End of the meeting.
Everything is business as usual.
The whole world passed like this for two weeks amid gunfire and artillery fire.
It's late August.
The scorching heat is still lingering.
The branches of the trees beside the road were limp and listless.
The roads are full of potholes, collapsed buildings are riddled with craters, and metal bullet casings mixed with scarlet dust can be seen everywhere.
In this hot and anxious midsummer season, old Russell wiped the sweat from his forehead, his worried face was full of wrinkles, the dry and hot air burned his lungs, and every breath was unbearable .
"Damn weather."
The lord was no longer so well dressed.
The war caused him to lose his glamorous appearance, and his homeland was invaded. Now he is no more noble than those ordinary people, he is just an ordinary old man who is irritable.
"Da da!"
Old Russell held the cane stiffly with his withered hands and knocked on the dilapidated palace door.
He straightened his back and wiped the sweat from his forehead again, with a bit of the old man's stubbornness on his rough face.
The broken door opened.
The young royal members bowed and walked out with barely bright smiles on their faces. Even though there was an indelible anxiety buried under that smile, they were worried about how long this dilapidated city could hold on.
"My Lord Duke, how could you go out alone? God bless you, those damn dwarf invaders are still watching in the corners of the city. I can't wait to cut off their rotten and disgusting eyes and expose their ugliness to the world."
As he spoke, a shell roared and landed on the street not far away.
Metal fragments exploded, soil flew up, and dust instantly filled half of the street.
The palace here also shook, and a lot of dust fell.
The royal member wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and felt frightened.
But the old man with a straight back in front of him didn't seem to be afraid at all. He was still using a cane, and his skinny body had a unique stubbornness.
"Your Majesty Duke, come in and talk. It's dangerous outside."
While he was talking, the palace guards patrolled by.
This is the last guarantee that all the royal family members can stay in West City. They fall asleep in uneasiness every night, and only the neat and powerful footsteps of the escort can bring them a little peace of mind.
"Just here."
Old Russell fully demonstrated the attitude of an irritable old man. He grabbed his cane, knocked on the hard floor in front of the palace door, and then pointed into the distance with the cane.
That was outside the palace, the entire shabby city.
Visible corpses and mutilated limbs.
The stench permeated the air, and the harsh weather in August made these corpses a natural nourishment for viruses and fly maggots. Putrid black-brown blood flowed on the broken streets, and buzzing flies flew around.
The city is half in ruins.
Broken steel bars were stained with rust and stuck into large slabs of concrete.
The gray broken plaster is mixed with red broken bricks, and is entangled with dry weeds.
Hidden in the ruins of the city are civilians struggling to survive, as well as a large number of dwarves who have sneaked in and are waiting for opportunities.
Russell leaned back on his stick, with anxiety and irritation on his old face, and asked in the old man's unique dry voice: "Did you see that this is no longer the prosperous West City, it is just a ruin, a piece of nothing. Meaningless ruins! But you insist on holding on, why? Because you can’t help but beg those androids?”
It's been two weeks since that meeting.
The war intensified.
The city of West is filled with smoke, and survivors are hiding in Tibet. Everyone who is still alive is haggard, and their hearts are constantly swinging with hope and despair.
The royal member swallowed and pursed his chapped lips, not knowing how to explain to the grumpy old duke.
"Your Majesty the Duke..."
"Forget it, I'm going to see the queen. Since you can't lose face, let me go. An old man who is a hereditary duke should have enough weight."
Old Russell's voice was rough and hoarse. He stepped forward stiffly, his back straight, and he grabbed the cracked crutch like he was holding an old double-barreled shotgun.
The old Duke entered the palace like a soldier about to return to the battlefield, even though he was not fully armored.
The interior of the once prosperous palace was also in ruins, like an old man in his twilight years, crumbling.
…
Outside Mowu City.
The second city of androids.
The wind and sand here are much smaller and can hardly be felt.
The outermost edge of the city is densely packed with grass squares. The amount of engineering work is huge and stretches for dozens of kilometers. At a glance, all the dry soil in the dunes is covered with grass squares and has stopped flowing.
