The night wind was strong and cold. Not far away, the iron sheet of the window of a small building was blown so loudly that it became another sound besides the wind at night.
Zero and Agatha didn't speak, but the silence didn't last long. A moment later, Agatha's voice reached Zero's ears along with the wind blowing again.
"Captain Zero, do you have a dream?"
Zero was taken aback for a moment, and looked at Agatha in surprise.
Dream, what a beautiful word. However, dreams belong to the old times. At that time, although resources had already begun to be strained, the economy was not so prosperous, and the unemployment rate remained high in many countries. But overall, the world is a good place. At least there is no ubiquitous radiation, no mutant creatures competing with humans for living space. Although there are wars, the wars are limited and only happen in the civil strife of certain countries, not involving the whole continent or even the whole world.
The old age is a dream that all human beings cannot go back to. At that time, the sky was blue, the clouds were white, there would be no strong radiation in the rain, and the snowflakes were romantic. Looking at it now, the old era is like a fairy tale, existing in everyone's heart.
Dream is a word that people in the old days often talked about. People at that time, no matter how hard life was, would always have their own dreams. As long as there is a dream, no matter how hard life is, it can be colorful.
In the new era, life is gray for most people in the world. People who are struggling with life and death every day, how can they have dreams at all.
For fighters like Zero, their life is certainly better than ordinary people. But their death rate is not lower than that of ordinary people, on the contrary it may be higher. Ordinary people can live as long as they have food, but soldiers don't know whether they can survive today. Therefore, for them, the dream is even more distant, and no one even thinks about it.
Zero did not expect that Agatha would ask such a question. Perhaps women's nerves are always thinner than men's. Like Feng, Zero dared to bet that his thoughts would never include dreams.
"It's ridiculous." Agatha bent her legs and buried her face between them: "People like us shouldn't have extravagant dreams..."
"I think people who still have dreams are far more respectable than those butchers who only know how to kill." Zero asked lightly: "What is Captain Agatha's dream?"
Agatha looked at the endless night sky, and the eyes in her eyes became a little far-reaching: "My dream is to marry myself one day, own a house, plant some flowers, and have one or two children..."
As she spoke, she laughed to herself: "It's very ordinary, a dream without any big ambitions."
"Dreams are not ordinary or noble." Zero shook his head in denial.
Agatha smiled and said: "Although Captain Zero is usually indifferent, he can't be seen as a very gentle person. So Captain Zero, do you have a dream?"
Zero also looked up at the sky, but for some reason, his breath became colder and colder. In the end, there was even a touch of murderous intent mixed in. The cold wind didn't make Agatha feel cold, but at this moment she shivered from Zero's icy breath. But at this time Zero's voice sounded, his voice was like a howling cold wind, with some kind of strange whistling sound in the hollow.
"Yes, my dream is to destroy this world!"
Agatha's breath stopped suddenly, because she could feel that Zero was not joking.
"It's night, Captain Agatha go to rest, we have to hurry tomorrow." Zero's cold murderous intent disappeared, as if it was Agatha's illusion.
Perhaps because of the sporadic killing intent, Agatha nodded and left without saying anything. After Agatha left, Zero looked at the sky and said slowly: "Only by completely destroying this shitty world can your dreams come true..."
The voice gradually dissipated in the night wind, perhaps, no one would understand Zero's dream.
And zero, don't need others to understand!
The wilderness is very quiet, and the noon of the day is the time when the radiation is the strongest in the day. There are no people or other creatures appearing at this time, and the heat rising from the earth distorts the scenery, making it seem so unreal.
On the road along the coastline, only the hot wind occasionally passes by. In the heat wave, even the mutated grass with the most vitality on both sides of the road lowered its body, looking listless. Although it is only spring, the temperature is as high as midsummer, and in real summer, the daytime temperature can reach as high as 60 degrees!
A living corpse of a male is wandering on the road. It is wearing a dirty suit, an off-white shirt is loosely placed on its thin body, and a tie is loosely wrapped around its neck, as if it is maintaining its dignity in life. .
A piece of flesh was missing from the face of the living corpse, revealing a white skull. Occasionally, a maggot would crawl out of its head. At this time, the living corpse would grope and grab it with its hands, and then put it in its mouth, chewing it with its black and yellow fangs, turning the maggot into a pulp, and then swallowing it. . But that's all the food for the living corpses, and there is no other food.
The living corpses walked numbly across the road, and there was an endless wilderness in the distance. Occasionally, a black shadow could be seen, which was the silhouette of a certain city ruin. A few tall but crooked electric towers are the only decoration. There may not be humans there, but there may be mutant beasts inhabiting it. For living corpses, mutant beasts can also be food without humans.
It walked to the other side of the road, and when it reached the middle of the road, there was a whistling sound in its ears.
