Imagine boldly, but verify carefully.
As a stalwart advocate of materialism, Su Mo had always respected, but kept a distance away, from any talk about gods and ghosts.
There was nothing that could not be explained by science.
If there was something of the sort, that just meant that science had not reached a level where it could explain the phenomenon at that point.
As the only human on Earth who had already seen the fifth level of technology, while only being in the third level, Su Mo had enough of a “foundation” to analyze all the suspicious points from before.
“For now, what I need to find out is the real cause of Ma Fei’s death and where exactly the world outside the ruins is.”
“This includes whether the level 17 core refers to this town or whether it also encompasses the locations outside the town!”
If the Liangfang Town ruins was really formed by Ma Fei’s level 17 shelter core, then all the ramifications that could be speculated from this were things that would undoubtedly be chilling if one thought about it carefully.
Walking toward the small courtyard that he had used to hide from the Tibetan Mastiff earlier, he instructed Moore to destroy the dirt wall. After seeing that the time had indeed increased an hour due to the damage Moore caused, Su Mo sat on the slab of stone in the middle of the courtyard in relief.
Thanks to the time currency, he would have sufficient time to explore the ruins this time around, so Su Mo was not in a rush to search the other rooms. Instead, he took out his pen and paper again and very patiently began to conduct a detailed analysis.
“First of all, if I were to live in such a shelter, why would I move out? Or rather… why would I leave?”
When considering these issues, Su Mo was very good at thinking from other perspectives and putting himself in the position of others in order to infer the ideas and practices of others.
The first question raised had already started to slowly overturn all his previous conclusions.
If he was a refugee who had been transported into the wasteland, there was no reason to leave after joining such a shelter.
Unless…
They had been forced to!
Another more accurate way to say it was: it was mandatory.
“The Tibetan Mastiff had said ‘abandoned’, ‘human’, and ‘d*mned’ earlier, which proved that the human most likely knew that he had to leave before it happened.
“Leave this shelter to go out into the wasteland?”
“No, the most important thing that I need to know now is whether this is planet Earth in a parallel world or if this is another wasteland.”
Su Mo clearly remembered seeing some names listed on the bag of flour he had obtained from his previous visit to the Liangfang Town ruins.
Tian Xi province, Xiang Ping city, Hualien county…
Based on this information, if it was on the wasteland, it would mean that a country would have been established long ago.
However, if this was Earth in a parallel world, then there would be a different, more profound, meaning.
“Based on this conclusion, it would make sense if all the cities that humans lived in on Earth were formed by shelter cores.”
“Whenever a disaster struck a city formed by a core, as long as it could make it through the disaster, the city would develop by leaps and bounds.”
“Then what about Earth? What is Earth’s role in all of this?”
“No, if I look at Earth as one large core, then the external attack from space before the transmigration was probably the true disaster!”
…
One after another, outrageous yet well-founded speculations kept popping up in Su Mo’s mind.
Following that, Su Mo would completely reject a speculation after considering it from a different angle and turn instead to the next possibility.
The fact that a level 17 shelter could maintain itself for such a long time after having its energy supply cut off meant that Su Mo had every reason to be suspicious.
Magoo was also someone who had entered the ruins before!
However, after factoring Magoo’s information into the equation, the more Su Mo tried to analyze it, the more he felt like his brain was going to burst, so he could only put the whole thing aside for the time being.
“There’s no need to think too much about it for now. It’s just that, no matter what, I need to protect this level 17 shelter core.”
“This could be the greatest treasure this shelter holds!”
He put away the small book that had already been filled up with countless possibilities. Su Mo did not feel any sorrow whatsoever in having to pay the amount of “energy” necessary to extend the life of the core.
“It just requires 200 complete cores and 1000 damaged ones to bind. I can probably collect that sum when I go out to sea when the time comes.”
“When I bind this level 17 shelter, then I’ll be able to see exactly what other secrets are hidden within this wasteland!”
He clenched his fists. After realizing that the ruins had once been someone else’s shelter, the road ahead suddenly became brighter.
Su Mo’s heart also no longer held any fear toward Liangfang Town, which seemed like a ghost town. Instead, he was filled with anticipation.
“Even if everyone has already evacuated, all I need to find is Ma Fei’s main shelter, and I can perhaps still find some good stuff that he left behind.”
“He’s a level 17 boss! Even if it was just something that randomly slipped out of his hands, it’s probably enough for me to make a fortune!”
He thought about how these mysterious ruins, which had once scared him out of his wits, had now become a new sort of “loot-grabbing” feast for him. Su Mo excitedly stood up and strode forward.
However, once he strode out, he immediately stumbled upon his former acquaintance, who had been waiting by the door, taking it by surprise.
The last time he saw this Tibetan Mastiff, it was full of malicious intent, and its signature wreath-like fur was extremely fluffy and remarkably luxurious.
Even when it attacked and chased him back then, the Tibetan Mastiff had given off the impression of a cat leisurely chasing a mouse.
Were it not for the barrier in the courtyard, Su Mo might really have had to risk his life for an opportunity to escape.
This time, the Tibetan Mastiff clearly also harbored some malicious intent.
However, upon seeing Moore—who was large and imposing—holding a humongous weapon in his hands, and Oreo, whose eyes were glimmering with light, it cowered in fear!
The way it cowered was shameful, yet it was also completely understandable.
While it was peeping in, it had not expected Su Mo to suddenly awaken from his deep contemplation and rush straight outside.
Now, after being caught in the act, the Tibetan Mastiff could only keep its distance and bare its teeth; not daring to rush forward and attack like the last time.
“Hello, do you remember me?”
