The factories in Black Street were operating day and night. The thick black smoke from the towering chimneys shrouded the entire city in a haze. Standing on the high ground of the city, one could even see the hazy black clouds slowly falling from the sky. The smoke and dust stained everything in the neighborhood with a dirty grayish-black color, which was one of the origins of the name Black Street. In the modern era of Nanomachine Swarm all over the world, there were still many heavy industries that could not get rid of the traditional factory production line due to technical limitations. Large machinery and munitions factories were two of the most important.
In Black Street, these two kinds of factories were the most numerous.
Hao Ren came out of the narrow slum and saw towering factory buildings at the end of the wide and dirty street. Huge reaction towers and pressure vessels of unknown purpose were built directly in the city. Walking on the street, he could hear the roar of machinery running from the factory. There were passers-by on both sides of the street. Most of them were poor people in shabby clothes with numb eyes. They had just eaten insufficient synthetic food at home, and now they were flocking to the factory like a swarm of ants: a mechanical behemoth that devoured their lives while prolonging their lives at the same time. Some people covered their faces with a rag to filter the dust in the air. But the black rag was not much cleaner than the surrounding air. Their lungs were still irreversibly diseased, corroded, and polluted. After the age of thirty or forty, they had to rely on the Nanomachine Swarm to survive, and then die quickly.
"Since the Nanomachine Swarm is still in use, why didn't anyone think of using these things to solve the pollution problem in the city?" Hao Ren muttered to himself.
A hoarse, low voice came from the side. "Pollution control? This kind of people died decades ago. Now we live one day at a time. "
Hao Ren turned his head in surprise and found that Ulyanov had appeared behind him. "Oh, when did you come?"
"This is where I often come. I am very familiar with the slums," Ulyanov looked up at the factory not far away. "Yesterday, someone reported that you disappeared into the dark alleys of the slums after leaving the station and did not return all night. Nolan asked me to collect your body. But I didn't expect to see you in a daze on First Street. Not bad, I managed to survive my first night in the Dark Alley District. Is there anything here that interests you? "
"Nothing, I'm just looking around." Hao Ren knew that they were still wary of him, so he replied with a relaxed expression, "I told you, I can't stay with you all the time, so I need to find a place where I can stay. Don't worry, even if I have a motive, it won't be directed at the gray fox. "
"Nolan doesn't care about that. I'm just being a busybody." Ulyanov did not comment on Hao Ren's reply. "You'd better not come to this block frequently. There are many guys here who have a bad relationship with Gray Fox. It's no good for you to be here."
Hao Ren waved his hand to show that he understood. He then brought up the previous question. "You haven't said it yet. Is there any additional cost to using the Nanomachine Swarm to solve urban pollution? Isn't that thing self-sufficient? "
"The Nanomachine Swarm is indeed self-sufficient, but its control center is costly, and the bigger cost is these —" Ulyanov said, raising his hand and pointing to the poor people hurrying along the roadside. "You don't need a healthy body to operate the machines in the factory, and the city doesn't need old people. The mission of these slags is to be squeezed in the factory until they are forty-five years old, and it's best if they can't even read. The factory owners don't like workers who are too strong and too smart, and they don't like people who need to retire. So there's no need to let them live too long. As for the factory owners and the warlords … they have their own ecological houses, isolated from the outside world. I heard that there will be one or two small lawns. The cost is not high, the construction is fast, and it's enough for them to enjoy. "
Hao Ren listened with his eyes wide open. As someone who came from Earth, he could not understand this kind of thinking. "Just maintain this status quo … Isn't it a little short-sighted?"
"Short-sighted? Then what do you mean by long-term vision? "Ulyanov laughed hoarsely." Comprehensive improvement of the environment? Rebuilding a vibrant and sustainable society? I remember that many people had the same idea decades ago, but it turned out that no one could live long enough to accomplish such a feat. I heard that every regime in the world can only last four and a half years on average, so no one will invest in a cause that lasts longer than this cycle. "
Ulyanov patted Hao Ren on the shoulder. "It's necessary to be short-sighted, because most people can't live to see the future that they can see."
Hao Ren blurted out, "But you have lived long enough …"
"Because I'm just alive," Ulyanov turned around. "Since the day I could no longer shed a drop of blood, only electrolyte and nutrient medium, my goal was to stay alive. Only such a person can live long enough."
Hao Ren was speechless. In a world where everyone could not protect themselves, thinkers and enlighteners were probably the first to die. Because they needed to use the energy to sustain their survival in other places, such as dreams. The MDT muttered in his mind, "This is why rare herbs can cultivate and become immortals, but vegetables and fruits can't even become spirits. They make a vow to cultivate in the morning, but at noon, they are stewed. Who can have dreams if they can't live to the day when their dreams come true? "
Hao Ren had to admit that although the MDT was a little annoying, its ability to sum things up was pretty good.
Hao Ren followed Ulyanov back to Gray Fox's station. As they turned a corner, he quickly took out a silver-gray device from his Dimensional Pocket and threw it out. The device looked like an inconspicuous metal lump, but when it landed, it was silent and quickly slid into a dark corner. It was a beacon transmitter that Hao Ren made in the shipboard factory of the Petrachelys in the morning. It would automatically find a place with the weakest interference and then send a powerful navigation signal into space. As long as Zorm was still in the Plane of Dreams, the drone cluster could quickly find it through this navigation signal.
Even if they were tens of billions of light-years apart.
If the distance between the two parties was not just physical distance, the situation would be more troublesome. But at present, the possibility of the situation becoming more troublesome was very high.
At present, Hao Ren had no problem in contacting CARS and the drone cluster on Zorm, which proved that the data link was smooth, but the key was that there was no way to determine the specific location of the signal transmission. This was equivalent to an anonymous contact, and CARS and the drone cluster could not single-handedly crack this anonymous state, so Hao Ren needed to set up an active beacon on Zorm. At the same time, Hao Ren also considered what if the beacon failed. If that happened, he considered releasing a probe from here to see if it could reach the normal universe by space navigation. If it could, at least it proved that space was still continuous. Even if it could not, he could figure out the scope of the distortion. This was one of the "backup plans" he mentioned before.
After leaving the factory, Hao Ren turned his head and glanced at the towering black buildings. "This is really a desperate place."
"Maybe, but at least you can survive here. The factory is the only choice for most people. The situation in the wilderness outside is worse than here." Ulyanov seemed to sigh, or maybe it was just a chuckle. "The only hope for the 'slag' here is to be taken away by a mercenary group as cannon fodder. As long as they can survive for a few weeks, they can live like a human, and all their diseases can be cured. You know, it's very simple to cure their lung and blood diseases. It's as simple as a tube of Nanomachine Swarm and thirty minutes. But this is the most precious resource of Black Street, and the ration is extremely limited. Everyone in the slums is willing to exchange everything for this treatment opportunity. So I'm still curious about the reason for Khiton's betrayal. When Nolan dragged him out of the slums, the guy's lungs were almost rotten, and his blood was accumulated with forty years of toxins and defective nanomachines. He was a typical useless person who had missed the best age to be selected as cannon fodder. Nolan gave him a chance to survive, but he betrayed us in the end. "
Hao Ren remembered Khiton's diary and muttered, "Probably brainwashed."
"Brainwashed by the Rangers' crazy ideas?" Ulyanov sneered. "Heh, probably, simple-minded guy."
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