed toward the shoreline.
"Go haul that thing up and build a shelter to hide it."
One of the players looked at him, puzzled. "Drag it onto the beach?"
"Yeah."
Fang Chang nodded, glanced out farther across the surface of the sea, and then walked over to the man leaning against the palm tree.
"Are you from Shelter 70?"
"Y-Yes." Looking at the man crouching before him, Huang Guangwei nodded nervously.
Placing a hand on his shoulder, Fang Chang looked into his eyes and said, "Take a deep breath. Don't be nervous... Tell us, what did you run into just now?"
Hearing the man's calm voice, Huang Guangwei took a deep breath, collected his frazzled nerves, and slowly began to speak.
"A pack of blue-skinned creatures. They... looked human, but had gills beneath their chins. They kept chasing me, firing speargun bolts, torpedoes... and all kinds of bizarre weapons.
"The propulsion system on my submersible was wrecked by them. I had no choice but to drift with the currents, leaving my fate to the heavens... and ended up washing ashore here."
"Sounds like your luck wasn't half bad," Lao Bai quipped from the side. "Drifting right into our laps."
Huang Guangwei smiled weakly and whispered, "Thank you."
"Wait a second... blue-skinned guys? With gills? What the hell are those?" Midnight Chicken Slaughter stared at the man in utter confusion, totally thrown off by the monsters firing speargun bolts and torpedoes.
At that moment, Fang Chang, sitting beside them, wore an increasingly grave expression.
"If I'm not mistaken, there's an eighty percent chance they're mutants..."
Hearing this, the surrounding players were shocked, their faces filled with disbelief.
"Holy crap?!"
"Mutants?!"
"Aren't those bastards green?"
"Since when did they learn how to swim?!"
Watching the players whisper among themselves in astonishment, Fang Chang shook his head and continued seriously.
"'Mutants' refers to humanoid lifeforms created by modifying the twenty-three pairs of human chromosomes using incomplete research from the 'Gestalt Organism' project. They aren't limited to green skin and brute muscle; there are grayish-black variants in the Great Desert as well."
Pausing for a moment, he went on.
"There are quite a few coastal survivor settlements around Yunjian Province. Remember the lore from the official website's world guide? Enterprise strike teams primarily target amphibious mutants operating along the coastline... Unlike typical mutants, their skin is blue, and some even have scales and fins."
Hearing this, Crawling Model Worker gasped and muttered, "Holy hell... Don't tell me the Church of the Torch hooked up with those bastards too?!"
Piltover Paratrooper, who had remained quiet nearby, suddenly spoke up. "Is it possible that those blue-skinned mutants were actually created by the Church of the Torch?"
Lao Bai shook his head. "Unlikely. The Church of the Torch only emerged within the last twenty years, whereas those blue-skinned mutants seem to have been around for quite some time."
"I'm inclined to agree," Fang Chang said with a nod. "Given the precedent in Jinhe City, the Church of the Torch and the mutants share natural overlapping interests. My guess is that the two sides reached some sort of cooperative agreement again—for example... the Church providing the mutants with regular shipments of slaves for breeding."
Although he phrased it as formally and euphemistically as possible, the players couldn't help clenching their fists as memories of the human ranch they had witnessed in that Jinhe City shopping mall flashed through their minds.
"Those utter beasts..." Midnight Chicken Slaughter growled under his breath, his fist tightening beneath the barrel of his weapon as murderous intent flared in his eyes.
Piltover Paratrooper, crouching beside him, also murmured, "Does distinguishing between them even matter? Either way, those scumbags are our enemies, and we have zero intention of negotiating with them."
Fang Chang remained calm as he continued, "The distinction matters because it tells us whether they will attack us immediately... For now, it seems the Church and the aquatic mutant tribes in nearby waters are merely partners. They haven't realized what's happening on our end yet, or if they have, they don't take us seriously. That buys us some preparation time."
Lao Bai nodded solemnly and said in a heavy voice, "Looks like we need to prepare more than just fishing nets woven from devil silk; we need beachhead fortifications on the shore as well."
Fang Chang nodded.
"Not just beachhead positions—underwater weapons are a must too... Our assault rifles and bolters are only effective on land. If we can't strike targets beneath the water, they can maneuver along the coastline and ambush us from any direction. That will be far trickier to deal with than mutated sea beasts."
Lao Bai looked at him earnestly. "Once I log off, I'll go check with Mosquito and the others to see if they can come up with some handy gear."
After exchanging a few brief remarks in Mandarin, Fang Chang turned back to the man, who had been staring at their conversation in total bewilderment, and continued, "Why were those mutants chasing you?"
