Deep underground, it was isolated from the deadly sunlight on the surface. But because the entire planet had been continuously heated for thousands of years, it was also extremely hot here. If there was no shield and life-support system, no one except Y 'zaks and Y' lisabet could survive here for long. Hao Ren led the small exploration team forward in the wide and crooked tunnel. The road in front of them kept tilting downward as if it would go all the way to the depths of the earth. So far, they could not see the end of the road.
Exploring the real planet that had turned into a purgatory, Hao Ren could not help but think of Nolan who stayed in the virtual world and the hundreds of reincarnations that Nolan had experienced. He was sure that the humans in the virtual world were once the residents of this planet, and they entered the virtual world to hide from something. Hao Ren once wondered if it was because the people on this planet were helpless when the planet fell into the sun, so they had to hide in the virtual world to numb themselves. But soon he realized that the timeline did not add up. The first reincarnation in Nolan's memory happened nearly 10,000 years ago, and the MDT calculated that the planet's orbit was out of balance two or three thousand years ago. The difference between the two was huge. Even if Nolan's memory of the world was not accurate, it should not be so far off.
So the people of Zorm did not enter the virtual world to hide from the fire of the star. What were they hiding from? The First Born?
The journey in the underground tunnel was boring. Hao Ren casually shared his speculation with the people around him. Lily listened to these speculations and gave her own opinion. "There are too many possibilities. Maybe they did not hide at all. It was just that after the technology developed to a certain level, they clicked on the wrong technology tree. All humans were addicted to virtual reality and could not extricate themselves. Then there was a problem with the server in the real world and humans could not log out, so they were trapped in the server. Then the planet falling into the sun was completely an accident. Or maybe they did encounter a crisis and hid in the virtual world to deduce a feasible solution in the simulator. Then an accident happened and they could not log out. Or maybe the robots on the planet rebelled. The rebels locked the human spirit in the server and then used the human body as a battery to generate electricity. Didn't they see this on TV? Anyway, the surface of the planet has already been destroyed by the fire. I guess only the underground server is still running. The evidence has all been burned, so we can guess whatever we want. "
Lily blurted out a bunch of guesses. Vivian could not help but give her a sidelong glance. She had always mocked the husky as a stupid dog, but to be honest, the author had a really big brain hole. Her brain hole was so big that there was a circle on her neck.
Y 'zaks coughed softly. "Ahem, speaking of which, we've been searching all the way down. How do you plan to save them after we find them?"
"I haven't thought about it yet." Hao Ren wasn't too sure about this, so he could only tell them the best case scenario. "But if there's only one server down there … we'll see if we can use a spaceship to transport it away."
Lily blinked. "… What a whimsical solution."
Y 'lisabet bounced up and down beside Y' zaks. The little girl asked, "We've been walking down for a few kilometers, how …"
Before her voice trailed off, a roar suddenly came from the depths of the ground!
The rumble lasted for a few seconds. It sounded as if a huge rock stratum had collapsed in a deep underground cave. Then, a series of creaking and grinding sounds came from all directions. At the same time, the ground under everyone's feet shook violently. The superalloy tunnel around them let out a tearing sound, unable to bear the heavy load. Debris kept falling from the cracks at the top of the tunnel. A gust of hot underground gas blew violently through the tunnel, almost blowing Y 'lisabet off her feet.
Y 'zaks quickly pulled the little girl to his side. "Is this place going to collapse?"
Hao Ren opened his hands and held Lily and Vivian beside him. He waited for the turbulence to pass before he breathed a sigh of relief. "It's quiet now … It shouldn't collapse. I guess this kind of situation must have been happening recently. Why didn't we see a lot of twisted corridors when we came here? "
"What was that just now?" Vivian was a little uneasy. "Earthquake?"
