Chapter 222 Meat Grinder (Part 3)
I have to say that the robot was ready really quickly. Jie Fangcheng brought Zhan Xiaoming out without him having to ask, as Yan Xun had already very considerately prepared a place for Zhan Xiaoming to stay.
Zhan Xiaoming asked in panic, "Am I the only one living here? Brother Jie, don't you want to live with me?"
He was so scared. At least in the previous copy, Brother Jie was on the same floor with him. If anything happened, Jie Fangcheng would appear as soon as he opened the door.
But the residence that Yan Xun prepared for him was surrounded by NPCs, and Jie Fangcheng just held the bouquet of roses and seemed to have no intention of staying there.
Zhan Xiaoming has a psychological trauma towards these NPCs! He really doesn't dare to live here alone!
When he asked this, Jie Fangcheng patiently explained: "We need to cross the wind field and find something to make the Angel's Eyes."
"Ah?" Zhan Xiaoming was stunned for a moment, then immediately asked, "Can I go with you?"
Jie Fangcheng shook his head.
There are wind fields surrounding Cangcui Island. These winds seem to have tracking functions. They basically only linger around Cangcui Island and rarely go to other places.
But this does not mean that it is safe outside the wind farm.
After leaving the Green Island and passing through the wind field, there is only dry desert on the land. There are huge scorpions, groups of ants, and even some newly evolved species lurking in the sand. Each of them is very powerful and very difficult to mess with.
The wind field surrounding the Green Island is like an isolation zone, trapping all existing humans in this remote corner of the Green Island while isolating the mutated animals in the desert.
After every solar eclipse, due to the huge wind energy, the mutated animals near Cangcui Island would hide in the yellow sand and would not dare to show their heads for a while.
Therefore, after every solar eclipse, each team on the island would take advantage of the opportunity just after the eclipse to cross the wind field, bring back some heritage of human civilization nearby, and then return to the Green Island before the next solar eclipse begins.
This distance is not too far. With current human technology, a hundred miles around Cangcui Island is considered a safe distance. Firstly, with the solar eclipse and wind field, there will not be too many mutated animals; secondly, the army on the island will go out on missions from time to time to clean up the area.
But the place that Jie Fangcheng and his team wanted to go was the research institute in the Central City, which was more than 20,000 miles away from Cangcui Island. Due to the uncertainty of the wind, they could not use the hovercraft, and Yan Xun had to assemble a ground vehicle. Even if they did nothing but travel along the way, it would take ten days to get there.
Besides, it is impossible to just rush along the way. Mutated animals are fine, but if we encounter a hurricane, the ground vehicle can only dig into the ground and wait for the strong wind to pass.
Although Jie Fangcheng is very powerful, he knows better that the power of nature is more terrifying than any strange existence.
So when Zhan Xiaoming asked this question, Jie Fangcheng refused without hesitation.
Zhan Xiaoming also understood that, given his own strength, following Brother Jie would be a hindrance, and he blurted out what he had just said, instinctively wanting to rely on Brother Jie. But when he came to his senses, before Jie Fangcheng even shook his head, Zhan Xiaoming already felt that his request was inappropriate.
At this time, Jie Fangcheng refused as expected. Although Zhan Xiaoming still felt scared, he nodded with tears in his eyes: "Then... Brother Jie, please come back soon."
Jie Fangcheng smiled and patted his shoulder: "Don't worry, you will live well on Cangcui Island."
“……”Zhan Xiaoming burst into tears.
Big brother is really scary from the inside out. Even his way of comforting people doesn't bring any comfort. I just feel that the danger level of Cangcui Island has increased a little bit after he said that.
Zhan Xiaoming thought of something at this time: "Brother Jie, are you going alone? I heard that there is sandstorm outside, and there is also a hurricane known as the 'meat grinder'... Of course, I don't doubt your ability, but this is a D-level hunting ground!"
There are no rules in the hunting ground, and completing the mission is the only goal.
"No, I have a companion."
"Ah? Who?" Zhan Xiaoming was curious.
Zhang Siquan's voice came from the rose that Jie Fangcheng had been holding: "Me."
“…”
"Any questions?"
“…No, no more.”
Jie Fangcheng waved his hand at him: "Okay, I'm leaving now."
Zhan Xiaoming was reluctant to leave: "Okay, Brother Jie, please come back soon."
When Jie Fangcheng left the room, Rose's voice turned into Zhang Daoan's voice.
The electronic synthesized voice with an electric current was very steady: "Zhan Xiaoming relies on you a lot."
"Really?" Jie Fangcheng said happily.
As the first person Jie Fangcheng met when he came to this game, he had a really good impression of Zhan Xiaoming.
