The frozen banquet hall, the well-dressed men and women who had turned into ice sculptures, the banquet was halfway through, and the band was interrupted in the middle of the performance — it was all so weird that it gave people goosebumps. Hao Ren was stunned for a few seconds. "It seems like they died suddenly in the middle of the party."
Nangong Sanba stepped forward to check the clues left behind at the scene. Although the people here might have been dead for hundreds or thousands of years, because of the vacuum and the ultra-low temperature, everything in the banquet hall was perfectly preserved, including the food in the cups and plates, which were well preserved by the frost. Most of the items were frozen to the table or the floor, and some of the debris that had fallen off the ice floated in the air in the weightless environment. Thin particles that looked like mist floated in the hall. They were broken ice shards and pieces of human skin.
In fact, the same things were floating in the air outside, but in here, the floating objects were particularly dense.
"Fancy dress, banquet, I can't believe they died under such circumstances." Nangong Sanba carefully separated a body that had turned into an ice sculpture from the thin ice on the table. "… Sure enough, they inhaled the same chemical before they died."
Nangong Wuyue could not help but gulp. "Did the whole city die from the poisonous gas?"
"Is there anything else suspicious besides the poisonous gas? Is there a problem with the food? "Hao Ren asked casually.
"There should be no problem with the food, at least according to my standards, it is not poisonous. Based on the situation at the scene, the problem has nothing to do with the food." Nangong Sanba shook his head. "Also, according to the demon hunter's perception, there is no dark, cold, negative energy here, which means these people did not suffer too much before they died."
Hao Ren nodded and bent down to carefully examine the few bodies closest to him. His attention quickly fell on one of the male corpses: the deceased looked very old. He was wearing a solemn black suit, which was only worn for a high-class banquet. The suit was luxurious even compared to the beautiful clothes of the people around him. Obviously, the man was a nobleman when he was alive. But Hao Ren's attention was not on the suit, but the man's clasped hands, which seemed to be hiding something. Hao Ren wanted to carefully remove the relic from the dead man's hand, but as soon as he exerted force, the dead man's frozen fingers turned into dust crystals in the vacuum.
Hao Ren muttered an apology in his heart and took out a piece of cloth that looked like a handkerchief from under the man's broken palm.
He unfolded the handkerchief and found that there was indeed handwriting on it. Moreover, the handwriting was very neat. It was obvious that the person who left these last words had plenty of time at that time. With the help of the translation plug-in, these characters were quickly reorganized and parsed. The content was like this:
"… Roman, my proudest son, the glorious heir of the Emerald Valley family, I hope that you are safe on Eternal Night, and that you can still proudly lead and protect your people. Your mother and I are attending a special banquet, and I'm sure you can guess what it's about. But do not fear for us; it was a delightful affair, satisfactory in both food and drink. The wine from my hometown is the perfect farewell for us. Nowadays, few people have tasted this kind of beverage brewed by plants instead of factory synthesis. I'm glad that I can taste it again in this life. Your mother is sitting next to me, and your Uncle Leon is playing the famous song of Master Oronlocke on the stage. I believe that many, many years ago, our ancestors also had dinner together under such circumstances and prayed for our people …
"Roman, my son, I have a lot to tell you, including about the things I have been thinking about after our last quarrel. But these are not important now. I heard two hollow echoes coming from the sky above the city. I think the two most important devices should have been shut down. Now it is time to enjoy the food, wine, and music. Please allow your father to stop here and leave the time to us old people.
"Oh, it smells a bit like blue chrysanthemum."
The message on the handkerchief ended here. Vivian came over and took a look. "What is this?"
"It looks like a suicide note?" Hao Ren frowned. "An old man wrote it to his son. It looks like the people here knew what was going to happen. "
The clues that followed proved Hao Ren's guess. Nangong Sanba and Nangong Wuyue found other things with written last words on the other corpses. These words on handkerchiefs and napkins clearly proved that what happened in the city was not an accident or something unexpected.
Instead, it was a well-prepared mass suicide.
Hao Ren and the rest left the strange banquet hall and came to the streets of the city. They began to walk along the main road that led to the end of the spherical space. At the end of the main road was the strange cylindrical machine that had stopped working. Hao Ren felt that it should be the control center of the spaceship, or at least a place of equal importance. He should be able to find some clues there.
Along the way, they found countless bodies that had turned into ice sculptures. None of the residents of the city had survived. They and the city had become part of the ruins in the cold vacuum. After Nangong Sanba's examination, they all died of the same cause of death: nerve gas inhalation.
The attentive Vivian also found some additional clues. She found that most of the bodies were wearing brand new clothes. The frozen corpses were all dressed neatly, with bright shoes and hats. They had a calm and elegant expression on their faces as if they were attending a grand banquet. Although not everyone could enjoy a sumptuous meal and music in the big, gorgeous house, these residents still took out their best clothes and food before they died. It was obvious that they wanted to spend the last time luxuriously.
"It's like euthanasia after a carnival." Lily rubbed her arms. "They ate and drank to their heart's content, then filled the entire city with poisonous gas, and died in their sleep."
Hao Ren was attracted by Lily's description. His eyes passed through the thin dust over the shimmering city and fell on the inverted buildings at the other end of the closed land. He imagined the scene of this place ushering in the last moment of this place: when the system was in emergency, the city's atmospheric system was blown into the deadly nerve gas. When the sweet, euphoric hallucinogenic gas filled the streets, people put on their best clothes and walked on the streets to enjoy the last joy of their lives. Some were having a sumptuous meal, some were drinking wine, some were saying goodbye to their lovers, and there were also some who were …
He passed by an empty street and saw an old man sitting next to a flower bed. The old man wore a tall hat on his head, and his body was covered in a layer of frost. The flowerbed behind him was still flourishing, and the plants were frozen before they could wither. Now, they had become a sparkling and translucent cluster of crystal flowers. The old man had a smile on his face. He was holding a fake flower folded with a handkerchief in his hand, as if he was going to hand it to a child who was long gone.
Some people were bringing the last bit of warmth to this dying city.
"Everyone's time of death is the same, and the cause of death is the same," the MDT said. It had just checked the age of several bodies. "It happened about a thousand years ago. It's easy to reconstruct the situation at that time: nerve gas was blown into the atmospheric system of the Starship Ark, killing everyone inside in a short time, and these dead people were fully aware of it. This is probably the common wish of all the citizens, and they were feasting before they died. "
Nangong Wuyue's voice was low. "Why did they do this?"
Hao Ren said the most obvious possibility. "Probably there was a fatal problem with the spacecraft that could not be repaired, such as air leakage or a problem with the purification system, or the resources were depleted. To avoid suffering, they decided to euthanize."
"But there is more than one spacecraft in this fleet," Vivian reminded. "Did the other ships encounter the same problem at the same time?"
Hao Ren did not know how to answer, but he noticed that the cylindrical metal mountain-like giant machine was right in front of him. "There should be some clues over there."
The group stopped at the foot of the giant machine. They found that the size of the thing was bigger than they had imagined. It could really be described as a towering mountain. Looking at the machine, Lily's tail curled into a question mark in the air. "It looks like a giant reactor, but it seems to have shut down?"
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
