Abnormal Doomsday Records

Chapter 153 3. If a distinguished guest comes, Rust Castle will open the bed to welcome him

"So, before we got here, these guys suddenly decided to have a bloody PK competition, but it went too far, and all four of them perished together?"

Zhou Ke rubbed his chin in confusion, looking at the four entangled corpses at his feet.

There was the emblem of the Jiubang on their clothes, but this was the strangest way of death Zhou Ke had ever seen in his life.

Three people were pressing down on one person. The one being pressed down seemed to have been run over by some huge object, with his intestines bursting out. But the other three people were not in much better condition. They were dead, but they still had weird smiles on their faces that could scare the undertaker to death.

D-4 didn't think this was scary at all. She just felt that these psychopathic psychics from Jiubang were restless even in death. Look at your damn expressions, it would definitely scare the morticians with poor psychological endurance into having nightmares in the middle of the night.

She was currently testing the bodies for vital signs, and after a moment, she came to a conclusion.

"It looks like he's been poisoned, or has some kind of curse."

"Did Afu do it?"

Zhou Ke raised his eyebrows and said:
"I heard from Rhine that Afu's talent for spellcasting is quite rare among psykers, a rare talent. There aren't many people in the Badlands as proficient in curses as she is, and she's the only one who's been here. So, she was certain the Exploration Group was disloyal, and that's why she rushed in with a killing spree?

Isn’t this too reckless?”

"No, there are no signs of fighting around, Joker."

Wu Neng reminded:
"Afu must have remotely controlled these people. With her ability to kill without being noticed, if her intention was to kill them, they wouldn't be in such a miserable state. This machine is probably some kind of torture method. Afu may have obtained some information."

"Unfortunately, I guessed right. The Exploration Group One is doing some tricks behind Rhine's back, and the Second Group that came to support them has also been won over by them. Hmm, this is interesting."

Zhou Ke took out a thin assassin's mask from his arms.

This thing was "given" to me by Operator Acholi as a gift on the way to the Second Research Institute.

He couldn't find the same type of energy to enhance this mask, so its ability was still very rudimentary, but it didn't matter. It was definitely enough to sneak into the enemy's fortress. The D-4 had military-grade optical camouflage and could also be used for infiltration. They did not take the steel cable suspension bridge hanging between the outside and the main body of the Staffin Industrial Zone. Instead, they used the D-4's silent gliding to send the two of them directly to the surface of the industrial zone.

There weren't many people outside. The exploration group only left a few outposts on the surface, and most people were in the area leading to the underground.

Wuneng easily hacked into the communication system they were using. When Zhou Ke and D-4 entered the elevator shaft, all the signal locations under the entire industrial area were marked out, but Wuneng also specifically outlined several areas that needed special attention on the screen.

While walking in the spirit world, it couldn't communicate with Zhou Ke through words, so it reminded him with words:
"Communications in these areas are highly encrypted. It's unlikely that the Eagle State would pull this off. Be careful. This station suspects the Exploration Group has found a dangerous 'collaborator.'"

This information made Zhou Ke frown, but he did not stop infiltrating.

As he and D-4 made their way down, he reminded Wu Neng to send a signal to Rhine. Since it had been confirmed that something was wrong here, as the head of the Eagle State, Rhine had to come over.

At the same time, in the underground area of the Staffin Industrial Zone, Afu was moving towards a lower area with a magic weapon made of a phantom demon claw.

Although she came to "ask for justice", she did not rush in recklessly. There were more than 200 psionicists in the Exploration Group 1 and 2 combined. Although there was only one Ascendant, led by Polina, as a sorcerer who was not good at frontal combat, Afu still had some brains.

Not much though.

Along the way, she used the phantom demon dust to confuse the psychics along the way, allowing herself to infiltrate here like an "invisible man" without alerting them. She would only kill those who she could not confuse.

It's not that Afu has good intentions, she just thinks it's not easy for the young lady to spend ten years to gather so many psychics. Although she doesn't know what the young lady plans to use these psychics for in the future, she learned from those scouts that Polina just deceived these explorers in the name of "escaping from the bad land."

They are still loyal to Ms. Evil Vulture, and these ordinary psychics do not have the courage to openly betray the Evil Vulture. As long as he can deal with Polina, the leader, the rebellion of the Exploration Group will naturally come to an end.

But this is not an easy thing for Afu.

In addition to the difficulty of the battle, it was also because there was indeed a relationship between Afu and Polina that Zhou Ke described as "not distinguishing between public and private", but that was by no means a spur-of-the-moment thought. The connection between the two was established as early as the beginning of Afu and Rhine's arrival in the Badlands.

