The floating magic-guided vehicle made by the Aerymian elves carried a group of people to the center of the floating island known as the Dawnbreak Island. The vehicle flew lightly in the air, hundreds of meters above the ground. This kind of car should be a very high-end thing in Aerym. But aside from being technologically superior to Earth, its interior and appearance were even worse than a private car on Earth. Almost all the parts inside and outside of the car were cast from the same greyish-white man-made material. The color and material were extremely monotonous. At the same time, there were no decorative patterns, no soft seats, and no special materials wrapped around the armrests or window frames.
It was like a cheap industrial product that was poured into a plastic mold. Despite its high-tech appearance and performance, anyone who had experienced it once could tell that it was only made according to the standard of "enough is enough".
The Aerymian elves were generally taller and thinner than humans, but the overall difference was not too big (at least closer to a normal person than Y'zaks), so the interior of the vehicle was suitable for Hao Ren and the rest. Y'zaks sat in the vehicle, a little cramped, but it was bearable. There was a series of narrow windows on both sides of the vehicle, extending all the way down to the seats. Through these windows, they could see the city flying past below.
At first glance, the buildings were also beautiful. They had long arcs and simple and elegant structures. Most of the houses seemed to imitate the image of tree trunks and flower buds. The architectural style of the Aerymian elves was dominated by a variety of tall towers and oval buildings with smooth lines, which made their city look like a city of thousands of towers — of course, it was just the name that made people think so. But the truth of resource exhaustion was hidden in these elegant buildings: all the building materials were that grey-white man-made material, from the outer walls to the roofs, and then to the open space and roads between the houses, everywhere was this color, which looked lifeless. The original and natural building materials should have dried up many years ago, or as the basic structure of the floating island, they could not be easily mined. Therefore, the Aerymian elves used industrial recycling methods to recover these things from the ruins to build their homes. But a completely grey-white city was too depressing, so the elves planted as many plants as possible between the buildings, but the number of these plants was not large. It seemed that to maintain the efficient function of the city, most of the plants were planted in special places such as ecological domes. Other than that, there were no other decorations in the city.
There were no monuments, no street sculptures, no parks or other facilities that had nothing to do with survival and were a waste of building materials. The city was like a low-quality scene to reduce the pressure on the graphics card and ignore all the details of the terrain. No matter where you looked, there were only monotonous repetitive houses and straight and simple roads. The elves who were in a hurry were living in this monotonous and lifeless city, just like a set of faded slides.
Y'zaks looked at the city below and thought, "They are still living in an orderly state. It seems that no matter how bad the situation is, they are still trying to maintain social order and... at least on the surface."
Hilda's attention was not on the city below. She had already noticed the anxiety on her son's face. "How bad is the situation? "How bad is the situation?"
"If it's survival, it's still manageable." Vimm was a young man with a calm voice. He had inherited from his mother, or perhaps every elf had, an almost perfect appearance, handsome and manly at the same time. "There were serious casualties among the astrologers and magicologists. But at that time, the experimental site was as far away from the main island chain as possible, so the loss of materials was still within an acceptable range. The supply of the main residential areas and the ecological dome are not a problem. We can still maintain the standard of living in the past, and for a long time. "
"The problem is confidence... right?" Hilda was very familiar with the current situation of Aerym, so she quickly figured out the reason. "You have finally restored social order, but I can feel a kind of lifeless atmosphere."
"Yes, this incident is a big blow to the confidence of the people, including some of the members of the parliament." Vimm nodded. "The space-time accelerator is the last large-scale project we can launch. Under the limited resources, it is the only way to the depths of the stars. The big bang destroyed the last of the confidence of many people. We still have survival supplies, but survival is the only thing left."
