The sculpture group standing quietly in the darkness was left by the earliest builders of the Twilight City. When they finally stabilized the urban structure inside the barrier and were able to smoothly control the opening and closing of the barrier, the past was divided into
The people in the city left these things outside the gate. Now two thousand years have passed, and these sculptures have been rebuilt and replaced countless times, but they still maintain 100% of their original appearance. They stand in the dark
Standing in it, always reminding the survivors of the Twilight City to remember the whole world outside the barrier of everything they once lost.
There are many versions of stories circulating about these sculptures, but even if he doesn't understand these stories, Hao Ren can still tell a lot from the faces of the sculptures with different expressions. It is said that each of these sculptures is a real person.
Wendell was familiar with the stories of the last batch of ancestors who fell outside the gate when the twilight barrier rose.
So while Wendel was describing the sculpture group, the group of people stepped through the halo door.
Hao Ren felt as if he was passing through a vague wind wall. The light shield that protected the entire city was actually only a thin layer. When he walked over, he could hardly feel the thickness of the thing. As he walked through it,
The moment he passed the barrier, he felt that the hot breath and harmful radiation that filled the air were completely isolated from the outside, while a not-so-pleasant smell of smoke and dust rushed towards his face.
He looked up and looked around, and found that the entrance to the city was even more desolate and dilapidated than he had imagined. It was obviously an important gate to the shelter, but there was not even a decent sentry around, and there were even fewer people. Everything here was dilapidated and dilapidated.
As for the tall gray-black building, two crooked towers stand symmetrically on both sides. The outer walls of the towers are mottled and peeling off, revealing the uneven metal structure inside. A broad ramp slopes upward extending out in front of you, with two ramps.
The side is full of abandoned facilities and buildings with sparse lighting. Metal pipes and steel cables are like spider webs criss-crossing the buildings. Smoke and dust are swirling among these "cobwebs". It looks like a mist.
As the line of sight extends along the slope that slopes upward, one can see that the Twilight City is stacked up like a spiraling mound, with layers of buildings stacked up infinitely, as if the buildings are too crowded.
So much so that the entire city's terrain has been squeezed into a swollen mass. Between the stacked buildings, you can see clouds of white smoke rising from time to time, and you can vaguely see huge mechanical devices operating where the white smoke rises.
The roaring sound echoed throughout the city, monotonous and annoying.
"That's a big boiler." Wendell couldn't help but smile after returning to his hometown. Although he embarked on a journey of searching for light with the intention of never returning, human emotions cannot be avoided after all.
He was filled with joy to be able to return here again, "There is the largest steam boiler there, and half of the power in the entire city is provided by several large boilers."
"Steam boiler?" Hao Ren suddenly reacted at this time, "Are you using steam power?"
"Yes, great steam technology," Wendell lamented, "It is said that this thing was originally created by the giants in ancient times. The Flame King Shirter is the controller of all steam power, but when the gods fell
, after the collapse of the world, the power of steam dispersed in the world, and gradually became something that humans can control. I once had a workshop, and I was good at making gear mechanisms, but the workshop closed a long time ago."
Hao Ren groaned and looked around. He noticed that even though the entrance was desolate and dilapidated, it was not deserted. Many figures emerged one after another from the dilapidated buildings that looked like they were a hundred years old. These people
Wearing tattered clothes, slovenly and with strange expressions, they watched in surprise as someone came in from outside the city, lingering in the distance and not daring to get close. Then someone finally recognized Wendell as a "Light Seeker"
.Then the man let out a exclamation, turned around and ran away quickly.
Several people ran away with him.
"Don't worry about these people," Wendell said as he walked forward on his own. "They are 'miners' on the outer edge of the city. They have been exposed to the radiation environment outside for a long time. These people are somewhat neurotic. They deserve respect.
.But they still can’t integrate into the society in the inner area, so they all gather here.”
"Miner", as the name suggests, is the person responsible for collecting resources. But in this twilight city, the miner's work means paying a heavier price.
They are responsible for collecting resources outside the city outside the twilight barrier.
