Wasteland Development Diary

Outside of Shagang City, the Great Buddha sat cross-legged by the coast.

The Buddha statue was enveloped in a layer of light, making it particularly striking in the night.

Coupled with its square face and benevolent eyes, its towering and robust physique, and the two guardian deities behind it also glowing, it seemed to exude a certain divinity.

Many New Humans gathered around, prostrating themselves before the Great Buddha.

As soon as Zhou Yi arrived, Sha Hai Gong immediately ran over to complain.

"Mr. Zhou, this Leshan Giant Buddha has been glowing all over for several days without moving. Its energy intensity is getting higher and higher. Is it undergoing some kind of mutation? Or is it advancing further? It makes me a little uneasy, mainly because it's too close to Shagang City..."

Zhou Yi said, "It's not a big problem, I'll go take a look."

With that, he rode the Spine Hunter and flew to the Great Buddha's shoulder.

Zhou Yi didn't notice the B-grade unknown life that the Kestrel was wary of.

At close range, he could discern that the source of the Great Buddha's glow was the Light-Absorbing Monster.

These special life forms surrounded the Great Buddha in large numbers, making it seem like the Buddha's light was shining everywhere.

Zhou Yi activated Mind Synchronization.

"Great Buddha, why are the Light-Absorbing Monsters all following you?"

"Zhou Yi Great Buddha, this is what happened."

The Great Buddha's voice was gentle and calm: "Since coming from United City, the Light-Absorbing Monsters of Yalong Bay have been approaching me. I think it must be because my attraction to life has taken effect."

"The Light-Absorbing Monsters are very friendly to me. They are a simple and pure life form."

Zhou Yi asked again, "I heard that a B-grade life form has appeared here. Is it also here for you?"

"I think so. But it has no malice."

The Great Buddha paused for a moment.

"I can't describe it. It's very special, coming and going without a trace."

Zhou Yi couldn't help but frown.

A B-grade creature that comes and goes without a trace... this is an unstable factor.

Even if it's harmless to the Great Buddha, there are still more than 40,000 residents in the Shagang area. If this kind of strong photon species does anything casually, it could turn into an unprovoked disaster for ordinary people.

Zhou Yi first rode the Spine Hunter back to the ground.

He asked the surrounding New Humans: "There is a special photon species here that has appeared near the Great Buddha. Has anyone seen it?"

The locals all talked at once, each saying their own thing.

The descriptions of the witnesses were basically the same: this life form was glowing all over, suddenly appeared, and disappeared quickly, so its appearance couldn't be seen clearly at all.

Just as Zhou Yi was further questioning the witnesses, a dazzling ball of light lit up on the left side of the Great Buddha's head without warning.

Under the [Alert] perspective, a dangerous red light appeared on the other party's body.

Zhou Yi recognized it at a glance: it was a Light Accumulator.

He had seen one in Meizhou Prison before. Qin Xie was very excited at the time, saying that it was a rare special life form evolved from Light-Absorbing Monsters.

The Light Accumulator floated beside the Buddha's head.

It projected a strong light outward, the light piercing through the Dead Sea sky and extending to the distant end.

About three or four minutes later, a spot of light flew along the light bridge, then a second, and a third... They were like a swarm of fireflies, coming from afar under the guidance of the Light Accumulator and landing on the Great Buddha.

They were all Light-Absorbing Monsters.

The reason why the Leshan Giant Buddha was bathed in Buddha's light was basically understood.

Zhou Yi thought to himself: "Kestrel, give me information about the Light Accumulator."

The drone responded: "The Light Accumulator is an energy-state life form evolved from the Dead Light environment. It cannot be touched directly, nor can it be blocked. It possesses the extreme speed and penetrating power close to light, but its energy consumption is also very high."

"They are few in number and have limited information. The Mechanical City once tried to communicate with them using light, but almost all attempts failed. Their intelligence level cannot be determined, only that they have an extremely high Dead Light energy conversion rate and are likely to be found in places where Light-Absorbing Monsters are concentrated."

No ready-made strategy, a bit difficult to deal with.

Zhou Yi noticed that as fewer and fewer Light-Absorbing Monsters came from afar, the light bridge built by the Light Accumulator also went out, as if this migration had come to an end.

The Light Accumulator disappeared on the spot.

About half an hour later, it reappeared and erected a light bridge in another direction, guiding another group of Light-Absorbing Monsters to fly towards the Great Buddha.

A large number of Light-Absorbing Monsters stood shoulder to shoulder, forming a halo covering the Buddha statue.

Zhou Yi tried to approach the other party on the Spine Hunter.

But as soon as he approached the Light Accumulator, it appeared in another area almost instantaneously.

Its high-speed operation made it impossible for the Kestrel's electronic eyes to keep up.

As long as the Light Accumulator didn't want to, other life forms couldn't touch it.

Zhou Yi summoned Unit 2: "Do you have any ideas?"

The Tracer observed the Light Accumulator for a while: "Energy-state life form... can only be contacted in energy form, which is very troublesome. But you can try using the [Radio], maybe you can pick up something."

Zhou Yi suddenly realized.

He had forgotten that he had this new ability.

He turned on the radio and locked onto the Light Accumulator.

Then Zhou Yi did collect some signals.

"Come here."

"Come here."

...

But it was just this constantly repeated information.

The Light Accumulator was calling for more Light-Absorbing Monsters to gather here.

There was no other expression.

Zhou Yi summoned the Mic Master with a try-it-and-see attitude and launched a BGM domain on the Light Accumulator.

Then he found that the light on the Light Accumulator seemed to freeze, no longer changing as slowly as before.

It worked?

Zhou Yi activated Mind Synchronization.

In an instant, he came to a world filled with thick fog.

Very similar to the Dead Sea.

