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

Chapter 382 Shelter
"We didn't. We didn't survive."

Xie Cheng's tone was solemn.

He looked at Chen Jian and said, word by word:

"The first generation that left the mountain city are long gone."

"We are the sixth generation."

"We live in seclusion underground."

“We maintain a very small size – to be precise, no more than 50 people.”

"We strictly manage bloodlines and only maintain a minimum number of births."

"We never interact with the outside world, and we control the consumption of resources in the most precise and meticulous way."

"We have maintained the balance as much as possible until now."

After Xie Cheng finished speaking, Chen Jian frowned.

What the hell? ?
Does such a civilization still exist in this world?

Theoretically speaking, this is indeed achievable.

The problem is that there are just too many uncertainties involved.

Even a minor infectious disease could extinguish the flame of civilization completely.

Thinking of this, Chen Jian asked:
"Let's put aside other questions for now—if you survived this way, how did you deal with the monster attacks?"

"We will not respond."

Xie Cheng let out a long breath.

"In fact, it was only with our generation that exploration activities were permitted."

"However, the scope of our exploration is extremely limited. The reason we went so far this time is because we noticed the changes in the mountain city."

"We thought their Nuwa plan had succeeded."

"So, we want to go and take a look at the mountain town."

"You know what happened next—we met you, we met the Chinese army."

"you are lying."

Chen Jian interrupted Xie Cheng without any politeness.

"If you're just an exploration team, how could you possibly bring women and children along?"

"Women can understand, but children?"

"This is not exploration, it's fleeing."

"This is indeed a refugee situation."

Xie Cheng nodded without any attempt to hide his agreement, and then said:

"In fact, ours—let's call it a shelter for now."

“A disaster has occurred at our shelter.”

"The life support system on which we depended for survival was paralyzed by an electromagnetic pulse of unknown cause."

“Our food reserves can only last for 6 months, but more serious problems than the food issue are the damage to the power system and the failure of the air filtration system.”

"We can't stay underground any longer, so..."

Halfway through Xie Cheng's sentence, Chen Jian suddenly understood why they had appeared in this way.

He and He Shuo exchanged a glance, their eyes filled with complex emotions that were difficult to express.

Electromagnetic pulse.

What could destroy the electronic systems of an underground fortification must be a very close and very strong electromagnetic pulse.

That.
Isn't it just the nuclear bomb we dropped ourselves?

And there was more than one.

There's a good chance a few of them might land right on top of Xie Cheng and his group's "refuge."
Thinking of this, Chen Jian coughed.

"cough"

"So now you know the source of electromagnetic pulses?"

"of course."

A helpless expression appeared on Xie Cheng's face.

"The nuclear bombs you dropped."

"So, in fact, that's how the entire mountain town was taken over, right?"

".right."

Chen Jian nodded frankly.

"Indeed, this is the only solution."

Xie Cheng sighed and said:

“Actually, a long time ago, we, or rather our ancestors, had also imagined using this method to ‘take back’ the mountain city.”

"But the problem is that none of us survivors had enough knowledge of weapons."

"You know, we have a huge database."

"But there is not a single document in the database that tells us how to crack the code of a nuclear bomb, how to detonate a nuclear bomb, or how to deliver it to the place it is supposed to be delivered to."

"So, this problem was put on hold."

"Until now."

"You solved the problem of the mountain city before us."

Xie Cheng paused slightly at this point.

His eyes were confused, yet also held a hint of curiosity, or even a special kind of "friendliness."

"How did you do it?"

"Are you from some long-standing underground shelter, just like us?"

"Do not."

Chen Jian shook his head.

“We’re from Chuansha. You don’t need to ask us any specific questions.”

"But now, I have a question."

"You say you are 'survivors,' but what do you mean by 'survivor'?"

"You don't know?"

Xie Cheng frowned.

"Don't you have access to the mountain city's database?"

"It's been encrypted; even Fuxi can't unlock it."

