The system is four years ahead of schedule, but Weird is still a cub.

"…Xing, a survivor?"

The scarred man repeated, his voice less hostile but still alert. He looked at Shen Ge carefully and said, "How many of you are there? Where are you from? How did you get through the 'Filthy Land'? There are...man-eating monsters everywhere!"

When talking about the "filthy place", the man's voice trembled noticeably, and he was obviously very resistant to this horrible place.

"A weird and filthy place?" Shen Ge's heart moved. The name was quite appropriate. On the way here, they could see all kinds of low-level weird things everywhere in the desert.

This was also something that Shen Ge couldn't understand, because the gathering place where this group of people was located was only one kilometer away from the nearest monster, and judging from their reactions, they should have lived here for a long time.

Although he was puzzled, Shen Ge still thought of a more reasonable explanation and said, "We only have these few cars. It took a great price to cross the wilderness, and many of our companions didn't make it out."

His tone was heavy, with a genuine sense of exhaustion. In order to extract information, he instantly became an actor, creating the feeling of a survivor wandering in the wilderness: "As for where we are from... It's very far away. Even if I tell you, you may not know. We just want to find a safe place temporarily."

At this time, an old man with gray hair and a cane behind the low wall trembled and pushed away the young man in front of him and walked to the scarred man. His eyes were cloudy but with a kind of scrutiny of vicissitudes of life, and he looked at Shen Ge carefully.

"York, let them... talk closer." The old man's voice was old but clear. "It's hard to hear from such a distance. They... have women and children... They don't look like 'hunters'."

The scarred man called York hesitated for a moment, but finally nodded and shouted to Shen Ge: "You... send one person over! Only one person! It's best if it's your... leader!"

Shen Ge turned around and gestured to Uncle Cheng and the others to calm down, then glanced at Camille and said to her, "You stay and keep watch."

After saying this, he took a step and slowly walked towards the low wall.

With Shen Ge's strength, let alone one Camille, even if there were a hundred Camilles here, there would be no need for them to help with vigilance.

What's more, when they first arrived here, Xiao Qi had already sent out the blood spiders. Now the dark corners of the entire survivor camp are full of vigilant blood spiders.

As long as Shen Ge wanted, he could even raze the survivor actor to the ground in an instant.

But if you want to understand the situation of a fragmented world, communicating with the locals is undoubtedly the fastest way. Therefore, even if Shen Ge has the ability to slap these people to death, he has to calm down and communicate with them.

As Shen Ge approached, the tension of the survivors behind the wall increased significantly, and the hands holding the weapons were exerting force. Shen Ge could clearly see the deep wrinkles on their faces, the paleness hidden under the dirt, and the fear and despair hidden in their eyes.

Shen Ge stopped about ten meters away from the low wall. This distance was enough for him to see the other person clearly and to react instantly.

"My name is Shen Ge." He introduced himself calmly.

"I am the patriarch here, you can call me Lao Shi." The old man with crutches spoke, his turbid eyes staring at Shen Ge's eyes, as if he wanted to judge whether Shen Ge was lying based on his life experience.

After a pause, the old man continued, "Young man, you said you passed through a filthy place... what did you... see?"

"Twisted low-level weirdness, huge skeletons, charred land. And... some strange remaining weird energies, such as the pervasive black fog and so on." Shen Ge answered truthfully. After all, these are scenes that can be seen everywhere in the desert.

Chief Laoshi nodded slowly, a trace of sadness on his face: "The filthy land... is where the 'God' brought down his wrath... For decades, very few people have been able to survive through it. You... are very lucky. But unfortunately, this place is not suitable for you to stay for a long time."

"God?" Shen Ge caught this word and subconsciously thought of the "New God Cult". These weirdos like to do such mysterious things.

Patriarch Lao Shi glanced at Shen Ge and did not answer his question directly. Instead, he asked, "Did you... meet... other people on the road? A convoy of people driving... big iron cars with... red teeth painted on them?"

Chief Lao Shi described the situation of the convoy in as much detail as possible, but his old body and intermittent way of speaking always gave people the illusion that he might die at any time.

