Wasteland Development Diary.

Chapter 160 Squidward

The place where we encountered the crab was nearly 4 kilometers away from the depression.

Zhou Yi took Xie Xun and the warrior crabs into the seabed.

The burrows of gerbils are usually about 2 meters underground, but in order to avoid the high-density death light, they reach nearly 4 meters on the seabed. Fortunately, this species is naturally good at digging holes, otherwise it would be very difficult to reach this depth.

The hammerhead soldiers dug four pits in a row but still couldn't find the location.

When they dug the sixth pit, the hammer soldier hit the ground with his hammer, causing it to shake suddenly. A mass of something emerged from the sandy soil.

Zhou Yi immediately ordered a retreat to ensure the safety of the Hammerhead Soldiers.

A large warrior crab crawled out of the pit. It was smaller than a house, but it could still be called a giant crab.

As someone who has been living with warrior crabs for many years, Zhou Yi immediately noticed their differences.

Although the crab's eyes are also silver, they remain in a stiff position facing sideways. The vertical eyes of a normal warrior crab will move, just like a person blinking.

There was no silver cross on its black carapace, but instead a thick layer of light soot sand solidified on it.

[Alert] From the perspective, there is no luminous reaction on the Crab.

Its claws that were not completely covered by the amber light and the tips of its eight legs were clearly metal structures, not to mention the two obvious crystal lampshades under the crab's eyes.

This is an artificial robot crab, missing its two left legs and in a damaged state.

It did not move after being activated, and the lights in front of it went out.

Zhou Yi approached and the lights came on again.

But the other party seemed to have run out of energy and was unable to do anything else.

Under Zhou Yi's command, the warrior crabs dragged the giant crab back to the shore.

In the sun, Cancer crawls on the ground.

The black soot on its body was scraped off by the warrior crabs with shovels and chisels, revealing the rusty metal shell inside. There was also a damaged white paint on the shell, with a little man in a bottle painted on the left side and a number on the right side.

A mechanical crab made by a Taoist priest?
Zhou Yi wondered what this thing was used for.

Weapon Master Xie Xun carefully inspected the crab and reported, "Leader, we found a hatch that can be opened."

"Open it and take a look. Also, you are all employees of the company. Call me Chairman."

"Yes, Chairman."

After receiving the order, Xie Xun held a shield and used a steel bar to pry open the hatch in the crab's abdomen.

It went in through the hatch and came out after a while with two things.

A tin box.

A fist-sized green stone.

The iron box was very heavy, and each of the four latches had a mechanical lock. The keyholes were in a strange cone shape and could not be opened by conventional means.

For safety reasons, Zhou Yi asked Xie Xun not to use violence to break open the box.

The red kestrel flew to the stone and scanned it. "This is the dehydrated state of the octopus. Just add water and it will come back to life."

Zhou Yi asked: "What is octopus?"

"A species of light nano-beings. They are very smart. They have multiple brains and are highly gifted mental workers."

The drone judged: "Based on my search and rescue experience, it is the operator of this crab-shaped vehicle. In order to avoid danger and maintain survival, the octopus will dehydrate itself and enter a dormant state with almost no energy consumption, waiting for rescue and soaking to revive."

"But this doesn't mean they are immortal. Regardless of whether they are dehydrated or not, the irreversible physiological decline will continue. The average lifespan of an octopus is 90 years. Beyond this time limit, even if you put it in water, you will only get a pile of fragments."

Zhou Yi thought of the dehydrated Trisolarans.

He asked the warrior crabs to bring a wooden barrel filled with water and put the stone-like octopus into the water.

The green stone slowly expanded and grew, and soft limbs stretched out from it.

About a minute later.

A small green octopus raised its body from the bucket, looking around and waving its claws. However, it couldn't make any sound, and it seemed to want to express something.

Zhou Yi went over and stretched out his hand to it. The other party hesitated for a moment, then held his hand with its suction tentacles.

