Wasteland Echoer

"Name?"

"Wright…Wright Sugar."

"Profession?"

"Guards, um, members of the Guards. On vacation now."

"Don't answer anything you didn't ask, do you understand?"

"Okay...ok." Wright nodded nervously.

"Okay, the captain of the escort will come later to continue interrogating you. If you can answer truthfully, your self-proclaimed injustice will be proven. But if you lie, the laws of Sogra city will not forgive you."

Watching the tall middle-aged man in front of him, wearing a black windbreaker to cover up and wearing neat protective equipment, Wright suddenly felt like the world was spinning. The slight sleepiness in his head and the faint smell of blood in his mouth made him gag.

Do you remember that you were eating hot pot a second ago? Yes, it was a sweet and tempting hot pot. These delicious ingredients attracted a man as soon as they were put into the aluminum pot? Or a member of the Scotch Vigilante Corps?

Alas, I didn’t have a good hot pot meal again. I'm afraid the vacation given to me by the escort is almost over. If I go to the battlefield fighting the Wuxin people, I'm afraid I'll only be able to eat canned food or something.

Wait, this shouldn’t be something to consider right now!

Remember the man who broke in before he passed out? What did he say? right! "ceremony"? "Illegal ritual?"

No, I probably didn't accept the invitation from that woman Natasha. Could it be that it was the red magic source? Did he trigger the red magic source power unconsciously? And then someone saw it and reported it? Is that Mrs. Lena? What a troublesome woman!

wrong! There was no need for him to provoke the Sogra Guards. She was as respectful and obedient as a "good friend of mankind" in front of the dead team leader De, so it shouldn't be her.

Virtue? Is it a matter of virtue? The Sogra security team used "illegal rituals" as an excuse and then took the opportunity to investigate De's disappearance?

That makes sense. Those people didn't know the fact that I was a time traveler, and they didn't know that Wright actually died after the last mysterious mission. They just thought that I survived the mission by luck.

So, in addition to the "red magic source power" mentioned by De and Yatuo and the desperate note he wrote at some point, he also has secrets?

In this case, could it be said that the Sogla Guards deliberately took a vacation and allowed themselves to explore the city? They happened to go to Natasha's dim shop, and then bought such misleading food, and finally formed This situation?

The more Wright thought about it, the more he felt as if his brain was being beaten crazily by a thick hammer. He even felt that his Tianling Cap had been opened by some mysterious force, and something like a spoon was put in and stirred wantonly.

He banged his brain hard, trying to annihilate these pains and strange feelings, but the surrounding space seemed to be like a "frightened" lake surface, and lingering ripples began to spread outward from the center.

Wright endured the pain and dizziness and slowly stood up from the worn leather seat and looked around.

The room in front of you is like a closed box for storing waste, with only a skylight over three meters high and a nearby railing on a light red iron door that can only allow one person to pass through, implying that this is a situation where criminals are imprisoned.

This place is small and dark, and seems to cause some kind of mental torture to the imprisoned people, so that they can unconsciously reveal their sins.

Suddenly, Wright turned his head unconsciously. At some point, the skylight on the wall became less dim, and actually let in a subtle light that gradually began to brighten.

They start out as dim light and slowly become brighter.

Immediately afterwards, as the surrounding temperature gradually became warmer, Wright actually saw a color as bright as blood!

"Light? Blood red? Where is this?"

He suddenly remembered a small lingering part of the memory fragment, "MB-001: The Burning Sun", the legendary sun that would melt everything and swallow everything.

Somewhere after the arrival of the New Lunar Calendar, the sun will melt those who dare to touch the sun. Those who are cursed to touch will not die immediately, but will become a pile of flesh, gradually expanding, and eventually forming a monster that swallows all living things. Horrible combination.

At that time, the eyes of humans were full of despair. They cursed the sun and did not dare to touch them.

But no matter how much humans struggle, they can only survive in the cold or embrace death in anxiety.

However, now, the legendary scorching sun and its orange-red light appeared in front of Wright. His spirit and consciousness gradually resonated with the warmth, and seemed to be contaminated by the red that gradually became like blood.

His subconscious hated the darkness, hated the big black cover suppressing living humans under it, and he seemed to no longer want to explore this desolate, dark, and dirty world.

The time travellers, the magic source, the guards, the lost, and the unintentional people have all become nothingness. At this moment, he just wants to embrace warmth and light!

Just as his consciousness gradually became blurred, a gap seemed to appear in the steel wall facing him.

Accompanied by the whistle of steam and the sound of mechanical gears, those bright red lights began to pour in from the cracks. They were like bats in the bright world, with blood-red "eyes" and roars of "yaaa". , turned into countless tiny spark-like particles, gradually surrounding Wright.

Wright stretched out his arm wearing a black half-finger gauntlet and waved wildly, but the jumping red ones avoided him like a clown and mocked his slowness.

Immediately afterwards, those blood-red beings turned into a faint figure and clung to the white wall in front of him.

At this moment, Wright seemed to smell the pungent smell of engine oil and the strong smell of burning animal bodies, followed by his body moving forward uncontrollably.

The blood-red figure gradually changed from a two-dimensional to a three-dimensional existence. It also stretched out its hands and made a hug gesture as it slowly moved towards Wright.