When Rhine led people to rescue Afu who was kidnapped by the Wasteland Bandits, Polina was one of them. The subsequent care and treatment of Afu's severely damaged mental state were also done by Polina, who was just an illegal psychic at the time.

From this point of view, the relationship between this pair of friends is quite complicated.

Although Afu has made up her mind to solve this unexpected trouble for the young lady, she is not sure whether she can be cruel enough when the worst situation really comes.

After all, I shouldn't have been so gullible in the beginning. I recommended Polina to be the leader of the Exploration Group without thinking, but now I have gotten myself into trouble.

This time, the annoying Zhou Ke was right.

Alas, if you fail to distinguish between public and private affairs, something serious will happen!

With mixed feelings, Afu held the phantom demon's claws and approached the passage leading to the lowest level of the industrial zone. The traces of battle left around were there for a long time, which meant that the exploration team had probably completed the overall cleanup of the industrial zone several months ago.

Their mission should have ended at that time. What on earth have these guys been doing in these extra months?
"boom"

Just as Afu was frowning, the passage ahead, which was locked by an electronic lock left by the old civilization, suddenly opened without warning, which scared Afu.

She immediately grabbed a ball of pink spiritual energy in her hand, determined to throw it at whoever appeared, and cast a mind-bending curse on him first to give him a taste of his newfound power. However, what appeared before her was a server robot made of steel, and Afu had no idea what to do with it.

My curse can't deal with this thing without a "heart".

"Unregistered visitor! A high-risk incident has occurred in the main part of the Staffin Industrial Zone, and the shelter has been opened! You should not continue wandering in the dangerous outside world! Please follow TG-0432! TG-0432 will lead you to a safe area."

This little thing is quite enthusiastic. It looks like a trash can and keeps circling around Afu, making a crisp sound and asking Afu to follow it to the "shelter".

Just as Afu was hesitating whether to draw her gun to solve the problem, Polina's slightly tired voice rang out from the trash can:
"Don't hide, Afu. Follow it and I'll explain everything to you. Let go of your hostility. This isn't betrayal, at least not in the way you think. Come here. I'll never hurt you, and you know that."

"Humph"

In response to Polina's invitation, Afu snorted coldly, cast some protective psychic powers on herself, and followed the trash can robot that was shaking its head and tail in front of her, and entered the aisle in front leading to the "shelter".

Then, this explosion-proof door produced in the old civilization closed again with a bang.

There is a nuclear radiation symbol on it, which represents the reassuring security level of this thing.

The mysterious "sanctuary" was not far away. After following the trash can robot for less than ten minutes, Afu entered its main area.

This is part of the Staffin Industrial Zone, which serves as a strategic material storage area. It can be seen that most of the things in this vast layered space have been taken away during the great evacuation thirty-eight years ago, but the most important thing has been preserved.

Afu stood at the entrance and looked down, then she froze in place.

She recognized the giant thing in front of her that was over hundreds of meters long, and even a light of disbelief flashed in her eyes. She then realized why the eldest lady was so concerned about the exploration work in the Staffin Industrial Zone.

"Do you understand, Afu?"

Polina's voice rang in her ears, causing Afu to look back to her side. Polina, who was hanging in the air like a wind girl, was holding two cups of cheap coffee and looking at her with a helpless yet doting expression.

"I considered the worst-case scenario, which was that Ms. Evil Vulture and the others rushed in here and killed us all, but in the end it was you who came, so I thought maybe I could take a gamble and see if I could convince you."

"You want me to betray Ms. Vulture?"

Afu looked indifferently at the man who had been by her side for the past ten years. She said:

"You think you have this charm?"

"You can call her 'Miss' without hesitation."

Polina smiled and blessed Afu with the airflow around her, allowing her to walk and jump lightly and descend to the ground with Polina from the entrance nearly 100 meters high.

This is Polina's ability as an ascender, she can manipulate everything that flows.

Not only wind, liquid and sand, but also blood, brain matter and spinal fluid. Of course, this kind of manipulation has applicable conditions, but even so, Polina's assistance and destructive power still allow her to obtain an upper-middle position in the ranking of sublimators in the Badlands.

She is an important leader of the Eagle State and one of the right-hand men of the Evil Eagle Lady.

But now the camp she was in seemed to have undergone some subtle changes, especially after Afu landed and looked around, she found that in this huge space, in addition to some backbone members of the exploration group who were busy resting in the corner, there was also a "robot" operating in an enclosed control panel connected to the giant creation.

The robots didn't even bother to hide their faction; their smooth, uncovered mechanical bodies were emblazoned with gear-shaped emblems.

That's the Rust Castle's mechanical maintainer! An elite individual among the rebellious machines.

Polina cooperated with them.
This was the ultimate nightmare of the worst possible scenario Afu could imagine.

