Genius Club.

Chapter 542 Countdown

"You, you, you, you, listen!"

The little girl CC took a step back instantly, panicking:

"There really is something fishy going on here!"

“Oh no…”

The bearded man didn't know whether to laugh or cry:
"You weren't afraid of those gun-wielding bandits, you weren't afraid of the ferocious beasts in the jungle, you weren't afraid of people trying to steal guns in the middle of the night... How could an inexplicable cry scare you like this?"

The man found it incredible.

Which of the above things is not much more dangerous than this "ghost cry"?
All of them were questions that could result in death if one was not careful, or even be life-threatening in themselves, but CC was not afraid at all. But now he turned pale with fright because of such a small matter.

"Don't you think it's scary?"

CC looked up, his eyes trembling:
"This crying sound is obviously abnormal!"

"Don't worry, this is definitely not crying."

The man stroked his beard and analyzed:
"What kind of hero can cry for more than a hundred years without stopping? Forget about more than a hundred years. You said your father last came here a few months ago... What kind of iron voice can cry continuously for several months without stopping for a moment?"

"So it's a ghost!" It seems that CC is not a materialist and insists that ghosts exist.

The more a man strokes his beard, the better he becomes.

even……

They all felt somewhat comfortable and shook their heads:

"Even if it's a ghost, it will get tired after crying for several months. How can there be such a boring ghost? So it's definitely not a ghost, so stop imagining it."

"..."

Faced with the man's sophistry, CC was speechless for a moment.

This is a great victory of materialism over idealism.

but.

The man’s explanation was indeed very reasonable and convincing, which also calmed little CC down.

In fact, it is still the influence of preconceived concepts.

Before this, CC's father, a powerful hunter, was the person he admired the most; since his father said there was something fishy going on, CC never doubted it, so his first reaction when he heard the crying was that it was a ghost, and he didn't consider any other options at all.

But bearded men are different.

He seemed... seemed not to have considered the possibility of a ghost from the beginning.

Sure enough, some things, such as logic and judgment, are not lost simultaneously with amnesia.

"Um……"

The man closed his eyes and listened carefully to the crying coming from deep inside the institute:
"Don't talk yet, I'm listening carefully."

He unexpectedly discovered that the cries were very regular and kept repeating a steady rhythm.

This also made him more convinced that it was definitely not just the crying and howling of a human or a ghost.

As we walked closer inside, the sound became clearer:

"woo woo woo woo……"

"woo woo woo woo……"

"woo woo woo woo……"

indeed.

Regular repetition.

The man tapped the holster with his index finger, ticking off the rhythm:
Da...da da da, da...da da da, da...da da da.

“Like a reminder tone.”

The man opened his eyes:

"It's a mechanical reminder or warning tone, completely devoid of emotion or ups and downs."

Listen to the man's analysis so thoroughly.

The little girl CC also let down her guard, walked forward, covered one ear and listened:

"Hmm... Indeed, now that you mention it, it's not that scary. If you think about it carefully, this place is surrounded by mountains on all sides, and the slopes are so steep and sharp, it's impossible for anyone to get in or out."

"Under these circumstances, the probability of anyone surviving inside is too small."

The man walked out the door, asked CC to make two more torches, and then put some wild fruits in CC's hand:

"Then follow the plan we made at the beginning. If you really encounter any unknown creature, no matter what it looks like, just throw a wild fruit at it."

"If the fruit bounces back, I'll point my gun at it and see if we can communicate. If the fruit goes straight through its body... then there's nothing to say, we'll just turn around and run."

"Uh-huh!"

CC nodded vigorously, holding the crucial "entity detector" tightly in his hand.

After being fully prepared.

The two of them walked deeper into the research institute with torches in hand, the man holding a pistol in his right hand and the girl holding wild fruits... Strange name, strange combination, always doing strange things.

The scale of the research institute was not too large, and many passages were cut off by the rising Blade Mountain. It took the two of them more than ten minutes to explore the first floor.

Then, there was no way out.

There were no stairs to the second floor, nor any passage down to the basement.

"VV, what should we do?"

CC is no longer afraid and rubs the wild fruit in his hands:

"The stairs to the second floor must have been squeezed out in the earthquake that year. If we want to get to the second floor, we can find a way to climb up from the outside."

"But...I heard that humming sound, and it seemed to be coming from underground."

The bearded man nodded:

"Since the sound can be transmitted from below, there must be a passage. Let's first find the place where the sound is the loudest and clearest, and then look for the underground entrance nearby."

Soon, the two came to where the sound was the loudest.

At this point, the whimpering sound has become very clear. If you listen carefully, it does not sound like crying, but a mechanical sound similar to "beep-beep-beep-beep".

"It should be the sound made by some kind of machine." CC said.

Hard work pays off.

