NOVEL NEXT Chapter 269: Inseparable
Shen City.
In order to reach the 016 remnants as quickly as possible, Shen Yue used every available means.
The traffic was too slow on the road, so he opted to take a transport plane.
With nowhere to land, he followed Chen Jian's method and parachuted down.
All four of them came from special forces backgrounds, and high-altitude, low-opening jumps were standard procedures; otherwise, with the complex geography surrounding Shen City, finding a spot to land would indeed have been difficult.
Even so, he almost got caught in a tree.
After finally landing, he found himself two kilometers away from the designated dropzone.
Fortunately, the surrounding environment was relatively safe—after the Beast Tide ended, a large number of monsters were eliminated, reducing the monster density in the entire southern region to a very low level.
Until he successfully rendezvoused with the Penetration Company led by Huang Meng, he didn't encounter a single monster.
So, upon seeing Huang Meng, the first thing he said was:
"Are all the monsters around here dead? Why is it so quiet?"
Facing him, Huang Meng gave an awkward smile and replied:
"We can't understand the things inside the 016 base at all and don't dare enter recklessly for fear of causing damage."
"So...we just wandered around the vicinity and cleared out a wave of roaming monsters."
"After all, we still have to establish a transport route here later, and cleaning up ahead of time does no harm..."
"Nicely done."
Shen Yue nodded approvingly at Huang Meng, then immediately asked:
"Where is the base entrance?"
"About 500 meters ahead—I'll lead the way."
Huang Meng turned to point at the waiting cat vehicle. Shen Yue jumped aboard, and the group quickly set off toward the 016 base.
Watching Huang Meng skillfully retract the sentries scattered along the road, Shen Yue couldn't help but reflect that the phrase "growing from combat" is not mere talk.
A few months prior, Huang Meng was just a green kid in Yellow Stone City who only knew how to fish.
And now, he was a mature soldier capable of driving tanks, firing cannons, charging into battle, and also commanding from headquarters.
Upon reaching the entrance of the 016 base, Huang Meng swiftly set up a security perimeter, then, without a moment's hesitation, led Shen Yue straight to the base entrance.
The main passage door was already open before they arrived, but Shen Yue's attention was first drawn to the peculiar "Active Metal" accumulating outside the gate.
"So much.... Where did it all come from?"
"It could have separated from the soil—but we don't know either."
Huang Meng replied helplessly, and Shen Yue realized how ridiculous his question was.
After all, even Fu Xi could not temporarily find anything about it in the database; how could Huang Meng possibly know?
"No worries, the samples have been sent back; we'll find out sooner or later."
Shen Yue said casually, then took the lead and walked through the gate.
Once the lights came on, that strange device, almost occupying the entire first floor of the base, immediately appeared before his eyes.
Shen Yue took a sharp breath.
"Is this... a pseudo-stellar device?"
The device's shape indeed bore many similarities to a pseudo-stellar device; at first glance, numerous paired helical coils wrapped around a closed pipeline, indistinguishable from the magnetic confinement device of a pseudo-stellar device.
But soon, Fu Xi's voice came through the headset.
"Commander, this is not a pseudo-stellar device."
"This piece of equipment does not conform to the basic operating principles of a pseudo-stellar device; it contains several special modules with unknown functions and operational mechanisms."
"I have performed image analysis on this equipment and roughly analyzed the purposes of its various modules."
"However, I cannot understand the specific objectives of the modules' combination."
"I see..."
Shen Yue moved forward thoughtfully, touching the hollow pipeline, and said:
"But it does seem like some sort of containment device."
"Because it is a containment device."
Fu Xi's voice rang out again.
"This is a low-temperature particle beam epitaxy system, including a liquid helium closed-loop cooling system, a reflective high-energy electron diffractometer, and other devices. Most of the time, this system is used in particle accelerators."
"But clearly, given the size of the 016 base, the system's scale is too small."
"It doesn't seem to be for 'producing' something, but rather for 'capturing' something."
"Capturing?"
Shen Yue furrowed his brow.
"Capturing what? The metal material outside?"
"Probably not."
Fu Xi's voice sounded a bit somber.
"Comrade Huang Meng previously inspected the entire base; using the camera equipment he carried, I have already seen the equipment situation on the underground levels."
"Based on the information currently available, that metal material should only be a 'by-product' produced by the equipment's operation."
"The base is designed with a dedicated waste discharge system, and near the waste disposal outlets, the concentration of Active Metal is relatively higher."
"Understood, makes sense."
Shen Yue slightly nodded, then asked:
"Were there any experimental documents or data records left?"
"None were found."
Huang Meng, standing next to him, spoke up:
"There is nothing here; the whole base seems like it's been wiped clean."
"It feels like... it was intentionally destroyed?"
"Destroyed??"
Shen Yue frowned.
Why destroy it?
Everyone in the world is doing their utmost to leave hope for future generations. Only in a place like Mountain City, with its abstract concepts, would there be a need for so-called "information sealing."
Logically speaking, if this were some crucial technology related to the so-called "Ring," the experimenters at the time should have done their best to leave documents for future reference.