More and more vehicles and various robots came out on the streets of the city, as if they were coming for them from all over the city. However, they had not shown hostility or intention to stop them from leaving. They just followed Hao Ren and his team while continuing to clamour. The robots even continued their work, cleaning the lampposts and guardrails, and streets that were clearly spotless, and tightening the screws under the street billboards repeatedly. They had to keep on doing these activities under any circumstances for the sole purpose of maintaining the city in a ‘living’, pretending that their master was still alive in this world.
Hao Ren had vaguely felt that there was no survivor on the planet.
A flying-disk-shaped, window cleaner robot flew around Y’zaks while calling out in a pleasant voice of a woman. “Citizens, do your apartments require exterior maintenance? Do you want to clean the outside your glass window? The Vjekally Limited R-33 is ready to help.”
Y’zaks patiently shoved the little robot aside, saying, “No, we are leaving the city.”
“Citizens, your choice is very irrational, leaving the shelter means death, the outside environment is not suitable for human,” the roadside billboards said loudly. As Hao Ren and his team kept moving, the voice followed them, saying, “There are cold, vacuum, and the toxic air near the thrusters. You will only survive for two hours in a protective clothing. Why not wait quietly in the sanctuary? In a thousand years, we will arrive in a peaceful new home. The planet will thaw, everything will revive, and life will come back on the planet; and you…your future generations will live peacefully in this world.”
“You finally say something more meaningful,” said Y’zaks, turning his head to the electronic billboard. “But it has nothing to do with us. If the mastermind behind you still retain a bit of logic and intelligence, it should come out and talk to us now.”
The electronic billboard was playing a public service ad of happy family, which Hao Ren had seen it once on the bus yesterday. As soon as Y’zaks’ voice trailed off, the little boy’s face turned into sadness in the ad, he wrung his hands, as he appeared to stand in the centre of the screen. “If you leave the city, you will get hurt.”
“I knew that these ads were something wrong in the first place.” Y’zaks grinned when he noticed something bizarre on the screen.
Hao Ren contacted his spacecraft in the orbit. “MDT, how about the scan? Any results?”
“I have scanned the whole planet and found no shelter that meets your requirements.” The voice of the MDT sounded in his mind. “However, I’ve discovered something else. There is a structure similar to energy node deep inside the planet. The energy flows around the planet are converging in that spot, as if it’s the heart of the planet. If you are looking for something, you should go there to check it out”
“Tell me where it is,” Hao Ren said quickly. “Also check the geological cavities around us. I need navigation, a rough guide.”
The MDT quickly sent the location of the energy node into Hao Ren’s head. He could not help but whistled. “Awesome – just near the core.”
They arrived at the last intersection leading to the city’s border. In the memory of the Nangong couple, the largest hatch was just a stone’s throw away. However, a row of tall robotic guards stood in the middle of the road, with traffic management signs on their bodies.
The robotic guard in the middle gestured to Hao Ren. “Citizens, no passing through. Accident ahead. Road is congested. Dangerous.”
A large number of vehicles came from all directions, huddled together at the intersection and all the roads around them, horns blaring loudly. A large number of robots were weaving in the traffic aimlessly, and doing their ‘works’ in a ridiculous way.
Hao Ren knew that these robots would not allow residents in the city to leave this place; they were doing their best to maintain the ‘normal’ order as if a strong, solid logic was controlling all these robots.
The kind of abnormal behaviour was unlike the result of human control but some sort of bugs in the software.
Hao Ren smiled and reached out to pat on the steel chest of the robotic cop. “I know there’s someone behind you—it might be a madman, or it might be a buggy computer brain but I just want to talk to him.”
The robotic cop was silent for a few seconds before it repeated the same words. “. “Citizens, no passing through. Accident ahead. Road is congested. Dangerous.”
Hao Ren sighed. “We come in peace—just want to know what’s wrong with this planet.”
While saying, he looked at the vehicles and robots that were jammed on the road. Suddenly, he raised his voice and said loudly to the mind behind the machines. “Listen, I know you are listening. You should know that we are from the space and there is an advanced spaceship hovering over the planet. We come in peace. If you are in trouble, you can tell me and I’d be happy to help—provided we can talk openly and honestly.”
No one jumped out to respond to him. Lily muttered next to him. “It won’t work. Didn’t I howl a couple of times on the balcony before?”
Hao Ren shrugged. “But I think it works.”
The machines that clogged the street did not disperse, but no more robots coming. It fell into a strange silence. The little robots weaving in the traffic had also stopped their work and looking at them quietly. For the first time, Hao Ren had experienced being ‘stared at’ by a group of machines; it was so weird that it was almost no difference from the gaze of people.
Vivian tried to go ahead. The eyes of all robots on the streets immediately followed her, steel bearings squeaking but apart from that, there was no robots stopped her.
It was a weird compromise, unlike human behaviour.
They began to move again in the traffic, sounds of the steel heads turning followed wherever they went like a horror movie. Hao Ren was walking past a small cleaner robot, which looked up and spoke in a voice of a man happily, Vjekally—”
Vjekally Limited, specialist in cleaning equipment. I got it.” Hao Ren smiled and knocked on the head of the small robot.
They had come in front of the city’s outermost hatch.
A huge steel city wall surrounded the city. The upper wall joined directly with the rock domes of the cave while the circular hatch of a dozen-metre-across was set on this wall. Hao Ren stepped forward, knocked on the hatch, and then turned to look at the robot that was watching beside him. “I guess you’re not going to help me open the door, are you?”
The robot did not say a word; the light in its electronic eye looked elusive.
Hao Ren took out his silver spear, a white plasma flame broke out on the tip. He started cutting the hatch; sparks were seen dancing in the reflection of the eyes of the robots. However, the robots only looked on silently, did not help nor stop him.
It was as if their system hung.
When a hole was finally cut out on the hatch, Hao Ren felt a gust of strange air rushing in. He handed two life-support collars to Nangong Wudi and Ayesha. “Put this on. It could save your life in the harsh environment. I suspect that the life-support system is just limited to inside the city, the outside world might be very inhospitable.”
He had quickly widened the hole, large enough for two to pass through side-by-side. Hao Ren stomped his foot on the red-hot iron. It fell off instantly revealing a deep, long passageway. There was dim yellow light in the passageway, and some old machinery abandoned inside years.
Hao Ren checked the navigation map in his mind. “Move ahead from here and after a traffic hub, there will be a series of downward passages. Our final destination is near the core, where there should be something waiting for us.”
“Have you thought of a script?” Vivian shot him a glance.
Hao Ren med the way by jumping into the tunnel. “You have to trust my skill in improvising!”
The others followed inside. Vivian shook her head and sighed. “I would trust you for anything but this…”