Chapter 32
As the pale blue teleportation light dissipated, Su Jing's boots first touched a sticky metallic surface—a cool, oily smell seeped up her feet. She instinctively gripped the EMP-proof metal case slung across her shoulder. The moment she looked up, the absurdity and tension of the cyber world overwhelmed her.
This is a narrow alleyway in the lower slums of the floating city of "New Los Angeles." Hundreds of meters overhead, a skyway crisscrosses with silver-gray aircraft. Transparent energy shields refract a cold blue light, and occasionally, a fleet of aircraft sweeps past, casting shadows that quickly pierce the alley. The walls on either side are rusted metal plates riddled with bullet holes and malfunctioning neon lights. Electronic screens displaying "Under Repair" flash red gibberish, and broken metal cables dangle in mid-air, occasionally emitting tiny sparks. Broken mechanical parts are scattered on the ground, and black oil slicks accumulate in low-lying areas, reflecting the faint light from the skyway above. In the distance, a dull thud echoes, like the roar of large machinery at work, interspersed with rhythmic "thump, thump" sounds—the footsteps of mechanical guards on patrol.
[The dungeon quest has been generated. Please check your inbox!]
A system-generated electronic voice, accompanied by a slight electrical hum, sounded in my mind. A semi-transparent blue panel popped up, clearly listing the task details:
1. Main Quest: Obtain 10 Energy Cores (including Common/Advanced/Superior grade, quality not limited) within 72 hours.
2. Risk Warning:
- Mechanical Guardian (Danger Level 60): Silver metallic shell, red scanning eyes, fixed patrol route, detection radius of 5 meters, will trigger an electric shock attack when locked on.
- Rebel Robot (Danger Level 90): Rusty outer shell, carries a modified laser gun, has no fixed range of movement, highly aggressive, and will actively try to seize the core.
3. Reward Mechanism: The top 10 participants in the mission rankings will be rewarded with new superpowers.
[Note: There are 71 hours and 58 minutes remaining. It is recommended to prioritize acquiring basic resources by acquiring regular core items.]
Su Jing raised her hand and pressed the zipper of her anti-radiation suit at the collar—the metal buckle clicked shut, blocking out most of the smell of machine oil from the outside. She pressed herself against the rusty wall, her fingertips tracing the handle of the laser gun at her waist, her gaze quickly sweeping across both ends of the alley: at the left end, three abandoned metal trash cans were piled up, their bodies bearing faded signs that read "New Los Angeles Waste Disposal Plant"; at the right end, a silver metallic outline could be vaguely seen—the shoulder armor of a mechanical guard, its red scanning eyes slowly rotating towards the ground, a buzzing sound of detection drifting on the wind.
Just as she was about to pull her head back, her wrist was suddenly gently tugged by a warm touch—the force was light, delicate, and characteristic of a child, yet enough to instantly tense her nerves. Su Jing turned her head sharply and saw a little boy of about eight years old: wearing a faded synthetic fiber jacket with patches on the cuffs and hems, and a malfunctioning old bracelet on his exposed wrist, its screen shattered into a spiderweb pattern but still flickering; his hair was dark brown, plastered to his sweaty forehead, and his eyes were large with light brown pupils, carrying a wariness beyond his years, yet upon seeing Su Jing's anti-radiation suit, he subtly loosened his grip on her cuff.
"Sister, don't go to the right." The little boy's voice was soft and a little hoarse, but he enunciated clearly. He quickly glanced at the mechanical guard at the right alley entrance, then pulled Su Jing further into the alley and hid behind an abandoned metal locker. "The 'metal man' (mechanical guard) over there just changed shifts. We'll have to wait 10 minutes before he turns to the next alley."
Su Jing was stunned—she hadn't expected to encounter a native who would initiate conversation in the instance, much less offer such a direct warning. She instinctively activated the system's "multilingual translation" function, only to find the panel displaying "Automatically adapted to the native language of New Los Angeles, current translation normal"—it wasn't that she understood the language; the system's translation function was working on the native. She had checked the function immediately upon landing, unlike the others who were only focused on the quest.
"Do you know where the 'energy core' is?" Su Jing squatted down to be at eye level with the little boy, lowered her voice, and took out a vacuum-packed dried fruit from her pocket—it was from her easily accessible space, unopened, and had a faint sweet smell. "Here, if you know."
The little boy's eyes lit up, but he didn't immediately take the dried fruit. Instead, he peeked out of the locker to make sure there was no movement before whispering, "The ordinary core is in the 'cleaning robots' in the residential area—you know, those round ones that suck up trash. They have a blue core inside their bellies; you can just pry it out. But be careful of the 'metal men.' They inspect the cleaning robots, and if they find a core missing, they'll chase after you."
"Where are the residential areas? Are there many cleaning robots?" Su Jing pressed, offering him a handful of dried fruit. "Also, how often do the 'metal men' inspect the residential areas?"
