Douluo Continent: Huo Yuhao Returns from the Wasteland

Chapter 16 Prologue

On the Boston wasteland, today was no different from any other day. A few wisps of smoke rose from Diamond City, built next to the baseball stadium, as people in the city started cooking.

On the streets outside, raiders and bandits waited in their makeshift camps and abandoned rooms for passing caravans and scavengers.

Occasionally, a few mutated rats and cockroaches would dart across the street and disappear into the cracks in the shadows.

On the other side of the street, the bandits who were alive in the ruins just minutes before are now silent corpses.

It was Huo Yuhao who killed these bandits.

He slung his gun back over his shoulder and continued walking eastward.

After leaving the capital wasteland, the boy relied on the pre-war map to make his way to the Boston wasteland.

Along the way, just like before, he fought bandits and mutated creatures, scavenged in the ruins, and helped the wasteland residents with their work in order to obtain food.

This place marks his end, because further east lies the sea.

The Boston wasteland is no different from other places; it is still the same kind of ruins that can be seen everywhere on the East Coast, a chaotic wasteland without any unified organization.

Here, there are raiders, bandits, super mutants, and mutated creatures that are commonplace.

Several wasteland settlements, an unknown cult, and various gangs.

When he arrived in Boston, he heard about the place called The Academy. It was from the synthetic mayor of Rivettown, a town in the Capital Wasteland that disguised himself as a human.

However, when he arrived here, he did not find any trace of them, but he did find some scattered synthetic human parts in the ruins.

The most prestigious organization here is the Minutemen, who protect the wasteland settlements from bandit attacks and will rush to the scene whenever a distress call is made...

They are somewhat like the Rangers, and they also aspire to become an organization similar to New California.

However, in Huo Yuhao's eyes, this organization would hardly develop to that level because they were far too disorganized.

Of course, at this time, he didn't have much interest in interacting with them. It wasn't that he disliked the militia; after all, such an organization was already considered a very good existence in the wasteland.

But now, the boy finally has to admit a fact.

The sea breeze from the Atlantic Ocean blows on my face, and the waves constantly wash the garbage floating on the water ashore.

And now, I sit on an abandoned chair on the shore, facing the reality that there is no way to go home.

Perhaps that place is like my dream; it doesn't actually exist. But the soul power within me, the Spirit Eye Martial Soul, and the last look my mother gave me all tell me that it does exist.

But now, all we can do is look at the distant sky and sea, without finding a single clue.

Just as the boy was feeling down, he suddenly raised his gun.

He saw an iron pipe protruding from the sea surface, seemingly rotating, and the sunlight shining on it created a mirror-like effect.

The thing stopped there as the boy raised his gun to aim.

When he finally saw what was on the other side, a look of bewilderment appeared on the boy's face. It wasn't that he didn't recognize the thing; on the contrary, he recognized it as a periscope, as described in those pre-war books.

But this thing is just standing there now, and it's clearly looking at me.

This caught him off guard for a moment, but he quickly realized what was going on.

Then he slung his gun over his shoulder and walked over with a redwood revolver in his hand.

The journey there was not difficult, and my past actions had been met with a response from the other party.

The object that was slightly above the water convinced the boy that it was a submarine.

When he opened the hatch and entered, a figure was standing there waiting for him.

It was a ghoul, dressed in a somewhat worn but clean and neat military uniform.

Upon seeing the other person, the boy thought of the Anchorage battle in the simulation pod, where there was someone dressed exactly like the one before him.

This situation made him realize something, right the moment he opened his mouth.

The other person spoke to the boy in a somewhat stiff accent, "Hello sir, although this is our first meeting, I wish to extend a friendly and peaceful attitude..."

The moment he arrived in the wasteland, he didn't speak the language of Douluo Continent, but rather the language spoken by the people of this wasteland.

He never figured out the reason, and it just came out naturally and instinctively.

After that, the boy also tried to find the languages ​​of some native tribes in the wasteland and try to understand them. As a result, he had a better understanding and memory ability in this area.

Therefore, upon hearing this, Huo Yuhao was taken aback. Looking at the other person's expression, he recalled the language of the so-called hostile forces in the simulated Anchorage battle.

