Wasteland Development Diary.

Chapter 620 Yesterday Cannot Be Relived
"Since it is not omnipotent and cannot help me, there is no need to follow or worship it."

The skeletal figure spoke coldly: "I know what you want."

“This City 404 is a large gem-like device built to excavate the Earth’s core. My mission is to drive it continuously toward the Earth’s core until we reach the deepest interior.”

"This is the mission that the Celestial Beings bestowed upon me through the gemstone."

It just finished speaking.

The gemstone inside the Gaobao Bone human body projected an image into the air.

The image shows a writhing black phantom, maintaining an oval shape with its edges constantly curling inward, like a gaping maw of an abyss continuously swallowing.

In a murky, incandescent ocean, it inhales large amounts of white matter and ejects some dark brown liquid, just like some kind of life feeding and excreting.

Zhou Yi immediately thought of Shi Weng.

The four-dimensional organ he captured was very similar to this thing, both having similar indeterminate, nested structures.

This thing is very likely some kind of organ of Shi Weng.

“I don’t know what it is, but the Celestials are certain that it exists underground. That’s why City 404 is continuing to push underground. I suspect that this thing is in the deeper core region of the earth.”

Verne had by then regained his composure.

After changing direction and stance, it revealed the secret of its former employer without any burden: "Based on my deduction, this thing is suspected to be in the liquid outer core zone of the Earth's core. There, the thickness is about 2250 kilometers, the temperature is close to 5000 degrees Celsius, close to the high temperature of the sun's surface, and liquid iron and nickel slowly convection. It devours and absorbs these liquid high-temperature metals."

"As for what the dark brown substance that was vomited was, I have no idea."

"My mission is to find this thing using 404 City."

Zhou Yi asked, "Why don't the celestial beings do it themselves, instead of having someone like you act as their proxy and push things forward underground?"

“At first I didn’t understand either. Celestials don’t explain their actions; they just need to obey and execute, without asking or asking for help.”

Verne touched the bone chain around his neck: "After many years, I gradually mastered the operation of City 404, and only then did I realize that the Celestial Gem itself has limitations."

"At least for the Earth's mantle and core, in the initial shallow regions, the entire City 404 operates automatically, requiring no operation and being unable to operate. It continues to descend underground on its own."

"But once it reaches a depth of 900 kilometers below the mantle, it will stop operating automatically and I will need to manually control it."

"What you are observing from the outside is the main body of City 404, but it is not just this cone-shaped structure. What I am controlling is the top part below. But there are a lot of gem passages connecting to the shallower parts behind it, which can be used to quickly enter and exit."

“Those passages are like a jeweled spine, running from the surface all the way down to City 404 underground. I don’t think it’s for our personnel to get in and out of the underground. Rather, it’s so that once the target is found, the Celestials can extract it directly from underground and then have it obtained by them.”

Zhou Yi also noticed this.

According to the consciousness network imaging sent back by the Evil Brain Fleet, City 404 resembles a giant drill, continuously probing into the Earth's mantle. Several long, whisker-like gemstone spines rise from above, like railway tracks extending deep underground.

Those gemstone spines have fixed, layered structures that form a stable architecture composed of gemstones.

The entire underground excavation project follows a very rigorous progressive process to ensure that even if problems arise underground, the shallow areas remain stable and usable nodes.

Verne continued, "The reason why City 404 cannot drill down automatically is because the city's original seven pilots have died."

"The original driver?"

Zhou Yi felt his guess was being confirmed: "The driver you're talking about, is he a humanoid life form with a glass structure?"

"So you really do know this."

The Bone Proxy seemed unsurprised, nodding: "It was them. Later, I followed their example, using Crystal Bone Proxy to fill their positions, which I figured out gradually."

"Initially, I was the only one controlling City 404. Looking back now, I think the reason I was modified was to replace these people and become the driver of City 404."

Zhou Yi then said, "Tell me about how you became the proxy."

Verne was lost in memories.

"I first lived on a floating island, where many bone people lived. The floating island was located in a very calm sea. Apart from the need for us to maintain the island regularly to prevent it from sinking, life was carefree. At that time, I had never left the island, and I knew nothing of the wars outside, nor of the existence of the Celestials..."