Chen Jian shrugged, while Xie Cheng suddenly realized.

"No wonder. The Lingxi AI was originally optimized for Fuxi."

"Furthermore, Fuxi is not actually a quantum computer in the true sense."

"Therefore, it's normal that it can't be solved."

"Of course, that's not important."

"Survival means that we survived the disaster that Lingxi deliberately created."

“I don’t know if you’ve seen the so-called ‘hibernation pods,’ which should have been where our ancestors were located.”

"But the vast majority of them died."

"Because Lingxi's Nuwa Plan has exceeded its original scope, it needs to destroy all carriers of consciousness."

"That's us."

reasonable.

This perfectly matches the information Chen Jian already possessed.

However, when Lingxi explained the incident to Lin Yu, she described it as an accident.

Now, based on Xie Cheng's words, it can be confirmed that it was definitely not an accident.

That was a long-planned conspiracy.

"This is where your differences lie, isn't it?"

Chen Jian asked.

Xie Cheng on the other side nodded.

"Actually, there's more than just this one point of disagreement—for example, the time crystal generator. We've always believed that this is a viable path, but some people, including Lingxi, think it's a dead end."

"Of course, we are actually willing to put the controversy aside for the time being."

"However, humans have never been able to coexist amidst controversy."

As soon as he finished speaking, Chen Jian stood up thoughtfully.

"Your understanding of knowledge and history is very comprehensive."

"You've even developed your own evaluation system."

"I'm starting to doubt whether you really are the sixth generation."

"I am the fifth generation."

Xie Cheng corrected him in a serious tone:
“Those children are the sixth generation.”

".really."

Chen Jian shook his head with amusement.

"Let's go."

"The matter has been made clear." "I believe we can cooperate."

“Take us to your shelter.”

“We need to bring other people to the mountain town.”

"Don't worry, this is entirely for your safety."

"no problem."

Xie Cheng stood up without hesitation, his eyes filled with determination.

He still couldn't judge the true "good and evil" of the people in front of him.

But he had a feeling.

Perhaps these people are like me?

An hour later, Chen Jian led a volunteer squad, along with Ji Xing and Li Shi, and with Xie Cheng and Shu Mu as guides, toward the location of what they called their refuge.

Xie Cheng was particularly curious about the equipment possessed by the Huaxia Army. He seemed to have learned about these weapons and equipment from his studies, but this was the first time he had seen them.

"So, your shelter doesn't have any military equipment?"

"To be honest, no."

Xie Cheng shook his head.

"Not only do we lack these supplies, but our shelter doesn't even have a single weapon."

"No, that's an exaggeration."

"It should be said that the weapons in the shelters can only be used to deal with the most basic conflicts."

"They are all non-lethal weapons, because the lethal weapons were all taken away by the mountain city long ago."

"As you can see, the rifles we're using are the single-shot rifles used by wasteland inhabitants."

"Even this was obtained by exchanging our stored supplies with a passing caravan."

"You're pretty amazing too."

Chen Jian said with a hint of sarcasm:

"Without professional weapons training, they hit our armored vehicle with a single shot."

"If it weren't for the bulletproof glass, I would be injured by now."

After saying this, Xie Cheng explained, feeling extremely embarrassed:
"That was truly an accident. Even if I were stupid, I wouldn't be foolish enough to deliberately provoke a group of enemies that I clearly couldn't defeat, would I?"

"To be honest, our meeting could have gone much smoother."

"I took this beating for nothing—we're even, right?"

"That's true."

Chen Jian shook his head with amusement, but when he turned to look at Ji Xing, who was driving, he found that the other man's expression was somewhat serious.

"what happened?"

Chen Jian asked:
Is there anything unusual ahead?

"Nothing unusual."

Ji Xing let out a soft breath.

"It's just that... I feel like I've been here before."

"You've been here before??"

Chen Jian was stunned for a moment.

"When they're deploying nuclear weapons?"

"of course not."

