Becoming an Emperor Starting from the World of The Wandering Earth

Chapter 77 Dieselpunk Steampunk

The battle began and ended within a dozen seconds.

"Check for damage! Inventory ammunition! Kerry, go check it out."

Wilson quickly issued the order, while he himself crouched down, his sharp eyes scanning the surrounding wasteland through the augmented reality interface of his mask.

Upon receiving the order, Kerry quickly went to the body that had been shot in the head by Cheng Hongtu and took out several alloy knives and sampling containers suitable for field dissection from his multi-tool bag.

The blade sliced ​​through the pale skin, and what seeped from the cut tissue was not bright red blood, but a dark brown, viscous liquid.

The internal structure is fully visible under the helmet lights and visor magnification.

Carey frowned and continued cutting down.

Muscle layer, bones, internal organs...

Twenty minutes later, he stood up and took off his liquid-soaked gloves.

"Sir, the preliminary analysis results are in."

"explain.

""

"This creature's blood is weakly acidic, with a pH of about 3.5, and faint beta and gamma radiation were also detected. Moreover, this thing has an absurdly high muscle density, while its bones are extremely light and probably have a hardness approaching that of some metals. Most importantly, they have no digestive system."

Wilson raised an eyebrow, walked over to the monster's corpse, and cautiously poked at it with the muzzle of his rifle.

High muscle density and strong bones go without saying; after all, the speed at which those monsters moved and the effects of the bullets hitting them already spoke volumes.

But what does it mean that they don't have a digestive system?

Carey pointed to the cut open abdominal cavity, where there was a contracted sac-like organ containing dark red material that had not yet completely solidified.

"You see, this should be where the stomach is, but its stomach pouch is completely atrophied, there's nothing inside. The intestines are the same, the entire digestive tract is basically just for show, there's no trace of food passing through."

"Without a digestive system, how do they live?"

Kerry shook his head, then pointed to the fangs scattered on the ground.

"Sir, its teeth are not designed for chewing, but only for tearing. Also, its esophagus is very short, and it is not directly connected to the stomach, but to an organ similar to... a blood storage sac."

Carey opened the blood reservoir, which had already been cut open. "I just did a quick analysis, and the hemoglobin content inside is extremely high. It should be the blood of a mammal."

Wilson remained silent for a few seconds.

It has no digestive system and lives by sucking blood.

This thing was even stranger than he had imagined.

"So they're vampires?" Kirk interjected from the side.

Wilson ignored him, squatted down, and stared at the corpse for a few seconds.

"Living on blood —"

Wilson muttered to himself, his mind drifting back to certain scenes from horror movies.

Although what Kirk said earlier was a bit far-fetched, this is, after all, another world where all sorts of strange creatures could appear. Perhaps this thing really is a vampire?

Of course, whatever these things may be, since they feed on blood, it means there must be their nests or human settlements nearby.

Just as humans automatically flock to big cities because they can find more jobs and a better living environment there.

Animals are no exception, except that they seek water and enough prey.

Since this thing lives on blood, there must be a stable blood source nearby.

But judging from the desolation of the environment, the possibility of a large animal group is not high—so, it is more likely to be humans. "Cheng Hongtu, immediately take the drone back into the air and expand the search area to see if there are any light sources or areas with relatively intact building structures."

"Yes, boss."

As the drone began to expand its search area, seven minutes later, Cheng Hongtu's voice came through the communication channel.

"Sir, we've found the light source."

On the control screen in Cheng Hongtu's hand, a relatively complete complex of buildings appeared, with faint flashes of light inside, about 42 kilometers away from their current location.

Where there is light, there are people.

Or rather, intelligent beings similar to humans.

That makes things easier.

"Everyone, everyone stay put and rest. We'll depart tomorrow."

The next day, Wilson was hiding behind a mound with nine team members.

Not far in front of the mound was the settlement, or rather, the town, that we had explored yesterday.

However, due to the harsh and unknown external environment, Wilson did not order his team members to remove their exoskeletons and enter the town to gather information. Instead, he had Nancy operate a miniature drone into the town.

He turned the optical zoom on his helmet to its maximum and carefully examined the town.

The town is small, at most three or four hundred meters in diameter from one end to the other, with a population of about one or two hundred.

A large chimney stood in the center of the town, billowing thick smoke.

You can still see people shoveling coal into the chimney.

Wilson shifted his gaze to the side.

Next to the coal-fired boiler was a row of low cement bungalows with faded whitewashed walls and iron bars on the windows, looking like some kind of official institution or warehouse.

On the other side of the cement houses were rows of tin sheds and wooden plank houses, some with tires and stones on their roofs, and some simply nailed together with scrap boards.

The architectural style, how should I put it, is similar to the shantytowns during the Great Depression in America, but it also has an inexplicable strangeness.

Wilson zoomed in, focusing the camera on the town's streets.

Several pickup trucks were parked by the gravel road, but right next to them, an old man in a tattered fur coat was slowly riding a mule past.

Mule.

Wilson stared at the screen for several seconds to make sure he wasn't seeing things.

That's a real mule.

"Damn it, what kind of place is this?"

Wilson couldn't help but curse and turned the camera to the edge of town.

There was a row of slightly neater shops there.

There was a shop with a handwritten wooden sign hanging outside, with a crooked drawing of a wrench and a gear on it, probably a car repair shop or something like that.

The open space in front of the gate was piled with all kinds of old parts, including car tires and several engines that were so rusted that they were unrecognizable.

On the wall next to the shop, there was a small screen that was displaying a few lines of text on a loop.

Wilson zoomed in to the maximum and finally managed to see the contents clearly.

Looking to buy purebred blood, price negotiable.

"Selling used water filters; parts can be exchanged."

66

"The mine is hiring. Daily pay, one meal provided."

Wilson stared at the screen, then at the mules and donkeys running around, and the strange feeling in his heart grew stronger.

What the hell kind of era is this?

The presence of a display screen indicates a certain level of basic electronic technology.

Although that thing looks rough, it can play on a loop and display text and images; it's definitely not something that can be typed out by hand.

The presence of pickup trucks and motorcycles indicates that internal combustion engines exist and that there are people who know how to repair them.

Yet, the streets are full of snails, coal-burning machines, and people living in tin sheds and wooden houses.

This technological development path is ridiculously skewed.

It felt like a word suddenly popped into Wilson's head.

Dieselpunk, no, it should be dieselpunk plus steampunk.

Despite possessing technology far ahead of its time, society as a whole remains in a primitive and crude state.

Just like the world before my eyes.