NOVPUB
Chapter 97: Finally Taking Shape
The answer was obviously hidden in the room in front of Chu Guang.
Without hesitation, Chu Guang unlocked the door with his authority.
Unlike the other rooms in Zone B, that room had not been cleaned. Personal belongings were placed on the open folding table, and the bed next to it was unfolded.
It was worth noting that there was a blue coat and trousers on the floor of the room positioned with the sleeves and trouser legs spread out, like a man lying on his stomach.
On the right sleeve’s cuff was a retro style revolver.
Does this look like a crime scene?!
However, the most critical component, the corpse, was gone, so it looked a little funny.
"... Is this also a prank by the first administrator?" Chu Guang subconsciously looked at the wall on the left side of the room but did not see the bullet hole there.
Then, he stepped forward and picked up the revolver. After he checked the gun, he found that there were only 5 bullets loaded.
"There are no blood stains, no bullet holes, and no bullet casings... Only the weapon and clothes are left."
When Chu Guang walked to the table, he noticed a diary and a pen.
There was a button on the pen tip. Pressing it curiously, a recording started to play.
"... (white noise)..."
"Is there anything else you want to explain?"
"No, nothing else."
Is this a recording pen?! From its contents, there seems to be an interrogation...
Chu Guang was a little curious and continued to listen.
The voice of the person in charge of the interrogation sounded a little younger, while the person being interrogated seemed a bit dispirited, and even tired.
He didn't seem to care much about what would happen to him, sounding as if he just wanted to end it all as soon as possible.
The guard sighed with exasperation, "... So, what do you plan to do? Punish me for dereliction of duty?"
"I don't plan to do anything."
The guard continued, "... What do you mean you don't plan to do anything?"
"When I reported it to The Professor, The Professor only said he knew what happened and stopped the topic there. When I asked him what to do with you, he said that punishment is unnecessary. You just did what anyone would do in that situation."
Sounding a little more agitated, the guard snapped, "I'm not asking for your forgiveness! Listen, I made a very serious mistake, I... I shouldn't pretend to think that I can be a savior. My arrogance and stupidity have harmed everyone. If I didn’t do anything from the very start... Maybe it wouldn't be so bad.”
The man’s voice was hysterical, tapering off with choked sobs.
However, the interrogator's voice didn't have too many fluctuations in his tone and he sounded unnaturally calm. "This is an interesting hypothesis, but since The Professor has said that you are not guilty, I don't think you need to blame yourself so much. If this doesn't convince you, then please think about something else instead. Do you think you are smarter than The Professor?"
The guard sighed, "... How can I compare myself to The Professor?"
"It seems that you aren't that stupid after all. Then, let me ask you one more question. Since you know that you are not smarter than him, why did you naively think that he wouldn't notice what you were doing?"
The guard seemed a little confused at that. "... What do you mean?"
"What is the name of the subject we are studying again?"
The guard mumbled softly, "...The morphogenetic field? I don't understand it very well. Wait, you mean, The Professor knew from the beginning that I was using that radio station to communicate with the outside world? He knew about the survivors of the tire factory, including Li Xiu?"
"When we study the laws of motion of macroscopic objects under the framework of classical mechanics, we will selectively ignore the elementary particles that make up the object. This is not because we do not know that matter is made of smaller particles, but because there is no need to consider them at all..."
"... For the same reason, it is impossible to predict different choices made by a certain person at different stages of life. But when applied to a collection of people, the law of the development of macro events is traceable. If you are interested, you can think about it like that. Anyway, from now on, you have a lot of time to squander."
Once again, the guard sounded a little confused as he asked, "Is this also part of the interrogation?"
"That's right, but the interrogation’s main purpose is still to give you psychological counseling. The Professor wanted me to tell you not to blame yourself too much. Everything that happened here is just one section of tens of thousands of experiments. We will complete the entire process eventually. By the way, the person you have been in contact with probably died. We received another message from the same terminal, but it was obviously not sent by him."
"The survivors of the tire factory hoped we could take them in, but they lied at least three times in a single transmission. We will continue to track and record the surrounding radio signals and the changes in the shielding field strength, but we will no longer respond. This work will now be carried out by AI, and we will enter radio silence for real. You can rest assured that no one will make any more mistakes."
