Chapter 505 The Journey Home!
Beep beep, beep beep.
Inside carriage number 6 of the Infinite, an announcement broke the silence of the night. It was already 12:40 a.m. In fact, amidst the crimson light, the distinction between day and night, apart from the impending danger, had little meaning to outsiders.
Lin Xian, who was studying the same potential device, stopped his watch and looked at KIKI sleeping on the sofa next to him. He raised his hand and controlled the service drone to send a blanket over her.
The train, several hundred meters long, had only two people on it, appearing incredibly desolate in the crimson light. The crimson light blocked out the sunlight, and without sun exposure for a long time, the ground temperature was rapidly dropping. There was neither snow nor wind outside, but the temperature had already reached -23 degrees Celsius. The power armor's analysis estimated that as they continued to travel to higher latitudes, the temperature might drop below -40 degrees Celsius.
Although Lin Xian and KIKI are protected by their superpowers and power armor, so the low temperature has no effect on them, Lin Xian can imagine that the situation of the survivors trapped in the crimson will become more and more desperate every day.
The crimson color resembles the polar night, and the extremely low temperature will quickly draw away heat, which means that food consumption will also increase.
Lin Xian stopped what he was doing and, with a thought, began to call out to Grace. Six hours had passed, and he needed to know the Phoenix Society's response.
"Grace, has the information packet from Starry Sky Labs been delivered?"
Yes, I received a message, but it was very brief.
What is it?
The message reads, "Please use your special ability on the Civilization Rehearsal Ball."
Lin Xian paused for a moment upon hearing this, then asked somewhat puzzledly, "Is there... nothing else?"
【Yes.】
He immediately frowned. He had thought that Phoenix would send him a lot of information, or that Ye Lan would stop him from going to Colorado, but he didn't expect that after waiting for 6 hours, they would only reply with one sentence.
"What's wrong?"
Hearing the noise, KIKI sat up, wrapped in a blanket, and looked at him: "The Phoenix Society has sent news?"
“Strange…” Lin Xian shook his head: “They only replied with one sentence, something like… Please use your special ability on the Civilization Preview Sphere.”
Upon hearing this, KIKI frowned slightly, then said, "It sounds like they don't believe it's you over there."
"You don't believe it was me?"
"Isn't it obvious? Chu Yan left, and you've been missing for a long time. Now you suddenly activate the South Heavenly Gate. Isn't it normal for Phoenix to suspect your identity?" KIKI said.
"Then why are you letting me use my special abilities on the Civilization Preview Sphere?"
KIKI shook her head: "I don't know. Could they contact you through the Civilization Preview Sphere, or is there some other secret involved?"
Lin Xian then took out the small silver ball, his gaze sharpening: "This was given to me by Hua Xiaoling; it belongs to the Tower People. How could the Phoenix Society possibly contact me through this..."
"unless……"
Lin Xian's expression changed slightly, as if he had suddenly thought of something. He looked up at KIKI and exclaimed, "A part of Chu Yan's consciousness?!"
"Hey, that's a good idea!" KIKI's eyes lit up as she looked at Lin Xian and said, "Maybe that's actually the case!"
Lin Xian nodded, looked at the silver ball in his hand and pondered for a while. Special ability? That could only be his mechanical heart.
So he immediately prepared to use the mechanical devouring technique, but as soon as he started it, he was jolted and quickly stopped himself, letting out a sigh of relief.
"No, I've tried this before. Like a forbidden substance, it can't be swallowed."
"Then how do you define using your special ability?" KIKI asked.
Lin Xian was also deep in thought. Mechanical manufacturing and mechanical control were clearly wrong, and mechanical devouring was impossible to complete. Just then, a strange thought came to his mind. Because of KIKI's words, he had thought of Chu Yan's ability to use gravitational lenses. If he followed this line of thought...
A chill ran down Lin Xian's spine. Without hesitation, he summoned a small drone, which used its robotic arm to suspend the silver sphere in the air. He then pointed...
Be careful.
After speaking to KIKI, he immediately released the gravitational lens!
null!
A strange spatial ripple spread through the carriage, the cold lights flickered, and a few subtle arcs of electricity flashed at the center of the silver sphere. Then, a pitch-black vortex slowly appeared, and under Lin Xian's extreme control, a small black hole the size of a ping-pong ball quickly formed. The light from the cold lights in the carriage was instantly distorted, completely pulled in the air as if by water ripples. At the same time, a howling cold wind began to appear in the carriage, making kitchen utensils clang and debris fly around.
Lin Xian and KIKI stared intently at the silver civilization sphere. Just then, they suddenly saw a strange scene from different perspectives: light and objects were separated, revealing a honeycomb grid space centered on the civilization sphere, extending in all directions to all dimensions.
