After Schenkov was "interviewed" by people from the giant enterprises, the internal wind of the Public Security Bureau also quietly changed.

Although the newly formed discipline picket department has not been abolished on the surface, under the direction of the city council, a number of people have been replaced.

From the original fresh blood with a simple background and independence, it has been replaced by old fritters who have interests with various departments, and from a functional point of view, they exist in name only.

The atmosphere that had just picked up was also cut off, and several violent attacks committed by border people appeared in the inner city one after another, and a bunch of rhythmic ones also poured out on the Internet.

The Public Security Bureau turned a blind eye to this and allowed the chaos to continue to grow.

As the atmosphere of the inner city and the frontier becomes tense again, an unprecedented undercurrent is quietly surging in another corner that is usually unattended.

The Northern Industrial Development Zone, the industrial heart of Crescent City, is the backbone of various industrial production capacity and a sweatshop as cold as steel.

It's filled with dense clusters of factories, towering chimneys spew smoke that darkens the sky, sewage outlets spray industrial waste into the surrounding rivers, and the air is filled with a pungent chemical smell.

The most suffering is undoubtedly the workers here.

Despite the development of science and technology in this world, robot technology has been very mature, and there are many models of automated robots on the market that can replace human production operations.

But the cruel truth is that for the capitalists, the use of human power seems to be more "cost-effective".

Workers working in the northern industrial development zones, some of whom are inner-city migrants with decades of mortgages and children who have children to go to school, have to endure long hours in silence and receive wages that do not match the intensity of their work in order to support their families.

There are also many civilians in the border areas, who can't live in that chaotic environment, and humbly want to beg for food, and these people have even become so involved that they voluntarily do not take a salary, as long as they take care of food and shelter.

In a giant city like Crescent City, there are people everywhere who have difficulty in making a living, and the most important thing is manpower, which can be squeezed wantonly.

Just imagine, let's say you are a capitalist.

A human worker who will work for you only for 30 months a day for food, and who can be sent away casually with tens of thousands of pensions when he dies.

and a "expensive" robot that costs hundreds of thousands of dollars and costs regular maintenance and repair at every turn.

Which do you choose?

Therefore, in addition to those high-end industries that require high technology and efficiency, in the vast majority of low-end assembly lines, humans are still the main force, and robots simply can't roll up these flesh and blood.

At this time, Su Mo was in the western part of the northern industrial development zone, which was originally a core industrial area, but later the factories moved eastward with the economic reform policy, and the place was slowly abandoned.

The West End's former glory has been washed away by the years, leaving behind a barren ruin, with towering chimneys no longer spewing smoke out and standing bleakly on the empty skyline.

The once-bustling workshop is now empty, with abandoned machinery lying in the corner, rusty enough to make the roar of the past.

The dilapidated buildings are also rusty, the inferior cement floor has cracked and cracked, and the withered yellow weeds are swaying in the wind, and there are no traces of the once lively life.

Su Mo stood at the entrance to an abandoned mine, wearing a mechanical wristband on his wrist, performing various operations on the screen.

After the Fatui events ended, he would come here every day with his future ground-penetrating robots and place them in the mine's boreholes.

In the eyes of others, everything in the West End, including the unremarkable mine, is just industrial ruins that have long been obsolete.

But only Su Mo knew that under this seemingly barren land, there was a big secret that was enough to turn the human world upside down.

During this time, Sumo has invested hundreds of ground-penetrating robots in the area, which are small enough to easily pass through crevices in rock formations and send back high-frequency signals for all-round detection.

Whether it is detection accuracy or depth, these small robots developed by Future himself are far better than ordinary ground penetrating radar.

Just as Su Mo received the signal from the GPR, a sneaky figure came up behind him.

This is a waste picker, and this kind of people are not uncommon in the West End, some of them are unemployed workers who have been optimized by the factories and have nowhere to go, and end up on the streets.

There are also people who come from the border areas over the mountains and mountains, and want to pick up some good things here that cannot be picked up on the border side.

After all, this was once an industrial area, digging and shoveling can find a lot of broken copper and iron, and if you are lucky, you can even pick up some good machine parts, which can be sold for a good price.