Then there was the sound of the door closing.
After a long silence, just when Chu Guang was wondering if it was over, a gunshot suddenly came from the recorder, which shocked him slightly.
"Oh c’mon! Are you serious?! At least tell me what the morphogenetic field is!"
Chu Guang vaguely remembered that he seemed to have heard about it before in his previous world.
Around the 1980s, Dr. Rupert Sheldrake of the Royal Society of London put forward a controversial theory of resonance.
According to Dr. Rupert’s theory, the elementary particles that make up matter weren’t the only ones that could experience resonance, but abstract events would also be able to experience the same effect.
Based on his conjecture, he called the place where similar things happened continuously the morphogenetic field, and called the same type of events morphogenetic resonance.
However, one can imagine how unreliable conjectures without evidence were.
Just like many ideas about the multiverse and aliens, no one had reliable means to prove its validity, or if it was true.
It didn’t matter if it looked obvious...
"... Does this recording mean that the technology used to project the consciousness of the players in the parallel world into this world is related to a certain speculation proposed by the morphogenetic field theory?"
"For example, with the help of an unknown field spanning the dimension of space, triggering resonance between consciousness bodies may be possible."
"Shit! I’m getting a headache thinking about these things!"
Wait a second... Why am I still thinking about it? It’s good enough as long as it’s useful, right?
It is meaningless to invest time and energy into things that would not produce any results. When there are more clues, the truth will naturally be revealed.
The information that Chu Guang gained from the recording was that the study of morphogenetic fields was the main topic for Shelter 404.
When combining the information obtained when he first arrived, it could be seen that the subject was completed probably more than a century ago.
Then again... Did the First Administrator call himself The Professor?! 𝖓𝔬𝔳𝖕𝖚𝖇.𝖈𝔬𝔪
This guy is even more pretentious than me!
Putting aside the extremely scary details in the recorder, Chu Guang was able to confirm the identity of this guard, who was the sufferer mentioned in the Bloodhand Diary.
The utopia that Bloodhand Clan's original leader was looking for was actually his Shelter 404.
Chu Guang picked up the nameless diary on the table and saw that the timeline in the diary basically coincided with the Bloodhand Diary he had read before.
The person was being a guide remotely through the radio, making suggestions to the first-generation leader of the Bloodhand Clan and helping the survivors who were abandoned on the wasteland.
It was a pity that his kindness seemed to have brought about bad results.
The remaining mess had tortured the survivors in the northern suburbs for hundreds of years and was only ended nearly two centuries later.
Unexpectedly, Shelter 404 and Bloodhand Clan actually had such a relationship, and the cause of everything was actually because of a stray radio signal.
"... How unfortunate."
Chu Guang shook his head and decided to file the diary and the diary with a bloody handprint together.
In addition to a silver revolver, Chu Guang found a lot of good stuff in the room, such as a box of 10mm caliber revolver ammunition.
There were more than thirty bullets in the ammunition box. Each bullet was as long as an index finger and had no traces of oxidation on the surface. They looked brand new.
These bullets look quite big, and it feels like they are more powerful than rifle ammunition. I wonder if I can kill a Creeper in one shot with them?
Well, at the very least, Crunchers won’t stand a chance.
Chu Guang noticed that there was a silver python printed on the packaging of the ammunition box, exactly the same as the symbol on the brown handle of the silver revolver.
Looking at the revolver in his hand, Chu Guang thought for a moment before muttering to himself, "I will call you Silver Snake."
In addition to Silver Snake, Chu Guang also found a baton under the folding table. When looking for something else in the storage compartment under the bed, he found a new surprise.
"A red dot sight scope?"
The width of the buckle was retractable, so it could fit on the barrel of Silver Snake. What surprised Chu Guang was that the little gadget was still usable!
"Twice the magnification and the adjustable density... This is amazing!"
Of course, Chu Guang didn't plan to use it on the revolver. It would be a waste to equip such short ranged weapons with sights.
