Chapter 622: “Tree” and “Tree Man”
Chapter 622 “Tree” and “Tree Man”
walked to the gate of Shelter No. 100.
I found the terminal for communication on the wall beside the door, pulled out a data cable from the VM on my left arm, and plugged it into the interface below the terminal.
Looking at the flashing green light of the signal light, the faces of all the players showed expressions of joy and surprise.
It’s hard to imagine.
After being soaked in sewage and garbage for so many years, this electronic device produced two centuries ago can still be started!
I have to say that this person’s black technology is still something.
Just as I clicked on the “applet” of the scientific expedition team and imported the electronic key into the terminal to wait for the reading bar, Chu Guang, who was in Camp No. 101, was also paying attention to the situation in Shelter No. 100.
Sitting on Chu Guang’s shoulder, Xiao Qi suddenly opened his eyes and looked at him.
”The terminal shows signs of use.”
Chu Guang looked at it and asked.
”Hasn’t the gate been opened?”
A stream of data flashed in his light blue eyes, and Xiao Qi touched his chin and muttered.
”Well… the power system of the gate has indeed been closed for two centuries, but there is a record of an access in 2190.”
2190.
That is the 61st year of the Wasteland Era?
Chu Guang nodded thoughtfully.
In fact, it is not difficult to understand.
According to Dr. Method, Camp 101 had tried to explore Shelter 100 before, but eventually gave up because the conditions did not allow it.
Shelter 101 was launched after the dissolution of the Post-War Reconstruction Committee, and the time point should be 2174-that is, the 45th year of the Wasteland Era.
During the period from the 45th year to the 61st year of the Wasteland Era, Camp 101 is very likely to have appeared. After all, according to Dr. Method, although Shelter 101 is isolated from the world, it has not completely cut off contact with the outside world. It has been enlightening some wandering wastelanders and conducting indirect scientific investigations on the outside world through them.
At that time, there were not so many extremely mutated creatures that were rampant in the wasteland. It was entirely possible that the residents of Camp 101 reached the entrance of Shelter 100 through diving equipment.
During the time when one person and one AI were communicating, my darkest VM had already obtained the permission to activate the shelter gate.
At this moment, a silver metal ball appeared on the terminal screen.
”Welcome! Friends from the future! You finally found us. We thought you had forgotten us. By the way, what year is it now? How many colonized planets do we have? I have said long ago that there will definitely be problems with only one Aurora! If we had a hundred Aurora, those bad things would never happen.”
My darkest VM could not understand what he said, so he could only answer from the part he could understand.
”2342 in the Human Union Calendar, 213 in the Wasteland Era. Unfortunately, we are still on the mother planet… Don’t you even have a timer?”
The metal ball seemed to be stunned, and the frequency of shaking seemed a little anxious.
”Wait, still on the mother planet? You mean there is not one? How is that possible! What about Reach? The Reach going to Reach should have reached its destination!”
Reach?
Izuei thought for a long time before remembering that it seemed to be the place where the Enterprise colony ship originally intended to go, and said with a subtle expression.
”No… If you are talking about the Zhiyuan, they did not leave the solar system at all, but took the initiative to run aground in the Cloud Province, and rebuilt a city there according to the standards of the colony. I heard that they took in many survivors.”
The silver metal ball seemed to be stunned for a while, slurping its mouth like a bucket, and squeezed out a sentence for a long time.
”What a waste…”
Izuei didn’t understand what it meant by waste, but compared to this, he cared more about what this guy was.
”I call myself Zuihei, what about you? What’s your name?”
”Lingdang… They all call me that, because I always make ding-ding-ding-ding noises when I walk and talk, like a rusty bell. My designer designed me 55,845 working cycles ago. He thought that when the gate opens again, there should be a new world outside, and someone will take me to work in a museum or something, but now it seems that his wish should be unfulfilled.”
As if it had lost its original vitality, the silver metal sphere drooped its soft antenna and muttered to itself.
The clueless words seemed to be answering the visitor’s questions, but also seemed to be complaining about its own fate.
Zuihei counted on his fingers. If the working cycle refers to the number of days, wouldn’t more than 55,000 working cycles correspond to… more than 150 years? !
