"Regardless, that area is the core district."
"It's said that all the big shots of Jianghe City live in the core district. They have the authority to command artificial intelligence."
"Miss Qianqian will likely become one of them in the future."
In Fu Yang's eyes, Liu Mingshu's complaints seemed more like bragging.
At the same time.
When he spoke the last sentence.
The melancholy in Fu Yang's tone was almost palpable.
Status and position are the greatest barriers.
Someone who stands at the very heart of Jianghe City's power.
And Fu Yang, just an ordinary individual among more than ten million people.
Even though they temporarily stood in the same place due to Liu Mingshu's presence.
It was destined that in the future, they would be two entirely different entities.
"By the way, Fu Yang."
"Are you and Xiao Lu really planning to apply to work in the subsidiary shelter?"
Liu Mingshu didn't want to continue discussing the previous topic and instead asked about their plans.
"Yes, working in the subsidiary shelter would be better in terms of environment."
"And there are additional subsidies."
"It's the best option for people like us."
Mentioning this, Fu Yang also put away his sadness.
In Jianghe City, managed by artificial intelligence.
There isn't much room for commercial development.
For starters, just the issues of warehouses and storefronts are enough to stump most people.
Moreover, almost every able-bodied individual.
Is assigned a corresponding job by artificial intelligence.
Leaving little room for independence.
In such a situation, without sufficient knowledge or professional skills.
To live slightly better than others.
The easiest way.
Is to work in subsidiary shelters deemed by artificial intelligence to pose higher risks.
As the two chatted.
A female guard wearing exoskeleton armor suddenly appeared in the park. She quickly approached Liu Qianqian and whispered a few words to her.
Liu Qianqian nodded gently.
Then went over to bid farewell to Liu Mingshu.
"Brother, I need to head back."
"You and your friends shouldn't stay here either—"
"It's dangerous."
Liu Qianqian hesitated for a moment before finally advising.
"What's happened?"
Liu Mingshu, sensing something was amiss, quickly asked in return.
"I don't know either." Liu Qianqian shook her head, her expression uneasy and nervous. She whispered, "But the elder sent a twin-winged helicopter to fetch me. The situation must be serious."
As the safest and most convenient aerial transport known in the current apocalypse.
The reputation of the twin-winged helicopter is widespread even among ordinary people.
To use such a strategic-level aircraft, rarely even accessible to the top elites of Changming City, just to return to the farmhouse shelter over 30 kilometers away.
The real situation must be more than just serious.
It could well be life-threatening.
Understanding the gravity of Liu Qianqian's words.
Liu Mingshu's expression turned serious, and he dared not delay.
"Then you should go ahead."
"We'll leave by car immediately."
"Brother, why don't you come back with me first?" Liu Qianqian bit her lip, her eyes slightly red. She hesitated before making up her mind.
After loading her and her accompanying guards.
The twin-winged helicopter had little space left.
It couldn't take everyone.
But taking just Liu Mingshu alone was still possible.
"No, we all came together."
"It wouldn't be right for me to leave them behind."
"And I don't want to cause you trouble."
Liu Mingshu was somewhat tempted but, after rational consideration, firmly refused.
Friends are one thing.
But it's clear that his sister doesn't hold a very high position in the core district.
If she were punished because of him.
It would be his failure as an older brother.
"You just take care of yourself."
"Hurry and go."
The siblings quickly concluded their exchange.
And then parted ways.
Watching Liu Qianqian hurriedly leave surrounded by a group of guards.
Liu Mingshu's mood grew heavier and heavier.
He hadn't expected that what was supposed to be a simple, joyful outing could potentially turn into a life-and-death situation.
Turning his head, he glanced at Fu Yang, who had overheard their conversation.
And was completely ignored by Liu Qianqian, treated as just an ordinary passerby to be discarded. He let out a bitter laugh.
"We should leave quickly too."
Surface, Jianghe City urban area.
By now.
With Su Wu's emergency mobilization.
It had become a massive military camp.
Spider robots and machine dogs patrolled everywhere.
Along with multi-winged drones and parcel-grade drone clusters hovering in the air.
Though he was quite anxious.
