The clean streets were gone and had been replaced by overgrown weeds. It was like a scene from an abandoned country town.
The three-story villa also lost its disguise and transformed into the above-ground shelter.
Even those three-layered iron fence that Su Mo thought was very sturdy had now turned into ordinary rusted iron, which looked weathered at a glance.
There were dense, white bones on the ground near Ma Fei’s shelter. It only took a little investigation to conclude that they were the corpses of the mutant creatures that had broken into the compound.
However, …
Back outside, the town was still clean, the trails were still spotless, and even the streetlights on the roadside had a metallic beauty to them.
The manor inside was still scattered with scarab corpses. If observed closely, it could be seen that the scarabs’ remains were being gradually swept away by the wind.
“What kind of technology is this? Is it subverting my perception somehow?”
The difference between the inner and outer world reminded him of the experience of using VR technology, where one could enter a different world simply by putting on a VR headset.
Even someone like Su Mo, who had experienced the wonders of virtual reality before, found this situation mind-blowing. He was filled with a sense of curiosity.
After inspecting a few of the more obvious buildings nearby, Su Mo raised his gun in an uncertain manner and shot twice at a streetlight.
Bang, bang!
There was nothing strange with the sounds of the bullets hitting the streetlight but, as expected, there were no bullet holes in the streetlight, and the bullets seemed to have simply disappeared.
When he retreated back out into the courtyard, he could clearly see that there were two crisp, yet deep, visible bullet holes in the streetlight.
Ma Fei’s courtyard seemed to work like a magic mirror that could divide the outside world from the inside world.
Outside was a paradise left for the enlightened.
Inside was the cruel reality left for the realists.
For those who did not possess a firm spirit, living here for a long time would drive them mad in a matter of minutes.
Su Mo could not help but chuckle when he picked up two scarabs that had an intimidating appearance.
“I was wondering why they did not react when hit by bullets, but instead reacted to the fire…”
“It turns out that the fire is blocking my line of sight, which meant that I could not simulate a coherent image of the situation!”
Every tiny robot had been riddled with 7.62 bullets.
Su Mo saw them armed with miniature saws, knives, and even welding torches.
Apart from those, some miniature circuit boards could also be seen falling out of the heads of these robots, just like a CPU. They were probably the core components of these little robots.
This group of robots were perhaps designed more as “tools” that specialized in manufacturing than they were “weapons” designed for combat.
It would be a waste of resources if they were used in a fight.
“Those magical things can’t be created by this group of little fellas, right?”
The current ownership of the core was still with Ma Fei. The game panel functions were sealed, and the system seemed to be silent.
This had also been the case when he discovered Magoo’s shelter, but it had been inadvertently ignored by Su Mo.
Of course, from beginning to the end, everyone in the world would not have imagined that the ruins they entered were just shelter cores of more powerful people.
Without rushing into the house, Su Mo carefully briefed Moore first, then took out the big burlap sack he had prepared, and placed all the less damaged robots inside.
As for some of the chips in their heads that had been blown to pieces by stray bullets, they piled those aside first.
After realizing that each robot required a hefty price of one day to take out, Su Mo went back and picked out five of the most complete ones, picked out some corresponding spare parts, and placed them into his storage space.
“If these small robots can be repaired and their command protocol can be rewritten, my destroyer will have no shortage of maintenance workers!”
Su Mo stood up and nodded in satisfaction. He checked and saw that his current consumption of time was only seven days’ worth of time currency, which was within an acceptable range. Su Mo then walked into the building.
A collapse usually started from the core and would then spread further out.
On normal days, this place might be no different compared to the outside.
Even the manor looked more luxurious from the outside.
Inside, now that the energy supply was insufficient, a slight bump from Moore would easily open a door on the first floor, revealing the darkness that lay within.
“We should bring along a remote-control vehicle the next time we go exploring. It might be a little too dangerous to rely on humans to explore unknown locations like this.”
After taking out a flashlight and trying to shed some light on the interior of the building, Su Mo calmed himself down.
He could rely on Oreo’s sense of danger to avoid certain types of dangers.
Aside from that, one of the drawbacks of the technology was that operation relied heavily on the supply of energy. Without it, most traps and weapons would be rendered completely useless.
As this was a well-established town, it was unlikely that Ma Fei would turn this place into a military base with the sole purpose of keeping strangers out.
With some light analysis, he could judge the degree of wear and tear in the most severe parts of the furniture inside, and could roughly estimate the number of years the shelter had been empty for.
“More than fifty years, but less than a hundred. They might not be from the same group as Magoo.”
The luxurious and splendid-looking carpet was now sawdust, turning into dust at the slightest touch. The dust particles could be seen floating in the air under the light projected by the flashlight.
The grill at the entrance was also rusty, and broke easily upon contact.
Although there was a high probability that there would be no danger inside, after looking around and seeing the Doudou the Tibetan Mastiff secretly looking at the door, Su Mo waved and gestured for it to come over.
“You, yeah you. Come here!”
Humans were afraid of physical attacks, but these mist-born beings weren’t. Besides, the worst that could happen when they get injured was to slowly regenerate on the spot.
This characteristic made these creatures ideal for exploring the unknown.
Being called over by Su Mo, this timid Tibetan Mastiff was also taken aback when it received instructions to enter the manor, and it could not help but sigh in fear.
