Weird, Why Did This Door Open on Its Own?

"Damn it! They've found us!" In the surveillance room of the underground facility, staring at the silhouettes appearing on the painstakingly repaired monitor, the staff member seated before the terminal shrieked in alarm. Panic flashed across Alzu's face as well. Though he had often operated alongside the Tribunal's Executioners before being entrusted with heavy responsibilities by the Holy Son, and had seen plenty of action on the front lines, he was not a professional combatant after all. What was more, even professional combatants might not stand a chance against so many regular troops. Most research facilities of the Church of the Torch were established within vaults—a trait somewhat similar to the Enlightenment Society and even the Alliance. This underground facility was no exception. Originally designated Vault 182, it had opened in the early Wasteland Era and was later converted by the Church of the Torch into the Institute of Biological Research No. 182, dedicated to researching Gestalt Lifeforms and related subprojects. The entrance to the facility was located at the center of the ruins of Fortress Town. At that very moment, the Alliance had deployed two platoons who were searching their way toward it. Every staff member's heart leaped into their throat, panic written across every face. "The mutants on the surface must have given away our position..." An older researcher swallowed hard, cursing furiously, "Useless swine! Good for nothing, ruinous at everything!" The researcher next to him asked nervously, "Mutants... why would mutants come here?!" Another researcher wearing glasses said grimly, "Ghost knows... They probably broke their communications gear and ran over to ask what happened. Dammit... Can't those idiots ever adapt to the situation?!" Judging by the surveillance feed, more than just a few mutants had fled to this area—there was an entire century! He couldn't help suspecting that the idiots were deserters who had fled from the front line! Some researchers argued frantically, at their wits' end, while others were secretly rejoicing. The latter were mostly researchers from North Island. If Zhalas hadn't forced them at gunpoint and these people hadn't threatened them with brainwashing chips, who on earth would have willingly come to this godforsaken place to design gear for mutants? Though they dared not show it on their faces, they were the most thrilled right now. Since the Alliance had landed on the Death Coast, Zhalas was definitely finished. Although they were not out of danger yet, at least their families were safe. Ignoring the endless bickering of the staff, Alzu focused solely on urging the communications engineer tasked with emergency repairs. "How much longer until it's fixed?!" "Soon, very soon! Give me ten more minutes!" Facing a tablet, the engineer tapped rapidly against the touchscreen with his index finger, beads of hot sweat rolling down his forehead. On the tablet screen, a thumb-sized insect-like robot crawled amid a dense thicket of wire ends, manipulating its needle-thin mechanical arms and discharging occasional arcs of electricity from the tips. Finally, as his sweat dripped onto the floor for the nth time, the insect-like circuit maintenance robot completed all welding operations, repairing the circuit segment that had been fried by the electromagnetic pulse. He breathed a heavy sigh of relief, leaned back in his chair, wiped the sweat drenching his brow, and exclaimed in joy, "It's done—" Before he could finish his sentence, Alzu shoved him aside. The latter snatched the tablet in a frantic hurry and tapped rapidly with his index finger, establishing a connection with the Tribunal to their rear. The moment he saw the [Connection Established] icon appear on the screen, wild joy flooded his face. Snatching a headset, he slipped it on and yelled desperately, "Calling Tribunal, this is Institute 182! The Alliance is closing in on us, we need immediate support!" Institute 182 stored vast amounts of data regarding the Gestalt Lifeform project; the Tribunal wouldn't simply leave them to die! Compared to those mutant cannon fodder, the combat elites wielding pre-war equipment produced by black boxes were the true trump cards of the Church of the Torch! After a brief silence, a calm, dependable voice came through the communications channel. "...This is the Retribution Squad. We have received orders and are en route to your vicinity. Keep the doors securely sealed and wait patiently!" Hearing this heavenly voice, Alzu clenched his fists in excitement. They were saved! *** Meanwhile, in a mountainous area just two kilometers from the underground facility. Around forty soldiers in exoskeletons lay quietly in ambush along the edge of the jungle, their nearly transparent silhouettes blending seamlessly into the surroundings. Under the effects of optical camouflage devices, as long as they remained motionless, no one could spot them with the naked eye. Standing in the center of the formation, a man who looked like the squad leader gazed grimly toward Fortress Town, lightly tapping his helmet with his index finger. "This is Hunter. We have arrived near the objective... Confirmed that the objective lost contact due to an EMP strike." The Holy Son's voice came