At the end of November, the Black Death Continent in the northern hemisphere entered late autumn, and the weather became increasingly cold.
Compared with the outside, Safehouse No. 27 is as warm as spring. Chen Xing was wearing a loose pullover, drinking manor red wine worth a dozen gold coins a bottle, and lying on the sofa in the lounge area. He tilted his head and was chatting with a man in his early thirties.
This man was tall and thin, with a horse face, and his eyes were relatively small. When he smiled, he narrowed his eyes into a straight line, which made him look a bit cunning. He is one of the three forces in District 27 and the leader of the Gray Pigeon Group, "Blood Pigeon".
The best place for two big guys to meet is naturally a safe place, so that no one needs to be wary of each other. Who can pull up a team on this land, who is not a human spirit? Therefore, no matter whether Chen Xing invited the blood pigeon or the blood pigeon invited Chen Xing, they did not dare to go to the other party's territory.
"Brother Pigeon, did you grow the tobacco last time yourself?" Chen Xing asked.
"Not only do I grow it myself, I also pick it myself, dry it myself, cut it into shreds and process it myself." Blood Pigeon said with a hint of pride.
"That's handmade tobacco!" Chen Xing sighed. In a world of large-scale mechanized processing, any handmade product is a scarce commodity.
"I processed it using ancient methods, using Jinlan wine from the Eastern Continent. There were eighteen processes, not a few of them." Blood Pigeon boasted.
The essence of small talk is to find something to talk about when you have nothing to say. From the moment they met until now, the two of them have been talking about these useless things. There is no way, they have just met each other, and they need to understand each other but also have reservations. The best way is to chat.
The more we chat, the more we naturally become familiar with each other.
"Hey, they seem to be hiring people over there." "Let's go and have a look."
"I heard that Wangchuan discovered the fragments of the world, and many mercenary groups are recruiting people." "They want to trick us into becoming cannon fodder again, no way!" "Oh, if we don't become cannon fodder wherever we go, won't we make money?" The price seems pretty good, but if he doesn’t go, we’ll go.”
Exiles in twos and threes passed by the table, whispering and discussing. Chen Xing and Xue Ge quickly noticed that someone had put up a sign in the middle of the rest area to recruit players. The two looked at each other, stood up and walked over.
A group of exiles gathered around a round table in the middle. On the table stood a card that read: 20 gold per month, including food and accommodation.
The simple and crude recruitment advertisement, as well as the noisy onlookers around him, reminded Chen Xing of the recruitment of rural migrant workers on earth.
Blood Pigeon separated the crowd in front of him, walked to the table, and looked at it with a frown. Suddenly there was a "pop" and a slap on the table.
The people around him were startled and fell silent instantly, all focusing on the blood pigeon.
"Who gave you permission to recruit people here!" Blood Pigeon asked with a fierce look in his eyes.
According to the unwritten rules on the Black Death Continent, forces from outside areas must obtain the consent of the forces in this area before they can recruit team members at the safety centers in this area. The last time Chen Xing formed a group, he first established his authority and then recruited people. The Blood Pigeon people knew about it and didn't dare to stop it.
Faced with the shouts and questions from the leader of the district, the exile recruiter not only showed no fear, but slapped the table and stood up, pointed at the blood pigeon's nose and cursed: "Who do you think you are! We, the Black Skull, are recruiting people. There is no need to ask you." Is this a bastard!"
The man scolded him very unpleasantly, but the blood pigeon immediately withered and backed away without saying a word.
Chen Xing saw it in his eyes and naturally he would not push forward. He had heard from Ghost Fox that the Black Skeletons were one of the six major groups in the Black Death Continent and did not take small forces like the Gray Pigeons seriously at all.
Sitting back in his seat, maybe because he was in a bad mood, Xue Ge grabbed the wine bottle and took a big gulp.
"What the hell..." Blood Pigeon cursed, looking very unhappy.
Chen Xing did not answer, but turned his head and asked Wu Jinjian, who came with him, to inquire about the situation. He really wanted to know what fragments of the world the other party had discovered.
"Forget it, Black Skeleton is not easy to mess with." Blood Pigeon shook his head and persuaded.
"Just asking." Chen Xing said.
After a while, Wu Jinjian came back.
"It is a world with the same origin as ancient magic in Western Continent culture." Wu Jinjian said a very professional term.
The name of a world fragment usually consists of four parts. The specific format is: cultural type + era + energy use method + world nature.
Cultural types include Eastern Continent culture, Western Continent culture, tribal culture, etc.; eras are divided into ancient times, medieval times, modern times, and the future; energy use methods are divided into technology and magic; world properties are divided into homologous worlds, limited homologous worlds, and non-homogeneous worlds. Homogenous world.
According to different values, world fragments are divided into ordinary homologous worlds, magical worlds, super-technological worlds, and super-magic worlds. Among them, the super-tech and super-magic worlds have the highest value, because humans can obtain new technologies and new ways of using energy from them.