“Wow, this is so strange. Did the mayor always live in such a lousy house?”
However, before the silly dog could continue to think deeply about Ma Fei’s situation, Doudou turned its head under Su Mo’s guidance and suddenly saw the scene outside.
Bang!
Rrrrrip!
Doudou was stunned senseless and stopped moving.
In Su Mo’s vision, Doudou seemed like it had gone crazy as it rushed back and forth, in and out of the door, as if it could not believe what it was seeing.
With all this happening, Su Mo seemed to hear…
The sound of a heart shattering!
If one wanted to destroy a person’s worldview, then they would have to prove to the person that his or her understanding of the world was completely warped or fake, just like in The Truman Show!
Under the impact of what it was seeing, Doudou’s worldview collapsed!
The two different worlds made it impossible for Doudou to comprehend what was real and what was fake.
However, his heart told him that what Su Mo said was true.
“Could it be that it was not them who abandoned us, but rather this town that abandoned the humans?”
Su Mo was stunned momentarily when he heard Doudou’s whispering voice. He instantly thought of a hypothesis that seemed to perfectly explain all the speculations he had previously.
Yes, why would the residents evacuate?
Why would everyone leave in such a hurry, as if they had been taken away by force?
Did Ma Fei die first? Was it because a certain mechanism had been triggered, and everyone in the town knew that they would die if they stayed? Was that why they chose to evacuate?”
“That’s not right. Where does the scene I saw outside the invisible wall come from? Could that be virtual as well?”
No written records of what had happened were left in the entire town.
If Su Mo wanted to infer the truth of the matter, he could only examine each small detail individually, which would be an extreme test of his analytical capabilities.
After giving it some thought, and staring into the deep darkness of the room ahead, Su Mo took two steps forward. He dragged the Tibetan Mastiff by its fur toward the door.
“All the secrets you want to know lie inside. You won’t die, so head in first and help us check if there’s any danger ahead.”
Doudou did not object when he heard Su Mo’s words. It walked in as if it had lost its soul.
With a flashlight, he instructed Doudou to explore the first floor thoroughly. After discovering that there was no mechanism to trigger, Su Mo followed in confidently.
There were not many things on the first floor, as they had long since been eroded by time. The items that were there had undergone serious weathering, as even the door could no longer be closed tightly.
The soft sofa disintegrated into dust with a light press, and some brittle iron frames would break apart and crash to the floor as soon as they were touched.
However, all of these were not the reason for Su Mo’s undivided attention.
On the stone coffee table nearby, there was a book.
It was a book that had lost its luster on the surface, but somehow still looked “healthy”.
As if attracted by a deadly poison, Su Mo could not help but walk over to it after seeing the familiar Huaxian characters on the book cover from a distance.
“Blazeland…Tianxi…Liangfang Town… Mayor’s Handbook?”
“Doomsday New Calendar Year 4 Month 5 re…revised.”
The book cover was severely worn down, but some large characters left on it were still visible and legible.
“So it was not on Earth after all?”
After receiving this information, Su Mo was pleasantly surprised. The pressure that weighed down on his shoulders also lifted significantly.
If the place where the ruins was located was really a parallel world, that would be terrible.
However, if a human community had been established only on this wasteland, it would not be just a piece of exciting, good news, but there also might be some hidden secrets to discover from the “future”.
With these secrets, Su Mo could study the real “future” in advance through the experience of his predecessors.
“Oh, man. The Ma Family are indeed all good people. There is Magoo before and Ma Fei after!”
“It’s too bad that Ma Fei is gone. He was such a good person!”
Books were more valuable than certain high-tech appliances in times like these…
Especially to a successor like Su Mo. Even getting a tank in exchange would have been a loss!
“Moore, guard the door. Oreo, guard any possible entry points!”
He found a spot where he could keep an eye on the happenings outside.
Su Mo held the flashlight close and squatted on the ground. He carefully took out two plastic bags and put them on his hands as he turned the first page of the thick mayor’s handbook.
As the old saying goes, paper lives a thousand years.
Ancient books printed using ancient Huaxia papermaking techniques could be preserved for thousands of years under normal conditions. Even if they were made using modern printing technology, the average lifespan of the paper would be between a hundred to three hundred years.
With that, except for the badly damaged cover, the text inside was as legible as the text in Magoo’s diary.
“Let’s see…this first line should be the manual’s serial number? Or is it some other code that I’m unaware of?”
From top to bottom, Su Mo could not read the letters and numbers in the first line, so he could only start by reading the Huaxian characters. Su Mo’s face lit up.
Wow! It really was another fellow countryman!
“The People’s Republic of YH, or “Blazeland” for short, was established on Doomsday New Calendar Year 1, Month 6, Day 1. It is located in the eastern part of the New World and on the west coast of the ocean.”
“It has a population of 1.1 million people and a landmass of about 1.4 million square kilometers. The country is divided into six provinces.”
“The provinces are the Central Province, Northwestern Province, Southeastern Province, Tian Xi Province, Hai Kou Province, and Shan Bei Province. All provinces are independently managed by the central government with a unified leadership structure.”
“This manual is only applicable to leaders under the rule of the Tianxi Province. If found, please return this handbook to the nearest government office as soon as possible.”
“This handbook was last revised on Doomsday New Calendar Year 4, Month 5.”
