Steampunk Era: Mad Abield
Chapter 1170: Section 719: The Neighbor’s Guest (Part 1)

Chapter 1170: Section 719: The Neighbor’s Guest (Part 1)

"It’s strange that the zombies didn’t come over today." As soon as the member of the Legendary team responsible for today’s patrol returned to the rest area, they couldn’t wait to share their findings with their companions, then sat at the bar in the rest area and ordered a drink.

Malin sat in the corner on his personal water sofa—a good thing found in a nearby half-abandoned pre-Cataclysm villa. The owner of this villa must have been a super wealthy guy, because his basement turned out to be a sealed stasis field.

As a result, the Legendaries acquired a perfectly intact small stasis field and a variety of usable good stuff inside it.

This water-filled sofa was one of them, and when it was time to choose items, Malin immediately picked it. For this reason, the other Legendaries were embarrassed to take expensive things, so after some selection, furniture and various household appliances originally used for placing various objects became everyone’s choice. This rest area, thus, gained an aura of so-called ancient charm.

Little Spotty lay on the adjacent cool water mat, enjoying the coolness, snoring while being groomed by several Legendary girls. Although the girls were all weak Orcs, like Ling Zuo Zuo, who was a rabbit, after discovering that this leopard was very obedient, they bravely came over to pet the cat.

Indeed, choosing between life and pleasure is a tough decision. Malin had witnessed this in various girls: the idea that risk knows no race or gender rings true.

Jason was also a regular in the rest area, as there was a pre-Cataclysm radio signal generator here—perhaps the only one still usable for humans from that era. Now Jason was using it to communicate with the northern Bei Luo entity. If it could be proven that this device could indeed be used, then military communications between the North and South would no longer require urgent flying boats—messages could be transmitted between New Hangzhou and Xin’an Jing in just a few minutes with wave communication.

Meanwhile, a pre-Cataclysm decadence emanated from the stereo amplifier. To Malin, the lead singer seemed pretentious, but in this era, where unfortunate souls abound, it represented the most lacking of things—entertainment.

So everyone listened happily.

Since everyone was happy, Malin naturally was happy too, especially when there were no zombies to disturb them.

Lulu brought over a large cup of ice cream, which was taken from a large tube beneath the flying boat. Malin used the advanced experiences of American naval air journeys back in the day to make ice cream, producing a barrel full, to the encouragement and delight of Legendaries and the head soldiers of the Pioneer Corps alike. Ice cream was a standard luxury item in these times, and being able to produce so much so quickly meant that even the soldiers responsible for chopping wood and standing guard daily could have a share.

Soldiers on break received a share every three days.

The overall morale of the Pioneer Corps was high as a result, and the Corps Captain had thanked Malin more than once because of this.

With a physique still like that of his father’s generation, Malin began to share the ice cream with Lulu.

"Everyone, I have a mission." Bixiu Five walked into the rest area, drawing everyone’s attention. He pulled down the projection screen and inserted a data disk into the projector: "Here, about five kilometers from our camp, our ice cream machine noticed traces of firework smoke today when it went up into the sky. I’ve organized an aerial reconnaissance and confirmed that there indeed are traces of a camp. It’s in a pre-Cataclysm ruin, perhaps a holiday spot for bigwigs back then."

"Was life then as luxurious as ours now, with endless ice cream?" A big cat—a tiger Orc unique to Thainan, a Martial Monk who could fight Malin to a standstill at half strength—asked this. He was Zhao Chenggong, the epitome of a mortal body.

He was one of the few Legendaries not tempted by ice cream, living a life only ascetics could endure. Yet unexpectedly, he was on good terms with everyone, and even Malin enjoyed discussing Zen with him.

Of course, more often than not, Malin was just listening like a duck to thunder—appreciating just the noise.

"Zhao Chenggong, before the Cataclysm, the life you live now was accessible to everyone. The truly luxurious top-tier life of the pre-Cataclysm era is something your generation may never witness," Bixiu Five, being an AI, laughed heartily.

This caused Zhao Chenggong to laugh too: "Mr. Bixiu has a valid point, I’ve been short-sighted."

"Mr. Bixiu, having existed before the Cataclysm, has an insight we can’t compare to. So, sir, do we need to check it out tomorrow?" Another Legendary continued the topic smoothly, effectively alleviating the embarrassment and shifting the focus to the ruins.

"Perhaps it’s a wanderer group, taking advantage of our battles with the zombies to try to get some benefits by entering here." Looking at the aerial reconnaissance shots of the camp, Xiaolin—that’s what the big guy insisted Malin call him—spoke in an uncertain tone.

His viewpoint received affirmation from several other Legendaries. It seemed there was indeed precedent for wanderer groups exploiting such situations.