Chapter 37
Su Jing walked along the metal walkway on the southeast side of the central tower toward the city lord's mansion. Her boots stepped on the hollowed-out metal grilles. A hundred meters below, there was a flow of aerial traffic, and silver-gray aircraft swept past, their shadows flashing across the walkway.
The metal railings on both sides of the walkway were rusty, and every ten meters there was a malfunctioning neon light that flickered with an unstable cold light. In the distance, a faint "humming" came from the direction of the city lord's mansion—the low-frequency sound of the city lord's robot in operation, dull yet extremely oppressive.
When we were 500 meters away from the city lord's mansion, we suddenly heard light footsteps coming from around the corner of the plank road ahead.
Su Jing instinctively pressed herself against the railing, her hand reaching for the laser gun at her waist. But she saw an old woman leaning on a metal cane slowly walk out. She was wearing a faded dark robe with a string of metal bells hanging from her waist, which jingled softly with each step. Her hair was completely white but neatly combed, her face was covered with wrinkles, but her eyes were clear and bright. She was staring at Su Jing's radiation protection suit with a gentle smile on her lips.
"Little girl, are you going to get the 'Blue Core' (a super-grade energy core)?"
The old woman walked up to Su Jing, gently tapped the metal grille of the walkway with her cane, took out a yellowed parchment map from her sleeve, and handed it to her. "This is a map of the ventilation ducts of the City Lord's Mansion. Go in through the ventilation opening of the 'Abandoned Clock Tower' on the east side, walk straight for 30 meters, then turn left, go up two more floors, and you will reach the core room on the top floor. Don't go through the main duct; there are laser cannons patrolling there."
Su Jing held the map in her hand, her fingertips able to feel the raised, hand-drawn lines on it—marking the branching points of the ventilation ducts, the blind spots to avoid the laser cannons, and even drawing a red circle at the corresponding location in the core room, with the words "Robot Charging Area" written next to it.
She looked up at the old woman and asked in confusion, "How did you know I was looking for the core? And you even gave me a map?"
"Everyone in the slums knows about you helping Lina fix the robot and sending Martha jerky."
The old woman tapped the ground with her cane again, the bell ringing softly. "I am Martha's mother-in-law. She told me you are a kind-hearted child, unlike those outsiders who 'steal the robot' (referring to other instance participants)."
The city lord robot has been patrolling the slums a lot lately, damaging several cleaning robots. We're hoping someone can make it "quiet" for a while—you can take the core, but don't completely destroy it. Leaving it around can still keep out "bad robots" (rebel robots).
Su Jing felt a warmth in her heart, took out a vacuum-packed dried fruit from her backpack, and handed it to the old lady: "Thank you, I will be careful not to damage the robot's basic functions."
The old lady took the dried fruit, stuffed it into her sleeve, and then instructed: "The laser cannon in the core room on the top floor scans every 20 seconds. After you go in, you need to hide behind the 'metal cabinet'."
The robot closes its eyes while charging. If you can make it wake up later, it will have more time to retrieve the core. Its charging port is on its back, connected by a blue wire. Unplugging it will slow down its waking process, but don't unplug it for too long, or it will trigger an alarm.
After saying goodbye to the old lady, Su Jing followed the map and went around to the abandoned clock tower on the east side of the city lord's mansion. The clock tower had long since stopped operating. The huge metal clock hung crookedly on the top floor, its surface riddled with bullet holes. The ventilation openings on the bottom floor were half-closed, and the rusty grilles were just big enough for a person to climb inside.
She took out a screwdriver and gently pried open the grille. A gust of cold air mixed with dust and engine oil rushed out. It was pitch black inside, and she could only vaguely see the outline of the pipes extending in front.
Su Jing turned on the miniature flashlight at the collar of her anti-radiation suit. The beam drew a thin line in the darkness. She bent down and crawled into the ventilation duct. The inner wall of the duct was lined with thin sound-absorbing cotton, and there was only a slight "rustling" sound when she crawled.
Following the map, she climbed straight for 30 meters and then turned left at the first fork in the pipe—the pipe was narrower here, requiring her to move sideways. Occasionally, she would bump into the metal protrusions on the pipe wall, which would scrape against her radiation protection suit and make a soft "sizzling" sound.
After climbing two floors, a buzzing sound of electricity suddenly came from ahead—the sound of laser cannons patrolling.
Su Jing immediately turned off the flashlight, pressed herself against the inner wall of the pipe, held her breath, and looked out through the gap in the pipe: in the main pipe below, a red laser beam was scanning from left to right, once every 20 seconds, leaving faint burn marks as the beam passed over the pipe wall.
Following the map markings, she waited for the laser beam to sweep across, then quickly climbed into the adjacent branch pipe. After climbing another 5 meters, she finally saw a faint blue light at the end of the pipe ahead—that was the direction of the core room.
