Otherworldly Desert Dust-Chapter 405 360: Accessing the Cosmic Network
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Early in the morning, Wu Hen followed the mechanical stairs, climbing layer by layer towards the surface.
The underground work district of Steel Eagle City was like a miniature kingdom, inhabited by countless slave laborers.
Even among slave laborers, there were ranks and hierarchies.
Those closer to the ground were allocated more reasonable resources.
In fact, during the days the people of Prison Town labored, Steel Eagle City's frenzied hunting led to the devouring of a mining town and three forestry villages.
With the addition of new slave laborers, the more than three thousand people of Prison Town also moved up a layer, getting closer to the sunlight-bathed surface.
In the past, everyone basked in the warm sunlight every day, ate the freshest food, and did the simplest and most honest work, living peacefully and comfortably.
But now, being merely closer to the sunlight and feeling the warmth from the surface made waves of long-missed happiness surge, and everyone always spoke encouraging words, knowing that only through harder work could they possibly return to their former lives.
Wu Hen, following Levi, also quickly rose to the city's surface district.
His gaze followed the neatly arranged city streets and saw a range of majestic mountains; the city's ground level was flush with these cloud-reaching peaks, and the mist filling the city was the high-altitude cloud breath.
The azure sky seemed within reach, and the sun hanging high above appeared larger than usual. On some special city viewing platforms, one could even look through two special glass screens, gaze down through the many underground work districts, and behold the vast lands below—mountains, rivers, lakes, canyons, and green forests...
Initially, Wu Hen thought Steel Eagle City mostly rested atop mountains; he had not imagined that the city spent most of its time spiraling through the sky.
The massive city was truly like a majestic eagle, bathing in the blazing sun, like a king surveying his domain.
All the skyscrapers, despite their varying heights, collectively presented a streamlined form; they were the soaring feathers of this steel city, not only housing countless citizens but also providing high-altitude wind power for the city. With the wings' region slowly flapping, Eagle City, housing tens of thousands, flew at an astounding speed.
The entire city showed no signs of gigantic machinery nor any Dark Engine devices; on the surface, it looked no different from a minimalist metropolis and was similar in layout to cities in the homeland. Yet Wu Hen, who had lived here for a while, was clear that this was a realm beyond what homeland technology could achieve. It was hard to imagine such a massive object traveling at speeds surpassing that of fighter jets, any form of propulsion capable of generating an impact energy exceeding that of meteors, and what was most inconceivable was its internal structure, which was oddly flexible, defying the drag principles of homeland physics.
Is this Dark Energy?
How did they discover it, how did they acquire it, and how did they utilize it?
When the homeland first fell into Otherworldly Dust, human technology largely failed, and even the most powerful firepower was insufficient to contend with the predators in the Desert Dust, not to mention the touch of an Outer Heaven Guest's divine finger, which jolted humanity's entire understanding. This led to a lengthy period where humans lived in fear brought by Cosmic Cultivators and sparked a dark undertow of 'science is useless,' leading more and more people to embrace the evolution of the otherworldly and abandon hard-earned technologies.
But in reality, technology proved to be incredibly powerful. Its most crucial aspect was creating equality among all living beings, allowing those inherently weaker to wield scientific weapons skillfully and even blast gods out of existence.
In truly powerful cosmic technological empires, immortals would hunker down humbly, and those who dared misuse Extraordinary Power would be thrown into Biochemical Pools, used like batteries to generate electricity for them.
"No wonder high-dimensional insects implanted fear genes into the entire Human Clan."
"Some technological humans among the Ten Thousand Veins of the Human Clan are indeed terrifyingly formidable. Steel Eagle City should have the capability to hunt down Black Unihorns."
This meant that humans, those who commanded formidable technology, still topped the universal food chain. Only the humans from Nuwa God End homeland were still in a lower dimension, needing to endure various tribulations to possibly evolve.
Passing through the vibrant minimalist urban area, Wu Hen discovered that the prosperity here was very similar to the cities in the homeland. Additionally, beautiful green plants were everywhere, the magnificent purple orchid vines and emerald green street landscapes concealing the smell of steel and concrete.
From this, it's evident that humans love technology for the more convenient and refined life it can bring while also harboring a psychological aversion to technology, not wishing for their lives to be filled with technological products everywhere. Such cyberpunk future cities at first glance seem incredibly splendid, almost inconceivable, yet they go against human aesthetics... Human aesthetics will return to nature, even if it is a Steel Eagle City, its living areas will also be covered with a lot of vegetation, reducing the visibility of man-made smelting objects as much as possible, hiding all the heavy machinery and engines underground out of sight.
Of course, to enjoy the convenience of technology and yearn for the return to beauty implies that some people are forced to endure the roar of machinery, the pollution of industry, and the mutations caused by technological radiation.
Standing in the midst of this bustling silver city, Wu Hen found it impossible to feel at peace and appreciate its beauty, because he had emerged from underground, knowing that all the people above were treading on the flesh and blood of the lower-level slaves…
Just like with annexing other lands, Steel Eagle City's method of taking over Prison Town and other villages was barbaric and principleless. Knowing that they always followed such an operational pattern, one could only lament the strength brought by their method of plunder, unable to genuinely respect and like them. And the way Prison Director Levi handled things was more humane; residents of small villages also unknowingly integrated into it, harmoniously and lovingly.
