This night was probably the most lively time since Yinyue Town was established.

Locke walked with a lit cigarette in his arms and walked along the not-so-spacious streets of the town with Lin Xiang. The stomach sac filled with corn cakes and jerky seemed to be a little uncomfortable, and he wriggled and burst out loud from time to time.

"This place is good." The mercenary captain pulled open his half-open collar and exposed his black-haired chest in the cold air, and exhaled a long sigh: "At least, it is better than Emma, ​​the city is so dirty that I feel sick."

"After retirement, come here to retire!" Lin Xiang said calmly, looking at the waning moon, half covered by clouds in the sky.

Locke turned around and shrugged: "Is this the so-called secret you want to tell me?"

"I haven't said it's a secret."

Lin Xiang corrected the mistake in his words: "I am just thinking about you in the future. No one can be a mercenary for the rest of his life. We will eventually grow old, and the stimulation of licking blood on the knife cannot represent the whole of life. Think about those disabled mercenaries! If one day, you feel tired and sleepy, at least you can have a warm little nest and a good home waiting for you."

"Home?"

These words obviously aroused Locke's long-clogged memory. He spitted out the cigarette, crushed the fragile cigarette butts with the soles of his shoes, and looked at the horizon in the distance with a complicated expression, shrouded in the dark night.

"I have no home anymore..."

The cold moonlight shone on the mercenary captain's clear lines, showing a faint sadness and melancholy.

Lin Xiang approached the fields on the roadside, bent down, grabbed a handful of cold and hard black soil, put it in his palm and gently held it with his fingers: "The soil here is very fertile. It won't take long to build a new farm, just like you once had. Maybe, you can find another Jessina here, and she will give birth to another Tony for you. This... is a new home - yours, mine, everyone's."

Locke's body was shaking involuntarily. He had just taken it out of his pocket and was about to stuff it into his mouth to lit cigarettes, which also slid down from his trembling fingers. Two familiar names brought his memories back six years ago.

A farm covered with golden wheat, a tall barn, a compassionate and gentle wife, a lively and cute little Tony... one after another, one flashed in front of his eyes. He opened his eyes and looked at all this excitedly, stretched out his hands to hold happiness and sweetness tightly in his palms, but could only wander back and forth in the dream of fantasy. He shouted everyone's names loudly, but received no response. In the end, all the beautiful pictures shattered like soap bubbles, and only appeared in front of him was the empty wilderness under the cold night wind.

Locke sat down on the ground dejectedly, slowly picked up the falling cigarette with his shaking hands and slowly stuffed it into his mouth. He mechanically scratched the match several times, but failed to draw a spark.

Big tears slowly overflowed from the corners of my eyes.

Home……

Yes! It's time to have a home.

A hazy light shone out from the cracks in Lin Xiang's hut wall.

There is no electricity in Yinyue Town. Most of the sources of night light are small amounts of oil exchanged from other settlements, or fat made from hunting biological fat. No matter which method, it cannot produce the box of daylight. In contrast, the burning fire in the fireplace is even stronger than them.

Remove the debris piled in the corner of the house, pry up a few paved bricks and stones from the ground, revealing a small square hole with a ruler. Take out the suitcase containing the blood samples of mutant biologicals, open it, put eight full test tubes into the empty slot, close the box lid, and stuff them back into the hole.

This was another gain he had obtained from Osvid. Except for these intact, the rest were shattered during the fight.

The suitcase is obviously a product made by the Skeleton Knights using old technology. In a closed state, the micro-battery can be maintained for a long time, and the resulting refrigeration state can keep the blood samples fresh.

Lin Xiang did not rashly use these blood obtained from unknown organisms. His actions during the battle with Osvid were forced. Without being fully sure, he randomly injected various blood samples of unknown origin into himself, which could easily lead to unpredictable and terrible consequences.

If time is traced back to the era of the origin of life on Earth, humans and other creatures have common ancestors. The differences in evolutionary direction and choices make the same between them less and less, and blood is confused and fusion, which is enough to kill people.

It's dawn.

Four trucks drove out of Yinyue Town in sequence. The unloaded cargo hold significantly accelerated the speed of the vehicles. The mercenaries in charge of escorting still remained vigilant on their faces. They had less cautious and listless words and conversations, but more smiles and satisfaction that were difficult to see on them.

In the front truck cab, Locke's feet were hanging high on the platform as he came. As the body bumped, the soles of the boots shaking left and right sides shook off the dry soil from time to time.

"Boss, I plan to retire after two more tasks." The driver in the driver's seat held the steering wheel, looked at the narrow road directly in front of him, and suddenly said without thinking.

"Why, have you saved enough money?" Locke glanced at him casually.

