Chapter 564, Contaminated Zone 4 (Part 5)

"Aircraft?"

Yun Zhao's face was hidden in the darkness, and his voice was devoid of emotion: "You're saying this is an aircraft?"

Xia Mingang shrugged, his flashlight beam sweeping across the inside. "It looks very similar. Haven't you guys ever seen a sealed chamber before?"

“I’ve only ever seen sealed chambers used to hold mutants,” Fu Yu admitted directly.

Few people, let alone those from the wasteland era, have actually seen flying machines, not even ordinary people from the old era.

Moreover, the sealed chamber was so badly damaged that only a deformed frame remained.

No one would recognize it.

Yun Zhao stood in the corner, his eyes lowered, clutching the box tightly in his arms.

Xie Tu noticed that she was in a bad mood and said in a low voice, "It may not be Yun Jue's thing. He may have rested here like Wei Xu and left his things here."

Yun Zhao's fingers unconsciously rubbed the edge of the box, his knuckles turning slightly white.

--wrong!

If this is indeed the wreckage of a crashed aircraft, why would it be in a cellar?

It shouldn't be here.

After darkness falls, all energy-powered machinery becomes scrap metal, and the dark matter in the sky and the gray fog without any magnetic field corrode all flying devices.

The sky has long been a forbidden zone.

But the wreckage before me... although severely damaged, the patterns, the materials, and even the blue light remaining inside the cabin all seemed to retain some kind of vitality.

Just like the box in her arms.

“Yun Jue…” she murmured the name in her heart, her thoughts churning.

If this really is his, what does that mean?

Yun Zhao came up with an answer.

The most outrageous answer.

Eager to verify, she opened the box and took out two items from inside.

The deformed, sealed cabin was cramped, allowing only one person to enter at a time.

Xia Mingang had already voluntarily given way, and Yun Zhao passed him by, carrying his things as he crawled into the cabin.

The people in the cellar had fallen silent at some point.

Xie Tu stood by the cabin door, shining a flashlight for her.

Inside, it was like an abandoned junkyard, with dusty ground piled high with twisted metal scraps and fragments.

The space was so cramped it was suffocating.

Yun Zhao had no choice but to kneel on the ground. Wherever the flashlight beam swept, there were only twisted alloy fragments and dried gel residue.

It may have once been sophisticated and advanced, but now it's more like a dissected mechanical corpse.

Fu Yu is right.

Anyone who has never seen an aircraft would not recognize this as a section of an aircraft cabin.

Using the light, Yun Zhao carefully searched inch by inch and saw the circular track that Xia Mingang had mentioned, embedded in the edge of the cabin wall.

Like the securing device for escape pod seats.

After a moment of trying to figure it out, Yun Zhao groped his way toward the head.

She reached out and brushed aside a pile of shards, beneath which lay another pile of unidentifiable trash.

Yun Zhao continued digging. Some of the metal fragments were too sharp, like daggers, and she had to carefully and slowly remove the debris.

She dug until she reached the bottom, finally revealing a half-melted panel with a recessed slot—its shape and size almost perfectly matching the crystal in her arms.

Is this crystal... a key?

"Did such flying machines exist in the old days?" Yun Zhao stopped in place and asked in a calm voice.

Xie Tu gave her a deep look. "No."

Upon hearing this, Fu Mo suddenly looked up and met Jiang Mu's gaze.

Jiang Mu narrowed his eyes, watching the actions inside, his expression turning somewhat dangerous.

A chilling thought exploded in everyone's minds.

What is technology that doesn't belong to the old era?

A dark apocalypse... could it be...?

Yun Zhao received the answer and became even more silent. She moved slowly, preparing to gently place the crystal into the slot, when the flashlight beam suddenly flickered.

Something's up!

Fu Mo's voice was very low, and everyone suddenly looked towards the cellar entrance.

On the ground.

The roar of the water unicorn came, followed by a dull thud from above. Clods of earth fell down, as if some enormous creature was stomping heavily on the ground.

Immediately afterwards, the entire cellar began to shake.

Yun Zhao froze for a moment, then recklessly shoved the crystal into the slot.

She needs to know the answer.

Even if the King of Heaven himself came, he couldn't interrupt her.

"That Sentinel mutant has appeared!" Fuhma grabbed the Gatling gun and was about to rush out.

Xia Mingang clicked his tongue: "How could such a battle of the century be complete without my participation?"

If I can kill an S-class mutant, I'll have a prestigious achievement, and then Grandpa can still scold him all he wants.

Jiang Mu slightly raised his eyes, revealing a thoughtful expression.

It seemed like they were contemplating whether to go up or stay.

—Buzz!

The cellar trembled again.

The noise didn't come from above, but from the damaged and deformed sealed compartment!

The entire sealed cabin suddenly trembled violently, and the blue patterns on the cabin wall suddenly lit up, as if a stimulant had been injected into the blood vessels, the light changing from a dark blue to a dazzling white.

"Hold!"

Xia Mingang paused in his steps, turned around and saw this scene, and couldn't help but curse, "This thing can actually start?!"

Where did this cutting-edge technology come from?!

Yun Zhao remained unaffected, his eyes fixed on the wondrous sight before him.

A few sparks flew from the shattered console, and the half-melted screen flickered twice before a line of blood-red warning text appeared.

The screen was so badly damaged that it was impossible to read what was written on it.

"Identity verification required?" Xie Tu stood at the door the whole time, watching her every move.

The sounds of battle could be heard from above.

Fu Yu and Xia Mingang seem to have engaged in combat with the monster.

Yun Zhao knew that time was running out.

What is identity verification?

If the aircraft is a cloud-based device, how should she open it?

Yun Zhao ran his fingers around on the crystal, trying to unlock it with his fingerprint.

But even fathers and daughters have different fingerprints.

If it's not a fingerprint, could it be a password?

Where are the input keys?

Yun Zhao's mind raced. She remembered that the research institute said the crystal could be opened and that there were faint energy fluctuations inside.

So she started randomly pressing buttons on the half-transparent panel.

no!

I can't open the crystal, and it won't start!

Could she have guessed wrong? The item isn't from Yun Jue?

Did Yun Jue merely stumble upon this place and discover the sealed chamber?

She was too hasty and preoccupied with other things, so she pressed her right hand against the sharp metal fragment, instantly cutting her index finger and drawing blood.

Xie Tu's expression changed slightly, and he immediately took off his backpack and searched for medicine.

These metals have been around for who knows how many years and may harbor deadly pathogens, so the bleeding must be stopped and the wound cleaned immediately.

Blood beads rolled down Yun Zhao's fingertips and splattered onto the crystal surface.

—Zhi.

A blinding blue light suddenly burst forth from inside the crystal, instantly absorbing the blood droplet.

Yun Zhao's pupils shrank sharply. Before she could even pull her hand away, the entire crystal suddenly cracked open as if it were alive. Countless nanoscale metal wires shot out from the crack and burrowed into the wound on her fingertip!

"tear--!"

Yun Zhao gasped and arched his back, but couldn't shake off the pressure.