This Game Is Too Real
Chapter 383: The Root of Chaos

Chapter 383: Chapter 383: The Root of Chaos

The desolate streets were littered with uncollected trash, and abandoned vehicles lay across the weed-infested roads, with blotches on the metal lampposts making it hard to tell whether they were rust or bloodstains.

Damaged storefronts were a common sight here, where bionic models incapacitated were still draped in scraps of fabric from the trendiest styles two hundred years ago, yet not a single person could be seen.

This place had never been bombarded by heavy weaponry, and the main structures of most buildings remained intact.

But, in the end, it had been abandoned.

"...It should be just ahead." Sesame Paste held a map, leading the group, matched it against the surrounding architecture.

According to the scientific expedition team’s data, the entrance to Shelter No.79 was located at 79 Xiangling Street, East District, Rui Valley City, within a municipal library.

As for the specific entrance, the details weren’t spelled out in the limited text, only mentioning that residents who reached the evacuation zone should follow the arrangements of the Manager and enter the shelter under the guidance of security personnel.

This was probably a safety consideration.

Walking beside Sesame Paste, the broad Meat Meat looked around curiously, murmuring softly,

"What a pity..."

"A pity?" Tail, sitting on her shoulder, tilted his head.

"I always feel like the city is still good, it’s just that the people are gone."

"That’s true," Tail rubbed his chin as if pondering, "Why didn’t everyone return after the war ended?"

Si Si thought for a moment.

"Emmm... Maybe it’s because the people are gone?"

Meat Meat: "..."

Sesame Paste: "Ah... haha."

Although it was just a repetition of what Meat Meat said, Si Si didn’t think it was a pointless remark.

As she had seen upon entering the city, it wasn’t the war itself that devastated this city, but the chaos brought about by the war.

The scarcity of various resources, including food, water, electricity, and fuel, had turned this place into a jungle of steel more brutal than natural forests.

Particularly in the third year of the war, which led the planet into a mini ice age that lasted half a century.

And after most people had evacuated the city, Variants quickly took over, nesting in buildings, moving through ruins, hunting in the dark.

Wasteland Wanderers walking here would never know whether opening a door would unleash a cockroach larger than their leg or hordes of blood-sucking rats.

Or perhaps—

Something even more horrific.

"Shh..."

Cat Ears on her head moved lightly, and Sesame Paste made a gesture for silence, signaling her companions to quiet down.

Treading lightly, she reached the crossroads at the end of the street and crouched by a car door looking towards the left corner.

Instantly, she held her breath at the massive creature that entered her field of vision.

Claw of death!

Its body, nearly six meters tall and covered in dark green scales, lay across the street with its tail coiled in front of it.

By sheer size, this beast was significantly larger than the one at the entrance of Shelter No.

404, "Nicole", with even sharper claws, likely a different species.

Its heavy breathing blew the bushes beside it wildly, and the dull purring sound suggested it was asleep.

Glancing at the two mangled bodies beside its claws, Sesame Paste’s expression stiffened slightly.

She wasn’t sure if a single RPG could really inflict effective damage on this creature.

If the surprise attack failed, they could be wiped out in an instant.

Creeping back, she returned to her companions and spoke nervously.

"It’s a Dead Claw... It’s blocking the library entrance."

Si Si, stroking her chin, spoke gravely.

"No wonder we haven’t seen any other Variants around."

Meat Meat asked anxiously,

"Then... what should we do?"

"It’s ok, there’s not just this one path," Si Si pulled out a paper map, staring at it thoughtfully for a moment, "The risk of a frontal assault is too high... Let’s circle around to the library’s rear garage and climb over the wall from there."

The Claw of Death had an unusually high instinct for danger.

She had personally seen a Claw of Death that was asleep one second, the next, it leaped up and slapped away an incoming RPG rocket.

Well, that rocket was her own shot.

Afterward, both she and Tail had been instantly killed by the rushing Claw of Death, an event from several versions ago.

Such a brutally powerful creature could not be measured with common sense.

If they were near City of Dawn, they would have called for an airstrike. Unfortunately, they were in Rui Valley City, far from any save or respawn points.

Even a slight risk had to be avoided.

The group changed direction, skirting along the neighboring street, rounded to a parking lot at the back of the municipal library.

However, what Si Si hadn’t anticipated was that this area wasn’t as deserted as it appeared from the outside—it was actually hiding a Survivor Settlement!

There were two to three hundred residents living here, forming a village of respectable size.

Right under the watchful eye of the Claw of Death!

