Chapter 733 Fleet
Hao Ren stood on the river bank made of metal, looking at the endless gray-white river in front of him. The sticky, slowly squirming liquid that could not help but be reminiscent of blood had an unsettling and dangerous smell. All the mercenaries kept their distance from the river bank with fear. Only he, Ulanov and Nolan stood at the front. Ulanov's hoarse voice came from inside the helmet: "The end of the world is only one step away."
"Is this a swarm of nanomachines?" Hao Ren lowered his head and pointed at the viscous liquid in the gray river, "Such a... scale."
"Everyone knows that the Gray River is made up of a swarm of nanomachines," Nolan glanced at Hao Ren, "You should have crossed one of the Gray Rivers when you escaped from the natural city-state into the lawless zone. Haven't you noticed?"
"One of them?" Hao Ren frowned and then changed the subject, "No, the situation was critical at that time. We were separated from the main force and I didn't have much chance to pay attention to the surrounding situation. By the way, how do you plan to cross the river? Are you rowing? ?”
"Wait for condensation," Nolan turned away and began to order loudly, "Everyone, rest where you are, we will cross the river after dusk! Jin, Lorraine, ensure that the armored vehicles can be started at any time, and I want all electromagnetic sleepers to be turned on for 24 hours. Turn on—if anyone has a problem with their electromagnetic sleep device, report it immediately.”
The mercenaries immediately took action under the order. They rested on the spot next to the armored vehicle and took out compressed dry food from the vehicle. They took the time to replenish their physical strength. Karl walked around among the soldiers and reminded loudly: "Don't touch the soil directly with your hands. ! Keep an eye on your kettles. If there is any damage, throw it away immediately! Inject another anti-venom half an hour later. If there is a burning sensation in your breathing, inject twice the dose!"
Ulanov swayed towards the armored vehicle: "Ah, I don't need anti-venom to deal with the air here, my lungs have long since rotted away."
"He's actually a pretty optimistic guy," the mercenary lady with a very unrestrained style said casually as she passed by, "but it's quite troublesome when he makes jokes with his internal organs. Speaking of which, this good man - I heard Have you come out of the shadows? Don’t you plan to start a passionate relationship again in a new environment? "
As she spoke, she rubbed against Hao Ren, who took a half-step to the side: "Do I need to throw you into the Gray River to calm down?"
"Ugh, boring."
After everyone else walked away, Hao Ren turned around and returned to the armored vehicle. He remembered that there was an on-board computer installed that was always online, and the basic query function was open to everyone. He also saw how Nolan operated the vehicle. That terminal. After struggling for a while, he successfully connected to the Internet and began to search for information about the Gray River and the Northland ruins.
There is no need to examine the situation of the Northland ruins in detail. It refers to the entire area that was destroyed after the nanomachine swarm went out of control sixty-five years ago. This area includes three dissolved cities and the vast wilderness between the cities. Hundreds of thousands of A square kilometer of land has been turned into a forbidden area for life, and the goal of everyone's trip: the Northland Ring Tower is located south of the center of the ruins. As for the Gray River...they are the remnants of the nanomachine swarm.
The Gray River is not a single river - Hao Ren has always misunderstood this before. The real gray rivers refer to a large number of "rivers" that spread like radial cracks around the ruins of the Northland. After excluding the smaller tributaries, the total number of large-scale gray rivers reaches hundreds. Like a spider web, the entire Northland ruins are crisscrossed in layers. Viewed from the air, the Northland ruins look like a bloodshot eyeball, and the Gray River is the bloodshot thread around the eyeball: if you want to get to the Northland Ring Tower, you must cross the Gray River.
According to the rough maps found on the Internet, several main routes between the natural city-state and the lawless zone also need to pass through the basin of one of the Gray Rivers - no wonder Nolan thought that Hao Ren had seen the Gray River before.
Although the nanomachine swarm dissolved everything in this area, they did not cover 100% of the ruins in the North. In fact, the remaining nanomachine swarms here were concentrated in the countless "grey rivers", and were crisscrossed between the gray rivers. Countless "isolated islands" are staggeredly divided. These isolated islands are dotted with wreckage modified by nanomachines. The soil is filled with toxic substances produced by the machine fleet's disordered programming. There are those terrifying gray-white "goos" everywhere. However, in the ruins of the North, these isolated islands are The only safe place to stay.