through the channel. "What is the battlefield situation?" The man called Hunter said in a deep voice, "The Alliance has landed. The local garrison forces were thoroughly routed." Silence hung in the channel for about half a minute before the voice resumed: "...Bring back Alzu and the data from the institute. Evacuate as many of the others as possible; dispose of whoever can't be brought back." A sharp gleam flashed in Hunter's eyes. "Understood." *** At the very moment Alzu was calling the Tribunal for reinforcements, two platoons from the First Company of the Burning Corps' First Battalion had arrived at the edge of Fortress Town, nestled deep in the dense forest. This settlement resembled a castle, with row houses along the perimeter standing like towering ramparts. The ground-floor windows started only at a height of six meters, and every single one was fitted with security grilles wound with steel wire. The highest windows reached over twenty meters up, and the rooftops were designed as firing platforms with protective breastworks. The gaps between row houses were merely three to five paces wide, connected by crooked covered walkways that looked like gatehouse towers from a distance. Yincha Yangcuo could easily picture how the survivors must have fought off marauders when the settlement was still inhabited. They would pile obstacles onto those covered bridges, fire down at invaders from the rooftops, and drop barricades behind them once the invaders passed beneath the bridges, cutting the attacking formation in two. Yet those valiant souls were long gone, leaving behind only a few green heads poking out and peering around. Yibu Dengtian opened his VM and pulled up the lore he had previously downloaded from the official website. "I heard that over a decade ago, a survivor mutual-aid coalition called 'Iron Tower' emerged in this region. Using Human Alliance era signal towers as their emblem, they formed militias to patrol between various settlements... somewhat similar to us, actually." "The website has background on this settlement. Supposedly, it was originally a surface outpost built by Vault 182. Later, for unknown reasons, both Vault 182 and the outpost were abandoned. Around Year 100 of the Wasteland Era, a group of wastelander scavengers repurposed the facilities here, expanding and fortifying the perimeter buildings." "Then the Iron Tower organization was born and took over the settlement. Its population grew slowly from a few hundred to twenty thousand... until the Torch showed up and reset that number to zero." Even if these settlement ruins weren't within the scope of the Alliance's Phase Three offensive, they would have combed through it after the landing operation concluded anyway. However, just moments earlier, their drones had spotted signs of mutant activity in the area, so Brother Shabi dispatched them ahead of schedule to see if there were any big fish to catch. Hearing what Dengtian said, the two players walking beside him couldn't help chiming in with sarcastic remarks. "'Reset to zero,' sure..." "What kind of hell joke is that?" "That's literally how it's written in the lore compendium. I'm just reading it verbatim. If you've got an issue, go complain to the devs." Yibu Dengtian raised Brother Family's camera and snapped a few photos of the settlement's exterior. This camera was the sole relic his good buddy had left behind in this world—though in a few days, that dog of a friend would respawn anyway. "...Speaking of which, wasteland settlements really come in all shapes and sizes," Bansui Cuotuo remarked. "You've got mega-slums with over a million people like Golden Gallon Port, block-stacking grids like Ring Island, and then local fortified towers like this." "It's the wasteland, after all," Bansui Cuotuo teased. "Three mutants moving around the entrance... can't see what's happening inside," Yibu Dengtian lowered the camera and looked at Old Yin, asking with his eyes. "Do we attack right away? Or sneak in first to scout out the situation?" "Too much hassle," Yincha Yangcuo raised his right hand into a fist, signaling an assault to the teammates behind him. "Wipe out all the beasts here first, then we can take our time figuring out what's inside." "Killing everyone is the perfect stealth run," Bansui Cuotuo eagerly leveled the rifle slung against his chest, chambering a round with a crisp clack. "Let's get to work, boys!" The mutants standing at the entrance had no idea doom was upon them, still grunting and snorting in conversation. Just then, three gunshots cracked almost simultaneously. Three heads exploded into clouds of blood, splattering red and white across the ground with a wet slap. "Alliance!!" Seeing the sentries collapse, a mutant behind the gatehouse roared, snatched up an assault rifle, and sprayed the entrance. But after rat-tat-tatting for ages, it didn't even spot a target. Having emptied its magazine in the frenzy, it hurriedly ripped out the empty mag to reload. Before it could jam the fresh magazine home, however, a quadcopter drone mounted with a gun barrel swooped across the portal and blew its head apart with a burst of gunfire. Leading three players behind him, Yincha Yangcuo charged into the alleyway first. With controlled bursts from his rifle, he picked off several mutants attempting