Located in the southwestern part of mainland Australia, Hammersley Ridge is bordered by the sea and covers an area of 260 kilometres.

The mountains are high and the ravines are deep, crisscrossing them.

More than 1,000 years ago, it was an important iron ore base, providing almost 80% of Australia's iron ore.

At that time, the vegetation of Hammersley Ridge was sparse, and only a few tenacious meadows struggled to grow.

Today, however, the topography has not changed, but the vegetation has been very different.

The upper ends of the mountains are covered with thick vines that can often reach a length of 100 meters.

The vines swim like dragons, the wide leaves are like a fan, and the diameter of the stems ranges from one meter thick to several decimeters.

The tiny roots pierce the ground from the vine stems like centipede legs.

The vines are intertwined with each other, climbing all over the peaks, almost becoming ecological overlords.

This is a plant that Chen Feng has never seen in the 21st century, and it is about the emergence of a new variety that has produced some strong variations after climate change.

In the middle of the mountain range, there are some large trees with very thick branches.

The roots of the trees are extremely thick, and even the thinnest ones are surrounded by dozens of people, and the thick ones are hundreds of meters in diameter and hundreds of kilometers in height.

The canopy of the trees spreads out like an umbrella, layered on top of each other, like broccoli stacked in a vegetable basket, so that there is almost no trace of the ravine from the top down.

If Chen Feng hadn't been able to scan the terrain through the spacecraft's detector, he would have been able to dock the canopy almost as flat ground.

Considering that Morrowind 1 did not have an energy shield, and that it might be damaged and troublesome to repair if it was forced to stop in a ravine, he first stopped at the top of the mountain, then put on a brand new combat suit, picked up a knife, took a fission shotgun, and then put on a backpack and walked out of the ship.

His backpack contained an iron box the size of a microwave.

Inside the iron box is a small biological battery energy chamber that he has painstakingly completed, mainly to power the "toy" gravitational-wave scanner, as well as a fist-sized miniature computing server.

He first packed a quark synthesis meal, and then pressed the button on the side of the iron box behind him, accompanied by a squeaky metal sound, two arm-thick mechanical arms popped up from the box behind him first, spending more than a meter.

Between the two robotic arms hangs a 17-inch LCD monitor.

Click, the joints of the robotic arm holding the monitor were bent first, and then bent twice, and the monitor was placed diagonally above Chen Feng's head half a meter away from his eyes, making him look like Ning Caichen carrying a scholar's box.

Chen Feng raised his hand and pressed it on the monitor for a while, and the debugging was successful, and a spherical space with a diameter of fifty meters began to appear in the screen, which was the image of the scanner.

The wearable portable all-in-one detection auxiliary device has been successfully developed!

Oh no, the assembly was successful.

That wasn't the end of it, he turned around again, and at this time a large iron box was being lifted and lowered by Morrowind One's mechanical arm.

When he opened the box, it was filled with colorful metal structures, all of which he had to assemble in his spare time.

Putting them on one by one, he was transformed into a punk mechanical warrior after five minutes.

Chen Feng briefly tested the jet engines on the left and right sides of his waist, and floated slightly in the air.

Very well, with the support of the auxiliary artificial intelligence algorithm, his flight is very smooth, and the change of direction and acceleration are also very sensitive.

When he was ready, he descended the hillside and plunged headlong into the dense jungle.

The further down you go, the darker the sun becomes.

Even though it was noon and the sun was shining, it couldn't shine at all.

No wonder these trees grow so tall that they don't go up a little distance, and they won't even be able to drink soup.

The ecological environment in the forest is not simple, in addition to the tall trees, there are countless large and small plants growing all over the ground.

The tall ones resemble ordinary trees, and the lower ones are shrubs of various shapes.

These low trees, which are extremely difficult to get sunlight, do not have broad leaves.

As for where do their nutrients come from?

It only takes one glance at the branching branches of the tree to understand the branches, which invariably grow to the giant tree.