"I..." Huang Guangwei hesitated, seemingly wrestling with whether he should confess.
Fang Chang held his gaze. "If you don't tell us, we won't be able to help you."
"...Fine. I'll tell you."
Realizing he had no better alternative than coming clean, Huang Guangwei struggled internally for a moment before finally recounting the full story of how he had ended up stranded here...
"You probably already know that we had a falling out with the people on the islands over a few matters..."
Fang Chang nodded.
"I've heard about it. The survivors of the Southern Sea wanted to introduce the Church of the Torch's modified Na fruit strains to the region to eliminate the rampant, dangerous mutated aquatic beasts in these waters... That's the version I heard. Is that how it went?"
Huang Guangwei swallowed and continued, "That's basically it... though not the whole story. First of all, we plainly warned those survivors that the Church's modified Na fruit strain carries immense risks and is fundamentally an unfinished, hazardous technology...
"Yet they were far too overconfident, entirely devoid of respect for nature. Frankly, we're partly to blame as well. We pampered them with pre-war technology, allowing them to coast through the past century far too smoothly, to the point where they started believing they were the chosen ones. They thought that just like using the mental interference devices, they could selectively adopt only the good aspects while remaining completely immune to the bad."
Fang Chang studied him thoughtfully. "In what sense?"
"In what sense? Isn't it obvious? Haven't you already seen it for yourselves? Ever since that bunch of zealots showed up, Haiya Province turned into the wretched ghost town it is today. Back when the Iron Tower Organization was still there, everything was running reasonably well. Sure, there were marauders and mutated beasts, but at least people didn't end up neither human nor ghost like they are now."
Lao Bai couldn't resist asking, "Couldn't they see that?"
Huang Guangwei shook his head.
"Couldn't see it? No, of course they could see it. In fact, they didn't even need to look—how many years has it been since they last traded with the ports of Haiya Province? But they didn't care about the risks we pointed out. Not only were they blindly confident in themselves, they had excessive faith in us too... Guess what they said when we told them those lunatics up north were walking straight toward extinction and dragging everyone down with them?"
Lao Bai asked, "What did they say?"
"They said, 'How do we know it won't work if we don't try? What if we can perfect an imperfect technology? Not only could that change the Southern Sea's current predicament, it might even save those brainwashed fools in Haiya Province who lost their sense of self, or even transform Baiyue Province...' This wasn't just turning to desperate remedies in a panic; they were an entire pack of arrogant idiots!"
At this point, Huang Guangwei sneered and wiped the seawater from his face with his sleeve.
"Easy for them to say... As if we hadn't already tried! I collaborated with Shelter 117 for decades until they played themselves into ruin. How could I not know whether the technical path they proposed had any future?
"Besides, this is no longer just a technical issue. That pack of madmen ultimately aims to ascend humanity into a brand-new species of their own design—'Celestials'—and turn the world into a heavenly paradise for Celestials to inhabit. Do you understand what I mean? The Na fruit engineered for that absurd delusion was never intended to solve any tangible, practical problem on the wasteland!"
Lao Bai furrowed his brow. "Didn't the Southern Islands Federation know that? When it's that obvious, why would they side with the Church of the Torch?"
Huang Guangwei shook his head.
"Didn't I just say it? They knew everything, but their heads were swollen with pride. Granted, they did achieve some remarkable feats—like supporting over a hundred thousand survivors on a mere dozen square kilometers of land while most wastelander populations were starving. Or establishing a relatively civilized system while Bolo Province and Sunset Province were still clinging to feudal monarchies.
"Given enough time, they might truly have built a maritime utopia rivaling Ideal City, using methods tailored specifically to themselves... But that was precisely the fatal flaw. Their journey had been far too smooth, so to most people on those islands, success felt like a foregone conclusion, an absolute certainty.
"Without question, the Church of the Torch is a pack of jackals. The Federation knew they harbored ill intentions, but they thought nothing of it. They believed they could tame the unruly Na fruit mycelium just like they tamed mutated sea sharks—licking off the sugar coating while discarding the arsenic underneath... Exactly how they took the mental interference devices provided by the Church and turned them into tools for repelling mutated beasts.
"The President of the Southern Islands Federation held a negotiation with us over this. He wanted the residents of Shelter 70 and the thousands of specialists we trained in Coral City to collaborate fully, opening Coral City's research facilities so the Church of the Torch could investigate the broodmother aboard the Tianting Space Station, while also assisting the Church's Apostles—their researchers—in refining the Na fruit.