But the fog in the Dead Sea is evenly distributed, while the fog here supports pillars that extend towards the sky, even constructing fog-like mountains of amazing height.

Whether facing the pillars or the mountains in the sky, they are slowly changing, rising and falling, as if there is some kind of special tide.

A large amount of Dead Light is concentrated on the fog mountains, causing streaks of white light to appear on their surfaces, like some kind of strange ore vein.

The sky is dark, only arcs of light light up the Dead Sea.

This is... the atmosphere?

It's the Outer Sea.

Zhou Yi was stunned.

The Light Accumulator came from the Outer Sea?

At this time, he found that the Light Accumulator was floating on a fog mountain in the Outer Sea.

Zhou Yi also teleported next to it.

The Light Accumulator couldn't see his existence, but for some reason, it shrank itself, turning into a narrow cross-shaped light form.

In this consciousness-constructed world, a melodious background sound echoed.

"Fly me to the moon

And let me play among the stars

Let me see what Spring is like On Jupiter and Mars

In other words, hold my hand

In other words, darling, kiss me..."

《FLY ME TO THE MOON》, the record of this song was sent to the moon via the Apollo spacecraft, and it was also the first human song played on the moon.

The cross-star-shaped Light Accumulator maintained continuous movement, turning into a straight beam of light, crossing over continuous fog mountains.

But in the world of BGM, Zhou Yi could completely keep up with its speed.

The Light Accumulator traveled all the way over the mountains, but did not encounter any other life.

Only fog and light accompanied it.

Just as Zhou Yi wanted to go over and say hello, suddenly a fog mountain split open from side to side, and a mass of darkness directly sucked the Light Accumulator in. Its speed, which exceeded the limit of electronic eyes, could not escape at all.

The fog mountain slowly closed, only the Light Accumulator completely disappeared.

The surrounding scene changed again.

The Light Accumulator reappeared, again fleeing in a star form. It couldn't leave the Dead Sea to go higher, as if it was being pulled by some force, like gravity to humans, it could only flash through the Dead Sea at high speed.

Before long, another unremarkable fog swallowed the Light Accumulator in one gulp.

The same situation repeated itself.

Until the sixth escape, Zhou Yi officially appeared.

Upon discovering Zhou Yi, the Light Accumulator flashed in the opposite direction at high speed, but this time it couldn't escape at all.

Zhou Yi easily touched the other party with a casual grab.

Energy input.

Mind Synchronization.

"Don't be afraid, I have no malice. I know you can talk and communicate."

"..."

The Light Accumulator only emitted a more dazzling light, turning into a light that constantly drew various trajectories, trying to escape.

Zhou Yi followed like a shadow.

After tossing around for a while, it was eaten by the fog monster several times.

The Light Accumulator finally couldn't help but respond: "You, who."

"My name is Zhou Yi, I'm a human, what about you?"

"...Jiong."

The two exchanged names, which was a good start.

Zhou Yi said: "It seems you came from the Outer Sea to the Inner Sea, what happened over there?"

"Atmospheric creatures, invasion."

Jiong said: "I, leave."

Its way of expression was extremely concise, without any extra descriptions, but it was not difficult to understand. Although many details were missing, these didn't affect things at the moment.

The former ruler of United City, 'Xi', as a Skywalker, also died at the hands of atmospheric creatures.

As a B-grade Light Accumulator, facing such an enemy was indeed hellish.

Zhou Yi asked: "Why did you come here, did you take a fancy to the Leshan Giant Buddha?"

"Don't understand."

"I mean, the architectural life form you brought the Light-Absorbing Monsters to gather on."

"Safe."

The other party repeated it rarely: "Safe, it."

"You summoned so many Light-Absorbing Monsters, is it because they are helpful to you?"

"Protect."

Zhou Yi didn't understand: "They protect you?"

"Protect, them."

"Great Buddha, safe."

So that's how it is.

The danger was eliminated.

Zhou Yi was slightly relieved: "Since there is no malice, we welcome you to come. But please be careful not to hurt ordinary humans and other photon species, this is a peaceful place."

"Won't, I, not strong."

Jiong's vocabulary was poor.

It was evident that it didn't have much communication experience.

"You, strong. I, weak."

The other party tried its best to express its meaning: "I, was eaten, many times, regressed, cannot, Outer Sea survive."

Zhou Yi was stunned: "Are you saying that you fell in rank?"

"Regression, yes."

In other words, this one was once an A-grade life form?

Being eaten many times was obviously being hunted by atmospheric creatures like that before. However, it seemed to have a special way to escape, but only a part of its body was eaten.

Zhou Yi's curiosity was greatly aroused: "Are you recovering here?"

"Yes."

"Then no problem."

Zhou Yi immediately enthusiastically opened the recruitment mode: "Speaking of which, our Wasteland Development Company doesn't have any employees in the Outer Sea, would you like to consider joining us?"

"Our company has strong assets, there are four architectural life forms alone, and the projects we operate cover planting, breeding, mining, and the express delivery industry..."

"If you join our company, then you will be one of our own. The company will protect you and help you recover as soon as possible and return to the Outer Sea!"

"..."

The other party didn't seem to understand: "Company, what?"

"It's like, the relationship you have with these Light-Absorbing Monsters, everyone takes care of each other, we protect you, and you can help us in the future."

"Union."

"Yes, it's a union."

"Union, we union!"

The other party expressed its intention to join.

Zhou Yi was overjoyed and gave a thumbs up.

Regardless of whether it can be used, this is digging up a quasi-A-grade life form.

It belongs to the company's scarce high-end talent!

The Leshan Giant Buddha has its own headhunting characteristics, it's really too useful.

Zhou Yi looked at the Buddha statue surrounded by the Buddha's light next to him, and the more he looked at it, the more kind and amiable it felt.