Northern suburb of Qingquan City.

Walking through the snow that was buried up to their calves, five jet-black powered armors walked under the abandoned viaduct, heading towards Qingquan City.

"...Radio activity was detected. About four kilometers directly ahead, the signal activity was low and could not be analyzed."

"Can you identify the other party?"

"Obviously not. We don't know anything about the situation here... I suggest you first find a nearby native to ask about the situation."

"good idea."

Looking past the road signs with place names, Lu Yang looked up at the dead city ahead, his eyebrows frowning under his helmet.

"Is this Qingquan City?"

Qingquan City is located in the southern part of the River Valley Province. As one of the important hubs of the central urban agglomeration, hundreds of millions of people once lived here.

As for now, the number of people living here is probably not even a fraction of what it was back then.

Lu Yang stretched out his index finger, tapped lightly on the side of the helmet, and quickly retrieved the geographical information image of the Qingquan area from the database.

Compared with the good times before the war, today's place is like hell, with only desolation, dilapidation, depression and death.

"This damn war..."

Lu Yang checked the map, waved his fist forward, and led his four team members to continue moving forward along the remains of the viaduct.

It's not just Qingquan City that has turned into this ghostly state. If they want to remember the past, they can remember it from the horizon all the way to the Kuiper Belt.

But there is no point in doing so.

The reason why they traveled thousands of miles from the east coast to come here was neither for archeology nor to shoot documentaries, but to continue moving forward, all the way west, deep into the wilderness, to find the legendary third place, the last hope of human civilization.

Shelter 0.

As for why we stopped here...

To be honest, Lu Yang didn't want to either.

Unfortunately, something went wrong with their vehicle.

If you want to repair it as soon as possible, you can only seek help from nearby survivors.

He didn't want to waste several months here.

According to experience during the trip, once they stop for more than a month, trouble will come one after another.

"Captain, there are drones watching us."

The Marine walking on the left side of Lu Yang raised his head, looked at the airspace directly ahead, and continued in a joking tone.

"He's a cute little guy... I don't have a matching model in my database, but just looking at the appearance, it should be a modified version of a pre-war civilian drone. It's hard to believe it can fly so high."

Another Marine said lazily.

"It seems there should be a shelter nearby. It's great. Finally, we don't have to deal with the natives."

"How do you know that the people living in the shelter are not indigenous people? Have you forgotten the blue coat we met last time? He kept claiming that he was from Vault 117, and then he swallowed the chewing gum I gave him.

."

"Ha ha ha ha!"

As he spoke, uncontrollable laughter came from the communication channel.

Obviously, they didn't take that little guy in the sky seriously.

"Don't interrupt, others are looking at us."

Pulling out the jamming gun stuck on their waist, the Marines walking on the outermost side cast a questioning look at their captain.

"Do you need me to get it off?"

"No need."

Lu Yang made a gesture to signal his comrades beside him to stop, and then waved his hand towards the sky to indicate that he had discovered it.

"Friends from afar, we don't mean any harm. If it's convenient, can we talk?"

Lu Yang was not sure whether the drone had a sound collection system, so he turned on the speaker on the power armor helmet and used a loud voice to express his friendliness.

The sound echoed across the ruins.

Perhaps hearing his voice, perhaps realizing that he had been discovered, the drone lowered its altitude and flew in front of them.

It was a silver-white ball, surprisingly small. The propeller blades were made of who-know-what material, and they flew silently.

Lu Yang watched it stop in front of him, circle around him, and then slowly float toward the wetland park ahead.

The team members on the side exchanged glances.

"Is this a friendly gesture?"

"Probably, it seems to be inviting us over."

"Captain, do we want to go there?"

Lu Yang thought for a moment and then said.

"Wang Yi will stay and look for a commanding height nearby to observe. The others will follow me."

"yes!"

…

Outpost, third floor of the sanatorium.

Looking at the four people entering the Wetland Park through the screen worn on his arm, Chu Guang's face showed a little solemnity.

Powered armor!

He had only heard of this thing from the survivors before, but now that he saw it with his own eyes for the first time, he didn't expect it to be even more exaggerated than he imagined.

Thick fully protective armor covered every inch of their skin, and the rectangular modular rifles held in their hands exuded a cold light.

They're like humanoid tanks straight out of a science fiction studio, and they're intimidating.

Chu Guang even had some doubts about the difference between hitting them with ordinary-caliber bullets and tickling them.

The heavyweight armor and equipment did not affect their mobility at all. At least judging from the way they moved freely through the jungle, crossing obstacles was like play to them.

Chu Guang roughly estimated that the equipment of these people was at least 1.5 tons or even more than 2 tons. Not surprisingly, it should be powered by fusion batteries.

Just now, he was operating the "Hummingbird" and flew around the power armor in front of him. He did not see any obvious fuel tank or battery structure. If it is powered by a fuel cell such as solid hydrogen, the fuel density can be made very high.

, but it cannot be as high as this.

It's obvious that the power armor these people are wearing is high-end!

If a conflict occurs, it is estimated that in the entire outpost, only the hammer behind him can pose a certain threat to their armor.

Compared with these people, the green-skinned muscle guy on 76th Street is nothing.

"Xiao Qi, please go back underground first."

Xiao Qi tilted the camera and looked at Chu Guang and asked.

"But Master, it's only afternoon now."

"It doesn't matter what time it is. I'm not sure whether those people outside are friends or foes. If there's a conflict, I'm afraid I won't be able to take care of you. It's safer for you to go down first."

"Although Xiao Qi is very happy when the master says this, Xiao Qi will not abandon you, the master, and hide alone. Also, actually, you don't need to be too nervous. Those people probably came out of a shelter, so they shouldn't be

It would be too difficult for us.”

Chu Guang glanced at it in surprise.

"Can you even see this?"

Xiaoqi said.

"Well, it's not necessarily true, but the electromagnetic rifles they have do look like pre-war standard weapons. And after they discovered our drone, they did not shoot down my drone.

Instead, they took the initiative to express their kindness to us... If they came with hostility, I feel that there is no need to do so much. Master, what do you think?"

"Me? I don't know, but I generally don't place my hopes on the kindness of others."

After thinking for a moment, Chu Guang weighed the EMP grenade in his hand and stuffed it into his pocket.

Although it's not clear how effective this thing is for power armor, it's better than nothing.

Even if you can only paralyze the other party's electronic equipment for two seconds, you can buy yourself two more seconds to respond.

Chu Guang will control the distance of negotiation within 3 meters.

In this way, even if an accident occurs, he can still use the nitrogen power hammer in his hand to teach the opponent a profound lesson.

…

The north entrance of the outpost.

Seeing the four iron knots coming from a distance, the players at the North Gate Market all showed expressions that they had never seen in the world.

"I giao! What is that?"
To be continued...