Armor-Piercing Munition: Face Me, Carbon-Based Monster!-Chapter 571 - 292: Sanctuary

"We didn’t... we didn’t survive."

Xie Cheng’s tone was heavy.

He looked at Chen Jian, speaking each word deliberately:

"The first generation to leave Mountain City died long ago."

"We are the sixth generation."

"We... live in seclusion underground."

"We maintain a very small population — to be precise, no more than 50 people."

"We strictly control our bloodlines, maintaining the minimum level of reproduction."

"We never interact with the outside world, and we control resource consumption with the most precise, meticulous methods."

"We try to maintain balance... until now."

After Xie Cheng finished speaking, Chen Jian furrowed his brow.

What the hell??

There’s a civilization like this in the world?

Theoretically, it’s achievable.

But the problem is, there are too many uncertainties.

Even a small infectious disease could potentially extinguish the spark of this civilization.

Thinking of this, Chen Jian asked:

"Leaving other questions aside — if you’ve survived this way, how do you deal with monster attacks?"

"We don’t deal with them."

Xie Cheng exhaled deeply.

"In fact, it’s only from our generation that exploration activities have been allowed."

"But, the range of our exploration is extremely limited... the reason we ventured so far this time is because we sensed changes in Mountain City."

"We thought... that their Nuwa Plan had succeeded."

"So, we wanted to take a look inside Mountain City."

"As you know, we encountered you, encountered... the Huaxia Army."

"You’re lying."

Chen Jian abruptly interrupted Xie Cheng.

"If you’re just an exploration team, how could you possibly bring women and children along?"

"Women I can understand, but children?"

"This isn’t exploration, it’s refuge."

"Indeed, it is refuge."

Xie Cheng nodded without hesitation, then said:

"In fact, our — let’s call it a shelter."

"Our shelter suffered a disaster."

"The life-support system collapsed due to an unknown electromagnetic pulse."

"Our stored food could only sustain us for six months, but even more serious than the food shortage was the damage to the power system and the failure of the air filtration system."

"We couldn’t stay underground any longer, so..."

Halfway through Xie Cheng’s sentence, Chen Jian suddenly understood why they appeared in such a manner.

He exchanged a glance with He Shuo, both showing a complex emotion in their eyes that was difficult to articulate.

Electromagnetic pulse.

To destroy the underground facility’s electronic systems, it must have been a very close and powerful electromagnetic pulse.

That...

Wasn’t it the nuclear bombs we dropped?

And it wasn’t just one.

Maybe some were dropped right above Xie Cheng’s people’s "shelter"...

Thinking this, Chen Jian coughed lightly.

"Cough..."

"So now you know the source of the electromagnetic pulse?"

"Of course."

A helpless expression appeared on Xie Cheng’s face.

"The nuclear bombs you dropped."

"So actually, the whole Mountain City was taken down this way, right?"

"...Yes."

Chen Jian nodded honestly.

"Indeed, it was the only solution..."

Xie Cheng sighed and said:

"Actually, a long time ago, we — or rather, our ancestors — had thought of using this method to ’retake’ Mountain City."

"But the problem was, among our batch of survivors, none had enough knowledge about weaponry."

"You know, we have a massive database."

"But none of the materials in the database tell us how to crack a nuclear bomb’s code, how to detonate one, or how to deliver it to the intended target."

"So, this issue was shelved."

"Until now."

"You solved the Mountain City problem before we did..."

At this point, Xie Cheng paused slightly.

His eyes were puzzled, but also carried a hint of curiosity, even a special kind of "affection."

"How did you do it?" 𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

"Are you like us, from some long-surviving underground shelter?"

"No."

Chen Jian shook his head.

"We’re from Chuansha, and you needn’t inquire further about the specifics."

"But now, I have a question."

"You said you’re ’survivors.’ What does this survival mean?"

"You don’t know?"

Xie Cheng frowned.

"You haven’t accessed Mountain City’s database?"

"It’s encrypted, even Fu Xi can’t unlock it."

Chen Jian spread his hands, and Xie Cheng seemed to realize something.

"No wonder... Lingxi, this artificial intelligence, was initially optimized for Fu Xi’s algorithm."

"Moreover, Fu Xi is actually not a true quantum computer."

"So... not being able to unlock it is normal."

"Of course, that’s not important."

"Surviving means we survived the disaster created by Lingxi."

"I don’t know if you’ve seen the so-called ’Hibernation Chamber,’ where our ancestors were supposed to be."

"But, most of them died."

"Because Lingxi’s Nuwa Plan has exceeded the original scope, it needed... to destroy all carriers of consciousness."

"Which was us."

Reasonable.

This matched the information Chen Jian had already gathered.

However, when Lingxi explained to Lin Yu, it was labeled as an accident.