"Naturally, there was no way we would agree. It wasn't the first time those lunatics had come knocking, and besides, we've known what kind of scum they are for twenty years. If we opened our underwater research facilities to them, they would corrupt our personnel in no time, turning the place into their stronghold... Just like what they did back in Haiya Province."
After listening to his account, the surrounding players stared at him dumbfounded.
One of them couldn't help asking, "And then you guys went to war?"
At that question, Huang Guangwei's expression turned awkward, and he scratched his stubbled cheek with a forefinger.
"We didn't come to blows initially... After all, the fleet was mainly in the hands of the settlements, and those settlements were built by us to begin with. Why would we attack our own people?"
Fang Chang nodded thoughtfully. "True enough."
Putting himself in their shoes, the idea of Shelter 404 suddenly going to war with Dawn City sounded utterly absurd.
That was a settlement built with their own blood and sweat. They would rather die multiple times over defending it than sabotage it.
The biggest difference between this game and others was that every brick and tile of the settlements where the players operated had been placed by their own hands.
Far from wanting to destroy it, to prevent newcomers from running amok, they actively participated in drafting laws and regulations, and even voluntarily picked up the "Passing the Torch" mentor quests to care for new players and help them integrate into the Alliance's society.
"Right?" Seeing the thoughtful look on Fang Chang's face, Huang Guangwei paused before continuing. "Our initial plan was simply to teach them a lesson, so we issued an advance notice for power grid maintenance and then shut down the ocean current generators..."
Lao Bai suddenly chimed in, "I heard... you cut off Coral City's power and life support, nearly drowning thirty thousand survivors beneath the sea—"
"Utter nonsense! How could we possibly do something like that?! Many of Coral City's residents are our students, colleagues, even our family!"
Huang Guangwei's eyes widened, his tone turning fierce as if struck in a sore spot.
"It was them! That so-called Federation authority! While our specialists were evacuating the ocean current power station, they brutally blew it up! Then, out of pure retaliation, they severed Coral City's power grid! When we dispatched rescue submersibles, they dropped depth charges on us! In the end, we only managed to rescue a few hundred people!"
Watching the man clench his fists, Lao Bai moved to calm him down.
"Easy there. Coral City's residents are all fine. I heard the Federation authorities evacuated and resettled them across the various islands."
Huang Guangwei stared in shock, his breathing gradually steadying.
"Really? Then it seems they haven't lost all their humanity... Have you already made contact with them?"
Lao Bai nodded. "Yes. And because we made contact, it feels like there might be some misunderstandings between you two... Why not sit down and talk?"
Huang Guangwei curled his lip.
"There's nothing to discuss. The Federation wants Shelter 70 to become a scientific institution subordinate to their leadership. Honestly, I wouldn't mind that under normal circumstances; we never demanded special status to begin with. But at a critical juncture like this, agreeing is out of the question. The moment we yield, they'll immediately hand over more than a century of our hard work to those madmen up north."
Crawling Model Worker looked at him in confusion. "Didn't you sneak out of that shelter to talk with them?"
Huang Guangwei dismissed the notion outright. "Of course not! I was heading for the Great Rift Valley."
"The Great Rift Valley?" Lao Bai stared blankly. "What were you going there for?"
"To find our Administrator, obviously! That bastard Sun Yuechi! Without him around, we can't even unlock the shelter's full functions, leaving us completely at the mercy of those Federation morons. If he were here, things wouldn't have come to this—at the very least, we'd have access to the gear in our security armory!"
At this point, Huang Guangwei ground his teeth in rage, his fists trembling.
He looked as if he wanted nothing more than to punch the man in the face—if only he were standing right in front of him.
The players exchanged glances, thoroughly baffled by his rant.
It was the first time they had ever heard the unfamiliar name Sun Yuechi, but that wasn't the main issue. The real question was—
"Why... would your Administrator be at the Great Rift Valley?"
"I'd like to know what was going through his head too!" Huang Guangwei cursed. "At a crucial time like this, that bastard was still dreaming aloud... babbling about how that place is the last remaining ember left behind by the Post-War Reconstruction Committee, that we should have united beneath its banner all along, and that heading there now might not be too late... Claiming they would step in and handle things. If those people were truly that warmhearted, Haiya Province wouldn't be in the miserable state it is right now!"
Fang Chang rubbed his chin, pondering for a moment before asking, "It's over three thousand kilometers from here to the Great Rift Valley... and that's in a straight line. How were you planning to get there?"