The two finally found a crack in the dark and intertwined ruins tunnel. It was this crack in the floor that connected to the underground space, allowing them to pass through the crack and reach the underground level.

"Do you want to go in?" CC looked at the bearded man.

"Throw down the torch first."

The man threw the torch down first and looked around carefully...

There was nothing unusual, it just looked like a complete ruin.

Moreover, the torches burned intact, without any signs of extinguishing or weakening, proving that the underground space was not a completely enclosed space. Not only was the air quality good, but it was also possible to see air flow from the flickering flames.

In short, you can sneak in.

Boom. Boom.

Both of them were quite skilled and they successfully jumped down from the crack in the floor and reached the basement.

From the moment he jumped down, the beeping sound became several orders of magnitude clearer.

"Look, I told you, this is obviously not crying."

The man smiled and said:

"Beep - beep beep - it should be like what you said, a mechanical alarm or fault sound. Since this is a research institute, it's not surprising that some equipment continues to work. At least... a machine can continue to work for hundreds of years, which is much more realistic than a person crying for hundreds of years."

"The only thing I don't understand is that there is obviously no electricity here, and there is no external power supply. How did they achieve the power supply for hundreds of years?"

"[Micro-nuclear battery.]"

CC answered without hesitation:

"The equipment in this institute should have micro-nuclear batteries as backup energy, or it should be powered by micro-nuclear batteries from the beginning. There is no problem with this kind of battery providing energy for hundreds of years."

Ok?
The man turned around and blinked:

"what?"

"Micro-nuclear battery."

CC said it again:
"I don't know exactly what it is. This kind of thing is rare in Brooklyn. I've only heard the elderly and adults mention it, saying it's a battery with almost unlimited energy."

“There are still such good things.”

The man was somewhat surprised, but also had questions:

"From what you said, this kind of thing is rare in Brooklyn, which means it is common in other places? What is the reason for this?"

"Looking at the current level of technology, it is no longer possible to manufacture such high-tech products. So where do the micro-nuclear batteries from other places come from?"

"It was dug out from underground."

CC smiled slightly, and looked at the man with her beautiful crescent eyes:

"Just like you, we were all dug out from the ground."

"But remember what I told you before, Brooklyn was once the private land of a super-rich man, and no one lived there. If there were no people living there, how could there be a micro-nuclear battery?"

"After all... this kind of micro-nuclear battery is mainly used in cars, home appliances, and electronic products. It can only be dug up in places with a lot of people, so it's rare in Brooklyn."

Oh.

The man suddenly realized:

"I understand now. It is for this reason that the living conditions in Brooklyn are much more backward and the level of development is much lower than in other places."

"Yes."

CC looked around with a torch in hand and replied, "The world outside is huge. We don't know exactly what it is like, but it should be much more developed than Brooklyn."

"If we had knowledge, energy, and leaders, perhaps we in Brooklyn could develop. Unfortunately... we have nothing here, and we live a very primitive life."

“[From time to time, planes would fly over Brooklyn, circling constantly, and I didn’t know what they were looking for; I guess those planes must have come from places with advanced technology.]”

"airplane?"

The man frowned:

"Is it the kind of vehicle that flies in the sky? In this backward and dilapidated era, how can there be airplanes? How did they do it?"

"That's not clear."

CC shrugged and looked back at the man:

"As I said before, the world is so big, who knows what the situation is like in other places far away?"

"What if some cities survived the great disaster in 2504? Maybe those planes are relics from a bygone era, and they are still in use because of their good quality."

"Of course, it is not ruled out that there is a complete city far away that can manufacture airplanes, but... that has nothing to do with us. How they live has nothing to do with us."

"That's true."

The man agreed with CC's words, pushed open the rotten door in front of him, and continued to move deeper into the research institute.

The further they went, the louder the beeping sound became, proving that they were heading in the right direction.

"By the way, what are those planes flying in the sky looking for?"

The man was still a little curious:

"Since there are planes flying here so often, there must be some special purpose, right?"

"I do not know."

CC still didn't know anything and shook his head:

"I heard from the elders in the village that those planes appeared after the disaster in 2504. Not long after the disaster, planes came to the Brooklyn area and circled for a long time before leaving."

"After that, planes would fly over and circle around from time to time, almost every year... No one knew where the planes came from, and no one knew what they were looking for."

"Ok."

The man saw that CC didn't understand anything, so he stopped asking.

He was just surprised by the imbalance in technological development in this era.

Some areas live a primitive life and are in a slave society; some places even have airplanes and unlimited energy.

It’s hard to imagine that such a huge difference can appear on the same earth.

Beep-beep-beep-beep-

Beep-beep-beep-beep-

The mechanical sound was getting closer and louder.

At their distance, it sounded a bit harsh.

