Doomsday Traveler

Chapter 207 Those Who Left, Those Who Stayed

"Awesome..."

After listening to the man in the suit on the glass screen, Luo Ping couldn't help but exclaim, "In that case, brothers and sisters, you won't need to look for gas stations anymore!"

Lu Xi'an and Yao Wei exchanged a glance, their eyes shining brightly.

Lu Xi'an even wanted to ignore the man in the suit on the screen right now and go directly to look at the car and the drone outside.

However, the man in the suit wasn't finished explaining, and he felt it would be best to listen to the rest first.

The cars and drones outside are still there, and they can't run away anytime soon.

Before continuing to listen to the man in the suit explain, Lu Xi'an asked a small question: "Dog... Mechanical Dog 02 always goes into a shut-off state when it is supplying power to other things."

"If we supply power to that car, will Mechanical Dog 02 also be like that?"

The person in the suit replied: "No. That car and drone were specially adapted for Mechanical Dog 02, so there won't be this kind of problem."

The person in the suit did not explain the specific reasons and details.

Lu Xi'an's eyes lit up, and he said, "In that case, doesn't that mean if we get on that vehicle, we won't have to drive it ourselves; we can just leave it all to the mechanical dog?"

Yao Wei's eyes lit up when she heard Lu Xi'an's words.

Luo Ping muttered under his breath, "Holy crap! This is so awesome?!"

"Not really."

The man in the suit immediately poured cold water on Lu Xi'an's enthusiasm, saying, "In this era of rapid development of intelligent AI technology, we have witnessed countless examples and gained a lot of experience and lessons."

"We are convinced that no matter how advanced intelligent technology becomes, it can only serve as an auxiliary application for humans and cannot completely replace humans."

"Especially in matters of life and death, even if the failure rate of an intelligent system is only 0.0000001%, do not easily entrust your life to an intelligent system."

"No one can guarantee that this minuscule failure rate won't suddenly appear in the next phase of your life."

"Therefore, on that vehicle, the intelligent system is always just an aid. Where necessary, we require the company—and the company itself has stated—to prioritize mechanical facilities above all else."

"That's it..."

Lu Xi'an felt a little regretful, but she could understand. She felt most at ease knowing her own life was in her own hands.

The man in the suit said, "Of course, in case of an emergency, the intelligent system can take over temporarily, but we do not recommend doing so if it is not necessary."

"Okay, thank you."

Lu Xian said.

"You are welcome."

The man in the suit replied, "You are a person from the future brought into Institute 923 by Mechanical Dog 02. With the assistance of Mechanical Dog 02, you have already obtained the highest level of access to Institute 923."

"Mechanical Dog 02 was the pinnacle of our research, so when we were destined to perish, we transferred the highest level of authority to it, all for this very day."

"We don't know what the future world will be like, but whatever it is, we don't want the things we've worked so hard to research that should benefit people to be buried forever in research institutes."

Lu Xi'an thought to herself that meeting the mechanical dog was one of the greatest strokes of luck she had ever had since coming into this world. The dog had helped her a lot along the way and had even brought her to such a wonderful place.

He's even considering renaming the dog something like Lucky Star.

But thinking about it, I decided against it. The dog is already used to being called by that name, and it would be quite difficult to adjust to a different one.

"What about the other option?"

After he finished his internal monologue, he asked the man in the suit, "Besides commissioning the company to produce the Mechanical Dog 02 and the matching vehicle and drone, don't you have another plan?"

"Wouldn't that solution be the most helpful to humanity if it could be implemented?"

"Yes."

The man in the suit said, "But we didn't succeed. The Dyson sphere's energy beam, now unrestrained by the control system, became abnormally violent, and ordinary materials simply couldn't withstand the energy received by the receiver."

"We made a lot of attempts, and we also invited materials science experts to conduct research on radiation-resistant lightweight composite materials, but without exception, they all failed."

“We even considered rebuilding the production line for radiation-resistant lightweight composite materials, but this plan was rejected as soon as it was proposed.”

"At that time, war had already broken out, and we did not have the realistic conditions to realize the plan."

"The mass production base for radiation-resistant lightweight composite materials is located on the moon and has been severely damaged. Without the support of various countries, we cannot complete the repairs independently."

"What then?"

"Lu Xi'an asked. He could roughly guess that the closure of this place was probably related to the war."

