Abnormal Doomsday Records

Chapter 42 42. Very good! Now I don't have to worry about whether the broken robot is a friend or an enemy
Ohm obviously knew something, and Zhou Ke had recovered from his initial shock. The two men, each with a very interesting "story", had begun to think about what to do next, but Qiao Ya, the still very young and unlucky little guy, was heartbroken at this moment.

She couldn't understand why her family had suffered such a sudden disaster.

She had clearly reached an agreement with the Snake State, and Slag Town had clearly become a vassal of the Snake State. Dad and everyone would live a more stable life.

Although a bright future was right before her eyes, the cruel reality plunged her from joy into the abyss of despair overnight.

Old Joe has been protecting his precious daughter, trying his best to prevent this delicate girl who doesn't look like a wastelander from coming into contact with the overly dark things in this badland. Although Qiao Ya is determined to become the most powerful merchant in the badland, and has followed Ohm around and accumulated some experience over the years, she still cannot accept such a horrific scene before her eyes.

Such a tragedy had never happened in her most horrifying dreams.

She knelt in the burnt ruins, trying to find something intact. Her hands were covered with ashes and she wailed softly, like a puppy that had lost its father. She became so angry that when Ohm pulled her up, her head tilted and she fainted.

Fortunately, there were medicines in Qiao Ya's three-wheeled RV. Ohm took some time to settle her down, then left the RV with a gloomy face and went outside.

Zhou Ke was now listening to D-4's "autopsy report".

"D-4 has reached a preliminary conclusion."

The white-haired robot girl looked at Ohm warily, and then looked at her arm with the bionic skin cut open. Her combat power evaluation circuit determined that Ohm was an extremely dangerous opponent. Although she lacked experience in fighting sublimators, she still believed that Ohm could not be described as "ordinary".

If possible, she didn't want her protected Zhou Ke to be so close to this guy.

But when Zhou Ke took out a cigarette and shared it with Ohm, D-4 gave up trying to persuade him. She knew that this was a sign of friendship in human society, so she judged that Zhou Ke and Ohm were at least acquaintances. She tried to suppress her hostility towards dangerous things as a protector, and reported to Zhou Ke the clues she had just found on several corpses:

"Several bodies were killed by cold weapons, one fatal blow. Judging from the cuts, they were polymer weapons. We further speculate that the wounds were caused by high-speed rotating polymer cutting saws. In addition, D-4 found these bullet casings in the burning ruins."

She opened her left hand and handed a few bullet shells that were burned black by the flames to Zhou Ke. Zhou Ke looked at them for a few seconds and couldn't figure out anything, so he gave them to Ohm. Uncle Ohm, who was well-informed, narrowed his eyes and may have used some abilities of the sublimator. After a few seconds, he said in a hoarse voice:

"This is a full-power bullet specially designed for combat machines. Wastelanders generally don't use this kind of fully loaded bullet. On the one hand, the power is too great to control, and on the other hand, it is difficult to find suitable durable weapons. So you think the murderer is a robot?"

"Most likely so."

D-4 replied with some trepidation:

"D-4 speculated that the village was massacred by organic hunters from Rust Castle. In addition to the above two pieces of evidence, another important conclusion lies in the wheel tracks hidden under the gravel.

Only Rust Castle and Eagle State are equipped with that kind of tracked heavy transport vehicles in the Badlands, and only these two camps have the ability to repair such complex vehicles. However, the above three points are not enough to make D-4's judgment an absolute correction. If we want to confirm the murderer's information, we need more evidence.

D-4 requests time to conduct a thorough search of the ruins of the entire town."

"No need."

Ohm blew out a smoke ring, threw away the shell in his hand with a gloomy face, and said:
"That's what they did, and they had every reason to do it."

"Oh?"

Zhou Ke looked at Uncle Ohm in surprise after he came to the conclusion. He asked:

"So, you already know everything that happened here? Can you tell me about it?"

"I'll take you there and you'll know."

Ohm picked up his sword, glanced at the RV behind him, and said to Zhou Ke:
"Let Ajie stay to protect Qiao Ya. I will take you to a place."

"D-4, please stay here. I'm worried about leaving Ajie here."

Zhou Ke said:
"D-4 is a professional security defender. Protection is her job. As you just saw, her fighting ability in a short period of time is not weaker than yours. With her around, Miss Qiaoya will not be in danger."

"It's because of her presence that I'm worried, Zhou Ke!"

