by <unknown>
In an instant, a dark red car, over four meters long and less than two meters tall, appeared in their reality out of thin air.
This "car" was entirely streamlined, just like an actual red sports car, but the only difference from a sports car was that it had no tires. Only the two plasma pulse booster engines at the rear were in charge of breaking free of gravity.
The interior of the "car" had four seats, of which there was a main driver's seat on the right and three passenger seats on the left. It could carry a total of four passengers.
In the movie, the protagonist used a delayed explosive gun to fire a bullet into the opponent's engine when they were taking off. When the opponent was about to enter the supersonic state, he detonated the bullet and caused the spaceship to crash outside the city.
This also showed that this kind of spacecraft was only an ordinary civilian model and did not have advanced protection capabilities.
Of course, there were also military spaceships with protective capabilities in the movie, but their sizes were far beyond what Chen Chen could extract.
Chen Chen patted the car-like spaceship and said, "Bring the pressure sensor and weigh this car."
Immediately, a Black Knight brought the pressure sensor over and everyone worked together to lift the spacecraft onto the sensor, then measured its weight at once.
The weight of this "Bugatti-Folge" spaceship was unexpectedly light, only about 1400kg, which was less than a ton and a half.
"It's almost the same weight as a Medpod 3000."
Chen Chen did some silent calculations but was not reassured and he asked Little X, "How about it? Can I enter the world of Gantz fully equipped and with the spaceship?"
"After calculation, the power left in the USB drive isn't a problem, but the only problem is that, after the spaceship is brought into Gantz's world, it can't be brought back to reality because there isn't sufficient energy for its return. That is, for this mission to Gantz, the spaceship must be abandoned regardless of mission outcome."
Chen Chen was silent for a while before nodding. "Understood. You can insert your clone X-112 into the Bugatti Spaceship and let it take charge of piloting. This time I'll go there myself."
"… Got it."
Little X knew that it could not stop Chen Chen, but still said, "Please be careful."
"Don't worry, as long as I don't encounter the type of sculptures that were in Elysium or if they're not in an active state, I'll be fine."
Chen Chen shook his head serenely. "And don't worry about aliens or anything like that. The ruins of Tokyo have already told us that Earth is already in the state of an extinct civilization. If it were occupied by aliens, this wouldn't be how it looks like…"
At this point, Chen Chen himself opened the portal to the dimension of Gantz. This time, he also wore a GS Combat Suit in addition to a PK Armor before he walked into the channel with the two Black Knights.
Behind the two Black Knights, the small Bugatti Spaceship also floated up amid the buzzing of its engines and drifted toward the passage…
In the next moment, the black light had swallowed their figures.
Chapter 292: Abnormality |
It was that familiar sensation again.
As soon as he entered the channel, Chen Chen was overcome by a sense of weightlessness. At the same time, his eyes seemed to lose their vision and his ears lost their hearing. In other words, Chen Chen lost all sense of his body, leaving nothing but an intangible consciousness, floating in the endless darkness…
Nonetheless, this feeling only lasted for a moment and the next second, Chen Chen's eyes saw light again.
At this moment, he was already standing on a pile of rubble. Next to him, there were two other Black Knights and the small Bugatti Spaceship that had followed behind. The Black Knight who had come beforehand was standing quietly before him.
"Click, click, click…"
Chen Chen's six scanners quickly popped out of his back and scanned the surroundings swiftly, but only detected a few wild cats and dogs in the ruins. Everything else was normal.
"Drone."
After that, Chen Chen said softly.
At Chen Chen's command, the four M-1 drones upon the Bugatti Spaceship took off in silence. As they took off, their shape quickly turned blurry. By the time they had flown for dozens of meters, these four drones had completely blended into the air and vanished without a trace.
The drones were much faster than humans at searching. After a few minutes, the four drones had examined everything within one kilometer. This was all sensed by X-112, the clone of Little X, who duly reported each update.
"Sir Commander, no signs of human activities have been found within one kilometer. There's only a large number of animals and plants…"
"Expand the range and find out what the conditions are like within ten kilometers," Chen Chen ordered.
After the order was issued, the drones moved toward the unknown to explore further.
During the drone exploration, Chen Chen jumped off the ruins and walked toward a nearby apartment that had not collapsed. Although this apartment was already entangled in vines, it was made of conventional reinforced concrete instead of ordinary wooden boards. Therefore, the structure had not collapsed under the assault of wind and rain over many years.
The original glass doors of the apartment had been damaged long ago. It was dark and empty inside, like a gaping abyss. As Chen Chen and the three Black Knights entered, a cloud of dust was stirred up by the breeze.
Chen Chen squatted and touched the ground. A thick layer of ash had accumulated. Based on the thickness of this blanket of ash, no one had entered this place for decades.
Even after seeing this, Chen Chen still did not take the situation lightly but walked in cautiously. After that, he let a Black Knight take the lead as they looked through each room in the apartment.
This apartment had five floors, each of which had ten rooms in a row, connected by a corridor. At both ends of the corridor were stairs leading up and down. This was the simplest layout for apartment buildings.