As Vimm said this, he finally could not help but look at the group of "visitors from another world" sitting in the back of the car. The situation he had reported was the social situation before Hilda's return, but a group of incredible guests from beyond the stars... no, from beyond the universe had completely disrupted his worldview and his grasp of the current situation. The first thing that came to his mind was that the plight of the Aerymian elves for thousands of years had finally ushered in a dawn. Now, a group of visitors from a higher civilization who knew how to travel between stars had appeared before him. This might break the deadlock, but at the same time, he was worried about a more realistic problem:
Can we make it in time? Will they help? Will their help work?
Hilda also looked at Hao Ren, but she did not ask anything. She just turned her head and looked at Vimm. "First, announce the news of the visitors from another world, then say that we have the key to long-distance travel. Although the space-time accelerator has failed, from the perspective of technological progress, it is a great success. In short, announce it like this. The first task is to reinvigorate the people and restore the confidence of the people. "
Hao Ren nodded slightly, but did not make a clear statement. He was still thinking about the best solution, so he did not take the initiative to promise anything, but at least what Hilda said was achievable. Vimm seemed to have gained some confidence from the slight nod, and the expression on his face relaxed.
"The Isle of Rainbows... How much is left?" Hilda asked.
The Isle of Rainbows was the floating island where the space-time accelerator experiment was conducted. It was the last space test site of the Aerymian elves with complete facilities and a large capacity energy system. For a long time, the elves only had one planet, and there was no other place within tens of millions of light years, so they could not carry out many large-scale experiments. It was not until later, when the planet was torn apart and turned into countless space islands, that they began to test some dangerous projects that could not be carried out directly on the mother planet. Thousands of years of struggle on the technological fork had caused them to lose one such test site after another, and most of the accidents were enough to pollute the entire planet. Losing only one space island was a relatively optimistic situation. Even so, the number of space islands was still limited, and after thousands of years of continuous depletion, they finally came to an end.
The Isle of Rainbows was their last hope.
"The Isle of Rainbows is gone," Vimm said after a few seconds of silence. "Mother, you should have seen the end of the island chain when you were in space, right? There is a new piece of rubble... That is the Isle of Rainbows. After the big explosion, the debris flew everywhere. Some of it was thrown into the sun, and some rushed into space. We only had time to salvage one-fifth of its material. The rubble was temporarily placed in the wreckage of the island chain. Maybe some resources can be extracted from it. The test site is gone, but its wreckage can probably let everyone live a good life for a few years. "
"I saw the rubble, but I didn't expect..." Hilda frowned. "What about the Isle of Stars?"
The Isle of Stars was another floating island in space. It was an important industrial center and energy furnace. It received and stored energy from the coronal station. During the accelerator test, the Isle of Rainbows was pushed to the far end of the island chain to prevent it from threatening the residential area. However, the Isle of Stars had to be supplied with energy from the side. It was so close to the test site that Hilda was very worried about the fate of the island.
She did not dare to carefully observe the situation of the entire island chain from space, so she did not know whether she saw the Isle of Stars at that time.
"The Isle of Stars is still there, but it has suffered some damage. Some of the debris broke through the anti-aircraft fire net and destroyed part of the gravity generator and propulsion device of the Isle of Stars. There was also a piece of debris almost stuck in the energy hub, but fortunately, it missed by a little. The situation there has been brought under control, and the Council of Technical Elders is trying to find a way to restore its functions. The magical technicians have dismantled some of the equipment from the land of death, and they seem to still be usable … At least, they are much better than the ones that were completely broken. "
"Well, the situation is better than expected." Hilda breathed a sigh of relief. "When we go back, ask Cardillon to see me. He and I, as well as our otherworldly friends, have a lot to discuss."
"Elder Cardillon, he..." Vimm suddenly avoided Hilda's gaze. "Elder Cardillon has gone to the World of Prayers."
"What?!" Hilda's voice suddenly rose. "Who allowed it?!"
"He volunteered. There are some problems in the World of Prayers, and the Lotto Organization from two hundred years ago seems to be active again... part of the council..."
"So the current social order is only superficial?!" Hilda's face suddenly became very ugly and stern. "When we go back, immediately convene the elders. I want to restore order!"
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