Shen Ge and others had seen a lot of strange things along the way, but they had never seen any convoy. If there really was a convoy, it would not be the turn for them, the survivors, to communicate.

Shen Ge shook his head and said, "No. Along the way, we didn't see any living people except the monsters in the wasteland."

He noticed that when Chief Laoshi mentioned the "red teeth", many survivors behind the wall showed deep hatred and fear in their eyes.

York clenched the bone knife in his hand tightly, his knuckles turned white, and his voice was filled with uncontrollable anger: "Those beasts! They are 'hunters'! They... they stole the food of our tribe! And... they also captured our people! Just half a month ago!"

hunter?

Judging from the descriptions of Lao Shi and York, this caravan called "Hunters" was well-armed, at least their equipment was beyond the reach of these "Stone Age" survivors.

The fragmented worlds are basically post-apocalyptic worlds. Shirley's world is a civilization rebuilt a hundred years after the apocalypse.

According to the settings of general post-apocalyptic wasteland novels, these "hunters" who capture survivors simply treat them as food and tools for reproduction.

Although Shen Ge knew that this was the inevitable path to the collapse of civilization, he still pretended to be ignorant and asked: "Robbering food? Arresting people? What are they arresting people for?"

"What?" York's eyes were almost spitting fire, and he gritted his teeth and said, "What else can we do? Slaves! Or... worse! They need coolies to dig out energy crystals! They need women... to give birth to children! They are just a group of devils in human skin!"

Energy crystallization?

When Shen Ge heard a new word, he was about to learn more about it, but he heard the old Shi clan leader beside him sigh heavily.

The wrinkles on his old face deepened, and he said slowly: "Our tribe... there are not many people. This 'Stone Forest' is our last home. We barely survived by relying on the 'Ghost-Repelling Stones' passed down by our ancestors and carefully hiding. That 'Hunter' convoy... is well-equipped and has weapons that can kill monsters... We can't stop it at all..."

He pointed at the obviously scarce young and middle-aged people behind the low wall, as well as the many old, weak, women and children cowering in the shadows of the huts: "Most of the food has been stolen, and most of the men who can work... have been captured. And... there are still a few young girls and Xiaoya... Xiaoya is only twelve years old!"

Patriarch Lao Shi's voice choked, and turbid old tears slid down his wrinkles.

Suppressed sobbing could be heard from behind the wall. Several women were hugging their children, their bodies shaking. The atmosphere of despair enveloped this small stronghold like a substance. Camille, Cheng Shu and others in the distance also heard the conversation, and their faces darkened. In this apocalyptic wasteland, cannibalism is often more cruel and chilling than strange threats.

Shen Ge was silent for a moment, and then asked some questions about the "history" of this fragmented world, but unfortunately, as Lao Shi said, they were just like the nomadic people on the grassland, "wandering" in this desert.

The "stronghold" before them is actually not uncommon in the desert. It was built one by one by their ancestors.

Then, based on the reaction of the "Ghost-Repelling Stone", it will determine whether there are any strange threats around, and then decide whether to migrate to the next base.

Shen Ge was a little confused when he heard this. When Lao Shi asked them about the details of crossing the desert, his words expressed the danger of the desert and the difficulty of crossing it.

But these "natives" can migrate to several bases in the wilderness in a year, which is probably related to the "ghost-driving stone" they mention.

However, although Shen Ge understood the despair of these survivors, their situation was equally difficult.

Since they couldn't get any information about the fragment world from these survivors, they could only try to get help from other people, such as the hunters.

Shen Ge thought for a moment and asked, "Do you know which direction the Hunter convoy went? Where is their base?"

When Shen Ge asked this question, Lao Shi and York were both visibly stunned. The latter asked in surprise: "You...are going to find a hunter?"

Shen Ge said calmly: "Although I am not a good person, I cannot let beasts like Hunter live. However, I don't know their strength, and I don't know if I can deal with them, so I can't make any promises to you. I can only say... I will try my best to help you bring your people back."

Hearing Shen Ge's words, Lao Shi and others were stunned. In this doomsday, even members of a tribe might stab each other in the back for a bite of food, and they, a group of outsiders, were actually willing to help them find their abducted tribesmen?