If it weren't for the obvious fact that the branches had broken through the bark of the giant tree, Chen Feng would have been able to take these small plants as the roots of the giant tree.

In addition to plants, the animals in the valley are also very diverse and have different forms.

There are big-eared giant wolves whose eyes can't be opened at all and rely on ultrasound positioning, black bears that naturally emit strong light in their pupils and seem to have two large flashlights on their heads, and black-scaled snakes that can wipe over the ground like lightning and are as fast as mice.

These animals are very aggressive, and when they find out about his movements, they rush towards them one by one like moths to the flames.

Chen Feng was secretly glad that he was wearing wearable equipment and could fly over, otherwise he would have to go all the way to kill all the way, and he would have to get rid of himself alive and exhausted, let alone search for clues of human beings in this valley.

He is also lamenting that it is a pity that the high-precision gravitational wave detector is gone.

There are parts, but their own ability is limited, and they can't be repaired.

Otherwise, according to the performance of the Galaxy Warframe in the previous timeline, float in the air, scan a sketch, and then you can lie down peacefully and give the analysis results to the stars.

Half a day later, it was getting late outside, but it didn't make a difference to him, he had descended to the bottom of the valley, which had long since become a dark world without five fingers.

But nature is not without light, and his vision has improved.

Among the dense heterotrophic trees, there are countless shining lights, all of which are all kinds of insects that can emit light.

Each of these insects chases the streamer, sometimes converging, sometimes scattering, and sometimes moving through the trees like the Milky Way across the sky.

The picture looks like a dream, as if you are in a fairyland.

From time to time, small birds that feed on insects scurry by with lightning strikes, and a piece of the aerial river carried by fluorescent insects suddenly misses.

Chen Feng did not turn on the lights, he had already put on a simulated helmet, and relied on the projection imaging using the principle of ultrasonic feedback to distinguish the direction.

He walked all the way, watched all the way, investigated all the way, bombarded and killed the animals that couldn't be avoided, and then collected some biological batteries from time to time.

The terrain in the mountains is complex, the density of flora and fauna is extremely high, and the amount of information is outrageous.

Moreover, even if there are traces of human activity, such as footprints or embers from picnics, they simply cannot be preserved for long under the influence of the high-frequency and high-intensity activities of a large number of animals.

With the strength of these animals' abilities, Chen Feng estimated that ordinary Metroidvanic warriors without equipment would not survive for three days here.

Since Sergei's secret base can be hidden for nearly five hundred years, it will definitely not be stupidly placed on the ground, and if you want to find it, you have to work slowly and carefully.

Chen Feng didn't daydream, didn't stupidly think that he could achieve it overnight, he was mentally prepared for a long-term war of resistance, and settled in this valley.

Time flies, and in the blink of an eye, March has passed.

During these three months, Chen Feng ploughed up and down the Hammersley Ridge more than ten times.

His database is filled with vast amounts of redundant information, down to every plant, every insect, every animal in the mountains.

He can also simulate and predict all the dynamics of plants and animals, even when they will take root and sprout, and when they will die.

He also used a gravitational wave sounder to complete a complete topographic simulation, down to three kilometers underground.

Within three kilometers underground, the flow of soil and rock in the earth's crust is accurate to the gram module.

Countless small modules are combined to create a simulated modeling of ocean currents.

In addition, although the accurate scanning of the underground by gravitational wave detectors can only go down to a maximum of five kilometers, Chen Feng has swept the world and assembled some conventional geological exploration equipment that is not so high-tech and not so accurate.

Equipment types include geophysical and geochemical prospecting, trench depth, drilling, large-scale geophysical exploration equipment, and more.

In the field of geological simulation modeling, physical exploration is the main method, which mainly includes gravity exploration, magnetic exploration, electrical exploration, seismic exploration, radioactive exploration, etc.