It just so happened that he had a newly repaired assault rifle that could fit the scope. With the red dot sight installed, it could be considered a half-complete loadout.
...
After leaving the room, Chu Guang crossed the end of the circular corridor in Zone B connecting Zone A.
That was a functional area on the second basement floor, with separate toilets and public bathrooms for men and women and a public dining hall that could accommodate up to a hundred people at the same time.
It could be seen that the living space was still very compact. Not only would people have to go to the toilet and take a shower at different times, but they would also have to line up for meals.
The only improvement was that the quality of life seemed pretty good.
The shower was a 360° panoramic water self-cleaning system, so people did not even need to move when taking a shower. The same was true for the toilet. All they needed to do was to finish their business, and the water and ultrasonic vibration could remove nanoscale filth from their bodies. They didn’t even need to use paper to clean themselves.
With that, Chu Guang would no longer need to worry about stepping onto something strange around the outpost.
Chu Guang tried the faucet and was surprised to find that the water was still running and that he could even use hot water.
"I thought this shelter was just an empty shell..."
However... It seemed that only level B1 was empty.
Little Seven interrupted, "How could it be an empty shell? You saw it too, didn’t you? People used to live here!"
Chu Guang frowned and asked, "Where are those people now?"
"Hmm... I don't know. "
As expected.
But Chu Guang didn't mind. Anyway, one day, he would figure out all the secrets of Shelter 404.
After reviewing the facilities, Chu Guang's initial idea was to move all one hundred nurturing cabins from level B1 to level B2.
Those nurturing cabins were equipped with a wireless power supply anyways, which could be connected to any corner of the shelter.
There were two hundred vacant rooms available in Zone B on floor B2. Although the area was a little narrow, the players should be very happy to be able to change from a four-man room to an independent standard room.
After all, their cabins were a saving point for them.
As for the beds and bedding, he could put them in the empty room on floor B1, where they would always be useful in the future.
There was no need to worry about commuting either.
The shelter only had one elevator to and from the surface, but there were 8 elevators internally.
These included two freight elevators for transporting materials and six elevators for human transportation, which were more than enough for the players to commute between floors in the shelter.
The elevator outside the shelter could be modified in the future.
If there was really no way to modify it, the nursing home could be demolished and a bigger hole could be dug. He could also let the players rebuild a more spacious house for themselves outside.
That wasn’t a problem in the slightest.
Chu Guang turned the faucet on and off, and suddenly asked, "By the way, is there a limit to the amount of water available here?"
Chu Guang had had enough of using activated carbon to filter lake water and rainwater. No matter how it was filtered, the water still tasted a little strange.
Little Seven tilted the camera slightly and buzzed, "No, I guess? According to the data, the shelter's water resources seem to be replenished by rainwater. In theory, it will always be supplied as long as there is electricity, but it is better not to transfer the water out. It’s fine if you use it normally in the shelter. Sewage water will also enter the inner circulation system and be reused after being completely filtered. A small amount of loss is fine, but if a large amount of water is transferred out, it may cause a certain load on the water circulation system."
Chu Guang nodded. "Where will the filtered filth go?"
Little Seven paused slightly before replying, "Probably to the fermentation room for it will undergo additional processing... The fertilizer may be sent to a certain floor’s greenhouse. Or it could be removed through the vent after vaporization? Anyway, as long as there is electricity, this shelter will be able to run forever. Little Seven is also looking forward to seeing other floors."
"..."
This doesn’t answer my questions at all.
Damn it!
After inspecting the sanitary facilities and canteens in Zone A, Chu Guang followed Little Seven through the corridor and quickly arrived at the deepest part of Zone A.
It seemed to be a warehouse that was almost as large as two basketball courts.
More than thirty plastic boxes were piled in the corner of the warehouse, with medical supply labels pasted onto them.
Chu Guang stepped forward and opened one of the boxes, only to find that it contained watches with displays rather than medicine.
It was estimated that there were at least thousands of them.
Slightly stunned, Chu Guang only managed to regain his senses after some time before he asked, "These..."
Little Seven, who stood next to him, had a look at it and quickly responded, "They're VMs."