That's not a natural sound, it's an idea in the mind of the living corpse, that's all. With its intelligence, it cannot understand the special sound made by the power unit of the car engine when it is running. But this didn't prevent the living corpse from turning around to observe, but just as it moved, a gunshot sounded in the distance.
The whole body of the living corpse shook violently, and a line of blood bounced from the head. It fell heavily, with a bullet hole between its eyebrows. Then, in the eyes that are still wide open, the floor of a car whizzing by is reflected. After passing another car in this way, a heavy tire pressed heavily on its head, completely crushing the living corpse's head into pieces!
Behind the three off-road vehicles, followed by five light motorcycles, each with two riders on them, a total of ten soldiers became the convoy's guards. It's just that none of the people on the three off-road vehicles need the protection of any soldiers. The tight black tactical uniforms show that they are not only fighters, but also elite fighters.
Zero sits in one of the off-road vehicles, and he wears goggles. Although as far as ability users are concerned, the very strong sky light will not cause any harm to ordinary people, but too strong light will still affect perception, at least judgment in terms of vision. Therefore, no matter Zero or others, they all wear the standard Asgard goggles on their faces.
A tablet smart brain in his hand is displaying a topographical map, Ling's fingers are swiping across the screen, and the topographical map is constantly changing. The topographic map in the brain is reflected in the lens of the goggles. It can be seen that it is the environment near the coastline road. There are some flashing red dots in it, which are obviously some marks. These marks represent all the settlements or bases that Zero and the others have passed through in the past three days, and the thirty or so bases, large and small, are already empty.
Yes, no death, no corpse, just no one.
But the people in these bases are not as simple as moving to other places, because Zero and the others found traces of fighting in these bases, which shows that violent conflicts occurred in the bases. But apart from the bloodstains, the base without a single corpse left only weirdness and doubts for the zero-class people.
These bases were found because Agatha followed the energy traces left by the creator Gulard all the way. Agatha's ability is mainly in reconnaissance, and her other ability "energy perception" is also a very remarkable reconnaissance method. In addition to being able to identify the nature and strength of energy, it is also able to track the traces they leave. Because of this, people like Zero can find such bases one after another.
There is no doubt that these bases have been visited by their creators. But where the people in the base went is an unsolvable mystery.
And Agatha's description of the energy left by the creator made everyone feel heavy.
"It is a kind of energy that has no ups and downs and is almost terrifying. If I have to describe it, then I would say it is a kind of energy without a soul." Agatha described it in this way.
You must know that the energy of no living creature will be constant. Even if it is a living corpse with only instinct, the energy of the living corpse will fluctuate during the two divisions of eating and non-eating, let alone It is said that after entering the battle state, because of the different battle conditions, the fluctuation of energy will be more obvious.
But as far as Agatha recalled, until she was bombarded by Zero One, the creator's energy remained the same, as precise as a machine. Biological weapons are often described as machines by humans, but since the word biological is used, it retains some biological instincts. For example, you will retreat when you are afraid, and your combat power will increase slightly when you are angry, etc.
And the creator feels to Agatha like a machine covered with a biological coat, it has no soul, no instinct, only a series of programs loyal to orders!
So, how did the creator Gulard and the other three companions come about? They are called creators, and who created them? All the answers point to the "Queen" that Gulard said before his death.
The final question left to the zero people is also the task of their trip. That is, where is the queen now
It can be speculated that as long as one follows the energy traces left by the creator, one can eventually find the queen and the kingdom of the living corpses. But the problem is, the traces of the creator's energy are weakening.
It is impossible for energy to remain permanently, and it will gradually dissipate under the influence of the external environment. In fact, Agatha, who has been able to track her for three full days, is already amazed by the creator's energy characteristics. Creator is a very special biological weapon. It has no combat power at all, but it can produce different types of zombie weapons. In addition, it also has the characteristic of being able to store energy for a long time, just like a bioenergy battery.
Also because of this characteristic, the traces of energy it left on the wilderness can be tracked by Agatha's perception, otherwise it would have dissipated in the air long ago.
But even so, the traces of the creator have become increasingly rare, but Zero and the others still haven't found the existence of the kingdom of living corpses. When the energy traces are completely dissipated, Zero and their actions will become like finding a needle in a haystack, which will depend largely on luck.
Zero kept observing the route of the Creator in his intellectual brain, in order to find out some rules from it. At this time, the convoy got off the road, and under the command of Agatha, they drove onto a branch road under the coastline road. What appeared in front of Zero was the canyon landform he was familiar with, and after driving out of the canyon, there was a wild terrain of Yimapingchuan. At the end of the road was a rolling mountain range, and Zero knew there would be a base there.
Z7 Base!
That's where Zero woke up from his slumber and lived for two years. There, there are many memories of Zero. Although in those memories, many things cannot be called pleasant. But no matter what, the Z7 base is Zero's first home.
