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

Chapter 367 Preparing for the Attack

Chapter 367 Preparing for the Attack
bubble?

Lei Jie was stunned for a moment.

What kind of bubbles?

he asked.

"I do not know."

Fang Quan shook his head.

"The existing records are not clear. All I know is that it seems to be a mirror-like sphere."

"It existed for only a moment, before it suddenly shattered, before we could even observe it."

"Only a few people saw it, and now they are all gone."

".clear."

Lei Jie nodded, then asked:
"What about the video recording? Didn't the recording equipment capture it?"

"No."

Fang Quan shook his head again.

"The moment it appeared, all power was cut off throughout the headquarters."

"It seems to have some extremely strong electromagnetic properties, so much so that all the electrical equipment in the vicinity was destroyed."

"It seems that it took nearly two years just to repair the equipment."

"After the repairs were completed, many people and many leaders tried to restart the experiment, but all attempts failed."

"We still haven't been able to restart the ring."

As he spoke, Fang Quan led Lei Jie forward.

Descending the steps, at the very bottom of the deep well, Lei Jie finally saw the "legendary" circular device.

His first reaction was that the thing was very small.

So small that it didn't even fill the underground space of less than 1,000 square meters.

My second thought was that this thing was far less complex than the so-called "ring" device I had seen in Fort 016.

It does not come with complicated measuring equipment, and of course, the vibration isolation equipment, which occupies the largest volume, is also unnecessary.

Because it itself is built on a seismic isolation platform below the neutrino laboratory.

The most complex part of the entire equipment is undoubtedly the central ring-shaped pipe.

Where are the rings formed?

Lei Jie asked.

“At the very center of the pipeline, there is what they call the ‘generation well’.”

"What the heck is a generation trap?"

Lei Jie frowned.

"So, this thing is actually creating time crystals?"

"we do not know."

Fang Quan shook his head and continued:

"To be honest, we don't even know what this 'time crystal' you're talking about is."

“We are indeed trying to pass on the knowledge of the true owners of the ring, but what they left behind is too obscure and too profound.”

“Our ancestors sought guidance from them and wanted their teachings, and they did indeed bestow some knowledge upon us.”

"But the way they gave it."

"It's like opening the door to a treasure trove in front of us, but not telling us which ones are the real treasures."

For a considerable period of time, we had to figure out how to learn those difficult words and phrases on our own.

"The situation got even worse after they left."

"In addition, several disasters have struck, and the knowledge that was painstakingly passed down has almost been lost."

"We can barely maintain the existence of the 'Circle Merchant Guild'—to this day, we have recovered less than one-tenth of the knowledge belonging to the owner of the Circle."

"Perhaps, it's less than one percent."

reasonable.

After listening to Fang Quan's account, Lei Jie finally understood the general origins of the Circular Chamber of Commerce.

They were not the original "researchers," but perhaps just a group of refugees struggling to survive in the wasteland.

They found the circle, they found the researchers who were still passing on the knowledge, and they tried to get hope from them.

Unfortunately, those researchers were too closed off, or rather, too confident.

They thought they could solve the problem once and for all by using the rings, but they never considered that if they failed, the entire human civilization might fall into an irreparable crisis.

This is likely one of the reasons why knowledge transmission has been interrupted in the wasteland world.

In short, they treated the apocalypse as a problem that could be solved with cutting-edge technology and theory, while neglecting to mobilize the broad masses of people.

What is this called?
The idea of quick victory is a killer!
Lei Jie sighed, then spoke:

"Turn the device on."

"At least let me see how it works."

"no problem."

Fang Quan walked towards the control panel on the side, and as he walked, the lights gradually came on.

The entire underground space of the deep well was completely illuminated, and it was only then that Lei Jie realized that this laboratory, originally used to detect neutrinos, had undergone a comprehensive renovation.

It has been completely transformed into a facility adapted to this equipment—the amount of engineering work behind this must be enormous.

Therefore, it can be inferred that the number of researchers and scholars gathered here at that time should not have been small.
Where did they all go?
This also seems to be a problem.

Lei Jie's thoughts were in disarray, while Fang Quan had already unlocked the control panel.

"The last time this equipment was started was four years ago."

He opened his mouth and said:
“We don’t understand this equipment, and we don’t know how to repair it.”

"But according to the records, if the device is started on time, it will age more slowly."

“Even so, we encountered many problems when we started this device four years ago.”

"Let's hope we'll have better luck today."

With that, Fang Quan pressed the start button.

A loud humming sound rang out, and Lei Jie realized that the vibration isolation module was the first to be activated.

Immediately afterwards, the fan and cooling system started up, and power was supplied to the huge capacitor module, where the capacitor stored energy, and the equipment was about to begin formal operation.

"We're very lucky!"

Fang Quan shouted, slightly excited:

"Success on the first try!"

"Perhaps we can recreate that bubble this time!"

Reggie didn't answer, he just stared intently at the generating trap.

He didn't know what changes might occur there.

But he knew that if things changed there, the future of all humanity would change in that instant.

A slightly eerie, wavy distortion appeared in the air.

Reggie almost thought that the circular device was about to start up smoothly.
-
But next second.

"Om-"

A sharp noise rang out.

Once the capacitor has released all its power, the equipment stops operating.

In the empty underground well, only the buzzing sound of the still-running fan remained.

"Failed."

"I'm sorry, we gained nothing this time."

Fang Quan looked at Lei Jie with regret and continued:

"I thought I'd have even better luck this time, but..."

"Do not."

Lei Jie shook his head and said:
"It wasn't a complete loss."

"At least we now know where that strange metal came from."