But what exactly was that war? Lu Xi'an was still somewhat confused. The man in the leather suit said, "Later, the war escalated, and the conflicts between the countries became irreconcilable, entering a life-or-death situation. Faced with a multinational attack, we chose to defend our country from the outside."

"With the deployment of a large number of firearms, the intensity of the war was unimaginable. Following the deployment of firearms, countries invested in the byproducts of gene editing projects, ignoring the risk of uncontrolled spread of various types of gene drugs, and created a large number of dead people and high-intensity new humans."

"In order to deal with the newly emerging enemy, we have no choice but to put the X-17 strain—a gene drug that can change the physical condition of ordinary people and give them different levels and types of abilities—into use as well."

"In order to hold off the enemy, all adults had to go to the battlefield, and we researchers were the last adults to go to the battlefield."

"After us, I wonder if any non-adults will go to the battlefield. I hope not, otherwise all our efforts will have been in vain."

Lu Xi'an said, "I guess we don't... otherwise, we wouldn't be here now. Besides, we still have some of the old folks who didn't go to the battlefield."

"That's good."

The intelligence of the suited figure on the screen exceeded Lu Xi'an's expectations; it could even utter such words of relief.

But Lu Xi'an thought to himself that this result was not good. There must have been too many people who went to the battlefield back then, and the remaining children—perhaps including some adults—had completely lost control and guidance.

Those who died protected life and hope in the war, but new life and hope lived in chaos.

The existence of the four types of new humans, A, B, C, and D, completely collapsed the fragile order of the new world. As a result, civilization has degenerated, and the world has become this wretched state.

What caused the war in the first place?

"Lu Xi'an asked. He had always been curious about this question. In the face of a major disaster, shouldn't people devote all their energy to fighting it? Why then would war be waged?"
But the man in the suit replied, "Sorry, the answer to this question has not been entered, and I cannot provide an answer."

Lu Xian: "..."

This costumed character ultimately became a riddle.

He then asked, "What about the dog? I found it in the north. Why was it there? That place is quite far from Institute 923."

The system in the suited man did have a record of this answer, so he replied: "After we used the X-17 strain, the survivors were all deployed to the northern battlefield."

"At that time, the Mechanical Dog 02 still had some functions that had not been fully debugged."

"Before completely sealing off 923, we jointly decided to grant the highest level of access to the mechanical dog 02, and took it out with us, completing the final debugging work on the way."

"Then before we go into battle, we'll find a place to hide it."

"Only if one day someone from our nation discovers it will it be activated through scanning."

"Only then would there be a possibility of Institute 923 reappearing in the world."

"If it is never activated, Institute 923 will remain here forever."

"This matter was the result of all the staff of our Institute 923 acting on their own initiative. We did not go through the approval process, but at the time, we all agreed that the approval process was no longer important."

"That's it..."

As Lu Xi'an spoke, he couldn't help but sigh inwardly that he was indeed very lucky. He was traveling through the icy and snowy north and still managed to find Gouzi by chance.

He glanced at the dog, which remained silent on the workbench, and once again felt a longing for the cars and drones outside.

"Why didn't you bring that vehicle and drone to the battlefield?"

he asks.

The man in the suit replied, "We tested them and found that the car and drone have sufficient strength because they use the same radiation-resistant, lightweight composite materials used in building the Dyson Sphere."

"On the battlefield, they might be useful. But with only one vehicle, one drone, and one robotic dog, the effect they can play in a battlefield with a large number of new humans is actually not that significant."

"So we made a joint decision to leave the car and drone here as a gift for future generations. We hope you like it."

Lu Xi'an said, "Thank you, I like it very much."

The man in the leather suit said, "Well then, that concludes the explanation. You, the highest authority holder of Institute 923, are welcome to take over this institute. All equipment in this institute can be controlled via voice."

"Your voiceprint has been recorded during our conversation. Please feel free to use it."

As soon as he finished speaking, the figure in the suit disappeared from the screen.

A brand new interface appeared on the screen, outlining the entire 923 Institute with semi-transparent blue lines, including the circular corridor and everything inside the circle.

The inner wall of that circle was actually embedded with many devices, which should be able to be activated by voice. Perhaps they were used by the people who were testing cars and drones.

Lu Xi'an thought for a moment and then gave his first order here to the screen: "Send the car and the drone up here. I want to take a look."

As he finished speaking, the deeply recessed platform in the center of the circle on the screen in front of him suddenly began to flash, and the markings changed from blue to yellow.

(End of this chapter)