"I know you'll be angry, but don't be angry. Listen to me first."

Polina put her hand on Afu's shoulder.

She put her arms around Afu's neck from behind, as she did when they were alone, and left a wet kiss on her ticklish spot.

She touched Afu's collarbone and could feel the anger brewing in Afu.

"When I led the pioneers of the Exploration Group to clear out the hidden corners of the Staffin Industrial Zone and saw what was stored there, I knew why Ms. Vulture was determined to take it.

She needs this!"

Polina turned her head to look at the black and white miracle in front of her, which looked like a wonder of steel. If she was just a primitive person, she would be so frantic and madly kneeling down when she saw this thing that she would regard it as a god-like existence.

But at this moment there was only a trace of loss and sadness in her eyes.

She said to Afu:
"I also thought about informing Ms. Evil Eagle of this news immediately on the first day of completing the mission, and at the same time preparing to receive the reward she would definitely give me. I even thought of the reward I desired, and it has something to do with you.
But then I realized that this thing was not just what Ms. Vulture desired.

It is also the 'end of the world'."

"Are you crazy?"

Afu cursed:

"How could a well-preserved spacecraft from an old civilization possibly bring doom to Jiu Nation? With this thing, the young lady has even more cards to play!" "Very good, Afu, please tell me, what do you think your young lady will do with this spacecraft that can fly into the sea of stars?"

Polina asked in a gentle tone:

"You grew up with Rhine. No one in the entire Badlands knows her better than you. Based on your understanding of Ms. Rhine, please make a simple prediction: If I hand this spacecraft over to her, what will she do with it?"

At this moment, Afu thought of several solutions, but she didn't say them out loud.

She knew that Polina had assumed that this question did not require her answer at all, and that Polina already had the answer in her heart. So under her indifferent gaze, Polina let go of her and took a few steps towards the spacecraft.

She stared at the wonders left by the old civilization and said to Afu:

Will Lady Vulture use it to resume her exploration of the stars? Will Rhine trade this spacecraft with other forces in exchange for supplies? Will she hand it over to the Acholi Consortium to achieve some purpose?
In fact, if the lady had chosen any one of these options, I would not have reached this point today.

Afu, let me tell you, Ms. Rhine will only do one thing with this spacecraft!

She'll use it as a weapon!
A weapon that can bypass all current blockades of the sky by the Acholi Consortium and reach the Garden of Eden directly. She will stuff every psychic in the Eagle State into it, and then drive it into the main body of the Garden of Eden, turning me, you, and every member of the Eagle State you can name in the past ten years into bombs of destruction in a violent chaos.

She would send us to heaven, but only to destroy it.

Ms. Rhine has always had an extremely clear enemy in her heart. In order to destroy her enemy, she can give up everything and use everything, even her own life.

Unfortunately.

You, me, and everyone else are the bullets she's about to load into her gun, destined to sacrifice everything for this revenge.

So, I can't give it to Ms. Vulture.

It's not that I'm not loyal, I just don't want myself and others to be sacrificed for such a reason."

Afu took a few steps back.

She looked at Polina in front of her, and at that moment she felt that the person next to her was so strange and yet so rational.

She seemed to understand what the young lady was thinking better than herself, who had grown up with her.

"But Afu, we can do something more meaningful with this spacecraft."

Polina turned around and held out her hand to Afu with a smile.

she says:

“Come with me. Once our friends at Rust Castle restart it, you, I, and the other members of the Exploration Groups 1 and 2 will be the first pioneers to set foot on the stars again after the collapse of the old civilization.

We will follow the guidance signals still being sent by the old civilization's Martian colony, permanently leave the Badlands, and head to that distant land to start our lives anew."

"I'd be crazy to embark on this one-way journey with you."

Afu screamed:
"You only learned that planet was called Mars after Miss Rhine taught you everything you know about Mars! What makes you think that the Martian colony can maintain the stability and peace you desire when the mother planet is already in such a state of decay?"

"We can be sure of that, actually, Ms. Afu."

A cold mechanical voice came from behind. As Afu turned around and glared at her, a very calm electronic sound came from a flying drone.

The latter did not introduce himself, but told Afu with certainty:

"After Rust Castle repaired its space-based signal transmission facilities fifteen years ago, we began receiving signals from the Martian colony. The immigrants from the Mother Planet Federation all died in the tragedy thirty-eight years ago, but the diligent machines have never given up the battle against the monsters emerging from the moonlight.

Just seven years ago, with the strategic assistance of Rust Castle, they successfully wiped out the last piece of land occupied by monsters in the Martian colony.

The colony shrouded in the glory of the mother planet federation has returned to the loyal hands of the machines. As soon as a new group of explorers set foot on the rusty red land, the entire colony will enter the restart process.

