Brigade Zhao and a group of people stood on the top of the bunker, watching three cars driving towards them in the dust from a distance.
They are all Security Bureau vehicles. Except for the first one, the other two are warehouse trucks.
It is not surprising that the Security Bureau's convoy left the city. Although there are natural protective barriers around the outer city, in order to 100% guarantee the safety of the residents here, the company has set up various defensive fortifications, and they are regularly maintained by the Security Bureau.
In short, the people of Yuncheng can die of starvation, disease, or being beaten to death, but they cannot die from outside invasion.
Very principled.
However, today's convoy was a bit unusual because it was heading towards their bunker.
Although it is not stated explicitly, for a relatively unregulated team of corpse collectors, the price of being unrestrained is that they are Yuncheng's first alarm, the first to discover danger, and the first to die.
Apart from the protective net when passing through the jungle, the corpse collectors are not under the protection of Cloud City. Their strongholds are in bunkers built on rugged rocky slopes far away from the outer city. They are like tombs that are either obvious or hidden, and no one is allowed to approach.
"Is Brother Shi back?" Hu Xiaoling was very excited. "Those cars! Are they for Brother Shi?"
"It's better not to," Zhao Lu frowned, "No good will come of this."
"They are here to pick up Captain Xiao," Hu Xiaoling immediately changed his mind and looked at Xiao Lei who was standing next to him and staring at him with a telescope. "They are here to pick you up, right?"
"I've only been here for three days!" said Xiao Lei.
"Only three days?" Zhao Lu said, "This is the first time I have such a profound understanding of time."
Behind him, someone who had just heard the news came to watch the excitement, shouting as he ran: "Are they from the Security Bureau? They can't be here to send Brother Shi back, right? They can't be here to send Brother Shi back, is Xiangpi leaving?"
The convoy's destination was indeed the bunker. The first vehicle stopped at the bottom of the slope as it could not go up the slope. The two transport vehicles behind it began to drive up the rocky slope.
"What are you doing?" Brigade Zhao jumped off the shelter and started the corpse transport vehicle next to him.
The people behind him jumped into the truck bed and the truck went down the slope. When they passed the transport truck going up, they ignored it and pointed directly at the truck below that was parked and no one got out.
Xiao Lei, who was running behind the truck, was the only one who didn't get on the truck. He patted the door of the truck and said, "Stop the truck! What's going on? What's inside?"
"Are you stupid?" Hu Xiaoling couldn't help but look back, "Why are you stopping here? Are you stopping here and waiting to slide back to the bottom of the slope?"
Zhao Lu's car rushed to the bottom of the slope. The passenger window of the car was lowered. The person inside did not stick his head out, but he could see clearly that it was Li Feng.
"What is the Security Bureau going to do?" Brigade Zhao jumped out of the car and rushed over to slam the door.
"Don't learn from Qiu Shi and have no respect for city managers," said Li Feng.
"Where are the others?" Zhao Lu asked, "What are you doing here?"
"He's on the first transport truck." said Li Feng.
"What?" Brigade Zhao was startled. He turned his head and looked at the two transport trucks that were almost reaching the bunker. "What else is in the trucks?"
"Tell him to contact me when he wakes up," Li Feng said, then turned to the driver and said, "Go back to headquarters."
"Fuck your ancestors!" Zhao Lu jumped up and half of his body was leaning into the car, grabbing Li Feng's collar, "What do you mean? What's wrong with Qiu Shi! You guys are a bunch of dogs!"
"Let go," Li Feng looked at him, "Have some manners."
"Fuck..." Zhao Lu didn't finish his words before he was dragged out of the car by Hu Xiaoling and others behind him.
Li Feng's car turned half a circle and headed towards the tunnel.
"What's wrong?" Hu Xiaoling asked.
"Return to the bunker," Zhao Lu jumped back into the corpse transport vehicle, "Brother Shi is in the transport vehicle."
Qiu Shi was lying in the largest and deepest bunker, which had been vacant all along. In less than half an hour, it had been quickly converted into Qiu Shi's ward.
Yes, Qiu Shi was lying on the hospital bed and was still in a coma. According to medical records, he was seriously injured.
The two transport trucks were loaded with medical equipment and necessary medicines, even refrigerators were brought in together.
Except for two people who were on guard in the bunker in front and could not leave, everyone stood around Qiu Shi's ward, watching several people in uniforms but without any institutional logos moving things in and out.
In addition to medical supplies, the things unloaded from the car also included some supplies for them. Normally, giving them supplies would not be so quick or proactive.
There were four boxes of unknown stuff, large and heavy, placed in another bunker. Several men in uniform only said that the boxes had codes and Qiu Shi himself needed to open them.
