The tower itself doesn't look like anything special.

It is a large-scale power supply facility that can cover the entire city.

But the layers below it seem to have other uses.

After looking around the tower for a while, Chen Ming found a collapsed wall.

There are no mechanical individuals moving around inside or outside the walls here, and there is no surveillance in operation.

The robot was able to enter the tower.

The first moment he entered the tower, Chen Ming noticed that there was a large area for activities in the bottom few floors of the tower.

And as he observed, he also understood the functions of the bottom of the tower and the underground floors.

This is the control center of the city.

Someone... no, a living creature once worked here.

These creatures belonged to a destroyed civilization, and there was a high probability that their species was similar to humans.

That’s why there are these designs in the tower that allow Chen Ming to easily understand their general purpose.

It’s a pity that this place is as dilapidated as the city outside.

Chen Ming asked the robot to continue trying to search and see if there were any actual control panels or exposed data cables on the nearby floors, or try to find the city's database.

Since many mechanical people in the city are just dormant, not dead, the same is true in the tower.

So it’s better for Chen Ming not to take any destructive actions now.

In the process of searching.

Chen Ming did not find what he had just thought of, but instead found an archive.

All the files inside are paper files.

Now Chen Ming can be sure that there are indeed traces of the main species of that civilization active in this city. It's not like they just planted a flag here and never cared about it again.

This means that the probability of him finding good things here has increased significantly.

But there is a problem.

As time goes by, these paper files can only barely maintain their paper appearance, and the slightest movement will cause these files to be completely destroyed.

Even if Chen Ming wanted to scan the contents of the files directly, he couldn't do it because the text on the files had long been worn out and was completely unrecognizable.

There was nothing left in the archives.

Fortunately, Chen Ming found a monitoring device in the corner of the archive room that was still in operation and had some of its lines' protective layers damaged.

Chen Ming immediately adjusted his vision and directly connected the data cable of the gamma core to the exposed data cable connected to the monitoring equipment.

The archive room's surveillance is connected to an independent monitoring room.

This independent monitoring room is quite special. Its function is to monitor some important equipment, such as the archive room here.

Although many of the surveillance images were completely dark.

But Chen Ming can still confirm the location of some important equipment through monitoring.

For example, the bundled cables at the bottom of the tower provide energy for the tower and the city.

Chen Ming could see many thick cable lines extending from outside the city into the city.

At the starting point where the line extends, there is a solar panel array, which is protected by many mechanical species.

This is a place I didn’t see the last time I had refraction.

It was also this time when Chen Ming came here and the moment the Supreme Point scanned this place, Chen Ming knew what their uses were.

The outside energy lines extend from underground to the top of the tower.

At the same time, there are countless lines branching at the bottom of the tower, connecting the entire city.

In the entire tower, only the power supply equipment is still intact and barely operating.

However, if there is no subsequent maintenance, these devices that are still in operation will most likely be almost completely damaged within a few decades.

Of course this has nothing to do with Chen Ming. He just came here to see if there are any good things in the tower.

With the location of the archive room and the monitoring room, and Chen Ming's ability, he can directly repair all the surveillance connected to this special monitoring room.

Chen Ming quickly determined the distribution of important locations throughout the tower, and the location of the main control room naturally appeared in his eyes.

The robot quickly found its way past.

Found the main control panel that was completely destroyed.

After a simple modification to connect the gamma core, Chen Ming once again used the repair power to restore the main control panel to its original state.

The entire tower was under his control at this moment.

Later, Chen Ming discovered that in addition to the basic control lines, the entire tower also had a lot of damage to the internal power grid.

This resulted in a lack of electricity in the tower and the entire city. If not for the fact that many facilities were shut down and many mechanical races were in hibernation, the entire city would have been paralyzed long ago.

And this situation seems to be caused by some problems with the energy supply equipment, there must be something wrong with the solar panels outside.

This is quite normal. After so many years, the situation in a large installation area outside the city is not likely to be better than that inside the city.

Anyway, this does not affect Chen Ming's use of the function of this control room.

Chen Ming's psychic power actually has only the powerful effect of [Maintenance] which ignores the skills he has mastered.

In fact, there is another special effect, that is, no matter whether he has understood the mechanical equipment before, as long as he controls it, he can rely on psychic power to master how to use it.

Of course, this is just the usage method. Chen Ming still needs to spend time studying the devices themselves.

For example, Chen Ming has never driven a cruiser and has never had the opportunity to come into contact with one.

