Chapter 483: Chapter 321: The Ultimate Secret (Part 2)
He glanced at the abandoned mine in front of Su Mo, his tone becoming cautious as he whispered a reminder: "Buddy, you can open treasure chests outside, but you’d better not go in there."
Su Mo: "Oh? Why do you say that?"
The scavenger spoke mysteriously: "Don’t you know? This is the gateway to hell!"
"This happened long ago. I heard from people of my grandfather’s generation that the City Council’s industrial department conducted scientific drilling operations here, drilling down over ten thousand meters, and eventually into a suspected underground hell."
"I heard that at the time they heard human screams from below, and the entire drilling team was terrified. The authorities immediately stopped drilling and sealed the well, and no one has come here since."
Su Mo couldn’t help but laugh upon hearing this.
What the scavenger said wasn’t entirely false. It happened about seventy years ago when the authorities of New Moon City did indeed initiate an unprecedented drilling project, planning to venture towards the Earth’s core.
At that time, human civilization had been rebuilding for over eighty years, thriving with technology obtained from exploring Ancient Era Ruins, advancing in technological leaps day by day.
The aim of the drilling project was based on speculation that deeper underground might conceal more secrets of the Ancient Era, tempting explorers to unveil the mysteries.
The scavenger wasn’t wrong. New Moon City authorities truly drilled over ten thousand meters from this mine, setting a record for drilling depth in the Human Realm.
Later, they did stop drilling and seal the well, terminating the project.
Of course, it wasn’t because they dug into a hellish space; that tale was purely concocted by some for attention, turning it into an eye-catching urban legend.
The real reason was that New Moon City’s authorities deemed the project unprofitable.
The deeper they drilled, the harder the geological layers became, raising drilling costs; every additional meter required significant funding.
What’s more, the project yielded no returns, even after drilling over ten thousand meters, where they found no so-called "Ancient Era Ruins buried deep under the earth."
Therefore, due to economic efficiency considerations, the project was suspended, leaving behind only the fabricated ghost stories for future generations.
But here lies the most ironic part of this story.
Did New Moon City authorities dig up the mythical ruins?
No.
Are there indeed ruins underground?
Yes.
Why didn’t the authorities find them?
Because they didn’t dig deep enough.
While Su Mo and the scavenger were chatting, a massive influx of signals suddenly emerged from his mechanical wristband, resembling an electronic ocean.
His pupils slightly dilate, and he mutters to himself: "Found it..."
...
The apocalyptic war that destroyed human civilization 153 years ago remains a mystery to those who came after.
The initial survivors of that war have long since passed away over the course of more than a century.
And according to the archives left, no one could clearly articulate the origins of that apocalyptic war.
Based on the descriptions of those early survivors, the event had no forewarning; alarms suddenly sounded everywhere one day, and under military command, everyone hid in underground shelters, losing all communication with the outside world, ignorant of what had happened.
During a prolonged period afterwards, as supplies gradually ran out, various humanitarian disasters occurred intermittently in the shelters, including hunger, disease, and violence.
And when the shelter doors were reopened, those who had endured the tragedies returned to the surface, only to find the world had transformed drastically.
Endless smoke lingered in the atmosphere, blocking sunlight, the surface shrouded in severe cold, once-prosperous cities reduced to ruins, filled with remnants of warfare and shattered bodies, buried under a vast blanket of ice and snow.
There wasn’t a single living soul left on the surface; they, emerging from the shelters, were the last survivors.
This is the story of the Dawn Year.
As civilization was rebuilt, various technologies unearthed from the Ancient Era Ruins revealed that the technology of the former human era was more advanced than that of today.
Blood Codes, prosthetics, Spiritual Brain, and various high-tech products... Today’s most cutting-edge technologies all originated from Ancient Era technology.
Hence, the people of today cannot comprehend, with such powerful forces, what kind of war could have annihilated humanity?
