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"What is this wall?" Ning Gu looked at the white wall in front of him.
"It should be..." Lian Chuan switched the automatic driving to manual and slowly approached the white wall. "It should be the old city boundary of the main city a long time ago."
The main city is collapsing.
This is a fact that almost everyone knows, even if they don’t know how they know it. The destruction is bound to come based on this fact.
But only now did Lian Chuan truly feel how huge the scale of the collapse was.
The ruins they saw on the Black Iron Wasteland were just traces of the past, a past that most people still remembered.
The earlier past, the earlier collapse, and the earlier main city are probably just records that are no longer accessed in the main city system.
And beyond this wall may be the boundless black iron wasteland that the main city has once explored.
"Was the main city this big before?" Ning Gu climbed out of the skylight and stood on the roof of the car. "Can it get all the way here?"
"In theory, it should be like this," Lian Chuan looked at the screen, waiting for the scan results to see if there was a gap nearby that could lead to the other side of the wall. "But when the main city was this big, we didn't even exist. It was a long time ago."
Especially after the population cleansing began, no one knew about these past events.
"Speaking of which," Ning Gu said, "in fact, the so-called destruction has already begun. It started when the main city began to shrink and retreat little by little, right?"
"Yes," Lian Chuan said, "We have long been standing at the end of destruction, not emerging from the cracks as we thought."
"How slow." Ning Gu said.
"Not all of them are slow," Lian Chuan said, "Didn't you show up?"
"You showed up too." Ning Gu said.
The scanning results were similar to Lian Chuan's judgment. A distance to the left, where the crack had previously passed, there was a gap in the white wall torn by the crack.
The car turned and drove over there.
Ning Gu stood on the roof of the car, looking at the mountain-like wall that was constantly moving backwards in front of him.
"Why do we need such a wall?" he asked. "If it is just to declare sovereignty, there is no need to be so high, right?"
"There are no living creatures over there," Lian Chuan said.
"Can you feel it?" Ning Gu asked.
"Well," Lian Chuan said, "When you first came to the main city, you were hiding next to the iron box behind the broken wall. I felt it."
Ning Gu looked down at him and said, "As expected, you are the strongest hyena."
It wasn't long before they saw a gap.
There was a gap that was dozens of meters long, and the wall above was still connected, like a huge empty doorway.
As the car passed through the gap, Ning Gu looked up.
The wall was very thick, much thicker than the boundary wall of the main city today.
"It takes a lot of effort to build a wall," he sighed.
"The current main city can't do it," Lianchuan said, "The resources should be sufficient at that time to afford large-scale equipment to make such a large-scale thing."
On the other side of the white wall is still a black iron wasteland.
Ning Gu looked around and saw that the scene was the same as before, feeling a little disappointed: "I thought there would be something different here."
"Three months of energy and supplies," Lian Chuan said. "Maybe if we keep driving for three months without returning, we will still have the same supplies."
"Is that so?" Ning Gu sighed softly.
"I saw the main city in Ye Xi's sealed room," Lian Chuan said, "I could only see the current part of the main city. If that is a hint, then the place we are in now is already a place that no longer exists in the system, forever and endlessly."
"When you first came out with me, you thought it might be like this, right?" Ning Gu lay on the car and stuck his head into it.
"Yeah, I've thought about it." Lian Chuan said.
"Then why didn't you tell me?" Ning Gu asked, "Why did you come out with me?"
"You want to go," Lianchuan said, "and what if it's not."
Ning Gu was stunned: "Is it that simple?"
"What else?" Lian Chuan said.
Ning Gu didn't say anything, just smiled and reached out to scratch Lian Chuan's head.
The car drove for a long time.
Lianchuan made two new flavors in the middle. One was a mixture of meat and dairy products, and the other one Lianchuan said was a mixture of eggs and apples.
Ning Gu’s meal was hard to describe, but Lian Chuan thought it was delicious.
"I'll try it next time." Ning Gu said.
"Do you think it tastes bad?" Lian Chuan asked.
"No." Ning Gu answered simply.
"Okay," Lian Chuan said, "Then you can make the next meal."
"You still say I'm naive." Ning Gu said, "Listen to your question yourself."
"I think it's okay," Lian Chuan glanced at him, "but I know you think it tastes bad."
Ning Gu laughed: "You are quite miserable, aren't you? No one can deceive you, no one can hide anything from you, and you can always see the truth."
"I don't pay attention to others," Lian Chuan said. "I don't mind listening to your truth and seeing your reality. There's nothing wrong with that. If you say it tastes bad, it won't hurt me."
"Really?" Ning Gu looked at him.
"Yeah," Lian Chuan nodded, "What you make will only make it taste worse."