But after controlling the highest point, he can open the highest point and use the various complex exploration equipment on it at will.

Although there are limitations, it is outrageous enough.

So it is the same now.

Chen Ming quickly understood all the functions of the main control room and found the most critical one.

This tower has the highest control authority over the mechanical people within the city.

Chen Ming tried it immediately.

Try to give an order to a mechanical unit dormant near the main control in the tower, asking it to stop dormant and move.

But it failed.

Chen Ming frowned slightly and tried again.

But the result is still the same.

The process of issuing commands is obviously normal.

The process of accepting orders is also normal.

Even the feedback was normal.

But the abnormal thing is that the mechanical clan who received the order did not execute the order given by Chen Ming.

It still lies dormant in the same place.

Chen Ming immediately found another mechanical unit dormant in the tower through the surveillance inside the tower.

Its exterior is damaged and can be accessed.

Chen Ming arranged for the robot with the gamma core to go over.

At the same time, try to give it orders.

The situation is the same.

The process was normal, but the final result was that this mechanical family completely ignored Chen Ming's orders.

So Chen Ming let the robot connect the gamma core, control it, and open the panel as soon as possible.

It can be seen that the name of this mechanical family is [Mechanical Family Small Mechanical Body·Worker Bee].

The column for consciousness says "Sub-individual (dormant)", not "existing" or "dormant" like afterglow.

Just when Chen Ming was about to figure out why it accepted the order but did not execute it.

He suddenly noticed that the consciousness column on the panel had changed.

From the original [Individual Consciousness: Sub-Individual (Dormant)], it changed to [Individual Consciousness: Sub-Individual (Abnormal)]

This unexpected situation was completely unexpected for Chen Ming.

He knew that a sub-individual meant an individual within the entire collective of the mechanical race, which had a hive mindset.

He also knew that the reason for this situation was most likely because his psychic power controlled this mechanical machine.

But he was not sure what the "abnormality" behind the sub-individual specifically represented.

Wait, Chen Ming seemed to understand suddenly.

He discovered that the machine he was controlling seemed to have suddenly lost its connection with a certain network, causing its computing power to suddenly drop a lot.

This mechanical family lost its cluster and lost the support of the mechanical family cluster in the city.

However, it seems to have gained some ability to think for itself.

This is what the anomalous sub-individual represents.

Other than that there doesn't seem to be anything special.

Forget it, let’s ignore it for now.

Chen Ming put the matter of the abnormal sub-individual aside for the time being.

First try to figure out what just happened.

Chen Ming once again used the tower to try to send commands to this mechanical race that had become an abnormal sub-individual.

This time Chen Ming was observing its behavior the whole time.

Accept the order.

Confirm the command.

Feedback command.

implement……

There was a problem executing the command.

Just as Chen Ming couldn't understand Yu Hui's core, he couldn't understand the calculation process of the mechanical chip.

But he could see that within the mechanical family's chip, the three things of receiving confirmation and feedback were constructed into a loop.

The point of executing the order is excluded.

Chen Ming could understand the meaning of this special logical loop that had been completely locked.

Because this basic logic is locked and cannot be changed, the only outcome if it is changed is death.

This completely eliminates the possibility of it executing any external commands.

It can only rely on the internal hive mind network in which it is located to receive commands from the main body, just like it is now receiving commands from Chen Ming using psychic power.

Normal methods can no longer affect this or all mechanical machines.

They completely remove the possibility of receiving commands.

It is already an independent mechanical life, not a manufactured mechanical creature.

If Chen Ming could understand a little bit the way the mechanical race thinks, he could express this logic in a way that normal humans can understand, rather than in a psychic way.

Then he could publicize the logical deadlock of this mechanical race, and at least write several papers, and win some awards for sure.

Although it cannot compare to the antimatter reactor, which can be said to be a groundbreaking product, it is definitely a very important node on the road of the empire's continued development.

He could only rely on psychic powers to help him understand this matter.

Chen Ming shook his head slightly.

Continue what he came here to do in the first place, looking for something of value.

Relying on the authority of the control room, Chen Ming quickly explored the entire tower thoroughly.

He actually found a database that was still running and not damaged.

Chen Ming saved all the files inside immediately.

Although he couldn't understand the words on the document.

But he could still understand the blueprint above.

These databases contain early planning blueprints for the entire city, as well as design blueprints for some mechanical families.

Design blueprints for several chips and several spherical objects are also included.