Huang Guangwei continued, "My initial plan was to make landfall on the eastern coast of Haiya Province. It's completely uninhabited out there, which should have allowed me to slip past the Church of the Torch's notice. As long as I skirted around into Yuema Province east of River Valley Province, there had to be a way through... I'd bet anything that bastard took the exact same route."
Midnight Chicken Slaughter asked in bewilderment, "Then why did you end up here?"
"You think I wanted to?" Huang Guangwei replied with a bitter, helpless laugh. "I deliberately steered clear of the main sea lanes, hoping to sneak up to the eastern coast of Haiya Province, only to suddenly be relentlessly hunted down by those blue-skinned creatures... I don't know what they were lying in ambush for, but we bumped right into each other. After that, I just drifted along until you guys picked me up."
Saying this, he turned pleading eyes toward Fang Chang, Lao Bai, and the others.
"You're vault dwellers too, aren't you... Could you take me back with you? I think I've heard about you people before. Aren't you stationed in the southern part of River Valley Province?"
Glancing up at the airship floating overhead, his voice grew increasingly earnest. "Please. I've got nowhere else to go..."
Lao Bai looked at Fang Chang, feeling a twinge of sympathy. "Why don't you take him back?"
Fang Chang thought for a moment before replying in Mandarin, "Yeah. I was wondering if it might be possible to initiate talks between him and the Southern Islands Federation authorities."
Hearing that, Lao Bai was taken aback and laughed wryly. "Aren't you overthinking this a bit... Setting aside whether our current forces deployed in this region even have the leverage to broker peace talks, how can you be sure there aren't Church of the Torch plants embedded within the Federation authorities?"
Fang Chang sighed. "That's precisely what's making me hesitate."
Right now, both sides were telling conflicting stories, each blaming the other for the destruction of the ocean current power station.
As for the truth, neither side had concrete evidence to prove their claims.
He was naturally more inclined to believe that the Church of the Torch had pulled the strings from the shadows, framing Shelter 70 to ignite a war between the Federation and the shelter.
Yet another possibility couldn't be ruled out: the destruction of the power station might have been the exact outcome the Federation desired.
Energy was the leash Shelter 70 held over them, an invisible deterrent.
Now, that deterrent had been spent.
Like a nuclear weapon launched from its silo, it had lost its deterrent value.
The survivors across the Southern Sea islands had discovered that losing the ocean current power station didn't mean they couldn't survive. They could import coal from Silver Moon Bay to reactivate decommissioned thermal power generators, or deploy solar and wind power paired with energy storage stations.
There were plenty of workarounds.
Although energy costs had risen, the various islands had become tightly unified under the Southern Islands Federation's rule.
In comparison, the price they paid didn't seem as steep as they had feared.
Fang Chang pondered for a long while before letting out a soft sigh. "Let's leave it to the Administrator to decide."
Lao Bai nodded. "My thoughts exactly... Leave professional matters to the professionals."
Turning back to Huang Guangwei, Fang Chang said, "We can take you back with us. It'll take about two days of sailing to reach Qingquan City."
Hearing this promise, Huang Guangwei looked profoundly relieved, tears of gratitude welling in his eyes. "Thank you... Thank you so much!"
Fang Chang smiled faintly. "Don't mention it. But there is one thing we'll need your help with."
Huang Guangwei nodded eagerly with a broad smile. "Just name it! As long as it's within my power, I'll do whatever it takes!"
Fang Chang continued, "Regarding your encounter with the mutant ambush along the eastern coast of Haiya Province, I'd like you to record a detailed video statement and provide us with the coordinates of the ambush."
Faced with such a straightforward request, Huang Guangwei agreed without a second thought.
"No problem at all! I'll cooperate anytime. If you need it, I can record the video right now! As for the coordinates, they're stored in my submersible—feel free to pull them!"
"We can do the video later. I need to report this situation to our Administrator first. Why don't you go change into dry clothes at our camp so you don't catch a cold?"
Fang Chang offered a friendly smile, then glanced toward the submersible that had been dragged onto the beach. "Also, could we borrow that craft of yours? We'd like to see if we can repair its propulsion system."
Huang Guangwei waved his hand dismissively and said generously, "Take it! As long as you take me to Qingquan City, you can keep it as a gift."
He had never intended to keep the thing permanently anyway. If he had landed on the shores of Haiya Province, he would likely have abandoned it on the beach regardless.
Now that someone had promised to escort him to River Valley Province, he naturally had no further use for it.
Since these people were interested, they were welcome to it!
Seeing him wave it off so casually, a pleased smile appeared on Fang Chang's face.
"Then we won't stand on ceremony!"
Chapter 677