Wasteland Development Diary.

Chapter 2 Weird Things

Visibility is very high during the day, and the sun makes the sand reflect light.

Zhou Yi looked at the young boy Ajin.

He was wearing a coat made of two pieces of rags, had messy hair, was thin, and was about 1.4 meters tall.

The child's skin was white and dry, with many old scars on his face and arms. He wore a pair of linen gloves and was barefoot. There was a layer of black dirt on his legs and soles. His right leg seemed to be injured and was tied tightly with cloth, with blood stains on it.

"Master, our Changu Town is just to the west. We have to pass through the oasis first and walk a long way. It is very dangerous to cross at this time. Although you have warrior crabs to protect you, it is better to go there at night, which is safer."

The direct sunlight made Ajin squint his eyes. He covered his forehead with his hand, looking uncomfortable.

Zhou Yi took out two caps from his backpack, smoothed them, put one on himself, and handed the other to the other person: "Block the sun."

The boy followed his example and put the hat on his head, and his eyes finally returned to their normal state.

He touched the brim of the hat and the Chinese character "中" embroidered on it with his hands: "It's really beautifully made. It must be very expensive. There is blood and sweat on my head. If it gets dirty, I will use sand to clean it. Don't worry."

Zhou Yi said, "This is for you."

The young man hurriedly shook his head: "I can't accept such an expensive gift from you. I still owe you my life."

"You can accept it if you are told."

Zhou Yi told him: "I am currently looking for a place to settle down and prepare to settle down permanently. What is the attitude of Shangu Town towards outsiders?"

This question made Ajin stunned for a moment, and then he said excitedly: "Master, do you want to settle down in the town? There is no problem!"

"Although our market town is small, with only 120 people, and not rich, the people in the town are very kind and united. Everyone fled from all over the place and finally gathered in a camp, which is how this town came into being..."

The town of Shangu was originally a temporary camp built by scavengers, where they rested and avoided danger, and traded what they picked up with each other.

There is an oasis not far away, and there is relatively clean groundwater in the cave, which is very suitable for life. Later, it gradually developed into a market town, with a population of nearly 300 at its peak.

Like other market towns, the locals are active at night and hide during the day. They sleep during the day when the monsters are walking around, and come out to pick up things when night falls.

In recent years, groups of clawed pigs have migrated here. They have occupied the northern part of the town, continuously shrinking the oasis area where local people can move safely, making survival much more difficult.

The clawed pigs are highly aggressive and well organized. They also patrol their territory at night, making the northern area an inaccessible restricted area.

So one after another, the townspeople followed the merchants and hunting groups and left, even if it meant selling themselves to do hard labor.

The number of people has been decreasing as a result.

Even so, the town has always been welcoming to outsiders.

Due to the continuous outflow of population, many of the original residents' caves in Changu Town were vacated, which could be lived in after a little cleaning. But in fact, too few people were willing to settle in this poor little place.

“…That’s the situation in town.”

While Ajin was talking, his eyelids were drooping and he could hardly lift his head. He looked very sleepy.

Zhou Yi said: "You take a rest first, I will call you in the evening."

"Then I'll take a nap first. Daytime is when people here sleep. I was too tired yesterday."

The thin and pale boy wiped his dirty face, carefully covered his head with his baseball cap, curled up on the sand, and soon began to snore.

Soon, several more clawed pigs appeared. They stared at this side, but they were not as reckless as the two last times. Instead, they looked around again and again and then went around.

Two red-eyed vultures, one large and one small, were perched on a tree in the distance, staring at the bones beside the extinguished campfire and the organs left on the ground. The smaller one flapped its wings, eager to come over and take a bite.

The big one glanced at the man in black and flapped its wings, causing the smaller one next to it to become quiet and wait obediently for the man to leave.

In addition, there are several rodent-like creatures active nearby.

The warrior crabs set up and fixed a parasol for Zhou Yi, brought over an armchair, and then they burrowed back into the ground.

Zhou Yi sat on a chair, took out a copy of "Story Club" that he had never read from his backpack, opened a can of 24-year-old Coke, and started to kill time.

In this wasteland age without the Internet and mobile phones, reading is a good solo entertainment activity.

The only fly in the ointment is the ice cubes.

It's approaching evening.

The young man who was lying on the ground drooling suddenly sat up.

"I forgot something important."

Seeing the book in Zhou Yi's hand, Ah Jin was in awe: "You can read, that's amazing! If so, you will definitely be able to understand that thing."

"Master, I've been out picking up things lately, and I always feel something is wrong, but I can't tell why." "I was attacked last night, and I only realized then that it was a robber."

"When they stared at me, I ran away. Fortunately, I have been able to run fast since I was a child. But I was poor and often had no mushrooms or insects to eat. I couldn't understand why they stared at me."

Ajin recalled: "I thought about it and there was only one reason."

"Two days ago, I was looking for feces in the south near the mushroom forest and saw a mushroom pit that had just collapsed. I dug up a strange thing from the bottom of the pit. It didn't look like something that could be made in a town or even a city. I suspect it's a Dead Sea artifact."

The boy looked at the yellow bicycle next to him and said, "It feels similar to this thing of yours."

Zhou Yi listened quietly.

"The robbers must have known about this and robbed me... They chased me far away from the oasis at night, and my leg was scratched by their short spears."

Ajin pointed to his tightly bound right calf.

"It should be because the Claw Boar appeared and it was almost dawn that they gave up the risk of continuing to chase it. Fortunately, I met you, Master."

"I hid it in a tree hole, hoping to sell it to the merchant in town. Wait a moment, I'll dig it out, maybe it'll be useful to you."

Zhou Yi agreed.

An hour later, Ajin returned escorted by two warrior crabs.

"This is it."

Zhou Yi stared at the thing in his hand with a strange expression on his face.

This is a black remote control with a screen, square, two thick antennas, and two joysticks on the left and right of the upper part. Apart from some scratches on the surface, the whole is well preserved.

He pressed the power button, but there was no response.

I opened the back cover and found there was no battery inside.

After Zhou Yi adjusted the angle, he saw that there was a layer of silver geometric patterns on the surface of the remote control.

This feature means that it has undergone an alienation reaction in the Dead Sea and is no longer a conventional tool. The silver cross on the back of the warrior crab and the claw pig's thick fur also have a similar structure.

The remote control looks like a part of some kind of mechanical nano-species.

It lacks energy, but it has it.

Zhou Yi looked at his own panel.

……

【Machine】

Health: 10000
Defense: 425
Energy: 2802
……

This is also the result of the ten years I have spent in the wasteland era.

When Zhou Yichao input 120 points of energy into the remote control, the screen turned from black to bright.

Text is displayed on the light screen.

[Pairing...]

[Pairing completed, connected to Kestrel. ]

[Insufficient energy, Red Falcon failed to respond, please perform manual recovery. ]

An electronic map appeared on the screen, showing a flashing green dot and a solid red dot.

The green dot is the controller shape, and the red dot is the aircraft shape.

There is also a detailed image of a quadcopter on the right side of the small screen. Its main structure is green, with only a small yellow area symbolizing a fault. The upper right corner shows that the battery level is 0.

Mechanical photons are rare.

Zhou Yi became interested.

He asked Ajin: "Look at the map, where is this location?"

The local teenager came over and carefully identified it: "The shape above looks like an oasis belt and a river, and the location below must be a mushroom forest."

Zhou Yi said, "Lead the way, let's go and take a look."

(End of this chapter)