Knights of the Wasteland Fortress

Chapter 147 The Outside World
The outside world was colder than Jiatu imagined.

Their first "expedition" will not go deep into the hinterland of artificial intelligence, so what they can feel is only the tip of the iceberg about the "outside".

Even so, he could still feel the strangeness beyond common sense——

The outside of the refuge is not the "end-of-the-century scene" filled with concrete and recovered forests in Jiatu's impression.

Instead, it is full of chaos and weirdness, as well as a touch of incredible.

On the third day after entering the outside world, Jiatu and the others left the underground tunnel and went to the surface.

The aboveground world here is like a traditional doomsday ruin, filled with various concrete buildings——

It's as if they've just been abandoned for decades.

But Jiatu knew that this alone was absolutely unbelievable.

Because there is no concrete building that can last for hundreds of years without any trace of weathering.

But "Outside" did it.

Moreover, there are all kinds of other incredible "weirdness" here.

"150 meters ahead, the mechanical bee swarm-butterfly shape, be careful to avoid it."

Listening to the report from the radio, Jiatu looked at the crossroads in the distance——

In the center of the light blue forget-me-not flowers, there are countless silver butterflies crawling.

Like a spider hunting machine, each of them is nearly fifty centimeters in size.

They are all made of metal, but the blue butterfly wings exuding light fluorescence are not like ordinary hunting machines at all——

In fact, they really don't follow Skynet's orders.

If Skynet's hunting plane appears nearby, it will be besieged by these mechanical life forms.

On the contrary, the human life forms like Jiatu, because they don't have what they need, can pass safely within 50 meters as long as they don't intentionally approach their lairs or attack them.

Jiatu saw that in the center of the group of mechanical butterflies, there were several spider-type hunting machines lying down. The titanium alloy casing had been completely disassembled, and the internal energy devices and the central processing unit containing rare metals were completely exposed. Come out and be sucked by more than a dozen mechanical phantom butterflies——

As streams of metal jets would suck into the phantom butterfly's abdomen, Jiatu could see some tiny butterfly prototypes being continuously conceived in their gleaming abdominal cavity.

"So what are these... isn't it a hunting machine?"

Even the training school did not teach such a bizarre scene, so Jiatu and the others would discuss this matter involuntarily when they were resting in private.

Wu Ning and the others who are in charge of the team will roughly explain this matter.

"Do you know "Origin of Species"?"

It is rare for Wu Ning to talk about popular science knowledge, and he seems quite serious.

Just missing a pair of glasses.

"'Evolution,' right? I know."

Jiatu nodded and answered for everyone.

"While it would be more accurate to say 'evolution'...but in a nutshell, it doesn't matter."

Wu Ning nodded and replied:

"If you consider the 'hunting system' controlled by artificial intelligence - 'Skynet' as a whole."

"Then the 'mechanical butterfly', or the 'wild machine' in our definition, is the 'cancer cell' in the 'Skynet system'."

"How the original 'wild machine' happened, we human explorers are no longer able to verify."

"However, according to the deduction of the experts in the life layer, the original 'wilding machine' should be the 'hunting machine' that produced random signal errors under the bombardment of nuclear radiation."

"For example, 'identification friend or foe system', 'communication protocol address' - these are the information tools that integrate 'hunting machine' and 'Skynet' - allowing them to communicate with each other, because of an accident, an error occurred, making 'hunting machine' The 'individual' of the 'machine' has escaped the control of 'Skynet'."

"This is the original 'wilding machine'."

"But such a 'wild machine' doesn't have the ability to copy itself?"

Jiatu thought for a while, then asked again.

"Yes."

Wu Ning nodded: "This is the original 'evolution'."

"In fact, just like human 'cancer cells', our body produces two or three 'cancer cells' every day, but for various reasons, such as being unable to replicate itself, or unable to escape the immune system's Recognition and stuff like that - they're quickly caught and disposed of by our immune system."

