Love and passion, cutting up the wasteland

Just as the tech hunters in Black Scratch Town seized the long-traveling Turtle and broke through the wind and rain to enter the underground river, a figure was walking alone in the deep tunnel of the lower city.

Look at his direction.

He was heading out of the city.

He was wearing a white robe and raised his hand to open the last gate. In an instant, the torrential rain from the depression lagoon blew in.

It was a little painful when it blew on his body.

He stood on the edge and looked down. There were turbulent waves below. If he didn't have a vehicle or at least as strong as Qin, the others would definitely be trapped in the storm.

Unable to leave the depression lagoon.

However, this person was not shocked by the wind, rain and waves. He simply seemed to just look at it, then leaned forward and was about to jump into the water.

"Click."

There was a slight sound in the darkness.

His figure suddenly stopped.

Turned back.

A look of surprise appeared on his calm face:

"You came so early?"

Behind him, in the dark tunnel.

In the distance, a white-haired young man slowly walked out with a fully-strung old world crossbow, and a strange light shone on the black gold arrowhead.

Its shape is a bit strange.

But it was removed from Romi's arrow.

The tech hunter once tried to use the long arrow modified from the blade walker's weapon to penetrate the displayed intelligent core.

If it is a real intelligent core, combined with the power of the masterpiece eagle crossbow, it is really possible to be shattered, and the long arrow itself will also be damaged.

But it only shattered an empty shell.

It's a bit of a waste of talent.

The arrowhead was naturally left behind. Although Lu Meng was not used to using the Eagle Crossbow, he would not waste it. The foundation of crossbow making he learned was still there.

If the person in front of him made any unusual movements.

This shot will definitely penetrate him.

-No matter what creature it is.

In the crosshairs of the eyepiece, there was a face that was not so familiar but not completely unfamiliar.

The leader of the Lake Town Law Enforcement Team and the captain of the battleship Reef.

He was also the first person to be loyal to the Watcher.

Zhuang Dayong.

Just now, he was standing on the Reef, watching the battle between Lu Meng and Qin, but then he took people to hide in the cabin first.

Disappeared.

"You won, Red King." Under the pointing of the old world crossbow, Zhuang Dayong slowly raised his hands: "But, I just want to find a way to survive. Is it necessary to chase me and kill me?"

"You can leave," Lu Meng was unmoved, "Leave the things."

"What did you say?"

"You are still pretending at this time... The skin on your face is cracked."

Zhuang Dayong was startled and subconsciously touched it.

However, except for the wrinkles caused by blisters, the whole place was still smooth, without any wounds at all.

There was no bone structure exposed.

Lu Meng sneered.

"You found me." The other party had said so much, and Zhuang Dayong no longer concealed it. Under the old world crossbow that could smash people to pieces with one blow, he put down his hands instead, as if nothing had happened.

The light outside the city shone behind him, leaving only a shadow.

But Lu Meng could see it.

There was no expression on this man's face.

As pale as death.

"When did you change?" Lu Meng paused and shouted: "...Whistleblower."

"Not long."

The other party laughed: "You really know."

As if in response, a crack suddenly appeared behind his ear, gradually expanding to the whole body to form a side line.

He grabbed it and pulled it.

The human skin of this "Zhuang Dayong" appearance was soft and fell off directly.

Without nourishment, it quickly lost its vitality and energy and became shriveled. The torso under the human skin was full of sticky flesh and blood, but it still stood there and did not die and fall down.

The creature's round eyes stared at Lu Meng, unable to blink, only the pupils moved.

As if it was natural.

And extremely terrifying.

Biochemical skeletons.

—— The living whistleblower.

"There are so many skinless corpses on the ship, how could I not guess?"

Unknowingly, this special skeleton that can change its form according to human appearance has replaced the captain of the Reef.

And from the example of Zero Two, although it is not a necessary condition, the victim's full set of human skin itself can help them imitate and integrate more quickly.

"You know that's not what I'm talking about - there are only a handful of people in this world who can accurately call out our names." The whistleblower slowly took out a black box from his arms, "It's really nostalgic to be remembered by others."

Even in the Second Empire where skeletons rule the world, most of the news about the whistleblower is rumors and speculation.

Not to mention the new civilization that was rebuilt on its ruins after the empire was destroyed.

That was really ignorant like a baby.

There was only one exception.

That group had already been looking for the Whistleblower during the Second Empire, and to some extent, they brought the alternative companions who were most likely related to the collapse of ancient civilization back into the public eye.

"Sure enough," the Whistleblower looked at Lu Meng, questioning with certainty, "You are... the remnant of 'Bone and Flesh Exchange'?"

Bone and Flesh Exchange, this is a school that was born during the Second Empire but has since died out.

They believe that the original form of the skeletons was like the Whistleblower, with flesh and blood and a full body.

However, because the skeletons need to clear their memories regularly to maintain the normal operation of the program and thinking, and the flesh and blood will eventually corrode, the ordinary skeletons cannot replenish their bodies like the Whistleblower, and finally became what they are now.

Only a mechanical skeleton is left.

Even they themselves don't remember it.

