Chapter 122 The Underground City Beyond Expectations

Hong Chengdong naturally didn't realize what Chen Fan was thinking.

In his opinion, Chen Fan, whose face suddenly darkened, should have been shocked by the actions of the Mechanicus.

He turned his head to look at Jiang Haichuan behind him, sighed silently and continued: "The Underground City never keeps idle people."

"After losing his parents, Xiao Jiang owed a lot of money in order to continue living in the Underground City."

"With nowhere else to go, he could only choose to become a salvager to make money to pay off his debts."

Chen Fan followed Hong Chengdong's gaze and looked at Jiang Haichuan, whose eyes were red.

After a moment of silence, he raised his hand and threw the fusion battery to Jiang Haichuan.

"Boy, take it."

Looking at the metal cube that drew a beautiful arc in the air and flew towards him, Jiang Haichuan panicked after a brief daze.

That's a fusion battery!

Can this thing be thrown casually? !

At this moment, Jiang Haichuan felt his heart suddenly mentioned in the air!

He hurriedly caught the fusion battery, his face full of shock.

You know, let alone shooting down the drone, even when he shot at Chen Fan just now, he was not so flustered!

The cold metal shell was like a hot potato in his hands. In just a few seconds, Jiang Haichuan felt a thin layer of cold sweat seeping out of his back.

"You... I..."

Jiang Haichuan's fingers turned white, and he tightly grasped the fusion battery in his hand. His slightly trembling lips couldn't even utter a complete sentence.

Finally, it was Hong Chengdong who asked for him: "Brother Fan, what are you doing..."

"If I'm not mistaken, this thing should be worth a lot of money, right?"

Chen Fan stretched out his hand and pointed at the fusion battery held in Jiang Haichuan's arms: "The remaining money after paying the salary, use it to pay off his debt."

Jiang Haichuan was happy, but then he was panicked: "This, this is too expensive, I..."

Hong Chengdong coughed hard, interrupting Jiang Haichuan's unfinished words: "Why are you still saying these words? Why don't you thank Brother Fan quickly?"

Jiang Haichuan was stunned, and then, under the guidance of Hong Chengdong's eyes, he silently bent down to Chen Fan, and said thank you very solemnly on his face.

Feeling the instantly relaxed attitude and no longer hostile eyes of the salvagers around him, Chen Fan, who had achieved his goal, chuckled and said to Hong Chengdong again: "If I understand correctly, the job of you salvagers should be to obtain some resources that cannot be produced in the underground city from the ground, right?"

Hong Chengdong nodded.

"Most salvagers will pick up some intelligent machines and mechanical wreckage left over from the pre-civilization era. These things are of little value, but they are safe and reliable."

"But over time, the mechanical wreckage around has been turned over, and almost nothing valuable can be found, so..."

Chen Fan suddenly realized: "So you set your sights on the intelligent machine's drone!"

Hong Chengdong nodded: "There are many valuable things in the intelligent machine's drone. Among them, the fusion battery is of considerable value, and it is also the most needed thing for those big men now."

As he said, Hong Chengdong stood up, knocked the burnt pipe hard on the car body, and then turned around and pulled down the switch on the operating table behind him.

The humming sound of the motor running and the slight vibration came from under his feet. The next moment, the mine car that was originally parked on the track began to slide slowly.

Seeing that the speed of the mine car began to increase, Chen Fan asked Hong Chengdong, who was driving the mine car skillfully, again: "What about the hyenas?"

"What do they do?"

As the voice fell, the mine car suddenly fell into silence.

After a long time, Hong Chengdong's voice sounded again: "They are similar to us, all of them go to the ground to salvage supplies."

"It's just that we salvage various mechanical materials, and they want..."

"It's humans."

Chen Fan's pupils dilated rapidly: "Humans?"

"What do you mean?!"

"Literally." Hong Chengdong sighed again, "The reason why salvaging people is an extremely dangerous job is, on the one hand, because of the intelligent machines active on the ground. These machines usually kill people on sight and will not leave any chance for people to survive. On the other hand, it comes from the dungeon itself."

"Those hyenas will look for salvagers going to the ground and find opportunities to bring them back to the dungeon."

"Of course, I have never seen those who were taken away by hyenas."

Chen Fan's eyes were a little confused: "Why do they do this?"

Hong Chengdong shrugged: "Who knows?"

"I don't know the situation in other dungeons, but... there has always been a rumor in the Kukan dungeon."

"It is said that those big guys are still in contact with the people of the Mechanical Cult. They capture humans just to prolong their lifespan."