In short, Chen Feng will use whatever means he has, not seeking absolute accuracy, but only trying to use more detection methods to collect more and more comprehensive data.

Therefore, the geological data in his hands still went down to the level of 18 kilometers underground, but the range of 3 kilometers underground was the level of science and technology in the 31st century of the seventh timeline, 3 kilometers to 10 kilometers was the level of the 25th century, and 10 kilometers to 18 kilometers was the level of the beginning of the 22nd century.

With such a huge amount of data, the super-large data repository that he specially expanded was almost unable to fit.

There was no point in continuing to intensify the collection, and on September 3rd, 3020, his sweep was officially discontinued.

With the computing power he currently has at his disposal, he simply cannot convert this data into a picture that can be seen by the human eye.

The card function can be stuck to the point where he can't survive or die, and if you turn your perspective, you can remind me of the fear of being dominated when I opened QQ in 19 years with a 08-year computer.

So he wrote another algorithm program and handed it all over to the server to calculate in the background.

As for himself, he started to make chips again, and put them into the server one by one.

With less than sixty days to go until October 27, 3020, Chen Feng's sense of urgency is getting stronger and stronger.

So far, he has preliminarily completed the construction of a new space-class spacecraft, which is located on the outskirts of Hanzhou.

The spacecraft is about 5,000 meters long, 1,100 meters high, and 2,000 meters wide, and has a traditional spindle-shaped shape.

It's not that he doesn't want a triangular pyramid ship or a snowflake ship, but with his ability, he can only barely design a spindle-shaped solid curvature-like film layer.

It would kill him to make a different shape, or to fit perfectly into the structure that covers the surface of the ship.

The spacecraft was named Morrowind II.

No. 2 is equipped with two sets of high-performance curvature-like large-scale engines without intelligent assistance, a set of force field shield generators that also lack the support of intelligent algorithms, a complete set of hand-built large-scale biological battery energy supply systems, a set of Dyson membrane-like solar wings that cannot accurately and stably control energy conversion without chips, and hundreds of small and medium-sized equipment involved in scientific research and production.

Chen Feng also placed a large number of robots of various types and colors in it that did not have chips, but the other parts were basically complete.

Across the planet, more than 60% of the parts that can be used with a certain level of technology have been collected by him in eight large warehouses next to Morrowind II.

About 70% of them have been assembled into different things and stuffed into Number 2.

Theoretically, when Morrowind 2 flies out of the Kuiper asteroid belt, it will be able to continue to accelerate in the universe and reach a stable speed of light twice as fast as it does within a month.

If Chen Feng can find a more complete database and build a quantum brain with sufficient performance, then he can also upgrade the curvature-like flight of the 2 to the curvature flight, so that the Morrowind 2 can reach 9.999...... times the speed of light.

Now everything is ready, only quantum chips are owed.

Even if he can only find one piece, he can try to synthesize more with the high-precision quark instrument with the best performance, then the problem of artificial intelligence computing power demand will be solved.

The space compression and mass energy conversion technology will also be restored for the most part, and in addition to being able to leave the solar system in the second number, Chen Feng can at least build himself a single soldier equipment comparable to the performance of the Eagle Strike Armor.

He put all his hopes in Sergei's secret base.

Three days later, Chen Feng built a three-hectare modular supercomputing center on the central ridge of the Hammersley Ridge.

The comprehensive computing power of the supercomputing center is roughly equivalent to the total computing power of mankind in the eighth timeline in 2050.

After another four days, all the calculations finally converged into one answer.

The answer is a small dirt bag of more than ten meters.

In fact, Chen Feng had passed by this dirt bag more than once before, but he didn't take it seriously.

There are not two thousand but one thousand similar soil bags in the bottom of the mountains and valleys, which are really rare and not worth mentioning.

However, after the double calculation of statistics and probability, and then the comprehensive induction of the geological creep tendency of the micro plates, a very inconsistent conclusion is deduced.