"Halt!"

Standing on the reinforced enclosing wall made of steel bars and wooden planks, a man in a studded jacket called down to the people outside the wall in a low voice.

He clenched a hunting gun in his hand, his eyes fixed on the densely furred white bear and the chain of bullets and light machine gun the bear was carrying on its back, his expression flickering with tension and unease.

Although it was only three women standing outside the wall.

But he was not naive enough to think that women who could tame such a strong beast and walk alone on the wasteland would be easy to deal with.

"Don’t be nervous, we have no hostility," Si Si glanced at the hunting gun in the man’s hand and then at the iron pipes held by the survivors behind him, not taking them too seriously.

After resupplying, she had changed into a new bulletproof vest.

Those iron pipe rifles, with their Brownian motion-like bullets, posed no threat to her.

"Who are you people? An army? Or a corporation?" The man on the enclosing wall asked nervously, looking at her.

"Neither, we are Waste Land Wanderers from Qingquan City next door."

The survivors standing behind the man exchanged surprised looks.

"Qingquan City?"

"I went there when I was young... There’s a Giant Stone City there, they use plastic as money, and you could buy mint-scented soap."

"Really?"

"True! I heard you can eat three meals a day for a day’s work there!"

"Is that so?!"

Listening to the murmurs behind him, the man stared doubtfully at Si Si but eventually, he put down his gun and hostility.

"The army indeed doesn’t seem to have women... It doesn’t matter who you are as long as you’re not those guys."

After a pause, the man gave a brief self-introduction.

"My name is Wu Tao, a hunter from Xiangling Town... and the town’s mayor."

"What has happened here?" Si Si asked, looking at him.

"A lot has happened, you really shouldn’t have come at this time... Do you see that airship to the northwest?"

Si Si nodded.

Not to mention seeing it.

A few days ago, they had fought with people who came down from it.

"Did the army come here?"

"Not just came here," Wu Tao curled his lips, "Just the day before yesterday, those bandits, over a hundred of them, said something about a corporate army nearby burning, killing, and plundering, and they wanted us to move to their camp for their protection... That’s a bunch of nonsense."

"We have been living here for over a century, let alone a corporation, even if mutants came, we wouldn’t go anywhere! And then those scoundrels started setting fires..."

The man cursed as he spoke.

Si Si continued to ask with a frown.

"What happened after that?"

"After that, that creature showed up..."

Wu Tao glanced nervously behind him, though his gaze was not on the library behind him but over the roof of that building.

Si Si knew what he was referring to, and she said somewhat surprised.

"That Claw of Death?"

Wu Tao nodded complexly.

"Yes, although I don’t know where it came from, thanks to that creature, the army left a few corpses behind, and the rest ran away."

Si Si: "Aren’t you afraid of that Claw of Death..."

"Afraid, of course, but the airship is still there, and we worry the army might come back."

Wu Tao sighed, his voice helpless, "Watching it clean up those corpses, we threw some mutated hyenas and rats at it. It’s not picky, it settled right down at the door of the library... We don’t know how long it will stay, but a few days of peace is still peace. None of the people we sent to gather information from the army have come back, it’s hard not to wonder if they ran into trouble."

Si Si figured that the army probably didn’t want to use a 400mm cannon on that beast, otherwise even the Claw of Death wouldn’t withstand a "hit from military weapons."

"Our story is finished, now it’s your turn."

Wu Tao stared at Si Si, continuing to ask, "Since you’re neither an army nor a corporation nor look like merchants... so what do you want here?"

"We’re looking for Shelter No. 79." Si Si didn’t hide her intentions, stating them outright.

She thought this man in front of her would know something, but to her surprise, upon hearing the word ’shelter,’ all he had was a baffled expression on his face.

That expression clearly wasn’t feigned but a subconscious reaction.

It was not just him, even the young survivors behind him had the same clueless looks on their faces.

"Shelter... there’s no such shelter around here." Wu Tao looked at Si Si strangely, "This is Xiangling Town, this building is the Municipal Library, who would build a shelter inside a library, could you be mistaken?"

"Eh?! It’s not here?" Tail exclaimed, pulling out the map and repeatedly confirming that the coordinates and street numbers were correct.

Si Si slightly furrowed her brow.

"I can’t believe it... we came here based on reliable information."

"I wouldn’t know about that, I’ve lived here since I was a child, nearly thirty years," Wu Tao said, shaking his head, "It’s a pity that a few days ago, our Mayor packed up and ran off with a west-bound Commercial Team, otherwise you might have been able to ask him and maybe he’d know something."

