The Mysterious World Under Steampunk

All the high-rise buildings in the city center are wrapped by this kind of giant vines, and the life energy emitted by these giant vines is connected with each other to form an invisible energy field. Although this energy field cannot completely block the cold wind of ice and snow outside, But it can block most of the cold and make the area in the city center much warmer, forming a natural safe haven.

Logically speaking, this should be the most suitable area for living creatures to live and inhabit in the harsh surrounding environment. There should be a large number of various creatures here to avoid the snowstorm, such as the previous wolf pack.

However, the reality is that those wolves would rather bear the ravages of the blizzard than enter this relatively comfortable haven, and the same is true for other creatures.

In Leo's view, the only thing that can explain this abnormal phenomenon is that none of the vines that grow densely in various high-rise buildings are vegetarian.

Sure enough, when Leo scanned the area through the mental network, he found that in the basement on the ground floor of each building, there were a large number of bones piled up at the roots of the vines. These bones included animals and humans.

It is not difficult to see from these skeletons that neither animals nor humans resisted before death, there was no scar on the bones, and even the clothes worn by humans were not damaged. It feels like being fascinated by some kind of power General sanity.

A picture also appeared in Leo's mind. In the picture, those animals and humans entered the basement of the building by themselves, and then sat next to the tree roots, allowing the tentacles protruding from the roots to penetrate into the body, and then were killed. The digestive juice spit out by the tree roots melted little by little into substances that could be absorbed, and in the end only a pair of bones remained.

Although it has been confirmed that these vines are carnivorous plants, and it is also certain that these plants have certain wisdom, Leo has no intention of eradicating all these plants. The fruit, but the shamanic nature force he has mastered allows him to see that these vines do not exist in isolation, but are a link in the fragile natural cycle of this world.

Although he doesn't know exactly which part of the natural cycle these carnivorous plants are in, he is sure that if he destroys these plants, the fragile natural cycle of this world will inevitably be greatly shaken, which may eventually lead to A breakdown of natural cycles, or a natural catastrophe that affects countless lives.

Leo had no intention of doing anything to these vines, nor did he leave immediately. Instead, he entered the basement of the nearest building, came to the side of the pile of bones, turned over the bones, and put the human bones together with the clothes the bones were wearing. They were picked together and examined carefully.

It is not difficult to see from these clothes that the deceased had a very bad life. The clothes are not only old but also tattered, and there are some backpacks sewn with rags and shredded leather in the clothes. Garbage items, and the dead in this dress is not just one person, but all the dead are in this dress.

So Leo guessed that these people should have come here after the world fell into a disaster, and these vines also appeared after the disaster, because among the human corpses under the vines, none of the corpses had complete and decent clothes .

In addition, Leo also saw some hand-crafted gunpowder weapons and bullets next to these corpses. From this, it can be judged that this world should not be safe, and the mechanical manufacturing technology of this world has also reached the level of the old earth era, because he was here. There are many traces of mechanical cutting and drilling on these gunpowder weapons.

However, what made him regret was that he didn't see any notes or other items that could directly provide a lot of information from these people. Fortunately, he saw a leaflet and a photo in the interlayer of a corpse's clothes.

The content on the flyer is that a caravan called the Bilante Merchant Group recruits guards and provides food. The salary is three biersos per day, and the location is No. 55, the second business district of New Rand.

Although this is just an ordinary recruitment leaflet, it reveals a lot of useful information. For example, even though the world is shrouded in disaster, there are still basic commercial activities. This kind of commercial activity is likely to be between cities. Commercial activities, so this world has at least two or more big cities.

In addition, from the point of view of providing food on the leaflet, the food in this world should be in short supply, so that providing food every day has become an extremely generous treatment.

This world still retains some currency functions, which means that the world has recovered certain government functions after the disaster, and can issue currency recognized by the public. Otherwise, the current transaction is barter, and it will not be used at all. Any credit-backed currency.

Finally, there is the city named New Rand, and the abandoned city where Leo is now is called Rand. When entering the city, there are some dilapidated notice boards with this name printed on it. Since it is New Rand , then the residents there are likely to be established by the survivors of the current city. With these bones, it can be judged that the city of New Rand should not be too far from Rand.

Since there is a second business district, there must be a first business district, and the establishment of two business districts in a city is enough to prove that the business in this New Rand city should be very active.

From the leaflet, Leo learned about the general situation of the world, while the other photo showed more details more intuitively.

This photo should have been taken in a tavern. The photo is a group photo. There are about 30 people. Everyone is dressed in old clothes and holds weapons in their hands. It seems to be an armed team. More than 30 people It looks like a normal human being, without any mutants. The tavern where more than 30 people live is a bit dilapidated. You can see some walls repaired by patchwork iron plates, and some colorful neon lights flashing on the roof, coupled with the dim surrounding environment , making the whole photo look a bit decadent, even though everyone who took the photo was smiling.

Leo didn't leave in a hurry, but stayed in this city for three or four days, searched all the houses, and collected as much information as possible, but unfortunately, there were too few useful information that he could find. Just have a general understanding of the world.

For example, this world is also surrounded by mist. In addition, this world has no oceans or mountains, but there are many lakes and endless plains and grasslands.

Before the disaster, life here was like a fairyland. There are countless aquatic products in the lakes, the plains are full of food, and a large number of cattle and sheep are grazing on the grasslands. All these make it possible that there has never been a problem of food shortage here. .

