Wasteland Development Diary

The enemies entered from underground. The Kestrel couldn't penetrate the building to gather information until they reached the safety passage in the underground garage.

Zhou Yi led the team, concealing themselves behind the display cabinets in ambush.

A white, spindle-shaped creature emerged from the passage, followed by a second, and then a third... They headed straight for the supermarket's basement level, moving with practiced ease.

They were all Bone Fish.

Bone Fish have very low intelligence. Most of the time, they are either searching for bones or lying motionless.

They move in groups, but there's never a leader. They basically swarm, following a particular Bone Fish. So, the school sometimes goes left, sometimes veers right, and sometimes sways back and forth, making unpredictable and irregular movements.

Zhou Yi had been trying to synchronize his consciousness with the Bone Fish, but they were even more absurd than the Light-Absorbing Monsters. There was absolutely no communication or expression; they just greedily absorbed the energy he sent.

Their greatest advantage is their extremely high birth rate in the Dead Sea.

Using tools against the Bone Fish is a bit beyond their capabilities.

But after this group of Bone Fish rushed in, they plunged into the tool area, rummaging everywhere.

The Kestrel hovered in the air, filming their every move clearly.

The Bone Fish were as indifferent to the mechanical and electrical life forms as ever. They quickly swarmed to the second floor, entered the digital and appliance stores, found scattered tools inside, swallowed them, ransacked the place for a while, and then quickly returned to the underground passage they came from.

The Kestrel followed them from a distance, all the way along the underground parking lot of D-Mart, to a hole leading to the ground above.

The Bone Fish filed out of the hole one after another.

Zhou Yi led the Scavenging Team back to the Sea God, and followed them from a distance in a submarine.

This group of Bone Fish swam to a rather wide river, the water shimmering with spots of Dead Light. They followed the winding S-shaped river upstream, reached the foot of an underwater mountain, and then skillfully swam up the mountain.

The mountain they were heading to had stone steps and a long city wall, looking like some kind of military base from the era of cold weapons. But now the mountain was shrouded in the Dead Sea, turned into a barren, bald state.

Zhou Yi saw the name here on a stone carving.

Diaoyu Citadel.

He remembered that this was an ancient battlefield, which had become a tourist attraction in his time, but he had never been there, only heard of it.

Zhou Yi looked at the screen of the remote control in his hand. The Bone Fish had reached the inner city of Diaoyu Citadel and met up with a group of Bone Men inside.

These Bone Men wore different clothes. One of them poured a bag of bones on the ground. The Bone Fish began to pick and choose, installing the bones they liked on their bodies to further expand their size.

After completing the exchange, the Bone Fish found a place to lie down and remain motionless, eating and sleeping, which fit Zhou Yi's stereotype.

Kestrel transmitted: "Zhou, these Bone Men are training the Bone Fish to go out and look for supplies. I am a mechanical and electrical life form. I'll try to talk to them first, which may reduce their hostility."

With Zhou Yi's permission, the drone lowered its altitude and approached the Bone Men's location.

"Excuse me, I am a rescue machine from the Wasteland Development Company, the Kestrel."

The Bone Men were initially startled, but after noticing that it was a small mechanical and electrical life form, they relaxed one by one.

One of the Bone Men, wearing a motorcycle helmet and a gray ski suit, said, "Are you here to replenish energy packs? Or do you need oil? We have both."

"Thank you, but I'm not here to request supplies."

Kestrel said, "I followed that group of Bone Fish here. I was originally searching for some supplies in the Divine Era Ruins nearby. I didn't expect there to be a settlement of yours here."

"Yes. This is Small Mountain Town."

The Bone Man introduced himself, "My name is Chen Shi. You're from the Wasteland Development Company?"

"Yes."

"Is that the same company as Wasteland Express?"

"You know about our company?"

"I know."

The helmeted Bone Man clearly became excited: "I saw your Bone Fish delivering goods, but no matter how I greeted them or fed them bones, they ignored me. They have a lot of willpower."

Kestrel said, "How do you know about us? Can you talk to the Bone Fish?"

"It's because of 'Treant Territory'. Small Mountain Town and Treant Territory trade regularly. We use the tools and Dead Sea documents we collect to trade for Light Seeds and energy packs. The Bone Fish you saw are our helpers and partners. We've lived here for decades and are very familiar with the surrounding area..."

The Bone Man, Chen Shi, was quite talkative and outgoing.

