Chapter 108 The Sealed City

The hovercar stopped near a residential area filled with high-rise buildings. The Nangong couple led the group to their current temporary residence. They ushered everyone into the living room, and Elsa went to the kitchen to put away the food she had brought back from the mall. Nangong Wudi sat on the large sofa with the guests, ready to answer a series of questions.

Hao Ren looked around at the furnishings. It was clear that the original inhabitants of this planet were creatures highly similar to humans, and their civilization was also somewhat similar to that of Earth. Although the furnishings in the room were strange, most of them could be guessed as to their purpose or use. The house was clean and tidy, and all kinds of supplies were neatly placed in convenient locations. It could be seen that the people living here had turned it into a stable and comfortable little home. As a residence for a pair of exiled couples who had been stranded in another world for a hundred years, it was surprisingly good.

"Most of it was cleaned up by Elsa. Many of the things here are strange, and it's thanks to my wife's intelligence, otherwise I really don't know what to do," Nangong Wudi noticed the guests' gazes sweeping around the room, and a smile appeared on his face. "When we first came here, we were very busy for a while. Thinking about what happened at that time still makes people laugh."

Hao Ren noticed that Nangong Wudi's way of speaking was a bit strange. After thinking about it for a while, he realized that it had a bit of the traditional Chinese gentry's tone from more than a hundred years ago – this person had been away from Earth for a hundred years, and his isolation had allowed him to maintain his way of speaking from that time. This situation could also be seen in those heteromorphs who stayed in shelters for many years on Earth. When he was in the Athens shelter, he encountered many old vampires and werewolves whose words and deeds were like those from the Middle Ages.

Nangong Sanyi couldn't wait to ask, "Dad, how did you and Mom get here back then? And how did you find this shelter?"

Nangong Wudi laughed, "I really can't say exactly how I got here. I only remember being covered by a ball of light from a Nu Ling (Raging Spirit), which made me dizzy. When I woke up, I was in a dark and snowy place... oh, it's on the ground. Your mother and I struggled to survive in the ice and snow, but it was too difficult on the snowy ground, and your mother had to use water mist to sustain my life, so we ventured out of the snow – we walked for about ten days, but we still couldn't see the end of the snow, but suddenly there was a burst of earth-shattering, just like the sky was falling and the earth was collapsing. After another day or two, we saw a mountain of steel nearby suddenly light up with a thousand zhang (丈, a unit of length) of light..."

Nangong Wudi said here, Hao Ren suddenly interrupted, "Wait, are you saying that when you first arrived in this world, those engines... that is, those pillars of light, hadn't appeared yet, and they only lit up after you had been here for a while?"

Nangong Wudi nodded, "Yes. Later, the two of us walked towards the light and soon found a city cast like steel and various ingenious devices. Then a robot brought us to this place."

Hao Ren and Vivian exchanged glances, "... Just like I guessed, before that this starship had been staying in its own solar system. It was the Nangong couple who activated something after arriving on this planet that allowed the planet to set sail."

"It wasn't necessarily them who activated it, but the timing seems to match," Vivian stroked her chin and looked up at Nangong Wudi. "After the pillars of light lit up, did you experience frequent earthquakes here? And sometimes did you feel weightless... uh, top-heavy, or always walking crookedly?"

Nangong Wudi nodded and told the story of what happened in those years in his memory. Everyone found that this basically corresponded to the phenomena when the planet set sail. Although the original inhabitants of this planet had created such an incredible thing as a "starship," their level of technology in some areas was not high. For example, they did not know how to manufacture anti-gravity equipment and deal with the inertia problems when the aircraft accelerated, and could only rely on long periods of acceleration and deceleration or various shock absorbers to resist it.

Nangong Wudi's memories completely confirmed Hao Ren's guess about the time when this planet set sail.

"Dad, you're here..." Nangong Wuyue's eyes were still a little red, and she couldn't help but sob when she spoke. "Have you suffered?"