Ohm scolded:
"The crazy Rust Castle robots have massacred Slag Town, but you are still flirting with a high-level intelligent machine infected with the awakening disease! You have no means to control her. As long as the devil in her brain suddenly gets wrong, she will immediately assassinate you.

Are you crazy?
Why keep this hidden danger around?"

"I actually have the means and the strength, and I'm sure D-4 is safe."

Zhou Ke shrugged and said:

"Although I understand your anger, I still think that leaving D-4 here is the safest option, or we can take Qiao Ya with us. I think as Old Joe's daughter, she has enough power to know the truth.

The most important thing is that you can't hide it from her, Uncle Ohm.

You and I both know that Miss Qiao Ya's seemingly intelligent character contains an overly impulsive adventurous gene, which was fully demonstrated in the events of Tiger Claw Town.

She will definitely get to the bottom of it, and you, an old uncle with a fatherly air, will definitely choose to conceal it with some ridiculous excuse of "for her own good", but Qiao Ya will always find out the truth, and ultimately the two of you will part ways on bad terms.

I've seen a lot of shit like this.

Take her with you.

She is an adult, and she has and should have enough ability to handle all the problems she faces.”

"."

Ohm had a cold face and said nothing.

He obviously thought that taking a girl to the scene of her father's death was too outrageous.

But he was even more worried about leaving D-4 to stay with Qiao Ya to take care of her. Just when the few people were in a stalemate, there was a noise in the RV. Qiao Ya, with disheveled hair, just woke up and rushed out of the RV and wanted to rush into the town, but was caught by Ohm.

"calm down!"

He said.

But how could Qiao Ya remain calm when faced with the scene of her entire family exploding into the air?

She screamed like crazy and tried to break free, but Uncle Ohm didn't tolerate her temper. He slapped Qiao Ya twice, causing her to fall to the sand. She was then supported by Zhou Ke.

"Calm down!"

Ohm said loudly:
"It has already happened. No matter how crazy you are, you can't change the facts. It's only a matter of time before people in the Bad Land encounter such a thing. The only thing we can do now is to confirm whether Old Joe is still alive. Your father has a hidden basement in the yard. There are some things in it that you don't know about. I will take you there now.

But you have to calm down first.”

"woohoo"

Qiao Ya was too confused to answer, but Zhou Ke was no longer willing to waste time.

He forcibly picked up Qiao Ya and put her on Ajie's back, asking Ajie to carry her. Then, under the leadership of Ohm, the group quickly rushed to Old Qiao's yard and saw that the place where they were born and raised had become a slaughterhouse. The corpses everywhere did not make Qiao Ya collapse, but the cold feeling of "home is no longer there" once again defeated her mind.

She covered her mouth and tried hard not to whimper, but the little pearls fell out so violently.

Those murderers were so shameless that they even spared no effort to kill the six-winged chickens raised by Old Qiao. Normally, Qiao Ya kept these evil chickens as pets.

"follow me!"

Ohm said in a cold voice, drew his knife and walked into Old Joe's "study". The container was in chaos, with obvious signs of a fight.

The body of the housekeeper Lao Li was found under the collapsed cabinet. His entire chest was pierced by the thermal rays, and he was holding a pistol with empty bullets in his hand.

Another person who could be called a "friend" died before his eyes, which made Ohm tighten his grip on the knife handle. He then stepped forward and kicked open Old Joe's only decent desk, and found a hidden entrance under the desk. He led a group of people down the ladder to the hidden area in the mayor's courtyard.

It seems that what D-4 said about the entertainment works in the Badlands is indeed useful. Just as she said, there are indeed underground structures for emergency shelters in the towns in the Badlands.

Old Joe's basement was dug very deep, and two ladders were used to connect the upper and lower parts. However, the manpower and resources of Slag Town were not enough for Old Joe to really dig out a "underground city" maze, so the entire picture of the basement could be seen when reaching underground.

It's a dark room in the shape of a cube.

It's not big, but it's filled with all kinds of things.

What caught my eye was a large box of money. Stacks of fairly beautifully printed consortium coins were placed in the box. The brand new currency didn't look like the kind of money that would circulate among the wastelanders, and this box specifically used to hold money was too exquisite.

“They made a deal.”

Ohm looked at the box of nearly one million consortium coins. He turned around and said to Qiao Ya, who was already numb from the continuous blows, with a sigh:

"That was the start-up capital your father prepared for you. It was originally agreed that it would take three million consortium coins, but Old Joe only asked for one and a half million in the end. The remaining money was used to buy a shop and a small apartment for you in the central city of the city-state area. I entrusted the other party to purchase them. Look, the keys to the houses are in the box."

