Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Before long, the research convoy had set out on their journey; it didn’t take them too much time to prepare everything. The estimated travel time was 12 hours. This time, Chen Jin didn’t go with the research team; instead, he stayed behind and planned on giving orders and demands remotely.
It wasn’t that he didn’t want to be there with them, but 380km really was a bit far. Even though the flying cars could go unexpectedly fast, he was worried he’d get lost in the desert. Therefore, he decided to stay where he was just to be on the safe side. From there, Chen Jin was able to see what was happening through the images Alice projected from the eight HD video windows the robots transmitted, as he had arranged some robots that served as signal receivers and transmitters every 100 kilometers along the way to the military base. With the help of these robots, he could effortlessly supervise and oversee every corner panoramically through all eight windows. It was much easier than being on the scene.
Soon, the research convoy had arrived at the military base — a barren land that was completely buried in sand and dust. Ultimately, the team dug out the corner of a house, which was actually the roof of a two-floor bungalow, realizing that it was where the military base was.
As it turned out, it was an underground military base. Most of the facilities were built meters deep under the ground, protected by thick walls of rocks. Before entering the military base, the robots had to shovel the thick piles of sand away from the front door of the bungalow. Lifting a piece of floor tile in the house, the team walked down to an underground passageway.
Soon after, the robot with the flashlight led the team through the dark passage to the underground base. On the way to their destination, there were seven or eight locked metal doors; not knowing what the passwords were, the robots cut them open with their laser.
In addition to the locked metal doors, they also ran into some flame-throwing sensors that attacked them aggressively. Luckily, the attack only lasted five minutes due to the old, weak batteries.
Nonetheless, they still lost 17 robots from the incident, which broke a small piece of Chen Jin’s heart. His spirits were soon lifted again regardless because they discovered an enormous underground space after they passed through the flaming device.
It was at least a million square feet in size. There were 22 floors, about 100 meters in height; the structure was cylindrical with countless caves on the sides, similar to that of a massive beehive. Additionally, there were all sorts of facilities and amenities, such as generators, water storage, entertainment, and a room for various supplies — even a greenhouse! It was just…..tremendous! Well-equipped, too, and simply marvelous.
What was even more surprising was that there were hundreds of thousands of robots on the lowest level of this underground base, all lined up in a close and orderly fashion, filling up the entire floor. He had found hundreds of thousands of robots! Among them all, there were combat robots, scouting sniper robots, and medical robots.
Of course, there were some unusual ones, too, like the flying robots equipped with jetpacks, or the suicide robots with a red bomb package on the chest. An even more odd one was a “centaur robot” that was four meters tall, and weighed at least a ton; it was one of the few elite robots whose primary weapon was an 80mm cannon.
Of all the robots there, the biggest, most powerful one — “The BOSS” — was a “spider tank,” which weighed more than 30 tons.
In short, with all the military robots there, it really deserved to be called a “robot army.” Every single one of them was very well intact as well, as if they had just been shipped out of the factory. Which led to the question of what happened to them. Why were they stored here?
The question was quickly answered after assigning a robot to step forward and take a closer look. “No batteries,” Alice told Chen Jin. “No battery has been installed in any of them. That’s why they weren’t put into operation.”
“Why aren’t there any batteries? I thought they were very common.” Chen Jin was confused. High-efficiency batteries were everywhere on Haierfa; they were like everyday supplies in this world.
“If my guess is correct, Master, there is a production line especially used for the making of these military robots in this base; however, the production line isn’t capable of producing any high-efficiency batteries. The robots took over this entire military base and continued to make more robots after they betrayed the humans. Unfortunately, a supply chain disruption occurred shortly after the war broke out, which kept them from making more smart chips and batteries. The robots weren’t good at organizing production. With that happened, they soon faced a battery shortage. There is also a nuclear power plant that could generate a trillion watts of electricity for over 50 years in this military base, but the destructive war lasted over 20 years, and the rebellion of the robots lasted 10 years. With the dramatic increase in power plant usage, I’d guess it could only go on for 30 more years. The energy depletion here is probably one of the reasons why this military base is in dead silence. What’s worse is that this isn’t the only case; all the power plants around the planet have stopped working.” Alice analyzed and explained the situation for Chen Jin.
He nodded as he processed everything. But something else soon caught his attention.
A production line? There is an automated robot production line in this base? I must find it!
“Find the production line now!” As soon as Chen Jin gave out the order, the robots spread out in all directions, trying to find the production line in the massive cave. They found more than 10 metal doors that were yet to be opened at the edge of the bottom level of the base. Cutting the heavy doors open with their laser, the robots soon found new treasures.
“Sir, we have found a large armory here; there are machine guns, rifles, artilleries, and missile launchers; more than 10 thousand of them.”
“Sir, we found a massive ammunition depot. From our preliminary statistics, there are at least a hundred boxes of ammo, cannonballs, and missiles.”
“Sir, we have discovered a storage room for essential robot components. There are more than 300 boxes of motherboards and CPUs.”
“Sir, there is another storage room for various supplies. We found a thousand tons of metal materials in it.”
“Sir, we found an abandoned weapon storeroom where dozens of mechas are stored.”
Chen Jin was getting all kinds of great news. But the most important one was yet to be reported.
Almost all the doors that they had located had been opened. There was only one left. The heaviest one, which was two meters thick, made of high-heat resistant nanoalloy. There was nothing the robots could do but continue heating it with their laser until they could cut it open.
About 3 hours later…
BANG!
Finally, they had cut out a big hole through the stubborn alloy door; the thick piece fell onto the ground, making a loud, deafening noise. Behind this door was an even bigger space. It was colossal. It was basically another world.
Chen Jin’s understanding of the traditional size of an underground base was immediately replaced with this magnificent sight. There was a large assembly line of considerable length similar to that of a winding mountain road. To put it in another way, it looked like a gigantic, dark, coiled snake. It was very scary looking. It was longer than 800 meters, with more than a hundred processing nodes and thousands of large mechanical arms.
In a few words: I found a military robot production line!
What’s more, the robots had also found the core of industrial intelligence for the production line in the liquid nitrogen cooling cabinet in the intelligent control center.
“I found a core of industrial intelligence for military robots!” With this core, all that was left for Chen Jin to do to make more military robots was to gather the required materials and leave the rest to the core and the production line. “PHEW!” Chen Jin put his hands on his waist, letting out a deep sigh of relief.
He was once again filled with excitement. He was so excited that his face even turned red, and wanted to jump up and down to release his emotions. But as someone who preferred to keep a low profile, he only rubbed his hands together and said to himself, “Rewarding. This is indeed a very rewarding trip. HAHAHAHAHA!”