Wasteland Echoer.

Chapter 502: Traces of the "Evolution Platform" (Part )

September 557th, 9th year of the New Lunar Calendar.

Cruz Federation, Arctic Special Zone Q (formerly Arctic Zone), Vasilysk.

In the "Special Office for Military Personnel" on the second floor of the newly built "Administrative Military Office Building" in the center of Vasilysk city, Yaroslav looked at the food placed on the table by his new subordinate Alexei Vladimir and sighed softly.

He touched his hair which had almost completely turned gray in the past two months, and resisted the feeling of stomach acid rising up. He picked up the knife and fork and cut into the black rectangular protein block covered with glue-like mucus on the gold-rimmed porcelain plate.

Soon, Sofia, who was sitting next to him and wearing the same dark green military uniform as him, also cast her eyes on the Iznik plate in front of her, which was of historical value and made by craftsmen from the Central Empire.

There were animal offal that had been only roughly processed and simply cooked. When they were cut with a knife, animal blood with a strong fishy smell spurted out.

She used a fork to put a piece of the deep scarlet substance into her mouth, chewed it briefly and swallowed it into her stomach. Then, Sophia turned her gaze to the porcelain bowl in the style of the Flame Empire beside her. In it were several pieces of dark red poultry blood clots, bird intestines marinated with a large amount of additives, and poultry necks that were severed from the body and smelled so good that it would make people cry.

As a Lost One, Sophia naturally accepted all the food, without any physical or psychological burden. She ate all the strange, fragrant food in the plates and bowls very naturally and smoothly, wiped off the red liquid left at the corners of her mouth with a handkerchief, and sat quietly on the worn-out fabric sofa beside her, staring at the "Ultra-Cold Zone-Bersluna Region Form Map" hanging not far away.

But Yaroslav was far from being as calm as Sofia. He chewed the hard-to-swallow chunks of protein. Every time he put a small piece into his mouth with a fork, he had to pick up the steel thermos beside him and drink a sip of the drink made from tea leaves from the Flame Empire. He also turned up his sleeves from time to time to check the time on his mechanical watch.

About half an hour later, Yaroslav finally finished eating this piece of special protein with extremely rich nutritional value. Seeing that not too much time had passed, Yaroslav slowly walked to the desk, sat down, looked up and called Alexei who was still cleaning the table to come in front of him, and said:
"The Bisilunay region... I mean the area near the wind wall where the Red Waves frequently occur. Commander Vasily is also planning to start a war?"

"Yes, Commander-in-Chief," Alexei answered promptly.

"So, does the Federation Council now believe that the fighting near the 'Kushen Ruins' is completely over?" Yaroslav looked at Alexei with a very serious look and questioned him in the same stern tone.

"Indeed, Commander-in-Chief." Alexei answered again, still very crisp and clear, and his tone was not affected by Yaroslav at all.

Yaroslav and Sofia who was sitting next to him both understood that Alexei in front of them was just a mouthpiece for Vasily, the supreme leader of the Federation Council and the chief executive of the Cruzde Federation. He was used to replace Oleg, a member of the "Viking Faction" who had committed suicide, as the "Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Northern War" and concurrently as Yaroslav's "secretary" just to make it easier for Vasily to personally micro-manage the battle situation.

Alexi, who used to be a member of the "Special Mission Undercover Group" directly under the Federal Committee Strategic Group, was a natural warrior and servant. He once personally led the team to break through the energy shield disguise and break into the underground base of the "Wilderness Tourist Group".

In that battle, he and his team members not only successfully destroyed the entire underground base, but also used strategies to send away a large number of Lost Ones belonging to the "Church of Enlightenment" and the "Chaos Group". During the mission in the North, countless Lost Ones and humans died in the "Corona" portable artillery in his hands.

Yaroslav could feel that a loyal soldier like Alexei, who had no thoughts of his own and only knew how to follow orders, could, on the one hand, assist him in handling complex battle situations and executing offensive orders against the Lost Ones; but on the other hand, he was also a human monitor placed by Vasily next to him.

Once Yaroslav reveals any dissatisfaction with the Federation, or becomes complacent with his current achievements and status, Alexei will become a sword of Damocles hanging over Yaroslav's head, and will be ready to "chop his head in half" at any time after receiving Vasily's order.

Sitting on a simple, almost collapsed wooden chair, Yaroslav lowered his head and thought for a long time before he slowly asked:
"Commander Vasily, you still haven't given up on the plan for the 'Universe Energy Evolution Platform'...right?"

"Of course not, Commander-in-Chief." Alexei still had a blank expression on his face, and his words were still without any emotion. However, unlike his previous two answers, he seemed to say a lot more this time:

"The 'Universe Energy Evolution Platform' was built by Commander Vasily in order to completely eliminate the 'Heartless People' in the Federation, force the Lost Ones to give up their hostile identities, and instead cooperate with all peace-loving people in the Federation, so as to reach the only path to the 'Restart Era'.

"It is true that some members of the 'Independent Armed Forces' and the Lost Ones spread conspiracies against the 'Evolution Platform' and Commander Vasily, but those are all conspiracies and tricks used by the enemy to confuse people and dissipate our fighting will. The enemies are used to living in the darkness. They cannot adapt to the return of light, and they cannot watch mankind collectively move towards a new and hopeful era.

