Warhammer 40 Spring: Loyalty of the Multiverse

Chapter 252: Terrifying Conjecture
The sandstorm whipped up by the yellow sand filled the sky, hitting people's faces and stinging them so much that they could barely open their eyes.

Even those in Mocheng, sitting in off-road vehicles in the transport convoy, couldn't help but wear protective masks to shield themselves from the wind and sand.

Looking at the desolate, barren landscape around him, Mo Cheng couldn't help but sigh, "Everyone says the environment of the old world is just like in the promotional videos. But ever since I saw the real ground, it seems to have always been a barren desert!"

"That's normal! The Mana ecosystem not only threatens us humans, but it also devastates the planet's natural ecosystem. All the old-world plants have died out; the Mana ecosystem has taken all the nutrients. Apart from the crops in the Lighthouse breeding area, there are basically no old-world plants left on the ground." Ran Bing had a fairly good understanding of the theories surrounding the Mana ecosystem. And this was a crucial part of the education at the Lighthouse's Child Nursery Center.

"I really hope that one day we can live on the ground!" With her hands on the car window, Penny rested her chin on her hand and tilted her head to look out at the desolate Gobi Desert and strange rocks.

A look of envy and relaxation flashed in their eyes. For those on the lighthouse, aside from the older generation, very few of the younger generation had ever actually been down to earth or seen the ground.

Penny is one of them!

Her longing for the ground grew stronger and stronger. Every time she completed a collection task or went down to the ground in the early stages, she would always show this expression, no matter how bad the scenery outside was.

In her eyes, everything was like a stunning landscape painting.

Sitting in the driver's seat, Donnie scoffed upon hearing this, "What are you thinking? The ground is full of Devouring Beasts, how could anyone survive on it? You should know that the Lighthouse is now the only remaining human settlement on this planet."

Penny wasn't annoyed by the rebuttal, because she knew whose voice it was; she just smiled sweetly and drifted into her own fantasy.

"Hey, Donnie, you can't say that!" Corey said with a smile. "During these recent ground missions, you haven't noticed that the supplies and resources at each collection point we came down to have been disturbed recently. Obviously, there are still humans alive on the surface."

Upon hearing this, Ran Bing couldn't help but daydream, "If we could get in touch with those people and obtain from them the methods and technologies that would allow humans to escape the Devouring Beasts and survive on the ground, maybe we could survive on the ground too." Or she would stare at Mark sitting opposite her with her big, bright eyes.

Mark's lips curled into a smile upon seeing this!
Donnie stubbornly insisted, "Come on! I don't want to be eating dirt underground every day, unable to sleep peacefully, and who knows, one night I might fall asleep only to be carried away by a Devouring Beast!"

Erica, having finished taking notes and closed her notebook, said in the channel, "The Devouring Beasts will be wiped out sooner or later. I killed six more today!"

Hearing this, Jeff, sitting in the driver's seat, gave Erica a fond look. This little girl was the life of the party in their entire hunter team!

"Tch!" Donnie wanted to say something in rebuttal, but Jeff interrupted him, "Donnie, if you don't have the guts, then don't be stubborn!"

"Hahahaha..." As soon as these words were spoken, everyone burst into laughter.

Sitting inside the supply truck, 4068 was drawn by the laughter and turned his head to look at it with some displeasure.

4079, standing next to him, nudged him with his shoulder and said, "How about it, 4068! We'll get quite a few contribution points this time! With so many contribution points, we can definitely buy some compressed biscuits for the common people at the black market this month and improve our meals!"

4068 scoffed and turned his head away. "Forget it. I reckon our contribution points aren't even worth a fraction of what those gun-wielding guys have. I bet even if you spent all your contribution points this month on the black market, you'd only be able to buy a box of compressed biscuits!"

Wearing windproof goggles, a yellow helmet, and overalls, 3352 approached them and chuckled, "4068, stop bragging! This ground mission has lasted so long. We've visited so many resource gathering points, especially the Old World Rich Flesh Soil in that spaceship ruins. I don't believe you haven't tinkered with some little antiques."

After speaking, he pulled something out of his suspenders and showed it to the two of them. Lying in his hand was a pair of earrings. Although they were old and dusty, they were polished exceptionally clean in 3352's hands. If it were Tie Hui, he would definitely pick them up and examine them closely.

Because these earrings are absolutely worth 230 million!
It's the kind of score where one more point doesn't make a difference!

Upon seeing this, 4079's eyes widened instantly, his face showing shock. "My god! You're incredibly lucky! If you sold these on the black market, you'd probably get as many contribution points as a Hunter! Maybe the Guild Leader would even take a liking to these earrings! By the way, how did you get them?"

As she was saying this, she reached out to touch it, but 3352 quickly put it back into the pocket of her overalls. "Don't touch it and get it all dirty, or the Chief Minister won't like it! He probably won't reward me for being a commoner!"

4079 scoffed dismissively, "I've never heard of a commoner being able to advance to the upper class! I think you should just sell your wares at the black market to earn some contribution points, learn a skill, and upgrade your equipment. That way, you can earn more contribution points without even going down to the ground!"

"Tell me quickly, how exactly did you obtain this precious item?" 4079 still relentlessly pressed for the origin of the item, and even 4068 and several other Dust People nearby were drawn to its attention.

"Hey, I found this in a pile of flesh and dirt fragments. Alas! It's so pitiful that the former owner of these earrings was not only sucked into flesh and dirt by the Devouring Beast, but even after death, his own flesh and dirt turned into dust for some unknown reason!" 3352 sighed regretfully.

Mark and Ran Bing felt a sense of relief watching the people chatting and laughing after the battle. Even though the surrounding environment was terrible, he still smiled as if he were appreciating a beautiful scene.

"Did you keep all those photos?" Ran Bing suddenly asked Mark in a low voice. Upon hearing this, Mark's slightly happy expression waned slightly.

"Saved!" After replying, he sighed and turned to look at the lighthouse silhouette that could be faintly seen in the sky ahead of the convoy. "Perhaps the city lord and the others won't even believe what we've seen!"

"Yes! Those terrifyingly powerful weapons were even more powerful than electromagnetic cannons! They could even penetrate the armored walls of a spaceship!" Ran Bing recalled the scenes they had witnessed on the spaceship, her body trembling slightly.

The dense craters left by those terrifying weapons sent chills down their spines.

Once they entered the spaceship, there was almost no intact flesh or soil inside. Moreover, there were scattered spines curled up in balls everywhere.

A huge hole had been torn in the thick armored wall of the spaceship, leading from the spaceship's corridor all the way to the outside of the armored structure, and one could even see the outside through the hole.

Judging from its appearance, it looks like the kind of damage that could only be caused by high-powered armor-piercing rounds fired by old-world tanks, but the dense craters clearly belong to heavy weapons with extremely high rates of fire.

However, in the confined space of the spaceship passage, the heavy weapons that humans in the old world possessed were simply not usable.

Moreover, judging from the traces, it was clearly created in the last few months, especially the wounds on the spine, which were completely penetrated by a high-energy focused energy.

The damage didn't look like it was caused by gunfire at all, which made her and Mark seriously suspect that there was definitely another human settlement nearby.

Otherwise, how do you explain the corpses all over the ground?
Most importantly, all indications suggest that this spaceship, and even the other resource points they were heading to, had been cleared. Otherwise, they would have suffered countless casualties during their mission to collect supplies.

……

(End of this chapter)