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Chapter 343: Chapter 343: Seeking Clues in the Deserted City

The journey to the future went quite smoothly. They went up to the second floor, entered Lin Qing’s room, and through the back door, the group was already standing inside a dilapidated apartment building.

The sky outside was still a dim yellow, with strong winds carrying sand and dust howling incessantly between buildings, as if it would never stop.

Chen Xuan first used the Heart Method to scan the surroundings and then cautiously pushed open the door. The hallway was empty, but the crack left by the last collision with the giant quadrupedal creature was a stark reminder. On the bright side, there was more light now, as the corridor was no longer dark. On the downside, the entire building was cut in half, seriously compromising its structure, so it wouldn’t be surprising if it suddenly collapsed one day.

This was definitely a bad situation.

Lin Qing’s house was the only way to connect to the future. If the building fell, the entrance would no longer exist.

"We... really made it to the future?" Wang Baihu gazed through the steel-studded cracks at this sandy city, still finding it hard to believe.

The other three shared the same thought.

Time travel was simply stepping through a door and arriving a hundred years later. Such an unbelievably simple method made it hard for people to immerse themselves instantly.

At least there should be some dizzying side effects or some impressive magical light effects!

Chen Xuan could only feign agreement, "I was more shocked than you the first time, but this is the power of Shixin, which cannot be measured by common sense."

"Incredible..." Jiang Siqi exclaimed as she filmed everything with her phone, "No wonder the Mechanism regards you as enemies. Colleagues understand each other the best."

"Sister Siqi, don’t post this online," Little Pigeon reminded.

"Ah... I won’t, it’s just a habit to want to keep a souvenir."

"Is this Jiang City?" Honglian asked.

"I don’t know," Chen Xuan replied truthfully, "My understanding of this place is limited to this floor."

"If the future really looks like this, hasn’t the Dimensional Limit Mechanism achieved nothing?" Wang Baihu muttered softly, "I even doubt whether they still exist."

"That’s something we need to verify. If the Mechanism exists, we’ll gather their intelligence; if it has disappeared, we’ll find out why it vanished."

"Shall we start with this building?"

"No, let’s go downstairs first." Chen Xuan thought it through clearly—if a giant creature were to come again, it would be the end. So even if distancing from the exit might be risky, it’s a risk they had to take.

After Honglian set up a marker that could be exchanged for abilities, everyone began to search separately for a way downstairs.

Soon, Liuli found an elevator shaft in the broken building.

The elevator was inoperative, but the cables holding the elevator could serve as a rapid descent rope. None of them were ordinary people; sliding down several floors by hand was easy. Though Little Pigeon couldn’t slide, it was no problem as Chen Xuan summoned three Qi Swords to form a small platform, which could hold it and descend slowly along with the cables.

"Ah!" Honglian recognized the move, "You used it to cut me in a medieval dungeon!"

"Hey..." Chen Xuan coughed awkwardly, "Misunderstanding, all a misunderstanding. Shixin hadn’t discovered you yet back then."

"So it was you who fought with Sister Honglian!" Wang Baihu showed a look of sudden realization, "Not many people could make her suffer... I wondered how a Wanderer of such strength suddenly appeared in Jiang City."

"Really?" Little Pigeon got interested too.

"Really, it was one of the rare missions where we were allowed to enter an intrusion point, proof that the doctor valued it highly, and it ended up being messed up by Sister Honglian."

"You should say less!" Honglian muttered sullenly.

"Dr. Jiang valued it?" Chen Xuan raised an eyebrow, "Why?"

"Because it showed a world close to the historical narrative... Apparently, they intended to use this intrusion point to verify the historical disturbance problem," Wang Baihu recalled, "But judging from the subsequent events, the changes over there seemed to have no effect on us."

"I see." Chen Xuan understood instantly. Back then, the Mechanical Officers did not know that historical fluctuations wouldn’t cross world boundaries. Honglian would rather play the witch to frame Joan, actually fearing he would make history unrecognizable, "Have your studies brought clarity now?"

"I don’t know to what extent they’ve been researched, but since then, we’ve indeed relaxed our control over intrusion points quite a bit. For example, the botanical garden erosion space, which the Mechanism has cooperated with the government to develop."