“Go three alleys to the left from here, and the residential area is where you see the neon sign for ‘Convenience Supermarket’.” The little boy took the dried fruit and carefully stuffed it into his coat pocket, his eyes relaxing a bit. “There are more than a dozen cleaning robots. They gather at the garbage station to charge in the morning and evening. Right now they are sweeping the alleys, so they are easy to find. The ‘Metal Man’ goes to the residential area every hour, and there are still 40 minutes until the next inspection.”
As he spoke, he stretched out his little hand and drew a simple map on the ground: he scratched the metal ground with his fingernail, drawing three horizontal lines to represent alleys, and drew a crooked neon sign on the far left, with a circle next to it to represent a garbage station. "The cleaning robot is probably sweeping garbage in the second alley now. Don't run when you go there. The 'metal man' has very sharp ears and will come when it hears footsteps."
Su Jing memorized the map on the ground and then asked, "What about the advanced cores and the super-grade cores? Do you know where they are?"
The little boy frowned and shook his head. "I don't know. The adults said the high-level ones are in the 'Upper District,' and the top-level ones are in the 'Central Tower,' but there are a lot of 'metal men' there, and also 'bad robots' (rebellious robots) that can shoot guns. Nobody dares to go there." After he finished speaking, he suddenly pricked up his ears. The mechanical footsteps in the distance seemed to be getting closer. "I have to go. Mom is waiting for me. Sister, be careful and don't get caught in the red eyes of the 'metal men.'"
Before Su Jing could say thank you again, the little boy clutched the dried fruit in his pocket, bent down and squeezed through the gap in the metal locker, running quickly along the wall towards the left alleyway—his movements were very agile, like a little squirrel, and he quickly disappeared around the corner of the alley, leaving only a faint shadow of his synthetic fiber jacket.
Su Jing straightened up and leaned against the locker, her fingertips still tinged with the warm touch of the little boy who had just tugged at her. She brought up the system panel, wanting to try activating the "Cyber Map" function, but first saw the global channel notification flashing at the edge of the panel—she had been focused on communicating with the little boy and hadn't noticed the channel message.
Opening the channel, the first thing to pop up was a dark gray chat box, from "Sharp Blade (China)" Chen Yang: "Has anyone found a regular core? I've been squatting at the entrance of a residential area for half an hour. The locals just close their doors when they see me. They don't understand when I ask them 'core,' and gesturing for ages is no use. The mechanical guards even patrolled twice, and I almost got caught!"
Immediately following was Zhao Yue, the dark gray-haired "Flying Swallow (China)", who chimed in: "Me too! I just stopped a local auntie to ask where the cleaning robot was, and she screamed and ran away, attracting two mechanical guards. I had to hide in a trash can to avoid being swept! We can't get anywhere without the language barrier. Does anyone understand the language of New Los Angeles?"
The red-clad "Cowboy (USA)" also posted a message: "Our team of three encountered three natives in an alley. They could only speak strange syllables, and the system translation was completely useless! We can't find the normal cores, let alone the high-level ones. This dungeon is unplayable!"
Emily, the golden "Nightingale (EU)," added: "The system translation doesn't work for the natives. I tried three times, and it can only translate what the participants say. I just saw a cleaning robot and wanted to dismantle its core, but the mechanical guards suddenly came over, so I had to give up. Now I'm hiding in the abandoned shop and I don't dare to go out at all."
Looking at these messages, Su Jing secretly breathed a sigh of relief—it turned out that not everyone's system translation could adapt to the native language. Perhaps it was because she checked the translation function immediately upon landing, or perhaps it was because the little boy took the initiative to strike up a conversation that triggered the adaptation; in any case, she became one of the few participants who could communicate with the natives. This meant that the information the little boy provided, such as "the residential area cleaning robot has a regular core" and "the mechanical guard checks every hour," would become a huge advantage for her.
Without further hesitation, she followed the little boy's instructions, moving close to the wall towards the left alleyway—avoiding the oil stains on the ground with her boots and trying to make as little noise as possible. Passing the first alleyway, she indeed saw three round cleaning robots: silver bodies, half a meter tall, with rotating cleaning brushes at the bottom, buzzing as they sucked up mechanical debris from the ground. A faint blue dot could be seen on the side of each robot—that must be the location of the ordinary energy core.
The footsteps of the mechanical guards in the distance continued rhythmically. Su Jing stopped, brought up the system panel, and found the activation button for "Cyber Map" in the "Instance Functions"—with a light tap of her fingertip, the blue holographic map instantly unfolded, marking her current location, the residential area, the real-time coordinates of the cleaning robots, the patrol routes of the mechanical guards, and even marking the approximate distribution areas of "Ordinary Core (Blue)," "Advanced Core (Purple)," and "Special Core (Gold)" in different colors.
The moment the map was activated, the system notification sounded again: [Cyber map activated, capable of real-time updates of core coordinates and risk areas. Currently, 8 ordinary core locations have been marked (all on the cleaning robots)]
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