"Didn't you tell me that Qiu Shi was taken away for investigation because of the incident at Dayan Tavern?" Xiao Lei called Zhao Lu aside, "Why is he back like this now?"
"How should I know!" Zhao Lu said angrily.
"They are not torturing me, are they?" Xiao Lei was very angry and turned to leave. "I will contact Director Li..."
"Just be quiet for a while," Zhao Lu held him back, "He asked Qiu Shi to contact him when he wakes up. He didn't assign you any tasks."
Xiao Lei said nothing more and walked to a rock and sat down.
He watched Hu Xiaoling and the others open a door hidden in the ground disguised to look like rock, which he had always thought was a rock. Inside were a bunch of power interfaces, which seemed to be directly connected from the inner city.
"I didn't know you had such cool stuff here," said Xiao Lei.
"This thing has been here all these years, but it has never been used." Brigade Zhao inexplicably sensed a hint of disappointment in his tone. After all, he was the captain of the special mission, so he stopped arguing with him. "We always thought that this thing would only be used when the city was destroyed, but we didn't expect it to be used now."
Xiao Lei was a little depressed that he, as a staff member sent by the Security Bureau, knew nothing about the whole process: "Maybe they are going to destroy the city."
Zhao Lu laughed and said, "That means I don't have to report to my superiors every day. Otherwise, I would definitely report what you said."
Xiao Lei sighed.
Qiu Shi woke up in the middle of the night. When he opened his eyes, four or five faces completely blocked his view.
"What the hell." He quickly closed his eyes again.
Then he heard Zhao Lu's voice: "If you can speak, you should be fine. You guys go out first."
After a sound of footsteps, Qiu Shi opened his eyes again and found only Zhao Lu still sitting beside his bed.
He looked at the situation in the room and said, "Is it okay? So many things have been brought here. Didn't you arrange two more people to watch the equipment and change the medicine for me?"
"It is said that the equipment can be directly operated inside the city, and there is no need to change the dressing if there is no wound," Zhao Lu said and immediately returned to the topic, "How did you get hurt?"
"There are biological organisms in the big rock." said Qiu Shi.
"What the hell!" Zhao Lu cursed under his breath, "I guess it has something to do with this thing! There are so many missing people in the outer city, it's impossible that all of them were done by the infected. How can they be so powerful!"
"Yeah." Qiu Shi responded. The rumor that there were biological bodies near Yuncheng had been circulating for a long time. Zhao Lu's understanding was reasonable, and there was no need for him to leak the secret.
"What else did you do?" Zhao Lu drew a circle in the room with his finger. "Li Feng arranged so much, including supplies. Even if you let the bio-body kill you, it wouldn't be worth that much in his eyes, right?"
Qiu Shi laughed.
"There are a few boxes with codes over there, they are very heavy," said Zhao Lu, "I think they are weapons. Are the corpse collectors also equipped with weapons?"
"If it weren't for me, those biochemical bodies would have run away. Li Feng owes me this." Qiu Shi boasted casually and motioned for him to adjust the bed and prepare to sit up.
"Forget it," Zhao Lu said, but he immediately adjusted the bed. "I looked at the record. You have a lot of broken bones. You still have to lie down."
When he thought of the broken bones, Qiu Shi couldn't help but frown.
"It's okay, I'm much better now. The medical level in the inner city is in another world. It's really nice to experience it." He touched his chest. When he ran out of the hospital, he felt that he was in so much pain that he was about to die. But after fainting in the tunnel in the woods and waking up again, he could no longer feel the pain.
"Really?" Zhao Lu sighed, "This is an experience I paid for with my life."
Qiu Shi didn't say anything.
That tunnel in the woodland.
After he fainted, he kept dreaming, and it was a very chaotic dream. There were biochemical bodies, Xing Bi, and the scene outside the tunnel in the woods.
The forests were dyed black.
It's like being in a wildfire.
But all the trees in the forest are complete, with their trunks, branches and leaves all intact.
When the wind blows, it will still sway gently along with the surrounding green forests, and still make pleasant rustling sounds along with the surrounding green forests.
Closing your eyes, you can feel the soothing breeze caressing you.
Open your eyes.
This was a strange scene that Qiu Shi had never seen before.
"It's an infection." Li Feng told him.
Qiu Shi knew very little about these things. At least for someone of his age, the events of those days happened too long ago and could only be considered half-true and half-false legends.
He only knew that the infection came from an unknown substance. Some said it came from the devastating meteorite shower, while others said it came from the dark space deep beneath the well.
No matter where it comes from, the infection is irreversible for humans. It will be like losing one's soul, and dying slowly in madness.
Qiu Shi felt that losing his soul was too empty. Those infected people seemed to be controlled by something. Sometimes they wandered around, sometimes they attacked, and sometimes they gathered together. It seemed that they had a purpose, but he couldn't tell the purpose.