As soon as he finished speaking, Fang Quan's eyes lit up.

"Where did it come from??"

Lei Jie let out a soft breath and replied:

"That's not necessary to activate the ring."

"That's a byproduct of the ring starting up."

"This device is indeed affecting the world at a microscopic level."

"It could very well, at some instant, alter the fundamental forces within matter."

Meanwhile, in the mountain city. After He Shuo's "synthetic team" successfully cleared out the surrounding monsters and used several rounds of bombardment to drive the remaining two level-one monsters to the western mountains, the entire mountain city was wide open.

The route has begun to be established, and along with a steady stream of equipment and personnel, curious merchants are also arriving.
Ordinary people on a pilgrimage.

Faith is always the strongest driving force, regardless of the era.

Despite knowing the treacherous journey and not even knowing what the mountain city looked like, the fanatical followers of the Mechanical God Cult still flocked over.

They overcame all obstacles and forged ahead through hardships.

Where there was no road, they forged one out of thin air.

Some of them collapsed on the road and pleaded for help from the expeditionary force reinforcements who were also heading to the mountain city.

However, He Shuo had already given orders to Li Xian, and Li Xian, who was in charge of coordination, then gave orders to the soldiers of the expeditionary force.

They ignored all the pilgrims who pleaded for help, leaving them to die on the rugged road.

Their bodies became road signs, but they also deterred many pilgrims whose resolve was not so strong.

In the end, only a few dozen civilians reached the mountain town.

Even these few dozen men still caused considerable trouble for the Huaxia Army stationed in the mountain city.
-
Not everyone can accept the destruction of the clay sculptures as easily as Guo Xu and his friends.

They viewed the Chinese army as blasphemers and destroyers, and the previously circulated title of "Supreme Saint August 1st" became a symbol of evil.

Harassment and insults occurred daily, with many priests spending their days and nights holding incense burners and hurling curses at the temporary command post of the Chinese army.

Of course, such a curse is meaningless.

The smoke from the incense burner was not even as dense as the water vapor emanating from underground in the mountain city.

But Chen Jian was indeed extremely annoyed.

Ji Xing, on the other hand, seemed quite satisfied with this scene?

Standing outside the command post, Chen Jian looked at Ji Xing's ambiguous smile and couldn't help but ask in confusion:
"So, what's so funny about you?"

"Isn't this annoying? Where's the fun in this?"

Ji Xing coughed, turned to look at Chen Jian, and then replied:

"Commander, haven't you noticed yet?"

"This is also one of Chief He Shuo's plans."

"How so?"

Chen Jian asked curiously:

"Did you see it?"

"Of course—although I am not as smart as you, I do know more about the fanatics in this world than you do."

A hint of smugness flickered across Ji Xing's face as he continued:

“We could have actually created a much smoother path.”

"Or, we could share the roads used to transport supplies with these pilgrims and give them a helping hand on their journey."

“But we didn’t do that.”

"And the purpose is actually very simple: to screen."

"Those who are not steadfast enough in their faith are filtered out, and those who are left and can truly reach this place are the most steadfast and core believers."

“These people often have a much greater influence than ordinary believers and followers.”

"If we can make use of them, the task of destroying the Mechanicus will become much easier."

"They're just making trouble for now. Once Chief He Shuo has some free time, he'll deal with them sooner or later."

"Tsk tsk."

Chen Jian shook his head upon hearing this.

"A schemer, how terrifying."

"Could this also be part of a meticulously planned scheme?"

"That's definitely not it."

Ji Xing shook his head and said:
"Chief He Shuo probably just did it on a whim."

Chen Jian sighed.

"I understand, this is probably what talent is."

“He is indeed suited for this job.”

As he spoke, Chen Jian turned and walked towards the command post.

"Alright, that's enough of the small talk."

"It's time to get down to business."

As he spoke, Chen Jian turned on the large screen.

Fuxi was already online, and what was displayed on the screen was a simple simulation program.

"We need to send the virus into the mountain city."

"You should understand what a virus means, right?"

Ji Xing nodded slightly and replied:

“I can roughly understand it—it’s like throwing a stone into a running machine.”

"That's roughly the idea."

Chen Jian's finger slid across the PDA, and then he continued:

"What we need to do is very simple: use something similar to a shock virus to physically destroy the core computing center of the mountain city."

There are three things we need to do in total.

"The first step is to decode the brain-computer interface system."

"The second thing is to hack into the communication channels."

"The third thing is to implant a virus into the mountain city computing center along the communication channel."

"The process is not complicated, but it is a step that requires meticulous operation over a long period of time."

"In the next round of negotiations, we need to stall Lin Yu, or rather, stall Lingxi behind him, for at least 6 hours."

"We need to ensure that he maintains communication with the isolated computing module for at least six hours, and that he is not interrupted by Lingxi in the middle."

"But now, here's the problem."

At this point, Chen Jian paused slightly.

He looked at Ji Xing and asked:
"If you send a representative to the enemy camp to negotiate with the enemy leader, and he has not returned by the scheduled time, what would you do?"

“Sever all contact with him.”

"That's right!"

Chen Jian nodded approvingly and continued speaking.

"Based on our estimates, Lingxi will give us at most two hours for negotiations."

"This amount of time is completely insufficient for decoding."

"Because the computing power controlled by Lingxi is much greater than ours."

"Even a single isolated block is close to all the computing power we possess."

"Therefore, we must create more time for Fuxi."

"We need to convince Lingxi that the six-hour negotiation was entirely reasonable."

"Therefore, following this line of thought, we must create a relatively closed environment."

"This closed environment is beyond our control."

"We need you to enter this environment."