Wasteland Development Diary.

Chapter 222: Untying the Bonds
Zhou Yi immersed himself in the memories shared by the sweeping robot.

Standing in the field is a white windmill with a conical black roof and windows on top, which looks like a Dutch windmill in style.

There were two mechanical and electrical life forms next to Shi Gandang.

A white drone floating in the air with a full protective cover.

The other is a large signal vehicle with a pot-shaped radar and signal antenna on the roof.

The three electromechanical lifeforms were observing the windmill.

Zhou Yi saw that there were many white light ridges fixed on the surface of the windmill, which were marked with different symbols and numbers, like strange blood vessels bulging from the body surface.

The windmill moves in a strange way. It stretches forward to build two stone tracks, and then slides itself forward.

This somewhat sluggish way of moving reminded Zhou Yi of an elderly person using a wheelchair.

“It’s just too loaded.”

Shi Gandang said: "The loading of more than 32 light seals has already overloaded it. After all, the experimental angel is only a small B-class building life, so the previous 16 are more suitable for it."

"If we continue this high-intensity experiment, it will break down. If it causes irreversible damage to its consciousness, it will be too dangerous for it."

It suggested: "We need to remove the excessive light prints and change it back to the previous version!"

The white drone said, "It can hold up. Don't underestimate the life of buildings. They are one of the oldest forms of life in the world. I think we can increase the print run to 64 and see."

"What is your basis!?"

Shi Gandang was very angry.

"The basis is that it has not yet gotten out of control due to an existential threat."

"If it exceeds its limit, the building life will not be able to communicate with the outside world, but it will express itself through actions, become abnormal and run towards the Dead Sea. If that really happens, there is no need to worry, because this small island test site is surrounded by the Dead Sea."

After the drone said this, Zhou Yi noticed that this hillside was actually next to the foggy Dead Sea.

“You can continue to install more.”

The signal car also expressed its opinion: "Look, the experimental angel is turning the windmill at a constant speed."

"This has always been its way of expressing stability, although it cannot explain the different specific expressions represented by the frequency changes. But it is still running stably."

“It’s basically in good condition and can continue.”

Shi Gandang remained silent.

Some small four-wheeled vehicles came out in the distance, with square metal boxes fixed on the vehicles and an orange-yellow rotatable metal arm installed on the top of the box.

The metal boxes were quickly set up and attached to the surface of the windmill, and then the metal arms began to work on it.

After determining the location, they first polished and degreased the wall, extracted the finished soot coating from the box below, and aligned the painting on the building surface.

Then they filled the light amber into the fixed track, heated it up with a robotic arm, and finally packaged it with gelatin to complete the light ridge.

Six robotic arms work together in an orderly manner.

But these are just the front-end work extensions, and the actual operations are done by the three optical printing experts in the back.

From Zhou Yi's perspective, Shi Gandang was operating two robotic arms on two lines.

One robotic arm installs the new optical print, while the other performs secondary inspection and docking with other optical prints.

After the installation work was completed, the windmill became even more agile.

It slid back and forth on the island on a track, and the windmill's rotation frequency increased significantly, making it look very light.

Soon it began to straighten its body, transforming the stone rails into legs that consumed more energy and had greater freedom, and began walking upright.

Fengche even tried to free his legs from the ground and started jumping. Each time he jumped up, he could only rise about two or three meters high, but when he fell down, he caused a strong shock.

It jumped and ran around the island, making the windmills hum.

"Not good. The overload has caused it to behave abnormally."

Shi Gan was the first to react: "We need to remove the excessive light prints!"

"No, the behavior is erratic and the work extension cannot get close to it."

The drone said: "The current situation has never happened before. Its behavior program is beyond our calculation. We need to ensure our own safety first and let it consume its energy naturally."

The signal car agreed: "Emergency shelter first."

So the three optical printing experts hid in the underground bunker and asked for help from the rear.

At this moment, the shelter suddenly began to shake, and a large amount of dust and debris fell from the ceiling, and the internal lighting was interrupted and failed.

In the darkness, the underground bunker slowly returned to calm.

The sweeping robot turned on its light and went out, only to find that there was fog everywhere outside.

The drone hovered above its head: "I will share the view. You wait where you are. I will observe from the air."

It gains altitude.

Zhou Yi had the drone's camera view in front of him.

The entire island was shrouded in a slowly changing fog.

The drone shuttled through the area, circled once and said, "Something is not right. My electronic eyes should be able to penetrate the Dead Sea fog area, but I can't see from a distance here. I have to go down and observe it up close."

The camera suddenly began to spin, and then it became pitch black.

The drone lost contact.

The scene returns to the sweeping robot's own field of vision.

The signal car said: "We can't contact it, and the emergency signal can't be transmitted to the outside. This island is wrapped in a special shielding force, which should be related to the explosion just now."

"We'd better not act rashly at this moment."

Shi Gandang saw the windmill emerging from the thick fog. It became extremely huge, towering into the clouds, looking between gray and black, with clouds and fog rolling everywhere.

Shi Gandang was surprised: "What is this?"