Zhou Yi remembered that Treant Territory was one of the nine cities covered by Wasteland Express, located further south, ruled by the Territorial Lord 'Lord Treant'.

The core city under Lord Treant's rule is Treant Territory, which governs and cultivates the Light-Absorbing species, Treants.

Treants live on land, tall and thin, shaped like giant towers, and are not good at fighting themselves. They are mutated and awakened from trees under the Dead Light. The core of their life is the root system at the bottom. They grow quickly, have long lifespans, and can move and migrate when necessary.

Simply pruning their trunks and branches regularly produces a large amount of timber.

Treant Territory also specializes in exporting lumber.

Although he had no direct contact with Lord Treant, Zhou Yi was still impressed by Treant Territory, which produced wood.

"Is that Chairman also here? Small Mountain Town welcomes your arrival." The Bone Man, Chen Shi, was very friendly.

The other Bone Men did not express any opinions.

Zhou Yi went up the mountain alone.

The Bone Men's eyes were all focused on him.

"Humans can actually enter the bottom of the Dead Sea..."

"Humans can move in the Dead Sea without wearing any equipment. Can humans reach this level?"

They chattered, full of curiosity about Zhou Yi.

Zhou Yi just brushed it off: "My abilities are special, so I can move under the Dead Sea. Don't worry about such trivial matters."

Chen Shi said enthusiastically, "Welcome to you, Mr. Chairman! Please come in!"

Inside Diaoyu Citadel, there was a well-preserved commercial antique street, with many houses built on both sides. The Bone Men settled here.

The town chief of Small Mountain Town was called An Hong, and she was a female Bone Man. Like the other Bone Men here, she wore a thick coat to protect her fragile body well.

"Hello, Mr. Zhou."

An Hong's voice still had a bit of feminine quality to it.

"Hello, Town Chief An."

"I heard that you are looking for supplies from the Divine Era Ruins underwater. We can have the Bone Fish help you collect them, as long as you pay us a little bit of reward. Small Mountain Town is very experienced in this area."

An Hong started to solicit business as soon as they met.

Zhou Yi's mind raced.

The residents of Small Mountain Town were locals here. It should be faster to have them find a watch shop.

He immediately nodded: "I do have some thoughts in this regard."

The Bone Man town chief said happily: "Whatever you need, as long as it's nearby, we can find it for you."

"Watches. I'm collecting a type of watch for a friend."

Zhou Yi took out an oily pen from his pocket, drew a crown in his notebook, and wrote the "ROLEX" logo.

He tore off the paper and handed it to the other party: "I'm looking for watches with this mark. Any model will do, as long as I confirm it's genuine. I'll give 100 Light Seeds for one. But it needs to be undamaged and in good condition."

Among the Dead Sea items, tools like watches that can be manufactured in the Wasteland Era don't actually have much market demand.

The price Zhou Yi gave was already very high.

"No problem."

The Bone Man town chief carefully identified it and handed it to the other Bone Men behind him: "If we find such a watch, we will keep it safe and wait for you to come."

"Happy cooperation."

Zhou Yi shook hands with the other party.

With the work settled, he relaxed: "Actually, our company also has two Bone Man employees. I only know that most Bone Men live on land. I didn't expect there to be settlers in the Dead Sea."

An Hong laughed: "The Bone Men are also divided into many different ethnic groups. Due to differences in living environment, they also have different lifestyles. You are talking about the land-dwelling Bone Men. We are the sea-dwelling ones, settled in the Dead Sea, but our numbers are much smaller."

"There are more towns on land, and there are more kinds of labor that can be done. The land-dwelling ones are usually daring to explore and have a spirit of adventure. Compared to them, we sea-dwelling ones prefer a peaceful and simple life and don't like to get involved in complex and volatile environments."

"But we are actually constantly transforming into each other. The land-dwelling ones may transform into sea-dwelling ones, and the sea-dwelling ones may go to land if they are tired of this place."

This Bone Man town chief said: "We have lived with the Bone Fish for many years. I didn't expect that you could let the Bone Fish transport goods. It really subverts our understanding. The Bone Fish are a very lazy creature. Once they get some bones, they lose their motivation until they want bones again."

"How did you convince them?"

Zhou Yi was shocked: "You can talk to the Bone Fish?"

"That can't be done. But we can use our own bones to temporarily build bridges, check their physical condition, and determine whether they are hungry and whether their bodies are intact."

