Wasteland Development Diary

As soon as Shang Yang entered Emerald City, Zhou Yi began to observe him closely.

Under the 【Alertness】 perspective, this Pandaren was an A-level Sky Walker.

【Panoramic Reading】 however, discovered his hidden secret.

【This unit possesses a certain level of intelligence, but a very weak consciousness, and has an energy structure of a LV1 Light Core body.】

Zhou Yi stared at Shang Yang.

The dual-layered perspective unfolded.

On the consciousness side, the form was normal.

On the material side, however, Shang Yang exhibited a transparent phenomenon, with a curved, luminous object inside his body.

The Light Core body originated from that luminous object.

Zhou Yi continued to gaze, and the transparency became increasingly clear. It was Shang Yang's spine, mostly a metallic structure, the bones modified with a high-energy reaction.

This weapon was hidden within the spine.

Normally, it would be impossible to know the details inside the body due to the shielding and interference of the light-absorbing organs.

But the destructive weapon hidden in the spine was completely visible to Zhou Yi.

【The composite Light Core is extremely unstable, generating fission fragments and releasing energy.】

……

【The number of fission fragments continues to increase, and the instability of the composite Light Core increases.】

……

The description from the observation soon entered a new stage.

【Chain reaction initiated, energy surge accelerated, about to enter runaway phase.】

It was at this moment that Zhou Yi exposed Shang Yang, allowing Cat God to restrain him.

The Focusing Body then used a light blade, based on 【Panoramic Reading】, to pierce his metallic spine and stop the internal reaction, but unfortunately, it failed.

Next was the interrogation.

Zhou Yi immersed himself in the BGM domain.

Inside was a sea of fire.

A large amount of ash and dust floated in the air.

On the ground, riddled with pits and gravel, a monster over a hundred meters tall was devouring a Pandaren.

The monster was entirely azure blue, crystal clear all over.

It had a head and limbs similar to humans, but the head was very small, and the arms and legs were disproportionate, as if dragging its arms and legs on the ground, as if it hadn't learned to walk upright yet.

The giant monster devoured the Pandaren using its hands—if the dozen or so fingers composed of gemstones on its palms could be considered hands.

It grabbed the Pandaren and slowly sucked it into its body with its head.

On this scarred ground, the gemstone monster grabbed another injured Pandaren lying on the ground and stuffed it into its mouth.

The sound of stone grinding echoed in the air.

Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 23 played in the air.

Zhou Yi frowned as he watched.

A monster composed of gemstone cells.

So this is the Light Core Giant.

The Pandaren on the ground were all severely injured, some had lost arms and legs, and some even only had half their bodies, and didn't seem like they would live long.

The giant was just devouring the remnants of the soldiers.

The battle between the two sides was completely one-sided.

Zhou Yi noticed that Shang Yang was holding a bamboo spear, glaring at the Light Core Giant with anger and unwillingness.

The giant slowly turned around and walked towards him.

This seemed to be the rebel army's battlefield.

Shang Yang turned his head and ran, moving very fast.

Zhou Yi's figure flashed, floating above the running Shang Yang.

"It seems that you were a deserter on the battlefield, which is why the Black Emperor expelled you from the Dawn Guard."

"I won't do things that are clearly impossible and lead to death."

Shang Yang suddenly focused his gaze: "No, this is a mental attack. This is... inside my memory? A mental scene constructed based on my memory?"

The Pandaren reacted quickly.

"In other words... everything here is a distorted consciousness."

"As long as I stabilize myself, I can break through it."

Zhou Yi remained noncommittal.

The gemstone giant's hand grabbed Shang Yang and stuffed him into its mouth.

The surrounding scene changed again.

Shang Yang returned to the battlefield ruins, and the giant began to hunt and devour Pandaren everywhere.

Memory restarted.

He showed a surprised expression: "How could this be... what exactly is this place?"

Zhou Yi asked, "You can continue to try and explore."

"……"

The giant chased after him again, and Shang Yang ran away frantically once more.

He shouted as he ran, "Who exactly are you? You are not a human, not a life from this world! There is no life form like you! What exactly are you!"

Zhou Yi hovered beside him: "That's because you haven't seen enough. I am a genuine local of Earth."

"You should exercise first to release your excess energy, and then we can have a good chat."

To his surprise.

Shang Yang was very patient and persistent.

After being eaten 224 times in a row, constantly running away and being killed, he was still trying various methods to break the situation, without any intention of admitting defeat.

Fortunately, the flow of time in the mental world is much faster than in reality. The entire process only took 2 minutes.

Zhou Yi snapped his fingers: "Increase the intensity."

"Yes, sir."

Cat God immediately took the order.

The whole world suddenly changed.

The surroundings became a misty dead sea.

Zhou Yi saw that Shang Yang was now fixed in a white gemstone.

A large number of gemstone fibers stretched flexibly, skillfully dissecting the Pandaren.

His heart, lungs, blood vessels, and muscles were peeled off little by little, and placed separately into different white gemstones next to him.

Then the fat layer, skin, and hair were peeled and cut.

The blood was also sucked out and stored in a large gemstone.

Next were the bones, the eyeballs of the head, the tongue, and the teeth...

The original living being was divided into pieces of tissue in front of gemstone fibers as sharp as surgical knives.

This scene made Zhou Yi frown.

