Just as Hao Ren was beginning to seriously consider whether the arks had lost all signs of life, an unexpected good news came: a set of probes had detected signs of life in one of the arks, and it was a very strong sign of life.
The Petrachelys immediately fired up its thrusters and glided silently through space. Soon, it reached the ark that had sent out the signs of life. The silver-white spacecraft slowly descended from the ark's black shell, like a delicate stethoscope, reading the information coming from the depths of the ark.
"This is the ark?" Hao Ren looked at the images from the external monitors. The ark looked no different from the other ships. It looked old and broken, and the armor was in a worse state. It was hard to imagine that the last survivors of the refugees were hiding under the several kilometers thick shell.
"There are signs of life. The probes have detected it. The engineering droids are building a temporary airlock for you to enter and exit." Nolan nodded. "The probes did not find the normal way to open the door. They had to drill a hole to get in. The leak has been automatically plugged."
"The automatic plugging system is still working. Looks like there are survivors." Hao Ren exhaled. "What about communication? Did anyone on the ark respond to your call? Is anyone willing to respond to our calls? "
Nolan shook her head gently. "Still no response. That's the strangest thing. Also, the probes have sent back some strange images. "
As she spoke, she turned on the holographic projection. Hao Ren saw a dilapidated city illuminated by lights. Everything looked old and decayed. The city inside the ark looked like some kind of ruins stretching out before his eyes. The image then shook, and a man in ragged clothes with strange lines on his face appeared in the corner of the image. He was obviously an ark resident. The ragged man staggered out and knelt down on the street, as if he was bowing to someone great. He then remained in that position and did not move.
The video clip that came out of nowhere confused Hao Ren. He looked at the others and decided to check it out for himself.
He still brought along Vivian, Lily, and the Nangong siblings, while the rest of them remained on the Petrachelys.
The engineering droids that had cut open the ark's outer shell and burrowed into its depths had already prepared a passageway. As usual, Hao Ren and his team entered through the airlock on the surface, and after passing through a long corridor, they met up with the droids. This time, they did not intend to enter the city through the broken elevator shaft because the ecosystem of the spaceship was intact. Opening the door from the outside might trigger some kind of alarm or an automatic stress response. Instead, the drone drilled a slender hole in the outer shell of the city and installed an airlock at the entrance. The drone worked quickly. At least it didn't trigger the alarm while it was working.
The infiltration process was very smooth.
Hao Ren and the rest walked into the airlock and passed through a passage that was a few hundred meters long. The outer wall of the passage was still a little hot. The heat from the drone's cutting had yet to dissipate. When they were halfway through the passage, gravity appeared. The gravity wanted to throw them out of the passage, but it was a good sign because it meant that the city was operating normally.
They crawled out of a dirty, deserted, and abandoned neighborhood.
Hao Ren was the first to emerge from the "invasion hole". As soon as he entered the city, he felt a damp, cold, and strange smell filling his nostrils. He could smell it in the passage, but it was more obvious on the surface. He frowned. It was good to finally find a city with an atmosphere, but the condition of the air circulation pump must not be good enough.
"Ahem …" Lily coughed softly after she emerged. She frowned and her tail was taut behind her. "It feels like we've entered a junkyard."
"The air purification machine on the ark is probably too old." Nangong Sanba climbed to the surface and exhaled. "It's better than no air at all. Speaking of which, this place looks … Why do I feel like it's not as good as those abandoned sanctuary cities? "
The surrounding buildings were in a terrible state. Although the probes had sent back some images, it was not as vivid as being there. Around them, all they could see were dilapidated city buildings. The outer walls of the buildings were mottled and peeling. The facilities on the roadside were covered in rust and dirt. The flower beds had long lost their original appearance and turned into dirty puddles of mud. In the distance, they could see collapsed bridges and power towers. Some scattered, dim lights were the biggest source of light in the ruined city. These lighting devices that had been in operation for who knew how many years were hung haphazardly on the power lines and the roofs of the buildings. The poor lighting cast many strange mottled shadows in all directions.
It looked like a world war had happened, and then it was abandoned for a full three hundred years.
Lily wagged her tail. "Did we just happen to be in the demolition zone?"
"No …" Hao Ren looked around and pointed above their heads. "The whole city is in this state."
Everyone looked in the direction of his finger and saw that on the other side of the city, the land was also a dilapidated gray. The other side of the city was just like here, it had been abandoned for many years.
"… It looks terrible. I can't believe this is the interior of a spaceship that can travel at superluminal speed," the MDT commented. "After the other spaceships have stopped working, I'm afraid the people on this spaceship will have a hard time finding materials to repair their sanctuary."
A small silver-white device emerged from the nearby ruins and landed lightly on Hao Ren's shoulder. It was the life detector that had burrowed in to check on the situation. The little guy had been hiding here after completing its mission to prevent accidents. Now, it was requesting to be recalled.
Hao Ren put the detector in his pocket and turned to remind Lily. "Keep your ears and tail. We have to deal with 'people'."
Lily howled and changed her ears and tail back. She was a little curious. "Do you think we can blend in with the locals after I turn into a human?"
"I'm not going to blend in. I'm just worried that you'll scare them," Hao Ren waved his hand and walked forward. "They have rejected all of Nolan's communication requests. It's hard for me to analyze how the residents of this spaceship view outsiders, so I don't want to get off to a bad start."
The group of people walked out of the deserted and dilapidated street and walked deeper into the city: another even more deserted and dilapidated place. Along the way, Hao Ren was thinking about how to greet the first person he met. After Nolan refused to listen to his formal communications, Hao Ren had no choice but to become a diplomat himself. Unfortunately, he was not a skilled diplomat, so he began to think of various opening remarks in his mind, and whether he should go directly to the central control station of the ship to meet the commander of the city. But his thoughts only lasted for a short while before he was suddenly interrupted by a faint sound in front of him.
It sounded like people were fighting and shouting, and there was also the crisp sound of metal clashing in the middle.
Vivian also touched his arm. "There's the smell of blood in front, fresh."
Hao Ren immediately quickened his pace. "Let's go check it out!"
They sprinted quickly in the shadows of the surrounding buildings, quickly crossing some dilapidated streets and collapsed ancient houses. The battle cries coming from ahead finally became clearer and louder, and the mixed sounds of metal clashing in the middle resembled an ancient cold weapon battlefield. Finally, Lily, who was running in front, stopped abruptly beside a low wall. She quickly found a place to squat and peeked out. "Mr. Landlord … there's a battle!"
Hao Ren peeked out from beside Lily's head, and the scene in front of him shocked him. He even felt a sense of absurdity, as though time and space had gone haywire.
Dozens of fully-armored people were fighting in the square in front of them. These people were probably the residents of the ark, but the equipment they were wearing was absurd and strange. Their bodies were covered in armor made of iron plates and reinforced plastic steel, and colorful cloth strips were fluttering in the air between the gaps of the armor. These warriors were waving shining longswords and battleaxes in their hands, letting out deafening roars as they charged and fought against each other. The blood of the wounded dyed the ground of the square red. The smell of blood in the air made Vivian's eyes glow slightly red in the dark. "This is like a medieval battlefield."
"How did this happen …" Hao Ren muttered in shock. The images from the probe did not have such details. But before he could think further, he suddenly saw a young warrior with blood all over his face rushing out of the fighting crowd. The warrior's steps were staggering, and his eyes were filled with fear. He seemed to be running away from the battlefield, and the direction he was running towards was where Hao Ren and the rest were hiding.
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