We do not disdain to deceive Ms. Polina and her followers with lies. We simply realize that they do not want to become tools and victims of ambitious people, and they just want to survive.

This desire for life is the most precious thing, so we decided to help.”

"Hey, that's Mr. 'Administrator', right? I haven't seen you for a few days. Are you trying to scam me again?"

Zhou Ke's voice suddenly rang out in this empty place, interrupting the words of the mysterious "manager" coming from the drone.

The latter seemed surprised and turned the drone around to "look" at the control panel behind him. Several mechanical maintainers busy there had their heads ripped out and their mental circuits destroyed by D-4 who jumped out from the optical shield.

Zhou Ke was leaning on the console at this time, waving and greeting everyone outside who was glaring at him in a friendly manner.

He spoke through the loudspeaker in the closed control console:
"Don't play with humanity in such a despicable way, Administrator. You can't just give a bunch of desperate people false hope and then tear it apart with the ruthless, cruel truth. It makes me feel like the world is truly hopeless. Even a bunch of robots can be so vicious."
The Martian colony was destroyed long ago!
There is nothing there except a ruin occupied by monsters, and there is no hope. Even if Polina and her followers really reach there, they will suffocate to death the moment they leave the spacecraft.

Am i right? "

The administrator did not answer for a long time. After Polina and the other psionicists of the exploration team waited in strange silence for about twenty seconds, the host of Rust Castle finally let out a regretful laugh.

it says:

"In front of our distinguished guests, we really cannot respond with lies and humiliation.
Yes, what you said is true. The Martian colony has been physically removed from the subordinate sequence of the mother planet federation.

Now that you have arrived here and expressed your desire for this spacecraft, based on the etiquette of a host entertaining a guest, we will immediately abandon all efforts to intervene in this matter.

However, distinguished guest, Rust Castle is waiting for your visit. My master and I are looking forward to your and Lord Wuneng's arrival.

The machine is patient, but please don't make us wait too long."

"You can't do this!"

Polina was going crazy at this moment.

She no longer had the composure and calmness she had before. She rushed over like a mad woman, grabbed the drone, and yelled:
"You clearly promised! You said you would give us hope."

"I'm sorry, ma'am, that's just a boring and banal lie. Hope is a poison that weakens a resolute heart. You've lived in the apocalypse for twenty-nine years. Why don't you even understand this simple truth?"

The manager said calmly:
“There is no hope anymore.

Not here, not on Mars, not anywhere you look, that kind of beautiful thing no longer exists! The present and the past are shrouded in despair. Perhaps the future will change, but unfortunately, according to this machine's calculations, there is a 99.89% chance that you will not see that future.

Good luck to you.”

"I ride on a horse"

"boom"

A gunshot interrupted Polina's roar.

When she turned back in disbelief, she saw Afu holding a gun with both hands and aiming it at her eyes.

"I didn't lie to you, Afu."

Polina covered the wound left by the bullet in her heart. She stumbled and fell to the ground. She did not use her ability to stop the bleeding. She just stretched out her hand to Afu and muttered to herself:
"I didn't mean to lie to you. I really just wanted to take you away, to a place where there would be no despair and pain, a place where no one would treat us as tools."

"I know, dear, I know."

Afu stepped forward and took Polina into her arms. She lowered her head and kissed the forehead of the person beside her. She said:
"If such a place existed, no one, not even Miss, could stop us from going there, but no! We are trapped here, Polina. Doom has devoured too many things, and it won't let us go."

It will also swallow up your last bit of courage in front of me.

I'm sorry, I didn't teach you well. I didn't make you a good Badlands person. I made you weak. It's all my fault.

You don't need to carry these things with you anymore.

Let it go, you are home and can rest.

Wait for me there.

Sooner or later, I will keep my appointment."

"Bang, bang, bang"

The dull sound of gunfire echoed in the embrace of Afu and Polina. Finally, the leader of the Exploration Group fell silent amidst violent convulsions. The entire space was dead silent, with only the sound of the evil vulture walking down step by step on the invisible stairs from a height.

She caught up to see the matter being dealt with, but could only witness a tragedy.

"See! This is what happens when you gather a group of people but don't focus on building team spirit and civilization."

In the control console, Zhou Ke blew out a smoke ring and said to D-4 beside him:
"If Rhine had half the humanity of little Acholi, all this could have been avoided. She's really not a good leader, is she?"

"Well, far worse than you."

"So, Afu fired four shots, and three of them missed vital points. Is that normal?"

"Given the generally poor archery skills of psionicists, this is understandable, but from an acting perspective, it's awful. It almost treats Ms. Vulture like a fool. She's very angry."

"Oh, please help this poor child. I can't bear to watch it anymore."

"boom!"

(End of this chapter)