Now, zero is back. But he didn't feel like going home at all. Apart from his changed mood, there was another important reason. The Z7 base was found by Agatha, in other words, the creator has already visited here!
The convoy stopped in front of the gate of the Z7 base, and Zero jumped off the off-road vehicle. The military boots stepped on a few gravels, they splashed and fell to the ground, and the collision made a soft sound. The sound was not loud, but it seemed abrupt in front of the silent gate of the base, making the feeling of dead silence even heavier.
Without entering the base, Zero has already confirmed that there is no one in the base. After all, too many bases have confirmed this point. As long as the creators have visited, the people in the bases have probably become the creator's food, otherwise there will be one or two corpses left behind. But no, not to mention the corpse, not even a little bit of meat.
The hydraulic steel door of the Z7 base is still closed, but there is a gap in the middle of the door that is big enough for off-road vehicles to pass through. The edge of the gap is smooth, and it doesn't look like violent damage, but it is caused by the use of some substances like strong acid to penetrate and corrode. Such gaps are not uncommon in the bases explored by the zero-level people. It seems that it should be a special skill possessed by the creator or the biological weapons under his command. Most of these skills are not used in combat, but are used to destroy the base. entrance.
Fortunately, the creator was killed by the zero-class people as soon as he arrived, otherwise, if it produced a living corpse with this special ability, it would be absolutely impossible for Remut to hold on until the arrival of reinforcements from Asgard.
Johnny and Jonah walked in front, and six servants fanned out to guard Agatha who was walking behind. And in the back, there are two teams, Zero and Berrien. The last ones were the remaining four servants. Such a team filed into the Z7 base, and they quickly came to the operation area along the passage.
The Z7 base is a semi-living and semi-industrial production base, and its power source is two high-power electric units deep in the base. Now the power unit has stopped operating, so the base is pitch black. In addition to the function of blocking strong light, the goggles of the zero class also have other small functions. Infrared vision is one of them, so the darkness is no problem for them.
There was a slight discrepancy between the operation area and the memory before zero, and the deviation came from several mine carts parked in the operation area. Zero remembered that only Old Jack owned such a mining cart before, but now there are four more. It seems that the production tools at the base have improved a lot. In addition, Zero also saw five tactical platforms hanging above the entrance and exit of the mining area.
In addition to deterring the workers, these things should also be used to defend against certain mutated creatures living underground. In general, the Z7 base has been upgraded to a new level no matter the production kits or weapons and equipment. It seems that the Parkland chaebol has not given up on this remote base. Only now, the Z7 base is as quiet as a ghost town.
The sound of footsteps broke Zero's thoughts, but the servants who went to inspect the living area came back. After listening to the servants' brief report, Agatha shook her head towards Ling and the others: "Same as the previous bases, there are signs of fighting and no dead bodies. Gentlemen, this is the last base on the coastline. There are no human beings left in Mutt here!"
The Z7 base is already the last base in the south of the coastline, and after that, the trend of the mainland will turn to the continuous mountains in the west. The nearly 10,000-kilometer-long Twin Towers stretched and entrenched, lying in the middle of the western land and the coastline. There is a peak at each end of the mountain range in the north-south direction, which is shaped like a steeple, so it is named Twin Towers. Behind the Twin Towers Mountains, there is a flat land. There are also settlements built on the ruins of old cities. Occasionally, adventurous businessmen pass by, but they rarely appear in the eyes of people in coastal cities.
After all, the Twin Towers Mountain Range makes it extremely difficult for traffic on both sides of the Mountain Range, which is also a common situation in the new era. The complex geographical environment makes the distribution of human beings no longer as dense as in the old days. The inconvenience of transportation and the lag of information make the inheritance and exchange of knowledge and civilization very difficult. This has caused a huge gap in human civilization in the region.
Maybe the human civilization on this side of the mountain is very advanced, while the human beings on the other side of the mountain live a primitive life. The gap between civilizations is so great, which is why wars and conquests are brought about.
If the Z7 base does not have any instructions from the kingdom of living corpses, then the zero-level people will inevitably divert to the west, cross the Twin Towers Mountain Range and set foot on the unknown and mysterious west land.
Who knows what will be there
When Zero and his party were about to leave the Z7 base, Zero suddenly stood still and quickly looked in the direction of the gate of the mining area. The gate of the mining area was not completely closed, but revealed a gap for only one person to pass through. Just in this gap, a black shadow flashed through Zero's goggles.
It seems that the Z7 base is not completely dead yet.
Zero immediately ran towards the gate, his speed was so fast that he almost took a step, and the next moment he had already rushed to the gate with afterimages. Zero didn't stop and flashed through the door. As soon as he entered the mining area, he stopped suddenly.
An old-fashioned two-bore shotgun was on his forehead, but judging from the constant shaking of the shotgun, it seemed that the owner of the shotgun was not in a calm mood at the moment.