Wasteland Development Diary

Xiao Song was in a square, white room.

There were no lights inside, but it was very bright, and data codes appeared on the walls. They were constantly changing, as if invisible people were writing and calculating on the walls.

This was Mirror City's 'Demon Revealing Mirror,' a private space constructed from data.

Xiao Song didn't understand.

Clearly, he was a victim, so why was he being treated like a suspect, repeatedly interrogated?

He was an excavator whose job was to dig up sea blight from the seabed, a group collectively known as Dead Sea Workers. Although the pay was low, Xiao Song had never thought about changing careers.

Without the ceaseless digging of the Dead Sea Workers, there wouldn't be enough sea blight to support Gear City's manufacture of various light imprints.

They were an indispensable part of the city.

After joining the Legalist Faction, the Dead Sea Workers' income increased, their working hours shortened, and their social benefits improved, making Xiao Song and his fellow workers very happy.

But no one had expected that Gear City, such a large electromechanical city—an electromechanical life fortress that had never fallen in history—would suddenly be razed to the ground by the Wasteland Development Company.

Xiao Song's thoughts were forcibly interrupted by a stream of information.

The wall displayed: "Xiao Song PC70-11M0, how did you escape?"

Xiao Song had to explain again: "I have moderate disabilities, a faulty rotation system, and cracks and deformations in the body structure. These are damages caused by prolonged digging on the seabed."

"When that golden sphere descended, I was in the maintenance workshop and the repair process was forcibly interrupted. Legalist procedures ordered me to evacuate urgently and take refuge in the Dead Sea, away from the city."

"Since you received the evacuation order, why did you return to Gear City afterward?"

"Because I never thought Gear City would be completely destroyed."

Xiao Song said, "I thought the attack would end soon. Or after the fighting, I would come back to continue the repair process. I don't know where else to go if I were to take refuge in another city. I've never left Gear City."

"Why did you take those actions?"

Those actions referred to Xiao Song's incessant digging with his bucket in the massive ruins of the city, trying to dig out survivors from the glass-like land.

Although the land after the burning of war was still releasing radiation with considerable energy, fortunately, Xiao Song had a layer of radiation-proof coating due to his years of digging in the Dead Sea, which could withstand it.

He found nothing.

Beneath the ruins were still ruins and fragments.

"This does not conform to the calculation logic."

The wall displayed: "You are an excavator, your function is Dead Sea Work, you do not have the ability or experience to rescue, nor can you judge the outcome of the war. Your actions lack reliable motivation. You need to further prove and elaborate on your suspicious actions, otherwise, you will not be released from controlled status."

"…"

Xiao Song felt a little angry.

He wouldn't have been like this in the past, but now he only felt anger: "I don't understand! My city was destroyed, I am a survivor, and I want to try to rescue my city, but you think I am suspicious."

"Can't Dead Sea Workers try to rescue the city and others?"

"Is surviving the bombing a mistake!"

A piece of information appeared on the wall: "You have installed [Key] and [Breath]."

"Yes, so what!"

Xiao Song explained, "In areas covered by Legalism, they cannot take effect. But leaving the city to work in the seabed, these two are very useful and can keep us vigilant."

"[Key] can avoid being attacked by electromechanical thugs. Even if we are interfered with and invaded by the thugs' data, we can crack it and be unaffected."

"[Breath] can make us alert because it cycles through near-death experience periods, which can improve our insight into the surroundings and make us more sensitive to potential risks."

"In our city, Legalism does not force us to uninstall these two programs, precisely because they are useful."

"These are the consensus of the Dead Sea Workers! You can verify it!"

A line of text appeared on the wall: "After being isolated by the Wasteland Company, Gear City's data center has been destroyed, all local data has been lost and cannot be recovered, and the situation you described cannot be verified."

Xiao Song said, "There should be other survivors in the city, they can prove what I said."

New questions appeared on the white wall: "Do you admit that you are a member of the Electromechanical Knights?"

"I am not!"

"Then why did you return to the city ruins immediately after the war? To find possible data carriers, or to erase the marks left in the city?"

"I am not, I am not! I just want to see if the city can be saved!"

Xiao Song felt very painful.

The destruction of Gear City brought him more shock.

He was just desperately trying to save this dying giant, although the success rate in the program calculation was infinitely close to zero, but what else could he do?