The scavenger was unkempt and carrying a big bag, poking his head behind Su Mo, grinning and showing his yellow teeth: "Dude, what about opening a treasure chest here?" ”

"Open treasure chest" is a joking name for waste pickers to pick up garbage.

You never know if you're digging through the garbage heap to hide waste or treasures, full of excitement, very similar to the behavior of opening treasure chests when playing games, and it can be regarded as a kind of ridicule of these down-and-out people about their lives.

Su Mo didn't have anything to do while waiting for the signal, so he smiled at him: "Yes, how are you today, did you open any gorgeous treasure chests?" ”

The scavenger waved his hand: "There are still any gorgeous treasure chests in these years, they have already been opened, and the rest are all broken treasure chests, it would be good to be able to pick up some copper and iron." ”

He looked at the abandoned mine in front of Su Mo, his tone became vigilant, and he reminded in a low voice: "Dude, you can open the treasure chest outside, but you must not enter here." ”

Sumer: "Oh? How so? ”

The scavenger said mysteriously, "You don't know? This is the gateway to hell! ”

"It's been a long time, I've heard from my grandfathers, the city council's industrial department has done research drilling here, drilled down more than 10,000 meters, and finally drilled into an underground space that looks like hell."

"I heard that they heard the howls of humans in the ground, and the whole drilling team was terrified, and the authorities immediately stopped drilling and sealed the well, and no one came here again."

Su Mo couldn't help but laugh after hearing this.

The scavengers are not telling you what they are talking about, it happened about seventy years ago, when the Crescent City authorities did launch an unprecedented drilling program to advance to the heart of the earth.

At that time, more than 80 years had passed since the reconstruction of human civilization, and the technology obtained through the exploration of the relics of the old era was booming, and the technological leap was being made every day.

The purpose of this drilling program is to speculate that there are more secrets of the past buried deep underground.

The scavengers were right, the Crescent City authorities did drill down more than 10,000 meters from this mine, setting a record for the depth of drilling in the human world.

Later, the drilling and sealing of the well were indeed stopped, and the plan was suspended.

Of course, it's not because of what they dug into hell, it's purely because some people have made it into an eye-catching urban legend for the sake of traffic.

The real reason is that the Crescent City authorities feel that the project is not profitable.

Because the further down the drill, the greater the hardness of the formation, the higher the cost of drilling, and every meter of drilling costs a lot of money.

Correspondingly, the project did not bring much return, and even after drilling more than 10,000 meters, they did not find any so-called "relics of the old era buried deep in the ground".

So, for the sake of economic efficiency, the project was discontinued, leaving only some strange stories made up by posterity.

But here's the most ridiculous part of this incident.

Have the Crescent City authorities dug up the legendary ruins?

No.

Are there actually ruins underground?

Yes.

Why didn't the authorities dig it up?

Because they didn't dig deep enough.

While Su Mo was chatting with the scavengers, the mechanical wristband in his hand suddenly sent back a large number of signals, densely packed like an electronic ocean.

His pupils dilated slightly, and he said to himself, "Found it"

The apocalyptic war that destroyed human civilization 153 years ago has always been a mystery for those who came after it.

The original post-war survivors have long since passed away in the course of more than 100 years.

And according to the information that has been handed down, no one can say the cause of the doomsday war.

According to the accounts of the survivors, there was no warning, and one day the sirens suddenly sounded everywhere, and everyone hid in underground shelters under the command of the army, completely losing contact with the outside world, and no one knew what was happening.

For a long time afterward, as supplies ran out, there were more or less humanitarian disasters in shelters, such as hunger, disease, violence, and so on.

And when the doors of the Vault are reopened, those who have survived the tragedy return to the surface and suddenly find that the world is a different story.

Endless smoke and dust remain in the atmosphere to block sunlight, the ground is shrouded in bitter cold, and once-thriving cities are in ruins, littered with war wreckage and broken corpses, buried in the vast expanse of snow and ice.

There was not a single living person left in the entire surface world, and the humans who had emerged from the shelter had become the last survivors.

This is the story of the first year of Dawn.

After the reconstruction of civilization, judging from the various technologies excavated in the ruins of the old era, the human technology in the old era was more advanced than it is today.