"That thing will never be enough." The driver grinned, revealing two rows of teeth that were not very white but neatly arranged: "Last night, I discussed with Soman, and took two more tasks and applied to the company for retirement. Then I went to this town to open a bar or farm or something. The residents here are very friendly and the defense facilities are complete. Yesterday the young man was right, and no one could be a mercenary for the rest of his life."

Locke didn't say anything. He turned his head and looked at the ray of sunlight that had just appeared on the horizon in the distance. The light golden light refracted from the morning mist with moist water, reflecting a blurry and evident polygonal halo. Just in the middle of the circle surrounded by seven colors, Locke seemed to have seen the two familiar figures that often appear in his dreams.

"Jesina...son..."

Lin Xiang did not set out with the convoy. He had something else to do.

From Yinyue Town all the way west, there is a deserted wilderness.

Under the sun, half of the snow on the ground has melted away. Where the layer is weak, you can see yellow-gray soil covered with transparent ice slag. Dead plants collapse on the cold ground and are soaked in water to black corrupt. In the spring of the following year, they will become their best nutritional source of their kind.

Lin Xiang raised the tactical telescope in his hand and looked at the plain filled with black and white colors in the distance. After a long time, he put down the telescope, squatted down, took out a map bought from the auction house from the black canvas backpack, spread it flat on his knees, and used a pencil to make simple modifications and marks on it based on the visually detected situation.

The shotgun with the handle protected by the giant rat leather hood was inserted diagonally on the side of the backpack as usual. When you tore open the zipper at the bag, you can see three full plastic ammunition boxes, neatly placed with thick shotguns and narrow-shaped sniper warheads. Next to it is a thick linen with blue and white plaid pattern, wrapped in five kilograms of corn cakes and some salt-cured jerky meat, plus a flat military kettle, which constitutes all Lin Xiang's luggage.

On the map, the area is marked in red. That is to say, occasionally there will be personnel from the Sosbian company or armed survey teams, as well as a large number of dangerous mobs and other forces, as well as unknown types of mutant creatures wandering and foraging in the wilderness.

A curved arc drawn by a pencil connects Emma and Crescent City from the map.

This is the new route marked by Lin Xiang. Instead of walking along the highway, he chose to cross the wilderness alone.

This is a dangerous route.

No one knows what they will encounter in the wilderness. Hunger, cold, thirst, and human-eating races... Of course, danger and luck exist at the same time. You may be very lucky to get some precious resources left over from the old era, or you may be bitten to death by the hungry wolf just after you walk out of the camp. God is always using the power of the darkness to control the world. You can fight, but you can never predict it.

Crescent City is the closest Skeleton Knights stronghold to Emma and Yinyue Town. Of course, Lin Xiang went there not for tourism, but for necessary reasons and reasons.

He once saw such a message in the task release column of Emma Auction Hall.

"Crescent City recruits armed mercenaries. Mission purpose: pass the selection test. Remuneration: Qualification of Peripheral Personnel of the Skeleton Knights."

This task has no level marked. The five-star shape mark at the front end of the relevant text indicates that the task can take effect at any time and can be carried out for a long time.

Becoming a member of the Knights will allow you to get access to more skeleton knights and master more information and information from more people. From a certain perspective, you can also better hide yourself.

There is another reason to choose to cross the wilderness to reach the Crescent City.

From resurrection to the present, Lin Xiang has not had much contact with this world. He must try his best to eliminate the aura of the old era in himself and make himself look more like a new generation of human beings. This subtle difference is usually rarely noticed, but it does exist. Especially in the eyes of a skeleton knight with a meticulous observation, it will definitely become the biggest flaw that can break his identity.

Experience comes from life. Dangerous experiences in the wilderness will put Lin Xiang on a coat that is enough to act as a disguise.

Compared with summer, the winter wilderness is obviously much safer. The cold air drives all the cold-fearing insects into underground residences. They are more dangerous than large predators. The dry and water-deficient environment makes these terrible little things have sharp spikes and deadly poisons. They often hide behind plants and in the cracks between rocks, waiting for large creatures to approach, and thorns and teeth into the target's body. When the painfully rolling prey lying on the ground exhausts its strength and ultimately cannot move, these sinister and cunning little things will carefully crawl out of the hiding place and slowly chew and eat their own harvest.

Lin Xiang was not walking fast. He had been maintaining a speed of about ten kilometers per hour. At this speed, it would take at least three days to reach the Crescent City. However, he had time and patience.

Every two hours, he would use a telescope to carefully observe the surrounding terrain, and mark and mark the conspicuous locations on the map. The nuclear explosion destroyed all the information of the old era, and he could only use the guidance of the sun to move in the approximate direction.

The gradually westward sun indicates that dusk is approaching, and the tilted sunlight shines on the ground. The g180s barrel protruding from Lin Xiang’s back is closely linked to the shadow’s head. It looks like a monster whose body is pierced by a pointed stick, not a normal human.