All the doors in the apartment were anti-theft doors made of alloy, which had remained intact for so long. However, most of the anti-theft doors on the first and second floors exhibited signs of damage. It seemed that someone had forcibly broken in. Even so, those marks were very old as well.
After walking around these rooms, Chen Chen did not find anything special. There was nothing else but some rotten furniture. Chen Chen even found a wallet that had not been taken away in time, with a large amount of cash still inside.
However, all food-related items had disappeared.
"In other words, the people who broke in later took only the food, but not the money."
Chen Chen reflected out loud, "In that case, someone must've pried open these doors and broke into the apartment after the government collapsed. These people had adapted to a world of anarchy. They were searching for food all over the place, yet they wouldn't spare a glance for money."
After silently imprinting this clue into his mind, Chen Chen moved past these opened doors and walked toward the highest floor of the apartment.
Those who broke in must have had plenty of options, yet they only pried open the doors on the first and second floors. Starting from the third floor, only a few doors were pried open and most of them were intact.
There were even fewer doors that were pried open on the fourth floor and by the fifth floor, none of the doors had been pried open.
After noticing this, Chen Chen no longer hesitated. He beckoned and a Black Knight immediately stepped forward and tugged violently at the first door that had rusted long ago. There was the sound of metal being twisted, then a loud bang. The door was forcibly opened by the Black Knight.
These Black Knights were like mini supermen who were perfectly fused with the T-virus in the first place. After they put on the GS Combat Suits and the PK Armor, their power was augmented to a terrifying point. Twisting open a rusty iron door wa
s a walk in the park.
When the door was opened, the sound of splitting metal ruptured the ancient silence of this apartment. The sound rippled into the distance, echo after echo…
At this point, Chen Chen frowned because he suddenly realized that this apartment seemed a bit too quiet. It was unlike the ruins that he had just come from. There, after just a glance with his PK Armor's infrared vision, he could detect many insects and a few wild animals.
However, in this apartment, forget about wild animals, there was not even a single insect chirp.
"Something is wrong."
Chen Chen took a step back abruptly and said, "Let's withdraw!"
Without any hesitation, the Black Knight who had just opened the anti-theft door followed Chen Chen down the stairs.
Along the way, Chen Chen could not help but feel his nerves tensing up. He felt that even the air had solidified for some reason. There seemed to be something in this apartment, which was slowly awakening after the noise they made.
'Is it just in my head? Or…'
Chen Chen felt cold sweat drenching his back. He had not seen anything but for some reason, he felt his hair standing on end. This chill crawling down his spine made him bite the bullet and quickly flee from the apartment.
Only when they had gotten out of the area of the apartment did Chen Chen slowly exhale. The heavy feeling had faded gradually after he left the apartment.
He could not tell what kind of feeling it was. The air seemed to be weighed down by something heavy. The atmosphere that was once light and relaxed became as sluggish as a swamp, turning into a more suffocating pressure.
This was something that only Chen Chen could feel.
It was just that this feeling was rather indefinite.
Chen Chen could not help but glance down at the PK Armor he was wearing. It seemed that this armor had blocked off his feeling, only…
"What kind of feeling was that?"
Chen Chen frowned. He could tell that this feeling did not arise from the five senses, so it must have been an instinctive mental reaction to a part of reality. Strictly speaking, it should fall under the category of his sixth sense.
"In other words, I've sensed something that I've never noticed before and whatever it was caused a direct response in my mind, resulting in a sense of danger?"
This feeling was not groundless. Rather, it was more subconscious. For example, when Chen Chen scanned the area just now, he had observed many animals living in the ruins. Although the surroundings were deserted, they were full of life.
However, after entering the apartment, although Chen Chen had overlooked the presence of those small animals out of habit, the difference in the surroundings still put his subconscious on guard. Thus, Chen Chen's conscious mind would only feel that something was off, without being able to pinpoint what exactly.
It was only in the next moment that the subconscious mind realized what was wrong — the small animals around were gone. Only then did Chen Chen experience a shocking realization and he left the apartment quickly.
Thinking of this, Chen Chen turned around again and looked at the apartment behind him.
Even so, when he got a good look, his pupils shrank furiously!
At some point, all the doors in the apartment had been opened…
It was as if the apartment was waking up from a deep sleep. It had opened its dense rows of "eyes", staring vacantly at Chen Chen who was standing before it…
Chapter 293: Investigation |
"Gasp…"
This sight caused Chen Chen to inhale sharply. The scanners on his back seemed to sense that their wearer was emotionally disturbed and popped out once again, scanning the surroundings frantically. Even so, no matter what they did, they could not detect any signs of life in the apartment in front of them…
"Let's retreat further."
Without any hesitation, Chen Chen took the initiative to retreat again, until they were back at the portal from which they came. Only then did Chen Chen secretly heave a sigh of relief.