Before Hao Ren could say anything, Lily suddenly helped to explain. "The planet is disintegrating. The sun's gravity and the planet's uneven heating caused the expansion and contraction of the planet's crust and mantle. It stands to reason that this movement should be the most intense on the sunny side, but now the dark side is also shaking … It's really reaching the critical point. "
After saying that, Lily paused. When she noticed the eyes of the people around her, she could not help but feel her hair stand on end. "So how many times do I have to say it before you remember that I graduated from Peking University four times?! And I graduated based on my results! "
"Err, it's probably like what Lily said." Hao Ren touched the tip of his nose awkwardly. He continued to move forward as he said, "Everyone, be careful. This planet is now like a sugar ball softened under the sun. All the structures are unstable. So, if there's an emergency, don't just stand there like an idiot."
He then added, "In fact, the shaking is not the most terrible situation. The worst thing is that the walls and caverns around us may suddenly collapse at any time. This is essentially a collision of the crust. The plate friction that would only happen on Earth for tens of thousands of years will happen here in a matter of seconds …"
Lily's tail suddenly exploded into a ball of sword mound. "Mr. Landlord, what did you say?!"
"Don't worry, the life-support collar has an emergency disaster avoidance function. When the shield is suddenly hit by an external force and is about to break, it will teleport you to the spacecraft. But the scene will probably be more exciting. "
Even Y 'zaks could not help but look at the ceiling above his head in fear. "… Hundreds of millions of tons of crust pressing down, even the demon king will be killed in seconds."
"This is the power of nature." Hao Ren smiled helplessly. "We are falling into the sun together with a five-trillion-ton boulder. Don't expect the working conditions to be comfortable. Everyone, stand firm. Don't fall behind. "
After the first shaking, there was a second and a third. As they went deeper underground, they experienced more earthquakes of various sizes. As they went deeper, the shaking became more and more terrifying. Each shaking was not only accompanied by violent shaking and falling gravel, but also a roar from deep underground, as if a bomb had been detonated in a huge cavern. It was the violent friction between the plates, and the discontinuous gaps between them amplified the roar of the rocks colliding like a sound box. The structure of the planet had been completely messed up, and it was hard to tell how many cracks and moving rock fragments were distributed in its interior. It was like a sack full of gravel swaying in space, with large-scale plate collisions occurring all the time. But as the planet had not really disintegrated, these collisions were still "controllable". At least, Hao Ren and his team were still moving deep underground.
To the planet, this small expedition team was like a group of ants drilling in the cracks of a stone. But this group of ants had power, and they were full of hope to save something.
A completely blocked fork blocked everyone's way. This fork was blocked by a collapsed rock stratum, and this was already the sixth dead end that everyone had encountered. This was an unavoidable situation: when the whole planet was slowly disintegrating, they should be thankful that there was still a viable underground passage. Hao Ren could only lead the team back to the previous fork and choose a passage that looked promising to continue exploring. At the same time, he contacted the Petrachelys, which was cruising at low altitude above them. "MDT, can't you give us a more accurate navigation? This is a dead end again. "
"I've tried my best, but the underground situation is very complicated. The surface area is reforming and deforming. I need to ensure the safety and stability of the route first."
Hao Ren hung up and shook his head at Vivian. "Safety first. Let's keep going."
"To be honest, the underground has become like this … Zorm's virtual world is still working?" Lily found it unbelievable. "I feel that such a complex virtual reality device should be very sophisticated, but the crust has begun to split, and the virtual world seems to be barely working."
"Anyway, the 1.6 billion people on Nolan's side are still alive," Hao Ren was also puzzled. "Maybe there are a lot of backup servers in the virtual world … After all, the planet has not completely collapsed."
Before his voice trailed off, he suddenly heard a voice full of static in the communication channel. "Hello … Hello, can you hear me? This is Nolan — "
Hao Ren took the communication in surprise. "I can hear you. What's going on over there?"
Nolan was silent for two seconds. Suddenly, she asked, "You are now in the real world, right? What you said before is true, right? "
The corner of Hao Ren's mouth unconsciously curled up. "Well, now you believe me?"
Nolan's heavy breathing came through the communication channel. She seemed to be calming herself down. After a while, she said, "What the hell is going on out there?"
A sudden sense of uneasiness suddenly welled up in his heart. Hao Ren's tone was urgent. "Is there a situation over there? I hear a lot of static … "
"The world … is burning."
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