But if it is just like this, the bone and flesh replacement is at most one of the many hypotheses about the origin of the skeletons, and it cannot even be confirmed.

Even if the citizens who believe in this hypothesis are numerous and unparalleled at the time.

——They will never be personally ordered to be exterminated by the eternal wise king who ruled the empire at that time.

"..."

When Lu Meng heard the words "bone and flesh replacement", his expression changed, and this change also fell into the bald eyes of the Whistleblower.

This further confirmed his thoughts.

"To be honest," the skeleton played with the controller in his hand, and sighed: "I am also very surprised..."

"You actually preached among humans."

Bone-flesh exchange, as the name suggests.

They can be converted into each other.

If it is believed that humans are the origin of skeletons, this is just an academic hypothesis, then the deeper proposition hidden behind the bone-flesh exchange is:

Humans can also become skeletons.

In the Second Empire, skeletons are nominally rulers, but their actual status is more like service providers. They maintain public order with security machines, use their immortal bodies to enter dangerous places that all kinds of creatures cannot reach, mine mines to extract crude oil, produce day and night, establish a national power grid covering the entire continent, and transport food produced in swamps to all parts of the world... Obviously, they themselves do not need to eat.

Everything the skeletons do is to reproduce the glory of ancient civilization, even if the so-called "old empire" was overthrown by themselves.

And feeding humans and continuing the descendants of the rulers of this ancient civilization is an important part of it.

Of course, from today's perspective, some of the survivors of the Skeletons believe that this move is completely unnecessary, and that mechanical life can completely rebuild the world with its own strength. To a certain extent, it is precisely because of the preservation of humans that the Second Empire was eventually destroyed.

From the perspective of humans, the most typical perspective is the teachings of the Holy Church of Oakland.

As a rebel, the first generation of Phoenix saw that humans were not the objects of their service as the imperial officials said, but were just pets kept in captivity by these dark machines for fun.

The children's prison established by Rhino Robot, one of the five marshals, is one of the major examples.

However, with the establishment of the United City, the nobles, led by the major lords, have a new judgment on the uprising of the Holy Empire, their old enemy: Humans live well under the care of the Skeletons, why do you overthrow it?

Now they can only farm in the Green Plains by themselves, work hard and have no food to eat, and are blinded by backwardness and ignorance for life.

Similarly, the lords warned the people of the empire: once they were separated from the protection and support of the nobles, there would be no warrior corps to stop the enemy from robbing and burning everyone's wives and children, and no kind merchants to sell food to everyone, and they would end up like the Holy Kingdom... So they must never rebel.

But no matter what the later generations said, and no matter the criticism that existed at the time, the high-level founders of the Skeleton Empire always carried the concept of protecting humans through, and there seemed to be their unique reasons.

However, the emergence of the bone and flesh replacement school attracted and even actively bewitched those humans who envied the ruling status of the skeletons, starting from letting them give up their limbs, then to the torso organs, and finally embarking on the path of ascension to replace the brain and thinking...

It has developed into a secret sect.

Those believers who handed their heads to the skeleton host did not expect that even the entire Second Empire, which had all the intelligent cores, did not actually have the ability to encode and preserve living consciousness.

What's more, what about their academic circle folk scientist leader who was just excluded at the beginning?

The concept of bone-flesh replacement was never perfected.

In the eyes of the imperial police.

Behind these rituals, there were only naked massacres, especially purposeful massacres against human citizens.

At the beginning of the establishment of the empire, the first group defined as a cult appeared.

General Hat 12 led his police battalion to wipe out the bone-flesh replacement school overnight. Most of the people who died in the process were human believers who thought that their path to ascension was cut off and started a rebellion in anger.

However, under the powerful imperial violence at that time, bone-flesh replacement was naturally impossible to resist, but when a school spread, believers were easy to succumb, but ideas were extremely difficult to completely eliminate.

There are even rumors that the founder of the bone-flesh replacement school himself escaped from the encirclement.

Even the Second Empire has not been able to explore the entire continent to the extreme, and the search has been fruitless. As a bone man, the leader has a long life and memory, and may spread his cult ideas again at any time.

In order to prevent the resurgence of flesh-and-blood rebirth, the Empire banned all religious activities and wiped out many established sects in human communities.

Among them, there is a small group that believes in the Lord of Light. Their believers pretend to convert to Buddhism, but actually hide behind the scenes and develop slowly until they reappear when the empire collapses and reaches its end. They once again raise the banner of burning heart and openly declare that their master is Auckland, who was once powerful enough to destroy all the dark skeletons... This is a later story.

However, until the destruction of the Second Empire, the bone and flesh rebirth school itself did not revive as the official worried.

This made many people sure of its demise.

The rumors at the beginning.

Maybe it was just a rumor.

"- But now, I see the 'remaining ashes'." The whistleblower looked at Lu Meng and said meaningfully, "You hid it very well."

"That's perfect. Are you interested in making a deal?" He stretched out his hand, and on his bloody palm lay the controller that had been activated and could control all the security spiders in the lower city of the depression lagoon. "I just want to find you."