Tens of millions of androids are on the move, and the city is changing every day.
The inner layer of the city is lined with rows of freshly planted trees, all varieties resistant to drought and harsh weather.
This long-dead no man's land is now dotted with green, like a crystal clear green jade inlaid in the desert.
There are also large and small freshwater lakes inside the city, and road planning is beginning to take shape.
Lu Wen used a lot of manpower and material resources to airlift water resources from Mowu City.
This approach can be called a luxury, but in order to transform the city in the shortest time, there is no need to worry about so much.
Now it can only be shipped by air.
It was definitely too late to build the pipeline.
If you take land transportation and pass through the suburbs, you are very likely to be attacked by a small team in the mixed zone.
Ma Bo stood on the newly built high-rise building, overlooking the ever-changing city, his eyes full of emotion. He sighed: "No. 9, the connections you have in Mowu City are too terrifying. It has only been less than a month. The whole city comes alive in your hands."
The more than 100-meter-tall building under his feet took only two weeks to build.
The terrifying speed is staggering.
In Ma Bo's previous concept, the time to build such a tall building was measured in months and years.
There are many similar buildings around this tall building, which were built very quickly.
All the androids saw that Lu Wen asked people to transport building module components from Mowu City, just like building blocks, and they completed the assembly of a building in a few days.
With such a fast speed, even androids like Ma Bo who are not afraid of death are a little worried about the quality of the building.
But Lu Wen told everyone to rest assured that the quality would definitely pass.
As long as the foundation is solid.
Over in Mowu City, this method has been used for decades. A lot of preparations are done in the factory in the early stage, and then spliced quickly to complete the construction of the building in the shortest time possible without disturbing the lives of people around the construction site.
Those buildings were in good condition before the war and have survived for decades without any quality problems.
"You laid the foundation relatively solidly in the early stage, so I can piece it together with peace of mind in the past two weeks." Lu Wen explained: "Mowu City has been busy rebuilding after the riots, and all kinds of building materials are readily available. Now When the war started, the reconstruction work was suspended, and all the prefabricated components for the floors were piled up in the warehouse, and I just bought them all.”
in other words.
Lu Wen bought the materials for rebuilding Mowu City to build the second bionic city.
After the war started, all construction sites stopped, and a large number of semi-finished components were piled in warehouses. The sky-high warehouse costs were enough to cause headaches for those in charge of the projects.
There is no telling when this war will end.
So No Man's Land, the wealthy 'Nine', became their savior.
"There are also these skilled human workers. I brought their families here so that they don't have to worry about the war and can build with peace of mind."
Now many residents of Mowu City know that the second city of androids not far from the suburbs is the safest place in the world. Tens of millions of androids with combat capabilities have surrounded the entire city.
Many wealthy businessmen came here with their families after paying a large sum of money.
Lu Wen also brought over some of his close human friends in the city, such as Yin Liuyue's family. Currently, there are more than 200,000 humans living in the entire city.
With a large number of human workers and androids working day and night, the city is changing every second.
Airports, train stations, subways, roads, bus stations, government buildings, residential buildings...
Everything is starting to take shape.
To facilitate prayer, churches are also set up in each area.
There are still some problems with electric power facilities. Solar power generation cannot meet the living needs of a large number of people, and power generation by love is not enough, so the construction project includes thermal power generation, which Lu Wen dislikes the most.
Big chimneys were erected.
The urban planning remains the same, with four divisions: southeast, northwest, and southeast, and each region is divided into large and small blocks.
"At present, the construction of two airports has been completed, and the third airport is being built at a very fast speed. Tens of thousands of android compatriots started construction in an orderly manner at the same time. The human workers were shocked and said that they had never seen such a spectacular thing. If there were tens of thousands of humans, there would be no way to regulate the scene... "
"According to the plan, the west and south sides of the city are expanding to the periphery to ensure that enough residents can be accommodated... "
"Thirteen super-large-scale warehouses have been built in the east, and they are currently accepting daily necessities purchased from Mowu City..."
