Before this, the tallest buildings Shang Jianyao and Long Yuehong had seen were a few "chimneys" in the ruins of the steel factory, and they obviously could not be compared with the high-rise buildings they saw today.
This is not to say that those "chimneys" must be much shorter, but from the visual effect:
Whether it is length or width, these high-rise buildings are obviously better than the "chimneys" of steel mills, so they can be considered "behemoths" in all aspects.
What shocked Shang Jianyao and Long Yuehong the most was that there were more than one or two such behemoths, and there were so many that it was difficult to count them for a while.
They are neatly arranged according to certain patterns, extending to the left, right, and forward, with no end in sight.
At this moment, Shang Jianyao and Long Yuehong seemed to have turned into mice, and when they first came to the human kingdom, they could only observe with an attitude of looking up.
Under the setting sun, thousands of glass shine on the exterior walls of the skyscrapers, either cast from gold or burned by "fire".
Shang Jianyao and Long Yuehong's eyes narrowed slightly to resist the slightly dazzling reflected light.
The jeep's driving speed slowed down rapidly, and Jiang Baimian didn't know if he was also shocked or because he instinctively guarded against an accident.
As the vehicle moved forward, the sun was also setting, and the golden or orange light on the surface of the high-rise buildings gradually faded.
It didn't take long for the buildings that were still dazzling just now fell into darkness and grayness one after another, just like old photos that had faded color.
The tones of the entire city darkened again.
Long Yuehong opened her mouth and wanted to say something, but she couldn't express her feelings in words at all.
In fact, it is not that he has not come into contact with a more magnificent and miraculous building than the current scene - the underground building where the "Pangu Creature" is located is more than two thousand meters high, and if it were changed to the surface, it would have collapsed long ago because the materials could not support it.
But Long Yuehong usually lives in an underground building, and she can't have the opportunity to see the whole from the outside, so naturally she can't feel the majesty of that building.
Therefore, the rows of high-rise buildings in front of him left an indelible impression on him.
"Is this the old world?" Shang Jianyao's voice was inexplicably soft, as if he was asking himself a question.
"Yes. Haven't you seen the corresponding pictures in textbooks?" Jiang Baimian, who was sitting in the driver's seat, replied.
The "comprehensive early warning system" of the military exoskeleton device has a certain hearing impairment and needs the help of the cochlear implant, and she clearly heard what Shang Jianyao was saying.
"The photo and the real scene feel completely different......" Long Yuehong glanced at Qiao Chu's side face and muttered in a low voice.
It wasn't until this time, as his emotional state calmed down and the vehicle approached, that he and Shang Jianyao saw more details.
Some of those high-rise buildings are black, some are dark blue, some are dark yellow, and some are brightly colored, each with a certain difference.
However, the glass curtain walls and ordinary exterior walls on their surfaces are either very dirty, look foggy, have many smudges, or are mottled or even defective.
Some green plants grow from their gaps, tenaciously expanding their territory; Various birds circled in the last afterglow of the setting sun and returned to their nests somewhere on the floor.
On both sides of the road, most of the dense leaves have withered and yellowed, and when the wind blows, they fall like rain.
On the ground, fallen leaves accumulated, and some even showed signs of rot.
Some of the street signs fell to the ground, some hung diagonally at the door, and some were missing several words.
At a glance, Shang Jianyao and Long Yuehong saw the remaining words such as "foot bath", "hairstyle", "supermarket", "stir-fry", "barbecue", "hot pot", "second sister", "pet", "convenience" and so on, but their corresponding stores were either dilapidated or dusty and empty.
Cars parked randomly on the road, seriously obstructing traffic, and their shells and glass surfaces were full of traces of dirt washed by rain and then solidified again......
Everything was so quiet, only the wind was still blowing gently.
The city is long dead.
"It's a bit wrong......" Jiang Baimian looked straight ahead while using the "comprehensive early warning system" of the exoskeleton device to collect various details around him.
Before Bai Chen could ask, Qiao Chu glanced at the distance and the sunset shining between the skyscrapers, and spoke first in a low voice:
"It's almost nightfall.
"Try not to talk until you enter a safe house where there is no problem.
"If you have to say it, you must control the volume."
He immediately suppressed his voice and pointed to the left side:
"Turn into that door."
It was a gate that could accommodate two cars running side by side, with a sentry in the middle that separated it equally, and it seemed to enter and exit at the same time.
The metal fence that can block vehicles has been on the ground for an unknown number of years, and the surface is rusty.
Long Yuehong subconsciously looked at this gate and saw that its own shape was closer to the archway in the textbook, an archway made of brownish-yellow stones.