The scene flashed by in an instant, and Lin Xian immediately shut down the gravitational lens. At that moment, the wind stopped, the objects stopped moving, the black hole quickly vanished, and the Civilization Sphere returned to its original state.
The carriage fell silent. Lin Xian and KIKI looked at each other, a strange feeling creeping over them...
Did you see that?
KIKI nodded: "It's like some kind of spatial layering."
The drone handed the Civilization Rehearsal Sphere back to Lin Xian. He examined it carefully and immediately frowned: "It seems like nothing happened. Could there be a mistake?"
KIKI didn't know what to say. Just as Lin Xian was about to ask Grace to get more detailed information from the Starry Sky Laboratory again, a voice suddenly rang out in the carriage.
“I’ve always believed you’re still alive, so I thought that if it were you, you would understand the meaning of this message very quickly.”
Upon hearing the sound, Lin Xian's expression changed drastically. He and KIKI immediately searched for the direction of the sound, only to find KIKI staring at him with wide eyes, without any reaction.
Did you hear that?
"What did you hear?"
Lin Xian frowned, then turned his head and was shocked to find that a very familiar figure had appeared in carriage number 6.
Lin Xianhuo stood up and looked at the man.
At fifty-six years old, with silver hair like frost and a slender figure, she still stood tall and straight like a pine tree. She wore a smart black woolen overcoat with the golden emblem of the Phoenix Society embroidered on the cuffs. Although she hadn't been seen for several months, the old woman seemed haggard, but her eyes remained deep and calm.
Phoenix Alliance Commander, Ye Lan!
"Professor Ye?!"
"Huh?" KIKI, who was standing next to her, also stood up immediately, but when Lin Xian saw her helpless expression, he immediately understood what was going on and said to Ye Lan, "My consciousness projection?"
"No."
Ye Lan's gaze swept over KIKI, then landed on Lin Xian, and she said calmly, "To be precise, it's Chu Yan's consciousness projection. Chu Yan separated her mental power and uploaded it to the part of the Gray Mist Messenger's action brain, which allows us to contact you through this key. Speaking of which, this idea was yours."
"My idea?" Lin Xian was somewhat surprised.
"The brain-computer interface device you implanted in Grace communicates with Grace through your consciousness."
Lin Xian's expression changed slightly. He gestured to KIKI and then said, "So, Chu Yan did this all along, it was all part of your plan?"
"Well... it's a long story. A lot has happened during this time."
Ye Lan glanced around the carriage and looked at Lin Xian, smiling calmly: "I knew it. If you were still alive, you wouldn't have rushed to the polar regions immediately."
Lin Xian let out a long sigh: "I didn't expect this to happen, to be forced into hibernation for so long. My Mechanical Heart..." He paused, then looked at Ye Lan: "Will Phoenix suffer a great loss?"
"It's hard to estimate."
Ye Lan stood still: "We have lost many soldiers, some of whom you may know, and many of whom you may not."
Lin Xian remained silent.
“In our confrontation with the Foundation, we confirmed that they are paying close attention to you, and I believe you are aware of that as well,” Ye Lan said. “You proposed the Spark Project, which was ultimately confirmed, so you should understand that you will be a key target for the Foundation and the Tower People from now on.”
Lin Xian nodded and sighed, "I never expected to be this important."
Ye Lan's eyes flickered slightly. After a moment of silence, she continued, "Because of the Foundation's existence, the Tower people have an excellent understanding of human actions. They know how to make us despair, so they focused their attacks on our Dawn Center and Noah. These two areas were originally the main force for our global aid system and final relocation. It can be said that more than 70% of our resources and population are located here."
"Now, after the battles of Colorado and Harcourt, we have suffered heavy losses. Thanks to the support of the European Storm Alliance and Phoenix, the majority of Noah's relocation was successful, but the Dawn Center on the land..."
Ye Lan spoke calmly, but her gaze held a sharp edge. She looked ahead and said, "The Tower People may not understand the human industrial system, but the Foundation knows very well that while our train fleet has a natural advantage in dealing with darkness and strange entities and can carry large amounts of supplies and personnel for transfer, its weaknesses are also very fatal."
"track?"
"That's right."
Ye Lan said, "Noah faced the same problem. Fortunately, the sea area where Noah was located was already close to the coast at that time, so it didn't sink. But Colorado was different. At that time, the Dawn Center was crossing Arizona, and all the canyon rail bridges had collapsed. The spread of the crimson was imminent, so the entire railcar convoy moved east to meet the transcontinental doomsday train 'Utopia' and turn to the western route. This also caused our formation to be fragmented. Although the Dawn Center's convoy was flexible, it lacked heavy weapons support, so it was all scattered and unable to concentrate its forces to provide support."