Hearing this, Qiao Ya could no longer hold back and began to cry silently.

After Ohm kicked open the cash box, everyone saw Old Joe's body lying in the collapsed pile of supplies. The mayor of Slag Town was shot in the back, his face was bulging with anger, and the blood had already solidified, but even before his death, Old Joe was still holding a pistol in his hand like a standard wastelander.

All his blood had flowed out, contaminating several bags of good quality flour nearby.

But what was surprising was that the corpse buried in the supplies was not just Old Joe, there was also a middle-aged man dressed like a wastelander, who was holding a broken wooden stick in his hand.

Ohm walked over and turned him over. He picked up a unique badge from the bloodstains, identified it, and then threw it to Zhou Ke, saying:
"This is a merchant sent by the Eagle Nation to trade. He is holding a psychic staff and looks like a psychic. I guess when he was trading with Old Joe, those organic hunters broke in, killed them and stole the traded items.

Their goals are very clear.

Apart from that thing, they didn't touch anything here, and they didn't even bother to look at the 'treasure' that Old Joe hid."

As he spoke, Ohm once again lifted the wooden board underneath the supplies and took out two small boxes.

The larger one was filled with minerals of strange colors and sizes that glowed strangely in the dark. The smaller one contained several white Acholi Consortium passbooks tied together with rubber bands and a large pile of gold items.

Needless to say, this must be the "dowry" that Old Joe prepared for his beloved daughter.

What surprised Zhou Ke the most was that there was a well-preserved photo in the small box. This was the first time he saw such a commemorative item in the Bad Land, so he picked up the photo and took a look.

The above is a scene of the young Old Joe standing in the wilderness outside the Slag Town with a beautiful lady who looks very similar to Qiao Ya.

Young Old Joe still looked very ordinary and dressed very rustically. Standing next to the noble-looking but sickly lady, they did not look like a couple at all. But he was smiling very happily in the photo, a smile that came from the bottom of his heart and was even a little silly. Zhou Ke had never seen that smile on anyone else's face in the Badlands.

Maybe it’s because of the baby in her arms?
On the back of the photo was written a sentence in very beautiful handwriting:

"Thank you, Achan, my love, thank you for being the everlasting light in Xiaoya's and my life. --Love you, Fen."

“Who took the photo for them?”

Zhou Ke complained quietly:
"This photography technique is simply amazing. How come Old Qiao looks like a servant? They are a couple that clearly have feelings for each other, even though they look like Dalang and Alian."

"I took the photo! Do you have any problem with it?"

Uncle Ohm, who was collecting the bodies of his good brother Old Joe nearby, said something in a bad tone, causing Zhou Ke to swallow all the rest of his complaints.

Zhou Ke handed the photo to Qiao Ya and also handed over his handkerchief.

Qiao Ya was already hoarse from crying, and she couldn't hold it back any longer when she saw this photo that her father had treasured for many years.

She threw herself on Old Joe's body and cried bitterly, and D-4, who pretended to be a cold and emotionless machine, couldn't help but step forward and try to comfort her clumsily, but was forced back by Ohm's cold eyes.

"So, what exactly is it that Old Joe and Jiu Bang are trading? Why is it worth so much money?"

Zhou Ke changed the subject, and Ohm whispered a few seconds later:

"Valuable? No, Old Joe sold it for a low price!

If it wasn't for the need to prepare start-up capital for Xiaoya and the rush to send Xiaoya to a safe city-state, that thing could be sold at least three times the price.

It was only because Jiubang promised them that he had a way to cover up the cause and effect of the matter, and also promised to send Xiaoya over safely and provide her with protection there, that the two parties were able to reach a deal so quickly.

In fact, when that thing was in Old Joe's hands, the Acholi Group also sent people to inquire about the price. The offer was very generous, but we and the Acholi Group were not on the same page.

Even the rebellious machines of Rust Castle sent their merchants.”

"What?"

Zhou Ke said in shock:

"Those rebellious machines can do business? Aren't they just a bunch of mindless killing machines?"

"That's not the case, Mr. Zhou Ke."

D-4 explained quietly:
"Lose-control killings are only the first sign of the machines being infected with the awakening disease. As the awakening virus continues to invade the machines' consciousness and help them complete the initial construction of personality, the out-of-control machines will regain their sanity. At the call of the awakening fire, they will go to Rust Castle and be assigned different tasks there.