It’s just that they won’t give these infected people any chance to further show their status. Killing them in time is the common practice and the safest option.
The number of infected trees was something Qiu Shi had never seen before.
They can't move, and have no attack capabilities... They should pose less of a threat than the infected who can wander around, so why is it a crisis
"This is the nest." Li Feng said briefly.
Qiu Shi just felt suffocated.
"There are four such infected black forests," Li Feng said, "the one you see is not the largest, but it is the closest to Yuncheng."
Qiu Shi took the telescope that Li Feng handed to him and looked down.
In order to prevent the black forest from continuing to expand towards Yuncheng, a long protective wall has been built below.
"We currently have no ability to destroy the infected forest," Li Feng said, "We can only try our best to prevent infected people or animals from entering Cloud City."
From this height, you cannot hear the sounds below. You can only see the machines and small workers moving back and forth. Amid the pleasant sounds of the wind in your ears, you can see the tiny and helpless busy scene below.
"The workers who were recently brought in from other cities are here, right?" Qiu Shi asked. "Will they be infected?"
"Yes," Li Feng said, "It's basically impossible to avoid infection at this working distance."
Qiu Shi understood why they looked for single people when recruiting to work in the inner city and why they paid them such high salaries, and why they had never seen anyone who went in come back.
"Why did you bring me to see these?" Qiu Shi asked, "What does this have to do with the biological organisms that have recently invaded?"
"Biochemicals won't be infected," the man who had been silent said, "Some biochemicals live in symbiosis with them."
"What does it have to do with me?" Qiu Shi frowned and turned away, "Send me back to the bunker."
"It really doesn't matter now," Li Feng said, "it will matter when you recover."
Qiu Shi turned around and looked at him: "What if I don't want to have this relationship?"
"Sure, the car will take you directly to the dungeon in a moment," Li Feng said, "and you won't leave there for the rest of your life."
"Fuck you, Li Feng, you can kill me now," Qiu Shi said, "If you let me get out of here alive, I will go find Li Datou and expose the truth."
"You won't tell anyone," Li Feng said, "otherwise it wouldn't be you." Qiu Shi felt a blockage in his heart and a little dizzy. He must have fainted from anger at that time.
In all the years that he had known Li Feng, their only contact was actually privately trading some supplies and maps or good things found on dead refugees. He didn't know why Li Feng was so sure.
What makes me so angry is that he really won't tell anyone.
He had no special feelings for this city. He was not born here, and he did not even spend much time in the outer city. His world was the mountains in the wilderness outside the city, the inaccessible dense forests in the distance, and the uneven ground under his feet...
But he knew many living people and had seen many dead people. He knew that beneath the beautiful appearance of this place there were countless darkness and injustices, but this place was also the only shelter for many people and the only hope in the eyes of countless people who were still fleeing.
Once this crisis is discovered, it won't take long before the refuge is destroyed by chaos, before infection or biochemical organisms appear.
"Have you recovered a bit? Li Feng asked you to contact him when you wake up. Hu Xiaoling and the others also checked the supplies," Brigade Zhao went out for a while and returned to the "ward." "This is really a big deal. You won't have to beg for food for a long time."
"We still have to get the food we deserve, and not a single bite of food should be given away cheaply to the Social Security Bureau," Qiu said. "These are not counted in our daily lives."
"Those password boxes," Zhao Lu looked at him, "Do you want to open them?"
"It will open in a while." said Qiu Shi.
"Then I'll have someone drag him over later." said Zhao Lu.
"I can go there," Qiu Shi thought for a moment, "Have you been there since Dayan's accident?"
Zhao Lu didn't say anything. He went out to take a look, closed the door, and came to the bedside and whispered, "Xiao Ling and I will go to collect the body..."
"Do you know the whereabouts of the old man?" Qiu Shi asked immediately.
"No," Zhao Lu said, "Was he there when you went there?"
"He was captured by a biochemical creature." Qiu Shi frowned, "But he was still alive at that time."
"Isn't it very strange?" Zhao Lu said, "Isn't it a bit strange? The old man was disabled, and when I collected the body, I saw the wounds of the people below. It was just a blow, either in the chest or the head, and the bones were broken. They didn't hesitate at all. Why didn't they kill the old man directly?"
This analysis is indeed a bit strange. Qiu Shi looked at Zhao Lu. This man occasionally had a flash of inspiration in his mind. He hoped that Zhao Lu could continue to have such inspiration.
"Respect the elderly and love the young?" Zhao Lu said.
"If I were the old man, even if I died now, I would pretend to be a corpse and crawl out of the cave to give you a slap in the face." Qiu Shi said.