In fact, it is not easy to feel hungry when driving all the way to an unknown end.
Just sitting in the car, looking at the scenery around you that is changing and not changing, chatting from time to time, it is a very relaxing thing and not exhausting.
Even Ning Gu, who gets hungry easily, didn't feel like eating.
They don't even pay attention to time.
Time does not exist.
It’s now.
Such a boring yet relaxing journey, with a destination but not necessarily a necessary destination.
"There's something in front of the right." Lian Chuan sat up straight.
Ning Gu, who had been half lying next to him, jumped up, squatted on the passenger seat and looked out.
In the dim light, he saw a square object in front of him on the right.
"Artificial?" he asked.
"Definitely," Lian Chuan said as he drove the car over there, "It looks like a building."
"Whose cabin is this?" Ning Gu asked.
"That's not a 'small' house," Lian Chuan glanced at him, "that thing is still two kilometers away from us."
"Oh." Ning Gu looked over there, "It's very big."
"Yeah." Lian Chuan looked at the building on the screen that was becoming clearer and clearer.
It is roughly a cube, and there is nothing special about it. There are no guardrails or walls. It just stands alone in the wilderness.
"Can you feel anything?" Ning Gu asked, "Is there anything alive?"
"I didn't feel anything," Lian Chuan said, "There shouldn't be any living things here. We haven't found any traces in such a long time."
"This can only be something left before the main city collapsed," Ning Gu stared at the square black shadow in the distance, "I don't know what it is, but it's pretty solid. After so many years... Look at the old ruins near Lost Valley, they have all collapsed beyond recognition."
"It may be a relatively important place," Lianchuan said, "and Chunsan's laboratories can be preserved intact for a long time."
Ning Gu glanced at him and said, "Don't scare me. I don't want to meet any more experimental subjects."
The receiver in the car beeped.
The screen displays the real-time information received.
"What information?" Ning Gu suddenly became a little nervous. He stood on the chair, leaned out of the roof of the car and looked around. A small golden light appeared on his fingertips.
"It's the same system as ours," Lian Chuan said, "It's from the main city."
"Main city? Isn't it impossible to communicate so far in real time?" Ning Gu said, "Even if it is ordinary information, it should be received by the receiver. How could it be received by the system in the car?"
"It's the information from the old... big main city." Lian Chuan didn't know what to say.
"Can you hear what it is?" Ning Gu asked.
"I don't know." Lian Chuan pressed the connect button.
-You have entered the main city defense system, please confirm your identity
A line of words flashed quietly on the screen.
"We need to confirm our identity." Lian Chuan said.
"How to confirm?" Ning Gu asked.
“… I don’t know,” Lian Chuan said, “The information can be received, but the system is no longer the same, and there is no way to interact.”
Ning Gu didn't say anything. Golden light rolled out from under his feet and instantly spread to the entire outside of the car.
There were a few flashes of light on the ground ahead, very bright and very short, leaving only a spot of light in front of my eyes.
"There are weapons." Lian Chuan said.
"No attack?" Ning Gu looked over there vigilantly.
"The weapon has been rendered ineffective," Lian Chuan said, "and no trace of the weapon can be found in the scans."
"Oh." Ning Gu suddenly felt a little disappointed.
The car slowly approached the square building, and they could slowly see the overall structure of the building.
It should have been a complex of buildings with walls and gates. Some traces can still be vaguely seen on the ground. This building is the main structure. It is not very tall, probably about the same height as the third floor of the City Affairs Hall, but it covers a much larger area.
Lian Chuan got out of the car and checked the place where the flash had appeared before.
It is a base that once housed large weapons.
But the part above the base was destroyed, and it was impossible to tell what kind of weapon it was.
The main door of the building was facing them. When they approached, they could see densely packed windows on the mottled, scarred walls.
The window frames and other things were gone, leaving only neatly arranged empty holes on the wall, looking at them like eyes.
The door was locked, and Ning Gu raised his hand twice before he managed to open it.
It was a very thick and large door. According to the traditional thinking of the main city, such a building must be hiding secrets that cannot be known to ordinary people.
Just like the underground parts of the three major buildings in the core area of Zone A.
However, this building no longer has any secrets. Although the door is still intact, the broken windows indicate that there are no longer any secrets here.
But it was just as Ning Gu said, the building was very solid. As they walked through the gate, lights lit up on the surrounding walls. Clusters of light spread from the outside to the inside and from the bottom to the top, quickly covering the entire interior of the building.
Everything in the building is instantly visible.
This is a huge integrated space. It can be seen that there are no floors. There are only countless criss-crossing metal arms and iron cages suspended below the metal arms.
There are also shelves arranged high from the ground to the top, and huge glass bottles on the shelves.