In other words, this guy has existed since about 60 years in the Wasteland Era, and has lived until February of the 213th year of the Wasteland Era!
Looking at Zuihei counting on his fingers at the door, Lingdang smacked his lips like a bucket.
”I’m the darkest, right? I have to admit, you’re really dark.”
After taking a look at the sewage and mud on his body, I’m the darkest, patted his dirty breastplate, rolled his eyes and said.
”Can you open the door anyway? We’ve given you the password.”
Bell: “Of course, you can come in anytime, just gently press the door-opening button on your terminal… Or do you think that all doors should open for you?”
Listening to this guy’s nonsense, I’m the darkest rolled his eyes and poked the VM screen with his index finger.
Accompanied by a tremor that shook the earth and a creaking friction sound, the giant metal gear slowly rolled to one side, making way for a hole as wide as two cars.
A staircase led directly to a spacious buffer zone, and directly opposite the hole were two tightly closed airlock doors with transparent windows.
The orange-yellow lights and warning lights lit up one after another, and the shadows cast by the metal parts flickered and swayed on the ground, accompanied by strange noises of clanging.
The entire shelter was like an old gasoline engine, with a new spark plug igniting the fuel tank that had been deposited for who knows how many years, and it reluctantly opened its cloudy eyes.
My darkest VM screen showed that the fusion reactor of this shelter had been re-ignited, and all facilities had been switched from backup power to regular power.
Chu Guang, who was peeking at the screen in Camp 101, couldn’t help but be slightly moved.
The fusion reactor in Shelter 100 actually still had some fuel left!
Just when my darkest was stunned by the changes in front of him, several ghost-faced insects suddenly jumped out, scaring him so much that he raised the muzzle of the gun in his hand almost reflexively.
”Hey! Wait, these little guys are harmless–”
Seeing him raise the muzzle of the gun, Lingling was also startled and tried to stop him, but my darkest had already pulled the trigger.
Amid the sound of gunfire, several ghost-faced insects instantly landed on the rusty corridor, their bellies bulging with juice.
Looking at the dead little guys, Lingling on the screen complained with regret.
”You executioner! You killed them all!”
Not daring to be careless, I carefully checked the passage behind the door, then made a gesture to the teammates behind me, and sent five people to move forward to clear out the alien species that might be hiding in the buffer zone, while I stayed at the door for the time being.
Looking at Lingling who was still feeling sorry for those little lives, he lowered the muzzle of the gun in his hand, resisted the urge to roll his eyes and said,
”They are not interested in you because you are a robot. We encountered this thing a lot on the way in just now… They pounced on us as soon as they saw us.”
Lingling was stunned.
”Wait, you just said… you also encountered this thing outside?”
I’m the Blackest: “Yes, what happened?”
”Incredible…” Lingling muttered in a low voice, her tone full of surprise, “Logically this is impossible, the door has never been opened after it was closed, not even once, they can’t go out… Could it be that it was leaked somewhere? Strange.”
Looking at the chattering robot, Ten Punch Man and Broken Leg Kevin who followed I’m the Blackest looked at each other and whispered a few words.
”Why do I feel like I’ve seen them before.”
”+1″
Looking at the surprised Lingling, I’m the Blackest frowned slightly.
”Do you know them?”
Lingling cleared her throat and said in a narrative tone.
”Of course, they are called ‘Garbang’, which can provide rich chitin, natural high molecular polymers, and high-quality industrial raw materials. In addition, the protein and nutrients it provides are also rare good things, and it only takes a little garbage to feed them. It is no exaggeration to say that this is one of the greatest achievements of this museum – oh no, the shelter.”
My darkest brow twitched, and I couldn’t feel how this extremely aggressive little thing could be called great.
”We call it the ghost face worm.”
Hearing this interesting name, Lingling laughed out loud, and it echoed strangely in the dark subway tunnel.
”Ghost face worm? This name sounds good… Just call it what you want, anyway, this place belongs to you.”
”Can you take us to visit here?”
My darkest tried to make a request, and the silver metal ball on the screen did not hesitate, and simply nodded its round head.
”No problem, this is also my job, come with me.”
After saying that, Lingling turned around.
