Free Web NovelChapter 126: Chapter 126: Mega-Structure
’It’s really light!’
After running forward for a bit more, Shen Feng took out the full-color night-vision goggles from his backpack.
In the darkness of the past few days, there had been almost no light at all, so even the night-vision goggles had been useless.
But now, the goggles immediately began working as they should, making his surroundings much clearer.
The faint glimmer of light up ahead also became sharper.
Shen Feng took a deep breath, drank the last of the water in his canteen, and shifted his body back into combat form. Holding his automatic rifle, he started to charge forward like a beast about to hunt.
As he continued forward, the air grew increasingly humid, and the whistling sound, like bagpipes, grew louder and louder until it was almost deafening.
About ten minutes later, an exit shimmering with faint light appeared before him. Shen Feng accelerated again, bursting out like a leopard.
The moment he landed, he was already rolling, switching on his tactical flashlight and sweeping his rifle’s muzzle in a full circle.
No one.
What appeared before him was not the open space with blue skies and white clouds he had expected, nor was it a night sky filled with stars.
As far as the eye could see, the surrounding area was a vast space resembling a factory floor, filled with pipes and structural components. This "factory" was several hundred meters long and wide, and astonishingly, several hundred meters tall as well. The colossal structure exerted an intense, oppressive feeling.
Above, below, and on all sides of this "factory," he could vaguely make out similar structures stacked together, layered upon each other and extending endlessly upward and outward, with no end in sight.
Shen Feng turned and looked back at the "building" he had just exited.
Behind him was a doorway-sized exit leading to the "Endless Corridor" of countless rooms he had just traversed.
And above, below, and on all sides of this exit were countless identical doorways, each one leading to its own "Endless Corridor."
The massive structure behind him stood like a gargantuan beehive.
When the wind blew through those densely packed entrances, it sounded like a billion bagpipes playing at once, creating a roaring hum.
He was currently in a small connecting zone between two types of architectural forms, like a crack between them.
Looking up, at the very top of the unfathomably large super-structure, there was a faint strip of light like a white thread.
But there was no way of knowing just how high up it was.
’A hundred thousand meters?’
’A hundred kilometers?’
’A thousand kilometers?’
Before this super-structure, which looked like a set of a Devil’s building blocks, Shen Feng felt himself shrink, becoming incredibly small.
Within the factory-like structure before him were all sorts of haphazard metal constructions.
Small pyramids, office cubicles, low-ceilinged rooms, bridges, and even mosaic-like temple-shaped structures... and so on. Some of these various metal constructs were crowded and stacked together, while others were sparse, as if they were the work of a mad Architect.
The only reason Shen Feng could see their shapes was because, in some places, scattered light fixtures were still emitting a soft glow.
Looking out, everything before him resembled a giant installation art piece expressing themes of chaos and emptiness.
Shen Feng couldn’t help but frown.
He had researched quite a bit about the nature of the Gray Tide apocalypse and had even run simulations based on *Nanomechanical Principles*.
After going out of control, Nanomechanical Insects generally exhibited a few behaviors.
One is that they develop their own independent intelligence through a hive mind similar to an ant colony, and then begin to rethink and alter the sovereignty of the entire world. Humanity, which proclaims itself master of the Earth, would inevitably be the first target for cleansing.
This form of Gray Tide apocalypse is essentially the same as the slaughter of humanity by a runaway AI, much like what Poseidon did in the nuclear wasteland apocalypse.
But because the enemy possesses intelligence, communication is still possible, which means human civilization might still have a glimmer of hope.
The second type is even more terrifying.
The Nanomechanical Cluster goes out of control but continues to follow a single directive, ceaselessly transforming the environment until it completely runs out of raw materials. ƒrēewebnovel.com
For example, if their base directive is to consume raw materials to build houses, then once they lose control, these Nanomechanical Clusters might continuously devour everything around them—metal, organic matter, plastic, trees, humans, and so on—breaking them down into molecular-level raw materials to build houses without end.
This possibility is far more terrifying than the first.
’Because they have no thoughts or feelings of their own; they only want to turn everything into the product of their directive. They can’t be negotiated with, and they can’t be shut down!’
’It seems the Gray Tide apocalypse I’m in is the second type...’
Shen Feng looked down at his feet. There was only solid metal ground. Looking up and around, he saw endless gray metal.
No, he now realized, this stuff wasn’t just metal, but an alloy of metal combined with other substances. It likely contained a lot of organic matter as well.
’To put it simply, it might even contain disassembled humans...’
’I even suspect the entire surface of the Earth has been disassembled and transformed into this chaotic super-structure...’
’Did any humans survive?’
’Or has everything become a dead, chaotic construct?’
Behind him, the wind blowing through the honeycomb-like Endless Corridor produced a mournful hum, as if singing a dirge for a bygone era.
’Wait...’
Shen Feng’s ears twitched slightly.
’It sounds like there’s water...’
He immediately followed the sound, breaking into a run.
The place where he was, a junction between two sections of the structure, had some faint light filtering down from above, as well as a few scattered lights that were still on. With his night-vision goggles, he could see his surroundings clearly enough.
Shen Feng ran for about five minutes, rounded a huge corner, and found himself in another "factory" of metal constructs hundreds of meters high.
There, a waterfall cascaded down a smooth metal wall from the top of the metal "factory," forming a rushing torrent two to three meters wide.
There was no telling how long the waterfall had been there, but it had carved a wide, shallow pit into the metal "ground." The water constantly overflowed, then drained away through several pipes and holes, disappearing from sight.
Shen Feng’s eyes widened. He first scanned his surroundings, confirming there were no living creatures or unusual movements. After telling Jingwei to remain on alert, he went forward and scooped up a handful of water to examine it.
Clear and cool.
He licked a little with his tongue. It was fairly sweet and tasted like distilled water.
’This seems to be condensation flowing down from somewhere on an upper level!’
Shen Feng didn’t hesitate. He immediately took out his canteen and bottles and filled them all.
Then, he placed several EMP bombs and various weapons within easy reach, dropped his backpack, stripped off his clothes, and leaped into the pit of water, which was about five or six meters across and one or two meters deep.
A refreshing coolness instantly spread through his body. Shen Feng couldn’t help but sigh in comfort, leaning against the metal wall of the pit and closing his eyes.
He had spent a full week in the Endless Corridor with no place to wash or change clothes. Combined with the stuffy confinement, he had felt like he was going to lose his mind.
It was as if he was only now rediscovering the feeling of being alive.
"Shen Feng, there’s a humanoid object at your two o’clock. Take a look," Jingwei’s voice sounded.
Shen Feng’s eyes snapped open. He lunged to the edge of the pit, grabbed his automatic rifle, and looked to his front right.
There, at the base of a hundred-meter-tall metal wall ahead, a human figure was leaning.
On the metal wall behind the figure were two Arabic numerals, each a hundred meters tall.
33.
Below them was a massive company logo in five languages: English, Chinese, French, Russian, and Japanese:
Azure Sky Technology
~
