The giant corporations that started from Night City

Chapter 491: Underground City! Sophons are everywhere! Accidents happen frequently!

After cooperating with the investigation procedures, Paul and others left the police station and returned to the desolate neighborhood. Agent K asked: "What should we do next?"

He looked around and it was obvious that there was nothing worth getting information about here. There were only drug addicts who had lost hope in life or hibernators who were struggling to survive.

"Let's go to the underground city first to check out the situation. After all, most of the people here are down there."

While the two were talking, Paul seemed to notice that Tomoko was observing them, which made him frown slightly and his mood became heavier.

These omnipresent eyes were always watching their every move. No matter what they said or did, nothing could be hidden from Tomoko, although Paul did not say anything about the global giant.

But sooner or later, this secret will be revealed by Tomoko from some clues.

For now they still have to continue to complete the task, but they don't know what measures Chieko will take against them next time.

"We have to move faster."

Soon, Paul and his team drove to the entrance of the underground city. The way to enter the underground city was through a long elevator that descended all the way to an area a thousand meters underground.

It was a long time before people saw the appearance of the city in this era.

Unlike the claustrophobic and narrow structure imagined, the human cities in the Three-Body Universe have quite open spaces, and you can't see the end at a glance. It's not like the scenery that only exists underground at all.

Paul made a point of memorizing the name of the place where he was currently. They were currently in New Life Village 5, but it was completely different from traditional villages. The urban facilities here were very complete and it could be called a new international city.

The fresh air blowing in my face, the pure blue sky and white clouds, the slowly rising sun in the east, everything seems to be incompatible with the doomsday scene outside.

Compared with the desert environment outside, this place is simply a paradise.

Agent Lyon couldn't help but admire when he saw this: "The environment here is almost comparable to Reach. I really don't understand why the hibernators there don't come here to live a good life."

"What's the good of staying up there?"

Agent K used the instruments on his body to carefully look at the so-called blue sky and white clouds, and found that all of this was just an illusion created by the huge projection screen, and the air was also filtered through layers before being transported here.

This is just a huge phantom city, not the true appearance of the earth's natural environment.

"Some people are addicted to false prosperity, while others face the bleak reality. Everyone's choices are different." K said thoughtfully.

By the way, Agent K also had an AI girlfriend named Joey, and he really developed feelings for this virtual digital collective.

But he couldn't tell whether this emotion was a behavioral habit based on big data or a true fusion of souls, and most of the time he didn't want to tell it.

Paul was still observing the city's structure with an expressionless face. This underground city was actually more like a huge giant forest with many branches reaching up to the sky.

Each branch extends horizontally into dense and neat branches, which together with other branches form a huge transportation and road network. Although the distribution of the buildings seems random, a closer look will reveal that all of this has been carefully designed.

The numerous overlapping spaces remind people of the mountain city of Chongqing. In addition, the vehicles here are all anti-gravity flying boats, moving in an orderly manner along the established transportation network.

It looks like a school of fish among the corals on the seabed, flowing in every corner of the city.

This is the current human world, prosperous yet desolate, complete yet fragmented. Who would have thought that the happy humans living here would soon face the strangulation of the Three-Body Civilization?

At this time, Paul, Agent K and others were standing on the branches of a tree. The elevator they had just taken was actually the entrance to the underground city and one of the main branches of the city.

After arriving at the street, Paul and others deliberately observed the pedestrians. Unlike the desperate and confused hibernators outside, their faces were filled with confidence and joy.

The fashionable decorations and attire on her body make one feel as if she has returned to the most prosperous and peaceful era in the human world.

In addition, the AI ​​robots here seem to have developed quite well. Robots can be seen everywhere, replacing the most basic physical labor of humans.

Cleaners, waiters, customer service are all available.

At first glance, it seems that humans in the Three-Body Universe have not encountered any world-destroying troubles at all. This is a completely new and beautiful new world.

"The people here are much more optimistic than I thought, even a little too optimistic."

Agent Lyon couldn't help but sigh.

People outside are pessimistic to the point of committing suicide, but people here are optimistic to the point of living a life of drunkenness and dreams. They don't care at all about the Trisolaran fleet approaching the solar system, as if everything will be fine if they leave it to Fleet International.

Paul remained silent, quietly parked the car, and then led his team members to walk in this steel forest.

The space and road system of this city already feel a bit like an ideal city. It's a pity that due to the stagnation of the development of basic physical technology, their use of space has not yet reached its peak.

But even so, the city's planning is still quite remarkable. Even with an extremely high population density, there is still no traffic jam.

People walk and cars float, and both sides go on their own lanes, so there are only a few traffic accidents throughout the year.

"It seems I have to change my opinion of the humans here. At least they are pretty good at building cities, and they are almost the same as those on Reach."

Agent Lyon smiled.

Reach in the Halo universe can be considered one of the more prosperous urban planets of the giant corporations in the universe, but the fact that the cities here can develop to the scale of the cities under the giant corporations is also a miracle.

"It's not bad, but it's a pity that the city is built underground."

Paul looked at the abyss where construction was underway below. The city's construction team was still continuously expanding the volume of the city's space, so they could only explore downwards.

The Three-Body Civilization hanging over their heads gradually turned them into moles living in caves.

Not far away, the giant holographic screen in the square was playing a news report about Fleet International reorganizing its warships and heading to the edge of the solar system.

The crowd below cheered enthusiastically, and some even expressed disdain and ridicule for the Three-Body Civilization.

"What? The Trisolarans only sent a small probe, and we resorted to more than 2,000 warships. Humph, it's really like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut!"

"That's right. More than 2,000 cannons just to kill a small mosquito. How can this be possible?"

"Everyone, you should understand Fleet International. After all, this is their only chance to fight the Trisolaran world. From now on, the Trisolarans can only follow our command."

