Hao Ren stood on the metal riverbank as he looked at the endless, viscous, and slow-moving liquid in the river. He could not help but a.s.sociate it with the dangerous lifeblood. All the mercenaries were keeping their distance from the riverbank fearfully. Only Hao Ren, Ulyanov and Nolan stood in front. Ulyanov"s hoa.r.s.e voice then reverberated out from his helmet, "The end of the world is just a step away."
"This is the Nanomachine Swarm?" Hao Ren looked down at the viscous liquid in the Gray River. "That"s… ma.s.sive."
"Everyone knows the Gray River is made up of the Nanomachine Swarm." Nolan looked at Hao Ren. "You should have crossed one of the Gray Rivers when you fled the city of the Naturals. Have you not seen it?"
"One of the Gray Rivers?" Hao Ren frowned and then steered away from the subject. "No. It was chaotic back then; I was separated from the group. I didn"t pay attention to the surroundings. What is your plan to cross this river? By boat?"
"Waiting for it to solidify," Nolan turned and walked away, and began to issue commands. "People, we"ll rest here. We will cross the river after dusk! Kim, Lorraine, make sure the armored vehicles are in standby mode, and I want all electromagnetic hibernators switched on twenty-four hours. Report if you encounter a problem with the electromagnetic hibernator."
The mercenaries immediately acted under orders. They rested beside the armored vehicles and took out compressed food from the car to replenish their energy. Carl walked up and down among the soldiers and shouted, "Do not touch the soil directly with your hands. Look after your water tumbler, and discard it immediately if found damaged! Get another antidote in half an hour time. Those who have a burning sensation while breathing take double the dosage!"
Ulyanov swaggered to the armored vehicle and said, "I don"t need the antidote for the toxic air. My lungs have long gone."
"He was a very optimistic guy," said the ardent mercenary girl who was walking past. "But it gives people a headache whenever he jokes with his guts. Have you come out of the trauma? Are you not planning to start a new relations.h.i.+p in a new place?"
As she spoke, she went up to Hao Ren. Hao Ren took a step back. "Shall I throw you into the Gray River to cool yourself down?"
"That"s not funny."
Hao Ren turned and walked back to the armored vehicle. He remembered there was a computer in the vehicle. The primary search function was open to all. He had seen how Nolan used the terminal. After fiddling for a moment, he succeeded in connecting to the internet and began to search for information about the Gray River and the ruins in the north.
The ruins in the north referred to the entire area the Nanomachine Swarm had destroyed sixty-five years ago. That included three dissolved cities and the vast expanse of land between them. Hundreds of thousands of square kilometers of the area had become a dead zone. Their destination was Northern Ring Tower in the mid-south of the ruins. As for the Gray Rivers, they were remnants of the Nanomachine Swarm.
The Gray River was not a single river as Hao Ren had initially thought but a series of radial cracks spreading around the ruins in the North. Other than the smaller tributaries, there were hundreds of larger ones. Like a spider web, these rivers isolated the entire northern ruins from the outside world. Looking from the air, the ruins in the North seemed like a b.l.o.o.d.y eyeball, and the Gray Rivers were bloodshot. Anyone wis.h.i.+ng to reach the Northern Ring Tower must cross the Gray Rivers.
Looking at the simple maps found on the internet, the major routes between the Natural city and Lawless District ran across one of the Gray Rivers. No wonder Nolan thought that Hao Ren had seen the Gray River.
Although the Nanomachine Swarm had dissolved everything in the area, it did not cover every inch of the ruins in the north. The Nanomachine Swarm remnants just concentrated in the many Gray Rivers and divided the land into many "isles." Debris modified by the Nanomachine Swarm littered the isles. Toxic substances created by the insane Nanomachine Swarm had polluted the soil. As the terrible, gray "slime" was everywhere; these isles were the only safe places.
Nolan seemed to know the best route—a series of contiguous lands. They only needed to cross a few Gray Rivers to reach the ruins of the Ring Tower.