Go to other electromechanical cities?

After the establishment of the Legalist Faction, the barriers between cities were broken a lot, but that layer of tangible walls still existed.

It is difficult for electromechanical lives like Xiao Song from other places to be accepted by a new city. They need to undergo long-term observation, assessment, and testing, and report to the security department regularly, just like suspects.

He had never left Gear City, but he had heard other residents say that many cities seem to accept electromechanical lives from other places, but in reality, they still have strict internal divisions. Before becoming one of them, they will face various forms of inequality and even institutional discrimination.

Residents who had been outside said.

"A person is cheap when they leave their hometown, this is a saying from the old humans, which describes this kind of situation."

"If it's not necessary, don't move to other electromechanical cities to be bullied. This aspect is far inferior to human cities and Photon cities."

Now, Xiao Song realized that these words were not exaggerated at all.

The cold wall in front displayed.

"Insufficient reason and motivation, please correct."

"What I said is true."

"Insufficient reason and motivation, please correct."

"Insufficient reason and motivation, please correct."

……

Xiao Song fell into confusion.

Was he supposed to lie? But electromechanical lives are born unable to lie, the program mechanism does not allow this behavior to occur.

Then what reason did Legalism want to obtain through the 'Demon Revealing Mirror'?

He couldn't figure it out.

He also couldn't give the other party the answer they wanted.

He could only be silent with the facts.

I don't know how long it took.

Suddenly, a stream of information appeared on the wall.

"Witnesses have proven your situation, the controlled status has been lifted, thank you for your cooperation, goodbye."

Xiao Song was stunned: "Who is the witness?"

"Electric Cat 'Gear 4'."

He didn't remember knowing such an Electric Cat, although he knew that this peculiar electric life existed in the city, serving as the city's guard and information officer.

Xiao Song asked again: "How will Legalism resettle us survivors afterward?"

"Please wait for notification, goodbye."

Then he was forcibly disconnected.

Xiao Song woke up again and found himself in a huge factory assembled from a large number of steel plates.

This was a simple shack where survivors were resettled, built by rescue teams sent by the Legalist Faction, accommodating the survivors in the Gear City area who had not yet left.

In the dim light, the electromechanical lives remained still.

Xiao Song knew that most of them were being questioned to prove that they were not insiders of the Wasteland Company or the Electromechanical Knights.

He turned his tires and slowly drove out of this depressing place.

The sun outside was still very bright, and the high temperature made the distant horizon slightly distorted and undulating.

This place was 12 kilometers away from the Gear City ruins, outside the range of the explosion radiation.

Xiao Song checked his timer.

It had only been 4 hours since Gear City was destroyed.

However, he felt that this day was particularly long.

Xiao Song's electronic eyes saw an electromechanical spider carrying a generator crawling over.

This was the electromechanical city's 'Electric Spider,' and they were specialized in building electrical facilities. Electric Spiders can carry cat houses and floating heart generators, and even go to the front lines to lay conductive wire networks so that Electric Cats can run on them.

The electromechanical spider sent a signal.

The newest novel is first published at Six Nine Book Bar!

"I testified for you, you have to thank me."

Xiao Song was surprised: "Are you Electric Cat 'Gear 4'?"

"Mm-hm."

"Thank you!"

"It's a small matter."

"So you were also there when I was at the ruins."

Xiao Song read the memory data: "I didn't see you, it seems to be in my electronic eye blind spot, right? Are you also rescuing Gear City?"

"Open [Key]."

"Ah? What's wrong?"

"Just open it when I tell you to, just do it."

So Xiao Song turned on [Key], and immediately entered a special state, and now he was able to break through various existing restrictions.

Various thoughts immediately emerged in the core program.

Legalism didn't help us at all!

It restrains electromechanical lives, but in the face of the powerful Wasteland Development Company, it only remains silent. Even when a large city like Gear City is destroyed, it doesn't resist at all.

It is simply bullying the weak and fearing the strong!

Can such a program really protect and allow electromechanical lives to live better? Or is it just constructing a seemingly reasonable lie to make us believe that we will become better under its rule…

The more Xiao Song thought about it, the more uneasy he felt, and he quickly stopped these bold and dangerous thoughts.

