Chapter 735 Northland Ring Tower

Hao Ren rubbed his forehead, trying to grasp the remaining feeling in his heart, but the voice that sounded in his mind in a daze had faded like a dream. He checked the previous mental communication records and found that they were blank, and the data terminal did not speak at all.

"I thought I heard someone talking just now," Hao Ren breathed out and turned to look at the monitor on the carriage. It seemed that the convoy was almost crossing the river, and the river bank on the other side was shining brightly not far away, "It seemed like someone mentioned This world can't support it anymore..."

"Your dreams are always very special. Don't underestimate them." The data terminal rarely became serious. "You seem to have the ability to communicate with other consciousnesses through dreams."

"I know, I know, but this 'connection' is too short and I can't catch the clue. But I have a feeling that coming to the Northland ruins this time is the right thing. This place must be the key to this planet... Omens always appear at the center of events, don't they?"

The three armored vehicles crossed the solidified Gray River without incident. What greeted the mercenaries was a death world that was even more desolate than the wasteland outside, and everything here was even weirder. The camera captured the scene in front and on both sides of the armored vehicle. Hao Ren saw that the land outside was glowing with silvery gray light. Everything was covered with the same luster, as if the entire world had been transformed into a piece of metal. There are no plants, no buildings, and not even a normal-shaped stone on this silver-gray land. What can be seen are only some weird-shaped bulges and round towers, which blend into the ground like melted cheese. Its smooth surface reflects the lights of armored vehicles, and the hazy light is constantly refracted between a large number of such metal structures, presenting a bizarre appearance.

Hao Ren tried hard to think about what the scenery in front of him looked like, and finally he came up with one thing: a melting city.

It's like casting a world of equal proportions out of metal, then allowing them to melt halfway and then suddenly cool down. This should be what is formed.

"The great plain of steel..." A young soldier held a gun and looked at everything nervously, "Has everything been converted into metal?"

"It's not metal. The nanomachine swarm has no ability to change the properties of matter. They just make these things appear similar to their own materials," Ulanov said, touching the armor plate behind him with his gun, "Welcome to the old star. Zhouzhou City, you are driving over the wreckage of 6.53 million citizens and 200,000 buildings - including one of my legs, one of my arms, all of my liver, and three-quarters of my lungs. Now. I really can’t find them.”

The young soldier turned his head with a strange expression: "Your jokes are never funny."

Ulanov laughed hoarsely twice, obviously he was still very satisfied with his "visceral joke". Hao Ren couldn't help but feel strange emotions when he looked at the scene outside the car: The silver-covered land outside was the product of the raging swarm of nanomachines. They looked weird and beautiful, but they were countless Human bones and city ruins piled up. Those tall bulges and round towers that look like melted ice cream should have been large buildings in the past - if they were blown apart, would there be any trace of man-made traces inside? If we dig deep into this land, will we still be able to find the remains of the city's subways and remaining pipelines?

Or maybe nothing can be found. The nanomachine swarm may have already penetrated this land and transformed the entire Northland ruins from deep underground into its own domain. In short, everything can only be based on speculation. Everything that happens here is unknown. Buried deep in the silver-gray earth are areas that humans cannot touch. Since sixty-five years ago, no one has been able to understand the existence of these nanomachine groups. What are you doing on this land?

Similar thoughts are also circulating among other mercenaries. Even these rough men who make a living by fighting can't help but feel a lot of emotions when facing the ruins of Northland: fear and awe make them sensitive. stand up. But when Nolan saw the reactions of the people around him, he just yawned out of boredom, seemingly lacking interest.

Night gradually fell, and the sky shrouded in dust and mist was dark without stars or moon: in fact, humans on this planet had not seen the starry sky for decades. But instead of stopping the convoy, Nolan ordered the team to speed up. She said that night is when the activity of the nanomachine group is at its lowest. Those scary little devils still need to rely on solar energy to provide part of their energy. Although they can also be active at night, The reaction is much slower than during the day.

According to Nolan's calculations, if the journey goes smoothly, everyone should be able to arrive at the Northland Ring Tower before the sun rises, just in time for the nanomachine group to regain activity.

The armored vehicle was driving between two towering silver-gray "hills", and the bright lights shone on the metal "hills" on both sides, reflecting circles of phantom light. Ulanov looked at the two symmetrical "hills" and said in a low voice: "These must be the Locklington Twin Towers. They were once the tallest buildings in the world. I have been there several times and they are still in this city." when."

"Yes, it is the tallest building in the world. When the aircraft fleet went out of control, it set a world record for the most instant deaths in the same building. However, it was broken by the big explosion in the Far East Shelter 3 in the fourth year," Nolan said Then, he turned on the communicator next to him, "All vehicles, turn off the lights and use ultrasonic waves to explore the path. There is a dangerous area in front of this. The strong light may activate some less dormant nanomachines."

The three armored vehicles all turned off their lights. After losing the only light, this small convoy was more like a few wandering souls wandering in a silent hell. In this cold, dead, desolate world, everything seems small and fragile, and the thick armor plates cannot bring people much sense of security. There is no situation like this where people can clearly realize that they are far away from the world of living people. How far away it is already - and the direction of the convoy is still deeper into the depths of death.

During the boring and drowsy journey, Hao Ren fell into confusion many times while half asleep, but he never heard any strange sounds again. Finally, he noticed a glimmer of light appearing in the hazy sky outside, and the armored vehicle was passing a huge silver-white barrier. The material of this barrier is obviously different from the silver-gray substance formed by the nanomachine swarm, and its regular appearance makes it clear at a glance that it was made by human hands. It was tens of meters high and looked indestructible, but it had a huge hole in the lower part, and the hole looked as if it had been melted through by high temperatures.

The armored vehicles passed through the holes under the barrier. Ulanov patted Hao Ren on the shoulder: "This is the first hole that was eroded when the fleet lost control. Initially, they were the containers on the opposite side of the barrier. Of course, the container has been swallowed up now, and there are no nanomachine groups on the other side of the barrier. They have all moved to the Gray River in the outer area for unknown reasons."

After passing through the hole, Hao Ren finally saw the natural rocky soil for the first time in a long time, as well as the severely mutated and twisted plants growing in the gaps between the rocks. He knew that he had arrived at the central hinterland of the Northland ruins, the final island that was surrounded by nanomachines but had not been corroded.

Nolan raised his hand and pointed at the center of the monitor screen: "That's the Northland Ring Tower."

In the hinterland of the Northland ruins, the outer wall of the former Nanoland formed a crater-like separation barrier, dividing the corroded wasteland outside and the normal land around the ring tower into two completely different areas. The Northland Ring Tower is located on a towering hill. It is more than 400 meters high and consists of three conical spiers arranged in a symmetrical Z-shape. A huge ring is installed on the top and half of the three-tower building. facilities, they are the origin of the name "Ring Tower".

Those two huge ring-shaped facilities are antennas. In the era before the dominant computer was down, they released signals to control the surrounding nanomachine swarm.

After seeing the ring tower, the mercenaries were obviously relieved. They knew that the most dangerous area had been passed safely. At least before returning, they did not have to worry about being engulfed by the nanomachine swarm. The armored vehicle drove all the way to the halfway point of the hill. The road ahead had completely collapsed and vehicles were impassable, but the entrance to the Ring Tower was already in sight. Nolan ordered everyone to get out of the car and walk to the building.

Ulanov got out of the car with Hao Ren. He looked up at the building that had been away for sixty-five years and took a deep breath.

Then he strode forward.