"They not only inflicted fatal losses on us, but also completely crushed humanity's will to resist by cutting off the supply lines." Lin Xian frowned: "They're really ruthless. Sure enough, the most ruthless are our own people."
“Countless lives have been lost, and we cannot even count the exact number. The numbering of survivors has been constantly reduced and revised. In just a few dozen days, more than a million people have died. Humanity... has now reached its end.”
"I've thought that perhaps there are other purposes they want to achieve in this." Ye Lan looked at Lin Xian.
Lin Xian raised an eyebrow slightly and subconsciously asked, "Me?"
“At first I was just suspicious, and I didn’t think you would be that important to the foundation, but now it seems that it may not be unfounded.”
Ye Lan shared her thoughts: "The people of Holy City have been searching for you, and the Foundation has been keeping an eye on you. Right now, no news is coming out of Colorado, and the fate of millions of people is unknown. They probably think that whether you disappeared in the Crimson or are hidden by us in the Arctic, you will definitely head north after learning this news, and that will naturally achieve their goal."
Lin Xian laughed upon hearing this.
"Is it really that exaggerated? I think they want to kill multiple birds with one stone, and I'm just an afterthought."
Ye Lan looked at Lin Xian quietly for a long time, then smiled.
"When you proposed Project Spark to me, didn't you say that your Mechanical Heart might involve the existence of higher-dimensional civilizations, and that this might be the essence of the Deterrence Era? Why are you now doubting this answer?"
Lin Xian was speechless for a moment, then helplessly sat down on the sofa behind him.
“I’ve actually thought about this problem, but it’s true, I can’t abandon my teammates. Even if an alien suddenly appeared in front of me and said, ‘Lin Xian, you can’t take risks, your Mechanical Heart is the key to controlling the Tower People!’ I still couldn’t do it…”
After he finished speaking, he looked at Ye Lan: "Professor Ye, tell me, what exactly is the purpose of a higher-dimensional civilization placing a mechanical heart on me? What if I die? So there must be more than one such being, right? If someone wants to help humanity, why can't they just be more direct? These questions are driving me crazy, even..."
“Even…” Lin Xian chuckled self-deprecatingly, “Sometimes I wonder if I’m overthinking things. Actually, my mechanical ability is just a very ordinary ability, brought by the Tower Man. All that talk about deterrence is just a coincidence. It really did come from Nantianmen. You see, during the Colorado campaign, didn’t it also exert a strong deterrent effect?”
KIKI, standing to the side, watched Lin Xian talking to himself in the air with a complicated expression. He remained silent, his lips pursed. Although she knew that Lin Xian was definitely talking to someone through some kind of mental link, his words made her feel a little uncomfortable.
She recalled their first meeting in Beiwan Town, when they dealt with the crimson centipede, and his dream of using his mechanical abilities to build a steel fortress that could soar into the sky. Back then, Lin Xian was not confused; he had a clear purpose. But now, he has become the Swordholder, the 'speculation' that the Phoenix Society wants to test and deter the darkness, the target of the Adventists, and the role model of the savior among the survivors... but he is no longer himself.
Thinking of this, KIKI felt a pang in her heart and didn't know what to say.
Over there, Lin Xian was still talking to Ye Lan.
"Professor Ye." After a moment of silence, Lin Xian looked at the tall but somewhat gaunt figure and asked, "What do you want me to do?"
"If I let you return to the polar regions, we will give you the highest level of protection and access to all resources. Would you accept that?" Ye Lan suddenly asked Lin Xian.
Upon hearing this, Lin Xian grinned and shook his head without hesitation.
"Then... bring those trains back."
Ye Lan looked at Lin Xian, her tone still as calm as the boundless stars: "There are 217 train convoys there. If all the trains were lined up end to end, it would be more than 100 kilometers long. Next, the Phoenix Society will fully activate the war factory in Kunlun City and launch it towards the Storm Coast to ensure the connection of the South American longitudinal line. The Kunlun Council has already decided two hours ago to appoint you as the supreme commander of this operation, with full command of the 13th and 22nd Iron Guard Brigades of the Sixth Intercontinental Force, the six mecha units of the Second Intercontinental Force including the three air fleets of 'Firestone, Dragon Kun, and Thunderbolt', as well as all the action groups stationed in North and South America."
Hearing Ye Lan's words, Lin Xian slowly stood up. He saw the firm look in Ye Lan's eyes, and a shiver ran down his spine and up to the top of his head!
"And you only have one mission." Ye Lan's voice echoed in carriage number 6.
"Leading the orbital forces and the last survivors of this continent, traversing north and south, breaking through the crimson, the Interstellar Force will ignite the seas for you in the Storm Straits..."
"Light up the final journey home!"
(End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