"Because, by the time of the 'Restart Era', or even the envisioned 'Fifth Era', or the 'Age of Stars', the Lost Ones will be completely behind the 'Newly Created Humans' in terms of strength, stamina, wisdom, and so on. The enemies are doomed to be marginalized, reduced to ragged knees on the street, or 'rats' gnawing on dirty decay in the sewers."

"It seems that Commander Vasily is still as confident as ever, which is why I still follow him." Seeing Alexei raise his right fist and give such a long and impassioned speech, Yaroslav knew that Vasily would no longer give anyone a chance to object to the "Evolution Platform". If Yaroslav raised any more questions about the "Evolution Platform Plan", it would be disloyal to Vasily and the Federation Council.

Touching the pistol that had been with him on the table for many years, he understood that as a pure human being, a human being who had not and had never been exposed to any magical power, he could only and must stand firmly beside Vasily, relying on the resources and strength given to him by the Federation, fully mobilizing his courage and wisdom, and walking to the end of the "Evolution Platform", a road leading to darkness and purgatory.

At this time, there was a knock on the door. Vasily looked at the time on his mechanical watch and signaled Sophia to open the special steel door.

Accompanied by the heavy unlocking sound and the harsh metallic sound of the door rubbing against the ground, Yaroslav frowned and endured it for a long time before finally breaking away from the brief depression and trance. He looked up and saw a young man wearing a monotonous gray-yellow "Crusad-01" long military cotton coat and an ear-covering wool hat, revealing a strong youthful atmosphere.

That's right, he is Kuka Is, Vasily's chief secretary and director of the ruling group's office. This outfit looks simple on the surface, but it is actually very cold-proof. The complex production process of the cold-proof clothing not only reveals the temperament of a person close to the center of power, but also highlights his unique identity.

"Commander Yaroslav, I'm not too late, am I?" After entering the room, Kuka skillfully hung his woolen hat on the hanger, walked quickly to Yaroslav's desk, and extended his right hand.

Faced with the enthusiasm of the "Supreme Secretary", Yaroslav naturally did not dare to neglect it. He quickly stood up from his seat, shook hands with Kuka "very enthusiastically", and greeted him:

"It's not too late, it's not too late. It's not easy to travel north from Binglin City, right? I heard that Commander Vasily has been getting busier since the Cruzde People's Congress. I'm worried about his health."

"That's not a problem." Kuka smiled.

"It's just that the war organized by Genadi has not made any progress. In the South Kalov District, especially around the city of Budadi, our army has even suffered a small-scale retreat, which has made Commander Vasily very anxious. So, recently our chief executive has been increasingly hoping that you can find the 'Evolution Platform' near the 'Wind Wall'."

"'Wind Wall'... the 'Evolution Platform' nearby?" Yaroslav was stunned for a second, then he quickly guessed what Kuka meant, and blurted out:
"Could it be possible that there are new results in the research on those strange 'cores'?"

"Of course." Kuka nodded slightly.

"You know, Commander Yaroslav, a person's power is often limited. Due to his education, ability and courage, a scientist sometimes cannot fully exert his true strength. Igor's team did successfully decipher the code hidden in the [Core of the Near God], but could only determine an extremely vague location through longitude and latitude.

"And that [Core to the Future] has been sealed by the 'Evolution Platform Technology Decryption Team' under the committee. After all, the power of this core is too strange. When the 'prisoner volunteers' who were arranged to participate in the experiment used the power of this core, they all lost their bodies without exception and turned into ghostly green souls, and were captured by the space created by the core.

"Therefore, Commander Vasily asked us not to let the Federation's [Warriors] suffer the same risk. Those battle-hardened [Warriors] should fight to the death with the Lost Ones on the battlefield instead of having their lives wiped out by these extraordinary objects with evil attributes."

"So, Secretary Kuka, what are Commander Vasily's latest instructions?" Yaroslav asked bluntly.

"Commander Vasili requires you to lead the army to break through the 'wind wall' from any direction as soon as possible and enter the ruins of the old empire where the 'echo' and 'Pramini' are located. I just said that the [Core to the Future] is dangerous enough, which also shows that it is not worth the loss to locate all the 'Evolution Platforms' through it." Kuka replied:

"And now it seems that the [Near-God Core] is indeed the only tool that can accurately locate all the 'Evolution Platforms' without consuming too many people. The star represented by this core is 'Tianshu', which is the name given by the Khitan people to the first of the Big Dipper. As long as 'Tianshu' is located, and then relying on the evolution platform code-named 'Tianquan' in Qiaoigler that we have already located, all the 'Evolution Platforms' will be located extremely accurately.

"By then, it will only take a week for the armies from all over the world to immediately enter the 'Evolution Platform' and activate the seemingly complex machines inside, ushering in the long-awaited sunshine and dispelling the wasteland darkness that has lingered over the entire human race for five hundred years."

Yaroslav was not infected by Kuka's self-congratulation in the second half of his sentence, but directly raised his own difficulties:
"Well, Secretary Kuka, as you know, after the battle of 'Kushen Ruins', all my psychics were transferred away by Genaji..."

"I know." Kuka interrupted Yaroslav before he finished speaking, then turned around slowly and said with his back to him:
"As I said earlier, the power of a scientist is always limited, but two scientists with different talents will produce a very wonderful 'chemical reaction'. I have brought two people for you, Igor and Ross. With their research on the [Core] in different directions, they will tell you where the 'wind wall' has weak points and how to break through it with the help of the 'Red Wave'. They will also help you find the right direction in the ruins of the old empire."

(End of this chapter)