to swarm them. Simultaneously, the three squads of the First Platoon split into nine fireteams, pushing into the abandoned town from nine different directions, while the Second Platoon flanked around to feign an attack, dividing the mutants' firepower. Assailed from multiple directions at once, the mutants in town were thrown into total disarray. Looking at the corpses littering the alley, a Strength-type player slapped in a fresh magazine and couldn't resist mocking, "The mutants in Qingquan City were way smarter than these clowns." Another player beside him replied succinctly, "Yeah, total noobs. Probably fresh recruits." Mutants weren't inherently stupid; they just had hot tempers. According to veteran players, long ago the mutants encountered in the outskirts of Qingquan City could not only craft mines and traps, but even manufactured homemade rifles. In the end, it took the intervention of their friends from the Pioneer to wipe those beasts out. Combat footage from back then could still be found on the official forums, so there was no exaggeration involved. Yet the mutants here were completely different. Never mind using terrain to their advantage, they hadn't even mastered the weapons in their hands. The Church of the Torch appeared to have churned out a batch of mutants at rapid speed through some special method, but much like the Legion's eight-times-speed accelerated clones, they lagged far behind naturally matured green-skinned beasts in both intelligence and combat experience. Sixty against a hundred! The battle held zero suspense, devolving entirely into a one-sided slaughter! Seeing how easily these mutants went down, some players couldn't help getting a bit cocky. Yet right at that moment, an unexpected turn occurred. A four-man fireteam was attempting to cut through an alley to search the square at the town center when a loud bang echoed from straight ahead. The lead player's head burst instantly. "Sniper!" "Scatter!" The remaining three jolted in shock, dropping all banter from the comm channel as they darted toward cover on both sides. One player dove behind a concrete bollard. The other two slammed through windows, rolling into buildings flanking the alley. Yet another thunderous crack sounded. From the corner of his eye, the squad leader who had just tumbled into the building watched in horror as the teammate behind the concrete bollard was punched straight through along with his cover, pulverized into a splatter of shredded flesh and concrete rubble. "Holy shit?! What the hell was that?" Lying prone beneath the windowsill, the other player stared with wide eyes as if seeing a ghost. They had fought all the way from the town's edge to the center without losing a single man, yet in mere seconds, two shots had taken down two of them! "It's a Gauss rifle!" Crouched beside him, the squad leader looked grim. Gazing toward the direction where his two teammates had fallen, he circled the building complex straight ahead on his VM's map while shouting into his radio: "Team A engaged! Team B and Team C, fan out! Push in from the flanks, wait for the airstrike before opening fire!" Having issued orders to the other two fireteams, the squad leader switched channels and bellowed again, "...This is First Platoon, Second Squad! We're pinned down by an enemy sniper! That bastard took out two of our brothers! We need air support!" A response came quickly over the line. "Copy that. Can you pinpoint their position?" The squad leader glanced outside, not daring to poke his head out or expose that he was near the window, and gritted his teeth. "Can't confirm the exact spot, but we've circled their general area on the map... Those bastards are definitely not mutants! Probably Torch's Tribunal!" "Understood. Coordinates relayed to the air wing... ETA under one minute!" Cutting the comms, the squad leader exchanged a glance with the teammate beside him. Catching his drift, the player retrieved a drone from his back, crept low to the far side of the building, and tossed it out. The quadcopter flipped in the air, quickly stabilized, and buzzed skyward. The drone's optics promptly locked onto the general area harboring the sniper, transmitting visual feeds and relative coordinates to the approaching P-2 "Lightning" attack aircraft. Team B and Team C had already crept close to the sniper's vicinity, tensely counting down the seconds. One minute felt as long as an entire century as the two sides held their silent standoff. And right at that moment, the thunder of autocannons striking the earth shattered the square! Hundreds of heavy-caliber autocannon shells rained down in an instant, pulverizing the dilapidated building cluster on the north side of the square with overwhelming destruction. Only after the fireballs and plumes of dust erupted skyward did the roar of the cannons and the scream of the aircraft engines sweep overhead. "*Brrrrt—!