The probability that this soil bag is a natural change of the movement of the earth's crustal plates is less than 1%, and it takes countless accidents to form.

If you have to find anything unnatural and abnormal in Hamersley Ridge, it can only be this dirt bag.

Chen Feng acted decisively, collecting samples and testing the half-life and material composition.

The conclusion was made quickly.

The soil in the bag looks indistinguishable from ordinary soil, but it is actually mantle material.

The half-life of the soil collected by Chen Feng at different depths showed that the soil collected by Chen Feng at different depths had a violent chemical reaction in different ages, and the time node of the change from the outer layer to the inner layer showed a multi-gradient progressive change, from 30 years ago, to 56 years ago, to 72 years ago, and to 420 years ago.

The case was solved.

Sergei's base is located in the mantle directly below here.

He first returned to the base and began to build a manned ground-drilling exploration machine.

Two days later, he returned to his place and began digging the pit.

The drill bit rumbled down the position of the dirt bag.

The powerful superalloy drill bit broke through the soil layer, then the rock layer, and then hit the iron ore layer and the silicon-magnesium layer head-on, slowed down slightly, and then continued to move forward.

Fourteen hours later, the exploration drill bit reached a depth of fifty kilometers underground.

At this point, he was fully in the mantle, in a magma molten structure.

This is not the first time he has been underground, and he is familiar with it, but this time his vehicle does not have a composite shield, and although the outer structure of the alloy drill bit will not melt easily, the high temperature inside is slightly fatal, and even his carefully formulated temperature control system cannot withstand it.

The temperature in the cabin was rising rapidly, and Chen Feng was sweating profusely.

He was right, he did find a large metal structure here, but the outer shell of this structure had a composite shield, and he couldn't get in.

Even if he maximizes the power of the drill bit, he can't go any further.

After five minutes of hard work, the temperature in the cabin had exceeded 100, and the temperature control system was overloaded, and it would be down in half a minute at the latest.

Chen Feng was so angry that he wanted to look up to the sky and scold angrily, it was just hell.

I'm a Metroid, I'm not going to fall under the earth, am I?

Back then, let alone the mantle, I even went to the center of the earth.

Why don't I withdraw first, get the equipment more advanced and then come down?

Chen Feng quickly dismissed the idea.

Although the drill bit was his hasty work, it was true that all the parts that could be used were full, and there was no shield, so it could only be so.

With his ability alone, he really can't innovate technology, and it's useless to go back.

October 27 is not long away, and time waits for no one.

Just when he felt that there was no way to go to heaven and no door to go down, the shield in front of him suddenly changed.

The drill bit slipped into it without hindrance, entered an open space, and fell into the metal shell a hundred meters below.

Chen Feng was pondering whether to abandon the cabin to escape, so as not to fall into a sandwich cake, but dozens of metal long arms were supported below, firmly grasping the drill bit, and then putting it down smoothly.

After waiting for it to stop, Chen Feng tried to open the hatch and found that the outward opening hatch was pressed by the long metal arm that wrapped the drill bit.

He turned on the intercom and dialed the radio communication for the full channel, "Anyone?" ”

"Follow me."

A teenager's voice sounded over the intercom, in Chinese.

Chen Feng was stunned, what do you mean?

"Sergey?"

He asked again.

The boy replied, "Follow me." ”

Chen Feng was so angry that he choked, "Then you should let go of my door!" ”

In response, he replied with a "follow me".

Chen Feng was sure that this was not a replay, and there was really a person on the other side who was speaking, because the tone and tone of each "follow me" were subtle, as if they were getting more and more impatient.

He was also in a hurry, trying to force open the hatch cover, but this alloy could withstand even the weight of the mantle, and it was too much to pedal with his feet.

"I know you're Sergey, don't sell it, I'm Chen Feng, open the door for me, I can't get out."

Chen Feng thought about it and said.

After about ten seconds, the long metal arms that were stupid and stupid finally let go.