"I can’t believe it’s not here..." Sesame Paste’s face showed a troubled expression.

Si Si, not willing to give up, asked,

"Could we go in and take a look?"

"You can, but you’ll have to leave your weapons behind," Wu Tao, eyeing the assault rifle in her hand, said cautiously, "We can’t possibly allow you to enter our houses with that thing."

Si Si didn’t respond but tossed a hefty bag of gold coins onto the Enclosing Wall.

"That’s unrealistic, let’s do it another way. Here are 100 Dinars. We won’t use any of your food or water, we just need a room that can house people. We’ll leave first thing in the morning and won’t cause any disturbance."

She had found the money bag on an Army Soldier, and rummaging through containers and searching bodies could be considered an excellent tradition among players.

Although the Army’s presence was annoying, those gleaming gold coins, one of the two major "currencies" in the Wasteland, were somehow irresistible.

As Wu Tao gazed at the money bag hanging on the Enclosing Wall, he swallowed, exchanging glances with the other Residents behind him.

"Should we let them in?"

"It’s only for one day... There shouldn’t be any problems."

"What’s there to fear? It’s just three little girls... maybe plus a Bear."

"Right, that Bear! We can’t let that beast in."

Wu Tao looked toward the group outside the wall.

"No problem... but your pet will scare our residents; it’ll have to stay outside."

"She’s not a pet, she’s our companion," Si Si corrected him, continuing, "But no matter, we weren’t planning for everyone to come in anyway."

With that, she turned to her companions behind her, smoothly switching languages.

"Meat Meat, Ah Wei, could you guys wait for us outside? Sesame Paste and I will take a look inside. It might take a bit, but we should be able to come out before eight o’clock tomorrow morning."

"I always feel like those people aren’t lying," Sesame Paste hesitated, "Could our intelligence have been wrong? Perhaps Shelter No. 79 truly isn’t here."

"No matter if it is here or not, the last clue pointed to this place. According to common RPG Game norms, the key to entering the next instance is likely here; let’s just go in and have a look for now."

A shelter might not have only one entrance; Shelter No. 404 had two, one connecting to the subway, the other to a sanatorium in the Park.

Perhaps Shelter No. 79, located by the library’s gate, hadn’t been used since it was closed, and the residents might have left through another exit.

Of course, this was just her speculation.

She simply felt that the designers wouldn’t create a meaningless scenario.

"Oh! No problem!" Tail nodded energetically, thumping his chest, "Leave it to Tail!"

Meat Meat said worriedly,

"If you encounter danger, remember to shout loudly for help."

Si Si smiled, gently patting the fuzzy head.

"Don’t worry, there won’t be any problems."

...

The reinforced Enclosing Wall had no door, only a ladder let down from the wall allowed entry.

Entering the unfamiliar Survivor Settlement, Sesame Paste looked slightly tense, but upon seeing the old people and children in the camp, she felt somewhat relieved.

With the presence of elderly and children, it at least indicated that this place wasn’t a Looter’s den or a Slave trader’s Farm. The people here might not be as open as in City of Dawn, but they at least possessed basic moral standards.

Following Wu Tao’s steps, they walked through a parking lot filled with household trash and supermarket shopping carts, entering the library through the back door.

The library space was quite spacious, with concrete structures on all sides, like a Castle. In the center was a hundred-meter-wide courtyard, with a dome crisscrossed with steel beams, which originally would have held large glass panels.

The library’s layout with ample light allowed the local residents to plant many crops there.

Moreover, around the courtyard, clothes hung on lines and freshly washed garments dangled from the continuous corridors, with rows of shacks made from metal sheets or wooden planks scattered around.

Although privacy was certainly an issue, residents didn’t seem to mind.

Sesame Paste looked curiously left and right, quite intrigued by the lifestyles of the residents here, who in return scrutinized her, especially the cat ears on her head.

They had seen many oddities.

But ears positioned atop the head was a first for them.

Wu Tao, carrying a hunting gun, walked ahead and relayed to Si Si about their life here over the past hundred years and what resources their settlement needed.

This woman had mentioned she came from Qingquan City.

Although he had never been there, he had heard that survivor settlements in big cities tend to be wealthy, and they also had Giant Stone City where one could buy anything.

If they were to pass by there next time, they could bring more soap and fertilizer, which they could exchange with local game or some specialty crops.

Though now wasn’t the time for business, he was the Mayor here now and needed to consider not just immediate concerns.