Ji Xing paused for a moment, then replied:
"It was the first time I came to the mountain city with the team—with those Holy Blood Warriors."

"I'm wondering if their refuge is underground in that so-called treasure vault I just entered?"

The treasure vault lies underground?
Chen Jian sat up straight instantly.

It's really possible!
He immediately pulled up the map, zoomed in on the marked location, and examined it carefully. He then discovered that the marked location was quite far from where the level one monster had originally been lurking.
It's really not far.

By this time, the car had arrived near the shelter.

Ji Xing got out of the car with a slight sense of urgency, and when she saw Xie Cheng pointing to the entrance of the shelter, she let out a long sigh of relief.

"right here."

"This is where I survived."

"so."

"The reason the mountain town ultimately let me go was because they mistook me for a resident of the shelter?"

"impossible."

Xie Cheng shook his head and said:
“Lingxi doesn’t have that kind of compassion.”

"It might be a ploy to lure you into the shelter so they can kill us all."

"But you didn't go any further, right?"

"really."

Ji Xing nodded slowly.

"I was terrified."

As she answered, she followed Xie Cheng's directions and took the lead towards the entrance of the shelter, with the others following closely behind.

As the passage descended, Ji Xing suddenly spoke:
"Is this the place? This relatively spacious square?"

"This is the living area on the first floor."

Xie Cheng replied:
“We had already given up on the residential area when we decided to live here.”

"Because the facilities in the living area are too complex and too difficult to maintain, it is impossible for us to maintain them for over a hundred years."

"This place could even become a burden for us."

"Therefore, we sealed off the elevator entrance and rezoned the actual living area."

"Right over here."

As he spoke, Xie Cheng led the way forward.

After passing through a winding tunnel that was clearly originally a staircase passage, the group finally arrived at the actual isolation door of this underground shelter.

The lights are flashing; the circuit has been damaged.

The isolation door has been opened and can no longer be closed.

Through the isolation door, Chen Jian could see faint lights inside and flickering figures.

The air was damp and musty, with the smell of underground, mixed with the smell of machine oil and paper.

Emergency lights on the wall were lit every few meters, their light flickering but barely illuminating this seemingly forgotten underground corner.

In the central open space, a dozen metal tables and chairs were neatly arranged, with yellowed books and handwritten notes spread out on the tabletops.

Several children of different ages were sitting around a table, with an older woman sitting in the middle of them.

At this moment, everyone's attention was focused on these outsiders.

They remained tense and alert until they saw Xie Cheng's face, at which point they relaxed slightly.

"Don't worry, they are good people."

Xie Cheng began by saying:
"They are the Chinese army."

"They have recaptured the mountain city—Lingxi's plan has failed, and Nuwa's plan has also failed."

As soon as he finished speaking, a look of relief appeared in the eyes of everyone in the shelter.

However, there are also regrets.

Perhaps for them, witnessing the success of the Nuwa Project, even if it goes against their chosen path, would be a source of comfort.

Chen Jian stepped into the shelter, his heavy footsteps causing the people inside to instinctively stand up.

He gently raised his hand, took off his helmet, and said:

"Don't be afraid."

"It's just an exoskeleton."

“NEST-2040, Nezha exoskeleton”.

A voice came from the corner.

Chen Jian turned his head and saw a slightly thin child, but whose face and body were clean, looking at him curiously.

"Yes."

Chen Jian nodded.

"This is NEST-2040."

At that moment, he confirmed that Xie Cheng's words were not embellished.

These people did indeed pass on a great deal of knowledge, and they also accomplished their reproduction and education in an extreme way.

They may have endured a lot of suffering.

Their suffering may not be over yet.

But at least for now.
They have something to do.

Chen Jian took a deep breath and said directly:
"Come with us."

"Let's go to the mountain city."

"I don't have to live here anymore, the ground is safe now."

"Moreover, I happen to have something I need you to do."

"Trust me, entrusting this matter to you is absolutely the most suitable option."

(End of this chapter)