Of course the glass had been shattered, but the metal fixing frame was still there. Lian Chuan could recognize it at a glance. Such experimental cabins were still in use.
"This really is a laboratory." Ning Gu's tone was full of disdain and disgust.
"A laboratory can do a lot of things. Without a laboratory, it won't work," Lian Chuan patted him on the back. "It depends on what you do."
Ning Gu glanced at him and said, "Anyway, I don't have a good impression of the laboratory. What do you think this laboratory is used for?"
"I can't tell." Lian Chuan walked to a fixed frame and saw a thick layer of black stuff at the bottom. "This looks a bit like..."
He reached out and pressed it, then pinched some and rubbed it in his hands.
"What does it feel like?" Ning Gu also reached out and touched it. "Like mud?"
Lian Chuan glanced at him and said, "Yes."
"There are them everywhere in Ye Xi's world." Ning Gu said.
"There are some in the main city's laboratories now, but they are rare," Lian Chuan said, "and they cultivate a small number of plants."
"This scale..." Ning Gu looked around, "Does the former main city still want green trees, grass, and flowers?"
"Probably," Lian Chuan suddenly sighed, "At the beginning, no one thought that we would have to shut down even the artificial starry sky in the end."
"Someone is here!" Ning Gu walked around behind a shelf and suddenly shouted.
Lian Chuan was already beside him when he shouted the first word, and then was enveloped by Ning Gu's golden light.
"Wrap yourself." Lian Chuan said.
He looked in the direction Ning Gu was looking at. There was a table and a large chair behind it.
There is a person on the chair.
To be precise, it should be a body.
Lianchuan was sure that this "person" had no life.
"Hey!" The silver beam of light under Ning Gu's feet began to extend towards the table, and he confidently greeted the "person" behind the table.
Lian Chuan walked over.
When he got closer, he could see that it might not even be called a body.
This is a very old protective suit, but it seems to be still intact.
What was inside... was a person who had become shriveled and blackened, and most of him had been broken into pieces.
"Dead?" Ning Gu followed.
"He has been dead for a long time." Lian Chuan walked over, hesitated for a moment, and reached out to take off the helmet of the protective suit.
As the helmet was removed, a gas wrapped in black ash that had been sealed for who knows how long emerged from the collar.
"Ah—" Ning Gu took two steps back and fanned himself desperately with his hands.
The person in the protective suit, who was almost shattered, instantly turned into black powder.
"I think I smelled his ashes," Ning Gu frowned, "Who is this unlucky guy..."
Lian Chuan didn't say anything. He saw a pointed metal strip on the protective suit gloves, so he reached out and touched the table.
Under the thick dust, he felt some words on the table.
"What did you write?" Ning Gu came closer curiously.
The two of them didn't care about the dust and used their arms to sweep away the dust on the table.
In the rising dust, they saw two lines of words on the table.
"I don't know who will see me, but at least you are still alive," Lian Chuan touched the two lines of words with his hand. The words were engraved very deeply. The table was made of metal. To carve with such force, the person must not be an ordinary person. He should be an experimental subject. "I was born after everyone disappeared..."
"What do you mean?" Ning Gu asked.
"This laboratory should have been still in operation when we evacuated. This is an experimental subject that was 'produced' after the evacuation," Lian Chuan made a simple guess and looked at the words behind it. "The information I received can no longer be transmitted. Destruction is the inevitable outcome. It will be long and desperate."
After Lian Chuan finished reading, he glanced at Ning Gu.
"No more?" Ning Gu asked.
"No more." Lian Chuan said.
"Why can't he pass on?" Ning Gu said, "The main city didn't retreat to its current position from the beginning, so he could have walked over there, right?"
"He may have some defects," Lian Chuan looked at the protective suit, "The inability to transmit may mean that he won't live long. Normal test subjects don't need protective suits."
"What a pity," Ning Gu sighed after a long while, "He will never know that the world is not destroyed... It's terrible to die in despair."
Lian Chuan didn't say anything, just opened his arms.
"Hmm?" Ning Gu looked at him.
Lian Chuan still didn't speak.
Ning Gu didn't ask any more questions, but went over and hugged him: "Don't be afraid."
"I'm not afraid." Lian Chuan said.
"So you want to comfort me?" Ning Gu turned and looked at him.
"I just want to hug you," Lian Chuan said, "When will you stop talking so much?"
"My lips are not soft enough. Talk more to moisten them." Ning Gu said.
Lian Chuan laughed: "You hold a grudge too much."
"When I was a kid, the land king cheated me out of a button. I still remember it." Ning Gu said, "If he were in front of me, I could still beat him up for this button."
Lian Chuan looked at him, moved closer and kissed him on the lips.