Walking out of the door, Chen Feng looked up first, and could see that the red and black mantle material was isolated by the shield a hundred meters away, and under the hazy red light, the world was dark red.

Two meters in front of him, a square hole was opening, and an elevator-like object slowly emerged from below.

On either side of the elevator are two small black round holes, about the thickness of a thumb, that look like the holes of a gun-like weapon.

An electronic sound sounded.

"In the identification system, the recognition is successful. Human, male, Han Chinese. In the historical gene pool comparison, the comparison was successful. Chen Feng is the founder of The Salvation Society. Threat level, 0. Trust level, the highest. ”

Listening to the electronic sound of censoring and verifying his identity, Master Chen burst into tears.

It's not easy, it's been almost a year, and I've finally heard the voice of artificial intelligence with autonomous action.

This indicates that in Sergei's secret base, there are really smart chips, and maybe a complete artificial intelligence!

There is salvation!

The elevator door slowly opened with a pop.

A pale and thin teenager stood inside.

The boy was barely seventeen years old, his eyes were glazed, his face was blank, his cheekbones were protruding, and he looked very malnourished.

Chen Feng glanced at him and recognized him.

What a young version of Sergei Ponomarenko!

Chen Feng was looking at the other party, and the other party was also looking at him.

The two looked at each other for a long time, but Chen Feng took a step forward first, and then asked, "It's Sergei, right?" ”

The young man turned his head, his eyes were even more dazed, he smirked, and then said in a hurried tone, "Follow me." ”

Chen Feng rolled his eyes.

I had heard that the clones were not sound enough in all aspects, and I didn't believe it, but now I have to believe it if I don't believe it.

I don't know what kind of education this young version of Sergei received since he was a child, but he can only say this sentence over and over again.

The guy's logical thinking ability seems to be really flawed, and he has to press the button after speaking, regardless of whether Chen Feng follows up or not.

Fortunately, Chen Feng moved quickly, otherwise he would have to be locked out of the door again.

The narrow elevator compartment was falling down with a blur, and Chen Feng knew that he would not get any information if he asked him again, and he would not talk much.

The other party will only say "follow me", then it must be to guide yourself to a certain place, and when you get to the place, everything will naturally be revealed.

About a minute later, the elevator car stopped, and what appeared in front of Chen Feng was a large and empty workshop.

Hundreds of pill-shaped life-support cabins are scattered throughout the workshop.

Each life-support cabin is about 2.5 meters high, which is quite similar to the internal circulation simulation chamber he once lay in.

Most of the fluids in the pods had been emptied, and only a few or two were still filled with a yellowish nutrient solution.

"Where are we going now?"

He asked again.

The boy no longer walked forward, but sat down on the spot and said, "Follow me." ”

Chen Feng shrugged, it seemed that this was the destination.

Chen Feng tried to take two steps forward, but the workshop was regenerating.

A beam of stereoscopic projection light shone down from the lamp head on the ceiling and landed in front of him.

A middle-aged Slav in a white coat and balding appeared in front of him, and sure enough, it was still Sergei, but a middle-aged and elderly version.

Electronic sound prompt: "Chinese? English? Russian? Minor languages? ”

Chen Feng: "Chinese. ”

In the next second, the still image of Sergei suddenly became vivid.

He said in a tone of vicissitudes of emotion: "Since you can appear here without causing an explosion, then you must be a human who has returned from afar. Is it? ”

Chen Feng thought for a moment, "Yes." ”

"Welcome, my junior."

Chen Feng: "......"

Well, it's time for you to die early, whatever you want.

"Everything you hear next is a recording of me, and I don't have to answer your questions. You can get a brief overview of the situation from me first, and the rest of the information is in the reading room in front of you. You listen to me patiently and slowly......"

After about half an hour, Sergei's projection disappeared.

Chen Feng looked back at the young version of Sergei who was sitting there like a sculpture, but his heart was completely clear.

The case has been solved.