Although Zhan Xiaoming has little strength and a weak character, in such a game, Zhan Xiaoming does not have any bad intentions. Instead, he is quite enthusiastic and wanted to help Jie Fangcheng the first time they met.
This slightly reversed Jie Fangcheng's original negative impression of the players of this game.
Besides, the other party was dragged into this dungeon because of him, so Jie Fangcheng's patience was rare.
Rose stopped talking.
Jie Fangcheng was so careless that he didn't notice anything wrong.
Just then, a cool off-road vehicle stopped in front of Jie Fangcheng and the door opened automatically.
Yan Xun sat in the driver's seat - although the car's movements were not controlled by Yan Xun's robot body through the steering wheel, but there were his neurons in the car. Even if Yan Xun was not sitting in front of the steering wheel, the car would still follow the correct route.
Originally, the robot was not intended to sit in the driver's seat. After all, maintaining a human appearance and movements consumes energy.
Even if all preparations have been made and the energy is sufficient, as a sophisticated computer, the robot's natural nature is extremely rational.
It goes against the nature of robots to consume unnecessary energy during the journey.
Therefore, Yan Xun's initial plan was only this car. Jie Fangcheng could rest in the car. Yan Xun's human form would not appear. He would only change into a car, a temporary residence, a windbreak fortress as needed... If Jie Fangcheng felt bored, he could consume energy to play movies for Jie Fangcheng, etc. As an excellent robot, the needs of Jie Fangcheng, a collaborator, were second only to bringing back the "Tree of Life Seeds".
But now, Yan Xun was wearing a white military uniform and sitting in the driver's seat.
The robot even consumed energy and took the initiative to fasten Jie Fangcheng's seat belt after he sat in the passenger seat.
"Ah...thank you."
Yan Xun showed a standard smile on his face: "You're welcome."
At the gate of Cangcui City, teams of seven were queuing up and waiting to go out. The silver SUV looked no different from the surrounding vehicles.
After the city gate opened, the off-road vehicle followed the surrounding vehicles and drove out of Cangcui City, heading east.
.
Yellow sand.
It's already the third day.
If Jie Fangcheng knew before that this small world was about to collapse, but he didn't have a very specific impression in his mind, then during these three days, he really knew what it was like for a small world to be destroyed.
It’s not just the doomsday scene that is so loud and visible to the naked eye like the solar eclipse...the most terrifying thing is the calmness.
It seemed as if he and Yan Xun were the only ones left in the world, and there was only yellow sand all around them, endless yellow sand.
During these three days, the vehicle did not encounter any danger along the way. With Yan Xun there, Jie Fangcheng went from sitting in the passenger seat at the beginning to almost lying flat now.
The robot was very caring, the seats were made quite comfortable, and there was even a movie screen in front of Jie Fangcheng.
"We're sorry, but we currently have very few movies in stock."
That’s what the robot said—of course, he meant more than 300,000 movies.
Just from the number of these movies, we can get a glimpse of how prosperous this land was before the end of the world.
The technology here is more advanced than Jie Fangcheng's small world, and the scenes that Jie Fangcheng has seen in science fiction movies are commonplace here.
Even such a prosperous and high-tech world will inevitably be destroyed.
Jie Fangcheng couldn't help but sigh and looked out the window.
Looking out the window, all you can see is the flat desert.
Unlike the magnificent desert scenery that Jie Fangcheng had seen in his own little world before, the desert here was terribly flat. If Jie Fangcheng had gone there on his own without Yan Xun leading the way, he wouldn't even be able to tell the direction.
There are no roads, no landmarks, no landscapes, no boundaries.
The entire continent is like this, there is absolutely no trace of the existence of civilization.
The car drove smoothly all the way and finally arrived at the first material collection point on the third day.
In a vast expanse of yellow sand where nothing could be seen clearly, the off-road vehicle changed its shape and extended downward on the yellow sand like a drill bit for digging a well. Soon, Yan Xun nodded.
“Found it.”
The machine separated the yellow sand, forming a staircase leading underground.
Yan Xun led the way in front, and the two quickly entered the underground buried by yellow sand.
Surprisingly, this is not a research institute, but a hospital.
Perhaps because the yellow sand is too dry, the writing on the damaged wall has not faded yet.
——Gushan Hospital.
Yan Xun's robots are quickly clearing the road, looking for necessary materials, and occasionally picking up some useful instruments.
Xie Fangcheng followed behind him and looked around the hospital.
It was obvious that the accident came unexpectedly, and many non-rotten personal belongings were scattered in the corridor.
Some of the dried bones showed the tragic state they were in before death. In such a small world with such a high level of civilization, when humans finally faced doomsday, they would leave obvious scratches on the walls like wild beasts.
