From the outside, this factory appears unremarkable, just one of countless abandoned factories on Earth. But stepping inside reveals a completely different world. Someone has transformed it into a spacious experimental base.
At one end of the base, cold silver and ice blue intertwine, countless utensils and electronic instruments gleaming with an eerie light. Many scattered components are piled haphazardly together. Ancient abacuses, industrial-era computers, post-technological robots, and modern-day quantum computers—traces of technology from every era of humankind can be found here. Even paper books, long since relics, fill one corner. Being there feels like witnessing a history of human technology.
Many people were busy among these technological products, using abacuses, turning pages in books, or operating computers. A few others were guiding inexperienced robots, their hands missing limbs. They were calculating something with incredible speed, as if the world would end at any moment.
Amidst the bustling crowd, a large Russian man sat with his back to everyone in front of an old-fashioned computer, his hands flying across the keyboard. Countless illegible characters raced across the screen. All the disputes within the base seemed to have nothing to do with him.
At the other end of the base was a large open space. About a thousand people stood there, whispering among themselves, people of different races, ages, and genders. Most of them wore expressions of anxiety and unease.
At first glance, the group appeared to be forming a large circle, intertwined and inseparable. However, upon closer inspection, a subtle sense of factionalism emerged. People had spontaneously divided themselves into several smaller groups based on skin color and race.
An atmosphere of unease permeated the strange base.
Passing through the throng of people, one can see a small group standing in the center of the sea of people. This small group is separated from the onlookers by a subtle boundary, and seems to be the leader of this group.
The woman who had spoken earlier was holding a strangely styled silver pistol, and a group of well-equipped people like her were surrounding her, forming a protective circle.
Beside her stood two dark-skinned, identical young men, their expressions mirroring each other's anger and wariness; they were clearly twins. Behind the two brothers stood a group of people of varying ages, including the elderly, the infirm, and the disabled. An elderly woman, holding a child, was weeping bitterly.
Not far from the twins, a middle-aged white man dressed as a pastor held a yellowed old book and was silently reading. Upon closer inspection, two lines of ancient text were printed on the cover; it was a bilingual (Chinese and English) Bible. Behind the pastor, believers in white robes knelt devoutly on the ground, heads bowed, murmuring something. They were like a blanket of white snow.
Opposite the four men stood Old Zhao and Old Lu, who had just spoken. Old Lu was a serious-looking middle-aged man, while Old Zhao was a carefree, jovial old man. Judging by appearance alone, the two looked no different from the old men next door. But behind them, almost half the people present had gathered!
Some of these people were carrying knives and guns, while others were even carrying hoes and shovels, creating a primitive scene that was quite out of place with everyone else present.
In this factory, equipped with the oldest sciences and the most advanced technology, farmers, charlatans, believers, well-equipped soldiers, and scientists stood side by side. The crowds were immense, a truly spectacular sight.
“Annika,” Old Lu said seriously, “it’s not that I don’t want to hand over ‘Zero,’ but how do I know if anyone here still has ‘God’ in their mind?”
At the same time, the pastor, holding a Bible, read aloud:
"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth."
Outside the factory, a pair of feet shattered the silvery surface of the water reflecting the sky, winding their way in.
"The earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters."
The people stood in a tense standoff.
"God said, 'Let there be light,' and there was light."
Squeak.
A beam of silver light shone in, and the factory gate was pushed open a crack.
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