Pulling out an M-1 rifle, Su Mo looked at the threatening Tibetan Mastiff in front of him and smiled knowingly. Without hesitation, he released the safety catch.
The times have changed, sir!
Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang!
The sound of violent gunfire echoed in the air all around the town.
The Tibetan Mastiff thought that its movements were really fast, but when the bullets were fired, it quickly realized how wrong it was.
Su Mo spewed out a spray of bullets in less than four seconds.
A full forty rounds of bullets were discharged, resulting in numerous bullet holes in the Tibetan Mastiff’s legs, and the ground below it.
No blood oozed out. Just like the fog that covered this place, the Tibetan Mastiff could only fall on the ground weakly after Su Mo broke all four of its legs.
“Don’t… Don’t kill me… I’m willing to surrender.”
It watched as Moore strode forward with a three-pointed two-edged sword in his hands and a “savage” look on his face. Although the Tibetan Mastiff held some dissatisfaction in its heart, its body was being honest.
“Huh! You old dog, you dare launch a sneak attack on us. I have to teach you a lesson today.”
As he reacted one beat slower, Moore realized that the prey had already been dealt with by Su Mo, but he was unwilling to give up and walked over to continue punishing it.
In just two or three swings, the limbs that had been beginning to heal were once again broken by Moore, and they scattered into mist.
This time, the limbs healed at a visibly slower pace, and there was a touch of despair in the Tibetan Mastiff’s eyes.
“Speak up. Where did the people here go, and what else do you know?”
“If you have useful information, not only will I not kill you, maybe I’ll even take you out of this already dying world!”
Removing his mask, Su Mo revealed a mouth full of white teeth, a friendly smile adorning his face.
Sporting this “elegant and easygoing” look, one could no longer see a trace of the wild appearance he had last time when he was chased by the Tibetan Mastiff on top of the wall.
“I’ll talk, I’ll talk. Don’t kill me!”
It did not continue to wait for further threats and coercions. Watching Oreo walk over gracefully, the Tibetan Mastiff subconsciously swallowed a large gulp of saliva as he hurriedly yelled.
Seeing Su Mo’s hand gestures, Moore showed a fierce expression. Holding the three-pointed two-edged sword, he stood to the side, voicing his opinion that the Tibetan Mastiff was dishonest and should be dealt with on the spot.
Hearing that as a threat, the Tibetan Mastiff began to act honestly. Once it opened its mouth, it began to chatter away like an old nagging mother.
The chattering sometimes jumped from one subject to another.
However, with Su Mo’s strong logical and analytical abilities, he managed to extract some key points, and unearthed quite a few secrets about this world.
The Tibetan Mastiff also had an extremely cute name that did not fit its size and build at all…
Doudou!
As for whether or not this part of the world was on Earth, poor Doudou did not know, and no humans had ever told him.
Of course, before all the humans had emigrated, his memories were scattered, and he had not yet learned how to speak the human language.
In other words, it was only after Su Mo had entered the ruins last time and accidentally activated something that his language ability suddenly improved by leaps and bounds.
Furthermore, all these mutant creatures were originally ordinary creatures before the humans disappeared.
It was only after the humans left that all these creatures started to mutate. However, in the entire Liangfang Town core area, it was the only one that possessed consciousness.
The other creatures had either turned into irrational creatures like the black dogs and nad cows, or they had inexplicably dashed out of the invisible wall, never to return.
Doudou’s nagging was particularly repetitive so, seeing that it was starting to once again recall how it had been abandoned, Su Mo hurriedly interrupted it.
“You’re saying that before the humans here left, they knew that they would have to leave?”
“Yes. Before my master—bah, I mean before the man who abandoned me left, he told me that he’d come back to pick me up and told me to wait for him.”
“But in actual fact he left without a trace and has never come back again!”
After spending half an hour deciphering Doudou’s chattering, the mist had already reconstituted Doudou’s four legs but, as if it had accepted its fate, it did not try to run.
On the contrary, it lay on the ground, repeatedly grooming the wreath of fur around its neck with its tongue.
“Are you aware of the internal structure of this town? Have you heard of the name Ma Fei?”
“I’ve heard of it. Ma Fei was the governor here, the mayor. He even once gave me a large chunk of meat to eat. It was so fragrant.”
“As for this town, I’ve visited every place before, but I didn’t enter some of the locations. I was either blocked by a creature that had already gone crazy or, like the last time, blocked by some invisible force from entering.”
Tilting his head in thought, Doudou nodded.
After talking about the creatures that had gone insane, its neck shrunk back again, looking exactly as if it bullied the weak and feared the strong.
“Alright then. Have you ever seen this kind of thing?”
Seeing that this silly Tibetan Mastiff actually knew so much, Su Mo did not conceal it any longer, and his two hands started drawing in the air.
If there were modern people here, then this item would definitely not be an unfamiliar sight.
It was a computer!
From the monitor to the processor, and from a laptop to a desktop, Su Mo tried his best to illustrate what they looked like in general in order to achieve the ultimate goal of this trip.
When the silly dog Doudou failed to understand, Su Mo even took out his notebook and drew a complete sketch of a computer.
Looking at the picture, Doudou finally stopped shaking his head and nodded firmly.
“I’ve seen this thing before, but there are quite a few mutant creatures there, so I couldn’t enter and could only peep through the window!”
“Alright! Take me there!”
This was the epitome of finally stumbling across something by pure luck after searching high and low for it!
After getting the exact location of the computer, Su Mo remained calm when he thought of the upcoming leap in technology the shelter was about to experience. However, there was still a quiet feeling of ecstasy that was pumping wildly in his heart!
A level 17 core was still a faraway goal, but a computer…
This was the representative “artifact” of the third level of human technology!
