On my second playthrough, they were full of malice towards me.

The boy looked at Liao Ji's incredulous expression and then showed a similar expression of anger and sorrow.

Such a horrific act is unbelievable, but it was the work of an evil witch.

The maid was devastated by the loss of her lover. Her heart, which had been born of love, was immediately shut down because of his departure.

"The last pure land in the world disappeared along with the maid's closed heart. The evil witch succeeded, and the calamity continued to expand once again. Without the maid's protection, the creatures could only wander around and flee, barely surviving and waiting for the end of the world."

"And those androids who had also gained 'hearts' along with the maids were transformed into machine servants."

"They inherited the maid's hatred for the Turbid Evil and their obsession with the youth. Day after day, they went to the front lines to hunt down the Turbid Evil monsters, trying to snatch back the youth's body fragments from the other four Turbid Evil Kings."

As the boy finished speaking, the third story came to an end, and Liao Ji reached the end of the cellar murals.

From these three stories and the murals, Liao Ji gained a clearer understanding of "Dream Zero." In short, it's... uh...

In short, Liao Ji at least knows how to "clear" this world.

Similar to playing a video game, after defeating the four "Turbid Kings" bosses, you must retrieve the four body fragments of the young man from the bosses. Finally, you must find Zero with the four fragments to unlock Zero's closed heart and truly awaken Zero.

However, there is still a problem.

"What about prophecy? None of the three stories seem to mention prophecy, right?"

"The prophecy was actually just a sentence uttered by that witch."

"What?"

"No matter how hard a bunch of little girls try, it's useless. Let them come back when they're adults."

The boy imitated the witch's mocking tone very well.

Liao Ji: "."

"Don't you find this statement strange?" Liao Ji couldn't help but ask.

But the boy opposite him looked very serious, as if a hero must use a holy sword to defeat the demon king, showing a seriousness and dedication to the setting.

"As the Queen of Chaos, the witch's words were profound and unfathomable. We only deciphered them after translating them. She meant that the servants without 'hearts' could not be defeated no matter what. The only way to save the world was to regain 'hearts'."

"Therefore, a prophecy has been passed down in this world: one day, someone will appear who can make the servants gain 'hearts'. Correspondingly, the next Turbid King will appear among the servants and establish a pure land in this world again."

After speaking, the boy, under the red glow of the torch, cast an excited gaze at Liao Ji and the 86 beside him.

As mentioned in the previous story, the servants should be heartless and naturally wouldn't communicate with anyone. But looking at 86 and Liao Ji now, aren't they a microcosm of the maid and the young scientist in the second story?

After the mural ended and the story was told, Liao Ji walked out of the cellar.

Although Liao Ji had transformed the 86 back into a small silver pistol, discreetly tucked into his waistband, the villagers outside the cellar still looked at him with the eyes of someone looking at a "savior."

However, Liao Ji understood the source of the prophecy and realized that the villagers had misunderstood, since 86 was not a servant within this "Zero Dream".

It seems that increasing the "Mech Servant's" favorability is a good shortcut to clearing "Dream Zero"? Like a hidden quest?

Liao Ji has already entered a state of thinking about how to play the game.

First of all, there is no need for me to tell them the truth. With this "savior" aura attached to him, it is equivalent to him having full prestige in "Dream Zero" without having to grind any reputation.

Next, my goal is to go to the front lines and try to make contact with the real servants of this world. If they can obey me directly like 86, then there might not be any need to let Sciutia and Jiuyou "log in" as well. Maybe I can even push through them on my own.

Finally, there are the four "Kings of Turbid Calamity".

To be honest, after seeing the "witch" that Zero came up with, Liao Ji was really curious about what Zero would portray the other characters as.

Liao Ji wanted to set off immediately to find the first witch, but there was one more thing he had to do before that.

"Have everyone pack their things; you need to leave."

"Leave?"

The villagers were puzzled by Liao Ji's words. Although the village had been ravaged by thugs, its foundation was still intact. It would definitely be faster to develop than to move.

Many people subconsciously thought that Liao Ji was afraid that the escaped scavengers would find help and come back to take revenge on them.

The villagers might have been afraid of the thugs' retaliation before, but now that Liao Ji has the identity of a servant and savior, wouldn't any number of thugs just be sending them to their deaths?

"No, not scavengers, but something far more terrifying."

"Even more terrifying?"

Liao Ji nodded, then looked into the distance, where the sky was still dark red, but within this dark red, there seemed to be patches of blurry dark clouds, very faint, which could not be seen at all if one did not look carefully.

As mentioned before, in Fallout, the second most annoying thing for players is the Fiendish monsters, and the third is the Scavengers.

And what's ranked first is none other than that.

Natural disaster.

The remnants of the rioters who fled from Kano village ran for five or six hours before they finally dared to lie down and catch their breath.

The once large group of over a hundred people has now dwindled to just over a dozen. While some were wiped out by Liao Ji, most of them perished on their escape route at the hands of the treacherous monsters roaming the wilderness.

They had only rested for a short while when many of the thugs tensed up again. The sound of motorcycles came from afar, and many were terrified, thinking that the young man had caught up with them and was going to kill them all.

But then some of them realized something was wrong, because before there was only one young man, but now the sound of the motorcycles was like there were several at once.

Under their trembling, fearful gaze, what emerged from the distant horizon was indeed a small convoy of motorcycles.

These motorcycles don't look as luxurious as the ones used by young people back then; they look more like a low-spec version of exploration vehicles.

Both the motorcycles and the riders on them have a badge in a prominent position.

That was a pair

Angel wings.

If people in the real Dream City saw this, they would recognize it immediately; it is Kel Technology.