"Helping Joan... was it Shixin’s directive?" Honglian hesitated to ask.

"Sort of." Chen Xuan nodded.

That’s the advantage of "Shixin"—any inexplicable issue can be attributed to Shixin.

"If you have the chance to meet Joan again, please tell her I’m sorry..." she whispered, "I almost... ended up hurting her."

Chen Xuan hesitated slightly, then smiled, "Don’t worry, she won’t blame you."

"Really?"

"Yes, she..." The image of the blonde girl flashed in his mind, "She’s not a petty person."

Once they all landed on the first floor, they quickly found the entrance hall of the apartment following the corridor.

Similarly, the door’s back was piled with various obstacles.

Chen Xuan swept away these obstructions with a sword, cutting through the chains wrapped around the door and pushing it open.

The sand-laden wind outside instantly blew in.

"Odd..." Wang Baihu put on a mask, "Such a severe sandstorm should cover the ground with fine sand. But look... outside, you can only say the dust is thick, yet there’s not much sand."

"Is the air toxic?" Little Pigeon asked worriedly.

"Unlikely," Liuli answered, "The building isn’t sealed. If the air was toxic, we would have been affected the last time we came."

"How are you planning to find people?" Honglian looked at Chen Xuan.

"First, choose a direction, then everyone searches together along the streets, focusing on malls, underground garages, and subways—places where people might hide, while determining the city’s specific coordinates." He outlined his plan, "Additionally, we need to find water and food supply points and plot them on a map. Otherwise, the food we brought will quickly run out."

After thinking it over for a moment, she nodded, "That sounds fine."

If there were still people surviving in this city, they would most likely be hiding. Underground large spaces would be suitable for concealing oneself. Moreover, a modern city takes a long time to transition from paralysis to abandonment. Large supermarkets and storage warehouses could hold a lot of survival supplies and serve as exploration supply points. Of course, such places could also be likely hiding spots for nano-living bodies, representing opportunities coupled with risks.

"Let’s start searching north first," Chen Xuan suggested.

This was purely a gamble.

Perhaps they should invite a witch from the assembly to perform a divination, he thought, as the Divination Technique seemed largely based on luck, though who could say for sure when it comes to abilities?

The houses on both sides of the road were mostly shops, and their condition wasn’t much better than the apartment building. Doors, windows, and display cabinets were mostly ruined, with empty shelves inside. Chairs and tables were toppled, almost none intact. This indicated that the city didn’t fall into desolation overnight. It must have experienced a prolonged period of chaos before its downfall.

"It’s so tragic..." Little Pigeon looked worried, "The locals must have been terrified by this catastrophe."

"The nanobug disaster was caused by the Mechanism, right?" Honglian’s expression grew grave.

Before setting off, Chen Xuan had already explained that they needed to be highly cautious of large mechanical objects since they might be disguised nano-living bodies. As Honglian mentioned it, he didn’t mind elaborating further, "Yes, nanobugs can continuously repair the neural damage caused by implants, which are crucial products used by the Mechanism for sealing abilities. The uncontrolled mass and indiscriminate use of these by the Mechanism eventually led to their loss of control, a typical manifestation being the nano-living body—a type of machine exhibiting life characteristics. It could look like a drum washing machine or a giant metal beast."

"Do they already have this technology mastered now?" Jiang Siqi asked curiously.

"I don’t know," Chen Xuan shook his head, "Considering the timeline, nanobugs should still be in the experimental stage. Fortunately, there’s nearly twenty years between it hitting the market and becoming rampant, leaving us with plenty of time to stop it."

"You mentioned earlier that a specific scale must be reached for nanobugs to transform into nano-living bodies. How large is this scale?" Wang Baihu asked suddenly.

"There’s no clear standard, but according to Lin Qing... at least the size of a person?"

"Are you sure?" His tone was somewhat urgent.

"What’s wrong?" Chen Xuan frowned and turned around to see him staring at an old display window, stepping back slowly as if he had seen a ghost.

Following Wang Baihu’s gaze, he saw several dusty mannequins standing inside the window.

"Just now... a mannequin winked at me," Wang Baihu said with stiff lips, "Mannequins... shouldn’t be considered machines, right?"