Just as I was hesitating about how to catch up with him, the iron door of the buffer zone in front of me opened with a squeak.
A silver metal sphere quietly placed on the head of a flat four-legged robot about the size of a washbasin.
”What are you waiting for at the door? Come in quickly.”
I exchanged glances with the people next to me, followed the robot that called itself Lingdang, crossed the two airlock doors of the buffer zone, and entered the interior of the shelter.
The situation here is not as bad as imagined. Even after being soaked in water for many years, no sewage has penetrated from the outside. Even Lingdang, who has lived here for a century and a half, can’t figure out how those insects ran outside.
However, even if it is not as bad as imagined, the situation here is definitely not optimistic.
A large number of “Gabeng” occupied this shelter. They built nests here, filling all the gaps that might hide dirt like cockroaches. The black excrement was all over the ground. Not only that, there were also their shed, greasy shells and fist-sized insect eggs.
Looking at the ghost face bugs making “tsk tsk tsk” sounds, the ten players in my team raised their guns and fired skillfully.
After a burst of dense gunfire, dozens of bugs were killed instantly, and the eggs in the room turned into dark green slurry.
Operating the four mechanical legs to nimbly avoid the debris on the ground, the bell sitting on the head of the four-legged robot no longer called these visitors executioners, but just reminded them softly.
”These are good things. The shed shells are rich in chitin, which can be used to make a lot of polymer materials with excellent performance… Most electronic devices and machines can use them.”
I’m the darkest and I don’t have time to deal with this guy at the moment.
Looking at the dead bodies and metabolites of the ghost face bugs on the ground, he replaced the empty magazine while reporting to the rear with a tingling scalp what he found in the shelter.
”… This is my darkest place. I have entered Shelter 100. There are ghost face insect metabolites and eggs everywhere. There may be tens of thousands of them, or even hundreds of thousands! I suggest cutting off the air circulation system of the shelter and coming back in a few days.”
He now understands where those mutant water striders came from.
After all this time, they were attracted by these little guys!
There was a rustling sound in the communication channel, followed by the voice of Brother Quanshui.
”I have reported the situation in the shelter to the manager… His reply was that the ventilation system of Shelter 100 was faulty. According to the analysis results of the self-test program, something should have blocked the filter element of the air inlet, maybe eggs, maybe molted shells, and the ghost face insects active in the shelter should have flowed out from there to the outside world.”
My darkest place asked with a tingling scalp.
”So… Is there no efficient way to get rid of the insects here?”
How long will it take to kill them one by one with a rifle?
At least give me a bottle of insecticide!
Commander Fountain: “There is no shortcut at the moment, unless you can go to B2 and fix the ventilation system, but this is too difficult for you and me. We must at least clear the aliens on B1 and B2 before we can arrange for the air conditioning master from Camp 101 to come in… But these are arrangements for later. We will eventually reclaim the entire shelter, but this is not what we are going to do today.”
Clearing his throat, he continued.
”To get to the point, our mission is to reclaim the black boxes stored in the warehouse on B40. There are about twenty of them. You will know the details after you go there. Then there are the logs in the manager’s office on B51, where the information needed by the manager is stored. In addition, the B100 layer detected a signal suspected of human life activities… But the signal is very strange and does not completely match the signal of a normal person. In short, the first two are the main tasks, and the last one is a branch task, that’s it.” It’s
okay.
And this shelter has a hundred floors!
I couldn’t help but roll my eyes.
”Can you come in and help?!”
Commander Fountain smiled embarrassedly.
”Sorry, brother, I’m a bit tricky with bugs just like you… and I admit that I’m a dog officer. I’m better at talking than taking action. But don’t worry! I’ve added a hundred brothers to you. You now have a company of soldiers. When you go back, this first-class credit will also be yours!”
My Darkest: “%￥#@!”
Because there were so many points to complain about, he didn’t know where to start complaining for a while, so he simply said a few foul words and hung up the communication.
Ignoring my darkest mumbling and not understanding what he was saying at all, Lingling walked ahead on his own, and spoke leisurely in the tone of a tour guide.
”…The great Shelter No. 100 once sheltered 30,300 residents, and their peak number even reached 81,711 people.”
