The Doomsday Abyss is about six kilometers deep, and at this depth, sunlight struggles to reach the bottom. In the darkness, beneath the deafening sounds of the DJ, slaves continuously hammer at the iron ore.
Chen Mang walked alone to the edge of the abyss, reaching out to touch the wall, pondering to himself.
This cliff is vertical.
Or rather, it’s vertically precise, exactly at ninety degrees.
The cross-section is extremely smooth, whether it be rock or soil, as if someone had sliced it with a knife, and sliced it vertically downward.
"I remember there wasn’t this abyss before Doomsday, right?"
Old Pig standing by nodded: "There indeed wasn’t this abyss before Doomsday. No one knows when this abyss appeared. Although it’s somewhat strange, after Doomsday, strange things have become way too common, so this isn’t surprising."
The Doomsday Abyss extends several kilometers, nearly forty meters wide.
While he has seen abysses before, he’s never seen one with such a perfectly shaped cross-section. This isn’t a naturally formed structure, but rather the result of an external factor’s interference.
He looked up at the thin strip of sunlight above, thinking that surely this abyss can’t be the entrance to hell, can it?
To really mine in hell and construct the Hell Train?
Eighteen carriages in total, each carriage representing a layer of hell?
Another day passed, and it was time to inspect the labor’s results.
Today yielded 1280 units of level 2 iron ore.
Everyone worked extremely diligently.
One unit of level 2 iron ore is equivalent to 10 units of level 1 iron ore, meaning today they gathered 12800 units of level 1 iron ore. Today’s mining results matched what he used to achieve in half a month on the plains.
This is the allure of level 2 iron ore, of premium resource mines.
The same workforce, the same time, but yielding greater outputs.
Meanwhile, night fell once again, the entire abyss was shrouded in endless darkness, only the dim lights inside the train provided meager illumination. Without the Target Detection Radar, thugs would offer little to no security in such conditions.
Throughout today, the Target Detection Radar remained silent, practically no living beings ventured to this area.
Under these circumstances, should the radar issue an alert, it would signify a significant threat had arrived.
No questions asked, escape immediately.
Just as Chen Mang prepared to squander today’s gains, he inadvertently glanced up at the sky through the thin strip of endless stars and suddenly froze with astonishment, his eyes locking onto the myriad stars above.
Once night falls, there are always endless stars, something he has witnessed almost every night since crossing to this world.
He never thought deeply about it, attributing it to a stagnant industrialization after Doomsday, resulting in unpolluted air, or perhaps this planet originally had minimal atmospheric pollution, which after cities became ruins led to less light pollution.
He suddenly realized that from the bottom of the Doomsday Abyss, the myriad stars are no longer random, and some patterns can be observed by looking up.
Some stars shine alone.
Some stars are close together, forming "-" horizontal lines.
Long horizontal lines, and short horizontal lines.
The densely packed stars in the sky resemble grains of sand along the coast, and on the plains, no one would notice the subtle anomaly among these sands, but from the bottom of the Doomsday Abyss, focusing on the narrow space above, one can easily spot the slight anomaly among the countless stars.
Among the stars that people had long become accustomed to and ignored, one string of stars was forming Morse code.
Translated into Latin letters, and then into Chinese.
The meaning is simple, only two sentences.
"Escape from the Naiyi Star System."
"Five years remaining."
Chen Mang stepped out from the train compartment, looking up at those seemingly harmless flickering stars above, feeling somewhat surreal. Since crossing into this world, he had adapted fairly well, as this world mirrored his own in having both Chinese and English languages.
He wasn’t sure if Morse code existed here.
But he did learn Morse code in his previous life.
He had self-taught many seemingly useless things.
The Naiyi Star System was indeed the star system in which this planet was located.
Upon seeing the Morse code formed by the stars above, he suddenly seemed to grasp the significance of the Doomsday Abyss. This abyss wasn’t the Gate of Hell, but rather a point for receiving messages, or perhaps an observation window?
Some advanced civilization was trying to communicate messages to the beings on this planet.
This is why the Doomsday Abyss exists, and why it occasionally shakes might be to remind people to notice it, and why at the bottom, there are high-grade resource mines, perhaps to attract people to come.
Perhaps this advanced civilization never thought how difficult it would be for people to reach the abyss’s bottom, just as they tried their best to use methods this planet could understand to convey messages, yet it was still hard to truly comprehend their civilization, much like humans failing to understand why ants keep circling round lines on a sheet of paper.
Chen Mang lit a cigarette against the wind, leaning against the train, withdrawing his gaze, feeling encased by the unease and silence enveloped by the night around.
It’s been more than a year since Doomsday.
He’s unsure if the information carried by these stars has changed, meaning he doesn’t know if the five years mean from now, there are still five years, or if tomorrow is the last day.
But such matters are far away.
A person can’t dwell on things far beyond their reach, lest they trap themselves in a tiny prison of insignificance.
Yet at least he clarified one thing.
If truly aiming to escape the Naiyi Star System, then this train is not only his but the entire civilization’s only hope and means, aside from that, there’s no alternative as all technological advancements halted abruptly post-Doomsday.
To escape this planet, all that can be relied upon is the train.
Chen Mang leaned against the train, looking down at the fingertips where faint crimson glow flickered, feeling as if he was onto something, but it was hard to connect the dots.
This apocalypse isn’t just the doomsday of this planet.
But of the entire star system, even the universe.
The train is the only means by which civilization may persist.
And whether the train, or vehicle accessories, or resource mines, they are products of advanced civilization, akin to Noah’s Ark in God’s hands, the only tickets for escaping doomsday, yet displayed in a nearly game-like format, making them more relatable and understandable.
Just like the string of Morse code at the top of the Doomsday Abyss.