"Don"t you think something is amiss?" The voice of the MDT sounded in Hao Ren"s mind. "There is information about the loss of control of Nanomachine Swarm, but not a single word about how to control them. These things could have destroyed the whole world, but why did they stop in the Gray River?"
"Nothing on the internet. Probably someone erased the information," Hao Ren said, turning off the computer and left the car. "I"ll talk to Nolan. How do you feel in the dimensional pocket?"
"Incidentally, I found your gravity generator. Now there is a standard ground of 1.0G gravity. I"m learning to walk," said the MDT, sounding very pleasant. "I think this is it; the body still feels like having cerebral thrombosis. It is not going to get better no matter how hard I try. Probably the compatibility has got a bottleneck."
"Well, as long as you"re happy, but don"t touch my a.r.s.enal."
Hao Ren found Nolan, who was standing alone on the bank of the river and gazing at the sky that was getting darker. The silhouette of the gray-haired girl looked extremely thin in the dim light. Hao Ren went up from behind. From a dozen meters away, he noticed Nolan"s ears flicked slightly; the mercenary leader had a terrific auditory ability.
Hao Ren waved to her as she turned around. "Why are you not with everyone else?" Hao Ren asked.
"The Gray River is about to solidify," Nolan said, pointing at the river below with her chin. The viscous liquid was flowing slower and slower, seemingly solidifying. "After dusk, the Nanomachine Swarm will stop temporarily like an alloy platform, hard enough to allow the armored vehicles to cross. Of course, do not switch off the electromagnetic hibernators, or else these things will wake up in a flash. That was how men of my team died."
Nolan seemed to be in a good mood, or rather excitement. She was not so cold and alienated as before, but patiently answering Hao Ren"s questions. Hao Ren also thought that this was an excellent time to ask questions. "How did humans stop these out-of-control Nanomachine Swarm sixty-five years ago?"
"Stop?" Nolan shook her head slowly. "No one had stopped them. The swarm stopped spreading on its own. At that time, many people thought that the world was going to end as all countermeasures and safety devices failed. Everyone here was waiting for the final moment. But the sudden halt of the Nanomachine Swarm saved the humans. Have you seen these riverbanks?"
Nolan stomped on the metal surface. The shape of these "riverbanks" was similar to the rock of nature, but it was metal.
"Humans didn"t make these barriers; Nanomachine Swarm did. They confined themselves in a limited area so human beings could survive and continue to fight among themselves outside this area. The Nanomachine Swarm should have covered the entire world, continued to multiply and devoured the world until the planet become a large piece of mud. Instead, they created a complex container, and put themselves in it."
Hao Ren blinked. "Why is that?"
"Who knows? Even scientists were scratching their heads," said Nolan, the corner of her mouth slightly twisted upward. "You should ask Ulyanov; he is an expert in this area. But I doubt he likes the topic."
"Since we are here, I don"t mind telling," Ulyanov"s voice suddenly came from the side. He came up to Hao Ren and quietly watched the Gray River quieting down. "Some people guess that the Master Computers sent the last command to halt the multiplication process of the Nanomachine Swarm before they shut down. There are also people who suspect that the Master Computers are still running. The computers are deep underground and getting power from the nuclear reactor. In theory, that will allow them to run until today. If we consider that they are controlling the Nanomachine Swarm to protect themselves, perhaps they will keep running indefinitely."
Ulyanov paused and then continued in a mocking tone of voice. "There is even more frenzied speculation; the mutants who call themselves Rangers believe that Nanomachine Swarm had become self-aware and preserved the world based on some decision beyond human wisdom and logic to observe the evolutionary process of humankind. The Rangers see the Nanomachine Swarm as the new master of this world. They demonstrated their superiority of evolution through indiscriminate attacks on other humans and thought that by doing so, they would secure a place in the New World during the Judgment Day. There are many other similar theories."