Yan Xun's mechanical eyes scanned the scene in front of him. His voice was calm, with the ruthless command of a robot.
"This is Gushan Hospital on the 11th Street in District 7. In the 146th year of the apocalypse, the 'Meat Grinder' suddenly appeared nearby."
The levels of hurricanes can now be roughly divided into "meat grinder" and "wind field".
The wind field is like the hurricane around Cangcui Island. The area of the wind field is generally very large. The wind field near Cangcui Island basically starts at ten or twenty miles. Humans wearing protective clothing and grippers can still pass through it.
But if they encounter a tornado-like "meat grinder", humans wearing protective clothing will be rolled up in an instant, and within ten seconds, the entire person and everything on their body will be turned into powder.
Gushan Hospital was not in the "meat grinder" category, so a few relics have been preserved.
But when the meat grinder stopped, the rolled-up yellow sand and various powders poured down from the sky, instantly burying all the nearby buildings.
That’s how Gushan Hospital disappeared.
Or maybe this is how this once prosperous continent disappeared.
Jie Fangcheng couldn't help but think of the divine world which was already in name only.
The material collection at Gushan Hospital went very smoothly. Yan Xun's robot worked very efficiently and quickly found the required materials.
When the two returned to the ground again, they saw the setting sun.
The off-road vehicle continued to move eastward, and soon the sky became pitch black with only the twinkling stars.
Fang Cheng stared blankly at the stars through the window, and the roof of the SUV opened directly.
The robot also made Jie Fangcheng's seat flatter so that he could look at the stars more comfortably.
The robot was so considerate that Jie Fangcheng couldn't help but look at Yan Xun, who was also looking at him.
In the night, Zhang Daoan's face made Jie Fangcheng a little dazed for a moment. When he came to his senses, the lingering doubts in his heart had been asked out loud by him.
"You said... Will our little world also collapse?"
After asking this question, Xie Fangcheng knew that his question was in vain.
Why did players appear in his world? Wasn't it because his little world was about to collapse, so it became a hunting ground?
It can be said that the small world where Jie Fangcheng lives is on the verge of collapse, and the disappearance of the divine world is a sign of this.
I just don't know why this collapse is so slow.
At least in this world, according to Yan Xun, from the deterioration of the natural environment, to the appearance of hurricanes, to the beginning of the doomsday era for mankind, until now, it has been no more than three hundred years in total.
If it weren't for Yan Xun's protection, Cangcui Island would no longer exist and all humans in this world would have become extinct long ago.
In a small world, once all intelligent creatures die, the laws of nature that maintain the rules will also disappear.
Although Jie Fangcheng had never seen what would happen when the rules were gone, the underworld was a place without rules, and it was difficult for Jie Fangcheng to travel through it even with his strength.
So how does this game collect the collapsed world? Do they already have a way to reshape the way of heaven?
Jie Fangcheng was lost in thought, while the robot beside him was answering his question: "I'm sorry, I can't answer your question. But before the collapse of the small world, humans had already faced countless 'doomsdays'."
Jie Fangcheng looked at him.
There are stars in the sky, but there is no moon - not because it is cloudy today or anything like that, but because there is no moon in this little world.
Every small world has different scenery. When Jie Fangcheng turned to look at him, Yan Xun also turned his head.
"Floods, droughts, volcanic eruptions...disasters have never ceased in human history. More than 7,000 years ago, a plague broke out in my world that affected the entire continent. At that time, humans did not have modern technology and no way to treat the plague."
The robot's voice was steady, with an inorganic indifference: "In the second year of the plague, corpses were everywhere. At that time, there was no federal government. There were many independent countries on the continent, and many of them were destroyed because of the plague. In the third year, there were only two countries left. The people of the two countries decided to merge into one, and the federal government was established."
"That was the most tragic period in human history. The plague virus was everywhere. After the establishment of the federal government, every possible means were used, but it still could not stop the spread of the plague. Lives were devastated, and the death toll on the entire continent exceeded 90%... Until the tenth year of the plague, perhaps because the number of remaining humans was too small, the disaster suddenly ended one summer."
"After this plague, as if in a rebound, we entered a period of rapid technological development. Countless geniuses were born, and new academic theories that could influence the world were born every year. The human population also expanded rapidly in a short period of time. After more than a hundred years of rapid development, we once again saw the plague virus that almost wiped out the entire human race."
"After we met again, the virus that nearly wiped out the entire human race was solved with just a pack of instant powder in the face of rapidly developing technology. In this land, humans have always faced various disasters. Ferocious beasts in ancient times, resource depletion after technological development, wars, natural disasters... and more "doomsdays" fell on everyone's heads. Broken love, illness, separation, accidents... until death."