Chen Ming immediately thought of the two special things on the mechanical creature he had just controlled.

Core chips and secondary cores.

These blueprints, which are quite numerous and extremely complex, should be used to make these two things.

Although Chen Ming didn’t think that to manufacture a mechanical family, it was enough to just prepare the materials and make the shell.

But some things have to be tried.

Only after trying it did he know what he was missing.

These are the only valuable things in the entire tower.

Chen Ming searched through the other items several times but didn't find anything special. Most of them were damaged and there was no point in repairing them.

The only meaning is to dismantle it and obtain materials.

But Chen Ming felt that there was no need.

Being able to obtain these blueprints and retreat safely is the best outcome of this trip.

Chen Ming planned to stop here and leave.

Anyway, the city of the mechanical tribe is here. As long as he hasn't left too far, he can come back whenever he wants.

Chen Ming's robot quickly left the tower with the worker bee he had just controlled.

The way out is much easier than the way in.

Although Chen Ming cannot control the mechanical race, the tower still continues to control various facilities within the city.

Chen Ming could choose those areas that were still under the control of the tower and leave the city in a swagger.

With two mechanical machines, Chen Ming's robot successfully arrived at the location on the edge of the city where it had entered before.

Plan to return to the landing craft by the original route.

Just when Chen Ming's robot stepped out of the city's territory.

The ground suddenly began to shake.

"An earthquake?"

Chen Ming's subconscious question immediately made him feel that something was wrong.

Because according to the investigation of the planet just conducted by the highest point, it can be determined that the junction of the continental plates of this planet is not here.

No matter how stupid the people of another civilization are, it is impossible for them to build a city at the exact junction of plates on such a large planet.

This sudden earthquake is definitely not a natural phenomenon, but something is moving underground.

Chen Ming immediately asked the highest point in the orbit to adjust the detection frequency.

Locked the frequency underground.

Although due to the influence of the atmosphere, the highest point cannot detect too deep when it is outside the atmosphere.

But that's enough for now.

Almost instantly, the highest point discovered a large area of ​​biological reaction underground not far from Chen Ming's robot.

These things are digging rapidly underground, close to the mechanical city.

I saw that familiar look in the results transmitted back by the scanning array.

Chen Ming finally couldn't help but say, "Thorne Zerg?"

"No, we can't just jump to conclusions like that."

Chen Ming suppressed his subconscious thoughts, kept calm and thought, and let his robot take the two mechanical clans back to the city.

It wasn't long before the bugs that caused the ground to shake broke out of the ground at the edge of the city.

The tentacles extending from their ugly, sharp, spiky heads were sniffing frantically.

Almost instantly, it locked onto Chen Ming's robot who had already entered the city.

At this moment, Chen Ming had a feeling that these insects seemed to be coming towards him.

The insects waved their limbs, rushed through the gap in the defense facilities, and rushed into the city.

At this moment, they seemed to have triggered some defense mechanism.

Everywhere within the sight of Chen Ming's tower, all dormant mechanical creatures were restarted at this moment.

They each performed their duties and returned to their own posts. At the same time, most of the mechanical races with combat capabilities were moving towards here.

Before Chen Ming had time to react, a massive battle broke out between the Thorn Zerg and the Mechanical Clan.

It seemed that Chen Ming's robot, which caused all this, became an outsider for a while.

Chen Ming took advantage of the chaos to let his robot find a safe place to fill in the blind spots of the surveillance of the area that Chen Ming's tower had lost control of, and transmit back images of the battlefield.

After leaving the battlefield, the first thing Chen Ming noticed was that under the huge deep pit dug by these insects, many insects that looked very familiar to him were crawling out.

Those cystic worms have huge vesicles storing acid in their necks, and their neck muscles are extremely developed.

Chen Ming had a very deep impression of this insect.

Because at that time in the space station, although the Zerg were numerous, they were basically only some melee individuals, namely the Broadstriders.

Chen Ming believed that these bugs were most likely the basic individuals of the Thorn Zerg, so now, even if he saw them, he could not be completely sure that these bugs were from the same batch as those on the space station.

Just think of them as another group of Thorn Zerg in the universe.

But these cysticercus are different.

Chen Ming remembered very clearly that these cystic worms were a type of insects that evolved in just two days after he used the range of the spacecraft's weapons to attack those insects from a long distance.

Even if there are Thorn Zerg in other places that have evolved the ability to attack from a distance.

