Wasteland Echoer.

Chapter 507: Final Direction (Part )

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

Cruz Federation, Arctic Special Zone Q Zone (formerly Arctic Zone), on the outskirts of Vasilysk, the "Universe Core Experimental Field".

As soon as the sky was getting light, the Federation's on-duty [soldiers] walked on the flying snowflakes and the creaking iron hollow stairs, and went up to the top floor of the temporary but fairly complete "Universe Core Experimental Field", and turned off the large searchlights that had been emitting strong light all night long.

About two hours later, the sun's rays finally shone through the thick clouds and cast a faint dim light on the land polluted by the long night. Then Yaroslav's "Krused Mechanical Tank" slowly drove to the temporary parking square at the entrance of the "experimental field".

After a noisy friction sound like the wailing of a wild beast, Yaroslav walked out of the car with the help of Sofia, and walked towards the huge steel gate of the experimental field on the snow that was already covered with numerous messy footprints.

"Hello, please show your ID." The federal [warrior] guarding the "experimental field" stepped forward and saluted Yaroslav, and spoke in a very serious tone.

Looking at these guards [soldiers] dressed in black combat uniforms, wearing "conceptual cyber auxiliary power devices" on their joints, wearing titanium alloy high-tech masks, and armed to the teeth, Yaroslav and Sofia were not surprised, nor did they show any unhappiness. Instead, they swiftly took out the prepared documents from the leather briefcases they carried and handed them over.

The two knew that this newly established "Universe Core Experimental Field" was an institution directly managed by the Federal Council. In other words, it was a territory directly controlled by Chief Executive Vasily.

Yaroslav's position, power and army all came from the supreme leader of the federation, who personally promoted his old boss. Here he had to unconditionally obey all arrangements of the Federation Council.

Even though he was the administrator of Vasilisk and Kanosk, even though he was the commander-in-chief of the army in the Arctic Zone Campaign, he could not show any sign of disobedience to the source of his power.

After reading the certificate and handing it back to Sofia, the two federal soldiers on guard saluted Yaroslav in a more standard military manner, and their tone became much more respectful. If their attitude just now had the meaning of a high and mighty god looking down on the weak and humble human beings, then now it was more like a loyal guard paying respect to his noble master, saying:

"So it's you, Commander-in-Chief. I'm sorry that we didn't pay you respect. Please forgive the nature of our work. As you know, this 'experimental site' has only been established for two months, and those 'Spear of Odyssey' have sneaked in four times. We have to guard it strictly."

"Four times?" Sophia asked with a puzzled look on her face and a frown on her face.

"This must be your secretary, Commander-in-Chief. She is really young, beautiful, and promising... Ahem, it is like this. Before we started the war, many members of the Lost Ones organization, the Heartless, frequently attacked our bases in the North and the Karlov District." The guard [Warrior] replied:

"Initially we thought it was a wave of 'heartless people' who organized themselves because of their desire for food. Later we focused our attention on the 'Order Society', the 'Understanding Church' and the 'Chaos Group', three historical organizations that were dissatisfied with Cruzde.

"However, a month ago, the 'Cruzed Federation Guard' under the Federation discovered the 'Spear of Odyssey' organization when they raided a Lost Castle stronghold in the western part of the Old Frost Region, about a hundred kilometers away from the 'Artificial Lake'. After further investigation, they finally determined that the 537 large-scale 'Heartless Waves' that occurred between New Year 557 and 25 were related to them."

"This is indeed what we need to know, but how does this have to do with the fact that the 'experimental field' was invaded four times in two months? This must be due to your improper defense work, right? Did you follow the 'Federal Important Facilities Protection Regulations'?" Sophia asked a very sharp question, which made the guarding 'Warrior' a little embarrassed and speechless for a moment.

If Yaroslav hadn't patted him on the shoulder and said, "It's okay, take your time," he would probably have been unable to sleep that night, thinking all night about how to deal with those tricky committee members of the military court.

With an awkward smile, the guard [Warrior] turned around and opened the huge steel door for Yaroslav, explaining:
"It's not that we are incapable, but this work does require courage and determination. We can thoroughly investigate the true identity of every person who enters here, and we have placed 85000 new rubles worth of detection equipment from the entrance to the central test site and the location where the 'core' for the experiment is placed. As long as there is the 'Heartless Virus' or the magic source power commonly used by the Lost Ones in the body, an alarm will be sounded."