"'Skynet', as a newly born mechanical life form, certainly couldn't have predicted the birth of the 'wild machine', let alone the 'cancer machine' later - because such a theory did not exist before Skynet in any mechanical theory of life."

"So, as a 'mechanical life form', Skynet is actually very fragile?"

Jiatu nodded, roughly understanding what Wu Ning meant.

"At least that's how it was initially."

Wu Ning nodded: "In short, when the Skynet system was not perfect and sound enough, the wild machines that fell from it gradually became 'hostile machines' different from Skynet's control. Most of them were automatically scrapped after the energy was exhausted and they could not be replenished by the Skynet system."

"However, there are also some wild machines. After 'wilding', another 'mistake' occurred. In order to maintain the life of the body, the function of 'hunting' has been reproduced—"

"This function is equipped on most hunter-killers. It is designed to allow them to collect energy and parts from their battle-damaged companions to maintain their offensive capabilities when they are severely damaged or their energy is exhausted. "

"All that feral machines need is to unlock the 'limitation' of the IFF system, through random memory errors, as they did in feral."

"So the 'wild machine' evolved into an 'hostile machine', and gained the ability to hunt 'Skynet' and 'hunting machine'."

Jiatu and the other new explorers listened silently to Wu Ning's story.

They had no idea that the "outside" was like this.

It is neither the dominance of "Skynet", nor is it a bloody battle between Explorers and "Skynet".

But a "war" between "mechanical life" and "mechanical life"?
No, it should be said to be "ecosphere".

"After getting the 'eating' function, it was easy after that."

Wu Ning continued in another breath:

"The average lifespan of the wild machine has been greatly extended, and on this basis, it has acquired the ability to 'reproduce' and 'evolve'. They will iterate their next generation of bodies according to their own needs—"

"And on this basis, convergent evolution took place and became the 'mechanical butterfly' we see today."

Jiatu and the others recalled the mechanical lifeform they saw in the middle of the night, and couldn't help but nodded.

Although it seems unbelievable that a machine will evolve into a creature.

But since the Fibonacci sequence appears universally during the growth of plants, it seems that there is nothing inconceivable about the convergent evolution of mechanical life forms towards carbon-based life under the guidance of engineering and science and technology. ——

Maybe they did it on purpose.

It's like humans invented radar by observing bats.

Looking carefully, there are still many differences between the mechanical phantom butterfly and the real butterfly in places such as eyes and mouth——

But for explorers who haven't seen real butterflies in person, the two are similar enough to be called "convergent evolution."

Under the effect of "convergent evolution", the largest "life community" in the outside world is not ruled by "Skynet", but by these "mechanical life".
However, it is precisely because of the existence of these mechanical life forms that today's world of ruins has changed beyond recognition.

Except for a few plant life forms like forget-me-nots, most of the ruined buildings are occupied by various mechanical life forms.

Sometimes Jiatu's expedition team had to fight these mechanical lifeforms in order to pass.

Even the location of a "door" is within a "nest" of mechanical life.

Although it is expressed in human words, it is more like a small mechanical factory.

After using electromagnetic concussion bombs to kill the internal nanomachine colony, this "mechanical hive" automatically stopped operating.

It became a stronghold for human explorers in the "outside".

"Then you stay here."

After Wu Ning and his team stayed in this mechanical lair for a short time, they set off.

The [-]st Squadron is responsible for controlling the supply truck. There are three resource points that need to be recovered, and the mechanical lair is one of them.

However, as they go deeper, the outside world will become more and more dangerous, so the expedition team usually will not bring newcomers who enter the outside world for the first time to go too far in the outside world.

So Jiatu and the others were left here.

This made Wei Wei and the others very excited when they thought they could enter another "Skyfire World".

But when Jiatu saw those "residents" of the exploration team who were yellow and emaciated due to long-term malnutrition, he felt something was wrong.

Even more so after they were invited into The World Inside the Door.

Compared with the "Skyfire World", the machine lair and the world inside the door have completely turned into ruins.