"We give them bones, repair their damaged bones, and they live with us. Over time, through years of practice and cultivation, they know that they can exchange tools for bones with us, so they will also look for things everywhere."

"But that's only to this extent."

An Hong said enviously: "But our experience is completely incomparable to yours. They are all Bone Fish, why is the difference so big? If our Bone Fish here could send things like yours, that would be great..."

Zhou Yi thought, can the wild ones be the same as the domesticated ones?

Domesticating wild animals takes a long time.

You have to start cultivating from the fish fry, and education must start from childhood.

However, the unique skills of the Bone Men in Small Mountain Town still moved Zhou Yi.

After thinking for a moment, he said: "You can do physical examinations for the Bone Fish, and you can also know their physical condition... I would like to invite two residents here to serve as Bone Fish therapists in the Express Center. If there are two people, they can accompany each other. Our working hours are 4 days on, 1 day off."

"In this way, it will be more convenient for the company and Small Mountain Town to contact each other, and information about the watches can be obtained as soon as possible. The scale of the Express Center is still expanding, and I think we will have a lot of cooperation. What does the town chief think?"

"That's certainly great."

An Hong asked the surrounding Bone Men: "Is there anyone willing to go?"

Bone Man Chen Shi raised his hand first: "Me."

The other townspeople lowered their heads and remained silent.

It seems that the sea-dwelling ones are indeed unwilling to leave their hometown.

An Hong turned to look at Zhou Yi: "Then I will go with Chen Shi."

Zhou Yi was stunned: "Won't there be problems in Small Mountain Town?"

"There won't be any problems, life in our town is very simple."

An Hong turned around and said, "To facilitate the handling of affairs, I will no longer serve as town chief from now on, Zhao Xiao."

A tall Bone Man stood up.

"You will be the town chief."

"I can't do it! I really can't do it!"

"I've already decided."

"Ah... This... Okay."

The Bone Man was dejected after being appointed as the town chief, looking depressed, while the other Bone Man townspeople showed a relieved expression.

After arranging the successor, An Hong said: "Chen Shi and I will go to the company with you now."

Zhou Yi felt strange.

It felt like she didn't want to be the town chief for a long time.

On the way back, An Hong's words confirmed Zhou Yi's guess.

"Your guess is correct."

"The good thing about Small Mountain Town is that everyone is plain and simple, there are few conflicts and troubles, and everyone has good relationships in private, but the bad thing is also here. For example, going to pick up various things from the Divine Era Ruins, none of them want to go. Feeding the Bone Fish to help them find them, everyone doesn't want to do it later."

"They patrol the surrounding area regularly, and after they go out, they lie down somewhere. Everyone is delaying and procrastinating, always saying that their whole body hurts and is uncomfortable... The most tired person is the town chief."

An Hong gritted her teeth and said: "In the past, I was a land-dweller. I came here because I was physically and mentally exhausted from the various intense competitions in land life, and I wanted to live a peaceful and simple life."

"As soon as I came over, I was named the new town chief by the old town chief. The town chief is to serve and worry about everyone. If you don't do well, you will be criticized by everyone. The only right is to leave or appoint a new town chief when there is a new person... Saying it's the town chief is more like a long-term laborer without remuneration."

"If the town chief is not responsible, the entire settlement will be in danger."

"This is why there are fewer and fewer sea-dwellers, and they are dying out everywhere. There is no responsibility, no expectation, and no hope... In the end, they will only become completely numb. Perhaps some Bone Men think it's not bad, just die naturally without any pressure, but that's not what I want. I have been tolerating them for a long time, and now I have finally found a chance to get rid of it and have a better choice."

The Bone Man said bitterly: "I can work hard and run around for everyone, but it doesn't mean that I should do these things. Should responsible people be made to be used by everyone, do more and make more mistakes? I can't accept it."

Zhou Yi shook his head after hearing this.

The peaceful and tranquil Shangri-La only exists in fantasy after all.

Even if the resources are right at the doorstep, you always have to pick them up. But the lazy Bone Men of Small Mountain Town are too lazy to even bend over, all pointing to the town chief as a full-time nanny, living a public-funded underwater retirement life.

Zhou Yi felt fortunate.

If it were a group of hardworking and united Bone Men, the supplies in the nearby cities would have been emptied long ago, and it wouldn't be his turn to pick and choose.

If there could be more Small Mountain Towns underwater, that would be great.