An invasion from the Abyss? I, a demonic cultivator, laughed.

Chapter 278 Simulation of the Abyss

"Stay alert."

Chu Xiu left behind a sentence, and with a wave of his hand, a barrier of demonic energy formed around him.

His actions startled the other three slightly, but their expressions quickly turned serious.

As the flying corpse descended and got closer to the base, everyone gradually realized something was wrong.

It seems too quiet here.

The silence is not in a physical sense. The Awakened's superhuman senses allow them to hear the roar of industrial machines running and the faint "buzzing" sound of high-voltage current when a fully automatic anti-aircraft turret rotates.

But the problem is there are no human voices.

There was no one there.

There was no one in the agricultural areas, industrial areas, or even residential areas.

Even after the flying corpses had completely landed in the base, no one was seen.

As the group moved deeper into the residential area, even stranger things began to happen.

In the residential area, there was still freshly brewed fruit tea, the hot water in the thermos had not yet cooled down, the induction cooker had heated the pot until it was red-hot, and the stew inside had been completely burnt. Clothes were still hanging to dry on the balcony.

Everything was full of life, but there was no one there.

It was as if in an instant, everyone hurriedly evacuated, so hastily that they didn't even have time to turn off the boiling gas.

"What exactly happened here? Was it a sudden attack? But..."

Aurora glanced at the rifles neatly locked in a weapons cabinet inside a house.

What kind of attack made the people here hastily evacuate without even taking their weapons?
The most suspicious point is that most of the doors here are closed.

In such a rush, do they even have the leisure to close the door?

"Never mind that, our target is the ammunition. What happens to the people here is none of our business," Chu Xiu said.

Aurora looked at him with some confusion, but didn't say anything more.

Since Aurora had been here before, the four of them quickly arrived at one of the places where weapons and ammunition were stored. The heavy blast-proof iron door was firmly closed, and they still did not see anyone else along the way.

"Why don't we go check the core shelter first? If there's anyone there, they'll definitely be there."

Before he could finish speaking, a large amount of demonic energy surged out from behind Chu Xiu, transforming into more than a dozen giant swords that pierced into the armory door!

"boom!"

The next moment, the dozen or so giant swords detonated like bombs in all directions, directly blasting open the massive blast door that was at least two meters thick!

"Mr. Chu, you..."

Under Aurora's questioning gaze, Chu Xiu said calmly, "There's no time to slowly search for people. Let's get the ammunition and weapons as soon as possible and go back."

After hearing Chu Xiu's explanation, Aurora's brows did not relax; instead, the look of doubt in her eyes deepened.

Why did she feel like Chu Xiu knew that no one was here?
Sensing the questioning look in the other person's eyes, Chu Xiu did not explain, but urged, "Hurry up."

In fact, he did know exactly why.

Qin Xiang once told him that the principle behind the abyss's devouring of the world is "complete datafication." As long as everything can be datafied, then time loses its meaning. The abyss can deduce the changes of the next tens of millions of years in an instant, and fast-forward a world to its end in the blink of an eye.

The only thing that can push open the abyss is civilization.

Because of the connections between people, and the collision and exchange of ideas and logic, the difficulty of digitizing the abyss is magnified exponentially.

It's easy to digitize a weed that can't move or speak; as long as you know the soil type and the weather, you can basically reconstruct its growth state.

It's not difficult to quantify wild animals that only know how to sleep and hunt. Their behavior patterns are simple, and even if they reproduce for thousands of generations, they will still follow the laws of nature to thrive on this land.

But once civilization is born, it spreads like wildfire and cannot be contained. How long has humankind existed? Yet it has developed such an astonishing civilization!
The course of civilization is unpredictable. No one knows whether a seemingly insignificant sentence in a book will inspire a genius and lead to groundbreaking theories; no one knows what indescribable experiences a precious portrait will create for its viewer.

Civilization is entropy-increasing; it expands automatically and bears magnificent fruit.

"This trial is, after all, a 'rewind,' and rewind requires energy, as evidenced by the approximately 400-kilometer radius boundary."

"The civilization here still exists, and even a short thirty-day simulation would probably consume a huge amount of energy from the Abyss. So let's just erase these 'sparks of civilization' that don't belong to the mission."

If Chu Xiu's prediction is correct, not only this place, but also those settlements in the wild and those wandering hunters will all be wiped out. Now, in this trial ground, only the "spark of civilization" recognized by the mission exists.

even
Chu Xiu recalled the scene he had previously scanned with his divine sense.

At that time, he felt that the people in the camp seemed somewhat "dull".