If the tribe was not so poor that only the old, weak, sick and disabled were left, and if they had not had some cold weapons that were barely enough to deal with even small animals, they would have suspected what Shen Ge was planning.

With the idea of ​​trying everything possible, York said bitterly, "They went to the Black Mountain in the north. A few months ago, the sky there cracked and many energy crystals fell. We suspect that they captured people just to make them go to the Black Mountain to dig something! It's about two days' walk from here!"

"Black Mountain...?" Shen Ge silently memorized the name.

Then, he looked at Chief Lao Shi and continued, "Chief, our supplies are still sufficient. We can leave you some clean drinking water and compressed food."

After receiving instructions from Shen Ge, classmate Xiao Qi in the distance asked two anti-ghost warriors to bring some purified water and compressed biscuits over.

These things were not valuable to Shen Ge. He wanted to use the food to improve the "favor" of Lao Shi and others and find out some information about the "ghost-driving stone" and the "gods".

In the doomsday, food resources are hard currency. It's like when you play a doomsday wasteland game, you find a village of survivors and throw a few boxes of food there, and the NPC's favorability will increase rapidly.

Sure enough, when they confirmed that the compressed biscuits and water were for them, Lao Shi and others knelt down and kowtowed without hesitation to thank Shen Ge for his great kindness.

While distributing food, Shen Ge asked Lao Shi and others about the information about the "ghost-driving stone" and the "gods".

Lao Shi was also very sensible and directly asked someone to "invite" out the evil-chasing stone, a human-shaped stone statue about half a meter tall and without a head.

"Is this... the stone that drives away evil spirits?" Shen Ge looked at the humanoid stone statue in confusion, but could not see anything different about the stone.

"Master, a faint fluctuation of strange energy has been detected on the strange stone." At this time, classmate Xiao Qi whispered in his ear.

"Oh?"

Shen Ge opened his strange eyes and found that the stone was emitting a faint aura of strange energy. Looking carefully, he found a strange piece of flesh and blood in the center of the stone statue's chest.

According to Lao Shi's explanation, the biggest reason why they migrate every year even if their strongholds do not encounter strange attacks is to look for strange corpses in the wilderness and offer the "essence" of strange flesh and blood to the stone statues.

When the stone statue "eats" the flesh and blood of the strange eye, it will emit a strong strange energy to drive away the strangeness around it.

And when the strength of its strange power is not as strong as the surrounding strangeness, part of the stone statue will shatter, reminding the tribe that it is time to move.

This stone statue was originally a complete person, but it has "reminded" the tribe countless times over the years, so even its head has been broken off.

As for the "New God Religion", Lao Shi and others have never heard of this name. The "God" they mentioned is said to be the real deity of this stone statue, protecting mankind as they walk through the weird and rampant doomsday.

Sure enough, when people face despair, the first thing they think of is to seek comfort from faith. This is why the "New God Religion" was able to develop in its original mountain base.

Since Lao Shi's tribe is close to the "Stone Age" and does not even have electrical appliances, let alone some filming tools, so even if Shen Ge wanted to see the original appearance of the "Statue of the God", he had no way.

However, even though Lao Shi had never heard of the "New God Religion", Shen Ge still suspected that there should be some connection between this "God" and the "New God Religion".

After bidding farewell to Lao Shi and the others and leaving the base, Shen Ge stopped beside the jeep. He did not get in the car immediately, nor did he look back at the desperate survivors. His eyes were cast to the west, in the direction of the dark shadow called "Stone Mountain", his eyes were deep, like a cold pond.

This "fragmented world" seemed to be much more complicated than he had imagined.

It is no longer possible to obtain information about the fragment world from the tribe, so we will probably have to start with those convoys.

For Shen Ge, the fastest way to return to "reality" is to find the dream fragments, so that he can directly establish a transmission channel and take Cheng's mother and others back.

But the power of dreams is an "illusory" power, the original power of the earth. It can be anywhere or not.

Without dream fragments to lock onto dream fragments, it would undoubtedly be like looking for a needle in a haystack. (End of this chapter)