The robot's inorganic gray pupils looked at Jie Fangcheng. He had no emotions, but when his rationality was infinitely elevated and he was almost omniscient, even the electronic sounds produced by the machine seemed to carry gentle comfort.
"I don't think there are eternal difficulties in the world, just like humans don't have eternal life, but they do have eternal continuation. If my world is really going to collapse, there must be a way to solve it. It's just that it's possible that we can't solve the problem now, but one day, this difficult problem will be answered. And the efforts we make now can become a stepping stone for the future, right?"
Jie Fangcheng looked at him absentmindedly. After a while, he nodded.
"right."
So Green City has persisted for so many years, even though it seems there is no hope.
But now... at least Jie Fangcheng is here.
Is this a turning point? Can the collapse of the small world be saved?
"You..." Jie Fangcheng was about to ask if there was any way to save the world from collapse when the off-road vehicle suddenly stopped.
Jie Fangcheng stumbled forward and asked hurriedly, "What happened?"
The robot frowned and turned around.
“——Someone is there.”
.
Let’s go back in time to Area A1, not long after Jie Fangcheng entered the hunting ground.
Two white lights flashed by.
This is not a teleportation point, but a large pure white area - the restricted area of Area A1.
Rumor has it among players that after the six major guilds killed the giant dragon that wanted to steal the game, the dragon was filled with resentment and its corpse kept emitting evil energy that could corrode people.
So the presidents of the six major guilds joined forces to seal the dragon's body somewhere in Area A, and then designated this area as a restricted area that no player could enter.
Of course, this list of people who cannot enter does not include the presidents of the six guilds. The six of them are also the "administrators" of the current game.
At this moment, in this restricted area where other players were prohibited from entering, two figures were teleported in, and the sound of "beeping" from the system could be faintly heard all around.
[Ding... Checking... Permissions... Welcome to the 'Management Committee' of the Three Thousand Worlds...]
"It's fine if 'Iwaku' doesn't come, but why doesn't 'Jazz' come either?"
The person who was speaking was over two meters tall, much taller and stronger than an ordinary person, but much shorter than the giants, just like a poorer player who could not afford to completely replace the giant's bloodline and only gained a small amount of enhancement.
But the red devil horn on his head proved that he was not of the common giant bloodline, but of the devil bloodline.
——One of the six guild presidents in Area A1, the devil "Satan".
Next to him, a mermaid with a huge fish tail sat on a suspended pearl throne, her ears covered with a layer of blue fins.
The mermaid "Sea God" is also one of the presidents of the six guilds.
At this point Satan spoke up, and Poseidon explained, "The Lady's legacy has been disturbed, and 'Sir' is looking for her child."
Satan raised an eyebrow.
"'Madam' has been missing for so long, are you sure this is her child?"
"Who knows?"
The two chatted for a few sentences and then stopped talking. After a while, a white light flashed.
[Ding... Checking... Permissions... Welcome to the 'Management Committee' of the Three Thousand Worlds... 'President'. 】
The president of the First Labor Union was wearing a suit and glasses, and looked gentle and elegant.
Compared to the others who were either of demon blood or mermaids, he was just an ordinary human. But to be the president of the first union, he was obviously not so "ordinary".
“We are all here.”
The president spoke, then put the things in his hand on the table.
The red ghost eyes rolled around as if they were still alive.
“It’s really a ghost eye!”
Satan placed the eyeball in front of his pupil and looked out through the ghost eye.
"Don't look at it." Poseidon said calmly, "I've already said that only ghosts can use the 'Ghost Eyes' in the 'Original Land'."
"Fuck." Satan pinched the eyeball in his hand. He was very powerful, and an S-level artifact should have shattered in his hand, but this disposable A-level prop that had been used was still strong in his hand.
His brows were furrowed, and his remaining devil horns turned red because of his irritable mood.
"Has the 'Origin' not collapsed yet? It's been so many years!"
This question actually does not need an answer, just look at your feet and you will know.
If someone could float in the air, they would find that the white "forbidden zone" is not paved with white jade, but a piece of scales.
The huge scales are lustrous and sacred. It is hard to imagine that just one scale is so huge. What kind of giant creature must own such scales?
Of course Poseidon and Satan had seen it before, not only in this game... they had also seen it when their little world was about to collapse.
"Not only that, it seems that there is an extraordinary guardian."
Although he mentioned this "incredible", the president's expression did not change.
Obviously, for them, even the guardian of the initial land is not a concern.
Satan was also not interested: "Oh? Did the five players run into the guardian? Is the guardian dead?"
"No." The president said as he handed a stack of information to the two of them. At the very beginning of the information, the guardian's name was clearly visible.
【Jie Fangcheng】.
"Not only is he not dead... this guardian has even come into the game."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