Looking back now, it seems that even among these "sparks of civilization," only the main "characters" were fully traced back, while the others were simply "NPCs" whose past was discarded.

But he couldn't say these things. If those powerful awakened beings found out that he was actually dead and that everything now was just a meaningless simulation, their morale would probably collapse immediately.

Therefore, Chu Xiu could only urge them to focus on the important matters and stop thinking about random things.

This tactic proved very effective, and everyone was quickly drawn to the warehouse full of ammunition.

"Hey, Old Huang's got some skills, he actually has so much stock!"

An awakened individual stepped forward with delight, lifted a sheet, and revealed rows of neatly arranged wooden boxes. Upon opening them, they were astonished to find artillery shells inside! Armor-piercing shells, incendiary shells, and high-explosive shells, large caliber and small caliber—they had it all!

"But wouldn't it be a bit inappropriate for us to take everything without even saying hello?" one of the awakened ones wondered.

"Don't worry about it, just get through this difficult situation first."

"And since they abandoned these things and left, it means that these items were of limited use to them," Chu Xiu said.

This explanation, though far-fetched, was unanimously agreed upon by the two awakened individuals. They didn't care about the rationality of the reason; they just needed a reason.

Only Aurora hesitated. Chu Xiu glanced at him and said, "Not only these ammunition, but also all kinds of weapons, tanks, and armored vehicles in the base. We will take them all with us."

"Everyone, move faster. The sooner we get back, the more time we'll have to prepare our weapons."

Urged on by Chu Xiu, the four main warehouses were quickly ransacked. When everyone reunited, everyone had a big smile on their face.

"This is a huge windfall! More than 200,000 artillery shells of various kinds, and more than a million ordinary machine gun bullets!"

"The only regret is that we can't take those tanks, attack helicopters, anti-aircraft vehicles, and large artillery with us," the man sighed.

The other two Awakened Ones are both at the General level. Although the three of them have much stronger storage capabilities than other Awakened Ones of the same level, they would still need to make at least two trips just to carry so many shells. They don't even have space to store machine gun bullets, let alone these heavy equipment.

But these pieces of equipment are all very valuable. In the post-apocalyptic world, artillery, which doesn't have such high requirements for processing speed, and even if it's crudely made, it only results in a loss of accuracy, but it can still fire shells, is relatively not scarce.

However, machines like armed helicopters, which require extremely high levels of industrial expertise, can only be manufactured using superhuman strength or from supplies left over from before the apocalypse, and each one is extremely precious.

If all of these things could be transported back, it would indeed greatly enhance the base's defense capabilities.

Chu Xiu also frowned slightly. If he wanted to empty this place, he would have to make at least five trips. And this was not just about calculating the travel time; the Awakened Ones needed a lot of time to "store" and "unload" the goods.

It might take almost two days to move everything.

Furthermore, in order to maintain speed, it is difficult to avoid being harassed by various monsters along the way. If the noise is too great and the enemy discovers it and takes the opportunity to attack, the losses may be heavy.

"Well, I didn't want to make such a fuss, but it's better to move everything at once before they can react."

With this thought in mind, a massive amount of demonic energy surged out of Chu Xiu's body once again. This surging demonic energy spread rapidly in all directions, transforming into giant hands that swept up all the heavy equipment!

When Chu Xiu first entered the General rank, his demonic energy was enough to surround an entire city. Although it was just a thin mist, his strength has increased many times over, and in the end, it actually formed a giant black platform the size of a playground!

He brought not only weapons and ammunition, but also raw materials such as gunpowder and shell casings that could be assembled from materials stored in the warehouse. He even carried large quantities of fuels such as oil and gasoline.

The enormous black platform resembled a suspended fortress, and Chu Xiu stood at the base of this castle, like a god holding up a mountain with one hand.

This astonishing scene left Aurora and her two companions completely stunned. They had never imagined that an Awakened One could possess such power.

An uncontrollable thought arose in the minds of the three: With Mr. Chu around, even an army of billions of blood demons would be nothing to fear.
When Chu Xiu returned with the enormous black "fortress," the entire base erupted in cheers and excitement, with the people spreading the news far and wide.

The entire base was mobilized, and these brand-new weapons were quickly installed around the base, and ammunition and raw materials were transported to suitable locations.

This batch of equipment will increase the base's defense capabilities by at least 50%.

However, Aurora kept her brow furrowed as she watched the busy crowd.

"What's wrong? Why are you frowning when you have so much equipment?"

Zhuo Ao was excitedly carrying a cannon, but after noticing Aurora, he handed it over to another awakened person and came over to ask her about it.