But this evolution doesn't mean that they are exactly the same, right?

Chen Ming can be 100% sure that the insects that appeared here must be the ones on the space station.

What on earth are the Thorn Zerg? What is going on? Two questions suddenly popped up in Chen Ming's mind, surrounding him and making him completely unable to understand.

Just when Chen Ming couldn't think of an answer at all.

The battle between the Thorn Zerg and the Mechanic continues.

Among the Thorn Zerg, there are only the most numerous ones, except for the Broadstriders.

There are also some smaller beetle-like Zerg.

Even larger Zergs, more than three meters tall and with many limbs, emerged from the holes they had dug and joined the battlefield, pouncing on the mechanical race like crazy.

Although the bugs charging in the front just rushed forward like they had no brains, the cysticerids behind them were completely different.

They are very smart and wander around the edge of the battlefield, deployed in a scattered manner, but they can very uniformly focus the acid they spray on a certain target.

These acids were different in color from those Chen Ming had seen before, and could even melt Baiyun steel.

These Thorn Zerg seem to have the same hive mindset as the Mechanicals.

Although the Zerg are numerous and their actions are extremely crazy.

But there are also a large number of mechanical people in the city, and they don’t care about the madness of the insects at all.

They were just cold machines, slaughtering the Thorn Zerg that invaded their cities.

In addition to the long-range combat individuals like Jingmantis that Chen Ming had seen before, which carried electromagnetic javelins, the mechanical race also had close combat units like the Zerg.

In particular, there is one that is similar to the Silent Mantis controlled by Chen Ming. It also has the appearance of a combination of human and mantis, but it is more like a mechanical body of a mantis.

Extending from each of its arms is a light blue, translucent curved blade that looks like a mantis' sickle.

At the same time, it has auxiliary wings like a real mantis and jet holes on its back.

It allows it to have extremely strong instantaneous burst speed while maintaining its own balance.

Relying on their terrifying speed and sharp weapons, this mechanical race can cut off the flesh of several insects in a blink of an eye.

Even the largest Zerg with many limbs can be split in half in an instant.

In addition to this seemingly lighter Silent Mantis, another type of mechanical race is able to gain the upper hand in hand-to-hand combat with these giant Zerg.

The mechanical clan has more powerful machines here.

For example, a large mechanical body about four or five meters high.

It has a mammoth-like appearance, four extremely thick lower limbs and two huge mechanical forelimbs waving in front of it, allowing it to fight against the surging insect swarm like a tank.

It can easily crush any bug that stands in its way.

However, the larger number of mechanical bodies in the mechanical clan are still various mechanical bodies holding thermal weapons, such as Jingmantis or some other mechanical clans.

They are the real main force when clearing out the Zerg outside.

These ranged combat units can easily lock onto the cyst worms hiding in the Zerg swarm and accurately kill these Zerg ranged combat units.

Although the Zerg have strong physical abilities and can easily kill humans, their flesh and blood can be easily crushed by the steel of the Mechanical Race.

As long as these materials that threaten Baiyun Steel are dealt with, the Mechanical Clan will definitely gain the upper hand.

The battle gradually began to spread to the place where Chen Ming's robot was hiding.

Chen Ming had no choice but to move the robot towards the interior of the city again, away from the troubled areas.

Soon Chen Ming found another collapsed building. Inside the building grew a big tree with lush branches and leaves, which was a good place for him to hide.

It also allows Chen Ming to observe the battlefield situation more accurately.

Anyone can see from the battle between the Mechanoids and the Thorn Zerg that the Mechanoids' attack capability is totally not on the same level as the Zerg.

However, as Chen Ming reached a higher place where he could see the situation on the battlefield more clearly, he discovered that the ratio of the number of fallen Mechanicals to the number of Zerg was close to 1:2.

This is obviously not normal.

Chen Ming quickly devoted himself to observation and then he found a special place.

The muscles beneath the brown carapace of the Thorn Zerg are gray-green, and they spray gray-green blood when injured.

The blood pressure in the insect's body seems to be very high, and the gray-green blood can easily spray out several meters.

Once this gray-green blood covers the mechanical race.

Even if there is no external damage, there is no abnormality such as leakage.

The mechanical race will also gradually lose their combat effectiveness, and completely inappropriate anomalies will occur in the control of their own equipment and devices.

It is precisely because of this blood that the insects were able to barely reduce the casualty ratio to 2:1.

There's something wrong with this blood.

(End of this chapter)