Nolan seems to know the best route, which should be a series of continuous lands that only need to cross a few gray rivers to reach the Ring Tower ruins.
"Don't you think this is a bit inconsistent?" The voice of the data terminal sounded in Hao Ren's mind. "All the information mentioned that the nanomachine swarm was out of control, but no information mentioned how they were controlled. These things could have destroyed the entire world, but why did they stop in the Gray River?"
"I can't find it online. It may have been erased by someone." Hao Ren turned off the computer and turned to leave the car. "I'm going to talk to Nolan. How do you feel about staying in the portable space?"
"It's okay. This machine found the place where you put the gravity generator. Now I've built a 1.0G standard ground and I'm practicing goose-stepping." The voice of the data terminal was very pleasant. "This machine feels that this body is just like this. However, walking still feels like a cerebral thrombosis, and no amount of training is effective. Maybe the compatibility has hit a bottleneck."
"...Okay, as long as you are happy, just don't mess with my arsenal."
Hao Ren found Nolan, who was standing alone on the river bank. Facing the increasingly dark sky, the figure of the gray-haired girl looked unusually thin in the dim skylight. He leaned over from behind, and when he was still more than ten meters away, he saw Nolan's ears twitching slightly: What a mercenary leader with terrifying vigilance.
When the other party turned around, Hao Ren waved: "Why aren't you with everyone?"
"The Gray River is about to solidify," Nolan pointed to the surface of the river with his chin. The surging speed of the viscous liquid was getting slower and slower, and showed signs of solidification. "After dusk, the nanomachine swarm will temporarily stop moving and become It becomes a plane like an alloy block, which is enough to carry armored vehicles through. Of course, the premise is that the electromagnetic sleep device does not shut down, otherwise these things will wake up in an instant, and a group of my people died like this."
Nolan seemed to be in a good mood now, or a little excited. She was not as cold and distant as before, but patiently explained Hao Ren's questions. The latter thought this was a good time to ask questions: "Six words How did humans stop these out-of-control nanomachine swarms fifteen years ago?”
"Stop?" Nolan shook his head lightly, "No one stopped them at all. The fleet stopped spreading on its own. At that time, many people thought that the world was about to be destroyed, and all countermeasures and safety devices were ineffective. Everyone here is waiting to die. The nanomachine swarm suddenly stopped and spared human life. Have you seen these river banks-"
Nolan stamped his feet and stepped hard on the metal ground. The shape of these "river banks" was like natural rocks, but the material was metal.
"These things that look like barriers are not man-made. They are made by the nanomachine swarm themselves. They have defined their own range of activities, so that humans can survive and continue to fight outside the swarm's territory. Originally, the nanomachine swarm was supposed to cover the entire world. , continue to proliferate, and continue to devour, until the planet is turned into a ball of mud... But they have created a complex container to contain themselves."
Hao Ren stared: "Why is this happening?"
"Who knows? Even scientists can't tell," Nolan's lips turned up slightly. "You should ask Ulanov, he is an expert in this field, but I guess he won't like this topic."
"Ah, now that I'm here, I don't mind talking to you about this matter," Ulanov's voice suddenly came from the side. He came to Hao Ren and looked at Zheng Yue quietly. The calmer the Gray River is, "Some people speculate that the 'Master' computer successfully sent the last control signal before it crashed, causing the fleet to stop proliferating. Others suspect that the 'Master' computer is actually still running, and they are buried deep underground. Powered by a nuclear reactor, it can theoretically run to this day - if you consider that it controls a group of nanomachines to maintain itself underground, it may be able to run forever."
Ulanov paused at this point and continued in a mocking tone: "There are even more crazy speculations. Mutants who call themselves Rangers believe that the nanomachine swarm has evolved intelligence and that they are based on some kind of superhuman intelligence and intelligence. Logic made the decision to preserve this world just to observe the evolution of human beings. The Rangers regard the nanomachine swarm as the new master of this world. They demonstrate their evolutionary superiority by attacking other humans indiscriminately, and believe that this You can get a place in the new world when the 'Judgment Day' comes. There are countless other sayings like this..."
(I’ve been running around outside all day, so I finished this chapter at night. Besides, I’m idle anyway, so I’d like to ask for a monthly ticket =. =)