Then, before the other person could finish speaking, Huo Yuhao spoke in their native language, "Hello..."

Upon hearing the boy's words, he was taken aback for a moment, then said in his native language, somewhat incredulously, "How could you say that? Are you also one of those people who stayed here...?"

Upon hearing this, Huo Yuhao shook his head and began to explain where he came from in the wasteland.

Upon hearing this explanation, the other party was slightly disappointed, but quickly regained their composure.

Then he said to Huo Yuhao, "Even so, being able to communicate with the other party like this again is the first time in two hundred years. After all, this is not my homeland..."

"I've said too much already. I should introduce myself first. I am the captain of this Yangzi submarine. You can call me Captain Zhao, or Old Zhao is fine too."

Upon hearing this, the young man replied, "Hello Captain Zhao, my name is Huo Yuhao, I'm a ranger, and I'm from Mojave."

Upon hearing the name, Captain Zhao chuckled and remarked, "It's very similar to the naming conventions in my hometown, and coming all the way from Mojave is quite a distance."

Upon hearing the question, Huo Yuhao briefly recounted the events that had transpired along the way. Although it was their first meeting, they were able to chat easily.

After listening to what the other person had experienced, Captain Zhao was somewhat moved. In the two hundred years since the nuclear war, the old government on this land had long lost its power, and the survivors had begun to rebuild society.

Then the two chatted for a while, from how Huo Yuhao learned the language to Captain Zhao's experiences.

After Captain Zhao learned that he had learned these words from a simulated Battle of Anchorage, he told the boy what he knew about that war.

At the same time, Huo Yuhao also learned why Captain Zhao and the submarine were here.

Two hundred years ago, after the outbreak of nuclear war, Captain Zhao and this submarine came here and launched nuclear missiles at Boston and its vicinity.

Captain Zhao has no regrets about this incident. For him, when the war broke out, he had to carry out the order. It was a soldier's responsibility, and it was also for the sake of his country and family.

But after seeing how people died in the city after the nuclear war, and what happened in the Boston wasteland two hundred years later, the situation of civilization and society degenerating and then slowly rebuilding.

Captain Zhao wasn't indifferent to this; he felt guilty. But if time could really go back to that point, he would still press the button to launch the nuclear missile, because he couldn't stand idly by when his country was attacked.

After hearing this, Huo Yuhao expressed his understanding, after all, there was no reason not to fight back after being attacked in the wasteland.

After they got to know each other, Captain Zhao explained why he had sought him out.

He said to me, "Sir, I hope you can help me find the parts to repair the Yangtze, because my crew members have been affected by the radiation from the nuclear bombs on board and have all turned into ghouls."

"I am lucky. Although I have become a ghoul, I have retained my sanity. Because the Yangtze needs someone to watch over it, I have been unable to leave here for so long."

"Sir, you are the most unique wasteland resident I have seen in all this time. You have a look in your eyes that no one else in the wasteland has. And you are also the first person in all this time to set foot here."

"So I beg you to help me. I will reward you. For me right now, after two hundred years, I desperately want to return to my hometown..."

When I heard the other person mention their hometown, I thought of something I had been searching for all along.

However, I still poured cold water on his enthusiasm, reminding him, "It's been two hundred years since the nuclear war. I think your hometown might have become a wasteland like it is now during the nuclear war, and it might be similar to this place right now."

Hearing this, his eyes were very firm, and he said to me, "I know, but what good will that do? Even if it becomes like this, I will go back, go back to plant every tree, rebuild every house, and turn it back into the hometown I remember, and rebuild my home."

Upon hearing this, I remained silent for a long time. It was a strange feeling, an indescribable and irreplaceable feeling towards my homeland and everything there.

It also made me think about the purpose of my search for clues along the way. Although it was different from his purpose of wanting to go back, I could understand his feelings.

Therefore, he agreed to help Captain Zhao find parts to repair the Yangzi and help him return to his hometown.

He became very agitated after learning this...

So he stayed on the Yangtze and discussed with Captain Zhao where the parts that needed to be replaced might be located.

Even though the Yangtze didn't need many parts, the process of finding those parts was not smooth.

