Wasteland Development Diary

No sooner said than done, Zhou Yi immediately flew to meet with Extinction Duke for a face-to-face discussion.

"You want to go to the Forbidden Continent?"

He immediately guessed his intention: "Is it for the electric cat?"

Zhou Yi didn't hide it: "For many reasons. The Lord of War invited me, saying there are aliens there that need treatment, and my hand needs his help to be completely cured."

"The electric cat is also a factor. But most importantly, we are building a school here and need high-quality teachers. I plan to recruit some Dragon Palace trainees."

"That's a good choice. Trainees who can complete Dragon Palace training generally have in-depth knowledge in their fields."

Extinction Duke reminded him: "The salary for trainees is very expensive."

Zhou Yi knew this.

He was going to recruit Dragon Palace graduates to be teachers at the Mushroom Forest Elementary School in Sandport. Besides the company benefits, the salary would definitely have to be higher.

Otherwise, people definitely wouldn't want to come.

"As far as I know, the annual salary for completing 4 years of Dragon Palace Level 1 training is 20 Light Seeds. For Level 2, it's 40 Light Seeds. For Level 3, it's 100 Light Seeds and up, with no upper limit."

Extinction Duke gave a reference quote.

Translated, that's 20 for a Dragon Palace bachelor's, 40 for a master's, and 100+ for a doctorate.

That's alright.

Even after spending a lot of money to take control of Recursive City, Zhou Yi still had over 4 million Light Seeds in savings, so he could afford these salaries.

Extinction Duke said: "To go to the Forbidden Continent, you have to buy a ticket. Don't try to find your own way."

Zhou Yi asked: "Can't I just drive a boat or fly there?"

"If you don't buy a ticket, you won't be able to enter the safe zone. It's safer to go through the proper channels. The ticket price is 100 Light Seeds per person, round trip, and you can stay for 15 days from the time you land. After that, you'll be sent back to the starting point."

Zhou Yi was curious: "Buying a ticket is fine, but who's running this ticket business?"

"It's part of the Forbidden Continent's operating mechanism."

Extinction Duke explained: "There's a special ferry that takes people there. The ferry appears randomly in the Dead Sea, and you have to find it to buy a ticket."

"Some people also do this business. They look for the ferry everywhere, buy tickets on the ship, and then resell them. Once you get a ticket, scratch it open, and the ferry will come to pick you up. When you come back, just use the other half of the ticket."

"It's very convenient. That's how I went both times."

Zhou Yi said: "Then please help me buy a ticket. I'll go with Yuanxiao. Do you want to bring anyone from your side?"

"No, I'm used to going out alone."

Extinction Duke suddenly said, "I heard that you have a relationship with Qin Xie of the Dead Sea Knights?"

"What about it?"

"You can call him."

Zhou Yi was puzzled: "Does his family also have influence on the Forbidden Continent?"

"I don't know about that."

Extinction Duke said: "But his mistress, Madam Mei, has some influence on the Forbidden Continent."

"Among the three wonders there—Meat Mountain, Golden Elephant Valley, and Spark Plains—there's a Three-Fork Slope. Although it's called a slope, it's actually a settlement where all kinds of businesses take place. Three-Fork Slope is Madam Mei's property."

Zhou Yi was shocked.

Qin Xie had actually hooked up with Madam Mei, saving himself many years of detours.

This did fit his impression of Qin Xie—he wanted to improve too much.

"Who is this Madam Mei?"

"I don't know much about her either."

Extinction Duke said: "Madam Mei has been in charge of Three-Fork Slope for many years."

"It's in the safe zone, where fighting is prohibited. However, the person in charge has certain privileges and can use some of the Forbidden Continent's power to lock up those who break the rules, or throw them directly into the dangerous zone, making it impossible for them to enter again."

"The Forbidden Continent is a very special place, where power allows rules to manifest. The specific mechanism is only known to the actual controllers like Madam Mei."

"Controllers?" Zhou Yi keenly realized: "There are many local factions there?"

"The Forbidden Continent has the saying of Seven Zones and Sixteen Segments, including seven main areas, with sixteen segments of roads connecting them. These Seven Zones and Sixteen Segments are the safe zones. They run through the entire Forbidden Continent, and the areas outside are more dangerous than the dangerous zones, with various monsters and anomalies appearing."

Extinction Duke introduced: "Madam Mei's Three-Fork Slope is one of the Sixteen Segments."

Zhou Yi understood.

Madam Mei was one of the local separatist forces.

No wonder Extinction Duke wanted to call Qin Xie and use Madam Mei's connections.

Extinction Duke continued: "Madam Mei has been actively involved in various external trades for a long time, which has made Three-Fork Slope even more prosperous. Some things that are inconvenient to trade publicly outside are auctioned off at Three-Fork Slope, and they also produce some special goods that are very popular outside."