As one of Nuwa God End's explorers, one of the navigators.
He was naturally also seeking out lifeforms with similar ideologies in the Otherworldly Desert Dust, acquainting himself with more cosmic allies sharing the same ideals.
"Prison Director, have you ever thought of being a mayor?" Wu Hen asked suddenly as he walked down the street.
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"Mayor? Don't underestimate me," said the Prison Director Levi. "Even if I were given an entire country, I could easily govern it. From now on, please change how you address me. 'Prison Director' is only temporary—I am the Chairman!"
Wu Hen's thoughts were a mess for quite a while before he managed to remember what he had intended to say. "Our little town has already been dismantled to become raw materials for Eagle City. I don't know into which street or which engine it was mixed, so the only way for us to take our town back is to seize power and usurp the position of mayor of this Steel Eagle City."
"That's a good idea. Next, you'll need to assassinate the mayor, the deputy mayor, six senior officials of the energy department, nine heads of the living command, ten heads of combat command, all the strategists of the decision-making court, kill all the heads of the senior technical department, murder every district forum leader… As for the several mayors who rank at the same level as me, you don't need to bother with them. I can emerge victorious from among them on my own," Levi said, clearly irritated.
If the upper echelons of Steel Eagle City were likened to an imperial palace and all the senior officials to courtiers, then Levi, a Prison Town mayor in charge of prisons, would be a mere Ninth-Rank Official. Even if all the immortals killed off the entire court, it would be difficult for his turn to rule to come around.
"Weren't you schoolmates with the mayor?" Wu Hen asked.
"So what? Is the career path the same for those with powerful connections as for those without?" Levi replied scornfully.
"Do you have a way to advance to the energy department? Such a large city needs to start up, requiring a great deal of dark energy... although constantly replenishing energy through plundering is a decent survival model, wouldn't it be possible to prosper even more if we could use safer collection methods to reduce unnecessary looting wars?" Wu Hen began to offer his own subtle suggestions.
This land was rich with spiritual energy!
Truly, it was the Cang Chu Divine Realm, where the quality of spiritual energy was extremely high. Wu Hen knew exactly where they were located, and he was certain he could find even more majestic spiritual veins. What he lacked now was the legal authority to collect it—he certainly didn't want to be issued a cosmic arrest warrant by the Da Xuan Dynasty.
"If we win this battle and play a key role, there should be hope," Levi quickly understood some of Wu Hen's implications.
Levi remembered that when he first captured Wu Hen, Wu Hen was planning to collect a Dark Energy Spring Eye.
But Dark Energy Spring Eyes are extremely elusive; even their towns and cities, equipped with advanced exploration equipment, found it difficult to discover a spring eye...
"I will help you with all my might," Wu Hen said, seeing that the old man understood, and said no more.
"Are you hiding any major abilities?" Levi asked in a low voice.
"If you want me to go against Eagle City or defeat Grand Canyon City, it might be very difficult for me to do so. But if you want the scales of victory to tilt to one side, I believe I have that capability," Wu Hen revealed with sufficient confidence.
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"I understand, heh heh," Levi nodded.
"To the future Chairman."
"Where, where, to the future State Preceptor."
The two exchanged compliments, plotting their bright future.
But the moment they plunged into what resembled a workshop armory, seeing the mountains of metal ammunition and the rusting weapons that needed to be sorted like trash, their smiles vanished instantly. They were like two friends who swaggered back from shopping, and then dove headfirst into a dark electronics factory to screw bolts—it was from heaven back to hell.
"These weapons, already outdated, wouldn't have much effect even if reloaded. That incompetent old classmate of mine always likes to waste manpower on these meaningless tasks," grumbled Levi while working.
"These are the Rainbow Missiles from the wings?" Wu Hen asked.
"They're antique weapons now. The person in charge here clearly doesn't understand how they operate. If we had experts in antique technology, their value could be unleashed. Antique weapons can penetrate some protective layers and have a miraculous effect in battles driven by dark energy," explained Levi.
"I do have friends who are quite versed in this area," said Wu Hen.
What Levi referred to as "antique weapons" were actually the most advanced hot weaponry technology for the homeland humans, typically mounted on the Emperor Mecha.
Wu Hen himself was completely clueless about them, but he had a whole team of scientific geniuses led by Li Feng backing him up.
"Do you have a way to get pure Yuan You? It doesn't have to be top quality; I just need it to transmit messages."
"Just buy it with money, I've got some savings."
"Then I'll get an antique expert to handle this. You do a virtual scan of these weapons here, and then transmit the data to me," Wu Hen said.
"Okay," Levi headed to the main control room, quickly downloading the information about the antique weapons. "Say, you're not a Xuanzhen cultivator; how do you manage to make such friends? Does your friend have virtual projection technology?"
"Yes," Wu Hen nodded.
"That's great, it's like having access to the Cosmic Network!" Levi nodded in agreement.