She carefully pushed open the grille at the end of the pipe and gently jumped onto the floor of the core room—it was more spacious than she had imagined. A 5-meter-tall city lord robot stood on the central platform: its titanium alloy shell gleamed coldly, two thick mechanical legs supported its massive body, and a blue charging cable was inserted into its back, connecting to the charging port on the wall.
Its eyes were closed, and the core slot on its chest glowed with a faint blue light, which was the location of the top-grade core.
Various instruments were placed on the metal cabinets around the perimeter, their screens lit up with green operating lights, and a laser cannon in the corner was aimed at the core slot, scanning it every 20 seconds.
Su Jing hid behind the metal cabinet closest to the platform, accessed her spatial storage—the "electromagnetic jammer" she had previously redeemed with 5000 points in the system shop was on the easily accessible shelf, and with a thought, the black jammer appeared in her hand.
The jammer is about the size of a palm, with a knob on the side labeled "Interference Intensity: Low/Medium/High".
Following the old lady's instructions, she went around to the back of the robot and confirmed the location of the charging cable—a blue cable as thick as a wrist, connected to the charging port on the back of the robot, with a red indicator light next to the port flashing regularly to indicate that it was charging.
Su Jing adjusted the jammer to "medium intensity," held it close to the charging port, and pressed the switch—the jammer emitted a slight "humming" sound, and the screen lit up with pale green ripples.
Instantly, the red indicator light on the robot's back began to flash erratically, and the charging panel on the wall also displayed a red garbled message: "Charging program abnormal." A system notification sounded in Su Jing's mind: "[Electromagnetic interference is in effect. The awakening time of the city lord robot is delayed by 10 minutes (current remaining delay time is 9 minutes and 58 seconds)]."
She breathed a sigh of relief and quickly circled around to the core slot on the front of the robot—the slot was protected by a transparent energy shield that glowed with a faint blue light.
Su Jing took out the factory log she had gotten from Martin, turned to the last page, which stated, "How to remove the core slot shield: Press and hold the black button on the left side of the slot for 3 seconds."
Following the log instructions, she found the black button and pressed it with her fingertip. After 3 seconds, the energy shield disappeared with a "hum," revealing a top-grade core inside that shone with a deep blue light. It was twice the size of a high-grade core, and the energy patterns on its surface flowed like water. She could clearly feel the enormous energy contained within.
Just as Su Jing reached out to disassemble the core, she suddenly heard faint sounds of arguing in the distance, mixed with the clanging of metal against metal.
The sound came from the direction of the main gate of the city lord's mansion. You could vaguely hear someone shouting, "Don't stop us!" "This is our city lord!" It was clear that Jack's team had a conflict with the natives.
Without thinking too much, she quickened her pace, grasped the edge of the premium core with both hands, and gently lifted it up—the core was successfully removed from the slot, warm to the touch, and its energy fluctuations were stronger than any of the previous cores.
The instant she stored the core into her spatial storage, the robot's eyes suddenly flashed red, the charging cable on its back snapped off, and a system notification rang out urgently: [Warning! The City Lord Robot's awakening delay has ended; it has entered combat mode!]
Su Jing's heart tightened. Remembering what the old lady had said about "hitting the joint lines," she immediately pulled out her laser gun, aimed it at the blue lines on the robot's knee, and pulled the trigger.
"Zzz!" The red laser beam struck the circuit, and sparks instantly flew from the robot's knee. The mechanical leg that had been raised slammed onto the platform with a "bang" and became immobile.
It roared angrily, and the laser cannon on its chest began to charge. However, because its legs could not move, it could only fire at the ceiling. With a "boom", a large hole was punched through the metal plate at the top.
Su Jing took the opportunity to climb back into the ventilation duct. Just as she closed the grille, she heard the angry clanging of the robot coming from the core room.
Following the map's directions, she quickly climbed back, peering down through gaps in the pipes—at the main gate of the city lord's mansion, Jack and his four teammates were surrounded by a dozen natives. The natives, wielding metal wrenches and iron bars, shouted at them, "Don't you dare steal our city lord! Get out of the city lord's mansion!" Jack and the others, armed with laser guns, dared not fire, and could only retreat in disarray, clearly intimidated by the natives' imposing presence.
Su Jing didn't linger, quickly climbing out of the ventilation duct and back to the abandoned clock tower. From the direction of the city lord's mansion came the roars of robots and the roar of laser cannons; the arguing of Jack's team gradually faded away. She touched the top-tier core in her spatial storage, brought up the system panel—the rankings had been updated, and her mission progress far surpassed everyone else. All she needed to do next was safely evacuate, and she could easily secure a top 10 reward.
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