It seemed to be some kind of experiment by the Celestials?

However, the operation of gemstone fibers can be used by mecha-life and ordinary people as long as there is a corresponding ruby manual, after all, they are just tools.

Zhou Yi continued to observe.

Every organ and tissue was inspected or experimented on under the operation of gemstone fibers.

Green gemstones were also added, and the body fluids of the glass people were integrated into these Pandaren tissues.

Zhou Yi understood.

It should be the Celestials—or the people operating the gemstone tools—trying to integrate the flesh and blood tissues of Shang Yang into the genetic factors of the glass people, so as to cultivate new glass people.

Unfortunately, this step failed.

Only some deformed tissues and wriggling strange organs were obtained.

The remaining tissues were reassembled by gemstone fibers.

A large number of carefully cut small pieces were connected and stitched together, forming a Pandaren with one eye missing. Some of his internal organs were missing, and part of the skin and flesh was missing from his chest and head, and the hair and bones were also obviously damaged.

It looked like a lifelike large specimen.

After the gemstone's repair, those parts slowly recovered, and were injected with the blue energy of the sapphire.

The reorganized and repaired Shang Yang was released from the gemstone.

As soon as his feet touched the ground, his whole body fell apart, turning into a pile of unrecognizable pieces of meat.

The gemstone fibers once again rescued and repaired him, cleaning up the pieces of tissue, and then assembling them, but they could never put together those missing parts.

Every time Shang Yang came out, he would quickly collapse, turning into a pile of meat that collapsed and scattered.

Finally, the surgeon used some external resources, and found some other Pandaren—extracting bones, muscles, blood vessels, nerves... from their bodies to repair Shang Yang's incomplete and unnatural parts.

After the conduction and stimulation of the gemstone fibers, this time Shang Yang finally staggered and stood firm.

Many fibers touched the Pandaren, like clapping, and like a kind of inspection.

The Pandaren at this time had a gloomy face and clenched his fists.

"Have you seen enough!"

"How else do you want to humiliate me!"

"Kill me! Kill me!"

He gritted his teeth and let out a low and angry roar.

Zhou Yi's mind moved.

The whole scene changed again, becoming a bamboo forest.

The music in the air also became soothing and relaxing.

Zhou Yi and Shang Yang stood facing each other.

"Kill me."

The Pandaren had a numb face.

"Under normal circumstances, you came to assassinate me, and falling into my hands means I can do whatever I want."

Zhou Yi said, "But whether you will die, whether it will be worse than death, or whether you will live in pain, I haven't thought about these things yet."

"……"

"If you can answer my questions, I will give you a quick death."

"What do you want to know?"

"Why did you assassinate me?"

"Because killing you is the best solution to the current predicament."

Shang Yang said: "As long as you die, the Wasteland Development Company will be leaderless, the Development Alliance will fall apart, and the Legalist Faction will no longer have the greatest external pressure."

Zhou Yi nodded: "So you are willing to risk your life for this?"

"If it succeeds."

The Pandaren looked calm: "The Legalist Faction will no longer be subject to the greatest obstacles and pressure, and the mecha-life group will continue to grow rapidly. It is worthwhile to trade my life for yours."

Zhou Yi gave a thumbs up: "Commendable courage."

Fortunately, he had compulsory education experience.

The story of Jing Ke assassinating the King of Qin is basically known to every Chinese student.

When Shang Yang proposed to use taxes and commodity compensation, that sense of déjà vu became very strong.

"The thing implanted in your spine is the 'Light Burst Staff'?"

"It seems you know."

The Pandaren admitted: "It is an improved version of the Light Burst Staff, now called the 'Light Burst Tube'. It greatly compresses the volume and can be installed in various devices. After detonation, it can reach the energy level of the Light Core body, and at close range, it is enough to kill and destroy the Light Core body..."

Zhou Yi looked at Shang Yang: "Did you ever think you would fail?"

"I did."

"If you fail, do you know what the result will be?"

"I die, the conflict between the Legalist Faction and the Wasteland Company intensifies, and a full-scale war breaks out."

The other party was very clear-headed.

"But this is a way to solve the fundamental problem. The longer it is delayed, the lower the chance of winning. High risk, high reward."

Zhou Yi frowned: "Is this your own idea, or the result calculated by the Legalist Faction?"

"Is there a difference?"

"Yes."

"If I say it was my own idea, would you believe it?"

"I would."

Shang Yang was stunned for a moment: "You are really a strange person."

Zhou Yi snapped his fingers.

The two immediately returned to Emerald City.

Shang Yang's eyes went out of focus, he looked around, his eyes puzzled: "Returned... why..."

"Huh? What's going on, where did the Light Burst Tube go? Did you remove this part of my spine?"

This was because Zhou Yi brought in Da Vinci to perform emergency surgery on Shang Yang.

Although it was impossible to stop the Light Burst Tube from exploding, the metal spine that served as the carrier could be removed and replaced. After the surgery was completed, this Light Core-level explosive had been dropped into a safe area deep in the Dead Sea and detonated. The danger had long been eliminated.

Zhou Yi raised his hand to signal: "The tea is cold."

"The anger has been vented, the trouble has been made, let's eat first."

He looked to the side: "Yuanxiao, go get two dishes, something light."

"Yes."

The Death Angel tied on an apron and began to busy herself in the kitchen.