Energy input.

Consciousness is turned on in sync.

Zhou Yi said: "I'm glad you're okay."

"Telepathy? Or some special device implanted in the body?" The octopus was surprised, and it immediately realized: "It seems that you saved me. I am very grateful for saving my life."

"My name is Bi Qi. I'm a Taoist priest from the Taoist Society. My research interests include bone fossils under the Dead Sea and the civilization of the Age of Gods. Where's my submersible vehicle? It's still there. Great! It looks intact. Have you seen my research ship?"

It speaks very fast and is expressive.

After introducing himself, Zhou Yi told it that apart from this crab-shaped device buried in the seabed, no ships were found.

Bicchi raised his octopus and walked to the iron box. He inserted his tentacles into the locks and opened all four locks.

Then it lifted the tin cover, took out a suction cup from inside and stuck it on its smooth big head.

"The sounder is broken, what a shame."

Then it took out a silver badge and showed it to Zhou Yi: "This is my badge, it can prove the authenticity of my identity."

Zhou Yi once seized a bronze badge of the Alchemist Society.

Squidward's coin is made of silver - or rather, silver-plated. It has some black oxidation marks on the surface, but the other engraving details are exactly the same.

Hong Jian said: "It is a senior alchemist affiliated with the Alchemist Association. Ordinary alchemists have only passed the rating and certification of the Alchemist Association and hold a bronze badge, also called a bronze badge."

"The silver medal represents outstanding achievements in a certain aspect or field, and is a high-level alchemist."

It turned out to be a high-level talent. He then realized that in an organization like the Alchemist Society, there were not only human enhancers, but also other light-absorbing species.

Zhou Yi began to think about how to keep Squidward.

The company is now short of talents in the scientific research and academic fields.

But Bi Qi asked again: "Where is this? Can you help me contact Fengdu City? I am from Fengdu City. The submersible vehicle has run out of energy and encountered a serious malfunction before..."

Zhou Yi was stunned when he heard this.

Fengdu City.

That is Qiansu's hometown.

"I work for the Alchemist Association in Fengdu City. Can you help me contact them? The Alchemist Association will send someone to pick me up and pay you generously. Time may not be enough, I still have to attend the year-end report, otherwise I will have trouble with next year's funding... Please help me, thank you very much!!"

Squidward said in a crackling voice.

Zhou Yi told it: "Fengdu City no longer exists."

“Fengdu City…is gone?”

The other party was puzzled: "Was it merged with other cities, or was it renamed? It was so sudden."

"No, it was completely destroyed."

Zhou Yi repeated the information given by Hong Shun: "Nine years ago, a huge explosion occurred in Fengdu City. The high-energy radiation caused by the explosion and shock wave covered Fengdu City and the four surrounding towns, causing a large number of deaths."

"The explosion caused nearly 3000 deaths, more than 2 people had to take suppressive drugs to curb physiological lesions, and the entire city was completely abandoned at that time."

Young Qiansu almost died in this accident.

"Fengdu City is destroyed..."

The pupils of Biqi's big eyes suddenly shrank, and his smooth body tensed up for a moment, and his eight claws moved anxiously: "The high-energy explosion in the city... Damn, damn thing! It must be the "light explosion experiment"! "

Zhou Yi was a little surprised: "Do you know the inside story? They only said that the explosion was caused by a factory accident."

"What kind of factory could cause radiation that covers several towns? It could only be a photon explosion experiment."

Biqi gestured with his octopus and said angrily, "In order to obtain a large amount of investment, Fengdu City secretly introduced a very risky project. Among them, the most destructive and dangerous one was the "Light Explosion Experiment."

"This experiment is to simulate light explosions through technical means, so as to create a specific light printing device. It is also a project that the Alchemist Association headquarters has been promoting. However, due to the high risk of radiation leakage and the fact that light explosions themselves can easily cause devastating damage, the Alchemist Associations in other cities have all refused."

