Chapter 1 A New Journey

The group once again embarked on their journey, leaving the gloomy city of death behind.

This world shrouded in darkness always brought a sense of oppression, but fortunately, that darkness was gradually receding. A massive, operating plasma engine lay ahead, its blazing light illuminating the entire sky, finally dispelling the somber atmosphere of the journey.

Vivian suggested taking a closer look at the engines, so Hao Ren let the car's navigation system determine a route. They then turned onto a slope that gradually ascended along the steel ridges. As they approached the giant engine, the massive facility revealed more details. Hao Ren saw that its conical shell was actually dotted with winding ramps resembling mountain roads. Faint lights zipped along these ramps, and the engine's top had numerous radial steel bridges extending far into the distance, connecting to the land, their purpose unknown.

As they were about to reach the engine's midpoint, the car's main console suddenly emitted a slight chime, and at the same time, Izaak frowned: "There seems to be something ahead."

Hearing this, Hao Ren quickly parked the car on the roadside. Lily took the lead, jumping out and stealthily going forward to check the situation. She peeked out from behind a large steel plate, then turned and waved vigorously to the others.

The others hurriedly followed. Lily pointed to the opposite side of the road and whispered, "Look! Transport convoy!"

Hao Ren stared in astonishment at a straight steel road a hundred meters away, leading directly to the upper part of the engine. The road was paved with traction facilities that emitted a faint blue light, like rails, and a series of transport vehicles resembling caged wagons were busily moving back and forth on these rails, appearing orderly.

"No life signs..." Vivian frowned, suddenly throwing a small bat towards a transport vehicle. Due to the giant engine, there were unstable atmospheric conditions in the vicinity, finally giving Vivian's little bats a use.

Speaking of which, the vampire girl's bat detector hadn't been put to use for a long time...

The little bat struggled to maintain its direction in the wind, finally managing to cling to the outer shell of a caged wagon, without any mishaps, in full view of everyone. It looked around on the shell, searching for an entrance—any zoologist with a normal worldview who saw a bat doing these things would probably start questioning life—but in the end, the little bat could only return disappointed, because the entire vehicle was completely sealed except for the rear compartment.

"The back of the vehicle is a hopper, probably containing engine fuel or something," Vivian casually patted the little bat into herself, frowning. "The vehicle has no entrance, no life signs, it should be running automatically."

Hao Ren thought for a moment and made a bold decision: follow the returning transport vehicles.

Lily boldly wandered around those transport vehicles, discovering that the latter showed no reaction and continued to operate as usual. No warning robots or anything of the sort appeared on the tracks, so everyone determined that this automated system must be "blind." Hao Ren drove behind a transport vehicle leaving the engine, and after traveling some distance along the long steel road and rounding a few bends, he saw a place resembling a steel jungle with numerous facilities ahead.

This steel jungle had previously been blocked by a ridge, and the group hadn't noticed it along the way.

Hao Ren carefully drove into this area, and a burst of chaotic noise greeted them. Everywhere were dark, rumbling giant machines or buildings, making it feel as noisy and bustling as a factory the size of an entire city. A large number of round caged wagons and other types of transport vehicles came here from the engine along a series of tracks, swiftly shuttling through the steel jungle in an orderly fashion. Huge mechanical arms and creaking lifting platforms worked in conjunction with these vehicles, constantly loading and unloading cargo from one vehicle after another.

A booming sound came from overhead, and Nangong Wuyue looked up in surprise. She saw a steel cube more than ten meters wide slowly flying through the air under the propulsion of thrusters, and seamlessly joining a "mountain of cubes" not far away—these things were probably some kind of automated container system.

The entire "factory city" was in a busy state of operation, with the sounds of machinery roaring and vehicles whizzing everywhere. Various indicator lights and high-power lighting systems made the place as bright as day, but other than that... it was deserted.

Hao Ren led everyone out of the car, and the group brazenly explored and moved forward in this strange place. They weren't worried about any alarm devices that would attract the city's guards—to be honest, they were hoping to run into someone. Izaak had even planned to drop a meteorite to blow the place up: he hoped to blast out some locals. But this idea was vehemently dissuaded by everyone.

Lily held up her ice and fire claws, walking vigilantly alongside Hao Ren at the front of the group. She sniffed hard: "It only smells like steel and oil here..."

The group passed a running loading platform, next to which was a facility resembling a control room, and the door was open. Nangong Sanba, with his crossbow raised, cautiously went over to check the situation. However, after entering the door, he only saw a pile of machines flashing lights and making noises.

"No one here either," Nangong Sanba came out of the control room, shaking his head. "All systems are running automatically."

Hao Ren sighed: "Stop looking, probably the whole planet is operating automatically."

But just as he finished speaking, a sharp whistling sound suddenly came from behind the group!

Hao Ren immediately turned around vigilantly, only to find a small device shaped like an inverted triangle rushing over like a whirlwind. This small device seemed to be a patrol robot, it spun around the group quickly, emitting a series of squeaking electronic sounds, before finally sounding a normal speaking voice: "Citizens detected."

Nangong Sanba subconsciously asked, "What did you say?"

A series of gurgling sounds came from inside the small machine: "Citizens detected, healthy indicators good, please follow this guidance device to the checkpoint, after disinfection you can proceed to the first-level shelter."

After speaking, the small device turned and floated in another direction. After floating a few meters, it turned to look at Hao Ren and his group who hadn't moved: "Citizens, please follow this guidance device to the checkpoint. Failure to comply will result in coercive measures."

Izaak was holding a spell in his hand, wondering whether or not he should blow this thing up. Hao Ren waved his hand, telling him to put the magic away: "Let's follow and see what this little guy is up to."

The group followed behind the inverted triangle robot, winding around many turns, heading towards the depths of this steel jungle. They passed more factories and large machines that were running automatically, seeing countless driverless vehicles and transfer platforms running around. This scene was so strange, just like the owner had died, but the tools he used in life were still constantly working in mid-air. Finally, they were led to a rectangular building, which finally isolated them from the noise and chaos outside.

The rectangular building was brightly lit, clean, and tidy. The front half was a large hall, the scale and cleanliness of which were reminiscent of an airport waiting hall. A few scattered, high-end-looking small robots were busying themselves in the hall, cleaning or repairing equipment.

Lily put away her two claw blades, seemingly worried about scratching the clean place—she was much more sensible than the average husky in this respect: "I really didn't expect there to be such a place on this planet."

"Closed artificial facilities always make people ignore the outside world's vicissitudes," Vivian suddenly said with a thoughtful sigh. "I once fell asleep in the ancient dynasty's tomb, and when I woke up, I saw no changes around me, and I thought the world was still the same, but when I went out, I only saw that the entire country had become a pile of rubble in the wilderness... If someone lived in this hall for ten thousand years, he probably wouldn't even imagine what the city outside has become, right?"

Vivian's musings were always hard to comment on, so Hao Ren could only shrug and follow the little robot towards the door on the other side of the hall. Just as the group approached the door on the other side of the hall, the wall next to them suddenly lit up, and a figure appeared on the screen wall!