Armor-piercing bullets don't believe in carbon-based monsters

Chapter 354 Circle
One hour later, in the mountain city, on the ground.

The mountain city was riddled with holes after the great battle. Many buildings were destroyed, and the aftershocks of the nuclear explosion swept through the area. The scorching air, carrying radioactive dust, was corroding the bodies of every unprotected team member.

Fortunately, these nuclear bombs were well preserved, and even more than 300 years later, the chain reaction from the nuclear fuel explosion was still quite complete.

The radiation dose after the explosion was high, but certainly not enough to be fatal in a short period of time.

They can live for at least another twenty years.

In the wasteland world, this is already a rather "long-lived" number.

Chen Jian had already activated the life support system of the Nezha exoskeleton, and communication had been restored after the aftershocks of the electromagnetic pulse completely disappeared.

This time, he no longer had to rely on unstable radio waves, but could communicate directly with Fuxi through the extensive cellular network.

"Fuxi, report the current situation."

"Have you obtained the specific details about the underground of the mountain city?"

"Reporting to the commander, progress is limited."

Fuxi's voice came through the headphones.

"I entered the surface system of the mountain city, but the other side's quantum firewall reacted quickly and isolated the infected area."

"The computing power block lost power within 10 seconds, so I could only read limited information."

"But it can now be confirmed that the entire mountain city is a virtual city based on quantum computing power."

"This explains why they need a large number of quantum computers—based on current results, the computing power they would need to maintain a virtual city of this size far exceeds the computing power limit that a single underground disaster recovery facility can provide."

"clear."

Chen Jian breathed a long sigh of relief.

At this moment, the mystery of the mountain city finally has a preliminary explanation.

Why did they take the quantum computer from Fort 006? Why did they isolate themselves in a remote corner, cutting themselves off from the outside world? Why did they go to such lengths to destroy other factions that had developed in the wasteland?
The root of everything lies in the different paths taken.

They chose to inject human consciousness into the endless quantum mechanics, choosing to abandon their physical bodies and achieve immortality in a virtual world constructed by computing power.

What blasphemy!

Chen Jian frowned, and at that moment, Lei Jie, who had just finished treating the wounded and redeployed the defenses, also came over.

"The situation is not bad."

He opened his mouth and said:
"The expeditionary force suffered heavy losses, but Fuxi intervened in time, preventing further losses."

“Those level one monsters are practically disabled—only two remain, but their so-called ‘agreement’ has been destroyed.”

"It is estimated that they will soon leave the mountain town driven by their instincts."

"The channel is open, and we can start large-scale delivery immediately."

"clear."

Chen Jian looked at Lei Jie and said sincerely:

"Thanks for your hard work."

"You worked hard too."

Lei Jie waved his hand and then asked:

"So, what exactly is going on with these birdmen?"

Why did they choose to shrink into the ground? Why did they abandon their physical bodies?

"Is this a choice a normal human being would make? Anyone with a modicum of sense wouldn't do this, right?"

"uncertain."

Chen Jian slowly shook his head, then said:

"The last message Lin Yu sent before entering hibernation was about 'entropy increase'."

"It is very likely that these mountain city people believe that entropy increase is the key to the great catastrophe."

"Only by controlling the rate of entropy increase can we prevent a catastrophe from occurring."

"This is consistent with the information we had in the early stages—the frequency of the aftermath of major catastrophes has decreased significantly over the past two hundred years."

“They should be right, at least on this point.” As soon as he finished speaking, Reggie frowned instantly.

"Does increased entropy lead to a catastrophe? Or is it some kind of great filter theory?"

"Correct."

Chen Jian gave a brief answer, while Lei Jie continued to ask:
"But there is no theory that proves that entropy increase is related to the human body—this sounds like some old-fashioned theological theory, what does it have to do with fundamental physics?"

"Who am I asking you to ask me?"

Chen Jian shrugged.

"That's the question I should be asking you, Professor Lei!"

After Chen Jian finished speaking, Lei Jie sighed helplessly.

“I don’t understand. But at least, everything they did before can be explained by their motives.”

"So what's next?"

"What are we going to do next?"

"Negotiation with them?"

This question caught Chen Jian off guard.

negotiation?

He had never considered this possibility before.

The moment he confirmed that the beast tide was related to the mountain city, his attitude towards the mountain city was already that it was "not one of our kind".

Later, after seeing those artificially created androids, he became even more certain that the outcome between his side and Yamashiro could only be one of death and one of life.

Because they have betrayed humanity, alienating themselves into a completely different kind of creation.

Between two species, only one can survive; this is the cold, hard natural order.
-
But now, things seem to have changed somewhat.

If these people from the mountain city made this choice out of some unavoidable circumstances, if they had already gone through a process of repeated trial and error before choosing this route...
Does that mean that initiating communication with them to obtain more information is also an option?

Chen Jian blinked subconsciously, and at that moment, Fuxi's voice rang in his ears again.

"Preliminary data decoding has been completed."

"Most of the data at the Mountain City Computing Center has been encrypted using quantum algorithms, but a small portion still uses traditional RAS encryption."

"I have obtained some intelligence and have begun to organize it."

"Sir, please check."

As soon as he finished speaking, the information decoded by Fuxi automatically appeared on Chen Jian's smart eyepiece.

Chen Jian stared intently at the document, and found that most of the information was useless log files.

However, the key information marked in red by Fuxi immediately caught his attention.

That was a series of "failure records".

To be precise, it's a failure record in the data simulation.

The residents of the mountain city tried various methods to avoid the apocalypse, including but not limited to extreme industrialization, genetic modification, population explosion, breakthroughs in basic physics, large-scale disaster preparedness, technological censorship, and even "starship escape".

But all these attempts ended in utter failure.

They really tried everything possible.

There is only one attempt that is in the "incomplete" state.

In terms of time, that simulation took place after the "virtualization of consciousness," and after choosing the path of consciousness uploading, they no longer tried to find other ways out.

"Activate the ring."

Chen Jian said in a low voice:

"The mountain city also once tried to activate the so-called 'circle'."

"But what exactly is this thing?"

(End of this chapter)