Hao Ren rubbed his forehead, trying to grasp the remaining feeling in his heart, but the voice that sounded in his head in a daze before had faded away like a dream. He checked the previous mental communication records, and found that it was blank, and the data terminal did not speak at all.
"I seemed to hear someone talking just now," Hao Ren exhaled, and turned his head to look at the monitor on the car. It seemed that the convoy had almost crossed the river, and the river bank on the other side was shining not far away. The world can't support anything..."
"Your dreams are always very special, don't underestimate them," the data terminal rarely became serious, "You seem to have the ability to communicate with other consciousnesses through dreams."
"I know, I know, but this time the 'connection' is too short, I can't catch the clues. But I have a feeling that it is right to come to the ruins of the Northland this time. This place must be the key to this planet... Omen It always appears at the center of events, doesn't it?"
The three armored vehicles crossed the frozen Gray River without incident, and what greeted the mercenaries was a world of death that was more desolate than the wasteland outside, and everything here was even more strange. The camera showed the front and sides of the armored vehicle. Hao Ren saw the silver-gray land outside, and everything was covered with the same luster, as if the whole world had been transformed into a piece of metal. There are no plants, no buildings, or even a normal-shaped stone on this silver-gray land. All that can be seen are some weird-shaped bumps and round towers, which blend with the ground like melted cheese. Its smooth surface reflects the lights of armored vehicles, and the hazy light is constantly refracted between a large number of such metal structures, presenting a bizarre appearance.
Hao Ren tried hard to think about what the scene in front of him looked like, and finally he thought of one thing: a melting city.
It's like casting a world of equal proportions with metals, and then let them melt halfway and then cool suddenly, what should be formed is this kind of thing.
"The great plain of steel..." A young soldier held a gun and watched all this nervously, "Has everything been transformed into metal?"
"It's not metal. The nanomachine cluster doesn't have the ability to change the properties of matter. They just make these things look similar to themselves." Ulanov said, touching the armor plate behind him with his gun. "Welcome to Old Sin Chew City, you are driving over the wreckage of 6.53 million citizens and 200,000 buildings - including one of my legs, one arm, all my liver and a quarter Three's lungs. Now I really can't find them."
The young soldier turned his head strangely: "Your jokes are never funny."
Ulanov laughed hoarsely, apparently he was still very satisfied with his "gut joke". Hao Ren couldn't help feeling strange when he looked at the scene outside the car: the silver-covered land outside was the product of the rampage of nanomachines. They looked weird and beautiful, but they were countless Human bones and the ruins of cities piled up. Those tall bumps and round towers that look like melted ice cream should be large buildings in the past—if you blow them up, can you still find a little bit of man-made traces inside? If the land is dug deep, can we still find the remains of the city's subway and remaining pipes
Or maybe nothing. The nanomachine cluster may have already infiltrated this land, transforming the entire northern ruins into its own domain from deep underground. In short, all things can only be guessed. Everything that happens here is unknown. Deep in the silver-gray earth, there are areas beyond the reach of human beings. Since sixty-five years ago, no one has been able to understand what these nanomachine groups are all about. What are you doing on this land.
Similar thoughts are also pervasive among other mercenaries. Even these rough people who live by fighting can't help but feel a lot of emotion when facing the ruins of the Northland: Fear and awe make them sensitive stand up. But Nolan just yawned boredly after seeing the reactions of the people around him, as if he lacked interest.
Night gradually fell. The dust-shrouded sky was starless, moonless, and dark: in fact, humans on this planet hadn't seen a starry sky for decades. But instead of stopping the convoy, Nolan ordered to speed up. She said that the nano-machine clusters are at their lowest activity at night, and those scary little devils still need to rely on solar energy to provide part of their energy. Although they can also be active at night, their reactions are much slower than during the day.
According to Nolan's calculations, if the journey goes well, everyone should be able to reach the Northland Ring Tower before the sun rises, just in time for the recovery of the nano-machine fleet.
The armored vehicle was passing between two towering silver-gray "hills", and the bright lights shone on the metal "hillsides" on both sides, reflecting circles of phantom light. Ulanov looked at the two symmetrical "hills" and said in a low voice, "This must be the Rocky Linton Twin Towers. They used to be the tallest buildings in the world. I have been there several times. In this city While still there."
"That's right. The tallest building in the world set a world record for the highest number of fatalities in the same building when the fleet lost control, but it was broken by the explosion in the Far East No. 3 shelter in the fourth year," Nolan said. Then, he turned on the communicator next to him, "All vehicles, turn off the lights and use ultrasonic waves to detect the road. There is a dangerous area ahead. The strong light may activate some nanomachines that are less dormant."
All three armored vehicles turned off their respective lights. After losing the only light, this small convoy looked more like a few wandering spirits wandering in the silent hell. In this cold, dead, and desolate world, everything seems to be small and fragile, and the heavy armor plate can't bring people much sense of security. There is no situation like this that makes people clearly aware of the distance from the world of the living. How far away it has been - and the direction of the convoy is still deeper into the depths of death.
During the boring and drowsy journey, Hao Ren was half asleep and half awake many times, but he never heard any strange sounds again. Finally, he found a light in the hazy sky outside, and the armored vehicle was passing a huge silver-white barrier. The material of this barrier is obviously different from the silver-gray substance formed by the nano-computer cluster, and its regular appearance can be seen at a glance as being made by humans. It is tens of meters high and looks indestructible, but there is a huge hole in the lower part, and the hole looks like it was melted by high temperature.
The armored vehicles passed through the hole under the barrier, and Ulanov patted Hao Ren on the shoulder: "This is the first hole that was eroded when the fleet lost control. In the beginning, they came from the container on the opposite side of the barrier." Of course, the container has been swallowed up now, and there is no nanomachine group on the other side of the barrier, they have all been transferred to the Gray River in the outskirts for unknown reasons."
After passing through the hole, Hao Ren finally saw the natural rocky soil and the severely mutated and distorted plants that were struggling to grow between the rocky crevices. He knew that he had arrived at the central hinterland of the ruins of the Northland, a final island that was surrounded by nanomachine clusters but not eroded.
Nolan raised his hand and pointed to the center of the screen on the monitor: "That's the Northland Ring Tower."
In the hinterland of the ruins of the Northland, the outer wall of the former Nanami Land formed a barrier like a crater, dividing the eroded waste outside and the normal land around the ring tower into two completely different areas. The Beidi Ring Tower is located on a towering hill. It is more than 400 meters high. Facilities, they are the origin of the name "Ring Tower".
Those two huge ring-shaped facilities are antennas, and in the era when the master computer was not down, they were the ones that released signals to control the surrounding nanocomputer clusters.
After seeing the ring tower, the mercenaries were obviously relieved. They knew that the most dangerous area had passed through safely. At least they didn't have to worry about being swallowed up by the nanomachine fleet before returning. The armored vehicle drove all the way to the halfway up the hill, and the road further ahead had completely collapsed, making it impossible for vehicles to pass, but the entrance to the ring tower was within sight. Nolan ordered everyone to get out of the car and walk to the building.
Ulanov and Hao Ren got out of the car together. He looked up at the building that had been separated for sixty-five years, and took a deep breath.
Then strode forward. (to be continued~^~)