In the middle of the archway, most of the golden text has withered, and only two of the words can be barely distinguished:
「…… Sun...... Yuan"
The jeep quickly passed through the archway and drove into the gate.
It was an area surrounded by seven or eight high-rise buildings, with overgrown lawns, dirty pools with a lot of garbage, pavilions that seemed to block the rain, and trees that seemed to bear fruit.
"Turn right, the first building." Qiao Chu seemed to be very familiar with this place.
Jiang Baimian followed his instructions, passed through the narrow road of the two abandoned cars, and parked outside the first building with brown exterior walls.
"Take some food and enter a unit." Qiao Chu got out of the car first.
Shang Jianyao and Bai Chen left the jeep without hesitation, each carrying a pile of food from the trunk.
Long Yuehong was a step slower and failed to grab the task, so he had to follow Qiao Chu and Jiang Baimian and enter the entrance on the far right.
There are brown floor tiles, and weeds are taking over the gaps, so it seems that no one has taken care of them for a long time.
After Long Yuehong passed through the foyer, he took a step forward and went straight to the three silver-black elevators.
He instinctively pressed the up button, and then turned sideways to ask Qiao Chu to come in.
However, the button did not respond at all, and there was no light at all.
Long Yuehong was stunned for a moment before he woke up:
"No electricity......"
Jiang Baimian looked at the old-looking elevator and the buttons with no rust, and said again:
"This is not right......"
This time, without her explaining too much, Shang Jianyao and others also saw the problem:
The condition of the elevator, buttons, floor tiles, and the spread of weeds do not seem to have been maintained for decades, and it is said that they have only been abandoned for less than a year, which is closer.
"Could it be that there were wilderness wanderers living here before?" Bai Chen proposed a possibility.
The next second, she herself denied this judgment:
"No, the Wilderness Wanderer doesn't maintain something useless.
"Moreover, isn't this the newly discovered ruins of the city?"
"Not only that." Seeing that Qiao Chu did not stop it, Jiang Baimian added, "The accumulation of fallen leaves on the street and the damage to various houses seem to indicate one thing: who just 'maintained' the city not long ago."
She paused for a moment and expressed her guess:
"Perhaps, there are some people who are 'maintaining' the city on a regular basis?"
"Intelligent robot? Humans, after their death, intelligent robots are still sticking to their duties?" Long Yuehong immediately asked rhetorically.
Jiang Baimian shook his head:
"Unlikely.
"As far as I know, before the destruction of the old world, real intelligent robot technology has been greatly developed, and similar products are still relatively luxurious things, and it is unlikely to be used to do this kind of thing, unless it is a place like 'mechanical paradise'.
"Well, it's not necessarily special here."
Qiao Chu listened to their discussion for a while, said nothing, turned around and walked into the staircase.
Climbing all the way to the sixth floor, he stopped, turned into the corridor on the right, and entered the deepest room.
The crimson door of this room was half-closed and unlocked. The door handle skin has peeled off and the rust is obvious.
After passing through the gate, Qiao Chu, who was carrying a silver rifle and pinning "United 202", looked back and watched Shang Jianyao and the others come in one after another.
He had a habitual smile on his face, but his eyes were very indifferent:
"Just rest here.
"When sleeping, one person guards the floor-to-ceiling window, monitors the tunnel exit, and the other person patrols the room, paying attention to everyone's situation.
Jiang Baimian was curious for a while:
"You also know the problem of real nightmares?
"How did this happen?"
"A special aberration creature called the Nightmare Horse. As long as your dreams are affected by it, dying in it is the same as dying in reality." Qiao Chu replied indifferently, "I was chased by it for more than a hundred kilometers."
"Why?" Bai Chen had never seen what kind of monster would be so patient and persevering.
Qiao Chu didn't answer, and was about to leave the door and walk towards the inside of the room.
At this time, Shang Jianyao showed an unconcealable smile:
"I know why!
"It wants to fall in love with him!"
The place where Long Yuehong and the others were was quiet, and no sound came out.
Qiao Chu frowned slightly, and glanced at Shang Jianyao:
"Are you using your brain or the ability to exchange thoughts in the 'Hall of Stars'?
"Don't think it's not a big problem now, when you enter the 'Sea of Origin', your symptoms will get worse and worse, forget it, you won't have a chance to enter."
"You know so much...... It's amazing." After listening to Qiao Chu's words, Jiang Baimian sincerely admired, "Where are you from?"
Qiao Chu thought for a few seconds, straightened the black trench coat on his body, and bowed slightly:
"Then let me introduce myself again:
"Commissioner of the Eighth Research Institute, Qiao Chu."
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(End of this chapter)