After all, two hundred years after the nuclear war, the Boston wasteland was still not unified by any organization, and all production was in a semi-shutdown state.

Moreover, the standards for these parts are not absolute, and it takes more time to find universally suitable parts.

This meant that he could only search one area at a time, bring back the nearest parts, and then have Captain Zhao compare them to select the usable ones. Sometimes he was lucky enough to find suitable parts on the first try, but sometimes he couldn't find anything usable.

However, after a considerable amount of time, all the parts were finally found, and then Captain Zhao began preparations.

During this process, I didn't immediately set off to find the next part after finding it. I would usually rest for a few days on the Yangtze.

During this time, he would talk a lot with Captain Zhao, such as what the world was like before the war, and he also understood how terrible the war that turned the world into this was.

He also marveled at himself, realizing that he was actually able to hold an anti-materiel sniper rifle and fire, which was something that seemed highly illogical.

And he didn't know what to say, he couldn't very well say it was because of the soul power in his body.

Captain Zhao actually loves to chat, or perhaps being alone here for the past two hundred years has made it impossible for him to communicate with others.

As for the others who were trapped in this wasteland with Captain Zhao, he had not obtained any clues or made any contact. He could only wait and hold on alone inside the Yangtze.

Besides chatting with Captain Zhao, Huo Yuhao would also look at the books downloaded from the terminal stored on the Yangzi.

The books in those terminals were originally meant for the crew's entertainment, but now it was Huo Yuhao's turn to read them.

Through conversation and reading, the boy learned about what another country was like before the war, and also saw that some things were not as they should be; the ghost hovered in the sky, and the shackles on people could be broken...

This feeling is just as shocking as when I first read the phrase "all men are created equal".

The resentment that had been building up in my heart finally became clear after reading these words; it was the first time I truly understood what I had to face.

Previously, what I hated was only the performance, but now I see the underlying reasons for all of this.

That wasn't just something I and my mother suffered; it was a similar experience that many others are going through.

The boy had never truly experienced what the pre-war world was like, nor had he ever really come into contact with those things. However, after coming into contact with the things from these two countries, many of the words he heard gave him the feeling of emerging from a dark cave.

Even though there are more dangers outside, there is also a wider world.

At this moment, the boy's eyes truly opened. The hatred was not put aside, but he saw the whole picture of what he was about to face.

However, the boy has not yet found a way home.

Of course, these books were not only serious academic works, but also light novels. Among them, he came across a familiar term: Shushan Tangmen.

The boy could only take this word as a coincidence, since the book he saw was a martial arts novel.

Afterwards, he helped Captain Zhao kill the crew members who had turned into ghouls. He couldn't bring himself to kill his former comrades, so he had to do it for him himself.

Then, under his command, the interior of the submarine was cleaned up.

With a buzzing sound, the two of them knew that it had all been a success.

"Thank you very much. Without your help, the Yangtze could not have been restarted. I will give you appropriate compensation..."

Hearing this, he smiled and shook his head, saying, "No need, I've already been paid. I've read all the books in those terminals."

He paused for a moment, then smiled and said, "You are indeed very special. Although we come from two different places, I want to say thank you for your help, comrade."

As he spoke, he gave me a standard military salute, and I responded by making the same gesture.

After that, I stood on the shore and watched the Yangtze begin to sail out to sea, and then slowly submerged underwater.

He did not accept Captain Zhao's invitation to return together. After all that had happened, he planned to head west, back to the capital wasteland, back to Mojave.

At this moment, the boy had accepted the reality that his hope of returning home was extremely slim.

But he did not despair because of this; instead, he planned to do something else.

In the past, the boy had always resisted becoming a member of the wasteland because he wanted to go home and avenge his mother.

Now, having experienced all of this, the boy intends to truly venture into the wasteland and become a real member of it.

Therefore, he had to return to the Capital Wasteland to find the Brotherhood of Steel, and to the Mojave to find New California. Those problems needed to be solved, and the wasteland needed to be changed, even if it was incredibly difficult.

So the boy embarked on his journey again, but this time he headed west.

Then, he walked to the outer edge of the capital wasteland and discovered a spaceship he had never seen before crashed in some ruins.