Ten Punch Man couldn’t help but say.
”Eighty thousand people? Here?”
Although he heard Quanshui mention in the communication channel that this shelter had a full hundred floors, he still couldn’t imagine that this shelter hidden in the tunnel could fit nearly the population of Dawn City.
If there is such a population capacity, it must be at least an underground city like Shelter No. 79, right?
But this place is obviously not that kind of place.
Lingling was not surprised by his reaction. She just chuckled a few times and stopped in front of a movable door on the side of the hall.
”… Your vision limits your imagination. Let alone 80,000 people, theoretically this shelter can accommodate 200,000 people.”
As he finished speaking, the movable door slowly opened upwards, and the world behind the door suddenly became clear. It was
completely different from the isolation outside the shelter.
There was only a wide circular corridor, which enclosed an extremely wide space in this underground world and connected hundreds of densely packed rooms together.
The structure of the entire shelter was like a vertically downward patio, with a hemispherical dome emitting beige light directly above.
The light was like the sun engraved in the cave, falling into the bottomless patio.
The carapaces shed by the ghost face insects gathered into a honeycomb-shaped tower on the inner wall of the patio, and under the illumination of the light, colorful shimmering light appeared.
A rainbow that looks like a physical entity!
But the most shocking thing is not just this.
In the circular corridor, the remains of scrapped exoskeletons and mechanical bodies were abandoned casually like garbage.
Among them were the “Type 5” exoskeleton, the most classic police equipment of the era, and the “Type 6” heavy cavalry.
In addition, there were some machines that looked more like engineering tools than weapons – such as several crab-shaped engineering robots, which also waved their claws like claws to participate in the battle.
Their bodies and surroundings were covered with dense bullet holes, and traces of explosives could be seen everywhere on the walls and the ground.
The alien species active in the shelter ate all the organic matter under the metal skeleton, and used the shed shells and mucus to assimilate those exoskeletons and mechanical bodies into part of the wall of the insect nest, together forming the “tomb” of this shelter called No. 100.
Looking at the shocking scene, the players stared with their eyes wide open, especially me who was closest to the door and the darkest, and almost subconsciously said “Fuck” from my mouth.
This light and shadow effect!
This scene modeling!
Every frame seems to be burning money!
It’s simply amazing!
Seemingly satisfied with the shock on the faces of these visitors, Lingling admired it for a moment and then chuckled a few times like sharp objects rubbing against each other.
Riding the four-legged robot through the movable door leading to the circular corridor, it stopped at the edge of the steeply downward patio.
”Welcome to Shelter No. 100. You are probably the first guests to set foot here since the door was closed two centuries ago.”
Looking at the piles of wreckage, I asked subconsciously.
”What happened here?”
Lingling said slowly.
”A lot of things happened. If I start from the beginning, it will be a long story. My master recorded the past here on his VM. That thing should be in the administrator’s office. You will know when you go there.”
I asked.
”Is your master the manager here?”
”Manager? How is that possible? Do other shelters have people as managers?” Lingdang laughed out loud. “Anyway, he’s just a supervisor here… But my master is still very powerful. He survived until the end! Of course, whether this can be considered lucky or not is hard to say.”
Ten Punch Man looked at him blankly.
”Supervisor?”
Lingdang said concisely.
”The manager of Shelter No. 100 is not a human, but an AI with powerful computing power. Its name is ‘Tree’, and it has the highest level of authority in the shelter. Its duty is to make the most ideal decision based on the parameters fed back by the various sensor modules in the shelter. If a light bulb is broken, it will know it before the person under the light bulb, and report it to the specific warehouse and workshop at the first time.”
”And the supervisors are the residents who ensure that the orders of ‘Tree’ can be executed. They are not only the residents of this shelter, but also part of the sensor module of ‘Tree’, responsible for supervising the most unreliable module in the entire shelter – the residents of the shelter.”
When it said this, it paused for a moment and teased with a hint of playfulness.
”But ‘Supervisors’ are just the name my master and his colleagues call themselves, just like you gave ‘Garbang’ the name of the ghost face bug, those naughty residents of the shelter also don’t like the official name, but secretly respect them as ‘Tree People’.”
(End of this chapter)