"Brother Zhuo, don't you think everyone seems a little different?" Aurora asked hesitantly.

"Not quite the same?" Zhuo Ao was taken aback and glanced around. "You mean there's a Blood Demon spy infiltrated? But I didn't notice any difference."

“Not a spy, but…” Aurora hesitated for a long time before laughing self-deprecatingly, “Maybe I’m overthinking it, but I feel like some people have become strangers. In the past, every time I came back, Xiaodie would be the first to rush up to greet me, but just now she was just cheering in the crowd.”

As soon as he finished speaking, Zhuo Ao immediately gave her a strange look: "I say, our Holy Maiden, have you been too tired lately? Isn't this normal? Maybe this girl has something on her mind lately."

“It’s not just her,” Aurora frowned. “Lancelot is a super germaphobe, but just now he actually picked up a wooden crate and left; the Wang brothers used to tsk as a catchphrase when they spoke, but that habit seems to have disappeared, and so does Qi Fan.”

"So there really is a Blood Demon spy?" Zhuo Ao interrupted her.

“That’s not what I meant,” Aurora shook her head. “I can feel that they are still them, but it’s like they are. It’s like a part of their soul is missing.”

"Even I feel like something's not right."

“Little sister,” Zhuo Ao interrupted Aurora, “aren’t you overthinking it? These are special times, isn’t it normal for some weak-willed mortals to change their ways?”

"As for yourself, I think you've been worrying too much lately and are mentally exhausted. Go get a good night's sleep. Even though you're in charge of the base, you don't need to shoulder everything yourself."

"Besides, even if they really have problems, a few mortals can't cause any big trouble."

After saying that, Zhuo Ao waved his hand dismissively and continued to set up the cannons.

Aurora stood still, seemingly still deep in thought.

Just then, a voice rang in her ear: "What are you thinking about here? Aren't you supposed to be modifying the Titan machine?"

Aurora then seemed to wake from a dream, and when she turned around, she saw Chu Xiu.

She nodded quickly: "Oh yes, Mr. Chu, please come with me."

The two entered the Titan machine, where a complex network of passageways and numerous storage rooms had been carved out of the mountainside, making the building resemble a giant fortress.

Aurora led Chu Xiu to one of the gun emplacements, which was located on the surface of the mountain. Projecting fire from here could almost cover the entire base, making it an excellent position.

However, at this moment, there was only a base and a pile of parts on the ground.

"The biggest challenge with electromagnetic railguns is the ablation problem. Ordinary steel simply cannot withstand the extremely high speeds of electromagnetic railgun firing. Even with special steel, there is a risk of the barrel exploding after just a few shots."

"And this device can provide a strong magnetic field."

As Aurora explained, she demonstrated it to Chu Xiu on the spot.

Although Aurora is a mechanic, the mechanic profession is extremely resource-intensive. Without any resources, one has to start from scratch to create an extraordinary technological system, which is almost impossible. Therefore, although Aurora is a King-level, in terms of fine processing, she is probably far inferior to Guan Ke, who is a General-level.

She worked for quite a while before she could barely produce a piece of steel the size of a breastplate, large enough to meet the requirements of an electromagnetic cannon.

After Chu Xiu roughly figured out the principle, he stepped forward and perfectly completed the Eight Desolate Netherfire Formation. In just a few breaths, before Aurora could even react, a perfect cannon barrel appeared before her eyes.

Aurora stared wide-eyed in disbelief.

She originally thought that Chu Xiu was just talking casually, and even if he had mastered a certain level of weapon crafting ability, he would at most be on par with her, a mechanic who had been studying crafting techniques for many years. But she never expected that Chu Xiu's weapon crafting ability was hundreds or thousands of times better than hers.

After a brief setback, Aurora's face lit up with joy again. At this rate, more than a hundred electromagnetic cannons could be added to the Titan in less than a day!
She finally understood why Chu Xiu had transported back so many raw materials.

"Not only is their combat strength unbelievably high, but they also possess such abilities in weapon crafting, and they have such powerful summoned creatures."

The main combat power, support class, and summoner class are all top-tier!

In Aurora's mind, Chu Xiu's image became even more mysterious and majestic.

At this moment, Aurora seemed to remember something, her beautiful eyes lit up, and she looked up at Chu Xiu: "Mr. Chu, may I ask you a question?"

Chu Xiu paused slightly, then said, "What?"

"Mr. Chu," Aurora took a deep breath and asked the question she had been pondering for a long time:
"Don't you think there's something strange about the people in the base?"

(End of this chapter)