60: Chapter 60 Dwarfs

The firefight on the wasteland broke out suddenly and ended with surprising swiftness.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

Dumpling held his custom 40mm portable autocannon, pouring out firepower without the slightest hesitation.

High-explosive grenades exploded one after another among the crowd of scavengers. Severed limbs mixed with scrap metal were tossed high into the air, and over a dozen shocking bloody craters instantly appeared in the sand.

The light weapons held by these wastelander's were of unknown hands and origins; it was a miracle they could even fire. As for whether they hit anyone, it was entirely up to whether the Machine Spirit felt like showing mercy.

Faced with an absolute generational gap in firepower, the scavengers couldn't even hold out for a minute.

Leaving behind over a dozen mutilated corpses, the survivors fled like frightened wild dogs into the swirling sandstorm without looking back.

"That's it?"

Brother Dog stepped out from behind cover, carrying his large steel shield, and watched the fleeing figures. "Brothers, should we give chase?"

"Chase what? We're in unfamiliar territory."

Dumpling stopped firing, bent down to pick up several large, steaming shell casings from the ground, and blew the sand off them with a look of intense pain on his face.

"Each of these bullets is 5 points! That burst just cost me 100 points, 100 points! Business first—if this crappy mission doesn't have a good reward, I'm definitely going to the forum to curse out the developers."

"Daidai Jiaobu and I will head over to take a look. You two stay up here and keep watch."

Luluchiu held her gun in one hand and beckoned Daidai Jiaobu over.

The two women held their guns and stepped cautiously across the scorched sand toward the crashed aircraft in the distance, which was still emitting green smoke.

As the distance closed, the full view of the ship became clear.

It was a very bloated-looking aircraft.

Nearly fifty meters long, its overall shape was angular, with absolutely no aerodynamic streamlined design; instead, it looked like a giant metal brick forced together.

The heavy composite armor was covered in impact craters and scorch marks left by atmospheric friction.

The two women circled around the ship's damaged rear thrusters to the other side.

Beside several corpses of scavengers who had just been blown up, they saw a living creature.

It was a humanoid being only about 1.5 meters tall.

He had a stout, sturdy body and a thick, wild beard on his chin.

He wore a set of blue clothing that looked high-tech yet exceptionally heavy.

At that moment, he was slumped on the sand, leaning against the ship's cold outer hull.

There was a visible gash on his thigh, and blood was flowing out through the gaps in his clothes.

He held a strangely shaped pistol, his eyes fixed warily on the two approaching female players.

"Eh?"

Luluchiu lowered her muzzle and sized him up curiously.

"A dwarf? Is there a dwarf race in the Warhammer setting too?"

Daidai Jiaobu hid behind Luluchiu, poking half her head out, her eyes sparkling.

"Wow, he looks exactly like the dwarves in 'The Lord of the Rings'! But his blue clothes are so cool, way better than the plumber-like outfits in our base. The art design is really on point."

The two women were chattering away in Mandarin.

Sitting on the ground, Vaughn had no idea what these two tall humans were talking about.

As a Kin explorer from the Thurian League, Vaughn's ship had encountered a rare storm while traversing the Warp, his team had been scattered, and his navigation system was completely paralyzed, forcing him to make an emergency landing on this strange wasteland planet.

The siege by those wasteland barbarians just now had left him out of ammunition and supplies.

He had thought he was dead for sure, but he didn't expect to be saved by these strange humans carrying primitive firearms and wearing crude exoskeletons.

Seeing that the two women weren't aiming their guns, Vaughn tentatively lowered his plasma pistol.

Supporting himself against the ship's hull with one hand, he shouted in clear high gothic toward the ship's communication module:

"U-025! Activate language analysis protocols! Analyze which star sector their speech originates from and provide real-time translation for us immediately!"

"Received. Analyzing sonic spectrum and linguistic logical framework..."

An emotionless electronic voice came from the ship's damaged external speakers.

A few seconds later.

"Analysis complete. The language used by the targets is a highly complex and grammatically ancient human linguistic family. Its origin is suspected to be from Terra."

Although the electronic voice was flat, the content of the report was startling.

"According to underlying database comparisons, the birth of this language predates the era when our race, the Kin, was created. Based on data inference, there is a 98% probability that they are pure-blooded remnants of ancient humanity."

"What?!" Vaughn's eyes widened suddenly.

"Supplemental information: They do not seem to be seeing Kin for the first time. In their latest dialogue, they are comparing your appearance to an unknown species called 'Lord of the Rings Dwarves'."

U-025 continued its dutiful report.

"Additionally, they are discussing whether to come forward to bandage your wounds, but are worried you might launch a sudden attack. Overall assessment: Hostility index is near zero."

After hearing the ship AI's analysis, Vaughn felt his head spin, his face full of disbelief.

In this godforsaken edge of the galaxy, far from the center of the stars, he had actually encountered a branch of ancient human descendants who retained their language and pure genes?!