"Oh, right!" Zhao Lu whispered, "There's something strange. Let me ask you, you went to the second floor, right? What was it like then?"
Qiu Shi frowned and thought for a long time: "It feels the same as usual, nothing has changed."
"There was a packed suitcase when we went there. Why would the old man pack a suitcase for no reason?" Zhao Lu said, "I opened it and took a look. It was a box of junk."
"Where is it?" Qiu Shi asked.
"I got it back," Zhao Lu said. "I put it next to the corpse cave where we hid things. I don't know if it would cause trouble if I put it here."
Qiu Shi patted his shoulder and said, "You still have some brains."
"A little bit." Zhao Lu nodded.
Li Feng rushed to the exhibition hall and was searched three times before entering the heavy weapons depot. There were already several people in the laboratory, including Director Zhang, Director Wu and a member of the experimental group, and three other people.
Mr. Long and the general's people represent the company and the military.
Just wait for him.
The control over Xing Bi has been completed. Before officially carrying out the mission, people from several parties must first verify the "results".
"Everyone is here," Director Zhang cleared his throat and stepped back to Li Feng's side. "We can start now, Director Wu."
"Because this project has been in preparation for a long time, everyone has already known the details. There are records of successful and failed projects," Director Wu walked to the middle of the laboratory, "I will not repeat the introduction. Today I will mainly demonstrate his personality and thinking, so that everyone can have an intuitive understanding of Xing Bi."
"What do you mean?" someone from the company asked.
"It's just language communication," said Director Wu. "No one has ever actually come into contact with a submersible. Today we can let everyone experience it for themselves."
Li Feng always felt that these words sounded a little awkward, especially when he looked at Xing Bishi standing in the glass cover.
Xing Bi's condition is no longer the same.
It wasn't because he was wearing a City Defense Department uniform, nor because he was standing.
Compared with the "mindless tool to bring Qiu Shi back" who was forcibly controlled before, he seemed to be freed from certain shackles. Li Feng didn't know how to describe this feeling that suddenly emerged under the intense oppression.
"We can start now." Director Wu turned on a switch on the console.
Xing Bi slowly raised his drooping eyes and scanned the faces of the people outside one by one.
"He can see us now," Director Wu said, "and can hear the voices from the hood. Say hello to everyone, Xing Bi."
"Good afternoon." Xing Bi spoke, with the right corner of his mouth slightly raised.
It was still the slightly hoarse voice, the few words were still calm and simple, and the sense of oppression was still strong.
But Li Feng finally found a change that he could clearly feel.
There was suddenly a sharp edge in Xing Bi's eyes, which had previously shown no emotion. That seemingly casual glance seemed to carry a chill.
Li Feng felt goose bumps all over his arms, covered with sweat.
"Please introduce yourself." After a brief silence, someone spoke.
"It's all in the information." Xing Bi said.
"How about you read it aloud?" the man said.
Li Feng knew that these questions had a purpose, but they sounded a bit stupid.
"Not so good," Xing Bi looked at him, "Your refrigerator can even read."
The man smiled.
"Do you think there is any difference between you and a robot?" someone else asked.
"Ask something meaningful," Xing Bi said, but he still answered his question, "If I am no different from a robot, why am I standing here?"
Several people were talking to Director Wu in a low voice. Director Wu explained to them the state of mind represented by these words and the reasons for the changes in various monitoring values.
"Are you different from humans?" Li Feng suddenly asked.
The people nearby were all stunned, then turned to look over. Director Zhang was frowning, his eyes full of the desire to kill him.
Li Feng's question was against the rules. He only needed to attend today's "achievement presentation" and stand by and listen, but he still asked the question at the risk of being punished.
If today's answer cannot satisfy the company and the military, it will require further "adjustment" and then another "communication". There is no time, he must accurately and quickly ask the answers that Mr. Long and the general want.
Xing Bi did not answer immediately. He walked slowly to the edge of the cover and rested his elbows on it. His body was no longer standing straight, but very relaxed.
“Human beings are disposable,” he said. “I can be reused.”
Everyone in the room fell silent.
"What do you think is your relationship with humans?" Li Feng asked again.
"I am," Xing Bi said slowly and clearly, "a friend born for mankind who will never betray."
When Li Feng heard these words coming out of Xing Bi's mouth, he had an illusion as if he had traveled through time and space.
This is the biochemical body's original oath.
I was born for mankind, a friend who will never betray.
The author has something to say:
Stop tomorrow and continue the day after tomorrow.
The normal update time is 7:40, but the updates have not been very regular recently, so let's make it irregular for now, and then go back to 7:40 when we start updating regularly.
In fact, when I don’t have any drafts saved, I will be very precise in my timing, because sometimes I may not be able to finish coding until after 7 o’clock [┐'_'┌]