The limited homologous world is mainly the "humanoid world". As the name suggests, it is a world of alien human cultures, such as orcs, giants, demons, celestial beings, etc.
Non-homogeneous worlds refer to worlds without humanoid creatures at all, including mechanical worlds, anaerobic worlds, glacier worlds, ancient worlds, etc.
"This brother of yours is a man of culture." Xue Ge said with a smile.
Wu Jinjian ignored the former's teasing and continued, "I heard that the fragment is very unstable. There are multiple random entrances, and several large groups are rushing to get in."
"Plural random entrances?" Chen Xing and Xue Ge looked at each other.
Some unstable world fragments, the entrance will flash randomly within a certain range. However, these spaces will collapse at any time, and the result may be a silent disappearance, or it may be a big explosion comparable to a multi-million-ton nuclear bomb.
And in such a dangerous situation, several large groups are still fighting for it, which means that there are very valuable treasures in this world fragment.
Chen Xing and Xue Ge fell into deep thought at the same time. After a long time, Chen Xing took the lead to break the silence, "Brother Pigeon, are you interested?"
"The tobacco planted this year hasn't been harvested yet..." Blood Pigeon waved his hand, "It's too dangerous to go to that kind of place. If you're not careful, you'll be completely dead. I still want to live for a few more years."
"Yeah..." Chen Xing nodded and sighed.
"It's not too early, let's talk next time." Blood Pigeon stood up and said.
"Okay." Chen Xing said simply.
The two of them said one thing, but did another. He left the safe house almost at the same time and ran towards his stronghold. They all tacitly avoided the topic of "going together". We had just met each other and didn't trust each other, so it would be bad to get together.
Back at the stronghold, Chen Xing immediately organized a team of people and rushed to Wangchuan with Wu Jinjian. He believed that the bosses of several large groups were not fools and would only go if there was a profit. He cannot improve his strength for the time being and can only rely on external objects.
Humans in the magical world have used spiritual energy for a longer time. Although they are not ahead of the red earth world, there are a large number of treasures engraved with runic circuits. As long as you can get one or two practical ones, your strength will be greatly improved.
He didn't take Da Mao with him, but Wu Jinjian. The main reason was that he still couldn't trust others, so he could only hand over the stronghold to his most trusted brother. He has no intention of leading a team into World Fragments. These people have limited strength, and bringing them in would be a drag. It is better to stay outside to support them.
The world fragment is found in Area 14. The River of Forgetfulness is very large, spanning two areas.
Halfway through, it suddenly started snowing. This is the first snowfall of the year in the Black Earth Continent. The snowflakes are as fine as cow hair and melt immediately when they fall on the face.
"Three years..." Wu Jinjian stretched out his hand to catch the falling snowflakes, sighing in a low voice as if he was touched by the scene.
Everyone stopped and looked at the fine snow falling between the sky and the earth, falling into a long silence. Maybe it's thinking of relatives in my hometown, maybe it's thinking of her in my life...
Chen Xing thought of Su Na, that innocent and lovely girl, whether she would also face a long winter night. Will she find enough food and will she survive? No one could answer his question, and there was only the biting north wind in his ears.
Quietly, emotions grew, and the desire to go home became extremely strong.
He clenched his fists, said "Come on" in his heart, gathered his mood, and took the lead to move forward. He is the leader of the team. Anyone can be vulnerable, but he cannot!
The team members followed sparsely, and the rumble of the supply carts sounded again, echoing in the fine snow in the sky...
More than ten days later, the team arrived at the edge of the Forgotten River. Chen Xing found a half-collapsed building, repaired it on the spot for two days, and then continued his journey.
After entering Wangchuan, you can occasionally see exiles in the distance. They are in small groups and the queue is loose. It seems that the news spread very quickly, and people from many areas came over.
The Black Skeleton team members who came to the safety center to find people only announced the approximate location. Chen Xing led the team to explore and move forward, and finally found it on the seventh day after entering Wangchuan.
The sky in this area is very gray, with white lights flashing from time to time. It was a fleeting crack in space. The biggest difference from lightning was that it was silent.
The thick clouds gathering in the sky are attracted by unstable space debris. Scholars in Baixiang City call it "space diffusion phenomenon."
This is a sign that the fragments of the world are about to collapse. The essence of space is the expansion of development. In this process, fragments of different spaces collide with this space. There are only two final results, either they are integrated into this space and become part of the red earth world, or they are mutually exclusive and cause a violent explosion.
The fusion is not retained, but dispersed to every part of the space, making the entire unit universe expand a little bit. Although this "little bit" is so small that it can be ignored, the number of world fragments is very large, and the accumulation of small pieces can gradually expand the universe.
No one knows the specific location of that world fragment, but space cracks will appear randomly in this area. Those that have existed for a longer time and are more stable can enter. To avoid conflict, forces large and small took over their own territory and marked passages with stones.
Everyone focused their energy on the space cracks, and the number of robberies decreased.
Chen Xing occupied the ruins of a factory and scattered people around to monitor space cracks that might appear at any time.