One had to know that within the League, the probability of encountering ancient human remnants was even lower than digging up a complete STC Construction Template from a trash heap!

With this realization, the wariness in Vaughn's heart mostly dissipated.

Ancient human remnants usually meant being closed-off and xenophobic, but they were never as unreasonable as those Imperial fanatics.

"Now, please establish a real-time voice translation frequency for both of us."

Vaughn took a deep breath and raised his right hand toward the two women, palm facing outward, making a universal League gesture for peace.

The ship's external speakers immediately translated his words into clear Mandarin.

"Thank you for your generous assistance. I am Vaughn, a prospector from the Thurian League of the Leagues of Votann."

Hearing the standard Mandarin translation suddenly coming from the ship.

Luluchiu and Daidai Jiaobu were both stunned for a moment, then showed expressions of sudden realization.

"Holy crap!"

Luluchiu slapped her thigh.

"Immortal Lin, that dog developer, is finally acting like a human! He actually secretly added an NPC real-time translation plugin to the game! We can finally understand what they're saying!"

She walked forward casually, slung her rifle behind her back, and reached out a hand to Vaughn:

"Uh... hello, dwarf brother! I'm Luluchiu from the Fire Seed Shelter. We received a mission from our faction leader to specifically come and investigate the information about your crash."

This time, it was Vaughn's turn to look bewildered.

What kind of advanced exclamation was "Holy crap"?

Was "Dog Developer" some deity worshipped by this tribe of ancient human remnants?

"Fire Seed Shelter" was likely their habitat.

But what kind of hellish surname was "Luluchiu"?!

Vaughn's head was full of question marks, but he still politely extended his thick palm and shook Luluchiu's hand.

"U-025."

Vaughn asked the ship AI on a private channel.

"Can our current predicament be resolved through the power behind them?"

"Based on the ship's damage, we need a large amount of refined metal and high-energy fuel for repairs.

Since they possess a place capable of surviving in the wasteland, we can try to contact the head of their faction for trade."

The AI gave a rational suggestion.

Vaughn nodded, pulled a small bottle of medical spray from his tactical pocket, and sprayed his thigh wound twice.

Accompanied by a puff of white smoke, the wound, which had been deep enough to see bone, healed and scabbed over at a speed visible to the naked eye.

This high-level medical technology made the two female players' eyes glow with green light.

"Ladies."

Vaughn stood up, his tone sincere.

"As you can see, my ship's main engine has suffered a serious failure. I need your help..."

...

Meanwhile.

One kilometer away from the crash site, on the highest weathered rocky hill in the area.

Brother Dog and Dumpling were climbing up using both hands and feet.

They were wearing Medical Exoskeletons, and each step left a deep white mark on the rock.

"Finally made it up."

Brother Dog took a breath and steadied himself.

He took a high-magnification monocular from his backpack, lay on the edge of the rock, and began to scout the surroundings from a high vantage point.

To their south were the rolling, towering Spine Mountains.

The mountain range stretched horizontally from east to west like an impassable high wall.

To the north was the endless radiation wasteland.

Yellow-green toxic sandstorms blotted out the sun, and the air was thick and murky.

Brother Dog slowly turned the telescope.

When his field of vision swept across the foot of that towering interstellar trash mountain to the northeast.

Brother Dog's hand jerked, and his breath hitched.

"Holy crap..."

Brother Dog rubbed his eyes and pressed his face to the telescope again. "Orks... so many Orks..."

"What?"

Dumpling put down his autocannon, grabbed the telescope, and looked in the direction Brother Dog was pointing.

At the edge of the trash mountain dozens of kilometers away at the end of his vision.

It was no longer just a few hundred Orks messing around, but a continuous, massive green camp that made one's scalp tingle!

Countless crude buildings made of scrap metal stretched as far as the eye could see, with thick black chimneys piercing the clouds.

What made Dumpling even more terrified was that...

On the plains outside this super-sized tribe, he clearly saw a large number of strange vehicles painted in scarlet!

There were tracked armored vehicles, spike-covered assault buggies, and even battle wagons as large as mobile fortresses!

They were racing madly across the wasteland, kicking up clouds of yellow sand.

"Damn it..."

Dumpling took a sharp breath.

"These Orks aren't just numerous; they're a damn mechanized force! They might even have tanks in there!"

In the Warhammer universe, the technology tree of the Orks was an eternal mystery that could never be explained by common sense.

"I fink it works,"

And a pile of scrap metal could run at the speed of a supercar.

Especially those vehicles painted red; they represented the speed-obsessed racing maniacs among the Orks.

"Good thing the Spine Mountains are blocking them, separating the Shelter from this wasteland. Otherwise, our camp would have been steamrolled long ago."

Brother Dog broke into a cold sweat and pulled Dumpling's arm.

"Go! Let's get down and meet up with them! The water in the north is too deep; we need to get this intel back to the base immediately!"

The two turned around without hesitation and quickly slid down the rock face.

Heading down to regroup.