He believed that one day the Army would leave this godforsaken poor place, and then the people here could live as they always had.

That was also why he accepted the bag of gold coins.

"We’ve lived here since around the fiftieth year of the Wasteland Era. My grandfather told me this library dates back quite a bit, even traceable to the early period of the Human Alliance Era... Why would you think there might be a shelter hidden underneath here? There isn’t even a basement."

"No worries, even if there isn’t, it’s fine; consider it indulging our curiosity," Si Si looked around, "By the way, are the books here still intact?"

Wu Tao said,

"Most are gone, but some are well-preserved. Following ancestral instructions, all the mayors preserved the surviving books on the shelves on the second floor. Although the last mayor ran away, I will probably persist."

Si Si suddenly became interested.

"Can you take me to see them?"

Wu Tao nodded.

"No problem, but you cannot take them with you or damage them. I’m not joking. If you do something bad to those books, bad luck will quickly find you... Similar incidents have happened before."

"I can swear on my life," Si Si blinked and said, "I will cherish those books as much as I cherish life."

Perhaps moved by her sincerity, Wu Tao froze for a few seconds.

Coming back to himself, he coughed lightly and said,

"That’s perhaps an exaggeration..."

"Since you’ve said that, come with me."

...

Wu Tao took the two upstairs and left them there.

Gazing at the rows of aluminum alloy bookshelves and a dazzling array of books, Sesame Paste’s face was filled with hesitation.

"Could the clues to Shelter No.79 be hidden in these books?"

Si Si shook her head.

"I don’t know, but these books are probably the only information remaining from the calamity two centuries ago... Maybe we’ll find something."

She casually took down a book and flipped through it, but her expression quickly stiffened.

Although she could handle daily conversations in Human Alliance language and recognize some of the characters, she was far from able to read normally.

The camera did have a simultaneous translation feature.

But in offline mode, the amount of text it could translate was quite limited.

Just as she was feeling perplexed, a strange voice suddenly floated from behind the bookshelf in front of her.

"I don’t understand why you are so persistent in looking for Shelter No.79. The residents here have already told you, the shelter isn’t here."

"Besides, the shelter isn’t a treasury, there is nothing valuable hidden there, and even if you go, you’ll come back disappointed."

The voice carried a rasp, like sandpaper scraping across a wall, startling the two in the room.

"Who?" Sesame Paste nervously grabbed her gun.

Si Si reacted more directly, darting behind the bookshelf, but instead of seeing the source of the voice, she saw a retro-radio, crudely made.

With a hint of surprise in her eyes, she quickly looked around, searching for a camera in the room, but didn’t see anything.

"Stop looking around, I’m not here, and moreover, my presence is not important." The person in the radio jovially laughed and continued in a jesting tone, "It’s better to focus on my question. What if I am the security program for the gate? Your suspicious behavior just now is enough for me to lock the gates."

"Si..." Coming to Si Si’s side and noticing the radio on the table, Sesame Paste nervously glanced at her companion.

She couldn’t understand what the radio was saying.

But the voice gave her a bad feeling.

"Leave it to me..."

Giving her a reassuring look, Si Si turned to the radio and continued,

"We are here on the orders of the Manager."

"Manager..." the radio crackled, thoughtfully continuing, "are you residents of the shelter?"

"Yes," Si Si nodded, her voice sincere, "we come from Shelter No. 404 in Qingquan City... Do you know anything about Shelter No.79? It’s very important to us."

"Hmm, very important... What do you intend to do with it?" the radio said in a slick voice.

Si Si spoke earnestly,

"If the people inside are still there, we’ll help them; if they’re gone, we will continue their unfinished work... to revive our civilization."

The radio let out a chuckle, grating like fingernails snapping on a chalkboard, making someone’s teeth tingle.

Sesame Paste nervously took a step back, Si Si slightly furrowed her brow.

But it didn’t last long.

The laughter turned into a light sigh,

"If what you seek is knowledge, the books beside you are enough for a lifetime of study. If you come here with naïve ideals of reviving civilization, then you really shouldn’t have come."

Before Si Si could speak, it continued,

"Shelter No.79 isn’t what you imagine; it was never meant to shelter anyone from the beginning."

Si Si felt there was an implication in its words.

Swallowing her saliva, she asked earnestly.

"What kind of place is it, then?"

"It’s the root of chaos."

That raspy voice seemed to be lost in distant memories but eventually turned into a helpless light laugh,

"At least half of the savagery on this land can be traced back to here."

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