These people have to wear heavy protective gear every day, take a steam locomotive to leave the city through another exit, and go to the quarry in the vast darkness. The quarry has low-power protective devices, but they are completely incomparable with the powerful twilight barrier: these
As a result, the miners have been exposed to deadly magic radiation and toxic gas environments for a long time. These fatal and harmful environments continue to corrode their bodies and minds, eventually causing these people to appear haggard and mentally slow, becoming what Hao Ren saw. Steam Parliament
Provide the most generous rations and housing in the city to the families of these miners, but these miners themselves...
Their blood is poisonous, their hair and nails are poisonous, and even their breath is poisonous. They can only live in the outer zone.
However, in order to allow their families and descendants to enjoy a superior living environment, many people still voluntarily come to the outer edges of the city to become miners. Of course, there are also people who do not volunteer, that is, they are exiled here
criminals, but they usually can't show their faces.
Wendell led Hao Ren and his entourage off the avenue and walked into an alley hidden in the shadow of a building. Hao Ren thought that the other party was deliberately avoiding something: "Are you hiding from the people of the Steam Council? In fact, we are just
I am not interested in that council, and I have no intention of avoiding them..."
"I didn't hide from them," Wendell shook his head helplessly, "It's just that if you want to go from this gate to the inner city, you must take this road. The broad road is in disrepair. Since the team of light seekers has been reduced, that
The road is almost abandoned, and the other roads are more difficult to walk. I will take you to find an old friend. He is the administrator of the mine locomotive. He can take us to the inner city. Once there, I
You can contact the Lightseeker headquarters."
Hao Ren nodded and said nothing. He just followed Wendel silently and walked towards the depths of the dark, dirty buildings that looked like dormant steel monsters. At the same time, he curiously observed the building as he walked.
A strange city in a closed state.
Obviously, after Ragnarok, the survivors of this world did not allow civilization to completely stagnate. Although their development routes became very weird and the cities within the barrier appeared deformed and twisted everywhere, their society still developed tenaciously.
.Two thousand years ago, the humans of Midgard were experiments and playthings kept in captivity by the Nordic gods. They lived a primitive and rough life like other humans of the same period. But today, two thousand years later, they are inside the twilight barrier.
Galadra built a steel city driven by machinery and steam power, and everyone was surprised by this.
Under such circumstances, their technology tree is still developing!
Wendel led the group along the path that meandered deeper and passed through many ancient buildings that looked abandoned, but there were still sounds coming from inside from time to time. Judging from the slope of the road under his feet, Hao Ren thought he was walking along the way.
Move forward to higher ground.
Finally, they reached an open place.
This is a huge steel platform, supported by astonishingly thick pillars, completely built in the air on several high-rise buildings, and several parallel steel rails extend from the edge of the platform. One end of these rails extends straight to the distance.
The twilight barrier passed through the halo gate on the barrier and disappeared into the vast darkness: they obviously led to the mines, and the other end of the rails extended all the way up the city's terrain to this cone-shaped
The top of the city.
This is a major artery.
When Hao Ren and his party arrived at the platform, they saw what Wendell called the "steam locomotive."
They were two heavy but rough and powerful mechanical monsters. They were larger than any train in Hao Ren's memory (including the old steam locomotives he had seen in movies). The cylindrical locomotive traction section was covered with cloth.
Covered with thick pipes and rivets, the dark steel machine looked particularly rough and heavy, and behind the powerful tractor head, it towed several dirty carriages.
Many men in greasy overalls were busy around the two locomotives. They were busy greasing the machines, aligning the gears, tightening the valves, and writing sacred runes on the fronts of the locomotives with white paint to bless the steel.
The body can return safely in the darkness outside the twilight barrier. A large number of miners are waiting for the ride next to the carriage at the back. These miners are wearing heavy protective clothing, and their dirty clothes are inlaid with runes of some kind of metal soft thread.
Text, every miner still has an ugly spherical helmet hanging on his waist. The helmet is made of leather and metal and connected to the clothes with two pipes.
These heavy protective suits are slightly similar to those worn by Wendell, but are obviously rougher and clumsier. Although they look thick, their effectiveness is quite limited. The Lightseeker's equipment and amulets can allow the wearer to cross the ruins of the Nine Kingdoms
, the protective clothing and helmets worn by the miners can only allow them to survive safely under the magic radiation for ten hours. If they exceed this time, they must come back to replace certain key components and recharge the runes.
Therefore, the most important lesson that every miner must learn before joining the job for the first time is: he must catch up with the return steam locomotive in time. (~^~)