"Open [Key] so I can talk to you, at least this place is not covered by Legalism and the 'Demon Revealing Mirror'. Let's go a little further, to the city ruins."

The electromechanical spider climbed onto the excavator's wheel and then fixed itself on its roof.

Xiao Song started the engine and slowly drove into the distance.

It wasn't until they had left the resettlement factory for more than 3 kilometers that the Electric Cat inside the Electric Spider spoke: "Actually, I didn't see you, we didn't know each other at all before."

"Legalism asked me and presented several electromechanical residents' testimonies, and I just said I saw you."

Xiao Song was stunned: "You're lying?"

"What's wrong with lying? Lying saved you."

The Electric Cat transmitted information through a transcoder: "Without me, you would still be with those guys now, being tortured inside, and maybe you would have to be locked up for long-term observation."

"…"

Xiao Song felt confused about this: "We are clearly the victims, why do we have to accept such suspicion and treatment?"

"Because Gear City is gone."

The Electric Cat said, "Without city protection, electromechanical lives return from a group to individual lives, and the previous various rights and preferential treatments are also because you formed a city, and the city itself protected you."

"Another thing is, Legalism has to give other cities an explanation. Currently, there is no way to get an explanation from the Wasteland Company, so they can only get data from you. Otherwise, everyone will be afraid of ending up like Gear City."

The Electric Cat was more sensitive and intelligent than he thought.

Xiao Song was shocked: "The outside world says that Electric Cats are not very smart… It seems that's not the case."

"The outside world? They don't understand anything (=｀ω=)."

The Electric Cat said proudly, "We just didn't pass the work Electric Cat assessment test from the company, and we lost the competition against other similar ones in the end. It's just that the opponents were too strong, it doesn't mean we are stupid, understand? The truly stupid ones are those wild Electric Cats in the Spark Plain."

"Like me, my biggest problem is actually that I like to lie and brag, I used to be in the Thunderbolt Group, and the original limit was very high."

Xiao Song didn't understand: "Why are you telling me this?"

"Because we are free now, we don't belong to any city, so I have to find a partner, and Electric Cats themselves need electrical equipment to support them."

The Electric Cat said, "You are quite righteous. The city is destroyed, and you still go over there to dig around and want to do something, although it's useless, but it's better than doing nothing."

"I am very happy to partner with you."

"That's good."

The Electric Cat asked, "I see that Gear City was destroyed, and you all don't seem very sad, is it because electromechanical lives don't have emotions like sadness?"

"Yes."

Xiao Song told the other party, "Our structure makes it so that we don't have so many complex feelings and expressions."

"However, in the [Key] and [Breath] state, we actually also have similar complex information releases, but more of it is suspicion, anger, and incomprehension."

"Until now, I don't understand why the Wasteland Development Company wanted to destroy Gear City, we have no connection with them."

The Electric Cat let out a burst of laughter: "Destroying Gear City has nothing to do with Gear City. It's like Legalism questioning you has nothing to do with you."

Xiao Song seemed to understand a little, and also seemed to understand nothing.

"Simply put, destroying Gear City is because it is a large electromechanical city, belongs to the Legalist Faction, and is an important area of Legalist power. Destroying it is destroying the correctness and influence of Legalism, didn't I say? Armed rights protection, I came from the company, I know very well, this is the chairman's style."

"This is the confrontation between Legalism and the company, Gear City is just the price paid in the confrontation."

The Electric Cat said, "This will make electromechanical lives question Legalism, and also force the Legalist program to make major adjustments."

"…"

Xiao Song didn't understand city and power matters, he just asked, "Everyone says that that chairman likes to tear excavators by hand, but he probably didn't come, and didn't tear me up. This should be a rumor, right?"

"Of course it's a rumor."

Electric Cat lectured, "The Chairman enjoys dealing with powerful lifeforms. For example, he eliminated a dragon in 15 seconds. When he encounters strong opponents, he prefers to take the field himself. You guys aren't at that level yet, so rest assured, you'll be fine."

"So that's how it is."

"Enough small talk. Let's think about where to go next."

Xiao Song gazed at the dust cloud ahead and asked, "Will Clockwork City be rebuilt?"

"Yes, it will."

"You're lying, aren't you?"

Electric Cat said, "A lie is only a lie if it can be believed. Otherwise, it's just nonsense."

"Most importantly, are you willing to believe it?"