"Of course it was a little difficult at the beginning when we couldn't figure things out," Nangong Wudi smiled kindly, appearing calm and reliable. "But we soon got used to it. Everything here is convenient, and all kinds of supplies are convenient. To be honest, after getting used to it, it's even more convenient than those clumsy things back home. We don't lack anything in terms of food, clothing, and housing, but it's just... a little lonely."

When the uncle said this, he tried to use a light tone, but everyone could guess that he and Elsa must have encountered more than a few difficulties when they first came to this world. They had no one to guide them, they were nervous and afraid, and they didn't even recognize the writing here. This seemingly fully automated and advanced world was probably a place that was almost like a demonic dance for people from a hundred years ago. Nangong Wuyue's mother should have been the fastest to adapt here – after all, she was a siren, and the siren city of Nathaton was itself an advanced immigration starship. She would not be unfamiliar with the automatic facilities here, at least not unfamiliar with this "style" of world.

But the biggest difficulty was Nangong Wudi's last sentence: a little lonely.

"Have you seen other people here?" Lily asked, hugging her knees.

"No," Nangong Wudi's expression was solemn. "I know what you want to ask – my wife and I have searched the entire city, and there is no one else here except us. But I often see figures appearing on those shadow screens, and the things in the shops are often replaced with new ones."

"What about outside the city?" Izhaks supported the coffee table with one hand and leaned his upper body forward. "Have you been to other cities?"

Nangong Wudi's answer was beyond everyone's expectations: "We can't get out. Once we come in, we can't get out again, and to be honest, we don't know the way to other cities, or even if there are other cities."

"Can't get out?" Several people looked at each other, and Vivian was the first to speak, "What do you mean by can't get out? Is there someone stopping you or something?"

Nangong Wudi spread his hands, "The road out of the city is blocked. It's the Tower of Babel that you took when you came down. Didn't you go back to take a look? It shouldn't open again. And the outermost part of this city is all stone and steel. The whole city is tightly wrapped, and there are several places that look like city gates, but the gates are closed."

Hao Ren frowned, "Have you tried to force your way through?"

"We tried to force our way through, and as a result, we attracted the robots to stop us," Nangong Wudi grinned. "Later, Elsa and I didn't force our way through the city gates again. After all, this place is extremely strange, and the ice and snow outside are extremely cold, making it difficult to survive. At least we can live well in this city. For the sake of stability, we settled down here."

Hao Ren's face suddenly became serious.

The city was sealed off, and the elevators and the security robots around the city were implementing the blockade in a planned manner – that is to say, someone was prohibiting the people in the city from leaving. He thought of the middle-aged man who appeared on the big screen, and the time-sensitive news that was obviously recently produced. These clues all pointed to a group of mysterious guys hiding behind the scenes, who might be the real owners of this planet. But why were they doing this?

A lot of thoughts flashed through his mind in a mess, and Hao Ren suddenly felt that this empty "ghost city" was likely to be a laboratory being observed, and the real natives and shelters were probably elsewhere. In this way, many strange things could be explained.

But what was the meaning of doing this?

Hao Ren called the spaceship that was waiting in orbit, and the voice of the data terminal quickly sounded in his mind: "Boss, did you find anything?"

"Nangong's parents have been found," Hao Ren reported the good news first. "But that's not the key. Now you increase the radar power and scan the deep layers of this planet for life signals, and look for large shelters or other facilities. I suspect that the survivors of this planet are hiding deeper underground, and their behavior is a bit strange."

"Okay, is there anything else?"

"Be cautious and try not to cause conflicts," Hao Ren hadn't forgotten his pile of work rules. "Do not use force against alien civilizations unless necessary."

The actions of the inspector should be maintained at the "civil" level as much as possible. Although the Xiling Empire's definition of the word "civil" seems to be a bit subtle, it is definitely not possible to start a war against other civilizations rashly, especially since this planet itself is an observation sample full of civilization achievements. Then it is even more impossible to let the Jugu Yantai Hao (Giant Tortoise Rock Terrace) solve all the problems with one shot.