Chapter 645 (1/2)

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation  Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

The city was far behind them now. Before them was only a deep tunnel spreading ahead. Looking back at the direction from where they had come from, there was only a faint light dot in the far distant, which only people with supervision could see.

The air was turbid almost to the point of being poisonous. Clearly, Hao Ren had chosen an exit that had never been opened: the air behind the hatch had never been scavenged.

The tunnel was very wide, mostly structurally sound, and not as narrow and dilapidated as thought. It was only rather old and dirty, and thick dust everywhere. Traces of years of erosion were apparent. Clearly, compared to the enclosed city, this place lacked the necessary clean ups.

There were steel rails running parallel to the tunnel, though different from the railway on Earth, it was obviously a track for some kind of large transportation vehicles. If accident had never happened to this planet, this tunnel must be a busy subway line—it connected the city with a major transportation hub. It was an important thoroughfare but now just a cave that had been abandoned for 10,000 years. Aside from inches of dust accumulating, there were old machinery that might or might not operational anymore inside.

The tunnel ceiling was inlaid with a dim array of lights. Eighty-nine percent of them were working properly. These lights were the only thing that could prove that the tunnel was not completely abandoned. In the dim surroundings, Hao Ren saw piles of unused machinery on both sides, including rusty cars and dusty robots. Lily went up and checked, then scurried back, reporting. “The model is different from the ones in the city. A little more primitive.”

“That is to say, those machines in the city are evolutionary versions,” Hao Ren nodded slightly. “It seems that some kind of ‘research and development’ is really going on. They’re updating the machines… which requires innovation.”

“These machines should be abandoned before the flight… or perhaps even earlier, such as ten thousand years ago,” said Y’zaks, looking at the rusting metal on the way. “It seems that these things were abandoned in a sudden. There must have been a situation.”

A red light suddenly flashed across Vivian’s eyes in the dimly lit environment. She saw things she was interested in from a pile of debris. Several small bats flew over, raked through the debris, and found a little metal plate. Hao Ren took the metal plate from the small bat. There were a figure engraved on it, which was of a middle-aged man with a serious expression and meticulous clothes. At one glance, he felt that this face was rather familiar and then it crossed his mind: the middle-aged man whom he saw on the wall before he entered the sanctuary!

It was the first stranger he saw on this planet.

Nangong Wudi came up and took a gander of it. He looked slightly surprised. “This man could be the commander.”

“Commander?” Waving the metal plate in his hand, Hao Ren asked, “You know him?”

“He would appear on the screen, that’s the TV you were talking about,” said Nangong Wudi, nodding. “Besides from major events, he would only appear once a year. He is the highest official here, so I have a deep impression of him.”

“The highest official on this planet?” Hao Ren swept the dust off the metal plate. “He appeared on the big screen, but on the bottom of the plate is his year of birth and death, and the caption says ‘In Deep Sorrow.’ Supposedly only a person who has died would only be described as such?”

“The commander is dead?” Vivian looked at the commemorative plate in surprise. “…Looks like there is more to the person we saw on the screen than meets the eye.”

Hao Ren nodded and led everyone move deeper into the tunnel.

After do-not-know-how-long, they arrived the end of the tunnel to a large, cave-like cavern that looked like a subway interchange.

The large cavern was generally oval. Round tunnel entrances and exits were on all sides of the cave. Each entrance and exit was the same with rails extending out. At the intersection of these railroad tracks, there was a huge dish-shaped building, which undoubtedly the hub of the subway of this planet. Supposedly, the round tunnels were leading to other cities.

The group cautiously stepped into the dish-shaped building. This ancient facility was still structurally sound. It was not known whether that the power supply was offline or lighting fixture were broken, it was pitch-dark inside. Lily raised her Flamejoy lighting up the interior. Under the illumination of the flickering flame, they saw the criss-crossing railroad tracks, scheduling platform full of debris, and the severely damaged control hut.