But the thugs recognized the people in "Dream Zero" immediately, as if they had seen them many times before, and even showed a "saved" expression on their faces.

because

"The Salvation Society!"

"They're from the Salvation Society!"

Chapter 206 Gold Prospectors and Treasure

The Salvation Society is a mysterious organization that has emerged in the wasteland in the last ten years or so. Its origins and founders are unknown. Although it has only been established for a short time, it has expanded extremely rapidly.

This is attributed to two factors: firstly, the Salvation Society maintains strict control over its members, making it impossible for outsiders to enter; and secondly, the nature of the Salvation Society, whose purpose, as its name suggests, is to save the world.

Legend has it that the Salvation Society not only rescues survivor bases and villages from the clutches of the monstrous monsters, but also generously shares a great deal of resources, and the reward seems to be nothing more than some knowledge.

Knowledge is worthless in the wasteland, but resources are the most precious wealth. The Salvation Society is probably the only organization that would exchange resources for knowledge.

The Salvation Church explains that their purpose in collecting knowledge is to one day gather the wisdom of all living beings and find a way to combat calamity.

Although the survivors in the wasteland did not believe this, the deal of exchanging cheap knowledge for resources was something no one disliked, so many other organizations and survivors welcomed the Salvation Society.

For example, right now.

"Hey! Hey! Over here! Over here!" The scavenging mob shouted at the Salvation Society members, and many of them waved their arms.

The Salvation Society's attention was successfully drawn, and the ten-person convoy immediately stopped. The lead member, using a telescope-like information processing device, scanned the other party and immediately reported back:

"Captain, identity confirmed. They are scavenger thugs belonging to 'Gorilla Hammer,' but 'Gorilla Hammer' himself has not been seen. No other biological signals have been detected within five kilometers. They are suspected to be separated from their group after being attacked by a monster. Please provide instructions for the next step."

In the convoy of ten, a middle-aged man in the middle, after surveying the disheveled state of the thugs, nodded and said:

"Stay alert and keep close to the point of contact."

"Roger that!"

The convoy immediately changed direction and headed towards the rioters, who breathed a sigh of relief. They hadn't taken anything with them when they tried to escape, and were now starving and thirsty.

"Everyone stay still, raise your hands, and drop your weapons on the ground. I'll repeat that again: if any aggressive behavior is detected, we will immediately retaliate. So please cooperate to avoid unnecessary conflict."

The Salvation Society usually operates in groups of ten, each member possessing exceptional combat skills. Three members are responsible for brandishing guns and shouting commands, two for guarding the surroundings, and four for quickly disarming the rioters.

The rioters did not resist and obediently complied. The whole process took less than a minute. After confirming that the rioters posed no threat, the Salvation Society members put down half of their guns, easing the tense atmosphere.

This is understandable, since in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, you can never be too vigilant.

"Alright, stop wasting your time. We're completely out of fighting strength now, and we don't have the energy to do anything. Instead of wasting your time, hurry up and give us a week's worth of food and water! I'm starving!"

Some of the rioters had already started shouting, but when the captain heard this, he frowned and shook his head, saying, "That's impossible. We are the Salvation Society, not a charity."

"Hmph, I know, that's why we'll exchange information. Isn't that what you like best?"

Intelligence is a form of knowledge. Upon hearing the thugs' words, the captain remained outwardly calm, but inwardly he tensed up and quickly asked:

"Yes, but we will decide on the specific resource allocation based on the value of your intelligence."

"Don't worry, with this intelligence, we'd lose money even if we exchanged it for a week's worth of your food. Listen up, just keep going from here, and after another thirty or forty kilometers or so, you'll see a settlement village."

As one of the rioters spoke, he pointed to the direction of Kano Village, where Liao Ji had been located, for the captain.

"In that village, there is a person who wields a powerful weapon that we have never seen before, stolen from a machine servant. It can change its form at will. I believe you will be absolutely interested in that weapon. It is a calamity-level weapon comparable to the Danger-level, no, no, even the Catastrophe-level!"

Upon hearing the thug's words, the members of the Salvation Society all changed their expressions slightly, especially when it came to the "Disaster-level" Turbid Weapon, many of the team members showed excitement on their faces.

The captain, however, remained calm and immediately retorted, "How can we trust you?"

"What the hell are you talking about? Can't you see how badly I'm in this state? If it weren't for that bastard—pretty boy—hitting the jackpot with that weapon, our boss wouldn't have died at the hands of that kind of guy!"

"Your boss is dead?" The captain looked surprised.

"Nonsense! Otherwise, why would we be in the situation where we need your help?"

There are reasons why the rioters speak so wildly. First, they are used to being wild, and second, the Salvation Society has always been seen as a nice guy, which is why they are so unscrupulous and rude.

The captain didn't seem to care about the thugs' tone and quickly left to discuss the matter with the other team members.

"Captain, we've struck it rich! We've struck it rich! If we report this intelligence to headquarters, we can at least get this much bonus from Steward William!"

One team member excitedly held out their palm, while another added, "We can also apply for administrative leave from the company, so we don't have to come to 'Zero Dream' for at least a week!"

"Or...we could hold off on reporting for now, and then steal that servant weapon after we get to Kano village."

Another team member suggested greedily, since if they reported it now, other squads would be assigned to the area, and if they found the weapons later, their credit would be significantly reduced.

After collecting opinions from the team members, the captain ultimately made the final decision. After some deliberation, he adopted a compromise solution.

"The situation is still uncertain, so we won't report to the company for now. We'll have those scavengers lead the way, and once we reach Kano Village, we'll assess their strength and adapt accordingly. If their rating is C or higher, we'll take a more conciliatory approach; otherwise..."