Currently, there’s a discipline in universities called "Apocalyptic Archeology," dedicated to studying the origins and process of the apocalypse.
Based on various analyses of Ancient Era Ruins, the prevailing theory suggests the Ancient Era was a multipolar world, with superpowers similar to today’s Hegemony Company, Iron Blood Alliance, and Black Domain Group.
Due to unbalanced interest distribution, the conflicts among these giants intensified, eventually leading to an unprecedented war for global dominance, resulting in a downfall caused by various devastating weapons.
The first half of this theory is accurate; the world structure indeed mirrored this.
But the latter part, concerning the reason for civilization’s destruction, holds deeper secrets.
And one corner of this dark secret is buried deep underground, more than a hundred thousand meters beneath New Moon City.
...
Su Mo looked at the data transmitted back from the mechanical wristband and murmured to himself: "Location pinpointed, time to start arranging..."
The scavenger curiously asked: "Buddy, what are you talking about?"
Su Mo suddenly asked: "Have you ever been to the Inner City?"
The scavenger nodded: "I’ve sneaked in through the sewers a few times before; once I got caught by the Sheriff and almost got a grade of New Moon Iaido, why?"
Su Mo put away the mechanical wristband, leaving without turning his head, dropping only one sentence: "In the next few days, find a way to get to the Inner City; something big is going to happen at the Edge, lots of people might die."
The scavenger casually laughed: "According to you, people die every day at the Edge, already used to it."
Su Mo didn’t say much more, shaking his head as he left.
After returning to Edge Mansion, Su Mo immediately found KK: "KK, organize the logistics team personnel and stock up on supplies."
KK hesitated for a moment, saying: "I checked the supplies a few days ago, the warehouse is full and there’s enough for everyone to consume for over a month."
Su Mo: "It’s not enough. Activate all backup warehouses, fill them with supplies, focusing on various medicines and food, don’t buy snacks, get more compressed biscuits, instant noodles, canned meat, and other high-calorie foods."
These all sounded like wartime emergency provisions, which inevitably made KK nervous: "Big brother, is something happening?"
Su Mo shook his head: "I’ll explain later, just get to work, fill the warehouse to the brim."
"Alright, I’ll take care of it." KK didn’t ask much, quickly leaving to organize logistics personnel.
Su Mo went to the lab and found Future, straightaway saying: "Future, I need an Earth Navigation Spaceship."
Future queried in confusion: "Earth Navigation Spaceship? You mean the type that can shuttle between geological layers?"
Su Mo: "Exactly."
Future: "What do you need one of those for? To search for Ancient Era Ruins in the Land of No Master? Currently known ruins are located at surface-level depths, at most just over two thousand meters, there’s no need for an Earth Navigation Spaceship of that caliber."
Su Mo: "But this time I need to go to a location over a hundred thousand meters underground."
Future’s expression grew even more puzzled: "Underground over a hundred thousand meters... that’s mantle layer territory, temperatures in the thousands of degrees, and it’s all silicate rock formed under high pressure; I don’t think any ruins could exist there."
Su Mo: "Leave that worry to me, you just focus on making the thing."
Future rubbed her chin contemplating for a moment: "Earth navigation technology hasn’t been widely adopted presently, major corporations don’t prioritize it; available Earth Navigation Spaceships are merely toys that can only shuttle shallow geological layers."
"For you to dive over a hundred thousand meters underground, it would mean buying a prototype and modifying it... this might take over a month."
Su Mo: "That’s fine, pause all your other work and focus on this Earth Navigation Spaceship, it’s vital, more important than anything before, no mistakes allowed."
Future: "Don’t worry, when have I ever faltered in technique?"
After saying this, she went to transfer her duties and immediately began planning the Earth Navigation Spaceship scheme for Su Mo.
Su Mo gazed over at the machine room location on the other side of the lab.
Next is the key to everything—Qi Ling’s ongoing research on the Black Extinction Virus.