As soon as the guard [Warrior] finished speaking, Sofia's heart immediately skipped a beat, and her body twitched involuntarily because of nervousness. It was not until the three of them passed the first instrument and saw the green signal light on it was still stable that Sofia's emotions gradually changed from fear to relief and confusion. Yaroslav saw Sofia's nervousness, so he pointed to the light of the instrument and asked:
"What is the name of this device? And why didn't my...secretary Sophia sound an alarm when she walked past it? My secretary, but...that...oh, the 'Lost Mutant'."

"Haha, that's right, Commander-in-Chief. This instrument is called the 'YWNF-01 Element Detector'. It can detect an energy fluctuation called 'distortion value'. The conditions for the formation of this energy are very harsh, so it has a certain degree of uniqueness." The guard [Warrior] replied.

"What exactly is the 'distortion value'? And why is it unique?" Sophia asked, quickly regaining her composure from her panic.

"Professor Igor told us this during the training. 'Distortion Value' is exclusive to the Lost Ones, not the 'Superpowers'. This is because they have a sequence called 'Lost One Exclusive Direction Gene' in their genes. This causes the Lost Ones to be very stubborn about their identity, and thus feel awkward, uneasy, irritable and depressed when they come into contact with humans." The guard [Warrior] explained based on what he had learned:
"As the Lost Ones gradually evolve and ascend in rank, these 'genes' will be transformed by some mysterious magical power, either disappearing or being improved, so that they gradually subconsciously identify with their human identity. An external indicator to measure whether these 'genes' have changed is the 'mutation value'.

"As the name suggests, the full name of 'Distortion Value' is 'Lost One Direction Change Value'. Those Lost Ones who refuse to cooperate with humans will emit particulate matter brought by their genes that humans cannot perceive at all. If the concentration is higher than 0.27, they will be classified as Lost Ones. For those with special abilities, the maximum value is generally only 0.15-0.17. So, even if your secretary Ms. Sophia was once a Lost One, her genes make it easier for her to contact humans and cooperate with us. She is a 'special ability' as defined in the 'new regulations'."

"Is that so? I'm relieved then." Yaroslav patted Sofia's hand and breathed a sigh of relief.

"I was worried that Sophia's past identity would bring her unnecessary trouble. Now it seems that I, an old man, can't keep up with the times."

"No, no, I don't mean to blame you." The guard [warrior] hurriedly explained when he heard Yaroslav say this.

Coincidentally, while chatting, the three of them walked along the hollow metal stairs from the gate of the "Universe Core Experimental Field" to a platform about ten meters above the ground, which overlooked the entire experimental field.

The two scientists who had been waiting here for a long time saw Yaroslav and his companions coming, and hurriedly left the giant instrument "covered" with all kinds of complicated buttons like the Eye of Cthulhu. After sending away the guard [warrior], they came to Yaroslav.

The first person to simply salute and speak to Yaroslav was Igor Constantinyev. Previously, when he was in New Wind Town, he was forced to work for the Lost Ones in the "Universe No. 0 Experimental Site" in the suburbs for two or three months under coercion and inducement due to the false accusation of theft by the "Wind Mine", a collaborator of the "Order Society" at the time, until the "Wind Mine" fell and his forces were cleared out of the Federation.

After leaving the "Universe Experimental Field No. 0", Igor underwent a month-long investigation by the "Hostile Behavior Investigation Office" directly under the "City Happiness Group" of the Federal Committee, before it was finally determined that all his actions "subjectively and objectively served the Federation."

Therefore, under Vasily's personal instructions, Igor not only restored his previous identity, position and treatment, but also, together with Ross, based on the results of previous analysis of the data in the old empire's materials, formally determined the final specific locations of "Tianshu" and "Evolution Platform" near Vasilysk.

"Hello, Commander-in-Chief Yaroslav, my name is Igor Constantinyeh, and this is Ross from Ice City. The 'Calling of the Evolution Stage' ceremony will be held tonight, and we are conducting the final equipment debugging." Igor said directly without any hesitation.

Yaroslav obviously liked Igor's decisive character. He nodded with a long-lost smile on his face.
"Thank you for your hard work, two great scientists of the Federation. By the way, is Secretary Kuka here today? He said he wanted to witness this historic moment of determining the location of the 'Evolution Platform' with me. How come there is no trace of him here?"

"That's right, Commander-in-Chief." Ross, who was standing behind Igor, said:

"Because something happened in the capital, Kuka returned early this morning before dawn."

(End of this chapter)