"Signal unrecognizable."

The signal car said: "It is not safe inside the bunker now. We can only wait for help from heaven."

But the reinforcements were nowhere to be seen.

The mist-like windmill was slowly changing its shape and it turned into a huge human figure.

The fog giant leaned down and looked at the signal car and the sweeping robot. There was a rotating windmill on its face, which looked very strange.

Shi Gandang felt no fear, only doubt and confusion.

"The experimental angel has transformed into this form?"

"It seems so."

The signal car deduced: "My signal test shows that the previous explosion level reached A. It could only be caused by the explosion of the experimental angel itself."

"I didn't find anything similar in the local database, so I can't connect to the machine stack."

The robot vacuum cleaner said: "It's still changing."

The fog giant overlooking them turned into a wrapped drone, but because it was so huge, it appeared to be suspended in the low sky like a battleship.

It's exactly the same as the drone that disappeared before.

But suddenly, the mist flew into the air.

Through the perspective of the sweeping robot, Zhou Yi saw that a large amount of fog curled up and shrank into a huge and loose cloud mountain in the air.

Yunshan rose into the sky higher up, dragging its long tail like a giant jellyfish, and soon disappeared without a trace, hidden in the clouds.

"The signal is restored and the machine stack is connected again."

"The database comparison found it."

"Atmospheric lifeforms... are atmospheric lifeforms..."

The radar on the roof of the signal car was rotating at a constant speed: "Atmospheric life forms are powerful life forms active in the outer seas. How could they appear in the inner seas... No, no... It's the experimental angel that turned into an atmospheric life form."

“The next stage of building life is actually atmospheric biology.”

"Are they still in their infancy? "This... is really... amazing."

While the signal vehicle was comparing data, the sweeping robot rushed all the way to the explosion site.

There is a large pit at the center of the explosion, which is filled with a lot of rubble and twisted steel bars, as well as soot and amber residue fragments left by high-temperature burning.

There was still smoke coming out of the pit.

The sweeping robot found its fallen drone companion here.

However, no matter how it and the signal vehicle tried to rescue, the drone did not respond.

"Its consciousness has completely disappeared. The program itself is well preserved, but all the data has been cleared... It must have been eaten by atmospheric creatures. Atmospheric creatures are predators that use the consciousness of various life forms as food."

The robot vacuum cleaner was puzzled: "Why didn't it eat us?"

"Whether to eat or not is very important to us, but it is just a trivial matter for atmospheric creatures. It should be that it found that we are not valuable higher-level life forms, so it has no interest in us."

The signal car inferred this.

After the atmospheric creatures left, rescue from heaven finally arrived.

In fact, they had discovered the abnormality here early on, but they had no way to deal with the atmospheric creatures, and coming here would only mean death, so they could only wait on the periphery.

This time, due to the accidental explosion caused by overload, the relevant information was completely blocked.

Shi Gandang and the signal car were required to sign a permanent confidentiality agreement and could not disclose relevant information to anyone other than Heidi's authorization.

Subsequently, Shi Gandang participated in three more experiments.

Unlike this accidental event, the other three times were based on experience to deliberately detonate architectural life, which also led to the birth of atmospheric life.

……

Shi Gandang said: "Later, the Heavenly Kingdom conducted a large number of experiments, which resulted in the death of more than 60 architectural life forms. It was finally confirmed that the architectural life forms' bodies themselves would limit their further growth."

"By detonating them through specific means, they will be transformed into atmospheric creatures with far superior consciousness coverage and movement capabilities. They can absorb a large amount of energy and can directly enter the open sea."

"In other words, the building bodies are more like the restraints and shells of this life form. It is difficult for them to break out of the cocoon by their own strength, but we have mastered the core technology to help them transform."

Zhou Yi was shocked when he heard this: "The Kingdom of Heaven wants to incubate and control atmospheric life?"

"Yes, if we can control atmospheric life, we can rule the open sea."

Shi Gandang said: "It's a pity that atmospheric creatures cannot be restrained or commanded... The experiment caused the proliferation of atmospheric creatures and a huge increase in their number."

"Atmospheric creatures transformed from building life forms grow extremely fast. I heard that they even disguise themselves as foggy mountains or energy bodies to lure skywalkers to approach for hunting. Their intelligence is also far superior to their peers."

Zhou Yi remembered that the concentrator had been eaten by an atmospheric creature in the form of a fog mountain.

"What does the Light Explosion Angel have to do with this?"

"Because the life force of the building was too strong, the atmospheric creatures hatched were difficult to control and became stronger natural disasters, making the situation in the outer sea even more dangerous. So the Kingdom of Heaven changed its strategy and wanted to find a replacement... Then we were forcibly transformed into the first batch of Light Explosion Angels."

The sweeping robot said: "The purpose of doing this is, first, to completely block the secret, and second, our body itself is excellent and stable, and it is indeed a high-quality substitute in theory."

It's quite ironic.

It was the electromechanical experts who proposed the search for alternatives, and they themselves became new experimental subjects.

(End of this chapter)