Following that, with his right hand, Chen Chen quickly pressed a button on his left arm. There was a beep and a jet injector shot out into the air. Chen Chen grabbed the injector while he tilted his neck. At once, a small piece of armor on his neck popped open, exposing the airtight membrane.
After that, Chen Chen directly inserted the jet injector into the membrane!
"Hiss!"
A thin stream of liquid was injected directly into Chen Chen's vein.
About thirty seconds later, Chen Chen felt his mind clear up. The initial feeling of being spooked quickly faded, leaving only an endless flow of speculations and reflections in his mind.
"How interesting…"
Chen Chen supported his chin in one hand, wordlessly stared at the apartment a hundred meters away, then looked at the Bugatti Spaceship beside him. "X-112, did you see when the doors were opened just now?"
"I didn't."
X-112 replied, "I pulled up the visual signals of the three Black Knights beside you. Just now, when you left, there were 5.3 seconds when everyone looked away from the apartment. Thus, there's a hundred percent chance that the doors in the apartment were opened within these 5.3 seconds."
Chen Chen nodded. He had thought as much. The Black Knights needed to be constantly vigilant, so it was impossible for them to keep their eyes fixed on the apartment behind. However, the rusty doors of the apartment were opened silently, which was something ordinary people could not do.
First of all, there was no electricity in the apartment. Chen Chen was very sure of this. Even if there were electricity, the doors were specially equipped with switches, which would open automatically as long as they were powered on. Nonetheless, what happened just now would not have been possible.
This was because those rusty doors could no longer be opened with electricity. Even if they were opened, they could not be opened without a sound.
Chen Chen directly discarded the possibility that the doors were controlled by an electric switch.
However, if it was not controlled by someone, then what was it?
Chen Chen narrowed his eyes out of habit. He had to admit that this was no longer a question that could be solved by taking NZT-48. The end of civilization in this dimension was caused by some existence and it was very likely that this apartment behind him was related to all this.
"Is this situation similar to Elysium's dimension?"
Chen Chen shook his head. At this moment, the voice of X-112 came from the PK Armor's communication device again. "Sir Commander, the M-1 drones have examined the general circumstances within a radius of ten kilometers. We found thirteen human skeletons exposed on the street."
"Can the animals and plants be detected?"
Chen Chen asked again, "Can you turn on the camera's thermal imaging mode and search for animals in the ruins?"
"We can try."
In accordance with Chen Chen's order, the four drones switched to thermal imaging mode and started the exploration mission again.
As they were exploring, a map with a radius of about ten kilometers around Chen Chen's location was also gradually taking shape.
This map was directly transmitted to Chen Chen's armor. The PK Armor had a unique AR system that could directly project images on Chen Chen's retina.
Currently, at the lower right corner of Chen Chen's field of vision was the map that was taking shape from the drones' relentless exploration.
When the map was formed, Chen Chen did not continue to move, but kept quiet and stayed in place while paying close attention to the small animals around him.
In Chen Chen's opinion, since these small animals could thrive so abundantly after the extinction of humans, it should be possible to prove that the "thing" that had wiped out humans was harmless to animals and plants.
No, maybe it was not harmless, just that these little animals could keenly detect the presence of that "thing" and evade it in advance.
As Chen Chen cons
idered this, half an hour later, the four drones finally scanned everything within ten kilometers.
Chen Chen clicked on the map at the lower right corner and the map was immediately enlarged. It was translucent and occupied Chen Chen's entire field of vision. There were densely packed squares scattered over it. Each square represented a building.
It was like an actual bird's-eye view of a metropolis.
When he zoomed in on the map, a large number of small red dots appeared. Still, most of these red dots were dark red or orange-red and some were orange or even bright yellow. These red dots were all over the entire map. At first glance, they seemed to be scattered at random like stars in the sky, with no pattern to speak of.
These little red dots were all wild animals hiding in the buildings or ruins. The brighter the red dot, the larger their bodies. The dark red dots might be mice and birds while the red-orange and orange ones were wild cats and dogs. The bright yellow, which was the brightest color, would be a medium or large creature such as cattle and sheep.
"X-112, based on the density of wild animals, divide the area explored into squares with sides of 100x100m, then categorize the density into four levels."
Chen Chen thought for a while and continued. "For the first level, the number of wild animals in the square area is greater than five and the area is represented by the color blue; the second level, where the number of wild animals in the area is greater than two, is represented by yellow; the third level will have a number of wild animals in the area that is greater than one, represented by dark red; the fourth level, where the number of wild animals in the area is zero, is represented by bright red."
"Understood."
As X-112 executed the order, the map in front of Chen Chen became separated by a series of shallow dotted lines. The entire map which had a diameter of about 4 kilometers was divided into 1500 tightly packed squares. After that, these squares began to change color rapidly.
After the map had fully changed color, Chen Chen suddenly narrowed his eyes.
He noticed that on this map, there were many individual red areas and dark red areas, but these were indeed scattered here and there in a disorderly jumble. Only three spots displayed the most regularity — all three of them consisted of a bright red center with edges that were dark red, further edges that were yellow, and an outermost fringe of blue.
