CHAPTER 1154: SECTION 711: ESCAPE (PART 2)_2

"My mentor told me that people don’t have the power to choose their parents." Malin explained to Sage Yu.

"Yeah, people never have such a wonderful power." Sage Yu sighed and replied, turning to look at Malin: "As a sage, I forgave him and her, but in my heart, there’s always a voice telling me that the small, lonely me once vowed never to forgive the parents who threw me out like garbage... The proudest thing in my life is becoming a sage, and the most regrettable thing is also becoming a sage... I despise that woman because fate really knows how to torment people."

After speaking, Sage Yu’s face no longer showed anger or resentment. He shook his head expressionlessly, then turned and walked toward the direction of the helipad.

"Fate never spares anyone, Lord Malin, I’m not criticizing anything. I just feel that if there were a child who wouldn’t be abandoned by his parents just because he lacks necessary talents, what a world that would be..."

This is the last sentence that Sage Yu left for Malin, and after that, when he boarded the aircraft, he said not another word.

Malin deeply understood this. In Malin’s view, if the world could return to the shape Malin was familiar with, where the old are cared for, and the young have guardians, a world with all sorts of problems yet always moving forward, Malin would be willing to give his all for it... But all of that is gone, Chaos destroyed it all.

Sage Yu’s dream... Without eliminating Chaos, it’s all just a dream, with no soil for realization.

· Susu, what should I do to end all this, become a deity?

Malin contemplated and asked himself, in the end, Malin really didn’t want to become a deity because the future had already told Malin that in that world, Malin became a puppet of the rules, needing his descendants and willing sacrifices to repeatedly sacrifice themselves.

A world that seems like passing the flame isn’t a world Malin likes, nor is it a world where Malin’s dream can be realized.

If so many people sacrificed everything, only to get such a so-called salvation, such a world... is completely unnecessary.

· You’ve already tried your best, Malin; becoming a deity is the best choice. Let’s all give our full strength to change this world.

Susu’s voice echoed in Malin’s mind.

But this is not the best choice.

This sentence, Malin didn’t say to Susu, watching the aircrafts begin to ascend, the no-longer-young Malin, and at this moment, Sage Yu waved to Malin, saying in an official tone: "I will bring back more supplies."

Malin nodded, raising his left hand, giving a thumbs up.

......

After another week in his hometown, with Zhang Minghe’s activities in New Hangzhou, more and more human adventurer teams came to this Dark Zone, starting to explore those ruins with the aid of the Awakened. More and more things were discovered, and a team even pulled out a still-functioning heavy chariot from a warehouse.

Though its power source could no longer be manufactured, the Artisans’ Guild of New Hangzhou went wild—just being able to reverse-engineer the chariot’s blueprint, replacing the power source was simple.

The only issue was that the chariot couldn’t be driven back to New Hangzhou, but due to its value, New Hangzhou directly selected their strongest pioneering corps who were preparing to head south to begin road construction.

This also benefited Malin’s hometown—several Thanans gathered, greatly astonished by the Awakeners who could understand human speech and act accordingly, and after confirming that they could even capture and enlighten zombie kin among them, they expressed some concern to Malin.

Malin ultimately could only tell the sages that the biochemical humans and these Awakeners couldn’t use firearms.

Thus, the sages’ worries dissipated, and considering the dangers of the Dark Zone, they wanted to hand over the maintenance of the new roads to the Awakeners.

This matter entrusted to them isn’t a problem; the Awakeners indeed have an inherent talent in engineering.

Sage Yu also helped Zhang Minghe transport the seeds and livestock Malin needed, and the Awakeners learned quickly, which surprised Sostak No.3 who visited Malin when he had time, because he said he mainly saw hunting activities in the biochemical cities of the Georgia area, while the Thanans could even skillfully manage cultivation and livestock with mutants.

Ultimately, he explained it all with the Thanan’s formulation of basic skills among biochemical people—otherwise, there’d be no way to explain it.

Oh, Sostak No.3 also brought news of his collaboration with Bixiu five; considering the need to combat Chaos, Sostak No.3 and Bixiu five were preparing to invite Legends to form an extremely adventurous team to clear out the satellite factory south of New Hangzhou. Satellites confirmed that only zombies were there, just in large numbers.

With the satellite factory, new satellites can be built and launched, and the space junk recycling drone system can be restarted, followed by establishing a global reconnaissance system. In other words, once set up, Malin’s Salis wouldn’t need to search blindly across the Dark Zone; pinpoint searching in any region is far better than blind effort.

Malin immediately expressed his willingness to join the endeavor; this was good news.

With Malin’s confirmation, Sostak No.3 decided to continue discussing details with Bixiu five.

Meanwhile, Jason and Bei Luo were discussing the maintenance and protection of new roads. They currently had about thirteen drone turrets, and the sages left the arrangement of these to the two AIs, who were considering whether to create more manned ones.

For instance, letting the Awakeners send out patrol squads along the roadside; once the towers are constructed, wired communication and alarm systems will be set up between the turrets and their towers, so if Chaos enters this area, as long as it’s detected by the drone systems of the turrets, the army can be quickly organized for a sweep, preventing Chaos from gradually growing through stealth.

Thus, a month passed quickly, with Malin teaching the Awakeners hands-on how to establish pastures and cultivation areas, then having them enclose these areas with walls while building human-inhabitable zones. The adventurers insisted that they couldn’t move up and down levels like the Awakeners—stairs were fine if it was just two stories, but the rebuilt houses in the old zones, built atop ruins, often reached four stories or more.

Without stairs and steps, not all adventurers could freely scale walls like the Gecko-like Awakeners.

And with the new district and the inclusion of adventurers, Malin had the Awakeners build a bridge over the river; the bridge, rebuilt on previous piers and remaining structures, couldn’t accommodate heavy vehicles, but casual adventurer motorbikes were no problem.

With the bridge, more adventurers were willing to start exploring south from here.

And under Malin’s guidance, Lady Begonia’s giant salamander group began earning food through river transportation work. These mutant creatures weren’t dumb; Lady Begonia had the intelligence of a ten-year-old child and executed tasks reliably, with only about one or two issues occurring over a hundred transport trips.

Usually, issues arose when the younger giant salamanders fell prey to larger predators, but their cargo would typically float down the river and be stopped by nets under the bridge.

These predators would be taken down by Awakeners or adventurers tasked with the job—neither Malin nor New Hangzhou’s guilds would tolerate behaviors harming the labor force.

The only time there was human involvement was during a heist; the leader of the outlaws was caught and, after identification, Malin personally led a team, together with New Hangzhou’s strike force, to wipe these Peninsula-born drifters and their camps off the map.

In Thainan, if drifters don’t commit crimes, the authorities generally don’t interfere, but if they do, they must face the iron fist of the authorities—this is an unwritten rule between the government and drifters. They provide freedom, but if drifters throw away their lives, the authorities are willing to accept.