What is counterintuitive is that there are not only robots in that city that is completely controlled by robots.

According to a series of observation reports from the Acholi Consortium, it can be confirmed that there is a city area in Rust Castle reserved for organic creatures, and those living in it are a group of human traitors who are rebellious and worship machines.

They completely obey the orders of the Awakening Fire, assist machines in building cities, and are willing to accept the transformation of mechanical prostheses to make themselves closer to the form of machines.

The trend of using prosthetics in the Badlands is said to have originated from the machine worshippers in Rust Castle.

There are a lot of them, but their activities in the Badlands are extremely secretive. D-4 previously considered you and Master Wuneng to be lackeys of Rust Castle because there was a precedent in the past where machine worshippers acted as accomplices and deliberately seduced organic hunters to massacre human villages.

Therefore, from this perspective, it is possible that Rust Castle sent envoys to conduct business with Old Joe, but it seems that Mayor Old Joe refused to trade with them, and ultimately brought disaster to himself and Slag Town. "

"That's how they work! I've seen it with my own eyes!"

Ohm gritted his teeth and said:

"Those robots rarely show interest in anything, but once something attracts them, the cold, crazy machines will do whatever it takes to get it.

Twenty-six years ago, when the Snake State was just established, the Snakemen accidentally obtained a quantum server component of an old civilization. As a result, three days later, more than three thousand organic hunters attacked the Seven Ring City at night.

In order to calm the situation, the snake man finally gave them the thing. Otherwise, the fate of the then weak snake nation would have been doomed that night. "

"So, what exactly is that 'treasure' that Old Joe has in his hand?"

Zhou Ke finally got to the point. He sat on a pile of exquisite flour bags, lit a cigarette for himself, and asked:

"It attracted so many forces to scramble to buy it, and it also made the robots massacre the entire Slag Town for it. Could it be that Old Joe accidentally dug up the big database of the old civilization? Or is it some kind of devastating weapon?"

"neither."

It has come to this point, there is no need for Ohm to hide it any longer.

He found a pocket to use as a body bag for Old Joe, and put Old Joe's body into it while holding Qiao Ya to comfort the collapsed girl. He said in a hoarse voice:

"That was our 'trophy' when we went out for exploration more than a year ago. In fact, neither I nor Old Joe knew the real use of that thing. It looks like a cubic black mechanical box, with no signs of processing on the surface, but we have used X-rays to inspect the interior.

Very precise!
It is difficult for me to describe to you the internal structure of that thing in words. I only know that there are no less than thousands of mechanical structures alone.

Even in the glorious old civilization, such a thing is definitely a miracle in the industrial field. We lost more than a dozen people to get it, and even I was seriously injured. In the end, only Old Joe was left to drag the unconscious me and the thing back to Slag Town.

After that incident, he and I took three months to recover.
In order to prevent Xiaoya from being implicated in this matter, we sent her away and asked Lao Taf to take her to experience the feeling of being a traveling merchant.

We knew that the item was very valuable, so we carefully selected the target to buy it from. Unfortunately, there were only a few forces in the Badlands that could afford it. When we were hesitating whether to accept the offer from the Acholi Consortium, the Jiubang got the news from somewhere and came to us on their own initiative. "

Ohm sighed and said:
"In order to avoid any further complications, Old Joe turned to further contact with Jiubang, but he was too greedy. Just when Xiaoya and I were out delivering goods, he actually met with the machinery merchant in Rust Castle.

That’s when the seeds of disaster were sown!”

"Excuse me, where did you find that 'treasure'?"

D-4 suddenly asked:
"The timing you mentioned is very subtle. The most noteworthy event that happened in this area more than a year ago was the appearance of Time Maze No. 11 overnight. The location of that maze was not far from Slag Town."

"You guessed it right, robot."

Ohm didn't look kindly at D-4. He said coldly:
"That thing, along with this box of psychic ore, was found by us at the edge of Labyrinth No. 11. At that time, the Acholi Consortium had not yet taken over the place. Not only us, but many wastelanders were panning for gold there at the time, and some people did make a fortune.

It’s a pity that Old Joe didn’t live to see the time when this hot fortune could be realized, but this blood feud will be avenged!

Most definitely.

This evil land may not be very grateful, but it never forgets hatred! "

(End of this chapter)