The factories of the Black Street are running around the clock, and the thick black smoke emitted from the towering chimneys envelops the entire city in a haze, and from the high vantage point of the city, you can even see the hazy black veil of clouds slowly falling from the sky: this smoke and dust stain everything in the neighborhood a dirty gray and black color, which is one of the origin of the name of the Black Street.In the modern era when nano machine clusters are spread all over the world, there are still many heavy industries that cannot get rid of the production methods of traditional factory production lines due to technological limitations, and large machinery and munitions factories are two of the most important.In Black Street, the largest number of these two factories are there.Hao Ren walked out of the cramped slum and saw the towering factory buildings at the end of the wide, dirty streets, huge reaction towers and pressure vessels for unknown purposes, built directly in the city, and the roar of machinery could be heard coming from the factories as he walked through the streets.On both sides of the street, you can see hurried passers-by, most of them poor people in shabby clothes and numb eyes.They've just eaten enough synthetic food at home, and now they're flocking to the factory like an ant colony: a mechanical behemoth that devours their lives, but at the same time perpetuates them.Some people covered their faces with rags, filtering the dust and mist in the air in a way that was better than nothing, but the black rags were not much cleaner than the air around them, and their lungs were still irreversibly diseased, corroded, polluted, and after the age of thirty or forty, they had to survive on nano-swarms, and then died quickly."
Since nanomachines are still being used, why hasn't anyone thought of using these things to solve the city's pollution problem?"
Hao Ren muttered to himself.A hoarse and deep voice came from the side: "Pollution control?
This kind of person died decades ago, and now it is the time to live one day at a time. ”Hao Ren turned his head unexpectedly and found that Ulanov appeared behind him at some point: "Oh, when did you come?"
”"This is where I often belong, and I'm familiar with the slums," Ulanov looked up at the factory not far away, "Yesterday it was reported that you left the station and disappeared into the dark alleys of the slums, and you didn't return all night, and Nolan asked me to collect your body - but I didn't expect to see you in a daze on First Street as soon as I arrived here."
Yes, spent the first night in the Dark Alley unharmed?
What interests you here?
”"It's nothing, it's just a casual walk," Hao Ren knew that the other party was really still wary of himself, so he replied with a relaxed expression, "I said, I can't stay with you all the time, so I have to find a place where I can stay."
Don't worry, even if I have any purpose, I won't go for the gray fox. ”"Nolan doesn't care about that, it's just that I'm nosy," Ulanov replied noncommittally to Hao Ren's reply, "It's best not to go to this neighborhood too often, there are a lot of people here who have a bad relationship with the gray fox, and it's not good for you to be here." ”Hao Ren waved his hand to show his understanding, and then brought up the question just now: "You haven't said it yet, is there any additional cost to solve urban pollution with nano machine swarms?"
Isn't that thing self-sufficient?
”"Nanomachine swarms are indeed self-sufficient, but their control centers come at a cost, and the bigger cost is these—" Ulanov said, pointing to the scrambled paups on the side of the road, "You don't need a healthy body to operate a factory machine, and the city doesn't need an old man."
These slags were born with the mission of being squeezed in the factory until they were forty-five years old, and preferably not even a few words.Factory owners don't like workers who are too strong and too smart, and they don't like guys who need to be old-fashioned, so there's no need to let them live too long.As for the factory owners and the big warlords......
They have their own eco-homes, isolated from the outside world, and I've heard that there will be a small lawn or two, which is not expensive, can be built quickly, and is enough to enjoy. ”Hao Ren stared and listened, he came from the earth and couldn't understand this line of thought: "Just maintain this status quo......
Isn't it a little short-sighted?
”"Short-sighted?
So what do you mean by long-term vision?
”Ulanov laughed hoarsely, "Comprehensively improve the environment?
Rebuilding a thriving and sustainable society?
I remember a lot of people thinking about it decades ago, but it turns out that no one lives to do it one day.I heard that every regime in the world now lasts only four and a half years on average, so no one will invest in anything longer than this cycle. ”After Ulanov finished speaking, he patted Hao Ren on the shoulder: "Short-sightedness is necessary, because most people do not live to the future within their sight." ”Hao Ren blurted out, "But you live long enough......"
"Because I'm just alive," Ulanov turned around, "From the day I was injured and could no longer shed a drop of blood, but only electrolyte and nutrient media, my goal was only to stay alive, so that such people could live long enough." ”Hao Ren was speechless, in a world where everyone could not protect themselves, thinkers and enlighteners were probably the first people to die, because they needed to use the energy they used to survive in other places, such as dreams.And the data terminal muttered in his mind at this time was even more accurate: "That's why rare and exotic herbs can be cultivated into immortals, while vegetables and fruits are not even refined: if you make a wish to cultivate in the morning, you will be stewed at noon."
Who can have a dream if they can't live to the day when their dreams come true. ”I have to say that although this product is a little lacking, it has a really strong ability to summarize.Hao Ren followed Ulanov back to the Grey Fox station, and when he turned a street corner, he quickly took out a small silver-gray device from his personal space and threw it out without anyone noticing.The small device looked like an inconspicuous lump of metal, but it fell silent as it landed, and quickly slid against the ground into some dark corner.This is the beacon transmitter that Hao Ren made in the morning with the shipboard factory of the Giant Tortoise Rock, which will automatically find a place with the weakest interference to deploy, and then send a powerful navigation signal to space - as long as the planet Zhuom is still in the dream plane, the detection drone swarm can quickly find it through this navigation signal.Even if they are tens of billions of light-years apart.If there is more than just physical distance between the two parties......
Then the situation is more troublesome.But for now, it seems that there is a good chance that the situation will become troublesome.At present, Hao Ren has no problem communicating with the crystal nucleus research station and the detection drone swarm on the planet Zhuom, which proves that the data link is smooth, but the key is that there is no way to determine the specific location of the signal transmission.This is equivalent to the contact of an anonymous hidden address, and with the functions of the crystal nucleus research station and the drone swarm, there is no way to crack this anonymous state in one direction, so Hao Ren needs to set up an active beacon on the planet Zhuom.At the same time, Hao Ren also considered what to do if even the beacon failed: if this happened, he considered releasing a probe from here to see if he could reach the normal universe by means of space navigation, and if so, at least prove that space was still continuous, and even if he couldn't, he could figure out how large the distortion was.This is one of the "backup options" he mentioned earlier.After leaving the factory area, Hao Ren turned his head to look at the towering black buildings: "This is really a desperate place. ”"Perhaps, but at least they can survive here, the factory is the only option for most people, and the wasteland outside is worse than here," Ulanov seemed to sigh, or maybe just a dumb laugh, "The only hope for the 'slag' here is to be pulled away as cannon fodder by some mercenary group, as long as they survive for a few weeks, they can live as a human being, and all the diseases on their bodies can be cured."
You know, it's actually very simple to cure their lung and blood diseases, as simple as a tube of nanomachines and thirty minutes, but this is the most precious resource in the Black Street, the ration is extremely limited, and everyone in the slums is willing to trade everything they have for this treatment opportunity - so I'm still curious about the reason for Heaton's defection, the guy's lungs were almost rotten when Nolan dragged him out of the slums, and there were forty years of toxins and failed nanomachines in his blood, A standard wasteman who missed the good age to be chosen as cannon fodder, and Nolan gave him a chance to survive......
He eventually rebelled. ”Hao Ren remembered Heaton's diary he had seen, and muttered in a low voice, "I guess I was brainwashed by something." ”"Brainwashed by the Rangers' crazy ideas?"
Ulanov scoffed, "Oh, probably possibly, simple-minded fellow. ”(To be continued.) )