Wasteland Development Diary

The daytime visibility was high, the sun reflecting off the sand. Zhou Yi sized up the young boy, A Jin.

He wore an outer garment made of two strips of tattered cloth, his hair was messy, he was thin, and about 1.4 meters tall.

The child's skin was pale and dry, his face and arms covered in old scars. He wore a pair of linen gloves, was barefoot, and his legs and feet were covered in a layer of black dirt. His right leg seemed injured, tightly bound with cloth, with traces of blood visible.

"Master, our Mao Valley Town is to the west. We need to pass through the oasis first, and then walk a long way. Crossing during the day is dangerous. Although you have Samurai Crab guards, it's best to go at night for safety."

The direct sunlight made A Jin squint, and he shielded his forehead with his hand, appearing uncomfortable.

Zhou Yi rummaged through his backpack and took out two baseball caps. He smoothed them out, put one on himself, and handed the other to the boy: "To block the sun."

The boy mimicked him, putting the hat on his head, his eyes finally returning to normal.

He touched the brim of the hat and the embroidered "中" (Middle) character on it: "The workmanship is exquisite, it must be expensive. My head has blood and sweat, if I get it dirty, I'll wash it with sand, don't worry."

Zhou Yi said, "I'm giving it to you."

The boy hurriedly shook his head: "I can't accept such a valuable gift, I already owe you my life."

"Just take it."

Zhou Yi told him, "I'm currently looking for a place to settle down, planning to stay long-term. What's Mao Valley Town's attitude towards outsiders?"

This question stunned A Jin for a moment, then he excitedly said: "Master, you want to settle in town? There's no problem at all!"

"Although our town is small, only 120 people, and not wealthy, the people in town are very nice and united. Everyone drifted here from all over, escaping disasters, and finally gathered in the camp, which led to this town..."

Mao Valley Town was originally a temporary camp built by scavengers. They rested here, avoided danger, and traded the things they found.

There's an oasis not far away, and relatively clean underground water in the cave, which is very suitable for living. Later, it slowly developed into a town, reaching nearly 300 people at its peak.

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

In recent years, groups of Claw Boars have migrated here. They have occupied the northern part of the town, continuously compressing the oasis area where the locals can safely move, making survival much more difficult.

Claw Boar groups are highly aggressive and well-organized. They also patrol their territory at night, making the northern area a forbidden zone.

As a result, townspeople have been leaving with merchants and hunting groups, willing to sell themselves into hard labor just to leave.

The population has therefore declined again and again.

Even so, the town has always welcomed outsiders.

Because of the continuous outflow of population, Mao Valley Town has many empty caves of the original residents, which can be lived in with a little tidying up. But in reality, too few people are willing to settle in this poor little place.

"...That's the situation in town."

A Jin's eyelids were drooping as he spoke, and he couldn't even lift his head, looking extremely sleepy.

Zhou Yi said, "You rest first, I'll wake you up at night."

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

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

Soon, several more Claw Boars appeared. They stared at this side, but were not as reckless as the previous two, and after repeated observation, they bypassed this place.

Two red-eyed vultures, one large and one small, perched on a tree in the distance, staring at the bones by the extinguished bonfire and the remaining organs on the ground. The smaller one flapped its wings non-stop, eager to come over and take a bite.

The larger one glanced at the man in black, and slapped the smaller one next to it with its wing to quiet it down, obediently waiting for the person to leave.

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

The Samurai Crabs erected a sunshade for Zhou Yi, brought a deck chair, and then they burrowed back underground.

Zhou Yi sat in the chair, took out a copy of "Storybook" that he hadn't read from his backpack, opened a can of 24-year-old cola, and began to pass the time.

In this wasteland era without internet and mobile phones, reading is a good solo entertainment activity.

The only drawback is the lack of ice.

Near dusk.

The boy, who was lying down and drooling, suddenly sat up.

"I forgot something important."

Seeing the book in Zhou Yi's hand, A Jin was in awe: "You can read, amazing! In that case, you'll definitely be able to figure out that thing."

"Master, I've been feeling something's not right when I go out to scavenge recently, but I can't put my finger on it."

"Last night I was attacked, and only then did I realize they were looters."

"They were targeting me, so I ran. Luckily, I've been fast since I was a kid. But I'm penniless, often not even having enough mushrooms and bugs to eat, I don't understand why they're targeting me."

A Jin recalled: "I thought about it, and there's only one reason."

"Two days ago, I was looking for dung near the mushroom forest in the south and saw a mushroom pit that had just collapsed. I dug up a strange thing from under that pit. It doesn't seem like it could be made in a town or even a city. I suspect it's a Dead Sea oddity."

The boy looked at the yellow bicycle next to him: "It has a similar feel to this thing of yours."

Zhou Yi listened quietly.

"The looters must have known about this and were trying to rob me... Last night I was chased by them to this side, far from the oasis, and my leg was also cut by their short spears."

A Jin pointed to his tightly bound right calf.

"It should have been the appearance of the Claw Boars, near dawn, that made them give up the risk of continuing the chase. Fortunately, I met you, Master."

"That thing was hidden by me in a tree hole, I wanted to wait for a merchant to come to town and sell it. Wait for me, I'll dig it out, maybe it'll be useful to you."

Zhou Yi agreed.

An hour later, A Jin returned, escorted by two Samurai Crabs.

"This is it."

Zhou Yi stared at the thing in his hand, his expression strange.

It was a black remote control with a screen, square and upright, with two thick and short antennas, and two joysticks on the upper half. Apart from some scratches on the surface, it was generally well preserved.

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

Opening the back cover, he found that there were no batteries inside.

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

This feature indicated that it had undergone a heteromorphic reaction in the Dead Sea and was no longer a conventional tool. The silver cross on the back shell of the Samurai Crab, and the similar structure under the thick fur of the Claw Boar.

The remote control seemed to be part of some mechanical photon species.

It lacked energy, but he had it.

Zhou Yi looked at his panel.

...

[Body]

Health: 10000

Defense: 425

Energy: 2802

...

This was also the result of Zhou Yi's ten years in the wasteland era.

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

Text appeared on the light screen.

[Pairing...]

[Pairing completed, connected to Red Falcon.]

[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 constant red dot.

The green dot was the shape of the controller, and the red dot was the shape of an aircraft.

On the right side of the small screen was a detailed diagram of a quadcopter drone, its main structure was green, with only a small area of yellow symbolizing a fault, and the battery level in the upper right corner showed 0.

Mechanical photon species are rare.

Zhou Yi became interested.

He asked A Jin, "Look at the map, what place is this location?"

The local boy then came over and carefully identified it: "The shape on top looks like the oasis belt and the river, and the location below must be the mushroom forest."

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