"The Black Emperor personally recruited Madam Mei, making her one of the Heavenly Kingdom's governors. The purpose, of course, was to make Three-Fork Slope the empire's black market and backdoor."

Extinction Duke took out a reinforced controller, swiped it, and a woman's face with an exotic charm appeared on the screen, looking about thirty years old.

Madam Mei had a pointed face, long eyebrows, and a dagger-shaped pendant hanging from her earlobes.

She was unexpectedly beautiful.

Her beauty and eyes had a strong aggressiveness.

It was as if her face was saying, either be my friend, or I'll kill you.

Zhou Yi thought, Qin Xie's taste is really not bad.

Extinction Duke said: "If we can have Madam Mei's connections, many things will be easier."

Zhou Yi immediately contacted Qin Xie.

As always, he got straight to the point.

"We need Madam Mei's connections."

"No problem."

Qin Xie was very straightforward: "I'm familiar with Three-Fork Slope. But you have to help me install a floating heart for Teddy, the best one."

"Okay."

Two days later, Qin Xie and Extinction Duke arrived in Sandport one after another.

Teddy's heart installation was personally handled by the two elders, Liu and Chen, and the process went smoothly.

But there was a malfunction in the subsequent tests.

The reason was that Teddy was using a second-generation floating heart, which was an unreleased internal testing technology.

The teddy bear himself insisted: "I want new, not old, just install this new model! I'll accept the problems, I just want to use the new one!"

The energy-saving efficiency of the second-generation heart was improved from the previous 88% to 92%. The disadvantage is that it requires a proportional mixture of sugar and oil as fuel. Its interior is separated into left and right ventricles, with sugar supplying overload high-frequency bursts, and oil maintaining stable operation most of the time.

After all, this was new technology, lacking sufficient feedback and optimization, causing Teddy to react: "Sometimes I feel a bit twitchy, my body and hands keep shaking, they shake inexplicably, and then I feel very numb..."

So the two elders made further adjustments and tests for it, requiring continuous observation.

That's why Teddy couldn't go to the Forbidden Continent.

Extinction Duke went to the cat house every day, looking at the electric cat with longing in his eyes, and then he would look at Zhou Yi, pointing at the electric cat.

Zhou Yi felt a little scalp tingling.

"Alright, alright, if we raise another stable electric cat, we'll give it to you."

"You said it, remember it." The puppet grinned.

Extinction Duke began to consult with the two cat-raising experts, Tuozhu and Youai, to prepare for raising cats in the future.

During this period.

Something else happened at the company.

The demented panda man, Tuohai, who was sent over, recovered rapidly under Sun Hao's "Consciousness Puzzle" treatment.

At first, his eyes gradually regained clarity, he slowly stopped drooling, knew to eat by himself, and went to the designated toilet to defecate. Later, he remembered his name and knew that he had a son.

The entire treatment process lasted for a month, and finally completed the repair.

"Father, Tuohai's consciousness body was too severely damaged, and many parts were completely missing, resulting in the loss of a lot of memory."

Sun Hao looked puzzled: "Normally speaking, the damage to the consciousness body is a continuous process, with a large number of fragments detaching from the irreversible rupture of local areas, resulting in the gradual loss of some memory."

"But Tuohai is different. A large piece is missing from his consciousness body, but other parts are less damaged... It's like it was knocked off by an external force at once, or eaten away."

Sun Hao was unsure of the reason.

Niger said: "Worms burrowed into his head!"

Zhou Yi couldn't help but look serious: "But when Da Vinci examined him, he didn't find anything abnormal... Could it be that the worms there can't be observed?"

"No, Chairman."

The mud tree man explained: "The worms there parasitize, enslave, and control other lives. I've seen this before."

"The worms rely on their large numbers to cooperate and generate terrifying power. But they are fragile individually and cannot pass through the space bubble."

"When Tuohai returned here, the worms in his brain were squeezed to death by the space bubble, which is why part of his brain was missing. We've seen this with the clansmen we rescued in the past."

Tuozhu was already grateful and extremely satisfied: "Thank you, Chairman, thank you, company! My dad is really getting better!"

Due to long-term energy consumption and malnutrition, Tuohai needed a long time to recover and dropped to B-level.

Zhou Yi had also chatted with Tuohai several times.

"It's good that you don't remember the past, you have fewer worries."

The old panda man had a good attitude.

He planted bamboo in Sandport, practiced Tai Chi, taught children how to identify bamboo shoots and make bamboo tools. Sometimes he would play a melodious bamboo flute, looking like he was enjoying his old age.

Sometimes, the old panda man would stare intently at the Dead Sea in the sunset, and no one knew what he was thinking.

The children knew that he used to be an elite warrior of the Heavenly Kingdom, fighting in another world, so they often pestered him: "Panda Teacher, teach us how to fight! We want to become stronger!"

"Yeah, yeah! Teach us! We want to be as strong as you!"

The old panda just smiled and shook his head: "I won't teach you! I won't teach you!"