*" Watching the aircraft streak past, the players on the ground felt their morale surge. Using the cloud of dust kicked up by the strikes as cover, the squad leader rolled out of concealment. Driving his exoskeleton forward through the billowing dust, he roared into the comm channel, "Surround them!" The three fireteams sprang into motion, closing in on the bombarded ruins from three angles. Sure enough, they spotted the retreating sniper and another exoskeleton-clad soldier beside him. Torch's Tribunal! Spotting their gear, the players recognized their identities immediately. Yet not a single player was frightened; instead, pure delight washed over their faces. "Damn, the Tribunal!" "Elite mobs! An elite spawn!" Though the two Executioners hadn't been killed by the airstrike, they were clearly injured. Unwilling to get bogged down by the surrounding players, they retreated swiftly. Seeing the elite mobs trying to flee, how could the players let them go? They took off in hot pursuit. Yet after chasing down the twisting alley for merely a few paces, the squad leader sensed something amiss. Why did it feel like these two elites were baiting them? The more he thought about it, the fishier it seemed. He instantly updated the rally point coordinates on his VM map. "Halt the chase! Second Squad, fall in! Everyone dig in and defend in place!" They had strayed too far from the rest of their unit. If the Tribunal's Executioners had laid an ambush ahead, they could easily be wiped out in one bite. Although halting carried the risk of letting the snipers escape, he didn't want to gamble with his squadmates' respawn cooldowns and gear. These guys were tough! Thinking this, excitement sparked in his eyes, and his palms began to sweat. Not out of fear, however. Out of sheer thrill! They had been slaughtering noobs for so long; finally, they had a chance to trade blows with worthy opponents! Static crackled over the comms. Team B Lead: "Boss, we're not chasing?" Team C Lead: "Chase my ass! Haven't you noticed those two elites are kiting us?" Team B Lead: "Holy crap?!" At the exact moment the players broke off the pursuit, the two retreating Tribunal operatives noticed the change behind them. The relentlessly pursuing soldiers had abruptly stopped. The two exchanged a look, and the spotter promptly reported back: "The fish slipped the hook. Enemy squad has halted pursuit." Meanwhile, concealed within a three-story building hundreds of meters away, Hunter knit his brows tightly. The entrance to the underground facility was in the square, which was now controlled by Alliance troops. The fighting on the beach had concluded. They had to finish this battle before the Alliance's main reinforcements arrived! There was no more time for hesitation. Weighing his options in mere seconds, Hunter issued orders over the channel without hesitation: "Teams One and Two, advance. Teams Three and Four, flank around both sides!" "Make it quick!" "Understood!" Powerful, resolute affirmations rang through the channel. Figures lurking in the shadows of dilapidated buildings stepped out from the environment that had practically concealed them, converging on the Alliance squad that had halted its pursuit. Meanwhile, the other two squads of the First Platoon also sensed something was wrong. Calling the Second Platoon to press forward, they immediately rushed to reinforce the Second Squad. At that exact moment, the news that the unit sweeping the Fortress Town ruins had engaged the Church of the Torch's Tribunal reached Lao Bai, who was overseeing the construction of the beachhead encampment and docks. Glancing at the intelligence against his map, Lao Bai took only two seconds to draw a conclusion: "Eighty percent chance it's a big fish!" "I think so too," Fang Chang nodded, rubbing his chin with keen interest. "How about I lead a team over to check it out?" According to the intelligence they had gathered, a vault ruin lay there. Though abandoned for nearly a century, it was entirely possible the Church of the Torch had retrofitted it into a research facility. A similar situation had happened along the northern front. Lao Bai laughed heartily and patted his shoulder. "All right, I leave it to you!" The battle on the beach was virtually over, and manpower wasn't in short supply. The ten-thousand-strong mutant legion defending the shoreline had been shattered, scattering inland like headless flies. Aside from mopping up the battlefield, the only remaining task was building the dock, which didn't require Fang Chang to stay behind and supervise. Exiting the command tent, Fang Chang immediately took a company of players aboard the "Chimera" infantry fighting vehicles that had just rolled ashore via the floating pier. Requisitioning two Cloud Dragonfly ornithopters from the NPC forces as support, he charged toward Fortress Town. By the time he reached the battlefield, the two platoons from the First Battalion's First Company were locked in a fierce, deadlock firefight with the Church of the Torch's Tribunal squad, gunfire echoing ceaselessly through the ruins. Judging by their steady, lethal, and calculated offensive cadence, these opponents—just like the ones they had faced in the eastern suburbs of Qingquan City and Pinecone Farm—were none other than the Church of the Torch Tribunal's "Executioners"! Seeing the Alliance reinforcements arrive, despair crept into the eyes of Hunter, who was personally fighting on the front lines. Too fast! Just like during the landing, these people acted without a shred of hesitation. The moment their strategic missile barrage ended, landing craft and armored vehicles had surged ashore. Hunter's side had barely determined why the frontline