Suddenly, a dazzling reflection lit up from the horizon in the distance, and slowly moved towards this side in constant shaking.

Lin Xiang bent down and ran down a dry riverbed next to him from the uneven ground. He hid in a corner with his back facing the sun. He took out his telescope and looked at the dazzling light.

This is a very empty wilderness. Apart from a broken road exposed on the ground and several concrete poles with severe weathering surfaces, no trace of human existence can be found.

On the wild ground reflected by the setting sun, a group of ragged people staggered. They walked hard along the rugged ground to the west with the cold wind whizzing past their heads. From a distance, they looked like a group of insignificant ants.

They were wrapped in thick felt cloth and carried various simple objects. There was a crude wooden trailer full of debris in the crowd. The source of the reflection was a piece of iron sticking to the surface of the car pocket.

This should be a group of refugees in the wilderness. There are twenty-six people, including young and middle-aged people, elderly people, women, and children.

They stopped next to a mountain rock more than three meters high. The woman and the child scattered around to collect everything that could be used as fuel. The old man picked up the scattered stones on the ground and built a simple stove ring. The strong man took off a few thick wooden stakes from the car, tied them tightly with ropes, and formed two triangular brackets across the stove ring. Others carefully collected the clean snow on the ground, held them in a huge iron pot and filled them. They lifted them up together and hung them on the iron hook hanging from the wooden bracket.

Lin Xiang carefully observed their movements. Obviously, these people were camping. Their weapons were also very simple. Apart from two old-fashioned gunpowder guns, there were only a few sharp steel bars and heavy and thick machetes.

It was completely dark.

Looking up at the darker sky, Lin Xiang put away his backpack, walked back to the ground along the slope beside the riverbed, and strode towards the refugee camp where the bonfire had already been set up.

It is not comfortable to spend the night in the wilderness in winter. If there is a fire, the situation will be much better. Especially when you are wandering and preying on beasts at night, it is much safer.

Compared with the barbaric mob, the rational concept of refugees is a little better. At least, they will not actively attack other human settlements. This situation may become more prominent in the bad direction as food is lacking and the living environment deteriorates. However, in Lin Xiang's view, a group of refugees with elderly people and children should not be as dangerous as they imagined.

What's more, I am still a powerful fourth-level parasite.

As they approached the camp, a burnt smell mixed with the aroma of food came from the air. When they noticed someone approached, the refugees quickly stood up from the fire. The two tallest middle-aged men held gunpowder guns with large mouths, while the others picked up various types of weapons and used hostile and alert eyes to circumvent the uninvited guest.

"I have no malice." Lin Xiang spread his hands: "I just want to roast the fire here and spend the night with a leeward corner."

A middle-aged man wearing a ragged felt cloth, who seemed to be the leader, walked over and stopped five or six meters away, frowned slightly and stared at him, his eyes quickly shifted from the brand new black combat suit to the surface of the cold sniper rifle.

People who survive in the wild advocate strength and violence, and they also have the simplest and most effective way of cognizing strength. In their eyes, clothes without patches represent status, and powerful metal firearms mean irresistible strength. When two things are added in equal quantities, the results obtained will expand and grow exponentially. Just as people in the old era thought that "Porsche" sports cars and "Versace" clothing represent money. The police cars leading the way in front of the big man when he goes out are a symbol of power. They are all existences that ordinary people dare not provoke and cannot stand against.

The middle-aged man nodded and made way for a while. However, he remained vigilant and cautious in his eyes.

Lin Xiang walked to the fire and sat down, took out a kilogram of corn biscuits from his backpack and handed them to the middle-aged man. This move completely dispelled the hostility of the refugees. People's cold eyes began to show a few smiles that were not enthusiastic, but not cold.

When joining the camp, you must take out a certain amount of food or exchange items. The specific quantity depends on the length of the addition. This is the rule in the wilderness and the standard for refugees to accept new partners.

This tortilla is big and enough for several people to eat. If it is cooked in soup, it will be more people to eat. For refugees, it can be considered an unexpected gain.

A thin black woman wearing cloth strips made of clothes stood in front of the iron pot and stirred back and forth in the pot with an iron spoon that could not be distinguished from the original color. Bubbles and vortexes kept pouring out of the light soup. From time to time, rolling bones could be seen in the half-boiled pot, and there were also a few traces of meat residue hanging in between.

Lin Xiang stared at the bones for a long time, but he couldn't see what kind of meat it was. He gave up his efforts and could only stick the kettle next to the stone stove and simmer the cold water at the temperature of the flame. Add a piece of corn cake, and this was his supper.

What exactly is cooked in the pot?

God knows what these refugees eat. Without a sure thing, he will only eat the food he carries.

At this moment, a slight sound of footsteps suddenly came from the dark wilderness.
Chapter completed!