There is a natural disaster called "worms" everywhere.

They feed on dirt and do not attack humans.

But it's covered in slime, making it extremely difficult to destroy.

The land that has been gnawed by them will never grow plants again.

Therefore, wherever it goes, it will only leave a thick layer of creep.

The task of the resident explorers is to hunt and kill these "worms" and obtain "magic crystals" from them for use in the refuge.

Jiatu and the others ate dry food sticks with them for three weeks, soaked their hands and feet in the worm's mucus until they almost rotted, and then waited for Wu Ning and the others to return to the troops.

"How is it? Do you have a fuller understanding of the outside world and "The World Inside the Gate"?"

Wu Ning, who returned from the "deep outside world", looked exhausted.

But at least she seemed to be fine.

Only a few people in the team were injured, and there were some unfamiliar faces, who should be the "residents" who switched defenses before.

Many of their injuries were much heavier than those on the Worm World side, and it seemed that natural disasters were also graded.

There are weak and strong.

Like Tianhuo Forest, "The World Inside the Door" suitable for explorers to operate is one of the few.

On the way back to the shelter, Jiatu and the others were all very silent.

Because they feel that this is a multiverse world that is gradually being destroyed.

Most of the worlds inside the door they have come into contact with are ruins that have been looted by natural disasters.

Except for the endless magic crystals, I can't get anything.

And the magic crystal is the energy supply system for the exoskeleton and most of the mechanical equipment of the shelter——

Even the "hunting machine" on Skynet uses the magic crystal.

Although the refuge does not know how to obtain the magic crystal on the artificial intelligence side, both sides are using technology from different worlds——

Only this is beyond doubt.

.

Different world technology——

In other words, Jiatu didn't realize how deeply the existence of "Alienated Body" had invaded this world.

"Okay, we're here, let's get things."

After getting enough magic crystals from "The World Inside the Gate", Wu Ning used a delivery truck to pull Jiatu and the others to a department store——

Or, something like that.

Jiatu feels like a research institute here.

But the scale is dozens of times larger.

The entrance of the "Department Store" is located on the ground.

From a distance, Jiatu saw the neon signboard full of feasting and feasting.

It is extremely eye-catching in the bleak ruins of Jincheng City.

Humans in refuge like Wei Wei have never experienced the prosperity of the previous world, so they are only a little surprised when they face the brightly lit "Department Store Supermarket".

But Cato was much more shocked——

Because he never expected that the commercial supermarket from his previous life could still be seen here——

And it looks brightly lit, totally working.

The signboard of the store is a mess of characters, giving Jiatu a very familiar feeling.

It wasn't until he saw the familiar "Yaolan Brand Automatic Beverage Machine" at the entrance of the store that he belatedly realized that this was actually a stronghold of the "Alienated Body" of facilities!
And Wu Ning arranged for Jiatu and the others to enter the "Department Supermarket" with the magic crystal, and stuffed the magic crystal into the coin slot in front of the vending machine, and soon a lot of food and bottled water were randomly delivered.

There are even daily necessities such as toilet paper and lotion.

Each person can only use ten magic crystals at a time, and everyone is prohibited from entering the department store and can only buy supplies at the counter.

Explorers, artificial intelligence, mechanical lifeforms.

Refuge, natural disaster, magic crystal, alienation body.

This is all Jiatu's perception of the outside world formed during this expedition.

It took Jiatu and the others about half a month to use up all the magic crystals in their hands, and the supply truck was half full.

Strange to say, the supplies bought through the magic crystal are all kinds of normal commodities.

Including the Yaolan brand automatic beverage machine at the entrance of the store, all kinds of beverages that fall out of magic crystals have lost their special uses. Green tea will not change people's color, and cola has lost the ability to corrode people's stomachs.

This made Jiatu realize that there is not only one solution to "Alienated Body"——

In other words, directly using the "magic crystal" is the real correct solution!
　Excessive

　　
　
(End of this chapter)