Although it was not the right thing to say, Hao Ren really felt that Vivian was the most versatile monster in his family. Lily could only do manual labor (and not necessarily reliable), Wuyue could only wash things, and Ol 'Wong could only come in handy when the gas tank ran out. Rollie's only role was to take care of the fish. In contrast, Vivian was an all-rounder. She could cook, wash, cook, mend, and clean. She could also act as an air conditioner when the weather was hot, and she could also act as a power source when there was a power outage. Especially as a power source. Lily had discovered this function a while ago, and everyone in the family said that it was very useful. Now, no one would bring a power source or charger with them when they went out. Every time their mobile phone ran out of battery, they would just stuff it into Vivian's hand. It had become a habit.
Hao Ren handed the cable to Vivian, and the latter immediately pouted. "Why do I always have to do this kind of thing?"
Despite her complaints, she still habitually conjured a little bat with electricity, stuffed one of the cables into the little bat's mouth, and bit the other cable herself. She rolled her eyes helplessly. "The door's open. Stay back, be careful of the airflow …"
The others immediately found something protruding from the bulkhead next to them, or simply ran out of the ramp. Hao Ren grabbed the cut steel frame behind Vivian, and his other hand held on to Vivian's arm to prevent the airflow from blowing them away when the door opened (because it was difficult to determine if the airlock chamber was still working). After making sure that everyone was ready, Vivian and her little bat exerted force at the same time, and a string of fine sparks immediately burst out from between her teeth.
Then, on the substrate connected to the other end of the cable, something that looked like a relay bounced. Hao Ren felt a slight vibration coming from his hand, and then the unusually heavy door trembled and opened.
A large number of complex mechanical locks were operating, and the door slowly divided into several thick steel plates and retreated in all directions. As the door opened, there was no airflow from inside. Hao Ren saw a dark space on the other side of the gate. Only a few incomplete lights flickered in the darkness, outlining some strange silhouettes.
Accompanied by a stronger tremor, the gate was stuck when it was only one-fifth open. Vivian squeezed her bat hard and tried to send the signal to open the gate again, but there was no response.
Hao Ren stopped Vivian's attempt to increase the voltage. He carefully approached the door and made sure that it would not close again. He then poked his head in and said, "Hmm, it's wide enough. Let's go in. Be quick, and try not to touch anything."
The group of people entered the dark space through the gap in the gate. Although there were only some incomplete lights behind the gate (and these lights did not look like they were used for lighting), fortunately, the people present had special eyesight, so they could still see. After entering the gate, Hao Ren immediately looked deeper. As expected, about ten meters away, he saw another gate. Worse still, the gate was open.
"There's no airflow." Vivian released a small bat. The bat flapped its wings in the air but could not fly out. "Unless the people in this spaceship don't need to breathe."
"They definitely need to breathe because this is an airlock cabin. Look at the structure of these two gates." Hao Ren pointed at the gate that seemed to be open due to a mechanical problem. "The airlock cabin has failed. When we opened the outermost door, there was no airflow. I'm worried that this place has completely lost pressure. I'm afraid there's a bigger leak somewhere else."
As he spoke, he took the lead and floated forward. Of course, he knew that the situation might not be as bad as he thought. This was a giant spaceship more than a hundred kilometers long. It was almost a mini artificial planet. It could not have relied on this airlock cabin to communicate with the outside world. Perhaps they just happened to come in through one of the airlock cabins that had failed. They would probably encounter other sealing facilities ahead. If they encountered those facilities, there might be survivors on this spaceship.
However, as they went deeper into the spaceship, the situation began to look bleak.
They moved forward in the huge, old steel passageway. Along the way, they saw ancient equipment and broken things that had seriously exceeded their service life. The internal lighting of the spaceship seemed to have completely failed. Only the occasional flickering emergency lights were left in the darkness. They found some terminal equipment along the way, but since the main system power was down, it was useless even if they used Vivian's external power supply to activate these devices.
"Don't tell me everyone in here is dead?" Nangong Wuyue carefully crawled along some of the huge pipes in the passageway. She used her long tail to curl around protruding objects to ensure that her body was in contact with something at all times. It gave her a great sense of security. "I can't feel any running water. Within a few kilometers, I can only feel ice. Ice without any signs of life."
Hao Ren did not say anything. He just felt the gloomy and depressing atmosphere. He allowed the MDT to share its senses with him so that he could see what was going on in the depths of the steel passageway. However, all he saw was a variety of electronic systems and mechanical devices. It seemed that other than the ship's thrusters that were still running, all the internal equipment of the spaceship was down.
Finally, after passing through many malfunctioning gates and forks, they came to a rather spacious place. It seemed to be a transportation hub. It was shaped like an oval egg. Passages from all directions converged here, forming a place that looked like a waiting hall. The lighting here was slightly better than other places. Perhaps because the backup generator was still running, one-third of the lights in the hall were working normally.
There were many vertical pillars in the center of the hall. At first, Hao Ren thought that they were the supporting parts of the building. But when he walked closer, he found that they were actually elevators. It seemed that they led to the interior of the spaceship.
"They're all broken … or maybe because of a power outage." Nangong Sanba stepped forward and patted the operating panel of the 'elevators'. "But it seems that this is the only way down."
Hao Ren thought for a moment and patted Lily on the head. "Cut this open."
Lily immediately raised her Flamejoy and stepped forward. But before she cut it, she turned her head to make sure. "Are you sure?"
"I've scanned it. There's no sign of life below." Hao Ren pointed to the MDT beside him. "There's no sign of life within at least a few kilometers."
Without a doubt, Lily immediately waved her claws and slashed at the 'elevator pillars'. Sparks flew everywhere. Soon, one of the elevator doors was completely cut down, revealing a dark passage inside. Hao Ren looked down and found that there was a dim shaft below, but he could not see where the elevator car was.
Vivian took out a small bat to explore the way. Considering that there was no air here, the bat could not fly down by itself. So, she took out a slingshot. After a rough aim, she shot her bat avatar down with the slingshot.
A moment later, a wisp of blood floated up from the dark shaft. Vivian reabsorbed the blood back into her body. "It's safe. There's a long elevator shaft below. There are some cracks in the middle of the shaft. We can get out from there."
After checking the Steel Membrane Shield, Hao Ren took the lead and entered the shaft.
He continued to go down the shaft, and there was only a dim light from the lamp beside him. But after a while, he saw a brighter light coming from below. This light shocked him, and he immediately sped up to get closer.
Just as Vivian said, there were a few cracks next to the elevator shaft. These cracks seemed to be caused by the distortion of the surrounding steel brackets. Some light shone through the cracks. It seemed to be a brighter place outside.
Hao Ren gestured to his companions behind him, signaling them to be alert. Then, he was the first to go through the crack that was wide enough for an adult to pass through.
He could not help but be stunned by the scene outside.
He saw a city.
A quiet city in the dim light.
"Mr. Landlord, Mr. Landlord, what do you see? What do you see?" Lily's voice came from the communicator. Hao Ren felt a furry head bumping into him from behind. Lily clumsily crawled out of the crack in the elevator shaft. Then, the husky maiden and Hao Ren were stunned on the spot.
"Wow! It's a space fortress! "
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