Then the disaster came. As for what kind of disaster it was, there was no mention in the information Leo found, but it must not be the current blizzard, because there was a blurry picture on the remaining newspaper, and the content of the picture was roughly It was a herdsman who was crying, and there were a large number of dead livestock lying on the grassland behind the herdsman, so the first disaster that disrupted the world order should be related to the mass death of livestock.

When searching for materials, Leo discovered two very interesting things. One is that all the materials that can be preserved are books made of paper made of special materials. These books are usually books like travel guides. There are also some colored newspapers, and as for the other papers, all have decayed, only some hard covers remain.

The second interesting thing is that the vines occupying each building will actively produce more than a dozen fruits and give them to Leo when Leo approaches. These fruits are not very tasty, but they are full of life energy. This bit of life energy is useless to Leo, but if it is eaten by ordinary people, it should produce some unknown effects. Even if it cannot promote life to complete a level of evolution, it should be able to improve the physical fitness of the eater. promoted.

Leo did not eat these fruits, but preserved them. Maybe when in contact with the civilization of this world, he could use these special fruits to conduct some transactions with the people of this world.

Just when Leo searched the whole city and found nothing useful, he was about to leave here to find that New Rand City. Perhaps it was a coincidence that the blizzard that had been raging for several days also gradually weakened at this time. See Looks like it will stop soon.

However, although the blizzard stopped, the cold wind did not weaken, but increased a lot, which made the temperature colder than during the previous blizzard. Such a cold temperature caused the giant vines parasitic in the building to start to grow. Curled up, the exposed vines shrank into the building, and the skin began to harden rapidly, eventually forming a shell that looked like a stone.

Leo could feel that after the changes in these giant vines, the life energy on his body had all converged, as if he had entered hibernation.

Although the change of the giant vines made Leo feel interesting, he didn't have the idea of ​​staying to study, but continued to walk towards the outside of the city that might be the location of New Rand City.

However, when he had just reached the edge of the city and was about to head towards the suburbs, he saw some movement at the end of the snow field ahead. After he looked carefully, he quickly saw that it was a group of people heading towards Quickly approach here.

I saw that there were about forty or fifty people in this team, all of them were riding horses. They were not only equipped with firearms, but also equipped with other cold weapons. In addition, they also wore gas masks that looked like old earth era. Such equipment gives people a cold feeling.

This group of people seen by Leo should be only the vanguard. From the snowflakes behind these people, it is not difficult to see that there are more people behind this group of people.

Leo doesn't think the appearance of these people is a coincidence. In his opinion, it's more like the people here have found the law for the giant vines to enter hibernation. Rand City already occupied by vines.

As for the purpose of these people returning to Rand City, it is very simple to think about it, that is to collect all kinds of useful items left in the city before the disaster.

Although in the eyes of Leo, all the items in this city are useless as waste products, but in the eyes of people in this world, the value of these items may not be measurable by money.

For example, when Leo was searching the whole city, he found some well-preserved plant seeds in a place that should be a biological laboratory. People collected it and put it in some special preservation containers. Even after so many years, the containers are still intact.

In addition, Leo also found a large number of mechanical parts and some engine engines in a building. These parts and engines are well preserved and can be used at any time.

There are still many things like seeds and parts in the whole city, and Leo has no interest in these things, nor does he have much value for them, but for people in this world, these things may be this The most precious thing in the world.

Although he saw the people in this world, Leo did not go forward, but retreated into an inconspicuous small house next to the road, watching the group of people approaching, passing through the road in front of him, and then He entered the city from where he came, and after waiting for a while, he saw a scattered team of about 4,000 to 5,000 people, carrying a huge luggage, stepping on the thick snow, heading towards Go inside the city.

Different from the well-equipped team before, these four or five thousand people are all wearing weapons, but whether they are gunpowder guns or other cold weapons in their hands, they are all very old, and they look like they have been passed down for several generations. same as people.

In addition, the clothes on them were also worn out and outdated. Many of the clothes had been mended repeatedly, barely able to help the wearers block the cold wind outside. This was completely different from the neat leather trench coats worn by the pair of men and horses before, and they did not wear them either. The gas mask-like device is just a layer of cloth on the head, and the hood covers the whole head, and the head is lowered and it is difficult to walk.

Among these people, there were not only adults, men and women, but also old people and children. Judging from the gathering of the walking team, they were divided into at least a dozen teams.

After the group of people entered the suburbs close to the city, they stopped, and then some people who looked like leaders gave a few loud orders to the people gathered behind them, and followed these people in groups of three or four. Spread out and search for nearby houses.

In addition, more than a thousand people, led by several other leaders, walked towards the tall building closest to them. It seems that these people should not enter the city center like the previous pair of people. I just set the target on the buildings on the edge of the city to see if I could find something useful from the buildings parasitized by the vines when these giant vines entered the dormant period.

Leo followed behind these people without disturbing them, and after these people dispersed, he followed the traces left on the snow and caught up with the team that had entered the city center before.

After entering the city center, the pair of men and horses came to a building in the center of the city with a clear goal. This building happened to be the biological building that Leo had searched before. Inside this building was a A seed bank, where a large number of seeds are stored, including those special plant seeds stored with special devices.