Su Wu did not immediately evacuate the 700,000 people from the subsidiary shelters through surface and underground channels.
He merely had them make preliminary preparations.
Currently, the situation with the Amethyst Crystal Entities was still unclear.
And there was no thorough cleanup of the Amethyst Crystal Entities that might pose a threat along the way.
Rashly bringing people to the surface.
Would only exponentially increase the risk.
According to Su Wu's plan.
He would first clear a safe surface route within half an hour.
Then, while investigating the source of the Amethyst Crystal Entities, begin transferring the population in batches.
The timing was tight.
Because some Amethyst Crystal Entities were located a hundred or two hundred meters underground.
Even using specially designed bunker-busting bombs for violent excavation.
It would be difficult to reach them quickly.
But no matter how hard, it had to be done.
Su Wu would never allow such an unpredictable threat to exist in his stronghold.
C013 Small Shelter.
As the first place where Amethyst Crystal Entities were discovered, triggering a city-wide alarm in Jianghe City.
It had been completely taken over by a fully armed robot squad.
And on the third underground level, near the damaged outer wall.
Two spider robots successfully used specialized tools.
To capture the Amethyst Crystal Entity and confine it in a specially designed sealed container.
The entire capture process.
Occurred without any commotion.
The Amethyst Crystal Entity, much like a genuine crystal ore.
Remained unchanged throughout.
"Based on the analysis of the sounds around the security guard from C013 Small Shelter when he last left."
"This Amethyst Crystal Entity should have undergone initial evolution."
"Possessing certain hunting capabilities."
"Perfect for in-depth research."
"As for the other Amethyst Crystal Entities, they can be directly destroyed."
Initially, when Su Wu ventured out in the base vehicle, he was isolated.
For such an unknown creature as the Amethyst Crystal Entity.
He didn't have good research conditions.
Out of safety considerations, he could only kill them on the spot.
Now Su Wu is in the central area of his own shelter.
With considerable armed forces at his disposal.
He doesn't need to worry too much about safety issues.
It's time to conduct further analysis and experiments on them.
"Whether we can develop more effective weapons against them is secondary."
"The key is to develop detection equipment that can scan their traces."
Although Su Wu already possesses a detector targeting Amethyst Crystal Entities.
It's a special item hard-earned using Survival Points.
The difficulty of reverse engineering is off the charts.
Even more challenging than analyzing the small nuclear weapons and power engines of miniature mechs.
And looking at the current situation.
Amethyst Crystal Entities might appear all over the world in the future.
At that time, without a reliable detector on hand.
All of Su Wu's subsidiary shelters outside, as well as all dispatched vehicles.
Their situations will become much worse.
Switching monitors.
Watching the sealed container holding the Amethyst Crystal Entity, under the careful escort of several spider robots and machine dogs.
Being loaded into a snow transport vehicle.
Then driven towards a remote small shelter in the suburbs.
There.
A biological laboratory replicating the one used for studying the Rola Virus, along with a stronger protective net.
And embedded with a large-yield metallic hydrogen bomb.
To ensure that, if necessary, the entire small shelter can be completely destroyed.
It's a research facility specifically built for the Amethyst Crystal Entities.
"Next is to clear the Amethyst Crystal Entities near the main roads."
Su Wu steadily pushed forward with the cleanup plan.
A large number of bunker-busting rockets were launched.
Drilling nearly a hundred meters underground before detonating.
For some Amethyst Crystal Entities located at shallow depths.
Heavy main battle spider robots, with the help of snow transport vehicles, aimed their main cannons directly at them for bombardment.
Specially designed armor-piercing rounds, accelerated by electromagnetic cannons.
Could easily penetrate sixty to seventy meters of earth.
Directly blasting the hidden Amethyst Crystal Entities to pieces.
As for the few Amethyst Crystal Entities nearly two hundred meters underground.
Su Wu directly pulled over the drilling rig originally used for installing geothermal generators.
On-site drilling was conducted, then explosives were dropped into the holes.
As more and more Amethyst Crystal Entities were located and destroyed.
Su Wu quickly discovered.
Their hardness wasn't as formidable as imagined.
Just a single shot from a heavy main battle spider robot's main cannon, even through dozens of meters of rock, could completely shatter them if accurately hit.
