Planet of Sand and Oasis of Iron

Chapter 156 155. Natural disasters will come suddenly when you least expect them

Sefer was still worried that he had run into some bad luck again.

I breathed a sigh of relief after seeing the information - the earthquake originated from a deeper source, ridiculously far away from here, and when the seismic waves were transmitted, it was even only a small earthquake of less than magnitude 4.

As the countdown ended, Cypher felt a slight shake under his feet and a slight creaking sound of twisted metal came from nearby.

The autonomous machines were not affected at all and continued their actions after a while.

After all, it's underground, so it's possible to encounter earthquakes, rock bursts, methane explosions or groundwater rapids.

Seifer waited for a while and continued to approach the portal. When he got closer, he found that there were actually energy generators around the entire square. They were aimed at the center like the lights of a three-dimensional projection.

The portal just stood there out of thin air, it was amazing.

Continue walking forward for a distance and arrive at the bottom of the portal. As expected, this thing is much larger than imagined, even bigger than the edge node city.

Yet, there was no one here. This area, originally designed to house hundreds of thousands of mercenaries, now contained only a few scattered autonomous machines roaming about.

Seifer felt an inexplicable emotion in his heart. He confirmed that the secret key of his patrol autonomous robot was still normal, and then moved forward.

However, as Dr. Mei said, even if you come here, you can only admire the great gate of vision. It does not have the energy of vision, nor does it have similar signs. There are only complex and huge facilities buried underground.

After walking around for a while, Seifer had seen enough and was about to leave, but he was suddenly reminded that an earthquake wave was about to come.

He immediately contacted Tien: "Are earthquakes so frequent in this area?"

"Huh? Earthquakes? There aren't many earthquakes here, right? The last one was last year... Wait a minute."

Tien's voice suddenly became serious. "Come back soon. If the second earthquake source is closer to you, it means that the legend is coming."

Sefer still didn't understand what the legend was, because the earthquake waves were still only level two or three, and they shook for a few seconds and then ended, not lasting long.

"There's more to the desert than just rocks and minerals. You've seen worms, haven't you? Since there are worms, have you ever thought there might be even bigger worms out there?"

——To be honest, Cypher didn't intend to imagine it, because the worm was really ugly, so ugly that it would be disgusting just by magnifying it five or ten times.

"Haha, you figured it out, right? But we're not talking about that worm. We're talking about something else. Legend has it that beneath the hard surface of this desert, there's one or more giant metal worms crawling around."

"They sometimes penetrate weak spots in the rock formations and trigger earthquakes that collapse, but that's just a myth, of course."

Sefer felt that since she said so, it was very likely not a legend... As for the subsequent "worm worship" and other things, there was no need to mention it.

As he was speaking, a warning came in that the third earthquake wave was approaching. This time the magnitude was still very slight, but what followed was a series of earthquake warnings.

As for Sefer, he didn't care. The investment made by Node City in earthquake resistance and shock absorption was more complete than he had imagined. Not to mention these small earthquakes, even the legendary magnitude 9 or even 10 earthquake could probably be withstood.

...I don't know what's going on further.

Creaking and twisting sounds could be heard everywhere in the lower floor, and something would occasionally fall from overhead, sometimes dust, sometimes stones.

Sometimes, there are ultra-small (humanoid) machines that fall for unknown reasons, and there are also pieces of garbage that have been blown to pieces without any identification code.

If these things fell into the city, they would be quickly cleaned up by autonomous machines. Considering the frequent earthquakes, Seifer finally decided to move upwards - the air above him was like a garbage dump dumping garbage down, and he couldn't stay there any longer.

Unfortunately, the earthquake did not give him much time to move. As the shaking became more and more violent, everything around him seemed to be making sounds of being unable to bear the weight.

Even some autonomous machines in the city that had no flight capabilities and worked in dangerous areas began to malfunction frequently. The lower city, which had been well-organized just a moment ago, suddenly became a little chaotic.

While Cypher was surviving underground, what were the mercenaries doing in the temporary parking area?

Simply put, some of them are considering whether to leave here. After all, when it comes to earthquakes, if they are on the road, the only thing they would worry about is quicksand or something like that.

In this parking area, or even in the node city of the transformation agency, you have to consider whether you are lucky enough and the shock-absorbing performance of the things developed by this company.

Especially with such abnormal series of small earthquakes, isn't a major earthquake coming next?!

On the mercenary information communication message board, these messages were constantly passed on, and everyone expressed extremely obvious distrust of the company.

Some mercenaries had even started to flee. Their actions attracted the attention of more mercenaries, who were all preparing to flee towards the desert, but were despairing to find that it was already daytime.

Then the branch of Abian Company opened here quickly stated that even a major earthquake above magnitude 8 would not affect the parking area.

The reform agencies remained the same, issuing tasks as usual and continuing to consolidate the areas they had just recovered, as if the earthquake had nothing to do with them.

Although for people in this world, it is really normal for things under their feet to shake.

Whether it's the mobile base, the machine, or even the node city itself as an operating mechanism... isn't it all operating?

Even a large number of mercenaries who were holding bottles of wine and celebrating their recent good harvest with others were shaken by the earthquake, highlighting the fact that they were entertaining themselves to death.

Small earthquakes continued, even lasting for about half an hour before suddenly stopping. Then there were no new reports of earthquakes. Just when everyone thought that the matter was over... an unexpected earthquake broke out from under their feet.

Everyone was staggering as if drunk, their ears filled with the sound of metal and various building materials twisting under the heavy weight. Even the parked vehicles were shaking due to their heavy suspension devices.

In Cypher's mobile base, Lin Shenxue hugged the engine pipe tightly with a look of fear, even if it was a little hot.

She had never experienced an earthquake before coming here from the snowy plains. She was wondering what was going on. It was clearly a parking area, but why did it feel more violent than a train being attacked by monsters?
She quickly sent a message to Sefer, but the signal could only be sent over a small range, and the external signal was basically zero.

All communications with the following have been severed.

The entire desert was filled with the roar of the remaining rocks collapsing and sand and gravel sinking.

Even if this is not the main center of the earthquake, and even if the epicenter is deep underground, the impact on the outer layer is already fatal.

In addition to the threat of sunlight, the two areas sheltered by rock formations and the node city farther away were all affected by the unexpected earthquake. They could only pray that the earthquake would pass quickly.

In fact, this sudden earthquake only lasted a few minutes, then gradually became smaller, and finally disappeared as suddenly as it appeared.

The mercenaries lay in various ruins, feeling lucky to have been saved because the rock formations above their heads did not fall down.

(End of this chapter)