After walking past stone buildings, passing through areas, and reaching the end of the city, I saw a vertical stone wall here.
Philip was a little surprised. He was not sure whether the city he was in was originally built close to the stone wall, or whether it had half-enclosed a mountain before construction and then cut it like this.
What surprised him even more was that there was a huge arched circular hole in the stone wall, which was so dark that he didn't know where it led. Dense "concave" shaped metal pipes extend from the round hole and are laid on the ground, with no idea of their use.
Later, he heard an explanation from others that these "concave" metal tubes were called tracks, and the round holes were called tunnels.
Philip and his son, together with the others, were rushed to a dam-like platform next to the tunnel by the officer named Norton Wanwa and asked to wait quietly.
After waiting for about ten minutes, everyone suddenly looked towards the tunnel in unison because they heard a strange sound.
"Click, click..."
The ground around them shook slightly, as if some terrifying beast was about to rush out of the tunnel, and the crowd couldn't help but become a little commotion.
"Kacha kacha kacha..."
The sounds coming from the tunnel became louder and louder, torturing everyone's eardrums, and white steam spread out.
Crowd harassment intensified and panic began.
"Crack, click, click! Ouch!"
Finally, the sound suddenly turned into a long and sharp sound, piercing everyone's ears like an awl, and everyone couldn't help but reach out and cover their ears. Then, with widened eyes, he saw a steel monster suddenly breaking through the thick white steam and roaring out of the tunnel.
The steel monster has an extremely long body, several hundred meters in length, and is made up of sections. The front section is an approximately cylindrical structure. There are many iron wheels at the bottom that roll into the rails. The black iron rods move up and down repeatedly, pushing it forward. Rolling white steam emerged from several stubby "horns" at the top, raising the temperature of the surrounding air and exuding a frightening aura.
Phillip watched the steel monster approaching, his body stiffened, and his whole body felt strange and shocked.
"Woo! Click... click... click... click!"
During the continuous roar, the steel monster began to slow down, and finally stopped little by little. The gray body in the middle stopped in front of the high platform of Philip and his group.
With a "crash", this section of the body slid open from the middle, like a door opening. A man appeared inside the door. He was tall and thin, wearing an officer's uniform similar to Norton's. He waved to them and said, "Don't be stunned. Come up."
Philip and the others said: "..." They looked at each other, and no one dared to move.
What is this for? Feed them directly to this weird steel monster
Then they won't be fooled!
Officer Norton shouted at this moment: "Don't waste your time with me. Come in quickly. What are you afraid of? I will go in with you. Come on! Come on!"
After being urged harshly, someone hesitated and finally took action.
It's little Jimmy.
Little Jimmy took two steps, jumped slightly, and jumped directly into the door on the steel monster's body, looking around curiously.
Phillip couldn't help but feel anxious, and without thinking much, he rushed forward, preparing for any danger and risking his life to protect his son.
With this motivation, the rest of the people jumped into the "belly" of the steel monster one after another under Norton's continued urging.
Officer Norton was last in line, and he didn't lie, following him into the steel monster. After entering, there was no fear on his face. Instead, he chatted easily with the tall and thin officer who waved before.
"Sam, I didn't expect that it would be you who picked up the car this time."
"Norton, I didn't expect you to be the one delivering the car. Didn't I hear that you were transferred to City 11?"
"Yeah, but I won't report until next month. I will go to City 11 to be the head of some small department."
"Okay! Congratulations then!"
"Congratulations." Norton shook his head. "It's said that he was promoted, but in fact it's almost the same as being demoted. It's not like you don't know about City 11. The location is not good and you haven't been taken seriously by the superiors. The conditions may be all. The worst in the city. Let’s not talk about anything else, let’s talk about this magic steam locomotive. It is still the most primitive Mark 1 type, with a three-cold and four-heat design. It is terribly slow, and the shock absorption is poor. From time to time, the magic engine will explode. I I’m really afraid that one day I’ll be blown up directly to death.”
"Actually, the difference is not that big. The Mark III model we are riding now is actually an old model. The six-cold and eight-heat design has no essential changes compared to the three-cold and four-heat design. It is a little faster and has better shock absorption. , the spell engine is safer. But it’s okay if nothing happens. Once something happens, it’s a big deal, and it’s not as good as the new Mark IV.” said the officer named Sam.
After a pause, Sam added: "By the way, I heard someone mention that there is a new Crewe-type magic motorcycle, which is under development and has great improvements. It is fast, powerful, and safe, but I don't know about it. No chance to see it.”
"Anyway, your chance of meeting him is definitely greater than mine." Norton responded.
"It's hard to say." Sam disagreed. "You work well in City 11, make meritorious deeds, get a 'Richard Gold Leaf Medal, Third Class', and then be transferred to Sarin. What will you not see then? Maybe even 'Storm Bird' and 'Iron-winged Bird' can be seen."
"How dare you think about it? Let alone the 'Richard Gold Leaf Medal of the Third Class', I don't even think it is possible to obtain the 'Richard Silver Leaf Medal of the First Class'."
"You have to have some faith, everything depends on man-made efforts."
"..."
... ...
Officers Norton and Sam then kept talking, talking a lot, but Philip didn't understand most of it.
After understanding it, he was not in the mood to think carefully because he was still in fear, shock, surprise and confusion about the steel monster.
He is not a man with much courage, so he rushed in because he wanted to protect his son. Originally, he thought it would be very scary and bloody, and there might be many remains that had been digested by the steel monster, but there was no such thing.
The body of the steel monster cannot be said to be very clean, but it cannot be said to be dirty either.
Inside, it seems to be a simple iron-shell house with a strip light projecting light on the top - this is the same as the accommodation room in the previous stone building.
In addition, there are many staggered iron poles with handrails on them. I don’t know what they do.
There is a series of transparent windows on the steel wall. There are a lot of brown rust stains on the edges of the windows, probably due to water leakage, and there are clusters of black stains on the ground.
Apart from that, there is nothing else. Frankly speaking, this place is much better than his house in Guangming Town.
Is this really the belly of the steel monster
If the Iron Monster's belly looks like this, how does the Iron Monster run
As soon as he thought of this, Phillip felt the silence of the steel monster trembled, and it roared again.
"Click, click, click... woo woo!"
The steel monster started moving from stillness, but instead of moving forward, it started moving backward.
Slowly at first, gradually speeding up, and then speeding up again. Driven by some unknown force, the steel monster galloped back into the tunnel just as it had come, and roared toward the other end of the tunnel.
... ...