"Those creatures from the underground world came to test us again this morning and tried to infiltrate our city, but we were beaten back again..."
Build a city from scratch.
This is a very fulfilling thing.
Although the preliminary basic work was completed by the Android Alliance, the city really shined in the hands of Lu Wen.
All the androids recognized the abilities of 'Number Nine'.
But Lu Wen didn't feel much sense of accomplishment, and was even a little anxious, because... he was almost out of money.
The Bionic Alliance's initial funds, as well as his own funds, were almost spent in these two weeks.
After all, in the beginning, everyone planned to take it slow and spend a few years perfecting the city, so they didn't worry about money.
"No money?" Xia Chuluo sat on the edge of a 100-meter-high building, her long legs dangling slightly in the air. She could see Lu Wen's current situation at a glance.
"So be it."
"Are you waiting for those guys from the West to come and beg you and give you money?"
"Um."
To be honest, Lu Wen did not expect that West City could persist until now.
The perseverance and stubbornness of human creatures is admirable.
He can also figure out the reason.
The royal families in the West were unwilling to lose face and come to discuss with him, an android.
After all, once action is taken, both West City and Versailles will become the first human city in history to turn to bionic people for help, and this will be written into the history books.
"I still have some money here, you can use it, I won't use it anyway."
Xia Chuluo threw out a black metal card.
This was left to her by her parents.
[A little money]
The legendary 'Treasure of Summer'.
That man used his unparalleled wisdom to find many treasures buried in no man's land. Over time, they piled up into mountains, including stone slabs from prehistoric civilizations and ships from the Age of Discovery. Each piece was sold for a sky-high price.
Lu Wen connected to the bank system and checked the specific amount of this card.
In fact, he had always known that Xia Chuluo was very rich, and had accidentally glimpsed many zeros on Xia Chuluo's account.
But this time I actually got it in my hand, and I realized what it means to be truly rich...
Miss Xia suddenly had the label "Little Rich Woman" in his system.
If anyone can marry her, they won't have to worry about it for the rest of their lives.
"It's boring. I'll follow the plane delivering supplies back to Mowu City later."
Xia Chuluo stretched out his hand to support his chin, his face expressionless. He had only been here for a long time and couldn't stay any longer.
The place of fighting and chaos in Mowu City is suitable for her character.
Nowadays, the infrastructure of Mowu City is still complete, but the road monitoring has been destroyed a lot, which makes Lu Wen unable to completely monitor the entire city, so he is not too worried about Xia Chuluo staying there.
"Don't worry, I won't go to the front line." Xia Chuluo said.
"The whole city is a frontline now."
"Fortunately, it's just that the edge of the city is more dangerous, but the inside is still safe."
Mowu City faces the most powerful enemy.
It is still the best for the current situation.
For two weeks, there was no communication between the two sides and they just kept fighting.
Lu Wen also regained contact with his body.
That body can reflect to him the movements of the old guy Yin Long in real time.
"On the 9th, a message was sent from the airport, saying that a temporary route has been opened from West City and it will arrive in half an hour. Our air force is asked not to expel." Fangzhou sent a message.
"Sure enough, he still came."
There was only half an hour left, and there was no contact in advance. It was probably because there was a disagreement among the senior officials in West City.
Do the royal family and the current government disagree
Through some news obtained from the West, Lu Wen thought carefully and felt that in this situation, the Western royal family was not only a mascot, but also had power in certain matters.
It didn't take long, time waits for no one.
Lu Wen glanced at the sky, then changed into a slim suit and rushed to the airport.
Half an hour later.
The plane from West City landed.
Lu Wen greeted him at the airport with a group of leaders from the android side.
He looked at the logo on the fuselage and confirmed that the plane belonged to the royal family and was a private flight, which could explain why there was no advance notice.
The hatch opens.
An old man walked down step by step, leaning on a cane and wearing modern ducal clothing, with his back straight.
"No. 9, I'm here to negotiate terms with you."
(End of chapter)