Chapter 901: The Original Inhabitants
So several major nations proposed providing some resources and manpower, letting those willing to establish safe bases outside do it themselves, with the bases they built being their own responsibility, henceforth independent of the nations—though in fact, after the entire region fell, the concept of "nations" no longer existed here.
Before W37 Base fell into a siege by xenomorphs, it was considered a district with decent technological development and a good level of evolution. Logically speaking, with so many players, intercepting the xenomorphs shouldn't have been too difficult—while manpower was limited, there was no shortage of high-lethality thermal weapons.
The problem lay in the nations tripping each other up. Some wanted to take advantage of the crisis to swallow up other nations and their resources, turning the xenomorph swarms into a manipulable natural weapon. This led to players from nations facing extinction launching retaliatory attacks.
For players capable of high-speed movement, armories, weapon bases, and even military forces were all targets. With a mindset of mutual destruction, blowing up one munitions base was no loss, and two was pure profit—they might not even have to sacrifice their lives.
After this chaotic slaughter between nations, the opportunists arrived.
That's right, other game districts also came to loot, which was one of the reasons W37 collapsed so quickly.
However, leaving the safe bases to find other places to live wasn't about being sent to search for food production areas as the instance background claimed. Most were losers in factional struggles, along with some worthless elderly and weak.
The original thirty-seven bases were built, destroyed, and rebuilt again. Though the number remained, those in charge of the bases had long since changed.
Nevertheless, several larger bases with better resources were still controlled by player alliances that had evolved from nations.
The players in these bases surpassed those in other bases in both quantity and quality.
But the barbarically grown bases weren't all useless. When one base city couldn't hold out, someone else would naturally take over, and among them, a few exceptionally powerful bases emerged. W006 Base, where the virus first broke out, was one of them.
According to the library's materials, the person in charge of Base 006 at the time discovered a child immune to the xenomorph virus—about two-thirds of deaths caused by xenomorphs might be from direct attacks, but one-third resulted from post-injury viral infection. The antidotes for the xenomorph virus weren't one hundred percent effective, nor did they work against one hundred percent of xenomorph venom strains. However, as long as the xenomorphization wasn't due to accumulated internal viruses from evolution, there was still room for rescue.
Base 006 probably had the same idea, which was why they launched human research on that immune child. In the end, they didn't find the cause of immunity, but instead, the bacteria the researchers contracted from the child dragged the entire base down.
Although Base 006 immediately locked down the city, the virus still spread, taking out fifteen safe bases in one go.
Due to this epidemic, combined with the xenomorphs, none of these destroyed bases were ever rebuilt. The remaining handful of people were also seen as xenomorphs. Forget rescue—passersby wouldn't even spare a bit of food for them. If you can't solve the virus, then solve the source of the virus.
Once everyone is dead, the plague will naturally disappear.
It seemed only W11 Base hadn't given up, constantly searching for a way to conquer the virus.
The reason for the destruction of nearly half the base cities lay here. But from the perspective of other bases, the destruction of these bases gave them a breather, because afterward, the other bases carved up all the resources of the ruined bases—whether it was the accumulated food, the excavated underground water sources, or the mineral resources that could be traded with other districts.
The fall of fifteen base cities certainly didn't have to be viewed through a conspiracy lens, but given limited resources, conflict between these bases was inevitable.
The information found in the Under Dimension hall included records of interactions between some bases. Skirmishes between search teams were common, and empty threats were nothing new. In short, the situation wasn't good.
Beyond these basic details, Xu Huo also obtained a complete map of W37 Base Station. Besides the distribution of base cities and changes in natural terrain, there were also markings of some xenomorph habitat areas. Notably, the climate across the entire base station fluctuated wildly. Sometimes the temperature at noon would reach forty degrees Celsius, and at night, heavy snow would cause a sharp drop to minus twenty degrees, or even worse.
Ordinary people would find it hard to endure the harsh outdoor environment.
It seemed that places capable of establishing safe cities had relatively stable climates to begin with. At least Xu Huo, wearing his protective suit, couldn't feel the extreme cold.
After replicating the map, he took the opportunity to leave a comment under the fake map seller's post in the Under Dimension. Unexpectedly, as soon as he posted, someone replied: "Brother, are you telling the truth or not? If this one's fake, do you have a real one? I'll buy it at a high price."
Xu Huo stared at the ID "Lord of All Gods" for a second, then sold a copy for fifty thousand white notes.
When he walked out of the library, Ding Wei was still nearby, a bit farther away than before. Pretending not to notice her, he returned to the rooftop he'd been on earlier. Shangguan Xi, who had been crouching by the wall, walked over with a beaming smile. "Brother Xu, I bought a map! This map was updated three days ago, so it must be accurate!"
"How can you be sure it's a real map?" Xu Huo asked.
"The weather," Shangguan Xi said. "The map shows heavy snow in W37 Base. Someone mentioned earlier that W37 suddenly got heavy snow. This area is usually high-temperature, so heavy snow is rare. No mistake!"
Xu Huo nodded, ready to set off again.
The center of the base was surrounded by a protective net. The fifty-meter-high net looked a bit dilapidated, with many patches, and seemed unable to stop large xenomorphs.
However, spaced at intervals inside the protective net were loudspeaker-shaped devices, which should be the main equipment for dealing with xenomorphs.
"Don't make too much noise," the youth said, leading them to a building and entering the enclosed area through a basement passage.
The area enclosed by the protective net was a school. The path from the dormitory area to the teaching building was covered with partitions, and the front playground was also draped with tarps. When Xu Huo and the other two entered, people were still active on the playground. They spoke cautiously, not making much noise, but when they saw people approaching, they all showed eager expressions.
Two children ran over. There were some unsightly spots on their faces. They stopped in front of Xu Huo and the others without speaking, just drooling as they stared at them.
The youth patted their heads and led Xu Huo and Shangguan Xi into the dormitory building.
More people lived in the dormitory building. As they went upstairs, a middle-aged woman silently came out to meet them. The youth said softly, "I'm taking them to Teacher Ai. They're going to Base 19."
The middle-aged woman silently stepped aside. The other original inhabitants also stood by their doors or in the hallway, silently watching them, like bodies on the verge of death, barely clinging to life only because their insides hadn't completely rotted away yet.