Next, a gem fell from the sky and crashed onto the island, sealing Tete, who was being tested by Celestials, inside it.

What followed was exactly what Wu Yi experienced.

However, Verne had a different outcome.

“The moment the island was hit, I thought I was going to die, because the gem body landed right on my head. But when I came to my senses, I found myself in the gem space.” Verne recounted, “I found that, besides me, there were also some skeletons here, all of them sealed in gems like exhibits.”

“I was chosen because I can expand my skeletal body. When I have nothing to do, I take apart my hands and feet, not the entire arm and leg bones, but starting with the finger bones.”

"In short... after a long period of exploration, I have found a stable way to separate my body and back it up. Just like this working bone fortress, it is my true self."

It pointed to the huge bone structure beside it.

"During the proxy selection, I was fortunate enough to survive to the end. Thanks to my understanding of the long-term disintegration of my bones, this ability was very effective in surviving, making me the last survivor to withstand the pressure of the Celestial Gem."

“Since then, I have also gained an ability that was modified by the Celestials based on my talent. I call this ability ‘Alien’. I can disassemble a part of my body and connect it with other bones to create bone people that can act independently. They even have their own thoughts. All the bone people in City 404 are actually me.”

Zhou Yi was taken aback: "All of this was you?"

“Yes. Those crystal bone people, which are the bone people I created for export, number 49 in this city—including the working bone fortress. They think they are themselves, but they are not.”

Verne calmly stated, "They are all instances where I disassembled my own body, implanted a fabricated memory and name, and then believed myself to be myself."

"However, to prevent them from discovering this, and as a backup for me, I gave each Crystal Bone Man a unique personality and way of behaving. This also resulted in some of them being very loyal, while others had a tendency to betray. But that doesn't matter, because there is no other place in this world that can accommodate them."

"I just didn't expect that the Wasteland Development Company would suddenly appear and reach this size in just a few years... It actually caused Lin Hao to defect and join us."

The skeleton sighed, "Accidents and low-probability events are always unpredictable."

"why?"

Zhou Yi asked, puzzled, "Why go through all this trouble? Wouldn't it be better to just create a clone of yourself?"

"From an efficiency standpoint, turning the alien into a clone is certainly the best option... but..."

Verne hesitated for a moment: "Many years have passed, and I have found that I still prefer the time when I first lived on that floating island."

“I always thought I would forget that period quickly. We were foolish and ignorant back then, like a bunch of frogs in a well. But as the years go by, I find that the memories are becoming clearer and clearer…”

“That was the time when I felt most at ease and relaxed. So I used the [Alien] to create clones and gave them different names, wanting to recreate the communal life of the past.”

"Unfortunately, yesterday cannot be undone, it's gone forever. From the moment the Celestial Gem descended, everything changed completely."

"I kept the heterologous strategy because it was my safety net. Even if something happened to me, I could restart through them. Each of them is a part of me. As long as I change the skeletal arrangement in their bodies and activate the information inside, they will become my new bodies."

Zhou Yixin said that this ability is definitely a life-saving feature.

He asked, "Are the bodies of those drivers still there?"

"It's still here, I've kept it very well."

Verne left the White Bone Castle and walked along the Jewel Street.

Zhou Yi saw it.

The entire city of 404 is completely covered by gems, with a crystal canopy covering it. Within the gem layer, the crisscrossing roads are as complex as a maze.

Along the way are individual gem houses serving as independent prisons. Some are empty and deserted, some have blurry figures inside, some have been frozen solid for a long time, and some still allow people to move around inside.

Finally, Verne walked into the jeweled sky.

A few green dots were frozen in the sky.

As the skeleton acted, it dismantled the canopy wall piece by piece, extracting seven emeralds from it.

Each of these gems is as tall as a person and has a different shape. The dead bodies inside, like the emerald Zhou Yi obtained, are highly fragmented, with severely broken fibers.

That's a significant takeaway.

Zhou Yi asked, "Didn't the Celestials take them back?"

"No."

Verne said, "When I was brought here, they were already dead inside the jewels."

Zhou Yi decided to immediately send these glass figures to the moon for testing.

(End of this chapter)