As a helping guest, Hao Ren and his party were entertained in Hearth City—although the governor of the castle seemed a serious and rigid man, he still treated the guests with courtesy. It's just that in view of the desolate and decadent status quo of this world, no matter how dedicated the hospitality is, Hao Ren and the others will not be so comfortable: Hao Ren and the others, led by Willy, went to the castle—that is, the ground floor of the old factory. The small rooms prepared for the guests, these rooms are enclosed by iron sheets and pressure-plastic boards, and there are some simple furniture inside, shabby and cramped, and there is a faint smell, but they are already quite good guest rooms in the hearth city.
As long as he saw how many holes there were in the tin shacks in the civilian area outside, Hao Ren knew that his group had actually been treated to a very high standard.
This also shows that although the governor of the castle has a harsh attitude towards Willy, he still values this son in his heart, otherwise he would not treat the person who helped his son so wholeheartedly.
Willie went to invite the famous "Scholar Oro", while Hao Ren and the others crowded into a room and exchanged opinions. After seeing the absurd and bizarre status quo of this ship city, everyone has a lot of guesses and ideas, and now they urgently need to talk.
"Anyway, their inheritance is obviously broken," Vivienne said while looking out the window. From here, she could see the scene on the square. On the streets piled up with scrap iron plates and plastic blocks, there were A group of dirty children are running around, "civilization has gone back to the age of cold weapons."
Nangong Wuyue muttered: "The social form has returned to the period of the feudal kingdom."
"The social structure hasn't really changed much. According to the previous findings on the 'Qunluan', these Ark residents were also monarchists in the high-tech era." Hao Ren waved his hand, "I'm curious about what will happen here To make the whole society go backwards so neatly, these people don’t seem to know the concept of a spaceship at all, they don’t even know what it means to have an abnormal gravity system. Terminal, analyze it.”
The data terminal was in Hao Ren's pocket, but his voice was transmitted directly to the minds of everyone present: "A huge reduction in population, or a complete collapse of the industrial base may lead to a significant decline in the level of civilization. But it shouldn’t be as thorough as here—even if technology is out of gear, people should at least know that their ancestors were rich. Their current situation is that they have no concept of their own world. It’s like…”
Lily couldn't hold back her curiosity: "Like what?"
"It's like the death of a whole generation," the data terminal said lightly, "unless their whole generation is cut off at the same time, resulting in the next generation not receiving any systematic education or only receiving very little education, this may lead to civilization. Keegan fractures. Or memory cleansing, where all knowledge of everyone disappears at the same time, and they can't find a way to remedy it afterwards."
"As far as we know now. The Ark fleet continued to fail in the second half of the voyage, and the spacecraft had to rely on patchwork to continue to operate, but this crisis will not lead to the problems we see here. Situation," Vivienne rubbed her brows, she is well-informed, but her knowledge is really useless at this time, "Ark's failures and accidents are a gradual process, and will not break a whole generation. "
Hao Ren was thinking silently, his eyes glanced out of the window inadvertently. Just in time to see three men in coarse drab robes maintaining the street lighting in the dirty alley outside. One of the men, who looked slightly older, climbed up to the light pole, carefully removed the broken light fixture and replaced it with a new one, and then he got down from the light pole. Bow down to the light and wiring and flip the switch with the other two. When the new light bulb was turned on, the children who were watching the excitement nearby burst into cheers. Some even started singing, praising the "electric spirit" that brings light.
"They still have electricity, new light bulbs to replace, and these people know how to install these things—although they don't know the principle," Hao Ren pointed out the window, "Some functions of this ark are still working, such as the generator And factories, since these factories are still in use, it means that the failure of the life support system did not lead to the severance of civilization here."
"Isn't it a spaceship malfunction?" Nangong Sanba frowned. "Is it just because of the civil war? The civilization of spaceships has become primitive feudalism?"
At this time, there was a soft "squeak" from the door, and Willy pushed the door open: "Uh... sorry I should have knocked. But the door is not locked. I brought Bachelor Oro here."
A hunchbacked old man walked in from behind Willy. He looked at least in his eighties, with only a circle around his head left of his white hair, and the wrinkles on his face almost extended to his neck. The old man was wearing a dirty thick cloth robe. A series of rings were woven with colored silk thread on the chest of the cloth robe. A small metal object was hung on each ring. Hao Ren looked intently at it. , but found that those things that looked like ornaments were actually capacitors, fuses, copper wire connectors and the like: the bachelor regarded these electronic parts as decorations on his clothes.
Lily was the first to stand up and greet the old scholar, looking very enthusiastic: "Hi, old man! Have you eaten?"
The bachelor was taken aback by this strange way of greeting, and then he laughed, and said loudly while laughing: "What a spirited little girl, I heard that a group of wandering warriors rescued Willy, and I thought it was the same as those in the castle. A rough man like a martial artist, but he didn't expect there to be a polite lady."
Willie helped the old scholar to sit down on the creaky chair at the door. Even though he was the governor's son, he was as respectful as an apprentice: "Teacher, these people are very interested in your wisdom. They want to Listen to the stories you told me."
"Oh? Oh... yes, those old stories," the maester said with surprise on his face. Before he had time to hear more about Hao Ren and his party from Willy, he thought that these people came from some remote place. At this time, he opened his cloudy eyes and took a closer look, and found that although the people in front of him were dressed in strange clothes, they were bright and clean, completely different from those embarrassed homeless people, "Are you interested in this kind of thing? Few people outside of scholars specialize in such dry legends."
"We are just interested," Hao Ren smiled. "'Winter is coming'. There have been signs many years ago. Now it is time to pay attention to the warnings of the old people."
"Winter, winter is really coming..." The old scholar subconsciously tightened his robe, and when he heard this cold word, he looked serious, "Five years, it has been five years since the ancestral furnace went out. , This is much longer than it slept last time. This world is getting colder day by day, half of the Giant’s Nose that blows hot wind at the end of the world has been frozen, and the land of Lutherwaitan has been snowing since last year... Cold winter, this What a harsh winter."
Hao Ren was almost certain that the "ancestral furnace" in the local population was the giant reactor and its control device—the central control station—at the end of this closed space. When he was on his way on the Kingdom Avenue, he could see from a distance that the giant reactor was in a bad state. Although it was still running, and it seemed to be a little more active than the extinguished reactor on the Mountain Range, it still had more than half of its power. The grid is dim.
The life support system of this ark seems to have reached its limit, and its power source is about to shut down.
"How many times has the cold winter come?" Nangong Sanba asked curiously.
"How many times? Oh... many times... It happens once or twice every century, sometimes it only lasts for a year, and sometimes it lasts for more than ten years," the old bachelor shook his head up and down, "It lasts for a year Cold winter only brings scares, but ten years of low temperature can kill a third of people. When there are too many dead, the recycling furnace will even be full. Nightmare hell, that is really chilling .”
"But this winter doesn't seem to be so difficult," Willie interjected suddenly, "it's not that cold. So far, you can keep warm by wrapping in a fur coat."
"That's because you are in the warmest place in the world," the old maester gave Willy a reproachful look, "and the real cold is far from coming. The milder the winter, the more terrible it is, because the slow cooling means With slower warming, winters are going to be very, very long."
The locals used their own understanding to explain the environmental changes in the ship's city after the failure of the core power furnace. Their theories also appeared to be well-organized and justified, but they were far from the truth of this world. In a limited knowledge system, people simply cannot understand that their world is supported by a huge machine.
(I went out to do errands today, and I was only at home in the morning, so I updated it in advance.) (to be continued~^~)