"But Fengdu City is one of the territories of the Guangyin School. There are a large number of Guangyin School members in the Fangshi Association. They are very radical and worship and study the power of death light... Even though we strongly opposed it, the light explosion experiment was finally implemented in Fengdu City."

Biqi closed his eyes in some pain. "I was worried before. The light explosion experiment was supposed to be carried out in a special radiation tower built in the wild, but in order to get results as soon as possible and get new funds, they forced it to be carried out in the basement in the city, using live rats and dogs for the experiment. Fengdu City also turned a blind eye to it."

"We wrote a complaint letter to the headquarters, reporting the regulatory issues and requesting that the trial be stopped for a process check... but we didn't expect something to go wrong."

Only then did Zhou Yi understand the reason.

Judging from the time, Beach has been sleeping on the seabed for at least nine years.

Zhou Yi asked it: "How did you fall here?"

"I study the civilization of the Age of Gods, and I regularly go to the bottom of the Dead Sea to conduct surveys and excavations."

Biqi pointed at the immobile mechanical crab and said, "This is a samurai crab-like submersible vehicle that I asked the Craftsmen's Association to customize. The reason why it is made like this is to avoid being attacked by samurai crabs."

"They are a group that can be easily angered and difficult to deal with when encountered on the seabed. This appearance will reduce their hostility and the structure is also suitable for the Dead Sea environment."

"At the beginning, the five of us wrote a joint letter and sent it to the headquarters through the equipment in the electromechanical city. The headquarters responded that they were verifying it, and then I went to the Dead Sea to work as usual."

"I drove the research ship to the Dead Sea and hovered there, raised the flag of the Alchemist Society, and then drove the submersible vehicle all the way down."

Squidward recalled: "During this dive, I entered a previously confirmed underwater ruins of the Age of Gods, where there are several well-preserved buildings."

"I found nothing in those buildings, but under the mud and sand next to them I found a burial pit that had never been discovered before."

"In those pits, there are well-preserved prehistoric human skeletons. They are all young and look not much different from humans of this era. Most importantly, their collective burials have a special ritual, that is, each young prehistoric human is buried with a statue of a deity."

Squidward took two items out of the tin box.

“That’s them!”

“These two are the most.”

Zhou Yi took a closer look.

Squidward has a plastic Ultraman rolled up in one of his paws and a plastic monster rolled up in the other.

"Similar images can be found in various buildings from the Age of Gods. In the past, we often believed that this was an image of a protective god that could protect prehistoric humans."

"But there are many categories of guardian gods. These two, for example, may represent different camps and tendencies."

"Some people believe that the gods of the Age of Gods were just servants and tools controlled by prehistoric humans, so prehistoric humans of that era created hundreds of millions of gods. In the end, humans were overthrown and betrayed by the gods they created, leading to their complete destruction and being submerged by the Dead Sea. Some of their descendants also lost their former power."

Beach paused and said, "I also have a bold idea."

"Is it possible that part of the gods or prehistoric humans at that time underwent a change similar to dehydration, just like us octopuses, shrinking into this shape to avoid the disaster that could not be recorded? Perhaps these are their true appearance and essence. It's just that we haven't found a way to restore them yet."

"Of course, this is just my conjecture, which cannot be supported by theory or technology."

Zhou Yi looked at Ultraman and the little monster and roughly guessed that the place Squidward found was either a kindergarten or a nursery-like place.

However, this kind of thing is indeed incomprehensible to later generations.

Squidward can only infer the behavior of prehistoric humans based on his own situation.

"I was collecting further records in the ruins, but my submersible suddenly became immobile, and the energy inside was rapidly being consumed and overflowing..."

Squidward's expression suddenly froze.

It ran to the outside of the submarine with all eight legs, checked it out, and then started cursing.

"Damn it, the Light Seal School tampered with my submarine vehicle! It was to make me stop talking nonsense!"

(End of this chapter)