Going further forward, there should be a computer room, and the shrill warning sound came from inside the computer room.

"Finally we found the source."

The man pointed to a closed door ahead.

Under the torchlight, the door looked brand new, emitting a faint silver light, as if no time had ever passed through its surface.

This material looks very hard and is obviously not that easy to destroy.

but……

The violent geological activities caused by the super disaster directly punctured the entire research institute and squeezed and deformed it.

The shiny silver door was intact, but there was a big hole in the wall next to it. The so-called strange crying sound, which was actually a mechanical alarm, all came from the other side of the hole.

"Let's go in and take a look."

The bearded man pointed to the red and green lights flickering dimly in the cave:

"Since we've confirmed it's a mechanical sound, there's nothing to be afraid of."

"Uh-huh."

CC had already accepted the reality. She put the wild fruit into her pocket and followed the man into the abandoned computer room.

I saw...

Everything in the machine room was sparkling.

All the machines here seemed to be made of the same sturdy and durable materials as the shiny silver door. Even after hundreds of years, they were still as new as before without a single scratch.

It is this sturdiness and durability that allows these machines to last for a long time.

"Is this... a timer?"

The man looked around and found that the walls were covered with red and green letters that kept jumping. If he looked closely, he would find that there were English symbols for day, hour, minute and second.

The numbers were too complicated, so the man decided to look at something else first.

He walked to the center of the house.

I found that a sturdy sealed ball was used here. When I knocked on it, it was very sturdy. In addition, it was opaque, so I couldn't see what was inside.

But just below the giant sphere, there are many cables as thick as arms connected to the surrounding wall displays, like a giant octopus stretching its arms and legs.

The man lowered his head and counted them. There were 22 cables in total.

"20...21...22."

At the same time, CC counted all the monitors on the wall with his fingers:

"VV, there are 22 monitors on the wall here, and each monitor shows a series of constantly changing numbers; 21 of the numbers are green, and only one is red."

The man raised his head and stared at the vast, dazzling array of green numbers.

These 21 rows of green numbers are indeed timers. Although there are slight differences in the time of each number, the difference is not big, and they are all increasing at a constant speed.

For example, on the display numbered 1, the displayed time is:
40932 days 07 hours 32 minutes 41 seconds.

In the blink of an eye, it became 40932 days, 07 hours, 32 minutes and 42 seconds.

The time on the display numbered 2 is more than ten minutes slower than that on the display numbered 1, and is displayed as follows:

40932 days 07 hours 16 minutes 11 seconds.

But no matter how slow it is, it is still rising second by second.

The man calculated in his mind:
"It is now 2616. More than 112 days is about years. In other words, the time when these timers start working is..."

"2504."

The man narrowed his eyes:

"How can it be such a coincidence? The time starts from the year of the super disaster. Does it have any special meaning?"

"That's not right VV."

CC turned around, looking at the timers that were not keeping any regularity around him, and asked:
"If the time is counted from the disaster, shouldn't the time on each timer be the same? But you see, the time on each of these green timers is different, and there is no pattern to the time difference."

"What's even more unclear is... [Why are these 21 green timers all increasing in value, but only this red timer is counting down?]"

The man and CC raised their heads.

Let's look at the only red timer on the right.

That's right.

The biggest difference between the red timer and the other green timers is that the numbers on the red timer are obviously much smaller, and... the countdown is getting shorter and shorter.

【2925 days 11 hours 54 minutes 33 seconds】

【2925 days 11 hours 54 minutes 32 seconds】

【2925 days 11 hours 54 minutes 31 seconds】

……

The red numbers decrease second by second like a heartbeat.

Moreover, it was the speaker on this monitor that kept making the alarm sound of beeping - beeping - beeping.

This is the culprit behind the strange crying sound.

It’s really confusing.

why.

There are 22 timers, but this is the only one counting down?

The cold red light inexplicably adds a sense of tension and urgency.

The man stroked his beard and felt something strange.

"If the countdown is positive, it will start from the super disaster in 2504; then the countdown... will it start from a certain date in the future?"

"Then CC, we can calculate based on today's date displayed on the electronic clock to see what year and day it will be when this red countdown ends."

After saying that, the man picked up a piece of paper from the ground, but the moment he picked it up, it shattered into pieces and could not be used.

Helplessly, he could only pick up a sharp stone and calculate on the wall.

Fortunately.

Amnesia did not cause the loss of basic skills, and addition, subtraction, and multiplication were all done with ease.

As the calculation steps move down line by line, the final calculation results emerge.

Ta-ta-ta, tap-ta.

The man finished writing the last stroke, took two steps back, and looked at the final answer calculated on the wall:
"The date when the red countdown reaches zero is exactly—"

“【2624年8月29日，00时42分00秒！】”

(End of this chapter)