Trickster Hunter.

Chapter 169 "You're finally back"

The entire underground space suddenly became as bright as day, causing the three people who had adapted to the darkness to squint their eyes.

"More than a hundred years have passed, and there is still electricity here?" Yano was also puzzled. "Is there someone who has been maintaining it, or did those Ansa hunters repair the power supply equipment?"

But soon, Yano rejected his guess: "No, it can't be those Ansa hunters. To light up such a large block, it will take more than ten hours just to repair the circuit. They don't have time to complete this task! Then it can only be..."

Yano's eyes widened slightly. "Could there be survivors on the island... descendants of the survivors? But if there are survivors, why have they never contacted the Federation? This doesn't make sense!"

"Those who can maintain the circuits and lighting equipment are not necessarily survivors. Ghosts can also do it." Sun Hang shook his head, "Or, the lighting equipment itself has been ghosted, so it doesn't need maintenance."

"But...but the equipment didn't detect any weird memetic fluctuations!"

"Stop fiddling with your broken machine!" the fisherman complained. "What's the old saying in Xiazhou? It's better to have no machine than to trust in it."

"It is better to have no books than to trust them blindly." Sun Hang corrected him, "But what you said now is not wrong. The equipment is not 100% reliable. In this case, I still trust my own judgment more."

As they were talking, all the lights in the training ground lit up. The three men only then saw that on the dome of the rock wall, there were a large number of steel beams and slide rails fixed. A machine that looked like a camera moved along the slide rails to directly above them. The lens, which was like a grenade launcher, symbolically turned a few times and finally aimed at the three of them.

"Multifunctional central control dome..." Yano murmured, "I remember that this thing was mentioned in the design drawings of the research institute, but due to the limitations of the technology level at that time, this thing was not built..."

"You mean the iron frame above your head?" the fisherman asked curiously, "Is this thing very high-tech?"

"You have to know that this was an era when computers had not even been invented yet," Yano whispered.

"What is this thing? A surveillance camera?" The fisherman pointed at the camera and said, "There's not even a computer. Where can we watch the recorded footage?"

"No, this is an old-fashioned camera that is loaded with film and used to take pictures of the experimental process. It uses thin steel cables and pulleys to control the position and direction of the lens... I have seen the drawings of this thing, and the precision of the motion system is even higher than that of the differential engine." Yano said.

"It was manually operated?" the fisherman asked again. "There probably weren't any automated equipment back then, right?"

"No, it's automatic... Its camera can track all living things in the training ground, whether you are moving or stationary."

"How did you do that?" the fisherman asked in amazement.

"The floor beneath our feet has very sophisticated mechanical sensing devices underneath each piece. When the weight they bear is different from the pre-set data, it will trigger the mechanism to 'lead' the camera lens installed on the dome over," Yano explained.

"Relying on a purely mechanical structure?"

"A purely mechanical structure."

"Oh my god, I suddenly understand the technical content of this thing." The fisherman's eyes also showed a trace of awe, "Such a huge system, how to run it smoothly, just thinking about it makes my scalp numb."

"So, this thing only exists on the design drawings." Yano took two steps back and moved from one floor to another. The camera lens immediately followed. Not only that, they also heard a slight shutter sound coming from inside the machine.

"Even the design drawings are incomplete..." Yano hadn't finished speaking when a silver light flashed and the camera and the slide rail separated. The heavy camera fell directly from the slide rail. Sun Hang rushed forward and caught the camera that fell from the air.

"Hiss..." Yano took a breath.

He didn't know why he felt a little distressed - it was no exaggeration to say that every part of this equipment was the crystallization of human industrial art. Damage to any part was enough to cause trouble. This camera seemed to be simply installed on a slide rail, but on the ground that was not visible from the outside, there were hundreds of steel wires used to control the lens. After Sun Hang's cut, the possibility of completely repairing it was very slim.

"It's already this late, why am I still thinking about this kind of thing?" Yano smiled self-deprecatingly and walked forward. "Are you planning to see what photos this camera has taken in the past? Wait, don't just pry open the cover! The film will be overexposed!"

But Sun Hang did not listen to his dissuasion, but directly used a small knife made of liquid metal to pry open the back cover of the camera.

There was no film inside at all, just a small roll of yellowed, brittle paper.

"Eh?" Yano leaned over and was stunned. "It's not a film? It's... a note?"

"What's going on here?" The fisherman was confused. "Can paper be used as a negative?"

"Of course... no." Yano shook his head. "Look, what's on the paper?"

Sun Hang carefully took out the note and gently unfolded it.

There was a line of text written on the note. Due to its age, the ink had faded a little, but one could still barely make out that it was the official language of the Siberian Federation: Russian.

"Do you know Russian?" Sun Hang looked at the fisherman.

"I only know Russian, not Chinese." The fisherman looked a little embarrassed. "In the eyes of those old guys, I am an illiterate."

After the Siberian Autonomous Region was incorporated into the Shah Federation, the official language became Chinese and the writing system became Chinese characters. The new generation like the fisherman grew up in a Chinese environment. The mother tongue of the Siberians is gradually becoming a niche language as the older generation passes away.

"I understand Russian." Yano said, but Sun Hang noticed that his expression seemed a little strange.

"What's written on it?"

"…'You're finally back'."

Are you finally back?

Sun Hang was slightly stunned.

Are you saying this to yourself?
This note has been there for many years. Could it be that the person who wrote this note and put it into this camera had already calculated that he would enter the ruins of the research institute at this time and disassemble the camera?

How can this be? !
(End of this chapter)