Blood codes, prosthetics, spiritual brains, and all kinds of high-tech productsThe world's top technology today comes from the technology of the old era.

So why can't people understand what kind of war was destroyed by human beings with such great power?

In today's universities, there is a discipline called "Doomsday Archaeology", which studies the causes of the Doomsday War.

After various studies of the relics of the old era, the current mainstream theory is that the old era was a multipolar world, with supergiants such as the current Cooperative Company, the Iron and Blood Alliance, and the Black Domain Group.

Due to the uneven distribution of interests, the rivalry between the giants intensified, and finally in order to compete for global hegemony, they launched an unprecedented war, and finally led to the destruction of human civilization due to various destructive weapons.

The first half of this statement is fine, and the world pattern at that time was indeed like this.

But in the second half, there are deeper secrets about the reasons for the destruction of civilization.

And this corner of the dark secret is buried more than 100,000 meters underground in Crescent City.

Su Mo looked at the data transmitted back from the mechanical wristband, and said to himself: "The location is located, it's time to start arranging"

The scavenger poked his head out and asked, "Dude, what are you talking about?" ”

Su Mo asked coldly, "Have you ever been to the inner city?" ”

The scavenger nodded: "I've been to the sewers a few times before, and once I was caught by the sheriff and almost invited me to eat a set of crescent moon residences, what?" ”

Su Mo put away the mechanical wristband, and didn't turn back and left, leaving only one sentence: "Find a way to go to the inner city these days, there is something big going on in the border, and many people may die." ”

The scavenger smiled casually: "Look at what you said, there are no dead people on the border one day, and I have long been used to it." ”

Su Mo didn't say much, shook his head and left.

After returning to the Edge Building, Su Mo found KK as soon as possible: "KK, you organize the manpower of the logistics department to replenish supplies." ”

KK was stunned for a moment and said, "I saw the supplies a few days ago, and the things in the warehouse are sufficient, and they are enough for everyone to consume for more than a month." ”

Su Mo: "It's not enough, all the spare warehouses are all open, fill up the supplies, mainly all kinds of medicines and food, don't buy that kind of snacks, buy more high-calorie foods such as compressed biscuits, instant noodles, and canned meat." ”

These sounded like wartime emergency supplies, and KK couldn't help but get nervous: "Big brother, is something wrong?" ”

Su Mo shook his head and said, "I'll explain later, let's do it first and fill the warehouse to the brim." ”

"Okay, I'll do it." KK didn't ask much, and hurriedly left to organize logistics personnel.

Su Mo went to the laboratory to find the future, and said directly: "In the future, I need a ground-based spaceship. ”

Future asked suspiciously: "Earth spaceship?" You mean the kind of manned equipment that can travel between strata? ”

Sumer: "Yes. ”

Future: "What do you want that kind of thing for?" Looking for relics of the old times in the Borderlands? At present, the ruins found are all in shallow positions on the surface, and the deepest is only more than 2,000 meters, so there is no need for equipment of the level of a ground-based spaceship. ”

Su Mo: "But this time I'm going to a position more than 100,000 meters underground. ”

The future look was even more puzzled: "More than 100,000 meters underground. It's all mantle, it's a thousand degrees Celsius, and it's all silicate rocks formed by high pressure, and I don't think there's any trace there. ”

Su Mo: "I'll just take care of these things, you only need to be responsible for making things." ”

Future put his chin on his chin and groaned for a moment, and said: "Now the ground aviation technology has not been popularized, and major companies do not pay attention to this, and the ground aviation spaceships on the market are all toys that can only shuttle in the shallow formation. ”

"If you want to dive more than 100,000 meters underground, you can only buy a prototype and come back, and then I will modify it, which will take more than a month."

Su Mo: "Okay, you can stop all other work on your side and concentrate on building this ground spaceship, this is very important, more important than anything before, and you must not make mistakes." ”

Future: "Don't worry, when did my technology go wrong?" ”

After she finished speaking, she went to find someone to hand over the work at hand, and then immediately began to plan Su Mo's ground spaceship plan.

Su Mo looked at the location of the computer room on the other side of the laboratory.

Next, it's the crux of everything - the black virus that Qi Ling is researching. (End of chapter)