First of all, the humans in the solar system in this timeline are indeed extinct.

The exact time of demise is 2589.

The landmark event of the demise was that there was only one surviving human being, and it was Sergei.

Rather than being a deserter, he worked on the development of new weapons in his final base until the very end.

No matter how fierce the battle outside was, it didn't affect his ability to concentrate on his work.

Then the ZS humans rushed in with individual weapons and slaughtered all the people in the Australian base, including the senior biologist Lai Wenming, whom he respected.

When Sergei was the only one left in the True Human, the ZS Human suddenly stopped and quietly retreated, never to be seen again.

A month later, an explosion occurred in a supermassive space station 30 million kilometers from Earth.

In this explosion, all ZS humans disappeared at the same time as the enhanced mutant animals.

This is not the credit of Sergei, but the independent choice of ZS bacteria's life.

Since then, Sergei has been the only intelligent life left in the entire solar system.

He didn't understand why he was left behind.

This may be a mockery.

Or maybe it's just a scientific experiment.

A super-high-level civilization that controls the fate of mankind, and wants to see what kind of creation the smartest human beings can make when they are alone.

He also didn't understand why he hadn't been infected with ZS bacteria.

Subsequently, Sergei tried parthenogenesis but failed.

It was as if he had seen the end.

I will die alone in the solar system.

He had considered whether or not he wanted to leave and go to the colony.

In the end, he didn't set sail, instead spending all his energy on rebuilding the AI and creating the underground base.

He rebuilt the base and hid underground.

He spent his whole life analyzing ZS bacteria, analyzing history, and deducing the future.

He wanted to figure out what kind of existence the enemy really was, and why he could destroy humanity so easily.

He also wanted to know how to overcome the other side.

The humans in the solar system have been defeated, but Sergei is still eager to leave something behind, maybe in the distant future the colonies will come back and see again?

As time went on, he aged rapidly, but he was still far from success.

Sergei began to absorb the biotechnology left by Lai Wenming and implemented a self-cloning program.

He knew that he would die sooner or later, and he also knew that most clones would have congenital diseases of one kind or another, and it would be impossible for them to reach their heights, but so what?

If you can do a little, you can do a little.

In the year 2600, Sergei, who knew he was about to die of overwork, completed all the presets, took a small shuttle to the ground himself, and returned to his hometown torn by ferocious animals.

Before he died, he collected some more ZS gene signatures from externally weakened mutated animals and sent them back to the base.

He also sneered at the waste.

"You're stupid."

Time passed little by little, and thirty years later, another Sergei, who was only twenty-nine years old and still looked young, but his organs were decaying and dying, rushed out of the ground.

Hundreds of years have passed in the blink of an eye.

Generations of Ergai have grown up and developed into adults under the care and teaching of intelligent robots, promoting the unfinished business of the original Ergai.

Of course, accidents happen all the time, and some cloned embryos are genetically disintegrated before they even reach their human form.

There are also clones who die for no apparent reason when they are one or two years old.

Even if the clone succeeds, it seems that the lifespan is eternally limited, and it will not exceed thirty years old.

And as time continues to go by, the time span of frozen stem cells is getting longer and longer, the activity and gene stability continue to decline, the performance of clones does not enter the next generation, the IQ is getting lower and lower, the learning ability is getting worse and worse, and the lifespan is becoming more and more unstable.

Until now, there are only a few survival pods left.

Sergey, a new generation of people who have recently been trained, has even learned only the only thing that must be said to those who have returned, "follow me."

At this point, Sergei's deduction had failed.

The meaning of "follow me" is only to prove to the returnees that humans in the solar system once existed.

Or they may just be discovered by other civilizations, hoping that other civilizations can take away everything from the people of the earth.

In this way, the era belonging to mankind will not be quietly annihilated like a bubble in the universe.

In the end, Sergei did not wait for his compatriots who returned from the colony, but waited for Chen Feng.

He waited four hundred and twenty years.