As he approached to investigate, a beam of light enveloped him, and he was then suspended in mid-air.

This situation left Huo Yuhao somewhat at a loss, and then a wave of dizziness washed over him.

When he regained consciousness slightly, he vaguely saw some alien-looking creatures surrounding him, seemingly arguing about something, before he lost consciousness again.

When the attack came again, he found himself locked up in a place he had never seen before. There were other people around him, people from various places, all of whom were now imprisoned here.

With the help of a young girl who crawled through a narrow passage to the outside of the cell, she and the others were able to escape from the cell.

Then came the battle with the aliens, and during this process, he learned from some people who had been captured before him that these aliens would experiment on those they captured...

What followed was that he found the equipment, fought the aliens, put on the spacesuit of a dead astronaut, moved around outside the spaceship in outer space, and turned on the spaceship's equipment.

During this process, I witnessed the vastness of the universe and saw the distant blue planet. On the spaceship, I met a soldier from before the war, a cowboy from hundreds of years ago, and a samurai from the Shogunate era.

As for himself, after killing the aliens on the spaceship, he saw another spaceship flying in.

Then time returns to the present. After destroying the spaceship with its weapons, he looks at the blue planet and pulls himself out of his memories.

At this moment, I just felt that my eyes might be hallucinating. After all, looking at that blue planet, I felt as if it were beating like a heart.

After shaking his head to clear his mind, he looked at the spaceship being torn apart by explosions in space, and thought to himself, "This can be considered saving the world." Then he turned to look at the others behind him.

Then he asked, "It seems there won't be any problems in the short term. Is there any way to get me back to the surface?"

Upon hearing this, a woman spoke up, "It should be possible. Are you sure you want to go back to the ground?" She pointed to a location on the spaceship, which was the teleportation device.

Hearing the other person say that, he nodded and said, "Of course." Then he walked over there.

The others looked at him, the former soldier and cowboy, and said with some worry, "Are we just leaving like that?"

In response, he said, "Yes, but you should get used to it here. After all, this is a post-nuclear wasteland. If you go back now, you won't be able to adapt."

He then pointed to the shogunate samurai and continued, "Let's help him get used to it too..."

After saying this, the boy asked the other party to begin the teleportation.

Upon seeing this, the other party tapped on the screen, and then the teleportation device emitted light that enveloped them.

Seeing the bright light around me, I instinctively closed my eyes, and then I felt my body begin to fall.

At this moment, the intense heat energy on the sun's surface is surging, more terrifying and spectacular than the waves crashing on the sea during a storm.

According to pre-war observation records, a solar storm that occurs only once every eleven years is happening right now.

The solar storm, carrying a large amount of radiation waves and high-energy particles, hurtled towards this blue planet.

For a world that has now become a wasteland, this solar storm will not have much of an impact. Even alien spaceships in space will only feel slight fluctuations.

However, when two seemingly unrelated things collide, the resulting events exceed expectations.

Suddenly, he opened his eyes and felt a strange shock. He was supposed to be teleported back to the ground, but instead of going back or staying on the spaceship, he remained in the air.

And now, his body seems to be frozen in the teleportation process, his whole being is almost transparent, and his equipment is also beginning to dissolve. He feels like he has returned to a familiar state, back to the feeling he had when he first came to this world.

Before he could react, a violent impact began to stretch and shove his body.

In the boy's eyes, his pupils began to dilate. The blue planet continued to beat like a heart, and all around him was the boundless universe, where he felt like a piece of duckweed floating on the water.

As the body is stretched continuously at this moment, so too is time, which seems to be frozen in place.

His entire spirit was infinitely extended at this moment, and everything around him seemed to be taken in, with light and shadow constantly stretching and distorting.

At this moment, his illusory body was stretched into a thin line by the impact of the solar storm, like a trace left by a streak of light.

At this moment, I was completely at a loss about this change. My brain was no longer able to think, and I felt as if I had returned to that time.

Then, in his eyes, only light and shadow remained in disarray, eventually twisting and merging into a white expanse.

The white color was finally broken by the splashing water from the fish's swaying tail.

The water droplets fell on my face, and everything returned to the very beginning.