command post had lost contact before the Alliance landing force smashed through their beach defenses! Now it was happening again: less than twenty minutes after engaging the Alliance recon unit near Fortress Town, the main body of reinforcements had already arrived. There wasn't a glimmer of hope! If this engagement dragged on, they wouldn't just be facing a few ten-man squads—they would be encircled and crushed by battalion- or even regiment-level forces. Looking at the dozen-odd corpses left behind by both sides and the stubborn Alliance positions that refused to yield, Hunter finally gritted his teeth and barked into the comm channel: "Retreat!" With that command dropped, he spun around and vanished into the shadows of the settlement's buildings, not daring to linger for a second longer. The other teams did the same. Just moments before the Cloud Dragonfly ornithopters reached the airspace, they broke contact and faded into the shadows. The mission had failed. All they could do now was minimize their losses. Yet a heavy weight pressed upon the hearts of nearly every Executioner. Though their faith was devout and their loyalty to the supreme Holy Son unwavering, they couldn't see even the slimmest hope of victory; even hearing a scrap of "good news" had become a pipe dream... With frontline pressure suddenly dissipating, the players crouching behind cover finally let out a long breath. Although the firefight had been a blast for them, their opponents' gear was honestly absurd. Practically all of them had optical camouflage plus aimbot-tier headshots; several times, they had nearly overrun the positions. If reinforcements had been ten minutes later, the outcome would have hung in the balance. Watching Fang Chang walk up to the front, Yincha Yangcuo stepped forward to report the events and casualties of the skirmish. "...We were engaging mutants at first when these guys suddenly popped up. I get the feeling they wanted to extract something, but they probably didn't succeed." "They're smart enough to know continuing the fight would be pointless, so they retreated decisively," Fang Chang scanned the surroundings, narrowing his eyes slightly with a faint smile tugging at his lips. "We'll find out soon enough what they were so desperate to take." Just as he spoke, a player who had reinforced the position with him walked over. "We found an underground passage beneath the public restroom in the square. Likely the entrance to Vault 182." Hearing the location, Yincha Yangcuo's eyebrow twitched. "These guys sure have exquisite taste." "Might not be their taste—what if the pre-war folk designed it that way?" Fang Chang joked with a chuckle. He turned to the reporting player and said, "Come on, let's head down and see what this vault is hiding." If a vault had been abandoned and subsequently restored, its security protocols might not be the original pre-war version, making it possible to bypass access control via external hacking programs. This mainly depended on why the vault was abandoned, the final Administrator's arrangements regarding its fate, and how any successors had laid claim to it. For vaults reopened through irregular means, an official offline key was often enough to unlock them. Even slightly more complex access control programs required little more than rigging up an antenna and patching into the network. These were tricks formulated by players active in Pioneer City, and they naturally held true in other corners of the wasteland. Hearing that they were about to "open a blind box," the players beamed with eager excitement. "Let's roll!" "Haha, chop-chop!" *** Meanwhile, Alzu paced back and forth near the vault's airlock door, muttering curses under his breath. "Damn it, why are they so slow?" What was taking them so long?! He had already backed up all the facility's data onto the chip in his brain, wiped clean every original file he could delete, and scrambled whatever couldn't be deleted, all so he could beat a hasty retreat the moment they arrived. Just then, a staff member rushed frantically through the airlock door and skidded to a halt in front of him. "Mr. Alzu... they're here!" Alzu's face lit up with joy. "They're here?! Then open the door already!" Seeing him still daydreaming, the staff member looked on the verge of tears. "No, it's not the Tribunal! It's the Alliance!" In an instant, all color drained from the aged face beneath the hood, his lips turning pale and blue. The Alliance... How could that be?! In a daze, he saw the gear-shaped blast door shudder, rolling to the side under the pull of mechanical arms. The staff member who had run over jumped in terror and collapsed limp onto the floor at the sight. As for Alzu, he froze completely, standing there dumbstruck as if he had lost his mind. The massive gear-shaped door rolled open slowly. A man clad in power armor stood in the doorway. His left arm was raised, and his right hand held a data cable drawn from his left gauntlet. The connector seemed poised to plug into a port on the door, but hadn't even been inserted yet. Looking at the gray-robed old man standing inside and the guy slumped on the floor beside him, Fang Chang stared blankly for a second, muttering under his breath: "Weird..." He hadn't even done anything yet. Why did this door open on its own?