Suddenly, the blood-red man's body began to collapse uncontrollably, and the bright red color transformed back into its previous spark shape, and began to flow into Wright's mouth and nose uncontrollably along a predetermined trajectory.

Feelings of suffocation, burning, and pain hit him at the same time, and Wright felt like he was standing on a blazing sun without oxygen.

Just when his consciousness was about to be annihilated, an ethereal and soft voice belonging to a woman came to his ears that did not fit the picture:

"Know me, find me, save me. I am the messenger of the Mechanical Era. If you contact me, you will get the guidance of the inspiration sequence core."

…

"Wright? Wright?"

The familiar strong male voice brought Wright back from his hallucination.

Panting heavily, he rubbed his sore eyes, raised his head and looked around.

The blood-red light, the comfortable temperature, and the red figure seemed to have never appeared before. The walls were illuminated with a faint yellow color by the dim lights, and everything was still as cold and dark as before.

Is it a dream? Did you have a terrible dream just now?

Wright tried his best to cover his left chest with his trembling right hand, trying to calm himself down.

"Oh, you are, General George?" Wright looked at the man in front of him in surprise.

A face with wrinkles and dots of yellow-brown spots, a green uniform of the Socratic Army, and two golden medals on the chest, one is the Guards Medal of "Long Sword and Hammer", and the other is "Mechanical The Socra army badge with "gun" was unmistakable. It was the second important person I saw after waking up that day - General George of the Socra Guard.

Seeing Wright gasping for breath and waking up from his nap, a trace of worry flashed across George's face, but then this emotion was replaced by a more important question.

After all, the bizarre dreams were not the part he should be curious about. Wright, who was currently in the solitary cell of the Scottish Security Team, was what he should be concerned about.

"Yes, it's me." George nodded and asked solemnly:

"To put it bluntly, are you involved in illegal rituals?"

"No, I was wronged." Wright shook his head vigorously, fearing that this big shot might also misunderstand him.

"The Sugla Security Team is an agency that specializes in extraordinary and mysterious things. You'd better not lie, especially during the period before the Blood Night Ceremony. Your honesty determines that you can be released now. You must know everything related to mysterious things and Anything related to the power of the magic source will be equated by the security forces with contact with the lost, which is a serious crime. Moreover, anyone who receives these powers will be contaminated unconsciously, leading to the path of a careless person. Wright, I think you are I guess you won’t have too much contact with them.” George asked, crossing his hands, crossing his legs again, and staring at Wright cautiously.

"No, but out of curiosity I did go to a woman named Natasha and ask some questions." Wright chose to answer truthfully.

After all, he had been arrested by the security team. Although he didn't quite remember how he ended up in such a miserable place, if there was no evidence, he would not have ended up like this.

For George, Wright had a vague feeling in his memory that this man was very important and he should not hide anything from him.

"I know that crazy woman named Natasha. She belongs to a religious organization called Tenin Sect, which is about to be banned by the Socra Committee. Originally Socra's policy was religious tolerance. After all, there is some faith in the wasteland world that can support it. People survived. But she did so many ridiculous things in the name of the committee and me. But it’s okay now," George suddenly leaned forward slightly and said to Wright in a deep voice:

"Now she is dead. So Wright, please remember, you have never seen her, nor do you know of her existence. She was just an unintentional person who mistakenly broke into the vicinity of Socra Dome and was executed by our heroic warriors."

died? Executed? Does that mean that everything about the magic source power and the information on that postcard can never be obtained? What secret is hidden in that crazy woman? Or is there actually some unspeakable secret in General George?

Wright felt as if his brain was being eaten by bugs, and the shock on his face had completely betrayed his thinking to George.

But George didn't seem to care about Wright's expression. He just slowly lowered his legs and took out a metal iron box and a box of matches from his arms.

Then, he took out a white cigarette from the iron box, lit it with a match, and began to relax.

After the white smoke and pungent smell filled the room for a while, George slowly exhaled, opened his sleeves and looked at the time on the old watch, and said leisurely to Wright:

"I know you have doubts in your heart. But you have shown me your honesty, and you can leave here at ten o'clock in the evening. However, before ending our conversation, I want to say three things to you."

"Please, please speak." Wright responded with some anxiety.

"First of all, De Moti no longer exists. He has never existed in the city of Sugra. He is just a soldier from the outer area who mutated into a careless person."

"Secondly," George pressed the cigarette in his hand hard on the iron table a few times and continued:

"You should be a professional rank 5 silver blade two-star in the Zine Empire military level now, right? I am a rank two dark star four-star. I have the power to promote you, but in addition to your honesty, all this requires bravery. Created value. The city of Socra is not a charity. People without value can only die in filth and despair, or be infected by the virus and become heartless people. If you want to survive in this world, you need value."

"Finally," George said, straightening his slightly messy shirt and touching the "Long Sword and Hammer" medal that shone with subtle light.

Immediately after, he glanced at the somewhat confused Wright with complicated eyes, stood up and said:

"Route 65 leading to Silent Highlands is almost completely opened. There are still not too many careless people and wandering lost people left there. The escort decided to assign you and Brett to a group to support the front line. This is your Mission. There will be a car to pick you up tomorrow. By the way, if the Silent Highlands returns to the control of the Zine Empire, the Imperial Council will not block the explorers. But whether you need to be stationed will depend on the situation."

"Yes, I accept." Wright nodded subconsciously and agreed.