"The notoriety of the Mechanicus is far-reaching, so those big shots naturally don't dare to do such things openly in the dungeon, so they set their sights on the salvagers. Anyway, there are so many salvagers in the dungeon, and it won't be a problem if a few are missing."

Hong Chengdong smiled self-deprecatingly: "Besides... the salvagers are a group of scattered sands, and they can even fight over a little mechanical wreckage. In the eyes of those big shots, there is probably no better target than the salvagers."

Chen Fan didn't know what to say about this for a moment: "This..."

"Haha, these are all rumors. I'm afraid only those hyenas know what's going on." Hong Chengdong waved his hand with a smile, "Let's take it one day at a time. Living in this terrible era, who knows which will come first, tomorrow or an accident."

As he spoke, the mine cart began to slowly tilt downwards - the originally stable passage began to fall steadily at a certain angle.

The mine cart was moving very fast, and the monotonous passage walls around him passed by Chen Fan very quickly.

As the depth numbers in the holographic projection in front of him continued to increase, Chen Fan felt that the lights around him were getting dim.

"Where are those people from the Mechanical Sect?"

Chen Fan continued to ask.

"The Mechanical Sect?" Hong Chengdong shrugged, "Who knows?"

"Anyway, they were completely driven out of the underground city decades ago. Who knows where they live now."

Hong Chengdong answered Chen Fan's question carelessly: "Maybe they have opened up a new underground city, or maybe they are just wandering on the ground..."

[It is detected that the descending slope is beginning to shrink, and it may be about to reach the underground city. 】

Just as Chen Fan was about to continue to extract some information from Hong Chengdong, Yi's electronic synthesized voice suddenly sounded in his mind.

At the same time, the originally dim passage gradually became brighter while gradually flattening.

"We are here."

Hong Chengdong said in a deep voice, reaching out and pulling down a control lever on the console.

Accompanied by a sharp and piercing brake sound, the running speed of the mine car began to decrease continuously, and finally slowly stopped at a simple platform made of concrete at the end of the passage.

Looking at the bright light at the end of the passage, Chen Fan couldn't help but feel a little surprised: he originally thought that the underground city should be quite dim, but now it seems that his stereotype is obviously wrong.

Following Hong Chengdong's footsteps, Chen Fan and the other two turned over and came to the platform one by one.

With the previous lesson, Isa tried to lighten her movements as much as possible, but the contact between the mechanical prosthesis and the concrete table still made a lot of noise.

"Let's go..."

Hong Chengdong looked helplessly at Isa, who had wrapped herself in a black robe again. After waving to his "little brothers", he took the lead and walked towards the entrance of the underground city in front.

...

Kukan Underground City.

As soon as he walked out of the passage, Chen Fan was shocked by the scene in front of him.

The underground city in front of him was completely different from what he expected in his mind.

In his imagination, the so-called underground city was nothing more than a dark shelter connected by a large number of air-raid shelters.

Low floor height, dim lights, damp and slightly musty air, lifeless residents...

These are the elements of the underground city in Chen Fan's mind.

But in front of him...

The concrete dome tens of meters high is covered with metal pipes of varying thicknesses and unknown uses. Around these metal pipes, extremely bright high-power fluorescent lamps are providing sufficient light to the city. A

breeze from nowhere brushed across his face, and there was no dampness or mold in it.

Obviously, this underground city even has a good ventilation system!

Within the range of vision, three- and four-story concrete houses are scattered around the thick-diameter load-bearing columns - these huge load-bearing columns stand in the underground city, firmly supporting the concrete dome above.

In the center of the city, a huge cylindrical building occupies a lot of space. In the entire underground city, except for those load-bearing columns, no building exceeds its height!

This is a real city!

An industrial miracle of mankind built a hundred meters underground!

According to Hong Chengdong, there is more than one such city. A large number of underground cities are connected to each other, forming the underground shelter of mankind today!

Chen Fan stood in place, staring at the underground city in front of him, and some emotion rose in his heart - when these underground cities were built, humans should have fallen behind in the war with the intelligent machines. It is hard to imagine how humans at that time created such a grand spectacle a hundred meters underground!

[The potential of life is infinite. ]

[When facing the crisis of extinction, life will always find its own way out. 】

One whispered in Chen Fan's mind: [But we have to admit that this is indeed a civilization with great potential. 】

[If there were no artificial intelligence crisis, they would have left this planet long ago. 】

"That is the fusion reactor in the center of the city, responsible for providing energy to the entire city."

Hong Chengdong followed Chen Fan's gaze and looked into the distance: "No one can understand that thing at present, so we can only let it operate on its own."

"Just like the complex pipeline systems above our heads, no one dares to touch those things."

"Even if one of the pipelines is broken, we can only let it break."

(End of this chapter)