"Hahaha, that's fine too. Consider it a military parade of human civilization against the Three-Body Problem. Over 2,000 warships would scare them to death."

"..." Listening to the undisguised ridicule and discussions of the crowd, Paul really didn't know what to say. Should he laugh at these arrogant people who were about to be hit in the face by the Trisolaran water droplets, or nod and agree with them.

The arrival of the global giant will definitely rewrite the war situation, and this will undoubtedly fuel the blind self-confidence of these humans.

Paul lowered his head and walked away quickly, but the next second he was quickly pulled back by Agent K.

They saw a speeding airship passing in front of them and suddenly crashing into a building next to them. Dense metal fragments flew past their eyes.

The neon billboards on the roadside were pierced by the flying metal fragments and became like a sieve. If a human body was pierced like this, it would most likely not survive.

Luke was quick-witted and rushed to the crashed airship immediately, wanting to catch the culprit of the accident, but there was no one in the completely deformed car body.

There were only crackling sparks and tangled wires. Not to mention a person in the driver's seat, even the steering wheel could not be found.

“There’s no one in the car…!”

Luke Skywalker was confused.

Paul steadied himself with the help of Agent K and Leon. He brushed off the dust on his body and checked his body. Fortunately, he had no wounds.

After encountering such strange things one after another, Paul was completely certain that Tomoko had already set her sights on them and was taking increasingly drastic assassination measures.

"I'm afraid the next intelligence gathering mission will become increasingly difficult. Tomoko won't let us go."

Paul said in a deep voice.

In the "Three-Body" universe, he has no power of the Force, which means that his physical strength and skills are good, but no matter how strong he is, he is not as strong as steel.

If Agent K hadn't pulled him back in time, he would have been dead or disabled by now!
"Should we evacuate here?" Agent Leon asked with lingering fear.

Although he was not the one who almost died just now, he witnessed the whole process and his captain Paul was just a little bit away from death.

This mission is simply too terrifying. The invisible enemy follows them like a shadow and attacks them from time to time. Whether they can survive depends entirely on how fast their reactions are.

"Tomoko doesn't dare to target us blatantly yet. We still have some time to complete the mission. Move as quickly as possible and release the AI ​​Red Queen to collect some network information."

Paul ordered.

The AI ​​Red Queen has access to the matrix of a giant enterprise. Unless Sophon directly destroys the city’s network facilities, there is no way to stop the Red Queen from collecting information.

But it takes some time for the Red Queen to collect information, so what they have to do next is to "survive" until the Red Queen has collected all the information, and then they can escape safely.

"Yes."

Agent Lyon nodded and randomly found a network access point on the street to implant the AI ​​Red Queen.

What this city lacks the least is network access points. If you peel back any railing, you may find dense cable lines hidden inside.

At this moment, the commotion caused by the car accident has attracted more and more passers-by to watch, and they are looking at the accident scene in surprise.

You know, there are less than ten tragic car accidents like this in a year, which is even rarer than previous plane crashes, so it has also caused a lot of discussion.

Five minutes later, two floating police cars with sirens blaring descended from the sky. Several fully armed policemen got out and set up a cordon at the scene of the accident.

The equipment and uniforms of these policemen are obviously several levels higher than those of the police outside. At first glance, they look like special forces soldiers.

Just when the police wanted to ask whether there were any victims at the crime scene, they found that there was no one there except a group of spectators. Paul and his friends had already left.

After moving away from the accident scene, Paul immediately contacted members of the investigation team in other areas to learn about their situation.

The answers they got were all pretty much the same. They all encountered some bizarre attacks to a greater or lesser extent, but they were all cleverly disguised as accidents.

Even if the police arrived, they could only classify the scene as an accident. Apart from contacting the insurance company, they would not initiate an investigation.

"Damn it, this Tomoko is really insidious. If the open approach doesn't work, then she'll resort to covert means. Now there are still a few hours before the Red Queen completes the collection. I'm afraid it will become increasingly difficult in the future."

Agent Lyon couldn't help cursing.

Now all the agents of the world's giant companies who have come to the earth can be sure that their current every move is under the surveillance of Zhizi, and there will be more unexpected accidents waiting for them in the future.

Although they are all battle-hardened advance team agents and are not so easy to be killed, this will greatly interfere with their investigation.

There is no other way except sending out the AI ​​Red Queen to collect information.

"In the past hour, our people have encountered billboards falling, high-voltage power lines breaking, gates opening and closing suddenly, and manhole covers opening suddenly."

When Paul was describing what happened to other team members, everyone's brows became increasingly furrowed. Judging from the situation, these accidents were still escalating.

This underground city is full of dangerous items that can be used. I wonder how long they can delay.

"It seems that Sophon can manipulate electronic devices to destroy and change them, launching all kinds of unexpected attacks on us."

Luke reported what he had just seen. It was an unmanned AI hovercraft. In this era, the existence of unmanned hovercrafts is not uncommon.

Even if the car accident just now really killed someone, it is the insurance company and the car company that will make the claim.

"We have to find a way to stay away from electronic equipment. Who knows what kind of dirty things we might run into?" Luke said as he looked around vigilantly.

Encountering such a thing, they were somewhat frightened.

Paul shook his head and said solemnly, "Unless we get outside, as long as we stay here, we will definitely encounter such troubles. Now we can only be more vigilant."

While reminding his teammates to stay focused, Paul was secretly regretting that he almost didn't react to the danger just now.

If it were in the past, he would definitely be able to react in advance and predict the coming danger early.

But now, his predictive ability, which he was so proud of, has temporarily failed. Relying solely on his own physical instincts, he may not be able to match the agility of a clone agent like K for a while.

(End of this chapter)