This made the actual cleanup progress.
Faster than expected.
Completing the original goal in just about 18 minutes.
"Easier than imagined."
Su Wu breathed a slight sigh of relief.
And in fact.
This phenomenon is normal.
As living beings, no matter how hard their shells.
They cannot truly match modern heavy weaponry.
Especially now, with Su Wu using explosives.
Already developed to the third generation of metallic hydrogen.
Its destructive power per unit area is almost on par with nuclear weapons.
Theoretically, no living being could survive such powerful explosives.
However, Su Wu, feeling slightly reassured.
Did not change his original plan to transfer the population.
Those Amethyst Crystal Entities, powerless against fully armed spider robots.
Are a different story when it comes to unprotected ordinary civilians.
Even ordinary humans themselves are food that can promote the growth of Amethyst Crystal Entities.
Out of cautious consideration, concentrating all the population in the safer farmhouse shelter.
Still remains the best strategy.
After clearing the Amethyst Crystal Entities near the main roads.
The surface snowstorm grew heavier.
A low-temperature cold wave quietly formed within the snowstorm.
This brought some trouble to the planned evacuation.
Ordinary vehicles could no longer appear on the surface.
Only limited snow transport vehicles could be used for the transfer.
But fortunately, it's just a transfer within the city.
Covering only a few dozen kilometers.
Without considering comfort issues and removing the original seats.
A normal snow transport vehicle, designed for 80 people, could ultimately squeeze in over 400 people.
The overall transfer speed remained quite impressive.
"As for the underground channels, on one hand, we need to strengthen monitoring."
"On the other hand, they can only be used for transferring supplies for now, not people."
Compared to the relatively well-protected shelters.
The walls of the underground transport channels are quite thin.
The danger might even be higher than on the surface.
In this situation, Su Wu could only temporarily semi-close them.
After completing all this.
Ensuring there were no oversights in the arrangements.
Su Wu began to focus all his energy on tracing the source of the Amethyst Crystal Entities.
Thanks to the crystal detector with a detection radius of five kilometers carried on the Pioneer-class Land Destroyer.
Artificial intelligence quickly mapped out the distribution list of all Amethyst Crystal Entities.
And finally deduced that most of them originated from the Qinling Mountains area.
A small part directly floated up from deeper underground.
"This is not easy to handle."
Looking at the simulated movement trajectories of the Amethyst Crystal Entities on the map, Su Wu felt a bit troubled.
The ones in the Qinling Mountains area are manageable.
But those directly floating up from deeper underground beneath the shelters.
To completely defend against them is basically impossible.
We can only passively wait until they are close to the shelters.
Then manually clear them.
And this involves the issue of detecting Amethyst Crystal Entities.
"It seems these Survival Points cannot be saved."
"Another crystal detector must be made."
"One will permanently stay at the farmhouse shelter, the other on the Pioneer-class Land Destroyer."
"Let it patrol the urban area of Jianghe City and its surroundings regularly."
"Providing real-time warnings."
Su Wu didn't finish clearing the Amethyst Crystal Entities that appeared near the urban area of Jianghe City until the afternoon.
But this cleanup is only relative.
Considering the actual cost and difficulty of cleanup, for some Amethyst Crystal Entities located several kilometers underground.
Su Wu could only temporarily let them be.
Besides this.
He also strengthened the armed forces in the Qinling Mountains area.
Near the magma canyon there.
Over a dozen semi-permanent watchtowers and gun emplacements were built.
Responsible for periodically clearing the Amethyst Crystal Entities floating up from the magma
.
Compared to the generally more solid and hard geology of Jianghe City.
The canyon area of the Qinling Mountains.
Is practically an exit for the Amethyst Crystal Entities.
They can directly reach the surface from their underground nests through the magma.
Then, with the help of earthquakes.
Move gradually from underground to the vicinity of the Jianghe City urban area shelters in a currently unknown manner.
"It's also fortunate that we cleared the Underworld Flowers beforehand."
"Otherwise, if these Amethyst Crystal Entities had obtained initial growth resources, the cleanup just now wouldn't have been so easy."
(End of Chapter)