The factories in Heijie are running day and night, and the thick black smoke from the towering chimneys has shrouded the entire city in a lingering smog. Standing on the heights of the city, you can even see the hazy black veil The general scene of clouds and mist slowly falling from the sky: the smoke and dust stained everything in the neighborhood with a dirty gray-black color, and this is one of the origins of the name Heijie. In the modern age when the nano-machine fleet spreads all over the world, there are still many heavy industries that cannot get rid of the traditional factory production line due to technical limitations. Large-scale machinery and arms factories are the two most important ones.
In Heijie, these two kinds of factories have the largest number.
Hao Ren walked out of the narrow and cramped slums, and saw that the wide and dirty streets ended with towering factory buildings, huge reaction towers and pressure vessels of unknown purpose were built directly in the urban area. The roar of machinery was heard coming from the factory. On the streets on both sides, you can see passers-by in a hurry, most of them are poor people wearing shabby clothes and numb eyes. They've just finished eating inadequate synthetic food at home, and now they're swarming the factory like ants: a mechanical behemoth that devours their lives, but sustains them at the same time. Some people covered their faces with a piece of rag, which was better than nothing to filter the dust in the air, but those dark rags were not much cleaner than the surrounding air, and their lungs were still irreversibly diseased , corroded, polluted, have to eke out a living with nanomachine clusters after thirty or forty, and then die quickly.
"Since the nanocomputer fleet is still in use, why has no one thought of using these things to solve the city's pollution problem?" Hao Ren muttered to himself.
A hoarse and deep voice came from the side: "Treating pollution? This kind of people died out decades ago, and now is the era of living every day."
Hao Ren turned his head unexpectedly and found that Ulanov appeared behind him at some time: "Oh, when did you come?"
"This is a place I often come to. I am familiar with the slums." Ulanov looked up at the factory not far away. "Yesterday someone reported that you disappeared in the dark alleys of the slums after you left the station. You didn't return all night. Nuo Lan asked me to collect your body—but I didn’t expect to see you in a daze on First Avenue just after arriving here. Not bad, you passed the first night in the dark alley area safely? What’s interesting here?”
"It's nothing. Just wandering around," Hao Ren knew that the other party was still wary of him, so he replied with a relaxed expression, "I said that I can't stay with you all the time, so I need to find a place where I can sleep. Don't worry, Even if I have any purpose, I won't go after Gray Fox."
"Nolan doesn't care about these things, it's just that I'm meddling in my own business," Ulanov said noncommittally to Hao Ren's reply, "It's best not to come to this neighborhood too often, there are a lot of guys who have a bad relationship with Gray Fox here, are you here?" benefit."
Hao Ren waved his hand to express his understanding, and then asked the question just now: "You haven't said it yet, is there any extra cost for using nanocomputer clusters to solve urban pollution? Isn't that something self-sufficient?"
"Nanometer clusters can indeed be self-sufficient, but their control centers cost money. And the bigger costs are these—" Ulanov said, pointing to the poor people hurrying by the roadside, " No healthy body is needed to operate the machines of a factory. The city needs no old people. It is the slag's natural mission to be squeezed in a factory until forty-five years old, and preferably without knowing a few words. Factory owners I don't like workers who are too strong and too smart. I don't like guys who need to retire, so there is no need to let them live too long. As for factory owners and big warlords... They have their own ecological houses, isolated from the outside world, and I heard they will A small lawn or two is inexpensive, quick to build, and enough to enjoy."
Hao Ren listened with staring eyes. He came from the earth and couldn't understand this kind of thinking: "Just maintain this status quo... Isn't your vision a little short-sighted?"
"Short-sighted? What do you mean by long-term vision?" Ulanov laughed hoarsely. "Improve the environment in an all-round way? Rebuild a vibrant and sustainable society? I remember that a few decades ago, many people I thought so. But it turns out that no one can live to complete such a feat. I heard that every regime in the world can only last an average of four and a half years, so no one will invest in a business that lasts longer than this cycle .”
Ulanov finished. Patting Hao Ren on the shoulder: "Short-sightedness is necessary, because most people can't live in the future that they can see."
Hao Ren blurted out: "But you lived long enough..."
"Because I'm just alive," Ulanov turned around, "From the day when I couldn't bleed a drop of blood after being injured, but only electrolyte and nutrient medium, my goal is to stay alive." Only such a person can live long enough."
Hao Ren was at a loss for words. In a world where no one can protect themselves, thinkers and enlighteners are probably the first to die, because they need to use the energy used to survive in other places, such as dreams. At this time, the data terminal muttered in his mind even more precisely: "This is why rare and rare herbs can be cultivated into immortals, but vegetables, melons and fruits can't even be refined: make a vow to practice in the morning, and let someone give it to you at noon." It’s stewed. Who can have a dream if they can’t live to realize their dreams.”
I have to say that although this product is a bit sloppy, its ability to summarize is really strong.
Hao Ren followed Ulanov back to the Gray Fox camp. When turning a street corner, he quickly took out a small silver-gray device from his pocket while no one was looking and threw it out. The small device looked like an inconspicuous piece of metal, but it landed silently, and quickly slid into a dark corner against the ground. This is the beacon transmitter that Hao Ren made in the shipboard factory of the Giant Turtle Rock Terrace in the morning. It will automatically find a place with the weakest interference to launch, and then send a powerful navigation signal to space—as long as the planet Droam is still alive. Located in the plane of dreams, the detection drone group can quickly find it through this navigation signal.
Even if they are tens of billions of light years apart.
If there is more than just physical distance between the two parties... then the situation is more troublesome. But at present, it seems that the situation is likely to become troublesome.
Currently, Hao Ren has no problem communicating with the Crystal Nucleus Research Station and the detection drone group on the Zhuom planet, which proves that the data link is smooth, but the key is that there is no way to determine the specific location of the signal transmission. This is equivalent to the connection of an anonymous address, and with the functions of the crystal nucleus research station and the drone group, there is no way to decipher this anonymous state one-way, so it is necessary for Hao Ren to set up an active message on the planet Zhuomu. mark. At the same time, Hao Ren also considered what to do if even the beacon fails: If this happens, he considers releasing a probe from here to see if he can reach the normal universe through space travel. If so, at least prove that The space is still continuous, and even if it is not, he can figure out the extent of the distortion. This is one of the "backups" he mentioned earlier.
After leaving the factory area, Hao Ren turned his head and glanced at the tall black buildings: "This is really a hopeless place."
"Maybe, but at least you can survive here. The factory is the only choice for most people. The wilderness outside is worse than here," Ulanov seemed to sigh, or it might just be a hoarse voice. Laughing, "The only hope for the 'slag' here is to be taken away by some mercenary group as cannon fodder. As long as they can live for a few weeks, they can live like individuals, and all diseases on their bodies can be cured. Did you know that curing their lung disease and blood disease is actually very simple, as simple as a tube of nanomachine cluster and 30 minutes, but this is the most precious resource in the black street, the ration is extremely limited, and everyone in the slums They are willing to exchange everything they have for this chance of treatment—so I am still curious about the reason for Heaton’s rebellion. When Nolan dragged him out of the slum, the guy’s lungs were almost rotten, and the blood accumulated in it. With forty years of toxins and ineffective nanomachines, a standard useless person who missed the good age to be selected as cannon fodder, and Nolan gave him a chance to survive... He turned traitor in the end."
Hao Ren remembered Heaton's diary he had seen, and muttered in a low voice, "Probably he was brainwashed by something."
"Brainwashed by the crazy ideas of the Rangers?" Ulanov sneered, "Oh, it's probably possible, simple-minded guy." (To be continued~^~)